//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14: Attack on the Egg Carrier 
// Story: Sonic Origins Vol 1: Rainbow Dash's Story 
// by LightWinzz 
//------------------------------//




Chapter 14: Attack on the Egg Carrier

The open air hit Rainbow’s face the moment she felt the energy of the Time Gate vanish, the cool, but brisk air parting around her.  She could now she where she was.  High in the skies like she liked it.  The ground below her was miles away, the details of the landscape nothing more than dots to her eyes.  Erie grey clouds surrounded her on all sides, looking like she had just entered the eye of a storm.  The cold wind stung her skin, but it wasn’t the worst she’s felt.

Feeling herself enter freefall, she angled her body downward, allowing her to keep control over the direction she flew before using her wings to level out.  Despite her current surroundings, Rainbow actually found some comfort in the open air.  This was her turf after all.  Last few times she came here she rarely had the chance to truly stretch her wings like this, aside from a moment or two.  It felt liberating beyond belief.

“Ok Silv,” she said through the earpiece, “what horrible monstrosity has ya wetting your bed this time around?”

“This is supposed to be around the time period that the next threat to that world shows up,” he answered.  “It’s called Chaos.  A being that holds the will of both the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald in its grasp.  Back then, Chaos nearly destroyed the entire world when Eggman tried using it to form his empire.”

“You know, by now I’d have thought that Robotnik would’ve given up after the last kick to flank he got.”

“Eggman,” Silver corrected.

“I can’t go around juggling names around buddy,” Rainbow said with a sigh.  “Don’t blame me because the guy decides to switch it on us all of a sudden.  By the way, this Chaos thing, was it the same thing that had done a number to Twilight when she came back here?”

“That’s right,” said Blaze.  “She put up a good fight, great even, but in the end, Chaos managed to overwhelm her with sheer power alone.  Thankfully, what she did allowed Sonic to survive the attack, but there’s no telling how whatever is affecting the timeline is planning to move next.”

“Hey, so Twi didn’t do so bad after all.  Wait,” Rainbow stopped herself.  “Does that mean I’m going in right where Twilight left off?”

“That’s right,” said Silver.  “Hopefully nothing too drastic changed between now and then, but we can only hope that time is on our side right now.  Do you see the objective?”

 “If you mean an endless sea of clouds I’ve got you covered,” Rainbow answered as she scouted out the area.  “Where am I even supposed to start?!”

As if to answer her question, her ears perked up as a very loud noise entered them.  She could feel her body tense up as the noise made the air seemingly vibrate.  It was a low, but very loud noise that bellowed throughout the open sky.  It almost sounded like a foghorn as it echoed off into the distance.  Rainbow scanned the whole area, her eyes darting back and forth to try and identify the source.  It came again, only this time much louder.  It took some time, but she finally managed to zero in on the sound.

Turning around, she witnessed a wall of grey clouds begin to part.  It was like a massive door opening to a frightful spectacle.  As the clouds dissipated, the form of a massive wedge came into view.  Her mouth was now hanging wide open, her mind almost unable to process the massive object.

“Scratch that,” she said with a gulp.  “I think I’ve found it.”

The wedge moved ever closer, and it didn’t look like it had any intention of stopping for her.  Her mind finally catching up to her, she shook off the shock and flew straight up, looking to avoid being hit by it.  As she did, she could now easily see that there was more to this thing than just being a simple wedge in the sky.  As she got higher, she could now see the rest of what lied behind it.  It was a ship.  Not like a boat on the water, but just a massive space ship that she had heard about in some of Twilight’s sci-fi novels.  Other than Daring Do, they were probably the only other things she’d think were cool out of her friend’s massive library.

Once she was a suitable height, she finally stopped herself and got a better look at it.  It really was massive.  Not as big as the Death Egg was for sure, but still sizeable.  It of course had the wedge-shaped nose, but the main portion of its body was much longer and looked to have a wooden deck on the top, reminding her of the deck of a pirate ship.  Toward the back she could only assume that the large hump was where the bridge was.  On either side was a pair of long wings that kept it afloat, all followed by many large engines on the rear.  As if to finish the whole thing off, she spied what looked to be a logo on the side that looked suspiciously like a certain doctor’s face.

Once again, she heard the obnoxious noise, confirming that it was indeed coming from the ship itself.  Rainbow didn’t know how much time the doctor had on his hands, but she was convinced that every moment of his life if he wasn’t taking over the world, he was planning on how to build the biggest and most awe-inspiring machines she’s ever seen.

She would’ve viewed the massive ship for bit longer, but her attention was drawn elsewhere when she heard the sound of what sounded like cannon firing off.  Although, that too seemed to have come from the ship.  She scanned the entire upper portion of the ship, looking for whatever had caused it.  That’s when she heard it again, this time followed by a flash of light from below.  If she wasn’t mistaken, it really was a cannon firing off, or rather, many cannons firing off.  At what?  She could only take a guess.

“Alright doc,” said popping her neck.  “Let’s see how you’ve tried to mess up everypony’s day this time.”

With that, she flew down to the ship.  She didn’t know what to expect, in fact, she was actually quite nervous.  As much as she tried to put it off, this Chaos thing really did sound threatening.  It did, after all, beat one of the princesses.  That alone was enough to send anypony home shacking in their boots.  Still, though, if it was true she could somehow use the powers of chaos like everypony said…well, who was she to disagree at this point.





As the ship flew away into the distance, so did Rainbow Dash, keeping up with it before she vanished from sight completely.  Aside from the fading figures, the sky was now completely empty.

Well, Almost empty.

As most of the grey clouds moved along, one small cloud was drifting along rather gently, the wind unable to move it as effectively as the others.  The reason, the weight that was sitting on top of it, caused by the figure that looked on to the distant ship and pegasus.

“Hmm, seems like she really didn’t have enough of a punishment last time,” a voice said from the figure, sounding as if it was nothing more than an echo in a void.

The figure stood up straight with its feet together, its arms crossed in a nonchalant manner.  Taking its right arm, it reached up to rub its chin, the feeling of curiosity in it growing as a small, but wicked smile crept onto its muzzle.

It gave a light, but smug laugh.  “She may think she can make a change, but in reality, she’s might as well be a child.  She’s like a sheep, leaving the herd to go play amongst the wolves.”

Letting its hands fall back into a crossed position, it levitated off the cloud, finally letting it float away as if in retreat, a sickly purple aura covering its body.

“She’ll just have to learn the hard way, that wolves like to play for keeps,” it said.  “Even still, I have to say that this day may turn out to be a bit more of a show than I originally intended.”





“INCOMING PROJECTILES,” the onboard computer stated to its pilot in a calm tone.

“I know!  I see them!” Tails let out in a near panicked state.

Quickly flipping some switches, he grasped the joystick to the Tornado and performed a sudden barrel roll, barely letting the incoming missiles shoot past him.  Things had not been going well since he and Sonic had arrived here.  Upon arrival, they had originally managed to avoid most of the external defenses thanks to his Tornado Mk. II.  With a Chaos Emerald powering it, it moved faster than anything he had originally built, giving both him and Sonic an opportunity to board the Egg Carrier.

Unfortunately, Eggman seems to have been ready for just that.  Right when they landed, Chaos was there waiting for them, nearly destroying the Tornado in the process.  Sonic was able to lead him away further into the Egg Carrier, but Tails was unable to follow due to all the badniks.  What worried him even more was that Chaos’ body had morphed once again, it’s body taking on the shape of a four-legged animal, implying that it had gotten its claws on yet another emerald.  If he wasn’t mistaken, that meant he had a fifth Chaos Emerald added to his arsenal.

“Oh man,” said in a worried tone.  “I hope Sonic was able to get away in one piece.”

“INCOMING PROJECTILES,” the computer repeated.

“What?!” he exclaimed.

True to its words, three missiles appeared from in front of the Tornado.  Reacting to the sudden situation, Tails angled the Tornado straight up, continually gaining altitude as the missiles followed close behind, taking both himself and the missiles above the ship.  He had really push the limits of his machine to both stay ahead of them on an incline.  Thankfully, he got to a point where he could level out, flipping upside down before flipping back up again.

He looked back, seeing that the missiles were still hot on his tail.  He let out an aggravated sigh before looking back, his eyes going wide with shock.  The two forward guns had turned to face him, both of them firing a plethora of missiles form their batteries.  He narrowed his eyes.  It would be risky, but if anyone could pull it of I’d be him.

Grabbing the throttle, he pushed it up to the max, the engine on the back roaring to life as he dashed ahead, flying straight toward the incoming missiles, still being followed by the rest.  As they got closer and closer, his hand steadily began to grip the throttle tight, waiting for just the right moment.  He could feel a cold bead of sweat dragging itself down his brow.  This had to be perfect.

The missiles were all but on top of him now, seconds away from impacting with the Tornado.

“Now!” he yelled out, pulling in on the throttle hard.

As he did, the engine instantly went dead, only a small stream of smoke left over.  At the same time, the wings quickly began to fold in, not all the way, but to the point where he was basically a narrow arrowhead.  This sudden action caused the Tornado to slow descend, but that’s just what he was looking for.  Just as he thought, the missiles were heat seeking.  So, without the Tornado’s jet to lock onto, they had to seek out other targets, the nearest and most prominent ones being the missiles across from them.

It’s a good thing he had folded in the wings, too.  Even without the tracking, some still came close to hitting him as they passed by.  Thankfully, he had fallen just enough that he had avoided all of them.  Just as predicted, the missiles impacted with one another as they crossed paths, furious explosions erupting in their wake.  The ones that had nothing to hit simply sailed into the distance, either hitting the ship along its deck or disappearing into the clouds below.

Now that it was over, then came the next issue, his descent.  In a quick series of frantic motions, he extended the wing back to their normal position as he pushed full on the throttle, hoping desperately that he’d pick up enough speed before he crashed down onto the deck of the ship.  The engine roared to life once again, the wings giving him enough leeway to level out the Tornado.  He pulled back on the joystick hard, hoping with all his heart that he’d make it in time.  Worse comes to worse, he could always bail, but he did not want to lose another Tornado like this.  No, he was gonna see it through.

The deck was now directly under him, and he was slowly making headway back to a normal speed.  He could feel the plane shack as the lower wings gently grazed the wood top of the ship.  With another strong pull, he pulled the Tornado from its descent, taking to the skies once more as he made his retreat.

He sighed in relief as he wiped the sweat from his brow.  “That was too close for my liking.”

“INCOMING PROJECTILES,” the computer said, much to his fright.

Before he even knew it, two more missiles popped up in front of him, mere seconds away from impacting with him.  These ones were way too close for him to dodge.  He didn’t even have time to bail this time.  They were already right on top of him.  Not knowing what else to do, let go of the joystick and just held his head down, clenching his eyes shut as he awaited the impact.

Unknown to him, it never came.  As the missiles approached, the right most one was suddenly struck on its side, a blue blur passing it by.  This caused it to tilt to the right slightly, closing the gap between it and the other missile.  The two impacted with one another, and an explosion replaced them, tails flinching at the noise, believing that he had been hit.  He could already feel the heat passing around him.

However, he soon noticed something.  He felt the heat, but it quickly passed over him, the cool breeze already returning to his fur.  He opened his eyes, wondering what had just happened.  After he had recovered from his scare, he got a good look at the Tornado, noticing that not a single piece of it had taken any damage.

“How…” he questioned, amazed that he was still even alive.

“Hey short stuff,” he heard to his left, prompting him to look toward the new voice.

As he did, he saw someone holding onto his left wing.  His eyes widen as his memory clicked.

“R—Rainbow Dash?!” he exclaimed, seeing the familiar pegasus smile at the mention of her name.

“That’s me,” she said, making sure to keep a grip on the wing.  “I gotta say, those were some crazy moves back there.  For somepony without wings you sure know how to live on the edge.”

Tails couldn’t help but smile back at his friend.  Even with all those “crazy moves” he would’ve been flying a piece of scrap if she hadn’t showing up.

“Hey kid,” she said, looking at the control panel of his plane, “shouldn’t you be holding onto that thing or something?”

Feeling the plane rock from the turbulence, Tails had finally realized he wasn’t even holding the joystick anymore.  Quickly, he reached for the stick, stopping the plane from rocking and keeping it level.  He let out a sigh of relief as he could finally lean back in his seat.  He brought his attention back to Rainbow, who was still holding onto the plane.

“What’re you doing here Rainbow?” he questioned, not that he wasn’t glad to see her, just that she had just showed up out of nowhere.  “It’s been some a long time since I last saw you.”

Rainbow just rubbed the back of her head in a sheepish manner.  “Yeah sorry about that.  I would’ve come to see you more, but I…kind of got caught up in stuff.”

What she wasn’t telling him was that it was because that she wasn’t even from this world, or this time even.  Now that she got a good look at him, she did notice that he looked older since they last met.  She almost didn’t even realize the time skip that must’ve happened since she was last here.  He was still much younger than she was, but he definitely had done some growing.  He looked taller, although it was a little hard to tell when he was in the cockpit of this thing.  The fur on his cheeks stood out farther than before, and his two tails that sat behind him were longer than his younger self.  It looked as if his smarts had been growing as well, if this machine they were on was any indication.

“Well in any case, I’m glad you showed up,” he said sincerely.  “We’re kind of in bit of a spot, so any help you give would be amazing.”

“Just tell me what you need me to do kiddo,” she responded.

He looked down to the Egg Carrier, which was now a fair bit of distance below them.  “You see that big ship?  That’s the Egg Carrier.  Me and Sonic tried to get on board not too long ago, but it didn’t really go as planned.”

“Believe me, that’s not the first time I’ve heard that lately,” Rainbow muttered lightly.

Leveling out the plane, Tails turned the Tornado around, making sure the ship below them didn’t get too far away.  “I managed to get Sonic inside, but I got stuck out here.  You don’t think you help me get onboard, do you?”

Rainbow just gave him a cocky smile.  “You doubting me already?”

Tails’ expression changed to that of a slightly worried one, hoping he didn’t offend her or something.

Her smile only grew.  “I’m just pulling your tails.  Don’t worry one bit.  I’ll get you inside no problem.”

By this point, Rainbow could feel her very familiar harmonic power stirring inside her.  There was no mistaking it at this point.  She’s gotten so used to it, it felt like second nature.  Although, where was it coming from?  She looked around, and the only place that it could be was…

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have a Chaos Emerald here would ya?” she asked.

Tails looked at her with a little bit of confusion.  “Umm, yeah.  In fact, it’s what’s powering the Tornado Mk II.  Is that a problem?”

Rainbow looked to the front of the plane, indeed seeing that there was a Chaos Emerald inserted into a slot in the engine, the diamond shaped gem shining brightly in her eyes.

This only caused her to smile even broader.  “Heck, a problem for the egghead maybe.  Just follow me.”

On that, Rainbow pushed herself off the wing, doing a flip over the Tornado before she dived straight down to the Egg Carrier.  Seeing her make her descent, Tails followed suit, following right behind her, but only just.

Rainbow could still feel the emerald’s energy flowing through her, so thankfully she was still close enough.  As long as Tails continued to follow her, she could use it until she dropped.  Well, hopefully not.

As she neared the ship, she couldn’t help but notice all the little specs appearing as she approached.  Her eyes narrowed, focusing in on them with determination.  As has got closer, they all became clearer, revealing them to all be dozens of flying badniks.  All of them were homed in on her.  Despite this, Rainbow couldn’t help but smile.  This was going to be fun.

Reaching out to the power bestowed on her by the nearby emerald, her body began emitting her familiar red aura, her lightning bolt flashing before her chest.  Her body felt more energized, almost like a rush that she so greatly missed.  Flashing all the badniks a toothy grin, she flared her wings, diving down faster than she had before.  Tails noticed this and did his best to keep up, but he was surprised by how much faster she started going.  It was almost too much for Tornado to handle on its own.

Rainbow was pushing her body even harder now, a cone beginning to form around her as she picked up speed.  Normally, she would be struggling to keep her eyes open at this point, but right now, that wasn’t the case.  She barely even felt fazed by the sudden change on speeds, despite going even faster than she normally did.

Giving her wings one more hard flap, she broke through the color spectrum, her body being shot forward in a massive burst of speed, all while she left behind a rainbow trail and an enormous colorful shockwave in her wake.  The clouds all parted at the force behind her action, allowing the sun to shine briefly though to shine off the side of the Egg Carrier.  Tails could see all this happen from above, his eyes filled with a mix of wonder and amazement.  He felt the Tornado jar from the sudden blast of air, but he held strong and kept it on course, eyeing the ever-expanding wave of colors that he was just starting to pass through.

“Whoa,” he let out, almost frozen with amazement for the display.

Rainbow’s speed was extraordinary at this point, the cone around her body acting as if it was a solid shield, as the many badniks soon found out.  The moment she made contact with the first one, it shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces, not even laying a scratch on Rainbow as she enjoyed the feeling.

“Wooooooooohooooooo!” she yelled out in enjoyment, several more badniks throwing themselves at her as she dived and dived, to no avail.

She just continued to tear through the hordes of bots that could do nothing at this point.  Some tried to shoot at her with what weapons they had, but she was going so fast that none of them could ever hit their mark.  Rainbow barely even had to do anything now that she was in this state.

“Watch out badniks!” she yelled.  “Rainbow Dash is here to show a little bit of Ponyville hospitality!”

Acting as if they didn’t even hear her comment, they just continued their fruitless advance to the ever charging pegasus, who continued to mop the floor with their numbers, near thousands of pieces of metal and wiring falling down to earth below the clouds.

That’s when Rainbow saw her target.  On the deck of the ship was a large, metal hatch, most likely used to move cargo from one floor to another.  However, it was closed tight as of right now.  Well, it wouldn’t be for long.

After tearing through the last group of badniks, Rainbow rapidly approached the hatch, flaring up her red aura and rearing back one of her hooves.  She didn’t know what she was doing.  Just from looking at the massive hatch, she’d normally do her best to not ram straight into it.  However, this time it just felt…right.  It was almost an instinct that was kicking in at this moment.  She knew she should steer away, but at the same time she knew she shouldn’t.  Although, the almost electrifying feeling in the hoof she had reared back helped with feeling the latter.

Staying on her target, she went full speed into the large hatch, throwing her punch into the solid metal seconds before the impact.  While part of expected her to just slam right into it without making the slightest dent, she was partially surprised when she felt the center line of the two doors caving in like a thick tin foil, her hoof glowing red upon contact.  And that was the sweet spot.  The pressure she exerted was too much for whatever was holding it up, causing the doors to split down the middle on their hinges and fall down into the trapdoor.

Rainbow couldn’t help but smile at her victory, giving herself a mental hoof bump as she sailed into the ship.  That lead to one other problem, however.

The floor directly below her.

Rainbow looked on in shock as she stretched her wings out wide, doing her best to stop her descent. To her surprise, that’s all it took.  Just as she outstretched her wings and gave them a hard flap, her speed decreased rather quickly.  She still landed hooves first on the metal floor with a hard thud, but that was very preferable to a crash, and she didn’t like her chances of punching through that.  She felt her hooves vibrate from the impact with a slight ache bucking in her kneecaps.  Thankfully, she kept herself stable and straightened herself out, shaking off the uncomfortable feeling of her stomach catching up to her, followed by the blowing of air rushing into the opening from above.

She let out a breath as she let her power die down.  No need to waste any more power than was necessary.  Now that she had composed herself, she focused her attention on what was above her, looking out into the open sky, the sun shining brightly in her eyes.  She had to slightly cover them from the sun, but she couldn’t help but notice the small spec in the center of the big orb in the sky, growing bigger with every passing second.  As the grey clouds once gain began to cover up the light, the spec became very visible, and she looked on in a mix of shock and worry.

The spec was Tails in his Tornado, and he was approaching at a rapid pace, aiming directly for opening she had made.  She waved her front hooves franticly in hopes of signaling him to stop, but it didn’t look like her efforts were getting his attention.  He just kept coming, very imminent to smashing his plane nose first into the floor.

It was too late.

Without knowing what else to do, she just jumped out of the way, diving away as she covered her head with her hooves, waiting for the sound of a crash to enter her ears.  It wasn’t a second a second later that the distinct sound of jet engines vibrated throughout the room, telling her that he was just moments away from a crash.  Then came the loud thud, the floor beneath her vibrating violently as it shook her.  She expected the worst at this point.  What was he thinking?!  Did he not even think about what would happen by flying in here?!

To her surprise, she didn’t feel much else, which wasn’t what she expected for a crash landing.  With worry for the kid in mind, she tore herself out of her state, flipping herself over onto her back as she looked at the impact site.  What she saw just threw even more questions into her mind.

Where she expected to see a crater of bent metal, there was a pair of large, blue, and mechanical legs.  Where she expected to see a crumbled mess of wings and an engine, there was the Tornado, its body in perfect condition, although now missing its wings.  She got a good look at the entire thing, and it looked like the machine had completely shifted its looks.  It no longer looked like it could even fly, but it looked as if it could walk around without any issue.  She spotted Tails still sitting in its cockpit with an embarrassed look on his face, but still supporting a kind smile.

“Sorry,” he said scratching his cheek.  “I forgot you haven’t got a chance to see all the modifications I made.”

Rainbow just looked on in shock, not even sure how she should respond to seeing this.  “When…how?”  She had so many questions flooding her mind right now.  If Twilight was watching this right now, she’s sure that she would’ve been breaking down at this very moment.  Maybe a little hospital time was good for her in this case.

“You like it?” he said, pushing up on a level inside the cockpit, causing the mech to take a step to face her.  “It’s something I’ve been working on for a while now.  I call it battle mode.  This way, I never have to leave the Tornado unattended to help Sonic.”

By this point, Rainbow had picked herself up, inspecting the fairly large mech from below.  The emerald was still visible on the nose of the thing, and the main body remained pretty much the same.  Looking at the side, she could only guess that the wings had folded in somewhere and closed up.  But that was just her guess.  She barely understood half of what this was in the first place.

“Tails,” she began, “I thought this was insane the first time I saw it.  But this?  This has to be 20% cooler than even that!  I mean, just look at this thing!”  As she inspected what she could, she almost had to stop herself from jumping all around the masterpiece of a machine in front of her.  She didn’t need to become a close second to Pinkie Pie.

“Wow, thanks Rainbow Dash,” Tails said sincerely.  “I’m glad you like it, although, to tell you the truth, this is the first time I’ve actually gotten a chance to use it, let alone test it out.  So, I’m not too sure about how well it’ll operate.”

“Say what you want about it kid,” Rainbow said sure of her observations.  “If this thing works in any way like it looks, I think everything will go swell.”

Tails smiled at her optimism.  But it wasn’t just that.  He may not have been around her much, heck a lot of his friends, including Sonic, had barely even gotten to see her.  But every time he looked at her, and every time she spoke to him, he couldn’t help but picture Sonic in her place.  The two were so much alike it was uncanny.  He could already tell she had a love for speed like he did, and his go lucky attitude was shining off her like the sun on the ocean surface.

Meanwhile, Rainbow felt like she had gotten a fill for the massive machine in front of her.  After all, they had more pressing concerns.

“Hey,” she spoke up.  “Where are we anyway?”

It was the first time she had truly looked around the room.  Tails at this point had joined her as well.  The hatch they had busted through seemed to have lead to a large metal room that was rather empty, side from a few crates that dotted the corners.  It was obviously some kind of storage for whatever Eggman kept down here.  Besides all of that, the only thing that really caught their interest was a door not too far from where they were.

“We’re definitely somewhere in the center of the ship,” Tails said.  “If I had to take a guess, I’d say Sonic was heading for the bridge.  So, we need to head toward the rear.”

“Lead the way short stuff,” Rainbow said teasingly, but then reminded herself what the kid was riding in.  “Well, I guess not so much now.”

“Uh---ok,” Tails said unsurely.  He didn’t dislike the nickname, he just didn’t expect it.

On que, he walked the mech toward the door, the floor shaking whenever it took a step.  Rainbow hovered closely behind it, letting Tails lead her through the ship as they passed through the door.  Thankfully, the hallway on the other side was large enough for the Tornado to fit through without trouble.





“Well well well,” said the dark, echoed voice once again.

As the door closed behind the duo, the dark figure floated down through the open hatch, landing gently on the floor without so much as a noise.  The whole room echoed with the shifting and pulsing of his aura, which danced around him like murky, purple and red water.  He looked toward the now closed door, his arms still crossed as he tapped his finger on his arm.

“I have to say, that was a rather nice display pony,” he said as if someone was in the room with him.  “I can see why things haven’t been going quite as smoothly as I’d have hoped.  There might be something special hidden under all of that colorful garbage after all.”

Closing his eyes, bowing his head down in a near contemplative manner.  His aura rose, a layer of red growing while simultaneously being engulfed in a much larger purple layer.  The pulses around him vibrated even louder, an almost other worldly force encompassing the room, no, the whole ship.  Not long after it had begun, it ceased, his aura shrinking back to only cover his own form.  His eyes opened, and an almost amused smile crept onto his lips.

He gave a small huff at no one in particular, giving a light chuckle soon after.  “Not gonna lie, I wouldn’t mind showing her how big of a mistake it was to come here myself.  But, given how things are going right now, I think I may just sit back and let her find that out on her own.”

Feeling a stiffening in his neck, he grasped the spot in his hand and gave it a solid crack, stifling a yawn shortly after.  “After all, it’s not like everything that goes on is that entertaining, aside from the chaos that is sure to ensue from everything that is to come.  Plus, I’m sure Chaos is very anxious to make some new acquaintances right about now.”

“HALT!” he heard from behind him.

As he was standing there, two badniks had followed him down the opening, both of them now brandishing their weapons and aiming them right at their newest intruder.  The said intruder, however, didn’t so much as move, not even bothering to make the effort to turn his head.  He simply stood there, his arms crossed on the other side of his body.

“IN THE NAME OF THE GREAT DR. EGGMAN, ALL INTRUDERS ARE TO BE ELIMINATED!” the bot said.  “DO NOT RESIST!  YOUR DESTRUCTION IS—”

The figure felt a light breeze as the bot behind him suddenly got cut off, his stoic demeanor not fading in the slightest.

“…eminent,” he finished its sentence, the breeze quickly subsiding.

At this point though, he couldn’t help but sigh in a lazy, but annoyed state.  “No wonder Eggman was worthless, he couldn’t even bring himself to make better lackies.”

As he finished, a brief flash of light covered his body before vanishing, taking him along with it, leaving behind two badniks who, in a literal fashion, looked to have been pummeled to their deaths.





“Watch out!” Tails yelled.  “There’s more!”

“I got it!” Rainbow shouted back, using her back hooves to push herself off a badnik’s face and launch herself at another one.  Before it could even react, its face was caved in by her hoof, sending it back into another badnik, which in turn crashed them both into the wall.

“Watch it Tails!” Rainbow warned him.  “Egg bots at six o’ clock!”

Hearing that, Tails quickly turned the Tornado around, coming to face a squad of badniks all rushing them with lances and shields.  The distinctive metal feet rung as they ran down the hall.

“I’ll take care of it,” he said, flipping a small switch on the dash of his mech.  “Tornado Battle Mode, locked on targets.  Fire!”

On his command, two ports opened up toward the tail of the mech, each of them firing out a missile at the approaching group.  Seeing the incoming projectiles, all the badniks came to a sudden halt as the skidded to a stop.  But it was way too late for them.  The missiles impacted with whole group, sending scrap metal in every direction from the explosion.

“Nice one!” Rainbow congratulated him, coming to his side.

“Thanks,” he said.

“I gotta say, this isn’t near as bad as it was back on Little Planet,” she said.  “That place was like a bee hive for dumb bots or something.”

“Yeah, Sonic told me about that,” said Tails.  “That was the last time he say you I think.  Did you guys really fight a fake Sonic?”

“Hah!  More like I wiped the floor with him,” she answered, not really comfortable with giving him the real answer.  “He was no biggie.  Besides, real or fake, it would’ve ended the same way.”

Tails’ brow raised at that.  Real or fake?  “Hey, is everything alright between you and Sonic?”

Rainbow couldn’t help but sigh as she all but facehooved.  Did everypony have to ask that?

“Yeah, what about it?” she asked, but her mind wasn’t all into it.

“Well, if you don’t mind me saying,” he started, “I guess you just seem to resent him a little.”

“Well…” she didn’t know why, but she felt it hard to lie at all to the kid.  He was so smart, but she could still see he was pretty innocent, too.  She almost couldn’t bring herself to do so.

“I guess it’s just…it’s just a personal issue kid,” she answered, a bit unsure herself about it.  “You don’t need to go worrying about it.”

“Sorry…” he said.  “It’s just, I know Sonic doesn’t think the same way.  At least, I don’t think he does.”

That caught Rainbow’s attention.  “Well, I didn’t think he would.”

In all honesty, it wasn’t that she thought Sonic thought about her the same way she did about him.  To her, he came off like he just, didn’t care.  He doesn’t even bother to get her name right first of all, just by that stupid nickname she’s come to hate.  Plus, there was still the whole speed thing.  She knew her friends thought differently about it, and she could see why, but it was just something she couldn’t get out of her head.  As somepony who went her whole life focused on nothing but her speed, it was hard to see her title as fastest alive go out the window she quickly, if not that, at least challenged in such a way.

Right now, it was just a bit confusing to her more than anything.

“You know,” Tails began, “I think Sonic looks at you pretty highly, too.  The first time we met you, he couldn’t help but talk about how fast you were back then.”

“You serious?” she asked incredulously.

“Yeah, of course,” he answered.  “Just give him a chance.  Everyone usually warms up to him eventually.  Well, maybe not Knuckles, but even still, they can get along.”

Before their conversation could go any further, the alarm suddenly blared to life, the red warning lights flashing on an endless loop.  The two knew their presence wasn’t hidden anymore.  Either that, or it was for Sonic.

“We can talk later,” Rainbow suggested.  “We should probably get going before something else shows up.”

‘Preferably something that wasn’t being influenced by anything whatsoever,’ she thought to herself.

Tails nodded in agreement.  The soon they found Sonic or Eggman, the better.  He watched as Rainbow quickly took off, rounding a corner as he readied the Tornado to follow right behind.  Although, he didn’t expect the loud crash from around said corner.

“Oww!” he heard the voice of Rainbow say.

With worried haste, he brought the mech around the corner, and looked on in bewilderment of what he saw.  Rainbow was on the floor in front of him.  She was on her back while trying to prop herself up with one hoof, rubbing her head with the other.

“Oww…my head,” she said groggily, her eyes squeezed shut.  “Feels like I was hit by a ton of bricks.”

That wasn;t all that Tails saw.  There was another figure with her, just in the same kind of predicament she was in, only facing toward like she was to him.  And, Tails couldn’t help but smile.

“Geez, look where your going why don’t ya,” said the other figure, rubbing his head in a pained state.  “You could really hurt someone.”

Rainbow heard the voice, but it was all jumbled to her after she had crashed into, whatever it was.  She also heard Tails say yell out something, but it was all muffled too.  She managed to open her eyes slightly to the Tornado, and saw Tails flying out of the cockpit over to whatever she hit.

Wait…

Fly?

If she wasn’t mistaken, his two tails were spinning as if they were a propeller, keeping him in the air as he flew over her.  How hard did she even hit her head anyway?

She saw him land just a couple of feet away from her, looking as if he was helping somepony up.  She could barely hear words being exchanged, and ever so slightly she could make out another figure on the other side of Tails.  Soon after, her senses returned to her.

“…oh and guess what?  You’re not gonna believe who I ran into!  In fact, she helped me get in here in the first place,” she heard Tails say before he gestured to her.  He did so as he moved out of the way of the other figure.

And to that, her eyes widened.

Right in front of her, and presumably the one she had run into, was Sonic the Hedgehog.

He just stood there with a curious, but almost bewildered expression at the sight of her, well, the sight of her on the floor to be more precise.  But it was him that she was focused on.  If it wasn’t for the fact that she knew there was a time skip, she would’ve wondered what had happened to him.  He was much taller than he was before.  In fact, if she hazards a guess, he might even be just slightly taller than her.  His fur was a much darker shade of blue than it was when he was younger.  His quills were longer and just about everything about him screamed maturity.  His torso even looked slimmer than his old round body.  His emerald green eyes almost seemed to shine brighter than before, with a lot less of the childish look they had last time she saw him.  If she had to guess, he was almost as old as she was, if not just few years younger.

The two looked at each other for what seemed like eternity.  In all honesty, she didn’t know what to say.  To her, it was just a few days ago since she last saw him.  To him, however, he probably hasn’t seen her in years.  She didn’t even really know how to approach the whole thing.  Thankfully, it looked as if she didn’t even have to start it off.

Giving her a smile, Sonic walked over to her, stopping just short of her.  Then, he extended his hand to her, as a gesture to help her up.  Rainbow looked at his hand for what seemed to be a long time, almost contemplating taking it.  But, with gratitude, she reached out to him and locked her hoof with his hand.

He flashed her smile and said, “Hey there.  I’m Sonic.  Sonic the Hedgehog.”

To be continued…