After their sleepover at Pinkie’s house where Sunset told her friends all she could about Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends from what Princess Twilight had shared with her, the friends all agreed that it was best not to jump to the conclusion that Dr. Kintobor was Dr. Eggman just yet. Instead, they decided the best course of action would be to observe him as best they could from afar. In the days that followed, they found that he was becoming quite a hot topic in Canterlot, interviews with him showing up on news sites and TV. They tried to keep up with them, looking for anything that might hint at his real identity.
As the days went by, Eggman’s business continued to rake in sorely needed cash for building up his army. Thanks to the machines he put in his new building, the business front basically ran itself, meaning he only needed to make an appearance whenever customers stopped in. The rest of the time, he was able to expand his resources and recover any of his displaced ‘assets’, sending his few recovered and crudely repaired Motobugs and Bee Bots out to retrieve them and search for any others that had been pulled into this world from his lair. There wasn’t much in terms of electronics, but quite a few of his Badniks and bits of prior schemes had been pulled from his lair due to the damage, all of which he was determined to reclaim before the police could get a hold of them.
Despite the reports of trucks delivering things to his building, Spike and the girls didn’t feel they knew enough about Eggman and his operations to really say they knew who he was. His Badniks usually moved out under cover of night, with ‘prototype field tests’ being announced beforehand if they had to move through the city during the day. The recounting of the Time Eater incident from Princess Twilight had only described some of the bigger threats that had been encountered during that adventure and Sunset was reluctant to get in touch with her, not sure what to ask her or how to phrase it. They noticed little things about him and what he said in some interviews, but nothing that could really shatter the Kintobor façade he had made.
Then, one day, they suddenly received a surefire confirmation courtesy of exposition on Eggman’s part.
The girls were meeting in an empty classroom in the morning before classes started, the same classroom where their friendships had first been rekindled in fact. They had all received a text from Pinkie late last night to meet her there, adding that she’d found something that they needed to see. At the moment, Twilight and Fluttershy were sitting at desks in the front of the room, the latter playing with Spike, while Sunset, Rainbow, and Applejack stood near them watching Rarity pace in circles in front of the teacher’s desk. It had been a few minutes since they had arrived and they were still waiting for Pinkie to show up.
Sunset lightly pulled at the side of her old leather jacket as she listened to Rarity mutter, “What is taking her so long? What is it she has to show us? I had to forego my usual morning routine, rush through it, in order to get here on time and she clearly hasn’t done the same! WHERE IS SHE?!” She came to a stop as she finished and, after a few moments of breathing heavily, she realized everyone was looking at her with concerned expressions.
Sunset was the first to speak up, “Rarity, just… it’s okay, all right? This isn’t how any of us were expecting to start the morning either, but we haven’t been that long. I’m sure Pinkie will be here soon.”
Twilight nodded softly, “Right. Whatever it is she said she wanted to show us is probably going to be really important too.”
Rainbow covered her mouth with a hand as she let out a yawn, saying afterwards, “I sure hope so. Don’t forget Pinkie makes a big deal over anything involving cupcakes, Twilight.” Applejack looked like she wanted to say something, but kept her mouth showed and rolled her eyes as she shook her head.
About a minute later, one of the classroom doors opened and everyone looked back to see Pinkie in the doorway with her left hand on the doorknob, her breathing a bit heavy and her pink laptop tucked under her right arm. Fluttershy quickly stood up and walked over to her, asking, “Pinkie, are you okay? What happened?”
Pinkie took her left hand off the doorknob and placed it on her laptop as she stood up straight and took a big, loud intake of air. She faced Fluttershy afterwards and spoke, “Hi, Fluttershy! Hi, girls! I know I’m a little late! I forgot to count the sprinkles last night, had to rearrange the chocolates, had to run to the store to get Maud a snack for Boulder… but that’s not important right now! I’m here, and this won’t take long!” She walked to the front of the classroom with Fluttershy following behind her and sat down in the center seat next to Twilight, setting her laptop on the desk in front of her.
As she opened it up and began to quickly type on the keyboard, Rarity came over and said, “Pinkie dear, it… it’s okay. You don’t need to rush yourself anymore this morning. I admit, I was a bit upset that you were running late, but you did have a reason.” Pinkie didn’t reply to her as she connected to the school’s internet and began looking through her browser’s history.
After a minute, she pulled up a video from one of the local news channels. She then looked up at the others and explained, “This showed up on the late, late news last night! It’s an interview with Dr. K!”
Spike and the other girls gathered around to look at the laptop’s screen. “‘Interview with Dr. Ovi Kintobor: The Hidden Kingdom’?” Twilight read the video’s title aloud. Pinkie nodded and clicked the video’s ‘PLAY’ button.
The interview started off normally enough. A reporter, a man with light and dark brown streaked hair, tan skin, and a white shirt with light blue lines and a blue tie that matched his eyes, and Eggman were sitting in the studio with the former asking the latter some fairly basic questions: how he felt about his unprecedented success, whether or not it was due to the popularity of a certain cartoon show, some idea of where his business was going to go next… About two minutes in, though, an interesting question came up.
“Doctor, I’m sure this sounds like an odd question, but how do you think you would react if one of your creations happened to get destroyed?” the reporter asked.
Eggman answered, “Oh… well, I don’t believe I need to think about it. After all, it happens a lot more often than you may think.”
The reporter asked, “It’s happened before? Has it happened recently?”
Eggman replied, “Yes, in the last few days in fact! And given the state that my, er, completely friendly babies have been found in, it’s not the work of any ordinary vandals. No, it’s them, that gang of horribly mean and close-minded teenage troublemakers who call themselves the Suppression Squad!”
The reporter tilted his head slightly, “The Suppression Squad?”
Eggman explained, “They’re a group of highly evolved and developed animals possessing unusual abilities and a knack for troublemaking, both of which they use to thwart my efforts to take ov- er, that is, do good!” Spike and the girls, with the exception of Pinkie, all looked at each other with wide eyes for a moment at this before looking back at the video. This interview was finally starting to go somewhere.
The reporter asked, almost a bit dubiously, “Highly evolved? In what way, sir?”
Eggman responded, “They stand on two legs like us! They wear clothes, real clothes! They can talk! They’ve developed a whole society and government in their little corner of the world, one that doesn’t care for the likes of us!” As he came to the end of his rant, he noticed the odd look the reporter was giving him. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m legally sane, I’ll have you know!” he snapped.
“That’s not what I’m wondering about, sir… It’s just, this ‘Suppression Squad’… Are you assuming it’s them based on past experiences, or do you have some proof to support your claims?” the reporter questioned.
Eggman replied, “Well, since you asked, I actually do! And that’s exactly why I brought these two with me!” At his words, Orbot and Cubot leapt over the back of the couch he was sitting on and hovered just above the other two cushions before opening up. Eggman looked at them expectantly, “Well, go on! Show them the image that was recovered from the Motobug!”
Orbot nodded, “Yes, Boss.” He then reached over and patted Cubot on the back. The blocky yellow robot glanced back for a moment before he faced forward, his eyes glowing brighter as he projected a holographic image in front of him. Spike and the girls leaned closer as it became clearer.
The image showed a blue hedgehog standing up straight and looking back over his right shoulder down at the camera with his green eyes. The image was a little dark and grainy, but it looked like there were buildings in the distance in the background. Judging from the outlines they could make out, it had to be Canterlot. As they looked at the picture, the girls began to get excited. “Whoa, that’s him! It’s Sonic! Just like in the other picture!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“And this picture looks like it was taken just outside the city, which means he IS here!” Twilight added.
“Is he by himself?” Fluttershy wondered.
Pinkie shushed everyone and said, “Listen to this!” They all looked back at the video.
“Not exactly your garden variety hedgehog, is he? And look at the way part of his body is hidden by shadows! He knows he did something wrong and still has the audacity to make sure I know it was him! The little attention-seeking miscreant, coming all the way from his little corner of the world because he doesn’t know how to better himself!” Eggman was saying.
The reporter asked, “Does he have a name?”
Eggman answered, “He certainly does! He calls himself, eh, Mr. Needlemouse, like he’s some kind of superhero! He used to be brown and really spiky, I’ll have you know, but then he started messing with fur dyes and managed to get his quills to fuse together! He’s always changing his image; I wouldn’t be surprised if in a week he’s green and trying to get everyone to believe he’s a king! And let’s not forget the other members of his little gang! There’s a pink hedgehog as well, Rosy the Rascal. She likes to make others believe she’s his girlfriend…”
As Eggman went on about the others and had Cubot show more images to show the viewers what Myles, Kneecaps (everyone had to struggle to not burst out laughing at that name), and Coocoo looked like, Spike and the girls became convinced that this interview was turning into less of him trying to gain everyone’s favor and more him trying to remain the center of attention for as long as possible.
“Wow. This guy is really determined to stay in the spotlight,” Sunset remarked.
“Listen ta this. Does he even hear himself?” Applejack asked.
“The sad thing is, I could almost believe he rehearsed this. And those pictures he’s showing… Even with some of the quality being lost, I’m pretty sure they’ve been edited in some way,” Sunset said, thinking of her ‘bad girl’ days.
“It’s almost a shame the guy’s evil and a wacko. He’d probably have a really successful career if he went into acting,” Rainbow commented.
Pinkie closed the Internet window and shut her laptop soon afterwards, the important part of the video over. “Well, even though he made that interview all about himself, that was informative,” Twilight remarked.
“Yeah. It’s safe to say he is Dr. Eggman, plus Sonic and his friends really are here! We just gotta meet up with them and let ‘em know we’re friends with Princess Twilight! Then they’ll know they’ve got friends here ready to back them up again!” Rainbow said.
Sunset was thinking a bit deeply about what had been shown in the video. “I don’t doubt he was making up a lot of the stuff he said, but those pictures he showed… I couldn’t tell if they were altered or not,” she muttered to herself, remembering her ‘bad girl’ days.
She looked up when Applejack spoke, “Hold yer horses, Rainbow! It is great to know that they’re here, but how are we gonna find ‘em? We ain’t seen hide nor hair of ‘em these last few days, and this is the first time anyone else has brought them up. For whatever reason, they ain’t exactly been makin’ themselves know around here.”
Twilight hummed in thought. “That’s true. Maybe they arrived later than him, woke up in a place where nobody found them like Dr. Eggman…”
Rainbow interjected, “Whatever; it doesn’t matter what took them so long. The point is, we have to find them and let them know what Eggman is trying to do!”
Fluttershy asked, “But… how?”
Rarity held her right hand against the side of her head, “That is the question, Fluttershy…”
Pinkie spoke up cheerfully, “Hey, it’s okay, guys! There’s a really easy way to find them!” Everyone looked at her, some a bit dubiously. “They’ve been smashing up Eggy’s robots, right? So, they must go after them whenever they find them! All we have to do is keep an eye on the robots he sends out into the city, and eventually, we’ll see them show up and go after the robots, and afterwards, we step in and introduce ourselves!”
Everyone looked at her blankly for a moment before Sunset said, “That… is actually a really good idea, Pinkie.”
Twilight nodded, “It’s a simple idea, but it makes a lot of sense. Pretty ingenious, Pinkie.”
Pinkie shrugged, “Hey, trying to stop bad people right away before they do bad and get nice people hurt… it’s what we would be doing if we knew there was trouble afoot, right?”
Rarity conceded, “That is also true.”
Spike spoke up, “But he’s got a lot of robots, right? And there’s no telling which ones they might attack. How are we going to keep an eye on them all?”
Rainbow said, “Well, again, I could run and fly around the city to keep an eye on them, but… yeah, that might be a bit much even for me. And if this Sonic really is as fast as me, I might just miss him.”
Sunset added, “Plus Eggman’s robots might think you ARE him and come after you. …Actually, that might be useful for herding them into one place, but I don’t know how much it would help us find him.”
Twilight suddenly had an idea and shared it with the others, “Drones!” When they looked at her, she explained, “We could use drones like mine to monitor Dr. Eggman’s robots and locate Sonic and his friends. We’ll have to make more and modify them accordingly in order to keep watch, but that way, we could keep watch from a distance.”
Rainbow nodded, “That could work.”
Sunset put a hand to her chin, “So, building and modifying, huh? I could definitely help with both of those.”
Applejack said, “Sounds like we got ourselves a plan.” The rest of the girls nodded in agreement.
“We could go to my house after school and start working on it,” Twilight said. With some idea of what their next move was going to be, the girls gathered up their belongings and headed to class. After school and club meetings were over, they met up out in front of the school and headed to Twilight’s house to pursue her idea further.
Surprisingly, it only took two days to build a dozen modified versions of Twilight’s selfie-taking drone. Twilight had some materials around her house to get them started and Applejack was able to provide some more to finish the rest. She also helped put them together along with Sunset, Rainbow, and Pinkie, and Rarity and Fluttershy made them look nicer. Sunset and Twilight were able to put together a program on a laptop to control the drones and see what they were seeing, and Sunset made an app for their phones to allow them all to see through the cameras. Once they felt they were all set, it was time for the hard part: tracking down Sonic and his friends.
Even with all the drones they had, there was only so much of the city that they could see at any one time. There was also the fact that Eggman’s Badniks weren’t always out when they were searching, and even if they were, they still had to watch the other drones’ fields of vision for any sign that Sonic or his friends were in the area, which was not easy to pick up on in Sonic’s case. It also didn’t help that Eggman’s words, as over the top as they had sounded, had evidently been taken to heart due to police showing up on the scene shortly after any of his Badniks had been attacked. A week passed with no success, but the girls weren’t about to give up. There were some similarities between all the attacks that they were picking up on, and they were starting to notice sooner when Sonic was passing the drones. It was turning into a waiting game, but they were sure they were getting close; they just had to keep at it.
A few days later after school, the girls were out surveying part of the city again. Twilight and Sunset were sitting in the bed of Applejack’s pickup truck, which was parked in an alleyway. Applejack was alternating between enjoying some apple juice and checking the surveillance footage on her phone while Twilight and Sunset looked at the footage being broadcast from the drones on the laptop. Meanwhile, Fluttershy, Spike, and Rarity were sitting at an outdoor table in a café not far away, Fluttershy checking Spike’s fur while Rarity checked her phone, Pinkie was walking around in between checking alleyways for clues, and Rainbow was, well, being as awesome as she wanted to be.
At the moment, she was grinning as she used her super speed to run down the city streets, turning the corners and watching out for cars as she ran. She glanced behind her to see a group of Motobugs following her, just as she’d thought. She ran down the sidewalk for a few more seconds before ducking down an alleyway. The Motobugs followed her blur down the alley and came to a stop and looked around in confusion when they got to the end of it. They couldn’t see Sonic anywhere; all they could see was Rainbow leaning against a nearby wall to their right, acting cool.
The Motobugs turned away from her, not knowing she was the one they had been chasing and began to scan the area for any trace of Sonic while Rainbow snickered to herself. Suddenly her cell phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket and answered it without looking at the caller ID. She had a feeling she knew who was ringing her up. “Hey, did you guys see that?” she asked.
Rarity’s voice came from the other end, sounding a bit irritated, “Yes, all of us watching saw you, Rainbow. We’ve talked about this already. When you run like that, you throw us all off.”
Rainbow shrugged, “Hey, I’m just trying to increase my odds of seeing him. What am I supposed to do, stand on the corner and hope he runs past me?”
Rarity replied while stirring her tea with a spoon, “You’d be surprised what you can see when you do that, darling. You should try it sometime.”
Rainbow replied, “You’re just saying that ‘cause you’re sitting at a café. If you actually had to stand around, you’d agree that this is better.”
While the two were talking, one of Twilight’s drones caught sight of the Badnik gathering and hovered a bit overhead, Rainbow looking up at it and waving while Twilight and Sunset shared a glance. Applejack peered out the back window and saw what they were looking at, prompting her to ask, “Rainbow showin’ off again?”
Sunset replied, “Yeah, pretty much.”
Before Twilight could add anything, her cell phone rang and, after looking at it for a moment, she answered it. “Hello?” she asked.
She had barely finished saying the word when, on the other end, Pinkie said in an excited tone, “Twilight! I just saw a blue streak go past me! Check the cameras!”
Twilight gasped and tucked her phone between her left shoulder and ear as she began typing on the keyboard while Sunset and Applejack watched. She flipped through the camera screens, nearly passing one over when she noticed a flash on it. Seeing it disappear, she flipped to the next closest drone and caught a better glimpse of it. “I see it! I mean him!” she said, both Applejack and Sunset moving closer as she tried to keep up.
Sunset pointed at the screen as Twilight checked the cameras, “There he is again! Where’s he going now?”
Twilight noted the drone in question and flipped to the next drone based on Sonic’s positioning and where he seemed to be heading. “It looks like…” She was cut off when the footage changed to static. “Oh no! The drone got destroyed!” Twilight said.
“Oh, not again,” Sunset groaned. Before any more could be said, Sunset’s cell phone rang and she pulled it out, looking at the ID to see it was Rainbow Dash. She quickly answered it, “Rainbow?”
The girl on the other end answered, “I just saw him for a moment! Not running, either, like actually stopped! He smashed the robots and started going the way I just came! I’m on him!” She then hung up and focused on running after the blue blur ahead of her, who seemed to notice he was being followed.
Sunset brought her phone down and looked at it for a moment before saying to Applejack and Twilight and saying, “Rainbow’s going after him!”
Applejack pushed the door of her truck open and swung her legs out as she said, “Then so are we!”
As she got out and Sunset stood up, Twilight held the laptop in both hands as she spoke, “Wait! What about the drones?!”
Applejack looked at her and said, “Keep watchin’ ‘em, Twilight, and let us know if you see anythin’! Might help us avoid what happened last time! Let Rarity and Fluttershy know too! Ah’ll text Pinkie!” She pulled her phone out and Sunset jumped down out of the truck bed, both of them running down the alley while Twilight grabbed her phone from where it had fallen and called Rarity’s cell phone.
While she was waiting for an answer, she returned to the drones and checked what they were seeing again. When Rarity answered, she said, “Rarity! Rainbow caught a glimpse of Sonic! She’s in pursuit now! And…” She paused for a moment as she noticed something on the screen, “There’s some robots gathering near a bus stop not far from that café! He might be heading there next!”
Rarity stood up and tucked her phone against her head as she reached for her money and replied, “Then we’ll be there too! Just tell me which stop!” She looked at Fluttershy and Spike, “Come on, this is it! We’ll definitely need your help, Fluttershy!” The pink-haired girl let out a small gasp and stood up while Spike leapt down onto the pavement. Rarity finally grabbed her money and left enough to cover their bill on the table before taking her phone in hand again, her, Fluttershy, and Spike running down the sidewalk while Twilight gave her directions.
Rainbow had a little difficulty trailing Sonic since he kept trying to throw her off, ducking down alleys and making the tight corners without slowing down while she had to. Still, it wasn’t enough for her to lose him entirely and she eventually decided to hang back a bit to see if it would get him to go wherever he was going. She and the other girls kept using their cell phones to stay in touch, all of them with the exception of Twilight moving towards the bus stop’s location.
It didn’t take long for Rainbow to reach the bus stop, but it seemed she had stayed a little too far back. As she approached, she saw that there were more broken Motobugs littering the street and people huddling back in fear, but there was no sign of Sonic. Before she could start looking or asking the people at the stop what had happened, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike came around the opposite corner and, upon seeing Rainbow, waved her over. She ran over to them, at a normal speed, and Rarity asked, “Rainbow, where is he?! Where’s Sonic?!”
Rainbow replied, “I don’t know! I just got here a few seconds ago! He must’ve gone down another alley!”
Spike pointed to the people at the stop, “Maybe they saw where he went.”
Rainbow said, “I was just about to ask ‘em! Come on!” They ran over and began questioning the people about what they had seen.
By the time Applejack, Sunset, and Pinkie arrived on the scene, they had managed to learn that Sonic had disappeared down an alley on the other side of the street. Rainbow didn’t feel very confident that this information would lead them to him, however, since it seemed like he was staying on the move and wouldn’t stop for anything. Before they could debate it further, they started to hear the wail of sirens coming towards them.
“The police are coming! The police are coming!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“Their response time is getting faster and faster. Do they somehow know when Eggman’s robots get attacked?” Sunset grunted.
Applejack said, “Ah’ll bet ya if Sonic is still ‘round here, he ain’t stayin’ long now! We might wanna leave too!”
Fluttershy murmured, “Yes, we should. Please. I don’t think I could answer questions from the police.” With that, the girls split and took different directions to spread out, Spike following Applejack as she headed back to her truck. By the time the police arrived, they were gone.
Twilight looked up when she heard footsteps and saw Applejack and Spike running towards the truck. As she got closer, Applejack called, “Get in the truck, Twilight! We’re leavin’!”
Twilight stood up and asked, “Wait, where’s Sunset?!”
Applejack answered as she reached the driver’s door, “We split up ‘cause the police were comin’! We’re supposed ta text when we’re all A-Okay!” She pulled the door open and got in while Twilight got down out of the truck bed and picked up Spike before opening the passenger’s door and climbing in. Once they were all in and buckled, Applejack started the truck and pulled out of the alley.
While they were driving, Twilight said, “I lost another drone a few minutes ago. It looked like it was near the bus stop. I was trying to get in touch to let someone know, but now I guess it was too late for that.”
Applejack replied, “You know Sonic hasn’t been stickin’ around when the police show up, Twilight. He’s probably long gone by now.” They heard a series of notification sounds come from both her and Twilight’s phones a few moments later. “What’s up?” Applejack asked, keeping her eyes on the road.
Twilight pulled out her phone and checked her texts. “It’s Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow saying that they got away okay. No word from Sun- oh wait, she just texted saying she’s fine. Want me to text them back for you as well?”
Applejack nodded, “Yeah, go ahead, Twilight.” Twilight typed and sent a reply to the other girls, letting them know all three of them were fine. She then put her phone away, disappointed that they had no more luck contacting Sonic, but relieved that they were all okay.
Unbeknownst to Spike or any of the girls, Sunset was actually not far away from the bus stop at the moment, the girl pressing her back against one of the buildings in the alley she was in as she listened for anyone who might be coming. After a few moments, she let out a sigh and stood up straight, adjusting the strap on her backpack as she began to make her way down the alley. She had ducked into it when they had split up and had stopped trying to get away when she noticed there were trash cans and other junk that looked like they had been knocked around. It made her curious and she wanted to check if there were any clues that might hint at where Sonic had gone.
As she walked, she began to feel a strange and familiar sensation in her head. It started as just a tingling, but it soon began to bother her like a headache. “What is this? Is my magic acting up again?” she wondered as she held her hand to her forehead, coming to a stop. She stood in place for several moments, trying to focus and work through the voices she was hearing. She looked up when she realized something. “These voices… They’re not all coming from the people around here, they’re… There’s a source. Only one.”
She looked up towards the roof of the building to her right. They seemed to be coming from there. Moving her eyes down the side of the building, she saw it had a fire escape. At the bottom, she saw that the ladder had been lowered. Making her way over to it, she began making her way up to the roof, trying to step as quietly as possible since she had no idea what she’d find up there.
As she got closer to the top, she began to hear voices. “You keep taking bigger and bigger risks, and soon we’re all gonna be caught!” Sticks was saying.
“Hey, more and more of Eggman’s robots keep showing up around this place! What are we supposed to do, let ‘em go around like they own it?” Sonic replied. Sunset felt encouraged when she heard Eggman’s name and quickened her pace.
“I do wonder how he got the resources to start building new robots, and so quickly. We’re pretty far from home,” Tails remarked.
“We’ll worry about that later. Sticks is right, Sonic; the police force in this large, bustling community has tried to arrest us every time we go after Eggman’s robots. They’re probably willing to help since he’s just like them,” Amy said.
Sunset reached the top of the fire escape and put her hands on the edge of the roof above her, grunting a bit to pull herself up and peer over it. As she was doing this, she heard Knuckles say, “Well, even he’s gotta have friends somewhere in the world, right?” She rested her arms on the other side of the edge to support herself and looked. Past a rectangular slab made of bricks, she could see Team Sonic, standing there large as life.
“That’s a weird idea to consider, Eggman having actual friends,” Sonic remarked. Sunset struggled to pull herself up over the edge and managed it after a few seconds, rolling down onto the roof with a slight thud. She recovered and got up on her knees, moving quietly over to the brick slab and sitting with her back to it, panting a bit. Inwardly, she was excited, but she also felt a bit overwhelmed. She’d located Sonic and his friends, but now what was she supposed to do? How was she going to approach them without them running away?
She was about to find out that she didn’t even have to think about it, however. Sticks, due to standing a short distance away from her friends and simply listening as they talked, had heard the sound of Sunset hitting the roof and turned towards the slab, suspecting that someone or something was on the other side of it. Clutching her boomerang tightly, she started to quietly make her way towards it. She was sure it had to be the C.C.C.; they had tracked them down with the help of the nefarious S.O.N.I.C.X. group. Well, they weren’t going to get the drop on her.
Her movement didn’t go entirely unnoticed by her friends. While Sonic and Knuckles were debating about the finer points of publicity, Amy looked over and saw Sticks walking tensely away from the group. “Sticks? What are you doing?” she called, causing the guys to stop talking and look over at her. Sunset heard her as well and glanced up with her head turned to the right, wondering what had caught their attention.
As soon as Sticks peered around the slab and saw Sunset, she let out a primal scream, shocking the girl and causing her to scream as she whirled around to face the badger. She tried to move back away from her, but Sticks was quick to get almost on top of her, getting her feet on both sides of Sunset’s torso to keep her from going back any further. Sticks bent forward to get closer to her face and said, “Hey, you’re not a clam! At least you don’t look like one. But you’re a member of them, ain’t ya?! Well, your society friends aren’t gonna get any closer to getting us because-” Her rant was cut off when Sunset, attempting to put some distance between them, reached up and placed her left hand on the badger’s forehead, cutting her off. Almost immediately, Sunset’s mouth fell open and her eyes began to glow white.
It was pandemonium. All she could see was a void filled with Sticks. Multiple Sticks, far too many to count. And they were all behaving differently. A very small number were acting proper and civilized to their fellow Sticks while the rest were unruly and wild, and they were all speaking. Some were whispering and murmuring what sounded like doubts and second thoughts while others were yelling, no doubt the loudest voices in her head. It was one loud sea of orange and brown, and somewhere lost in it all… a speck of green?
Sticks let out a shout and placed her hands on her head as Sunset pulled her hand back, the girl’s eyes returning to normal… somewhat. She had found the source of what was making her magic act up and she did not like what she had been shown. What she had seen in the badger’s head was… kind of terrifying. Maybe it was because she didn’t know her yet, but unlike the time she had looked in Pinkie’s head and felt that she had learned a lot, she felt like she had learned nothing about Sticks. It felt more like she had peered beneath the waves of a sea of madness.
Speaking of the badger, she had started stepping back while still holding her head and bumped into Sunset’s raised leg, which caused her to fall on her back as she tried to keep stepping back. Sunset raised her head to look at the badger as she sat up, still holding her hands to her head. She soon opened her eyes and gave Sunset an accusatory look as she pointed at her and yelled, “What did you do?! I saw your eyes glowing! Did you put something in my head?! You dirty, implanting society member! You’d better get it out right now or you’re gonna regret it!”
Sonic came around behind her while she was yelling and, after glancing at Sunset, looked down at her and grabbed her under the arms. “Okay, Sticks, take it easy. The girl didn’t do anything to you. You just fell on your head. Let’s make sure you don’t have a concussion or something,” he said plainly as he started to lift her up.
Sunset raised herself up to a sitting position to get a good look at Sonic, noting his scarf, the sports tape around his wrists and legs, and, most importantly, his blue arms. After a moment, she said, “Sonic!”
Both the blue hedgehog and Sticks stopped and looked at her in surprise for a moment before the former abruptly let go of the former, causing her to hit her head again, and exclaimed, “Well, it’s about time somebody around here recognized me! How did it take that long? This has to be the longest its ever taken!”
As Sunset stood up and dusted herself off, she heard Amy chastise, “Sonic!”
She looked over to see Tails coming over, the fox stopping near Sonic as he asked, “Just you? What about the rest of us?”
Sonic started, “Well…”
Sunset cut him off, “Tails!” The fox looked over at her in surprise as she looked over at Amy and Knuckles. “And you’re Amy Rose and… Knuckles?” she finished a bit awkwardly as she looked at the echidna.
“Yeah! …What?” Knuckles asked as he noticed the bewildered look on her face.
Sunset fiddled with her hair as she uttered, “Uh, nothing. You’re, uh… you are you.” It wasn’t the best answer by any means, but Knuckles seemed to be fine with it.
Sonic spoke, “I was about to say if somebody recognized me, they’d recognize you guys too.”
Sticks stood up suddenly and said, “Oh yeah?! Well, she didn’t say my name! …Actually, that’s a good thing.”
Sunset put a hand on her hips and replied, “I don’t know who you are, Sticks, but I know your name.”
Sticks demanded, “Hey, how do you know my name?! Did you read my mind?! Is that what you did just now?!”
Sonic answered, “She knows because I said it out loud and she heard it, Sticks. See? I said it again.”
Amy and Knuckles made their way over, standing on the other side of the slab. “I think the bigger questions are, who are you and how do you know who we are when no one else does?” Amy asked, looking directly up at Sunset.
Knuckles added, “Yeah. Are you really a mind reader like Sticks said?”
Sunset thought for a moment, glancing at Sticks for a moment before looking back at the echidna. She then spoke, “I… feel like that’s both an oversimplification and not correct at the same time. I would say I’m more of an empath because, if you were to ask me right now, I would have no idea what you’re thinking.”
Knuckles looked disappointed at that. “Aw. I was hoping you could tell me what I’m thinking. Even I can’t tell what I’m thinking sometimes.”
Sticks, however, did not look convinced. “You say that like there’s a difference!” she accused.
Sunset crossed her arms and gave her an annoyed look. “There IS a difference! One knows what you’re going to say before you say it and the other is more in tune with emotions!”
Sonic shrugged, “She’s got a point there.”
Tails asked, “Are we really discussing this now?”
Sunset shook her head and said, “Right, thank you, Tails.” She then straightened up, “My name is Sunset Shimmer, and while I actually don’t know you guys, I have a friend who… kind of knows you. Now that I actually see you, I’m pretty sure you don’t know her.”
Sonic crossed his arms, “Well, if she knows us, we must’ve met her before. What’s her name?”
Sunset asked, “Twilight Sparkle?”
Sonic shrugged, “Never heard of her.”
Sunset nodded, “Didn’t think so. She’s told me about a different version of you that she knows.”
Sonic replied, “Oh, an alternate-dimension thing, huh? We’ve had experience with those before.”
Knuckles remarked, “I still kind of wish I tasted like a fortune cookie.”
Sunset gave him an odd look. Seeing this, Amy spoke, “Don’t worry about that. At any rate, it’s lucky that you were able to recognize us despite the aforementioned alternate-dimension detail.”
Sunset replied, “Well, it took Dr. Eggman a while to drop a hint that you guys were here in Canterlot, and even then, he embellished the information to keep up with appearances.”
Sonic asked, “So Eggman’s the reason why everybody around here seems to dislike us?”
Sunset nodded, “He somehow managed to get his foot in the door and win people over with his advanced robotics. He’s probably been twisting as much as he can to make himself look like the good guy; your names and motives are just the latest thing he’s messed with.”
Tails asked, “What did he call us?”
Sunset replied, “I don’t think you want to know. Anyway, we probably would’ve tried to figure out the truth from you guys sooner or later; my friend Fluttershy is a big animal lover after all. Luckily, Twilight talked about the other version of Dr. Eggman and sent me a picture of the other guys, so that pretty much took care of that.” She noticed the expectant looks everyone except Sticks gave her and said, “I do have the picture with me right now. Do you…?” She got her answer from a few head tilts, so she slid her backpack off.
As she knelt and set her backpack on the roof, she noticed Sticks still had her eyes narrowed, that suspicious look still on her face. Sunset matched her with a level, slightly irritated look of her own even as she opened her backpack and pulled her book out. She broke the gaze when she looked down to find the picture, at which point Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles all gave the badger a look to tell her to knock it off. After few seconds, Sunset found the picture and turned the book around, handing it towards Sonic while saying, “Here, it’s right here.”
Sonic took the book in both hands, the others gathering around him as they all looked down at the picture. Some of their expressions became a bit bewildered as they looked down at it. Knuckles was the first to speak up, pointing down at his alternate-dimension self as he spoke, “Is that supposed to be me? That guy’s a shrimp! He doesn’t even look like he has fingers! Does he even work out?”
Tails remarked, “Well, if he does, then it’s clear he doesn’t skip over leg day.”
Amy looked over her counterpart appraisingly. “Look at those boots she has. They’re very nice, but can she run in them? And that dress! I wonder if she keeps a crossbow with her instead of a hammer; it might be better for her.”
Sonic looked unimpressed by what the picture was showing, but his voice had a note of jealousy in it. “Look at this guy. How come he has more friends at his birthday party than I’ve ever had? He doesn’t even know how to dress properly. He has to be…” He trailed off as he noticed something in the corner of the photo. “Wait, is that Shadow? SHADOW was at his party?! How is that possible?! That can’t be Shadow. The only way it could be is if he’s a total joker in that dimension,” he argued.
Knuckles remarked a bit jokingly, “Or, maybe, he’s just as strong as our Shadow and that other Sonic is actually that much better than you.”
Sticks asked, “Why do you say that? Did you travel to that dimension and not tell us about it? Do you know him?!”
Tails started, “Uh, Sticks? Didn’t you…”
The badger cut him off, “No, I didn’t! I’ve never traveled to any other world! The two versions don’t match up! Besides, that other one is dead, so everything that happened in it is dead!”
Amy asked, “Sticks, what are you talking about?”
Sticks put her hands over her ears and turned and ran away suddenly, yelling, “THEY DON’T MATCH UP!”
Amy immediately chased after her, calling, “Sticks, wait!”
Sunset and the boys stared as the two took off across the rooftops. “Do you think we should… help her?” Sunset asked awkwardly.
“Nah. It’s never easy to calm Sticks down or talk her out of whatever conspiracies or theories she’s caught up in, and Amy’s her best friend. She’ll know what to do,” Sonic replied.
The trio turned to face Sunset. Sonic glanced down at the picture one last time before closing the book and handing it back to her. As she took it and tucked it under her right arm, she said, “Well, I think that about covers how I’ve heard of you guys. So how did you all get here, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Sonic crossed his arms and turned his head to the side slightly, “Well…”
BREAKING NEWS!
Cost of writing extended flashback sequences goes up! Writers forced to make cuts in order to stay within budget! Thank you.
“…Next thing we knew, we were falling out of the sky. Luckily, our parasail got pulled up too and came out near us. We were able to use that to land safely,” Sonic finished.
“Of course, it was a long glide before we all landed, and we had no idea where we were. It took us a while before we found out Eggman was building new robots and tracked them here,” Tails added.
“Man, that was a long, extended flashback sequence just now,” Knuckles remarked.
Sunset crossed her arms, “So that’s what happened…” There was an awkward silence for several long moments.
Knuckles finally broke it by asking, “So… what now, guys?”
Sunset looked up and answered, “Well, I think getting people to realize that Eggman is lying about a number of things needs to be dealt with so you don’t have the police harassing you all the time.”
Tails spoke, “That would make things a lot easier for us. Still, how are we going to get people to listen to us? They always seem to react with fear when they see us, even when we first got here. I doubt Eggman’s slander had gone live then.”
Sunset replied, “No, he only started doing that a little over a week ago.”
Tails went on, “So we really should do something to clear this up. Still, where do we start?”
Sunset suggested, “Well, why not start by getting some help? My friends and I have been trying to get in touch with you guys to let you know that we’ll help you out here.”
Knuckles asked, “You? You want to help us?”
Sunset smiled, “Sure. You may not be the versions that Twilight knows, but I don’t see how that affects anything. You guys seem all right.”
Sonic spoke, “Just ‘all right’? That doesn’t sound very convincing to me. Besides, based on how you look, I’d say you’re about the same age as us. You some kind of rising star reporter for a major TV news station or something? ‘Cause if you’re not, I don’t see how you can help us.”
Sunset put her hands on her hips, “My friends and I have been working for a little over a week to figure out how to meet with you. We’ve had to risk questioning by the police and putting our time and effort into keeping an eye out for you guys since you’ve understandably made that difficult to do. In that time, we’ve gotten very good at knowing when you’re around and we’ve got a pretty good idea how you make your getaways. It’s only the quick response time of the police that kept everyone else from meeting you tonight, and you notice I still found you anyway. I’d say we’re doing a lot better than the police currently are.”
Tails remarked, “She’s got a point there.”
Sunset finished, “I’m certain that, between you guys and my friends and I, we can figure out a way to expose Eggman and show everyone they should trust you instead.”
Sonic crossed his arms and glanced off to the side, “I still don’t know…” Suddenly, they all began to hear a whirring sound coming from below that began to get louder. “Hey, you hear that?” Sonic asked, immediately snapping to attention.
“Motobugs!” Tails affirmed. Sonic immediately ran to the edge of the roof and leapt down onto the top of the fire escape before flipping over the railing and dropping down to the ground. Tails, meanwhile, began spinning his tails around and flew down to join him.
Sunset was pulled out of her awe at seeing Tails fly for the first time when Knuckles called, “Hey, wait for me, guys!” Sunset watched him run to the edge and, unlike Sonic, simply leapt off the edge. Sunset was immediately concerned by the fact that he jumped like he was doing a swan dive. She ran to the edge of the roof and looked down to see him falling majestically, only to keep falling when he reached the ground. It took her a moment to realize he must’ve fallen through a manhole, a fact that was confirmed when she heard his voice echo out, “I’m okay! I landed on my chest! Now I just need to figure out where everyone went…” She heard both Sonic and Tails let out a loud groan from below, making her wonder if this was typical behavior for Knuckles.
As she began making her way down from the roof, she could hear the sound of robots being destroyed, the sound being amplified due to the width of the alley. It sounded like they were fighting back the way she had come. As she got to the bottom of the fire escape, however, her walk towards the noise was interrupted when she heard Eggman say, “Dear me! Oh, you poor girl!” She spun around and looked up to see him in his Eggmobile descending into the alley. “Were you kidnapped by that HORRIBLE Needlemouse and his friends? Well, don’t worry! My robots are here to help you!” At his words, a Motobug rolled into view at the other end of the alley.
At first, Sunset was a bit intimidated by the Badnik, having never seen one so up close before and knowing that it was something made by an evil genius, but as it got closer, she pushed her fear down and stayed where she was. When it was close enough, she brought her right leg up and back and kicked it in the side of its head, knocking it to the side slightly and causing it to spin out. Eggman gasped for dramatic effect at this and asked, “What are you doing, miss?! He’s trying to help you!” He gasped again, “Don’t tell me you’ve been held captive for so long that you have Stockholm Syndrome!”
The Motobug righted itself after a few moments and tried to approach Sunset again. This time, she raised her foot and brought it down on the Badnik’s head, managing to crush it enough for it to power down. She then looked straight up at Eggman and told him, “Oh no! I don’t have anything that’s messing with my mind anymore! In fact, I’ve never really had the wool pulled over my eyes!” She pointed up at him, “I know who you really are, Dr. Eggman!”
Eggman seemed surprisingly unconcerned by what Sunset said. “Well, that’s no surprise, really. I mean, everyone around here happens to know…” Suddenly, what she said caught up with him and he leaned over his console to look down at her as he spoke, “Wait, how do you know my actual name?! I could’ve sworn I ordered the ‘Do-Gooder’ business card package, not the ‘Evil Genius’ package!”
Sunset replied, “I have friends who share certain things with me, so I kind of thought the whole ‘Kintobor’ thing was off from the start. More importantly, though, you just clarified it out loud. That means the secret’s out!”
Eggman stood up straight, returning to his usual domineering self. “Oh really? I don’t see anyone else besides you here, and you’re pulling that ‘admission’ of yours from what only you know! Do you actually think one little girl knowing my secret is actually going to be a big deal to me?”
Sonic suddenly came up behind Sunset and stopped next to her right side, Tails flying over and landing to her left as he said, “You’d better believe it’s gonna be a big deal, Egghead! Sunset here happens to be our new pal, and with her sleuthing skills and strong legs, we’re gonna show this world what a fraud you are… together!” Sunset was a bit surprised by Sonic’s words, though she smiled when she realized he’d come to a decision.
Eggman looked down at the trio for a moment before saying, “Is this the moment where I’m supposed to go on about how evil I am and you put an abrupt end to my schemes? Well, you can forget it, Sonic! I’m not that kind of villain anymore; you won’t ever catch me doing that again! And with only one supporter in a city this big, you won’t be ruining my business any time soon!” As he finished speaking, a trio of Motobugs came around the corner and shot towards the three.
When they got close enough, they each brought their legs back and kicked the Badniks as hard as they could, managing to knock them off the ground and back, all of them breaking when they landed. Afterwards, they all looked up at Eggman again and Sunset said, “I’ve got a history of finding out things and using them against people, and I’m not the only one on their side. You’re only going to lose support from here on out, Eggman, because more and more people are going to realize that you’ve been lying all this time! By the end of it, you’ll be lucky if you can even work in an alley like this to carry out your schemes!”
Sonic added, “Yeah! So you’d better start working on robots while you have the chance, Eggman! We all know how your last craft show turned out!” Tails quietly nodded in agreement.
Eggman glared down at them and growled, but glanced to the side when he heard sirens getting closer. As he started to turn away, he called down, “This isn’t over yet! I’ll build more robots! They’ll be bigger and better, and their legs will put yours to shame! And… they’ll be able to jump really high! And they’ll give you hugs!” He added under his breath as he flew away, “Eeeeeeeeevil hugs.”
A short while later, Sunset, Sonic, and Tails were sitting together on the edge of a rooftop, watching Canterlot light up as the Sun went down. “You know, this place does have a certain beauty of its own. We’d never see a view like this at night back home,” Tails remarked, Sonic nodding in response.
After a few moments, Sunset looked over at Sonic and asked, “Did you really mean what you said back there? About me being your pal?”
Sonic looked totally laidback at the moment, but he spoke sincerely, “Sure. You’re a pretty cool girl in your own way, and you were willing to stand up to Eggman. This isn’t an easy job, but I think you’ve got what it takes for it.”
Sunset mulled over his words for a moment before asking, “So, this is a job, is it? I’m sure my friends would like to have a position in it as well, and they’ll probably be wondering about it as much as I am right now. Like, what’s it like? Are there any benefits?”
Sonic replied, “Well, you’re expected to be able to foot your own expenses and be ready to drop what you’re doing whenever you’re needed, but there are plenty of benefits.” He looked over at Tails, “Show her.” The fox nodded and reached for his belt buckle with his right hand. With a quick twist, a yellow glow appeared on it that jumped to Tails’ hand. He clenched it into a fist and then flicked it forward, a glowing yellow rope seemingly made out of energy extending from it before coming back to him and disappearing.
Sunset looked amazed at this and looked at Tails, who replied, “It’s called an Enerbeam. It was originally made by a race that we call the Ancients. It’s one of the things we’ve discovered after researching them, and we make use of them from time to time.”
Sonic looked back at Sunset, “We’re kind of looking for a better place to set up shop ourselves, but once we do, we’ll get you one. We’ll get one for all your friends.” Sunset gave him a smile in reply. He might not be the Sonic that Twilight knew, but if he was anything like him, she was starting to see why she quickly became friends with him.
Meanwhile, in an alley elsewhere in the city, Amy was trying to find Sticks, having lost track of her a while ago. “Sticks! Where are you? It’s getting dark! We have to get back to the guys and find a place to spend the night!” she called. She suddenly heard a rattling nearby and looked to see Knuckles emerge from a manhole, covered in sewage and the cover balanced on his head. “Knuckles!” she said.
The cover fell off as he climbed all the way out and shook his head a bit. “Ugh. Don’t drink the water around here. It really goes through you,” he remarked.
Amy sighed and used her hammer to put the manhole cover back in place. She then put her hammer away as she said, “Come on, it’s getting dark! We’ve got to find Sticks! And find a place for you to wash up.” She then started walking down the alley again, Knuckles obediently following behind her.
As they walked out of hearing distance of it, a rattling sound came from a dumpster. Sticks poked her head out of it a second later, bits of garbage on her head. She then pulled her arms out of the trash to look at the prize she’d found: discarded copies of a videogame called ‘Pilfered by the Poltergeists’. “How could anyone throw away so many copies of something like this? How could they not see the value in an autobi… autoba… this personal experience? Well, I certainly do!” She narrowed her eyes at the cover and grinned, “Soon, I’ll know all your secrets, you pilfering geists! You, and all your ghosty friends!”