Cream trembled at the sight of Chaos, who moved ever closer to the frightened rabbit. The fact that he was here was confusing everyone present since he was presumably on the ground for the past few months. The rabbit hid behind her mother, who was holding a scared Chao, Cheese. “It’s alright, Cream dearie. The bad man won’t hurt us.” Vanilla assured her daughter.
“Darn right he won’t.” said the grey Gizoid, Gemerl. He drove his fist directly onto Chaos’ brain, causing him to roar in pain and morph into a puddle for protection. “You okay?” he asked the rabbits.
Cream nodded, “Y-Yes, thank you, Mister Gemerl. I didn’t know where you were at after Chaos attacked...”
The robot gave a salute, “Was surveying the area for anymore danger. Sorry. But don’t worry, you two, Big and I can hold him off.”
“We’re so glad to have you with us, Gemerl.” Vanilla thanked.
“It’s my pleasure. I’m gonna protect you at all costs. Where’s Big?” Gemerl replied.
Chaos morphed back into his humanoid form, but then Big belly flopped the water creature, making him explode into a puddle. Big stood up and smiled, “Uh, here I am.”
“Nice. But keep your guard up, big buddy. Chaos isn’t done yet. Just stand behind us as we take care of this, girls.” Gemerl suggested. Cream and Vanilla nodded, standing behind the Master Emerald. Gemerl turned his head to the cat, “You up for another round against this guy?”
“Okay!” Big cheered.
“Wait!” Cream called out to her friends, her small Chao friend hovering right beside her, “I want to help!”
“Are you sure, dearie?” Vanilla asked her daughter.
Cream nodded, “I’m sure, Mom. I can do this, and I have my friends with me. We’ll be fine, I promise.”
Vanilla knew Cream had some experience fighting bad guys. Ever since they met Sonic, Cream started to grow braver and help him and his friends when the need arose. This was just another instance of that, and even if it worried her, she knew that Cream could take care of herself, and that Big and Gemerl would do everything they could to protect her anyway. She sighed, “Alright. Do be careful.”
“I will.”
“Yay, you joined us!” Big cheered for his old friend.
“Welcome to the action club, Cream. I’m sure you don’t need an introduction anyway.” Gemerl quipped, punching Chaos’ face. “Come along for the ride!”
“This is the safest spot ya could’ve picked ta land?” Applejack asked Knuckles, using her hat to shield herself from the wind as best she could, sand blowing into their faces. They were in a desert of some kind, filled with boulders and stone statues that were covered after centuries of neglect.
Knuckles nodded, “Sand Hill is a pretty forgotten region of Angel Island. Should Eggman’s forces backup Chaos, we should be safe for a probable retreat with the Master Emerald and the others.”
Rarity coughed up some particles, “This is horrendous, Knuckles! Aren’t there any other spots on this island you could’ve chosen?”
“Eggman knows this island pretty well. This to my knowledge is the one spot he won’t check due to its… less than desirable conditions and obscurity. It’s even worse than the temple in the Sandopolis desert.” Knuckles admitted, “Luckily for us the shrine is pretty close by from this point since this area used to be the bridge between the surface and the island itself before parts of it branched off completely.”
“Ah gotta ask though, why didn’t ya just take the Master Emerald when you joined the Resistance?” Applejack wondered.
Knuckles answered, “No matter what, the Master Emerald would be at risk. Since Eggman seemed more focus on the Phantom Ruby than the Chaos Emeralds, it was better to leave it here. I left it with Cream, Vanilla, Big, and Gemerl because they aren’t fighters to the extent the rest of us are and again, since Eggman isn’t focused on it, they should‘ve been able to miss the war on the ground.”
Fluttershy said, “It is pretty strange to think that this is an island in the sky. It’s nothing like Cloudsdale.”
“What’s that place like?” Amy asked.
“It’s a city made of clouds. Uh… only pegasi can live there, but I prefer to live on the ground.” Fluttershy explained.
Rarity added, “There are spells granting non-pegasi the ability to stand on the clouds. Just be wary of the artificial wings spell, they’re very fragile, especially with sunlight…” the memory of the competition flashed in her mind, an experience she’d much rather forget.
“Huh, Sonic, Tails and I can jump on clouds just fine. At least in the Sky Sanctuary anyway.” Knuckles muttered, slightly hearing something above them, “We should test that out once we go back there when all this is said and done.”
Amy pointed at the sky, a swarm of hostile robots and changelings were moving right above them, “Normally I’d be for casual conversations, but we have Eggman robots and changelings incoming! Right towards the shrine!”
Knuckles huffed, “Great… I didn’t want to do this but…” he reached into his dreadlocks and pulled out some capsules, “Take these. Amy and I can handle this, but I wasn’t sure if you three could so I held off. These are snowboard capsules, just drop ‘em down and you’ll go with the slope. Since we’re running on short time, it’s for the best we speed things up.”
Applejack raised a hoof and grabbed, “Ah’ve wrangled entire stampedes alone, Ah think I can handle a sandboard.” she pressed it onto the floor and stood on her hindlegs the best she could, losing her balance for a second as she was the first to descend the hill, “Whoa, nelly!”
Fluttershy gulped and lightly placed the capsule on the ground, standing on the board once it materialized, “Eep! H-Help!” she yelled out, not used to the sport. She would fly, but it wasn’t as fast as this.
Rarity was already on her board next to Fluttershy, “Oh my Celestia! Somepony stop this crazy thing!”
Knuckles and Amy got a running start, jumped, and threw down their capsules, landing on the boards with ease. Based on their movements, they were experts when it came to this and had tons of experience. Amy shouted, “You guys are doing great! Just focus on balancing yourselves! The slope will handle the rest!”
“I-If you say so!” Fluttershy squeaked while she had her eyes forced shut, leaning her body around so it stayed steady and muttered. “Keep calm, Fluttershy. Keep calm… Huh? I’m doing it…” she swerved left, then right and felt in control of her descent. “I’m doing it.
Rarity and Applejack heeded Amy’s advice and followed Fluttershy, moving as smoothly as she was. “Aha! Ah knew this wasn’t so tricky! We should try this when we get home!”
“As much as I want to do that, perhaps we should focus on getting home first and foremost.” Rarity told her friends.
Knuckles said, “Agreed. I’m all for festivities, but we have to save the world before we do all that.”
The group swerved around a fallen echidna statue and through a gate. Applejack and Fluttershy presumed this to be among the remnants of the Echidnas and silently hung their heads for Knuckles, reminded of the story he told them. Of how he’s the last of their kind. They didn’t say anything of course, since it wasn’t important at the moment.
“How much closer are we, Knux?” Amy asked, also unfamiliar with this part of the island.
“Not much farther.” Knuckles answered. They passed through another gate. Fluttershy and Rarity nearly stumbled off their boards but managed to rebalance themselves. They saw the slope get less steep and finally reached horizontal ground, the ponies waiting until their boards came to a complete halt before getting off. “That was a smoother ride than expected.”
“That was quite a thrill.” Rarity sighed, wiping the sweat off her head.
Applejack removed her stetson and did the same, “Sure was. But personally Ah hope that was the worst of it. We need’ta be in top shape if we wanna help yer friends at the emerald shrine.”
Amy said, “All we have to do is go through this temple and we should be in the jungle near the Master Emerald.” she raised her Piko Piko Hammer and broke through the stone wall, “There we go! A nice shortcut.”
Scratching his head, Knuckles said, “Uh, thanks Amy. Anyway it’s just a quick climb up these stairs, nothing too taxing.”
“That’s good. I can only handle so much, and we haven’t even properly arrived yet.” Rarity replied. She eyed the stone stairs and followed her friends upwards, hoping to reach their destination soon.
Cream flapped her ears, Gemerl holding her legs as she ascended high enough for a good attack, “Time to drop in!” the robot quipped, falling down and slamming his elbow down onto Chaos’ brain. He morphed into a puddle for a second before materializing once more with a slash of his arm, smacking Gemerl through a couple trees.
“Don’t hurt my friends!” Big yelled, slamming his fishing rod onto the water creature as hard as he could. The burly cat huffed. He saw Chaos ready himself for an attack, but Cheese flew right through his head, stunning him. Big watched the Chao fly back to his friend and waved, “Aw, thank you.”
Cream landed and ran to Big, “Did you see where Gemerl went?”
Big shrugged, “I dunno.”
Chaos got his bearings and struck Big, making him hit the floor, “Ow!”
“Big!” Cream screamed for her friend.
“I’m okay.” the cat assured.
“And so am I!” Gemerl yelled, landing a punch to Chaos. “Come on, man! Why won’t you stay down!”
Chaos said nothing as expected, prompting Gemerl to Spin-Dash and jump backwards, creating a burst of wind strong enough to launch the water god back a few feet, “Silent type, eh? Figured.”
A loud buzzing was heard coming from above. Looking up to find the source, Cream’s eyes widened at the sight of the robots and changelings coming towards them, “E-Eggman’s robots?!”
“Why is that bad man attacking here now?” Big asked.
“No idea, big buddy. I guess we’ll just have to work overtime.” Gemerl quipped, prepared to fight the ambush as well as Chaos.
A changeling dove down and was ready to attack the defenders. However, before the bug creature could clash with them, he was greeted with a spiky fist to the face, punching him across the jungle. Knuckles grunted, putting his all into that one punch. He asked, “Are all of you okay?” the rest of the group arrived right behind him, seeing the arriving ambush.
“We are, Mister Knuckles. Thank you.” Cream said. She tilted her head once she noticed the Equestrians, “Um, who are they?”
“Some old friends. I’m sure Sonic told you about our trip to Equestria.” Knuckles answered, tearing apart a robot that just landed.
Cream hovered to Fluttershy and Amy while using her ears to fly, “Oh! You’re the ponies! It’s so nice to finally meet you!”
Fluttershy smiled at the rabbit’s enthusiasm, “It’s nice to meet you too, Cream.”
Amy said, “Can you explain what happened? This is the first time Angel Island’s been attacked.”
Vanilla raised a hand to gain their attention, “Unfortunately, we can’t. That horrible water creature suddenly appeared out of the Master Emerald. And the robots just showed up…”
“I see… don’t worry, Ms Rabbit, we’ll make sure you’re safe.” Amy assured, “Do you want to help me, Cream?”
“Of course!” Cream replied.
“How about you, Fluttershy?” Amy asked the pegasus.
“Yes.”
“Well if you’re as cool as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles say, then I guess it’s time for you to prove it?” Gemerl asked, holding up Chaos’ hands. The robot pushed his knee onto the water creature and pressed down upon him with a Spin-Dash. “I’ll never get tired of doing that.”
“Yeah, new friends!” Big shouted, grabbing Gemerl’s ball form and throwing him at the changelings, pushing them back onto a palmtree, causing it to collapse on top of him.
Applejack got an idea from seeing that, something she should’ve done sooner to clean up ambushes like this. Egg Pawns and hijacked GUN bots swarmed in from the east. The earth pony raised her legs and bucked the tree she was standing near as hard as she could, causing it to collapse on top of the swarm and causing them to explode. “That was a mighty fine idea after all.” Applejack said, looking at the large piles of scrap.
“That was fun to watch.” Big admitted, slamming down Gemerl’s form onto Chaos’ brain. The creature collapsed into a puddle with purple cubes again. Gemerl for the moment focused his attention on the ambush that appeared.
“And it was fun’ta do.” Applejack admitted, witnessing Chaos morph back into his humanoid form. Luckily Amy, Cream, Fluttershy and Big backing her up. “So this is Chaos? Last thing Ah was expectin’ was a water creature with a… floatin’ brain that Ah can see.”
“I thought he would’ve looked more like Discord.” Fluttershy admitted, kicking Chaos in the chest. “But um… I don’t think it matters much right now.”
“Are we going to be a team again?” Big asked the pink hedgehog.
Amy smirked, “Yes we are.”
Big managed to wrap his friends in a group hug, “My friends are together again! Froggy will be so happy to hear this!”
“Where is Froggy anyway?” Amy questioned. Big merely pointed at the shrine and Amy nodded, “Oh okay.”
Fluttershy said to Applejack, “Cream and Big are really friendly.”
“They really are. Ah can see why the Resistance gave ‘em a choice to not fight in the war, it just ain’t their thing.” Applejack replied.
Meanwhile, Rarity used her magic to lift a boulder in Chaos’ direction and smashed him with it. Gemerl said, “Nice shot, unicorn lady!”
“You’re the first robot to compliment us, that’s quite a surprise.” Rarity said, creating a barrier around her to block the pellet shots from the Egg Pawns’ arm cannons. Once they reloaded, Gemerl and Knuckles worked together to blast right through the opposition, “I presume you’re like Omega where you’re against Eggman like the rest of us?”
“Oh you know him too? Yeah, kinda.” Gemerl replied, pulling out an arm cannon of his own. He blasted a changeling that Rarity was holding down with her magic. “I mostly keep to myself though. And I would’ve helped in the war, but Cream and Vanilla wanted me to stay with them in the event something like this happened and you weren’t able to be reached.”
“That’s perfectly understandable.” Rarity said, shielding the Gizoid from a changeling trying to dive onto them. The bug creature bounced, allowing Knuckles to strike it down with his spiked namesakes in the air, creating a small hole in the grass as a result. The changeling vanished in purple and red mist, yet another effect of the Phantom Ruby.
Knuckles and Gemerl fistbumped, “️Nice to see you still got it, Gemerl.”
“I could say the same to you, Commander.” Gemerl quipped, turning his head and scanning the area. “Some more trash heaps and flies are coming in.”
Rarity wasn’t expecting the robot to pull out a duplicate of Amy’s Piko Piko Hammer and slamming it on the ground, creating a powerful shockwave that stunned the robots. The unicorn took the opportunity to push the metal and bug beings down on their backs and lifted some debris from the robots Applejack destroyed. Knuckles also took a separate path from Rarity’s tosses and broke through the robot army while the unicorn took down the changelings. Gemerl swung his hammer horizontally and launched a robot to the side before kicking down a changeling, finishing off by activating his duplicate of Tails’ arm cannon again. The swarm faded and exploded, giving the heroes a moment to rest.
Rarity sighed and then asked Gemerl a question, “How are you able to do all that?”
“Long story, but basically was built with the battle data of all my friends.” Gemerl simply answered, lifting a tree using Knuckles and Big’s strength data and he whacked it down at the line of bad guys coming their way. Rarity swore she saw Applejack give a quick glare during their fight, but she wasn’t sure. Her jaw was agape at the power she just witnessed. Shaking her head, she looked around, noticing that the numbers were dwindling greatly.
Back with the others, Cream held up Big and Amy while flying. Applejack and Fluttershy were keeping Chaos busy and trying their best to get him in a good position for Team Rose’ plan. The farmpony spun and kicked the water god’s body to no avail. Fluttershy ducked from a slash from Chaos’ hand and lightly shoved him back, making him stumble. “Ah hope ya’ll know what yer doin’ up there!” Applejack said.
Cream finally threw down Amy and Big, the two of them in their ball forms and covered in an electric spark. Chaos was stunned as both heroes collided with his body, “Oh boy… Twi always said mixin’ those was a bad idea.” Applejack commented.
Amy uncurled and flipped, slamming her hammer down on Chaos’ brain. Cream landed and asked the ponies, “Do you want me to try to do that with you? I think it can work.”
The earth pony shrugged, “Might as well. What do you think, Fluttershy?”
“I’ll… uh, try.” the pegasus agreed. Cream held their hooves and flapped her ears to ascend. “I hope this is safe.”
“I promise to not let go without a warning, Miss Fluttershy.” Cream eased. She began to spin around, getting ready for an attack.
Big belly flopped Chaos and pinned him to the ground while Amy said, “Keep him down there for just a minute.”
“Okay!” Big agreed.
“Ready?” Cream asked the ponies. They both responded yes, and were released. Applejack and Fluttershy stuck their hooves outward and managed to strike Chaos’ brain together. His body began to fade even more as he lifted Big off of his liquid body. Chaos lunged at Applejack, Fluttershy and Amy, smacking them across the field.
Big growled, “Don’t hurt my friends!” he picked up Chaos and tossed him farther than ever before. He smiled and sat down next to his injured allies, “I kept you safe.” he said.
Applejack asked, “You consider us a friend?”
Big smiled, “You’re nice to me, I like nice people.”
“Me too.” Fluttershy agreed, standing up on her hooves.
The rabbit landed and was ready to say something, but something else caught her attention.
“Oh dear!”
Cream gasped, “Mom!” she dashed to the emerald shrine, which was glowing and grabbed Vanilla along with Froggy. Big held his small buddy while Cream hugged her mom. Amy, Fluttershy and Applejack could only look in awe for a moment while protecting them from Chaos.
The Master Emerald was glowing, the most its shone in months. The only one to seemingly know what was happening was Knuckles, who had a small smirk on his muzzle. “What is going on?” Rarity asked.
“You’ll see.” Knuckles said.
Then, something burst from from the emerald. A second water creature stood on top of it, “Another Chaos?” Fluttershy asked.
“That’s right. The real Chaos.” Knuckles revealed.
Chaos used his power to instantly destroy the remainder of Eggman’s forces before turning his attention to his doppelganger, “Did he…?” Fluttershy wondered aloud once she process what happened.
“He did. I think Chaos is just a tad peeved.” Gemerl said jokingly.
The real Chaos lunged after the Phantom Chaos, and used Chaos Bind to freeze him in place. Applejack, Cream, Rarity and Fluttershy watched in awe as the water god lashed out at its evil doppelganger. Using Chaos Strike, the real Chaos launched a ripple attack that launched the Phantom upwards. Knuckles could tell he wasn’t holding back at this point.
Phantom Chaos tried to move, to no avail. Instead Chaos slammed his watery arm down upon his brain and brought him to the ground. The fake laid on the ground and struggled to stand, purple cubes covering his body. “Is it over?” the unicorn questioned.
“Almost. Just one more good strike should do it.” Knuckles said. “I think I’ll join in for this.”
“Me too. This should take about a minute.” Applejack decided.
Knuckles, Applejack, and the real Chaos punched/kicked the fake while he was unable to move, their limbs going right through him as he faded into a pile of mist and cubes. Big clapped for his friends, “Yay! We win!”
“Yeah… we did.” Amy agreed, resting her chin on her hammer.
With everyone grouped around, they noticed that Chaos had calmed down. Knuckles crossed his arms and started speaking to the water god, “I assume you’re here because of the fake?” Chaos started making unintelligible noises, much to the ponies’ confusion.
“Can you understand him?” Rarity asked.
“I can. He says that is the reason and that he’s staying here until the war is over now to protect the emerald. He apologizes for everything his fake has done in his name too.” Knuckles revealed. Chaos knelt down to the ponies and shook his head, realizing they were inhabitants from another world.
“Some more muscle? Sweet.” Gemerl said.
Fluttershy looked at the water creature, “You remind me of a friend I have at home. Chaotic and powerful, but kind deep down.” Chaos nodded at that, grateful they were easily forgiving.
“I am surprised it took you until now to appear.” Rarity added.
“He said this was the final straw for him. Chaos is neutral until necessary considering his overwhelming power.” Knuckles elaborated.
“Well, at least he’s here now.” Applejack said.
“Yeah.” Cream agreed, “Those meanies
Vanilla sighed, “We’re grateful for your presence, Chaos. Hopefully this is the worst we’ll have to endure.”
Fluttershy said, “We Pinkie Promise that we’ll try to keep the island out of the conflict, Ms Rabbit.”
Cream stuck out a pinky to which Fluttershy smiled innocently, “Not like that, Cream. I’ll show you.” she moved a hoof and said, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” she finished it by lightly putting her hoof onto her closed eye, the young rabbit mirror her actions. “It’s a promise that I won’t break. A friend taught me that one.”
“We better live up to that promise.” Gemerl said, crossing his arms.
“I know she will. She’s with the Resistance, they’ll save the day.” Cream assured the Gizoid.
“So with everything seemingly calm here, what are you going to do now?” Vanilla asked the main members of the Resistance.
Amy responded, “We have to head back to the headquarters before Sonic returns from the Chemical Plant. We might finally have a shot at winning, and it involves destroying the Death Egg.”
“So pulling a big heist, huh? Nice.” the Gizoid said.
“Tails said by doing this we could be rid of most of the fakes attacking Mobius. In the meantime, they shouldn’t hassle you any longer since they’ll be busy targeting us since we’re making a move this big.” Rarity assured.
“Oh please be careful. The Death Egg is a scary place.” Cream pleased.
“We will, Cream. Consider it… another Pinkie Promise.” Knuckles eased the young rabbit.
Big hugged the ponies, “Aw, I’m gonna miss you guys already. We were getting along really well.”
Applejack chuckled, “Heh, Ah guess we were.”
“It was really nice seeing you all again, it really was and I wish we could stay for a bit longer, but we have a small trek back to the shuttle so we should probably get going.” Amy said.
Gemerl spoke to the ponies, “Hey. Amy said you girls had what it takes to fight with them, at first I didn’t believe her when she told me ponies who learned friendship were fighting in a war, but after seeing you all in action, I could see what she meant. Kick some Eggman butt out there for me.”
“Um, thanks. I guess.” Rarity responded.
Applejack tipped her stetson, “And we will kick his butt. Fer the sake of this world. See ya around, Gemerl.”
And so, the Resistance left back to HQ, intending to get their current plan back on track.