//------------------------------// // Episode 2 - Chaos Stranding (Part 3) // Story: Sonic EGX (Book 1) // by Will of Radiance //------------------------------// Meanwhile in the mess hall Sonic and Silver had managed to find a seat and were busy eating their lunch. Silver was still interested in what else this world has to offer. He was actually tempted to take out his homework and start working on it. Sonic on the other hand wasn’t as enthusiastic. He didn’t remember anything from the class. The only thing that was on his mind was getting home, and Chili Dogs.  “Grrr….where’s Shadow? He was supposed to meet us here.” Sonic tapped his fingers impatiently. “Maybe he’s talking to someone.” Silver implied, after swallowing a bite of his hotdog.  “Wha-? After he told us to not talk to anyone? That’s a lot of bull!” Sonic complained.  “What’s alot of bull faker?” Sonic heard an imposing voice next him. He and Silver looked to their left. They both jumped in their seats when they saw Shadow with a tray of food, towering over them.  “Shadow! When did you get here?” Silver nearly choked on his juice when he saw him. Sonic rolled his eyes in annoyance “Just now. You two didn’t cause any trouble did you?” Shadow asked them. Silver immediately remembered Sonic’s freakout at the food line.  “Uhhhh...yeah! We didn’t cause any trouble.” Silver tried to hide the nervousness in his voice . Sonic nodded, going along with it. “God, they’re terrible liars.” Shadow knew they were lying, but he didn’t prod them on it.  “Anyways, I know we’ve only been here for a short time, but have any of you got any leads on the chaos emeralds?” Shadow asked them.  The two took some time to think if they noticed anything. The only thing Sonic recalled was sleeping in class and Silver was too busy soaking in all the new material he was learning.  “Sorry I got nothing….” Sonic shrugged his shoulders. “Me neither.” Silver added.  “Hmph. Figures” Shadow put on a disdained face, disappointed with their results. Granted, he didn’t find that much either. But he remembered his interaction with that yellow-red haired girl from earlier. “However, I did manage to figure out the layout of this school.” Shadow told them.  “Hopefully we can navigate our way around this place better.” “Right? So where do you suppose we look next?” Silver proposed, munching on some chips.  Shadow took a moment to think, while Silver and Sonic continued to chow down.  As Shadow was thinking, Sonic noticed that Shadow hasn’t even touched his food.  “Er…...Hey Shadow, you gonna eat?” Sonic asked as he took a bite out of his hotdog (Which didn’t have any chili on it :( ) “Hmm?” Shadow looked up at him, slightly annoyed that he interrupted his train of thought.  “Wait a sec, I thought you didn’t even need to eat Shadow.” Silver pointed out. “I don’t…..” Shadow quickly replied, then proceeded to take a bite out of his Sandwich.  “Tastes good though”  He added after he swallowed.  While they continued to eat they continued to discuss their next course of action.  “Say guys, I was thinking that while we look for the chaos emeralds, we should learn more about this world at the same time.” Silver proposed. Shadow and Sonic continued listening while they ate.  “The more we learn about this world, the easier it will be to blend in!”  “Now that you mention it, that is a good idea.” Shadow commented on Silver proposition. Silver chuckled a little at Shadow’s compliment.  “I remember seeing a library here, I think it would be good if we take a look there next.” But then Shadow remembered another thing he needed to tell them. “Oh right! I should mention to you guys. We shouldn’t involve anybody here in the world. In other words, we shouldn’t get to friendly with them.” Shadow explained. Silver doubletaked, befuddled at how cynical Shadow was being.  “What? Why not?” Silver protested. “We let them get too close we might not just endanger our mission, but we would also might bring unnecessary harm to them as well. This isn’t their fight.” Shadow explained further. “I guess he does have a point.” Sonic added as he finished off his chips. “I mean, no offense to this world’s inhabitants but they don’t seem like the fighting type.” Sonic noted. “In any case, I’ll take a look at the library to see what I can find.” Shadow said to them.  “There’s also still the issue of our powers.” Sonic commented, still miffed that he can’t ran as fast as he used to. “Yeah, if we face something or someone along the lines of Eggman, I don’t think we’ll be able to do much without our powers.” Silver added onto Sonic’s point. “My answer to that is wait, and hope that our powers come back eventually” Shadow responded. Sonic groaned impatiently, frustrated that his powers weren’t coming back any time soon.  “...and when do you suppose that will be?” Sonic said impatiently. “...I’m not sure, but if we continue to look for the chaos emeralds, we probably might find a way to get them back.” Shadow further explained.  Sonic sighed again. He wasn’t looking forward to looking for the emeralds without his powers. But he knew that the safety of this world and his was practically in their hands, so he decided to suck it up. “Sigh Fine.” “Good, in any case let’s finish eating and get to work.” Shadow told them. “Right!” the two responded. They then proceeded to continue eating their lunch.  Meanwhile, the same Rainbow haired girl from before was eyeing them. After seeing Silver and Sonic’s shenanigans, she couldn’t help but be a little curious.  “Hmmm…..I know I haven’t seen those three before. They must be new here.” Rainbow Dash speculated. She then noticed Applejack come over with a tray of food. “Hey Dash!” Applejack greeted her. “Oh! Hey AJ.” Dash greeted back. Applejack sat down across from her. “Say? Just who were you lookin at?” Applejack noticed that she was eyeing the three over at the other table. “Huh? Oh! it was nothing. Just haven’t see them here before.” Dash explained to her. “I saw two of them cause a bit of a commotion at the food line.” She alluded to their shenanigans from earlier.  “Seriously? What for?” Applejack asked her. Rainbow tried to remember exactly what it was about. “I think it was about them not having ‘Chili dogs’. Whatever those are.” Rainbow explained.  Applejack was confused when Dash brought up Chilidogs.” “Uhhhh….Chilidogs?” Applejack asked. “Yep, that’s what I heard.” Dash confirmed. There was a brief moment of silence as they both tried to comprehend what a ‘Chilidog’ is. “...........who puts Chili on a hotdog?” They both said in unison, in the same confused and bewildered tone. Meanwhile in the CHS library, Twilight Sparkle was browsing through the history section of the library, thinking that maybe there would be something in the books that would say something about the mysterious emerald in her pack. Speaking of the emerald, she decided to check with Spike if it was still there. “Hey Spike! How’s that emerald doing?” Twilight looked down at her backpack, and she saw Spikes head pop out from within the backpack. “It’s still just sitting in there! Glowing like the sun.” Spike told her, slightly dazed from how bright the emerald was shining in the backpack. Twilight had asked him to keep an eye on it while she wasn’t looking. “You sure you’re okay in there Spike?” Twilight noticed that he was a bit dazed. “Oh no! It’s alright. I’m just following the Princess of Harmony’s orders!” Spike said enthusiastically, putting his paw to his head in salute. Twilight giggled at Spike’s loyal bravado. “Hee Hee! Thanks so much Spike!” Twilight thanked him. She then went back to looking through a history book. She had been browsing for almost an hour. She was so into finding out what this thing is, that she forgot about lunch.  “Sigh No good!” Twilight sighed frustratedly as she closed the book in her hands and then added it to the pile of other books that had nothing about the emerald in them to her side. Twilight held her head in defeat. She had searched through all of the history section and she didn’t find anything.  “You doing alright Twilight?” Spike sensed that she was distressed.  “Sigh Not really, I skimmed through every book in the history section and I’ve found nothing.” Twilight wallowed in disappointment.  Spike hopped out of her backpack and onto the table. “Well….It’s not like this place even bats an eye to the magical stuff that happened before. So why would they even record anything like this in the history books?” Spike argued.  Twilight was rather surprised Spike came up with that explanation.  “That’s…..actually a really good point Spike!” Twilight said, impressed with Spike’s speculation. Then something clicked inside Twilight’s brain.  “Wait! I remember reading something related to that!” Twilight looked through the pile of history books next to her, and brought out a single book. On the cover it read: “The Void Era”  “‘The Void Era’” Twilight spoke it’s name aloud.  “‘The Void Era?’ What’s that?” Spike asked, his curiosity increasing. “This book says that it’s a section of this world’s history where no information about it exists.” Twilight explained, reading through the text. “There are no records, documents, or anything pertaining to this period of time.” Twilight explained further.  Spike put on a look of confusion. “Well, that doesn’t make sense, if there are no documents or records of it, than why is it recorded here?” Spike asked further. “I don’t know….but it’s written here so someone has to know something about!” Twilight said full of determination.  Twilight took a deep breath as she tried to come up with an answer to that question. Then she sighed and laid the book out in front of her.  “I…..have no idea Spike” Twilight said in defeat. “......and honestly…...that scares me.” Twilight held her arm nervously. She sighed again in exhaustion, resting her eyes a little, tired from all the reading she was doing.  But then she opened her eyes widely when she heard a growl come from her stomach. Both Twilight and Spike looked down at her stomach. “Heh heh. Listen to that.” Twilight blushed in embarrassment.  “Oh yeah, lunch started over an hour ago! We should hurry before the cafeteria closes!” Spike looked at the clock. “You’re right Spike! Also we need to tell the other about this emerald!” Twilight quickly got out of her seat and grabbed her pack.  “We can discuss this more with Sunset after school. Hop in Spike!” Twilight turned so that her pack faced Spike.  “Right!” Spike jumped off the table and into Twilight’s pack.  The two proceeded to head off towards the cafeteria.  “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”  “Huh?” Twilight suddenly stopped when she heard a voice to her right, not to mention her magic senses were going off in the same direction. She looked to her right to see a familiar figure standing in the middle of the aisle, leaning against the book cases, looking at a book in his hand. She recognized him as the new student from her Algebra 2 class, noticing his sweptback spiky black hair. “Oh! It’s you! Umm ...Shadow right?” Twilight said to the person, trying to seem friendly and sincere.  The person didn’t move or say anything. He just continued looking at his book. This made Twilight a little uneasy. She started approaching him slowly.  “I’m honestly surprised to see you here. I didn’t take you for reading type.” Twilight continued to try and make friendly conversation with him. The figure continued ignoring Twilight, still absorbed in his book.  Twilight noticed that the closer she got to him the more intense her magic senses went off, but there was something about him that she sensed that felt off, almost sinister. Twilight decided that since she wasn’t eliciting a response from him, she figured she should just go to the messhall. “Well ummmm……..I see you are really invested in that book there so I'll just being going now!” Twilight said politely.  However just as she was about to turn and go, the person snapped the book shut, startling Twilight. There was a brief period of silence. Twilight stood still, somewhat frightened at the figure’s sudden movement. She wanted to say something, but was scared to do so.  “Tell me. What do you think of this world?” The person asked Twilight, in a deep dark voice.  Twilight stood there, puzzled at the question he asked her.  “W…..What do you mean?” Twilight replied, getting uneasy from the person’s ominous aura. The person then turned and started approaching her with his book in his hand.  “You want to know what I think? I believe this world is……..pathetic!” The figure’s suddenly caused the book he was holding to disintegrate in his hand. Twilight gasped in shock at the figure’s actions as she watched the dust fall from his hand onto the ground. “..and quite frankly that goes for this world’s inhabitants as well.” The person added.  Twilight, angered at the person’s cruel words, decided to stand her ground against him. “I don’t know who you are, but you have no right to say things like that!” Twilight pointed right at him. “This world is alien and foreign to me, but it’s beautiful nonetheless, and the people of this world have been nothing but kind to me! SO DON’T YOU DARE SAY THIS WORLD IS PATHETIC!!” Twilight raised her voice in anger.  The person didn’t seem phased by Twilight’s monologue. He let out a disappointed sigh as he continued to walk towards her. Twilight, not willing to back down, stood where she was with an angered but slightly scared look on her face. “You’re just like the rest of them. Foolish and naive.” The figure was now uncomfortably close the Twilight. Twilight now realize that he was noticeable taller than her. However she remained defiant nonetheless. “A-and…..what makes you say that?” Twilight replied, her fear starting to show through her voice.  The figure stared her down, saying nothing for a few seconds. Twilight’s breathing began to shudder in fear. Then the person put his hand to his left eye closing. Twilight just stood there, too scared to move.  “Why don’t you have a taste……..of PURE DESPAIR!!” Suddenly, the person dug his finger into his eye-socket and then pulled it down, revealing a purple, bloodshot, sinister eye. Upon looking into the eye, Twilight’s began hallucinating. She saw visions of this world being invaded by purple creature, as well as a mysterious black ooze spreading throughout the world. She then saw visions of people being slaughtered and killed by this creatures. “No……...No! MAKE IT STOP!” Twilight began to get light headed and she began losing strength in her legs. She collapsed holding her head in pain all while the terrible hallucinations played in her head. Among these hallucinations she began to hear voices of her friends.  “Twilight! Help us!” She heard Sunset among the visions of death and destruction.  “Someone……...please! HELP ME!!!” Twilight cried out, not knowing if anybody was around to help her.  Nearby Sunset was browsing the science section when she heard Twilight’s call for help. She turned in the direction of Twilight’s cry for help.  “Twilight?” Sunset immediately dropped the book she was reading and ran over to where she heard her. She found Twilight in the middle of an aisle  on the ground holding her head, trembling in fear.  “TWILIGHT!!” Sunset immediately rushed over to help her.  “Twilight! What wrong!? Come on speak to me!” Sunset shook her, trying to snap Twilight out of her stupor.  Eventually Twilight’s hallucinations died down and she didn’t feel weak in her body anymore. She opened her eyes, gasping for breath.  “What…...what happened?” Twilight asked, her voice still shuddering in fear. She looked up to see Sunset Shimmer helping her.  “S-Sunset..” Twilight heart filled with relief at the sight of her friend. She looked up and she saw that the person who did this to her had vanished. Even the book that he had turned to dust was gone.  “Twilight what happened?” Sunset asked her, eager to know who would dare do this to Twilight. Twilight managed to sit up and she tried to recall what happen. “There ...there was a person. He….he was saying cruel things about this world. So I tried to confront him. ” Twilight explained still trembling fearfully.  “....and then what?” Sunset asked further. “I….I…” Twilight stutter as the next part was much harder to explain, not to mention she didn’t want to think about the terrible hallucinations she saw.  “I’m not sure…..but he did something to me.” Twilight explained the best she could.  While it wasn’t much to go on, it didn’t stop Sunset from wanting to know more.  “This person, what did he look like.” Sunset asked, seeing if it was anyone she would recognize. Twilight took a moment to recall what the person looked like.  “He looked like that new guy from our class. Sh-Shadow was his name.” Twilight recalled, still shaking a little.  “What!?” Sunset was shocked at her answer. “I was just talking to him a few minutes ago!” She drove her fist into the floor in anger. “Damn! So he was playing us from the start!” Sunset fumed. “...wait! This guy…...didn’t seem like the guy from class…” Twilight elaborated further, managing to get a hold of herself a little.  “Huh?” Sunset listen in further.  “While I sensed energy in him, it was different from Shadow’s.” Twilight explained.  Sunset calmed down a little knowing that it was a little more complicated now.  “Are you sure?” Sunset confirmed with her. Twilight nodded back. Sunset got looked around to see if there was any sign of anyone other than them. She saw no one within their vicinity.  “Sigh Here...come on.” Sunset offered her hand to Twilight, which she took.  Her legs were still shaking a little as Sunset helped her up, but she managed to retain her balance.  “You alright?” Sunset noticed Twilight was still uneasy. Twilight rubbed her eyes to clear her head. She then straightened out her shirt and skirt. “I’m fine, let’s discuss this with the others.” Twilight said, her voice much more calm now that she collected herself.  Sunset breathed a sigh of relief. She nodded in agreement and they both started going to the cafeteria. Sunset collected her thoughts as she walked beside Twilight. “Twilight says that it wasn’t Shadow who did this. But for all we know he could be hiding something from us. Me and Twilight sensed mysterious energy coming from him after all. Damn! I’ve been too careless. I need to keep a closer eye on him.” Sunset thought to herself, sensing that something was starting to happen in this world.  1 Hour later Soon after the clock hit 12:30, the students of CHS began flooding out of the cafeteria. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver met outside the cafeteria doors, discussing their plan. "We each have different classes at this point, so I guess this is where we part ways for now." Shadow explained to Sonic and Silver. "Where should we meet after we finish?" Sonic asked, still not looking forward to spending another hour or two sitting in a desk. "I suggest we meet outside the school. Once we get out, we can start broadening our search more." Shadow explained. "Sonic and I actually have P.E at the same time after this period, so we should be able to touch base with each other." Silver remembered their schedules. "Right. So are we good to go?" Shadow confirmed with them. "You bet!" Silver replied enthusiastically. "Sigh Whatev's" Sonic replied, less enthusiastically. Shadow was slightly annoyed at Sonic's attitude, but he didn't have time to lecture him now. But then his instincts told him that Sonic would cause trouble while he wasn't looking. "Oh! And one more thing. Don't cause any trouble. Ok." Shadow said to the two of them, although he was specifically talking to Sonic. "Sure thing!" Silver remained enthusiastic. Sonic only proceeded to shrug his shoulders. With that the three parted ways to go to their separate classes. He looked at his schedule, and saw that he had biology next. He sighed with discontent as he put his schedule away. "Out of all the places we got sent to in the universe......why this one." Sonic mumbled to himself. He was also starting to get annoyed with how Shadow was treating him. While he didn't say anything, he knew Shadow was alluding to him when he told them to not cause any trouble. "Stupid Shadow. Who the hell does he think he is!? I know how to handle myself, so why is he treating me like a kid?" Sonic continued to bitterly mumble to himself about how Shadow was treating him as he walked through the hallways. "I swear, first thing I'm gonna do when I get my powers back is challenge him to a one on one!" Sonic punched the air in front of him. "Uuugh! I seriously don't wanna sit through another hour of absolute bor-OooF!" "Oww!" As Sonic rounded a corner, someone ran face first into him, causing him to stagger back slightly. While he managed to stay upright, whoever ran into him was knocked backwards off their feet. "Ow! Geez! That's the second time someone's ran into-[iGasp!" Sonic saw the person who ran into him was a Girl. She had Pink hair, and cream yellow skin. She wore a white tank top, a green skirt with a pink petticoat, and wore green boots with white highlights. "Ow...." The girl held her arm, which hurt a little from her fall. "Oh geez. A-Are you alright?" Sonic knelt down to help her. However as he extended his hand to her, she gasped in fear and hid behind her hair. "Uhhh....are you okay? I'm sorry if I scared you." Sonic tried to offer his hand to her again, but she continued to hide behind her curly pink hair, letting out a scared squeal. Sonic could tell she was obviously scared of him. So he thought he should introduce himself to her. "Uh...hey...My name is Sonic. Sonic the He-Uh...Genesis." Sonic introduced himself, trying to sound as friendly as possible. The girl looked at Sonic with her innocent turquoise eyes. Sonic put on a smile when he saw her eyes. This served to ease the girl's shyness a little as she slowly came out from behind her hair. "Uhh.....m-m-my name i-is..........Fluttershy" The girl spoke softly. So softly that Sonic could barely make out what she said. "Uhhh.....I'm...sorry I didn't quite catch that" Sonic put his hand to his human ear as he asked her name again. ".......It's Fluttershy" She spoke even softer. Sonic still couldn't hear her, but he didn't want to make her even more nervous by asking again, so he tried to guess the name in his head. "Butterguy?..........that an......interesting name" Sonic blurted out what he thought he heard. This was followed by a long awkward silence. Fluttershy's face went from shy, to utterly confused. Sonic sensed that him guessing her name didn't help the situation at all. "IT'S FLUTTERSHY!" She suddenly said loudly, causing Sonic to stumble backwards in surprise. "Ah! Okay! Okay! Blutter-uh..Dutter-wait no! AGH!!" Sonic pulled at his hair frustratedly as he tried to pronounce her name correctly. However she heard Fluttershy squeal in fear again. He looked down to see her hiding behind her legs. Sonic face palmed, frustrated that he scared her again. He knelt down again to speak to her. "Sorry....about that....uh.....for scaring you..uh....Fluttershy" Sonic himself started to blush slightly in embarrassment. Talking to girls was never his strongest suit. At least he managed to get her name right this time. Fluttershy peeked from behind her legs, showing her innocent eyes again. Sonic offered his hand to her again. She slowly reached for Sonic's hand. Upon grabbing Sonic's hand, she immediately sensed the energy emanating from him. From this energy, she got an idea of what kind of person he was. While his energy was filled with unbridled confidence, it also held kindness and loyalty. It somewhat reminded her of Rainbow Dash. But she also sensed that his energy wasn't from equestrian. But before she could question it, she gasped as she was pulled up onto her feet by Sonic. "There! You okay Fluttershy?" Sonic asked after helping Fluttershy onto her feet. Fluttershy nodded politely. "Sigh Great! Sorry about that." Sonic apologized, rubbing the back of his head. Fluttershy's knew from reading Sonic's energy that he wasn't going to hurt her, so she was less shy towards him now. "Um.....are you new here?" Fluttershy asked in a more normal tone instead of her soft shy voice. "Huh? Oh yeah. Just arrived actually." Sonic replied. "Really? Where from?" Fluttershy got closer to him, her curiosity growing. "Uhh....." Sonic remembered that he had to try and keep a low profile. "Out of town." Sonic quickly answered "Anyways, I need to get to class. Nice to meet you." Sonic tried to quickly diffuse the conversation. He then started to walk down the hallway. "Um.......excuse me! Does your class happen to be Biology?!" Fluttershy called out to him. Sonic turned to face her, surprised that she knew which class he was going to. "If your looking for the classroom, then it's this way." She pointed down the hallway opposite of the direction Sonic was going. ".....oh" Sonic realize he was going to wrong way. "Well that's a coincidence." Sonic walked back over to her. Fluttershy blushed a little as he got close, still somewhat shy towards him. Then an idea came into Sonic's head. "I know, how 'bout we go class together?" Sonic smiled, trying to make her feel less shy. "Uh..Oh! S-Sure!.......Thank you....for helping me" Fluttershy stuttered a little as she smiled back. "Man...she's so shy. But... that smile Sonic wondered what the reason for her shyness is. "Heh. Well, thank you for pointing me in the right direction." Sonic gave her a wink and a thumbs up, trying to cheer her up. Fluttershy giggled a little at his compliment. "Well....what do you say? Shall we go to class together?" Sonic waved her over to his side. "Uh...yeah!" Fluttershy ran up beside him, still slightly blushing. Fluttershy's heart was racing. She had never met this person, yet he was being so kind to her. And the energy that she sensed from him was further proof of that. "He's slightly awkward, but......I can tell he's a good person. Kind and inspiring........I'm glad I met him." Fluttershy thought to herself, her heart fluttering inside her. As they continued to walk to class, after his interaction with Fluttershy, Sonic began to slightly reevaluate his thoughts on this world. "You know, maybe this place isn't so bad.