//------------------------------// // City Run // Story: Equestria Girls/Sonic Boom: The Crossover Series Pre-Sequel Sequel // by GreenS21 //------------------------------// A delivery truck from Quills and Sofas came to a stop near the corner of the rundown part of Canterlot and Hayseed Turnip Truck climbed stepped down from the driver's door, a clipboard and pen in hand. He looked down at the clipboard, reading the memo at the bottom of the order that said when to drop it off and that someone would be waiting at the drop-off site for it. He looked up and, upon seeing no one in front of him, began walking around to the back of the truck. As he came around the back, he saw Applejack standing on the sidewalk near the truck. "Hey there!" she called when he noticed her. "Howdy, Miss," Hayseed replied. He looked back down at the clipboard, "Got an order here for some slightly used, slightly repaired furniture." He looked up, "Is this the right address?" Applejack replied while walking over to him, "Not quite, but Ah know the fella that placed the order. He has a place nearby; Ah'll take it the rest o’ the way." Hayseed turned the clipboard around and held it out to the farmgirl, “All right, then. I just need you to sign here please.” Applejack took it and the pen and started to sign her name. While she was signing, Hayseed asked, “So are you friends with the new owner, Miss?” Applejack nodded without looking up, “Yup.” Hayseed wondered, “What’s the furniture for? Some kinda clubhouse?” Applejack finished and gave him a small smile as she handed the clipboard and pen back, “You could say that.” Hayseed took them back and turned to go back to the cab as he said, “All right. Let me put this back and I’ll help you unload.” After a few minutes, they’d gotten the furniture, two arm chairs and a three-person couch, out of the back and Hayseed waved goodbye as he pulled away with the truck. Applejack waved back for a moment before turning her attention to the furniture, deciding what to move first. She decided on the couch after a minute and easily turned it over onto its side, setting it on the hand truck she’d brought and pulling it behind her. As she walked down the sidewalk, she glanced around at the buildings and thought to herself, “It’s gonna take a lotta work to get this part o’ Canterlot lookin’ pretty again, but we gotta start somewhere.” She glanced back at the couch to make sure it was still on the hand truck, “Good thing those videos of Sonic and his friends have really taken off. Bein’ able to get them out of livin’ under the same roof and give each of them their own place is as good a start as any.” She faced forward as she approached the end of the block, hearing and seeing her other friends up ahead. Sunset and Rainbow were carrying the extra boards she'd had lying around her family's barn, Rarity was going over a list with Fluttershy, and Pinkie was pulling out weeds and sweeping the street and the sidewalk. School was out for the day and they were helping Team Sonic with their new acquisitions. They looked like they were doing okay for the time being, so she waved to them as she turned at the corner and continued to the right. As she walked, she reflected on the team’s new living arrangements. Amy had picked an art studio to live in, saying she liked having room to stretch out, which happened to be across the road from the store Sonic had chosen. The store had seemingly been an antique store or something similar, given all the old glass cases they found when they got inside. Sonic had insisted on getting them out as soon as possible, intending to make the entire store area a meeting place while he took the apartment on the second floor. Tails, meanwhile, had made a home out of an old garage closer to the old diner, where Sticks remained cooped up in the freezer, and Knuckles was looking forward to getting some new gym equipment to put into a rundown building that he said would make a good gym. All in all, things seemed to be shaping up pretty good for their guests despite Eggman still attempting to smear their names. She saw Twilight and Spike coming out of Amy’s place and waved to them as she began to go across the road to Sonic’s place. They noticed and followed her, standing near her as she brought the handcart around and deposited the couch on the sidewalk. She turned to Twilight afterwards and spoke, “Can you let Sonic know his new furniture’s here, Twilight? Ah just gotta get the chairs; Ah’ll be right back.” Twilight nodded and she and Spike watched the farmgirl walk away for a moment before facing forward again. Inside the old store, Sonic had a destroyed Motobug sitting on an old card table set up in the middle of the room. He placed his left hand on it and got close to its face before saying, “Hey everyone, welcome back to my livestream! Today, we’re, you guessed it, destroying robots! Step one!” He swung his right fist forward, but stopped just short of hitting the Motobug in the face. He stepped back after a moment and put a hand on his chin, a pensive expression on his face. “Hmm. Not bad. Could use a little work, but with good lines like that, I could be a movie star.” He turned away and began walking around a bit as he went on, “Heck, who am I kidding, right? I got all it takes to be a movie star! I’ve proven it back home, so I can prove it here too. ‘Welcome to the next level’; what do you think of that?” He froze when he heard Twilight ask, “Are you… asking the opinion of the deactivated robot that can’t hear you?” He looked over his shoulder to see her and Spike standing in the doorway, both giving him a strange look. Sonic straightened up and cleared his throat as he turned to face them. “Possibly, but that’s for me to know.” He put his hands on his hips, “But as long as we’re talking about opinions, you could see me being in a movie, right? This is the kind of face you’d see on the big screen, right?” Twilight put a finger to her chin as she thought about his question. “Hmm, well, as long as you have a team that, overall, knows what they’re doing, sure.” Sonic nodded, “Right. So, you two can forget what you just saw, right?” Spike spoke up, “Not really. You’re just lucky Twilight didn’t have her phone out; that’d be an interesting video.” Sonic made an unamused face at that, “I would totally take her phone away if she did.” Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile. “Anyway, we were just coming to let you know that your new furniture has arrived. The couch is outside; Applejack’s going to get the chairs,” she said while gesturing outside. “Oh, sweet. I’ll go get Knuckles to move it upstairs. It’ll be his workout for the day,” Sonic replied as he made his way to the door. After a couple more minutes and a few accidents and losses of balance on Knuckles’ part, the couch and chairs were moved up into the apartment and Knuckles, Sonic, Applejack, Twilight, and Spike stepped out of the old store. Knuckles turned to Sonic and said, “Well, that wasn’t so bad. I only got smashed once… or twice. Let me know when you’ve got more stuff to move for your little meetup spot. Can’t wait to see what it’ll look like when it’s done.” He then turned and started walking back to his gym. He came to a stop when he heard Twilight gasp and turned to see her checking the time. "Oh no, I lost track of time! I'm supposed to meet Principal Cadance and my brother this afternoon!" she exclaimed. "Ya mean you forgot, Twilight?" Applejack asked. "No, I didn't forget. It wasn't right after school, so I thought I'd come over and help out a little, but now I'm probably going to be late," she replied. Sonic spoke, "I could give you a lift. I haven't gone on patrol yet and you'd definitely be on time." Twilight replied, "That would be nice. But how are you going to get me downtown?" Sonic shrugged, "Uh, by carrying you?" Twilight looked apprehensive at that, so Sonic said, "Relax. No one will see anything they shouldn't." Twilight replied, "That's not what I'm worried about." Spike placed his paw on the side of her leg and said, "Come on, Twilight, let's give it a try. He's offering and we won't know how bad it is unless we try." Sonic raised an eyebrow and Twilight still looked unsure, but she decided to do it because Spike said to. Amy and the other girls turned to look when Sonic came running down the street, briefly seeing Twilight and Spike in his arms as he turned at the corner before he shot away. Sunset looked at Applejack as she came over and asked, "Where's Sonic going with Twilight?" The farmgirl replied, "He's givin' her and Spike a lift downtown. She's seein' her brother and Principal Cadance today." Rarity remarked, "Well, that's thoughtful of him." Amy said, "She's in for a ride, a ride I'm sure she's not ready for." Fluttershy turned to her, "What do you mean, Amy?" Amy asked back, "Did I ever tell you about the time I asked him to return a book I lent him and he only had ten minutes to do it before I got slammed with late fees?” Rainbow shrugged, “No, I don’t think we’ve gotten around to shooting that episode yet.” While Amy filled her friends in on the details of that day, Twilight and Spike were getting a fill of their own as Sonic ran into the city with them. While Twilight was staring ahead with wide eyes and keeping her right arm wrapped around Sonic and her left hand on her glasses as she rested uncertainly on top of his arms, Spike was enjoying the experience a lot more, his tongue hanging out as the wind whistled past them and Sonic held him out in his hands. For Spike, this was better than a car window. Twilight couldn’t say she felt the same. She already didn’t enjoy going so fast, and while she was glad Sonic was keeping a firm grip on Spike, she had to make sure she had her own grip on him since his hands being full meant he couldn’t hold onto her too and that thought didn’t put her at ease. Sonic seemed to sense this since he said, “Relax, Twilight. You’re doing great. And at the speed we’re going, we’ll be at your destination in no time. A minute, tops.” As they passed several intersections, Twilight could hear the sound of sirens in the distance. "Do you hear that? It sounds like the police might be on their way," she told Sonic. “How did they find out so fast?” Spike asked. "Eh, don’t know, but it’s no biggie. I’ll drop you two off and then shake ‘em. I’ll still get you there in a minute," Sonic replied. He suddenly slid to a stop when, upon approaching another intersection, a horde of Bee Bots and Motobugs revealed themselves, blocking the road. "Okay, maybe two minutes," he remarked as he looked at the robots. Twilight turned her head to the left when she heard the sirens getting closer and saw several police cars come around the corner several blocks away, coming towards them. "There’s the police! They were closer than I thought!" she exclaimed. Sonic shifted Spike onto Twilight's lap and gripped her with his hands as he said, "Let's just play this one by ear." He turned and shot to the right, Eggman's robots and the police following. At first the street was fairly open, but it didn’t take long for the traffic to become thicker, forcing most of the police cruisers to break off the pursuit and go around while the Motobugs followed Sonic between the cars and the Bee Bots flew overhead. Twilight kept looking back at their pursuers, noticing the few cruisers that were still following them soon stopped following them directly like the rest, but more importantly that the Motobugs were bumping into other cars as they rolled. Twilight looked at Sonic and said, “Sonic, they’re hitting the cars! Someone could get hurt if this keeps up!” Sonic replied, “I know. Just need to put a little more distance between them and us or…” He looked to the left and noticed a bus slowing down on the next street over. Getting an idea, he suddenly broke to the left down a narrow alley, the Motobugs and Bee Bots taking a moment to process the information before following after. Sonic shot down the alley faster than he’d been going on the street, reaching the other end in no time flat and turning left while the Motobugs and Bee Bots took a little longer. When they got to the end of the alley and turned to the left, they didn’t see Sonic anywhere, so they began scanning around for him, not noticing the hedgehog, Spike, and Twilight sitting on top of the nearby bus as it pulled away, going in the opposite direction. The three of them watched for a few moments before Twilight looked at Sonic and commented, “That worked surprisingly well.” Sonic shrugged before lying back, “They think they know me so well. They don’t.” Twilight asked, “Shouldn’t we get going?” Sonic replied evenly, “Yeah, in a minute. We got time.” Twilight and Spike looked at each other at that. ♪My Little Puppy, My Little Puppy…♪ Sonic’s eyes shot open and he glanced up at Twilight, “What is THAT?” Twilight was a bit flustered as she quickly set Spike down and pulled off her backpack, digging through it as she hastily replied, “Th-That’s my cellphone’s ringtone. I’ve been thinking of changing it for a while and Spike suggested the theme from his favorite show and I thought it might work and, uh…” She stopped when she noticed Sonic looking up at her with a raised eyebrow. “I’m still thinking about it,” she finished lamely, pulling her phone out. She looked at the caller ID and, upon seeing it was Cadance, answered it. “H-Hi, Principal Cadance! What, uh, what’s going on?” she asked. On the other side of town, Principal Cadance let out a chuckle as she approached the café where they were meeting up. “Oh, not much, Twilight. I just arrived. I haven’t seen your brother yet, so I was just calling to make sure you hadn’t forgotten about our meeting,” she said. “No, I didn’t forget. Spike and I are on our way right now,” Twilight replied. “Where are you right now?” Cadance asked as she came to a stop in front of the café. “Uh, just passed First and Bridleway, that’s Second and Bridleway, coming up on Third and Bridleway,” Twilight uttered. She looked back and saw several police cruisers go up First, causing her to raise an eyebrow. “It shouldn’t take longer than ten minutes,” she said. Cadance raised an eyebrow, “What is that noise? Are those sirens?” Twilight froze for a moment before asking, “Uh, sirens? What do you mean?” Cadance said, “I hear something, Twilight. It sounds like police sirens.” Twilight thought for a moment before saying, “It’s a little hard to see from where I am on the bus right now. Or hear.” Cadance insisted, “But I can hear it, and it sounds so close.” Twilight started, “Well, uh…” She stopped when she noticed Sonic sit up suddenly, looking to his right. Both she and Spike turned to look and saw what had caught his attention. Lyric was a few streets down from them and the police were pursuing him. If they had glanced forward, they’d see that the traffic was backed up ahead, no doubt due to the police trying to keep civilians away from the chase. Twilight’s sudden silence did not go unnoticed by Cadance. “Twilight? What’s going on? Are you okay?” she asked, concerned. Twilight looked back at Sonic after a moment, seeing him standing up and noticing the gridlock ahead in the process. “I have to go, Cadance. I’m… being hailed,” she said. She briefly pulled the phone away before bringing it back up to her ear and quickly saying, “I’ll see you soon.” Cadance started, “Wait, Twilight!” She didn’t get a chance to say more due to Twilight suddenly hanging up. She held her phone out in front of her and looked at it with a raised eyebrow. Twilight put her phone in her backpack and looked at Sonic, asking, “What are we going to do about him?” Sonic replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him. You just keep going.” Without another word, he leapt off the bus and took off running when he hit the sidewalk. Twilight yelled, “Sonic!” But it was too late; he was already out of earshot. Twilight sighed in irritation, “Nice. Just leave us on top of a bus.” She noticed the bus slow down and stop a second later. “And it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting past this anytime soon,” she remarked. Spike suggested, "Hey, since the bus stopped, maybe we can just climb down." Twilight looked at him for a moment before nodding, holding her backpack open so he could climb inside. She then put it on her back and crouch-walked to the back of the bus, where she slid her legs over the edge and held onto it with her hands as she lowered herself down as far as her arms would allow before letting go. Her knees buckled when she landed, but it didn't really hurt. Standing up, she noticed the traffic starting to build up behind her before she ran to the sidewalk, going after Sonic. The fight with Lyric had moved down about a block and a half. The police were doing their best to close off the streets and keep him from moving further, but it was clear to Twilight as she followed and got closer that they didn’t have the situation quite under control yet. Sonic was helping to turn the tide, but Lyric didn’t appear to be ready to back down. Twilight finally managed to maneuver her way through the crowd of people running away and get close to one of the police barricades to get a better look. As Lyric turned away to deflect a Homing Attack from Sonic, Twilight and Spike were able to clearly see he was holding a couple of crystal shards in his arms, clutching them close to his body while he used his tail to fend off the hedgehog. They realized he must’ve attacked the police in order to get a hold of that many shards. One of the police officers near the barricade saw Twilight and ran over, saying "Miss! Miss, you need to get away from here! It's not safe!" Twilight glanced past him and her eyes widened. "Look out!" she cried while pointing and stepping back. The officer turned and saw Lyric being pushed back as Sonic spun against, the Ancient snake falling backwards when the hedgehog bounced off. All the officers scrambled to get away when he crashed through the barrier and then back to try to resolidify it. In the confusion, Twilight managed to slip past without being seen. As she was sneaking, she noticed one of the shards had slipped out of Lyric's grip and landed nearby. She glanced around and noticed Lyric seemed to be distracted, so she grabbed it and ducked down a nearby alley to take cover and watch. Lyric used his tail to deflect Sonic away, causing him to hit the street instead. While the hedgehog shook off his disorientation, Lyric looked down at his prize and realized he was missing a crystal. “What?! Where is it?” he uttered to himself, barely noticing the gunshots that hit his armor. “Hey, Lyric!” Sonic called, the snake turning in time to see him coming straight at him. The attack hit the mark and Lyric was pushed back into the side of a building, the crystals falling from his arms. Sonic bounced back and slid a bit when he landed before saying, “What’s wrong with your arms, Lyric? They’re looking a little shaky!” Lyric growled; he was getting really tired of Sonic’s banter and decided to focus on the fight as he moved forward to engage the hedgehog once again, neither one noticing the crystals starting to move towards the alley Twilight and Spike were in with the aid of magic. After a minute of fighting, Lyric noticed the crystal shards were gone. Surprised, he pushed Sonic off of him with his hands and scrambled over to where he'd seen them last. "Where are they?! Where is my crystal?!" Lyric exclaimed. While he was distracted, Sonic was able to land a hit on his armor. As the snake twisted around to glare at him, Sonic said, "It's not your crystal, Lyric! And I'm sure they're in a much better place now that you don't have them!" He ran forward and leapt at him again, only for Lyric to cleanly catch him between his hands. "You took them, didn't you?! Tell me where they are, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Lyric demanded while managing to hold Sonic despite the shaking in his hands. "Dude, I don't know! I'm just as surprised as you are!" Sonic said as he tried to break out. "You had to have taken them! You're the only one here bold enough who would! The only thing these undeveloped furless monkeys can do is annoy me! They apparently can’t even think to do that!" Lyric argued. Before Sonic could say anything back, they both heard Twilight yell, “Hey, Lyric! Are you looking for these?” Lyric turned his head and saw her standing just outside of the alley with the crystal shards in her arms. As soon as he saw her, she turned and ran back into the alley and his grip on Sonic loosened, allowing the hedgehog to spin forward and hit the side of his glass dome. Lyric shrugged the hit off and knocked Sonic away as he shot after Twilight. The alley entrance wasn’t wide enough for Lyric to fit through with his armor, but the alley itself didn’t go far before it came to a dead end. Twilight ran all the way to the end and turned to face Lyric, clutching the crystals as close to her as she could. “Those are my crystal shards, girl. Give them to me!” Lyric demanded. “They’re not yours! I’ve heard what happened! Your fellow Ancients went out of their way to make sure you couldn’t get the crystal! So, I’m not going to let you get it either!” Twilight said. Lyric glared at her, “They were all short-sighted fools, ignorant to what they could do with what they had! They called me mad when I suggested we expand our knowledge, become far more than what we were!” He calmed down and softened his gaze a bit, though he brought his tail around and began to inch it into the alley as he continued, “I must apologize for my outburst; yours is clearly a more developed mind than I gave your species credit for. It’s such a shame that it’s trapped in such a limited body. But I can see it… You have the potential to be so much more. Don’t you hunger for more knowledge as well? To understand all that you see? To be more than what you are?” Twilight eyed the tail for a moment before looking at Lyric again, “You’re not wrong. I was once confronted by something I didn’t understand, and once I took in a little bit of it, I wanted more. It was all I could think about.” Lyric smirked as his tail almost reached her, “So you know why I must have those crystals.” Twilight stepped to the side as his tail suddenly lunged forward to grab her. “No. I lost sight of myself for a moment and nearly caused irreparable damage as a result. Once the feeling passed, I regretted it instantly and learned from it. You’re over a thousand years old, Lyric; you should’ve learned a long time ago what you did was wrong,” she said. Lyric scowled, “Then you have chosen death.” He swept his tail and knocked Twilight’s feet out from under her, causing her to land on her rear. He tried to grab her again, but she managed to scoot back into the corner next to her, getting behind some trash cans in the process. Lyric withdrew his tail, but only so he could raise it over his head, his hands gripping the sides of the alley entrance as he intended to grab her from above. Before he could reach for her, he felt pressure on the back of his armor and a blue Enerbeam attached to the hand at the end of his tail. “That’s enough, Lyric! Leave the girl and her dog alone!” Sonic said as he tried to pull the tail back. Lyric looked back at him as he sneered, “This doesn’t concern you right now, Sonic. I’ll deal with you in a minute.” He suddenly swung his tail straight up, pulling Sonic up with it. He then batted it from side to side, causing Sonic to hit the buildings at the sides of the alley. “If you think - OOF! - you’re gonna blow me off that - UGH! – easily, you’ve got – OW! – another thing com – AH! – ing!” Sonic managed as he was slammed back and forth. Twilight stood up and she and Spike stared as Lyric tried to shake Sonic off. They both shared a glance and then looked down at Twilight’s geode necklace. Looking back up at Lyric, Twilight narrowed her eyes and focused. Lyric let out a grunt of confusion as he suddenly began to feel resistance on his tail, a glow surrounding it as it began to slow. It took a lot of focus on Twilight’s part, but she was able to immobilize the tail and even move it some. Hoping Sonic would catch on, she made it go back a little and then made it swing forward, sending him straight down towards Lyric. In response, Sonic let go of the Enerbeam and curled up, striking Lyric directly in the back, making a hole in the armor and sending him crashing face first into the pavement. Sonic leapt off of his back and uncurled before landing. “Come on, Twilight, let’s go!” he said, holding his hand out towards her. She started to come out, but she stopped a second later and pointed while calling his name. He turned around and saw Lyric starting to get up. Noticing his tail was still lying across his back, he grabbed the hand with his Enerbeam again before dashing up onto his back. He then spun around and, using his Enerbeam, brought his hand down hard against him, stunning him again. Twilight and Sonic ran towards each other, the latter scooping up the former in his arms before turning and running over Lyric to get out of the alley, turning right and shooting off down the street. Lyric recovered and got up, ready to follow, but was stopped again when the police began firing at him again. Their shots hadn’t phased him before, but now that he had a hole in his armor, they were able to hit inner workings of it and he could really feel it. As he whirled around to glare at them, a message appeared on the glass in front of him warning him of critical system damage along with a schematic showing where the damage was located. A quick glance was all it took to determine that, with the damage they’d already done, his suit wouldn’t last much longer. Growling, Lyric lowered his body and shot forward, sending the police officers flying like bowling pins as he went. The few that managed to avoid him or were far enough back ran to their cars and drove after him. Unnoticed by anyone, Shadow stood on top of one of the tall buildings, watching Lyric and the police disappear into the distance. His gaze darkened; he hadn’t been fast enough to locate Lyric and deal with him. He vanished in a flash of blue a moment later. He’d bide his time for now; next time, that snake wouldn’t get away from him. ________________________________________ Sonic ducked into an alley and made sure no one was around before releasing his grip on Twilight, allowing her to stand up. She turned to him and he asked, “This is the place, right?” She nodded, “Yeah, just around the corner.” There was a moment of silence before she said, “Thanks again, Sonic. I appreciate the lift.” Sonic put his hands on his hips as he replied, “Well, it wasn’t as uneventful as we thought it would be, but we still beat the bus here.” He pointed at the crystal shards, “And hey, we even got to mess with Lyric a bit.” Twilight looked down at the crystals, “Yeah. The more of these shards we keep away from him, the better.” Sonic asked, “So… Five stars, would you say?” Twilight and Spike shared a look before she said, “I’ll have to think about it. At the very least, I’m going to have to remember to dress better next time.” Sonic smirked, “Sweet! I haven’t even started the business yet and I already have a repeat customer!” Twilight shook her head for a moment before handing him the crystals. “Here. You sure you can handle these?” she asked. Sonic set them down as he replied, “Yeah. I’m just gonna let Tails know I’m bringing them back first. Lyric’s probably going to show up more often now, so we’re probably going to have to get to the ones that are still out there before he does. I think we all know what the next chapter is going to be about. But we’ll work on that.” He pointed up at her, “Right now, you two go, have fun. You earned it.” Twilight wrapped her fingers around the straps on her backpack as she said, “All right. We’ll see you later then.” She then walked around him and, after poking her head out of the alley entrance to see if there was anyone who might’ve noticed them, headed to the right. She rounded the corner and reached the front of the café after a minute. She walked over to the front window and peered in. Sure enough, Principal Cadance and Shining Armor were sitting at a table inside, talking. Cadance noticed her after a few seconds and waved to her, causing Shining to notice as well. Twilight and Spike waved back before Twilight walked into the café. Shining stood up as she approached and hugged her, saying, “Oh Twilight, it’s so good to see you. I’ve missed you.” He stepped back and guided her so she was sitting across from him and Cadance. “It has been some time, Twilight. I’ve only seen you a little bit since you transferred to CHS,” Cadance remarked. “Well, we’ve certainly been kept busy since then. So much more to learn and do,” Twilight replied, sharing a look with Spike as she rested her backpack on her lap. “I have a hard time believing that. Crystal Prep is much more prestigious than Canterlot High. There’s a lot more work involved and many more extracurricular opportunities available. How could someone like you have more work to do at a lower level?” Shining asked. Twilight frowned, “Shining… I know you don’t like that I left Crystal Prep, but there was nothing left for me there. What I would’ve had to do just to advance further… It wasn’t worth it, and everyone I knew there thinks we all get along better this way.” Shining argued, “But you had friends there, Twilight. Like… what about that one girl you were close to? Moon Dancer? Was that her name?” Twilight adjusted her glasses, “Moon Dancer left Crystal Prep long before I did. She couldn’t keep up with the work and… we kind of drifted apart. We’re trying to reconnect now, but she’s really busy too.” Cadance spoke up, “Let’s not make this all about the past, okay? Let’s talk a little bit about what’s going on now.” She leaned across the table slightly, “Twilight, can you tell me what happened earlier? You stopped talking and then you suddenly had to go.” Twilight replied, “Oh yeah, um… We ran into some major gridlock coming down here. We had to get off the bus since we weren’t moving. Had to work our way around to get here.” Shining raised an eyebrow, “You walked all the way here?” Twilight shook her head, “No, no. I had a lift.” Cadance held a finger to her chin, “Hm, I didn’t see any buses or cabs pull up.” They all heard a noise outside and looked towards the window to see the people outside looking like a gale had just swept past them, all of them looking like their hair had been ruffled and some of them bent forward or backward. “What happened out there?” Cadance wondered. “Probably just the wind. It was blowing quite a bit for us,” Twilight said. “I can tell. Your hair’s a bit frizzy,” Shining remarked. He suddenly became fixated on something behind Twilight and she and Spike turned to look. The TV on the wall had the CNN news on and a reporter with blonde hair wearing a collared white shirt with light blue stripes and a blue tie was talking about Lyric’s rampage. Twilight looked nervous as she listened to the report, but relaxed when the reporter said the police couldn’t deny or confirm whether Sonic had actually ‘kidnapped’ somebody. “Goodness. No wonder you were held up, Twilight. The police must’ve been trying to keep everyone as far back as they could,” Cadance said. Shining shook his head. “This is unbelievable. What is happening to our city? How much longer are these aliens going to harass Dr. Kintobor? The man’s done nothing but help people. Why do they have to make his life so difficult?” he wondered. Twilight and Spike looked at him at that, both realizing now might be a bad time to bring up in detail how they got downtown. Cadance looked down at Twilight and said, “Twilight, if anything like that comes up again, be sure to get as far away as you can, okay?” Twilight nodded silently before picking up her menu, looking for something to order. After she’d decided and the waiter had taken the order, Cadance could see she had something on her mind but didn’t seem to be ready to talk about, so she decided to change the subject. “So how are you and your friends doing, Twilight?” she asked. As they resumed talking, they were unaware of one of Eggman’s Bee Bots hovering above the café, listening in.