PART ONE
Many years ago in the beautiful land of Equestria, a mysterious evil arose. The ruler of the land, Princess Celestia, put a stop to it—or so she thought. One day, the stars attacked Equestria. Not even the elements of harmony that the princess used before could stop it. She prayed for something to help banish the evil from the land.
All of a sudden a bright light flashed and there before her were seven Emeralds of different colors. The princess could feel the power they held and she used it, along with the elements, to lock the stars away to the farthest reaches of the universe. Fearing that the power would be used for evil, Princess Celestia used the power of the Emeralds to send them back from whence they came…
“To this day, no pony knows were these Emeralds of chaotic power came from nor do they know why they appeared,” Twilight Sparkle read as she turned the pages of a book entitled Princess Celestia’s Secret Archive of History. “Emerald is more powerful than the elements,” she murmured to herself. “Is that possible?”
Twilight closed the book and put it into her purple leather satchel and walked out of the archive room. She walked around the castle that was once her home, before she had moved to Ponyville, looking for her mentor, Princess Celestia. She found the princess in the gardens. “Princess, what can you tell me about these?” Twilight had levitated the book out and turned to the page describing the falling darkness and mysterious gems.
“Twilight my dear student, you must not worry about this,” Celestia said, “but if you would like to know, all I can say is that although it was a dark day for Equestria, who or what sent the gift of those Emeralds took them back after I had no use for them. I know just as much about what it was as you do.”
“ But Princess, what I have seen in the past is that darkness always returns and tomorrow is the Diamond Dust meteor shower,” reminded Twilight.
The Diamond Dust meteor shower is an event that happens to Equestria every 753 or so years.
“If my calculations are correct, then the darkness aRose around the same time as the last Diamond Dust meteor shower,” said Twilight. “What if that is how the darkness returns?
What if—“
Twilight was cut off by the princess’s sweet voice. “Twilight, you have nothing to worry about. Please, the time has come for you to return to Ponyville.”
Twilight understood, bowed her head, and started for the train station so she could return to her home in Ponyville. During the overnight train ride, Twilight entertained worries in the back of her mind about the potential return of the darkness to Equestria. The train arrived at the station early the next morning. Twilight quickly exited the train and headed for house, the Ponyville library.
When she arrived at her front door, she heard movement coming from inside. “Hello. How may I help you, today?” she called as she walked inside. Her eyes almost jumped out of her head at what she saw. There, standing before her, was an upright blue hedgehog and a yellow two-tailed fox.
The hedgehog began to speak. “Oh, hey there, perhaps you could help us.”
PART TWO
“Wha- What happened to the Chaos Emeralds?” Tails asked. The fox was a bit shaken up but trying to keep his composure.
“Forget the Emeralds! Were are we?” exclaimed Sonic, the Hedgehog, “And were is Eggman?”
“I’m not sure were we are but it looks like Eggman sent us here,” Tails answered as he looked around. “This does not look like Mobius—or anywere else we’ve ever been.”
Sonic looked around. He and Tails were standing in the middle of a field with a few trees and the occasional bush or two.
“Maybe if we go up that hill we will be able to figure out which direction to go,” Tails suggested.
“Sounds like a plan,” Sonic said with a serious look on his face. They climbed to the top of a hill and looked across the valley. “I think that’s a town down there,” Sonic observed as he spotted what looked like a clock tower in the distance.
“Let’s go!” Tails exclaimed as he twirled his two foxTails and began to hover in the air. Sonic took a few seconds to observe the path he would take. Fashioning a small grin, he sped up to a blinding speed of 85 miles per hour; trying his best to make sure Tails could keep up. It only took him a few minutes to get close to the town. “Hey, Sonic, look!” Tails yelled toward Sonic. Sonic skidded to a stop.
“What’s up, Tails?” Sonic asked.
“That looks like the town up ahead,” Tails answered, “There might be something there that can give us a clue to were we are.”
Sonic and Tails walked through what they assumed was the town square. “Maybe if we find a library we can find out were we are,” Tails said as he looked around at the empty streets. “This is strange. Were are all the townspeople?”
“Maybe they are all sleeping,” Sonic guessed. It was quite early. They continued to walk through the town. Sonic kept feeling as if someone or something were watching them.
“Hey, look at this sign,” Tails pointed to a hand-painted wooden placard. “It says, ‘Ponyville Library.’”
“Looks more like a tree than a library,” chuckled Sonic. They walked inside.
“Hello? Is anyone here?” Tails raised his voice hesitantly.
“Yeah. I’ll be right with you,” answered a voice from another room. A door across the room opened and a short, chubby, purple dragon with rounded green spikes running down his back entered the room. When he spotted the two, he looked confused, flinched, and took a step backwards. “Who…What are you? Please don’t eat me,” he whimpered loudly while shielding his face.
“Whoa. Whoa. Don’t worry. We’re not going to hurt you little guy. We just want the librarian,” Sonic reassured the dragon.
“Hello. How may I help you, today?” Everyone turned to look at the door from whence came the delicate voice.
A purple pony with a dark purple striped mane and tail stepped into the room. After a moment of silence Sonic spoke. “Oh, hey there, perhaps you could help us.”
PART THREE
“Hey! What’s going on here?” Donald said as he looked at himself and then examined his group.
“I think it’s these enchanted clothes those three fairies gave us. Remember when we were in the Pridelands? We were on all fours.” Sora concluded after a moment’s pause to think. Sora, usually a young boy, was on a quest and had recently landed on this new world with his two friends, Donald Duck—now a white griffon and Goofy—a tall coon hound who seemed to have had some kind of color change. Sora was very surprised by his new form. From what he could see, he was some sort of hooved character with what looked like a picture of his Keyblade and a crown behind it on both of his haunches.
“What am I?” Sora asked after observing what he could of himself.
“Some sort of Stallion.” Donald guessed.
“Huck-chuck, you look more like a pony.” Goofy commented.
“Maybe we should follow that path.” squawked Donald in his duck-like voice.
“Sounds like as good a plan as any,” Sora agreed.
The three stood up and walked down the path. Soon they came upon a huge Appleorchard. “What’s that sound?” Goofy asked. Sora stopped and listened. He heard what sounded like something beating against wood.
They instinctively walked toward the noise. To Sora’s amazement, the noise was actually coming from a pony bucking at a tree so hard it was causing the apples to fall into the buckets around it. The pony spotted them. “Well howdy, Ah don’t buh-lieve we’ve had the pleasure of meetin’, “greeted the orange mare with a cowboy hat. “The name’s AppleJack,” the pony then began to shake Sora’s hoof vigorously.
“Ow! I’m Sora and these are my friends Donald and a Goofy,” introduced Sora once he recovered from the handshake… “Or is it a hoof-shake?” Sora wondered to himself.
“Ahm mighty glad ta meet ya’ll. Are ya new in town?” AppleJack asked.
Donald was the first to answer. “Uh... no... We’re just passing through.”
“Well this here is Sweet AppleAcres. If ya go down this road,” she pointed with her hoof, “then ya’ll will hit Ponyville.”
“Hu-Yuck, thank ya kindly, Miss.” Goofy chuckled.
The three said their farewells and travelled down the road.
“We haven’t seen any Heartless yet.” Sora said after a while.
“The gummi ships said that this world had darkness in it.” Donald answered.
As they walked, the town of Ponyville came into view. “Welcome to Ponyville,” Donald read the sign outside of town. The trio walked into town looking at all the vendors and small shops.
Suddenly, Sora heard a commotion…”Well, I’ve never seen these things before now. Right when you showed up! What kind of game are you playing?” a voice shouted, “Are you a spy?”
Sora, Donald, and Goofy turned the corner. There they saw a light blue Pegasus with multi-colored hair and tail yelling at an upright blue porcupine-looking creature with red shoes and white gloves in front of a shop named Sugar Cube Corner.
“Hey, Whoa. What’s going on here?” Donald asked Sora as they all stared.
The blue, spikey animal opened his mouth to argue back when out of nowere, a dark-colored, bug-like creature appeared.
“Heartless!” Goofy shouted.
“Come on. Let’s get ‘em” yelled Donald as he ran toward the monsters with a spell ready to cast.
Sora jumped into action and was able to take out three or four Heartless with his Keyblade while Donald cast variations of ice, fire, and thunder spells from his staff to take out a few more. Goofy slammed his shield into the rest.
“Whew. No problem. Are you two alright?” Sora asked when the Heartless were gone.
PART FOUR
Twilight’s life was strange enough to say the least: stopping an evil, finding she could control one of the elements of harmony, re-imprisoning the god of Chaos, and even discovering she was connected to her friends even before she met them, but this—woodland creatures in her library who could speak English—seemed to top it all.
“Excuse me. Are you all right?” asked the young fox with two Tails.
Twilight hadn’t realized she had been standing there with her mouth agape for some time until the question snapped her back to reality. “Of course, Yes,” she started. “I am Twilight Sparkle. Who are you? Were did you come from?” Twilight thought even the Everfree Forrest couldn’t conjure up something like this.
“I’m Sonic,” the hedgehog answered, “and this is Tails.”
“Hiya,” greeted the fox. “We were wondering if you had an Atlas.”
“Um…sure…right here.” Twilight levitated a book from one of the shelves. “Were did you two come from?” she asked as she handed them the book.
The fox began to flip through the book before answering. “Well, we’re not from your world, I can tell you that,” he said with a semi-worried tone.
“Not from MY world?” asked a confused Twilight.
“Well, you see, Sonic and I seem to have accidentally teleported here by the power of the Chaos Emeralds,” explained Tails, “and we have to find them---“
“Wait! Did you say “Emeralds”?” Twilight interrupted. She floated the old leather book from her satchel and flipped to the page about the Darkness and the Emeralds. “Did they look like these?” she asked. She showed them the artist’s rendering of the Emeralds.
“Yep. That’s them. But how do you know about them?” Sonic asked suspiciously.
“Well that’s just the thing,” Twilight responded, “I don’t know about the Emeralds. No pony knows much about them other than that they helped us defeat a strange and evil Darkness a long time ago.”
“Well, Tails, I’m guessing the Emeralds must be here again. It looks like we have an adventure ahead of us,” Sonic said.
Twilight heard a small growling sound.
“Ha ha. Maybe we’d better start by getting something to eat,” suggested Sonic sheepishly.
“Here, follow me. We can get something at a little place in town.” Twilight started to walk toward the door. Sonic and Tails followed. Twilight led them down the street. She knew exactly were to go. “Well, here we are,” she said as they reached their destination. A sign over the shop read: Sugar Cube Corner. “I have a friend who works here. Her name is Pinkie Pie.”
They all entered the building and walked up to the front counter were Twilight’s friend, Pinkie Pie—a brightly colored pink pony with over expressive eyes and a cotton candy-like tale and mane—stood. “Hi, there, Twilight! Who’re your new friends?” Pinkie Pie said in her usual unusually high-pitched and overly excited voice.
“Hello, Pinkie Pie. This is Sonic and that’s Tails. They’re…um…new around.” Twilight said as she made the introductions. “We were wondering if we could get something to eat because—” Twilight stopped abruptly because what she saw before her in a display case made her do a double take. “Pinkie! Were did you get those?” Twilight asked while pointing to two brightly colored Emeralds.
“Well, this is going to be easier than I thought. Those are definitely the Chaos Emeralds!” confirmed Sonic.
“The Emeralds must just be scattered around town,” concluded Tails. “Sonic, you can use these Emeralds like a tracking device to find the others.”
Sonic nodded in understanding. “Okay, I’ll go look for them real quick. You two stay here. I’ll be back in a superSonic second.”
Twilight handed the Emeralds over to Sonic. She could feel some power—warm but strangely destructive—emanating from them.
Sonic took the Emeralds and then walked out of the shop after quickly devouring a small green cupcake with an Appleslice on top.
“Pinkie, were did you get those?” Twilight asked urgently.
“I don’t know. They just appeared in the shop. I put them in the display case thinking it would help us sell more cakes.”
All of a sudden, Twilight heard a small ‘Ding.’ “Oooh…the cupcakes are ready,” Pinkie said over her shoulder as she zipped into the kitchen and returned moments later with a fresh batch of frosted cupcakes.
Just as Twilight was about to devour one, she heard a commotion outside.
PART FIVE
“Wha…What were those things?” Sonic asked shocked and confused.
The new brown pony took his hoof and scratched the back of his head as if to find the right words. “Well, they’re called Heartless.”
“Heartless? I’ve never heard of them,” said the rainbow colored pony named Rainbow Dash.
All of a sudden another one of the Heartless creatures popped behind the three newcomers, ready to attack. “Watch out!” Sonic shouted and then spin-dashed into the attacker. It promptly disappeared into a puff of black cloud.
“Okay. You’re really fast,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. She regained her composure and said, “Not as fast as me, though.”
“Is that a challenge?” Sonic asked with an edge of competition in his voice.
At that moment, Tails, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight stepped out of Sugar Cube Corner.
“Oooh…are you two going to play a game? I love games,” said Pinkie Pie with great enthusiasm.
“Sorry, Sonic, but I don’t think we have time for games,” Twilight said, “Spike just sent me a note. Strange animals have been attacking the residents of Ponyville.” She held up the scroll.
“Strange animals? Could it be the Heartless?” the brown pony asked the griffin, “Oh, I’m Sora, by the way,” the pony said, “and this is Donald and Goofy,” he pointed to the griffin and silly looking dog.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is Pinkie Pie,” she motioned to the pony with wild hair who was now bouncing up and down, “and Rainbow Dash.” The Pegasus did a quick loop in the air.
“I’m Sonic and this is Tails.” Tails gave a small two-finger salute.
Sora spoke up. “Hey, if you two want to race, you can. It might be fun.”
Sonic’s game face returned when he saw the determination in Rainbow’s eyes. “Okay, then let the games begin!”
PART SIX
Bang! The sound of Pinkie’s confetti gun went off and the two racers—Sonic and Rainbow Dash—zoomed from the starting line. Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Sonic, Tails, Rainbow Dash and their new friends, Sora, Donald, and Goofy, had found the perfect place to hold the race. The racetrack was around the south fields of Sweet AppleAcres. Twilight’s friend, AppleJack, had agreed to let them race around it as long as they did not disturb the apples that were not in bloom.
Twilight was quite amazed. Never had she seen anyone, other than AppleJack, keep up with Rainbow Dash.
“Well I guess we will see who’s in the lead when they come back around,” said Tails to Donald.
“Hey, Tails, do you mind if I take a look at one of the Emeralds?” Twilight asked. She wanted to see if she could figure out what that power she’d felt earlier was.
“Sure,” replied Tails. He dug into a small pack Twilight hadn’t noticed he was wearing. He pulled out the blue Emerald and handed it to Twilight who used her magic to levitate it into the air just in front of her face. “Please be careful. These Emeralds have an unpredictable and mysterious power.”
“Don’t worry. I just want to test something real quick.” Twilight reassured Tails when she saw a small worried frown momentarily cross his face. She smiled and wondered off towards the direction of AppleJack’s barn.
Even using her powers of levitation, she could feel the power emanating from the Emerald. As she wandered about, she began to consider how the Emeralds even got to Equestria so many years ago. She decided to use her magic directly on the Emerald, itself, to look inside its power. She was hesitant at first because of the warning Tails had given about the unpredictable power they contained. “What harm could it do, right?” she asked herself. She closed her eyes and began to focus all her magic toward the Emerald. Her horn began to glow a dark lavender color. She felt a spark of power go through her horn and into her brain. This startled her and made her lose focus. Her horn stopped glowing. “Ouch! I don’t think I’ll try that again,” she told herself as she rubbed her temple with her hoof.
All of a sudden, her horn began to glow again. “Eek! What’s going on with my horn?” The Emerald levitated near Twilight and began to circle her. She felt her horn pull her, against her will, into a thick of Appletrees. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening but all she could see were Appletrees whizzing by as her horn took her deeper into the orchard. Just before she hit a tree, her horn stopped glowing and she stopped abruptly. In front of her was one of AppleJack’s bushel baskets filled to overflowing with bright red, savory-looking apples. She noticed something else in the basket, as well. There, hidden among the apples were five brightly colored Emeralds. Twilight’s eyes doubled in amazement.
She cautiously approached the basket, tiptoeing ever so slightly, and began removing the apples one by one. She gently scooped the Emeralds with her hoof and tucked them away into her saddlebag. While she was walking back to her friends, she began hearing strange noises; a kind of grunting like someone exerting extreme energy. As she got closer to the others, it dawned on her what the noises were-- her friends were fighting and they were in trouble!
PART SEVEN
“What could the Heartless be doing here in this place were everyone is so kind and there is so much light?” Sora wondered. He felt the gentle breeze from the west glide across his face and he could smell the sweet fragrance of the Appleorchards around him.
“Hey, Sora, I think Sonic and Rainbow Dash will be comin’ around any minute now.” The anticipation of Goofy’s words shook Sora out of his daydreaming. Sora saw that Goofy was right. Looking into the distance, he saw two little blue dots coming closer with tremendous velocity. Although Sora didn’t want to play favorites with his new friends, he had to admit to himself that he would very much like to see Sonic win this race.
Sora, Donald, Goofy, Pinkie Pie, and Tails all began to cheer as the two racers were nearing the home stretch. Fear began to grip Sora as, out of nowere, a huge blob of blackness appeared right on the racetrack blocking the racers from the finish. The cheering turned into an eerie silence as everyone else noticed it, too. Sora’s feet instinctively ran toward the darkness as he realized what it was. It was Heartless—and lots of them! Donald and Goofy figured it out only seconds after Sora and they began to run after him. Sora’s Keyblade appeared in his mouth as he readied himself to charge into battle.
Sonic and Rainbow Dash were overwhelmed at the sight of the Heartless but by the time they recognized the imminent danger, they were going too fast to stop. Both of them crashed head on into Heartless and immediately began to fight as the Heartless attacked.
Sora knew the efforts of the two fighting would be fruitless. Only a Keyblade or magic could get rid of a Heartless permanently. Sora began to slash his way through the Heartless as Donald and Goofy fought valiantly alongside him. In the midst of the fight, Sora noticed Twilight running toward them. “Cover for me, real quick Donald. I’ll be right back,” commanded Sora. Sora rushed over to intercept Twilight.
“What’s going on here? What are those—“Twilight stopped. Sora saw the shocked expression on Twilight’s face and then she spoke. “That must be the darkness that attacked Equestria long ago. It has returned.”
“Don’t worry. Donald, Goofy, and I have it all under control.”
Sora saw Tails rushing up to them. “Hey, guys. The Chaos Emerald is going nuts!”
“I think I know why,” said Twilight, “it could be reacting to the Emeralds I found.” Twilight opened her saddlebag and dumped the Emeralds out on the ground. They were glowing ferociously. The Emeralds slowly raised themselves into the air; their lights beating rhythmically.
“Hey, what are those things and what are they doing?” asked Sora.
“Those are the Chaos Emeralds and, if my suspicions are correct, they are saving us,” replied Twilight.
The Emeralds, taking on a mind of their own, flew up and circled around the mass of Heartless. Sora could only stand in awe of what happened next. The Emeralds began to glow brighter and brighter and then, without warning, they stopped. When Sora’s eyes adjusted back to normal daylight, the Heartless had all vanished. Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Donald, and Goofy were left standing in the middle of the racetrack. All was quiet.
PART EIGHT
The Emeralds had always saved Sonic in tight spots before. He was quite glad that they worked as well in Equestria as they did in Mobius. He felt beaten and a bit shaken up at the intensity of what just happened. He began gathering up all the Emeralds that were scattered around—seven in all.
Pinkie Pie was bouncing toward the group. “Wow! That was so amazing and SOOOO unpredictable. I sure didn’t see that coming. It sure made this race interesting—not to say it wasn’t interesting to begin with. But how many races have you seen were the racers battle monsters right in the middle? I’d sure like to see another race like that. Maybe we should do it again sometime. But maybe not because you guys look pretty beaten up and worn out. And that flash…wow…I’ve never seen anything so bright. It made those monsters disappear. That was so amazing. Didn’t you think that was amazing?”
Sonic felt overwhelmed at the speed and pace that Pinkie Pie was talking.
“I’m sorry. You’re going to have to excuse Pinkie Pie. She gets a little overly excited sometimes,” apologized Twilight.
“Well I think we may have gotten rid of your Heartless problem,” said Sora.
“You’re lucky we got rid of those scouts before the real horde of Heartless attacked,” Donald remarked.
“What?! Those were only scouts?” Twilight exclaimed with horror.
“Yes, but we got rid of them so they shouldn’t return unless something really bad happens,” said Donald with confidence.
“Yes. But if they ever do return then we’ll be back and we’ll be ready to fight them,” promised Sora.
“You’ll be back? Do you mean you’re leaving?” asked Sonic.
“Yes, but don’t worry. We’re all friends. We won’t really be apart as long as we remember each other, “said Sora.
Sonic grinned for he knew this was true.
“Hey, Sonic, now that we have all the Emeralds, we can go back. We need to hurry before our other friends begin to miss us,” chimed in Tail impatiently.
“But how are we going to get back?” asked Sonic, “We don’t have any teleportation device.”
“I have an idea,” said Twilight, “I have a teleportation spell. I can just put it into the Emeralds and they can take you back home—as long as you concentrate on home.”
Sonic set the Emeralds in a circle and he and Tails stood in the middle of the circle. Twilight conjured up her spell as her horn began to glow. Then, the light bunched into an orb at the very tip of her horn. She shot the orb onto one of the Emeralds. The Emerald lit up and shot two beams of the lavender light to the other Emeralds until there was a ring of light passing through each of the them. Sonic and Tales quickly waved their good-byes.
“Hey, if you’re ever in the neighborhood, we still haven’t finished that race,” yelled Rainbow.
Sonic grinned and said, “You’re on! See ya around later.”
There was a bright flash. Everything went white and then everything went black.
Sonic opened his eyes. Everything was blurry for a second. He looked around. He was lying in a field. Tales was next to him. The Emeralds were gone. Sonic was back in his familiar world of Mobius. As Sonic thought back on the events of the day, he remembered what Sora said, “If those things ever return, we’ll be back.” Sonic knew that what Sora said was true. One day he would go back and be able to see his friends again. Now, however, it was a new day. “Okay, Tails. There is a bright new day of adventure ahead of us. Many things to see and many more to do. There is always an adventure to be had.”