//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Rise and Shine // Story: Shadow The Hedgehog, Friendship is Darkness // by Stalin with Da Spoon //------------------------------// Deep within the everfree forest... The sound of chirping birds filled the air, as wind slowly blew through the trees, the sound a woodpecker pecking at a tree, leaves slowly floating through the air as the grass slowly wafted in the wind, all with the sun shining brightly upon the forest, as a small clearing within the forest could be seen, and in that clearing, lied a peculiar creature inside a small crater... Shadow slowly opened his eyes, slightly shielding them due to the brightness of the sun at this time day, as he slowly sat up, observing his environment, taking in his surrounding, before suddenly being struck by a painful headache as he gripped his head and gritted his teeth. It wasn't one of those mild headaches, it was one of the really painful ones, the ones that made your vision blurry and your ears slightly deafen. Of course, Shadow still withstood the pain, as he slowly began to stand up, while still gripping his head. "Damn it... What happened..." Shadow said to himself as he slowly got to his feet, as his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the forest. He would slowly begin to walk forward, his headache quickly fading away, before he began to remember what had previously occurred. All he remembered were the emeralds having an unknown reaction to each other, spinning rapidly before releasing some type of powerful energy that caused him and his team to be warped to an unknown location. In all his experience of utilizing the chaos emeralds, never once had he seen something similar like that occur and that's what was odd to him. As he was busy thinking of what happened, an unknown sound could be heard emanating from deep inside the forest... A sound similar to... A scream. Quickly reacting, Shadows air shoes activated, as he boosted forward rapidly, dashing between the trees at top speed, weaving between the trees, feeling the wind flowing his quills as he sped forward, the sound getting more clear, sounding feminine, potentially child-like tone. "Help, help, timberwolves!" Shadow had no clue what a timberwolf truly was, but by the sound of it, they were dangerous and potentially attacking whoever was calling for help. Eventually, shadow's speed allowed him to reach a small ledge, overlooking what appeared to be... Three small ponies, one with wings, and one with a horn, surrounded by what appeared to be several wolves, made of wood. Now he knew why they were called timberwolves. He quickly observed the number of wolves, counting around six in total. This would be easy, as when he saw one about to leap at the three innocent ponies... He leaped into the and smashed down right on top of the wolf, shattering into dozens of wooden sticks, as the remaining wolves slowly stepped back, the ponies behind him all speaking collectively. "Woah..." Shadow looked back, confused as to how these ponies were talking, but then again, wolves made of timber, don't question it, as he looked back to another wolf charge at him, as ducked down and spun around, performing a air-shoe propelled kick right into the wolves face, sending it flying back as it burst apart, as two more lashed out, with shadow jumping into the air, as he curled into a ball and dashed forward, hitting both dead on as he landed back on the ground and they both burst into wood. Finally, the last two remaining wolves began to back away, before Shadow quickly dashed forward and appeared behind them, gripping them by their tails and sending them into the air as he jumped and unleashed a homing attack on one wolf, before charging up a flaming kick with air shoes, as he sent the timberwolf flying into the air as it combusted into flame, with Shadow slowly hovering down to the ground and crossing his arms. [End Song] "Pathetic." He then turned to the small ponies behind him, who's jaws were agape. "Are you hurt?" The three ponies collectively spoke. "That." "Was." "AWESOME!" Shadow chuckled at the excitement of the strange pony children, as they surrounded him, catching him a little off guard. "Are you some sort of weird alien?" "What are those cool looking shoes?" "Can you teach me how to fight like that?" "How did you turn into a ball?" "Whats your name?" Feeling overwhelmed, Shadow decided to focus on the last question that was asked by the little pony with wings. "I am Shadow, the Ultimate lifeform!" As he said this in his usual serious tone, the little ponies seemed to be fascinated by him, as the pegasus replied. "Cool! Well, Im Scootaloo, and this is Apple Bloom," The little earth pony with with a bow on her head nodded. "Howdy." "And thats Sweetie bell." She said then pointing to the unicorn. "Please to meet you." "And on behalf of all of us within the cutie mark crusaders, we hereby thank you for saving us from those timberwolves with your awesome moves!" Shadow nodded, a smile across his face as he nodded. "Happy to help. Now, why are you out here all alone?" "Oh, we were out trying to find something worthy of praise to bring back to our big sisters!" Shadow nodded, fascinated by these strange little ponies. "Well, its best you get out of here before more of those things show up... And if you don't mind, I would like to know the way out of this forest..." The three little ponies looked at each other, before collectively nodding, as they started walking, with Scootaloo gesturing for Shadow to follow them, and so he did. Canterlot. The city was quite peaceful today, as ponies trotted through the streets, pegasi flying overhead while Celestias sun hung over the city, shining brightly. Rouge found the sight... Strange, but fascinating... As she watched from atop a small house, looking over the city as she observed her surroundings. It had only been... Three hours since she woke up and found herself in this city in a random alley. Luckily, nobody had found her yet, but she had yet to re-establish contact with the rest of dark team... Of course, hopefully these ponies wouldn't mind if Rouge, the greatest thief in the world, just... Helped herself a bit. She thought to herself as she swooped down onto the roof of another building, and did some good old fashioned recon, before eyeing a quite precious necklace on sale at a stall in the marketplace of the city, and when the shopkeeper was looking away... Yoink. As the necklace disappeared, Rouge was delighted to see a very confused shopkeeper searching for the lost valuable, as she held it in her hand. "I think im gonna like it here..." Crystal Empire. There was chaos in the streets of the empire's capital, as Omega slowly stomped through the streets, the ponies around him fleeing at the sight of the massive machine. The machine had no clue where he was, or how he got here, but what he did know, was he was surrounded by talking ponies and pegasi. These little creatures seemed to be afraid of him, and he could understand why, but they had no real reason to be afraid, as Omega only slaughtered machines under the control of Eggman, and as he saw, these ponies were neither machine, nor under eggman's control. However, they were quite annoying with all the screaming. As Omega walked the streets, several of the crystal royal guard appeared before him, blocking his path defiantly as the leader of the squad spoke up. "Halt, you metal beast! By order of Princess Cadance, you are under arrest!" Omega simply looked at the leader with cold, unfeeling red eyes, as the armored stallion slowly backed away while Omega spoke in a robotic tone. "I AM OMEGA, AND PRINCESS CADANCE DOES NOT HOLD AUTHORITY OVER ME, AND AS SUCH, I DO NOT SUBMIT TO ARREST. ATTEMPTING TO IMPEDE MY OBJECTIVE WILL RESULT IN VIOLENCE." Omega's right hand raised, as the barrel of a minigun extended out, pointing into the air. "AND I WILL NOT HESITATE. NOW ANSWER ME, WHERE AM I LOCATED?" By now, the squad leader had soiled himself, as he and his squad looked at each other nervously, before the leader spoke up. "Ummmm... Your in the captial of the c-crystal empire..." After a few seconds of computing, Omega responded. "ERROR, LOCATION FILE NOT FOUND, MUST ACQUIRE HIGHER VANTAGE POINT TO MAP OUT SURROUNDINGS AND DETERMINE LOCATION." He said as he slowly scanned for the highest point possible, before locking onto the very top of the castle at the center of the city. "OPTIMAL POINT LOCATED." Before the guards could say or do anything, the thrusters on Omega's back ignited, as he burst forward, rapidly approaching the castle.