//------------------------------// // 7. Familiar Ruins // Story: Sonic Frontiers x My Little Pony // by BronySonicFan //------------------------------// Sonic went and got the Red Chaos Emerald, then he saw Knuckles and Izzy staring at some pillars. He decided to approach and look at the pillars too, then he noticed how familiar the looked. He couldn't tell why at first... but then, realization hit him like a bullet train. "Hey Knux" Sonic called out. "I know they're completely different islands, but some of those ruins are making me think on the ones back on Angel Island" he pointed out. "Why? Because they're made of stone?" Knuckles asked confused. "There are multiple architectural style across the island" he pointed out. "It's different types of stone, too" he added. "Wait, you can tell the difference between stones~?" Izzy asked on a flirty tone to Knuckles. "The same way you can tell the difference between crystals, honey" Knuckles replied, also on a flirty tone. "You two are so meant for each other" Sonic said with an eye roll and his arms crossed, but also with a smile. "Plus, these ruins pre-date anything on Angel Island by a wide margin." Knuckles kept telling. "After all, Eggman said it in one of his memos: the Ancients are older than my people, so these structures were made way before they even born" he pointed out. "Although... the spiritual spaces and military structures do share some similarities" he confessed. "Okay..." Sonic said with a raised eyebrow. "So, the Ancients and Echidnas weren't related since they are from two separate dimensions. But somehow, the Echidnas got inspired by the Ancients architecture..." he explained. "Maybe if I explore deeper, I can find an answer on how the Ancients and the Owls travelled from Equis to Mobius. I could even get some answers about my own people..." Sonic suggested with some hope growing on him. "Well, while you go and do that, Izz and I will keep looking around for the two remaining Chaos Emeralds" Knuckles said. "Okay then! See ya!" Sonic told them with a wave of a hand, and then boosted away. While Izzy waved back with a cheery smile, Knuckles couldn't help but look back at the structures. "Now that I see them better, Sonic's right: they do look like the ones on Angel Island..." he pointed out with a worried frown. Sonic spent an hour and 20 minutes running around the Island, but he didn't find anything about his ancestors, nor about how the Ancients travelled from Equis to Mobius. He could feel that, if the Ancients had the Chaos Emeralds, then those were the way to travel for all of them to Mobius. How is it that they were related with Chaos, however, was still a Mystery, as well as who's this girl with powers they mentioned earlier. Still, Sonic wasn't going to give up so easily, but he will let this subject aside for now. Suddenly, Sonic didn't noticed that he collected the maximum amount of rings he could, and his body started to spreed electrical sparkles. He noticed until he stopped and looked at his shoes. "What?" Sonic muttered to himself. "This is the first time since I arrived to the Islands that my powers awaken again... I wonder why that is, tho" he said with a raised eyebrow. "Oh well, at least they're back... kinda..." he stated with a smirk. He kept running, noticing that he was going a lot faster now, and then he stopped when he found Knuckles and Izzy staring at a giant satellite. It was build with the same materials than most of the islands ruins, but at the same time it looked a lot more modern that some satellites he saw back on Equestria, and even in Mobius. "Look at the size of this... what-do-you-call-it? Satellite dish?" Knuckles questioned to Sonic, while he nodded. "It's for communications, right?" he asked again. "Yeah" Sonic replied, crossing his arms. "I've seen al sorts of crazy high-tech ancient tech across both islands" he explained. "But if this is really old, how does it seems so fancy and modern?" Izzy questioned. "It's like if these Ancient guys were way too updated for the age they born" she pointed out. "It's sturdy too. I punched it, and it didn't moved at all" Knuckles said with a smirk. "Knux... don't punch the ruins" Sonic warned him with a bored expression. "Once I find Tails and Zipp, maybe they can use them to figure out what happened here, and finally give us some answers..." he pointed out. "Hey! I already discovered that it's sturdier than anything we've encountered" Knuckles pointed out with a small frown. "I don't think this material is from this world" he added with a bit of concern. Suddenly, Sonic's quills vibrated once again, and so, he took out the mp3 player and saw 3 new entries on it. "Well, you know the drill" Sonic said with a smirk, pressing the play button. "I don't know why, tho, but I couldn't help myself to remember that Sonic's the one who named me 'Eggman.' Except the joke's on him! I embraced the name! I made it my own! His mockery is now a name feared across the ages! I'm not going to adopt 'Baldy McNosehair,' though. My dignity has limits" the first entry played. Izzy suddenly bursted out laughing after she heard the second nickname. "Yeah, I know. Too bad Egghead cannot see the beauty of that name" Sonic said with a mocking smirk, then he pressed the play button again. "It appears that Knuckles is here too. What a rube. That hair-trigger of his is a problem, but also a boon when I can get him to go off in the right direction. It was a lot of fun to trick him whenever I needed to get rid of Sonic... at least before he actually used his brain and realized I tricked him. Now he even has a unicorn mare as a girlfriend... How cute..." the second memo played. "Too bad for him that he can't trick me anymore" Knuckles said with pride. "I hope so..." Sonic said with a bored expression. "I don't wanna deal with another week of any broken bones because of those monsters you call hands" he added in a mocking tone, while Knuckles rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, and Izzy at his side giggled a bit. Sonic pressed the play button to play the last entry Eggman uploaded for now. "Izzy Moonbow is on the island. Hmm... She acts naive, but I see she has a higher IQ than any of the other ponies, I'd say even higher than her own friends. *Sigh* If only she wasn't dating Knuckles, I could help her unleash her full potential! Oh well, there's a rip for a rip, I guess..." the final memo played. "... Okay..." Sonic muttered. "That was... unexpected..." he confessed with a sheepish smile. "I... I have a high IQ?" Izzy asked on disbelief. "Well, if Eggman, of all people, says so... then it must be true" Knuckles told her with a smile. "He may be our enemy, but he has his own and wacky way to show respect to us" he explained. "That's... kinda true" Sonic said with a little smile. "But you shouldn't doubt your intelligence, Izz" he pointed out. "Just because you don't understand a lot of things, that doesn't makes you dumb or oblivious. Like Eggman said, sometimes it seems like you're the brain of the group!" he added with a confident smile. By hearing their responses, Izzy couldn't help but smile back as well. "You guys really think so?" she asked with little tears of joy. "A rock should fell on us if we're lying" Knuckles stated, as he hugged his girlfriend softly. "You're a lot more smarter than anyone, myself included, gives you credit for, Izz. Never forget that" he added with a smile. Izzy sobbed happily after hearing that, and she decided to return the hug. Sonic watched on with a smile and sighed heavily. "I will join in to the hug, but..." he said with a bored expression, then he passed a hand through Izzy's shoulder, since he actually wanted to touch her. "I can't still touch you, guys" he said. "But the sooner we're done with those Titans, the sooner I'll get you back to normal!" he stated with confidence. "Well then, go out there and get us back to normal!" Izzy said with a confident smile. "Consider it done, Izz!" Sonic replied with a smile. "I'll go around the island again, and I'll catch up with you later" he stated, then boosted away from there, while both Knuckles and Izzy waved 'goodbye' at him. This time, Sonic wasn't running. For the very first time in his life, he didn't felt like running. He simply couldn't this time. And why? Well, he's trying to piece together the mystery related to his ancestors, the Owls and the Ancients. "My own people and the Owls traveled from Equestria to Mobius with the Emeralds, that's for sure" Sonic muttered to himself, as he walked peacefully around the island. "But if the Ancients left as well... why we never heard about them? And how can they be related to Chaos? This is so confusing..." he kept muttering. After walking for a while, he saw Izzy and Knuckles in the distance with some Koco... but for some reason, Knuckles seemed to be mad with the Koco, and Izzy was trying to calm him down, but not even that was working. Sonic sighed and looked at Knuckles with a bored expression. "Better check on him before he does something stupid" he muttered again, before boosting towards them. As he finally approached them, he could hear the Koco shacking and complaining, or at least it seemed like they were complaining. "I don't care if you're afraid!" Knuckles scolded with a frown and with his hands on his hips. "Those are your people out there!" he pointed out to them. "Knux, could you be nicer to them? You're just scaring them even more" Izzy told him with worry. "Hey, coach" Sonic called out, while Knuckles and Izzy turned to him, and Sonic could tell by Izzy's expression that she needed help to calm Knuckles a bit. "What's with the pep talk?" he asked to Knuckles. Knuckles groaned a bit at Sonic, while he just smirked at him in a mocking way. "With the defenses down, the soldiers are supposed to fall back to a bunker" Knuckles explained, still frowning. "But they're too scared because of the bombs around, and Knuckles is just scaring them even more instead of helping" Izzy added, while looking at her boyfriend with a frown, and Knuckles just scoffed, crossed his arms and looked away, still frowning. Sonic looked back and forth between the couple, before smirking and replying. "Then I'll round up the stragglers and you supervise, commander!" he said to Knuckles with confidence. Knuckles raised an eyebrow to Sonic, before looking at him neutrally. "That sounds... that sound good" he replied, and turned back to the Koco. Sonic just crossed his arms and smirked at Knuckles' attitude. Then, both Knuckles and Izzy appeared in front of the bunker where Sonic needed to lead the Koco, while the Koco were spreed around as they still felt nervous about this. Sonic nodded to himself and started to move around to guide the 15 Koco back with Knuckles and Izzy. The Koco were 'running away' from him, but that's exactly what he needed: make them move towards the bunker. It was an easy task, right? Well, not when there's random smoke bombs popping out of nowhere. Sonic managed to dodge the impact of the bomb, but he had to wait at least 5 or 6 seconds for the smoke to disappear, and once it did, he returned to guide the Koco towards the bunker. He repeated this process, until he finally managed to take... only 14 of the Koco. He was missing one. Once he saw where the last Koco was trying to hide, he quickly grabbed said Koco this time and dodged the smoke bombs again, until he reached the goal and placed the Koco down, as he moved towards the rest of the Koco. However, some of them started to dance around him, and Sonic knew that, even if he didn't got a Chaos Emerald this time, the least he could do was dance along the Koco, and so he danced with them. After that, he noticed that Knuckles was staring with his jaw dropped to the ruins, a.k.a. the bunker. "Knux?" Izzy called out. However, Knuckles didn't replied... he was busy remembering something... Years ago, Knuckles was guarding the Master Emerald on Hidden Palace in Angel Island. Back then, he was only 9 years old, and he recently lost his mother. However, he 'didn't had time to cry', and instead, decided to fulfill his duty as the new guardian of the Master Emerald. However, this time, he could tell that something was wrong, because he felt suddenly felt the whole island shacking for some reason. "An earthquake?" Knuckles said with a confused expression. "But Lava Reef hasn't give any signs of eruptions..." he said. Looking back at the Master Emerald, he groaned and decided to transport towards Sky Sanctuary to check out what the heck was going on, even if that meant he had to leave the Master Emerald for a while. Once he reached Sky Sanctuary, his eyes widened when he saw some kind of planet with a face, that crashed against the 'ceiling' of Hidden Palace. "So that's why the entire island was shacking..." Knuckles muttered with a frown. "Wait... that's Hidden Pal–– The Emerald!" he shouted with worry, before quickly transporting back to Hidden Palace. Once he returned, he found the 'face' of a robot, and soon enough, from said face came out a man. I'm not lying when I say that this man was literally round. His body, at least, was fat, the fattest man Knuckles has ever seen in his life. He was wearing a red suit with black pants and boots, he had his head shaped as an egg, literally, and he had a long mustache. He also wore glasses. The man was groaning and complaining aloud, also throwing a tantrum like a baby who did not buy a candy. Knuckles looked at him with a bored expression, since the man's attitude was very childish... but as soon as he saw that the man looked at the Master Emerald and extended his hand as he walked towards it, Knuckles quickly moved towards him and tapped his shoulder. The man got startled, and turned around to face him a bit scared. "Alright, pal" Knuckles called out with anger, raising his fists against him. "Give me one good reason to not beat your ass out of my island!" he threatened, while the man stepped back until he fell in the ground. However, and for Knuckles' surprise, the man kneeled and started to sob loudly. "P-Please, young man!" the man pled. "D-Don't hurt me! I-Im the victim on all of this!" he said between sobs. Knuckles raised an eyebrow, and for once, he let his guard down. "Elaborate, old man" he said. "Y-You see..." the man started to explain. "I-I was trying to protect some little animals from a guy called Sonic... He wants to take over the world!" he explained. "H-he has 7 powerful little gems, and a partner with two tails. T-They want to rule everyone! They attacked me because I was trying to protect the animals, b-but..." he added with sobs. "7 Powerful gems... but the only powerful gems I know are... the Chaos Emeralds..." Knuckles muttered, placing a hand on his chin. "And if they had the Emeralds, and attacked this old man... they must be coming for the Master Emerald!" he yelled in worry and anger. He looked back at the old man and extended his fist, while the man ducked for cover. But then, Knuckles smirked at him and opened his hand. "I think we haven't introduced ourselves properly, partner" Knuckles said. The man smiled and took Knuckles' hand, standing up and shacking it. "Excuse me, young man. My name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik" he presented himself with a grin. "I'm Knuckles. Knuckles the Echidna" Knuckles presented himself as well. "I'll usually wouldn't ask this to anyone, but would you mind to look after the Master Emerald? I need to make sure this 'Sonic' guy won't approach the greatest treasure of Angel Island" he stated with a frown, also cracking his knuckles. Robotnik looked at the Master Emerald and grinned sinisterly. "Oh, it will be my pleasure to look after your treasure, Knuckles" he said in a friendly tone. And also use it as the new battery for my Death Egg he though. Knuckles nodded, blindly trusting Robotnik, and then ran towards Secret Temple's exit. Once he was out again on Angel Island, he glided down until he landed near some ruins, then he dig a hole on the ground and hid there for quite a while. Finally, he heard the sound of someone approaching, and once he felt they were near by, he jumped out of his hideout and punched whoever was coming by. Luckily for him, he punched Sonic himself, who was using the 7 Chaos Emeralds until Knuckles punched him. Quickly, Knuckles grabbed the Emeralds and started to juggle them, at least until Sonic slowly stood up as he shook his head. "What the––" Sonic said, confused on who punched him and why. "If you think you can come to my island and steal the Master Emerald, then you're terribly wrong!" Knuckles stated with a chuckle and his arms crossed. After that sudden flashback, Knuckles couldn't help but feel nostalgic... and sad at seeing the ruins on the island. "Knuckie, what's wrong?" Izzy asked, nuzzling on his shoulder, but Knuckles still didn't replied, worrying his girlfriend even more. At that moment, Sonic arrived, also looking at the ruins, but in his case, he was more curious than confused. "Is this the place?" Sonic asked, but he got no response. "Yo, Knux?" he called out with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, but then he felt surprised when he saw Knuckles expression. "Sonic... You... You were right..." Knuckles finally spoke. "These ruins... they... they look like the ones from back home..." he pointed out in disbelief. Sonic looked back at the bunker ruins, and then he remembered when he met Knuckles for the first time. Near by, there where some ruins... and now that he thought about it, they did looked similar to the ones in front of him right now. "What if the people of these islands survived and resettled on Angel Island?" Knuckles asked. "That'd make this pretty important" Izzy said with an awed expression. "And that makes my theory of the Ancients traveling with the Owls and my ancestors to Mobius more credible" Sonic pointed out as well. However, none of them noticed that the Koco were marching like soldiers, but one of them suddenly stopped when they noticed something, and then they started to make sounds in fright that startled the rest of the Koco as well. Sonic, Knuckles and Izzy turned and saw the Koco starting to panic around. "That's... not a GOOD sound" Sonic pointed out with a frown, while the Koco were running away in fright. And then, literally out of nowhere, 4 giants Tower enemies appeared and landed in the ground at the same time, making a little earthquake that startled Sonic, Knuckles and Izzy. The Tower trope had the intention of destroying the bunker, and therefore, the Koco inside of it. Knuckles wasn't going to stand and watch the bunker fall, but as soon as he positioned himself to fight, he looked at his hands and frowned, remembering that he can't fight back on his actual state. "They're going to assault the bunker!" Knuckles said, turning around and looking at the bunker with a worried frown. Suddenly, the flashback from back where he met Sonic returned... Soon enough, Tails arrived as well, but as soon as he saw Knuckles with the Emeralds, he hid behind Sonic. "Who the heck are you supposed to be?" Sonic asked with a frown, standing on a defensive pose to protect Tails and to fight Knuckles if necessary. "Name's Knuckles" he said with a mocking smirk. "And luckily enough, Robotnik warned me about you" he stated, now frowning. "You won't get your dirty hedgehog hands over the Master Emerald! The same goes to your fox buddy behind you!" he warned. "Dude, I have no idea what Master Emerald are you talking about, but I'm pretty sure Egghead is just tricking you" Sonic replied with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah, sure thing" Knuckles said sarcastically. "If I were you, I'd leave the island immediately. So be wise, you two, and get out of my island!" he warned. After that, he boosted away with the Emeralds, startling both Sonic and Tails because of his sudden move. "Whoa!" Tails exclaimed. "Did you see that?! He's as fast as we are!" he said with awe. "Maybe" Sonic said with a frown, before looking back at Tails with a smirk. "But he isn't as cool as we are! Now come on, we gotta find the Emeralds and stop Eggman before he does something to that guy, or to us..." he said with worry. After that, they both boosted through the island, passing by some ruins near by. After the flashback finished completely, Knuckles opened his eyes and looked at the bunker with worry. "I can't... I can't lose this..." Knuckles muttered with worry. Izzy placed a hoof on his shoulder to give him some comfort, but Sonic wasn't going to hear anything else. "We've got this, buddy" Sonic stated with a confident smile, as he stood ready to fight against the Tower trope. "I've got your back" he added, then boosted towards the Tower enemies. Knuckles wanted to say something, but since Sonic was already gone, he only smiled a bit. "Thank you, Sonic" he said, before nodding both to himself and to Sonic. Sonic ran towards the first of the Tower enemies, which floated once it sensed Sonic's presence. The Tower suddenly stomped against the ground, and it made spikes came out of nowhere. Sonic could barely dodge the spikes, and then he started to climb the Tower as fast as he could. Once he reached the top, he used his Stomp Attack, destroying the Tower entirely in the process. After that, Sonic quickly went towards the remaining three Tower enemies and repeated the exact same process, until he finally destroyed the last Tower, and therefore, saved the Koco bunker. After he destroyed the Tower enemies, some Koco appeared dancing around him, and then the Light Blue Chaos Emerald came out of nowhere, slowly coming down until it was in front of Sonic. He smirked, grabbed the Emerald and, once again, started to dance along the Koco, celebrating that he got another Chaos Emerald. After the dance, Sonic approached Knuckles and Izzy with a smile. "I told you I've got this, buddy" he said in a mocking tone. "Yeah, sure thing" Knuckles said with a mocking tone. "You didn't did a bad job... But it could have been a lot faster If I was doing it with my bare fists" he stated, also punching his fists together. "Uh-huh, sure, now keep saying it until you believe it, Knucklehead" Sonic replied with a smirk. Knuckles groaned and rolled his eyes, also shacking his head at Sonic's attitude. "Well, if we're getting anything good out of this, the Koco seem to be celebrating something" Izzy pointed out with a smile. It wasn't until Izzy mentioned it that both Sonic and Knuckles noticed the Koco dancing around happily that the Tower trope was defeated. They started to walk towards the Koco, and once the Koco noticed their presence, they all started to gather in front of them, standing on lines and waiting for Knuckles to make a move or give an order, since he was considered the commander right now. But before Knuckles could say or do anything at all, the Koco used what could be considered their ears as an arm and saluted at them. Knuckles frowned, stood like a militar and saluted back, with Sonic and Izzy repeating his action at his side. After that, the Koco started to shine brightly... and just like what happened to that Koco mother on Kronos Island, their bodies slowly fell to the ground, completely absents of life. Their souls floated to the sky, and that weird symbol from before appeared again. Knuckles stopped his salute, then closed his eyes, feeling bad for the Koco that recently died. Then, he looked back at the bunker ruins, and that nostalgic sensation came back. He might not say it out loud, but recently, he couldn't help but think about Angel Island, and the fact that something in this dimension hit so close to home for him... it was hard to take in. Both Sonic and Izzy sighed, frustrated that the Koco died, but then they noticed Knuckles' attitude and look towards the ruins, and they looked at each other with worry for him.