//------------------------------// // Egg Wyvern, Part II // Story: Sonic Generations: Friendship is Timeless // by GreenS21 //------------------------------// SONIC VS. THE EGG WYVERN Meanwhile, on board the Egg Carrier Sonic jumped, landing on a flat spot of the ship behind the bridge and looking for the Egg Wyvern. He didn’t see it hovering near the engines, so he reached his right hand into his quills, pulling out his radio. Clicking it on, he said, “Yeah, I’m here, Tails. I don’t know what that thing did, but it dropped me off here. Uh, look, I can’t talk right now.” Tails asked, “Why? Is Eggman attacking you?” Before Sonic could respond, he winced as Eggman sang, “♪I’d love to destroy the blue one you know, he’s an obstacle that always gets in my way~♪” Sonic grimaced as he answered, “Worse. He’s singing.” Tails responded, “Oh. Yeah, we heard him too. All right, but before you go, we’re traveling through the valley on foot right now. Eggman’s deployed his robots, probably to keep us from flying up to the Egg Carrier. We’re going to see if we can find a spot where they’re less densely packed and we’ll link up with you to take him down, okay?” Sonic replied, “Okay, but you’d better hurry. This battleship… I’ve got a bad feeling about it.” Suddenly, the Egg Wyvern flew up behind Sonic, the hedgehog’s head turning to look behind him as Eggman exclaimed, “AH-HA! Thought you could hide from me, eh? OPEN FIRE!” Sonic barely had time to leap over to the flat spot across from him before a barrage of lasers was fired from the sides of the Egg Wyvern’s mouth at the spot where he had been standing, causing a large explosion. Looking back, Sonic saw that that part of the ship was a bit damaged from the attack, but otherwise it seemed okay. Holding his radio back up to his face, the hedgehog said, “Okay, NOW he’s attacking me. Catch you later, Tails.” He then turned his radio off and slid it back into his quills, turning and running towards the front of the Egg Carrier; the Egg Wyvern flew around the back of the ship and then flew after him. Eggman laughed, “Ho ho ho ho! Go ahead, Sonic; you can run, but you can’t hide!” He pressed the buttons on the side of his seat as he pursued Sonic, priming another weapon. “Why did I ever design this thing this way?” he thought to himself for a moment before shaking his head. As he flew, red lasers suddenly shot out of the Egg Wyvern’s wings, flying straight up into the sky before changing directions and coming back down, heading straight for the Egg Carrier! The blue hedgehog noticed them turning around when he glanced up and changed course, managing to make a left turn by drifting along the battleship’s deck. As he ran towards the port side, the first laser hit the ship where he would’ve been had he kept going. He leapt over the middle of the ship, narrowly avoiding another laser as it exploded behind him. He stumbled a bit when he landed, the tailwind from the front pushing him backwards. He managed to recover and leapt back towards the other side as two more lasers hit the deck near where he’d been. Each laser’s impact blew a hole in the Egg Carrier’s deck. As Sonic landed back on the starboard side and started running forward again, Eggman yelled, “How dare you dodge them all, Sonic! You made me hit my own ship!” Sonic called back, “That’s your fault, Eggman! You should have put some more thought into what you armed that thing with!” Eggman grinned, “My Egg Wyvern is full of surprises, hedgehog! Let’s see you dodge this!” He pressed another button on the side of his seat and a missile launcher on the Egg Wyvern’s underside opened up. It then fired a barrage of missiles that locked onto Sonic as he ran towards the front of the Egg Carrier while the Egg Wyvern flew underneath the ship. Due to the narrow space between the middle of the ship and the open air, Sonic didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver or sidestep as the missiles began to rain down on him. He sped up as they got closer, trying to reach the front of the ship as fast as he could without flying off, but they still managed to catch up to him. A few struck behind him without throwing him off, but he had to jump over most of the rest of them to avoid being hit. As the last three closed in on him, Sonic planted his feet and his left hand against the ground, sliding as he reached the front of the Egg Carrier. He managed to turn and pick himself up before he could slide off onto the nose, running around to the port side of the ship while the remaining missiles lost their lock-on and hit the Egg Carrier’s nose instead. But Eggman was determined to not give him any room to breathe, for just as Sonic began to run towards the back of the ship, Eggman flew up from underneath the ship in front of him, the cannons on the sides of the Egg Wyvern’s mouth glowing at their ends. “Gotcha!” Eggman exclaimed as they fired white lasers directly at Sonic. Just as they were about to hit him, Sonic leapt over them, one of them just passing underneath him as he soared over the lasers. Sonic curled up into a ball as they exploded against the Egg Carrier and launched into a Homing Attack at the Egg Wyvern. Eggman quickly responded by dropping the machine’s canopy over him to protect himself, causing Sonic to instead grab the horn on top of it. The Egg Wyvern flew up above the stern as it began swinging its head around, trying to shake the hedgehog off. Sonic held on tight, knowing it would likely throw him over the side if he let go. As he held on, Sonic noticed where the connectors for the canopy were located, just behind the machine’s head. He grunted to himself; as long as that canopy was on, Eggman would be able to keep him from attacking the cockpit. After hanging on for a few more seconds, he let go as the Egg Wyvern swung its head up, the hedgehog flying up for a moment before he looked down at the connectors and performed another Homing Attack, striking the connectors and weakening them. The Egg Wyvern swung its head back violently at this attack, hitting Sonic and sending him flying towards the bridge. The hedgehog hit the ground hard at the spot below the bridge while Eggman turned his Egg Wyvern around and landed at the middle of the stern. The mad genius then yelled, “Watch what you’re doing! I worked really hard on this masterpiece!” Standing up, Sonic turned to him while rubbing his head and grinned, “Really? You sure it’s not something you scrapped before you used it?” Eggman replied, “Of course not! It’s a brand new machine!” Shaking his head to chase away some stray thoughts about the Egg Wyvern, he said, “See if you can make it through this, Sonic!” With that, he detached the arms connected to the Egg Wyvern’s mouth, both of them flying towards Sonic as the ‘fingers’ began to rotate in a circle. Sonic took off running as they began to fire rounds at him like a pair of miniguns. The arms continued to aim at him as they fired, forcing the hedgehog to sidestep and jump to the sides as he ran towards the Egg Wyvern. As he began to get closer, he called, “Hey Eggman! How much is it costing you for these things to fire this long? Four hundred thousand rings?” Eggman yelled, “Joke all you want, Sonic! It won’t help you get up here!” Unfortunately, the fat man had a point; with the Egg Wyvern standing at its full height, it wouldn’t be easy to reach the cockpit. Sonic eyed the arms as he ran and dodged, both of them now moving alongside him as they fired. He remembered something; it gave him an idea. He was almost to the stern section when the two arms got in front of him, firing downward and beginning to point upwards, their bullets moving in a straight line to intercept Sonic. Just as they were about to, however, he jumped up, the guns immediately moving and swerving upwards to follow him. Once he was high enough, Sonic used a Homing Attack on the arm to his right, hitting and bouncing off of it as the other arm floated up in response. Sonic quickly changed directions and attacked it with another Homing Attack; the other arm repeated what the other had done, still trying to hit him. This went on for a few more seconds until Sonic was high enough to aim for the horn on the Egg Wyvern’s canopy. Before Eggman could stop him, Sonic launched towards the horn from the machine’s left side, holding out his left hand as he neared the horn. He grabbed onto the horn and swung around it like it was a pole, swinging for a second before letting go, aiming for the canopy’s connectors. He hit it with a Homing Attack and, when he bounced up, followed it up with a stomp attack. And that did it; the connectors couldn’t hold the canopy down anymore and it broke off of the Egg Wyvern, flying over Sonic’s head as he landed before getting left behind as it fell off the Egg Carrier. Sonic leapt off the Egg Wyvern down onto the battleship’s stern while Eggman retrieved his arms and flew to the back of the ship, landing on top of the bridge and turning to look down at Sonic. “Argh…! Now look what you’ve done, you spine ball!” he yelled. Sonic stood up and turned around, grinning up at him. “Looks like I cracked this egg wide open! Too bad it’s not much prettier on the inside!” Eggman growled, “You think you’re funny, don’t you? Well, I’ve got a good one for you! This beauty of mine is powered by a Chaos Emerald! I hope you hate camping, Sonic, because you’re going to be roasting on an open fire when THIS dragon is through with you!” With that, the Egg Wyvern stood up straight, its missile launcher coming out of its underside as it began to charge its lasers up. After a moment, Eggman pressed a button on the side of his seat as he yelled, “Take THIS!” Almost immediately afterwards, the arms fired their lasers at Sonic while the missiles began to light up. Sonic quickly ran towards the back of the ship, jumping up as he reached the end of the raised section of the battleship, the Egg Wyvern’s lasers flying around him. They hit the ground immediately afterwards, creating an explosion that sent Sonic flying towards the ship’s bridge. While he was in the air, the systems in the missiles came on and they were all fired at Sonic, all of them heading straight for him! Narrowing his eyes at this, Sonic righted himself and got ready. As the first missile approached, he brought his legs up and pushed his feet down on top of it. Not wasting any time, he jumped towards the next missile, and then the one behind that one, and then another, making his way towards Eggman. Just as Eggman realized what Sonic was doing and was about to fly up again, the hedgehog curled up into a ball and launched a Homing Attack at him, hitting Eggman’s cockpit directly and sending the Egg Wyvern tumbling off the back of the Egg Carrier. Sonic was a bit luckier, managing to land on one of the wings on the back of the Egg Carrier, just above the engines. He crouched down for a moment after he landed and then looked up, seeing the Egg Wyvern spinning as it fell through the air before Eggman evidently began to get it back under control. Figuring that it wasn’t finished yet, he stood up and ran down the wing, getting back down on the battleship and beginning to move towards the front again. His suspicions were proven correct a second later as the Egg Wyvern flew up behind the bridge a second later. “Come on, step it up, Eggman! You’re too slow!” he cheekily called back over his shoulder. Eggman growled, “Grr…! I’ll get you, Sonic!” IN PURSUIT Soon, at the lake down in Kingdom Valley Tails and Shining Armor led the group across a stone bridge, some of them still a bit wet after having to swim through a tunnel to reach a spot where they could get up to the bridge. They’d been fighting their way through the robots that had dispersed into the valley itself, as well as some of the anti-air robots that saw them and flew down. At this point, the sky was starting to look pretty clear. “It looks like we’ve taken care of most of the robots, Tails! Do you think it’s safe to get up to the Egg Carrier now?” Twilight called. “It should be! As long as one of us is fast enough, it should be no problem getting onto Eggman’s battleship now!” Tails called back. Reaching the end of the bridge, everyone came to a stop on the grass covering on top of the column they were standing on. As everyone caught their breath, Shining spoke, “All right… then here’s the plan. Rainbow Dash is obviously the fastest flyer among us, so she’ll fly on ahead and land on the Egg Carrier.” Rainbow looked at him and asked, “What, just me?” Shining replied, “No. I know a spell that will allow me to track you once it’s been cast. It will give me your exact position; once we know your general location, we can teleport up there without worrying about over or undershooting it. And once we’re all on board…” Before he could finish, something crashed into the lake below, raising a column of water that splashed all over everybody. “Aw, what in tarnation was that?!” Applejack exclaimed as she made sure her Stetson was still on her head. While Rarity looked over her wet hair, Rainbow trotted over to the edge of the column where the water had sprayed up and looked down. “Great! It’s not bad enough Eggman sent his robots after us, now he’s dropping stuff on us!” she said, still looking down as the Egg Carrier passed overhead. Tails and Twilight walked over to her, standing at her sides as they looked down as well. The object was floating in the water below, and they both noticed that it was on fire (though that was quickly being put out) and it looked familiar. “Um, I think that’s part of the Egg Carrier actually, Rainbow!” Twilight spoke after a moment. Tails and Rainbow both looked up at the Egg Carrier, the former realizing that one of the attachments on the starboard side was missing. He realized that was what landed in the lake. “I think you’re right, Twilight! Something’s wrong!” he said. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF Everybody looked up at the Egg Carrier and saw that explosions and fires were starting to break out across it, causing more pieces of it to break and fall off. But above all, there was something missing from the back of the battleship. “Wh-What happened to those blue flames that were behind it?” Fluttershy asked. “Ooh, I know! The engines aren’t working!” Pinkie said. Twilight looked at her worriedly, “Not working…? Just like…?” Rainbow asked, “How’s it staying up, then?” Applejack looked at Tails, “Sugarcube?” The fox said, “I’m afraid Pinkie’s right. Something’s definitely wrong with the engines; they’re malfunctioning or something and, unless they’re fixed soon, they won’t be coming back on. The Egg Carrier’s still got its momentum, but that won’t keep it up forever. Without the engines…” Luna asked, “It will crash…?” Tails nodded; he then said, “We got to move.” He spun his tails around and lifted off the ground, flying a little bit over the side of the column. He then turned back and held out his hands, saying, “Twilight, Applejack, grab on! I’ll give you a lift!” The two hesitated only a moment before taking him up on his offer, Applejack jumping first and Tails grabbing her hooves. Twilight came next, wrapping her hooves around Applejack’s hind legs. Flipping himself around so that he was holding Applejack right, Tails then began flying in the direction of the Egg Carrier while Spike climbed on Cadance’s back, Rainbow and Fluttershy moved to help Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and Celestia and Luna grabbed Shining Armor with their magic. As they flew, Applejack asked, “What are we doin’, Tails?” The fox replied, “We’ve got to get some idea of where that thing’s gonna crash. That should allow us to predict where Eggman’s machine might end up after it abandons ship.” Cadance flew up alongside Tails and asked, “What about Sonic?” Spike nodded, “Yeah, he’s up there too, man! We’ve still got to help him, don’t we?” Tails glanced at them as he replied, “Sonic’s fallen out of the sky more times than I can recall right now, and he’s always managed to land in one piece. He’s done it before, he can do it again.” He then faced forward, “I’m more worried about Eggman’s dragon. If that thing’s still working when they get off that battleship, Sonic’s going to need some help to take it down!” FIRE IN THE SKY Meanwhile, aboard the Egg Carrier Sonic stood off to the side underneath the bridge, observing the fires and explosions occurring on the battleship’s deck. “Whoa. Looks like this party’s over,” he muttered. He looked over to his right, seeing the Egg Wyvern flying alongside the battleship. The robotic dragon was heavily damaged from their fight, but it still seemed like it was able to hold together thanks to the Chaos Emerald that was powering it. “Argh… My beautiful Egg Carrier, destroyed… again?” Eggman groaned. Sonic called, “Hey, you’d better pack it in, Eggman! The Chaos Emerald is the only thing that’s keeping that thing going now! Why don’t you just hand it over and we can fight some more another day?” Eggman grinned, “Not a chance, hedgehog! I may be beat, but I’m the only one who’s flying now! You, on the other hand, are all alone and on a crash course to disaster! Farewell, Sonic the Hedgehog; happy landings!” With that, he turned and flew towards the front of the Egg Carrier just as its nose broke off. Sonic leapt down from where he was standing and ran towards the front of the ship, stopping on top of what remained of the stern. “Darn! What am I going to do now? There’s got to be a way out of this!” he muttered. Looking off to the side, he noticed more pieces of the Egg Carrier were breaking off, some of them flying past it. Spotting a particularly big piece, he grinned to himself, “Perfect!” He got down in a runner’s stance as the battleship’s nose exploded, readying himself before dashing forward, jumping when he was at the very end of the stern. He soared through the air past some of the debris for a few seconds before bringing his legs up in front of him as he approached a metal panel. As soon as his feet came into contact with it, he pushed off, jumping to another piece of debris. Working his way around it, he jumped onto what remained of one of the wings, the wing pointing directly at the Egg Wyvern up ahead. Eggman spotted Sonic as he ran towards the other end of the wing and jumped off of it, heading for more of the Egg Carrier’s debris. Growling, he set the Egg Wyvern to go up, sure that Sonic was determined to hit him with one last attack. As he leapt across the debris, Sonic noticed the Egg Wyvern ascending and smiled to himself, “I knew I could count on you, Eggman! Almost there…” As the hedgehog got within attacking range, Eggman yelled, “Go away! You’re not getting up here!” But Sonic kept coming, and as he reached the last piece of debris, he jumped towards the Egg Wyvern’s chest, curling up into a ball as he got close. He struck it directly, pushing against the metal for a second… And then he punched through, going right through the robot! When he emerged from the other side, he held up the cyan Chaos Emerald in his left hand as he soared through the air and grinned, “Yeah!” Eggman’s eyes widened when he saw the gem in Sonic’s hand, his Egg Wyvern already starting to sputter without its power source. “NO! Put that back!” he yelled. But was Sonic really going to listen to him? EGG WYVERN DOWN Of course he wasn’t. As he held the Chaos Emerald above his head, Sonic tightened his grip around it, tapping into its power. He let out a shout as he felt the energy flowing through him, merging with the power of the other three Chaos Emeralds in his spines. He then repositioned himself and shot towards the Egg Wyvern, easily tearing through it and ripping it another new hole. “AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!” Eggman screamed. That was the last thing he managed to do before Sonic started shooting all around in midair, tearing his Egg Wyvern to shreds. The legs came off, one of the wings separated from the body, part of the tail ripped off… The final touch came when Sonic buzzed right through the neck, separating the damaged cockpit from the rest of the machine. An ejector in Eggman’s chair shot the evil genius up out of the cockpit. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t have a parachute installed on it… Sonic, meanwhile, came out of his spin and grabbed an appropriately-sized piece of the Egg Wyvern with his right hand, putting it under his feet and standing on it like a snowboard. He kept his feet firmly planted to it as gravity began to pull him down, the remains of the Egg Wyvern beginning to spiral down behind him. As he fell, Sonic saw he was approaching a large, circular building down below, multiple columns sticking out of the inside due to its missing roof. Part of the old Soleanna castle? He shook his head; he needed to focus if he was going to make a good landing. “Can’t just fall straight down like I did before; that path is straight! Gotta hit the ground at just the right angle…” he thought to himself as he eyed the stone path leading to the ruined structure. Sonic focused on the path, the wind rushing past him as he angled his makeshift board slightly towards the ground. It was rushing up to meet him… And then he hit it, his board evening out as it hit the ground and retaining most of the speed from the flight down and sending him towards the building. “Yes! I’ve still got it!” Sonic grinned as he pumped his right fist up in the air. He then brought it back down as he looked at the building, noticing a shadow pass over him as he slid. Looking up, he saw it was the remains of the Egg Wyvern, and it was heading straight for the building! Sonic steeled himself; the machine crashed into the building just as he reached the entrance, knocking part of the circular wall and the columns behind it down as it crashed into the building. Stone began raining down as Sonic approached the circular interior, leaping off his board as he got inside and running to avoid being crushed by the broken stone and a falling column before he slid to a stop across from the crashed Egg Wyvern. He glanced up with a raised eyebrow, seeing the Egg Carrier fly over the building. A few seconds later, he heard an explosion as the battleship crashed; Sonic just calmly smiled as he dusted his right leg off. A second later, he heard a grunt and turned to see Eggman had landed on his back next to the Egg Wyvern, his arms and legs splaying out on the ground a moment later. Sonic smirked and tossed the cyan Chaos Emerald up, catching it in his right hand. He then heard Tails call, “Sonic!” He looked up to see his fox buddy flying down over the remains of the broken wall, still carrying Applejack and Twilight. Above him, he saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy carrying Rarity, Pinkie descending thanks to a bunch of balloons tied around her that she had gotten from… somewhere, Cadance flapping her wings to slow her descent while Spike held onto her, and Celestia and Luna coming down gently with Shining Armor wrapped in their magic. Twilight let go as Tails neared the ground as did Applejack, both of them landing on their hooves while Tails landed next to Applejack. Rainbow and Fluttershy set Rarity down in kind of a cross between quickly and gently as they landed, Rainbow looking relieved at finally setting her down while Fluttershy smiled at the white unicorn as she made sure she still looked flashy. Pinkie Pie hovered next to them, her balloons keeping her from touching the ground, and the princesses landed gracefully, Luna and Celestia letting Shining go, allowing him to drop down onto his hooves. “Hey guys! Glad to see you managed to follow me this far!” Sonic said. Twilight smiled wanly, “Well, it took a bit of work. Good thing that battleship was so big.” Rainbow grinned at him, “Man, we didn’t see a lot of that battle, but that ending was so cool!” As he slid off of Cadance’s back, Spike said, “I can’t believe you made such a good landing after falling that far.” Sonic just smirked and tucked the cyan Chaos Emerald inside of his quills. Tails smiled at Spike and Cadance, “I told you he’d land okay!” Cadance smiled back at him, “You certainly did, Tails.” EGGMAN DEFEATED? Pinkie was about to say something about having a party when everybody heard a growl and turned to look at Dr. Eggman, who had raised himself into a sitting position. “Oooooh… I can’t believe this! I was supposed to win this time!” he complained, crossing his arms and pouting like a little kid. Sonic just smiled, “Aw, I’m sorry! I didn’t get that memo. You always lose, Eggman!” He looked at the others as he said, “It’s true, you know. We’re always beating this guy. It’s like our job or something!” Rainbow, Applejack, Spike, and Pinkie all cracked up at that. Twilight and Tails, though, looked a bit… confused. Tails spoke after a moment, “Well, yeah, but… what’s Eggman even doing here? Was he actually waiting for us, or did he get grabbed by that monster?” Sonic shrugged, not entirely sure what the fat man was doing himself. Rainbow shrugged, “Who cares? He’s beaten; now we can lock him up for good!” Applejack looked at her, “Lock him up?” Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, make him pay for all the stuff he’s done! Put him on trial and all that!” Cadance spoke, “Forgive me for asking, but is that really necessary? Yes, he was using those poor Wisps as energy for his mind control scheme, and he had a giant robot dragon that he used against Sonic just now, but do we really need to put him on trial or lock him up for life?” The Main Six and Spike all turned to look at her, Rainbow saying, “No offense, Princess Cadance, but it’s totally necessary! It’s like Sonic just said; this guy’s constantly planning something, always causing problems! All so he can take over Sonic and Tails’ world!” Twilight nodded, “His factories and bases are pumping pollution into the environment!” Spike said, “He summons ancient creatures to help him take over the world!” Fluttershy squeaked, “He imprisons poor little animals and uses them to power his machines!” Applejack said, “He blew up half o’ their Moon!” Rarity spoke, “He only thinks of himself!” Pinkie said, “He’s a bad, bad, BAD guy!” The princesses and Shining Armor could only stare at them at their accusations, unable to say anything… except for Luna. When Applejack mentioned what Dr. Eggman had done to the Moon in Sonic’s world, the Lunar Princess’ face contorted into an expression of pure rage. The Element of Honesty was obviously not good at telling lies, so if she said that this human had destroyed what was likely this universe’s version of her Moon, probably the most important part about her night… She turned to Shining Armor and, using the Royal Canterlot Voice in all of its booming glory, said, “CAPTAIN! ARREST THAT HUMAN IMMEDIATELY!” Shining reeled from the force of her words, Eggman looking on seemingly nervously. Celestia was about to calm Luna down when her little sister repeated herself, “ARREST HIM!” Before anyone could do anything, the ground beneath them started to rumble, managing to shake Luna out of her rage for the moment. Turning to look over at the Egg Wyvern, everybody saw a familiar purple void forming above it. The creature soon emerged from it, flying over the group as it snatched up Eggman, who let out a surprised shout as he was lifted off the ground. Everybody crouched down when the creature flew over them; they looked up as it flew towards the building’s standing wall, opening another void and disappearing through it with Eggman. Spike stood next to Twilight as he asked, “Whoa… what was that all about?” Twilight said, “Well, if Dr. Eggman wasn’t taken before, he is now.” She then deadpanned, “Not that that makes anything clearer.” Pinkie piped up, “Sure it does, Twilight! It means… wait, what were we talking about again?” The others sighed and looked up at where the creature had been, all of them feeling understandably confused. ________________________________________ SURPRISE APPEARANCE Big Macintosh, Blaze, Zecora, Silver, and Trixie stood at the path leading out of Ponyville, all of them looking at the mountain. It and the surrounding area had regained color just a few minutes ago, which meant that their friends would be back soon. And sure enough, it wasn’t long before they saw the group coming up the path. They looked a bit surprised at the committee waiting for them, Sonic asking, “What’s up, guys? Did something happen?” Blaze answered, “Not quite, Sonic. Not yet, at least.” Big Macintosh said, “Y’all need ta see this.” Without another word, he turned and started walking back into town, Blaze, Silver, Trixie, and Zecora doing the same. The group members looked at each other in confusion for a moment before following them. As they walked, Pinkie bounced up beside Zecora and asked, “Are we going to a party? Is there a pre-victory party going on that I didn’t know about?!” The zebra replied, “You are ever curious, my friend of pink, but what has happened is not close to what you hope and think. We’ll be there soon and then you’ll see, so calm yourself for now and let your questions be.” Twilight looked over at Trixie as they walked, the showmare noticing and managing to make a small smile. She had her hat and cape on, and her mane looked like it had its normal appearance… she must’ve had a good nap. Twilight didn’t get a chance to ask, though, as the group reached the town square and saw the crowd there. Braeburn, Granny Smith, Mayor Mare, Little Strongheart, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the Chaotix, Derpy, Cream and Cheese, Marine, Knuckles, Amy, Big… they were all there. As they joined the crowd, Tails asked, “What’s everybody gathered here for?” Silver looked back at him while pointing upwards, “Because of that.” They looked up where he was pointing, Spike and the ponies immediately recognizing what it was. In the distance, exactly where it was supposed to be, was the city of Canterlot, mountain and all. What caught everybody’s attention was the fact that both the mountain and the city were both in color, which was odd considering that, up to this point, the city had been absent. “Is that…?” Sonic asked. “That’s Canterlot!” Twilight said. She looked at Blaze and Zecora and asked, “But when did it…?” Blaze answered, “It was right about the time the mountain you were on regained its color. That city and its mountain just appeared out of thin air.” Zecora nodded. The Chaotix came over, Espio saying, “That’s not all that’s reappeared.” Vector nodded, “The train station that’s over by the library is back too, but from the looks of it, the only place the tracks lead is Canterlot.” Applejack asked, “What do ya mean?” Vector answered, “We checked the map of all the available destinations and looked for them, but they were gone! It’s like those tracks don’t exist.” Charmy piped up, “Yeah, like POOF! Gone into thin air! Lose the train tracks in exchange for the mountain!” Looking back at the group, Espio said, “Speaking of that mountain, both it and Canterlot were colored when they reappeared. That’s different from everything else we’ve seen so far here in Ponyville. We had to go around and get every inch of color back to this town; now that city appears and it’s seemingly fine? Seems suspicious, doesn’t it?” Celestia nodded, “Indeed.” She glanced back at Luna as she started walking forward, “Come with me, Luna.” The younger sister looked surprised as she followed Celestia through the crowd. “Where are we going, sister?” she asked. Stopping once she was through the crowd, Celestia replied, “We’re going to Canterlot. It would not have reappeared without a reason; we must notify the Royal Guard of the situation and give them their orders. They can assess the situation in the city and castle for us.” Shining Armor stepped forward, “Princess, what do you want us to do?” Celestia looked back at him and said, “You, your sister, and her friends are coming to Canterlot as well, Shining Armor, but not with us. Take the train; by the time it arrives, the Royal Guard should be done making sure the citizens are well and have located anything unusual. It will be a much more efficient use of our time, don’t you agree?” Shining replied, “I guess so…” Celestia nodded, “Of course it is. So Luna and I will fly ahead to Canterlot. All of you get over to the train station and find a ride. We’ll meet you there!” With that, she spread her wings and took to the air, Luna hesitating a moment before doing the same, both princesses flying off towards Canterlot. Knuckles grunted, “That was quick.” Amy agreed, “She didn’t even ask Sonic or anyone else what they thought.” Silver shrugged, “Well… at least she’s determined to do what has to be done.” Blaze nodded, “Indeed.” Tails looked at the group and said, “I guess we’d better get over to the train station then, huh?” Rainbow nodded, “Yeah. Come on, it’s this way!” She led the way, Spike and the other ponies following her, Sonic and Tails following behind them. Before they could get too far, an elderly voice called, “Hold on a second there, young’uns.” The group came to a stop at that and turned around to see Granny Smith walking over, Big Macintosh and Braeburn flanking her. As she came over, Tails asked, “Oh, you’re Granny Smith, right?” The lime mare replied, “Mm-hmm.” Once she was standing in front of Sonic and Tails, she said, more than asked, “You boys are the critters helpin’ mah granddaughter and her friends out.” Sonic and Tails looked at each other for a moment before they looked back at her and the latter said, “Yes, yes we are.” Granny Smith asked, “You friends with ‘em?” Sonic nodded, “Yeah.” The elderly earth pony asked, “You gonna keep standin’ by ‘em?” Sonic replied, “Of course!” Granny Smith nodded, “Good.” Her tone then turned serious, “If you don’t, especially with mah granddaughter, y’all gonna have ta answer ta me. Ya understand?” Sonic looked at her for a moment before saying, “Yeah, we understand.” He then looked at Applejack and said, “You have quite the family, AJ, you know that?” Applejack smiled proudly, “Ah got the best family.” Sonic and the others smiled at that. Seeing that the family matriarch was satisfied, the group turned and headed for the train station. When they arrived at the station, they found a train all set to go waiting at the platform, devoid of passengers. It took a bit of convincing and needing to pay for tickets, but the conductor agreed to let them use the train. Pinkie and Tails went to the front of the train, the pink pony having pulled out her pilot outfit (complete with the hat and neckerchief) and brought the fox with her to show him how to work the train while everyone else got settled. “Okay, okay, I’ll ride IN the train instead of ON it, okay?” Sonic was saying to Twilight and Rarity as he took his seat and crossed his arms, the girls sitting across from him while Spike sat next to him and Shining Armor and Cadance sat across the aisle from them. “I just want us to sit together for now,” Twilight said. “Why would you want to sit on top of the train, anyway? That just sounds so… odd,” Rarity commented. “Maybe to you, but I enjoy it,” Sonic replied. He looked out the window as he said, “I love that feeling of the wind rushing against my face. Plus, in this case, it brings back memories of wing riding on the Tornado and running on top of another train.” Rainbow, who was hovering over Applejack and Fluttershy, who were sitting across from Shining Armor and Cadance, smiled, “Yeah, that sounds awesome! I remember when we were going to Appleloosa the first time and I followed Little Strongheart on top of the cars. Looking back at it now, that was pretty cool!” Twilight looked at Sonic and said, “Well, okay, I guess I can understand that, Sonic. But all the same, just ride in here with us for now, okay?” The blue hedgehog uncrossed his arms and replied, “All right. But just so we’re clear, depending on how long this ride takes, I’m probably going to step out and jump up on top of the train for a bit anyway, just to get some fresh air.” Twilight nodded in agreement, causing Sonic to say, “Okay, so we’re cool on that detail. Now then,” he reached his right hand into his quills and pulled out his cell phone, “time for a little train music.” He slid his right thumb around on the screen for a few seconds before making his selection and hitting the ‘PLAY’ button. ONWARD TO CANTERLOT! Up in the front of the train, Tails had finished getting the basics of the train down and got it ready for departure, telling Pinkie Pie she was free to leave. The pink pony blew the whistle and called, “Toot, toot! Next stop: Canterlot!” A few seconds later, the train came to life, pumping steam out of its stack as the wheels began to turn. It started to speed up as it pulled out of the train station, getting up to a steady speed, everyone on the train getting comfortable. It was going to be a long ride.