//------------------------------// // Chapter 21: Back Together // Story: Sonic New World // by ColossalParadox //------------------------------// "He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not." Amy and Rouge walked across the landscape of a giant open meadow, following the signal Sonic gave off. Rouge led the way as Amy would pick up flower after flower and test if Sonic loved her or not. Every time she always landed on not, to which she would bend over while walking and pick up another flower and try again. After walking for some time, the landscape began to thin out to only blades of grass, leaving Amy to the last flower she had picked when they were in the meadow. She gingerly picked the petals off one by one since this was her last flower, she was going to have to savor it. She now only had 5 petals left and was having an anxiety attack on what the result would be. "He loves me" 4 "He loves me not" 3 "He loves me" 2 "He loves me not" 1 Amy was speechless, this was the moment she had finally been waiting for. She slowly reached to pick of the last petal, but she did not take into account on how strong her grip was on the flower and an unusually strong gust of wind came by and blew it out of her hand. Amy's eyes shot open and desperately tried to catch the flower, but it was all for not as the flower maneuvered through her attempts to grab it and it was gone, carried away by the cruel forces of mother nature. Amy could do nothing as she pathetically watched as the flower drifted away from her, never truly knowing if Sonic loved her or not. Amy let out a depressed sigh and trudged her way back to meet up with Rouge, who was standing and examining the map on her hand held, seeing which way to go next. Rouge twisted and turned her hand held, looking for the correct direction, until she finally spotted it and continued on her way, a depressed Amy following in her wake. "Come on, the place that Sonic told us to go to is only a couple of more miles this way," Rouge explained, pointing her finger south east. Amy was not paying her much attention, she still looked behind herself hoping that by some sheer force of a tiny miracle that she would see the flower floating back, unfortunately it did not. "Sure, okay," Amy forced out. "Is that all it takes to get you down," Rouge asked, "Some silly little game that doesn't even actually determine anything. You have seriously got to stop letting your emotions get the best of you. Yeah, every time you did it the flower determined 'he didn't love you', but come one, that was just coincidence," Rouge finished, trying to talk sense into the distraught Amy. Amy only sighed again before responding to Rouge's question. "You don't understand Rouge, Sonic will never tell me his true feelings, so I HAVE to resort to using those types of games. They help reinforce my confidence in him having those feeling for me. That last flower I had was going to be he loves me, but the wind blew it out of my hand and into the horizon before I could pluck the petal and make it official. Yeah, those games may be totally bogus, but they just help, ya know?" Amy finished her answer with another depressing sigh. Rouge turned her head enough so that she could look back at the upset Amy, who was staring at the ground but still keeping pace with her. She turned her attention back to leading them to their destination. "I'm sure that one day he'll reveal his true feelings to you Amy, but right now we have got to concentrate on one thing at a time. That means getting to this place on my hand held and helping Sonic search for the chaos emeralds. If you help him find one, it will probably increase the chance of him telling you how he feels," Rouge encouraged. Amy looked up at this revelation and put on a face of determination. "You're right Rouge, I can't be like that. No one like a Debby Downer and that is not me. Come on, let's help SONIC!!" Amy screamed in enthusiasm and ran ahead of Rouge. Rouge watched the energetic pink hedgehog run a few feet ahead before yelling at her a good reason to get back there. "AMY, COME BACK HERE, I AM THE ONE WITH THE MAP!!" Amy slid to a halt, putting all the force on her heels in order to stop her momentum. She walked back to stand beside Rouge, an embarrassed blush adorning her pink cheeks. "Oh yeah, sorry," she apologized, sheepishly. o.0.o Shadow stood at the entrance to the small town that Sonic had lead them to, cursing every moment he looked at the happy town full of colorful equines. "That hedgehog is dead," Shadow grumbled under his voice as he reluctantly walked into town, wondering where everyone else was and why they had to be so slow. Shadow got a few odd glances from ponies passerby, but he figured they had seen a lot weirder before they got here. Shadow came to a halt as he heard someone incorrectly address him. "Hey, Sonic," said somepony in a somewhat upset tone. Shadow stopped and clenched his fists at being called the wrong name. "Take one good look at me," he said as he slowly turned to meet the gaze of a few of the town ponies, two stallions and a mare, before speaking again, "do I look like that faker," Shadow sternly asked. The ponies gulped at hearing his deep voice talk in an angry tone, hoping that they had not just made a huge mistake. "Well, yes," They answered truthfully, "but now that I get a better look at you, I can tell your not him," he said with a sheepish smile. Shadow slowly approached him, making him gulp again as Shadow got right up in his face. "Well then, hopefully you won't make that mistake again next time," Shadow finished with a semi-evil smile. The stallion and his posse furiously shook their heads, the leader saying, "Yes sir," and ran off, the two others following after him. Shadow just scoffed and crossed his arms as he watched them get smaller and smaller as they put as much distance between them and Shadow as possible. Shadow saw a small little ginger bread looking house and sighed, wondering if that was the best place to check. He slowly trudged towards it and went through the double doors, all eyes turning to him as he did. They all seemed to stare at him angrily, but soon lost their looks as they saw the even angrier and more intimidating one on his. He looked around the room and spotted an empty table near the window. He walked over to, the ponies he passed shying away a bit, and sat down, waiting for his "friends" to finally arrive and take him anywhere but here. o.0.o Sweetie stood in front of the entire group, proudly holding the shining blue emerald above her head in her hoof. Her smile was unlike no other anyone has ever seen and the pride everyone had in her was practically beaming. She would never forget the thunderous applause that came after she finished her performance. The looks on her friends faces would always stay her memory for years to come. After going back stage and being announced the winner, Sweetie and Rarity were approached by a talent agent that handed them a card, saying that if Rarity wanted Sweetie to go further to just call him. Even though she did not get her cutie mark, she was glad she was able to help Sonic get one step closer to home. After showing off the emerald to the group, she brought down her hoof and tossed the emerald to Sonic. "Catch," she said. Sonic's quick reflexes allowed him to easily catch the emerald that propelled towards him; he examined it a bit before nodding his thanks to Sweetie Belle and stowing it away in his "back pocket". Their job here was done, so they said their thanks and congratulated the other contestants and wished them luck next year. The group were now going to head back to the TARPIS, all except for Twilight who had to go and check them out of their hotel. They all nodded in agreement to the plan and went their separate ways, their next destination being Ponyville. o.0.o The doctor tapped his hoof impatiently at the main console while waiting for Twilight to finally arrive so they could leave. It was a good ten minutes after they had arrived back at the TARPIS for Twilight to come knocking on the door. The doctor pushed a button on the console and opened the door for Twilight, finally relieved the she had made it back. The doctor did one final head count to make sure everyone was there and nodded to his family, to which they nodded back and took their places at the console. Tails looked over to Knuckles with a sly grin which he noticed right away. "You might want to hold on to something," Tails told him. "What do you- waaHAHAAHAY," Knuckles shouted as he stumbled around a bit. The doctor had pulled the starting lever and caused the central part of the console to start moving up and down while his family did their part in piloting the machine. Knuckles grabbed on to a safety bar and looked at his two other friends who were chuckling at his amazement and the look he had on his face. Sonic was able to strain his chuckling long enough so he was able to talk. "Welcome aboard the TARPIS," he said to the bewildered Knuckles. o.0.o Shadow, Amy, and Rouge all sat around the circular table in Sugarcube Corner, looking out the window every couple of minutes for their friends and the others they were traveling with. Shadow sat with his arms crossed and eyes closed, a frown adorning his face every second. Rouge had her one leg over the other and her arms also crossed, a bored expression on her face. Amy had her head leaning against her left palm with her elbow on the table and drew lazy circles on the table with her right hand, waiting as patiently as she could. They were all on the verge of falling asleep, even though it was 6:46 with the sun still shining, until they heard a strange noise start to fill the room and the wind picked up. Everyone in the bakery looked to the center of the room as they witnessed a tall blue box fade into existence, making the strangest noise that they would never forget. The noise finally stopped and the box was finally in full existence, that was when they all saw the door open and two ponies walked out, Derpy and Dinky Hooves, walked up to the counter and sat in the rotisserie chairs, smiling at Mrs. Cake. She gave nervous smile back to them. "What can I get for you two," she asked with a nervous tone. "The usual please," Dinky answered politely. Mrs. Cake nodded and head into the back to fetch their requested items. Dinky spun her chair around trying to entertain herself while she waited, that is when she noticed a few creatures she did not recognize. They also had the same description Sonic had told them. Dinky tapped on her mother's side to get her attention and subtly pointed out the creatures to her. "Aren't those the creatures Sonic told us about that were his friends," Dinky whispered. Derpy turned to get a good look at them and nodded. "Yeah, they must be. Very good observation Muffin," Derpy praised. Dinky smiled at this and hopped down, walking to the TARPIS. The doors immediately opened for her as soon as she got up to them; she rubbed the TARPIS' side before walking inside. "Hey, Sonic," DInky called out, "I think you may want to get a look at this," she said, walking back outside. The others filed out of the TARPIS, following Dinky. She waited until Sonic and his friends were beside her before pointing out his friends sitting at the table. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles smile in relief and walked over to them. Amy was the first to notice and jumped up with glee, running over to him. "Hey guy-oOF," Sonic tried to say before he was tackled by the figure that was his supposed "girlfriend". "OOH, Sonic! I missed you so much, no more going to alien worlds unless I say so!" She commanded. Sonic was able to wriggle his arms free and separate Amy from him before she cut off his air supply. "Yeah, it is nice to see you too Amy," he said in a weak, breathless voice. By this point, the others had gotten up and walked over to Sonic and the group as well. They all smiled at each other, except for Shadow, and were able to catch up with what was happening. "I hope you guys didn't have too hard of a time finding this place," Sonic said. "Not really, but we did have some trouble along the way," Amy responded. "Like what?" Sonic asked. Amy tensed up at this question and looked away with a blush, "I'd rather not talk about it." "Alright, if that's what you want. So anyways, what-," was all Sonic could say before Pinkie cut in. "OOO, is this the Mr. Grumpypants you were telling us about Sonic," Pinkie said, referring to Shadow, "You were right, he does look like he could use a little Pinkie charm," she said, examining Shadow closer and inspecting his entire form. "Mr.... Grumpypants," Shadow asked a bit irritatedly. "Hey, you have me beat. All I did was describe you, she came up with the name," Sonic said defensively. Shadow growled but did nothing more, causing Sonic to chuckle. Sonic put his hands on his hips and looked at the group, glad that the gang was all back together. Sonic simply nodded, but felt a cold wind blow by him as he noticed the atmosphere of the bakery was a tiny bit off. Usually it would be full of chatter and ponies eating, but that was not the case. Sonic slowly turned around and to his surprise noticed all the customers had their eyes on him, each face filled with anger and disapproval. Sonic called back to his group to assess the situation. "Uuh, guys, something's wrong here," he said, not taking his eyes of the other customers. They all turned to see what he was talking about and gasped as they saw all the hateful gazed trained on Sonic. The situation was unknown, why they were angry at Sonic was a mystery, but it would not be for long. "TRAITOR," one of the customers shouted, rousing up the others to speak their mind. "BARBARIAN," another shouted. One after another and insult was thrown Sonic's way, they soon started getting up and advancing towards him, backing him up to the doors. The group was unsure of what to do, because none of them could really try to hurt them because they didn't know how to diffuse or handle the situation, all except for Shadow who what have no problem kicking some of their tails. Sonic was backed and fell through the door, scrambling to get up as the customers filed out of the bakery. The townsponies looked to see what was the commotion and understood why it was happening once they saw who it was. The gathered around in a circle and cheered them on as one by one Sonic was insulted or threatened. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US!" one pony shouted. "YOU'RE NO FRIEND OF OURS!" Another shouted. Sonic only stood there as an angry mob was formed around him, trying to keep a defensive but none aggressive stance. Sonic looked all around him trying to find a means of escape, but there were none. He looked over to his traveling companions with a panicked and confused look on his face, trying to figure out what was wrong. "Wh-What!?" Was all he could say. o.0.o The control center was alive with robotic looking ponies. Some were flying around with little jets on the bottom of their bodies and others simply rolled on the flat surface of their base. They were tallish, round robots with what looked like heads the shape of ponies, but instead of eyes they had a small metal bar extend inward from each socket where they eventually met and extended out to make one giant eye stalk. They had lights on their heads the shape of pony ears and lit up whenever one of them began to talk. Their round body had little orbs going around the entire circumference in even rows, except for one arm that extended from the front that looked like a plunger of sorts on their right side and the other looked like a metal corncob on their left side. They were all busy going about their jobs when one barged in from the elevator. "I bring new from the research facility," it said in a crackly robotic voice, the ear lights lit up with each syllable of it words. All them stopped what they were doing and turned to the interrupting robot. Their leader rolled forward, he was a bit taller than the others and spoke with a deep voice. "Explain, Explain!" He commanded. "The rock we discovered on the Earth is no ordinary rock. It has been found to have an immense source of energy, which could mean great things if used correctly," he explained. "And what does that mean for us?" The leader asked. "It means that if we can find someway to harness its power, we will finally be able to....... Ex-ter-mi-nate the Doctor," he responded. "Ex-ter-mi-nate," The leader repeated. "Ex-ter-mi-nate," another one repeated. One after another, all of them were constantly repeating "Exterminate" over and over again until being silence by their leader. "SILENCE!" He commanded, the entire room going quiet. "Find a way to harness its power, then report back to me when you do," the leader commanded. "I obey," said the scientist robot, turning and entering the elevator. He then pressed the button that lead to the laboratory to begin work. The leader turned back to his lower level comrades and made his speech. "With this new power, the Doctor will finally be destroyed. For the glory of the Paleks!" The leader announced. "FOR THE GLORY OF THE PALEKS!" they all repeated.