//------------------------------// // Chapter 26: Changeling Assault // Story: Sonic New World // by ColossalParadox //------------------------------// The entire swarm of the changeling army flew through the sky, the noise of their wings the same as a billion angry bees. They were lead by the Queen, who was led by the General of the the changelings, only having one goal in mind; conquer. The General did a one-eighty spin in the air to look back at his queen and the giant army he led. "By my calculations, we should be in Ponyville in a few short miles my queen," the General shouted over the turbulence. "Excellent, General. Our time has come, no longer will we have to cower in the shadows of this world, and never again shall we starve. ONWARD MY CHANGELINGS!!!" The entire army of changelings cheered at the motivation given to them by their queen's words. o.0.o Zazz and his gang ran as fast as they could down the amazingly huge corridors of Celestia's castle. They would try to escape the group that chased them by making unexpected turns at every possible moment while still looking for an exit, but the Doctor kept on their trail and, in turn, so did the rest. Zazz eventually led them to what looked like a dead end, but as they got closer to it they realized it was a set of two huge doors. Without thinking, Zazz busted through them; to their thanks, it was not locked. Zazz quickly looked from side to side, looking for some type of escape route until his eyes landed on the perfect thing; a stained glass panel most likely leading to the outside. Zazz heard the approaching mixture of hoof and foot steps, so he signaled to the others the window. He barely got a shrug from any of them, but he was already at the window to notice it. He punched through the window, the pursuing group most likely hearing the crash, and started waving the others out. They all jumped out of the window without hesitation, except or General Hewdraw whom stopped to look at Zazz for a quick moment before jumping out after Zeena and Zor. Zazz knocked away the left over glass that stuck to the bottom of the window sill and paused there, looking out over the edge with one hand on the side of the sill as the chasing group came into the all too familiar room. They saw Zazz standing in the window sill and made a move to advance on him, but froze in place as they watched him turn around to look at them. Zazz had a wicked smile on his face and cradled all the emeralds in his right arm. They all got uncomfortable looks as they couldn't help but stare at his smile. Then, out of nowhere, he did something that would be the last thing they would expect from him. He put two of his fingers, his thumb and pointer finger, to the corners of his mouth and whistled so loudly that it made the two surrounding windows shatter as well. After everyone was done cringing at the pain of the attack of high octaves on their ears, they looked back to Zazz who was waving at them. He then slowly fell backwards out the window and out into the open. The group ran over to see where he had fallen since the room they were in was very high in the air, but as they got to the window to look out, they saw a giant floating yellow orb come from the bottom out of no where, Zazz riding on top of it, along with the Zeena, Zor, and General Hewdraw with a new wing expansion, floating beside him. The yellow orb slowly rotated around, Zazz turning with it, and gave the group, the ones that were ponies that is, a look of horror. The orb had evil looking blue eyes, small protrusions on random parts of its body, and sharp menacing teeth. The orb furrowed its brows at the group, almost as if it were alive, and gave a wicked grin that could compete with Zazz's. Zazz chuckled maniacally once more before he tapped his foot on the orb and it opened its mouth, Zazz proceeding to toss all six of the hard earned emeralds into its mouth; it closing it's mouth with a terrifying chomp. The group reared back at the terrifying noise. Zazz tapped his foot on the orb again, this time it turned around slowly to face the opposite direction. Zazz looked to his comrades on both his sides and told them "Let's go." They nodded and flew off in the intended direction, Zazz lagging behind to look back at the group once more, him still wearing his smile with his tongue lolling out. "Sorry, hedgehog. Looks like you weren't fast enough this time," Zazz said, laughing insanely at the insult. This struck a nerve in Sonic, but before he could do anything, Zazz had already turned back around and flew off, chasing the others. The group stood there in disbelief for a moment before accepting what had happened. They slowly turned away from the window and walked back to the doors, their heads hung low in defeat; not knowing what to do next. Until a letter appeared in front of Celestia in a puff of green smoke and gracefully fell to the floor with soft *ploomp*. Princess Celestia curiously picked it up with her aura of magic and took of the little red ribbon keeping it from unraveling. She unrolled and did a quick read through. When she was reading it, she unknowingly, slowly opened her mouth in a shocked expression. After finishing the letter, she gasped and dropped the letter to the ground. "What does it say Princess?" Twilight asked, picking up the letter. She cleared her throat and read the letter aloud. Dear Princess Celestia, This is Spike. We are under attack by changelings down here in Ponyville and request immediate asis- assit- no, um.... ASSISTANCE! That's it! We need help, badly! Where are you Twilight? I'm more frightened than I have ever been. If only Sonic were here, I bet he could do something... Anyways, please hurry and send help!! Uh oh, I think some just came in downstairs. I am hiding under Twilight's bed with Owlouiscious as I am writing this, I just hope I left a window open... Sincerely, Petrified Purple Dragon Now it was Twilight's turn to be slack-jawed. She felt a twinge of guilt in her heart at the thought of poor Spike and Owlouiscious being stuck down there to hide in the library, scared stiff. Sonic noticed her uneasiness and began to formulate a plan to save everyone down in Ponyville. The basics were to just rush in and kick every changeling flank they see. Sonic furrowed his brow and looked to the conversing group on what their plan of action was. Sonic put his fingers to the corners of his lips, much like Zazz did, and whistled. Everyone immediately stopped talking and looked to him. "Alright everyone,I heard all I need to hear!" Sonic announced. "What do you plan to do?" Twilight asked. Sonic looked at her suspiciously, as if she actually didn't know what he was doing. After an intense moment of glaring he looked her dead in the eye. "I am going to do what the rest of you would do," He said, looking up to the rest of his friends, "Come on guys, we've got to go save the town from changelings," he said quickly turning around and running at a speed where the others could stay with him. They all chased after him, especially Tails who flew over the crowd to try and get up to where Sonic was. When he reached Sonic, he lowered his altitude to level with Sonic. "Sonic!" Tails shouted. "Yeah?" Sonic asked back, still running. "What exactly is a, changeling?" "I'll explain on the way there," He answered. "On the way to where?" Tails asked. Sonic smirked, "You'll see." o.0.o "And they are all commanded by their queen, Chrysalis was her name I think..." Sonic explained. Everyone was well out of Canterlot Castle and running through the city of Canterlot. Princess Celestia had to stay behind to arrange the Royal Guards for a counter attack on the changelings. While the rest of the group, however, was running through the semi-busy streets of the city, drawing the eyes of a few disturbed nobles. "Okay," Tails replied, "But you still haven't told me where were going." "The train takes too long, were going to use the express air ways!" "They have planes here?" "What's a plane?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I'll take that as a no," Tails deadpanned. "Here!" Sonic said, starting to skid to a halt. Tails took notice of this and began to slow his flying as well, the rest following in their wake and beginning to reduce their speed. Sonic slid to a stop right at the edge of Canterlot, carefully stepping forward to take a peek over the edge and whistling at the immense altitude they were at. Sonic turned back around to the group, who were busy catching their breath after all their intense running. "You see that, right down there," Sonic asked, pointing to a little civilization a few miles away with smoke plumes rising up. "Yeah," Tails answered. "That is where were headed," Sonic said. "Okay, so you took us to the edge of this city just to show us where were going when this time could have been spent getting some type of transportation down there?" Sonic chuckled at his friends sarcastic-ish tone of voice and turned his head to look back over the edge again. "Just like old times," Sonic said, slowly looking back up at Tails, who wore a look of confusion. He had no idea what Sonic was talking about, until he saw his best friend begin fall backwards over the edge. Everyone gasped as Tails lurched forward to make feeble grasps at his friend. Tails was able to grab Sonic's hand and laughed victoriously when he did, but his eyes widened as Sonic continued to fall backwards. Then, all at once, they were gone. They had gone completely over the edge and no knew what to do or say. Knuckles, Shadow, and Rouge stood there with smug expressions and crossed arms. They knew what was actually happening, Amy still stood with a nervous feeling in her gut at why it was taking so long. Twilight was about to fly over the edge to try and rescue them, but stopped when she heard the familiar swooshing of Tails' tails when he was flying, everyone took notice of the sound as well. What they saw next would be something they would never forget in their lives. Tails slowly rose above the edge of the cliff, seeming to slightly struggle to lift something. What he was holding was a familiar blue hedgehog with the cockiest grin he had ever put on when he arrived in Equestria. The ponies that were unaware of the ruse breathed out a sigh of relief at the amazing teamwork of the two friends. Sonic chuckled softly at his friends. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Sonic asked his friends, Tails turning as if on cue and flying towards the place in need of rescuing. Knuckles looked to Rouge and shrugged. He backed up and took a running start, leaping off the edge and using the echidna's special capability of gliding, even impressing the animal expert Fluttershy. Rouge kicked off and flew over to Shadow and hovered above him, holding out her hand and waiting for him to grab on. Shadow looked up to her and motioned "No thanks" to her. Rouge only raised an eyebrow, not caring to dwell on his reasoning. She sighed and shrugged at the same time, opting to grabbing Amy only and flying out after their recently departed friends. Everyone looked to Shadow with curious looks. He noticed their glares and waved them off. He looked at his friends flying off into the distance one last time before running off to somewhere else, the small rockets in his boots activating and carrying him even faster to his unknown destination. Soon only becoming a speck to the group of ponies. The Doctor stopped staring after realizing a crucial fact, face hoofing after thinking of it. Derpy and Dinky noticed his distress and looked at him, wanting to know what was wrong. "I think Sonic forgot about using the TARPIS to travel," he said. "No, I don't think he forgot," Derpy replied, "I think this is something that they usually do where they are from," She replied happily. The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, still trying to think of something to say, until he saw a familiar shade of cyan blue and a rainbow mane flying towards them. Rainbow Dash landed next to Twilight and Applejack, sitting on her haunches to catch her breath. "How is that guard Rainbow," Twilight asked, "Is he going to be okay?" "Yeah," Rainbow replied, "I told them what happened and Doctor Blue Mane said that it was Sonic acting quickly on his feet that most likely saved the guards life since we were able to get him to the hospital on time. That guard was non stop saying "that hedgehog is a hero, he deserves to wear this gold armor, not me". I've got to say, I think Sonic has made a real difference ever since he arrived, whether it be good or bad, he has made some change, and I have a feeling he is going to make even more." Everyone nodded at the wonderful news and opinion about Sonic. They looked out into the distance at the small town under attack, knowing that whole group of heroes were on their way there to save each and everyone.