Taismo: The Equestria Games

by RockStarMLP

The Story of Taismo

Spike chose to seclude himself in his room at the castle. All he wanted to do was lay around and do absolutely nothing, and his method of doing that was laying back on the room's sofa. He stared at the ceiling, lost in his own thoughts, shutting the world out around him.

He didn't want to bother himself with anypony. He didn't even bring himself to get up and join the gang for another dinner, but if it was anything like last night's meal, there was nothing good to miss. Any noise was drowned out, even with the occasional knock on the door by whoever did. All he did was keep himself in isolation.

In one day's time, he couldn't lend a helping claw to two important events of the Equestria Games. Thanks to losing his confidence facing tens of thousands of ponies, he was unable to find a spark of flame to light the torch, only to have Twilight bail him out. Then, thinking he could contribute to the winning team of the competition his friends came runner-up in, his misfortune led him to sing an anthem he did not know, and made up one worse than a horrible parody. It must have been a new Equestrian record of how bad one could embarrass themselves in such a short time, and nopony could beat it so easily.

But above feeling disappointed and embarrassed, he felt worthless.

He let down the Crystal Empire as an icon and a hero. He let down the citizens of Equestria in two massive failures. He felt no better lying around then than he did earlier, only worse.

It took the opening of the bedroom door to remotely snap him out of his trance. Someone had walked in and called his name twice, catching his attention the closer the voice got to him. He turned his head to see three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Hey Spike, it's time for us to get together for Tails and Cosmo's story. You ready to go?" Sweetie Belle said to him.

The little dragon didn't reply with words. He just let out a long, and fairly loud sigh, as if he was contemplating whether to go or not.

"Spike, you okay?" Scootaloo asked.

After another deep breath, he gave a response. "Whatever. I'm ready." He got up from his seat, stood with a heavy slouch and a depressed face looking down at the floor. Walking right through the group of three, he made his way out the door as they started to follow.

The fillies walked behind the dragon for a minute, watching maintain the same posture as he moved along. They shared a confused look with each other before one of them spoke up.

"What's with you, Spike? You're limpin' more than a tree branch with too many apples," Apple Bloom said. Her response was another heavy sigh. "Aren't you excited like we are for the story?"

"Yeah. We finally get to learn how Cosmo and Tails fell in love," Sweetie Belle added. "I bet it was super romantic."

"Romantic? I heard it was during some big battle. I bet it was more action than romantic," Scootaloo said.

The little unicorn looked over at the pegasus with an arched eyebrow. "How does action turn into falling in love?"

"I don't know," argued the pegasus. "That's just what I heard."

The yellow filly decided to put in her two bits for thought next. "I bet it will be more like an adventure story. That sounds about right considerin' what we know about them."

"Yeah, I guess that's also true," Sweetie Belle stated. The group continued their trek around a corner and down a staircase to the hallway they were looking for. As they walked along and continued talking, she gave a try of getting Spike's attention. "Hey Spike, you going to be okay?"

"Yeah," he replied, his voice hollow and depressed as its sounded every time he made a sound.

The trio had run out of things they could say to him, and fortunately they lucked out as they approached the doorway into the room everyone would be in. The sounds of muffled voices came through the door, just enough where you couldn't recognize what was said but could still recognize who was saying it. They made their way inside as Spike pushed open the door and they heard what was another little quest of knowledge for Nyx.

"So that's why you're able to move around in space without needing any sort of object to help you breathe? That's incredible! I wish I could do that!"

After Nyx had said that, all eyes turned to the four new guests to join the massive group that had already gathered. As they walked in, Applejack, being closest to the door, rustled a hoof in her little sister's mane and said "About time y'all showed up. You're the last ones we were waiting on."

"We are?" The younger Apple asked, and then she noticed that her older sister was correct. Nyx and Twilight, Tails and Cosmo, all of Team Sonic and the Team JAG Band, even Princesses Celestia and Luna, everypony and everybody were already there, even the youngest foal Skyla. "Oh... I guess we are. Sorry," she added, with a weak laugh.

"It's quite alright, little ones," Luna said. "We have only just finished quite the intriguing discussion of some of our guests' anatomy anyway."

"Yes," agreed Rarity, "although I'm just fine with learning about that than testing my own capabilities to such extremes myself. Now come here and sit down with us."

Each of the incoming group found their own place to sit. Apple Bloom found a seat and Applejack sat next to her, Sweetie Belle next to Rarity and Scootaloo between Rainbow Dash and Twilight on a sofa, with Nyx on the other side of Twilight and all sitting adjacent to another sofa with Tails and Cosmo on that. Spike, however, put himself on the ground at a corner of one of the pieces of furniture furthest from everyone, still wanting his distance, but at least facing everyone rather than looking away.

"Well now that we have everyone together again, perhaps we can get started with what everyone's here for," said Tails.

"I don't see why not," Celestia said, herself sitting on an alicorn-sized throw pillow next to her little sister. "Of course, I would like to ask if you are sure for telling us your tale. We wouldn't want to oppose if you feel unwilling in any way."

Several of the interdimensional guests shook their heads in response, but only Cosmo gave a verbal reply. "We said we would share the story, and we never intend to break our word. Besides, it's not a story we haven't shared more than once."

"Then by all means," Twilight said, her tone as kind and supportive as she could be, already well aware of most of the couple's history. She motioned a hoof to the two and added "Start however you wish."

All eyes were on the couple, even their friends they've known for years. Deep down, they knew retelling their story was not the easiest task to accomplish. It was both the brightest and darkest part of their lives to date, and there was no easier way to explain it than flat out and in specific detail. But seeing how welcome their new pony friends are, and how their values of friendship make the two feel trusted and respected, they deserved at least so much to retell their past.

"I guess... I guess, it would be my place to start," Cosmo said, taking a deep breath to maintain and calm and collected demeanor. Her eyes took a glance over at Nyx, seeing the filly with the most anticipating expression her face would allow to show, all the while looking as kind and content to hear the tale as Twilight. "But before I do, I just want to warn you one thing: this will reach a few points that might be too much, so if any of us need to pause or let out some... Well, emotions..."

"We'll understand. Go ahead and tell your story!" Nyx said, almost too eager to listen. It allowed the Seedrian to give a smile, but a brief one, then took a deep breath to begin. Her memories let her mind go as far back in her knowledge as how it all began; the times of the Seedrian's Great Calamity.

"Many years ago, my race, known as the Seedrians, became involved in a war zone with an opposing force wanting to conquer our old home, the planet Greengate. Many of our warriors, mostly male, sacrificed themselves to defend who was left of our people, but it came to the point when they had to leave the planet and start traveling across the galaxy. Some of our people, however, were indifferent, refusing to surrender to our enemy. They wished to become stronger to overcome any opponent and obstacle, to uncover their fullest potential and be the strongest there was to become. The few survivors of the Great Calamity became the commanding generals of an evil force of robotic and mechanical/organic threat.

"They would call themselves... The Metarex."

"Their quest started with the first mission, and that was to travel the galaxy, conquer any planet that would cross their path, and steal their planet eggs."

"What's a planet egg?" Nyx asked.

Tails answered with "It's a very powerful crystal that feeds a planet life. The earth and all that would grow out of it, anything natural, is fueled by each planet's own egg. Without the planet egg, a planet would become a cold and barren stone, unable to support life on its own." There was no response from anyone, only some stunned faces and a few spines having a brief cold spell. After a moment of silence, Cosmo continued.

"For many years, the Metarex fought other planets, but only a small few were able to fight back for so long. The Seedrians who had fled away during the calamity traveled as far as they could, under the leadership of my mother Earthia, who managed to help our clan's survivors evade the enemy for a long time. As time passed, she eventually gave birth to me, the last sapling she could produce.

"For the first several years of my life, I lived aboard our clan's space colony, living a life as close to normal as one can imagine when trying to survive in a dangerous war. Sadly, the Metarex finally sent the strongest force of brutality they had to destroy our starship. It was a dark day for my clan... And I... I was the only survivor.

"I fled as far as I could in an escape ship," she continued, holding back tears as hard as she could. "When I was young, I was told a legend that spread across the galaxy about a being who had a special power, a being who harnessed the power of legendary artifacts called the Chaos Emeralds. Using my ship's guidance system, I sent myself to crash-land on the planet Mobius, home of the said being of great potential: Sonic the Hedgehog."

Many eyes turned to the mentioned blue hero. He was sitting next to Amy, Cream and Cheese, sticking his nose out just a little in the air with a boastful posture, one that others like Shadow and Knuckles didn't particularly enjoy. "It was cool to know how far our adventures have gotten," he said with a sincere tone. He lowered his head and added "I'm glad it did or we wouldn't be where we're at now. Am I right?"

"Sure," Shadow responded, sounding sarcastic.

Maria, who was next to the black and red hedgehog, looked at him briefly with stern eyes. "Shadow, you said you'd behave." He gave no response, but several could see small trickles of appearing sweat on his head.

The next to speak up was Celestia, who had a question for the blue hero. "So you are a hero of legend from your world? I must say that's a tremendous reputation to have, but I've only heard little about these gems you mentioned. What are the Chaos Emeralds?"

"The Chaos Emeralds are a collection of gems that contain immense mystical power," Knuckles explained to the princess. "There are seven in total, and when they are all combined they unleashed their full potential in the form of Chaos Control."

"Chaos Control?"

"Yes. It's the unleashed energy from the emeralds, and how it reacts depends on who is using it. If it is for good, then only good can result of their power, but if used by an enemy, only chaos and destruction follows."

Celestia gave a small understanding nod and replied "I believe I can a good understanding of what you mean."

"Well that covers the Chaos Emeralds for later," stated Amy. "Now where do we start with the story from our beginning?"

"I'll continue," Tails volunteered, taking control of telling the story. "Sonic ran into a new enemy high above Mobius, just beyond the planet's atmosphere. Even with the Chaos Emeralds, he was unable to win, and since the enemy, the leader of the Metarex, was after the emeralds, Sonic used Chaos Control to send them far across our galaxy. After that battle, the Metarex began their quest for the emeralds, but it wasn't until a week later that we got our... Well, messenger from the stars."

The little joke brought out a little laugh from behind Cosmo's lips, while the ponies, especially the fillies, looked at her with full attention. "Does he mean you showed up falling from the sky or something?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"That sounds kinda painful," added Scootaloo.

"But she said something about an escape ship," Nyx pointed out, and then asked the Seedrian "Is that how you traveled to Tails's planet?"

Cosmo nodded and went on to say "Yes, it was. A meteor shower was passing over Mobius one day, and I managed to drift through space before it was too close. I don't remember much of landing because I passed out, my ship crash landing on the planet."

"You were really lucky that night, Cosmo. You flew out of the escape pod without a scratch and landed nearby where we were watching the shower," Cream added in.

She nodded again. "Yes, but what followed was something I couldn't avoid." A sad look began to cross her face before she continued. "A powerful Metarex descended onto Mobius not long after me and began its search for the planet egg. The fight only lasted a little while, but we were unable to stop the Metarex from succeeding, so the planet's life slowly began to wither away.

"I told Tails and everyone what I knew of the Metarex then, and they all agreed to help stop them from threatening our galaxy and hunt down the Chaos Emeralds. We took off in our ship called the Blue Typhoon and began the long quest to stop those monsters for good, managing to save however many planets we would come across. Many of them we were able to keep safe and protect their planet eggs, but some... All you could see would be cold and barren rocks, desolate with the crumbling remains of civilizations. The more of those planets we saw, the worse they would get, just showing how heartless the Metarex were..."

Cosmo lowered her head and looked down at her legs as she described the sadder side of the Metarex War, her eyes showing a reflection of how upset it was to see it all. Tears she had managed to hold back began to overcome her as she let one shed down the side of her face. Her hands clenched in open fists on her legs, Tails reached a hand to place on top of hers and gently wrapped his hand around hers. He wouldn't say it, but it did surprise him how well collected she had kept herself so far, especially since she explained some of the darkest memories of that war.

"It's sad to hear how much war can affect more than just two opposing sides," sounded the voice of Shining Armor. He was laying on a large throw pillow that comfortably sat him, his wife and daughter together. "My position has taught that there are casualties in the battleground, including those victimized without having a choice. To hear such measures, though, is beyond my history of experiencing."

"War can bring out the worst of anything, Shining Armor," Luna said.

"Yes," agreed Gohan, "and many of us have a lot of experience with that from our respective pasts and worlds."

"But that's not ALL that we saw during that journey." Speaking next was Amy, who wanted to shed a better light over the topic of the Metarex War. "We all got to spend time together, even getting stronger and witness new and amazing things. We saw new planets and met new friends, and we got to see how other worlds act and the ways they live. On top of it all, there was the whole point of telling this story to begin with..."

The pink hedgehog let a hand out towards the fox and flower sitting nearby. "It was seeing these two fall in love with each other, and building on that love ever since."

Smiles crossed the faces of the couple, but Tails's being a little bigger than the other. Cadance decided to ask them "So when was it that you discovered that bond?"

"I think I can start that explanation," the fox said, sounding quite happy at even the thought of those memories.

"I didn't see it at first, when I first held Cosmo when she crashed onto Mobius. I was more curious of who she was and where she came from, and after learning about the latter, I began to learn more and more about who she was. As the weeks passed, I saw someone compassionate about the well-being of all living creatures and sentient beings, and would far out of her reach to try bring peace to the galaxy in any way possible. Even if she didn't intend to do something wrong, she would apologize a hundred times just to show how much she didn't mean to cause trouble that she never made. She wasn't the strongest like a Super Saiyan or a savvy scientist, but she was second to none with the biggest heart and most caring spirit I've ever seen."

Cosmo eyes turned over to look at Tails, a small hint of rose in her cheeks that got darker as he continued speaking.

"We were trapped underground on one of the desolate planets during our journey, having found a Chaos Emerald somewhere on the planet. We took a nasty fall but got a stronger reading on where the emerald was, so we continued the search on our own..." Tails reached a hand on his head over where a certain scrape used to be as he said "But not before she showed her caring side again and wrapped me up where I got hurt. It's funny, really. I was dizzy, but I wasn't too injured, and she wouldn't let me go without making sure I was healed even in the smallest ways.

"That's when I first thought she was truly special."

Fluttershy then said "That sounds very beautiful... Well, not the falling and the injury. I'm sorry, that's not beautiful at all."

"It's alright, Fluttershy," Cosmo replied, but still looking towards her beloved. "Love can like that sometimes, it can happen anytime and anywhere."

Continuing his storytelling, Tails went on to say to everypony "Eventually we found a Metarex factory where they were using a real Chaos Emeralds to make dozens of fake emeralds, so we managed to take the emerald back and find a way to throw them off our tails for a while. As we were finding our way out of those caves, I explained the power of the emeralds to Cosmo, but that didn't go too easy.

"Because of what the Metarex did to the Seedrians before, Cosmo was afraid to embrace the good a Chaos Emerald can bring. She felt dark, thinking that her hatred for those who took her clan away would only fuel the emeralds to cause even more pain and destruction. Even after knowing her for only so long and who she was as a person, I refused to believe in her fears. Thanks to the help of our friends, we proved to her that those who are good can only bring the brightest light to the darkest times."

"My my, that sounds quite poetic, dear," Rarity stated. Her attention focused more on the other Mobians and said "Clearly you have a strong influence on one-another to encourage such beliefs."

"Some more than others, Hun," stated Rouge. "Not all of us were around during that time, nor did all of us travel together. Shadow and I were part of a similar mission with a different team."

"Really? Which team was that?" Apple Bloom asked curiously.

The filly wasn't looking towards Rouge for an answer, but towards Shadow instead. The hedgehog didn't notice until Maria helped show him with a forceful adjustment of his vision. He didn't want to be bothered about anything, but clearly that hope was diminished by a curious little pony.

"It was another crew with other plans in mind. Rouge and I travel and serve for Dr. Eggman," Shadow said, barely even looking towards Apple Bloom before turning his head and shutting his eyes.

Nyx tapped her hoof on Twilight's shoulder, and then motioned the same hoof to bring their heads closer. Trying to whisper as quite as she could, the alicorn filly asked "Why does Shadow always have a bad mood, and what's an Eggman?"

Twilight shook her head and replied in a quiet tone "I'm not entirely sure," and then she raised her head to ask "Is that the Eggman you told me was a reformed enemy?"

"Well, I wouldn’t go that far," Sonic replied. "If he was really reformed he would have lost some of that egg shape of his."

"Sonic!" Amy yelled at him disappointingly. "Dr. Eggman is not our enemy anymore, and that joke was uncalled for!" She put on a more pleasant tone to say to Twilight "Dr. Eggman was someone who caused us a lot of trouble in the past, but he began serving our side since the Metarex War. He's now the chief scientist of all of Team JAG."

"I see," replied the alicorn mare. She was a little intrigued about this subject, knowing of another scientific prodigy from Mobius other than only Tails.

"So what happened after you had your underground adventure?" Fluttershy asked.

Thinking of the last two topics, Tails began to tell the next adventure they had. "There came a point when all but two Chaos Emeralds were found, but it didn't take long to find the last two in a massive Metarex base. We worked with Eggman's team to infiltrate and get through the base, and came close to getting the emeralds ourselves. That was also when we all came face to face with Dark Oak, the second time for Sonic, and we saw them mutating a planet egg into evolving."

"What does evolving mean? Sounds weird," Scootaloo said curiously.

"Evolving is basically saying the planet egg was growing up," Nyx explained. "It grows bigger and becomes stronger than how it was when first born. It's just like how I turned to Nightmare Moon, and how my body grew and my magic was more powerful than it is now."

Tails smiled and said "Actually that's pretty accurate, Nyx. A planet egg evolves with the planet that it belongs to. As time passes it becomes stronger and feeds the planet more energy to sustain its life force. The Metarex, however, was forcing a planet egg into evolving, which meant its energy supply was becoming massive and they wanted to use that power for themselves. That planet egg they had was a test subject, only to eject it from their base when we interfered."

"But you found all the Chaos Emeralds then, right? That meant you had what you needed to win, but we know what happened..." Rainbow Dash tried to finish her sentence, the sudden recollection of the memories she saw before rushed in her mind, even causing her to shake for a second.

"Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo said, noticing her number one idol acting strange, "are you okay?"

The pegasus looked as if she shook it off and replied "Yeah, squirt, I'm fine," but her assuring tone only masked her true feelings of hating what she recalled.

"You're right, Rainbow Dash," Cosmo said, "we finally did have all seven emeralds, but... Chaos Control happened, and we lost them again."

"And what happened during this 'Chaos Control' you speak of?" Luna asked.

Twilight took the liberty of explaining for her fellow princess. "As they explained a little while ago, Chaos Control is the reaction of energy when the seven emeralds come together, fueling the sources they feed to. My guess is, somehow they got all seven of them in one location for the phenomenon to occur, but only to be used in manners that would inevitably separate them."

"That's right," confirmed Tails, "and after the Chaos Emeralds are used and the Chaos Control hits its climax, they separate again and travel to several different places than before."

"So then what happened?" Nyx asked.

Thinking of the following events of that battle, the entire group of visitors began to smile, some even chuckling, but not Shadow as he just kept his head turned away from the others. Maria, although was only told the story, found just as much amusement as the others, but not even she could get him to lighten up enough to enjoy a more positive memory of the war. When the chuckling ceased, Cosmo took another turn in telling the story.

"We spent a little while getting the Blue Typhoon repaired and ready to go into battle again, mainly maintenance repair. Tails handled most of the work until a few other friends of ours in the Chaotix Detective Agency found us and had problems with their own ship, which Tails offered to repair. Everyone was busy with their own things, so I took what free time I had to prepare something special for my new friends. So far it was coming together nicely," she turned her eye towards her beloved fox with a certain glare, "until somebody helped take the surprise out of my surprise party."

Pinkie Pie sounded off like a screaming bottle rocket, jumping up from her seat and beginning to appear at every available corner around Cosmo. "You threw a surprise party?! That's the best kind of party ever! I mean, what's better than putting together a party that no one would see coming and see the surprised looks on their faces that there's a party?! I mean, that's what a surprise party is! I threw so many of those that I actually lost count because of all the times a surprise party can happen in Ponyville! Twilight's welcome party, Twilight's gala ticket surprise, Luna's 'welcome-back-from-the-moon-for-a-thousand-years-and-not-be-Nightmare-Moon-surprise-party-during-the-Summer-Sun-Celebration' party, the one I threw when Cranky and Matilda got engaged, the party for Cadance's baby announcement, and of course I can't forget Nyx's 'Thanks-for-saving-Ponyville-from-a-bunch-of-scary-monsters' party, plus the-"

"We get it, Pinkie Dear." Rarity interrupted the party pony's endless list of parties by putting a hoof over her mouth. "A surprise party is certainly a delightful thought. What made you decide to have one, Cosmo?"

"I wanted to thank everybody for helping to stop the Metarex, so the party would be my way of giving them something fun to do for a day. It was going well setting up, but Tails accidentally discovered my surprised. He offered to help, along with the Chaotix, and together we managed to get it done just as I needed it to be.

"As I grew closer to Tails, I learned just how helpful and kind he was to anyone. I saw more of his personality and expertise the further we traveled, and the more we did together, the more I saw that, combined with his bravery and determination, when put into action. When he helped me set up the party, I wanted to offer him the same gesture in return, and I'll never forget what he told me-

"'You don't have to thank me, Cosmo. I like being with you.'

"At that moment, I felt something new in my heart. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I had developed stronger feelings for him the more I was with him. There were a couple... 'Incidents' before the party started, but it turned out just as I wanted, and that was everyone having a good time. But for me, the best moments were when I knew I liked Tails more than just a friend."

She reached one of her hands inside her dress for a moment, grabbing something she left inside there to show everypony. When her hand came back out, she held it out to reveal a brightly shining broach shaped like a flower with two sets of petals that shined their own shades of purple. It shined and sparkled in the light as the sight caught the ponies' attention. The younger fillies' eyes opened wide at the sight, especially the royal foal of the Crystal Empire, and Rarity's gaze was just like that if not more.

"My, what dazzling jewelry you have there, Cosmo," the white unicorn said.

"Thank you, Rarity," she replied. "This was a gift from my clan when we were traveling on our starship. It was one of the couple things I managed to escape with when Scarship attacked. During my preparations for the party, I didn't realize I lost this at one point, but Tails found it and polished it up for me. It was one of the most wonderful things anyone had ever done for me and I felt happier than I had for a long time."

Tails took the broach from her hand and began to attach it to her dress, putting it to the left of her Seedrian Spirit Stone already on her chest. "Truth be told, it was just something small I wanted to do. I had a feeling she'd like it, but seeing just how happy she became was more than I expected. I knew she was special, and beautiful, but if there's anything I could do back then..." Tails paused, unable to help himself from having a quick laugh.

"It was being too afraid and unable to say how I felt about her and panicking myself silent."

Laughter, as contagious as some would claim it to be, was expressed from nearly everyone in the room through their own forms, from small giggles from the princesses to uncontrollable laughter from the Element of Laughter. It took a few seconds, but the laughing faded away.

"Well, love isn't always the easiest thing to express at first," Cadance said, as if admitting to that fault herself. "It can take its time before that super special somepony comes arounds that allows you to open up those rare and special feelings." She felt the leg of her Shining Armor wrap around her neck, their heads coming together so she could rest hers on his shoulder.

"It is true," agreed another pony. Twilight Velvet shared a large chair with Night Light, comfortably leaning herself against him. The dark blue unicorn didn't mind at all, as he showed with a kiss on his wife's cheek.

"It took a while for Tails to build up the courage to say anything," Ash said, almost teasing his friend, "but he did manage to find a different way of expressing himself."

"Really? What did he do?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Jason took the next position of continuing the story. "There was a small stage, so we decided to play a few songs for fun. This was long before we began to play for all the different worlds for four hours at a time. During one of the songs called My Sacrifice, Tails took Cosmo's hand and brought them out onto the dance floor, and the two shared a nice, sped up slow dance, I guess would be the best way to explain it."

"A fast-slow dance... So just dancing then?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Well, it was like a slow dance," Cosmo tried to explain, "just a little faster than what a slow dance is usually like. It was fun for me, just pulled right into a dance like that, and there was a point at the end when we locked eyes with each other that just made it... I felt even happier to be with him. I never saw him being so spontaneous like that before, and it was... Cute."

A hint of rose appeared through the white fur on Tails's muzzle at that compliment from her. Hearing from her that he was cute was something he can admit still getting used to, even after all their time together, but how she would say he was in fact cute would be what got him to look embarrassed.

After getting a couple jokes from Applejack and Rainbow Dash over the fox's rosier cheeks, Twilight spoke up next. "I remember some of the events you told me about during your first visit here. Wasn't it at that point when you had to face the commanding officers of those Metarex face to face?"

Tails nodded and kept the story going. "Technically, we only faced two of the three ourselves, as Dr. Eggman had his own ordeal with the third. They were some of the toughest battles of the whole war up to that point, and we knew it was only going to get more severe. Luckily we caught a break from fighting for a few days and focused on trying to find the Chaos Emeralds more, especially after we found another fake emerald factory just before," he explained.

A disgusted groan came right out of Rouge's mouth after the last bit of history was told. "Good riddance to that factory. All those fake gems made me sick to my stomach to see. I could never stand counterfeit diamonds all my life."

"Oh I can relate to that sentiment all too well, my dear. Faux gemstones don't have that true shine of genuine and value as the real thing. It's the reason I only gather the grandest of jewels to use for my dresses," Rarity said.

"It's too bad you didn't meet Tails and everyone before, Rarity," Sweetie Belle said to her big sister. "You could have helped them with your magic." The elder sister just smiled a little and rustled her hoof in the filly's mane, just gentle enough to not have a single hair go astray.

"So back to y'all huntin' down those emeralds," Applejack said, curious of where the story will lead to next. "How long was it until you found the next one?"

Thinking back carefully, Cosmo calculated how long before starting to answer. "Well like what Tails said, it was only a few days after the previous battle before we found one of the Chaos Emeralds. We found it from a traveling trio of people from the planet Marmolem, who found it during their voyage to find help for their world. We agreed to help their planet and got the emerald back in exchange.

"This was a planet that was very rich in spirit and life from its people, but the nature of it was not sick: it was nearly fatal. It wasn't something to ignore, but it seemed that the people didn't care at all and let their planet crumble and decay around them. I do digress, though, because their spirits and personality were very positive giving the circumstances, even though I couldn't feel the same."

"Just because their home was sick, it doesn't mean their happiness should fade away," Fluttershy said, trying to break through Cosmo's solemnness. It only worked for a second, just long enough for a grin and a nod from her.

"Yes," the Seedrian continued. "My perspective didn't change for a while, especially after one of the Marmolems took us to the best fortune teller on the planet. He was very kind, and funny at the start, using a special collection of coins to made his predictions, but I didn't enjoy it as much and expressed that. He told me how the future may not be set in stone, but what will be will be, and then he gave me my prediction as he read his coins. Without being far from the truth with my description, he showed the coin of my evitable fate: a skull, his symbol for pain and misery, and... Death."

Faces began to fall again, especially those who were familiar with the history, as she continued with "I never felt as useless then than ever in my entire life. All I wanted was to help stop the Metarex and protect the galaxy, but to be told that I would end up causing pain and misery to those close to me..." Her tone became sadder and sadder as she kept speaking. "I didn't want to believe it. I couldn't believe it if I tried. How could I cause others to suffer because I wanted peace for everyone? I wanted to finally live a happy life with my new family, not go away forever because of my actions..."

Silence fell as Cosmo took a moment to recollect herself again, keeping a calm composure and trying not to cry. Most of the ponies shared a similar expression as their eyes looked just as sad, but a selected few felt the sadness much more, if not to her level. None felt the pain so closely than four of the five alicorns in the room, each of them having a relatable feeling to what Cosmo was talking about.

Celestia, normally keeping a grand and elegant posture even during times of rest, had her head drooped just so much for her muzzle to face the floor. She thought back of her own actions when having to deal with her sister becoming Nightmare Moon, and how she went on a thousand years knowing she could have done something different. She knew that Luna regretted her actions from back then to her return, and she knew that Nyx, the once reborn Nightmare Moon, did not want to be that threatening mare. She also knew of Twilight's pain of separation, to be forcefully pushed away from her family because of reasons beyond her control, and it was something both she and her former student hope to never happen again.

"It is a heavy burden," she said solemnly. "Sometimes we have to face a future we cannot control. I am aware of that agony all too well."

"Just as I am aware that our own actions can cause others to suffer. That too is just a heavy burden to carry," Luna added.

"But to stand against it and believe what your heart tells you is right is the correct choice to make," said Tails, throwing in his viewpoint from that day. "Besides, I refused to believe that prediction from the start. No one can really predict the future, but instead work at achieving the future they want."

Celestia looked over at Tails as if staring at a being of great wisdom and knowledge. She saw the good faith he had for those closest to him, and like her student turned peer, a great amount of intelligence to see through an illusion fortune telling can occasionally be. Before she could add anything else, more of the fox's friends spoke up next.

"It wasn't the only prediction we got from the Marmolem's anyway," Cream stated, thinking back to that session of predictions. "He couldn't see whether or not Cosmo would be alright, but he did say there was romance in her future. He added how plants and animals don't always get along, but with the friendships Cosmo made with us, there was a sign that both sides could live peacefully together."

"Chao-chao," her pet Cheese added.

Amy followed that by saying "Marmolem had a ton of different charms and spells, including love spells. Us girls stopped to see a few other fortune tellers that gave us love predictions as we kept going around the bazaar. We stopped at one point and we saw Cosmo blush when I asked her about how she felt about Tails. It wasn't hard to see that those two liked each other a lot..."

She looked over at her mentioned friend, seeing a smile crack through her lips and a new blush on her cheeks. Tails laughed behind a closed smile and tried to hide another shade of red cheeks to no avail. Amy then added "That romance was as clear as day, but I'll admit that my own was still being... worked on. Luckily, one of our Marmolem friends taught me a love spell that was supposed to do the trick.

"That is until these two accidentally received the spell's effect themselves." Her tone turned a little sour at that mention, still not exactly pleased how her then ultimate plan to capture Sonic's ever-loving attention backfire on her.

Yet her eyes directed to the sight of a certain trio of fillies. She noticed Scootaloo's face cringe for a couple seconds before her vision redirected to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who looked just as cringed.

"What's with you three?" Rouge asked, noticing this reaction as well. "You look as if you did something wrong."

The three shared a unison "Uhhh..." before Twilight provided the reason behind the trio's shared expression. "Let's just say they had their own experience with love 'potions' a little while before Nyx came along. It involved trying to hook up their teacher with a romantic date with Applejack and Apple Bloom's big brother, and it went to the length of possible marriage."

Cadance giggled and said "Oh yeah, you told me about that during the wedding preparations." Following that was a cute laugh from Skyla.

Tails looked around at the trio and asked "You know that's not how love works, right?" His tone sounded a comedic blend of seriousness and sarcasm.

Apple Bloom sighed and replied "Eeyup. We ended up doing Big Mac's chores for a whole day."

"Ugh," Scootaloo added. "I think my back is still sore from hauling so many apples."

"Your back? I couldn't feel my legs for a week," Sweetie Belle complained.

Keeping a hoof over her mouth to keep it shut, Nyx tried holding back what laughter she could. Her friends told her about that story before, but her always curious mind got all the information from one of the main sources, Miss Cheerilee, not long after hearing the story. Since then, even the slightest mention would make her giggle. She got a nudge from her mother, who looked down at her with an arched eyebrow and a face that said "Save it for later," so the alicorn filly swallowed all the laughter she could.

Nyx then turned her focus to Amy as her curiosity took over to ask "How did this love spell work? Was it really complex?"

"Hmmm..." Amy thought to herself before answering. "No, not too complex. The spell involved a few steps to it, and it started at Romance Rock. You had to break the rock to activate the spell, but that was the easy part. Next step was to get both lovers together near the Lake of Love and look into each other's eyes. After that, both must look out at the full moon casted over the lake, and then the two would be together forever. It worked out, but all by accident."

"Let me guess," said Night Light, "there was a different couple that took the spell's effects." His eyes, along with all the others, turned towards the couple in question.

"You could say that," Tails said jokingly. "I found Cosmo at the top of a cliff near the Lake of Love not long after we managed to save the planet from a disease that replaced the missing planet egg. I told her how much Cosmo meant to our team, and briefly to me. I was beginning to walk away when she tripped over a rope and right into me. I managed to catch her, but the next thing I knew we were flying in the air over and towards the lake." He then reached an arm around her shoulder and started to hold her closer to him.

"It was a feeling I had for a while that I couldn't bring myself to say. Heck, I could barely confirm it until the moment I stared into her eyes shined by the light off the lake. I was staring in the eyes of a girl that never expected to bring me into such adventures we shared so far. I was staring at the girl I wanted to spend each and every day with, doing anything from sharing a small chat to being inseparable from day's start to day's end. I was holding onto the one I'd allow myself to come closest to, to let all of me out to.

"Love spell or not, I fell in love with Cosmo that day."

Smiles were seen all around the room, saving one hedgehog of course, but they paid no mind. Cosmo, leaning herself onto Tails since his arm wrapped around her, couldn't help but close her eyes and remember that moment they shared. What he said about her, it was just like how she felt about him, with her own reasons of course. As she recalled being in the air with him, she told more of that moment to everyone.

"I had no idea of Amy's trap when I tripped over her rope, but even though I didn't mean to ruin her plans, I must admit that I'm glad it happened. As we were in the air, I looked into the eyes of someone who made me braver, more confident in defeating the Metarex, and above all else, the one who would always make me feel the happiest I've ever been. When we fell into the shallow water, we just sat there wondering what happened, and then our gazes focused on the full moon and, for me, that's when I felt I was truly in love. I was held in his arms, looking upon the same beautiful sight with him, and to this day, I discovered love for someone more than a friend or family.

"For me, that was one of the happiest moments of my life; falling in love with my best friend."

Several ponies began to go "Awwww..." In unison, mainly the CMC, Fluttershy and Pinkie, with a couple quieter tones from other ponies and some girls of the Band and Team Sonic. Even Celestia and Luna grinned at the new happy sight of the couple, the Princess of the Sun having a chuckle when seeing Tails give Cosmo a quick peck on the cheek.

One of the quieter ponies was Twilight. She was happy to hear such a cute and lovely part of her friends' love story, but they were slowly making their way to the climax of the final battle. It was the second main focus of sharing this history, so that Celestia and Luna may understand their new interdimensional friends better, and hopefully keep that connection for a long future, even though her former teacher already trusted her with her decisions.

But above all else, it was her maternal instincts kicking in. Regardless of who she was once before, Nyx would be hearing about a story that Twilight and her best friends witnessed firsthoof with the memory potion. How Nyx would react to being told about was unpredictable, and she needed to be ready to comfort her daughter if needed.

And, in her own twisted way, she may need her family to comfort her, if she were to react to hearing the story just as she did seeing it.

Twilight decided to try to progress the story once more and went on to say "I've studied several books about love and love spells, most of which didn't end too well. But if I may elaborate a little bit regarding your spell, you both said you began to fall in love with each other before you went to the planet Marmolem. Keeping the thought that the spell worked, wouldn't it only have just accelerated you two fall in love and nothing more? It seems that the spell was unnecessary when compared to the rest of your story thus far."

It didn't take Tails more than two seconds to answer with "That's likely. To tell the truth, that's what I've always thought, but I didn't really care to look too deep into it because it was something I felt for a long time then. Having the spell just bring it all out was just as you said, an accelerator."

"But none of that really matters since you got your happy ending," Amy stated, stressing the focus on who the spell ended up being cast on.

"Besides, Twilight," Cadance said, "love isn't something that magic can simply conjure. It takes a pair of very special someponies who care about each other and accept one another for who they are for it to be born."

"Well said, my niece," Celestia said in agreement.

"Plus what's the point of loving somepony if you don't think they're almost as awesome as you anyway?" Rainbow Dash added, a surprise to everyone. "It's a gut feeling to have, Twi, nothing one of your books can make you really know about."

It took a moment for her to notice, but every single being in that room, even a depressed little dragon, stared at her blankly with several jaws dropped. She hadn't felt this awkward since her conversation with most of the Band the night before or Spike's attempt at singing the Cloudsdale anthem. She looked at Twilight, then Tails and Cosmo, then Nyx, then Twilight again, then at Scootaloo and the other CMC, and one rounding stare at all her friends before her sight focused on Twilight for a third time.

"What? I know how to be deep too, you know," she told them, trying to avoid embarrassment rising in her.

A small snicker came from Sonic and Tails and a few others, but they ultimately decided to divert from discussing how to fall in love back to the war.

"Now let me see..." Tails said, thinking back to after the time on Marmolem. "I think the next big thing after that was falling into a Metarex's galactic web trap. The Metarex had joined forces with Eggman to ambush us with an entire fleet of ships."

"What's a galactic web?" Nyx asked.

"It's a large structure of threads made out of energy that work as boundaries between known galaxies," the fox explained. "Dark matter and various other energies weave together and contain its power inside that keeps the web's structure maintained. The Metarex used one to lure us into an ambush, but we lucked out and escaped using the web's energy to our favor."

"What happened during the ambush?" Scootaloo asked.

"The Metarex had an entire fleet to attack us, and their weapons were too strong for us to defend. They attacked us with all they had, even blowing up some of their own ships in the process. We tried using the Sonic Power Cannon against them, but they were prepared for that with a powerful shield of their own," and from there Tails's face showed some weakness. "It was actually one of my weakest moments, because my decisions put my friends in harm's way. I lost faith in being the captain our crew needed."

"Don't think like that again," Knuckles said. "If it weren't for you we may have not escaped that fight. So we got a few scrapes and tears, it's better than the alternative. You did great, Captain."

"That's right," Amy agreed.

"I may not have had such grand scales of combat under my best, but a captain must always believe in his soldiers and himself to succeed in battle. Sounds to me you did just fine," Shining Armor said next.

Tails smiled again before saying "Well, I can't take all of the credit. Like you said, it takes a good team to work together and win, but sometimes, a good pep talk can put a person back in line." He felt Cosmo lean his head on his shoulder, and then gently leaned his head onto hers.

"And the same can be said for you, you know," she said to him, to which he chuckled in agreement.

"That's so sweet," Fluttershy said, happy to see such loving support between the two.

Keeping the story on track, Ash spoke up and said "Sadly the rest of us were dealing with our own troubles with the Brotherhood of Darkness. Battles were coming up left and right, and it took some extra help to keep peace in other worlds."

Cream then added "It was lucky we had the needed quiet time to repair our ship again. It took a few days, but we got back to traveling ready to face more Metarex."

"Sounds like you didn't waste any time, just like me," stated Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah, we know how to keep up good speed," Sonic replied. "Metarex began attacking again and again without stopping for a while before we got to fight one of the commanders one more time."

"You mean that Yellow Zelkova, right? He had a head bigger than his metal body could hold," Rouge commented.

"Yeah," Knuckles confirmed, his expression turning grim. "That was the final battle he fought during that war, and the first real casualty we came across."

"Casualty?" Sweetie Belle questioned. "Does that mean he lost?"

Rarity, knowing this topic was coming but was completely unprepared for, tried to answer her little sister's curiosity. "Well... Yes, Sweetie. He did lose that battle, but sadly he also lost his involvement in anything further on after that. That's because a casualty is... Well, it means..."

"He died in that battle," Nyx said, finishing Rarity's attempted answer. How she said it felt hollow, as she realized where the story was starting to go, yet she didn't sound too troubled.

Twilight looked down at Nyx, partially surprised that the filly said it without as much as a tremor in her voice. Even though her daughter's past included both of them reaching levels dangerously close to death, the topic was still a sensitive perspective for a child to take in.

"That commander fought you to his last breath, didn't he? I did the same thing to save Ponyville, but ponies knew that it was to protect them. But that guy, he asked for it."

Twilight's attitude snapped back to motherhood as she said "Nyx, you shouldn't describe it that way. As true as it could be, we shouldn't just say or believe that."

"No, Twilight," Cosmo told her, "Nyx is right. The Metarex commanders were willing to fight to their deaths to serve Dark Oak's plans. Red Pine lost his life because of that gravity field, and Zelkova kept fighting until he couldn't fight anymore."

"That's... Kinda messed up," Apple Bloom commented.

"War is like that," Gohan stated. "We've all seen death before. It isn't always easy, but it happens to anyone in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Indeed," Celestia agreed, nodding her head.

Fluttershy, wanted to avoid this topic until much later, then said "W-what happened after that?"

Her reply came from several sets of eyes of the interdimensional friends looking over towards two certain partners. One just shied his attention aside with apathy, and the other just shut her eyes and turned her head before making a response.

"Don't look at us that way," Rouge said to them. "We were under Eggman's orders to stop the Metarex however we could. It's not my fault he sent out a loose cannon hedgehog."

"Hold on there. What did y'all do that was so bad?" Applejack asked.

Neither would reply, refusing to discuss it freely. Sure they were forgiven for their actions since then, but at the same time, it was thin ice to break through when it came to holding even the slightest grudge, especially for Sonic and Tails. The former of them answered the farm pony's question:

"They snuck on board the Blue Typhoon and Shadow tried to attack Cosmo."

"Thanks for being so blunt," Shadow said back in full sarcasm.

"What made you turn on your friends like that? That's not super-duper nice at all," Pinkie Pie said.

Tails took initiative once more and began to explain things further. "Shadow and Rouge were doing something wrong, but they did have the right reasons for doing so. You see, what happened was that after I got the Blue Typhoon's security system back online, it detected their presence right when they were beginning to attack.

"Shadow was right there by Cosmo, but Sonic and our friend Chris helped protect her long enough for me to get her and start to run away. We knew that Shadow was powerful, and had the determination to not start something without finishing it. Everywhere we went we shut doors and activated security systems to try to slow him down, but it was no use. I even tried flying us away on the X-Tornado and that didn't work out, even the Sonic Power Cannon only bought us a few minutes of false relief.

"I didn't know why he was after Cosmo, but I didn't care. Our friends were putting themselves in harm's way to save her, and I'd be as evil as the Metarex if I did anything less. I refused to anyone hurt Cosmo, no matter how powerful they were and how powerless I was to go against them fist to fist. Believe me, I was sore in the final moments of that fight."

"Well we've seen your dedication to keep her safe firsthoof, and we have no doubt you gave it your all, Sugarcube," Applejack said.

As others nodded in agreement, several others put their attention towards a certain hedgehog. Shadow noticed that attention being put onto him, more so than who's been his partner in his missions from Dr. Eggman.

"Why did you go after Cosmo? What did she ever do to you?" Nyx asked.

The red and black hedgehog didn't say a word at first, but he then noticed a cold stare from Maria. She had warned him several times to watch his behavior, and for the most part he's kept up his usual attitude that she wished he'd loosen up. He hid a cold shiver he felt seeing that stare, let out a disapproving sigh, and began to share his side of the story.

"We had our orders to travel around the galaxy and try to find whatever information on the Metarex we could," Shadow explained, speaking for himself and Rouge. "There was a planet we found that had nothing but trees and plants, and a fake Chaos Emerald. Then we found a group of soldiers from a resistance we ran into when we had to deal with Pay Bay Leaf, but they... Let's just say they got what they asked for."

"And what does thou mean by that?" Luna asked, picking up no remorse from his tone.

He continued with "Dark Oak used them to fuel his own plans, and they had those plans with them. They gave us a device that contained all the information regarding the Metarex and their operations. From that information, we discovered their undercover agent who was spying on us the whole time as they saw and heard everything. Codename: White Seed..." He then pointed a finger straight at the aforementioned spy: Cosmo.

"The Metarex programmed a remote signal in her brain to send them everything she would see and hear. Wherever they went and whatever they did and say, it was fed back to the enemy. I only saw one thing that could be done to keep Dark Oak in the dark, and that was to get rid of the spy."

"Hold on a second," Rainbow Dash said, "are you saying you tried to kill her?"

"And how could Cosmo send messages without even knowing it? That doesn't seem to make sense, unless someone used a spell of dark magic," Twilight added, trying to understand the thought of it herself.

"Well, that kind of ties in with the history of both the Seedrians and the Metarex," Yugi stated.

Thinking back to earlier in the conversation, Celestia thought of what he meant. "You mean of how the Metarex were beings that were once Seedrians as well?"

Cosmo nodded and said to the princess "He used the natural connection Seedrians have with each other as it's similar to how we are connected to plants, and combined it with his Metarex technology to put the remote signal in my mind. It's the only explanation we could result with after Tails and other Team JAG scientists researched the cause of it after the war. I felt as if I betrayed all my new friends, and I just wanted to leave and keep them safe from Dark Oak's schemes. Luckily, I had those friends - my new family - to have me stay and tell me that they cared for me no matter the cost."

"Well sure," Sonic commented. "You think we'd just watch you take off like that? We knew what the Metarex were really up to, so we knew what course of action to take next, and that included everyone sticking together."

"Why absolutely, especially having to handle the weight of war on your shoulders," Rarity stated.

"So what were the plans the Metarex had for the galaxy?" Cadance asked.

Tails took the next role of explaining. "The Metarex began because the founders wanted to prove their power to the entire galaxy. According to their data, they figured out how to unleashed their fullest potential by combining what they've been collecting throughout the war..."

"You mean the Chaos Emeralds and planet eggs?" Nyx asked, unintentionally interrupting Tails.

"That's right," Cosmo replied.

Twilight began to put pieces of the story together, thinking aloud as she calculated everything. "The Chaos Emeralds provide a significant amount of energy that could fuel whatever resource that is drawing out their power. But a planet egg, it's a provider of life energy to the planet it belongs to, or like the emeralds, anyone who can use it as a supplemental energy source.

"To have a planet egg begin premature evolution, they would need a substitution to give it a purpose to evolve, and resources to draw out that power to fuel themselves. Which means... that the Metarex were to be the ones to harness all that power themselves, to make themselves evolve into an unseen and unheard state of being..."

Nyx put herself in the same train of thought as her mother, and continued where she left off. "So if the Metarex were Seedrians, and Seedrians are actually plants, that means they could force themselves to evolve into plant monsters of some kind. Is that right?"

"Exactly right, kiddo," Rouge commented.

"Wow, Twi, she is definitely your kid. That was a double dose of egghead if I ever saw any," teased Rainbow Dash.

"That was actually quite impressive," Jason said. "It took us the entire war to put all those pieces together."

Both Tails and Cosmo weren't too surprised to see the two alicorns tie together all that was already said. They knew how intelligent and information-savvy they have been ever since first meeting them, making their process of formulating the information coming to the correct conclusion. From there, it was time to prove that correct with the war's climax.

"Twilight, Nyx, you were both right about everything, but there's still more to it," Cosmo told them. "The plan of the Metarex was indeed galactic conquer, but their real plan to do so was by performing the biggest known forestation process."

"What does that mean?" Fluttershy asked. "It doesn't sound threatening, but still very scary."

"So it's a happy-scary plan?" Pinkie followed.

"Happy-scary?"

"You know, when something is supposed to be really, really scary but it actually makes you happy. Just like how Nightmare Night scares everypony's pants off with scary pranks, even though ponies don't wear pants too often, even for our super fun costumes-"

"We get it!" Several others spoke up and helped stop the pink pony go on with another ultimate rendition of a run-on sentence.

"Sorry, Pinkie, but that's far from being happy-scary," Tails commented. "It's time we get to where Twilight and the others are familiar with the most..." He paused himself in order to take a deep breath and keep his composure together, most of his best friends and the Master Four doing the same. This was going to be the hardest part of their history to retell.

"When we crash-landed on the planet Greengate and found out the Metarex's plans, we got an emergency message from Dr. Eggman. He warned us that the final plans were to take place at galactic coordinates 0-0-0, where an ancient prophecy was due to occur, so we immediately took off and traveled our way there. At first, it was quiet, and all we could see was the entirety of the Metarex together in one place, until they spotted us first and that's when the battle started. It continued on as a stalemate for only a short while, just long enough for our entire team to unite together and save Eggman from being Dark Oak's prisoner. When that ended, we saw what they had in store...

"It was a tree, several of its branches clenching the seven Chaos Emeralds. It floated there in space, only for a couple minutes until Eggman's suggested prophecy began to take place: an astronomical anomaly."

"A what now?" Apple Bloom asked.

"It means that something extravagant happened there," Nyx said to her friend.

"Something 'what' happened?" Sweetie Belle followed.

"If y'all will stop interruptin' and let Tails explain you'll find out," Applejack told the questioning fillies, getting them to pay their attention back to Tails.

"Here's what happened," he continued. "Two interdimensional portals opened up from different universes, and their energies merged together. The result was an immense energy source that can only occur once in a millennium and supply the galaxy with a resource that could only happen only so often. From those energies, a new planet egg was created, and the Metarex's tree rooted itself right to it. The power of the egg combined with the Chaos Emeralds, and in turn combined with Dark Oak and his two remaining commanders, Black Narcissus and Pale Bay Leaf, forcing them into their ultimate transformation..."

Before he could continue, Twilight asked "You mean that sphere that-?" However, her question was cut off by Cosmo.

"No, not yet," she said. "They transformed themselves into a three-headed chimera of nearly unstoppable power. Each of them managed to do to us in seconds what all our hard work did to just dent their forces throughout the war. Our ship lost two wings and engines, infiltrated and becoming destroyed from the inside out, and everyone becoming powerless to fight them..."

"One of us even swallowed by that horrible monster," Amy said, sounding saddened as she remembered those memories.

"What do you mean?" Shining Armor asked.

Sonic took over next to say "The Metarex offered to let me join them and conquer the galaxy, and rule over every planet that was becoming filled with trees and plant life. I refused, so they decided to eat me instead."

"They what?!" Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and all the fillies asked.

"Ooh, were you tasty?" Pinkie asked.

Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash facehoofed and groaned to themselves "Pinkie Pie, you. Are. Random." The unintentional simultaneous reaction forced a chuckle out of them.

Helping move the story along, Gohan spoke next and said "That's where we came in. The energy was so powerful that our scanners and detectors at Team JAG Headquarters nearly went out of control. All dimensions were told to stay alert as the four of us made our way to meet with Team Sonic and help fight the Metarex."

"We arrived just after Sonic was trapped in the massive planet egg and met with everyone," Ash followed. "Tails and Eggman gave us the summary of what have happened before we arrived, and then we all combined our forces to plan and fight the Metarex."

"Seeing how powerful you've described your opponents, I can only presume that you would needed a plan to counteract them with more than power alone," Luna stated.

"That's right, but luckily we got our plan from Knuckles here," Yugi replied, motioning a hand towards the echidna.

Knuckles took the rightful opportunity to tell of his shining moment of that war. "It was the best plan we had. Dark Oak and his commanders may have had the Chaos Emeralds, but we still had the Master Emerald and its almighty power. My idea was to counter the Chaos Emeralds with the Master Emerald, hoping to cancel each other out and cause a Chaos Reaction."

Shining Armor thought to himself for a second before he began to murmur aloud. "Fighting fire with fire by using an original source to cause a magic null... I must admit that's a brilliant but gambling tactic."

"Majin Boo?" Skyla tried to pronounce her father's words but to no avail. It only caused the foal's parents to chuckle and nuzzle her, but several of the interdimensional guests to cover their mouths to hold back a grin that would make Pinkie Pie proud. Little did they know that the filly's attempted speech named one of the greatest threats in the history of the Z warriors.

Knuckles continued speaking with "It was a gamble, and apparently it was possible that the Master Emerald alone couldn't pull it off. After Eggman offered to use the combined power of his ship and ours, we just needed to put our plan into work."

"And that's where the next round began," commented Shadow, speaking of his own free will for the first time the entire conversation.

"Why do I want to guess you fought that big bad guy again?" Pinkie asked, pressing her assumption as being correct.

Jason provided her an answer. "We did, and it too-'"

"I KNEW IT!"

Ignoring the pink mare's interruption and continued with "It took all the fighting power we had available to us just to hold them back. Our fighter plans, any available weaponry, our naturally gifted powers, everything and our then highest power forms to fight them."

"You mean becoming a Super Saiyan? Tails showed us that power before when... Well, you remember joining in that fight," Twilight said.

"Not exactly," Tails said, raising his finger to make a point. "Only Sonic and Shadow could use that power at the time, at least the basic Super Saiyan state. The Master Four have been much stronger than us as long as we've known them, and they had a higher state called Super Saiyan 4 they transformed into to fight."

"Was it enough for you to fight as long as you needed to?" Nyx asked, Tails replying with a nod.

Knuckles then continued with "It took every last ounce of energy from the Master Emerald, but the plan was made possible. We shot it right at the base of the three-headed Metarex and managed to cause Chaos Reaction. It stopped them from attacking us, and allowed Sonic time to escape."

The blue hedgehog only rubbed a finger under his nose for a brief moment before feeling some added weight on his shoulder. Amy leaned her head on him, her eyes shut and smiling wide. Seeing this, he just closed his eyes and smiled as well until his attention was drawn to another.

"I'm intrigued to hear how you escaped your opponents, Sonic, especially after having been swallowed as you've told us. How did you make that possible?" Celestia asked.

He just smirked a little and replied "I saw and heard Amy and everyone else calling out, and that's really it. I don't really know how I got out of there other than that."

"Hmmm we never did figure that out, did we?" Amy pondered aloud. "No matter, it all worked out for you then and that's all that matters."

Celestia was left without a real answer, but she gently smiled and nodded with satisfaction. "Indeed, Amy Rose. So what did occur with the Metarex after your Chaos Reaction took place?"

"Dark Oak was the only Metarex remaining, and he managed to fuse himself with all the power of the Chaos Emeralds and the planet egg to mutate himself. The result was transforming the egg to harness all the power within and spread its energy across the galaxy. It was all part of the forestation process," Tails explained.

"Yeah, that's what you said earlier right? What exactly does that mean?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"It's the development and growth of plant life that covers large areas where the environment is supportive," explained the knowledgeable purple alicorn.

"Yes," Cosmo said, "and Dark Oak did not show signs of slowing down his plans any further. Using his powers, the planet egg began to draw life from the farthest points he could reach, draining animals like Tails and the others to fuel his plans. The more he fed, the more planets across the galaxy reacted to his command. With a fake Chaos Emerald planted at each desolate planet, they reacted and caused the plants to grow out of control.

"But we couldn't fight back at that moment. The seven Chaos Emeralds were retrieved by our friends the Chaotix, but they were drained entirely. Dr. Eggman proposed an idea to refuel the emeralds, but he would need the combined power of both our ships to do it. Dark Oak was unable to drain my life force as we were both the same species of plant, so I decided to take matters in my own hands and take the emeralds to the Doctor myself."

"You refused to give in to the Metarex, and kept pushing forward with to the love and tolerance you found in Tails and the others," said Jason.

"And that same drive helped reactivate the Chaos Emeralds," added Ash.

"How so?" Applejack asked.

From that point, Gohan started to explain. "The Chaos Emeralds began to react to the energy Dark Oak was feeding on, even after an attempt to stop Cosmo. We stopped losing our life energy as the seven emeralds began to replenish themselves, giving us another shot at winning the war."

"And that's where Shadow and I come in," Sonic stated, continuing things from there. "At the time, we were the only ones who could use the emeralds to transform into our Super forms, so we stood on the front lines and used that power again. The Chaos Emeralds transformed us into Super Sonic and Super Shadow, and we took on the Metarex head on. We managed to stop forestation all together, making all the plans the Metarex made wasted..."

The Mane 6 began to mentally vision what was being told, memories of memories they got to witness themselves coming back to the forefront. They remembered starting to see the flashback of that battle, involving two golden streaks causing a bright flash of light that blinded everyone, but brought out cheers from Team Sonic. It was the very beginning of what they saw, the start of the events that were to follow and were already aware of. It had reached the point for them, for their friends, and especially Tails and Cosmo, to revisit those memories.

"That's where our vision started, the visions from the memory potion," Twilight said. "It was that point when Dark Oak... He turned into that new sphere, the black one that was going to destroy your galaxy..."

"That's right," Yugi said, almost solemnly.

That confirmed the six mares of what remained to tell the others, and their faces fell to sadness as a result. The fillies looked at them with concern for the sudden sad expressions, even noticing a couple of them fighting back the urge to tear up. When Nyx saw Twilight being one of those fighters, she immediately asked "Twilight, what's wrong?"

Managing to keep her composure strong enough to reply, Twilight looked down to her daughter and replied "Nyx, this is part of the story that's the hardest to sit through and listen. This is what we saw in those visions I told you about..." Nyx's ears dropped and her eyes saddened as well, but without the urge to cry herself.

Twilight turned over to the central couple of the story to tell them "Go ahead, whenever you're ready. Just keep going with it, and we won't interrupt..."

Looking solemn and starting to let small portions of his inner walls to break with his own feelings, Tails nodded twice. He took in a deep breath and reached his hand over for Cosmo's and held hers tightly. After a glance at all his friends, and then his beloved, he continued to tell the story once more.

"Twilight was right about her description of Dark Oak. He transformed himself into a giant black sphere that created an incredibly powerful gravity field. Without any other option to go with, instead of transforming the galaxy in his own image, the new plan for the Metarex was to destroy everything and everyone with a massive explosion by pulling in every planet within galaxy borders. Unfortunately, we were out of options ourselves, other than Sonic and Shadow racing out to keep the field from expanding out, but that would only last for so long...

"Sonic decided that the only choice we had was to fire at Dark Oak with him through the Sonic Power Cannon, a potentially fatal move to make. We began preparations, using every ounce of energy left in our reserves to fuel the cannon. It didn't stop us from having our doubts that it would actually work, even after the Master Four tried using their own power to fight back the field with no better results. A Super transformation and Super Saiyan 4 forms are actually equally powerful, but it didn't make any more of a difference with the gravity field. That's when... When..."

Tails began to choke on his own words, unsure of how to explain the next events, even though he's had to say it time and time again. Then again, it wasn't his place to continue, as the right truly belonged to Cosmo, who took over the story from there.

"That's when I had a calling, a spiritual insight from my mother Earthia. She told me that the time had come to fulfill my destiny to stop the Metarex, and act upon the purpose I was born. I released my inner powers, powers that the people of my clan have had since the beginning of our existence. With the breaking of my original chest amulet, I allowed myself to mature myself in mind and body and become my adult form. The power I released allowed me to travel through and neutralize the gravity field with ease, and I went straight towards Dark Oak for my final transformation...

"For many female Seedrians, the end of their humanoid existence is followed by transforming into a grand tree, planting themselves where they found best to be. For me, I turned into my tree form atop of Dark Oak himself, my roots spread down the sides of his sphere and leaving him immobilized. I was able to provide an open window to fire the Sonic Power Cannon, to destroy the Metarex once and for all, and myself in the process...

"But, it wasn't acted on immediately. No one wanted to go through with the plan-"

"Of course we didn't want to!" Amy said, cutting off Cosmo and showing her own upset emotions. "How could we just agree to do that and lose you?"

"If we had to lose you to win the war and stop the Metarex, there was nothing to win for," Cream added.

"Cosmo was the one who found us and asked to help her stop the Metarex and save the galaxy in the first place. Doing that by killing her, it was... I... Hated it. I hated the idea, and I didn't want to act on it. I just wish we had another choice that moment," Sonic stated, showing some of his angrier side thinking about it.

"We didn't have a choice..." Tails managed to find the words to help continue. "...there was nothing left we could do. Even the strongest forces we put against the Metarex became useless. I told everyone to leave the bridge we were on, to leave me alone at the controls, to leave me alone with the trigger...

"Dr. Eggman gave the necessary commands, and both Sonic and Shadow loaded the cannon for maximum fire power. Everything was prepared for one last chance to save the galaxy and end the war altogether. But when Eggman ordered the attack, I... I couldn't do it. I couldn't... I wouldn't fire the cannon. I refused to do it. I didn't want to do it. I couldn't lose Cosmo like this, not after we made a promise to stay close to each other and have her stay with us on Mobius. I wouldn't do it... I refused to do it!" He slammed his fist onto the end of his seat, his rage seething out as his eyes started to water.

"It took both Dr. Eggman and Cosmo to convince me to fire the cannon. I hated it... I hated the idea of doing, and I hated the resorts we were left to deal with. But I knew we didn't have another choice, and that it was now or never. If anything good came during those moments of potentially saying goodbye to Cosmo, to saying goodbye to the most special person I've ever come to know, it was the Master Four finding a solution for us with the Phantoms..."

"That's an advantage that comes with having Team JAG," said Yugi. "To have a vast amount of friends and heroes with a vaster amount of powers and abilities to help any and all worlds, they were the only ones we could think of to help us out of losing Cosmo." He then motioned a hand to Dan, who took over speaking next.

"An emergency call was made through Yugi, reaching my family's home and Fentonworks. We got the brief info about Cosmo and told of how I, and my cousin Danielle, could use our powers to help..." He paused at a small realization he made about some of the ponies learning this for the first time. "Perhaps I can give a quick demonstration of what we mean..."

With that, Dan allowed himself to turn into his heroic form, or best known as his ghost form. A ring of light appeared around him, and then went directly up and down his body, transforming his look with a black and white jumpsuit and his eyes and hair turning different colors. When the transformation was done, he presented himself to the ponies for the first time as the ghost hero known as Danny Phantom.

He continued on to say "Where I'm from, there is another dimension that is home to all sorts of ghosts and creatures of the like, all having some set of unique powers. I have a set of my own that can do several different things, but I had one power that was specifically needed: the power of intangibility."

Gohan then added "That's why we called for him and his little cousin, who has many powers like his as well. Since we couldn't remove Cosmo off of Dark Oak, we needed a way to keep her from becoming an unwanted player of martyr. They arrived just before Tails was willing to pull that trigger, and immediately went to action and placed themselves on the sides of Cosmo's tree form and made her intangible..."

Tails took over once more and said "It was brilliant. Having Cosmo intangible like that, and still being able to immobilize Dark Oak from doing anything, it was sheer brilliance. That meant the war could end and Cosmo could return and stay with us, and with me...

"I wasn't going to let this last ditch effort be lost, and with the full belief that everything was going to be okay, I acted. I hit the trigger and fired off the power cannon, destroying it in the process, but launched Sonic and Shadow straight for Dark Oak. We all had that one ounce of good faith left, but...

"We were proven wrong again."

Tails couldn't help himself at that point. He clenched his eyes shut as his face scowled furiously, trying his hardest to fight off his tears again. Cosmo saw this expression on her love, and just clenched one of his hands in both of hers, trying not to tear up herself. All around, members of their groups from Mobius and the Band, especially those who were there that day, let her heads bow down and her own expressions become nearly as upsetting in their own ways.

The fillies and most of the princesses noticed the Mane 6 doing the same. Where the older ponies had a good understanding about what might come up next, the fillies only cared about their older siblings and friends at that moment. Scootaloo never saw Rainbow Dash look so heartbroken, and Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle couldn't understand why Applejack and Rarity tried to hide their emotions aside. As for Nyx, she's seen Twilight in a broken state before, in fact multiple times, but those times were based around her and having been lost on more than one occasion. The little alicorn nudged the side of her mother's leg, trying to gain her attention.

All that Twilight could do was wrap her leg around Nyx's back, and held her close. Nyx tried to ask what was wrong again, but she didn't get the chance. When her eyes looked around at everypony else, she saw how they were acting the same, but nowhere near as looking troubled as Tails, Cosmo and the others. She didn't know what was next, except that now she was scared to find out.

"Tails... Cosmo... What happened after that?" Nyx asked bravely.

Tails barely looked over at Nyx before his eyes stared at the ground in front of him. With once last breath in and a new tremor in his voice, he went on to say "The cannon was fired as I said, but there was an interruption. The Brotherhood of Darkness, the organization of villains and foes from across all different dimensions, intercepted the attack and diverted it out of the way. Galvatron, leader of the Decepticons and the Brotherhood, managed to do that and separate Cosmo and the Phantoms from Dark Oak, who survived and reverted back to his former body. Sonic, Shadow and Dan managed to be thrown away far enough to not be captured, but Danielle and Cosmo were not as lucky...

"Throughout the war, we crossed paths with Galvatron and the Brotherhood, but they weren't as involved with the Metarex until this point. He hated us, especially everything Cosmo stood for, and he was tired of us getting in his way, so he decided to make us pay. The Master Four tried to go out and fight him, but after everything that they had to do already, he swiped them right back to the Blue Typhoon, knocking them out cold and reverting them back to their normal states.

"Then, he... He drew out his dark cyber energy into one hand as the other still held onto Cosmo... I ran out on the deck, demanding him to stop as she tried to free herself, and Danielle having her intangibility negated. And then he... Clenched his other hand together and..."

Tails just started to growl furiously, the first thing he could think of doing to try and mask him starting to cry. It was his breaking point, and he didn't want to break down too much in front of the ponies. His friends, however, only faired just so much better in controlling their own emotions.

Finding the bravery to say it, Cosmo finished where Tails left off. "Galvatron killed me. He killed me and Dani as revenge for stopping the Metarex."

The room fell silent for a moment. Most of the royal ponies took in what Cosmo had said and showed their own mix of reactions to it, but it didn't compare to how the other ponies reacted. Where Fluttershy and Rarity just let their tears flow down their cheeks, Pinkie Pie's mane and tail went from their poofy cloud-like states to flat and droopy. Applejack only tried to hide herself under her Stetson, and Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth together and eyes shut in a state of anger she had when she saw the visions of that moment. As for Twilight, she let herself just open up with quiet sobs as she attempted to bow her head in despair.

But out of all the ponies, it was the Cutie Mark Crusaders who took it the worst. They couldn't believe it, they tried to refuse believing it. Even Spike, who had kept himself in his small corner the entire time, couldn't help but do the same as them. When the fact registered in their minds, their eyes watered with tears, their lips frowned and trembling, all until they finally let their hearts out and began to cry. It was exactly what the older mares were afraid of, even if it was the inevitable reaction.

"Wh-what? You died? How could you die?" Apple Bloom asked in her disbelief.

"Yeah... That doesn't add up," Scootaloo followed.

"It's true... I'm sorry girls, but it's true," Tails tried to tell them before his voice seethed even angrier than before. "It happened, and that damned Galvatron's laugh echoing in my ears was our proof."

"But... But... But..." Sweetie Belle couldn't even form a sentence as she squeaked out each word. All she could do was nestle herself against her big sister, who embraced her in a comforting hug.

The only filly, other than the royal foal Skyla, that remained silent was Nyx. What she heard, what she could understand, it hit her hard, right into the heart. It was like she knew this pain before, and it was a kind that would leave her crippled in internal pain and despair, almost like her world falling apart in front of her. Yet, she couldn't put a hoof on it, at least not yet, so she instead let herself hide behind her mane as much as possible and let out her gentle sobbing. Even feeling Twilight wrapping a wing around her back did close to nothing for her comfort.

"Miles Prower, Miss Cosmo," Luna said to get their attention. "I can see you and your friends share immensely torn hearts from this. I do sympathize with you, but I can also see there is more to this story that most probably includes a solution to what had transpired. By mere request alone, please continue to the greater results of your tale."

"Y-yes," Rarity added, slightly hesitant because of her sobbing sibling. "Perhaps that's best at this moment."

"Well, that leaves the next portion of our story... The breaking point of the whole war..." Jason stated.

Celestia, maintaining her composure to be read like a clear slate, simply replied "If only that's what you wish..."

Nodding, the dark warrior took the reins of storytelling. "As I said, that was the breaking point of everything. Every ounce of sadness, rage, and practically primal tempers, took over most of us. But Tails... Well, needless to say that him breaking down at the bow of the ship and hearing his pain was... Expected.

"There's a funny thing about how loss and rage go hand in hand- or, hoof in hoof, so to speak. It drove us, all of us out there on the launch deck, back up on our feet getting angrier and angrier, plus tapping in to what power we could still release. As we cried, we growled and glared our way into our Super Saiyan states. However, for Tails and Dan, it was the drive for them to achieve that power level themselves."

"Super Saiyan?" Shining Armor said curiously.

Gohan took that to motion himself into giving a small demonstration, much like Dan did with his ghost powers. "It's a legendary status of my father's race of incredible fighting ability. For any of you who can sense power levels from us, you can see we're not showing any, but with Super Saiyan..." Then, he powered up to show his increased power, as seen by the now golden hair and solid green eyes and an aura of energy surrounding him.

"That's the same power Tails had fightin' those dragons a few months ago," Applejack pointed out.

"Wow, that's... Impressive," Shining Armor added.

"It can be, but it still wasn't enough," Ash went on to say. "All the fighting we've done so far, it left us too weak to find more energy on our own, or charge more up quick enough. Fortunately, we had Tails's compassion for Cosmo and our good faith for our friends to tap into exactly what we needed: The Chaos Emeralds.

"The emeralds helped us achieve something new and beyond the limits of Super Saiyan 4. Where the emeralds can give its user power levels equal to that state, putting that on top of the basic Super Saiyan state allowed us even greater heights to reach. For most of us, it was an incredible new level to reach, but not all of us stopped there..."

Tails looked up from where his eyes were fixated towards with a look into the darkest corners of his soul. "I barely went on the battlefield during the whole war," he went on to say, "keeping myself at the captain's chair to make the calls for attacks. It was where I was needed most for all the weeks we traveled the galaxy, but at moment, that ended. I was done sitting behind, watching and formulating. For what had been done, I wanted to avenge Cosmo and get all the pain I could out of my heart. That focus, that rage, was something Dan and I shared at that moment, so we used that to our advantage. We were Super Saiyans, and we just became new users of the Chaos Emeralds, so we combined our powers, and ourselves, into one being...

"Tails Phantom, the ultimate form for us, was born through a combination of the Chaos energy and Dan's ghost abilities."

"But Galvatron had more tricks of his own. He called on a few of his higher-ups in the Brotherhood to aid him in fighting, including that good for nothing Dark Oak," Knuckles said.

Taking an observation, Luna went on to say "It was the final bout between the two sides, I presume? From what we can take from your tale, it sounded like there was no end in sight."

Amy nodded and replied "It was the final fight, for that war at least. The Brotherhood of Darkness is a different problem that's lasted a lot longer."

"Most of us stayed inside and watched the whole thing. Everyone out there fighting just kept going on and on without holding back," Cream added.

"That isn't a complaint. From what they were throwing around out there, it was good to be safe inside the ship," Rouge stated.

Tails took over once again and said "It was going back and forth, but it wasn't until we were at the final standoff. That was the point to end everything once and for all, and teach the Metarex and the Brotherhood a lesson on what happens when you do so many unforgivable things again, and again, and again... The Master Four collected themselves together to combine their Ki into one powerful blast, the Four Masters Cannon, and they summoned some of the most powerful creatures from Yugi's dimension to lend their godlike powers as additional force. The three of us left positioned ourselves around certain spots to unleash our full power of Chaos Control, and all the while our enemies prepared to counterattack us."

"Tails," Nyx said, a tremor of fear in her voice, "what happened next? Did anyone else..." She found it hard to finish her question, the thought of Cosmo's death still troubling her.

"No, Nyx, no one else died," he replied in a flat-out manner. "We fired our energies at one-another, and it ended up being a stalemate. It took one last effort in my state with Dan's powers to try the most powerful ghost technique there is; the Ghostly Wail. I flew behind the Master Four and warned the others to cover the ears, and then unleashed the wail. Its power, and combined with everything I had, screeched its way around the others and amplified our Ki blasts, managing to overpower our enemies.

"It took a minute, but it finally came to an end, and the group of us landed back on the Blue Typhoon, and we defused and powered down back to normal. Dark Oak, Galvatron, they and their peers only floated there in space, weakened and unable to fight anymore. I wanted them dead. Right then and there, I wanted to make sure they'd never do what they did again, but a couple of their own allies managed to get to the scene and help them escape back where the Brotherhood's base is.

"But that did it. That ended the Metarex War. We had finally stopped Dark Oak and his plans to take over the galaxy with plant life, and make sure that all the planet eggs they stole and that were still salvageable returned to their home planets as they shot by like stars. In the end, it just costed us one major hit, one fatality that we tried our hardest to prevent. We lost a friend... I lost a friend that I became so close to... I lost the best friend I fell in love with during our journey together, and I couldn't bring her back. I couldn't save her. I was broken. I... I-"

After telling the ending of the entire story of the war, Tails had reached his limit. Even if it was only a slight fraction of how he felt back then, the fox had to let out the heartbreak that always came with those ending moments. With his head bowed he let himself cry, and he let every drop of pain fall down his face in tears, trying to cover his face with his free hand. He couldn't help himself to do it, and even if there was royalty and youth in front of him, it didn't matter.

His oldest friends shared his pain, but tried their best in avoiding the same kind of behavior. Some just shed their tears as others just shut their eyes in shame, and others in between. Even Celestia, a grand mare of strong composure, hid her sight from all the expressed pain to hide her own discomfort. She found some recovery, courtesy of Luna draping a wing across her back.

But for the other ponies, they showed their own pain their own ways. The youngest of them tried their best to hide how sad they were, but they couldn't find the strength to do so, and began to sob against the closest sibling or role model near them. Nyx, on the other hoof, did not do the same as them and took a different approach. She jumped down from her mother's embrace and stepped her way towards the crying fox. After nudging against him with her head did she get his attention, and that was when Tails was looking down at a very sad and teary-eyed alicorn filly.

"Don't cry, Tails. You did everything you could to do the right thing. It's not your fault you lost Cosmo, because everyone knew you tried your best to help her," she told him. "You didn't let yourself do things you'd regret later on and hurt those around. Cosmo is very lucky to have someone like you... any pony in Equestria would think you're very nice and brave, and not just some freak of nature..."

The fox used the back of his free hand to wipe off the tears that still flooded his eyes, and then looked down at the little pony. He wore the weakest smile he could and said "I know that, and I'm glad that you think that about me like my friends always have. The problem was, and is today, having lost Cosmo in the first place. She didn't deserve to die... and it was just not fair to her, to anyone, to me..." He had to pause himself as he felt the urge to cry once again, and turned his head away to allow himself a chance.

Nyx turned her sight over to Cosmo, who just looked at him with teary eyes of her own as her hands clenched his. Unlike him, or anyone else in the room, she wore a weak but genuine smile on her lips. She didn't to explain it, but when the filly asked about her smile, she simply said "Even though it pains him so much to feel that way, it always reminds me just how lucky I am to love the most caring and wonderful person I know."

Although Tails heard what his beloved said, he couldn't turn his head to face het quite yet. He needed to let out some of his sadness more, and he didn't want to do that on her shoulder and smear his tears on her, even though she wouldn't mind it at all. There was a bit more left in him still, and he tried his hardest to control his emotions better, but that attempt ended up being interrupted.

Coming out of nowhere, Nyx jumped up between the couple. She wrapped her forearms around his neck and began to give him a hug before he had a chance to turn his head at the sudden extra pony between him and Cosmo. When he did, he found her head to his left as she hugged him as tight as she thought was needed, wondering just what she was doing. His answer came when she spoke up again.

"Please stop crying, Tails. I'm sorry you were hurt so much. You don't need to cry anymore if Cosmo's here now."

His mind continued to try and register why she was doing it, but such a sweet little filly didn't need the overthinking over. With his free arm, he wrapped it around Nyx's back and returned the hug to her, but only for a moment before he decided to inquire about her actions. "Thank you, Nyx, but why are you so concerned about me? I may not be my most collected self, but you don't need to show so much worry over me."

"Because you remind me of Twilight," she began to reply. "When I became Nightmare Moon and abandoned her, I knew deep down that she was hurt because of how close we became. She was my mom back then, and my stupid thinking made me make her sad and alone, almost like how those Metarex made you feel when they took Cosmo away. But I got better and was given back to my family, just like how Cosmo's still here to be with you and all your friends, so you don't need to feel sad or guilty anymore."

The words the alicorn filly spoke echoed in the minds of every being in the room. The way she compared what happened during that war and that of Nightmare Moon's reign over Equestria was incredible, and very closely accurate. Such relatabilities between the two conflicts, when registered, made sense to everyone who thought harder about it, confirming her to be right about what she meant. When that registered in Tails's mind, a big and more genuine smile was put on his face as he pulled Nyx back off of him.

"You're right, Nyx, I shouldn't, but just like how you and Twilight would be sad about what happened for your history, I get sad about mine. What you said, though, does mean the world to me because you are right." He then pulled her back into the hug before adding "Thank you for saying that. You really are a good little pony, just like your mother."

"Well, she is Twilight's daughter after all," Cosmo added, her emotions better in check as her tears had been cleared out of her eyes and her voice calm. She let her right hand off from her grip of Tails's, wrapped her arm around his back and leaned herself in to share the hug with him. "You're such a sweet little thing, Nyx. Thank you."

The hug only lasted briefly longer before breaking and the couple gave the filly some room between them to sit. When she turned herself around, Nyx noticed Twilight having one of the happiest looks on her face, which made her feel all the prouder for trying to be nice. She also caught the sight of Rainbow Dash, who looked to be hiding herself from crying. Her sight became interrupted when Tails's hand rubbed playfully through her mane, forcing her to shut her eyes and try to swipe his hand away with her hoof.

Then came the chance for Nyx to ask the question that lingered in the mind of several ponies. "So if Cosmo died during that battle, how is it that she's here now?"

That was the final topic to be discussed for the entire tale, and for those telling it, the most uplifting part of their history. "Well, that's where the Band comes in," Tails answered, "so I'll let them take over for a while."

"Wait, the Band?" Apple Bloom asked curiously.

"That's right," Jason answered. "This was an idea we had during our voyage back to Mobius after we prepared our ships for travel. After a few days spent in mourning, or more so depression for everyone, there had to be something we could try to do to undo what had happened. Unfortunately, so many options we would have in other dimensions couldn't be applied elsewhere, even the Chaos Regeneration ability only produced one white seed that Tails held onto. I can't speak completely on behalf of everyone of how exactly they felt, but I can say that I was especially livid for just how unfair things were. It took a talk with Gohan to push me through it, and spark an insane but possible idea to fix it all."

Gohan took over from there and said "The two of us got Ash and Yugi, and we all discussed about using our hobby of music. You see, whenever we play music together, there's a great sense of energy that we feel being built up through the fun and excitement of doing it, and the small amount of times we performed in front of others, we sensed that energy emitting from our audience. It was decided that we would play music together in front of the biggest crowd we could invite to Mobius, and combine that with the magic of Chaos Control for a massive revival project."

"The Team JAG Band Revival Concert," Twilight stated. "That was your first big show you ever played, according to Tails and Cosmo."

"That's right," Dan confirmed.

"But to pull it off, we needed more than the Master Four," Ash went on to say. "We called on everyone across both the Blue Typhoon and the Egg Crimson to pitch the idea, and we agreed it was worth the chance. When we asked about additional musicians joining us, Dan volunteered as he was already practicing with us beforehand. We then thought of Ami and Yumi joining us, as it was Jason's discovery of their dimension that helped us discover our unique way of performing music."

"And when we heard what happened and if we wanted to join in, there was no way we'd turn down the ultimate jam," Yumi followed. Ami then added "So we said we were in and began to practice the moment we got to our instruments."

"But not all of us were part of the Band back then," Aelita stated. She motioned her hand to herself, Kim and Ron. "Back then we only heard of what happened and what the Band was going to do, so when we got the invite to be in the crowd, our friends and family joined us and we were there for the show. A few of us even helped Dr. Eggman program the technology needed to maintain and record the energy levels being gathered to pull off the Revival."

"It sounds as if you needed a bountiful amount of energy to collect in order to bring back Cosmo and this Dani from the dead," said a curious and slightly mused Celestia. "How much energy does it take for you to counter against the nature of death?"

Yugi spoke next and explained "For two lives, it would take some extra energy, perhaps the whole Ponyville population, to pull that off. However, we were aiming for a higher goal: reviving the entire Seedrian race lost to the Metarex and their prior war. In order to accomplish that, we needed to get enough energy to put the Metarex's peak potential to shame as there were thousands to bring back to life. That's why we recruited Eggman to create an energy containment chamber to collect the radiated energy and keep it in storage for us to use in the revival process. There was just one more friend we needed to be involved with us in the Band, who had every right to try his hardest in our cause."

Eyes from all around began to look towards the room's sole two-tailed fox, who only reacted with shutting his eyes, letting a couple tears flow into his already stained furry cheeks, and smiled contently. He then went on to say "I lost all hope in practically everything after losing Cosmo. I locked myself in my room, shutting out all my friends - my family - just to lay on the floor to cry. I cried for so long and so hard without end, and I paid no mind to the time passing by until the Master Four finally broke into my room and told me about the Revival concert."

"No offense, but it doesn't sound hard for most of you to break into anything," Cadance pointed out. "I'm a little surprised no one tried harder to get to you when you were... heartbroken."

Shadow gave a deadpanned response to the pink alicorn. "It wasn't hard to figure out the combination to his door's lock." He then pointed a finger at the story's focused Seedrian. "Anyone could have just walked their way in anytime they wanted, with the exception of my use of Chaos Control with just one of the emeralds. But most of us knew it wasn't our place to be invasive, only up until their plans for Revival was made."

"But then you were told about it and were immediately involved in the Band from that day on, if I'm not mistaken of course," Rarity said, with a confirming nod from Tails.

"From the moment we landed back on Mobius, we began to make our preparations," Ash went on to explain. "Yugi and I found a field big enough to hold the concert and to give the Seedrians a new place to settle and civilize at. Their home world wasn't fortunate enough to be rejuvenated back to life as its planet egg was lost during the Metarex's quest. We showed the land to the others later on, and from there we began to put all the pieces together to create the stage, the setup, and the energy chamber."

"Then came the nonstop practicing," Yumi added. "We all met up together at different times to rehearse song s, assign certain amount of people to songs, and made the initial Band lineups with what music we played back then."

"You mean how the Master Four play nearly the entire show while the rest of the band switches in and out?"

Jason replied to Sweetie Belle's question by saying "That was something we decided to do back when we first began playing music. From where we're from, there are bands with multi-instrumentalists and singers, so they would tend to rotate those responsibilities when needed. We decided to do the same for what we do so that everyone can be well-rounded with multiple instruments and singing abilities, and the same rule applied to everyone who helped create the Team JAG Band."

"And about a few months later," Gohan said, "we were ready."

"When the day of Revival finally came up, we invited everyone we could from every known dimension, even some that we hadn't seen for a very long time," Tails explained. "We got the turnout we were hoping for as beings from all different universes traveled to the field and nearly filled the entire area to full capacity. To see that sea of people and beings filling the open land, it meant so much how those within Team JAG, and many still outside, care for each other and are willing to help others out when needed.

"It wasn't until I saw that crowd when I felt completely confident in the Revival concert. Even with all the practicing and preparing, even with all the hope I had, I was afraid that we wouldn't bring Cosmo and everybody back. We waited until the day turned twilight, and with everything set in place, the Band got together, had a quick huddle to hype ourselves up, and then we hit the stage."

"Was it scary to play your first concert that was so.... big?" Fluttershy asked. The thought of a massive crowd of thousands watching the stage got to her fears, even after having competed in front of practically all of Equestria earlier that day.

"You know, Fluttershy, it wasn't as bad as you'd think," Yugi replied. "I mean, we all enjoy music, and didn't mind going up on a stage to play for so many people before. If anything, the mission we had set for Revival gave us a greater drive to get up there and play. We were there to support our friends and try to fix an injustice that went against what was meant to be."

"And you succeeded," intervened Cosmo.

"Did your mission carry out just as you expected?" asked a curious Celestia. "I hope you may forgive my mentioning, but seeing how this Brotherhood of Darkness has fought against you before, it would not be a surprise if they tried to intervene with you again."

"They did," Dan said in return. "After playing for a few hours and gathering the energy we needed to start the revival process, many of us who could turn Super Saiyan and harness the Chaos Emeralds' power gathered on the stage and powered up. We combined our powers with the collected energy and activated Chaos Control, and it opened a rift between the Sonic X dimension and the realm of the dead, allowing us to detect and give energy back to all the Seedrians we detected."

"And then, one by one, they came down from the rift and landed in an open spot of the field that the crowd opened up for the newly revived race to reappear at," Sonic went on to say. "We started with the Seedrians, and then managed to bring back Dan's cousin. Then, it came down to just Cosmo, and that was when there was a slight interruption."

Shadow rudely commented with "Of course you would put it mildly. You know as well as we all would Galvatron's appearance was the biggest obstacle we had all that night. If it wasn't for me or Goku, Tails would have never gotten Cosmo back."

"What's a Goku?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Gohan answered by saying "He's my father, and the strongest warrior of Team JAG. When Galvatron attacked, he helped hold him back long enough for us to finish the reviving and protect Tails and Cosmo."

"Yet it is apparently clear from Cosmo's appearance here that this Goku thwarted that Galvatron's plans to stop you," stated Luna, to which the half-blood Saiyan nodded in confirmation.

"We did it. We managed to fix all the damage the Metarex had done with the Revival concert," Tails said. "All the Seedrians were brought back, Dani was revived, and, even as selfish as I sound, Cosmo was brought back to life, and to me. I couldn't live with myself knowing I didn't try something to bring her back, but we found an option and we succeeded. Our group of friends- no, our family was brought back together, and we could continue living our lives as we promised each other we would-"

"Together and in happiness," Cosmo interrupted, intervening once again. "I owe a lot to all the friends I made since first finding Mobius, especially after what they did with Revival." Her eyes, as well as many of the ponies', began to tear up again. "I was given another chance to help bring good to our galaxy, and even beyond through Team JAG. I was reunited with my family, both Seedrian and Mobian, to live a full and happy life again. And above everything else, I was given another chance to learn about love and how it would make me and Tails stronger than we ever could have been on our own. After the Band finished their set of songs for the Revival concert, we began to continue our lives, for better or for worse, and so long as I still had Tails in my life, it has been a wonderful, wonderful several years."

And with that, the story of Tails and Cosmo's meeting and blossoming love had come to a close. The story of the Metarex War was shared and the event of Revival explained, and the minds of every pony and dragon took in and digested the history. Some knew how to take it in fairly easy, but the minds of others stirred with just how vast or bizarre the world's beyond Equestria sound to be. There was definitely a lot more ponies could learn from the connection with Team JAG, but what can be offered to learn from was, to the mind of the Princesses, best to be taken in moderation, and with the story they were just told, there was no need to ask about more.

No, the love story between the two was more than a mental quench of thought, with all the adventure and tragedy that was just explained. It was a trial of challenges and determination that would bring out the strongest might within themselves, and the proof of their accomplishment sat and stood around the room. A translation to make from it all was how it exemplifies the lengths those who care for one-another will go towards, much like the ponies from Equestria.

Princess Celestia stood up from her cushion, and walked her way over to where Tails and Cosmo sat. Her expression regal and poise, she approached them as collectively as she carried herself, disregarding the thin and faint streak of a tear she let trail down not long ago. When she reached the couple, they and the little alicorn sitting between them looked up at the monarch of the day to see a kind and gentle smile.

"It is clear that what Twilight has said about you both - about all of you - is genuine and honorable. I know you didn't have to tell us your history, as it clearly troubles you very much, but I cannot say it wasn't very kind and respectful for you to tell us anyway. Thank you for sharing yourselves with us and allowing us to know more about you all," Celestia told them.

"Of course, Your Highness," Cosmo replied, "and thank you for listening."

"Please, Princess Celestia is just fine."

Cosmo grin and gently nodded. "Of course, Princess."

"The ponies from Equestria can benefit from associating with creatures- no, fellows such as yourselves," added Luna, walking up beside her older sister. "You have faced trials some ponies can only fear of, and others could relate to in numerous forms. I am sorry for what you had to suffer, especially you Miles Prower."

"It's alright," replied the fox. "Like we said, as bad as it all hurts, it all worked out in the end. We tried so hard and got so far, but in the end, we knew how to repair the damage done." He then let out a disappointing sigh in response to another thought that came to mind. "I only wish we could help repair what that prince of yours managed to do."

The next sound to be heard was a huff from the in-room prince, Shining Armor. He didn't like what Blueblood's actions caused everypony, and would have taken care of things himself if his wife didn't keep him from being irrational. "He's finally out of our manes for now, sent on a train back to Canterlot like the spoiled brat he is. It's a shame that wasn't done sooner."

"Agreed," added Twilight, the mere mention of the prince's name making her mad as well.

"Let's not allow this moment to be ruined by Blueblood," commented Celestia. "His behavior has no place here right now."

"But it does make two openings here, my sister," Luna followed. She then turned her attention over to a certain silent princess, who was preoccupied looking out one of the room's windows with her foal. "You sensed and saw the great outburst as well, didn't you Cadance?"

The pink alicorn nodded and replied "I did, and it's a beautiful sight."

All eyes turned to look outside to see what bit their curiosity of what she had meant. What they discovered was a beautiful and spectacular sight in the skies above the Crystal Empire. Streams of light waved in multiple directions, their movements acting as if they were dancing with one-another as they stretched for the farthest corners in Equestria. It took no effort to think about where the source of the lights originated from as the ponies knew, and their guests realized, about the Crystal Heart that sat beneath the crystalline palace. The essence of love the centered couple have emitted from themselves fed the Heart greatly, so much so that it nearly equaled what the Crystal Ponies have done in the past, and the sky lit sights was proof.

"Woah, that's so cool," Scootaloo said, she and the other fillies staring out with amazed expressions. They never saw such light displays before, only hearing about it from other ponies.

"That all came from the Crystal Heart?" Apple Bloom added.

Applejack answered her little sister's questioned by saying "Sure is, Sugarcube," and then turned her sight over towards Cosmo. "I knew you two had a special bond and all, but seein' that kind of light show really shows it off."

"I guess so," the Seedrian replied, a giggle mixed in with her words. "I have to admit myself that your world has such wondrous ways to display its magic, and this really takes the cake."

"Sure does," added Pinkie Pie, "and I bet it'd taste delicious. Hmmm, I wonder if I can make Taismo-flavored pastries, maybe cupcakes..."

The room was quiet for a few moments, curious about what the mare had on her mind with such an idea. In an attempt to change the subject matter, Rarity made a comment about the sights from outside the window.

"Well that was a very touching story to listen to, and I thank you Tails and Cosmo, and all of your family here as well, for sharing it with us. I'm afraid that behind the lights in the sky looks like it's time for Luna to raise the moon, which means a few certain fillies should be getting their little heads to bed."

"Already? But we're not even tired yet," whined Sweetie Belle.

"No 'buts' Sweetie Belle," Rarity said to her firmly. "We've all had a long day and it's time to get some rest for tomorrow."

"I think I can agree with that idea," added Twilight Velvet. "That train ride was more exhausting than it needed, so some sleep would do me some good."

Luna, on the other hoof, had some disagreement to the proposed idea to turn in for the night. "Our business here is not yet over, I'm afraid. There is a certain matter that needs to be addressed first."

"There is? What would that be?" Gohan asked.

"It doesn't directly involve everyone here, but it is a subject that your visit has put to our attention," Celestia answered, and then turned her attention fixed towards the filly sitting between the fox and flower on the loveseat. "This matter is about you, Nyx, and about your identity in relation to Twilight."

A scared look crossed Nyx's face as she began to cower herself against the seat. "Wh-what do you mean? What's wrong with me being with Twilight?"

Twilight, automatically in a motherly defensive position, got out of her seat and walked up to stand in front of her daughter and friends. The look on her face showed an expression of curiosity mixed with slight anger. "I would like to know this problem as well, because there shouldn't be one at all."

"Calm yourself, Twilight Sparkle. This has nothing to do with jeopardizing you being Nyx's mother, only her identity as being more than only your daughter," Luna said in attempt to calm the parent down.

Tails, a curious look on his own face, looked over to the Princess of the Night with little interest to hear any more negativity. "You mean with Nyx once being Nightmare Moon then?" The alicorn shook her head to deny that claim. "Then what identity does that leave?"

"Allow me to explain," Luna requested, having gained the attention of everyone in the room. She maintained a regal and serious composure as she began to walk herself around the room, allowing her to project her voice around the room without the need of her former royal tongue, and stretch out her legs after being still for so long.

"Although I cannot deny that his actions didn't change things for our time here, the actions of Prince Blueblood were out of place and unwelcome. He labeled Nyx as his own twisted view of her former identity and a foal's worst fears, making selected ponies' own fears come to their surfaces. Something that he chose to now acknowledge considerately was her connection with Twilight, and how that a filly named Nyx Sparkle was her daughter through a legal adoption that carries through unless only an Equestrian princess can overrule if deemed possible.

"This fact still carries through everything that anypony can say about Nyx, from anything when the adoption was made official, and to everything that happens afterwards. Where she was born an alicorn, based on the mare that she and I were when one and the same, she was not of Equestrian royalty when Twilight took her in as her own daughter. However, there is an event that makes a rather important and overlooked difference between what the Sparkle family was then, and what they are now."

"What are you talking about? What was overlooked?" Rainbow Dash asked, standing out of her own seat.

Luna held a hoof up to calm the cyan mare, and then returned to her explanation. "You should be aware of this event, Rainbow Dash, as you and the other Elements of Harmony fell under the effects of the last and uncompleted spell of Starswirl the Bearded. Do you not remember your destinies - who you were - being exchanged to identities that were not yours to live with? Twilight does, as you all helped her finish the spell and create new magic that day. Because of your friendship, you helped Twilight achieve the greatest ascension a pony could earn."

Twilight eyes opened wide, thinking back to that day of the magical mystery cure. She remembered reading Starswirl's spell, and unintentionally swapping the lives and talents of her friends, and then going around reminding them of themselves through what their friendships mean with one-another. It all resulted in returning everypony to their own identities, finishing the spell, meeting Celestia in the magical plane and-

"When I became an alicorn," Twilight said in her realization. "It was when I became a princess."

"That is correct," Luna confirmed, and continued with her explanation. "When you became an alicorn princess, you earned the rights, and the title, that came with being a princess. This kind of identity can also be applied to immediate family, just like your brother becoming a prince after becoming Cadance's husband. Although Spike, who has been by your side since you became my sister's pupil, is not connected to you in any legal manners, there is a pony that is technically in your immediately family. Through legal documents, Nyx is your daughter, and since your Princess Coronation, it means that she automatically inherited the rights and position to share the same image as you in her own identity.

"Nyx Sparkle is, as officiated with the title for Princess Twilight Sparkle, a princess of her own identity: Princess Nyx."

Author's Note:

If you made it here, congratulations! You just read the longest chapter in the story!

This was a labor of love to do as Tails and Cosmo is my top couple of all time. It was my goal from the very start of making Taismo stories with MLP to tackle this subject because I enjoy seeing worlds established through the sharing of backstories and histories, even with lengthy expositions. Coincidentally, today marks the tenth anniversary since the series finale of Sonic X (the english dub) and the end of the Metarex arc of the series, so posting this today makes it even more meaningful to me. If you made it here, thanks for giving this a read, and keep an eye for the followup to the cliffhanger before summer! In the mean time, look forward to a very special addition to the normal Taismo series I'll post about very soon!

TAISMO FOREVER \m/ /)