Sonic EGX (Book 1)

by Will of Radiance

Episode 5

Sunday 12:00 pm

The Mane 7 were gathered at Rarity's house. After failing to find anything significant at the crater where they found the emerald, Twilight and Sunset, who both had labcoats on, were running some experiments on the mysterious glowing yellow emerald they have in Rarity's garage. The others were off doing their own thing. Rarity and Fluttershy were making some snacks for the group, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were sparring in the backyard, and Pinkie was just playing videogames. (Griffon Ball D Ultimaniax Edition to be precise)

"Okay Sunset, is the emerald properly secure?" Twilight asked as she turned a few nobs on the scopes and ocsilators that were wired to a metal holding apparatus.

"Putting it in right now." Sunset carefully lowered the emerald into the apparatus in insulated gloves to protect her hands. The emerald slid gently out of her gloves and into the apparatus with a slight metallic ring. Sunset the rushed back behind a couple of glass panels they had set up to protect against any "projectiles' that might shoot out.
"Okay, you ready?" She asked Twilight.

"Yep. Would you do the honor of pulling the switch?" She ghestured to a power switch which was connected to a generator, which they borrowed from Applejack, which routed power through the wires to the apparatus. Sunset became somewhat hesitant to pull it, for she didn't know what would happen.

"You sure this is safe Twilight?" Sunset asked her. "I mean you remember what happened to Dash when she touched it right?"
Twilight's mind went back to when she first showed the emerald to the group. When Dash proceeded to touch it, it blew her back into Pinkie's drum set.

"Uh....yeah. Heh heh." Twilight chuckled nervously. "Well that's why we got these fiberglass panels right?” She gestures to the transparent fiberglass panels in front of them to protect them from any sparks or flames that might come from this experiment.

“Sigh yeah, at the expense of my wallet.” Sunset said disappointingly as she pulled open her wallet, which showed nothing but a dark empty hole. “ I really wanted that new skirt.”
Twilight felt slightly guilty at Sunset’s misfortunes caused by her curiosity for this emerald.

“Oh I’m sorry. I’ll promise I’ll make it up to you later.” Twilight apologized to her.

“Oh don’t worry about it! This is more important than some skirt.” Sunset replied cheerfully, being 100% on Twilight’s side.
Twilight gave her a heartfelt smile.

“Hee hee! Thanks.” Twilight thanked her.

With that, Twilight turned on the generator, which made a blaring mechanical whirring.

“Alright! We ready?” Sunset prepared to pull the switch.

“Oh hold on! Would you go start the camera please?!” Twilight asked Sunset, for she still didn’t know how a camcorder worked.

“ Wait were recording this?” Sunset asked as she went over to set up the camera on the tripod, but confused as to why they were recording at all.

“Of course! Good scientists always record their findings!” Twilight said excitedly. She was starting to get somewhat impatient on the inside, for she couldn’t wait to try this next experiment.

“Okay okay heh heh” Sunset chuckled, admiring Twilight’s enthusiasm. She proceeded to set up the camera and turn it on.
“Alright, we are rolling Twilight.” She said as she rushed over to the table and put on her safety goggles.

“Okay!” Twilight said excitedly as she put on her goggles and went up to the camera. “Hello!? This thing is on right?” Twilight reconfirmed with Sunset.

“Yeah!” Sunset replied.

“Okay. So this is experiment number one. We are testing to see how this mysterious emerald reacts to a minimum of 100 watts of electricity. If everything goes well we will steadily increase the wattage until the reaction becomes too volatile.” Twilight spoke into the camera. Twilight then turned and grabbed her clipboard off the table to write down what happened.

“You ready?” Sunset said as she put her hand on the switch.

“Let’s do it!” Twilight gave her the confirmation. Sunset the pulled the switch and set the oscillator to 50 watts allowing the electricity to flow into the metal apparatus.
After approximately 10 seconds of nothing seemingly happening, the emerald began popping sparks off its surface as the electricity began violently reacting with its energy.

“Whoa!” Sunset exclaimed. She grew more and more scared of what was going to happen, so she kept her hand near the switch to kill the power should the worst happen.
Twilight was also wary of the resulting reaction with the emerald, but she quickly wrote down what was happening on her clipboard.

“Doesn’t look too bad so far.” Sunset commented “Should we move on to the next step?” She suggested.
Twilight observed the emerald as it continued sparking. Their metal holding apparatus seemed to be staying together and the sparks, while loud, just dissipated soon after.

“Alright let’s increase the wattage.” Twilight told Sunset.

“Right.” Sunset replied.

Outside, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were engaged in some friendly sparring.

“Hah! Too slow!” Dash mocked her as she swiftly dodged Applejack’s straights. She then ducked under a backhand strike from her then spun around a delivered a backhand strike of her own, which struck Applejack on the side of the head.

“Hee Hee Hee!” Dash giggled arrogantly as the back of her fist dug into Applejacks cheek. But her cocky demeanor faded almost instantly when AJ show no signs of pain.

“Hmph! Too weak!” Applejack then knocked away Dash’s fist. Dash tried to retaliate with another strike with her other fist. But AJ just caught her fist and threw a punch of her own. But Dash predicted her attack and caught AJ’s fist, she grunted a little as her hand trembled in pain from the force of AJ’s punch.

With their fists interlocked with each other, Dash tried to break away but Applejack’s grip was too strong as she squeezed Dash’s fist in her hand.

“Hey hey hey! Ow ow! Watch it!” Dash yelled as Applejack squeezed her fist harder and harder.

“Hey Dash! Ya ever been to a rodeo?!” Applejack smirked as she held Dash from breaking away.

“What!?”

“Well let me show ya!!” Applejack then swiftly grabbed Dash’s boot and then swung upwards, causing Dash to be tossed up in the air.

“W-WHOA!!!” Dashed yelled as her body went completely horizontal. Then Applejack grabbed her by her boot again in midair and began spinning Dash around and around at increasing speed.

“WAAAAHHH! AJ!!!” Dash screamed as she got dizzier and dizzier and her eyes began spinning in her head.

“Go long little doggy!!” Applejack then let go of Dash, causing her to fly towards the house as she spun uncontrollably through the air.

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!!!” Dash yelled as she spun head over heels through the air.
“Oof! Ow! Doh!” Dash hit the ground and tumbled towards the house until she hit her head against the house wall. Dash’s head swayed as she was discombobulated from hitting her head.

“Ow geez! I don’t wanna know what a real rodeo is like.” Dash rubbed the back of her aching head.

“Oh that wasn’t even one tenth of a rodeo partner.” Applejack stood over Dash and offered her a hand.

“Hmph! I don’t need your help.” Dash denied Applejacks offer of help and got to her feet, though she had some slight difficulty getting up due to her dizziness.

“Really? Your pride’s that sensitive?” Applejack half joked.

“Oh shut up!” Dash lightly punched AJ’s shoulder in protest. Applejack just rolled her eyes. But before they could go back to training, they stopped when they heard the loud popping sound coming from Rarity’s garage.

“Ho boy, I wonder what they’re doing in there now.” Applejack said, concerned over what was going on in the garage.

“I.....assume that’s not what a rodeo sounds like. Right AJ?” Dash fearfully asked her.

“Nope” Applejack replied.

Back in the garage, the sparking from the emerald has grown more intense and their metal holding apparatus began glowing red hot like a stove top element as Sunset turned the dial on the oscillator.

“We are at 100 watts now Twilight! Do we keep going?!” Sunset yelled over the loud sparking sounds. Twilight quickly finished writing down her findings.

“Yes. Slowly” Twilight gave the okay to increase the wattage. Sunset nodded and began slowly turning the dail further. The sparking from the emerald became louder and bigger and more frequent. The flashing from the sparking was so bright that it caused the two girls to avert their eyes.

“This is getting intense!!” Sunset said over the loud sparking

“Let’s keep going! It’s not too dangerous yet!” Twilight replied as the flashing made her eyes hurt. Sunset, despite dreading the climax of this experiment, followed her command and kept increasing the wattage.

“We’re at 200 watts now!” Sunset relayed the wattage again. Twilight began writing down her findings again, but then she suddenly heard a knock at the door behind them.

“Twilight! What the devil is going on in there! It sounds like a war zone!” Rarity said from the behind the door. Twilight and Sunset frantically exchanged glances as they tried to decide what to tell her.

“Uhhhh.....Everything’s okay Rarity!” Twilight went over to the door to speak to Rarity.
However Rarity didn’t buy it.

“It doesn’t sound like it darling. You mind if I come in?” Rarity opened the door, but it was forced shut by Twilight, preventing her from coming in.

“Trust me! Everything is under control!” Twilight reassured her nervously.

“Twilight look!!” Sunset called to Twilight. Twilight looked back at the emerald to see that the sparking had slowed, but now there were fist sized geometric clusters of energy now fragmenting off the surface of the emerald, floating away like little bubbles.

“Wow amazing!!” Twilight said, mesmerized by the sight. Sunset also stared in awe at the sight. “It’s like the electrical energy is being contained in those bubbles” Twilight hypothesized, noticing that electricity was clustering inside the geometric shaped bubbles.
However before they could go any further, the clusters burst, causing a small electrical blast, causing electricity to arc in every direction.

“Oh crap!!” Sunset exclaimed as the electrical arcs impacted the fiberglass causing it to melt partially and the force of the blast nearly knocked over their barricade.
“Screw this! I’m killing the power.” Sunset frantically pulled the switch to kill the power. However, it did not stop the energy clusters from forming, in fact the blasts seemed to be getting bigger and more powerful!

“What are you doing!? Turn it off!” Twilight yelled to Sunset, confused the as to why it was not stoping. Sunset repeatedly flipped the switch on and off to try and get a different reaction, but to no avail.

“It’s no use! The reaction is self sustaining!” Sunset yelled back. The blasts began causing damage to the garage, and their barricade was almost completely melted. Then one blast knocked over their table with all their instruments.

“Oh no! Ah! Ow!” Twilight exclaimed as she was knocked over by the falling table, which pinned her the ground.

“Twilight!” Sunset immediately rushed over to Twilight, ducking under an electrical arc that nearly struck her head.
“Hold on!” Sunset lifted the table off Twilight and began helping her up. As Twilight got up, she saw the metal holding apparatus shake violently and was starting to crack. Twilight anticipated that it was going to explode at this rate.

“Sunset! Watch out!” Twilight quickly warned her. Sunset looked over to see the Apparatus on the verge of exploding. The metal holding the emerald cracked and twisted from the immense heat, until it finally exploded into dozens of pieces of shrapnel.
Twilight fearfully braced herself, but then she felt Sunset grasp her body against hers, shielding her. Shrapnel flew in all directions. One piece flew out the window at Dash and Applejack.

“Whoa what the-!” Dash narrowly ducked under the piece of shrapnel that flew out from the window and lodged itself in a tree.

Another piece impaled itself in the garage door nearly hitting Rarity on the other side.
“Oh goodness!!” Rarity cried out as she fell backwards on her behind.

After the explosion, the blasts finally dissipated. Twilight opened her eyes to see Sunset who was still holding her close. Then she gasped in horror as she realized that Sunset might be terribly hurt.

“Oh no! Sunset!” Twilight cried out. Sunset was wincing with pain, but then she opened her eyes.

“Pant pant I’m okay. Are you?” She asked, more concerned for Twilights safety than her own. Sunset helped Twilight back on her feet.

“Yeah. I.........think so.” Twilight replied, checking if her body was harmed in any way. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be harmed other than her arm being sore from falling to the ground.
The two then looked at the results of their experiment. Their equipment was strewn all over the floor in front of them, their fiberglass barrier was melted, there were various burn marks all over the walls, and in the center of the garage was twisted remains of the table that the emerald sat on, with the emerald sitting in the center which had finally stabilized.

“Man what a mess.” Sunset commented.

“How are we going to explain this to Rarity?” Twilight feared Rarity’s reaction when she would eventually see this.

“Alright! That does it! I’m coming in!” Rarity burst into the garage, not pleased in the slightest. Then her jaw dropped to the floor when she saw the mess they had caused. Sunset and Twilight chuckled nervously, knowing that they were in for a huge lecture.

“What a surprise. I let you two mad scientists use my garage and I left you alone. Well Rarity what did we learn today?” Rarity said to herself in a deadpan tone. Twilight and Sunset were surprised and somewhat relieved that Rarity wasn’t too angry at them. Unfortunately a twilight still felt bad that they ruined her garage.

“Uh....sorry about your garage Rarity.” Twilight apologized to Rarity.

“Hmph! You can apologize by cleaning up this mess. NOW!!” Rarity suddenly raised her voice at them before she stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

“Whoa coming through Rarity!” They heard Dash behind the door, who proceeded to burst in with one of Pinkie’s donuts in her hand.

“Okay! Just what the hell is going on here!? What did I miss!?” She blurted out loudly. She took a bite out of her rainbow sprinkled donut.
“W-Cough! Cough! WHOA!!!” Dash exclaimed at the mess in the garage, nearly choking on her donut. Applejack then poked her head in and had the same expression Dash had.
“Whoa nilley!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Yyyyeah. Rarity wasn’t happy.” Twilight chuckled nervously.

“I bet. You should’ve seen Rarity’s face!” Dash snickered. Fluttershy and Pinkie were the next ones to poke their heads into the garage.

“Oh goodness!” Fluttershy meekly expressed her shock at the state of Rarities garage.

“Hey Dash! Wanna play me in Griffon Ball D?” Pinkie burst in past Fluttershy. Dash or the others didn’t answer for they were paying more attention to the mess in the garage. Pinkie’s attention finally went to the garage.
“Whoa!.....Looks like an episode of Griffonball in here.”

“So.....is this experiment a success or failure Twilight?” Sunset asked her. Twilight thought for a moment, looking the mess and thinking about the actual results.

“It’s hard to say. I didn’t take any notes when the reaction started getting chaotic” Twilight commented, as she picked up her clipboard and looked at the notes that she managed to take.
“But at least we got the footage. Right?” She turned to the video camera, but her heart sank when she saw that the camera had been knocked over cracking the lens.
“Sigh Never mind. This experiment’s a failure. I think we should stop for now.” Twilight said disappointingly.

“Yeah. And I think we should start cleaning up this mess.” Sunset added, looking at the work that they had to do. Twilight let out a tired sigh.

“Yeah. Let’s do that.” Twilight replied. “Can you girls help us out?”
Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie all agreed unanimously to help out. Applejack and Dash retrieved some brooms and dust pans from the cabinet and they all started to get to work cleaning the garage.

As Sunset was picking up the equipment that was on the floor, however she winced with pain as the shrapnel lodged in her back stung.
“Ah!” Sunset fell to her knees as she yelled out in pain. Applejack noticed Sunset collapse to the ground.

“Sunset. You alright?” AJ asked, her concern growing.

“Pant Yeah. Just slipped that’s all.” Sunset assured her that she was fine. Applejack smiled back, glad that her friend was okay and went back to cleaning.
Sunset could feel the pain in her back decrease gradually as the wounds in her back rapidly healed, pushing out the pieces of shrapnel that were embedded in her skin. She felt the shrapnel slide down her back and fall onto the floor with a light metallic sound.

While Sunset was glad that she was alive, she knew what healed her, and it disgusted her.

“I did not ask for your help! Get out of my head!” Sunset yelled to the entity inside her.

“Hmph! Your welcome.”

1:30 pm

"So um.....what are you going to do exactly?" Silver asked as he walked with Sonic down the stairs of their apartment complex.

"I don't have my powers. So I don't have my usual stamina. I don't have my stamina. So I can't run as fast." Sonic explained to him. Silver raised an eyebrow, unable to follow Sonic at all.

"Ummmm.......okay? What do you mean?" Silver asked him to elaborate further. Sonic rolled his eyes at Silver's inabillity to understand his thought process.

"But Dash must've built up all that stamina through years and years of training. So I'm gonna do the same!" Sonic elaborated further, but Silver still didn't buy his explanaiton.

"Wait. I thought you didn't want to stay here long. Are you saying you're gonna train for....." Silver tried to estimate how many years it would take for Sonic to become faster than Dash in his head. "......10 years!?"

"I'm not finished! I'm gonna do the same, only 100 times faster!" Sonic pumped his fist.

"Oookay....How are you going to do that exactly?" Silver asked. The two reached the bottom floor and headed outside.

"Simple. I just do the same training I do back home." Sonic explained.

"Which is....?" Silver asked.

"Oh......throwing myself down a hill, jumping over chasm's, and climbing up a mountain." Sonic casually listed off his insane training regiment. Silver doubletaked in absolute bafflement.

"Whoa whoa! Okay! I think you should start smaller Sonic. I don't want you to go killing yourself." Silver expressed his dissaproval at his plan. Sonic once again rolled his eyes at Silver's low expectations.

"Come on! If I'm gonna beat Dash at my best, I have to push this new body to it's absolute limits! I can't do that if I don't do the right training." Sonic refuted Silver. They both walked outside into the parking lot.

"Well....I doubt you can do any of those thing as you are now, without hurting yourself that is." Silver explained again. But Sonic wasn't going to back down anytime soon.

"Pfft. Please. If I do get hurt. I'll always bounce back." Sonic began his usual routine of stretches. Silver let out a sigh, knowing that he wasn't going to get through to him any time soon.

"Well.....good luck. Don't hurt yourself." Silver said reluctantly.

"You know one thing that I've learned here is that if you want to get stronger really fast, you gotta hurt yourself a little." Sonic stated, recalling the time he lost his footing and fell face first onto the ground in his race with Dash. Silver tried to rationalized Sonic's thought process in his head, but even taking his match with Dash into account, he couldn't exactly make sense of it, leaving him scratching his head in confusion.

"Welp! See you around little bro!" Sonic bade Silver farewell as he broke out into a brisk sprint towards the hills.

Silver shook his head in defeat. But he smiled when he knew that Sonic was back to his gung ho, devil may care self.

"Sigh Little bro huh?" Silver said to himself, wondering if Sonic was going to call him that from now on. Not that he minded.

"Your welcome to join me if you want!" Sonic called back as he ran off. Looking at his body, Silver also came to the conclusion that he wasn't as strong as he was on mobius. He looked up at Sonic as he ran off into the distance, pondering if he should follow or not.

2:00 pm

Shadow was walking to the place where they first woke up in this world. He remembered that they landed close to the school, so he made his way there first, occasionally looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was following him.

As he made his way through the commercial district of the city, he began to reevaluate his stance on asking for help here. While he knew that they had little in the way of man power, resources, and information, he couldn't bring himself to risk asking for help lest they exposed their secret. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he was actually afraid of not having his powers, like Sonic.

"Sigh Let's just keep laying low I suppose." He told himself, though he wasn't really looking forward to it.

Once he reached the school, he retraced his steps to where they first arrived. Going around the side of the school and entering the forest that lay a little ways from there. Almost immediately things started to look familiar. He recalled the tree where Sonic and Silver climbed to escape the strange wolf like creature.

"Hmm. I must be close." Shadow examined. However before he could move on, he heard a rustle in the bushes nearby. Seconds later the same wolf like creature with bark like skin jumped out of the bushes, growling fiercely as it circled Shadow.
Shadow remained calm, not backing away from the timberwolf.
But then two more timberwolves jumped out of the bushes, and began circling Shadow.

Again, Shadow didn't back down, even though there were three of the circling him.

The continued circling him, growling and snarling viciously at him. Shadow looked closer at one of them and saw some damaged bark on it's head. He smirked arrogantly when he remembered how he kicked it in the side of the head to save Sonic.
The timberwolves then stopped circling and got ready to pounce, but before they could they stopped when Shadow gave all of them an intense, fierce, and debilitating look. They stopped growling as Shadow started into their souls, paralyzed with fear. After a few seconds, they whimpered as they dissapeared back into the bushes with their tails between the legs.

"Hmph. I still got it." Shadow said, impressed with himself.
He made his way throught the forest, pushing aside bushes and branches until he spotted a patch of ground that had a strange symbol burned into the ground.

"This must've been where Sonic and Silver landed." He remembered landing a little ways off from them. He figured that they were so shocked in their current forms that they didn't see it.
He knelt down to get a better look at it. He couldn't remembering seeing this symbol anywhere, however his minute chaos sense picked up traces of an unfamiliar energy, one that he has never felt in his life.

But that being said, it gave him no clues as to where the remaining emeralds were, and this symbol didn't give him anything to go on either. He let out a sigh as he got up and departed.

"Well, this was a waste of time." Shadow came here to gather clues on where to find the chaos emeralds and he was angry that he didn't find anything.

"I better head home. Those two are probably up to no good." Shadow feared that Sonic was causing trouble back at their apartment.

He decided to take a different route through the residential district. However as he walked by a particular house, he felt his chaos senses alert him to a source of energy to his right.

"Why would my chaos senses be going off now? " Shadow questioned his own chaos sense. It wasn't like his senses to go off randomly. Not to mention the energy he was sensing felt powerful and familiar. Almost like a chaos emerald.

"It couldn't be....?" Shadow said aloud, but before he could speak any further he heard the garage door open. He heard the voices of seven girls behind the door.

"Welp see ya later girls!" Pinkie Pie said cheerfully.

"Yep. Smell ya later!" Rainbow Dash snarkily said.

"Shoot!" Shadow quickly ducked behind a nearby bush to hide. He observed them as they said goodbye to each other.
As soon as the garage door completely opened, he immediately recognized them as the girls from the school. He certainly recognized Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer. He made sure to remain out of sight as he observed.

"Hmph! I'll let this go this once. Just let me know when your experiments are going to involve explosions next time." Rarity was still pouty about her garage being messed up.

"Were sorry! Again." Twilight apologized once more.

"Ah Don't worry about it. We cleaned up didn't we?" Sunset jeered playfully at them.

"Yeah. We'll send ya a tip." Applejack joked as she walked to her truck. The rest of the girls walked down the street waving goodbye as they all headed home.
Shadow poked his head out from behind the bush to take a look. He looked inside the garage, and to his shock he saw the yellow chaos emerald sitting on the table. He dipped back into cover as he weighed his options.

"So they did have a chaos emerald." Shadow thought. He was under the assumption that they just had a something that resembled a chaos emerald, recalling how he and Silver looked into Twilight's backpack.
"But if that wasn't the chaos emerald, then......what was that thing in her backpack?" Shadow scratched his chin in deep thought. He remembered how it hurt Silver when he touched it.

"Does this world have chaos energy as well?" Shadow speculated. Judging by his chaos sense there was a hint of a form of energy in the air, but it was all but unfamiliar to him. However he shifted his focus onto the chaos emerald.
"Do I go try and snatch it?" Shadow knew that this was an opportunity, and that garage door wasn't going to be open for long. He peeked out from behind the bush to look at who was still there. Sunset, Twilight, Rarity, and Dash were all there. The presence of Sunset didn't give him much confidence in his plan.
"Sigh No. It's too risky." He looked down at his hand, trying once again to summon his powers, but to no avail. The inconvience of not having his powers began to frustrate him. "I guess I'll just hang back and wait for another opportunity." Shadow decided it wasn't worth the risk.

"Ahem!" Shadow's train of thought was interrupted when he heard someone clear their throat behind him. He tensed up, slowly turned around, and saw Sunset Shimmer standing above him with a very inquisitive look on her face.

"Damn, she's good."

"So....what brings you here?" Sunset asked, Shadow could feel her words ooze suspicion. Shadow got up and dusted himself off.

"Just going for a walk." Shadow made up an excuse. Sunset raised an eyebrow, not fully buying his excuse.

"Okay.......what were you doing sitting on the street?" Sunset asked further, coming slightly closer to Shadow, not intending to let him go that easily.

"I was just taking a rest." Shadow said, not wavering from her inquisitive eyes. Sunset tapped her foot as she thought about Shadow's reason for being here. While it didn't do much to lower her suspicion of him, she knew that she probably shouldn't cause a scene now. She eventually figured that he was innocent enough.

"Alright." Sunset shrugged as she stepped back from him. Shadow let out a small sigh of relief, but he remained on guard for any more attempts to pry at their secret from her. "So, how are your brother's doing?" She asked.
Upon remembering that he left Sonic and Silver back at the apartment, he began worrying that they were up to something that might expose them.

"They're fine. Sonic's doing better.....I guess." Shadow told her. "Um....I have to get going." Shadow didn't want to appear anymore suspicious than he needed to, and he wanted to get home to make sure Sonic and Silver were not causing trouble. With that he turned and walked in the other direction at a quickened pace

"You know.....you don't have to push people away like that." Sunset told him. Shadow grunted as he reluctantly stopped. "Why are you so intent on avoiding us?" Sunset crossed her arms, wanting to know more about why Shadow was acting the way he was. Shadow let out a frustrated sigh. He turned back towards her, preparing to explain to her.

"Let's just say...." Shadow paused as he hesitated. Sunset waited for Shadow to speak with anticipation. ".....we don't intend to stay here for long."

Sunset gasped slightly in surprise.
"You're leaving? Why?" Sunset asked, growing even more inquisitive.

"That's none of your business" Shadow said coldly, then he proceeded to continue walking back home. Sunset was again baffled by his coldness.

"What the-!? Hey wait!" Sunset shouted at him as he walked away. Shadow chose to ignore her and kept walking down the street and not looking back. Sunset gritted her teeth as she became more frustrated with him.
"You stop! You can't just-" She began to walk after him.

"Sunset! What's wrong!?" Twilight said behind her, causing her to stop. Twilight looked over and saw Shadow walking down the street.

"Is that Shadow. What was he doing here?" Twilight asked Sunset, worried that they maybe got into a fight. Sunset took a few seconds to calm down.

"He said he was going for a walk or something." Sunset told her, walking back over to Twilight. "Then he tells me that they're leaving!" Sunset got increasingly more frustrated about Shadow's stubbornness.
Twilight thought for a moment about how she would respond to her predicament. She looked back over at Shadow, who was almost out of view, and pondered his situation. While she admitted that Shadow and his brothers were a very peculiar, she thought that maybe Sunset was prying too much into their business.

Twilight walked over to Sunset and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I know you mean well Sunset. But....maybe you should let them be for a while." Twilight explained to her. Sunset raised an eyebrow, confused at her line of reasoning.

"But....Twilight. They've been acting suspicious ever since they got here. They've got to be hiding something." Sunset replied, still sure that the three new students were up to something.

"I agree. But have they done anything wrong yet?" Twilight asked her. This caused Sunset to think for a second.

"No. But......Sigh...you sense the energy coming from them right? It's not Equestrian magic." Sunset elaborated further. Twilight admitted that the energy that came from the three was unlike anything she sensed. However she still maintained her stance of not prodding them further.

"Yes.....yes I do. But we shouldn't meddle into their business. For all we know they could just be average people." Twilight explained, much to Sunset's dissapointment. "Not to mention we already have our hands full with this emerald we have, and that.....person...whoever he was that attacked my in the library." Twiight further elaborated. Having heard her explanation, while Sunset didn't like it, she eventually acknowledged that Twilight was most likely right on this matter.

"Sigh Alright. I trust you Twilight. As always." Sunset smiled back at Twilight, confirming her trust.

"Hee Hee! Thanks!" Twilight giggle happily.

"Hey Sunset! What's the holdup!? Slowpoke" They both heard Rainbow Dash call from down the street behind them. Sunset rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"I'll be there in a minute okay! Don't get your spats in a twist." Sunset called back. Twilight giggled again at Sunset's comment.

"Sigh Well I'm heading back. Don't overwork yourself okay?" Sunset told Twilight.

"Okay. And don't worry. We'll get through this. I'm sure of it." Twilight assured her. Sunset smiled back, thankful that someone like Twilight is her friend and mentor.

"Well. See you later." Sunset bid Twilight goodbye and headed down the street where Rainbow Dash was waiting impatiently. Twilight, feeling tired from cleaning up the mess in Rarity's garage, Twilight decided to go back inside for some rest and relaxation.

Inside the living room, Spike was playing around with the ring that was in Twilight's bag, letting his dog instincts take over. Twilight walked in to see Spike playing with the ring.

"Hey Spike, say where's Rarity?" Twilight asked him, looking around for Rarity. Spike was doing fancy tricks with the ring like spinning it around his neck and flipping onto his finger.

"Oh she's upstairs doing homework I think." Spike replied, still playing with the Ring. Twilight sat down on the couch, pondering what Sunset said to her. She remembers having the same conversation with her a few days ago. While she agreed that Shadow, Sonic, and Silver are an odd bunch, she didn't exactly know how to approach them about it.
Either they are completely innocent people just trying to live their lives, or they are hiding something and it relates to this chaos emerald, or worse, they have sinister intentions.

"Sigh For Celestia's sake, I'm the princess of friendship. Shouldn't I try and be friends with them?" Twilight thought outloud.

"Well....what's stopping you then?" Spike asked, pausing from playing with the ring. Twilight thought hard about that question.

"It has to be Shadow. He's cold, reclusive, and.......well." Twilight couldn't find another word to describe him.

"Edgy?" Spike said smugly. Twilight was confused at his choice of words.

"Ed...gy? What does that mean?" Twilight asked him.

"Oh, it's a word that Sunset and Dash keep throwing around. Don't know what it means though." Spike explained. Though this didn't really please Twilight.

"Well, you shouldn't going around saying words understand. You might accidentally offend someone." Twilight reprimanded him like a pouty mother.

"Ok ok geez. Ok mom" Spike complained like a petulant child, and then went back to playing. Twilight grunted slightly at his response.

"I wonder he got that attidute?" She sarcastically thought to herself. She rested her head in her palms, wondering about what she would do next. Then her eye's fell on the ring that Spike was playing with.

"Spike. That ring." She pointed to the ring he was playing with.

"Oh this thing. I think I remember you getting it from Sonic, when you first spoke to him." Spike told her after shaking it around in his mouth. At that moment, something clicked in Twilight's mind.

"Spike let me see that." Twilight grabbed a tissue from the side table and knelt down from the couch to grab it. But as soon as she grabbed it Spike snarled vicously and began pulling on it with his mouth.

"Eh Spike!!" Twilight protested at him.

"Lego! I nut fineshed!" Spike protested back between growls and snarls, letting his canine instincts take over.

"Spike. You're a dragon, not a dog." Twilight said calmly, still pulling on the ring. Then Spike stopped growling and salivating suddenly when he realized what he was doing.

"Uh....sorry." Spike let go of the ring, embarrased that he was acting like a literal animal. Twilight looked at the ring as she held it in the tissue as to not get Spike's saliva over her hands. Upon thinking a little, she remembered that when she went to pick it up the first time, it shocked her, just like like how the chaos emerald did when she first found it. She began putting the pieces together in her head.

"Does this ring have something to do with this emerald?" Twilight thought as she began piecing together this mystery. However she gasped slightly when she remembered who she got it from.
"Don’t tell me......is....Sonic...

5:30 pm

Meanwhile up in the hills outside Canterlot city.

“Um.....Sonic. Are you sure you know what your doing here?” Silver asked him nervously, feeling the cool breeze on his face it only serve to worsen the chills he had at the situation he was in.

“Of course! I did this all the time back home.” Sonic arrogantly bragged. This did not calm Silver’s nerves at all, in fact it began to make him sweat profusely.

“All the time?!” Silver blurted out. He began sweating even more.

“Of course! Come on Silver. Didn’t you come from an apocalyptic timeline? I thought you’d be used to this.” Sonic complained back to him.
Silver admitted to himself that he did have a point, but it still didn’t account for how dangerous the situation they were in.

“Um. Couple differences. One I don’t have my powers, and two, WE ARE UP AT THE TOP OF THE FREAKING HILLS!!!” Silver elaborated, annoyed with Sonic’s ignorance to his current limitations and situation. They both were balancing on a very narrow peak on top of the hills which looked down on canterlot city. They were so high up that the skyscrapers of the industrial district looked like small blocks in the distance.

“Well....you didn’t have to tag along you know.” Sonic retorted.

“Yeah. Good point” Silver conceded his point. The climb up here already made him sweaty, and the fear and anxiety just from being so high up made his back wet with sweat.
Sonic got ready to run down the hill.

“Alright! On the count of three were gonna do it!” Sonic stated, getting himself pumped for all the excitement he was going to have. Silver shivered a little, as he was beginning to have second thoughts about all this.

“Uhhh.....hang on...your gonna okay right!? Even without your powers?” Silver asked, growing more and more worried for Sonic.
Sonic looked back giving Silver an inquisitive look.

“Is that worry I hear from you?” Sonic teased him.

“Well it’s just.....if anything happened to you....Shadow would kill me.” Silver said, his voice shuddering as he imagined the kinds of words that Shadow would have for him.

“Oh pfft. Why should he care if anything happens to me? In fact, I think he’d be happy.” Sonic replied snarking. Silver didn’t say anything, for he was rather put off by Sonic’s response.
“Alright. One...” Sonic readied himself, sliding his left leg back across the dirt. Silver hesitated from saying anything further. He thought that Sonic will back out at the last second.
“..Two.....” Sonic bent his knees as he got ready to leap. Silver grew even more worried. Was Sonic seriously going to attempt to run down a seventy degree incline?

“Three!!!” Sonic then hurled himself off the edge and down the hills. At this point Silver lost it.

“GAAHH!!! YOURE INSANE!!!!!” Silver screamed as he saw Sonic disappear over the edge. Sonic fell at least fifteen meters until he hit the ground running. Already his pace was if he was sprinting as the incline caused his momentum to skyrocket.

“OoooooOOOOOOHHHH YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH” Sonic shouted with ecstasy and glee as his speed grew and grew. While it was crude, it was the closest thing to being back home in green hill zone.

“Yahoooooo!!!!” Sonic cried out as he ran into the trees and bushes below. Silver watched as he held his breath with dread.

“Oh great. With any lucky he at least will have all his limbs on.” Silver paced back and forth as he thought about what to do next, as well as an explanation to tell Shadow. Then it dawned upon him, Sonic left him up here alone.

“Tch!! Well thanks a lot Sonic! How am I gonna get down from here?!” Silver angrily yelled down the hill to Sonic, even though he knew he couldn’t hear him. He looked down the hill that Sonic just ran down. The sheer height made him dizzy, especially without his ability to levitate. He looked at the place where they climbed up. He debated just climbing back down the way he and Sonic did.
“Ugh. No. That will take forever.” Silver belayed that thought and went back to thinking about how to get down. Then his eyes glanced over at where Sonic jumped off. He looked back down the hills and got chills again. But just before he threw away the idea of going down after Sonic, part of him urged to actually jump off after him out of pride.
“Oh that’s a low blow. I fought off Iblis, yet I’m scared of a little drop.” Silver deprecated himself, his pride getting worse and worse. “Oh Blaze would never let me hear the end of it” Silver forced himself to the edge. He forced his way past the gag reflex when he looked down the edge.

“Come on Silver. Sonic’s normal like you, so if he can do it you can.” Silver gave himself a pep talk to try and drown out the feeling of terror in his stomach. He took in a deep breath and started inching his way to the edge. He took repeated gasps as he worked up the courage to take the first step.

“Okay.......gulp.....here goes” Silver said meekly. Then he proceeded to slowly lift his left foot over the edge. Then just as he was about to drop down, he turned around at the last second.

“No no no no no no. NO! Screw it Ill just climb down the way we came.” Silver gave into his fear, much to his own disappointment. But just before he was about to walk back, he felt the ground underneath him give way.

“Oh for the love of...” Silver didn’t even move as he just accepted his fate.

“Whoa whoa WHOA!!!!” Silver cried out as he slid off the edge. “AHHHH! OOF! OW!” Silver began rolling down the hill after Sonic, bumping into trees and rocks and the like.

“Yeeeaaahhhhahahaha” Sonic cheered excitedly as the wind blew in his face, trees and bushes rushed by him in a blur as he quickly manuvered in between the trees, rocks and bushes. It was natural to him for he did this at an even faster pace back home. He parkoured over a large Boulder, and slid underneath a fallen tree as he landed, then he proceeded to jump off another cliff dropping down into a steep incline.
As he landed he could feel his heart and lungs strain themselves to keep up with his body, but he didn’t care for he was in his element so he ignored the pain.

“OW! OOF! GAH! WAAAAHHH!” Sonic heard someone tumbling nearby. He looked to his left to see a spinning white ball, from which the voice was coming from. He immediately assumed that it was Silver.
“AHHHH! SOMEONE HELP ME! I- OW!! OUCH!! DAH!!!" Silver cried out as he crashed into multiple tree's and rocks as he rolled down the hill uncontrolably, at about the same speed that Sonic was running.

"Hahahahaha!" Sonic laughed heartily at Silver's predicament. "Well look who decided to join the party!" Sonic commented, enjoying Silver tumble down the hill in a cartoonish fashion. Silver then bounced against another tree, causing him to tumble towards Sonic.
Sonic proceeded to smirk in a cocky manner and then as Silver was about to collide into him, he spun around and swept him with his opposite leg, spinning around once more before landing back on his the ground running. This stopped Silver from tumbling and stablized him briefly.

"Whoa whoa whoa WHOA!!" Silver shouted as he landed on his feet. His legs barely had enough to time to start moving as he began sprinting down the hill with Sonic.

"What's the matter? Can't handle the speed?" Sonic mocked Silver as he struggled to keep his footing, stumbling over small rocks and boulders.

"Ah! Ah ah WHOA!!" Silver cried out again as he nearly stumbled on some rocks. "Why did I even agree to follow you Sonic!?" Silver angrily questioned himself. This was not his idea of training.
“Whoa! Uh Sonic! When do we stop!?!” Silver yelled to him as he dodged multiple trees and hopped over a small ravine.

“Ha! You kidding? We’re not even halfway down!” Sonic yelled back. Silver double takes in astonishment. “Last one to the bottom is a rotten egg!” Sonic leaned forward which increased his speed even more and rapidly pulled ahead of Silver, disappearing down the hill.

“For god sake! I don’t YoOOUUUAAA!!!” Silver tripped on a fallen log and started tumbling in a ball again, bumping and crashing into trees like a ball in a pinball machine. Sonic continued streaking down the hills dodging and weaving between the trees, rocks and bushes. Occasionally jumping over a ravine or small river. Meanwhile not too far behind him Silver was tumbling down the hill bumping into everything that was in his path.

6:30

Shadow was already home. He had pulled some fliers from the bulletin board downstairs looking at the various job listings. While finding the chaos emeralds was of the utmost importance, they were flat broke. If they were to pay the rent by the end of the next month, at least one of them needed a job.
He looked over at the chaos emerald that sat on the other side of the coffee table, and let out a harrowed sigh when he realized that there were still six other chaos emeralds in this world, and one was in the hands of Twilight and her friends.

“From what I saw, it looks like they don’t know what it is.” Shadow remembered how he briefly saw the emerald at Twilights house. As much as he wanted to get the emerald back from them, he eventually came to the conclusion that there was just too much risk involved in attempting to get it back.
“We should try looking for the other emeralds in the meantime. If anything, those girls will keep it safe for us.” Shadow planned mentally. His eyes drifted over to the clock on the wall, and double taked at the time.

“It’s six thirty already? Where are those idiots!?” Shadow snapped. He stood up, exited their apartment and went downstairs to go look for them. As he entered the lobby, he spotted Sandalbark in his office through the reception window.
“Hey Sandalbark. You see Sonic and Silver come through here?” Shadow quickly asked him.

“Nope. Not that I know of.” The old man replied without even looking at them, continuing to look at his paperwork. Shadow rolled his eyes. “Lotta help you are.” Shadow muttered irritatingly. He stormed outside to look for them. He looked in the direction of town, wondering what trouble they were getting into.
“Ugh. I swear. I can’t take my eyes off those two.” Shadow muttered to himself. He was about to go into town to look for them. However he caught something in the corner of his eye. He turned towards the hills and he saw two tiny specks kicking up dust as they headed down the hill. Shadow looked closer and his jaw dropped when he was able to make out what the specks were.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Shadow said as he confirmed that it was Sonic and Silver running down the hill. (Silver was more tumbling down the hill). He let out an exasperated sigh as he trudged towards the hills to go get them.
“Idiots” Shadow grumbled as he walked towards the hills.

“Pant pant pant oh yeah! pant pant That’s more like it. Pant pant pant pant” Sonic panted so heavily that he was spitting a little. He felt the exact same sensation that he felt when he raced Dash. His entire body was burning, his heart felt like it was going to explode, his body was drenched with sweat, and he had a few cuts and bruises from bumping into a few trees and rocks.
He could see that he was almost at the bottom. His pace had become sluggish as he fought back against his body’s limits, for he felt that his body could collapse at any moment.
“Pant pant pant pant Just you wait Dash! Pant pant Next time we race.....I’m gonna..kick you AaaAAA!!!!” Sonic tripped on a rock, lost his balance and began tumbling down the hill.

"GAH! DOH! OW! WOOAAAH!!" Sonic crashed into multiple trees and bushes as he tumbled. He tumbled for five minutes before the ground started leveling out and he started to slow down. He finally came to a stop at the bottom of the hill in the middle of a small clearing a little ways from the road. He was covered with dirt and sweat. He was partially unconcious, both from the sheer exhaustion and the blunt trauma of hitting multiple trees and rocks.

"Sigh I can't leave you two for an hour. Can I?" He heard Shadow's voice as he lied face down in the dirt. Sonic drowsily lifted his head up to see Shadow standing above him, with a dissaproving expression.
"So what the hell are you guys doing?" Shadow scolded him. Sonic struggled to get to his feet, with dirt and grass caked to his face.

"I'm just training." Sonic replied in an irritated tone, brushing off his clothes. Shadow raised an eyebrow, as he was both annoyed and skeptical of Sonic's definition of 'Training'.

"Sigh I don't think nearly killing yourself is going to get your powers back." Shadow told him. Sonic was too tired to even form a dissapointed expression on his face. Shadow turned around and started walking back the way he came.
"I don't really care what you two do in your free time, but I suggest you devot more time to finding the chaos emeralds." Shadow said to Sonic and he began walking back home.
Once again Sonic was too tired to say anything. Just as he was about to follow Shadow, he heard Silver finally tumble down the hill behind him, stopping a few meters behind him. He looked behind him to see Silver face down on the ground like he was a minute earlier. He walked over and knelt down to him to see if he wasn't too injured. Upon a closer look, he saw that Silver was knocked out cold.

"Well, he's not going to wake up anytime soon, so......" Sonic told himself, as he turned around and picked up Silver, carrying him piggyback style. His already sore arms hurt even more as he carried Silver on his back. But he couldn't just leave Silver overnight in the woods outside.
As he followed Shadow back home with Silver on his back, he contemplated his end goal with this rigorous training regiment. His mind was focused on one thing, beating Dash. That's all that mattered to him now. To tired to speak or even think, he headed home with Shadow, barely able to stay awake.

9:30 pm

Somewhere in the retail district of Canterlot city, there was a commotion going on at the local arcade.

"HEY! You cheated and you know it! Get back here!" An angry adult player shouted to a person who was about to exit the arcade.
The door swung open violently, revealing Scourge in the door frame. He ignored the irate gamer's comments and kept walking. The angry player followed him out into the mall, still shouting at him.

"Hey asshole! You just gonna ignore me!? You cheated on that last round! Admit it!!" The irate player shouted at Scourge. Scourge stopped walking, and let out an exasperated sigh, knowing he was gonna have to deal with him.

"You outta watch your mouth you sore loser! It's not my fault you suck balls!" Scourge insulted the player. "Why don't you go back home and play your toddler battle royal games?" He smirked, proud of his roast. This naturally made the person even more angry.

"Oh you buc- YOU shut your damn mouth! I see you again, I'm going to beat the shit out of you!" The person threatened him. All this did was make Scourge chuckle.

"Ha! I'd like to see you try. Pussy!" Scourge taunted him again. This was enough to drive the person off the deep end.

"THATS IT!!!" The person charged at Scourge, his eyes full of rage. Scourge however was not intimitated in the slightest.

"Pfft! You serious?" Scourge rolled his eyes at the person's pathetic attempt of an attack. The player threw a punch at Scourge as he reached him, only for Scourge to swiftly duck under his punch, grab him by the waist with both arms and then proceed to suplex him into the ground behind him on his head.

Scourge proceed to get up from the ground, and walked over to the person who he just slammed into the ground. The person was discombobulated and was barely concious from the shock of being slammed on his head.

"Bit of advice." Scourge smugly proclaimed. "If you're gonna pick fights. Don't be a massive wuss!" Then he proceeded to kick the person in the stomach, causing him to cry out in pain. Scourge then proceeded to walk away from the arcade, leaving the person on the ground clutching his stomach. .

"Dick. It's not my fault you used a low tier character." Scourge thought to himself as he walked back home passing the various shops. It was a 9:30, meaning that most businesses in the mall were closing down for the night. The last few patrons were exiting the stores and returning home, making the mall slightly crowded. Scourge didn't want to be too conspicous, so he took another way around to the exit of the mall.
To his fortune, the route he was taking had almost nobody around. In fact there were a few stores that were closed down, making the mall seem very empty compared to the main strech of the mall.

"Attention Canterlot Royal Mall customers. The time is now 9:45 and the mall will be closing in 15 minutes" The intercom announced. After the announcment ended, some of the malls lights turned off. For what ever reason the lights in Scourge's section of the mall all turned off.

"Sheesh. Damn faulty lighting." Scourge complained. He continued walking along towards the exit. However he suddenly stopped when he felt a chill run down his spine. For whatever reason, he sensed that someone.....or something was behind him. He quickly turned around to the see the shillouette of Shadow behind him, which only served to both confuse and unverve him.

“You........you’re that blue rat's brother aren't you!?" Scourge yelled to him, becoming more and more uneasy as the person's shillouette against the faint light behind him made him appear ever more frightening. But Scourge wasn't going to be easily scared.

"Grrr! What the hell do you want!? You wanna fight?" He yelled to him again. The person remained silent, continuing to look through Scourge with his obsured eyes.

"Hmph! Well if you're just gonna be a creep, then I suggest you screw off." Scourge mouthed off at the person, realizing that he was getting nowhere, he turned and continued on his usual path.

"Tell me......" The person asked in a deep, intimidating voice. Scourge paused, his heart jumped a little at the person's voice. He slowly turned around, and saw the the person was now only within arm's reach of him!
He didn't say anything for he didn't know how to react.

"......What do you think of this world?" The figured asked him. Scourge at first couldn't get the words to leave his mouth. However he eventually mustered the courage to actually speak.

"Well......" Scourge looked down at the ground as he formulated what he was going to say. He clenched his fist in anger as he prepared what he was going to say.
"....quite frankly......." An evil grin formed on his face. ".....This world can rot in hell!" Scourge said with every ouce of hatred he could muster. There was a brief silence.

"Heh heh heh heh. Is that so?" The dark figure let out a devious chuckle. The grin on Scourge's face grew bigger. Finally someone actually gets him!

"Yeah! This world done did me dirty! And to hell with all the people as well!" Scourge angrily vented. But then his grin faded when he realized that he was talking to a completely stranger. Not to mention, why was he asking him this anyways?
"So what's it to you?" Scourge asked skeptically.

The person turned around, and began walking back the way he came.
"Heh heh. I'm glad that there someone in this world who.......shares my sentiments." The figure replied. Scourge wasn't really satisfied with his answer.

"HEY! Who are you?" Scourge called out to him.

"Don't worry.......you'll see me again......soon." The figure said. Before Scourge could say anything else, the figure suddenly dissapear in a flash of darkness. The mall was silent. Scourge was slightly shaken from the series of events. He even questioned if what he saw even happened.

"Hey kid!" A gruff adult voice broke the silence, causing him to jump slightly. He turned to his left to see a security guard with his arms crossed. "Were almost closed. So scadadle out of here would ya?"

Scourge sneered, for he didn't like being told what to do.
"Hmph!" He put his hands in his pockets and stormed off. However despite being annoyed by the security guard, he couldn't stop thinking about that person who appeared before him.

"Was that asshole even real?" Scourge questioned again. But one thing was for sure, he definately meant what he said in regards to this world. He continued home, the thought of the mysterious figure lingering in his mind the rest of the way. Meanwhile the dark figure lurked in the shadows, watching him from afar.

"Hmm......." The dark figure rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "......Perhaps this world can be of some use....."