Shadow Knows
A light-gray dog dressed in Resistance colors was using a pair of binoculars to survey one of Eggman's industrial areas in Green Hill from a lookout spot on one of the hills that offered some cover. In addition to the factories he'd built, there were also smaller areas amongst the hills and pathways occupied by his robots that were covered in metal and filled with supplies, building them up into outposts for maintaining a stronghold in the area. He lowered his binoculars after several minutes of examining the area, an undaunted look on his face as he turned and walked over to a large brown rock behind him. He reached down and pressed a hidden button on the side, which caused the top of the rock to open like a hatch door. He climbed into the opening it had been hiding, grabbing the hatch to pull it closed as he went down.
After a short climb down a ladder, he was in a small outpost hidden in the hill. There wasn’t much to it; it was just a small room with some crates and boxes filled with supplies along with a laptop sitting on top of one of the crates that was plugged into a small portable generator. He made his way over to the laptop and opened it. He spent several minutes typing out what he had observed and ways to attack Eggman’s forces before an explosion from outside caught his attention. He quickly ran over to the ladder and climbed up, carefully pushing the hatch open to peek out. He couldn’t see any robots outside, so he opened it a little more to check for Buzzbombers. There weren’t any, so he pushed it open all the way and looked around for the source of the explosion. He heard another one behind him after a few moments and turned to peer around the hatch. A piece of flaming debris had hit the side of the hill and broken apart upon impact, most of it falling off. He quickly climbed out and ran over to make sure there were no bits on the grass that were still on fire. He then looked up.
High up in the sky, a ship surrounded by flames was falling towards Green Hill. The dog brought up his binoculars to look and was able to make out that it was one of Eggman’s transport ships. More pieces of it broke off as it fell, though thankfully none came as close as the last two had. It went past him as it continued falling from the sky, touching down after a minute. Despite his shock, the dog remembered to shut the hatch before he started running towards where the ship had landed to investigate.
Tails stood at the back of the workshop looking intently at the laptop in front of him while Twilight slowly paced back and forth next to him. The laptop had cables connected to it that ran behind it over to a small cylindrical device that currently contained the strange gemstone the Rookie had found. A graph was on the laptop's screen, but it was currently not displaying any lines or data points.
Tails frequently glanced between the screen and at Twilight as she paced in front of the container, the alicorn occasionally making a feint at the device or rearing up on her hind legs and thrusting her forelegs towards it. This continued for about a minute before he sighed and said, "I think you can stop, Twilight. Nothing's happening." The alicorn slumped with a sigh of her own and used her magic to pull a stool over to her. She sat down on it to rest her slightly aching legs.
Rainbow, Tempest, Spike, F-T Sonic, and the Rookie were standing near the wall by the workshop entrance, having watched the two experiment for several minutes. After Twilight sat down, Rainbow flew over and hovered over them as she asked, "What do you mean nothing's happening, Tails? I thought this whole thing was meant to give us some answers about this thing."
Tails replied, "I know, Rainbow. That was the plan, but there's not much we can gleam right now." He looked over at the machine, "We haven't picked up any energy spikes, no reactions, there was no sign of any glowing… Whatever this stone is, it's inert right now."
Spike had run to the back of the workshop while Tails had been talking, going underneath the tables, and came to a stop between him and Twilight. “But it glowed when he picked it up earlier! We both saw it!” he exclaimed.
“Yes, Spike, you told us before. And we believe you, both of you,” Twilight reassured him. She looked over at the machine, “It’s just that, whatever caused it to glow at the time, we can’t seem to make it happen again. There must be something else to it that we haven’t replicated.” Tails nodded in agreement.
He then walked over to the machine and opened the locks on the lid, opening it with his left hand. He grabbed the gem with his right hand and lifted it out before shutting the lid again; he then walked over to the Rookie and held it out to him, “Sorry for dragging you down here and not getting anything conclusive, buddy. Here, hang onto this for the time being. Keep an eye on it; if you come up with any ideas about what activated it before, let us know, okay?” The wolf waved to let him know it was okay before taking the gem and putting it back in the pouch on his right hip as he turned to leave the room.
After he left, Tempest remarked, "A bit disappointing. I thought perhaps our Silent Omega had made a breakthrough that could turn things in our favor."
Tails shrugged, "It could still turn out to be one. Hopefully, we'll find out sooner rather than later."
Rainbow flew over to Tails and asked, "So, what now?"
Tails replied, "Well, we can go back to working on getting Omega and Gemerl back online. Twilight's idea has some merit." He started to walk back over to the workbench, "If we could hone in on the source of the problem, we should be able to identify it and eliminate it, and then we should be able to reactivate their systems." He unplugged the machine from the laptop and started reattaching the cables connected to the two robots.
While he was doing this, Twilight scooted closer to him. "Can I help? Sunset Shimmer showed me once how she makes her own apps and programs," she said.
Tails looked at her, "Sure! I wouldn't mind having some help if you're familiar with this kind of work. Might be able to make it more effective."
Tempest turned to leave, "I'll leave this to you two. I'm going to check in with Commander Knuckles." Sonic's eyes followed her as she left, but he stayed against the wall with his hands behind his head.
Spike flew up behind Twilight and asked, "Can I help, Twilight?"
She looked back at him, "I don't think so, Spike. We need to start putting the program together first."
Spike looked worried, "But… So, there's nothing I can do?"
Rainbow flew over and wrapped her right foreleg around him, "This is egghead stuff, Spike. A little different, but it's about the same. You don't always help Twilight when she's doing that kind of stuff, right?"
Spike looked down, "Well, no."
Rainbow replied, "Then don't make work where you don't have to! Hey, I figured out how to get games off the Resistance network and play them on my Mobile. Want me to show you how?"
While typing and clicking, Tails said, "Please turn the volume down and go stand over by Sonic if you're going to hang out in here and play games. And keep your voices down; this is delicate work."
Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Okay, geez. Be Mister Bossy, why don't you." She and Spike went over by Sonic anyway, the hedgehog glancing over at them for a moment before shutting his eyes again. For several minutes, he heard low talking from both ends of the workshop along with the sounds of typing, clicking, and tapping.
He didn't know how much time had actually passed, but it seemed like it hadn't been long when Tails spoke, "Okay, that looks good. I think we're ready."
Twilight said, "It does seem like a pretty simple program, now that I see it. Will it be enough?"
Tails replied, "It should be, but we won't know until we tell it to start." He turned back to the laptop and started clicking again, "Just to be safe, let's disconnect this laptop from the Resistance network. That way, if anything goes wrong, it'll remain isolated."
While he was clicking, Sonic’s Mobile started ringing. He pulled it out with his right hand and saw it was Amy calling him. He answered it and, when Amy’s face appeared on the screen, said, “Hey, Amy. What’s up?”
The pink hedgehog’s face moved closer on his screen, “Sonic! Are you in the middle of something?!”
Sonic raised an eyebrow, “Uh, no…”
Amy said, “Good! We just got word: Shadow’s been spotted!”
Sonic blinked, “Shadow?” He pushed away from the wall and held his Mobile closer, “Where?!” Rainbow, Spike, Tails, and Twilight all turned to look at him, also interested.
“Speck, one of our lookouts in Green Hill, just contacted us! He saw one of Eggman’s transports come crashing down and saw Shadow leaving the wreckage when he went to investigate! He said he’s heading this way! I’ve already sent a message to our lookouts up top to keep watch for him!” Amy said.
“Good. Let ‘em know I’m on my way. If he’s looking for a fight, I’ll give him one. And then he’s gonna give us some answers!” Sonic replied. He hung up and turned to leave the room.
He hadn’t gotten far down the hall when Rainbow flew out of the workshop and landed directly in front of him. “Whoa, whoa, hold on! You’re gonna take on Shadow? I’m coming with you!” she said.
“Rainbow… You sure you want to do that? When he fought the bug horse queen, I thought you said you were happy to stay out of it,” Sonic said.
“Yeah, but that’s because I realized trying to fight alongside him might end with me getting hurt. Fighting against him, though? That’s a different story,” Rainbow replied. She looked past Sonic a moment later, “Looks like I’m not the only one.” He looked back to see Twilight with Spike on her back and Tails a moment later step out of the workshop, Tails wearing a tan messenger bag containing his Miles Electric over his left shoulder.
“What about the program you guys cooked up?” he asked.
Tails answered, “I know we disconnected, but I don’t feel comfortable letting it run without being able to keep an eye on it. It won’t take long to run. We should have plenty of time to do that.”
Twilight added, “You’re right about getting some answers out of him, Sonic, and the sooner we get them, the better. Like why he’s working for Eggman now, or what Eggman’s big plan is… We can help you get those answers faster.” Spike nodded in agreement.
Sonic looked at them for a moment before looking back at Rainbow. He saw she was still determined, so he shrugged, “Well, I guess I don’t really have a good argument against yours.”
Rainbow grinned, “So, we’re good?”
Sonic nodded, “Yeah. Let’s do it to it.” Rainbow pumped her hoof and she, Tails, and Twilight hurried after him when he started running through the base towards the tunnels.
As they were leaving, Grubber, Cream, and Cheese appeared around the corner at the other end of the hall. "You were right. There is something going on if they're leaving all together like that," Grubber commented as they walked.
"I wonder what it could be. It must be important if Sonic, Tails, Princess Twilight, Miss Dash, and Mister Spike are all going," Cream said. Cheese nodded in agreement. They came to a stop near the workshop door, which slid open due to sensing their presence.
Grubber decided to look inside. "Hey, there's something on that screen in the back," he remarked. He ran inside and Cheese flew after him while Cream watched them from the doorway. Grubber reached the workbench and jumped up, grabbing the edge of it. After a little struggling and a push from Cheese, he pulled himself up and looked to see it was a piece of paper taped to the top of the screen. "'DO NOT TOUCH. -TWILIGHT AND TAILS-'," Grubber read aloud. After a moment, he commented, "Okay. That's good advice, too."
Cream giggled and said, "Let's go look for Mama. Maybe we can help her, and then can play some more until they get back." Cheese let out a happy "Chao!" at that.
"Okay," Grubber agreed, letting go of the table as Cheese flew back and dropping down to the floor. They hurried back over to Cream. As they reached her, a shadow fell over her and she turned to her right to look up in surprise. Grubber and Cheese looked up and saw a pig in a Resistance uniform standing a short distance from her. "Oh, hello, uh, Oscar, sir," Grubber awkwardly said.
The pig smiled softly, "Hello. I'm sorry if I startled any of you. I guess it is possible to walk silently while wearing these boots."
Cream smiled back, "That's okay, sir."
Oscar asked, "Are you all going somewhere?"
Cream answered, "Yes, sir. We're going to go find Mama!"
Oscar tilted his head, "Oh? I believe I saw Miss Vanilla in the barracks a few minutes ago. She should still be there."
Cream said, "Thank you, sir!"
Oscar replied, "No problem." He turned around to watch as Cream ran down the hall with Cheese and Grubber following her. After they disappeared around the corner, the smile on his face dropped and a faint pink glow appeared over the pupils of his eyes. He turned to look inside the workshop and noticed the paper on the screen. He walked over to it and, after reading it, lifted it up to look at the screen, seeing a command prompt in the middle of the screen asking to confirm if the user wanted to run the program. With a smirk, he pressed the 'Enter' key to confirm and let the paper drop back down as he turned to leave.
-Dear Princess Celestia,
I am pleased to report that Twilight and Spike are both doing much better, so there will be no need to postpone the coronation. As I write, they are getting ready to make the trip to Canterlot. Twilight is going to address the ponies of Ponyville before leaving so they know what’s going on and they don’t need to put everything on hold to travel to Canterlot. I’ll make sure she keeps her speech short and isn’t late. The rest of the girls and I look forward to being in the audience. We’ll see you soon!
Yours truly,
Starlight Glimmer-
Starlight put her quill down and held up the parchment in her magic, looking over what she had written before nodding and sending it to Princess Celestia. Trixie stepped into the sitting room a moment later and Starlight asked, “Is everything ready, Trixie?”
The light blue unicorn replied with a flick of her head, “Of course! The podium is set up, the mic has been checked, and the fireworks are all in place. And, naturally, nopony has any idea what they’re really coming here for.” She looked at Starlight, “I take it you sent the princess the letter?”
Starlight nodded, “Yep. They shouldn’t feel any need to come down here if they think Twilight is on her way. They’re so naïve and trusting; they have no idea what’s really going on down here, and that works to our advantage.”
Trixie replied, “Excellent. I’ll be ready.” As she turned to leave, she added, “You should get going too, Starlight.”
Starlight stood up and checked her mane with a hoof, “Yes, I do have a role I need to play as well. It’s time to address the public.” She made her way out of the sitting room, pulling the doors closed behind her as she left.
In the bedroom of a mostly-destroyed home, a section of the wooden floor in the corner began to shift. It was a slight movement at first, but it was followed by a more noticeable one. The section then lifted up, revealing a square-shaped hole in the floor. Underneath, Sonic and Rainbow peered out into the room for several seconds, checking to see if the coast was clear. They then nodded to each other and set the section of floor they were holding off to the side. Rainbow then flew up out of the hole and landed on the floor, moving to check outside the bedroom while Sonic pulled himself up and turned around so he could sit on the edge. Tails and Spike flew out next and landed nearby while he reached down to grab Twilight’s forelegs and pull her out.
Once she was out and the section of floor was covering up the hole again, they moved to join Rainbow, who had moved out of the bedroom and was pressed up next to where a large chunk of the outside wall had collapsed, giving them a good view of the street outside. She looked at them as they approached her and said, “I didn’t see anyone outside. I think it’s safe.”
They exited the house and made their way up to a nearby rooftop, where Vector and a monkey soldier were both looking out across the city with binoculars. The crocodile lowered his binoculars and turned around a moment later to see the group arriving on the opposite side of the roof. "You guys sure got up here quick. We finally found something that got you all motivated, huh?" he remarked.
"Yeah, something like that," Sonic shrugged.
"So, where's Shadow?" Rainbow asked.
"Not here yet. Espio and the recon team he's with in Green Hill haven't called in. Speck said he was headed for the Lost Valley zone, so once they see him there, it won't take him long to reach the outskirts," Vector replied.
Twilight looked down, "I don't understand. Why is Shadow helping Eggman now? It seemed like he wanted him stopped when he had the Time Eater."
Tails suggested, "Maybe it has something to do with the power Infinite has? We don't know what happened prior to him appearing with Infinite, Metal, Zavok, and Chaos."
Vector replied, "Well, he'll be answering those questions and so many more. He's coming here, so he's gotta know he's in for a fight. And if we want to stay ahead of Eggman, we've…" He was suddenly cut off by an explosion near the edge of the city, but not from where they were expecting Shadow to enter from.
"What's that?!" Spike cried as he clutched the back of Twilight's neck.
Vector looked through his binoculars as he brought his Mobile up to the side of his head and yelled, “Charmy, come in! Can you see Shadow?!”
The bee responded after a few moments, “No, I don’t see him, Vector! A bunch of Eggman’s robots just appeared out of nowhere! Like, out of thin air!”
Vector grunted, “So you weren’t paying attention and they got the drop on you.”
Charmy replied, “No, I did see them! They totally put themselves together before they started attacking! There was red light and then… Wait, is that…? Hey, I see Shadooooo…”
Vector asked, “Charmy? Come in! What happened?” He winced and lowered his binoculars a few moments later as a crackling sound came from his Mobile. He looked at it and said, “He must’ve dropped it.”
Rainbow asked, “Did he mention Shadow?” Almost as soon as she finished saying that, the black hedgehog appeared in front of them in a flash of blue, hovering a short distance in front of the rooftop as he looked at them with cold, lifeless eyes. Rainbow glared, “Get him!” She spread her wings and shot between Vector and the monkey with her right hoof extended. Shadow vanished in a flash of blue before she could reach him. Rainbow held her wings out to her sides to slow down and looked around for him. She saw him reappear from another blue flash higher up in the sky after several seconds and flew after him as he began to fly away.
“Rainbow!” Twilight called, but the pegasus was too far away to hear her.
Vector turned to her and said, “Hey, focus, Princess! Shadow’s not our only problem right now; Charmy said there were robots coming into the city and they’re gonna star tearing this place up!”
Sonic replied, “No problem, Vector!” He looked at Twilight, “Twilight, you go help Rainbow. She might need an extra set of wings or two to take on Shadow, even in the sky.” He turned to Tails, “We’ll start thinning out those robots in the meantime.” The fox nodded with a determined expression and Twilight and Spike nodded as well after a moment. The two of them spread their wings and flew up after Rainbow while Tails took Sonic’s hand and flew towards the explosions.
Rainbow, meanwhile, flew high above the city, stopping and hovering after a minute as she looked around for Shadow. "Where'd he go?" she asked as she looked and turned around. She suddenly became aware of someone behind her and whirled to see him there, a faint red distortion fading around him. Before she could react, he grabbed her right foreleg with his right hand and spun around, throwing her away from him in one fast motion as she let out a yell. She was able to right herself and spread her wings out to stop herself after a second; she then glared at him and shot forward.
Below them, Twilight and Spike stopped flying up, both flapping their wings to remain in place as they watched. Rainbow flew at Shadow as fast as she could, occasionally twisting around or flying above him to mix up her charges. It didn't seem to help much; Shadow would simply move aside or disappear whenever she came close. Twilight couldn't help but be bothered by this. He looked and seemed to act like Shadow, but she wasn't seeing any of the fierceness he displayed when he beat down Chrysalis or threatened Shining. The other two versions of him she and Spike had met had shown it to differing degrees as well, so she couldn't understand why he now seemed to prefer messing with Rainbow over fighting her.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when Spike let out a loud gasp. She looked up and saw Shadow throw Rainbow again, but this time, he shot after her and, after she stopped herself, punched her several times in the stomach before giving her a hard punch to the side of her muzzle. She recovered and flew at him again, only for him to catch her left hoof in his hand and slam his right elbow against the side of her head. He then threw her up and shot up after her. He delivered a sideways kick while she was reeling, knocking her away and making her drop down.
Twilight had had enough and charged up a moderately-sized beam of magic in her horn, firing it and hitting Shadow as he was about to pursue Rainbow further. It hit him in the side and sent him rolling to the side, but only for a moment. He quickly recovered and stopped himself before turning his head to glare down at Twilight, causing her eyes to widen a bit as he turned fully to focus on her. She tried creating a magic shield in between them to stop his rush, but he simply disappeared and reappeared on the other side of it. She had no time to recast the spell, so she tried to flap backwards and dodge his punches, but she was only barely able to dodge the first one; the rest came too fast for her. Spike let out a yell as he flew at Shadow, but was swiftly stopped when the hedgehog kicked him away.
He then turned back to the still-dazed Twilight and wrapped his hands around her neck. He then spun her around twice before letting go, the alicorn still spinning a bit as she fell. Spike recovered from the kick and noticed her in trouble, so he flew after her, using his Enerbeams to pull himself towards her faster. Rainbow had recovered at this point and felt relieved when she saw Spike going to help Twilight, so she turned her attention back to Shadow, only to see him disappear in a flash of blue again. She quickly looked around for him again.
Down below, Sonic and Tails were still dealing with the Egg Pawns and Buzzbombers that were moving through the city. Sonic had to follow a swarm of Buzzbombers that flew down into a hole, dealing with the robots before they could start attacking the city's infrastructure. He then exited the hole via an opening that the Resistance had made, winding around and coming out in another abandoned building. He leapt out onto the street and took off down it, and he was soon reunited with Tails when he flew down.
"Are you okay?" Tails asked as he flew beside Sonic.
"Yeah, I'm good. Just ducked down into the sewer to deal with some Badniks. Might need a bath or a shower after this," the hedgehog replied.
Tails snickered and said, "I don't think you have to worry. The Resistance regularly use the tunnels; there shouldn't be too much…" He trailed off as he faced forward again. "Sonic, look out!" he exclaimed. The hedgehog had already turned his eyes back to the road when the fox had cut himself off and so he saw it too: Shadow was flying right at them.
Sonic and Tails eased a little to the right and left respectively, Sonic turning his head and briefly locking eyes with Shadow before he shot past. After a few seconds, Shadow came to a stop, turned, and shot after them. Sonic faced forward and saw the street made a sharp turn to the right ahead. He looked over at Tails and said, "Split up!" The fox nodded and turned to fly up over the line of buildings to the left while Sonic placed his right hand against the ground and dropped down to slide. He got up and shot down the street when he reached the turn, looking back to see Shadow disappear in a flash of blue before he crashed.
Tails also noticed him disappear and looked around for him. Shadow suddenly appeared next to him after a few moments and swung his fist at him. Tails swerved to avoid the punch, rolling over and hitting him with both feet in the process. The move put a little distance between him and the hedgehog, but he had to quickly move to the side a second later to avoid a direct charge. Seeing that he wasn’t backing off, Tails steeled himself and flew after him.
While this was going on, Vector was still using his binoculars to observe the situation while the monkey soldier was using a large White Wispon to shoot at Badniks off in the distance. In the middle of his spotting, he briefly saw Sonic when the hedgehog used some debris that was pushed together to make a bridge to get over the water below, and shortly after, he spotted a squadron of Balkiries swooping down in his direction. He raised his Mobile to the side of his muzzle and said, “Sonic, you got incoming from behind! Keep running!”
Sonic glanced back and saw the bird-like Badniks flying towards him, each one strafing him with bombs as they went by. The explosions were not very large, thankfully, so he was able to avoid them by stepping to the side out of their path. After several runs that failed to land a hit, he heard Shadow’s voice, which sounded a bit distorted, as he evaded two more Balkiries, “Is this all you’ve got? Out of my way!” He stepped to the side to avoid a charge from the black hedgehog, who kept going instead of disappearing again.
Sonic followed him, but as he finished rounding the corner, his eyes widened as he saw a yellow light shooting towards him. Realizing it was a Chaos Spear, he stepped to the side, narrowly missing it, and saw Shadow hovering above the ground a short distance ahead of him a moment later. The black hedgehog floated backwards as he continued summoning and firing Chaos Spears at Sonic, who continued to quickly step out of their path as he waited for an opportunity. It came a couple seconds later when he closed the gap between them and nailed Shadow with a Homing Attack as he was preparing another Chaos Spear, the black hedgehog disappearing a moment later while Sonic landed and resumed running down the road.
Suddenly, he heard Tails' voice come from his Mobile, "Sonic, Shadow's behind you!" He looked back and saw Shadow running towards him, though not as fast as he'd been going up to this point.
"Get ready; we're coming to help!" Rainbow added. Sonic didn't know what sort of plan they had, but he wasn’t going to wait to find out. After a few seconds, he planted his feet down and turned to face Shadow. The black hedgehog did not change his pace, so Sonic readied a Spin Dash and shot into him when he was a little closer, knocking him off of his feet backwards.
While he was up, Tails swooped down and grabbed Shadow from behind by his upper arms. "Wasn't expecting that, but it sure…" He was cut short when Shadow began struggling. Tails quickly lost hold of him and he turned around to attack him. Tails avoided his punch and turned to fly up and away from him.
Shadow quickly followed after him and it seemed like he would soon catch up, but suddenly, Spike appeared in a burst of magenta ahead of him, his cheeks already puffed out. He spewed green flames a moment later and Shadow held his arms up in front of his face as the flames engulfed him while Spike held his wings out to drop down a moment later. Shadow emerged on the other side of the flames a moment later relatively unscathed, but as he lowered his arms, he realized there was a wall of magenta magic directly in his path. He wasn’t able to stop himself before he crashed into it, his arms and legs splayed out across it. Twilight flew up behind it and unleashed a fairly sizable beam of magic from her horn, breaking the wall and blasting Shadow away. Rainbow flew down and grabbed him while he was falling and started rolling to try to keep him disoriented as she flew down towards the ground. She stopped spinning when she was a little more than a dozen feet above the ground and stopped and let Shadow go a moment later, letting him crash and slide back a bit when he hit. She landed and glared at him as he lay on the ground, her wings still spread. Sonic slid to a stop to her right after a moment and Tails, Twilight, and Spike flew down and landed behind them afterwards.
Shadow began to sit up a few seconds later. As he raised his head to look at the group, Sonic spoke, "All right, Shadow! You wanna tell us what's going on?" The expression on Shadow's face didn't change; he simply resumed sitting up, moving his right hand behind him as he did.
"Hey! Stop moving!" Rainbow ordered, but he didn't heed. He was sitting up a moment later and his right hand looked like it was holding something.
"Look out!" Tails exclaimed, suspecting he was up to something. Sure enough, he brought his right hand forward, revealing a handgun. Before he could pull the trigger, something hit the ground next to him and exploded, blowing him off the ground and into a collapsed home to his left.
Everyone stared in surprise for a moment before turning to look down the street to the left. Further down, they saw a familiar black and red hedgehog drop down onto a piece of rubble and stand straight up, turning his shiny, vibrant eyes to look at them while their eyes widened. "Another Shadow?!" Spike exclaimed.
Charmy flew up next to him a moment later and said, "Whoa, Shadow, that was so cool!" The black hedgehog glanced over at him with an irritated expression, but soon turned his attention back to the other Shadow. Everyone else turned to look at him as he robotically climbed to his feet, gun still in hand. The new arrival narrowed his eyes and leapt down from the rubble. The gun went off nearly a dozen times as he ran towards the shooter, but he sidestepped them all and curled into a ball when he was close enough. He knocked him back into the standing wall behind, but he wasn't done yet. Upon landing, he curled up into a Spin Dash and shot forward, both crashing through the wall and falling to the street below. The shooter landed hard on his front and dropped his gun, which broke into red particles, while the new arrival uncurled and used his air shoes to land gently in front of him.
As the two resumed their tussle, Sonic, Rainbow, Twilight, Spike, Tails, and Charmy came over to the hole in the wall and peered down at the fight. Tails looked over at Charmy, who was buzzing excitedly and pumping his fists as he watched, and asked, "Uh, Charmy? What happened earlier?"
The bee stopped and stared at him blankly. "Huh?" he uttered.
"Why did Vector lose contact with you? What happened when you saw Shadow?" Tails clarified.
Charmy's eyes lit up, "Oh, right! Well, that other Shadow, the mean one, bumped into me and knocked me down and I got dizzy when I landed! When the world stopped spinning, I saw Shadow standing over me, but as a detective, I could tell something was different about him: he was cool! And I was right because, while I was following him, he was destroying Eggman's robots!"
Tails looked forward as he mused, "So, the Shadow we've been dealing with might be a Shadow Android enhanced by Infinite's power. Does that mean 'cool' Shadow is the real Shadow?"
Sonic remarked, "Well, 'cool' Shadow seems to be the winner, so…" Tails and Charmy looked and saw one Shadow leap back from the wall he'd embedded the other one in, glaring at him. He fell forward a second later; for a moment, he seemed like he was attempting to get up, but he soon gave up, his eyes closing as he dropped to the ground.
Sonic and Tails looked at each other and a few moments later, Tails was carrying Sonic as he lowered down to the street below. Rainbow, Twilight, Spike, and Charmy flew down after them, everyone keeping an eye on both Shadows. As they watched, the fallen one began to break down, turning into red static and cubes. He faded away completely after they landed.
"That one just disappeared!" Spike exclaimed, voicing his and Twilight's surprise.
"Just like the Deadly Six on the Death Egg," Sonic said.
"And Tirek!" Rainbow added.
"Did I see something like that when Chaos fell…?" Tails wondered.
At last, Shadow spoke. "Fakers," he began. He raised his head, "Copies." He looked back over his shoulder at the group, "Phantoms."
Twilight blinked, “Phantoms?” Shadow turned around so they could see his right side. He held up his right hand, a dark blue flash drive between the ends of his index finger and thumb. “What’s that?” Twilight asked.
“This has all the files I was able to pull from the databanks aboard the Death Egg about the Doctor’s plans,” Shadow answered. He tossed it to Tails, who caught it with both hands. “Unfortunately, they’re incomplete. The originals weren’t there.” He noticed that Tails was looking at the heart on the back, so he added, “It won’t mess with your machine, Tails.” Satisfied, Tails pulled out his Miles Electric and extended the plug, inserting it into the port on his device.
O-T Sonic walked into the meeting room. He was looking for his counterpart and Tails to ask them a question, but he still hadn't found them. Knuckles was talking to Tempest and Applejack off to the side, Rarity and Amy were standing around the computer terminal, Silver and Pinkie were looking up at the main screen, and the Rookie, Fuchsia, Corvin, Trish, Aventura, Matka, Techni, Salten, and Sona were there too. He looked around, not sure who the best individual to ask would be.
Amy was the first to notice him and waved, catching everyone else’s attention. “Oh, hi, Sonic! I mean, the other Sonic. Younger Sonic,” she said a bit awkwardly. She smiled nervously, “I’m not sure how you’d prefer to be addressed…”
Pinkie popped up between her and Rarity suddenly, Silver turning to look in surprise at where she’d been a moment ago as she said, “Just call him Old-Timey Sonic, Amy! That’s what we called him before!”
Knuckles looked back at Sonic and noticed he was giving Pinkie an odd look, as if he wanted to ask her something. “Is something wrong, Sonic?” Before the lighter blue hedgehog could open his mouth, the lights suddenly flickered for a moment and the main screen went to black for a second before going back to blue. “What was that?” Knuckles asked as everyone looked around.
“Could be something with the generator. We might have to take a look at it if it happens again,” Techni said after a moment.
Amy and Rarity turned to look at the computer terminal a few seconds later when a beeping sound came from it. “Looks like we’re receiving a call,” Rarity said.
“Well, see who it is. Maybe Sonic and the others have taken down Shadow,” Knuckles replied. As Amy was reaching for the keyboard, O-T Sonic looked behind him and noticed Oscar was standing in the doorway behind him along with several other Resistance members. He was sure they weren’t standing there before the sudden hiccup, though. He looked towards the other door and saw a few other Resistance soldiers standing there as well.
The group had moved into a nearby home that was still standing and wasn't too badly damaged, allowing them to get out of the open. Vector and Espio had joined them, Espio leaning against the wall next to Tails as he sat on a small stool he'd found while he looked at his Miles Electric and Vector standing with Sonic and Rainbow, all of them looking at Shadow. Twilight and Spike were sitting on an ottoman nearby while Charmy flew up by the ceiling.
"Infinite has the power to create replicas, copies that can be made to look and behave like the originals," Shadow was saying.
"How does he do it, though? Pinkie found a pool once that was able to make magic copies of anything that stepped in it, but his seem way different," Rainbow said.
Shadow regarded her for a moment before saying, "All of his power comes from that gem on his chest. The Doctor calls it the Phantom Ruby." He glanced down, "If he hadn't distracted me back when I was sent to destroy the base, I could've destroyed all of his research."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"
Tails spoke, "There are a lot of files in here. Most of them date back longer than six months ago. Initial Findings, Phantom Ruby Capabilities, Creation Refinements, Prototype Logs…" He looked up and off to the side, "Prototype… Could that be…?"
Sonic looked back at Shadow, "So, aside from maybe Metal, since he exploded when we beat him, all the heavy hitters on Eggman's side, including the bad guys from Equestria…"
The black hedgehog nodded, "Correct. Copies. They have mass and form, but they don't possess any heart or soul."
Twilight looked down, "That's my fault… Infinite went through my notes… That's how he was able to make Tirek and Cozy Glow…"
Tails spoke up, "Um, I'm not so sure about that, Twilight."
Shadow said, "He's right. I've seen the profiles in the database. He may have learned of their existence because of what you wrote, but did your notes describe every power they possess, every single detail about their appearance, everything about who they are?"
Twilight tilted her head to the side, "Well, no."
Shadow replied, “Then it wasn’t you. I went through each one; the ones for the moon mare, the chimera, the bug, and the dark unicorn are all full of information, no doubt because the Doctor researched them while he was hiding out. The ones for the centaur and the other one pale in comparison. The only thing they contain is observations. There’s not enough information in them for him to be able to create his copies; Infinite must’ve located the originals and taken notes.”
Spike spoke, “Well… that’s not exactly comforting. I mean, Tirek and Cozy Glow were both locked away in Tartarus! Doesn’t that mean he went there? Or… that they escaped…?”
Vector walked up behind the two and placed a hand on Spike’s back, causing him to look up. “Hey, let’s not jump to conclusions here. I know not knowing what exactly else he was doing in Equestria is worrying, but we can only deal with what’s going on in one world right now, and if we don’t stop Infinite and Eggman here, they’ll be impossible to stop in Equestria.” He looked over at Tails and Espio, “Does that thing have anything that could help us counter this Phantom Ruby thing?”
Tails replied, “Uh, not really. From what I’ve looked at so far, Shadow was right. These are definitely Eggman’s files, but bits and pieces are redacted, blacked out, or otherwise cut off.”
Espio added, “Mainly the information we could use, anyway. Were you able to learn anything new, Shadow?”
Shadow said, "As far as I can tell, there's no limit on what Infinite can do with his replicas. He can potentially create an unlimited number of any of them."
Sonic put his hand on his chin, "Unlimited copies? So, for example, even though we defeated his Tirek illusion, he could not only bring it back, he could create an army of Tireks if he felt like it?" Rainbow, Twilight, and Spike looked from him to Shadow in dread at that.
"Exactly. As it stands, it's an uphill battle as long as Infinite has the Phantom Ruby's power," Shadow answered.
Sonic smiled, "Well, just for the time being, anyway."
Twilight asked, "What do you mean, 'just for the time being'?"
Spike added, "Yeah, why'd you say that like it's gonna change? This guy can create armies out of nothing; we can't beat that!"
Sonic said, “Yeah, but there’s still Eggman. He might’ve been careful with this, but he’s bound to overlook something important that’ll come back to bite him in his wide behind sooner or later. He’s done it before.”
Charmy giggled, “He sure has! He’s gotten bad luck even when everything goes right!”
Shadow spoke, “Admittedly, that’s what I’m hoping for as well. Before I started downloading data, I found a list of his outposts and bases in the region and asked Rouge to investigate, to see if the files were sent to any of them or if there are any clues that could help.”
Rainbow remarked, “So that’s what she was talking about the other night.”
Tails said, “I hope she does manage to find the unaltered files. This looks like it might be a diagram for the Phantom Ruby, but it’s almost completely whited out.”
Espio remarked, “Must’ve been a in a hurry to cover it up. Just covering something with digital paint doesn’t seem like something he would do.”
Vector nodded, “Yeah, Egghead would probably put his face on it too to really mess with anyone who found it.”
Sonic reached into his quills and pulled out his Mobile while saying, “Amy wanted me to check in with her and Knuckles once the situation was under control. I’m gonna get ‘em up to speed on everything you told us.” He glanced up at Shadow to see if he had any objections; the black hedgehog hardly moved in response, so he figured it was okay. He started tapping on the screen, but after a minute, he raised an eyebrow. “What?” he uttered as he tapped the screen again. He then started tapping his thumb against it more rapidly.
“What’s wrong?” Espio asked.
“I’m getting some kind of error here when I try to place a call. Not just to the base; to Knuckles, Amy, Tempest… everybody!” Sonic answered while tapping the screen with his index finger.
Charmy flew down and looked at the screen. “Ooh, kind of looks like what happens at the Detective Agency when the cable goes out, except it’s red! What’s going on?” he asked.
While Twilight, Rainbow, and Vector pulled out their Mobiles to see if they would get the same error, Tails said, “My Miles Electric was set up to be able to troubleshoot the network that the Resistance is using. Maybe I can find out what’s wrong from here.” He navigated through several screens before his eyes widened. “I don’t believe it!”
Espio leaned over to take a look and saw red flickering lines spreading out from a single point on a map. “What’s that?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but it’s inside our network and is spreading like a virus! Just looking at it, I’d say it’s blocking out any communications, at least from the outside!” Tails answered.
Twilight looked up from her Mobile as her mind suddenly made a connection. “Wait a minute. Red…” She turned to Spike, “Spike… Didn’t Starlight say the screen on our machine turned red and started displaying weird things before the Warp Ring went haywire?”
Spike blinked and said, “Yeah, she did! And that had to be when Infinite crossed over to Equestria because we found the claw marks afterwards, and then in your bedroom…! Wait, so does that mean…?”
Twilight nodded slowly, “I think it does. Infinite has to be the one hacking into our network! He must be using the Phantom Ruby to do it!”
Rainbow said, “And we can’t contact anyone… We gotta get back to base and warn them!”
Twilight put her Mobile back in its clip and placed both hooves on the ottoman. “Everyone, get close! I’ll teleport us!” Everyone, including Shadow, gathered around her. A magenta aura surrounded her horn and with a bright flash of light, they all vanished.
Fluttershy stepped out of the infirmary and let out a soft but weary breath. Tina had requested help getting Gen's tub cleaned and refilled since Terv had claimed he needed to step away briefly for mental reasons after returning from the Sky Sanctuary. It wasn't a hard task; she was used to cleaning spaces for her animal friends, even the larger ones. Gen also hadn't been as irritable as he usually was, so she hadn't had to test out The Stare on him. What had drained her a bit was seeing him outside of his suit with all of his burns and scars. She would never dare ask, but she did wonder what happened to him.
She decided to go find the rest of her friends and see if they could help take her mind off of it. As she was walking, she crossed paths with Cream, Cheese, and Grubber and they decided to accompany her. Their talking helped ease the pegasus’ mind, but as they caught sight of the door to the meeting room, they were able to see a red light flashing repeatedly through the doorway. Fluttershy, Cream, and Grubber looked at each other for a moment before running to investigate.
When they were closer, they could hear a strange pulsing sound and saw Oscar standing in the doorway, shaking like he couldn’t stay still. It was difficult to see into the room, both because he was in the way and because of the flashing light, but they could see O-T Sonic, Knuckles, Applejack, Rarity, Amy, Silver, Tempest and the Rookie all shaking like Oscar, only they were shaking more erratically and looking like they were in pain. After several seconds, the light suddenly became blinding, causing them to shut their eyes and look away. When it died down and they looked again, they all stared in shock and horror: there was no one in the room.
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Great chapter, and wow, Shadow is back, the real one after defeating the fake one and got more intel on the phantom ruby to the others, and wow things are about to get more wild and infinite found the resistance base, this is gonna be intense, awesome job on this chapter by the way, looking forward to the next one
Now that was good. I hope the others will be okay.
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It’s back on!!
This is getting more exciting by the minute!
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!
Alright, Shadow finally returns and gives us the load down on what the Phantom Ruby can do. Also they have data on Discord and Luna/nightmare moon but we haven’t see those copies yet. I do wonder if the ruby can copy Discord with how powerful he is, because there’s gotta be some limit to what the ruby can copy. If it doesn’t then why not create an army of Perfect Chaos or Super Shadows?
So it’s looking like Starlight and Trixie are going to mind control the ponys of ponyville if I’m getting the vibe of what they want to do right. Definitely interested to see what’s happening in Equestria.
And oh no!!! A good chunk of the resistance has been captured!!!… potentially. Are they on the death egg? some other prison? Or a one way trip into Infinite’s whacky virtual reality of horrors!?!
Anyways, great chapter can’t wait for more!!!
Things are getting eerie. I love it! Into the darkness we go!
Amazing chapter as always! And shadow is back and that’s great! And man the intel that was explained about the phantom ruby, I got goosebumps. Can’t wait to see the rest of how this plays out! Hope the others are ok!
It’s up to them!
Hey GreenS21 doing ok?
Who is this O-T Sonic? Is this Classic Sonic?
Edit:Nvm, Pinkie already said.
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It hasn’t been written in the prequel yet.