Taismo: Discovering Equestria

by RockStarMLP

First published 28th of March, 2014

A misuse of Chaos Control sends two of Mobius's most recognized heroes to a new world called Equestria. As they find a way home, they explore and enjoy the world of magic and friendship by six new best friends

After an altercation with an old enemy, two heroes from a very different place are sent from the battlefield to a new world known as Equestria. The Mane 6 discover them and take it upon themselves to treat the two-tailed fox and his flower girlfriend as anypony else, befriend and help them in any way possible. As trouble brews back home and another pony is discovered away from home, the two visitors learn from Twilight and her friends about this new world, and see how the magic of friendship is a thriving force and spiritual bond among pony kind, opening Tails's mind to the possibilities of accomplishment, and Cosmo's heart to a stronger hope of universal peace.

NOTE: This story is inspired by both MLP: FIM, and Tails and Cosmo of Sonic X, a property I do not claim as my own.

Prelude: Confrontation

Peace was far from sight on the planet Mobius as a standoff between two sides took place inside a flying fortress hovering high above Angel Island. There were two conflicts take place, where one on the island saw Sonic and his friends being confronted by enemies of many worlds that blocked their way with combat, and the other taking place in the fortress that saw the heroic Miles ‘Tails’ Prower holding an injured and barely conscious Cosmo in his arms. The fox was battle damaged himself as he was kneeled at his Super Saiyan state, having fighting through waves of opponents and his own rage to reach his heart and soul, captured and tortured by a well-known foe of theirs, and a top commander of the Brotherhood of Darkness. Inside a dimly-lit room was a chamber that held all seven Chaos Emeralds, used to power a device that would turn the fortress into an indestructible planet-destroying meteor, able to maintain its structure even after numerous planetary collisions. Standing by the device’s power generator and the emeralds, the one responsible for everything going on that day watched the battle-torn couple.

“It seemed too easy to accomplish all this,” said the villain. “Tracking all the emeralds while you were off dimension jumping for your foolish music festival, completing my new doom ship’s construction, and striking you when you would least expect it. Perhaps the easiest part of this, was abducting her.”

Tails could only look down at Cosmo, disappointed in himself for not being there for her when she needed it most, and now, she was harmed and wounded. He didn’t move or say a word, just allowing his rage-glaring eyes to shed a couple tears as he thought of his friends- Sonic and the gang, with Dan Phantom and Team Possible among leading forces as the Master Four were spread out across other worlds, all fighting a simultaneous attack made against himself, and his loved one. As his thoughts continued, the villain continued to speak.

“All of your friends, like your flower, believe in themselves and each other that they can succeed in defeating us. How you all manage to go for so long conflicts me with impatience, and humor. It’s gone on and on like this for years for so many of you, whether it was Dr. Eggman, or Organization XIII, or even all the times the Metarex went on the attack, and you still refuse to surrender.

"Tell me this- with the Chaos Emeralds at my disposal, and my plan about to come to accomplishment, what goes through your mind? Do you fear the lives of all your friends below us, or do you only think of yourself and your weed?”

Feeling his rage rise in his heart again, the heroic fox said back “I don’t feel as cold as you do. My friends and I all do what we do for what’s best for each other, and then for ourselves! They will take care of what you’ve got going on right now, but for what you’ve done to Cosmo, I’LL MAKE YOU PAY!!!” His rage shined a glow around him and his beloved, blinding them from the villain in a golden sphere.

The foe looked at this and saw what the fox was up to. “Your attempts are useless. She is near death again, and without the emeralds in your control they won’t save her…” Before continuing, a sudden wave of energy raced across the room, sending a surge through the villain’s body, and the device itself. “What… Where did that power come from?”

Two more surges of power were unleashed, causing the same effects as the first, leaving the foe even more curious. When the light died down, Cosmo was lied down carefully onto the floor with Tails, powered up to Super Saiyan 2 standing just beside her, and looking to finish what the enemy had started. “I won’t let you get away with anything! Not again!” proclaimed the fox, and he charged straight in to attack.

Lying on the ground and having her body seeming surrounded by an aura of energy, Cosmo’s strength was rebuilding, and her conscious becoming stronger and clearer in thought. Where her eyes remained shut, her heart could sense what was taking place. “Tails, you’re right,” she said in her thoughts. “Our bond is strong, just like the bonds we share with our friends. I know you can do it, because we all have each other.”

The fight between Tails and the enemy was intense, each one refusing to hold back or fight lightly around the emerald-powered device. Their mercilessness became so great that they each slammed one-another into the towering weapon, making damages both visible and unseen to the naked eye. Seeing that more was needed to be done for a successful attack on Mobius, the villain stated “Your power is great, but your heart is still weak!” Attention was then redirected back towards the Seedrian heroine as the foe prepared to fire a blast of energy right at her, enough to kill her.

“Don’t you dare harm her!” exclaimed Tails, and closed in for an attack, but when he threw a punch to stop the attempted attack, the foe vanished. He had swung his fist through air, just able to notice the enemy relocating to the distance where his better half was, and immediately raced to her. “No! COSMO!!”

When an electrical surge from the device lit the entire room, it shined on the enemy, whose energy intended to kill Cosmo was blocked by her beloved Tails, who took the attack head on and was blasted back straight into the device’s computer programming base. Both the blast and the impact did its damage, and the fox found himself face first on the floor with the wind knocked right out of him. Little to all their knowledge, all the damage the foe’s machine had taken had caused great complications in its operations. An alarm began to sound as the computer controls at the base began to go haywire and unable to be accessed appropriately. The villain in the room did not find this sight pleasant in any way.

“What?!” he exclaimed and raced over to see the damage. “No, the controls are too damaged! I can’t repair it in time to shut it down from going off!” With no point in carrying out a plan best left abandoned, the foe had to think fast of what to save all this effort from becoming a lost cause. Looking over at the barely conscious Cosmo first, he then noticed Tails trying to get back up as he stood on his hands and knees. Turning back towards the device’s controls, the villain thought for a moment, only one thing came to mind. “I don’t know what my machine will do to you now that it won’t function properly, but the least I can hope for is that it does me enough to end you both here today!”

A slam with a merciless fist against the control panel sends the device into activation, but not before he walks over to Tails and kicks the hero hard in the stomach, sending him in a tumble to land just near Cosmo too winded to move. The villain then opened a dark portal for means of escape, prepared to retreat and hope for the best in the couple’s worst outcome. The last sentence he’d thought he’d ever get to say to them was “Farewell, Tails and Cosmo. Wherever you end up, you will no longer serve as my opposition again.” Leaving the world of Team Sonic was Dark Oak, ruler of the Metarex, returning to the base of the Brotherhood to behold what the Chaos Emeralds would do to the two that foiled his plans more than even Sonic or Dr. Eggman have done in the past.

Just as the portal of Darkness closed behind it, one other opened at Angel Island below, where the Master Four of Team JAG emerged out from to help in the fight on Mobius, but no one expected to see what happened next. From within the flying fortress, a bright white light emitted and spread out from Dark Oak’s machine, engulfing everything in its path within its glow. It first began to cover Tails, who reached out to hold Cosmo’s hand to try and save them both, but he could only move the one arm in time to grab hold of her hand before using the other to help aide in their escape. The light then engulfed them both, followed by the many areas of the fortress, and then the entire ship itself and prevented all who tried to look to see what happen next- just as the ship was blinded fully away, everything in the sky vanished. No trace was left to be seen of the giant flying fortress, the seven Chaos Emeralds, and the two close friends of that world and many others. That light has been seen time after time before, and for Sonic and his friends of Mobius, it was easily recognized as one thing- Chaos Control.

Chapter 1

In a magical land known as Equestria, the ponies of Ponyville were enjoying a beautiful sunny day, the first day of their spring season. The winter wrap-up from the day prior was done in record time and everypony was spending their day tending to springtime responsibilities and enjoying themselves at the same time. Out in a flower-filled field that you could view the town’s front horizon, a few friends were enjoying their day together with a small picnic. There was Applejack, an orange pony and hardworking farm girl, along with Rarity, a white unicorn known for her fashion expertise, plus Rainbow Dash, a cyan pegasus who was busy flying around in the air, and lastly Twilight Sparkle, a studious and book-smart purple pony, but more specifically, an alicorn, and newest Equestrian princess. Each of them were taking in the wonderful time of peace and tranquility that they tend to have, most of the time at least.

“This was such a great idea,” Twilight said. “Having the chance to spend time together to relax is just so peaceful.”

“Ahhh, Isn’t spring the season with the most wonderful start?” Rarity said, lounging happily in her chaise sitting adjacent to their picnic blanket.

“Well next to applebuck season I’d say it is,” Applejack stated. “There’s nothin’ like that first sunrise on all the apple-filled trees on the farm.”

“I’m talking about seasons of weather, Applejack, not seasons of annual chores,” said the white unicorn.

A hovering Rainbow Dash then said “Oh, lighten up, a season’s a season isn’t it? Besides, I don’t want to start to hear you two arguing on a nice day I worked my flank off to make.”

“RD’s right,” agreed the orange mare, “so let’s steer clear of sayin’ things no need to be said. And speakin’ of your weather work there, Rainbow, why don’t ya come down and relax for a few? Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy should be here any minute now.”

“Not until I get Twilight up here to practice flying,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing her hoof to their royal friend. “She’s been trying to avoid flying lessons for days, and I want to get her back in the air and show us what those wings can do.”

Twilight picked her head up from a book she was trying to read, a textbook of various spells that were once too difficult to try before becoming a royal alicorn. She then said “Rainbow, I told you I’ve been busy with important research. It’s been taking up a lot of my attention lately, and learning to fly better was just something I had to back off from for a little while.” What she said wasn’t entirely true, because she still felt uncomfortable learning to fly better than her current abilities would allow. Where she has proven that she could fly very decently, she’s still far from her best, and wasn’t that eager to keep trying, at least not until she felt better about herself to go ahead.

“It’s quite alright, darling. Some ponies just need to value patience a little better,” Rarity said, directing it towards both Twilight and Rainbow.

Trying to follow the subject with a different focus, Applejack added “Speakin’ of waitin’, where are those two ponies and those new cupcakes from Sugarcube Corner? I’ve been wantin’ to sink my teeth into one of those all day.”

“I don’t know. Fluttershy said she had to help some of the woodland creatures first, but I wouldn’t think it would take her this long,” the purple alicorn pondered aloud.

Landing on her hooves next to Twilight, Rainbow Dash said “Her loss. She probably got roped into some critter fight to deal with.”

“Or she could’ve lost track of time I suppose,” Twilight added.

Just then, a fifth mare’s head appeared and said “Orrr she’s got so much work to do for so many animals that she has so much on her mind and completely forgot about our super special springtime picnic.” The head belonged to Pinkie Pie, the optimistic pony of perfect parties. “Hopefully she gets here soon, or she’ll miss her chance to try these out,” and the pink pony showed an open box of cupcakes.

Her friends’ eyes opened wide at the brightly decorated treats, all looking very delicious. “My goodness, Pinkie, those look amazing. I’ve never seen food shine like some of my gem-studded dresses,” Rarity complimented.

“Thanks,” Pinkie replied. “It’s a brand new recipe the Cakes and I have worked on for the next National Desserts. If it works out, we’ll turn these cupcakes into mega-cakes, and you guys will be the official taste-testers!”

“Mega-cakes?” asked Rarity.

“I think she means a full-sized cake,” said Twilight, “right Pinkie?” The pink mare nodded with a “Mhmm.”

“Well then what are we waiting for? Let’s dig in on those things,” Rainbow said, starting to reach for a cupcake.

Applejack then grabbed Rainbow’s tail and jerked her back. “Hold on there, missy,” she said with the tail still in her mouth, then spit it out to add “I’m as hankerin’ for one of those as the next pony, but we should wait for Fluttershy to get here first.”

Just then, it happened- Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie sense went off. “Uh-oh! Twitchy tail,” she said, and all the ponies began to look up. Just a second later, an earth-rumbling sound was heard from the distance. Every pony’s attention turned towards where it came from.

“What in tarnation was that?” asked Applejack.

“I haven’t the faintest of ideas,” said a puzzled Rarity.

“I wonder what it could’ve been,” Pinkie said, then began to compile thought after thought of theories. She was about to go on and list them when they heard a screaming sound coming from the same direction.

“I know that scream anywhere. That was Fluttershy!” Twilight said, and jumped up onto her hooves. “Come on, girls, we have to go find her and find out what’s happening!” All of her friends followed her lead, running and flying as fast as possible to reach their friend and find out what caused such sounds.

/)∞(\

In a nice open meadow not far from the Everfree Forest and the town, Fluttershy was busy tending to the aide of some of her animal friends. She was a quiet and very caring pegasus, very skilled in helping all kinds of animals in whatever ways she could, and today she was very busy. Her first couple jobs included helping feed a bundle of new baby rabbits and a first rehearsal with her choir of many birds, and as she was on her way to meet her friends, she found two baby birds on the ground, under a branch where their nest rested. They were still new to flying, having being carried from the south for spring by their mother, so they couldn’t figure out how to flap their wings to get back up to the nest after having fallen out a little while ago. Fluttershy walked over to them to help instruct and encourage the two little birds in hope that they would be able to do it on their own, and without her doing it for them.

“Alright, now let’s try again. Do it just like how I taught you,” she said with much encouragement. The two birds began to flap their wings again in attempt to get high enough off the ground, and so far they were doing well. “That’s it, you can do it. Just keep on flapping…”

One began to put out more effort and flap faster, closing their eyes and not looking as one crashed into its sibling, forcing both of them to fall back to the ground. They got back on their feet, both looking sad at another failure. Little did they know that they had an undesired audience watching from the other side of the tree.

“Awww, it’s okay, don’t be sad,” Fluttershy said to them with her always soft and kind voice. “That was your best try yet. I know you’ll get it right if you just keep trying. Come on, let’s see you flap up back to your nest.” Where she shut her eyes for just a second and smile, her two little friends yelped in fear and raced behind her front hooves shaking in worry.

“Oh goodness, what’s the matter?” she asked concerned, and the two pointed a wing towards their reason of fright. Appearing from the other side of the tree was a snake, and a mean one who likes teasing smaller creatures that he’d eat them with one big bite.

The birds kept themselves behind Fluttershy’s front hooves, but the mare wouldn’t stand for this, especially knowing this snake from previous times. Trying to calm her two little friends, she told them “Don’t you worry about that little snake. I’ll take care of this bully,” and she turned her head up towards the little slithering menace. In the past, she has willing let the snake off easy in hopes that the teasing attitude would lighten up or come to pass, but now seeing that she was wrong, it was time to put a hoof down and use the seriousness that was The Stare, a firm attitude with a firmer stare from her eyes.

“Now look here, mister,” she said to the snake, “just who do you think you are? Do you think being a bully makes you so much better than any other animal? Well it doesn’t, and it should be ashamed of yourself.” The snake just rolled his eyes without care at first, but a small object high in the sky caught his attention, something that looked to be getting bigger, and closer, fast.

Not noticing the phenomenon herself, Fluttershy continued to Stare at the snake, thinking she got his attention locked towards her. “I don’t want you to be bullying anybody else ever again, or I’ll see to it that I find your mother and tell her what you’ve been up to. Bullying is uncalled for for any animal, and you need to apologize for it. So, what do you have to say for yourself?”

All the snake did was scream and slither away in a fast panicking state, and kept on moving. This caused all three to be stunned, especially the yellow pony. “Oh my,” she said to herself, “I think my Stare overdid it for the little guy.” The two little birds were more curious and walked out to each side of their pony friend, looking around until their eyes saw what the snake saw. Something was hurdling towards the ground, but no one could make out what it was, and it was coming straight near them, causing the two birds to chirp and flap frantically.

Noticing this, Fluttershy turned her head around towards them to say “What’s wrong, little friends? Is there something else tha-aaaaAAAAAAHHHH!”

Her speech turned into a small, not-so-much echoing scream as she caught sight of this as well. Before any of them knew it, the object crash-landed hard into the ground, causing a small quake in an aftermath. A strong gust of wind and dust came from the crash, blinding Fluttershy from seeing much else. The strength of that force pushed her and her winged friends back, with her landing flat on her back and staying there until the gust had died down to nothing. When it all seemed calm again, she lifted herself back up onto her hooves, and found two little birds flying around her head. In fact, they were the same little birds she’s been with, finally finding the ability to fly after the occurrence, and showing this to their friend.

“I… I… um…” Fluttershy muttered for a moment before shaking her head to come back to reality. “Oh, I’m so proud of you both, but if you could, please, fly back up to your nest now.” The two did, and flew up to their nest, which surprisingly stayed in one piece, but lifted up onto another branch in the tree, but at least not too much higher than the original branch it rested on.

As for Fluttershy, she knew something was wrong, but kept going back and forth with herself about seeing what just caused this strange happening, or run away. “Oh, I should see, in case it’s something important,” she said, but then added “No, no, I can’t, because who knows what could be there.” Where the mind kept going around the idea, her body began walking towards the newly made crater, continuing to say “I should take a look, otherwise another little animal friend could’ve gotten hurt and I wouldn’t have seen it. But what if I do, and instead of that, I find some kind of monster? No, I should try. It’s what any of my friends would do if they were in my position, and as much as I hate the idea, I have to…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

Her body had take her towards the edge of the crater, and her eyes turned to look inside to see what was being revealed as the cloud of dust cleared. The first thing she saw looked to be an arm, and an open claw, reaching out of the ground and into the air. Her fears immediately overtook her as she feared the worst and kept screaming, and she began to run for her life away from the scene. She just kept on running as fast as her legs could let her go, her eyes shut and every fiber of her being terrified. The lack of paying attention on her part failed to notice that she would run straight into another pony, forcing her to land back onto the ground. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she ran into Twilight and her friends, the first one directly, and some relief came over her while the others expressed concern.

/)∞(\

“Fluttershy, what the hay has gotten into you?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“And why are you running away screaming?” added Rarity.

The two colliding ponies recovered and got back on their hooves, with Twilight saying “What’s going on, Fluttershy? You’re acting as if there’s something chaotic happening again.”

“There is! At least, I think there is. One moment I was with two little birds and a snake, when this thing, it just came down and crashed,…” Fluttershy went on to say, but being in such a panic, wasn’t clear or making much sense.

Trying to comfort her and be gentle, Applejack stood next to her with a hoof on the shoulder and said “Take it easy, Sugarcube. Now tell us what you saw.”

After taking a couple moments to calm down more, she explained what had happened about the giant crash, the source of the previous quake. Taking in all the information, Twilight knew that there was only one thing to do- investigate. She led her friends back to the site of the situation, with some extra force needed to help bring Fluttershy back, but they all arrived nonetheless. By this point, the cloud of dust had cleared the entire area, leaving just the large hole in the ground to look inside and the dusty remnants of its creation. “Wow, that’s big,” Twilight stated. “I wonder what made this.”

“Oh-oh-oh! Maybe it was giant candy falling from the sky! Or wait, maybe it’s…” Pinkie said, but was silenced with Rainbow Dash’s hoof in her mouth.

“How about instead of wondering, somepony walks over there and find out?” the rainbow-maned mare suggested.

“Then by all means, after you,” Rarity said.

“I wasn’t suggesting me,” Rainbow argued.

Still in fear, Fluttershy said “Maybe, we don’t have to look. I know whatever’s down there, it’s scary. Scary is enough to know, isn’t it?”

After rolling her eyes, Twilight said “Fine, I’ll go take a look,” and stepped forward to the crater. When she reach the edge, she looked down and saw what Fluttershy had seen before, but now there was more to it- it was an arm attached to an entire body. She then gasped “Ahhh! Oh my goodness!” She then opened her wings and gently flew down inside towards the body, giving it a closer inspection. It was just barely moving as it showed signs of breathing, covered in several scrapes and body damage, and she then saw not one, but two tails. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Looking down from above, her friends began to look into the crater. “You alright down there, Twilight?! Did you find what caused this?!” Applejack called out.

“No, girls,” she called back out, “not a what, but a who!” She then stood to the side to show them what they had discovered. Twilight and her friends had no idea about what was going on here, but they just discovered the unconscious, damaged body of an otherworldly fox, who was in dire need of urgent help at once.

/)∞(\

Exploring through the battle zone that was Mobius, Tails had reached a familiar place- the garden he and his friends spent their day while having the master bedroom remade as a surprise for his love. When he arrived, he found the once beautiful field of flowers dead and withered, or charred by a wildfire, but what he found waiting for him was a sight much worse than he could imagine. Standing there waiting for him was a full-powered Galvatron, with a captive in his hand, in the same way as back during that unforgettable day.

The Decepticon started to laugh his evil laugh as his open hand charged with incredible power, and when Tails tried to race to the rescue, Dark Oak appeared out of nowhere and attacked back, pinning the fox to the ground of flowers that flew into the air as dust and ashes. Struggling to get back on his feet, he couldn’t escape the Metarex’s clutches in time to watch Galvatron repeat his actions as his energized fury struck the one he held captive in what could be called an evil ray of light, and all Tails could do was cry the victim’s name out in heartbreaking agony…

“COSMO!!!”

/)∞(\

Then, all looked black and blurry, and he began to hear echoing voices he couldn’t make out. His eyes struggled to open, only seeing the blurred images of his environment, but when he finally could awaken himself, he saw himself in a bed in an unknown place. As his eyes fully opened, the fox found his body somehow bandaged and more healed than he last remembered as he kneeled up from being covered in an astronomical bedspread. “Huh… What happened?... Where am I?” he asked himself, and then heard the voices again, sounding like they were coming from below, but when he tried to move out of the bed, his body refused as it still felt too sore. Then he heard the sound of someone, or something, walking up the steps towards where he was. Then he saw a sight he couldn’t explain to himself at first as a winged unicorn appeared at the top of the staircase.

“Oh, good, you’re finally awake. We were worried you were too hurt to recover this soon.”

The voice came from Twilight, walking up as she levitated a tray of food and medicine alongside her. She tried to keep a happy and sincere face at the stranger, who looked quite confused himself. Trying to think of something else to say that didn’t start a string of questions, she added “You were lucky we found you when we did, or you’d still be in the ground right now.”

The two-tailed fox just remained quiet, his mind processing what was going on. He was looking at a talking, purple unicorn with wings, something that shouldn’t be out of the ordinary for where he is from and all that he’s seen in his life, but given recent events, it was the last thing he expected to see. The tray she brought up was set down on the bed in front of him.

“We weren’t sure if you were hungry or not, so my friends and I made you a snack with some apple cider to drink,” Twilight added, explaining the tray’s contents. “That pill you see there is some medicine, a little something that can help heal any sore muscles you might have.”

He looked down and saw a sandwich with contents that looked like flowers along with a few apple slices. As his mind began to process things better, he decided to be more direct and say “Thank you,” and then reached out for an apple slice. Before he could have a bite, he then added “Could you tell me where I am?”

Happily replying, she said “You’re in Ponyville, and this place is my home, the Golden Oak Library. This was the closest place we could bring you after finding you so seriously hurt.”

“And by ‘we,’ you mean yourself and your friends?” he asked.

“Of course,” she replied, and the alicorn princess pointed her hoof towards five others approaching them, four by stairs and one by flight, all surrounding the bed he was sitting in.

He looked around at them all, his mind accepting the reality that he was surrounded by six ponies, but still trying to process a whole lot of other things. As he did, he said “So, I’m in Ponyville? I’ve never heard of that place before.” He then decided to ask “Who are you all?”

Going first, the purple pony said “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my best friends.”

“Howdy,” greeted the orange pony. “My name’s Applejack. We here in Ponyville always like to make new friends.”

“The name’s Rainbow Dash,” the blue pegasus followed. “Gotta say, I’ve never seen anyone like you around before, or as beat up.”

“Rainbow Dash, mind your manners now,” the white unicorn addressed her friend. She then turned back to the fox to say “Hello, my dear, I am Rarity. It’s so good to see you, well, somewhat alright. If it wasn’t for my dear friend next to me, we may never have found you,” referring to Fluttershy.

The bright yellow pony just kept herself shy and quiet for the first moment, but then finally said “I’m… I’m Fluttershy.” Her volume dropped so low that he couldn’t hear, and asked for her to repeat her name. “I’m… Fluttershy.” The second time seemed quieter than the first, so their royal friend decided to make the introduction herself.

“Her name is Fluttershy, and like Rarity said, was the one who originally found you. If it wasn’t for her, you’ll still be a fox in a hole… so to speak,” Twilight said, realizing what she was saying at the end and feeling slight guilt in her choice of words.

Then the bright pink pony popped right in front of his face to say “And I’m Pinkie Pie, And I’m Sooooo Happy to meet you! You look like you’re a great person. Well, somepony who’s beaten up like a piñata, but a great person I’m sure!”

All that he could do was watch and listen to them all, and after what Pinkie had said, he tried to show them a small smile and chuckle, but his mouth barely formed one and a sound wasn’t made. Other thoughts blocked him from expressing much at the moment. He took a bite out of the apple slice he grabbed and loved the taste, devouring the rest of it in one gulp. After swallowing, he said with much gratefulness “It’s nice to meet you all. Thank you for all this.”

Her turn to ask the serious questions, Twilight kindly said “Thank you, and you’re welcome. Would you please be kind enough to tell us who you are, and where you came from?”

He looked around at them all, then back at her and replied “My name is Miles Prower, but I preferred to be known as my nickname, Tails. I’m from Mobius where my friends and I were…”

Tails stopped talking as his inner thoughts on recent events began to focus more on the most important matter. His silence and stillness made the six ponies feel awkward, so Rarity asked “Is something the matter, Miles, I mean, Tails?”

For who he was thinking about, there was a matter he needed to change topics to. “Please tell me,” he began to request, “did you find someone else where you found me, a girl where I’m also from? She would be around my height with green hair, blue eyes and red rose buds?”

Expressing sad disappointed, Twilight answered with “I’m sorry, but you were the only one in that crater that we found. Judging by how it was formed, you were the only one to fall into the ground in that spot.”

“And did y’all say, ‘red rose buds?’” asked Applejack. “Is that some kinda fancy getup from when yer from?”

“Sorry, but we didn’t, and you’d think that somebody with green hair and rose buds would stand out easily,” added Pinkie, thinking to herself how anypony could miss such a sight.

“Enough about your friend. You haven’t really told us much about yourself or this ‘Mobile’ place you’re supposed to be from. How do we know we can fully trust you?” inquired Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow!” Twilight said to the cyan mare with an angry glare of disappointment.

Rainbow then added “We have no idea about anything that’s going on with this guy. I’m just keeping my eyes out for anything suspicious.”

“But what about his friend? Perhaps we should keep an eye out for this girl for him. She could be lost, and scared,” Fluttershy stated.

Before another pony could speak, Tails set the tray to the side of him and began to get out from the bed sheets, feeling his body’s pain still being great. “What are you doing there?” Pinkie asked.

“I need to go find her,” he answered, “I can’t just sit around not knowing where she is or if she isn’t safe… Not again. Thank you for helping me, but…” He cut himself off as he got on his feet and his body was not enjoying this. Even with the help from these six ponies, he was not ready to get moving again. As he began to collapse, Twilight rushed next to him and used her back to catch and support him up.

“Oh no,” she said sternly. “You’re not going anywhere in your condition. You need to stay here for the night and rest. If you feel any better tomorrow, then we’ll go out and help you find your friend.” As he tried to start an argument with “But, I…” Twilight immediately responded with “No buts, now here…” She then used her magic to pick him up and put him back in bed, resetting the tray in front of him.

“You really shouldn’t push yourself too hard, or you could hurt yourself even more,” Fluttershy said with much caring and kindness. She then grabbed the pill and cider glass in her hooves and presented them to the fox. “Please take this medicine and have some more food. In the mean time, we can help you find your lost friend.”

Tails felt very reluctant at first, but he knew they were right, and accepted the aide of these newfound caregivers, perhaps even friends. After a sigh and sad expression, he tried to smile again as he replied “I will. Thank you again,” and proceeded to swallow the pill and have a drink. After tasting the latter, he added “This is really good.”

Most of the ponies began to smile, saving Rainbow Dash who still held her suspicions. Using her magic, Twilight pulled out from under her bed the parts of her spare bed and set it up. Seeing this happen, he put two and two together about something and stated “Am I resting in your bed, Twilight?”

“Yes, but it’s alright. This spare bed does come in handy when extra guests stay the night,” she replied. He and her friends then looked out the window and noticed that it was the start of the night as the sun fully set.

“Well look at that, it’s finally night,” Applejack stated. “I was wonderin’ where the day was goin’, because it sure went by slow.”

“Yeah,” Tails said in a quieter volume.

The ponies were starting to see just how sad he was, as even though he gave tells that he was enjoying his snack, worry and depression were taking over. The orange mare spoke again, asking “What’s wrong there, Sugarcube? Got yer friend stuck in mind?” All he did was slightly nod in reply.

Trying to give him positive reassurance, Rarity stated “I’m sure that whoever and wherever your friend is that she’s just fine. First thing in the morning we’ll start a search across Ponyville to see if anypony else may have seen her, or get some clues of where to go and try.”

“Why don’t you tell us more about your friend?” suggested Twilight, concluding setting up the second bed. “The more we get to know about her, the more we have to work with to find her.”

“Yeah, and we can have everypony else spread the word until we find her,” added Pinkie Pie.

Although he still felt estranged for where he was and what was going on Tails was beginning to see more than just six people surrounding him, and started to consider them kindred spirits to he and his friends back home were like. Thinking of the best way to describe her, he began to say “She’s more than just a friend- she’s my best friend, the most important person in my life. Her name is Cosmo, and she’s my life that hurts me too much inside to stay still without knowing where to start finding her. I just wish that things didn’t end up… if I was better at…” His emotions were beginning to take a toll on him as he started to feel regret for some of his actions during the earlier battle he was in, attacking himself mentally for not doing better than he had done. Most of the ponies attempted smiles turned to frowns, saving Rainbow Dash who just grunted after a few moments.

“Alright, I’ve had enough. Time to get out and do something,” she stated, and with the flap of her wings she bolted out of the bedroom and out the open balcony door, flying off into the night sky over Ponyville.

“Where is she off to in such a hurry?” Pinkie wondered.

“I haven’t the slightest of ideas, but I say we should go find out and leave our new friend here to rest,” Rarity stated.

“Sounds good to me. Let’s get goin’,” agreed Applejack and the trio began to make their way out. As the two went on ahead, she turned back to ask “Fluttershy, ya comin’ along?”

“You go on ahead. I’ll stay here with Twilight for a little longer before I go home,” she replied.

“Alright. Good night y’all, and mighty nice to meet you Tails,” the orange mare said, and then ran off to meet with the others.

Tails didn’t look back up before she was gone, thus unable to reply, but he still had some of his emotions to handle at the same time. The thoughts of not knowing where Cosmo was or if she was safe, and his worry began to overtake him enough to shed a sad tear from his eye that dripped into his cider cup. Twilight and Fluttershy saw this open sadness coming from him and tried to aid in comfort and support.

“Just like Rarity said, I’m sure your friend Cosmo will be just fine, Tails. In our experience, as long as you believe in that, it will be true,” said the purple alicorn.

“I always try to believe that, but with all due respect, not knowing anything more than what I know now keeps me heartbroken,” Tails replied, not happy with looking down at her attempt in optimism. Then, he felt something grab hold of him with no expectation. His eyes redirected to see Fluttershy wrap her front legs around him and give him a hug.

“You poor dear, we’re so sorry you feel this way,” said the bright yellow pony in the sweetest of tone. “Don’t worry, we’ll do whatever we can to help you find her.”

“That’s right,” Twilight added, and decided to hug him as well.

He had no idea how to take this, after feeling that he’s been so cold to them, and yet these ponies were giving him so much kindness. He saw such actions only from his closest friends, being so open to those they’d even only get to know after a few minutes. He returned the kindness by finally making a small smile and wrapping one arm around each pony to hug in return. “Thank you,” he said to them, “thank you so much. I may not know much where I’ve ended up, but I know one thing- I’ve found wonderful new friends like you and your friends.”

When the hug broke, the two ponies saw him look much happier, pleasing them much. Twilight then said “You know, if it helps in any way, I’ve also traveled to a different world that was very strange to me when I was there. It was quite an experience, mainly because I wasn’t fully myself. If you’d like to hear about it, I’d be more than happy to share the story with you.”

“Of course. This isn’t the first new world I’ve traveled to myself, so I’d be more than happy to listen,” Tails said.

“But only if you eat the rest of your food. You need to get your strength back after all,” Fluttershy said, in a kind but instructive tone as she held pointed at his sandwich and remaining apple slices in front of him.

Seeing how he had no way to argue with her, and a still hungry stomach to feed, Tails simply said “Yes, Fluttershy,” and began to eat his sandwich. After the first bite, he tasted things he’d never normally eat, then looked at it more carefully to see its contents of apple butter, daisies, daffodils, and some hay. This was truly indeed something he’d never see himself doing – eating flowers and hay between bread slices – but he didn’t bother to say anything, partly because it actually tasted decent, and turned over to the purple mare to say “So, Twilight, what was this other world you visited?” From there, she started her story, and the three talked with each other for quite a while after until it was time for them to get some rest. Although the two-tailed fox had practically no idea about where exactly he was and what was happening outside of this Ponyville, he tried to embrace the hospitality and positivity that these six ponies have given him, a complete stranger to their world, and to his highest hopes, he may be able to find the better half of his heart in this same world as well.

Author's Notes:

Not much for me to say other than this is the start of the series, and my very first MLP story I created.

As for my infinite brohoof displayed [/)∞(\], before anyone asks me why I used that, I'll just give my answer simple and direct- why not?

Meanwhile: Reaction

“WHERE ARE THEY?!” exclaimed one of the Master Four.

All of Team JAG was put on red alert after the simultaneous attack of worlds by the Brotherhood of Darkness, and for reasons still not fully known. The attacks, however, were not the main reason for the highest alert to go off, but the fact that Chaos Control had taken place on Mobius, and Tails and Cosmo were nowhere to be found in that world or dimension, or any other for that matter. Team JAG Headquarters began the ultimate search party, having those of every world available to search and locate every place possible for signs of the two, as well as scanning each universe as a whole by some of the greatest technologically advanced minds of the heroic syndicate. Team Sonic were already there, in the headquarter’s computer and networking command center when the Master Four – Jason, Ash, Gohan and Yugi – had finally arrived, and none of them were pleased with the news of the chaotic disappearance. The warrior of Darkness of the four was the one who made the exclamation upon arriving, and in his current temperamental state, was in no mood of more bad news.

“I NEED ANSWERS AND NOW! WHERE ARE THEY?!” Jason yelled out with fury.

“We’ve have conducted a full dimensional scan for every known universe, plus various scans of each known planet,” said Jeremy Belpois, the computer genius and leader of the Lyoko Warriors. “It was only implemented half an hour ago, so we’re still fresh into the process.”

“Have you picked up any other traces of activity by the Brotherhood?” Yugi asked.

“None since Chaos Control,” answered Bulma, the Capsule Corp. successor and scientific mastermind of the Z Warriors. “Whatever was going on above Mobius must have been the whole reason everything started in the first place. Some source of Chaos Reaction was probably on that ship that caused it to occur.”

Gohan nodded and replied “You’re most likely right, but that still doesn’t answer where they could’ve gone to. Chaos Control is too mysterious to pinpoint exactly any given destination.”

“I’ve gotten to tell,” stated Donatello, a large turtle who, along with his brothers, train in ancient martial arts, and his team’s scientific expert. “I’ve tried to implement the Chaos Theory into this, but at the same time use a form of reverse engineering to try and approximate a single point of tangency on the lines of all interconnecting dimensions. So far my results are all inconclusive, showing that not a single place we know of could be a destination point.”

“Keep at it, Donnie,” encouraged Ash, “and if you can, keep in touch with any search parties across the worlds.”

“Way ahead of you,” said one sitting between Jeremy and Donatello. This genius was Wade, a technological mastermind and friend of Kim Possible and her fiancé, Ron Stoppable. “All but a handful of worlds have begun in their searches once you put out the order. I’ve been monitoring and directing each team that’s checked in so far.” An alert went off, and displayed on the center’s main screen was Finn and Jake by one of their world’s holo-gems.

“Hey guys,” said Ooo’s human hero. “We’ve got everyone we can searching across Ooo as we speak. Marceline’s covering the Nightosphere for us and the princesses have sent out guards with missing posters to spread the word. Our next stop is the Ice Kingdom.”

“Great work, guys. Report back with whatever you find out immediately,” instructed Ash.

“Will do,” stated Jake, but then grumbled to himself “Still have to miss the next ice cream marathon,” and at that point, the connection was cut off as Finn went “Jake!”

Next to speak was Chuck Thorndyke, a longtime friend of Team Sonic and Team JAG’s, who sat in as the computer center’s second commander. He stated “I don’t know what more we can do. We’ve started every form of search possible and are looking through every dimension one by one, but it could take days, or worst case months, before we can find even a trace.”

“Well we have to think of something,” Knuckles said in his stubborn tone. “Who knows where they’ve ended up or what they’ve gotten themselves into. If it wasn’t for whoever controlled that ship,…” His words then turned into growls.

“I bet you my hammer that it was that monster Dark Oak. He’s wanted nothing but to torture us for years, especially those two,” Amy added, but her anger was different, having turn to worry quick. “Wherever they are, I hope they’re alright.”

“Who knows,” said another voice, this one coming from the lead commander of the search and all related operations- Dr. Eggman. “Chaos Emeralds tends to leave a scramble of confusion when it happens without proper control. There are no limits to the theories of what could’ve happen, except for that the two are gone, and what we are doing now is the best we can do. I’ll watch over every step and process, but until the time comes,…”

Jason then interrupted by saying “The time WILL come! I’ll be damned if our efforts fail, and Dark Oak and Galvatron find their efforts accomplishing in any way. Nothing we do stops until we make the order, and all available allies will report to their stations when needed, never later.” Addressing everyone in the center, he ordered “If even the smallest signal can be traced, or any DNA source is triangulated, report to the Master Four, the Seedrian Council, and Sonic and his friends at once.”

“Yes sir,” they all replied, and focused back on the mission at hand.

Yugi then stepped over to a worried Cream and Cheese to speak to them, but Gohan saw Sonic standing where he was next to Eggman, and in turn went to stand behind the two of them. When he arrived, he mainly directed his words to the hedgehog as he said “We will find them. They’d do the same for any of us, and like anyone else, are far too important to not put out all our efforts for.”

Sonic just stared out at the many, many computer screens and holograms and projections in the room quietly, not even replying to what his friend had said. He thought back to when Chaos Control sent him and his friends to Station Square, a new world that opened up so many doors to the hundreds through Team JAG. “Don’t worry, guys,” he said in his thoughts. “We’ll find out where you’ve gone, and bring you back home,” His eyes then turned down towards his left hand, where it clenched a glowing gem that was recovered from the battle back on Mobius, which was surprised to be found – a Chaos Emerald.

“…Somehow.”

Author's Notes:

There will be several of these for most of the chapters, acting as interludes into the next chapter of the series. This is the setting away from Equestria, which will merge with the chapters further along, so before saying anything about no ponies being in these story parts, note that it all comes together later on. Thank you

Chapter 2

It was a quiet night in Ponyville, where the only sounds most ponies could hear would be a gentle breeze and nighttime wildlife acting as they would. However, you could also hear the sounds of a pegasus pony racing around in the skies, stopping briefly from one point to another, surveying the area as best as possible. The pony was Rainbow Dash, who raced out of Twilight’s home at the library after stating “It’s time to do something,” and has since been racing around the greater Ponyville area in a search. Little did her attention notice was that she wasn’t the only pony who raced out from the library, and they manage to track her to her next spot. Over at the school, Rainbow Dash stood up near the bell to search around the surrounding area for a few moments, trying to see what little could be recognized in the dark.

“Nothing at all,” she said in complaint. “Not as much as a rose bud anywhere in sight. This is messed up and…”

Coming right out of the bell came Pinkie Pie, much to Rainbow Dash’s surprise as she appeared out of nowhere. “And what are you up to in such a hurry?!” the pink mare asked, startling her friend so much that she took a misstep and fell from where she stood onto the ground below.

While rubbing her head in pain from the impact to the ground, her eyes then noticed Applejack and Rarity walking up as Pinkie hopped down next to them. “Rainbow, what in Equestria are you doin’ zigzags all across town in the dark?” asked the orange pony.

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m trying to find that fox guy’s friend,” Rainbow said back.

“Are you really? After saying those things when the dear first woke up, and during the night no less?” inquired Rarity, confused with her friend’s actions.

“Yeah, Dashie,” added the pink pony, “Why are you starting the search now? You know you can barely see anypony or anything at this time.”

After getting back on all four hooves, Rainbow replied with “Because why not? You saw how hurt that guy got when he was talking about her, so I figured the sooner we find this friend of his, maybe they can go back to wherever it is they came from sooner.”

“Rainbow,” Applejack said disappointingly, “I can’t believe you. You’re criticizing Tails as if he’s some kind of rotten apple. You should be ashamed of yerself for tryin’ to get rid of him so fast when he’s still trying to heal from whatever bruised him up so much.”

“So what if I am?” said the cyan pony, putting up a stubborn front.

“Because it’s unlike you, Rainbow Dash,” addressed the white unicorn. “You’ll accuse of anyone of misdeeds if they prove the point, but that poor dear Tails has done nothing but arrive here, however it was that he did so, and yet you treat him like some sort of threat. You’re really approaching this the wrong way, and should be more caring for him in his time of needing help.”

“Well what if I AM trying to help, and trying to do things the right way to make it up to him?” Rainbow lashed back, partly intentional but unaware of what she let herself admit.

/)∞(\

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Equestria, a young woman was walking across unfamiliar land, only becoming unconscious just a little while prior. Having no idea where she was, how she got there, or who else she’d hope to be with was at, she walked on to the best of her abilities, while feeling the stings of pain from her imprisoning by a most hated enemy.

She was quite weakened, but her determination to find her friends, and her love for the one she cared for most, kept her going, because this was no mare or filly of Equestria, but none other than the Seedrian hero Cosmo. With every trip and heavy eyelids trying to drop shut, Cosmo made her way through the unknown desert terrain, soon finding herself overlooking off a summit down onto a western town as the sun was starting to set. She was exhausted, but very much relieved to find some civilization at last.

“A town,” she said to herself, and panting. “Finally… Now I can… try to… find help… and find…

“Find him…

“Find… Tails…”

She then fell unconscious and her body leaned forward, sending her a tumble down the hill she stood atop of. Fortunately her, help had appeared from nearby.

/)∞(\

Cosmo dreamed a dream very different than that of her beloved fox’s, for she found herself in a similar predicament as when conscious- in an unknown and desolate place with no one in sight for miles. She would keep calling out names of her friends and family, but one name repeated more than any other, and became more and more fueled with despair and fear that she may not find him at all – “Tails! TAILS!! TAILS!!!!!” Then, a brief sight of another being could be seen as a blur as it flew around her, saying something that the Seedrian couldn’t make out, but before being able to clarify it better, her mind and body began be swallowed into blackness, and return back to consciousness as her eyes struggled to open. When she got her sight, she leaned up and found herself in a bed, without the slightest idea of where she now was, among other things.

“What the…?” she said to herself quietly. “How did I get here? And that person, who was that? What were they say…”

“Well you’re awake earlier than I thought, stranger,” said a voice, startling Cosmo at first. She then turned over to notice where the voice came from- a colt in a cowboy hat and neckerchief. He then warmly greeted her with “Howdy, friend, and welcome to Appleloosa. My name’s Braeburn.”

Cosmo had no idea how to react at first except startled. Part of it was the fact that there was a talking pony next to her, which wouldn’t normally bother her, but without an idea of where she was instilled a little more fear than desired. “Hello, sir,” she said, quickly forgetting his name. “Where did you say we were again?”

“Why you’re in my home here in the great land of Appleloosa, one of the finest Apple family settlements in all of Equestria,” Braeburn replied. “Somethin’ tells me you’re not from these parts, are ya?”

“You could say that,” she told him. “Where did you find me?”

“I wasn’t the one to find you, but a friend of mine did. Little Strongheart noticed you approaching town while with her herd. Once she saw you takin’ a tumble down the hill, she raced over to save you, and bring you here so somepony could help. Forgive me if I sound rude, but you did look mighty beaten, Miss…” Braeburn explained, and asking for her name.

After processing the information mentally, Cosmo said “My name is Cosmo, and yes, I could only imagine that I look very hurt. May I ask, where is this friend of yours?” He then explained that she had to return to her herd right after the rescue, having looking out for her fellow buffalo as their chief was recovering from a cold. “I see,” she said, “but I still don’t quite understand where I am. What is ‘Equestria?’”

“It’s the home land of everypony from Baltimare to Los Pegasus and everywhere else around. It’s a wonderful land here, and if where you’re from was anythin’ related to what you were yellin’ just before waking up, it sounds a tad troubling,” he told her.

“What I was saying?” she asked, and recanted what she saw in her dream. After a minute in her own thoughts, she recalled many of the things she saw and said, and heard. “Sonic and Amy, Cream and Cheese, Knuckles and Rouge, I remember trying to call them out, but Tails…” She paused in a state of worry, then turned quickly back to the yellow pony to ask “You wouldn’t know of a two-tailed fox around my height that may have been here, would you sir?”

After a quick ponder, he replied “Nope, can’t say that I have, but you can call be Braeburn there, Miss Cosmo. That one name you said, Tails, you were hollerin’ that louder than an Apple family during the first day of Applebucking season. Come to think of it, you were trying to say somethin’ else, somethin’ about ‘traveling to Can…’ or somethin’ like that.”

Thinking carefully, Cosmo thought to herself and remembered more of her dream. “Yes,” she said, “and I was being told to travel to this place called Cante… Canter… If I could only remember this ‘kingdom of Canter-place.’ Braeburn, would you know of a place with that name?”

“Well there’s only one place with a name close to that, and that’s the capital city of Canterlot,” he explained.

“Well, I can’t explain it, but something, or someone,” she went on to say, while also thinking “or somepony,” “is trying to guide me to this Canterlot place. What answers I seek must be there.” She then got out of the bed and onto her feet, but after only a couple footsteps her body began to shut down on her, still exhausted from previous events from the day.

“Not in your condition, Miss,” said a second voice, and walking into Braeburn’s home was the sheriff of Apple Loosa. “You were brought into town like a beaten down tumbleweed, no condition to roll on too far yet.”

“Well howdy again, Sheriff,” Braeburn said, then gave him an introduction. “Cosmo, this is our town’s sheriff, Silverstar. He was one of the first ponies to see you comin’ along with me. He just came back to see if there were any others wonderin’ nearby.”

“And I found nothin’ but tumbleweeds out there. Too dark to see much else,” the sheriff stated. “As for you, Miss, I suggest you get back to hittin’ the hay.”

Supporting herself from the side of the bed, Cosmo replied “I’m still worn out, but I’ll be fine. I need to find someone important to me, and find out exactly where I am.”

“I thought it was already clear of where you were,” Braeburn said, confused by her statement.

“No, you have made it clear of where I am here, but I’m not exactly from this place, and need to find some answers,” she explained, getting herself back on her feet without wanting support.

The two Appleloosans thought about what she was saying, and came to a conclusion. “Well then, Cosmo, if it’s answers you seek, then Canterlot is the home of a pony who would be the most helpful, our princess,” Silverstar said. “But forgive my arguing when I say you’re in no shape to…”

“I appreciate your concern, but I have to find my friend. I just have to find him,” she interrupted.

“Well now, whoever this friend is must be so important that you’d try limpin’ all the way to the princess,” Braeburn stated.

Cosmo started to take another step, then another, slowly but surely moving closer to her goal, but stopped when she told them both “He is, and much, much more. He is my best and closest friend, and somebody that I love very much. If he is here in your world like me, then I know he’d be trying whatever it takes to find me, and I’m willing to do the same for him. I can’t thank you enough for helping me, and hope to one day return the favor, but I must be going, so may I ask what the best way to Canterlot is?”

The two ponies saw much determination coming from her, along with something that they’ve only heard tales about other ponies, from visitors that have traveled to their town. Telling that she will refuse any advice or persistence to stay longer, the sheriff decided to help her in her mission.

“Other than unicorn magic, which we lack here unfortunately, your best bet is the Equestria Railway. In fact, the next train is a straight shot to Canterlot.”

Realizing this himself, Braeburn added “You’re right, Sheriff, and there’s another train about to come through town some time tonight. Would that be the same train?”

“It should be,” Silverstar replied, then pulled out a pocket watch to check the time. “It’s due to come through in a little while. I’ll race ahead to make sure the train makes a stop here,” and with that he raced out.

Cosmo turned back to the other pony, looking very happy to have been found by such wonderful beings. “Thank you,” she said kindly, “for everything. I’ll have a chance to rest more on this train, and by the time that…” As she tried to walk, her knees started to shake a little, so Braeburn raced up to her side and offered to guide her to the station. She accepted this kind gesture, thanking him again. “Thanks, Braeburn.”

“No need to thank me. I’ve learned my ways from my dear cousin and her friends. In fact, if you ever get the chance to stop by Ponyville, stop by Sweet Apple Acres and ask for Applejack. If anypony could be extra help, it’s her,” he replied to her, and they began to make their way to the train station.

“I’ll make sure to do that,” she said back, but the name of the town stuck to her conscious, just like Canterlot and the image of her dream’s visitor. “Ponyville…”

As the night would progress, Cosmo got aboard the next train and was given a private sleeping car to rest. She would immediately get some rest as the conductor informed her that their arrival in Canterlot would be sometime in the late morning, but like her other half, the night’s rest would feel as if it lasted days rather than hours.

/)∞(\

When dawn broke the next morning in Ponyville, the sound of a train whistle blew, as it went straight through the town’s station, awaking Tails from a night’s rest in Twilight Sparkle’s spare bed. Even though his resting had him regain a lot of his energy, enough to move around with only small pains, his concerns was still heavy weight on his conscious, leaving himself only physically better than before. He saw that Twilight’s bed was empty, and with the strength to move around, he got out of bed and descended down the stairs into the study just below. Tails found her going through several open books she had levitating around her, with a pile of many more beside her, and still stacking higher up.

“Good morning, Twilight,” Tails greeted her, followed by a big yawn.

“Oh, good morning, Tails,” she greeted in return, but then noticed how he was up on his feet. “Wait, what are you doing out of bed? Don’t you still feel exhausted or hurt?”

“Yes, but better than before. I tend to heal fairly quickly depending on how I take care of myself, but I must admit, I do feel stronger that I thought I would,” he replied.

“Well,” Twilight said, “I may have a reason for that.” She then set her books down to the side, remembering her place in each one to return to them later. Recanting what took place yesterday, she told her new friend about the six ponies’ first encounter with him.

“You see, Tails, when we first found you after Fluttershy saw you crash into the ground, I was the first to jump in and, inspect the area, to put it best, and I found you in much worse condition. I immediately took you out of the crater and to my friends, and we knew that my home here was much closer than anywhere else, including the hospital.

"Before bringing you here, I used a spell I learned that helps heal most wounds, but not the worst of which you got, so that your recovery would go by faster. In fact, just a few seconds after doing it, you began to murmur something that nopony could make out- ‘Co… Cos… m-mo.’ It was good to know that you weren’t worse than possible, and from there we got you here to recover more with rest.”

Tails took a minute to understand what she said, looking around his body with better focus for the first time since being hurt to see the proof, especially with his vision seeming better than the last night. He didn’t say anything, even though he did have much gratitude to give, as he thought of what he would’ve tried to say. “I must have been saying her name,” he said to himself.

“Her name?” Twilight thought to herself at first, but then remembered a name from their conversations last night. “You were trying to say Cosmo’s name, weren’t you?” The fox then wore a sad face as he thought of his loved one more, and she felt sympathetic for him. “I’m sorry, Tails. I know that kind of pain is so hard to handle.”

“It is,” he said, and then looked out one of her windows. “I have to go find her and know if she’s here with me, and once I know that, we have to find a way to get back home.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve gotten a head start on it,” the alicorn told him. “After what you told us about Cosmo last night, my friends have gone out to ask everypony if she’s been seen or heard about. I stayed here to go through my books for any sort of traveling spells to help you or any history about this home of yours, Mobius. I also wanted to make sure you weren’t going to force yourself like you tried to do before.” Her last sentence was said with a little more firmness.

Tails had heard this kind of talk before, mainly from those he’s fought against in battles, or by his loved one during a time of recovery like this. He’d never argue against her, but in times like this, his stubbornness tended to become strong.

“I appreciate it all, but it’s my fault we got ourselves here, and she’s my closest friend. I wouldn’t be the person I am if I didn’t force myself to try,” he told Twilight.

Trying to be reasonable but keep firm, Twilight said to him “And we all understand that, but wondering around without knowing what’s what or where while still very injured isn’t the way to do it. We’ll do whatever we can to help you, but you have to…”

“I have to go find her!” Tails said back in determination and partial rage, but a sudden jolt of pain shot through him, proving the point Twilight was trying to make. “I can’t just do nothing. It’s like abandoning on her, and I won’t do that… Not again…” One of his eyes formed a small tear, showing more of his heartache.

Assessing what she’s seen and knows, the alicorn princess tried to talk through to him again. “Listen, Tails, as hard as it is to accept, you’re not fully healed yet, and you never know what you’ll run into all the time in Equestria. But there are many great ponies that, if they have found her, would help her in any way possible. Besides, would she really want you to travel around when in such a bad shape? I promise that we’ll keep helping you however we can, I’ll do whatever it takes, but you need to give back to us and help yourself first.”

Again, it was more that he’s heard before, but this time it sounded much more like what Cosmo would say to him. Refraining himself from putting out anymore anger, he calmed down and made his way back to the staircase leading to the bedroom, and sat on one of the lower steps. He had to accept that he wouldn’t be in any shape to do what he had to do for himself, for Cosmo if he could find her, and for them both, to get back home.

All Twilight could see was Tails’s heartbroken, but silent, compliance, and walked up to him to put a hoof on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Tails, but it’s just how it needs to be for now,” she said kindly.

“I know,” he sighed, and a single tear dropped from his eye onto the floor. “It’s just hard to accept for me. I’m sorry for how I acted towards you.”

“It’s alright,” she replied. “Is there anything I can do to help you with, maybe something easy on yourself that you’d like to do?”

His answer actually came quickly, and in a couple ways, lifted his spirit a little. Although Cosmo was his first priority, after meeting the ponies of this new world made him wonder about what else there was to know.

“Actually,” he said, “I have one idea. Would you mind telling me more about this place, your world of Equestria? I’d like to learn more about how things go in this world, and the history of all the different ponies there are.”

“Of course,” Twilight said with much glee. “There’s a lot of Equestria to learn about. The places, the stories, the annual traditions and holidays, the legends, and I have practically all of it right here.”

She then gasped with an exciting idea and said “Maybe you can teach me more about where you’re from, and what other kinds of people are there and everything you all do!” She then beamed a smile and widely-opened eyes of excitement to learn more about something brand new.

“Sure… I’d love to,” Tails agreed, but the look she expressed left him a little uncomfortable. The pursuit of knowledge was something he shared with many others, but hers seemed to have much greater eagerness and hype like nothing he’s ever seen before. “Why don’t we start with… your world, if that’s okay with you.”

“Fair enough. You are the guest here after all,” she said. “What would you like to know first?”

Thinking for a moment, there was one thing he saw amongst the six ponies that did leave him curious. “Well, I don’t mean to be rude, but I saw four different kinds of ponies. Applejack and Pinkie were ground ponies, Fluttershy and Rainbow were pegasi, and you and Rarity as unicorns,…”

“That’s correct, but we call ponies without wings or horns Earth ponies,” Twilight said.

Tails continued with “But with you, you’re the only pony with both wings and a horn. Is that rare?”

“You could say that. I’m an alicorn, a pony that has a special level of magic and abilities,” she explained, but it was then her turn to feel uncomfortable. Her role as an alicorn princess was still something she was adjusting to, mainly as how others see her. To keep that business left alone, she shifted topics by saying “It’s just a reward for all the hard work I’ve done in my studies. Me, my friends and everypony else, we all have something that makes us special in our own ways, and we have the marks to show for it.” She then showed Tails her flank, and the marking that was on it.

Looking at this, Tails pondered to himself about it. “That’s quite interesting. What is it, a special beauty mark?” Before he got his answer, the door downstairs opened and a voice called out.

“Twilight, are you busy?! We brought breakfast!” The voice belonged to Rarity.

“Not at all, girls! Come on up!” Twilight called out to them, and then turned to Tails to say “I guess my explanation about cutie marks will have to wait another few minutes. I hope you don’t mind.”

He didn’t reply exactly to the question, but he asked curiously “Cutie marks?”

“Yeah!” exclaimed the voice of Pinkie Pie, who appeared out of nowhere and right in front of a shocked Tails. Rarity and Fluttershy followed her with a box of food the white unicorn used her magic to bring up, appearing up the stairs just as the pink mare said “A cutie mark is a special mark that ponies get when they’re fillies, and most importantly when they discover their special talent that they’re meant to do. Nopony ever has the same cutie mark, which makes them all the better and all the more special!”

Fluttershy and Rarity stepped over to Twilight, with the first saying “Good morning, Twilight. Why are you talking about cutie marks?”

“Tails and I were just starting to talk about our different worlds,” Twilight explained, “and he was just asking about mine when you three arrived.”

“Why that sounds delightful. Those are great stories for ponies to tell after all,” Rarity said, setting the box of food down near her feet. She then turned her attention towards their new fox friend to say “Oh, and how are you doing there, Tails? Feeling better from yesterday?”

“I am, but still far from perfect,” he replied with a sigh.

Fluttershy saw the sadness his heart still held onto, so she went into the box and pulled out a treat. She then walked over to Tails, and handed him a freshly baked breakfast muffin.

“Maybe a delicious muffin will help cheer you up. We picked some up from Sugarcube Corner to share with everyone, and a couple other treats Pinkie Pie made just for you.”

“Of course! Nothing makes those taste buds happy like a super delicious treat from Sugarcube Corner!” the pink mare yelled out.

“Thanks,” said the two-tailed fox, and he took the muffin and had a bite of it. It tasted delicious, and after swallowing he told them “This tastes amazing. I never had a muffin so full of flavor before.”

“Well, duh, it’s from Sugarcube Corner. You’ve still got a lot, and I mean A LOT, to learn about Ponyville, and Equestria, and you just got another first taste of it all,” Pinkie told him.

“Then let’s get back to it and enjoy our breakfast at the same time,” Twilight said, and then used her magic to pass around a treat to herself and her friends. “So Tails, did Pinkie Pie’s description of cutie marks give you the answer you were looking for?”

Thinking to himself for a moment, along with taking a few more bites of his muffin, Tails answered “I think so- it’s basically a physical definition of who you are and what you’re best at. Is that right?”

“That’s right, dear, it’s just like that,” Rarity said. “Everypony’s got their own special talents that help them accomplish great things. Take mine, for example.” She posed herself to show her flank to him, showing her cutie mark of three diamonds. She then explained about how she earned her mark, and Fluttershy then explained about hers, followed by Pinkie, and lastly Twilight.

/)∞(\

“I see,” Tails said, intrigued by these stories. “Those are really interesting stories, and this rainbow you all saw, it sounds like it was the same one.”

“As a matter of fact, it was. It came from a special technique Rainbow Dash did in a race when she was a filly. It was seen by all of us, and Applejack too,” Twilight explained. “Speaking of which, where are they? I thought they wouldn’t want to miss out on a Sugarcube Corner breakfast.”

“Applejack’s busy getting some work done at Sweet Apple Acres this morning. She’ll be joining us later in the day,” Pinkie explained.

Fluttershy then added “And I’m sure Rainbow Dash is getting some rest right now.”

“Rest from what? Did it have anything to do with her bolting out of here last night?” asked the curious alicorn.

Rarity then explained “Yes, she began racing all around Ponyville for this Cosmo girl, but to no avail.”

Tails was surprised to hear this, given how the cyan pony was acting when he met the six ponies last night. “You mean, she went out to look for her for me? Did she find any find any kind of sign that Cosmo could’ve been here?” he asked.

A sad look fell on the three visiting ponies’ faces. Being told about it herself, Fluttershy replied “We’re sorry, Tails. It was just too dark to any of them to look. But don’t worry, because we’re picking up the search again right after our visit, asking every pony we can to try and help out.”

The news caused mix feelings in him. As sad as he was that there was no sign of her, he couldn’t have felt happier that he arrived somewhere with such wonderful help. “Thank you,” he said gratefully. “You have no idea how much it means to me to have people who I’ve just met give so much help to a stranger.”

“Think nothing of it. We’re always happy to help when somepo… I mean, someone needs it, and you seem like quite a kind young man,” said the white unicorn. She tried to say more, but she began to cough a little. “Oh my, my throat’s a little dry. Twilight, could I please trouble you for a glass of water?”

“Of course,” Twilight replied, “no trouble at all. I’ll go get some for all of us. It’s a shame Spike’s away or I’d ask him to do it.” She then walked out of the study to get some water.

“That water sounds good, actually,” Tails said. “Who is Spike, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Spike’s a cute, little baby dragon that hatched from the egg from Twilight’s entry exam from her story from when she earned her cutie mark from when you asked about it,” explained Pinkie. “He’s off in Canterlot taking care of some royal business for Twilight with Princess Celestia.”

“You’ll get to meet him later. He’s coming back home sometime this evening,” added Fluttershy.

“Oh, ok,” said Tails.

His mind was compiling thoughts about this world, the places that were being mentioned, and the naming of others, but above all, Cosmo was still, as always, the name that rang in his head and sang in his heart the most. He knew he was stuck where he was for the time being, even if he had special techniques to get him around this new world, but until he got a better idea of where he was and what needed to be done, he would try to enjoy some time with these new pony friends of his. Twilight returned with drinks for everypony, and every fox, and they resumed with their breakfast and conversations. Continuing things, he asked “So, would you mind if I asked about who this princess of yours is, or would you like to know about some things from my world next?”

Meanwhile: Discussion

“So, you had Chaos Control activate again?” asked the voice of a vile Cybertronian.

“Not in my preferred ways, but yes, it occurred again,” answered another voice, cybertronic but of different origin than the first.

After a hum of quiet thought, the first voice then said “Interesting. Unpredictability it’s brought, but still interesting.”

In the Darkness that collected the worst of the worst of beings, members of the Brotherhood of Darkness have gathered together to discuss the aftermath of the recent events on Mobius. Galvatron, leader of the Decepticons and the Brotherhood, and Dark Oak, ruler of the Metarex, were the two highest authorities of the evil syndicate and called for a round table meeting with some other members. It was the day following of the Metarex ruler’s attempted attack of Team Sonic’s home planet, and anyone who had an involvement in the attack of that world, or any others simultaneously, joined the two in discussion. The aftermath left its mark in more than one way, and this allowed open doors of opportunity for the Brotherhood to take advantage of. This meeting was to look into what options were available, and what directions were best to take.

“So, what exactly did happen after the Chaos Emeralds reacted?” asked the Lich.

“After Tails’s interference, the machine that powered my newest ship into its destructive potential malfunctioned. It was unable to properly control the power of the emeralds, so their reaction resulted in a blinding light. I had escaped the ship before it happened, but what readings and visuals were transmitted from the ship to back here showed it all to me,” Dark Oak explained.

“Until that power destroyed your ship,” Gorrath addressed.

Galvatron then stated “And like the ship, nothing inside the blast was found dropping back down to the planet.”

“Nothing? But what about the parts of the ship that supposedly fell into the ocean?” asked the spirit of Evil Marik.

“Remnants of what was the ship not engulfed in Chaos Control,” the Metarex answered.

Aku spoke next, addressing two vital topics. “More importantly, we are left without the complete knowledge of what happened to those that remained on the ship- the Chaos Emeralds, and the two hearts one Dark Oak left behind Alive.”

“Yes,” concurred Jafar. “Where have those gems gone off to this time?”

“According to our readings, they’ve separated again, each in a different location,” Galvatron said.

“Sounds like a case of déjà vu,” Dark Phantom stated. “They spread back out across the planet again, haven’t they?” Neither leader of the Metarex or Decepticons answered the ghost’s question, so he then asked “Don’t tell me they’re spread across that galaxy again? Going through it last time was time wasted enough.”

“I agree,” added Dr. Tenma. “Depending on where the emeralds have gone, this could give any of us a chance to take action. What do you have to tell us, Dark Oak?”

The Metarex ruler just kept silent for a moment, but then informed them of what data he had collected from after his departure from that world. “Chaos Control has always worked in mysterious ways, causing unknown phenomena depending on their use. History has told us through Dr. Eggman that its first consequence, in interdimensional terms, sent those of that planet to the dimensional Earth parallel to Mobius, taking what was inside the blast there without a trace. It would seem that it happened again, this time showing a disappearance count for our particular targets to three.”

“Tails, Cosmo, and a Chaos Emerald,” Galvatron added. “According to Metarex technology, those are the only three that have not been found post Chaos Control, meaning they have traveled elsewhere.”

This news came as a mild surprise to the group, but it was still unusual for just one Chaos Emerald to vanish along with the Metarex’s prime targets. “And where have they ended up?” asked the Evil Marik.

“Somewhere undetectable. No traces can be found, and no known world shows signs of Chaos Reaction,” answered Dark Oak.

“Interesting, but what does that mean for us?” Hades asked.

None spoke at first, but when his thoughts compiled, Aku spoke next. “Interesting indeed. The disappearance of the emerald, fox and seed will put all of Team JAG in a state of unease. They will use every resource they have to look for them, scanning and exploring every known planet and the universes they are in. With all their sights on this, they may or may not see what could come up anywhere at any moment.”

“Exactly,” Galvatron said. He then stood up, and took long and giant steps around his syndicate of fellow Brotherhood members. “This is a rare opportunity for us, and we must seize it for our gain. With their disappearances from all known locations, there’s no telling where they’ve ended up, or if they can return. It is time we use this to our advantage, and plot another simultaneous wave of onslaught, a wave of sheer death and destruction to cause suffering to the foes that deserve it most. I am sure you all will agree to this, or I’ll take control of all your forces as my own.”

None of them objected, agreeing to this plan. “Then it is settled. While all the heroes are distracted with Tails and Cosmo’s disappearance, we attack,” proclaimed Dark Oak.

“Very well, but there still remains what is not known by anyone,” said the Shredder, “and that is where they have ended up, and if they will return before we make our move.”

A cold glare shined through Galvatron’s eyes as he thought of this, something that he and Dark Oak had in their concerns the most. All he said was “Wherever they are, they’re there with no way back to be seen. For all we know, or anyone for that matter, they may never return.” He then started to have a low chuckle, which evolved into a demonic laugh shared with Dark Oak. The two laughed harder and harder as others started to follow, and then started preparations for a new attack to take place.

Chapter 3

For most citizens of Equestria, nights would go by fast as they would all get their rest, depending on some times that involve who is exactly where. That night, it was long for a group of six friends in Ponyville and a new friend they found, whether they were on a search, trying to understand what was going on, or for one, resting himself in hopes of finding his closest friend again. Along the Equestria Railway, a train was making a nonstop trip with only a few passengers aboard, including Cosmo, who boarded at the Appleloosa station and was given a private car to rest in for the long night’s trip. It was a difficult night for her, being in a new world and spontaneously traveling to a place where a creature in her dream instructed her to go, hoping for answers she needed to know. For the times she could not sleep, all she could worry about was Tails, but she managed to get most of her rest started midmorning, managing to sleep up until she felt the train slow down to a halt, and the door leading outside opened as a pony stepped in.

“Excuse me miss,” said the pony, who was the train’s conductor. “We have just arrived in Canterlot.”

Stepping out of her bed, Cosmo rubbed her eyes to help see clearer and replied “Thank you sir.” As she took her steps, she let out a very small moan and a slight cringing expression. She still felt sore, mainly in her upper body, but still managed to walk fine.

“Of course. May I assist you in any other way?” the conductor asked.

“No, I’ll be fine from here,” she answered.

“Very well then. In case you need to catch another train, the Ponyville Express arrives later this afternoon,” he told her, stepping out of her way as she exited the railcar. As she took a few steps out and saw where she had arrived at, the conductor asked “Hope you don’t mind my asking, but what brings you to our capital today?”

Cosmo turned her head around, the polite smile she wore now gone, and told him “I have a couple questions that need answers, and something tells me those answers are here.” From there she left the platform and walked through the station, entering the most royal city in Equestria.

/)∞(\

The farther she walked throughout the city, Cosmo continued to see all the culture and sophistication the pony citizens expressed themselves from the places to go, to the activities there were to do. It was all a spectacle to behold, but she put her mission first and foremost to find the princess the Appleloosans told her about. She tried a few times to ask where the castle was, but some of the ponies found her presence ‘disturbing’ or ‘strange’ for never seeing anyone like her before.

It wasn’t until she ran into a unicorn named Fancy Pants, who gladly assisted her by pointed his hoof towards her needed direction, and wished her the best in receiving help from the princesses. As she raced as fast as her body would allow, she wondered about him saying ‘princess’ in plural form. The thought left her head when Cosmo finally arrived onto the castle grounds, making her way to the palace entrance where two guards, each a pegasus, stood on opposite sides of the open doors with spears.

“This must be it,” Cosmo thought to herself, sensing a small sign of relief for the first time in many hours. “Perhaps now I can finally get the help I need.” She walked up one of the staircases leading towards the door, but when she tried to go inside, each guard used a wing to block her path.

“HALT!” bellowed the guard on the left. “State your business.”

“I’m here to speak with your princess,” she replied. “I need help and this was where I was told to go.”

The two guards looked at one-another, then back to her, with the guard on the right saying “And what is the help you seek from the princess? You are nothing we have seen before.”

“Please, I need to know about where I am, and why I’m here. I fear that I’m here alone and I have nowhere else to turn to,” she pleaded.

“Who was it that sent you?” asked the second guard, and the first guard followed with “Her highness only deals with those who have…”

“What is going on here?” asked another voice, this one with firm command. Appearing at the entrance was a tall, midnight blue unicorn with folded wings, and a mane and tail that imaged like a night sky. Cosmo looked at this new pony, and something about this one felt reminiscent to her.

“Princess Luna,” greeted the first guard. “Someone is trying to gain access to speak with yourself or Princess Celestia. She has not told us enough to let her pass.”

“I see,” Luna replied, then turned her attention towards the person standing before her. The Seedrian heroine just kept looking up at her, trying to process what was happening at that moment. It was silent for a few seconds, but the princess smiled and said to her “Glad to see you have made it after all.”

Then things started to make more sense to Cosmo at that point, realizing just who this pony was. “It’s you! You’re the one who was in my dream last night, calling out to me to come here,” she said as she processed her concluding thoughts.

Luna nodded and said “Yes, that was me. Guards, she may enter. She requires an audience with my sister at once.” With that, the guards retracted their wings and allowed Cosmo to enter. The two then began to walk their way throughout the castle towards where the throne room was.

“What is your name, young one?”

“My name? It’s Cosmo, Miss… I mean, Princess Luna?” Cosmo said, hoping she said the name correctly. “Thank you for letting me enter.”

“Of course, and it’s nice to meet you, Cosmo,” Luna said. “I have to admit, in all my years I’ve never seen someone like yourself in our land. It’s incredibly rare that I visit dreams of those that are not of resting ponies.”

“My dream,…” Cosmo said, reprocessing the thoughts going through her mind just minutes ago. “You… you were in my dream last night, before I awoke in that town. How did that happen?”

The princess then explained “It’s what I do, young Cosmo. I am the Princess of the Night, and part of my responsibilities to those in the land is to enter the dreams of those who are troubled by nightmares or restless thoughts. When I sensed your troubled dreams, I got a glimpse of who you were.”

“A glimpse… of who I am, and where I am from as well?” the Seedrian asked.

“Yes, but only enough to know that you are not one from this world,” Luna answered. “That is why I called out to you in your dream to come to Canterlot, in hopes to find answers for your curiosity, and our own.”

Cosmo began to understand this, replying with “I see. Does that mean you’re the one who can help me, Princess? I was told another name from other peo… forgive me, ponies, about who could…”

“No, I doubt I will be any more helpful to you than I already have been,” Luna told her. The two then found themselves at two tall, closed doors, the destination of their walk. “This is where the one who can be more of help to you is. Perhaps you will be aided better by my sister, the Princess of all of Equestria.”

/)∞(\

When Cosmo saw through the opening doors, a throne stood at the corridor’s other end. She saw the largest pony she had come across in this world, tall and white with a mane and tail flowing with a rainbow color scheme. As the dark blue pony began walking forward, she followed as her eyes wondered at what was outside the large windows along each wall, but returned to focus when Luna stopped her from advancing a few feet from the throne. She stood in her place as Luna walked up towards where the stairs would start as she was greeted by her older sister.

“Good morning, my sister,” greeted the great pony. “Have you brought some company?”

“Not exactly, sister. She’s in need of assistance, and based on her dreams last night, you may be more of help to her finding answers she seeks,” Luna explained.

The white alicorn turned her head towards Cosmo, who was looking back at the grand sight the princess was. She looked at this stranger with much curiosity, seeing nothing like this in all her years of ruling over Equestria, but at the same time saw more to this being than as an alien. She could see a lifetime that could relate to her own, along with her fatigue appearance, and more of a person than age could appropriately describe. She stepped down from her throne and walked towards their guest, and welcomed her warmly.

“Welcome, young one. I am Princess Celestia. What is your name?”

“Cosmo, your majesty,” the Seedrian replied, trying to show respect with a bow.

“It is an honor to meet you, Cosmo,” the princess said, then turned her sister to say “Thank you for your involvement, Luna. I’ll handle things from here. Why don’t you get some rest for the next night?”

“Thank you, my sister,” Luna replied, and began to walk away. Cosmo stopped her before she could exit to express her gratitude for the help and kindness she received, to which the princess replied “You are very welcome, and may you find what, and who, you seek to regain. Farewell, my friend,” and from there she spread her wings and flew out of the throne room.

Celestia then said “Well now, Cosmo, how may I be helpful to you? If you could please forgive me, I can see you are not from Equestria, or perhaps from this world at all.”

“Yes, I mean no, I mean…” Cosmo said, stumbling in her speech. “Please forgive me, I am still tired and confused about many things right now.”

“That’s quite alright. Why don’t you start explaining why you’re here to see me? If you wouldn’t mind doing so while walking, I do have another to meet with soon,” the princess suggested.

Agreeing to this, Cosmo told her “Of course, please lead the way.” The two then began their walk, and with that, Cosmo began to tell her story of all she could remember for how she arrived in this world, starting with the events taking place back home.

“You are correct, Princess Celestia, that I am not from this world. I come from a world known as Mobius where I live in peace and love with my friends and family. Unfortunately, our time of peace was interrupted by a cruel enemy who seeked to destroy our home with a weapon that could crash into our world and break it apart. He had me captured in order to gain my friends’ attention in attempt for us all to surrender and force to live under his rule, but they and myself refused, which resulted in me being attacked and assaulted terribly.”

“I see,” Celestia said as he listened to everything carefully. “Was it this foe that sent you to Equestria?”

“Well, not entirely but closely enough,” Cosmo answered. “His forces managed to collect a set of powerful gems known as the Chaos Emeralds to fuel him with the power he needed to destroy Mobius. The Chaos Emeralds are seven gems that each contain great amounts of power that their user could apply to almost anything, but when all of them are gathered together, a greater power is awakened that causes unpredictable events if not handled properly. Our enemy, who is known as Dark Oak, had a device to use the emeralds in his control, but while I was attacked too much to fight back anymore, a hero reached us and began to attack everything that was put against him. He was my hero… Tails…”

As their walk was about to go through one of the corridors, she stopped for a moment as her face expressed much sadness. Her heart ached for him badly, not knowing where he was, or if he was even alright after what had happened. The Princess of the Land stopped after advancing a couple paces herself to see how Cosmo was acting, opening her wing to wrap around her shoulders. “I can see that he is someone very close to you, isn’t he?” she asked.

With love for her best friend, the Seedrian said “He is. He’s saved me more times than I could possibly try to count, and has fought many battles alongside our friends and many allies to protect everything what is good and we care for greatly. Our history goes back during our first war against an evil army that tried to take over not just Mobius, but our entire galaxy, and since that war, we’ve been wonderfully in love.”

“Then I apologize to you, Cosmo. I should have acknowledged him as the closest one to you,” Celestia said kindly. “Please, continue your story.” The two then began to walk down the next corridor, one filled with large windows, many of which were stained with colorful imagery of events from thousands of years’ time. Cosmo continued her story for shortly after where it was left off, and that was just before Chaos Control.

“I was very close to unconsciousness and Tails was fighting his hardest, but our enemy was proving himself too much, and my hero suffered many attacks and assaults like me. Some of these caused damage to the device that controlled the Chaos Emeralds, activating their power. After Dark Oak escaped when the battle failed to be in his favor, Tails and I were left too weak to escape what happened next – Chaos Control. My eyes were shut when it happened, but I could feel the reaction of the emeralds’ power surround me, and the next thing I knew, I awoke in a desert land without any idea where I was. From that point, I found a town where some ponies tried to heal me as your sister Luna somehow entered my dreams, telling me to come to this place, and so here I am now.”

Celestia tried to process Cosmo’s explanation with care and sensitivity, not wanting to say something unintentionally rude. With a few moments of quiet thought to summarize everything, she said “Let me try to understand what you are saying- this Dark Oak’s invasion of your world and acquiring of these seven emeralds of power caused an event that sent you from your world to ours, without a trace of how exactly you arrived or how to return?”

“Yes, your majesty,” Cosmo confirmed. “Do you think that you may be able to help me figure out how to return to my home, and if anyone else has arrived here with me?”

“Sadly, I do not know if I can be completely helpful,” the princess replied. “This seems to be a magic that’s too strange to understand without greater knowledge or experience with. It may be possible that alicorn magic may not be able to relate to this Chaos power you refer to, but I won’t say it’s not worth trying anyway.”

“I see,” said the Seedrian, but something about what she just heard left her curious. “Excuse my own asking, but what is this ‘alicorn’ you mentioned?”

Happy to explain, the princess said “An alicorn is a special kind of pony, my dear. You see, there are many kinds of ponies here in Equestria – earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, and crystal ponies – and alicorns include myself, my sister and others, for we serve as the princesses of our land. Alicorns are the wiser, and given cases, stronger ponies that unlike most others have both a horn and a set of wings.”

“Oh, how interesting,” Cosmo said.

Before saying another word, her eyes noticed a few of the stain-glassed windows that they were walking by. A couple depicted a group of six ponies and others that appeared to be working together towards a common goal, and another showing one pony in particular with a slight difference in appearance. As they kept walking on, she asked “Princess Celestia, would you mind if I asked you a couple questions now?”

“But of course, Cosmo. I’ll be happy to answer whatever questions I can for you,” Celestia said happily.

“Thank you,” Cosmo said in appreciation. “In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve come to notice this place to be diverse areas of many ponies. Could you tell me more about your world, of your land of Equestria?”

The princess took no time at all to answer the question, explaining with “Equestria is a land founded by the three pony tribes thousands of years ago that opened a new era of harmony for everypony. There are many cities and cultures where ponies of all sorts reside, including Cloudsdale for pegasi and two royal cities watched over by myself and fellow princesses. We all walk our own paths of life to discover who we are and what we’re meant to do, but through the power of companionship of friends and loved ones do we accomplish this, and there are no better examples than the Elements of Harmony.”

Cosmo became curious about the cited example that was given and asked about them. “What are the Elements of Harmony?”

“They are the most powerful magic in all of Equestria,” Celestia explained. “Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Kindness, Loyalty, and only when those five come together does the sixth element complete them – Magic.” The two then stopped at one of the window panes that showed six ponies – two with horns, two with wings, and two without either – working together to vanquish a dark-looking pony. “Many years ago, myself and my sister controlled the Elements to restore harmony when it was needed, but after a thousand years did one pony rediscover them through the magic of friendship, and save everypony from a terrible evil. Individually, each element serves a great purpose, but when brought together, ultimate acts of heroism and good occur.”

“I think I understand,” the Seedrian said. “They sound much like the Chaos Emeralds, but instead of being used with evil intentions, they work their best only when together.”

The two then restarted walking as the alicorn said “I suppose you’re correct, given your explanation of the Chaos Emeralds. Now, we’re near where I have my other business to attend to. Is there any other question that I can try to answer before taking a few moments away from this?”

“Well, I do have one small question. From what I can tell, this is a place where ponies mainly live, but last night I was told about a buffalo who found me unconscious, and I did notice at least one other non-pony creature in your windows during our walk. What I’m asking is, like where I’m from, are there more than just one race that lives here?” asked Cosmo, curious to see if this world held as much diversity as worlds she’s come to know in her travels through other dimensions.

“But of course,” Celestia answered. “Where Equestria is home to my faithful subjects, we share the land with many other creatures. There are the buffalo as you’ve mentioned, along with griffons, canines, all animals wild and domestic, and of course, dragons.”

“Oh? Are dragons particular to you in coexistence?” Cosmo asked.

She got her first answer by a sneezing noise, along with the sound of flames. Out of nowhere above them did a scroll appear, and fell just in front of her feet. She reached down to pick up, but Celestia used her magic to float it up and read it herself, unraveling it into a fairly long checklist. The princess had a small laugh to herself and went on to answer the question. “In a couple ways, yes. We’re about to meet with one now.”

/)∞(\

The two then rounded a corner that would lead them to the castle libraries and archive rooms, seeing a small creature cleaning up a pile of scrolls and books that looked to have been dropped by accident. It was the dragon the princess mentioned about, but not like what Cosmo expected, for it was a small, purple dragon that looked not much older than a toddler’s age. As they walked towards the little one, they could hear him saying “Oh man, oh man, oh man. I can’t believe I sent one of the scrolls off by accident,” and continued to speak in a worried tone as he recollected the several scrolls and books he already had. Celestia then said towards him, overhearing his concern of her being upset, that “There’s no need to worry about that. Accidents can happen.”

The little dragon immediately stopped what he was doing as his attention went straight towards the familiar voice. He then immediately bowed before her and said “OH, good morning, your highness.”

“And good morning to you as well,” she replied kindly, and then introduced the two strangers to each other. “Cosmo, I’d like you to meet Spike. He’s a baby dragon and a loyal assistant and friend to a most important pony. And Spike, this is Cosmo. She is someone who has arrived in Equestria in unknown ways, and has come here for our help.”

“Hi there. Nice to meet you,” greeted Spike.

“Of course,” Cosmo replied just as respectfully. When she saw him get back to cleaning his things, she kneeled down to help him. “Here, let me give you a hand. You sure have a lot of things to carry on your own.”

“Thanks a lot,” he said appreciatively, but his tune quickly turned sour as he added “I wouldn’t have to if they all weren’t needed at once. Then again, this isn’t the biggest pile I’ve built up.”

Just then, Celestia used her magic to take all the books and scrolls he had and levitated them beside her and Cosmo. “Spike, please be kind enough to make us some tea and cakes, and meet us in the study. I’ll be happy to take these for you.”

More than happy to accept this, Spike said “Thank you, Princess. I’ll be there in just a bit,” and from there he ran off to fetch some tea. The two ladies then walked their way in the opposite direction towards their destination.

“I hope you don’t mind my requesting for some tea. I thought we both could enjoy some as we further discuss what you need,” the princess said.

“Not at all,” Cosmo said, “but who is this other pony you mentioned and why does he help them out?”

“Spike was born by being hatched from an egg from a pony who was also my most faithful student at the Academy for Gifted Unicorns, and has since been loyal and faithful to her as she is to him. However, not all dragons are as kind and respectful as him, and tend to focus more on themselves than others. Once a year, I ask him to meet with me so that I can make sure he is still happy with what he does and if there’s anything he needs, along with seeing if the nature of dragons doesn’t overtake him or place him in an unwanted position,” Celestia explained.

“I see,” Cosmo replied, and left it at that. She thought whether or not dragons here were potential to become eventual threats.

Celestia could see this and said “I wouldn’t worry about him. Spike is one of my greatest subjects, and he accepts this because he, too, wants to make sure that who he is and what he is doesn’t interfere with the life he loves to live.”

The Seedrian got better understanding with that, and smiled in return. In the time it took to walk down one more corridor, they reached their destination of the princess’s former student’s study. Piled in the center were several dozen books, scrolls and notes Spike apparently had already collected, so the princess took the liberty to take the entire pile and try to organize them in a neater manner, including the new additions. Cosmo looked around at the room, the high shelves filled with dozens of books, and wide open windows overlooking part of Canterlot, wondering about who exactly used to be here.

“What other questions did you wanted me to help you find answers for, Cosmo?” Celestia asked.

Getting her mind back on track, Cosmo said “Well, I did have a couple about your magic. One thing I was wondering was if…”

Just then, Spike appeared with a tray that held a teapot, two cups, and a few slices of cakes. “Order up, your highness, and just in luck. It’s your favorite tea and the cakes just came out of the over,” he said.

“Wonderful. Thank you Spike,” she replied, and he happily served them by using the room’s center book-reading podium.

For a brief time, Celestia asked Spike a few questions about what things he had collected, and more importantly about how things were with him and his life at home. The little dragon had no complaints other than hoping to never become particular ‘versions’ of him again, something that left Cosmo in the dark, so her eyes looked around at all the books of history and magic spells that they contained. Eventually it came to the point when Spike asked about Cosmo’s origins, so she gave him a shorter version of the story she gave to the princess before. As fascinated as he was to learn more about this otherworldly flower woman, the attention of the conversation turned back to when she had questions she had to ask next, and restarted asking what she tried to do a short bit ago.

“Princess, I was wondering something, about the magic you possess,” she said. “Is it possible that you have the magical ability to accomplish just about anything your heart wishes?”

“I’m afraid not. Magic, whether it’s by a charm, a unicorn, or even an alicorn like myself, does have its limitations,” the princess answered.

Going more direct, Cosmo then asked “Well, is there a chance that you have a magic, which with the right additional help, can help find and locate anyone in any place, no matter who they are or where they’re from?”

Celestia thought of her answer carefully before replying, looking back at over a millennium of experience with all things magical. Her face expressed slight sorrow as she stated “I’m afraid that there’s no such spell that can do that, young Cosmo.”

“Well, would that also include opening a path between this world and others as well?” Cosmo asked, starting to sound as if she was losing hope.

Again, Celestia’s answer wasn’t as pleasant. “That magic is incredibly limited I’m afraid. If it’s about being directed towards a place that’s never been seen or known about before, then it is very unlikely.”

Everything became very silent as Cosmo’s face fell with despair. Having being told by what was seen to be her best source of help that her desires sounded impossible took a stab at her hope. She’s put through much worse things in her lifetime, but moments like this never got easier to accept that there could be no solution she could find, and it saddened her enough to cry. As sad as she felt, she couldn’t give up on her friends and loved ones, not after all their years together, but a new solution to find was still alluding her. She remained in silent thought about this, so Spike spoke up next.

“Princess Celestia, is there any magic you know that might be able to help her out?” he asked.

“I’m afraid not Spike,” the princess replied. “Actions such as these were never researched enough or nearly perfected, even by the greatest of ponies. Traveling between worlds has only been possible with places that coexist with our own, that share similarities which we may only have.”

“But there’s got to be another way, anything or anypony else that can make it possible,” Spike said.

Thinking to herself for a brief moment, Celestia thought of only one solution, one she was sure would be better help than her. “You’re right, Spike. There is only one other pony I can think of who would be better to help,” she said with a smile. The two shared the same thought, and he smiled about it as well.

Having her attention caught by this, Cosmo looked up at the standing princess to ask “You mean there’s someone else who can help me find Tails and get back home?”

Nodding with a confident smile, the princess began to walk out of the study as she said “Follow me and I’ll explain.”

Cosmo and Spike immediately got up and followed her back the way the two women came down before, reaching one of the hallways that had the stained-glass windows depicting Equestrian history. As they reached one in particular, she said “Cosmo, if there is one pony who knows how to make even what seems the most impossible happen, it is my former student and fellow peer- Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

The three stopped at the window that displayed the mentioned princess, made during her coronation not too long ago and depicting her in her new image. Cosmo remembered looking at this one in particular, and it then connected to her that she bears a resemblance to a pony in other images. “This princess, she would know how to help me the best?” she asked.

“Yes,” Celestia replied. “Princess Twilight was once my most faithful student, dedicated to learn all she could about magic. It wasn’t until she and Spike went off to live in a town called Ponyville that her abilities became greater than she could ever imagine, thanks to the lessons she’s learned and the adventures she’s embarked on about herself, and about friendship. I am confident that she and her friends can help you find who you love most and return home.”

“That’s right, because she knows magic better than any pony in Equestria,” Spike added. Realizing what he let blurt out, he quickly turned to the princess to say “I mean, she’s one of the ponies who knows magic best.”

“No, Spike, you were correct,” the princess said to him kindly. Turning her attention back to the Seedrian, she then said “Cosmo, I am sorry that I was not as helpful to you as you may have hoped, but it would seem that your quest will take you in this new direction.”

“I know,” Cosmo said, bowing her head with thought of all her friends back home, and her beloved Tails. “I only hope that Princess Twilight will be able to help me reunite with everyone where I’m from. I can’t stand the thought of not being with them.”

Celestia used her hoof to pick Cosmo’s head up to tell her “I’m sure she will be, and I’m sure you’ll see them all again” with a confident and assuring smile. This made the Seedrian feel better enough to have some of her hope rebuilt, and to smile in return. “Spike, I would like you to take Cosmo and get on the next train to Ponyville. Your time here is done, and don’t worry about all the things Twilight asked you to bring back. I’ll send them to her in a few days.”

“Yes, your highness,” obeyed the little dragon. “Come on, Cosmo, we better hurry before we miss the next train. It should be getting ready to go anytime now.”

“Right,” she said, and as he began to run off, she looked up at the grand white alicorn to say “Thank you, Princess Celestia, for all you’ve done to help me. I will never forget it.” She then gave the princess a respectful bow.

“You are quite welcome, my dear Cosmo. It was a pleasure to get to know you, and I wish you the best in your return home and hope you enjoy what time you will spend here in Equestria. I look forward to hear of your success from Twilight,” Celestia replied.

The two shared a respectful and friendly expression of kindness before Spike called out for Cosmo to catch up, where she started to move as fast as her fatigue body would let her to catch up. As they were gone, Princess Celestia turned back to view the window of her one former pupil turned to an equal. Much like that pony, she saw more than what meets the eye with Cosmo, and thought that those from this new world would be a lot like her, but while also contemplating if that would bring things of the better or more dangerous to her country.

Nevertheless, all she could see and learn from this new stranger was that they had a heart as strong as anypony that stands out and above the rest, and hoped that if there were any ponies that would be better help, it would be the Mane 6. Another part of her also thought that perhaps, like how Twilight discovered the magic of friendship through those five ponies, Cosmo will discover more than she could expect in her quest.

Meanwhile: Congregation

Sonic stood on the edge of a cliff looking out over the ocean as the evening sky reflected off the water. For the first time in a long time, it was hard for him to just sit still and do nothing, but he wouldn’t let it show to any of his friends, trying to keep up a strong image for them. All his mind could think about was his little sibling lost in places unknown, or even worse depending on what happened on that ship that hovered over Angel Island.

“We’ll find you, buddy. We’ll make sure you and Cosmo get back home,” he thought to himself, and then looked down at the Chaos Emerald he acquired before.

It’s been over a day since Chaos Control occurred, and Sonic and his friends returned back home to Mobius to rest themselves and try to be at ease while the Master Four and Team JAG continued the search for Tails and Cosmo. None of them could relax so easily, not without knowing whether their friends were safe or not. They spent most of their time at their homes doing what they’d do on their own to try and ease their minds, but nothing worked, whether it was Amy taking her frustration out on anything that went against her, or Cream and Cheese helping their mother with cooking and gardening, or even Knuckles’s silent meditation as he guarded the Master Emerald.

Towards the evening, many of them shared the same thought, and without contacting each other traveled to the home of the missing couple. The pink hedgehog arrived first, just standing outside the front door for a while doing nothing before one of her friends arrived from the air.

“Amy,” the voice said, “what are you doing here?” The voice came from Cream, who used her ears to fly from her home to there, landing next to her friend.

Unsure of what to say, Amy replied with “I don’t know. I just decided to come here, I guess.”

“That’s why I’m here, too,” Cream said.

“Looks like we’re all thinking the same thing,” said a third voice, this time from Knuckles as he walked towards the two girls. “I guess our worry brought us here for comfort, or something.”

“Makes enough sense to me,” Amy agreed. She then reached into a pocket on her dress, pulling out a key ring that had several different keys, two including for this home. One was a regular door and lock key, while another was an electronic key used to access or override the house’s security system.

The young rabbit then said “It kind of feels like we’re here to help housesit while they’re gone, but it still feels wrong.”

“Well, I can’t say it isn’t true. It’s been a long time since this happened to any of us,” Knuckles said with a sigh.

“Tell me about it,” said a fourth voice from out of nowhere. “Hope you don’t mind if I drop in to join the party.” Appearing next was Rouge, landing on her feet right next to the echidna.

“I wouldn’t exactly call this a ‘friendly gathering’ Rouge,” Amy told her with a sad tone.

“Believe me, sweetheart, I know. I’m thinking about the lovebirds, too,” the bat replied. “Like Knuckie was saying, it’s been a while since something like this happened, and those were the Station Square days.”

It was strange to believe that that fact was true – ten years ago, Chaos Control sent them and others to Chris Thorndyke’s world, where they all lived before having to return to Mobius to prevent their two worlds from freezing in time. Since then, so many things have happened that it would be hard to count without writing a list or using a calculator to add it all up. “

Yeah, those were some times,” Cream said as she thought about it, and the other three couldn’t agree more. “Chao-chao,” Cheese added softly.

“Come on,” Amy said, “I’m sure they wouldn’t have minded if we went inside for a while.”

She then turned around and used her keys to get them inside, opening the front door and disabling the security grid. As they stepped inside, all they could hear was quiet, and see a home filled with everything but who belongs there. They took seats across the living room sofa, each trying to form a conversation with not one of them lasting longer than a sentence or two. They began to start talking once they let their eyes wonder across the room, noticing items that told parts of their history- tools from Tails’s workshop below the house, a scrapbook Cosmo started a couple years ago, and several framed pictures that dated as far back as the Station Square days, and the first war against the evil Metarex.

At one point, a noise was heard that sounded as if somebody else was unlocking the front door, and when it opened, appearing inside the house was Chris.

“Hey you guys,” he said as his head turned to notice them. “I would’ve guessed you’d be here, too.”

“Yeah,” Amy replied. “Almost all of us are here thinking about them.”

“Come on, Amy,” Rouge said, “you know that Sonic’s done his own thing like this before.”

“I know, but at the same time, I know he feels very worried for them, especially Tails. Not knowing what happened to his little brother, it bothers him too much,” said the pink hedgehog.

Showing sympathy, Chris then said “Believe me, Amy, he’s not the only one. We’re all here worried about them.”

“All of us?” asked Knuckles, confused about how their friend said it.

Chris answered that by opening the front door wider to show them that he wasn’t the only one who came by the house. Having arrived around the same time as him were many familiar faces from across Mobius – The Chaotix Detective Agency, Maria the Hedgehog, Earthia, Galaxina, Lucas, Starla, Daisy, even Blood the Seedrian, Chopper the Chipmunk and his family. They all arrived thinking the same as those of Team Sonic, saving a couple ‘honorary’ members of Dr. Eggman’s – Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun – who were all busy at the Doctor’s base of operations conducting some search efforts and errands their leader had instructed them to do in his absence.

Standing outside on the highest point of the building was Shadow the Hedgehog, who stared up into the sky as the evening was turning to night, thinking about the events of the previous day himself. As he caught a glimpse of the first two stars to shine for that night, a speck of light emitted from a short distance away.

“I wonder what that was,” the dark hedgehog said to himself. He then sensed something about that light, and decided to investigate, racing down from the building and reaching the light’s source. What he came to find was the red Chaos Emerald, sitting at the base of a sole-standing tree in an open field.

Chapter 4

"All aboard for Ponyville!"

As the conductor of the Ponyville Express at the Canterlot Train Station made the last call for passengers, the train’s last two passengers had raced their way onto the platform. One was Spike, the faithful number one assistant of Princess Twilight Sparkle, who led the way onto the train as he was followed by Cosmo, the Seedrian in search for a way back home to Mobius, and her greatest hope, her best friend. They got on the train and shared a seat in the car second to the front, sitting at a window facing the station. Just seconds after sitting down, the train’s whistle blew and began departing from Canterlot, and Cosmo watched out the window as views of the capital city moved by. She put herself into thoughts of the near future, unaware of her little companion trying to talk to her about the same thing.

“I’m telling you, Cosmo, you’re going to love Ponyville,” Spike was saying. “It’s a great town, and everyone there is really nice and awesome! There’s this great bakery where one of my friends work at that makes the best desserts ever, even though I’d prefer a gemstone platter myself. All the ponies there are as kind as can be, and there’s this one pony, she’s the most beautiful, talented dressmaker you could ever meet. Maybe when we get back I can get everypony together…”

He stopped talking when he noticed how Cosmo was looking out the window, not noticing this when he started to talk. What he saw from the corner of her face was a look of sadness and concern, and who could blame her? Being in a strange new world without the slightest idea of how to get home or how alone she really was wouldn’t be for anyone, so he tried to focus more on her than about Ponyville.

“Don’t worry, Cosmo. I’m sure Twilight will be more than able to help you out,” he told her, getting her attention by patting his claw on her shoulder.

This caught her attention as she turned her head away from the scenic view of Equestira. She looked down at Spike to say “I’m sorry. I could hear you talking, but my mind was thinking of other things. I really hope you and Princess Celestia are right about your friend. Right now, she’s my last hope to find my own way back.”

“I know, but you can still try to enjoy yourself while you’re here. You need to cheer yourself up a little,” Spike suggested, and an idea found him rather than him trying to find one.

“Well if it ain’t little Spike,” said a voice coming up from the back of the car. When the little dragon and Seedrian turned around to see who was coming up, he noticed that it was a friend from back in Canterlot, pushing a cart of delicacies.

“Hey Donut Joe,” Spike greeted him. “What are you doing on the train?”

“I’m heading to Baltimare for the yearly family reunion. Since I’m making a side trip to Manehattan after that to get some new cooking supplies, I figured I’d bring some business with me and sell some donuts during the ride to Ponyville,” the colt explained. He then reached to pick up a glazed donut, and a sprinkled donut with golden yellow frosting. “Might I interest you and your friend here in a snack?”

“You know it,” the little dragon replied happily, and happily accepted the offer. He paid Joe the last bits he had on him for the meal before the colt went off to serve other ponies. He then said to Cosmo “Now that was lucky. Let me tell ya, there’s no better donut around here than a Donut Joe donut. Here, give it a try.”

Cosmo took the donut handed to her, the one with the golden yellow icing, thanking him for the snack. While the little guy was enjoying his treat, she took a bite of the donut, enjoying its great taste very much, but the icing’s color reminded her of Tails, so much so that she didn’t take another bite.

“Tails, I don’t know where you are, but I swear you’re somewhere here, with me,” she thought to herself quietly. She then said in open thought “I miss you, and I hope I find you, wherever you are.”

“Who do you miss, your close friend you mentioned earlier?” Spike asked, his mouth still full of donut deliciousness. She silently nodded yes as he swallowed his food, then came up with an idea.

“Tell you what, if it helps you feel any better, why don’t you tell me a little bit about your world, and at some point I’ll tell you more about here?”

She smiled at him and replied “That would be nice, if you wouldn’t mind at least. Thank you, Spike.” Before saying another word, she decided to take another bite of her donut, and after swallowing began to talk about her home back on Mobius. “Back in my world, I’ve been very fortunate to live in a place where my clan can live in peace, and my many best friends are just as much my family. I live in a lovely home near Green Hills with Tails, my most special friend and someone I’ll love forever…”

/)∞(\

The day moved forward in Ponyville that felt usual to most ponies, but longer for a selected few and their newest interdimensional friend, Tails. The fox, although recovering nicely from his previous battle back home, was not still fully able to do much without risking exhaustion and collapse, so he remained with Twilight at the library where the two shared information about each other’s worlds. The princess, who kept that identity of herself quiet from him, enjoyed learning whatever she could about Tails’s home world, so much so that she began to take notes about it all.

Some of the other ponies stayed or stopped by throughout the day, all except for Rainbow Dash, but only for so long so they could not only take care of their own responsibilities, but help in a search to find any trace of his closest friend. As the afternoon hours passed on, Tails began to try and help Twilight go through some of her books to research whatever they could about dimensional travels or mystical portals that could help him find a way home, while holding mild discussions about each other’s worlds at the same time.

“So your home world of Mobius has advanced technology that’s both relatable to some of our own, but most of it far more advanced than what my friends and I have told you about? That’s so fascinating,” Twilight said as intrigued as any new information would be. “I can only try to imagine what it all could be.”

“It can be quite the sight at times,” Tails said in return, expressing very slight boast with his experiences. “It’s too bad I don’t have a translator with me. Something like that would help me be able to read your books. I hate to say it, but I can’t make much of your scripts other than the numbers.”

“It’s alright, Tails. You don’t need to help me out so much, since you could use the rest after all,” she said to him, then looked back to her book. After just another minute looking through a book, she let out a small, frustrated “Ugh,” and used her magic to toss the book into a pile she had already stacked.

“Something wrong, Twilight?” he asked her, setting a book he had aside and stood up onto his feet.

As she used magic to get another book, she replied “I’m sorry, Tails. I just don’t like it when not a book I go through gets me any lead of how to figure things out. At least I’ve still got at least half the library to work with.”

“That’s true,” he said. “I can tell that you really enjoy learning, both from all the books you have here for yourself, and the notes you’ve taken about my home.”

They then both looked at all the notes she took, enough to start an encyclopedia of his home dimension. Twilight just smiled feeling a little embarrassed, and Tails saw this and just had a small laugh. “It’s quite alright. You actually remind me of a little bit of myself, wanting to learn what I can for better knowledge, but mine’s isn’t as historically focused like you.”

“I appreciate the compliment,” she said. “So, you’ve told me about your home planet and the many inhabitants that live there, including the alien plants and that one guy, Dr. Eggman? Are there any kinds of ponies that live there like myself or my friends?”

“No, I’m afraid not. There are many types of people where I’m from, but no ponies or horses,” he answered. “It’s mainly mammals like me and my friends, Eggman as a being I described to you as a human, and the Seedrians, the plant race and Cosmo’s clan.”

Throughout the day, Tails had mentioned about Cosmo quite a few times, and even though he tried his best not to show it, his heart hurt more and more wondering about her well-being. Hiding it after trying so hard all day became more difficult, and he showed it this time as his face showed a frown. As Twilight saw this, she could easily tell what he was feeling, and tried to make him feel better by saying “I know it’s impossible not to think about it, but if you keep focusing on the worst,…”

“I know,” he said, cutting her off. “Trust me, I’ve thought like this before.”

The princess tried to cheer him up by suggesting “Tell you what- why don’t we, and I can’t believe I’m saying this for myself, take a break from the books and do something fun? Maybe you can look around Ponyville with my telescope and I can tell you what you’re looking at?”

“Thanks, but I don’t think I’ve got the fun in me for it right now. Some of my thoughts, from my past, they tend to take over my mind for a while after building up so much,” he told her.

“Why is that? What are some of these thoughts you have?” she asked. Since they began to talk, she had learned much about him and where he’s from, but not all the details. Some things from his eventful life had their time and place to be talked about, but now wasn’t the right time.

“I’d rather not say, not for now at least,” he replied. “I’m sorry, Twilight. If you don’t mind, I’d like to think on my own for a while.” She offered him to go wherever he’d like in her home, and he found a place to do so- her balcony outside.

/)∞(\

Tails kept himself secluded out on the balcony for what turned into hours, sitting on the floor with his arms resting on the railing. His mind raced with different thoughts from the past, and those since awakening in the new world he was in, all connecting back to Cosmo. He may have been found by a group of ponies who treated him with care and respect, which he found incredibly fortunate, but not knowing where she was, how she was doing, or feeling as alone without him as him without her, it wouldn’t stop keeping his mind uneasy.

It was evening when all of Twilight’s friends returned to the library, discussing what they have learned during the afternoon, which resulted in nothing other than the alicorn and fox’s interdimensional education. They talked to each other downstairs in the main library, trying to not have their guest overhear what they would say.

“Did you ask everypony you could about any sights of Cosmo?” Twilight asked, their current discussion about the search for the missing Seedrian.

“Every single one we could come across,” Rarity said. “I went to the spa, Quills & Sofas, anyone who came to the boutique, and the spa again.” Some of the ponies gave her a glare about the second spa visit. “Don’t look at me that way. The first time was a regular appointment, and the second was after asking so many ponies all day.”

Fluttershy then added “I asked anypony I ran into, and told my critter friends to let me know if they see anyone like her. I just hope I gave them a proper description.”

“I wouldn’t get too worried about that. This Cosmo is definitely a standout kind of girl, so she wouldn’t be hard to miss if ever found,” Applejack stated. “Back at the farm, I told the family about what’s happenin’ and they said they’d keep their eyes open, too.”

“What about you, Pinkie Pie?” the purple pony asked her bubbly pink friend.

Pinkie Pie then pulled out a scroll, and began to read off it. As it unraveled, it just kept getting longer. “Well… I checked Sugarcube Corner, the bank, the bowling alley, the lake, town hall, the school, Applejack’s apple cellar, Sugarcube Corner again, the diner, the toy store, the joke shop, both the toy store and joke shop again, the park, the bog, the hospital, that one restaurant that I thought was a tavern that wasn’t a tavern but actually the new sandwich place that used to me the old buffet before it got infested by all those parasprites that smelled the food all the way from Everfree Forest and devoured everything but…”

“Thank You, Pinkie! We Get It!” yelled one of the ponies, covering the pink mare’s mouth with her hoof to silence the running list. This pony was Rainbow Dash, her first time back at the library since meeting Tails last night. “So the point is we haven’t found this person around here. What do we do now?”

“I wish I knew, but there is something I’d like to know from you Rainbow Dash. What was with your attitude change from how it was last night when Tails woke up to what you’ve been up to since you dashed out of here?” Twilight asked.

Putting on a stubborn front, Rainbow said “Hey, I flew all over Ponyville AND the outside area looking for this Cosmo while taking care of the weather at the same time in the day AND night. I just went off to start looking, that’s all.”

“Calm down there, Rainbow,” Applejack told her. “Twilight wasn’t criticizin’ you about what you did, but you could explain to her why you were doin’ all that. You told some of us last night, after all.”

“She did?” asked Fluttershy. She and Twilight came to realized that this must’ve been after most of them left last night, and they stayed to talk to Tails. When making this realization, she then said “Rainbow Dash, we all know you’d go out of your way to help anyone when they needed help. That must be why you…”

“Not exactly,” the cyan pegasus interrupted, getting frustrated. “Look, I just have my reasons, and I’d rather figure out what we should do next than talk about this.”

“Come on, Rainbow Dash, drop the attitude you got going on this time. Why won’t you just tell us?” Twilight asked, becoming just as frustrated as her friend.

The two mares were standing opposite of one-another as it was, so having them in a position of ongoing debate and conflict was not something the other ponies wanted to see accelerate.

Applejack got between the two and said “Now hold your horses there, you two. We’re here to help a new friend, not argue with another.”

“Applejack is right,” agreed Rarity. “Let’s keep our focus on our poor little foxy friend upstairs. I saw a little of him as we all walked in. He looks absolutely miserable, and we need to fix that.”

“Maybe, if it’s possible, that we should expand the search farther out of Ponyville,” Fluttershy suggested.

“That’s a great idea!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I say we start out by going as far as Las Pegasus and San Franciscolt, maybe even Acapulcolt!”

“Easy there, Pinkie. Maybe we should start a little closer and ask Princess Celestia for some help. When Spike gets back we can send her a letter telling about everything,” the group’s alicorn princess said.

Suddenly, she realized something about one of whom she just mentioned. “Oh my gosh! I forgot Spike comes home today! He’s bound to have all those books and scrolls I asked him to bring back from Canterlot, but I can’t exactly leave for too long with Tails here.”

“Take it easy there, dear. I’m sure Spike can handle it himself,” Rarity assured her friend. “Besides, I’m sure Tails could use some company to at least talk to. How long has he been out there on the balcony?”

Thinking back in how the day went, Twilight answered “A few hours. He hasn’t moved or said a word since he sat down.”

“He must really miss his friend. The poor thing,” Fluttershy said, and nearly every face fell in sympathy for him. The only exception was Rainbow Dash.

“Alright, you know what, I’ve heard enough sad talk. I’m going to do something about this,” she said, then raced her way through her friends and up the stairs without a pony able to say a word.

“What has gotten into that pony?” Twilight pondered, then checked the time.

“Why don’t you and Fluttershy go keep an eye on her and Tails? The rest of us can go and meet with Spike at the train station,” Applejack suggested, and all the ponies agreed and went off in their own directions.

/)∞(\

Tails’s seclusion from the ponies left him in a place of his own, thinking about how difficult he’s been towards them with all the help they’ve done for him. He hated the way he was acting, but this was something both old and new to him- traveling to a new world being familiar, but unsure what became of Cosmo after Chaos Control that he never dealt with before. He was so distracted that he didn’t sense Rainbow Dash coming for him, not noticing until he heard the door onto the balcony open and her saying “Hey, Tails, you got a minute?”

He turned himself around just enough to see her and replied “Sure. You’re Rainbow Dash, right?”

“Yeah, the one and only,” she said with some boastful pride. She dropped that attitude and walked over to stand next to him.

“I’m here to talk to you about a couple things. One is our search and, well, we covered all over Ponyville but haven’t found a trace. All the other ponies we told will let us know if they found your friend.”

“Thank you,” he said to her. He turned his head to look right at her, and looked for a few seconds. “Finding her was your initiative for dashing out last night. Is that right?”

At that point, Twilight and Fluttershy arrived by the doorway, but didn’t walk out to the two quite yet. They stood there watching to see where this conversation was going, and what they heard next was something they almost never hear. Rainbow Dash said to him “Well, yeah, it was the main reason why I left, but there was another reason. It’s about the way I acted towards you last night, being so cold and rude. So, about that… I’m sorry.”

Tails could tell that she was forcing through pride to say that, but he was still curious about apology. “It’s alright, Rainbow. I could imagine that seeing someone as different as me would make others do that, but why exactly did you act like that?” he asked.

The cyan mare took a seat next to him and started explaining herself. “Look, I’m not sure how often crazy things come dropping from the sky from where you’re from, but here, when something like that happens, it’s almost never good. I could tell how beat up and worn out you were when my friends and I found you, but something in my head told me that there was something about you that not everypony was seeing, and I didn’t want to take any chances.

"I acted the way I did to make sure nothing funny would happen because we didn’t know if we could fully trust you, and I took it the farthest. After seeing how you acted when you wake up, and how my friends described you today, I knew I was wrong about you, but didn’t want to admit it. Anyway, I’m sorry for being so cold to you before.”

He didn’t speak anything at first, and the two watching ponies didn’t step into the conversation yet. Like her stubbornness, he could tell that she was being genuine, and recognized her kind of behaviors before. He wrapped an arm around her and gave her a smile, the first one he had all afternoon, and said “Thanks, Rainbow, I really appreciate it. In fact, you remind me a lot of some friends back home.”

She smiled back at him, replying with “That so, huh? Anyone cool?”

“Well, you remind me of most of them because you seem to put the safety of your friends before anything, but most of all, you remind me of one of my closest friends Sonic,” he told her.

“Yeah, I try to do what’s best for others before what’s best for me whenever I can,” she boasted. Her two friends just rolled their eyes to each other over that statement. “So what’s this Sonic like?”

“Well,” thought Tails, “he’s always there for us when we need him and take on a challenge when he knows he should. Plus he’s pretty much the fastest person you’d ever meet, both on his feet and in his mind. He’s one of the best friends you could ask for, especially after he led us into helping Cosmo out when we first met her.”

“Fast guy, huh? I bet I can give him a run for his money, seeing I’m the best flyer Equestria’s ever seen,” Rainbow said with much confidence. She’d go on about herself, but not before she saw him starting to laugh a little, which caused her to laugh herself. It was at that point that Twilight and Fluttershy revealed themselves as they started to laugh too. The two were walking out onto the balcony when the laughter died down, and their friend asked “How long have you guys been standing there?”

“Not too long. The others went to meet Spike at the train station, and we stuck around to help out Tails if he needed anything,” Twilight replied.

Fluttershy then said “We hope that we didn’t interrupt your conversation. I’m sorry if we did.”

Tails didn’t say anything at first, but Rainbow said “It’s no problem, right Tails?” He was zoned out for a few moments before he came back to the conversation. He said “Sorry, I was just thinking to myself again. What Fluttershy just said reminded me a lot about Cosmo.”

“I did? Oh, I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t make you more upset about missing her,” the bright yellow mare said.

“No, no, it’s fine. It’s just that Cosmo always tended to apologize for reasons she had no reason to apologize for in the first place. She didn’t want to be a burden to anyone for anything,” he explained.

Out of all of her friends, Rainbow Dash learned the least about Cosmo other than her description and how apparently close she was to him, so she said “This girl sounds like the most important thing in your life. What is your deal with Cosmo, anyway?”

He remembered as far back as the day the two first met, and told the three ponies “She came right out of the sky from the stars of our galaxy back home, similar to how you actually found me yesterday, but for slightly different reasons. Since then, we found ourselves spending more and more time together while we were traveling with our friends, sharing stories from our lives and enjoying being with each other so much that it would go on for hours on end.

"We created this bond that no one could break, because we somehow created a love for each other that could never be broken. I always tried to help her become a happier and stronger person, and in return she helped to make me an even greater person than I could even think of becoming. Cosmo’s my best friend in life, and I couldn’t imagine one without her in it.”

His touching description played the heart strings of each pony that had each of them tearing up, except for Rainbow Dash, who fought to hold her tears back. He had to clear his throat himself, trying not to react the same, but a purple hoof rested on his shoulder as he turned to see Twilight looking at him. “She sounds very special, Tails. It must be amazing to have someone so close in life like you do,” she said.

“It’s much more than that,” he said. “She’s my life’s greatest blessing, and all I want is for her to be happy and safe. It’s hard to think that when I’m here and I don’t know about her.”

“I’m sure she’s just fine. You just need to have faith in each other,” Fluttershy said to him.

“Yeah, what they said,” Rainbow Dash added. “Why don’t you tell us more about her? It could help you feel better.”

The fox looked around at the three ponies surrounding him, and couldn’t have felt luckier to have befriended such kind-hearted strangers turned to friends. He cleared his throat again, and used his hand to wipe away a tear that was forming in his eye, then said “Well, there’s so much to say about her and our times together. When we’re home, we have so many times to have fun and relax in our home, from my workshop and practice area to her gardening and favorite spots to take it easy. Our family and friends, they would always try to find us to have us find them somewhere to be together, but the truth is, every time we’re together, it never gets better than that.” The skies above them began to make the starting changes into the night as the evening colors shined while he went on to tell more about his beloved Cosmo.

/)∞(\

It was near the time the Ponyville Express would arrive, and Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Applejack were waiting at the station for it. The station wasn’t that far from the library since the two were a seeing distance from one-another, so they weren’t too far away to help their coming friend back with everything needed to be taken back. They stood on the platform, or hopped in place for Pinkie’s case, waiting for the train as they talked about the current matters they were dealing with.

“Do you really think we could find this Cosmo?” Rarity asked.

“Beats me, but we can’t just wait around and do nothing hoping she’d just show up,” Applejack said. “I still don’t put it passed me that Tails came here on his own though.”

“That’s what I was thinking as well. I don’t think I could bear to see his face if she was never found, or anything worse. Something about what happened that sent him to Equestria has really shaken him up,” the white unicorn pointed out.

“I know,” Pinkie agreed. “It’s like it was something so beyond terrifying and wrong that it would have that affect on anypony that would have to deal with the same thing. It’s like their world has their own Everfree Forest or something.”

The orange mare thought about this and stated “I’m not sure what’s worse- if what Pinkie just said is true, or if it could be even worse.”

“I’d rather not even think about it,” Rarity said.

“Me neither. I’d rather think about what kind of parties and cake and fun that other world has. Maybe they have their own kind of super party that they do to make others happy and smile just like me, but with something that could make it more than a party,” said the pink mare, getting excited by her own thoughts. She then had a huge gasp and said “What if… what if… they have super ultimate interdimensional parties?! That would be AMAZING!!”

Her two friends looked at one-another with less than agreeable looks, and Applejack then said “Pinkie Pie, I’d hardly believe that they’d be able to throw parties like how you imagine it. Besides, you are the best party pony in Ponyville.”

“Got that right,” Pinkie said with a laugh.

“But that still doesn’t change about how we can help that poor Tails,” Rarity pointed out. “If only Spikey-Wikey didn’t have to be at Canterlot when we found Tails, otherwise we’d send a letter to Princess Celestia about it.”

“Relax there, Sugarcube. I’m sure the princess will be as helpful to us now as she would be earlier,” Applejack said. Just as she stopped talking, the sound of a train whistle blew, and the three ponies turned to see the train coming in. “And won’t you look at that. The train’s finally here, and just before dark too.”

The train pulled in and slowed down to a halt at the station, and passengers began to depart just a couple seconds after. The three were standing on the opposite end of the platform from where their expected dragon was, so they didn’t notice the passenger he was with during the ride. When one of the coach’s doors opened, they could see Spike exiting and ran over to greet him, who saw them coming with much surprise.

“Hey there everypony. What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Twilight said you were comin’ in on this train, so we thought we’d come greet you and help haul back all the…” Applejack said, but the three noticed that he had no books or scrolls or anything with him.

“Excuse me, Spike, but we thought you were bringing back some things from Canterlot for Twilight,” Rarity pointed out.

“Well, I was, but something came up and I had to leave it all behind,” Spike told them.

“Really? What was that important?” Pinkie asked.

The little dragon turned to his side and waved out for someone to step out of the train. “It isn’t what is important, but someone who is,” he answered, and stepping out of the train was a young woman, looking a little tired but a lot like a certain description they received earlier. Green hair, red rose buds, an amulet and floral dress, it all fit from what they were told before. “She came to Canterlot looking for help, and Princess Celestia requested me to bring her here to see Twilight,” he explained further. “Her name’s…”

“That hair. Those buds. That amulet. It all fits,” Rarity stuttered. “It couldn’t be…”

Seeing this girl become confused, Applejack spoke up and said “Pardon me, miss, but would you be…”

“This girl that we’ve started looking all over the place because you’d be a one-of-a-kind to find for a friend of ours?!” Pinkie asked.

The girl was unsure of how to answer that question, so she just introduced to herself- “Hello. My name is Cosmo.”

The three mares couldn’t believe it, and Pinkie Pie got so excited by this that she grabbed a megaphone she pulled out of nowhere to exclaim as loud as she could “TWIIIIILIIIIIIIIGHT!!!! TAAAAAAIIIIILLLLLSS!!!! WE FOUND HER!!! WE FOUND HER!!!! WE FOUND HER!!!!!”

The echoing sounds reached the group sitting out on the balcony, not to mention the greater Ponyville area, perhaps even as far out as Canterlot. The alicorn princess, two pegasi and one two-tailed fox heard this with a little ringing left in their ears, putting them all in a surprising state. Tails, however, couldn’t believe what he had just heard himself, saying to himself “What… what did she say? They found her... Cosmo?!”

When Pinkie put her megaphone away, and those on the platform were trying to shake off the effect of that calling, Cosmo just stood where she was in a strange combination of shock and surprise. “Wait, did you just say Tails?!” she said. “He’s here? He’s alright?!”

“He’s seen better days, but yes, he’s here,” answered Rarity.

“I can’t believe it,” Cosmo said, smiling a giant smile and her eyes watering to cry. “Please tell me where he is.”

“We’ll do you one better! Follow us!” Pinkie added, and she led the group to run off the platform and around the front of the train to the other side of the tracks. When Cosmo made it across, the pink mare pointed her hoof towards the library, more specifically the upper balcony. “He’s right up there!” Without saying a word, the Seedrian began running as fast as her body would allow towards that direction.

On the balcony, the four that were up here noticed the group that made its way across the tracks, but with the sky starting to turn dark, it was becoming difficult to see completely clear. They looked over the side of the balcony railing as much as they could, but Tails got a very familiar sense of who he was seeing again. “They’re starting to hoof it over here. I think it is our friends, and the smallest one there, that must be Spike,” Rainbow Dash said.

“You’re right,” Fluttershy added, “it is them. But that one in the front, I’ve never seen anyone like that before… That must be-“

“TAILS?! TAILS!”

The calling voice grabbed the fox’s attention in all the best ways, and a great wave of relief and happiness surrounded him, his mouth smiling wide and his eyes starting to cry. He knew it was her, and that voice proved it, and now he could sense through his heart that it was her heart coming towards him. “It’s her! It’s Cosmo!!!”

“That’s wonderful, Tails!” Twilight exclaimed, as she and her friends became overjoyed for him. “I’ll make sure to race down there and bring her up to…” She stopped before finishing her sentence when she saw him show them all something that was quite surprising given how his condition appeared.

Tails jumped into the air, ignoring what pain his body was still feeling, and used his energy to propel him in an incredibly fast flight down towards his approaching Cosmo. The ponies stopped in their tracks and watched as they saw the two reunite with each other, locking onto one-another in their arms as he flew up into the air circling them around and around. At first, they started to laugh, but when the spinning stopped in the air, so did that. The two’s tear-filled eyes stared into one-another, with no desire to look away for even a slight second. In their sights, their best friend was alive and safe, with them, and that they were not alone in this new world after all.

“Oh, Tails,” Cosmo said lovingly, “I feared I wouldn’t have found you like this. You’re okay, and after all that happened.”

Tails had to give a slight cringe of pain, but he chuckled it off and said “Not completely, but I don’t care about that. I’m just glad you’re alright, and that you’re here with me. I wanted to find you so badly, but…”

“Don’t blame yourself,” she told him. “We were fortunate to have been helped by who we’ve met. All I care about right now is you and I are together again.” She then started to cry, not in an upset manner, but overcome with joy.

He couldn’t help but act the same himself, but he quickly put it aside to say “And all that matters is that we’re not apart anymore. I love you, Cosmo. I love you so much.”

She used one of her hands to hold the back of his head, and then said “And I love you, my hero. I love you too, Tails.” Then, she pulled his head toward her, their lips meeting for a beautifully loving kiss. As it went on, the sun had finally set, and they shared that moment under the stars and moonlit night of Equestria.

Their tears dropped down from their faces onto the ground below like a light rainfall, and everypony who was there watched this beautiful moment with their own joy as well. What they saw was truly a display of a loving bond that they could barely begin to understand completely, but it was still a wonderful sight to behold. Each of the ponies reacted in their own way- on the ground, Applejack’s eyes watering up immensely as she smiled, Rarity acting similar but her lips waving as she tried not to cry aloud, Pinkie Pie sitting on the ground crying her lungs out as tears flowed out like broken faucets. On the balcony, Fluttershy’s eyes flowed with tears as she couldn’t help feeling so happy to see the lovers together again, Rainbow Dash trying to keep herself from getting too emotional terribly as a couple tears fell and she made very quiet, but still hearable, wimpers, and Twilight Sparkle just stood where she was and let her eyes run with tears as she smiled at the beauty that was Tails and Cosmo’s love

“There’s so much more to them,” she thought to herself. “I just know it. They’ll teach us something great about beings so close, and I look forward to learning all about it.”

Meanwhile: Conversation

Team JAG Headquarters never looked busier after so many months, perhaps not since the simultaneous attack of all the then-known dimensions at the climax of the Dimensional Metarex War. Search parties worked around the clock investigating each dimension for any trace that the missing Tails and Cosmo could’ve showed up in any given location. Dr. Eggman and his team of intellects checked with all the parties and maintained the interdimensional scanning of each universe and each world and planet that resided within them, all reports successful or failing reported to the Master Four.

In one of the headquarter’s meeting rooms, a small group of friends gathered together, some on a due break from the search while others stood at the sidelines for the time. This group was a special gathering – most of the members of the Team JAG Band – who got together to share some discussion about current events, and some of the most recent ones that took place on Mobius before the entire ordeal started.

“This is probably the worst ways I ever had to start a new year,” said Dan Fenton, better known by his heroic title of Danny Phantom. “I don’t think I can count the times I went over to Mobius to check out the wreckage of the ship parts that fell into the ocean.”

“Did you find anything that could be helpful, or even either of them at all?” asked Ami, the perky and bright-sided half of her world’s greatest duo, Puffy AmiYumi. Her answer was Dan bowing his head and shaking it no.

“That good for nothing Dark Oak and those good for nothing commander wannabes in that good for nothing Brotherhood,” growled Yumi, the edgier and temperamental half of Puffy AmiYumi, and Ami’s best friend. “I’ve got half a mind of take my axe and crack every skull of theirs I find.”

“Forget it,” stated Aelita, one of the brightest and leading heroes of the Lyoko warriors. “They thrive on that attention. I want them to pay for this, too, but for now we have to find out what happened to those two first.”

Speaking next was Phineas, one of the band’s ‘unofficial’ members who works with his brother to help set the stage for the band’s performances, doing so since the first JAGFest shows in 2012. “Hopefully some of the computer software modifications we made for the scanner will help find them soon.”

“Believe me,” stated Dan, “we all hope that everything we do leads to anything good.”

“Patience is a near-forgotten virtue, but a hardest of ones as well,” preached Ferb, Phineas’s quieter but equally productive brother.

“Amen to that,” agreed Ami. She then turned towards two others who sat next to her. “What about you guys? Was there any good findings with your effort?”

Sitting there quiet and sad was Kim Possible, an acclaimed hero from her universe that started from when she was a preteen. Next to her was her loyal sidekick and loving fiancé, Ron Stoppable. The two got engaged the previous summer, and since then have become the two newest members of the band, the offer to join and learn new techniques as the band’s early wedding gift. The moment they heard about Tails and Cosmo, they jumped into action, but me the same problems as everyone else.

“This is definitely a hard sitch to handle,” Kim said, using her slang from her teenager years. “Wade handled our planetary scan, but we still used all our resources to see if anything strange happened in the last few days, but there was nothing. This is so not how coming off of JAGFest and 2013 should’ve gone.”

“Tell me about it,” Ron pouted. “We spent a whole month traveling, having fun and playing music. Then we go home to start preparing a new start for us with moving to Mobius for a while, but just as things were all wonderful, HERE it is!”

“Ron, I know you’re not happy with this, but you still need to grow up a little,” Kim told him, and she was right. His attitude did reflect his younger self more than usual.

“I’m sorry KP, but it’s just not right. We have no idea what Dark Oak did to Cosmo, how Tails held up against him, and now they’re both who knows where. It just sucks to have them deal with so much,” he said.

Nobody could argue that statement, for everyone felt basically the same. Phineas then said “That is true, but you guys know Tails and Cosmo longer than Ferb and I have, and you’ve said how they manage to hold their own at times, right?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Aelita said. “As long as they have each other to fight and live for, they’ll do whatever they can no matter what. However, it’s still terrible for them to deal with so much.”

“Well, they’re not the only ones. Eggman told me about their friends back home,” Ferb stated, referring to Sonic, the gang and everyone from Mobius, perhaps saving one other hedgehog in particular.

“I swear that if we find them soon, and they’re both alright, we’re going to show that Brotherhood just how much they can try to bring us down, but they’ll never win,” Yumi stated.

“You got that right,” agreed Kim. “But honestly, something like that, like a concert, is the last thing to worry about right now.”

Dan leaned back in his seat, looking towards the ceiling as the others kept on talking. He could overhear their conversation continue on, but he didn’t focus on what was being said exactly. He spent this time thinking to himself, thinking “It’s bad enough they’re missing, but worst of all is there’s no sign of them anywhere. What does this mean? Is it something good, or bad, or just new?”

The ghost hero wasn’t the only one thinking these thoughts, for divided around their headquarters, the Master Four of Team JAG were thinking the same thoughts while working with other responsibilities.

Ash was with a few of his Pokemon while discussing search efforts on his world through his many friends in several regions, and Gohan talking with his friends and family from his world about who would go help where as he’d look after their planet with his wife Videl, Hercule, Dende and Mr. Popo.

Yugi and Atem, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, went throughout the base to check with leaders of search teams for any updates and undone searches to move continue, plus one other topic, and Jason stood beside Dr. Eggman as the Doctor and his team of interdimensional geniuses did all they could, with the dark warrior watching over all the trusted actions.

They each took turns at this post, and each of the four wondered what exactly happened after Chaos Control took place. What happened next was nearly unbelievable, not to mention imperfect timing, as red alerts of several different places went off and screen after screen flashed ‘DANGER’ before revealing distress calls or new events.

As all of this took place, Jason said “No. What are they up to now?!”

/)∞(\

Chapter 5

Tails and Cosmo landed their feet back onto the ground after their romantic moment in the air. After they each spent over a day in the new world they awoke in, the worries for each other that once burdened their thoughts were swept away. When they looked around themselves, Tails’s Ponyville friends gathered to stand around them, feeling just as joyful for them if not more, but one particular pink pony’s eagerness to celebrate seemed to equal if not exceed.

The couple stood in their spot smiling, the last of their happy tears shedding off of their eyes, and their hands held tightly together, but they were both still worn out from the events back home, and Cosmo proved that by nearly collapsing onto her knees. Tails caught her before she hit the ground, and Applejack jumped in to help her back on her feet.

“Thank you,” Cosmo said. “I guess my body’s still tired from everything. I’m surprised it let me go as far as I’ve come.”

“It’s alright,” Tails said to her. “You’re not the only one.”

“I know,” she said to him, and took a closer look at him. What she had to deal with was just a fraction of what he would normally deal with, which made her say “How did you heal so much already? You wouldn’t be this fine unless we had our friends and resources back home.”

He smiled and replied “I was lucky enough to have met some great new friends,” and the two looked at the ponies that stood together before them. “Here, let me introduce them to you.”

He then started to go in the order they saw them, starting with one of the ponies she had already met-

“This is Applejack, who works on a nearby apple farm and makes great food.”

“Mighty nice to meet ya, Miss Cosmo,” greeted the orange mare. “It’s a pleasure to see you’re alright.”

“Next is Rainbow Dash, a fast flyer and a pony who started a search for you.”

“But you can just think of me as what I am – the fastest and best flyer of Equestria,” boasted the cyan pegasus. Cosmo chuckled at how familiar she sounded compared to another fast friend.

“And this is Rarity, who I’ve come to learn as a great dress maker.”

“A pleasure to meet you, darling,” said the white unicorn. Spike stood next to her and looking up with heart-shaped eyes, showing his crush for her and gaining some attention towards himself, which was stopped thanks to some magical displacement of sorts.

“Now here is a real fun-loving friend I met named-”

The pink mare got right in front of Cosmo to say “PINKIE PIE! I’m soooo happy to meet you! I’ve been waiting so long for this, which was only a day, but after hearing all the things Tails has said about you, I’m still soooo happy! I can’t wait until we hang out and have fun, and hang out to have fun!” The introductions went on to the last two ponies.

“This is Fluttershy, who helps take care of animals, and she’s the one who first found me when I arrived here. Apparently I came crashing down from the sky and she was nearby when it happened. If she didn’t I’d still be in the ground nearby.”

The bright yellow pegasus smiled at the Seedrian and said “Oh, I wouldn’t say I did anything too important. I was just there when it happened, but it’s still very nice to meet you, Cosmo.”

“And last but not least is Twilight Sparkle. When she and her friends found me, she managed to use magic to help heal me, and she’s allowed me to stay here to rest since I was found. From what I learned, she’s an expert with magic and helps anybo- I mean, anypony, who needs help from a friend.”

“And you’re indeed one of them, Tails,” the purple alicorn said. She then turned her attention towards their new friend to say “I’m happy to meet you, Cosmo. From what he’s told us about it you, you’re very special, and it’s glad to see that you’ve made it to Ponyville to find him. How did you ever manage to do that anyway?”

Cosmo smiled happily back and replied “It’s a long story, but I just have to say it’s nice to meet you, all of you, and I don’t know where to start thanking you for helping Tails when he needed it. I’ve met others who acted similar to you, but in this world, I can feel there’s something stronger here, and I’m starting to think it comes from you. Princess Celestia was right for me to come here, because what I needed most was here after all.”

She then gave a bow towards Twilight and said “Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess Twilight.”

All the ponies and their resident princess gladly appreciated the thanks their new friend had given them. Tails, on the other hand, stood in his place surprised by what he heard his love just say. Then his mind processed a couple things about Twilight – her taller height, darker coat color, and having a horn and wings, both more abnormal compared to the pegasi and unicorn he already knew – and it began to make some sense.

“Princess Twilight? You’re a princess?” he asked.

“Well, yes, I am, but it’s not that important,” Twilight said.

“Now don’t be so modest about that, Twilight. You really earned being a princess,” Applejack stated.

Pinkie Pie then began to pop up around each pony and non-pony to say “Forget that right now! We have this super-awesome-totally-amazing-wonderful thing going on right here! You know what that means…” She looked around at her friends with a big grin, and they all gave her an agreeing nod. The fox and flower couple weren’t exactly sure what this mean, but their answer came and transitioned quickly into what came next-

TIME TO PARTY!!!!!

/)∞(\

As if by magic, Twilight’s library was decorated with party décor of many balloons, a rainbow of streamers, fallen confetti, a juice bowl and snacks, and a party hat for everyone to wear. The couple couldn’t explain it, but as everyone around them began to act excited and lively, they didn’t care and partook in the fun while a phonograph played some delightful music.

When it came to activities, Pinkie Pie had a piñata for the couple to try to break and various games such ‘pin the tail on the pony,’ along with occasional dancing, but all the attention surrounded Tails and Cosmo most of the time. They all shared conversation amongst each other as they shared memorable tales from romantic moments to true signs of friendship, talking all together later on, but the couple remained physically inseparable the whole time. The party was going late into the night as the fun and enjoyment continued, up until one question in particular was asked.

“And that’s when Princess Celestia told me I was ready to fulfill my destiny, and helped change me into an alicorn and coronated me as a new princess,” Twilight said, concluding a story of more recent history.

Where the ponies enjoyed the fond memories of that event, Tails and Cosmo took it as an incredible fete. “That’s amazing,” Cosmo said. “You must have learned so much to be given such a transformation.”

“Well of course she did. Twilight Sparkle is the most studious pony I’ve ever seen. If there isn’t something she’s learned about or read in a book, she’d go off to do that and still make time for all her friends,” Rarity stated.

“With a little help from Assistant Number One,” Spike added with pride.

Applejack looked over the young dragon to say “And, everypony else who lent a hoof to help.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” the dragon said, feeling as if he was pushed off his little pedestal.

The whole group couldn’t help but laugh a little, but Tails did as he kneeled down to say “I’m sure she couldn’t do much with you, Spike.”

“So tell us more about all your friends from where you’re from… Mobius, was it?” Rainbow Dash said. An earlier conversation focused on many of the couple’s friends from home and some of their adventures there. “There’s a whole city of Seed people just like Cosmo who are actually from another planet?”

“Yes,” Cosmo replied. “My clan, the Seedrians, created a new place to live when Tails, Sonic and everybody invited us to stay on Mobius. It took a while to create it as you’d see it today, but Synthesis, what my mother named it, have lived there peacefully ever since.”

“That sounds wonderful, but why wouldn’t your family want to go back to their home planet?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh, oh, was it because even though they’re plant people, they didn’t take care of their gardening and landscaping so much that the vegetation grew crazy and began to overtake the whole planet?” Pinkie guessed.

Cosmo’s face fell as she answered “No. There was a threat against our people, a war that threatened their existence, so most of my clan fled from there, the planet Greengate, to find a new world to call home.”

“Oh my goodness, that sounds awful. I’m so sorry for asking, it was such a terrible question,” Fluttershy said regretfully.

Tails then replied “It’s alright, Fluttershy. Some things that happened have happened without good reason, and there’s nothing to do that can change history from before we were born.”

“Exactly,” agreed Applejack. “The point is that no matter what happens, a family that sticks together, stays together.”

This made Twilight think about that belief, and it was then when she asked questions that would lead up to the one other- “You said that most of your clan left. What magic did they do to leave? And for those who stayed behind, did you ever hear from them again? Did they make it out alright?”

Neither found it easy to answer the latter questions, but Tails tried his best to do so with the first one. “They didn’t use magic to leave Greengate, because where we’re from we have technology and abilities to travel through space without having to rely on magic. For us, we had our flying fortress called the Blue Typhoon. In fact, it’s where Cosmo and I had some of our most memorable moments together.”

“Golly, that’s sure sounds amazin’. Actual spaceships, adventures in the universe, sounds like something right up Rainbow Dash’s alley, right RD?” Applejack said.

Rainbow’s imagination was getting the better of her as she tried to picture this in her mind. Lost in her own world, her eyes were opened wide as she stared into space and said in a high-pitched tone “That sounds… so… Awesome!”

The princess among the group took a closer look at Cosmo than the others, noticing a sight of despair and trouble. She bravely asked again “What about survivors? Were there any to be found or heard from?”

The Seedrian quietly nodded her head up and down, then began to explain. “There were survivors, but they were no longer my people. They became hungry for power and dominance, and turned themselves into an evil mechanical army known as… The Metarex. They spread across our home galaxy conquering planets and stealing their life source, known as planet eggs. Their mission was to eliminate all animal life and replace it with plant life, a twisted testament of what power our people could possess.”

“What?! That sounds crazy, and I know a thing or two about crazy,” Pinkie stated. Somewhere in the group, another pony, or a little dragon, murmured quietly to themselves “Tell me about it,” which caused both a quiet laugh with Rainbow Dash and a glare from Twilight.

Cosmo then decided to put a more positive look onto the topic by adding “But even with their evil ways, if it wasn’t for that I may have not been able to find a world of so many wonderful new friends that I see as my family, and meet the one who takes care of me more than anyone.

"Our first voyage created beautiful memories for Tails and I, from exploring new places to doing nice things for our friends, and every moment we spent, just us together. A party we threw, the Lake of Love, even times with much peril, they all helped lead to what we have now.”

“That’s right,” agreed Tails, and he wrapped his arm around her back. “Nothing has been able to keep us apart forever, and we’ve been fortunate enough to have that continue for so long.”

“And it looks like that same fortune is still with you, since you’ve both found our way to Equestria,” Rarity stated. “But all that ‘space traveling’ in a big, cold ship, and going off to war, I don’t think I could handle it. Oh but I would love to design crew uniforms and interior design for something like that.”

“I don’t think so. Those Metarex things sounds terrifying,” Fluttershy added, her legs shaking in fear and her face looking terrified.

Rainbow then said “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. They’re here now, so they must’ve kicked their flanks down for the count. Besides, they’d be in that other world and not here for us to worry about, and even if they did, I’m sure we could take them down too. But… I really want to know what kind of awesome stuff that happened!”

“Me Too! Like what kind of parties there are in space!?” Pinkie added, and the two ponies looked at the couple excited and eager to learn more about those adventures.

“Or better yet, the best part of it all,” the cyan pegasus stated. It was at this point that in her state of excited wonder, she asked the one question- “What did you do to stop them from taking over the whole galaxy?!”

This was the most difficult one to be answered, not to mention the hardest one to be asked for the two. Thinking about how to exactly explain it, because there were some factors best left unsaid that really explain the full story, they looked at each other with a mutual agreement. Tails turned to their friends and said “I’m sorry, but we can’t say. You don’t want to know.”

The ponies were confused about this response, but in an attempt to not pry too deeply for information, some asked small questions. “Why is that, Sugarcube? It couldn’t have been so bad,” Applejack said.

“It was,” Tails replied.

“But if you were there together and saw what happened, and you’re here telling us what happened, doesn’t that mean you won?” Pinkie asked.

“We did win that war,” he answered, “but we still lost.”

The ponies looked at each other confused, then Twilight turned to them to say “I’m afraid we don’t understand what you’re saying, but if you’d rather not tell us,…”

“NO Way,” interrupted Rainbow Dash. “Come on, you say you flew across space and fought these Metarex things, but you won’t say how you stopped them from winning a whole war? What could they have possibly done that would make you say you still lost.”

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said to her sternly, “they made it clear that they don’t want to say. Don’t force them to answer. That’s their decision to make.”

Cosmo looked at the alicorn first and said “It’s alright, Twilight. If you want to know, well…”

“Cosmo,” Tails said, looking at her concerned, “you don’t have to tell them. If they’re alright with not knowing…”

She looked back at him and said “It’s alright, Tails. After what they’ve done for you already, it’s the least they deserve I suppose.”

Spike then interjected by saying “Wait a minute! I have an idea that you don’t have to say anything, but you can still tell us.”

He then ran off upstairs to look through one of Twilight’s chests, leaving everyone downstairs confused. When he returned, he had a potion bottle with white liquid inside it, and showed it to them all “Here’s that memory potion Zecora gave you a while back. You can use that to see what happened.”

“I don’t know, Spike. Using that to see what happened is just like forcing Tails and Cosmo to just tell us,” Twilight told him.

“Plus if it’s none of our business, we should just leave it at that,” Rarity added.

“What is this potion you’re talking about?” Cosmo asked.

The princess then explained “A friend of ours, Zecora, gave me this potion to look at events in the past during a predicament that past events actually caused. If I drink it, I can magically be sent back to that day and see everything that took place.”

“And she’s been working on her magic that can allow us to see what she sees, too,” Spike added. “Like the potion, it’s a powerful spell that only alicorns can learn, which can magically link the minds of anypony to share the same sights as one or the other.”

Tails and Cosmo took in this information and began to understand it fairly enough. “So what you’re saying is that you can use that potion to see anything from our past, including that day?” the fox asked.

“Exactly,” Spike replied.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. If this is so bad that they both don’t want to say it, why should we even see it? I don’t want to see anything scary,” Fluttershy said.

“I say we give it a try!” Rainbow Dash said, her anxiousness to know getting the best of her.

“Look,” Twilight said, and sounding very strict, “I won’t do it if Tails and Cosmo don’t want us to know, and I really don’t like the idea of forcing the idea of everypony learning about this with magic that I’ve barely gotten to fully learn myself. It’s not right to just go ahead and use magic to get something that not everypony wants to know. We’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves, not forcing one or the other to do something they’re not comfortable with, so unless we all agree to this unanimously, we won’t do it.”

Silence fell for a few moments, some ashamed by their actions while others just understood her logical reasons. The Seedrian whispered something into her loving fox’s ear, which in turn he looked at her slightly surprised and asked “Are you sure?” She nodded to him, and after a moment to go with what she told him, he said “Twilight, if you’d really like to see what happened, we’ll allow it.”

The princess was surprised to hear this coming from then, so much that she asked “Are you sure? You were so persistent on not telling us just a few minutes ago.”

“Because it’s hard to think about it, but much harder to relive it by telling the story,” Tails said.

“Well,” Twilight said to the two, “if you’re perfectly alright with the idea, then we’ll take a look. Although I feel as if you’ve been put in guilt to letting us know.”

“I agree with Twilight. None of us wanna force y’all to say it’s okay to look at your past,” Applejack spoke.

“Well they’re telling us that it’s okay now, so I say we give it a shot,” Rainbow Dash said next. “You really don’t want to see the epic end of a war in space?! I know I do, and see how these two helped save their world!”

Even Pinkie Pie began to feel some optimism about this, stating “Besides, it could be super fun!” As she said it, she bounced up in the air and landed with an excited look on her face.

The couple, on the other hand, couldn’t say that her enthusiasm would be rewarded as she and Rainbow anticipated. Cosmo looked at them all to give them one last warning. “Please listen- if this potion works as it should, you’ll see the last few events of that long day, and that war. All we can promise you is that you may not expect to see what will you, so I ask you, please look at this with much strength in your hearts.”

The ponies looked at one-another, then thought to themselves. All except for Rainbow, who immediately said “Don’t worry, we’ve dealt with some big things before. We can handle this.”

“Very well then. Cosmo, I will look at these events with just as you asked, as I too am intrigued to see a glimpse of your dimension myself,” Rarity said, making her choice.

One by one, everypony agreed to go through with the spell, even Fluttershy after reassurance from Twilight of how they will be fine as long as they were all together. With some use of dark magic, the alicorn princess activated the potion and enhanced it to work for longer to watch the entire event. She then quickly went through one of her books and located the desired spell of linking her friends’ together mentally with her, and used her magic to activate the spell. Since it was only effectual with ponies, Spike just helped out by holding the potion bottle up so that she could drink from it, but not until she saw everypony, and Tails and Cosmo, were ready to go.

“Alright. Here we go,” Twilight said, and drank nearly all the potion.

/)∞(\

The ponies’ wide open eyes glowed brightly as they magically saw that one day in the home galaxy of Tails, Cosmo and their friends. Every moment from a golden hedgehog saying to use a cannon to shoot him towards a planet-sized enemy, to the transformation and insistence to fire, to the conflict of not doing so and the extra help that came to save the day, to the great evils that intruded and committed the vile act, and the final fight that led to a lonely fox broken down crying. They saw it all from a few different points, and the more they watched the more they couldn’t believe what was happened, but overall, they could feel their hearts breaking.

Their last vision was a blue hedgehog handing a familiar face a white seed and seeing the later collapse in despair, and then the potion wore off and they found themselves back in the library. Each had their own reactions, but it was sadness and crying all the same.

“I-I-I can’t believe all of that. Those th-things, and those m-m-monsters, how could they do such a horrible thing? It was all just… evil!” Rarity said in a saddened tone, but her friend next to her was much more expressive.

“Why that NO GOOD METAL VARMIN! HOW DARE THEY DO THAT! I CAN’T BELIEVE SOMETHIN’ LIKE THAT CAN HAPPEN!” Applejack exclaimed, her rage an outlet for her despair. Rarity wrapped a leg around her, and the two tried to best not to cry, not too hard.

Pinkie Pie turned into her complete opposite, and it showed as her mane and tail turned from puffy to the flattest flat. “I can’t believe that’s all true. There was nothing exciting about seeing that, not even all that gold superpower stuff,” she said, letting tears flow off her face.

As for Fluttershy, she couldn’t say a word. The poor pony never felt sadder, having it show with a most depressing face. She expressed her heartbreak even more as her normally quiet tone ascended in volume in a whine, reaching its climax as she started to cry without control, crouching herself onto the ground with her front hooves covering her face.

“I… I don’t know what to say,” stated Twilight, her heart shattered and her eyes leaking tears.

She looked towards Tails and Cosmo, but her head bowed in sorrow, saying “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. That was tragic, and we had no right to see it. It’s all just… wrong. I’ve never seen anything…” She stopped to notice Spike hugging her in comfort, something she greatly needed.

The last pony to say anything was standing behind her friends the same way their vision in ended- in a state of paralysis, with her jaw dropped and eyes wide open and saddened. Her mind flashed what everypony saw in her eyes over and over again, and she hated it all. For a mare who always puts up a strong front to hide behind when needed, it wouldn’t happen this time, and she was about to show it. The others saw how she acted, and a couple ponies approached her to make sure she was alright.

“Dashie?” Pinkie said, still sounding very sad. “Are you alright? Snap out of it, Dashie.”

“Rainbow, come on. Snap out of it. I know it wasn’t what you asked for, but it’s still the truth,” Twilight said next, poking her side with a hoof.

“I… I… I…” was all the cyan pony could mutter at first. Tails and Cosmo were directly in front of her, and nopony was between her and them. It came to the point when she just snapped back into reality, and dashed between the couple and wrapped a leg around each of them. Hiding her face from them all, she started to gently cry, and she finally began to really speak.

“That was probably the most intense and sad thing I’ve ever seen. No wonder… no wonder you’re so close. You two are freaking superheroes. I shouldn’t have pried into learning about that from you. I’m… I’m sorry.”

Everyone in the room could hear her say that, and the other ponies walked up around the three in agreement with their depressed friend. “We’re all sorry,” Twilight said.

The couple didn’t say anything first, but instead, they both shared small smiles with their pony friends. “It’s alright,” Tails told them, his voice sounding a little choked by emotion. “You’d find out eventually. Besides, you already shared so much with us,…”

“…We felt you deserved to at least know about what happened that changed our lives,” Cosmo followed. “Now that you know, you understand our greatest pain of loss, and to be honest, you seem to be the best for Tails and I to trust and understand it all.”

The entire group then came together, sharing a loving hug between the loving couple, their six new pony friends, and a baby dragon. The hug definitely lifted all of their spirits and helped to heal some of their broken hearts, while quietly crying out their despair help just as much if not more.

When the hug broke, Rainbow Dash was the last to let go, sticking her hoof out towards Tails and said “You’re definitely the toughest guy I know,” a compliment he respected with a fist-bump, or a ‘fist and hoof’-bump, in return.

“And you,” the pegasus pony said towards Cosmo, “are the coolest girl from your world to do what you tried to.” She gave the same hoof-bump gesture, but instead she got a hug from the Seedrian, and returned the caring embrace.

As all the ponies began to smile with newfound happiness, Pinkie Pie’s mane and tail puffed up back to normal, but not solely from being happy. “Wait!” she yelled, sounding very puzzled. “If what happened on that day really happened, and Cosmo, you’re here today after going through what happened that day, how are you actually here today?!”

This was the first time the thought crossed anypony’s minds, and they all began to wonder the same thing. The realization that Cosmo was killed on that day and yet was standing before them alive and well, it made the crazy party pony sound sane, in her own sense to put it. “Pinkie Pie’s right! How is that possible?!” Applejack yelled.

“I don’t know how to even begin thinking about it,” Twilight stated in shock, but then she decided to find out. She turned to their new fox friend and asked “Tails, how is this possible? How is Cosmo here with you, with all of us?”

The couple turned to each other and smiled, this time with happiness regarding another event from their past that would be much more fun to explain about.

“That answer we are more than happy to tell you,” Tails replied. He then began to explain it all with a new story. “You see, this is where our friends, both from our world and interdimensional ones, came together to fix some of the most horrifying damages the Metarex had done towards us. We brought Cosmo back to life, and it’s all thanks to the many people we’ve come to know and participated in the day of Revival, hosted by myself and my friends in the Team JAG Band…”

Author's Notes:

My original plan was to expand this much further with the spell-used flashback, but I wasn't unable to find the right sources to make it to my pleasing. For now, the flashback portion of this is one of my next projects, which in turn will expand this chapter.

Meanwhile: Commotion

“I need a status report of all dimensions! NOW!” Eggman commanded from his seat.

“It’s another simultaneous attack! Jump City was first to be attacked, by the Glorft!” responded Wade.

“And the Kraang and Shredder have started some crime wave back home! They’re trying to break into the city’s vault of most unstable chemicals,” Donatello followed.

“The Earths of the Justice League, Samurai Jack, and the Avatar are all being attacked by teams of Decepticons and Heartless,” Jeremy added.

“And they’re not the rest of the worlds,” said Scattershot. “Multiple reports are still coming in, and search teams have stopped to go fight.”

As alarms across Team JAG Headquarters sounded off, Jason of the Master Four was in the communications center that Dr. Eggman was in charge of during the time as the search for their two missing friends continued on. Throughout the rest of the base, everyone caught alert of this, including those of the Team JAG Band who were together in the main conference room, and especially Ash, Gohan and Yugi.

Many scrambled their way to the dimensional gates to return to their worlds and aide in the good fight, while a selected few, their worlds untargeted as of then, either went to find out what was going on or remained where they were to do so.

“Attention, attention- all Master Four report to the main conference hall at once!” his voice said, echoing through speakers of the entire place thanks to a com-link in the room. He then said to Eggman “Keep an eye on everything that’s going on and instruct those who are in safe areas to stay on high alert,” and began to leave the room with an instant transmission.

Before the warrior could leave, the Doctor said “We should’ve known they’d go this low right now. They must know about our search, but hard to say exactly how. The search, it will have to be-

“I know,” Jason replied. “Wait for further instructions. It shouldn’t be long,” and with that he was gone.

At the conference room, the Master Four were recollected, and to their surprise found their friends and band mates. Jason explained what had happened just a short time ago, and how the list of worlds being attacked grew longer.

“Well it’s clear what we have to do right now,” Ash stated obviously.

“I know, but this whole mess, of all the times to do it, we’ll have to put finding Tails and Cosmo on hold until this is over with,” Gohan said, anger growling in his voice. “The Brotherhood keeps sinking lower, and they don’t care at all.”

“There’s got to be a way to keep the search going at full potential deal with this, but what?” Yugi pondered aloud. “We used every technological resource we have in reach of already.”

Jason’s powers of Darkness began to show with a black aura around him, and his entire eyes turning the same color. “I sliced their heads off with a scythe and it didn’t do a thing. This time, I’ll aim for their cores,” he growled in a tone sounding horrifically evil, but coming from his heart and personality. “I’m tired of this chaos… Chaos…”

“The Chaos Emeralds!” the four yelled together, and thought of a new solution to go about keeping their search strong during these conflicts, and relaying their plan to the friends in the room, and the Doctor shortly after.

“Dr. Eggman, order any contacting soldiers to go fight. You and any others who stay, remain at your posts to continue the search with the interdimensional scans. You’ll be contacted by Mobius soon enough.”

/)∞(\

The empty home of Tails and Cosmo was anything but in their absence. It’s been a few days since the two disappeared, but their home had different guests in it each day and night. On that day was Sonic and his closest circle of friends – Amy, Cream, Cheese, Knuckles, even Chris Thorndyke and Rouge – all of them gathered in the workshop to sit, wait, and look at some of their genius fox friend’s work, from all his aircrafts, to the dimensional gate, even to some new handmade guitars. Sonic still had the blue Chaos Emerald he had since the event, and Knuckles had the yellow emerald he found while recently ‘going out’ with Rouge.

Little did any of them expect the dimensional gate to open a portal, and Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable raced through, to their surprise having found most of who they were looking for already. They quickly explained what was happening, the status of the search, and the plan the Master Four had come up with regarding keeping the search going.

“Use the Chaos Emeralds to scan every galaxy? How do we know that will actually work?” Chris asked.

“It’s worth a shot,” Kim answered. “The Master Four thought of that same thing when the idea came up. They then said about how to use the emeralds’ power to be more of a detector than a scanner.”

“I get what this means. It’s about using Chaos energy to trace to which other dimension Chaos Control could’ve come in contact with, like our world and Chris’s,” Sonic said.

“But Sonic, that’s different. Our worlds were once the same planet that split apart dimensionally. Wouldn’t that mean there’s another world we’re somehow connected with?” Amy asked, pointing out an important fact.

“Amy’s right. This could mean what’s happened before is happening again,” Cream added.

Ron thought of something, quickly, and openly shared it with the others. “Wait a minute, didn’t someone steal the pan-dimensional vortex inducer… again… but wasn’t Drakken or Dementor?”

“Ron, that didn’t actually happen. It was from that comic book you got last Christmas… two weeks ago,” Kim pointed out, her fiancé embarrassing realizing it as truth.

“Listen,” Rouge said in a manner to get everyone’s attention, “we can worry about that later. All we know is Chaos Control happened in a Metarex ship somehow and the two are gone, so let’s just use the emeralds to track them down already?”

“But we’re still short five emeralds, in case you haven’t noticed,” Knuckles said to her.

“Four, actually,” Chris stated. “My grandpa heard from Dr. Eggman that Shadow found one too, so there’s still four to find.”

“But we still have to find them, and who knows how spread out on this planet they are!” Ron yelled, with a slight whining in his tone.

“Then let’s get searching,” Sonic said, and sped off out the open hangar door to try to find another emerald. Fortunately, he had his emerald to help find any others, while everyone else had their com-links with their scanners, and the use of a couple air-able planes to fly with. What they didn’t know was that there were only two emeralds left to be found across the planet, for one was lying in the open field in the center of Synthesis, and another, the green emerald, was already found by the Chaotix.

And what they didn’t know that was far worse, a familiar enemy was standing on Angel Island, looking out at the land and sea of Mobius below, watching, waiting for the right time to strike again.

“All I need is to lure them to the right place, to treat them to a pleasant demise,” said the villainous, evil, emerald-spotting master of the Metarex, Dark Oak.

Chapter 6

The party at Golden Oak Library was a celebration on many levels from joyous to depressing to excitement to lovingly touching. After their new friends from Ponyville had learned about the last day of the Metarex War, Tails and Cosmo told them about the Team JAG Band and a brief summary of the heroic organization where it came from, and the Revival concert with the remaining memory potion showing the ponies the touching moment of Cosmo’s return. Conversations and fun went on later and later into the night until it got so late, they ended up staying up until after dawn, and decided to sleep through the morning together to get at least some rest.

Fortunately for most of them, it was a quiet day without much business to worry about, so they woke up around midday and enjoyed a quick brunch of tomato soup and sandwiches. The two visitors seemed to have finished their meals first, especially Tails who downed it all and drank the soup straight from the bowl like it was water.

“Wow, you must be really, really hungry this morning, Tails,” said Pinkie Pie, who popped up from under the table next to him to look at his empty dishes. “There’s not a crumb or drop left.”

The two-tailed fox laughed at himself, saying “I guess it’s because after everything from last night, I developed a big appetite today.”

“I feel the same way, but you devoured your meal as if you haven’t eaten in a week,” Cosmo joked. She was sitting next to between Tails and Twilight, and turned to the second to say “I’m sorry for his table manners, Twilight. I think he’s developed some eating habits from some old friends.”

“It’s quite alright,” Twilight replied with a smile, then had another spoonful of soup. “Actually, judging by how you two are, I’d say you were both feeling much better and healthier than how you were both found.”

“And much happier too,” Fluttershy added, smiling herself.

After having the last bite of her sandwich and cleaned her mouth with a napkin, Rarity then said “Love is known to heal many wounds after all, and I just love this delicious delicacy we’re having. It’s simply divine and flavorful that ‘heals’ my empty stomach.”

“Darn tootin’ it would,” Applejack said. “That there soup is made from the finest homegrown tomatoes in Ponyville, all natural and picked at the perfect time.”

Just then, a belching sound was heard. Everyone wondered where it came from, and most eyes led themselves towards Rainbow Dash, the only pony who would be so open to do so among her friends. She looked back at all of them and said “Hey, don’t look at me.”

At the same time, Cosmo looked straight at Tails thinking it was him, and with a glare that was read as disappointment. “It wasn’t me either, I swear,” he said, trying to defend himself.

“Twilight!” yelled another voice, with footsteps echoing their way towards the group. Spike had appeared, and he was carrying an armful of scrolls that he sat down in nearby open space.

“Twilight, I think Princess Celestia is starting to send you your things from Canterlot. None of these looked to be messages from her, but I guess that…” He then looked like he was going to burp again, and did so, but to Tails and Cosmo, this was not an ordinary burp, for not only did he show to breathe fire but more scrolls appeared, and a book.

“How did he do that?” Cosmo asked, surprised in wonder, but felt a little weird at the same time.

“It’s a little magic Spike has,” her alicorn friend explained. “Spike has a magical gift to send and receive notes and letters directly with Princess Celestia. It’s how she and I have communicated since I moved here to Ponyville.”

“Yeah,” Spike added, and then belched again to reveal two more books, but be began to not look so well. “But last time she sent this much, it hurt, a lot, and made me very tired, and sick.”

Now Cosmo could only feel sorry for the little guy, thinking how much he helps out his friends and what lengths he goes to to do it. “Don’t you worry about Spikey Wikey,” Rarity told her. “He’ll be fine, and just needs somepony to look over him for a while.”

“So who’s the lucky one to do it?” Rainbow asked.

“I will! I will! I’m great with babysitting, and you can learn that from the Cakes since some ponies didn’t believe me at first,” Pinkie stated, referring back to when she babysat for some very ‘interesting’ twins.

After the little dragon belched a pile of papers that flew all around him, Twilight said “It’s alright, Pinkie, I’ll watch over him. I’ve been meaning to do some research anyway.” She then turned to look at Tails and Cosmo to ask “Why don’t you two go out and explore Ponyville while I work? I won’t be busy for too long and can catch up with you later.”

“Yeah, and we can take turns showing you around at what makes Ponyville so awesome,” Rainbow added. “You can see firsthand at how the fastest pegasus ever does in action.”

Even though they still felt a little fatigue from a couple days ago, the two really wanted to get a closer look around, especially Tails. “That sounds great,” he said happily, “but we wouldn’t want you to spend so much time on us. We wouldn’t want to interfere with your jobs or responsibilities.”

“Think nothin’ of it. We’d be mighty disrespectful for not showing you around ourselves,” Applejack said.

Just then, her eyes widened with a self-realization. “Shoot! I need to get back to the farm and help Big Mac and Granny Smith. Y’all can go on without me, and I’ll catch up like Twi, but right now, I gotta go!” The orange mare then finished the rest of her meal in a flash, thanked for the hospitality, and raced off back home.

“Tails,” Cosmo whispered into her beloved’s ear, “what about finding a way back home? Shouldn’t we focus on that first?”

She had a valid point, but he already knew about this and answered her with “We will, but we should enjoy ourselves at the same time. Besides, they’re being so nice to us, it would feel rude to say no, and I’ll admit that I am interested to seeing more to this world of magical ponies.”

“Alright,” she replied. “I am interested to look around, too.” Her attention then directed towards the ponies as she said “We’d love to see your hometown.”

“Wonderful. I know you’ll just love all the good things there are in Ponyville. In fact, I wonder where we should start,” Fluttershy said, sounding quietly overjoyed.

This caused a contagious wave of ponder to be caught by the other ponies, and openly thought of ideas. With a few moments of pondering, Twilight said “I’ve got the perfect solution,” and told her friends what she thought.

They came to an agreement and set out right after the couple cleaned themselves up a little nicer. When they all left, the purple mare used her magic to bring Spike’s bed down to let him lay in while he regurgitated what was many books and scrolls from her fellow princess. She got him all settled and some water and medicine to take when it was done before beginning to go through some of the books she already was going through the day before, picking up where she left off.

“There’s got to be something here to help them get back home,” she said, mainly speaking her thoughts aloud in concern for her newest friends. “I’m glad they’re happy and trying to enjoy themselves here, but that still doesn’t change that they’re here without knowing how to get home. I also don’t want to feel like I’m forcing myself to find a way to send them back, but why do I feel this way? Am I afraid to lose great new friends who have so much to offer ponykind, not to mention a wonderful new friendship?”

She silenced her thoughts and went back into her books to keep researching, trying to find answers to her questions, which led to thinking if she would be unable to find all the answers in the seeking for.

/)∞(\

Tails and Cosmo followed their friends as they were given a grand tour of Ponyville, a beautiful community full of friendly faces and a harmonic atmosphere easily seen. They saw how the town had wide open spaces and many homes and buildings spread out, occasionally some cluttered close together, all while listening to their pony friends talk about the town. The group soon found themselves walking up to the back of everypony’s favorite confectionery business.

“Hey! It’s Sugarcube Corner!” Pinkie yelled, pointing add it with her hoof. “We really, really, really have to stop here for a snack!”

“I don’t know, Pinkie Pie. We did just eat after all,” Rainbow Dash said.

“I agree. Perhaps we could just step inside to have a look around,” Rarity suggested.

Cosmo said “That sounds more than alright to-“

“WHAT?!” interrupted Pinkie. “And not give these two a true taste of cakey greatness straight from the source?! I say not!”

Before the couple could say a thing, the pink mare pushed them around the building and through the front door. Inside, behind the main counter was the Cake family, who saw the three abruptly enter, followed by the other three mares.

“There you are, Pinkie Pie,” said Mrs. Cake, holding her baby colt Pound Cake in her arm. “We were wondering where you were. Are these two your new friends you told us about?”

“Yes indeedy, Mrs. Cake,” the pink mare replied, and made the introductions between the Cake family to the couple, describing her employers as “the best bakers in Ponyville!”

“We wouldn’t call ourselves that, but that you Pinkie,” Mr. Cake said as his baby filly Pumpkin Cake was on his back. “Would you two like something to eat? We just made a new Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue cake and would love a second opinion for its tastes.”

Not wanting to be rude, Tails answered with “We’d love to try some, thank you,” acting very kind, and still feeling hungry.

/)∞(\

Their stay there was just for half an hour, during which time they tried the cake, which Pinkie nicknamed the ‘MMMM,” along with a couple cupcakes and cookies. The baby twins found themselves being played with by Cosmo and Tails, and loved every moment of it, including playing hide and seek under the fox’s two tails. They all gave the cake a great review, and the group left the shop with a box of various baked goods and candies to share, discovering where they were walking to just as they got out the door.

“Oh look, the market’s open again,” Fluttershy said happily.

“I take it this is a market place where you get most things you need?” Tails asked.

“Yes. Many ponies set up their stands to sell what goods they have such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, tools, just about anything you can think of,” the yellow mare explained. “It’s perfect that we’re here because I need to pick up some carrots for Angel Bunny.”

“Well let’s go into the market then. We wouldn’t want to keep you from getting anything you need,” Cosmo said, and the group decided to do so.

They walked passed a couple stands and the couple saw how well and diverse the market place was, perhaps not seeing such a place since their times at a planet called Marmolin. When they found the carrot vendor for Fluttershy to make a purchase, the others stood and looked around more as Cosmo asked “Does every pony have a stand here?”

Rarity answered her with “Not all ponies, darling, just those who don’t have a store to work out of or sometimes a traveling pony. Nevertheless, it’s the best place for us to find some of the best things we need.”

“Everypony indeed, my dear Rarity. Glad to say there are some friends to see,” said another voice, this one not belonging to anyone in the group. When they all turned their heads they saw a zebra stepping towards them, carrying a saddle bag of purchased goods. “A lovely day to see you again, but who are your two new friends?”

“What’s up Zecora?” Rainbow Dash greeted her, then made the next round of introductions between ponies and Mobians. “That’s Tails and Cosmo, a couple otherworldly friends who got here somehow.”

She then focused on the couple to say “This is Zecora, a real traditional pony who’s great with magic like Twilight. She doesn’t actually live in Ponyville, but somewhere nearby.”

Tails looked at Zecora and said “Nice to meet you. What brings you here?”

The zebra smiled and replied “It is nice to meet you as well, and my reason’s here, I’ll show and tell.” She then showed her saddle bag’s contents to the couple and ponies. “I was low on some herbs and hay, so I decided to come here on this lovely day. If I might say, it’s not often that I do, meet those new such as you.”

“And coming from where Zecora lives, that says a lot,” Pinkie added.

“Well, we’re not exactly from around Equestria,” Cosmo said, and told the zebra a shorter version of the couple’s story of being there. “Our friends have been kind enough to show us around their home. Would you like to join us, perhaps have a treat?”

“Your story seems quite eventful, and surely not forgetful. I would join you in touring strut, but I’m afraid I must return to my hut. I promised some ponies a special brew, which I mustn’t delay to do,” Zecora replied.

“Oh, well we wouldn’t want to keep you held up. We’d feel just awful is we did,” Fluttershy said.

Zecora smile and stated “It was nothing of trouble, but I’d love to learn more of your couple. Feel free to visit me during their stay, and if solutions are needed, I’ll try to help find a way.”

“Thank you, Zecora. It was great to meet you and will try to visit your home soon,” Tails told her, and then pulled a cupcake from the box of treats to share. “Here, have a snack if you’d like.”

“You are truly a most kind kitsune, Tails, and in your quest do I hope no fails. And Cosmo, my dear, your story was intriguing to hear. Thank you all for a nice talk, but it’s time for me to start to walk,” the zebra said, and the group parted ways with her and continued the tour of Ponyville.

/)∞(\

After leaving the market, they strolled down one of the paths that would lead them to town hall. As the two visitors looked around at the town and its lovely décor and architecture, Cosmo’s eyes looked in the direction of a building whose structure stood out more than the others. Intrigued by the sight, she stopped walking for a moment to try to get a better look. When Rarity noticed, she asked “See something in particular, Cosmo?”

“Yes, but it’s not a big deal. I just saw that building over there and wondered what it was,” the Seedrian answered, and pointed towards it.

When the unicorn pony turned to see it, she was most pleased to say “Oh, well that’s my home, dear Cosmo. That’s the Carousel Boutique, where I make all my greatest fashionable attires for ponies to sophisticate themselves when such manners are needed.”

“Oh,” Cosmo said, “well it’s lovely home, even from all the way out here. I can only imagine how nice is it on the inside.”

“It is a charming little place, I can assure you that,” Rarity replied. Her face then lit up with an inspired idea and said “You must definitely go inside it tomorrow and I can show you some of my favorite creations. In fact, I would love to design you some new clothes to wear. That way you wouldn’t have to wear the dress you have on over and over.”

“Really? That’s very generous of you, but I couldn’t ask you to do that. I’ll be just fine in the clothes I have on now,” said the Seedrian.

Just then, she felt a tap on her shoulder and saw Tails, who only took a few steps further away before turning around. He then said “I’m sorry for interrupting, but I think a couple ponies are short on patience up there,” and he pointed towards where the rest of their group where.

“Come on, you snails! We haven’t got all day!” Rainbow called out from the distance.

The three stragglers caught up with the others, who stood out in the open grass that surrounded town hall. Several recognizable ponies were seen around that area such as Miss Cheerilee, who met the couple with a kind welcome. There were Snips and Snails running to somewhere, Thunderlane and a group of pegasi handling their weather jobs, a duo of musicians with near polar opposite backgrounds, even the muscular Bulk Biceps, who was fleeing for his life after a close encounter with a butterfly swarm.

They ran into several different ponies in that time while directions towards other locations, such as Fluttershy’s cottage and a couple town landmarks like the clock tower. A couple hours would pass before they went off to walk and explore the town more when Applejack’s voice was heard coming towards them.

“There y’all are! I was wonderin’ where you’d end up by now,” she called out, but she wasn’t approaching them alone. Meeting together between a close group of houses and the town hospital, the orange mare led herself and her company to her friends and asked “How much of Ponyville have y’all covered already?”

“A whole lot! Well, not all of the lot by checking out every single building and saying hi to every single pony we see, but still a lot!” Pinkie Pie said.

“What she means is we’ve mostly been walking around, making just a few stops and saving others for tomorrow,” Rarity added.

“And how are you two enjoyin' the grand tour of the town?” Applejack asked the two sightseers.

Both smiled as Cosmo replied “It’s such a beautiful community, and has such a traditional tone that echoes through it.”

“Darn tootin’ there, youngin. I was around when Ponyville was not around, and it’s been the same style since it came to be,” said another pony, an elderly one riding in a wagon being pulled by a big red colt.

“Shoot, where are my manners?” the orange mare said. “Tails, Cosmo, this is my brother, Big McIntosh, and dear ol’ Granny Smith.”

“It’s very nice to meet you. Applejack’s told us about your great apple farm, and we’d love to visit it when we can,” Tails said.

Granny Smith took a look at the couple for a moment, and then replied “Well aren’t you two just the cutest couple outside of Equestria. Applejack’s told us all about you and your visit here, hasn’t she Big Mac?”

“Eeyup,” the red colt said.

“So what brings you all into town?” the yellow pegasus asked.

“We needed some new supplies for the farm. Big Mac’s here to haul what Granny Smith’s keen eye spots what’s best we need,” the orange farm mare explained.

“Well we were about to walk towards the east market and the spa. Why don’t you join us?” Rarity suggested.

“Nnope,” Big Mac answered, with Granny Smith immediately following with “We’d love to join y’all, but we’re gettin’ what we need from the hardware store the other way.”

Cosmo then said, with a little disappointment “Oh, that’s alright. It’s a shame we couldn’t learn more about you, though.”

“That’s mighty appreciated, Sugarcube, but there’s always tomorrow,” Applejack said. “I’ll show you around the farm then, but for now I can join y’all for the rest of the tour.”

“Then let’s get moving. I’m eager to see if Rarity can walk past the spa without going in it for once,” Rainbow teased, all the ponies but the white unicorn sharing a little laughter.

Since Tails and Cosmo were still getting to know the ponies more, which the town tour has helped with, they didn’t quite understand the cyan pegasus’s joke, so they just minded themselves for the moment. Afterwards they saw Rarity lead the group with her head pointed up in disgust of the joke, and the others followed after saying goodbye to Applejack’s family. As they walked, Tails told the orange mare “You’re family seems really nice.”

“Thank ya, but I wish I could’ve found the entire family for the two of ya to meet,” she replied.

“Oh? There was a member missing?” Cosmo asked.

Applejack answered “Yep, the sprout of the Apple family. Her name’s Apple Bloom. Couldn’t find her anywhere, so I assumed she was off with her friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders?” the couple asked together.

“They’re a group of fillies who work together to try and discover their cutie marks. But more importantly, they’re the best of friends, just like how the six of us are together,” Fluttershy explained, adding some reference to their missing alicorn friend.

“Sounds like an adventurous little group, much like all of you,” Tails said, thinking of a couple eventful stories that were shared last night.

“Indeed,” Rarity said, “and most of which are little siblings of ours. Apple Bloom is Applejack’s little sister as Sweetie Belle is mine. As for Scootaloo, she really idolizes Rainbow Dash, so she sees her as…”

Her speaking slowed down during the last few words as they walked by the spa, and her eyes locked onto the open door. She never wanted to miss an opportunity to pamper her body, but fought not to at her best to stay with her friends.

Pinkie Pie popped right in front of the unicorn’s face to try to get her attention. “Oh Rarity, anypony in there?” she said as she saw how her friend’s eyes were still locked on the spa. “There’s always other times to get fancy, silly, but only one time to give anybody new a tour of town, so come on! Let’s go!”

“Yeah, Miss Fancy Hooves,” teased Rainbow Dash. “We’ve still got a lot of ground to cover as it is, so let’s not drag the day out longer for you to get a hoof-icure.”

Both Tails and Cosmo couldn’t help but share a quiet chuckle, and they continued on walking away with the rest of the ponies, with Rainbow keeping herself flying in the air, and eventually Rarity who snapped back into her common sense. When she caught up she said “I’m terribly sorry for that. It’s just so hard to resist rejuvenating one’s self so, comfortably.” They all forgave her and held nothing against the actions, and continued the tour through the town’s eastern marketplace, and around a section of clustered homes and buildings.

/)∞(\

They soon saw the hospital and began walking around the other side of the cluster when a couple dark clouds began to hover towards the group.

“That’s strange. There weren’t supposed to be any clouds hovering around today,” the cyan pegasus stated.

“Well you are part of the weather patrol. Perhaps someone missed these when clearing the clouds today?” inquired Rarity.

Cosmo looked at the clouds, then back at Rainbow. She then said “Rainbow Dash, do ponies control the clouds here, or all the weather?”

“Actually, it’s all the weather,” answered not Rainbow, but Tails.

“Twilight told me a lot about the different ponies here, and pegasi are the ones who help control and create all sorts of weather and aerial feats, even rainbows and snowflakes.” He then pointed his finger up towards one of the clouds and added “They can clear clouds right out of the sky when needed, and can let out what they may contain, such as rain, and thunder,-“

What happened next shocked them all, but more specifically the intellectual fox, as a bolt of lightning shot straight out of the cloud he was pointing at and striking right down on him. The electrical bolt surged through his body without notice, leaving him standing still in his place as smoke trails rose off of him. Fortunately he wasn’t in direct contact with Cosmo or the others, so he took it all, but it didn’t leave the shock value any less different.

“Tails! Are you alright?!” Cosmo gasped loudly as she stared at the stunned expression on his face.

Fluttershy wasn’t in her best condition either, the occurrence putting her in a shocked paralysis herself, but not as literal as her friend’s condition. She yelped at what happened, to which Pinkie tried to comfort her by saying “It’s ok, Fluttershy. It was just a teeny-weeny lightning bolt.”

“But-but-but-but-but-“ the yellow pegasus stuttered, unable to speak clearly at first. “But-but-how did it…?”

“How the hay did that go off and happen?” Applejack said, asking the obvious.

“I’m going up there to find out,” Rainbow stated, and dashed her way to the cloud in less than two seconds. Who she found was not a complete surprise among the realization, and expressed herself as both unsurprised and annoyed.

“Derpy?! Are you kidding me?!”

“Hi Rainbow Dash!” the grey pegasus said in a goofy tone of voice. This was not an ordinary pony compared to any other, however, mainly because of her eyes not being properly aligned. “I’m just helping to take care of these clouds. Gotta get them away from here before somepony gets hurt.”

“Well you’re not exactly doing that, if you haven’t noticed,” the cyan pegasus said, giving her a mad stare and pointing her hoof down towards the ground. “In case you weren’t looking, you managed to strike straight down at my friends, and one of them took the hit.”

Derpy poked her head through the now whiter cloud to see Rainbow’s group, and the two-tailed fox still standing in the same position.

“I’m sorry,” she told those below, “I just don’t know what went wrong.”

“Well, it’s alright, my dear Derpy Hooves,” Rarity spoke. “Accidents can happen every now and again after all.”

“Just watch what you’re doin’ before you do it next time, alright?” Applejack suggested.

“No problem, and don’t worry. I’ll get these clouds taken care of right now,” Derpy answered, and gave Cosmo a little demonstration of pegasus abilities as she kicked the cloud she was on into nothing. She was about the kick the other ones, which still had whatever there could be built up inside, and failed to noticed a certain pony still airborne with her.

“Derpy, wait! Stop!” Rainbow cried, but not fast enough as the grey pegasus kicked one cloud, and lightning struck out of its side.

It just slightly missed the cyan mare, but managed to reach and strike a nearby house’s chimney top. After that, the pony bounced on the second cloud to let rain gush out and pour itself all over everyone but Applejack. Rainbow raced over to stop Derpy and yelled “Please stop! Please, just stop!”

Noticing what she did this time, the grey pony bowed her head sadly and sadly said “I’m really sorry, Rainbow Dash. I really don’t know what in the name of Celestia went wrong.”

The cyan pegasus kept herself collected to the best of her abilities and said “It’s cool. Just, don’t do any weather jobs unless I say so, got it?” Her friend nodded sadly and began to fly away, until another voice called out to her.

“Don’t leave yet, come on down!”

The voice came from Tails, who shook his head after that minute of frozen shock, and then shook his whole body up to shake off the feeling the lightning gave him. The pegasus flew down and stood in front of him and Cosmo with a sad look on her face, showing her regret. Even with her eyes the way they are, she got a good enough vision of the two to say “Hey, you’re not from around here, are you? Guess nobody warned you about the weather.”

“Not really, we’re here for a ‘visit’ of sorts,” the fox replied. “I’m Tails, and this is my best friend Cosmo.”

“It’s nice to meet you…” Cosmo began to say, but tried to remember the name Rainbow Dash called her. “…Derpy. That is your name, right?”

Derpy nodded happily at first, and then said “Yes it is. I’m Derpy Hooves. It’s very nice to meet you two, and I’m really sorry about how I struck you with lightning like that.”

“It’s alright. I’ve taken worse,” Tails said to her.

The ponies standing around him had a hard time believing this at first, watching him take the full power of lightning and shake it off as if it was merely nothing. Their mind processed the reality of it while recalling the visions they saw last night, and when the current event and the memories merged, it began to make some sense. Any disbelief that lingered was based from being right there, as a more physical part of the event, than the sights of another dimension’s past.

A couple minutes of conversation passed between the three before the grey pony said “Well it was nice to meet you, but I better be going. I need to deliver some mail before the day’s over.” She then opened her wings and hopped into the air as she said “It’s was great to meet you! I’ll see you all later!” and began to dash off. She managed to fly off towards the town post office without a problem as the others reflected on the time they just spent.

“She was a nice pony,” Cosmo said.

“Yeah, especially when she’s not causing trouble for everypony else, which isn’t too often really,” Pinkie added.

“Sad to say that her mishaps are, well, an often occurrence in these parts,” Applejack followed, feeling some shame in her honesty.

Tails then said “That doesn’t matter to us. She was very kind and respectful, just like all the other ponies we met here today. I have to say, even with that lightning incident, this tour has been wonderful for us. It’s great to see so meet so many new faces, not to mention the sights of your town.

"Thanks a lot for all this, it means a lot to Cosmo and me.”

“You don’t need to thank us,” Fluttershy replied cheerfully, or cheerful to her expressions. “It’s been a pleasure for us.”

“Yeah,” added Rainbow, hovering above the couple. “You’re pretty cool to hang out with anyway. Sooner or later we should get you a sky-high view,…” and paused herself to zigzag around in the sky for a moment before hovering higher up and saying “and show you how it is from my perspective.”

“Flying around, huh?” pondered the two-tailed fox, who then gave his body a little stretch before giving his two tails a spin. He then flew up next to the cyan pegasus and said “I think I’d be up for some sky fun, and maybe Cosmo and I can see what else pegasi can do.”

“So, where should we go next?” Cosmo asked, and then noticed the sun’s position. “It’s getting pretty late in the day. Maybe we can save the sky fun for another day and stick to the ground for the rest of the day?”

The ponies began to think of where was best to go next, and their answer came to them not by mental thought, but physical appearance. “There you are everyone!” called a voice, and running up to them was Twilight. She reached them quickly and said “I hope I haven’t missed too much already. I was thinking we’d go to the café for a snack and…”

Her notice then immediately drew towards Tails, who looked like he had been charred a little on his fur. “What in Equestria happened?”

/)∞(\

Later that evening, somewhere between Cloudsdale and Ponyville, a small pegasus filly was trying to navigate a walk, but she felt very challenged. This was because she was no ordinary filly, for she was blind and could not see in front of her own hooves let alone where on the ground she was. Lines of dried tears decorated her cheeks after much time crying, and she couldn’t help but feel depressed. Taking what she learned about nature from school, her navigation wasn’t completely impossible with the help of moss and where the sun’s warmth was hitting her, but being blind, she couldn’t see something in front of her that forced her to trip over.

There was a moment where she felt pathetic and weak, more than she had ever admitted to anypony, but her body then felt a strange sense of warmth. When using her hoof to find this source, she found that it was from what had tripped her, and judging by the feel of the object, it was a stone with particular edging and shape, like what was described to her of being something called a gemstone. She held the gem, unable to see its purple color and glowing light from its center, and held it close to her as she felt the night air began to drift. Placing the item under her wing, she continued to move on, lost and alone, to wherever she may call a ‘safe’ and ‘new’ home.

Author's Notes:

2 things before anyone goes off about parts of this story-

1. Yes, I had to include Derpy the way she was shown. I loved her scene in the show, regardless of the controversy, and couldn't resist trying to use her. Plus, it's Derpy, so how could I not include her?

2. Yes, there's an OC in this. Yes, she bares a strong resemblance to a certain other character. NO, they're not the same. The reason for this- I enjoy stories that use strong-resembling ancester/descender characters, and decided to implement that here

Meanwhile: Function

Interdimensional conflict was the specialty of all those connected with Team JAG, sharing the common ground of peaceful existence for all those sentient and innocent. Unfortunately, simultaneous battles done so by the Brotherhood of Darkness has not only called the attention for any and all available heroes and allies, but cutting the search efforts for the missing Tails and Cosmo down a severe percentage. The leaders of the heroic syndicate, the Master Four, had come up with a plan to help the search more while each battle in each different dimension took place, involving the seven Chaos Emeralds.

Sonic and his friends had three in their possession, soon four after meeting with the Chaotix trio. Hours would pass until the word of the emerald search spread its way to Synthesis, and a total of six emeralds were collected together at the Seedrian utopia. Waiting on a few straggling searchers to return with an update on the last emerald, everyone else discussed the progress that was made.

“I don’t think I’ve ever worked so fast to find the Chaos Emeralds before,” Amy said, sounding slightly tired in her voice.

“Me neither,” Cream added with a long yawn to follow. Many of Team Sonic stayed up as long as they could to keep searching, anything if it meant finding their missing friends. “With all the emeralds, we may have the chance to find Tails and Cosmo.”

“Here’s to hoping, Creamy,” Vector said, and showed her his fingers crossed for good luck. He then whispered to his team of sleuths “I can’t believe we got roped into this. I haven’t slept in a full day.”

“We got roped into this after you offered our services, and with a 99% discount,” Charmy pointed out.

Espio didn’t respond at all, just sitting on the floor in sleep meditation, thinking about how much of a pain his fellow detectives could be at times, but always try to have their best interests at heart.

Knuckles, standing closest to the emeralds with his arms crossed, openly thought “What’s taking those two so long? You’d think at their speed that they’d be back by now.”

“They still had a lot of ground to cover that was never checked out yet, and that was as far as the other side of the planet,” stated Maria. “Sonic and Shadow are doing the best they can, and they’re the best to try and find the last emerald right now.”

“Hate to argue with you about that, but superfast feet doesn’t guarantee an easy hunting trip,” Rouge said, “but who knows. Both of those boys have done things like this before, so let’s see them pull it off again.”

Standing a distance away from the group, Earthia, the leader of the Seedrians, stood out in the open field and looked out towards the direction of her missing daughter’s home. All she has done since the occurrence was try to lead her people to the best of her abilities, and having them help in the search efforts for the emeralds, and the couple they all were searching so hard for. At the same time, her behavior was different and more direct than other times, and given the circumstances at hand, her people just respectfully obeyed.

Kim Possible, who was staying at Synthesis with her fiancé Ron to help in any way possible, stayed close to keep the Seedrian leader company. Allowing so much silence to pass, one of them finally spoke up.

“You know she’s faced much worse than being lost. I’m sure Cosmo and Tails are fine,” Kim said.

“That is all I hope for,” Earthia said in return, not making eye contact. “It is not the first time my daughter has gone somewhere without a choice, but it is still unfair for her.”

“We all know that too,” the Middleton icon replied, and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Earthia, she’s accomplished so much since the first war with the Metarex. We all have.”

“But will it ever end, at least for longer than just a matter of months, or weeks, or days? Dr. Eggman was correct after the second war, for as long as the Brotherhood is out there, who knows what might happen next,” the Seedrian leader stated sadly.

Kim tried to think of the best response she could, but all she could say was “That’s why we’re here.”

Two trails of color could be seen coming from two distances, one blue and one black with small traces of red. Finally returning to Synthesis were Sonic and Shadow after searching across all corners of the planet for the remaining emerald. They both returned at the same time, greeted with hopeful expectations that their mission was accomplished. “Alright, you guys are back,” Ron said enthusiastically. “Where’s the last emerald?”

“I couldn’t find it anywhere,” Shadow replied, “even after trying to sense Chaos energy, and checking the Doctor’s base, just in case. But there was no sign of it at all.”

“At least you tried, Shadow. I’m happy that you did all you could,” Maria said to him, trying to put positivity into him.

Everyone’s attention then turned to Sonic with hope he had what they needed. His expression, however, was far from what they expected, for instead he crossed his arms and showed a concerned look. “Sonic,” Amy said to him, “please tell us found the Chaos Emerald. Please tell us…”

“I’m sorry Amy, but I didn’t,” he answered. “I searched as high and low as I could, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. If we all tried, and Shadow and I tried our best everywhere on top of it, then that tells me…”

“The Chaos Emerald is not on Mobius,” interrupted Earthia.

This thought began to bother them all the same as it had the hedgehogs. Having nearly all the emeralds in their possession, but only one still alludes them, and they began to fear the worst. “You don’t think the Metarex somehow still have it, do you?” Cream stated, asking the big question on their minds.

“It’s a possibility, but I hope that’s not the case,” Kim said next. “There’s been no signs of the Metarex since the battle, but I would believe that what happened to Tails and Cosmo almost happened to them, given what I know about Chaos Control.”

“Well what we all know is that after Chaos Control, the seven emeralds disperse to seven different places, and wait until whoever finds them takes them. So if it’s not here or with Dark Oak, then where could it have gone to?” Knuckles asked.

“You got me, Knuckie, but wherever it is, I bet it couldn’t have gotten too far away,” Rouge stated.

“I hope so. Without it, we can’t use the complete power of the emeralds to power the scanner," Chris added. Silence fell for a couple moments as the others thought about what to do next, and he spoke again by saying “Perhaps it’s best to take the emeralds to Team JAG Headquarters and have Dr. Eggman use them while we still try to find the last one. That way some of the energy will be used.”

“That’s probably the best way to go,” Espio said in agreement.

“Right,” Sonic said, agreeing as well. “Why don’t you go and take care of that, Chris, while we figure out what to do next here?”

Chris agreed to do so, and was offered to use the dimensional gate Synthesis had by Earthia, so he left through that. For now, none of them knew what to do next, after all the effort they’ve put into finding the emeralds already and have run out of their best ideas to try and find the last one. The questions that flooded their consciousnesses made them ask themselves-

What happened to the last Chaos Emerald? Without it, could the remaining emeralds power the interdimensional scanner well enough for its current use as other worlds fought numerous battles? What if the emerald… wasn’t on Mobius? And to their surprise, why was Mobius seemingly peaceful as multiple dimensions were under attack?

They couldn’t answer all their questions, but hiding himself on the planet, Dark Oak would shed them of what ‘peace’ they had, still waiting for just the right moment…

Chapter 7

Tails and Cosmo enjoyed the wonderful tour of Ponyville the Mane 6 shared to show them, seeing several different places and many, many new ponies to meet. When Twilight finally joined, the rest of the day was spent casually as they all enjoyed dinner at the café, dispersing to their homes after that, and turning in when the night came, nothing unordinary for anypony or anybody. Their royal friend insisted that the couple would stay with her for the duration of their visit, and they gratefully accepted, sharing her spare bed set up by Spike and Twilight’s beds. It was the first quiet night any of them had since the couple’s arrival to Equestria, and it felt to have gone by very fast, even with sleeping through the entire night.

Just as the sun cracked over the horizon, the purple mare and baby dragon woke up with yawns and adjusted their eyes to see, but the spare bed was empty.

“Huh? Where did Tails and Cosmo go?” Twilight said.

Little to her knowledge was how the two woke up a little while before them, with Cosmo getting out of bed first and Tails noticing her walk down the bedroom steps. He got up and followed her, joining her on the upper balcony to watch the sun rise.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Just like from back home,” Cosmo stated.

“Yes, and it is,” Tails agreed. As happy as they were with where they found themselves and how they’ve been treated, their way back home still being unknown bothered them. “I hope the others are doing alright.”

“So do I. They must be worried sick about us. Amy, Cream, Maria,… Mother,…” she said, sounding sad.

“I’m sure they are. I bet Knuckles said something without thinking by now and is arguing with Rouge or Sonic about it,” he said jokingly, and it worked as the two shared a little laugh together. “Still, I think they’re trying to figure this all out from their end. It was Chaos Control that brought us here, but they’d still have to figure out where we’ve gone, and how to find us.”

“If only we could find a way to reach out to them, just to let them know we’re alright while we figure out a way back home,” she said.

Nodding once, he replied “I know. Even if I knew how to open a dimensional portal with just energy, there’s no telling where it could lead to. For now, we just have to do the best we can.”

“Tails,” Cosmo said, sounding worried, “do you think we’ll ever see them all again? Do you think, we might never be able to get back home?”

“Cosmo,” Tails answered, sounding strong, “I promise that we’ll find a way back. Somehow, someday, we’ll get back to Mobius, and I’m sure we’ll find it with the help we’ve found here. When that day comes, and it will be soon, we’ll make sure our worlds remain connected, and return the friendship the ponies have given us, and more.”

Little to their notice, Twilight and Spike were standing a few feet from the open door of the balcony. They didn’t fully approve of eavesdropping, but a small exception could be made with this case. “I don’t know how we will, but we will help you two out,” the purple alicorn thought to herself. “That’s a promise I’ll keep for you, just as I would for any friend.”

She then turned to her faithful assistant and said “Spike, get me every book I have involving magical portals, alternate dimensions, and space-time theories.”

“Will do,” he said, giving a salute, and ran off to gather every book he could.

/)∞(\

The princess immediately went to further her research to help her new friends, doing all she could to put together the best solution possible. When Tails and Cosmo saw her back to work, they offered to help in any way other than research, given that they were unable to read and recognize most of the Equestrian script, but all that she could suggest was provide information when needed.
The morning went on in such a manner, with a nice omelet breakfast Spike cooked up, taking a turn of change when a knocking was heard at the front door.

Rarity had quickly stopped by to bring Cosmo over to her boutique and design some new clothes for her as promised, and although she extended the offer for Tails to come as well, he chose to decline.

“I’m sorry Rarity, but I’m going to stay with Twilight. Her research may need for information and knowledge to figure things out for me and Cosmo to get back home, and I need to focus on that,” he told her.

“But of course,” the white unicorn replied. “Well, hopefully I’ll get you to come by. I’d love to design something new for you as well.” She then turned to Cosmo to say “Shall we get going now?”

“Sure, but just a moment please,” Cosmo answered, and stepped up to her loved one to say in a sweet tone “I’ll see you later, okay?” She then gave him a kiss on his cheek, brushing her finger through his muzzle as she stepped away.

“Have fun,” he said to her, and the two’s eyes were locked on each other up until she and Rarity had walked out of the library. Turning back to Twilight, he said “Alright, now where were we?”

“Let’s see… I believe we were on parallel dimensions and universal theories,” Twilight stated, then checked with her best assistant to confirm. “Is that correct, Spike?”

Looking down at notes he was taking to keep records of all information that was shared between those of the two worlds, he nodded and replied “Yep. Last thing I have here is ‘Mobius and Earth’ from Cosmo.”

“That’s right. Now what were you two saying about Mobius and this Earth place, Tails?” the purple alicorn asked.

Tails explained about the history with his home world and the one of a world he had recently revisited, the Earth of Station Square. Further discussion and research led them both to believe that these two worlds being connected in a similar manner looked unlikely, so their efforts went into other directions.

Boiling points came close, but surfaced when after going through nearly every book possible, Twilight growled a loud “UGH! None of these tell us anything!”

“Our two worlds have their own theories and facts, but barely anything piece together,” Tails added, with a sliver of disgruntlement in his voice. “All we can say is that Cosmo and I coming here was as random as you could think. If Equestria and Mobius are in parallel dimensions, then there would be a connection easier to be seen.”

“This is become almost too unbelievable, but the two of you being here is all the proof there is to show for me to believe it all. What other way is there to find a solution if nothing we know can work?” the alicorn ranted, bowing her head and feeling defeated.

“I’m sorry.”

The two tried to calm down as he stepped up to place a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not your fault, Twilight. I have plenty of experience of different worlds having different knowledge and how to function most things, and this is no different. It’s just difficult to take in when you don’t know what to do, but I can tell from you and your friends, like how my friends and I are, that we won’t stop and give up.”

This lifted her spirit some, and she turned over to face him and say “Thanks for that, but we still have to try and figure out something. There has to be another direction we can try.”

“I agree, but where else in Equestria can we find any more useful help?” he asked. “Is there another place we can go, or another pony we can ask?”

The two thought quietly for a few moments before Twilight had a stroke of brilliance and hope. “Zecora! Of course, she knows a lot of magic from outside of Equestria. She can help us out.”

“Oh yeah, your zebra friend we met yesterday,” Tails said, thinking back to his and Cosmo’s tour of Ponyville and meeting her. “Where can we find her?”

“Well,” Twilight responded, “she lives over in the Everfree Forest.” Her tone wasn’t exactly comforting, and he was confused about that, asking if there was a problem. She said “I’ll explain on the way, but Everfree Forest is a very ‘different’ area of Equestria.”

The two then left the library to make their way into the forest.

/)∞(\

Meanwhile, Cosmo was led by Rarity to Carousel Boutique, the premiere fashion place of Ponyville, and was immediately given a quick tour. The two made their way upstairs to the pony’s bedroom/workspace, where a white cat named Opalescence rested on some fabric on the ground.

“Well, that’s basically the entire tour,” Rarity said after a look around the room, “so let’s now talk about your new attire.”

“I really appreciate the idea, Rarity, but I couldn’t ask you to do something like that for me,” Cosmo said, but before she could say anything more, she was put in the center of the room as her pony friend began to work.

“Oh think nothing of it, dear Cosmo. I’m always pleased to make new outfits, especially for friends like you,” the unicorn said.

Using her magic, she used a measuring tape to measure Cosmo’s figure – her height, limbs, curves, everything – while also levitating a quill to take notes. “Why don’t you tell me more about yourself and where you’re from? You said the other night you were… oh, what was it… a Seedrian?”

“That’s right,” she confirmed. “The Seedrians are a special species of plant who solely wish to live in harmony with all life plant and animal. My mother is the leader of our race, and their city of Synthesis back on my world.”

“How fascinating,” Rarity said as she kept working. “I must say I’ve never seen living plants such as yourself, so kind and gentle. Any relation to it includes ones that are dangerous and threatening. You must have a better understanding of peaceful living.”

“I suppose you can say that. The Seedrians have a stronger connection with vegetative species than anyone else from our galaxy, because we can sympathize and understand them, being like them ourselves,” Cosmo added.

“You mean you can communicate with plant life? My goodness, you are quite special, aren’t you?” the white unicorn said. She took a few more measurements of Cosmo’s head, waist and feet before looking over all her notes. “Now you must tell me about that wonderful special someone of yours, Tails. How did you two become such a close item?”

Both Cosmo and Tails had shared stories of each other with the ponies, but the most detailed they went into the events of the Metarex War focused on the war itself, and not so much of the better moments. “Well, you know that it was after when I found him and our friends from Mobius to warn them about the Metarex, correct?”

“Yes, and you also said that you two had your moments that brought you closer together,” Rarity stated.

Cosmo nodded, and explained “That’s right. We spent time together at some points during the start of the voyage, but it was when we were at a world that was already deprived of the life it once had. We were trapped underground when on a search, but after exploring we found an enemy factory there and managed to shut it down. It was the first time he personally give me confidence and better understanding of things I only knew as legends. But I think it was a little while after that, when he helped me prepare a party.”

All of a sudden, Pinkie Pie’s head popped through the room’s window as she exclaimed “DID SOMEONE SAY PARTY?!”

Rarity was shocked but only enough for being used to Pinkie being who she was, but Opal jumped into the air and clawed onto the ceiling, Cosmo was scared enough to be put in small panic. The unicorn turned to the pink mare to say “Sorry, Pinkie Pie, there’s no party here, just conversation.”

The party pony then replied “Okie dokie lokie!” and left, closing the window behind her.

Seeing how Cosmo still was, Rarity calmed her down by saying “I’m terribly sorry about that. It’s never a party in Ponyville without Pinkie Pie involved. Come now, why don’t you keep talking about your falling in love with Tails?”

Shaking off her shock, Cosmo said “Of course… Well, we were halfway through the war, and I wanted to thank everyone for all they’ve done, so I decided to throw them a surprise party.” She paused and looked out the window to see if Pinkie would pop in again.

“Tails discovered my surprise and offered to help me, so with him and a few others we put together the rest of the party. I thanked him for helping me, and I remember him saying word for word ‘You don’t have to thank me, Cosmo. I like being with you,’ and I liked it too, us working and being together. Later on, he gave me a special flower pendant of mine which he polished it with a beautiful shine, and we spent most of our time together since.”

“Oh that is just adorable, my dear,” Rarity said, enjoying this story the more it was told. She then used her magic to pull out a variety of working materials to make new outfits, but not before taking blank paper and a pencil to sketch out some of her ideas. Trying to sound gentle with her choice of words, she then asked “Before that awful tragedy that took place, were there any moments that, shall we say, sealed the deal for you two? What made you decide he was the one for you?”

“There’s quite a few really, all of them wonderful,” Cosmo replied, “but I suppose it was ‘sealed’ on a planet we visited called Marmolim, a world of magic remedies and love spells.”

“Love spells, you say? It doesn’t sound to me that you or him would use such magic,” the unicorn stated.

“Well, in our defense, it wasn’t a willful choice,” said the Seedrain, and further explained herself. “During our time there, I was given a dark prediction of my future, which led me into many disbeliefs. It was thanks to my friends that I regained some inner strength, even pointed out how Tails and I were ‘close,’ but at one point, it was Tails who told me how special I was, and we accidentally tripped into a love trap that activated a powerful love spell that would join us together forever.”

“Is that so? Who was the trap initially for?” Rarity asked.

Cosmo replied with “It’s a long story, but I’ll explain that to you sometime.” She paused for a moment before continuing with “Love spell or no spell, we sat together in each other’s arms, looking out at a wonderfully lit full moon, feeling happy and peaceful. I never felt so close to anyone before him, and it felt… it all felt right, like there was nothing to fear when we had each other by our sides. It proved to be true again and again after that, and at one point up to… well, you already know.”

The more she listened, the more Rarity fell in love with the story, from its description to how Cosmo’s tone of voice made it sound so important. She fought herself back from letting tears form, trying to be the lady of class she makes herself to be, hiding her face behind the paper she was drawing on.

“My goodness, I’ve heard and seen tales of love before, even with our Princess of Love, but that… that was just so touching,” she said, sniffling a little before moving the paper from in front of her. “After hearing this, I must design you both outfits that will leave you speechless.”

“You don’t have to…” Cosmo tried to say, but the unicorn interrupted her by stating “Not another word, Cosmo. I insist that I make for you the best attire my artistic abilities can create, and I never take ‘No’ for an answer. I might be short the measurements of your darling fox, but once I get those, I already have ideas in mind for him, and as for you…” She then showed Cosmo her drawn-visions of the initial design.

“My goodness, that looks phenomenal,” said the Seedrian, seeing all the detail her friend had put into just the design. “I understand you won’t accept my refusal, but you don’t have to do so much like that for me. It’s too ungrateful for me to accept this without doing anything in return.”

Rarity hummed a chuckle and replied “Sorry, but you can’t talk me out of it. And you both don’t need to worry about doing anything for me. It’s always a pleasure to create new ensembles, and for you two, I’ll make sure you look like a prince and princess…” She then stopped talking, her mind rushing and eyes wide open, striking new brilliance as she said aloud “Idea!” Using magic again, she began to draw two new designs, and beginning to work with the fabrics and materials to piece together a brand new outfit.

“Cosmo, I assure you that you’re going to love this new one-of-a-kind masterpiece, and so will Tails,” she said, but after looking back at her friend again, she ceased continuing to look at Cosmo’s chest. Resting there was a beautifully colored gem, one she’s never seen before, although having seeing it since meeting Cosmo. This time, she looked at the gem more carefully and its details. “If I may ask another question, Cosmo, where did you get such a magnificent gem such as that?”

“My Seedrian Spirit Stone?” Cosmo asked to confirm. “It was a special gift from my mother, during the fourth anniversary celebration back home,” and she went on to tell the gem’s story, and its importance.

/)∞(\

Taking their time with a walk through the Everfree Forest, Tails and Twilight were getting close to Zecora’s home with hopes that the zebra could be of any help in their mission. Since exiting Ponyville, the princess began to explain about the forest’s dangers and abnormalities, from how the environment acts to what dwells within it, such as the timberwolves and cockatrice. Their conversation soon brought up the topic of the former Castle of the Two Pony Sisters, and for the matter, the roles of the two princesses themselves.

“So this forest used to be their home? Why would they have a castle in a place like this if it has so many threats?” Tails asked.

“Nopony really knows, but it’s believed that this forest wasn’t always how it is today,” Twilight answered. “When Princess Celestia and Princess Luna came to power, many things changed in Equestria, all for the better and greater balance, just as they bring us day and night.”

“What do you mean by bringing day and night?” the fox asked. “I thought they rose and set on their own.”

“Nope. Princess Celestia is the lead ruler of Equestria, who raises and lowers the sun every day. Her sister, Princess Luna, is the princess of night, so she raises and lowers the moon, brings out the stars, and looks over everypony in their sleep,” the alicorn explained.

“Interesting,” he said, thinking of how different this world was, and also, how balanced with magic it has shown to be. He then said “All other worlds where I’m from have planets that revolve around suns on their own, and moons that revolve around them. I’ve never known a world where magic controls it.”

“Well, now you do. Maybe you’ll have the opportunity to meet the princesses like Cosmo did,” Twilight said with a grin, with Tails smiling back in agreement.

He then asked “It sounds like that your princesses have been around much longer than most ponies. How long have they actually ruled over Equestria?”

This was a question with a very particular answer, considering how much history it would cover. “Well, Celestia has ruled much longer than Luna, mainly because of her, to be put it, absence after a disagreement over a thousand years ago. You see, Luna became the evil Nightmare Moon, whose mission was to bring everlasting night and shun the sun as she believed Equestrians shunned her night. Celestia used the only magical force powerful enough to stop her – the Elements of Harmony, which banished Nightmare Moon into the moon until she escaped when I met all my friends in Ponyville.”

Tails took all this in and tried to best understand it all. “That’s insane,” he said at first, not really knowing how to respond to it at all. “How did she turn into a villain in the first place, and for that matter, what made her herself again?”

“Princess Celestia has told me that it was the hate that took over Luna’s heart and made her what she became, but like how the banishment was done, my friends and I harnessed the Elements of Harmony to return Nightmare Moon back into Princess Luna, and she’s returned to her royal place since,” the alicorn explained.

They then found themselves standing in front of a homelike structure, with tribal items surrounding it, which Twilight pointed out as Zecora’s home. Tails still had some questions regarding Nightmare Moon, and these Elements of Harmony that were mentioned, but that would have to wait a little while. The two approached the door and knocked on it, and just a moment later, their zebra friend opened it with a delighted face.

“Princess Twilight, a pleasure to see you, and I see you’ve brought Tails, too,” she greeted them.

“Good day to you too, Zecora,” Twilight said in return. “We hope you don’t mind, but we were wondering if you could help us out with some information for our research.”

“A quest for knowledge that you search for? Please come in and tell me more,” Zecora said, and welcomed the two into her home.

She brewed some tea for them all to drink as Tails and Twilight took turns explaining about the efforts being done to open a dimensional path between the ponies’ world, and Tails and Cosmo’s. Where he explained about he and his beloved were unintentionally sent to Equestria without a known way back, she added what information they had gone through in Ponyville and how barely anything meshes together.

“That’s why we decided to come out to you. Twilight has told me that you know magic from your homeland that differs from magic most ponies here know, and maybe you could help us somehow,” Tails said, concluding the two’s explanations.

“Hmmm,” hummed the zebra, thinking deeply. “A magical path to new places and to encounter new faces, a very difficult spell that not many could show and tell.”

“Does that mean that spells like that are unlikely possible?” Twilight asked.

“It is not that easy, your highness, to have the right answer to confess,” Zecora replied, then used her hoof to show them all the various ingredients and resources she works with for her magic. “I have learned many tricks to cast the spells I need, but even all of this can serve any sort of deed. To travel between worlds is not one too known, but something that magical ponies like alicorns have shown.”

“We have?” the purple alicorn wondered.

The fox looked at his friend, seeing how she looked as lost as him. He turned to Zecora to say “From what I’ve learned about alicorns they possess the strongest magic, but there was nothing we found so far that suggested them traveling between dimensions.”

After a sip from her cup, the zebra said “Perhaps not found in any book, but let’s use examples for a closer look.”

“Examples…” Twilight muttered, and tried to think of anything of the sort to explain. “Well there is the teleportation spell. I began to use it better since first moving to Ponyville, starting by sending myself from one spot to another, eventually using it as far as having Spike run in a continuous loop.”

“That’s right. You mentioned that story at the party the other night, having him run on and on to clean a kiss off his cheek,” the fox stated, the group having a little laugh.

She then went on to say “One of the first books I was using for research was one about basic teleportation spells that taught me how to do it, but it only gave the instructions and results of doing it.”

“Twilight Sparkle, look closer into how the spell is done, and how exactly you magically run,” Zecora stated. “Between going and coming, there’s a delay, is that safe to say?” She thought about that, and then nodded yes. “It is only a belief that I can mention, that you then travel through another dimension.”

Both Tails and Twilight’s opened wide as they said together “Really?!”

The zebra nodded and continued to say “Something I’ve learned in my magical ways, is that spells have much to say. You may learn how so much is done, but knowing all that happens is close to none.” She then stepped over to her cauldron, luring the two over with a special dust she used to cast a viewable insight from the brew inside. “As I said before, my words are opinion and nothing more.”

“But it’s still possible to accomplish a portal spell?” Twilight asked.

Zecora directed their attention into the cauldron, showing images of their desired mission and what was mentioned thus far in their conversation. “The magic you seek is not out of grasp, but is a very challenging task. The world in between here and there, you must travel through if you dare. To find your path, and make it last, you’ll need to connect the two realms, perhaps fast.”

She paused from talking, as she thought carefully of what to say next. Feeling the need to know whatever he could get out of her, Tails said “Even if that’s possible, how can it be done? I mean Cosmo and me, we have abilities that we could use, but I’m not sure how useful they can actually be in this case.”

“Tails, my friend, what you need to find home, is in Equestria, either at still or in roam. For you and Cosmo to find your way back, you will need Princess Twilight, and one thing you lack. The key you need and be dimensionally freed, comes from the world that houses you, that of which is all I’m sure is true,” Zecora answered.

“I think I get it- to get them back home, we need to find something from Mobius, that Tails and Cosmo would know, and use that with my magic to open a new way to travel – a new teleportation spell,” Twilight said, hoping she had reached the right realization.

They all continued in conversation for a while longer, both of the matter at hand and other more recreational topics. After so long, the two thanked Zecora for her help and decided it was time to leave, and seeing how late in the day it had become, decided it was time to return to Ponyville.

“I think that sometime tomorrow or the next day I should bring both of you back out this way. If you’d like to know more about things here, and perhaps figure out what we can do with what Zecora informed us with, we can visit the old castle and Tree of Harmony.”

“Of course,” Tails replied, but in his mind he thought many theories and questions, a couple of which included “The Tree of Harmony, and the old castle? Will they be any help either? What else from home could have come here with us? There’s been no sign of anything.”

/)∞(\

In the evening hours of the day, a hungry and tired filly was making her way towards wherever her hooves could take her. This little pony had no idea where she was, and the fact that she was blind was not helpful to her traveling at all. In fact, she was surprised by herself just how far she believed to have traveled and low long she’s been going on. All she had on her was a gemstone she found the night before, keeping her warm as she trekked on during the day, until little did she know that she began to walk into an orchard.

“There are so many trees here,” she said quietly and to herself, after having bumped into quite a few. “I wonder where exactly I’ve…”

She then accidentally bumped into a tree headfirst, and little did she know was that it was an apple tree, and three apples came down and struck her head one by one. Already being exhausted and fatigued from traveling so much without anything to even eat, the third apple to hit her made her so dizzy that she collapsed right there on the ground. Little did she know was that she wasn’t the only filly in the area.

/)∞(\

In a more private area of Sweet Apple Acres was a little clubhouse that served as a special headquarters of three little fillies – a yellow earth pony named Apple Bloom, a white unicorn called Sweetie Belle, and an orange pegasus known as Scootaloo. These three fillies were best friends, and members of their own ‘secret’ society known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who would work together to earn their ‘blank flanks’ their cutie marks and discover their special talents.

Tonight was a night of a special mission – a sleepover in their clubhouse where they’d try a couple night-oriented ideas. Being close to the Apple family’s barn, their families agreed to allow them to do this without constant supervision, and Applejack last checking on them just a few minutes ago before going to bed herself. The three fillies, eager to get things started, prepared for the night ahead of them.

“Alright, Cutie Mark Crusaders, let’s get our nighttime mission started,” Apple Bloom said, holding up a small checklist in her hoof. “Now let’s see if we have all the things we need- Pillows and sleeping bags…”

“Check,” answered Sweetie Belle.

“…Flashlights and lantern…”

“Check,” Scootaloo answered.

“…Snacks, drinks, first aid kit, and backup snacks, drinks and first aid kit…”

“Check,” the two ponies answered.

“And lastly… our capes, blankets, and list of ideas… Check,” Apple Bloom concluded. “Alright, we got everythin’ we need. So what do you want to do first?”

The three fillies thought about their options for a couple seconds, but Scootaloo was first to suggest “How about we try to earn our cutie marks in star watching?”

“You mean astronomy,” Sweetie Belle pointed out, defining the idea by its scientific label.

“Yeah that,” the orange pegasus stated. “You really are a dictionary, aren’t you?”

Before an argument would start, Apple Bloom said “Sounds like a great idea to me. Let’s do it!” She then led them up to the highest room of the clubhouse that held their telescope, where an astronomy book they borrowed from the library yesterday waited for them to use as a reference guide. Once they got up there, the yellow filly stated “Alright, let’s start our new mission,” and the three yelled together-

“Cutie Mark Crusaders Astronomers Are GO!”

They immediately opened the book and Sweetie Belle took the first turn looking through the telescope. Fortunately for them the skies were all clear, showing nothing but the endless stars to be seen, and nothing out of the ordinary for that matter.

/)∞(\

Over an hour would pass, the three fillies taking turns looking towards the stars, running out for snacks, or identifying what constellations they saw, which they already knew and learned about from their sisters and friends. As Sweetie Belle was looking in the book and Apple Bloom out the opening for the telescope, Scootaloo was having her turn looking through the telescope up at her stars, with her patience running low.

“This is getting us nowhere! There’s nothing going on up there!” she complained.

“I think you’re right,” sighed the yellow filly. “The stars are nice, and they are twinklin’ like always, but there’s nothin’ interestin’ for us to discover.”

After having a little yawn of boredom, the little white unicorn looked into the book and said “Maybe if we try to look for something in particular, like a shooting star or a comet…”

“Those are practically the same thing!” Scootaloo said, complaining more. “Let’s face it, this mission’s a dud. We’re not going to find anything that gets us our cutie marks like this.”

As Apple Bloom kept looking out onto the orchard, she used her flashlight to see through the night at the many apple-filled trees, maybe find a new mission for the three Crusaders to work on. As the light moved along, it caught a twinkling light, like a star, not too far from them. Her curiosity led the light to the source, and when she saw what she thought she saw, she stated “What in tarnation is that?”

“What’s what, Apple Bloom?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Down there, on the ground, it looks a… a little pony,” the yellow filly said.

“Let me see,” Scootaloo said, and navigated the telescope down to where the light was pointing at. What she saw was exactly what her friend was seeing.

“Oh man, you’re right! There’s another pony down there, and they look out cold!” She jumped down from the stool she was standing on and led the others out of the room saying “Come on, Crusaders, we better check this out.”

The two fillies felt reluctant about this idea, but shook it off when the thought of an endangered pony sank in more. The trio ran out of the clubhouse with their flashlights and wearing their capes towards where they spotted the pony. Upon their arrival, they found the filly unconscious by one of the trees, surrounded by a few fallen apples, and one particular item as well. They stepped up to this newfound filly closer, and slowly, to see just how alright she was.

“She’s still breathing,” Scootaloo observed. “That’s a good sign.”

“But what’s a pegasus pony doin’ passed out here in the orchard?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle said. “I don’t recognize who she is, either. Maybe she’s not from here?” Her eyes then turned to the particular item, a purple jewel emitting a glow. “And what in Equestria is that? I’ve never seen a gem like that before.”

“You got me,” stated the orange pegasus.

The yellow pony then said “Well whoever she is she must have traveled here for some reason. Maybe we should wake her up and ask why she’s here in the first place.” Little did they notice was that the unconscious filly wasn’t as unconscious as they thought.

“I don’t know, guys. Maybe we should go get Applejack and tell her about this. For all we know this pony’s lost and needs to find a way home,” the little unicorn suggested, but her words awakened the strange pony enough to talk.

“Wait… please… don’t tell anypony…” was all she said, struggling up onto her feet. Her eyelids were barely open, but they opened just enough for a moment to show that her eyes looked quite different by the crusader trio. The filly nearly collapsed back onto the ground, but just down enough to use her wing to hold the gemstone next to her.

“Here ya go,” Apple Bloom said, wrapping the blanket around her. “You look awful tired. Come on, you can stay at our clubhouse tonight.” She then helped the strange filly up, and helped to move her along.

All the filly said in quiet response was “Thank you,” and the four fillies began their short trek back, with Scootaloo leading the way with light as the other two helped support this newfound pegasus pony. They had so many questions for her, and hoped to get some answers when it was possible. They didn’t think they were earning any cutie marks for becoming pony rescuers, but that thought didn’t last too long, for now they dismissed any plans of earning their marks in favor of discovering who this pony was, and the sooner the better, for helpful purposes.

Meanwhile: Dissension

A few days felt like much more across many dimensions, especially those on Mobius. Since Tails and Cosmo’s disappearance, a massive search was started, but severely slowed down by multiple dimensional attacks by the Brotherhood of Darkness. Some have ended, but others raged on, almost being more fierce than how they started.

At Team JAG Headquarters, Dr. Eggman remained at his post as he used his technological genius and resources to monitor the battles, and use the six found Chaos Emeralds to power the interdimensional scanner more, installed by Chris and Chuck Thorndyke. It improved the search rate from what it plummeted to, but the use of the emerald not in full collection restricted full operation efficiency. After going so long into a day, the Doctor look the liberty into checking in on the remaining four large battles, the rest smaller and better controlled, each being fought by many heroes, and a member of the Master Four.

“Master Four, come in,” the Doctor said by interdimensional communication. “I need your status reports.” One by one, they each reported in with updated information.

“Gigantian and Velocitron are now under control,” Jason reported first. “About to take route to Cybertron to assist Optimus Prime.”

“The Teen Titans and I are still holding our own in Jump City. I’m not sure how much longer until we get Slade’s army and Dr. Animo’s creatures taken care of, but it shouldn’t be too long,” Ash followed.

“Aang’s doing the best he can here with his friends, but there’s still too much to handle on their own,” Gohan reported next.

Yugi, or more specifically Atem, was the last to respond by reporting “Xana and Cad Bane have the Galactic Senate under lockdown still. We’re doing the best we can here. It’s up to Team Lyoko right now.”

“Very well,” Eggman responded. “Most of the other battles are starting to end, each of yours being the largest left. Anyone available will join you when possible.”

“And the search?” the four asked simultaneously. The Doctor was silent, not giving an answer at all, which was all they needed to hear. “As we said to you before, Dr. Eggman, if you get Any trace of them, notify us immediately,” Jason ordered.

“I will,” he replied. “Good luck.” The transmissions then cut off, leaving the Doctor to lead over the communications center and those who worked from within it.

Just three seconds later, the alarms sounded off again, forcing him to say “Oh great! Now what’s happening?!” On the large viewing screen, a transmission came through, coming from his robots on Mobius, looking in a state of panic.

“Dr. Eggman, we have an emergency! The worst of kinds!” Decoe yelled.

“We need all the help we can get and fast!” Bocoe added.

“Well then tell me what’s going on you two oversized sparkplugs!” the Doctor ordered.

Bokkun then popped up in front of both robots, yelling with a screech “It’s Dark Oak! He’s back on Mobius!”

/)∞(\

And it was very true, for the vile ruler of the Metarex had made his way to Synthesis, making himself noticed with an echoing laugh. The Seedrian military, led by Lucas and Earthia, immediately responded to this, but were unable to stand against Dark Oak and his dark powers. The heroes of Mobius discovered this and raced off to fight as well, some sensing the villain’s power from the farthest distances and racing their way to the scene.

Kim and Ron, still staying in Synthesis, did what they could behind the scenes of the military operations to help, but when those efforts served useless, they geared up and raced out onto the field, meeting with many friends and allies. When most of the group gathered in the field, Dark Oak lowered himself for a more ‘intimate’ presence with those who stand against him.

“I was expecting a better force to challenge me, not ones so familiar, but you will do... for now,” the Metarex said, looking to see who exactly was missing. “No sign of Sonic, Shadow or Knuckles I see. Not to mention, two very particular grievances. I see their presence is still absent from here, or any other worlds for that matter…”

“Shut up! It’s your fault they’re gone in the first place!” Amy lashed out, holding her Piko Piko Hammer in a tight grasp.

“Maybe you can enlighten us on how exactly that happened, Sir Scrap Iron,” Rouge added.

“I am not entirely to blame for anything other than acquiring the emeralds. Fighting with me, that wretched fighter of yours damage what I kept the emeralds in, and the machine was forced with a surge that activated Chaos Control,” the Metarex explained.

Kim then said “How dare you blame him! It was because of you he did all he could to stop your plans and save Cosmo, and now they’re gone!”

“You tell ‘em KP!” Ron added, encouraging his fiancé so he wouldn’t have to face the evil machine himself.

Dark Oak didn’t say anything at first, only looking at each of them one by one, before turning his sights towards some of the surrounding buildings. Opening his claw of a hand, he focused on one building, and charged up for an attacking blast against it.

“He brought it all upon himself, just as what you’ve done has brought this!” he yelled. “Time for a new day of suffering, for my pleasing and nothing more!” He then shot the blast of energy, knowing the outcome that happened.

Sonic and Shadow and both arrived, but from their own directions. Where the blue hero used a spin dash to repel the attack into the sky until it fell apart on its own, the black and red hedgehog charged right into Dark Oak for a close-range fight. The latter managed to strike a blow that pushed the evil machine back and away from the group, but only by several feet at best. The two jumped in front of their friends, who showed relief and praise for their arrival as they were the best contenders to take on their enemy since others were fighting other battles or just missing.

“You sure have a lot of nerve coming back here so soon,” Sonic said to the rival, and sounding very unpleasant. “Why are you and the Brotherhood attacking all of us, and all the other worlds?”

“For the sheer pleasure,” Dark Oak responded. “What else did you think?”

Shadow only frowned at the enemy before saying “Big surprise,” with a good amount of sarcasm. “For what you’ve done to Tails and Cosmo, it will be undone, but as for you…”

“Don’t even bother trying to threaten me, Shadow. After all, you wouldn’t want to do anything to make Maria the next one to be gone, would you?”

That threat from Dark Oak stabbed into the hedgehog’s deepest core, refusing to let any harm come to who he cared about more than anything or anyone. With a growl, he said “You’ve signed your death wish.” He and Sonic quickly turned to one-another, and they both nodded, knowing what they had to do next. With a release of their power, they tapped into their Super Saiyan 2 forms, and prepared to fight.

“Nice light show,” said a familiar tone, this one coming from behind the Metarex, “but let me show you how it’s done with style…” Standing behind the villain was Knuckles, who was equipped with his Shovel Claws, and demonstrated something new to the enemy. The echidna showed an ascension of his own strength and abilities, not as advanced as the hedgehogs, but a red aura surrounded his body after learning a certain technique from Goku himself – the Kaioken. “Now, about Tails and Cosmo…”

The only thing the Metarex did at that moment was laugh, looked at each powered-up warrior and said “You all can only try,” and started the fight with a power blast at Knuckles, whose Shovel Claws deflected it. From that point, the echidna and two hedgehogs approached their enemy at three sides, and began another simultaneous battle, with another waiting for its time.

Chapter 8

It was a beautiful morning in Ponyville, the sun shining bright across all corners of the town, ending a relaxing night for most, but a long night for others.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were three tired fillies, having stayed up for all but a few hours from a night that started as another crusade to earn their cutie marks to finding and taking care of a strange pegasus filly. They brought her into their clubhouse and gave her a place to rest for the night as they each wondered who this was, waiting to get some answers.

The last to awaken was the found filly, who struggled her eyes open to find herself wrapped in a blanket and a sleeping bag, picking her head up with a yawn as the three other ponies sat nearby, all looking at her with strange glares. Her hearing wasn’t clear at first, but began to understand what they were saying as she woke herself up more.

“Look, she’s finally wakin’ up,” the little yellow mare said. “I reckin’ she got the best night sleep anypony here’s ever had.”

“Great,” added the white unicorn. “Maybe now we can see who exactly this pony is, and where she’s from.”

The stranger’s hearing was at her best when she heard the third pony, another pegasus, say “It’s about time. We didn’t stay up practically all night for nothing and…”

The voice stopped speaking as the three ponies saw the new pony stand up. She was around the same size with a light blue coat, her mane and tail both white with emerald blue highlights, but what made her appearance stand out the most were her eyes. This filly’s eyes looked transparent, unable to be clearly identified of their true colors, and looked to be staring off into any random direction. The three friends saw this, but didn’t know exactly what to say at first, so they just said nothing at all.

Their guest spoke up by saying “Hello? Is anypony there?” and her head turned left to right in search.

It was clear to the three little ponies now – this pegasus was unable to see a thing.

They looked at each other, lost at how to approach this, but Scootaloo was urged by the other two to say something. Thinking carefully, she said “Uh, yeah, right here… in front of you,” trying to be as kind and polite as possible. The pony turned her head towards the sound of the voice, and Scootaloo added “Yeah, that’s right,” to confirm it.

“You must’ve been awful tired last night. You slept through pretty much the whole mornin’,” Apple Bloom said, pointing her hoof out towards the window. Her friends looked at her for the gesture, to which the pony quickly lowered her hoof and felt embarrassed.

“Where… where am I? How did I… get here?” the pony asked, her memories of last night absent.

“You were passed out in the orchard, so we brought you here to our clubhouse,” Sweetie Belle answered.

“Oh,” the fily responded. “Thank you.”

An awkward silence fell for a few moments, but Apple Bloom broke it by asking “Would ya mind tellin’ us who you are and where y’all are from?”

The little pony didn’t say anything, and showed to be very shy and timid about the topic. “How about we introduce ourselves first, and then you can say who you are?” the little unicorn suggested, to which she got a gentle nod in response.

One by one, then all together, the trio of best friends introduced themselves-

“Howdy, I’m Apple Bloom…”

“My name’s Sweetie Belle…”

“And I’m Scootaloo, and together we’re…”

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

The pegasus filly didn’t say anything again, but not at first. When she got the courage, she said “Nice to meet you,” followed by a pause before adding “Thank you for letting me sleep here. Perhaps I should get going and…”

“Get going? To where?” Sweetie Belle asked. “And for that matter, do you even know where you are?”

“Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo yelled, and both ponies stared at their unicorn friend. “That wasn’t the best thing to say!”

“It’s alright,” the filly told them. “I take it you’ve seen, and I’ve shown you that… well, I’m blind.” She bowed her head lower with her eyes shut, only to pick it back up and show them her eyes wide open with their glassy appearance. “My name is…”

Her shyness began to overtake her as she found it unable to speak much at all. In encouraging hope, Apple Bloom told her “It’s alright, you can tell us. We’re not bad ponies. What’s your name?”

The filly then told them “My name is… Snowstar. I’m from…”

“Apple Bloom! Apple Bloom! Are y’all up yet?! We got company here y’all should meet!”

The fillies could hear Applejack calling out for them from a distance, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders raced over to a window to see her getting closer. “Hey, it’s my sister. Maybe she can help us out with…”

“No! Please, don’t tell anypony about me! I don’t want anypony else to see me!” Snowstar said, pleading with much despair in her tone.

“What? Why not?” Scootaloo asked, but they got their answer as they saw the newly identified pony’s eyes starting to cry.

The trio had to think of something of what to do, and they thought up something quick. “Alright here’s what we’ll do- I’ll go with Applejack back to the farm while y’all get Snowstar comfortable here. Tell her what’s where and catch up when yer done.” Her two friends responded with “Got it,” and the yellow filly made her way out of the clubhouse and raced over to meet with her sister.

“There you are, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said. “I was startin’ to wonder if the three of you hightailed it elsewhere this mornin’. Where are those other two?”

“They’re… still getting’ ready. They’ll catch up in a minute,” the little pony replied, and she led her big sister back and away from the clubhouse. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo finished with Snowstar after just a couple minutes, then raced out and caught up with the other two.

/)∞(\

Sweet Apple Acres was home to the finest apples and apple-based products in Ponyville and the greater area. Applejack and her family served as the tenders to the entire orchard, just as all their relatives do with their own orchards across Equestria, the kin humorously being the only competition each orchard has.

The family invited Twilight and Rainbow Dash to bring Tails and Cosmo over to take a look around the farm and continue the couple’s welcoming into this new world they were sent to. The two didn’t mind at all, remembering from their own lives that even in uncertain times, it was best to maintain positivity and relaxation when possible, especially for the heroic fox and alicorn princess who worked most of last night trying to solve problems and understand what Zecora shared with them. Nevertheless, a day with friends is always enjoyable, and that’s what they looked forward to for the day. When the group of four arrived, Granny Smith was waiting for them outside the barn-styled house that was the Apples’ home.

“Well good mornin’ there, youngins,” she greeted them. “And a pleasure to see you again, Princess,” she added, trying to bow in respect but then hurt herself in the attempt. “Ah, my back! My back!”

Without saying a word, Rainbow Dash dashed into the house and brought out the old mare’s rocking chair to sit in. When she was situated, Twilight asked “Are you alright, Granny Smith?”

“I’m fine, just these old bones not holdin’ up like they used to,” the elder Apple replied. “Anyhow, glad y’all could stop on by. Applejack said she was mighty happy to show you two around the farm.” Her attention was directed towards the two new guests.

“Oh no, the pleasure is all ours. Thank you for inviting us to see your home,” Cosmo replied, and took a look around the general area. “Just judging by what I see, you have a very beautiful farm, and your trees look very well.”

“You got that right. This place has got the best apples your teeth will ever sink in, and the cider… the cider…” Rainbow began to say hovering in the air, but then got lost in her own world when thinking about her favorite drink. Little did she recall was that Tails had a taste of it when he woke up in Twilight’s home a few nights ago.

After rolling her eyes at that, the purple pony began to hear Tails whispering to her “Is she talking about what I drank the other night?” She just nodded with a small smile. “Well, it was great cider, but I see that some ponies like it A Lot more than others.”

Twilight laughed a little at that and said “Some ponies, yes. None more than Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie. They go crazy when cider season is open.”

The cyan mare snapped out of her trance upon hearing that, and said “I don’t get ‘crazy’ over cider season. That stuff is the most delicious thing ever! You can’t beat something that tastes that good.”

“Darn tootin’,” agreed Granny Smith, as she rocked backed and forth in her chair. Then, feeling lost, she said “Wait, what’s the best of whatever?” The other two ponies just looked at each other a little confused, while the fox and flower just stood where they were, feeling a slight bit awkward over that.

“You wouldn’t know where Applejack would be, would you Granny Smith?” Twilight asked.

“She said something about a little surprise she had in store for when we got here,” Cosmo added.

“We’re comin’!” yelled out the voice of Ponyville’s favorite cowpony. Coming up from out of the orchard was Applejack, who was followed by three little fillies. “Glad y’all made it. Sorry for not bein’ here when you arrived. Had to go harvest a few little latecomers.”

“It’s alright,” Tails replied. “We only just got here ourselves. You’ve got a really nice farm from what we’ve seen getting here.”

“That’s mighty kind of you, Tails. I’m sure you’ll love it best, Cosmo, being so in tune with nature and all,” Applejack said, which surprised the Seedrian because before that point, she explained about herself and her people to just Twilight and Rarity.

“Rarity told me about ya when she stopped by last night to drop off two of these Crusaders for a sleepover.”

The three fillies then stepped up to see the two new visitors, amazed to have never seeing as, what they described, ‘a big fox and tall flower’ before. The couple could only laugh a little, and returned to say how they’ve never seen ‘such nice ponies’ themselves.

Cosmo made the first introductions by saying “My name is Cosmo, and this here is Tails. What are your names?”

Each filly then introduced themselves in the same manner they had done just a little while ago, but with a louder “and we are… The Cutie Mark Crusaders!!” and immediately showed off their club capes and colors.

The couple didn’t quite understand what they meant, so Tails asked them “Cutie Mark Crusaders? What exactly do you do?”

“Well, none of us have our cutie marks,” Scootaloo said, starting their explaination.

“So not only are we friends, but we work together to discover what our special talents are,” Sweetie Belle added.

“And so we can finally earn our cutie marks together and discover our special talents!” Apple Bloom concluded with.

“This one’s here the littlest Apple in our bunch,” Applejack stated, rubbing her hoof on her little sister’s head. “She’s a bit impatient, but a might determined little pony. I kinda told them about y’all but knew they’d like to meet ya too.”

Cosmo smiled and said “It was nice to meet them, too.” The trio then surrounded the couple, having several questions they wanted to ask and got right to it.

“So is it true that you guys are from a totally different place?” the pegasus filly asked first.

“That’s right,” Tails replied, “our home on a planet called Mobius.”

“That’s so cool!” the little unicorn squeaked.

“Now calm down there,” Applejack told the fillies. “There are our guests, so don’t be botherin’ them with a hundred questions like curious cats. Right now we got a treat for y’all over this way.”

She began to walk and lead the group, minus a now asleep Granny Smith, into the farmhouse kitchen where a big spread of apple treats were there waiting. Whole apples, apple fritters, apple slices, apple brown betties, two apple pies, it was a whole smorgasbord of fine apple treats. “Tails, Cosmo and everypony, have a treat of a Sweet Apple Acres brunch.”

/)∞(\

And feast they did. The couple were kindly allowed to go first, but tried to insist to not be treated so highly, and instead like the Cutie Mark Crusaders have the first helping with everyone else following. Getting their fair shares they made their way back outside to sit on some hay bales and eat together under the late morning sun. Applejack then excused herself to go down to the apple cellar to get one more ‘surprise’ to share, which turned to be a half-sized barrel marked ‘private stock’ on the side.

When Rainbow Dash took a good look at this, she stuttered to ask “Is that… Is that what I think it is?” with tears of joy forming in her eyes. The orange mare nodded her head to confirm the pegasus’s hope that it was – a barrel of apple cider left over from the last cider season.

“This here’s one of the last barrels we have before the next season. We always save a few drops for special occasions, and well, with Tails and Cosmo, the family decided that this was a special time for some,” Applejack said.

She then asked her sister to go and get some mugs for everyone, and the yellow mare went off to do so, along with the help of her two friends. Even though there were three fillies in the house working together, it still took a little longer than expected, but before too long they arrived with empty mugs, which Applejack immediately filled up and passed around to each open hoof and hand.

“Apple cider reserves! This is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash said, the last two words coming out at a higher pitch. She about to guzzle down her first of hopefully several mugs before Twilight used her magic to coat the mug in an aura to stop the drinking.

“Hold on there, Rainbow Dash,” the alicorn said. “I say we make a toast of this, to the Apple family’s kind gestures.”

“Well that’s mighty nice of ya, Twi, but we had a different opinion,” Apple Bloom stated.

“You know what, so do we,” Tails added, and a let Cosmo continue with “How about a toast, to new friends and wonderful fun?”

The other two fillies decided to play a small joke. “We weren’t thinking that,” Sweetie Belle started.

“We were thinking more of something like, to new friends and Awesome Fun!” Scootaloo concluded, taking a gesture from her favorite pony. They all agreed and gave a clash of their mugs together and took a drink.

After her first taste of it, Cosmo pulled the mug away from her face and swallowed some cider. “Oh my, this tastes delicious. I haven’t tasted something that seems so natural and rich since the herbal teas my clan makes.”

The group then went back to eating the rest of their meal and sharing some nice conversations with each other. Of course the Cutie Mark Crusaders asked all the questions possible about where the Mobius couple came from, what their world was like, and how their friends were, and the couple were more than kind enough to answer each one the best they could.

The three fillies were amazed by the answers more and more, and kept asking on and on about them, up until the point when the other ponies instructed them to take it easy on the question bombarding, and took the talking to a new direction that was more up Applejack and Cosmo’s interests- plant care and farming. One of the stories they went on to talk about was the first Applebuck Season when Twilight moved to Ponyville, and the process of ponies harvesting apples.

“I will say, even though she overworked herself to the core, she really did quite the job harvesting all those apples on her own. I’m just glad when the rest of the unpicked apples were pointed out, she finally asked for help,” Twilight said, concluding most of the story.

“I’ll say,” Rainbow Dash added, “especially after sending me on a crash course across town into your balcony.”

“How did that ever happen?” Tails asked.

“It’s another long story,” Applejack stated, and left it at that.

Cosmo looked out at the farm’s land, seeing the endless fields of apple trees go on as far as the horizon. After looking at all the seeable trees, she said “I couldn’t imagine having to try to do all that kind of work on my own. How do you and your family ever take care of all of those trees?”

“It’s not too hard, just needs hard work. Tell you what, how about I show you around the orchard? Big Mac’s out there collectin’ apples right now,” the orange mare suggested.

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” the purple alicorn stated.

“Sure, why not? I don’t have any weather jobs until tomorrow morning anyway, so I have the whole day to do whatever,” the cyan pegasus added.

“Alright then,” Tails agreed. He then ate and drank what nourishment he had left, and offered to collect everyone’s empty plates and mugs. Rainbow, however, hung onto her mug, wanting another drink of cider for the walk. He took everything else into the kitchen, where he was asked to just leave on the counter to be tended to later, and afterwards the group made their walk out into the orchard.

/)∞(\

The walk was becoming very enjoyable for them all, and educational for Tails and Cosmo. Applejack told some family history about how the orchard came to be, with the three fillies adding the story of the founding of Ponyville from Granny Smith’s story they heard during the last zap apple season. They made a couple stops at hilltops to get greater views of the land and all the more apple-filled trees there were to be seen that the Apple ponies kept expressing their great pride of.

Soon enough they saw a few bare trees, an empty cart, and buckets filled with freshly picked apples surrounding each one. After a thudding sound, they all found Big McIntosh, who was busy bucking another tree to harvest its content.

“Hello there, Big Mac,” Twilight called out to him, his attention turning to the ponies, fox and flower, and gave a quiet and polite bow of his head to them all.

“Nice to see you again,” Cosmo followed. “Are you having a good day?”

“Eeyup,” the red colt replied.

The Seedrian felt her dress being tugged on by Apple Bloom, who wanted her to kneel down to whisper something. “I know my brother won’t say much, bein’ a shy pony at all, but he’s…”

Cosmo chuckled a little and said to the yellow filly “It’s alright, you don’t need to explain about it.” She and Tails were told more about the Apple family from the other ponies, which included the colt being the quiet type of pony, nothing that was a big deal them at all.

“Looks like you’ve got a lot of apples already, older brother,” Applejack complimented. “Need some extra help with anythin’?”

“Nnope,” he answered. He then began to pour the full buckets into the cart to take back to the barn.

When pouring in the first bucket, he found a second one being poured in just after his, then a third, then a fourth. Tails and Applejack went ahead and helped out with their strength, and Twilight used some levitation magic to help out too.

“We know you said no, but it never hurts to give just a little help,” said the two-tailed fox. Big Mac didn’t say anything, just gave them a kind smile and began to push the cart towards the next bundle of buckets.

“Hey, I just got an idea!” Apple Bloom yelled. “Why don’t we show Tails and Cosmo how we get our apples with some applebuckin’?”

Applejack had a little laugh and said “Well of course we were goin’ to show ‘em that, if they’d like to see that is.”

“Sure, why not?” Tails said, agreeing to the idea, and Cosmo smiled with the same agreement.

“What about you, Rainbow Dash? What do you think?” Scootaloo asked her idol, but the pony was too busy hovering in the air enjoying what cider she had left in her mug.

“I think she’s a little busy,” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

The group made their way towards a couple trees that were filled nicely with apples. The youngest Apple sibling surrounded each tree with empty buckets, lacking the strength to applebuck herself, while the older two positioned themselves.

“Alright, now harvestin’ apples around here is simple like a pony trottin’, but it’s still somethin’ that works best with practice,” Applejack explained, standing by a tree with her rear legs towards a tree. “Now, after ya get a firm grip on the ground, ya spot a point on the tree to focus on as a target. Once ya have that, ya pick up yer hind legs, give a good thrust and…” Her hind hoofs struck the tree, sending a shake through it that loosened the fruit on the branches to fall out into the buckets. “…you collect your new apples.”

Big Mac then took his turn, knocking down the apples from the tree he bucked. Seeing how many full buckets there still were to put into his cart, and that being near full as it was, he took two more buckets, dumped them in the cart and strapped himself up to pull it.

Before he left, two apples fell out of his cart – one that shined very green, and another with more yellow skin – and rolled its way down to Cosmo. She picked them up and said “Big McIntosh, wait, you dropped a couple.”

He turned back to see her approaching, then held his hoof up to stop her. “You two can have ‘em,” he told her kindly.

Even though they felt a little full from the previous meal, the couple appreciated the kindness and said to him “Thank you,” to which he simply replied “Eeyup,” and began to walk off to the barn with his first filled cart of produce.

The couple looked at each other with a smile, each holding an apple that was their loved one’s hair/fur color, but Cosmo had a sense about the trees that she wanted to look into more. He saw this in her eyes, and tilted his head towards one of the just bucked trees. She gave him her apple, stepped up to the tree, and placed her hand against it, closing her eyes and not saying a word. She stood still for a few moments, keeping herself quiet before one of the ponies spoke up.

“What the heck is she doing?” Rainbow Dash asked, her attention back on her friends after finishing her cider.

“She’s sensing the tree,” Tails answered.

“She’s doin’ what now?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Sensing it,” the fox explained. “You see, Cosmo and her race have a special connection with nature that make them able to sense plants’ life force and state of being. Living in harmony with nature is a life’s mission for Seedrians, as they are part plant themselves.”

“Whoooooaaa,” the Cutie Mark Crusaders said, their minds blown from this information, like everything else they’ve learned.

Twilight, already familiar with the Seedrian ways, added “It’s amazing. Some ponies have to study advanced magic to try and connect with plant life, but like unicorns and alicorns with their magic, this looks so natural.”

Cosmo’s hand pulled back from the tree, and she looked up at its height, looking and feeling very happy.

“I sensed that your tree was very happy, and well taken care of. It’s like the applebucking, it’s a way of life for them, and they enjoy it,” she said, not to her love or anypony in general. Her attention went towards Applejack as she added “I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see those who take care of nature so well.”

“Well that’s mighty kind of ya to say, but it’s nothin’ we don’t take no pride in. These trees are Apple family after all,” Applejack replied, appreciating the compliment. “You know, Cosmo, we could use somebody like you on the farm, bein’ so close to nature and all, and help keep things nice and fun, calmin’ like a picnic.”

“Did somepony say a fun picnic?!” yelled an excited voice, and popping out from one of the trees was Pinkie Pie.

“Sorry Pinkie,” Rainbow said, “there’s no fun picnic going on here right now.”

“But that does sound like a great idea. Why don’t we have a picnic with everypony tomorrow?” Twilight suggested.

“YES! We totally should! We can have sandwiches, ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, and cake, lots and lots of delicious cake! Maybe I should get some balloons and my favorite picnic basket and blanket and…” rambled the pink mare, but Applejack used her hoof to make her stop.

“Yeah, that all sounds good. Tell you what, why don’t you go tell the others about it and get picnic plans set up for tomorrow afternoon?” the cyan pegasus said.

Pinkie jumped up in the air excited, replying with “Okie Dokie Lokie!” and began to hop her way out of the orchard to make the proper Pinkie picnic preparations, leaving the rest of the group to continue on through the orchard.

/)∞(\

The group continued their trek through the apple trees, and in a short time they reached the three Crusaders’ clubhouse. The fillies began to become paranoid the closer they got to it, hoping that the older ponies wouldn’t ask about taking a look inside. They felt like the luckiest ponies of all time when Applejack led the group passed it, stating that because the three little ponies ran a little late earlier, they left it in a terrible mess that they should clean up first. They took advantage of that and agreed to go and do so, with Sweetie Belle racing to the clubhouse, and Apple Bloom and Scootaloo dashing back to the house to get some ‘supplies.’

Now it was just the group of five friends strolling along until they reached a clearing through the next tree line, a small one but still spacious enough for Rainbow Dash to zip up into the air and have some flying fun.

“Nothing like some wide open air to stretch out my wings,” she said as she dashed in all different directions, leaving a rainbow trail as she flew fast. She paused to look down at her friends, more particularly the princess of the town, to say “You should get up here and do the same. It’ll help you improve your flying.”

“I’m fine on the ground for now, Rainbow Dash. Like what I was telling you a few days ago, just because I have wings doesn’t mean I should use them at every given moment. I’ll work on my flying when I choose to,” responded Twilight.

Unpleased by that, Rainbow said “Alright, fine, but sooner or later, you’re getting back up here for longer than just a quick sprint.”

Tails felt Cosmo nudge him a little, so he turned to see her looking at him with a grin. “Don’t you want to get back up in the air for a little while? I know you don’t like being grounded for so long,” she told him.

“Oh yeah, I forgot you can get airborne too. You a good flyer?” the cyan pegasus asked.

“Well I fly, but not always naturally. Back where we’re from I’ve made aircrafts that I love to fly around in, like my favorite being the X-Tornado. I’ve been wanting to get back in the air, especially since I feel like I’m nearly back at full strength,” the fox replied.

He then began to let his two tails twirl around, lifting him off the ground and up to Rainbow Dash’s level in the sky.

“I don’t recall him doin’ that the other night,” Applejack stated, referring to how the fox flew to his loved on and lifted her into the air for a kiss. “You two are just chuck-full of surprisin’ things, aren’t ya Cosmo?”

The Seedrian then replied with “I suppose so, but only to those who are new, just like how fascinating all the things we’ve come to know about you all have been for us. Truth be told, and like what you saw that night, he’s just full of surprises.”

Rainbow circled around the airborne Tails, examining the fox’s flying figure and seeing just what more he could do. “Alright, I’ll say it’s cool that you can fly too, but what cool stuff can you do?” she said.

“That depends,” Tails answered, “what would you expect me to do?”

He could tell that she was starting to challenge some of his abilities, so he took a page out of the ‘Stride Like Sonic’ metaphor and decided to play along.

“How about move clouds around, or control what weather than can come out of them?” the pegasus said, and she raced over into another part of the sky, and brought two clouds to give demonstrations, much like what Derpy showed them the other day.

She pounced a little rain out of one over an apple tree, and stomped on it to release a lightning bolt that struck the dirt ground, all before kicking the cloud into nothing. “You know, like that?”

Tails’s attempt showed no prevail after trying to simply reach out and grab the cloud, but instead it acted like any other cloud he’s ever seen, and his hands just went through it like air. He just shrugged with a little smug and said “Guess not. I prefer flying through clouds than controlling them anyway.”

“Alright, well how about agility?” the pony asked, and before he could answer, she sped into the air and began making many swift maneuvers. From sharp turns to quick positioning from one point to another to zipping through some trees, she showed to be very agile indeed. “Show me what you can do, and try to keep up.”

He saw her confidence coming out, and decided to give her a very small taste. With a smallest reserve of his energy, he showed off his own techniques, including what she did in the trees, but by appearance, faster. He even caused the others to lose sight of him, surprising the in-the-air mare from behind.

“Yeah, I know a thing or two about swiftness,” he told her, starting to feel more like his brother.

“Not bad,” Rainbow told him, “but let’s really prove to see just how good of a flyer you can measure up to, when compared to me of course.”

“OK. What do you have in mind?” he asked.

“Oh boy,” Twilight said, “I think I know where this will be going.”

“So do I, but I think they both want to do it,” Cosmo added.

Rainbow Dash then showed her full confidence and a little more ego when she said “Let’s have a flying race and see just how well you can keep up. In case nopony’s told you yet, I am basically the best flyer in Equestria, so don’t be surprised if my skills leave you in the dust.”

This was when Tails grinned with eagerness and competitive spirit, just like how his older brother would be. “A race, huh? That’s more up Sonic’s alley, but sure, I think I can take you on,” he said to her, “...and probably beat you before knowing it?”

Those on the ground listening just stood and watched the conversation continue on. “Oh boy, RD’s really goin’ to go all out with this. If there’s two things she hates, it’s bein’ shown up by anybody, and losin’.”

“I wouldn’t get too worried about it. Tails is just acting, something his confidence let slip out when he feels like our friend Sonic. He’ll just race for the fun, not for superiority,” Cosmo said.

The two in the sky just exchanged a little boastful pride before Rainbow said “Ok, then here’s what we do,” and she pointed out towards a mountain in the distance, one that once served as one of the earliest adventures of her and her friends.

“We start from here, fly to that mountain, circle it three times starting at the base going up, and then make our way back. First one back to the barn wins. Think you can handle that?”

“Gladly,” he replied, but then he took a different approach with his flying. He let his tails stop spinning, and just stood in the air as if he was on the ground, using his energy to keep him. “So, who wants to make the countdown?”

“I’ll do it,” Twilight called from below, and used her magic to project a green flag to be wave. “Racers, take your marks…”

The two did so, flying on opposite side of the flag in front of them, facing the mountain’s direction.

“Good luck, you two!” Cosmo called out from the ground, to which they both gave a friendly gesture with a wink, but his was shown with a little more romance.

“Get set…”

“Alright, buddy,” Rainbow said, “time to show you how flying in this place is really done.”

“Very well. I’ll give you some of my best, but what I’ll do will be nothing after you meet Sonic. He taught me how to be fast after all,” Tails responded.

“We’ll see about that,” the cyan pegasus said.

As she waved the magical flag in the air, Twilight called out “GO!” and the two racers dashed off.

/)∞(\

They were neck and neck for most of the first leg, each just barely passing the other by a head for fun. It was barely any time before they had reached the mountain, where Rainbow Dash decided to sprint herself in front and starting to fly up and around the mountain. Her love for racing was in full drive as she enjoyed her lead and the eased sense of keeping it, up until her opponent raced beside her and took the lead.

As her competitiveness began to show itself even more, she didn’t like the prospect of losing, to any other pony, or any other being.

“You think you’re hot stuff huh?” she called out to him. “Now to show you how it’s really done.”

She kicked into full swing and flew the fastest she could up to the mountain’s peak, just passing Tails beforehand. But instead of following the predetermined path, she went straight up into the air. The fox froze stopped at the top of the mountain, for only a few seconds, confused about what was now happening.

“What is she up to?” he said to himself, but then he remembered what he had come to learn about his new friend, and the cutie mark story she told about at the party a few nights ago. “Let’s see how this will end,” he said, and charged himself into the air, catching up to her.

The more the cyan pegasus flew up, the more confident she was of claiming another win to add to her success tally. As she kept flying up, she looked back to see just how far she left him behind, but to her shock, he was catching up faster than she could’ve anticipated. “Alright,” she said to herself, “time to give it what I’ve got.”

After flying just a few more feet up, she stopped and just hovered in place, waiting for him to reached just so far up before she dashed back down towards the ground. Tails stopped himself to see where she was going with this again, and when he put together her actions and history he and Cosmo had learned, he knew what was coming. All he did at that point was give a small smirk, and tapped into a reserving well of his power to try to equal in effort, if not more.

Cosmo, Twilight, Applejack, and any other pony who could see watched as they saw Rainbow Dash race back down towards the mountaintop, watching her pull off an incredible feat. Just as it looked she was about to hit the mountain, she created a Sonic Rainboom, reaching the supersonic speed that left a beautiful show, and angled herself straight back to Sweet Apple Acres.

A rainbow was left in her trail as she raced on, her confidence was at its highest at that moment, believing that victory was hers and hers alone, that is until she saw gold.

As she reached the home stretch of the race, from the distance came Tails, racing at a speed even faster than Rainbow Dash, but he seemed different. A golden aura shrouded him as he was racing through the sky, almost like a shooting star, and before anypony could explain it, he passed the pegasus pony in an instant, just before the apple orchard’s property line.

By the time he reached the barn, the gold aura disappeared, and there he stood on top of the barn roof. It was only a moment before Rainbow Dash finished and landed on the roof, and she just stood in place for a several seconds as he realized what just happened.

“That was a good race,” compliment the winning fox. “If only Sonic was here, he’d give you a real race.”

The cyan pony didn’t say anything at first, and her friends began to wonder if she was bitter over her loss. When her head turned over to look at him, she was smiling, and looked not disappointed, but accepting, and cooperative.

“Not bad, but next time, we’ll make it a better race,” she said, and he reached her hoof out towards him. Now for Tails, he’s shaken a few hooves as if they were hands, but for this case, he saw something different. Giving the same facial expression, he clenched his hand in a fist, and gave her hoof a bump, a fist-to-hoof bump, to best put it.

“So, where did that gold come from?”

“I think you already know,” Tails replied, “but I’ll tell you more about it if you tell me about what you did back there.”

Meanwhile: Vociferation

Dark Oak’s presence on Mobius was news spread fast since appearing in Synthesis, reaching all corners of the planet, and Team JAG Headquarters. Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles were doing the best they could to keep their enemy from causing chaos and destruction for his own disharmonic pleasure, going as far as moving the battle away from the Seedrian’s civilization. Even though the others were powerless to help with their own abilities, it didn’t stop any of them to keep eyes open for any given opportunity to strike back as they watched from the sidelines.

The battle shifted from open fields to through dense forests, making its way around and around as if they were going in circles, to which it was somewhat true as they arrived at desolate land, opposite of the mountains that border part of Synthesis. The three heroes fighting, at the height of their power levels, were unable to pin their foe down, as he pointed out to them after striking each of them down into the ground.

“Pathetic,” Dark Oak called them. “You are all pathetic. Without the Chaos Emeralds and your friends, you are nothing compared to my strength, my abilities, and my will.”

“You’re one to talk,” Shadow argued, getting back on his feet, and taking off his inhibitor rings. “You’ve been hiding whatever Brotherhood army you put together before doing anything yourself. If anything’s pathetic, it’s that.”

“I think I can agree with you for once, Shadow,” Knuckles said, standing back up. Since he was using Kaioken to boost his abilities, his body looked and felt more damaged than the others, the overall fatigue showing well. “But still, we don’t need the emeralds, to fight his pile of junk.”

“Says the weakest of the three. Your confidence in yourselves has always made me cringe, and we’ve had enough of it. The time to break you down for good is near, and I’ll see to it this entire planet will be left as nothing but cosmic debris,” the Metarex said in evil vow.

“You’d wish, Metarex!” Sonic said back, dashing himself off the ground and spindashing right into the foe.

He used all the speed he could in his fighting style to try and land some blows, but even at Super Saiyan 2, a form he’s had for over three years, his efforts failed. His fury for Dark Oak was strong, especially since his friends went missing, and he was no mood to deal with anything the foe had to fight back with. “You keep showing up, we’ll keep fighting on! You know that’s never going to change.”

“You tell that creep off, Sonic!” Amy cried out from the distance with the others as they watched it all transpire. “Make him pay for making Tails and Cosmo go missing!”

“That’s right! Enough is enough with that Metarex!” Cream added, with Cheese adding a loud “Chao!!”

It was then that Dark Oak began to laugh, and in his laughter began fighting back at Sonic viciously. Knuckles was first to race up and try to get the blue hero out of there, but he too got caught in the brutal blows being dealt.

“Just face it, heroes of Mobius! You are nothing on your own, and you know it!” he exclaimed, and swung the two around and released them to crash near their group of friends, terribly damaged. “Compared to you, I am the overload of this galaxy, this entire dimension!”

“We’ll see about that!” yelled Shadow, and he tapped into his full power reserves and combined it with his Super Saiyan 2 form, becoming his strongest in the natural way.

“That’s a risky move you’re doing, Shadow,” Rouge thought quietly. “You better know what you’re doing or Maria’s going to be very upset.”

With a cry out for released power, the hedgehog charged into Dark Oak like a blast of pure energy. He unleashed a barrage of attacks, both physical and energy-based, using his speed to circle around and avoid any kind of counter. At the same time, he watched himself carefully to not use too much power or he’d shut down and be left for dead, drawing the line with one more charge at the enemy with a fist thrusting out and striking against the metallic body as hard as possible.

Shadow jumped back to see what the aftermath turned out to be, and to put his inhibitor rings back on quickly to keep himself safe. When he saw from his blow was Dark Oak’s chest plate starting to crack, and it grew longer across him.

“You were saying about us being pathetic?” Shadow taunted his foe.

“I was,” replied the Metarex, “and you still are. Once again your best means nothing, and I’ve only begun to fight.”

In the group of watching friends, Kim and Ron were using the heroine’s wrist Kimmunicator to contact Wade, who was still at Team JAG Headquarters working with Dr. Eggman on the dimensional scanner. This transmission has gone on since the group left Synthesis earlier, both as visual screenings relayed back to the two’s genius friend, and audio recordings for easier forwarding to others.

From his end, Wade said “They got the message, guys. The coordinates were forwarded and they’ll just be a couple minutes. Good luck.”

“You rock like always, Wade,” Kim replied, but quietly to not catch the enemy’s attention, and then shut off the transmission.

“You think they’ll still have the strength to keep up with that thing? They’ve been fighting nearly nonstop for days,” Ron whispered in a worried tone to his loved one.

“I hope so,” she answered to her beloved goof. “Without Tails or the other emerald, they’re our only option to save Mobius.”

The Metarex ruler, who was the last of his kind actually left, began to step forward to Knuckles and Sonic, who were both struggling to get back up on their feet. When he reached them, Shadow had stepped his way towards them as well, standing alongside his two allies, all exhausted and feeling drained. When their longtime foe stared down at them, he looked at the three proving what he’s been saying.

“Again, you are all pathetic. Again, you continue to fight when you have nothing left to use against me. No matter what has happened in the past, or what happens now, you’ll never surrender your pride in favor of your fate,” Dark Oak told them. He then lifted his head, and set his sights on all the others standing around behind the three. “If there’s anything I can do to prove this, then perhaps I’ll have to provide a substitute example, considering the White Seed is not here, to act as a new martyr.”

Immediately following his statement were the reactions of fear in some, angered bravery in others, and a dimensional portal of Darkness opening not far behind the villain. A voice called out from it, catching everyone’s attention, echoing loud and demandingly.

“ENOUGH!!!”

Coming out of the portal were the Master Four – Jason, Ash, Gohan and Yugi, the latter having using the power of the Millennium Puzzle to bring forth Atem – all in their strongest forms of fighting, the Super Saiyan 4 transformation. Each one took immediate action to put distance between him and those of Mobius and other worlds, with the dark warrior and half-Saiyan hero racing up to each side, the Pokemon trainer making a strike from behind as a diversion while the Pharaoh appeared in the front and landed a punch that sent the foe far enough back for the four to line up in front of their friends.

Across their faces were very serious and livid glares, having just coming off the battlefields of other dimensions where conflicts were finally resolved. The chain of events that led up to this point, they all connected from the Metarex’s actions, not surprising but never acceptive.

“Dark Oak, we’ve had enough. What you and the Brotherhood have been up to the last several days has been nothing but a grievance to us. Your evil ways, as always, have dwindled down to you for us to handle,” Atem said.

“Is that so?” Dark Oak replied. “I knew most of those incompetent soldiers and peers were focused to have fun, but the least they could do was try and focus on the bigger goal.”

“Well you’re wrong. All fights are either done or are now finishing the remnants of what each battle has brought for Team JAG to handle,” Gohan said back.

“Which means that you’re the only one left causing any chaos that doesn’t belong,” Ash added.

Jason, his solid black eyes staring down at Dark Oak coldly, addressed the greater matter to his friends and allies. “Because of you, Tails and Cosmo are missing, and you know that it was your actions’ fault. Thanks to you, Galvatron, and the entire Brotherhood of Darkness, our search efforts have been severely cut down, but now, you’re all that stands between us and bringing them back home. I promise you this – I’ll sever your head with my scythe again and bite through your metal skull like a muffin.”

“So you say,” echoed the voice of another. “But we all know you will never do it.”

Having passing through his own dimensional portal up the mountain, Galvatron had arrived as well, making this fight now nearly impossible to succeed in, not without their full powers put to use.

Chapter 9

From during the small race between the fastest racer out of Cloudsdale and the new rival from the mysterious world of Mobius, to the passing afternoon and evening of quick hustles around Ponyville, the Cutie Mark Crusaders spent their time focusing on a strange pegasus pony in their clubhouse.

Snowstar was her name, and remaining hidden was more than a game, as she begged the three fillies to not reveal her to anypony. The three just agreed to this, and each managed to spend some time with her during the day while they each took care of responsibilities with their families and at their homes, and informing others that they were spending another night at the clubhouse. They collected more than plenty of food to share, including the leftovers from the brunch held at the Apple family’s home, so that the mysterious young mare would eat well, but the Crusaders’ curiosity grew and grew about her origins.

By the time it was nightfall, Apple Bloom had just come back from wishing her kin a good night, and getting themselves all comfortable, the time had finally come to learn the truth about what was going on.

“Snowstar, we know we’ve kept you a secret from everyone, but now we need answers,” Sweetie Belle said, starting the important discussion.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo added. “We’ve prevented ourselves from asking you about it all day, but not anymore. Where are you from, and why are you here? In fact, how did you get here? And what’s with that gem you have?”

The orange filly’s latter question was a reference to the other filly’s blindness, a trait that was shown to them that morning. “Well, you see, it’s start from…” Snowstar said, sounding very hesitant and worried. “…I come from… this thing is… I’m here because…”

Trying to be the more nurturing pony amongst her friends, Apple Bloom stepped up to her, lifting the filly’s bowed head up so that their eyes would face each other’s. “Don’t be nervous, Snowstar,” the yellow pony said. “You can trust us. All we wanna do is help however we can. So could you, please, tell us about yourself?”

The light blue pegasus closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. She had a cup of water given to her before and tried to find where she had left it, only to discover one of the other ponies handing it to her. She took it in her hoof, had a small drink to quench her throat, and began to explain herself-

“I’m from Cloudsdale. I’m here because I’ve left my home and everypony back there because of so much hurt I’ve been taking there. You see, I was always blind, being bored with this and having to depend on whoever I can to help me when I can’t do anything myself, and that’s a lot of things. My blindness is actually something hereditary, being passed down from one of my ancestors, a weather pegasus named Snowdrop…”

“I’ve heard of her,” Scootaloo interrupted. “Twilight forced me and Rainbow Dash through a lecture about this. She’s a pegasus that created snowflakes when she was a filly like us. She was blind too, and she actually presented the first snowflake to both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”

Snowstar continued on by saying “Well, yes, she’s one of my oldest ancestors. In fact, my parents have told me that I look just like her, and that I may have the same qualities as she did, but I really doubt it. Snowdrop managed to create something beautiful that would live on forever in so many ways as I… well… I can’t do anything.

“Back at my home, I’ve never done anything on my own without having somepony else helping me, like traveling around, knowing what’s going on in Equestria, and what things do when they’re right in front of me. A lot of ponies there try to be nice to me as if nothing’s wrong with me, but I can tell they’re just acting. At my school, I was teased at and called so many names that I think there’s nothing left to think of. I’ve been bullied and tricked so much that my things would get stolen, kept away from me, or even broken. They even began to shove me around, going as far as pushing me off a cloud’s edge to fall, and it all just built up so much, I began to cry in bed every night.

“I would tell my parents or teachers about it when anything happened, but the other ponies just wouldn’t stop. Even their parents punishing them and teachers putting them in different classes than mine didn’t do any good, and every day my parents would try telling me ‘Everything will be just fine.’ I stopped believing them a long time ago. I couldn’t believe them anymore. I became so broken, and after hearing them talk about how there was nothing more they could do for me other than put me somewhere new just to be bullied at more, I knew I couldn’t handle it.”

“So you decided to run away from home instead?” Sweetie Belle asked, and got a small nod as an answer.

Snowstar went on to say “It was a few days ago when I waited until it was late enough that everypony would be asleep. My family lives on an edge of Cloudsdale, so I knew all I had to do was hover down to the ground gently.” She paused for a moment, giving her two wings a little flap. “At least I knew how to fly, learning on my own and crashing into everything you could think of. I ended up hitting against a tree and fell down to the ground.

“I’ve been on the ground only a few times before, so I knew about trees and rivers and stuff like that, but where everything was was still an issue for me. I took my time and walked wherever I could, as far as I could, before making a turn in my direction, and I did that a lot. I’ve been walking ever since, only flying a few times when I thought I would fall or needed to get around something, keeping myself going to anywhere but back home… or, what I can’t call home.

"The last thing I remember, I was exhausted from not eating anything since running away, bumping into something and three other things hitting my head. Next thing I knew, I woke up in here, thanks to you. And that’s my story.”

All three listeners tried to process as much of this as they could, each of them heartbroken, saddened, and infuriated at the same time. None of them knew what to say at first, other than rant about how unfair it all sounded, and the sympathies they had for her. What doubts they had in her story were shown by the tears she began to shed the more she talked, surprised that she wasn’t letting out more crying as it was.

They looked at each other, worried about how to direct things next, but the shining light of a precious gem radiating next to Snowstar caught their attention.

“What about this thing?” Apple Bloom asked, stepping over to pick the gem up. “I’ve never seen a jewel like this before. Never one that would be so shiny and glowin’.”

“I found that when I was walking,” Snowstar explained, reaching her hoof out to hold it. Apple Bloom gave it back to her, and she then held it close to herself. “I don’t know where it came from, but when I picked it up, I could feel its glow. I know it sounds weird, but I just did. It felt warm and loving, and I didn’t want to let it go, so I took it with me, to give me what I couldn’t find back there anymore.”

Looking at the purple emerald being clenched so tightly, the little white unicorn said “It’s awfully pretty. I really like its color.” Scootaloo then lightly punched her shoulder, silently addressing the wrong way the pony said it. “Ouch. Hey… oh, oh no. I’m so sorry, Snowstar. I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s alright,” the light blue filly replied. Her voice began to sound weaker, even after drinking so much water between paragraphs of explanation, and strained with sad emotion. “Now… now you know all about me. A lonely, pathetic, miserable pony who has no place in this world. Please, I can’t ask for you to do too much for me, not like how I’ve had to my whole life but… but…

“Please don’t force me to go back.”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders didn’t know what to do, still taking in all the information shared to them. They didn’t say anything for a minute, just looking at each other without an idea of what to say, and looked back at the worried blind pony as she feared for what could happen next.

Apple Bloom mustered up the courage to speak first and say “Could you excuse us for just a moment?” and the three friends immediately huddled together to quietly talk amongst themselves.

“I just don’t know what to do. She needs help, but she doesn’t want to be found out about. How do we keep this a secret from everypony?” she whispered.

“Well we’ve got to think of something. We can’t just let her stay here forever, it won’t do any good. Besides, someone’s bound to come looking for her eventually,” Scootaloo added.

“But she’s so scared to go back, and we can’t force her away. She’s got nowhere else to go,” Sweetie Belle said, and the three looked at each other in worried pause again. She spoke up again, and said “I think what she needs right now are friends, so I say we give her some.”

Snowstar just sat where she was quietly, unsure of what she’ll be told by the three fillies. She clenched onto the gemstone as hard as comfort would allow, hoping for the positive feelings she got from it will reward her again with her current position. Remaining seated, she could sense the footsteps of the ponies coming towards her, then sitting around her. Looking up with her glasslike eyes, wondering exactly which pony was sitting right in front of her, listened carefully when Apple Bloom spoke.

“Listen, Snowstar, we’re willin’ to help you out, but there are conditions…”

/)∞(\

The next day in Ponyville shined beautifully as another lovely spring atmosphere graced the community, and its citizens and guests. The town’s closest group of friends agreed yesterday to have a picnic together, organized in most part by Pinkie Pie, which found her, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle joining each other for a relaxing afternoon together, and with the additional company of their two newest friends, Tails and Cosmo. The two, although greatly concerned about trying to get back home, enjoyed how there were these times of relaxing and peace between sessions of research, mostly handled by the intellectual fox and alicorn. Their time with those six ponies, getting to know them better and seeing how they maintain the most positive outlooks of things as much as possible, they were reminded so much of their friends and family that it felt as if they were at a new home, away from home, something they took great fortune in having.

All eight of them relaxed in their own manners across the large picnic blanket. As Rainbow Dash leaned her back against one of the supporting trees in one corner, Tails was doing the same in the opposing corner, with Cosmo leaning against him, all three watching Pinkie Pie just bouncing around the entire area in circles. Twilight was in one of the other corners reading through one of her favorite spell books under an umbrella in a corner where there was originally no shade at all, Applejack helping herself to the contents of the picnic basket in the blanket’s center, and Rarity and Fluttershy sitting down in the remaining corner.

It was another wonderful day to be with friends, even those you wouldn’t expect to see, or expect to come to know in such short time.

“This afternoon has been just marvelous, if I do say so myself. A perfect way to keep the strains of staying stuck in the shop all day, even if it’s crafting my passion,” Rarity stated. “Which reminds me, Cosmo, your new dress is almost finished, and thanks to your help with Tails’s measurements, his is coming along quite nicely.”

“That sounds wonderful, Rarity. I really look forward to seeing what you came up with,” Cosmo replied.

“Oh I promise that you’re going to just love it,” the fashion-savvy pony said.

“Knowin’ it was made by you, it’s bound to be one of the fanciest dresses ever seen,” complimented Applejack. She then took a big bite out of a slice of pie Pinkie brought, swallowed it down and pointed her hoof towards Tails before adding “Just make sure whatever you’re makin’ for that partner there doesn’t get put on if he ends up flyin’ with Rainbow Dash again.”

Pinkie stopped bouncing around to say “Don’t remind me about that. I can’t believe I missed out on the coolest, most sonic booming race ever that was probably more interesting than throwing the biggest party inside the biggest inflated balloon in the world!”

Pausing from her book, Twilight picked her head up to ask “And how would that be even possible?”

“Anything is possible if you can make it happen. Duh,” the pink mare replied. There was no sense in Pinkie logic, just acceptance by those who would listen, so the purple alicorn did just that.

“Pinkie Pie, your ideas are probably the only thing more random than you,” Rainbow Dash stated in a general tone, but not coming across as rude. “Besides, that race was just one race. Next time, I’ll really show my stuff, even go full speed.”

Tails just recanted how they acted after the race yesterday, and what they each said. He didn’t say anything to add to it, and instead just thought of the possibilities of racing again, but perhaps with the X-Tornado, or for the ultimate challenge, the two fastest hedgehogs he knew.

Remaining just as quiet was Fluttershy, something the pony always tended to be but not responding to much of any shared conversations that took place with anything more than just few-worded sentences. She had a thought on her mind, regarding some mail she received and sent out a couple days ago.

Rainbow turned her eyes towards her alicorn friend, who was still focused on her book. “You ever going to give that thing a rest? You’ve been reading it like crazy since we got here,” the cyan pegasus stated.

“This comin’ from the pony who has gone and read through every book of Daring Do over a dozen times each, and just finished the newest one for the fifth time yesterday might I add,” Applejack pointed out. “You know Twi’s busy with research to help Tails and Cosmo out, so don’t be botherin’ with her about readin’ habits.”

“It’s alright Applejack,” Twilight said, “she’s got a point anyway.” She closed the book she had in front of her with a gentle sigh, having only about a dozen pages left to read through before its end, and looked up at her friends. “I just don’t like feeling like I’m doing all I can to help. Nopony here has ever done that to me, and I would never want to do that to anyone either.”

“But you’ve been doing so much for us already,” Cosmo pointed out. “We couldn’t ask you to strain yourself so far. We wouldn’t even allow it, whether we were here or if you were in our world.”

“No kidding. You need to remember to loosen up a little and relax. Where was the more relaxed Twilight from Sweet Apple Acres yesterday?” Rainbow added.

“They’ve got their points,” Tails said, and in a more calmed and relaxed voice than hers, even Cosmo’s. “Sometimes we just need to let time decide what we do with it and how we better ourselves from it. As for right now, this here is what matters – a good day with great friends.”

Cosmo turned her head up to her beloved’s to say “You have really adopted a lot of Sonic’s thoughts, and that just proves it. You seem just as at ease as he always is.”

The fox could only smile a little when he said “What can I say? My brother’s taught me when it’s best to stay calm, and my heart and soul has taught me to always treat others as how they are to me. Right now, it’s time to be enjoyable of how we’re spending our time, and what we do to better ourselves next.”

“And I really appreciate that, Tails, it means a lot,” the princess said. “But this is an important responsibility to me, and Princess Celestia strongly believes I’m the best way to help you and Cosmo out. The last thing I want to do is make my duties less important than they really are.”

Fluttershy then spoke up, asking her dear friend “You mean because you’re a princess?”

“Well, of course,” Twilight answered.

“But you shouldn’t let your worries about being a princess cloud what else is important. You should always be balanced. That is, if there is a balance, which I’m sure there is,” the yellow mare said.

“Exactly,” agreed Pinkie. “I mean, you don’t want to go from Happytown to Chaos City, do you?”

“And what’s wrong with a little Chaos? It can do wonders if you know how to use it just right…”

The last statement was said with a devious voice, but not one by any of the ponies, or the couple. The realization of whose voice it was made most of the ponies worried, getting up on their hooves and searching around for anything best described as ‘abnormal.’ Confused by this, both Tails and Cosmo got up on their feet, their eyes looking around seeing nothing, and their minds wondering where that voice came from. The two noticed that the only pony not reacting so much to this was Fluttershy, so they asked her about this.

“Fluttershy, what’s going on here?” Tails asked.

She tried to answer with “Oh, well, it’s…” before Rainbow Dash interrupted her by saying “It’s trouble. That’s what going on.”

“Trouble?” asked Cosmo. “What sort of trouble?”

“Well, you see…” the yellow tried to explain, but was interrupted again. “The kind that brings chaos and disharmony,” Rarity said.

“Alright, where are you?” Twilight asked, calling out to nobody in particular as she looked around at any open space there was.

Popping out of the picnic basket was a churro, and oddly colored as if it was a meshed rainbow. Such a sight made it unappealing even to Pinkie Pie, and what made it even stranger was when two eyes and a mouth appeared on it to say “No need to get your attitude all displeasing, Twilight.”

Just then, the churro changed into a new form, a creature that couldn’t be identified as a single species, but easily as who it was. “Can’t a friend stop by and pay a visit on a nice and relaxing day?”

The being, known as a Draconequus, stood nearly as tall as a tree, his body made up of many different types of parts – an eagle claw, a goat leg, a lion’s arm, a lizard leg, a large fang, a bat wing, an antler, a goat horn, a pegasus wing, among his many parts – and stood in the center of the eight friends. Most of the ponies remained surprised, the couple remained curious, and Fluttershy still reacted the least amongst them all to see the return of a somewhat reformed foe. Now joining them was none other than the master of Chaos himself – Discord.

“How wonderful to see you all again,” he greeted them. “I hope you don’t mind me ‘dropping by' at all.” He then shrunk himself to fall into a full drink glass that sat on the blanket, breaching back out one before floating on the liquid’s surface.

“What in tarnation are you doin’ here?” Applejack asked, staring down at him with a disapproving stink-eye.

Popping back to his normal size, he said “What’s the problem? Can’t a guy stop by for a visit and see his dearest friends for an afternoon?”

“Not with your track record, buster,” Pinkie told him. Though understanding for the ponies, the fox and flower were taken aback by how she said it, sounding very serious and suspicious, something that they’d never expect from her.

Discord then explained himself more by saying “Well, if you must know why I’m here…” He then vanished again, this time popping up next to Fluttershy with a piece of paper in his hand. “I received this wonderful letter from dear little Fluttershy this morning. She wrote how you meet these two newcomers that sounded just delightful, and I wanted to come and meet them myself.”

He vanished again, leaving the paper he had to float down to Twilight’s hoof to grab and read herself, but before she could, he reappeared with his body arced around the two he referred to. “And those two must be you, I presume? Such a pleasure to meet you both.”

They didn’t know exactly how to react to this. His sentences were worded kindly, but his tone sounded mischievous enough to keep up a defensive guard. Regardless, they kept themselves kind and respectful, and decided to return his greeting with ones of their own.

“Yes, we are,” Tails said to the draconequus. “This is my dearest friend, Cosmo. And my name’s Miles Prower, or you can call me Tails, like every…”

“Miles Prower, you say?” interrupted the draconequus. “Interesting name. It sounds like you’re a person of speed or racing.” He had a short, humorous laugh to follow, not meaning to be rude but coming across as such by the ponies.

“Don’t make fun of his name!” Rainbow Dash lashed out at him, flying right up to his eyes to stare him down.

Fluttershy then flew between the two to say “Now hold on, Rainbow Dash. I don’t think Discord was trying to do that at all. He was just making an observation.” She turned her head around towards him to ask “Is that right, Discord?”

“But of course, Fluttershy. Just as you said, it was a harmless observation,” he replied, with a trying innocent tone. His attention turned back to the focused couple to shake their hands to say “Besides, I’m just trying to get to know who could be two new friends a little more.”

If there were any eyebrows raised, it came from five ponies, and a curious one from the two-tailed fox. The latter would see how this would go for the time being, but Twilight was kept at guard about this whole matter. She directed conversation over to her kindest, quietest friend to ask “Fluttershy, why did you tell Discord about Tails and Cosmo?”

“Because even though you all can’t see it in him yet, he’s a nice friend, and I wanted to share the nice story from what happened when the two reunited a few nights ago. I thought he would enjoy it,” Fluttershy explained, and then turned back to give him a kind smile, to which he returned it with the same gesture, adding some innocent eyes for the others.

“Well it’s very nice to meet you as well, Discord,” Cosmo said to the chaotic creature. “Maybe you could tell Tails and me more about yourself, and how you met everypony here.”

When she realized what she said, she covered her mouth with her hand, and Tails looked at her slightly surprised. Being so close with the ponies, it was a matter of time before they would adapt to some of the Equestrian language of addressing others. The couple couldn’t help but grin to each other with a chuckle, knowing it was inevitable for it to happen, which in turn helped lighten the mood around them a little, but just a very little.

“I don’t think you’d be too interested in learning about how we’ve become acquainted with Discord, darling,” Rarity said. “It is a long story anyway, filled with all sorts of history and explanations.”

“We don’t mind,” Tails replied. “It’s more for us to learn and know about your world after all, if you’re all alright with it, of course.”

“Don’t mind if we do,” Discord stated, and with a snap of his tail’s tuft he rearranged the eight into being grouped up on the blanket, sitting down and facing the same direction. He then popped up behind them with a slideshow projector filled with many pictures, and a large projection screen in front of them all for the slides to be shown on. He even used his power to turn the gazebo area into a private screening room to help darken the atmosphere for better views. Starting to tell the history, he said

“Well, it all goes back to over a thousand years ago, when I received a visit from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who brought with them some interesting ‘elements’ to our little party…”

/)∞(\

Discord presented the slideshow and continued to narrate the story, which mostly revolved around him, but he did give the other ponies their moments to shine as his first return was told. Many of the pictures mainly showcased his ‘achievements’ and the ponies’ more embarrassed and somewhat shameful actions based on his doing, with several looks of a certain unicorn and her big rock. He did, however, swallow some pride and told of how the six used the Elements of Harmony to turn him into a stone statue he once escaped from, and the start of when he was freed to undergo reformation.

It was at this point when Fluttershy stepped in and explained about how that transpired, saying nothing but positive things about the draconequus, even when he was clearly at his worst, and how much they benefit from the friendship they had formed, especially since she was his first friend. She ended the entire story with the last slide to be shown – a picture of the two at the last Summer Sun Celebration, having a cute moment together as they were each holding a churro.

“And ever since then, Discord has lived in Equestria without causing any harm to anypony. Like any other pony, he was someone who deserved a chance to show and become a good friend,” the yellow mare said to conclude the show. After blowing his nose with a neckerchief turned to a little cloud, he changed the setting back to the original gazebo picnic that they were all in.

“Well that was… interestingly informing,” Twilight said, not exactly sure with how to best describe it fully.

“Are you kidding me? He made me look like a grade A jerk!” Rainbow complained.

“And me into a big fat liar,” added Applejack.

Pinkie, who was sitting next to Cosmo and Tails, wrapped a hoof around them as she sobbed a little. “It was so beautiful, wasn’t it? Looking back at memories from so long ago, it’s just so… so…” she tried to say, but then began to openly sob some more, unable to talk for her unexplainable overwhelmed emotions.

The two didn’t say anything in reply, just sitting where they were feeling some confusion still. Twilight got back up on her hooves to step around from behind and say “Pinkie, it wasn’t that long ago,” and then redirected her attention towards the other two. “Other than some ‘embellished’ information, that was what happened. I’m sorry for this being so abrupt, but it tends to happen every so often.”

“There’s no need to be sorry,” Cosmo replied. “It was actually enjoyable, in ways. Seeing those pictures was a fun way to learn more about your world, and your history.”

Discord popped his head into the conversation, by the means of a picture of him from his first return during Ponyville’s state of chaos, appearing in the Seedrian’s hand. “Why thank you, dear Cosmo,” he said. “Glad to see somebody around here appreciates my open sharing. I guess it’s just harder to do with ponies.” He then vanished from the picture and reappeared as normal standing right next to Tails and Twilight.

“It’s hard to be appreciated when you’ve given only so little reasons to receive any,” Rarity said to him, with some scolding.

“Now Rarity, Discord isn’t doing anything to bother us. He’s just here to meet new friends and make a good impression,” Fluttershy stated, walking over to stand next to who he would call his only true friend. “I think that’s really appreciative to see how he’s trying.”

The other five ponies didn’t say anything, withholding their own opinions and respecting her own, as any good friend would do for each other. Being surrounded by this silence wasn’t something Tails wanted to see happen, so he stood up on his feet to speak next.

“And he did a really great job at it. Cosmo was right, it was very enjoyable to see all that, and to meet more friends from here,” he said.

“The term ‘friend’ used very, very loosely here,” Rainbow Dash stated.

“Oh come now, Rainbow Dash. It isn’t as if I will zap your wings off your back again, just for the sheer pleasure of it,” Discord stated, as a point of argument and a sense of humor. “Have I come here causing you nothing but trouble? Am I causing such a havoc that you need to figure out a way to stop me since you lack the Elements that have turned me into a stiffer version of my more flexible self?”

The pegasus didn’t answer, but instead was the alicorn princess of the group. “That’s enough Discord,” she said to him sternly. “We might no longer have the Elements of Harmony, but we all know that you would rather find a way to turn to stone than lose your friendship with Fluttershy.”

“Forgive me, Twilight, but I think he’s shown a lot to us here,” Cosmo stated, catching everypony’s attention.

“And how do you reckon that? You saw what he turned us into,” Applejack stated, referring to how the draconequus manipulated each pony to become the opposite of their true selves before.

“Where we’re from, reformation is something my friends and I have practiced many times in our own ways, and most of those times were they successful. Whether they were feared predators or evil villains, we found common bonds and paths we share together, and we’ve become stronger because of it. I see the same thing here with Discord, giving him a chance to continue being who he is, without being fully like what he was before. Fluttershy’s kindness and understanding towards him makes him a new person, who can be someone you can all come to trust, and eventually for all of you, a friend,” Tails explained.

The yellow pegasus stood in front of the couple to say “I’m glad to see how much you understand this. To be honest, when I wrote him the letter, I didn’t expect him to come by at all. The fact that he’s trying to make friends with you shows a lot to me, and it makes me so happy I could just…” She decided to give a hardy cheer, or to that of which she would express it.

“Yay.”

“I understand what you’re all saying, but you’ve dealt with so much more compared to us, given what we’ve seen and heard from you. Here, we don’t like to take too many chances because we don’t want to put our fellow ponies in danger. I couldn’t live with myself for allowing something bad to happen, none of us would,” Twilight said, thinking as a fellow pony, a caring friend, and her royal position.

“And we understand about what you mean, Twilight. Sometimes, it takes the right idea to move forward from how something once was into something even greater than before,” Cosmo said in return.

Both she and her loving fox took a few steps forward to Discord, each of them reaching a hand out towards him. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you, and to learn about your history with our new friends. Maybe we can get to know about you in the future.”

Feeling just joyous about what he was seeing, the draconequus let out a hardy laugh and began shaking both their hands one at a time so much that they began to shake right off the ground.

“And it’s been just a delight to get to meet you two,” he said to them. He then slithered up between them and wrapped an arm around each one, adding “I’ve got a good feeling that we are going to become some good, good friends. Perhaps, since you’ve seen this world of ours, maybe I can see the world you’re from as well.”

“Watch your step there, mister draconequesadilla,” Pinkie told him. “No funny business on my watch, because I’M the only pony here to do that.”

“You know, I’ve just realized how difficult it’s been for us to have just one relaxing picnic without a pony acting up or something having come up,” Rainbow Dash whispered to Fluttershy and Applejack in private.

“No kiddin’,” agreed the orange mare. “Weddings, breakdowns, even crash landings for Tails’ sake, and now a Discord visit. What’s next, a visit from parasprites?”

“I think that would be nice. They’re so adorable,” Fluttershy grinned, but saw the glare the other ponies gave as they recalled when dealing with those creatures before. “Or, maybe not, perhaps, if nopony agrees with me.”

Looking up at the sky, Tails saw that there was still plenty of daytime left, and that perhaps they could return to what he was seeing as an enjoyable picnic, regardless of their interruption. “You know, why don’t we get back to relaxing? It’s a nice day and we should try and enjoy it before having to get back to work,” he stated.

“Sounds like a smashing idea to me!” said Discord, and he then situated himself with a large lounge chair, sunglasses, an iced drink with a straw, and a shirt one would wear for vacationing. “Besides, you could take a turn telling me all about where you two are from and what brought you here.”

“I thought you said Fluttershy told you about that in her letter,” Rarity pointed out. He then briefly explained about them simply arriving, and not all the details of the couple’s appearance in Equestria.

“What do you think, Twilight?” the fox asked.

The purple pony was in an unsure state at the moment when she tried to reply. “Well… I suppose it’s alright, unless everyone objects. I don’t want to waste the rest of our time to relax after all.” Each of the other ponies looked around at each other and Tails and Cosmo, each one agreeing to stay for a while longer, most with some reluctance to the idea.

“Then I guess that settles it,” she said, trying to put in a more optimistic tone in her voice. “Besides, I’d love to hear more about Mobius anyway. Are you two alright with that?”

“Of course,” Cosmo replied, “but I am curious about something myself.”

“And what’s that about, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“Since I’ve met you all, I’ve heard about these Elements of Harmony being talked about, especially from Celestia when I met her, and by Discord today. They seem to have some great importance to you all. What are the Elements of Harmony, and what do they stand for?” the Seedrian asked.

Twilight only answered with “That’s a really long story, and I don’t think we can cover it all here. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.”

Accepting this, Tails replied “Alright, that’s fair, since we’ve been told Discord’s story anyway. So, where should we begin about Mobius?”

The rest of the afternoon saw Tails, Cosmo, the ponies and the draconequus in attempt to relax, with some uncomfortable moments for most when Discord made some actions of his own. Even with the master of Chaos there, they tried to let it not spoil their time, and began to see past any bothers to enjoy the conversations about Mobius and other topics up until the group had to disperse again. It may not have been the picnic they foresaw to happen, but in the end, friends came together, and only that truly mattered.

Author's Notes:

DISCLAIMER:

Snowdrop is an original character created by Silly Filly Studios, used solely as a reference and nothing more. I do not own the creative rights and her self-titled video was an inspiration to created Snowstar, my own original character that serves as a mirrored descendant.

Meanwhile: Confession

It was the Master Four against Dark Oak and Galvatron, the latter mechanical villain only participating at a few moments rather than this colleague who was aggressive and assertive. Sonic and the others had to step aside at this point, the strongest fighters now too weak to be as effective in combat as they were at first, and just watched as the battle took its course, mainly in the skies above them. Even though the four warriors felt exhaustion from all the fighting they’ve had to do prior to having to report to Mobius, they continued on through the fatigue, and their combined abilities would start showing the same from their Metarex foe.

Whether it was adopted Pokemon techniques, traditional fighting skills, Duel Monsters spirits guiding them, or an armed weapon in their grasp, the four kept going, but they and their friends couldn’t shake away the curiosity of the Decepticon’s presence lacking involvement. The battle took its course at the summits of the mountains that overlooked Synthesis, where many Seedrians looked up in surprise and fear of what was happening in their world again.

From the rooftop of the Seedrian Council were several of those of the highest authority of the plant species, watching all they could from their distance. “There must be something we can do. Sonic and the others are unable to keep this up much longer,” said Chrysanthemum with worry.

“Our defenses were useless against Dark Oak when he first appeared, and most of our aerial fleet is damaged. I don’t know what can be done,” Daisy stated.

“Our air forces are down, but we have what members of our small army left stationed around the city. This is our best right now. We know we are no close to matching the powers of the Brotherhood, so to interfere would only doom us all,” Lucas said.

“I just don’t understand something,” Galaxina went on to say. “Galvatron has done almost nothing, only watching the fight for the most part, and not even focusing on Synthesis as he’s done before. What more could this week bring, and how does he play a role in it?”

“He’s the leader of the Brotherhood of Darkness. He has a role in everything they’ve done,” Lucas stated.

Starla then added “But what will he do this time? It just seems, out of place this time…”

Earthia’s mind absorbed everything being discussed, watching what parts of the battle she could, and above all, thinking about what Dark Oak had done to her family a few days ago. She thought of her daughter, and the fox she considered a son, and how her race’s closest enemy caused them to disappear. All she wanted to do was make the evil forces pay for their actions, but she knew she was powerless to do that herself, only wishing to find a better involvement in healing wounds under everyone’s skin. Her attention shifted from her thoughts when one of the others spoke up to seek authority.

“Earthia, what should we do?” asked Daisy.

The Seedrian leader contemplated options silently first, making sure to instruct her peers and her people in only the best ways. Once she concluded her available options, she turned back from the battle to give her instructions. “Lucas will remain and lead our military with myself. The rest of you, go to Synthesis’s communication center and assure our people are, and will, be safe. Then, contact Dr. Eggman at Team JAG Headquarters, inform him with all up to date information, and ask to aide in the search for my daughter and son.”

Her friends and family acted on the commands with no hesitation, leaving only herself and Lucas on top of the building to see what they could of the fight taking place.

/)∞(\

Galvatron had his eyes on the civilization for the last few minutes during the conversation, himself also in deep thoughts. He turned back to the fight when a clash of energy blasts between Dark Oak and Gohan caused an explosion that sent them both in far opposite directions. The other members of the Master Four began to charge in, but the Decepticon used his abilities to overpower them and regroup the four, immediately standing behind his colleague afterwards. As each side got back up from their feet, the exhaustion was showing more than ever, but the pride each side had remained intact.

“Dark Oak, the chaos you’ve brought back to this place must end,” Atem said. “Your games are growing too old to deal with time and time again.”

“You make it sound as if I’m now boring to you,” the Metarex said back. “Tell me, does having an army of interdimensional soldiers steal the Chaos Emeralds not anger you? Does knowing the aftermath of our last encounter here not strain your thoughts and emotions?”

“That’s something you should know about after all these years,” retorted Gohan. “After everything you’ve put us all through since Cosmo came to this planet to find help, you cause nothing but anger to us, and fear to so many more.”

Standing just a few feet behind the four were Sonic and the group of friends that could watch what had gone on for so long. Most of them have dealt with the Metarex more times than anyone from Team JAG, the only exceptions being the engaged heroes Kim and Ron, but regardless of how many times any of them had dealt with them, the feeling was mutual – they were sick of it.

The slaughter, the lifeless worlds, the goal of solely death and destruction, all consequences of the enemy’s actions that they chose to stand against after the calling of a single girl, who spoke for the entire galaxy over eight years ago. A few of them had their own words to say to Dark Oak, and decided to make themselves heard at that moment.

“He’s right you know,” said an exhausted Sonic, being supported up by Amy and Cream. “One of these days, it’s all going to come down to the end, and we’ll finally see which side will be the winner in the end.”

“That’s right! And you better bet that hollow metal head of yours it’s going to be us!” followed Amy.

“We’ll see soon enough,” added Shadow, standing on his own two feet. The Chaotix tried to help him up, but the hedgehog’s pride forced them to hold back their helpful offer. “Something tells me you’re just here to figure that out for yourselves, seeing the days number down.”

“Interesting thought,” Ash stated, and then addressed the two enemies. “Why don’t you tell us how right he is about that?”

“Yes,” Galvatron stated, and just left it at that.

“Is that what this is all about?! Because you two freaks feel old?!” exclaimed Ron. “Come on, one of you has been causing insanity for decades, and the other longer than anyone I know being alive!”

Kim, although not as expressive as him, couldn’t help but agree with what he said. “You know, that makes a lot of sense to me,” she said, and just left it at that.

“As you’ve said before, this war of ours has gone in nowhere but circles for years, even far before the Metarex and Team JAG actually came to be,” Dark Oak went on to say. “I look back on all the times of conflict and the wars that they took place in, thinking of how often the cycle will continue. Then, when Chaos Control last happened, I realized that as long as you all have each other, it never will. We’ll always come back stronger and deadlier, and you’ll come back to oppose us every time. So long as those two are around, this will be as well.”

“So what’s your point?” Knuckles asked in a growl, supported onto his feet by Rouge.

Galvatron’s horns began to glow a solid black aura, followed by his eyes, and he told them “The sad reality is this – somehow those two will find a way to get back here, wherever they’ve ended up. So long as those two exist, our war will as well, for with them you can accomplish anything, but without them, you will turn to nothing. The closest we’ve come to success following our battles at the center of this galaxy was when Dark Oak’s sword thrust through that pitiful woman last year. That was only for fun for us.”

“Fun? FUN!” exclaimed Jason, his dark rage taking control of him. What happened with his closest friend was still a sore spot for him, having never dealt with a matter such as that that couldn’t be fixed. They all began to feel his power levels spike as he began to make a certain transformation.

“How Dare You! What you did that day, I’ve never wanted your deaths in my hands more than ever!” His body began to flash a change between his current form, and his most powerful form he only accessed before, the shadowy figure in the dark cloak and wielding an incredible scythe.

“Don’t even bother with that. This battle is over,” Dark Oak said back. Surprising the heroes, they just wondered what was going on next, to which their answer came as Darkness began to shroud both the Metarex and the Decepticon, returning them to the Brotherhood’s headquarters. “What happened this week was nothing but a field trip of sorts, to only pursuit a chance of Chaos when it was available. What happened here today, it was just a field study I needed to conduct, to see how you truly are without that wretched couple.”

“Don’t you DARE insult them!” the dark warrior lashed out.

“Or what? Yes that scythe you gained caused us great damage, but it still won’t do you good here today,” Galvatron said back. “Our conflict here is over, spending day and night going on back and forth with no clear winner… not yet at least. Remember this, and remember it well – the end of our feud may be closer than we all think. Only time can tell that, but rest assured, whether it’s true or not, we’ll never let our efforts lighten. The next time we meet, an end will come, and we Will make sure of it. Until we meet again…”

The shroud of Darkness then swallowed the two and they vanished off of Mobius, leaving the entire group lost and confused about how to take this, let alone address this to the rest of Team JAG. For the time being, it would seem that the hectic battling had finally concluded, which allowed the strongest warriors to power down back to normal, get some rest, and return to the most important matter at hand –

Finding Tails and Cosmo, wherever they may be.

The first thing any of them had to say following the entire time was Knuckles. For the longest time, he had a sense based on his connection with Chaos energy. “I need to return to Angel Island,” he said. “I need to return to standing by the Master Emerald.”

Chapter 10

Tails and Cosmo’s time in Equestria was going more peacefully than they could ask for, spending their time in Ponyville happily while trying to figure out a way home at the same time. After spending an afternoon at an interesting little picnic, the couple and Twilight Sparkle returned to trying to figure out a way to accomplish an interdimensional passage, all while trying to see what a certain zebra had said a few days prior. The three worked late into the night before Spike insisted they get some rest, and since the couple made an obligation to have breakfast at Fluttershy’s cottage the next morning, they called it a night.

The next morning came quicker than they all expected, waking up and going about their business. Having her own responsibilities to catch up on, the alicorn princess stayed behind, giving them instructions on how to find the yellow pegasus’s cottage-

“What you’ll want to do is go south towards the same direction as Rarity’s home. When you reach Sugarcube Corner, walk around it and make a left, going towards the town hall. Make a right there and cross over the bridge near the water reservoir and just keep following that path. It will take you straight to Fluttershy’s home, and hopefully you’ll just see her…”

The couple followed the instructions to the letter, walking their way to their friend’s home with ease. Having their strength and energy back compared to first arriving, it was very nice, and at moments romantic, to enjoy a nice walk together without having any preventions to stop them. They approached the quaint little home, standing in a beautiful little sanctuary of nature, and Tails knocked on the door. The top half of it opened to reveal the pony that was expecting their company.

“Oh, there you are, Tails and Cosmo. Good morning,” she greeted joyously, and opened her entire door to allow them to enter.

“Good morning, Fluttershy,” greeted Cosmo as the two walked inside.

“I hope it’s alright with you that I have tea and breakfast prepared outside,” Fluttershy said. “Unless you’d rather be inside, that’s alright. I knew I should’ve asked you yesterday, but my animal friends helped me so much that they prepared it all out back, and I just couldn’t let them down.”

“Breakfast outside sounds just fine to us,” Tails said to her. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

The yellow mare than said “Oh, well then that’s wonderful follow me.”

She led them through her home into the back yard, where a large group of more ‘wild’ animals were there enjoying their own morning. Rabbits, beavers, ducks, squirrels, even a full-grown bear, many kinds of animals were there, all to show kindness to the mare who has shown them more than anypony else. “Please, make yourselves comfortable,” she told them, pointing her hoof towards the table in front of them.

It looked like a wonderful morning spread of delicacies. A teapot holding a fresh brew sat in the center, surrounded by a bowl of freshly picked berries and small plates with biscuits and toast, with a butter tray and knife for spread. Each plate had eggs cooked sunny-side-up, made by some of the freshest eggs from the pony’s chickens. It looked like a wonderful spread, and all their growling stomachs led them to take their seats around the table.

Fluttershy was reaching for the teapot when Cosmo’s reach beat her to it. “Please, allow me,” the Seedrian said, and filled her friend’s cup first, then Tails’s, and lastly her own. The drink’s aroma lifted into the air for everyone to enjoy, and the host decided to raise her cup.

“Here’s to a good day with great friends,” the pony stated, and the couple raised their glasses to clang all three together lightly while the animals expressed their happiness vocally.

They then took the first sips of the tea, and it was a very delicious brew. “This tastes great,” Tails complimented. “Is this your own recipe?”

“Not exactly,” Fluttershy answered. “It’s a little recipe I made up of natural ingredients that my critter friends brought for me to use. I only make it when they ask for it or when I have special company.”

“Well it’s a wonderful brew, Fluttershy. I’d love to learn the recipe, and I’d be more than happy to share with you some that my clan has made for generations,” Cosmo told her.

“You don’t need to do that, but that would sound wonderful,” the mare replied. “As for now, if it’s alright with you, let’s enjoy our breakfast.”

The couple couldn’t argue at her kindness, so they passed around the berries, toast and biscuits, and began to enjoy their morning meal. While they ate, they enjoyed talks about topics of each of their worlds, but mainly focused on Fluttershy’s responsibilities when it came to the woodland creatures. She didn’t explain too much about it, just saying that she’s always there to help them as much as she can when help is needed. Intrigued to know more, they asked about what kinds of examples there were, to which she did so to a certain degree, but only general topics such as feeding or healing them. She did think of one little story that was worth a mention.

“I think I mentioned this to you already, Tails, but before when my friends and I found you, I was actually helping a couple baby birds learn to fly off the ground after they fell out of their nest,” the mare said.

“Really?” asked an intrigued Tails. “Did they manage to learn to fly, or did you have to help them up?”

Two little birds then flew over to the table, circling around his head once, repeating the motion around Cosmo, and then each one hovered on a side of Fluttershy’s head. They chirped a couple delightful chirps, and showed the pony some caring affection.

“They managed to learn to fly after all. I think they’ve really been improving, haven’t you?” said the pony, directing her question towards the two birds.

It wasn’t hard to put two and two together, and Cosmo said “Are those the same two birds you helped?” Fluttershy just nodded with a delightful grin, and one of the birds flew back over to Cosmo, who held a finger out for them to stand on.

“They’re just adorable little things. You must be so proud of them,” she stated.

“I am, very much,” the mare stated. The bird closest to her rubbed its head against her, the little animal’s way of showing affection while still flapping its wings. “I’m proud of all the animals when they do something important. It’s wonderful to watch, and important to them.”

The two birds flew around happily a couple times before flying up to rest in one of the many birdhouses hanging in the trees. The three returned to their eating, barely leaving a thing left on their plates, saving a few berries for a few animals to share. While Fluttershy began to refill each of the teacups towards the meal’s end, she told them “I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but I’m sorry about Discord yesterday. I should’ve known he would’ve tried to do something after I told him you were staying with Twilight.”

“It wasn’t an issue for us. In fact, he reminds us of a certain ‘friend’ of ours back home,” Tails said, referring to a certain ‘eggs-cellent’ genius he’s known for many years. “You must be very close if he decided to just come out of nowhere after something you wrote to him.”

“Well, that’s because we are. To him, I’m his closest friend, and we have a wonderful friendship we share. We write letters to each other all the time, and I wrote about you two the day after the party we had when you two reunited,” Fluttershy said.

Recalling the slideshow the draconequus showed yesterday, Cosmo said “You were the first one to ever say you were friends, is that correct? We can understand how he would show interest in things that happen with you, just like what any friend would do.”

“Yes, I was the first,” the pony replied. “I gave him a chance nopony else would, and in turn, we get along with each other very well. I know he can be, well, eccentric, a lot of times, but it’s just who he is. He’s stopped by to visit me every so often in between letters, and it’s been, unique, to say the least.”

“Unique as if pulling tricks like he did yesterday?” Tails asked.

“Sometimes, but very mildly so that he doesn’t cause as much chaos and distress as he used to,” said the pegasus.

“Well if you’d like to write this to him the next time you make a letter, tell him he is, as you said, unique, but if he shows you nothing but respect, he’s someone we’d like to respect, too,” Cosmo told her.

The way the two were talking and asking about Discord was very pleasing to Fluttershy, having not hearing anything of the sort from her best friends. Where she understood why the other ponies were more closed-minded compared to her newest friends, hearing approval for her one friend’s behavior and individuality was very enjoyable.

“Thank you, Cosmo. I will make sure to tell him that,” she told her friend with a smile, and then took another drink of her tea.

“And thank you for this great meal. It was delicious,” Tails told her, taking the last bite of eggs from his plate. He then recalled something one of the other ponies mentioned when the group dispersed after the picnic. “Rarity said you two had an appointment today, didn’t she?”

“That’s right,” the pony replied, “but that’s not for another few hours, so I have free time before then. My critter friends were all taken care of this morning and didn’t need anything more, isn’t that right?” All of the critters nodded, except for a little rabbit named Angel, who was tapping his foot for a dessert-for-brunch treatment.

“Looks like somebody’s still hungry,” Cosmo observed, and picked a few leftover berries to give to the rabbit. She got up and presented the berries to him, saying “Here you go, little one.”

Angel responded by rudely kicking the berries like little soccer balls straight to other animals, a few of which who caught the incoming berries with their mouths and ate joyously.

“Angel, that was very rude,” Fluttershy said to her pet, scolding him with a particular look from her eyes. “No snack for you this morning. Go inside and I’ll get you your carrots before I go to the spa later.” The look she gave him just caused the little rabbit to hop his way towards and into the house without a sound.

“Impressive,” Tails said. “You really have a great balance of care and discipline for the animals.”

“Oh, no, it was nothing. I just had to know what’s best for Angel so he doesn’t act out in bad manners,” said the mare. She decided to take the conversation in a different direction and asked “Enough about what I have to deal with, what about you two and your work with Twilight?”

“There isn’t much to say about that,” Cosmo replied, her mood sounding more down than how she was prior to the question. “We’ve been doing everything we could, but so far we’re not that much closer to finding a way back.”

Feeling just guilty for what she said, Fluttershy responded with “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you about that. I knew you were still having trouble, I just wanted to know if there was any good news you had. I really need to watch what I say.”

“It’s fine, Fluttershy. It’s just how it is right now. I’m sure we’ll find our way back home,” said the fox, but even as confident as he kept himself to be, how it would happen still eluded him, his love, and their alicorn friend.

She asked if there was anything new they had learned about that could be helpful, trying to bring up more positive thoughts about the situation, to which the couple did start to explain about. They stopped when they offered to help their friend clean up from breakfast, who in turn offered to make one more round of tea to share inside before both parties had to separate for the time being. Even if there were some particular moments that could’ve been handled better on the pony’s part, in her mind at least, she still loved the time spent with the couple, getting to know them even more, and about the beautiful things other worlds could offer her to experience, such as lovely sights, and singing…

/)∞(\

Over in Sweet Apple Acres, business went on as usual as Big Macintosh worked around the farm and Applejack was spending the day at market selling apples. For the Cutie Mark Crusaders, it was perfect so that they wouldn’t catch anypony’s attention as they snuck extra food and drinks to their clubhouse for a certain pegasus pony that was staying there for a little while.

Snowstar, the blind filly who ran away from home, was allowed to stay there, but only for so long until she had gained some confidence and the trio would take her to one of the older ponies to discuss the matter further. Until that time would come, each filly would take turns during the day to stay with her, sometimes in twos or all at once. It was early in the afternoon when Apple Bloom, wearing a saddle bag, and Sweetie Belle came back to see Scootaloo and Snowstar hanging out and sharing a small laugh.

“Hey, you two,” greeted Apple Bloom. “What are you two laughin’ about?”

Noticing their arriving, Scootaloo replied “Oh, hey guys. I was just telling Snowstar about our talent show fiasco.” The blind filly tried to contain her laughter, but a chuckle escaped, attempted to be covered by her hoof.

“Oh yeah,” said Sweetie Belle, recalling the past catastrophe. She and Apple Bloom shared a little laugh before redirecting the conversation. “How are you doing today, Snowstar?”

“I’m doing alright, thank you,” the filly replied softly.

“We brought some more stuff for you to eat tonight,” said the yellow pony, and dropped her bag to unload its contents to share. “I’ve got apple juice, an apple fritter, and a whole bunch of apples.”

“Thank you very much,” thanked Snowstar, but her words and tone only masked her thoughts. As grateful as she’s been to the trio’s hospitality towards her, most of the food she was given were apple-based items. Since they were giving her so much kindness, she didn’t be rude and reject their kindness.

“Did you manage to sleep well last night?” asked the little unicorn, and was answered with a nod, but an explanation that strange howlings woke her up. “Those were probably some timberwolves. They’re dangerous, but they usually stay in the Everfree Forest, so I wouldn’t worry too much about them.”

“Besides,” Scootaloo added, “if one totally came out and after you, we’d get Rainbow Dash and she’d kick their wooden flanks easily!”

Snowstar paused for a moment, thinking about the name the orange pony mentioned. “Rainbow Dash…” she pondered aloud, “… didn’t she win the last Best Young Flyer’s competition? I heard she won after she surprised the crowd with a sonic rainboom.” Her face then fell with sadness as she added “I wish I could get to see one myself.”

The crusaders tried to keep their new friend from depression and tried to change the conversation back to Rainbow Dash, whose topic also brought up the town’s local royalty, and as well as the other ponies in the group of six.

It worked for so long, until an accidental mention of Sweetie Belle being related to Rarity, who also took part in the same competition Rainbow Dash had won, and the blind filly returned to her more depressed state.

“I remember hearing about that competition from my father, who went with his coworkers from the weather factory,” Snowstar said. “He told me that one of the contestants fell to the ground so fast that one pony, Rainbow Dash, raced down to save her and did the sonic rainboom. When I asked what that was, he said it was an old mare’s tale come true, when a pegasus pony flies so fast, they create a sonic boom that also creates a rainbow. Then I asked about rainbows… then colors… and, well, you know what I mean…”

“Yeah, I think we do,” sighed Apple Bloom, thinking about how this was another insult to her blindness. “You know, it’s not a big deal to see it or not. Knowin’ it happened is still fascinatin’.”

“Not to my classmates,” Snowstar argued. “When the competition came up at school, I tried to talk about it, but they all just laughed and said I didn’t know anything since I couldn’t see.”

Sweetie Belle then said “Listen, Snowstar, it may not be the same, but we know the feeling of being bullied like that. You shouldn’t let what others say make you so tormented.”

“Tormented? You are a dictionary,” Scootaloo said, slightly insulting.

“See? Just like that,” the little unicorn stated. “I’ve been called a dictionary a thousand times, but I don’t care. Learning so many words came from spending so much time with my sister.”

“But I think what Sweetie Belle’s trying to say here,” Apple Bloom started to say, continuing with the point, “is that the three of us are the Cutie Mark Crusaders for a reason – because we don’t have our cutie marks. We’ve been constantly teased about that, and about our families…”

“Not to mention not being able to fly,” added the orange pegasus, looking back at a more recent event.

“Or being able to use magic, too,” added the white unicorn, whose magical capabilities were almost nonexistent at the time.

“You see, Snowstar, just because we don’t have or do what everypony else can, doesn’t mean we’re not better or worse than them. You’re fine just as who you are, and nothin’ nobody can say should make you sad like how you are now,” said the yellow pony.

The blind little pegasus didn’t know how to react. She’s heard this from her family, her teachers, even their peers before, but it was never how these three fillies were doing it. This time, she was being helped and comforted, not just told to do so. She used her hoof to find the gemstone she always kept close to her, finding it just in front of her and thinking how they were treating her was similar to what the gem was doing for her – making her feel warm, and safe, and above all, making her happy.

“You say what I’ve heard so many times already,” she told them, picking up the gem and looking at it. “But this time, I hear it differently. Why do you sound like, that you care so much about me?”

“Because,” answered Sweetie Belle, “that’s what friends are for.”

This struck Snowstar’s heart, and deep. “Friends?” she asked, sounding confused at first. “That’s… that sounds so strange to me. I’ve never had friends before… never.”

“Well do you now,” Scootaloo told her. “We don’t care about all the bad stuff that you’ve tried to get away from, or the fact that you can’t see. You’re a cool pony, and we’d call you our friend any day.”

“I… I… I…” muttered the runaway pony, at a loss for words. What she couldn’t see was how the gem she held began to glow, which surprised the other fillies very much, but she could feel warmth in her heart that she never felt before. It began to overwhelm her so much, she began to cry, but not out of despair this time.

“I… I can’t…” She then jumped forward, managing to wrap her hooves around two of the other fillies to cry out “I can’t thank you enough. Thank you… for being my… my friends.”

All three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders just surrounded her and hugged her in return, even though the glowing gem was still confusing them. Even so, they focused on how touched Snowstar was, thinking that steps like this would prove well to helping her further. “You’re welcome Snowstar,” Apple Bloom told her as they hugged. “Everypony deserves a friend, and we’d be darned if we couldn’t call you ours.”

For the first time ever, Snowstar understood and felt what it meant to have friends, and she never wanted to let that go. After a few more moments, the mention of being hugged too tight, and the sounds of lunch-hungry stomachs, caused the hug to break, and they sat down to enjoy the rest of their afternoon eating, playing whatever games they could, and talk about whatever conversation they could think of, and the blind filly did it all with a smile and joyous behavior. The more things went on, the more the three fillies were thinking of how much better she was doing, making their goal of helping her for the better another step closer.

/)∞(\

As per their weekly ritual, Fluttershy and Rarity met at the spa to relax and spend time together. They ordered their usual order and jumped from one treatment to another, eventually making their way to the hot bath. The conversation they shared this time around was about Tails and Cosmo, given the current circumstances revolving around the couple, and Fluttershy had just finished explaining about what she learned from them during breakfast.

“Right now, they’re working with Twilight to see if they can find this key of getting back home, and still researching portal spells for anything,” she said, concluding the summary.

“They must find something, otherwise they might not be able to get back home,” Rarity stated, sounding worried. “If only we could be more helpful to them, but alas, I’m not a pony who has vast knowledge of other worlds, let alone portal magic.”

“I know,” the yellow mare said sadly. “It must feel so terrible to feel how they must feel, stranded somewhere they don’t know much about, and don’t know how to get home.”

“But at least we can give them as much of a good time here as possible, Fluttershy, and that’s something good,” the white mare said.

After a quiet sigh, the pegasus replied “I guess so. They’re just so nice and cheerful, even when having to deal with such trouble like that. And from we’ve learned about their home, I can imagine that place being the same.”

“Oh I’m sure of that, darling. Cosmo told me so much about that Mobius world they are from and it sounds extravagant and beautiful,” Rarity said. “This might not be their home, but it’s ours and we’ve been doing everything we can to share it with them. Besides, even with the crazy events that can happen here, who couldn’t love the peaceful land of Equestria?”

Fluttershy just nodded gently and then leaned her head back to try and relax more. “You’re right. I know I couldn’t be happy without our friends, and all of us here in Ponyville together.”

“Exactly,” said the unicorn. “After all, you recall the visions we saw from that worst of worst days of theirs like the rest of us…” The two paused for a moment, thinking of what they saw the suffering their fox and flower friends had to endure that one dark day. “If they had to strength to overcome and repair what happened then, then they have the inner strength to persevere for the best, so as long as they have each other, much like the six of we have each other.”

The yellow mare’s mouth cracked a smile for the first time since the darker topics came up. “Of course, and just like you said, we’ll be there for them and share what we have with them,” she said, and then realized something. “That reminds me, Rarity, how are your outfits for them coming along?”

“Did I not say anything about those? I could’ve sworn I have,” pondered the white mare.

“I’m surprised you haven’t already,” Fluttershy stated, not insultingly as most would perceive it, but actually surprised. Her friend was the best of the best when it came to fashion, and would always find a soon opportunity to mention anything about that world of glamour and design.

Rarity then told her friend “Well, I must say that it’s some of my hardest work I’ve ever done. Their shapes, their attributes, and who they are overall, it has been difficult to get it all just right for them, especially since I’m not used to those with postures such as theirs. Sure I’ve made some clothes were Spike, but he’s much smaller and has only needed something for the upper body, but Tails, he’s got the height and figure to take greater measures for, especially for the trousers considering his two tails. And where do I begin with Cosmo and how her stories inspired me so much, not to mention that Seedrian Spirit Stone…”

“Well knowing how you put so much work into your designs, I’m sure they’ll just love them,” Fluttershy said with much respect to her friend’s craft.

“Oh thank you, Fluttershy. You are truly the kindest pony anypony could know,” complimented Rarity. “Tell you what, after we’re done here we’ll go straight to the boutique and I can show you what I have done. By how things are going, they’ll be all finished by tonight.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that for me, Rarity. I can wait until you’re unveil them to everyone else,” the yellow pegasus said.

Not taking no for an answer, the white unicorn replied “Nonsense, Fluttershy. You’re more than welcome to see them for yourself. I could always enjoy the opinion of another pony with an eye for fashion like you, especially considering it would also come from a dear friend.”

Feeling as if she had no way out of her friend’s generosity, Fluttershy said “Alright, Rarity. I’d love to have a look.” The two continued to enjoy the rest of their spa day in enjoyment, getting just a couple more treatments before departing for the boutique.

/)∞(\

Everypony, and every Mobian and Seedrian, kept themselves preoccupied much like the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the Apple family, Rarity and Fluttershy. Mayor Mare had been trotting across Ponyville to assure everything was in proper order, Rainbow Dash did minimal weather jobs before going off to either practice her flying or take a nap, a home where two ponies were practicing their polarizing musical crafts, and Pinkie Pie going around making sure there wasn’t a smile unseen with her optimistic and outgoing ways.

Unfortunately, the day progressed into evening, and at Golden Oak Library, the combined efforts of the newest princess, intellectual fox and faithful flower continued to have no further progress of their work. What could be anything progressive was that Tails and Cosmo were getting to have a better understanding of reading and translating the written text in all the books, scrolls and notes there were to go through. Otherwise, they were still nowhere closer to finding a way home.

“Unicorn’s Guide to Spell Conjuring: Volume XIII… How Magic Takes Us Farther… Daring Do & the Vanishing Tomb…” Twilight said, going through books that they’ve gone through countless times already aloud. “The Magic Elite: Theories from Equestrian History of Unicorns… what? Power Ponies vs Trojan the Titan Horse?” The last one was not one of her books, but a comic book instead.

“Ahem,” said Spike, her faithful assistant, who had his claw holding the book. It would seem that his reading pleasure was not safe as long as he was in a room full of books within magic’s reach of her, and it got caught in her trail of books to see and look through again.

“Twilight, I know you’re busy and said I don’t need help, but do you mind…”

“Oh… sorry about that Spike,” she replied, and released her magical grip of the comic book. Standing opposite of them at the centerpiece/table, Tails and Cosmo cracked humorous smiles with sympathetic eyes.

“We’re sorry, Spike. If it weren’t for all the trouble we’re going through…” Cosmo tried to say, but saw the little dragon wave an open hand up to stop her.

“It’s alright. It’s not the first time it’s happened anyway. I just need to know when and where to read,” he said, both kindly to her but just slightly cold to Twilight. “Yell if you need me. I’ll be upstairs,” he announced, and walked up to read his comic in better peace.

Without another word about the topic to say, Twilight turned back to go through more books. “No… no… no… no… Ugh!” she growled, and dropped all books she had levitated onto the ground. “This is getting more ridiculous than I could imagine! Nothing about interdimensional theories or discovering keys. It’s starting to become that chest from the Tree.”

“We’re not happy about it either, Twilight, but we can’t just stop. Cosmo and I have gotten better at understanding your written scriptures, and we’ve already discussed so many theories from our world that could be possible here. It just needs us, to keep on going,” Tails stated, although his previous sentence lacked so much enthusiasm.

“I know, and I don’t plan to stop. It’s just annoying when I can’t find anything in any book. You’ve gotten to understand that,” the alicorn said.

Going back to what was mentioned just a minute ago, Cosmo asked “Twilight, what were you saying about a tree and a chest?”

“From the Tree of Harmony? Nopony’s mentioned about that with you?” Twilight asked.

“Not at all,” replied the fox, “but when you say ‘Tree of Harmony,’ does that have anything to do with those Elements Discord ran on about yesterday?”

Now the purple pony was beyond blown away. She could’ve sworn those topics were told about at some point by her or any of her friends during the week, but as she looked back at her time with them, they haven’t. What a certain draconequus said about them was the first and only mention about them as of then, so she said “I can’t believe it. I really thought we told you about the Elements of Harmony. Well, let me see…” She thought of back to that one faithful day when her life changed forever – more specifically, the day she moved to Ponyville, and met all her friends.

“When I was still Princess Celestia’s student, I began researching about the Elements of Harmony that tied with an occurrence involving the return of Nightmare Moon, a pony who wanted the night to last forever. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna first discovered the six elements – Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic – from the Tree of Harmony in the Everfree Forest, and used them to turn Discord to stone when he first ruled over Equestria. They were only used a couple times, the last by Celestia to imprison Nightmare Moon in the moon itself, and since then, were left in an old castle that once housed Celestia and Luna.

"A thousand years after that was when I began to research the Elements, where at the same time did Nightmare Moon escape her prison and try to put the land in everlasting darkness again. It was at that time when I knew the Elements of Harmony were needed again, and my friends joined me to do so. It’s funny for me to say that, because when I first moved to Ponyville, I didn’t care for making friends in the first place…”

The couple took in all the information from what their friend was telling them, with Tails asking “So you came here looking for these six Elements and not friends, but if I can guess correctly… you found both?”

Twilight continued to tell the story of discovering the Elements of Harmony – how she and her friends each represented an element, Nightmare Moon’s defeat, briefly discussing using them again against Discord, and so on. She then explained the best she could about how using an unfinished spell by Star Swirl the Bearded had chaotic consequences, how the Elements and their friendship corrected it all, discovering new magic, and becoming a new Princess of Equestria as a result. When she reached the point of history when the Tree of Harmony was discovered dying after having so much of its magic drained, she explained what was lost, but left in its place…

“To save the Tree of Harmony, and keep Equestria safe again, we gave the Tree the Elements of Harmony back. It was hard to do, to sacrifice something that brought us so close together in the first place, but it was done for a greater good. The Tree was revived and Celestia and Luna were saved, but then the tree sprouted a plant that opened up to reveal a closed chest. None of us know what’s inside, but requires six keys to open, and we have yet to find any of them to open the chest. And that, Tails and Cosmo, is the story of the Elements of Harmony.”

After Twilight concluded her story, the amazement the couple saw was both nearly unexplainable, but seeming completely relatable at the same time. Two things stuck out about the entire story, and Cosmo was first to address it by saying “That’s amazing… just, amazing. We’ve been starting to see something more about the bonds between you and your friends, and now we see it. Friendship here, it’s a magical thing, beyond magical compared to so many other worlds we know.”

“That’s a main reason why Celestia had me stay in Ponyville in the first place, to learn and better understand friendship, and to report to her what I would discover. Some may not see it the same way we do, but for the six of us, there’s something much greater and more meaningful with friendship that makes us better, and helps us become more important to each other than we could probably realize,” Twilight said.

“What were the other reasons?” Tails asked.

Twilight looked at the two with a happy smile to say “Well, I discovered what it truly meant to have friends for the first time, and I didn’t want to leave it behind. My friends, they became too important for me to just up and leave so soon. They meant so much to me then, and mean even more to me now.”

The touching sentiment was something Tails and Cosmo felt in their hearts very strongly, and could more than relate to what their princess friend was feeling. At the same time, the genius fox began to compare the six ponies to those he and Cosmo knew back home for so long, to those they’ve known from Station Square and through Team JAG, and the Elements of Harmony…

“You know,” Tails began to say, “The way you talk about the Elements of Harmony, they remind me of special items from where we’re from. These items, however, could be used for harmony, or just the opposite, depending on who would use them…” He paused and thought more carefully.

“You seek keys to open a chest that is filled with an unknown anything, and now, Cosmo and I seek a ‘key’ to find our way back home. Maybe… just maybe… our way back is something that comes from our world…

“The Chaos Emeralds,” Cosmo said, reading her beloved’s mind perfectly.

Chapter 11

“The Chaos Emeralds are seven mystical gems that contain incredible power within them. Each one can assist in accomplishing amazing actions, even allowing some possessors to tap into abilities they couldn’t do naturally, all while sharing a magical bond that connects them forever. When all seven emeralds are collected together, their full potential is unleashed, which depends on the users. Those who are good at heart and have the purest intentions bring out a power that can only result in the best of outcomes, but for those who have used them for evil would unleash nothing but destruction and pain. Those who unleash their full power also unleash a powerful reaction with results that most have unexplainable results – Chaos Control.”

/)∞(\

“Chaos Control is the peak of the emeralds’ natural powers, only exceeded by the energy already possessed by those who wish to use that power. It has opened gravity fields in space, created a planet egg that fueled our greatest enemies, transform beings into monsters or those of good into a Chaos form, to best put it, and lastly, it can send those from one world to another. It happened before most of us found out about the Metarex, or for myself, fall in love. Its first occurrence sent several of us to a new world that was parallel to ours, and occurring a couple times after that that resulted in more of those from our home to arrive.

"The closest other times we’ve used them to connect worlds was at Revival, fixing the unjustified acts of our enemies, only using the emeralds to help fight difficult battles since, until they were hunted for and stolen by our enemy. He connected them to a device with components that came from several different dimensions, and after a fight between us, the emeralds reacted and unleashed Chaos Control again. What happened after that… well, you can see where we’re at now.”

/)∞(\

It took a long night of convincing to make it happen, but Apple Bloom convinced Snowstar to step out of the clubhouse for the first time in days. After a conversation with the blind pegasus filly yesterday, the yellow filly and her two best friends decided that even though she can’t see, she can still try to enjoy something fun. Of course Snowstar was hesitant to the idea, worried that somepony would see her and force her to go back to Cloudsdale, but Apple Bloom made a ‘Pinkie Promise’ to only go out for fun, not wanting to betray their friendship.

With her precious gemstone in her wing and closely following her earth pony friend, the filly wondered what was going to happen. Fear of betrayal found way into her thoughts, but she immediately dismissed it. They took a long way to their destination, not wanting to attract attention, and it was working well for all the time that passed before reaching their destination.

“We’re almost there, Snowstar. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo should be there right now,” Apple Bloom said. Keeping her eyes forward, she thought to herself “I sure hope this will lighten her up enough to want to talk to somepony else. We gave her time, but how much waitin’ is she goin’ to try to do?”

The objective of the Cutie Mark Crusaders for Snowstar was simple – to have fun and be happy. To achieve this, they wanted to take her out of the comfort zone she accustomed to with their clubhouse, and put her somewhere else that was new, a risky move to make but ultimately best for her in the end. The unicorn and pegasus fillies saw the other two arrive from the distance, and waved them down to get to the destination faster, to which they did after Apple Bloom suggested to just keep running straight.

“About time you two got here!” Scootaloo yelled, the two arriving fillies to slow down and stop. But for Snowstar’s case, she didn’t run the entire way, only enough to get a head start to leap in the year and fly. She landed perfectly next to where Apple Bloom had stopped, and to her surprise, she felt enjoyment for the first time in a very, very long time.

“We hope you’re ready for this, because this is something new we’ve never done before,” Sweetie Belle said cheerfully.

Curious about what she meant, Snowstar asked “And what exactly is it?”

“You’re Cutie Mare Crusader Initiation!” exclaimed all three ponies, shocking the guest filly.

“Initiation? You mean, like a test?” asked the blind filly.

“That’s right,” answered the yellow filly. “You see, we never done this before when we first expanded our sisterhood with my cousin from Manehattan. She was dealin’ with the same things you were… for the most part. We decided that this time around, if you’re willin’ to join, we want to give you a single-mission test and make you an official Cutie Mark Crusader.”

“Our first new pegasus pony since me,” added an excited Scootaloo.

“And our first new friend from Cloudsdale,” added Sweetie Belle.

Even though the value of friendship was finally given meaning to her after meeting the trio, Snowstar was still too unsure of herself in some ways to do much, and that included doing something unfamiliar to her. She has always requested help because of her blindness, and she was worried that the same disability that caused her so much heartache back home would cost her her Ponyville friends.

“I don’t know if I can. How could you possibly test me? I can’t see anything, so how can I be…” she went on to say, but felt a hoof pressed against her shoulder.

“Because you can do whatever you want to,” Apple Bloom said kindly. “You just flew several dozen feet as if it was nothing, and you didn’t need to see for that.”

“Trust us, this test isn’t something that’s too complicated. It’s just something we threw together just for you,” Sweetie Belle added. “But it does involve that gem you have.”

“My gem?” said the curious pegasus pony, who grabbed it from her wing and held it in her hoof. Although she couldn’t see it, she stared at it for a moment. The purple diamond shined as bright as ever, sharing the warmth it emitted with her still. Her reluctance was strong as she slowly extended her hoof towards the other fillies. “You won’t do anything to it, will you?”

The orange pegasus reached for it, and took it in her possession. “Of course not,” she said. “In fact, this plays a role in your initiation. Now here are the rules…” The three Crusaders then began to explain the rules of this initiation, the gem they had glowing brightly, and shining even brighter under the day’s bright sun.

/)∞(\

“Come on, man, we’ve been flying around this stupid forest for hours.”

“I don’t think we’re going to find anything in this place.”

An adolescent dragon was leading his two friends around the Everfree Forest, having a need to get some ‘dragon fun.’ “Stop complaining. It’s bad enough we became laughing stocks after that twerp Spike made ponies of us. A little dragon action is what we need to get back to things, so why not start with a treasure raid?”

“Yeah,” said one of the other dragons with a dark purple body, “but there’s nothing around here. We might be in pony territory, but it doesn’t look like there’s anything good around here.”

“Not unless you count those wooden dogs we charred earlier,” said the third dragon, larger with brown scales.

“Yeah that was a good warm up, but we need something else. Something that really brings out our inner-dragon. Something…” The red dragon stopped when a glare was caught in his eyes, unable to see right into the direction for which it was coming from. Taking further investigation, he led the group towards it, and soon saw where it was coming from.

“…Something, that looks as valuable as that,” he said, finding them a new target to focus on.

/)∞(\

A long night of discussions and researches alluded a trio from getting to sleep, and in turn went to bed late and woke up later to continue where having left off. The mentioning of two subjects had Twilight explain the history of the ancient and powerful Elements of Harmony of Equestria, and Tails and Cosmo had shared the tales regarding the mystical and mysterious Chaos Emeralds from Mobius. After only a few hours of sleep, the group went back to work trying to find a means to connect the two worlds and get the couple back home. Since their discussion about the emeralds, Ponyville’s favorite alicorn’s mind was racing with different thoughts and theories, including what Zecora had said a few days ago.

“A key from the world that houses them… Teleportation spells that sends ponies to another dimension for brief seconds… How do we connect them?” she thought, repeating the question in her mind over and over again.

They all began going through her books of teleportation spells again, as well as others that contained magical ways to detect things. Even everything Princess Celestia had sent through Spike was being used, but it was still no better that day than it was since first beginning the research. Cosmo was looking through a couple scrolls, only just barely understanding the script, before she rolled them up and just stopped reading.

Tails saw this, her just sitting where she was looking saddened, stopping research himself and saying “Cosmo… please don’t tell me you…”

He had no need to finish when she picked up her head with tears forming out of her eyes. Everything was starting to attack her better judgment, having been eating away at her core since finding where she had been sent to. “We’ve been working so hard to find something, and for some reason, I just don’t know all of a sudden,” she said, her voice a tone growing more upset as she went on. “Why do I feel like, that there’s nothing here that can help us?”

Of course Twilight was hearing this, but she held back from saying anything at first, mainly because she saw who this conversation was between. She didn’t ignore this, having stopped her own reading and kept her eyes on the couple.

“Cosmo, there’s bound to be something here that can help us,” said the fox, walking to his love as he kept talking. “With so many ways of doing just about anything around here, some form of answer can be found. Besides, even if we can’t figure this out ourselves, I doubt that our friends aren’t trying themselves.”

At that point, he was standing in front of her, but she remained seated where she was on the ground. “They have no idea where we’ve ended up. How would they know where to start? Even if they got everything they could, could they even be able to find a world that’s unknown to them?” she said, her sadness growing.

“I don’t know, but you and I both know we can never be able to lose faith in everyone back home. They’ve always been there for us before, and right now, they’re bound to be doing something to find us,” Tails said, but his voice began to sound strained. He kneeled down onto a knee to get to her eye level, and used his hand to lift her head up to look at him.

“I’m… I’m just so scared. I’m sorry, but I just can’t help it right now,” Cosmo confessed. “We’re in this new place that treats us so warmly and welcoming, just like how our home is, but the more I see it here, the more I’ve started to fear that it may not be seen again by our friends… our family…”

Twilight couldn’t help but feel the sadness being displayed, and her expression was shown to match. Her hooves began to lead her closer to them but stopped when Tails made his own confession.

“Cosmo, I feel exactly how you do.”

The Seedrian wasn’t too surprised, because they shared a heart so spiritually that it should’ve been sensed long before this. Saying nothing, he decided to help her back up on her feet, so that they could stand and talk rather than be down on the ground.

“You’re right about how this world is, and how it reminds us so much about home, and it’s all the more reason that we have to keep trying to find a way back,” he told her, his voice keeping hold of strength, even with his opening sadness trying to force its way out. “There IS a way for us to get home, and we WILL find it, whether it takes us another week, or month, however long it takes. We can’t lose our strength to keep trying, or the care we have from our friends… from Mobius, and from here."

Cosmo couldn’t think of what exactly to say, so instead she just stood against him, and leaned her head onto him, her eyes shut and letting out the last of her tears. Tails wrapped his arms around her for a hug, his eyes shut as well, and from their hearts came a bright glow that neither noticed. It only lasted for a couple moments as the hug broke, and the couple looked at each other with more hopeful eyes than before.

She then turned her attention towards their princess friend to say “I’m very sorry, Twilight. I didn’t mean to become so emotional right now. A part of me, just broke open enough to have it escape.”

Twilight just stood where she was and stared with wide-opened eyes, her pupils dilated so small, and her jaw dropped open, not saying a word. What she just saw come from the couple was still processing in her conscious. She’s seen magic through emotions from other ponies before, but with these two, it was something different, something that she was realizing to be what they needed all along. After shaking her head to regain focus, she stared at them with a happy expression.

“THAT’S IT!” she exclaimed, and jumped up in the air, her wings managing to have her accomplish a full loop, right there in her library. “The answer has been with us all along! I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out before! The traveling between dimensions, the key needed to connect you to your home, the visions I saw from that day, it’s all been right there the whole time! This is great!”

In her last sentence, she began to trot around the couple up until wrapping a leg around each of them in excited joy. “Twilight? Did you see something happen?” asked Cosmo.

“Oh you bet I did, and it was just what we needed!” the alicorn replied, seeming happier than having just perfecting an entire series of spells from the highest-ranked encyclopedias. “It’s you, both of you! You have the power to get back home from the power you share in your hearts! I can’t believe none of us thought of this before!” She then looked at each of them, her excitement turned down to ask them “Have you ever dealt with magic tied with love before, and it coming from your hearts other than the Chaos Emeralds?”

The couple could easily answer that question, thinking as far back as the two Metarex wars, mainly the second one where they received training in a certain fighting form from another friend of royal stature. To put it in the most simplest way, Tails answered with “You can say that… But about what you were talking about, you may be on to something. If our way back home is through our hearts…”

“…Then… then perhaps by all of us working together, we could open a portal that can send us back home,” Cosmo said, concluding where he started theorizing.

“I mean, with the power I have and have regained since healing…” Tails started.

“And with the help of my knowledge of teleportation spells, we can find that path and get you two back to Mobius!” Twilight said, doing what Cosmo had just done. “I’ll get a couple of the teleportation books back out and find the best spells I can. Spike will go around and get everypony else for them to hear this news, just in case we’ve made our breakthrough. If so, I can’t wait to see what happens!”

What none of them saw coming next was the echoing screams of young fillies coming from the distance, followed by the screams of other Ponyville citizens, and a couple unfamiliar roars. The screams of the younger ponies were of absolute terror and panic, almost blood-hurling is gone up another level. Twilight recognized all but one of the echoing screams, putting the thoughts on Tails and Cosmo on hold.

“That sounded like the Cutie Mark Crusaders. What’s going on now?”

/)∞(\

The heroes of Mobius and the Master Four of Team JAG returned to their search for Tails and Cosmo, an effort with the difficult price of patience. It’s been a week since their disappearance at this point, and just about a day following the end of an interdimensional attack by the Brotherhood of Darkness, with a conclusion that could only best describe it as another attacked that is was could be based on the phrase ‘Memento Mori.’

Since the end of those battles, those of Mobius waited at their home in hopes that their two friends would return somehow as others from other worlds continued the search, the operations still under the command of Dr. Eggman. Knuckles, however, sensed a great importance to stay near the Master Emerald the moment the battle with Dark Oak and Galvatron concluded, not leaving it for any reason since. He had a couple guests, mainly Shadow and Rouge who took him there and Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable to bring nutrition for his recovery. A few hours after those two had left, the echidna was joined by the most familiar of company – Sonic the Hedgehog.

“Feeling like your full self again?” the blue blur asked after racing up the emerald’s shrine and standing just in front of the staircase.

Knuckles stood facing of the giant gem, just under two feet away, with his arms crossed and a look of focus on his face. He wouldn’t turn around to reply “Almost. That Kaioken took more out of me than I anticipated.”

“Yeah but you did hold your own good enough,” the hedgehog said, attempting to make a compliment. “So, about the Master Emerald, you didn’t exactly explain much about needing to get back to it so fast.”

“You know protecting it is my responsibility in life, Sonic,” the echidna said, still not turning around. “If it would ever react to something regarding the Servers, I need to be here to see what it is.”

“Yeah, I know,” Sonic said, “but still, what exactly drew you back to it?”

At that moment, Knuckles turned around to face Sonic, the two staring at each other with a serious glare. In the corner of his eye, he saw something move, something large and mechanical, which turned out to be one of the Team Sonic planes. “Looks like more company is coming,” he said, and Sonic turned to see the Tornado II, being piloted by Amy with Cream and Cheese as passengers.

“Guess so, but that doesn’t answer my question. If you know something, Knuckles…” the blue hedgehog tried to say.

“I understand, Sonic,” the red echidna interrupted. “I know how much they mean to you. They mean a lot to me, too. Wherever they are, wherever the last Chaos Emerald is, the Master Emerald may show us what we need to find them. It takes a great spirit and strength to control and unify Chaos, and if anything, it may be what we need to find Tails and Cosmo.”

Sonic just nodded his head and replied “Right.” After a moment of silence and awkward staring, the hedgehog smiled with confidence, full confidence he hadn’t felt since what Chaos Control caused the week prior. Knuckles smiled as well, his way of assuring to believe that his theory was true. As their other friends were beginning to climb their way up the stairs to the top of the shrine, it happened-

The Master Emerald began to flash a bright glow, like a beacon. The last time it had ever done something like this, Chris Throndyke used the gem to interdimensionally travel from Station Square to Mobius. They stared up at what was going on, not saying anything until the others had finally raced up to join them. “What’s going on, Sonic?” Amy asked.

“The Master Emerald, it seems to be reacting to something,” Cream added.

“It is…” Knuckles said, pausing himself to stare and study the emerald. “It’s found something… it’s detected a Chaos Emerald that’s somewhere we might trace.”

Just then, a com-link sounded off. The one in question was Sonic’s, and the alert it was giving off was similar to that of the Team JAG alarm. The hedgehog opened it to reveal who was making the transmission – Dr. Eggman.

“Sonic, we’ve got a development. The Chaos Emeralds are all reacting at once.”

/)∞(\

At Team JAG Headquarters’ communications center, the Doctor and the Master Four were staring at the six emeralds they had powering their interdimensional scanner. It just happened out of nowhere with no explanation for doing so while they shared conversation on the next approach to take, but that topic no longer had meaning compared to now. Sonic quickly explained the occurrence going on with the Master Emerald and how there must be a connection. All of them, including the several friends and allies working the computers in the center, immediately took action upon Eggman’s command.

“Find what the Chaos Emeralds are reacting to Now!” he exclaimed, and they all did their best.

“The emeralds must have picked up something powerful somewhere,” Ash stated. “If anything, they found where the seventh one had disappeared to.”

Seeing what was appearing up on the main screen, Jason explained the findings. “It is the Chaos Emerald. Something or someone has activated its power to use.” He then called out towards the entire center “Can we get a trace of what is drawing out the emerald’s power.”

“We can’t,” Dr. Eggman answered, and pointed towards a couple graphs on his personal screen for the Master Four to see. “Look at these signs. Whatever this is about involves a new outlet by something we haven’t seen before. There’s no connection to any known worlds.”

“That means, this is coming from a brand new dimension,” Yugi stated. “Can we get try to access this universe with the emeralds we have?”

“We might be able to, but it still requires more power from another source. Perhaps if we use another source of power similar to it, mainly the Master Emerald,” Gohan said.

“What about the Master Emerald itself?” Knuckles asked from his end of the communication. “If I can get it to open the path, all of us here can have first access of crossing through.”

The Master Four thought amongst themselves about this. They didn’t want the last say about this, but there were interdimensional elements that they had to focus on. “If we let them do that, they’ll open themselves to who knows where,” Yugi pointed out.

“But it wouldn’t be the first time. I think it’s worth the shot,” Gohan stated.

“Besides, it’s their choice. This is the break we’ve been waiting for, so if they’re willing to do it…” Ash said, but had no need to finish.

All four nodded, so Jason turned to make the next commands – “Doctor, I want all of Angel Island under our scanners. Everything that goes on, we find out.” As Dr. Eggman concurred to the plan, the dark warrior turned to their Mobius friends to say “Do whatever you can, you guys. Here’s hoping we’ve finally found them…”

/)∞(\

Rainbow Dash was relaxing on a cloud fluffed just to her liking. Applejack was trotting her way with a bushel of fresh apples to give the local café, Rarity was magically transporting two clothing protectors that housed her latest creations with Fluttershy’s company, and Pinkie Pie was enjoying a hopping trot across Ponyville. What seemed to be a peaceful time for all of them became severely interrupted by the screaming cries of fillies-

“HELP!!! SOMEPONY HELP US!!!”

Everypony stopped to wonder what was going on, and what most saw put the entire town in fear. Scootaloo was riding her scooter, driving at full force with her wagon holding Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Snowstar in tow, fleeing for their endangered lives as they were being chased by three teen dragons, led by a familiar red teenage dragon named Garble.

The fleeing little ponies kept going as fast as possible, even the second pegasus flapping her wings for extra power, racing through the Ponyville streets as many other ponies fled for safety. Only five ponies either saw this take place, or recognized the screaming voices from a distance, and they all raced to action to see what was going on. Unfortunately, a moment of putting attention on the closing in dragons distracted the fleers from an upcoming obstacle.

“SCOOTALOO! LOOK OUT!” Sweetie Belle squeaked.

“SWEET APPLE SAUCE!” cried out Apple Bloom.

“AHHH! OH NO!” Scootaloo yelled, seeing that they were heading straight for a well. Her attempt to swerve and dodge it wasn’t as successful as hoped, just managing to corner it but the back wheel of a wagon just barely tapped it. The wagon forced to start jumping around to a point where all four fillies were launched off and crash on the ground near the library. Scattering to recover from the crash to keep moving, it was no use. The three dragons had caught up and surrounded the four ponies.

“Not bad, for a bunch of namby-pamby ponies,” Garble said. “Too bad you couldn’t get too far without us catching up. Now, give us what we want. Now.”

The dragons’ eyes were set on Snowstar in particular, who was hanging onto her glowing gem for dear life. A dragon could never resist a good treasure, and that one was no exception to them. The blind filly was scared speechless without knowing what to do, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders wouldn’t allow anything to happen.

“You keep your greedy claws away from our friend!” Apple Bloom yelled as the trio stood between the dragons and their friend. The dragons only laughed at how pathetic they saw the ponies acting.

“Oh wow, we’re so scared,” said the purple dragon, very sarcastically. “What are you going to do, stop us with your ‘cuteness?’” The dragons kept laughing on, and the brown one added “I bet they’ll try giving us the lame sad eyes and pout their way free.” This caused the three to laugh even harder than before.

“You ponies are dumber than I thought,” Garble told them, and began reaching down towards them with a mean snarl on his face.

“STAND AWAY FROM THOSE PONIES!”

Stomping her way towards them was Twilight, staring down the dragons with cross and stern eyes. She had stormed out of the library when she stepped outside to see what was going on. When she came between the dragons and fillies, the dragons just stared back at the purple mare without care.

“Well look what we have here- another stupid pony,” Garble said disrespectfully.

“I’m not going to tell you again,” Twilight said, keeping her stance firm and her seriousness in full. “Stay away from them, and leave. If you don’t, I’m not afraid to make sure you leave myself.” The latter was more of a bluff than serious, not knowing if even as an alicorn she could take on three dragons.

Tails and Cosmo only watched from the distance, standing by the doorway and watching their friend exercise her royal authority. Spike, who was busy upstairs when he heard the crash, came down to see the situation himself. “What’s going on out here?” he asked the couple, but then immediately saw what was happening. “Oh no, not them again.”

“Spike, you know who they are?” Cosmo asked.

“Yeah,” the little dragon said, “a bunch of dragon jerks. They’re just teenagers, but they’re still trouble.”

The purple teen dragon overheard Spike talking, and saw him standing the distance away. “Hey, look it is,” he said, pointing out to it. “It’s little Spike the pony.”

Garble looked over to notice him, and remembered the time the little dragon tried to prove himself to be a true dragon, only to stay true to who he was when being pressured to do something wrong. He then looked back at the alicorn standing up to them. Making the connection, he said “I thought you looked familiar. You’re one of those lame ponies that got away from us last time. We’ve been wondering if we’d ever get back at you.”

“What are you talking about? We’ve done nothing to you,” Twilight said crossly.

“Word got around and now we look like fools,” the brown dragon told her. “After you stood up to us to protect that phoenix egg, other dragons won’t let it down.”

“And when we decided to go out and find a way to reclaim our dragon pride, we found them,” said the red dragon, pointing towards the four fillies. “They have a little something that we want to take back with us, and have some fun to mess around with to remind who are the better creatures.”

“By picking on little kids? That’s not a quest for pride; it’s just cruel,” the purple alicorn told him.

“But now, we have you to have our fun with,” the purple dragon stated.

“Hey! Don’t you dare do anything to Twilight!” Scootaloo yelled, standing beside the purple mare.

Standing on the opposite side was Sweetie Belle, who said “She’s a princess and shouldn’t have to deal with you jerks!”

“That’s right!” Apple Bloom added, herself standing on Twilight’s back.

Behind them, Snowstar was just laying on the ground, protecting the gem she had under her, and listening to what was going on. “Princess?... Princess Twilight?”she thought to herself.

The dragons just laughed at them all, seeing no threat by creatures they saw as inferior to their own kind. The brown dragon just stared at them and said “Oh yeah, you and what army?”

“How about us, you dragon dopes?!” yelled out another voice. Rainbow Dash flew in and arrived to flap above Twilight. Following in suit were the rest of the princess’s friends – Pinkie Pie and Rarity racing up behind them, Applejack from the left, and a cowardly Fluttershy from the right. The dragons recognized the cyan pegasus and white unicorn from the previous encounter and the rest were new, but they still felt no threat as they looked around, and laughed at them again.

“Are you good for nothin’ lizards tryin’ to hurt my little sister and her friends? For your sakes, you best not be doin’ that,” the orange mare said.

“Nobody tries to harm Sweetie Belle and gets away with it,” added a furious Rarity. She gently levitated her clothes over to Spike, setting them down on him for protection, before getting up on her rear legs to say “Now get lost if you ruffians know what’s good for you!”

The dragons just kept laughing, but this time they were joined by a laughing pink mare. Garble unknowingly wrapped an arm around her as she wrapped a leg around him, laughing so hard that his eyes were shut. When they did open to see her, he and the other two stopped as she continued. Confused by this, the dragon just asked “Uh, why are you laughing with us?”

Pinkie had another laugh before replying “Because I always LOVE to laugh! Laughing is fun to share, and for me it’s practically the most crazily contagious thing I always catch!” She began to laugh again, leaving the entire group dumbfounded, but the ponies were more unsurprised by this.

“Pinkie Pie, you are so… so random,” sighed Rainbow, smacking a hoof against her head.

“I know,” Pinkie replied, and had a smaller laugh.

All of a sudden, she was swallowed inside the fury of a dragon’s fire breath. When it ended, she came out of it a less than happy pony, covered in the remnants of the fire’s effect.

“And now, you’re burnt,” laughed the purple dragon.

Garble followed that by grabbing the pony by her mane and said “And now… you’re gone!” He then chucked Pinkie Pie away from them, colliding into Fluttershy head to head as a result. Feeling some cocky confidence from his actions, the dragon turned back to his initial targets to say “That felt great. Now, give me what I want, or else!”

“And what in tarnation would that be?!” asked an angry Applejack.

All three dragons used their fire breath to distance the surrounding ponies further back. Garble stopped to use his tail and swipe Twilight and the Cutie Mark Crusaders aside, and stepped up to Snowstar, who stood on the ground in terrible fear. She got back up onto her hooves, revealing the gemstone she was protecting, and its glow shining all around.

Behind her, the gem was sensed by those who immediately recognized it, and could tell that their time just standing around was over. The blind filly held the gem close to her, knowing the dragon was just inches in front of her, but she was too frozen in fear to run.

“I’ll be taking that, pony,” Garble said, and swiped his claw down to grab her. However, he was stopped by someone else. “What the...?”

Tails stood between the dragon and filly, having prevented the swipe from reaching her by blocking it. His stare up at the dragon was fierce, and angry.

“You don’t know how to listen, do you?” he said. “She told you… Stand Back!” Using only a fraction of his overall strength, he used his open hand to push Garbel back into the other two dragons.

Cosmo ran up to Snowstar, and picked her up in her arms. At first, the blind filly panicked, but she calmed down when she heard Cosmo say “It’s alright, we’re here to help you.” She then saw the gemstone the pony had, her eyes lit up with surprise and joy. “Tails, it is it! It’s the Chaos Emerald!”

The fox turned around to see it for himself, and was happily surprised like her, but due to the current conflict, didn’t express it so much. He stepped up to the filly his love held and asked “Are you alright? What’s your name?”

“I… I’m… Snowstar,” the filly replied, her eyes appearing to be staring at Tails’s chest, which showed the couple her seeing condition. “and… I’m alright. But who are you?”

“We’re friends,” he replied, and changed the topic. “Snowstar, that emerald you have there, may I have it please?”

“Why do you want it? Those mean dragons… whatever those are… they’re trying to steal it,” Snowstar said.

“We know, but that’s no ordinary emerald. Please, let me have it and make sure those bullies never get it,” Tails told her. He used the kindest tone he could to convince her to agree. She struggled with the idea for a moment, but could tell that these two beings, these non-ponies, were genuine, through the warmth the emerald gave her. She gave the emerald to him, and he said “Thank you, Snowstar.”

This distraction bought the ponies enough time to quickly regroup as the teen dragons got back to focus. When Twilight noticed this, she took action to protect her friends. “Rainbow Dash, get Cosmo, the girls and everypony else inside the library, and keep yourselves safe.”

“Oh no, we’re not leaving you out here to fight those guys,” Rainbow told her.

“H-h-h-how can you possibly do this alone?” asked the frightened Fluttershy.

The purple alicorn turned back to Tails and said “Don’t worry about me, I won’t be alone. Something tells me that Tails isn’t going in with the rest of you, and we’re about to find out what he plans to do.”

“I hope you are right Twilight, but I just hope it isn’t too excessive,” Rarity stated, noticing the focused glared the fox was giving, much like what the ponies saw in that vision of the past.

Although still reluctant to do what Twilight had asked her, Rainbow Dash lead their friends, the fillies and Cosmo back into the library. Spike was the last to step in, and locked the door shut. This left the conflict to be two against three – fox and alicorn against three dragons. They had recovered to see that they were too late to get to the fillies, but the emerald they had their eyes on was still in sight.

“Not a bad trick, for a little shrimp like you I mean,” Garble said, addressing Tails. “I doubt you can pull that trick off again, so how about we cut you a deal…”

“Yeah. Just give us the gem, and we’ll leave,” said the brown dragon, but then the purple dragon added “Or we scorch that tree into ash.”

Tails stared at them with cold eyes and an attitude of not taking any nonsense. He made the answer simple – “No.”

The dragons, taken aback by their deal being rejected, did not like it at all. “What did you just say?” asked the red dragon.

“He said ‘No,’” Twilight told him. “Leave Ponyville. Now.”

“Nobody tells me what to do, especially some stupid pony like you, or some freak like you,” Garble told them.

The two could tell that the dragons were too arrogant to listen, and knew that greater measures were needed to be taken. Tails looked down at the Chaos Emerald he had clenched in his hand, the energy glowing from inside its purple-colored body. A few memories of home came to mind, then the events of the last week with the new friends he had met, and then the history he and Cosmo had learned, including the Elements of Harmony. This gave him an idea of his own.

“I have a deal for you,” he said. Every being then watched as he held the emerald out to Twilight. “I’m giving my Chaos Emerald to Twilight, and she will use its powers along with her own to end this. If you really think you can take it away from her, then try. All you have to do…

“Is get past me.”

“What?” said Twilight.

Every dragon and pony’s eyes widened as large as they could get in udder shock of what he just said. Cosmo was the only one not phased by his decision, watching from inside and knowing that he knew what he was doing. After about a minute of dead silence, again, the dragons broke out laughing. Even what the fox had done just a short time ago was not enough to mean threatening enough.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” the brown dragon.

“This is too good,” laughed the purple dragon.

Twilight looked over at her friend to ask, in a quieter tone, “Tails, what are you trying to do?”

“To show guys like these what can happen when they bully innocent kids. I’ve dealt with that before, even dealt with being bullied myself, and I won’t let them try to harm anypony,” said the fox. He didn’t even realize that instead of saying ‘anybody,’ he said ‘anypony.’ His focus was set on protecting any and all ponies he can from harm.

“I can respect and get behind you on that, but like this? Why are you even giving me that emerald?” the purple pony asked, still confused.

“Do you remember what Cosmo and I told you about the Chaos Emeralds?” he asked her. She then recalled last night when the couple told her all about the Chaos Emeralds as she told them about the Elements of Harmony. “The power of the emeralds respond to the user, and to be honest, I don’t want to use it myself. I think you’re better suited to use it right now, Twilight, because with your magic, you can unlock great potential and do greater good. If not for that, do it to make sure nopony else has to get hurt by these guys.”

He reached the emerald out to her, looking at her with much optimism in his decision. Twilight looked at the gem, then up at him. What she could see was a sign of trust that she and her friends give each other every day, the same that they gave to him when they found him hurt in the ground. She tried to think of another argument, even that he could still be too weak, but judging from the race he had with Rainbow Dash the other day, she couldn’t defend it.

From inside the library, everyone watched through any window they could comfortably crowd around, even Snowstar. Cosmo watched and listened to everything they were saying over the dragons’ laughter, saying softly “Trust him, Twilight. Take it.”

The princess used her magic to levitate the item out of Tails’s hand, and have it float in front of her. After a good look into it, she wore a determined look on her face and said “Alright, I’ll give it a try. I’ll try to use a spell that can send them far enough away that they won’t bother trying to come back. As for you, be careful, and if you need me to jump in and fight…”

“Don’t worry,” Tails told her. “I can handle it. I’ll just show them what you saw me become that day.” He then stepped forward, just far enough to stand in the middle between Twilight and the dragon trio, whose laugh ended when Twilight previously spoke. Since he never got an answer from them, he asked “So do we have a deal?”

“Ha! To get past you and take it from your namby-pamby princess there? Sounds easy enough,” Garble replied.

The fox just grinned as how foolish the dragon was sounding and said “You think so?”

“We know so,” the red dragon said back. “It’s three dragons against one… whatever you’re supposed to be. How do you plan to handle that all at once?”

Tails’s grin turned into a brief laugh behind his teeth, his confidence coming from his biggest influence. He looked at all three dragons and said “With this…”

His grin then faded as he focused himself and started to let out a focusing scream. It started quiet, but grew louder and louder, keeping his focus in check as he underwent a transformation never seen by Equestrian eyes. Twilight and all her friends watched as he unleashed his loud yell, with a bright light flashing from him and emitting all around them.

When it had faded, they all took a look at what had just happened – a golden aura surrounded the fox, his fur a lighter shade, his eyes now green, his three long hairs on his head pointing straight up, and his face wearing a most serious and focused glare. For the first time, the ponies now see Tails as a Super Saiyan.

Chapter 12

Three teenage dragons became a threat to first the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Snowstar, and after a chase into Ponyville, Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends were new targets. The three’s presence was all to steal a gem that the fillies had, which in reality was the purple Chaos Emerald that was transported to Equestria with Tails and Cosmo during Chaos Control. Most of the ponies and Cosmo sought shelter inside the Golden Oak Library and watched as the heroic fox not only gave Twilight the emerald to use with her own powers, but after making a deal of how things will go with the three foes, ascended himself to his Super Saiyan form.

Needless to say that the sight of this was almost unbelievable if all but the fillies hadn’t seen the visions of the Metarex war’s climatic conclusion, or during a recent race. Except, only able to hear what was going on, Snowstar was left in the darkness of her blindness to understand anything that was happening?

“What’s going on? Why is everypony acting so shocked? What was with all the screaming?” she asked, scared and confused.

“Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh,” the only words Rainbow Dash could say out of her mouth at that moment.

“Land sakes! I can’t believe he just did it right in front of us,” Applejack said.

“That was totally cool!” Scootaloo yelled.

“Are my eyes playin’ tricks on me?! Did Tails just, turn gold?” asked a confused Apple Bloom.

“YOU BET! THIS IS GREAT! HE’S GOING GOLD TO TAKE ON THE RED… AND PURPLE… AND BROWN… THOSE DRAGONS ARE GOING DOWN!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, answering the yellow filly’s question.

Fluttershy was crotched on the ground shaking in life-threatening fear. It was one thing to deal with dragons. It was another thing to see what Tails had become through the visions. But seeing it happen right in front of her was more terrifying than she could imagine. She whimpered with her head down and her front hooves covering her eyes, saying over and over “I will not look. I will not look. I will not look…”

Standing next to her was Cosmo, who kneeled down to try to tell her “Fluttershy, you have nothing to be scared about. It’s still Tails out there. He’s just a little different to do the right thing. Trust me.” Although she heard no verbal response, the yellow pegasus hooves stopped shaking, a start to somewhere.

Confused by everything, Sweetie Belle asked her big sister “What in the hay is going on out there?! What did Tails just do?”

“He’s tapped into a strange power that nopony’s ever seen before, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity explained. She then looked at where Spike had set the two outfits she ‘gave’ to him to guard before, but just for a moment. “It’s like how I find new inspirations for my work, but for him, it’s his style of added strength.”

The little unicorn had no idea what her sister had meant, and instead looked over at how Snowstar was acting. She said to her friend “Snowstar, I think that Tails and Twilight will have this all taken care of. That screaming, it made him… well, it turned him into…”

“What are you saying? He’s different now?” asked the blind filly.

“Well,” Cosmo said, “what’s she’s trying to tell you is that Tails out there, he’s become a special state of being at the moment to stop the dragons.”

Unable to hold in her excitement about this, Rainbow Dash squeaked out of her mouth “And it’s SO AWESOME!”

/)∞(\

As Tails stood in place in his Super Saiyan form, Twilight stared at his transformation in amazement. To see events in a vision was one thing, but in front of her eyes rivaled even the rise and banishment of Nightmare Moon.

“Something is different about him now,” he said to herself quietly. “This new form must increase not only his abilities, but his attitude as well. Seeing it in person, I can see why he didn’t need this.” Her eyes looked at the Chaos Emerald levitating next to her, and then said “I better not waste any time doing nothing.”

The three dragons just stared at him strangely, not stupefied by the fox’s new appearance, but just lost. “Whoa,” the purple dragon said. “What was that trick all about?”

“Forget that,” the brown dragon said. “Check out his fur. It changed colors.”

Garble snapped back into his focus to tell his two friends “Forget the new look. We made a bet, didn’t we? Now let’s trash this furry freak and get that gem.” The other dragons snapped back to the same reality, and they prepared to begin the fight.

Saying nothing, Tails only stared out at the dragons, his eyes focused on his current mission to take them down. He turned his head around just enough for an eye to look back at Twilight, who looked at him in return, and without a word, gave her a nod, and turned his head back around. It was his way of telling her to do what she could with the emerald right then and there. Next, he took a fighting stance to begin combat, his face keeping the same expression as the three dragons prepared to attack themselves with overmuch confidence. The fight began when he only said three words to them-

“Let’s do this.”

“Get him!” Garble yelled, and the dragons immediately went in to fight. Twilight immediately began to focus her magic and enhance it with the Chaos Emerald.

The first thing the dragons attempted was going at Tails one on one, each from a different angle with their own approach. The fox used his abilities to take them on in the same order they came in. The brown dragon used his larger size to charge in like a cannonball, only to be countered by a solitary punch and be sent rolling on the ground so far. The purple dragon attempted to come in at the side, using his fire breath to engulf the warrior in flames, but failed after taking in two quick kicks that diverted him towards the distant well. The red dragon used his tail to try and swipe the fox away, but Tails flew into the air to dodge, and charged back down straight towards the foe.

“Gotcha,” Garble smirked, and unleashed a powerful fire breath straight towards the fox, shrouding the hero in flames. When he stopped, the dragon looked up and said “That’ll take care of him.”

As he looked up, the stream of flames faded, and Tails emerged from it unharmed, not even the smallest hair turned to cinder. Even holding back, he left-hooked the dragon’s face hard enough to knock the beast into the ground. He set his feet back on the ground between the three beasts and the focusing alicorn princess while the trio got back to their feet and regrouped to keep going.

“Lucky shot, you runt,” the red dragon snorted. “Don’t expect to let that happen again. Now we know we can’t take you too lightly.”

Tails smirked and lifted his hand to give a ‘bring it on’ gesture, and left it at that.

The three then charged in to fight him together, soaring in with their wings, and the heroic fox raced up right back. When the two sides collided, three claws as fists missed their punches, and three different legs missed their kicks, and three tails nearly got tied into a knot when trying to put the hero in a bind. Tails grabbed them all by their tails and swung them around in circles a few times before letting go, sending them soaring in the air and crashing almost right in front of Quills & Sofas. Fortunately, the sight of the dragons kept all the other ponies safe and hidden inside the buildings, so no one would get hurt by crossfire. Losing their tempers, the dragons decided to go all out.

“Take that sorry freak down! I don’t care how, just do it!” Garble exclaimed, and they raced back in, their ignorance still too great to see that they were clearly outmatched.

Every attempt proved to be the same – attack the fox, and get knocked back a distance. In all reality, Tails was toying with them, not even using the full potential being a Super Saiyan can give, being merciful because there was no point in fatal punishment. Everyone who could watched the battle go on, and the ease their friend was having.

As for Twilight, the battle allowed her to keep her focus in check as she worked with her strongest magic to help end the battle.
“Come on… come on…” she said to herself, struggling to accomplish the spell he had in mind. To do this, she would need to have to open her targets to a path to send them where they could do no more harm, but it was very advanced, and even being the newest alicorn princess doesn’t guarantee the perfect power-up.

“Alright, I almost got it. I just need an extra boost…”

The purple Chaos Emerald still hovered next to her emitting its magical glow. She brought it closer to her, letting it hover just in front of her to focus on. She then remembered part of Cosmo’s description of the emeralds…

“When you use a Chaos Emerald, you connect with it to bring out its potential, much like how you and your friends used your Elements of Harmony. Harness the great power you hold within yourself – the strength of your heart – and you can tap into its energy to use as you wish.”

“The strength of my heart…” Twilight thought to herself aloud. “The strength of my heart, like how I used the Elements of Harmony… I used them with my friends… My friends…”

All her friends from Ponyville, and their two newer friends from Mobius, became her focus, thinking of them and the many memories that were made. The emerald began to react to this, sharing its energy with her, and making it show. Her body began to emit a thin aura of light, and the magic aura already shrouding her horn glowed brighter. Her once shut eyes opened to emit the brightest light as the two magics fused inside her into a greater power unlike anything seen in Equestria.

“Whoa! Look at Twilight! She’s glowin’ brighter than a pony after tasting a rainbow,” Applejack said, all of those inside the library still watching.

“I can’t believe my eyes. I hope the poor dear is alright,” added Rarity, sounding very concerned.

“Don’t worry,” Cosmo said, “she’s just fine. She’s harnessed the power of the emerald.”

“What does that mean?” Scootaloo asked.

The Seedrian looked over at the filly and replied “It means her magic is even more powerful right now.”

/)∞(\

Twilight, now feeling the full power of the emerald enhancing her magic, felt incredible at what was coursing through her and ready to be unleashed. She noticed the fight and that Tails was still holding his own easily, but she wasted not a second more to look up above her and shoot a stream of immense magic. It shot up in the air, only to stop just so high in the air, perhaps ten feet at best, and began to manifest into an oval of energy, better described as a portal like what her spell called for. Those in the library watched in shock and awe, while the fighters saw what was taking place right then.

“What the heck? Where did that thing come from?” Garble asked confused.

The brown dragon pointed out at the source and said “Check it out. It’s coming from that pony.”

“No way,” said the purple dragon, the sight of her actions confirming it to him. “How did she pull that off?”

“A little help with some magic from where I’m from,” Tails said, keeping a stance just a few feet in front of them and blocking them from Twilight. “That get you wanted so bad holds great power, and now she’s using that to make sure you three don’t mess with anypony around here again.”

The red dragon tried to bluff when he looked up at the magical portal to ask “Oh yeah? What are you planning to do that’s so bad?”

“Just get you guys out of here. Nothing more needed than that,” the fox replied. “Unless you can choose to turn around and leave right now. Do that, and we won’t use the magic at all, and you’ll know where you end up. Besides, you can’t beat me, let alone get past me.”

As much as the dragons didn’t want to admit it, the fox was right, but instead of giving up, their eyes wondered back to the library, and all the ponies and one strange girl inside. This gave them the idea from a threat they made before, and make a terrible choice of tactics.

“Fine, runt, have it your way,” Garble told him, and the three dragons went airborne. “But if we’re going down, so is that treehouse and all your friends inside!” The three dragons then flew off, aiming for the library and began to unleash a combined fire attack to burn the tree down.

When Twilight saw this, she knew she had to use some of her magic to stop this new attack. As she was about to cover her home in a force field, Tails appeared in front of the flames and blocked the attack with a single open hand, keeping the tree safe.

“Why those lowlife brutes! Nobody tries to hurt any of my friends!” she exclaimed. “Enough is enough. I have to end this.” With one more focus of her magic, the portal above her was at the pinnacle she could get it to reach. What happened next surprised them all, as the portal didn’t send the three dragons away by sending them inside, but instead, something came out of it, a voice that only two people could recognize.

“TAILS! COSMO!”

A blue streak shot out of the portal, straight into the streaming inferno. It began to take over Tails’s job of stopping the fire from burning down the library, doing so by spinning around in a golden blue sphere that kept charging towards the dragons. When it made contract, it knocked the trio back, forcing their attack to stop and regain flight control before they would crash into the ground. Tails, Cosmo and everypony looked out at the new hero that arrived at the scene, who lowered himself with his feet touching the ground, followed by the fox.

“SONIC!” Tails exclaimed happily. The figure standing before him, it was none other than Sonic the Hedgehog, his oldest friends and older brother figure.

The blue hedgehog, a Super Saiyan like Tails, turned around with a smile of relief and happiness to see his little brother. The two then ran up to each other to give one-another a warm greeting of a bro-hug, glad to see each other again after what felt like so much longer than reality. “Glad to see you’re alright, buddy,” Sonic said. “What about Cosmo?”

“She’s inside that tree,” Tails replied, pointing towards the window she was looking out of.

The heroic hedgehog saw her look out very happily, and this enhanced his relief and happiness even more. “That’s great. We’ve been worried sick about you guys,” he said, then pointed to the dragons to add “but where are we, and what was with those guys?”

“I’ll explain later, but right now those guys are trying to steal and hurt our new friends here,” Tails answered.

The dragons’ short-fused anger finally reached their most livid points as Garble snorted so much that flames came out of his nostrils. “Oh great, what’s this? A new freak crashing in from nowhere?” he complained.

“I don’t know, but that was some hit. He got me right on the head,” the purple dragon added, rubbing the top of his head in hurt. “Maybe we should get out of here.”

“No way,” the red dragon argued. “I’m not running away from some namby-pamby ponies and those freaks of nature! You two take them on, and I’ll get the ‘princess.’”

The dragons stormed in to make a last-ditch effort for their prize. Tails quickly told Sonic “We have to protect her over there. She has a Chaos Emerald,” pointing towards the still spell-active Twilight.

Agreeing to this plan, the two each stopped a dragon with ease, but Garble was still closing in on Twilight. However, even at top speed, he couldn’t stop what came next, and that was even more figures jumping through the portal right in front of the alicorn, forcing the beast by an unknown being’s punch to divert and crash into one dragon, and then the other. Showing up just in time were Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Cream and Cheese, the first of whom throwing the punch.

“What in the…” Twilight started to say, stunned to see what had just happened before her, but up until she had to refocus on the magic. Tails and Sonic ran up to her side to meet with the others, and watching the princess readying herself to use her magic. She took a brief moment to say “Tails, I’m ready when you are…”

The fox nodded, and although overjoyed to see his Mobius family, he asked them to stand back, leaving as open space between his and Twilight’s viewing range and the dragons. All the others inside the library began to flood out and stand alongside the newest arrivals. With a Super Saiyan-glowing fox and magically all-powerful alicorn standing side by side of each other with an army of friends behind them, the trio of troublesome dragons were finally stuck in a corner of no escape, and started to express fear.

“Oh man,” the brown dragon said as she shook on the ground. “We’re doomed.”

“Maybe… maybe they’ll show some mercy?” the purple dragon hoped. Tails’s hand then faced them, and began to glow a strange new energy of which they’ve never seen before.

“Oh man! Bail, guys, bail!” Garble cried, and they began tripping over each other trying to make an escape.

Tails and Twilight looked each other with a grin, and then looked back at the dragons. She then called out to them “Consider this a lesson for you bullies…” He then followed it with a more strict, fearful tone saying “You do NOT ever dare to hurt Our Friends AGAIN! NOW GET LOST!”

The fox then blasted an energy blast at the ground just before the dragons, blasting them straight up into the air. The purple pony then used her magic to open a new portal just above them, swallowing them up to spit back out in an unknown location far away, immediately sealing it behind them. The battle was over, and the two there and one hedgehog behind them powered down, with him returning to his normal state and her stopping to use her magic and the Chaos Emerald’s power, the latter feeling most tired. Nevertheless, it was a time to rejoice.

/)∞(\

Cosmo jumped up and swung her arms around her beloved, hugging him happily as all the others followed. “You were incredible,” she said to him, and pecked his cheek with a kiss. She then let one of her arms down to wrap around Twilight to say “You both were. Thank you, Twilight.”

The two showed their care by rubbing their heads against each other. Then, they were surrounded at all sides by their friends, all of whom ecstatic at what they saw, and Tails and Cosmo’s having been found. Voices layered onto each other as they all tried to say something at once.

“Oh I’m so happy we found you! We were so worried!”

“Yee-haw! That was one of the most amazin’ things my eyes ever did see!”

“Twilight, that was absolutely extraordinary!”

“Glad to see the two of you are alright. It’s been a long week.”

“And Tails was all like ‘YAAAAAAHHHH!’ and then he was all super gold and super fast and kicking dragon tail left to right. And Twilight, she was all super glowy and powerful like a super duper super star! And then, they both were ‘BOOM!’ and ‘BLAST!’ and then…”

It would take another few minutes before they could all calm down to a point that Tails and Cosmo could peacefully reconnect with their friends from back home. The couple then gave an introduction of their pony friends to their home friends and vice-versa, along with brief histories of what happened to them when they arrived and the ponies being very friendly towards them.

The portal that Sonic and the others crossed through, to most of their surprise, still remained opened in the air, and caught the attention of the other Ponyville citizens. Sonic and Knuckles explained on how the Master Emerald detected the use of the missing Chaos Emerald back home, serving as the portal source between the two worlds, and that a few additional friends were soon to follow after announcing the permanent halt of an interdimensional search party. After so much storytelling was done, the two worldly groups kept discussing details that were partially mentioned.

“So you’re Sonic, huh? I’ve heard a lot about you, being the so-called ‘fastest in all worlds,’ am I right?” Rainbow Dash asked the blue hero.

“That’s right,” Sonic replied. “I see Tails told you about my history, so what’s yours? You a speed queen or something?”

“You can say that, but you can know me as the best and fastest flyer in all of Eqeustria,” the cyan pegasus responded, and gave a quick little demonstration in the air. When she finished showing off, she lowered back down to say “I’m sure I can teach you some of my awesomeness sometime, after you show off some of your stuff.”

“Alright,” he said back, and in the blink of an eye he raced off a random distance, and not even ten seconds later returned with an apple in his hand. He took a bite out of it and enjoyed the taste.

Cream spoke to Fluttershy and Twilight as she said “Thank you so much for taking care of our friends. We were worried so much for their safety and well-being when they disappeared, but they were very fortunate to be found by you.”

“Well we can say that Tails really made an entrance, to be put it,” the purple alicorn said, “but if you should thank anyone it’s Fluttershy. She’s the one who found him in the first place, and Cosmo found us after that.”

“Oh, well, it was nothing, not a big deal really. I was just glad to help,” Fluttershy added, but stuttered. So many new beings to meet made her feel quite shy, and her friend giving her attention for her actions wasn’t helping.

Amy was next to them with Pinkie Pie, who both noticed this, so the pink mare decided to wrap a hoof around the yellow pegasus to say “Are you kidding? You pretty much kept Tails from being a clump of mess in the ground. You should be proud of yourself.”

“Yeah… Thanks,” the pink hedgehog added, her voice strained by some overwhelmingly happy emotion. She and Cream then stepped forward to the two mares to hug them, and the ponies returned the favor.

“Alright, I guess I’ll be the one to ask since no one else is,” Rouge said, asking a question that could really use a further explanation. “What the heck was going on here with those three oversized Knuckleheads?”

This was a topic not absent from Twilight’s thoughts as she was wondering about that, and what led up to it. Still having the Chaos Emerald, she levitated in everyone’s view to explain. “Those dragons were trying to hurt our little friends and steal this as a trophy. That’s nothing new about most dragons around here, but about how exactly this thing got here is another story…” All the ponies’ eyes directed towards the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Snowstar, who were standing by Tails and the time, but quickly huddled together.

“Girls, do you care to explain what exactly happened with those raging monsters?” Rarity asked.

“Uh… well… you see…” Sweetie Bell tried to say, but Snowstar interrupted her.

“It’s not their fault. They were just trying to help me, honest.”

“Is that so?” Rainbow asked. “What did you say your name was again? And where exactly are you from?”

“And how did you manage to find the Chaos Emerald?” added Knuckles.

Snowstar felt so scared and fragile that she couldn’t mutter a word out right away, scared to tell the truth. Apple Bloom, however, spoke up by saying “She’s a filly who found her way to our clubhouse a few nights ago.”

“She was getting picked on so badly that she needed to find somewhere safer, and we found her and offered to help out however we could,” Scootaloo added.

“I see,” Twilight said in a very sincere voice, “but we need to hear this story from her, girls. I’m glad you want to help her with the best intentions, but right now it’s her place to explain, not yet yours.”

Before another word could be said, the portal above them began to surge and change forms. It also began to descend and stand near the library, transforming from an over to a rectangular shape. Then walked out four new beings, ones that were very strange, yet similar, to those of Mobius, but a species of their own. The looks on their faces were very familiar to six of the ponies, having a flashback of Tails and Cosmo’s history as a reference. They each walked up to the group, very much the same emotional expression Sonic and the others shown when first finding their friends in this new world.

“It’s about time we’ve gotten here,” one of them said. “We had to make sure we had this dimension’s coordinates mapped out and programmed into our database before we could cross through one of the gates at headquarters.”

“Tails, Cosmo,” said another, “it’s such a relief to see you’re alright. And I see you’ve found some new friends.”

“Yeah, we have” Tails replied happily to them. Cosmo then addressed the ponies to say “Everypony, I’d like you to meet some of our closest friends, the Master Four of Team JAG – Jason, Ash, Gohan, and Yugi.”

The four stepped forward towards the group as the couple returned the gesture, each side glad to see each other after such a long week. All four looked around at who they were seeing for the first time, very fascinated to learn more, but they put their main focus on their two friends. “You have no idea what you missed throughout the week. We’ll have to tell you all about it when we get back,” Yugi stated.

“Wait! You’re not going back right now, as in right now right now, are you?!” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Well, it was an intentional offer we had, in case they needed any sort of attention, but it looks like it isn’t needed,” Gohan answered.

“Not at all,” Cosmo said, but her head turned back towards Snowstar. “However, we still have another matter that needs our attention.”

Curious about this, Ash asked “Did something happen here just now? We knew there was a reason that the Chaos Emerald was reacting, but what for?”

“It seems there’s much more to discuss here, as well as some new introductions from our part,” Twilight stated. “Why don’t we all go inside the library and talk?”

“Good idea,” Tails agreed, and he, Cosmo and Twilight led everyone inside. The Master Four followed last, the group entering in ‘size order’ suit other than the leading trio. Jason whispered amongst them “Looks like we have a new world to get to know more about. Let’s see where this goes…”

/)∞(\

Several conversations took place inside the library, starting with a brief introduction between the Master Four and the ponies, who in turn explained how they found and helped Tails and Cosmo in every way they could. The next was about how the Chaos Emerald mysterious managed to make its way to the new world as well and how it was found, which turned all attention to the blind filly Snowstar.

She confessed her story to them all heartbreakingly about her life in Cloudsdale with all the bullying and lack of happiness, and explaining how the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked out for her when she was found in the apple orchard and how not to put any trouble on them. It then led into what had just happened with the dragons and how Twilight was the one who harnessed the emerald’s power that somehow made a connection between the worlds of Equestria and Mobius. This led into brief explanations about Team JAG and its history as they tried to reach conclusions over the handful of questions unanswered.

“So let me see if I understand this correctly,” Twilight stated, referring to the emeralds’ mystic ways. “All seven Chaos Emeralds are not only mystically connected together, but also with this Master Emerald that’s more powerful than all of them?”

“The seven Chaos Emeralds are the servers; our hearts intensify their power. The Master Emerald reacts to that and detects how the energy is used,” Knuckles explained.

“Because of that, and what you were doing with that energy from the purple emerald, the portal you opened contained enough of your own power to enhance the Chaos energy, making its way through the two worlds and for us to trace the source’s location,” Ash added.

Rarity’s eyes were lit up with amazement by the thought of the Master Emerald’s greatness. “That Master Emerald sounds just magnificent. If only I could gaze at that beauty with my own two eyes.”

“It’s quite the eye candy, hun. Take it from me, I’ve tried to get my hands on that jewel for years,” Rouge said to the pony. “Just don’t get any high hopes to get near it because it’s got a hot-headed hunk of a security guard.”

Knuckles’s faced began to turn bright red in embarrassment, letting his short-temper out a little by saying “Hey, someone’s got to protect the Master Emerald from jewelry robbers like you!”

To avoid any unwanted argument from this, Applejack changed the topic back to Snowstar. “I think we have a more important issue than diamond care right now,” she said, looking at the blind filly who were surrounded by three other fillies. “Sugarcube, did you really think runnin’ away would solve your problems?”

The filly was initially relieved that the conversation’s topic shifted from her, but she cringed as it came back on her. “Well… I… I just couldn’t…” she tried to say.

“But Applejack, you just heard everythin’ she just told you. She couldn’t stand it anymore,” Apple Bloom told her big sister.

“I understand,” the orange mare said sternly, “but this isn’t about you fillies right now. We’ll get to your role in this later.”

“We know what we did should’ve been handled better,” Scootaloo said, expressing shame, “but we never planned to keep her hidden forever. We made a deal that she could only stay for a little while to feel better about talking about it when we’d bring her to you guys.”

“It was the best way for us to help her. We didn’t want to force her into doing something she didn’t want to do, not like how she felt forced to run away,” Sweetie Belle added.

“It was all about helpin’ Snowstar realizin’ that you can’t run away from your problems, and being supportive and carin’ like we would for each other,” Apple Bloom also added.

Fluttershy then intervened by saying “Girls, you did have the best intentions at heart, we can see that, but this is something very serious. Everypony she cares about must be worried sick about her back home.”

“She’s right. A family isn’t happy if a member is lost or missing,” Cream added, with Cheese also adding “Chao-chao.”

“I doubt it,” said a quiet Snowstar. “Nopony likes me. They just feel sorry for me. My family doesn’t know what to do with me anymore. They’ve done all they could to help and nothing worked. The best advice they could give me now was about my great ancestor Snowdrop.”

Puzzled to know more about this, Yugi asked “And who is Snowdrop?”

Rainbow Dash was puzzled about the filly’s whole story until that name came up. There was something very familiar about her, and the mentioning of her ancestor put the pieces of the puzzle together. “I got it! I can’t believe I didn’t see it before,” she said aloud, and asked the filly “Your ancestor is Snowdrop, the same Snowdrop that invented the snowflake?”

When the blind filly nodded gently, Twilight was also as surprised about this as Rainbow Dash. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I didn’t see it myself. You’re practically a splitting image of her,” she said, and then instructed her faithful assistant “Spike, get me the History of Seasons book, and open it to Winter Section XI.”

“You got it,” Spike replied, and quickly rushed to get the book, having to climb over some ponies and hedgehogs to reach it on one of the higher shelves. When he pulled it out of the shelf and called out “Here it is,” he jumped down and opened up to the page she had asked for. Inside it was just the proof she needed, and she used her magic to levitate the book over to the Master Four and others to show them.

Rainbow began to give a quick history of what she knew about the ancestor in question. “Back when I was a filly, I learned that not only did pegasus ponies control all of the weather in Equestria, but also some of the things we get out of it. A long time ago, a blind pony named Snowdrop created the first snowflake and presented it to the Princesses as a symbol for the winter season. She became so legendary that there’s an entire wing of the weather factory dedicated in her name, and the exclusive place to see and make the snowflakes.”

“Wow, Rainbow Dash, who knew you were such a super smart smarty pants like Twilight with history,” Pinkie Pie said.

“Yeah, but it’s pegasus pony history, and if it’s legendary, I know it, being a legend myself,” the cyan pony said, letting her bragging side out a little.

Although they couldn’t read the text, the picture inside had eyes of Team Sonic and the Master Four jumping back and forth between it and the blind filly in the room. “This is incredible. She’s a perfect match to her,” Amy said.

“So I’ve been told,” Snowstar stated. “I might look like history, but I’m treated like I’m less than nothing.”

“Come now, Sugarcube,” Applejack said to her. “You’re fall more than nothin’.”

“But I am, and nothing can change that. Being just like my ancestor isn’t something I wanted to be famous about in any way, but it’s what I am that makes ponies treat me so mean. I can’t go back to that again,” the blind filly said, whimpering about it until she began to cry a little. It was a terrible sight to see, but Tails decided to try and help.

“Listen, Snowstar,” he said, making his way towards where she sat on the ground surrounded by the Crusaders, “your family history has nothing to do with your hurt feelings. I know about bullies from experience.”

She could tell when he stood before her and the Crusaders and kneeled down for a closer view. Her seemingly empty eyes looked up as tears were flowing down her cheeks, saying “You were treated like nothing, too?”

“Yes, I was, perhaps even younger than you,” Tails said, and gave a quick history of his past.

“You see, I’ve always been smart and wanted to invent things, and would spend so much time being creative. Before I met Sonic, or Cosmo, or basically anyone in this room, I had no friends, and jerks picked on me and broke my creations because I was different. They even began to mock me for having two tails. It hurt a lot to deal with it, but after I met my friends I became a better person, because they respected me for who I was like how I care for them. You just need to find the right people to call your friends.”

“And when you do find them, you know you found the best pals you could ask for. Right, Tails?” Sonic added, the two brothers giving each other a thumbs-up in agreement.

“Awww. I wish I could do that,” Pinkie moaned, complaining about the hand gesture ponies were unable to do themselves.

“I wouldn’t get too concerned about that, Pinkie. There’s still something we ponies can do,” Rarity told her, and she reached a hoof out, having the two share a bro-hoof with one-another.

Redirecting the topic back to Snowstar, Fluttershy added “You understand what we’re saying, don’t you? I mean, if you don’t, I’m sure we can try explaining it again.”

“No, I get it,” the filly replied, still very saddened. “It’s just I’ll never find that back home. I have no friends there…”

“Oh would you give it a rest about getting friends?” Rainbow told her. “Judging by the looks of it, I say you’ve made a few pretty great friends right there next to you.”

Knowing who that specific reference was about, Snowstar said “I know. I said I have no friends there… but here… here was where I found it. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, they’re the first real ponies I’ve met that were nothing but kind and supportive. They… they’re my first friends. If I go back, I’ll lose that…”

“What are you talkin’ about? You won’t lose us,” Apple Bloom said with a reassuring tone. “You’d think we’d just forget all about you and the fun we had together? No way, no how.”

“We think you’re awesome just for who you are. The more we got to know you, the more we liked having a new friend,” Sweetie Belle added. “Besides, we wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you. We managed to find help from those dragons, didn’t we?”

“But if… if I get sent back home…” sobbed Snowstar.

“Don’t you worry about that. Just because you’d be there doesn’t mean you lost us. Besides, if any of those jerks try to mess with you again, they’ll have to answer to me. I’ll get up there and show that you don’t mess with any friend of the Cutie Mark Crusaders,” Scootaloo told her. She wanted to include the whole trio, but she knew about how only pegasus ponies can stand on clouds.

“You see,” Tails said, “you just have to look for the right people, and I think you’ve got some pretty great new friends with these three.”

“And you have all of us,” added the princess of the land. “Right, everypony?”

“Right,” every pony answered.

“And you have us as well,” Cosmo added as well.

Snowstar felt a loss for words for the second time that week, and her tears of sadness turned into those of joy. She began to emerge with happiness and did so by hugging with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and not wanting to let go of something she never thought she’d have – friends. Some of the lighter-hearted ones found the scene so cute that they brushed a tear out of their eyes with a finger.

The topic shifted again when Jason said “Twilight, you mentioned something about friendship being your strongest morality, didn’t you? I think those fillies just showed us that proof.”

The alicorn smiled and replied “Well I did mention that earlier, yes, but there’s so much more to it. Friendship here, it is a wonderful thing that has made each of us stronger and greater than we could ever have hoped.”

“I see,” the dark warrior replied. “I think we can all say that we’ve shared that in our lives.”

“But not like this,” Tails interjected. “This world has a special kind of friendship. Cosmo and I have learned a lot about it, and there’s so much that can still be learned.”

The Master Four looked at one-another for a moment before Gohan said “Perhaps we can learn more, but for now, what matters most is that you two are alive and well. We have your new friends here to thank for that.”

The six ponies each smiled at the compliment, appreciating the recognition for something that these other-worldly beings would do as well. “Well that’s mighty kind of y’all, but it was nothin’,” Applejack said.

“Anyone else here would do the same. There’s a lot of great ponies to turn to for help,” Fluttershy added.

Spike interjected to add “And one awesome dragon.”

Cosmo chuckled and started to say “You’ve all done so much for us. I wish I could think of any possible way to return all your care and kindness.”

“Hey, what are friends for? Plus you gave us some fun stuff to do when you got here. Question is what to do next,” Rainbow Dash told her friends.

“What kind of fun stuff are you talking about?” Ash asked. For the next few minutes, Tails and Cosmo gave quick summaries about what their last week has been in Ponyville, including quick mentions of others they have met. When they finished, he added “Interesting. Maybe we could try to offer something.”

“Really?! Like what?! Something super-awesomely-amazing?!” Pinkie asked.

The Master Four shared the same thought, and a glance they shared with each other made its way around the room. At first, Tails and Cosmo, then Sonic, and then the rest of the Mobius heroes. The ones left in the dark were all the ponies and fillies, so Twilight decided to ask in observation “What are you all smiling about?”

Tails turned around to ask “Twilight, do you think that we could ask a couple friends to come here and bring something of ours? We have an idea of how we’d like to start giving back to you all.”

“I don’t suppose that would be a problem, but that depends on…” the alicorn tried to replied, but only to be interrupted by Rarity.

“Oh my! How could I be so forgetful? In all this conversation and dragon dilemmas I completely forgot about my designs to give!” the white unicorn yelled dramatically.

“Don’t worry about that, Rarity,” Cosmo told her with a kind smile. “If you’d like, allow us to do something for you first. We couldn’t possibly accept more giving from you before doing so.”

Yugi then said “Well, we know that everyone’s been taking it easy since we called off the search. Let’s see if the group can get together for a show tonight. I’ll get Phineas and Ferb if you guys can handle the rest.”

“Sounds good,” Jason said, then turned his attention back to the alicorn princess. “Twilight, would it be alright if one of your friends could show us the biggest open field here in your town? We’d like to show you, and Ponyville, something you may enjoy.”

“I suppose, but what is this something?” she asked.

No one answered the question, leaving everypony confused even more. Excusing themselves to make the necessary preparations they needed, the Master Four went back through the portal outside of the library as all the others exited after them. Applejack and Fluttershy offered to show them the biggest field nearby, and Twilight recommended going to see Mayor Mare about getting the word out throughout the town about whatever was going to happen.

However, Twilight had pulled Tails, Cosmo and Rainbow Dash over so that she could ask the pegasus to get a message to Cloudsdale, and more specifically Snowstar’s family, to which she agreed to in a flash. She didn’t dash off in an instant, however, as both mares wanted the couple to tell them what was supposed to be happening, because it became so confusing that it turned to worry about what was to come. Each of them smiled, assuring that what was to happen was quite alright, and answered their curiosity with two questions of their own-

“You’re world is very familiar and diverse with music, right?” asked Cosmo.

“Do you remember about the even we held after that war you saw, the day of Revival?” Tails said.

Chapter 13

Author's Notes:

Alright, I want to have this addressed prior to the chapter being read to help readers better understand a particular concept-

The Team JAG Band is my own kind of tribute band, playing songs by many bands and artists for fun and celebration. Now, this is a concept I've been had since I began Taismo, and I know it may seem confusing, especially with the lineups for the songs. Instead of having just one lineup playing through a whole set, I decided at the start to have various lineups for particular bands, all of which centralize around the original four lineups by the Master Four (Jason, Ash, Gohan, and Yugi). Here's the breakdown for each lineup

Jason lineup- Jason on vocals/instrument with Ash on lead guitar, Gohan on drums, Yugi on bass guitar
Ash lineup- Ash on vocals/instrument, Gohan on lead guitar, Yugi on drums, Jason on bass guitar
Gohan lineup- Gohan on vocals/instrument, Yugi on lead guitar, Jason on drums, Ash on bass guitar
Yugi lineup- Yugi on vocals/instrument, Jason on lead guitar, Ash on drums, Gohan on lead guitar

That's how the band lineups centralize, with notable exceptions explained in the lineup descriptions. Down in the story in bold is how the set is detailed, and each hyperlink, well you can imagine what they are.

Lastly, I do NOT own any of these songs and use them to solely help enhance and tell the story. Please support them by giving their songs a chance and buy their songs/albums.

Now then, with that all explained, enjoy Chapter 13 as I go work on my current project...

“Attention, everypony! Attention!” Mayor Mare called out from the second balcony of town hall. The attention of practically every pony in Ponyville heard her calling, and either directed their attention from where they were to listen or approach and gather around the building.

“Citizens of Ponyville, it is my esteemed honor to present you a special announcement from a dear icon of ours. Please direction your attention to our very own Princess Twilight Sparkle, and her friends, Tails and Cosmo.”

Coming out from the closed doors below were the three she mentioned, receiving a cheering round of applause – or hoof-stomping as it were – as they approached a podium that was there for the purple alicorn to address the crowd from. Tails and Cosmo stood at each side of her, giving a small bow of respect for the Ponyville citizens, and for the Seedrian, a little wave to Derpy and the Cakes in the crowd. Twilight had a pre-prepared collection of note cards to use to help deliver any kind of speech for any given reason, so she brought them out, gave them a quick shuffle, and began to read off them one by one…

“Good people of Ponyville, welcome to this special announcement…”

“It is a wonderful honor to be here before you to address this to you…”

“And help promote and share a most wonderful occasion to come.”

“I am proud to announce a special treat for all ponies…”

“For all creatures and critters of all ages…”

She began to go on in such a form for several more cards, and its consequence was not to the liking she’d always strive to make. Instead, most of the ponies began to become bored, some beginning to yawn or doze off. She wasn’t noticing this herself, so it took a respectful observation from Cosmo to show that. The cards were put away as the princess chuckled in uncomfortable embarrassment, and decided to get straight to the point.

“For those of you who have not noticed, a large structure has been being built just outside of our fair town,” Twilight said, pointing her hoof out in the direction of the structure. “Not to worry, however, for it serves as a location for a special event that it taking place tonight by some very new friends of ours.

"As you know, my friends up here with me are new to our home and have stayed here learning more about Ponyville, and all of Equestria itself, as they are not from our own world. Tonight is their way to give back to us as we graced them with our kindness and hospitality this past week. It is also a new introduction of some brand new friends…”

As the ponies amongst the crowd began to murmur to themselves about what was supposed to happen, most of Tails and Cosmo’s friends appeared around them, along with Twilight’s best friends as well.

“It is an esteem honor that we forge a bond of better permanence between Equestria and Mobius, with an event dedicated in pony honor. Before 8 o’clock tonight, gather in the eastern field under Rainbow Dash’s home near the diamond mines, so that we may celebrate a great union together. Tonight, we celebrate our newfound friendships with a special performance by a very special group, known as the Team JAG Band! I await to see you all there, everypony!”

The speech ended with a mixed reaction, most of the ponies cheering as they all were curious about what exactly this meant.

/)∞(\

Throughout the afternoon, a large stage structure was quickly constructed by two of the most ingenious inventors and stage managers ever known – the new concert stage of the interdimensional supergroup Tails is a proud part of. The Master Four returned to Ponyville, managing to move the open portal between Equestria and Mobius to the ideal field that they were shown by Applejack and Fluttershy earlier, and expanded it enough for the stage and their equipment to travel through with ease.

Behind a large and black drape that kept the stage’s contents out of sight, Twilight and her friends were introduced to the large group that formed this band, and were told of the great importance this was for them. For this particular band, it was one of many firsts that they were proud to accomplish.

The first was that it was the first show they would play in the new year, having just finished concluding their second annual festival, entitled JAGFest, on Team Sonic’s home world. Another great importance that, being in a new place in a newly discovered world, it would also be the first performance of that world. Additionally, it would also be the first crowd of ponies the band would ever play.

Another first was the stage setup, having retired the one used during the past year after performing in a place called Station Square. From the front going back, there were two special custom percussion setups consisting of many different percussion instruments and tools, and five microphone stands that held wireless microphones and could raise in and out of the stage if not used.

There was then a four-leveled tier of the musicians’ setup- the ground level having a grand piano at the center and two stair passes on each end, and the third level having three different drum kits – the main center one, the Puffy stage right setup, and the newcomers’ custom kit. The second level had a full DJ setup between the main and Puffy drum kits and a massive keyboard/synthesizer/sampling setup between the main and newcomers’ drums, all while having a small pipe organ and a smaller scale keyboard setup on opposite ends, and the top level was a fully open walkabout with three more microphone stands.

It had all that and the space on the second and third levels to move and walk around while performing, all the while the rest of the stage setup to the standards of the band’s best performance quality. However, due to having so much technology to introduce to a semi-technological world as it was, there was no background screen, and instead a special selection of backdrop curtains.

And the last of firsts, was the fact that this would be the first official performance of the band’s newest members since they joined the band just a couple weeks ago. Prior to what happened on Mobius, the band itself had no idea about what to do or where to go to start a great new beginning, but given what has happened, they lucked out with one of the best opportunities to be given.

All six ponies felt like their jaws hit the ground so hard that they hit rocks, or jewels in Rarity’s case. They got the exclusive first look at everything, being told what exactly to expect, and even glance at the ideas that were going to be carried out that evening.

“Sweet Celestia! This stage has more gizmos and gadgets than Twi’s science lab,” Applejack said, standing on the stage getting a good look at everything.”

“I know, right?! This is going to be the most Epic Concert Ever!” Pinkie Pie added. “I haven’t been this excited since I found out we were going to have that picnic the other day!”

“And we all know how that turned out,” Rarity said, hiding her more negative feelings about it behind her teeth rather than speak it. “But this stage, it is by far the most productive design I’ve ever seen. How could you possibly accomplish this?”

Tails grinned and replied “Well we do have some awesome stage managers,” and then turned his head to call out “Isn’t that right guys?!” Surprising them all from above, two boys gave a thumbs-up as one said “Nothin’ to it but to do it,” having an accent in his tone. They then disappeared back up to finish.

Looking from side to side, Fluttershy noticed something and seemed concerned. “Excuse me, but does anyone know what happened to the girls? I thought they were just here with us,” she said.

“I think they stayed outside, somethin’ about showin’ Tails and Cosmo’s hometown friends around,” the orange mare replied.

“Actually, I think our friends are backstage,” Cosmo said. “I think that, after earlier, the girls just wanted to spend some time together, and Snowstar, she seemed unsettling.”

“Because she found out about Rainbow Dash,” Twilight stated. Earlier on, the purple pony asked her friend to have Snowstar’s family in Cloudsdale informed of her finding, requesting a private audience with her the next with the assurance of the blind filly’s safety with her newfound friends. “I told her about what we did, and she’s scared to face her family.”

Faces fell across the stage area, feeling sympathy for the filly, but it was interrupted when Rainbow had just returned and got a look at the stage itself. She flew around amazed at everything as the others watched, not even paying attention to what her friends were discussing on the ground when arriving.

“Ah yeah! This is gonna be sweet!” she said excitedly. “I can see everything that will happen right up from my house. So… awesome!” When she lowered herself onto her hooves, she failed to notice the long faces as she reported her mission being accomplished to Twilight, but then noticed when she finished. “I take it the kid’s not too happy about that?”

Most of their heads bowed, and Twilight replied “She’s still going to have a hard time going back home, no matter what we tell her. I just wish there was more we could do to get the message through to her.” After a moment, a stroke of brilliance came to her mind. “Wait a minute…”

“Twilight,” Tails said, “don’t worry. We’re way ahead of you on that. Just wait until tonight...”

/)∞(\

The afternoon and early evening hours passed by, and sooner than anypony could think, the time of the festivity was near. The entire field before the stage was filled with nearly all of Ponyville’s mares, stallions, fillies and colts, and at the very front center of the crowd were Twilight and her friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Snowstar, and Sonic and the gang from Mobius, only leaving just enough room for one more friend to join them in the next few minutes.

Cosmo peeked out from the side of the stage, still shrouded by a black veil only illuminated by a few white lights shining through the day’s twilight, to see all her pony friends and the town’s citizens, pleased with the turnout, and ran to the backstage area where her loved one and band mates were making last set preparations. They went over the setlist another time, checked the tunings of their instruments, pointed out where to break and where to keep going, all making sure to provide the ponies with a brand new experience that they’d never forget.

Phineas and Ferb appeared a couple minutes after Cosmo, with the first saying “Alright everyone, the stage and crowd are good to go. You’ve got three minutes before show time.” The band thanked them for the informing, and the two stage managers left to each stand at a different control panel, one of which serving as a front-of-house simulator as they didn’t set one up in the crowd.

“Let’s bring it in, everypo… I mean, everyone,” Tails said, catching himself from saying ‘everypony’ by mistake. No one else cared, but a couple did try to hold in a chuckle. The entire band, plus Cosmo, huddled together to give each other a preshow hyping before taking the stage.

“Here we are guys, our first show of the new year,” Jason said, starting everything off. “Are we ready to kick off a new year of shows with a bang?”

“You know we are,” Yumi answered eagerly. “These ponies seem pretty cool, but they could still use a little lesson about rockin’ out.”

“I think we’ll manage pretty well,” Aelita added happily.

Ash then said “But what we can’t forget is why we’re doing this – having found Tails and Cosmo safe and sound, and giving some respect back to those who helped in doing so.”

“Thank you for that,” Cosmo told them all. “This will mean so much to them, even if they don’t know exactly what to expect from what you do. Please, let’s start giving back whatever we can.”

“Cosmo, we can promise you that and much more. This is a new beginning after all,” Dan said.

“That’s right,” Gohan stated, and most of their eyes turned towards their two newest members – the engaged crime-fighting duo of Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable. “Kim, Ron, tonight’s your big debut with us, the start of a new year and new stories to make. You ready for this?”

Ron then said in a exciting and yelling fashion “You know I am! Let’s teach some ponies how to giddy-up JAG Band style!”

“And let’s watch the horse analogies here, alright? We don’t want to offend any of the ponies out there, especially if they’re friends. But tonight, let’s bring our world to theirs as they’ve given theirs to Tails and Cosmo,” Yugi said next.

“I can’t wait! So many of those ponies are so nice, and I want to give them the same attitudes we give each other,” the optimistic Ami said.

Kim then added “We’re more than ready to go. This band hasn’t done all it has before without giving it all, and I’m excited Ron and I can help give, too, so let’s give it beyond our best shot.”

Last to add anything was Tails, who told them all “This means a lot to me, to both Cosmo and me. This last week here, it’s been so wonderful to us, even if we felt lost from you guys and our families from home. It’s our first time doing this here, and let’s make it that it won’t be the only time. For Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, for our new close friends of this beautiful world, let’s show them what this band can do!”

“Hands in!” Ron yelled, and let his hand out in the middle. The band never did something like this before, but they followed suit until twelve different hands piled on each other in the center. “Alright, on the count of three, I want to hear PONY! Ready?! 1… 2… 3-“

“PONY!”

The Seedrian heroine told her beloved fox “Have fun tonight,” and their lips met for a quick peck of a kiss. Their eyes locked onto each other’s up until she was out of sight, and he got ready to take the stage as they had just one minute to go.

She made her way out to the crowd, walking down the slim open space between the stage and front row of ponies, and reaching her friends waiting in the crowd. There was just enough space between her Ponyville and Mobius friends to squeeze in comfortably, smiling happily at them all.

“They all set to go back there?” Sonic asked with an eager smirk.

She nodded in return and replied “They can’t wait to do this.” Her head then turned to the ponies to add “And we all can’t wait for you to see this for the first time.”

“Neither can we,” Twilight said, sounding just as excited as Cosmo did.

“So am I,” Fluttershy added. “I’m so excited I could just cheer so much…” She then took a deep breath to let out her loudest cheer-

“Hooray.”

“I’m still confused about this whole ‘lineup changes’ your friends were telling us about. What the heck does it all mean?” a puzzled cyan pegasus asked, with a younger orange one adding “Yeah, it makes no sense…”

Just then, the lights behind the veil went dark, catching the attention of the entire audience as most started to cheer in eagerness for what was to come. Pinkie quickly chanted in a high, squealing tone “IT’S STARTING! IT’S STARTING! IT’S STARTING!” The time had struck 8 o’clock, as some ponies could hear from the town clock tower, and thus, the performance had begun…

/)∞(\

SONG TITLE – Band, Artist or Source/lead vocalist and lineup/additional musicians on stage with Master Four + scenery/stage actions for song

A TWINKLE IN THE SKY – Kingdom Hearts/audio instrumental
DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ [JOURNEY] – Northern Kings/Jason + lead guitar/Tails on keytar, Aelita on keyboards/synthesizers
STORYTIME – Nightwish/Yumi with Jason lineup/Jason on rhythm guitar, Tails and Ron on keyboards/synthesizers
LOLA MONTEZ – Volbeat/Gohan + rhythm guitar/Dan on keyboard
HAIL TO THE KING – Avenged Sevenfold/Yugi/Kim on rhythm guitar

“HELLO PONYVILLE!!!” Ash called out to the audience, the first of the band to speak out to them. Ponies cheered nice and loud, but he decided to bring out more. “Come on now, HOW ARE YOU DOING TONIGHT?!!!” The response this time was much greater than the first, much to his satisfaction. “My name is Ash, and it’s my honor to introduce to you who we are-

"We are the Team JAG Band! And tonight, we’re here to give you what we share to so many others for the first time. We’ve got a long and great night for you, so let’s get back to it… This is one of our most personal favorites, by one of the best bands from a different world. This song’s called New Divide…”

NEW DIVIDE – Linkin Park/Ash/Dan on lead guitar and Mike Shinoda backing vocals, Tails on keyboard/synthesizer, Yumi on bass guitar, Jason on turntables/MIDI pad/special extended synthesizer intro performed by Tails
JUST STOP – Disturbed/Gohan/Kim on rhythm guitar
IMAGINE: VIOLET SKIES – In This Moment/Ami with Gohan lineup/Gohan on rhythm guitar
A TRIBUTE TO THE FALLEN – Killswitch Engage/Ash with Jason lineup/Jason on lead guitar and backing vocals, Tails on rhythm guitar/lights fade out to darken stage
WHERE ANGELS DARE TO ROAM – Kill Devil Hill/Yugi/lights remain off until full band kicks in
TWISTED TAIL OF THE COMET – Newsted/Jason + rhythm guitar
SIX – Chimaira/Ash/Yumi on rhythm guitar, Tails on keyboard/synthesizer/samples

Gohan then took center stage, wearing on him a special purple guitar with black circle patters coming from the center. He took his turn to speak by saying “Are you still going good out there, everyone?!” His reply was a cheer like what Ash had got the crowd to give earlier, much to his pleasure. “We know you don’t know us, so here’s the deal-

"Princess Twilight, who’s down here in the front row with her friends and some of our closest friends, she and her friends know who we are already. There’s a special, one-of-a-kind performance we have coming up in a little while, and only then will we introduce ourselves to you. But for right now… let’s get back to some hard-rocking love!” Four cymbals tapped from the main drum kit, and the rhythm helped begin the next song…

CRAZY HORSE – Black Label Society/Gohan + lead guitar
STAND UP – All That Remains/Jason/Kim on rhythm guitars and extra backing vocals
UNITY – Shinedown/Yugi/Tails on keyboards
LEGENDARY CHILD – Aerosmith/Ash/Dan on rhythm guitar
FLY BY NIGHT – Rush/Yugi/Tails on keyboard
ORION – Metallica/Gohan + rhythm guitar

The stage was dark again after the previous song, but only for a few seconds before a recognizable fox walked out on stage with a guitar. The uproaring cheer of the crowd, especially his closest friends in the front row, made his entrance feel spectacular as he took a stand at one of the microphone stands adjusted to his slightly shorter height. “Ponyville, I’d like to take a moment to quickly tell you how much I appreciate all that you’ve shown myself and my loving Cosmo during our time here, because thanks to you…”

Tails found himself stopping as the sounds of cheers and stomping hooves echoed in the air and vibrated the ground under him. He picked back up a moment later with “Thanks to you, we truly felt like we were in a new home away from our home, and treated us so equally. I’ve gotten to know some of you, so now, allow me to introduce to you, my band family…”

Across the darkened stage, the rest of the band were in position for the next song, with the two stage managers standing on the top stage level with wireless controllers to shine down a light on each introduced person one at a time. Tails began to name off each band member, each one having a light shining down at their current position and greeted by a happy cheer from everypony-

“Up on the top tier of our stage, they are two great guys who helped more than anyone to bring this show to your world. Meet Phineas and Ferb!...

“Next is our favorite electronic music and DJ enthusiast, a non-singer but vital bringer of great musical sounds- Aelita Hopper!...

“Taking to the front-of-stage percussion madhouse to my left, he is known by many as the great Ghost Hero. Say hello to Dan, better known as Danny Phantom!...

“And to my right on a similar setup, he and his fiancé are our newest members to our amazing team of performers! Welcome to his first show as an official band member, Ron Stoppable!...

“Behind me at her keyboards, she’s Ron’s ‘special somepony,’ as you could call it, and a renowned heroine. This is her first show as well, so make some noise for Kim Possible!...

“To each of my sides are a duo who are already a famous and established music group, but always willing to contribute to our little hobby, even with their own music. Say hello to Puffy- Ami and Yumi!...

“And now, these next four are the guys who founded this band, and everything it stands for. Without them, we wouldn’t even be here today. First up, behind the drums, he is our heavy metal fighter of Darkness, and the driving force behind what we do. I introduce to you- Jason!...

“Next, we have one of the three singers to bring this song to great life. He comes from a world that lives besides amazing creatures known as Pokemon, and one of the most persevering friends I know. Meet Ash Ketchum!...

“This next guy is perhaps the strongest, traditionally-trained martial artists on this stage, currently taking on one of the best singing roles we enjoy. He and his family and world are the great leaders of how we face our greatest challenges. Make some noise for Gohan!...

“And lastly, debuting in a brand new position for this next song, he is the champion of the ancient combat of Duel Monsters and a great leader. He is known by many names, but for here, you can get to know him as the King of Games- Yugi Moto!”

With each introduction done, the entire audience cheered and stomped grandly and loudly to welcome the newcomers of Equestria. Perhaps it was the six ponies, baby dragon and four fillies Cosmo and the others were with that were the most loud and noticeable, at least to everyone on the stage, especially the fox. He let the cheering go on just long enough for it died down before he got things going again by saying “And for those who haven’t met me yet, my name is Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails. This next song is one we hope you come to enjoy like we have.

"It is called Solitaire/Unraveling…”

SOLITAIRE/UNRAVELING – Mushroomhead/Ash with Jeffrey Nothing vocals/Gohan on J-Mann vocals and Yugi on Waylon vocals, Tails on lead guitar, Yumi on rhythm guitar, Ami on bass guitar, Dan and Ron on custom percussion, Kim on keyboard/synthesizer, Aelita on keyboard/turntables/samples, Jason on drums
GET UP! – Korn/Yugi/Dan on rhythm guitar, Tails on keyboards, Aelita on programming/turntables/samples
UNDAUNTED – Adrenaline Mob/Jason/Kim on rhythm guitar
FRIENDS FOREVER – Puffy AmiYumi/Ami and Yumi with Jason lineup/Jason on rhythm guitar, Aelita on keyboards/samples
BATTLE BORN – Five Finger Death Punch/Gohan/Yumi on rhythm guitar
SHE LIKES ROCK N ROLL – ACDC/Ash/Ron on rhythm guitar
RAINBOW IN THE DARK – Dio/Yugi/Tails on keyboard/synthesizer/outro jam

“If you’re ready for me, I want to hear you tell us! Make some noise, Ponyville!” Dan called out to the crowd, and the equestrian audience provided him with a much wanted roar of noise.

The next song began to play as intended, and he added to say “You’ve been great with us all night, so let’s see how much more we can bring out of each other. You give us what you can, and we’ll give you all we got. It’s my turn to sing, and this is by one of my favorite bands to listen to. I hope you like it too…” The song he was talking over then transitioned into the next one, continuing the concert…

BIRTH – DEATH – 10 Years/instrumental with only Tails on piano, Ami and Yumi on violins
…AND ALL THE OTHER COLORS – 10 years/Dan with Ash lineup/Ash on rhythm guitar
ROCK ‘N’ ROLL FANTASY – Bad Company/Jason/Ron on rhythm guitar
HOME – Daughtry/Gohan + acoustic guitar/Kim on rhythm guitar, Aelita on keyboard
BEYOND THIS TWILIGHT – Nine Inch Nails/Jason/Yumi on rhythm guitar, Tails on symphony keyboard, Aelita on keyboard/synthesizer/samples
ONE LIGHT – 3 Doors Down/Yugi/Tails on lead guitar and co-vocals
SOMETHING BETTER – Flyleaf/Kim with Yugi lineup/Yugi on rhythm guitar, Ron on ‘newcomer’ drum kit, Ash on Sonny Sandoval vocals/fadeout jam

Yumi walked back out onto the stage, standing at the microphone stand from the center’s left, the heavy rocker smirking with please. “That was an awesome song, wasn’t it?! Make some noise for Kim for killing it with Ash!” She allowed a couple moments for the pony audience to respond before continuing.

“So this place is still brand new to us, and I’m sure there’s still a lot more to see, but we met some of you earlier through our great pal Cosmo. Meeting them, I learned about how important friendship is to them, and I know that all too well with my partner in stage crime. We’ve got an awesome song lined up for you next, and I’m here to help out my best friend Ami. Get her out here with your cheering!”

At Yumi’s command, the crowd cheered again as not only a pink-haired, guitar-wielding musician walked out, but so did other band members, taking their positions across the stage. When Ami reached the center microphone stand, she took a turn talking, saying “Thank you so much, Ponyville, you’ve been making this a great night. To add something about what Yumi just said, we’ve met a small group of ponies who are right here in front of us, and we learned about a couple ponies with great fears.

"When we play any show anywhere, we always try to include songs that give a meaning to where we play, some we play every night like New Divide and a couple songs coming up, and tonight, Yumi and I decided to give a double treat to them, to all of you, of some great songs we enjoy. You saw us perform our own song before, but this next one is by a new band we’ve started to play. By a great girl named Orianthi, this song is called Courage…”

COURAGE – Orianthi/Ami + lead guitar with Ash lineup/Ash on extra rhythm guitar, Yumi on co-vocals with Lacey Sturm vocals, Aelita on keyboards
BLACKBIRD – Alter Bridge/Jason + rhythm guitar
ON THE ROOFTOP OF QUASIMODO – Apocalyptica/Tails, Dan, Ami and Yumi on cellos with Kim on drums
THE UNFORGIVEN – Metallica/Gohan + rhythm guitar/Tails on acoustic guitar
THE TALISMAN – Iron Maiden/Yugi/Tails and Dan on rhythm guitars, Ron on keyboard, Ami on acoustic guitar/spotlights on only Yugi and Ami until end of acoustic intro
PARALYZED – As I Lay Dying/Ash/Dan on rhythm guitar and clean vocals
STRAIGHT FOR THE SUN/DESOLATION – Lamb of God/Gohan/Yumi on rhythm guitar/drum solo between songs done by Jason, Ami and Ron on all three drum kits
BEFORE I FORGET – Slipknot/Jason/Tails on rhythm guitar, Dan on keyboard/synthesizer, Ami and Yumi on custom percussion, Aelita on turntables/samples

The Master Four remained on stage following the previous song, shifting the lineup so that Yugi to take the front again.

“Alright, Ponyville, can you power through with us for a while longer?!” he called out, receiving a great, but tiring, roar of cheering from everypony. The next song, humorously chosen just for that night, began to be played by the rest of the band as he said “We’ve got just over an hour left with you tonight, and we want to make sure our new friends here see all of our best gone through. But I need to know one thing- have you been having fun tonight?!” The ponies cheered again, louder than the previous time, much to his enjoyment. “Here’s a song titled about dragons. Hope you all like it, including you Spike.”

The song currently being performed came to its conclusion, and transitioned straight into the next song…

UNICORN – Gojira/instrumental performed by Master Four except Yugi/Yugi’s talking over song
WHERE DRAGONS DWELL – Gojira/Yugi + rhythm guitar
LOST IN PARADISE – Evanescence/Yumi with Gohan lineup/Gohan on rhythm guitar, Tails on piano, Aelita on keyboard/synthesizer
BUBBLES – Linkin Park/Ash/only with Tails on keyboard, Ron on rhythm guitar
IT’S THE FEAR – Within Temptation/Ami with Yugi lineup/Yugi on rhythm guitar, Tails on piano, Aelita on symphonic keyboard/synthesizer, Kim on co-vocals with her own voice
NOTHING TO SAY – Slash/Yugi/Tails on lead guitar, Dan on extra rhythm guitar
RIGHT HERE IN MY ARMS – HIM/Gohan/Tails on keyboards

“Here’s hoping I get this right,” Kim said, taking a quick turn at speaking to the crowd, but watching her interdimensional grammar. “We’ve got a few more to go, everypony! On behalf of the whole band, I’d just like to say, that these were inspired from what we learned from Twilight, and all her wonderful friends. More importantly, each and every song goes out to Snowstar…”

The ponies in the front were quite surprised to be given such kind respect, especially the blind pegasus filly, who initially wasn’t comfortable about going to a concert. It took Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Sonic to encourage her otherwise, and at that moment, she felt very blessed.

THE SONG YOU SING – Creed/Jason/Tails on rhythm guitar, Kim on acoustic guitar
FRIENDS WILL BE FRIENDS – Queen/Ash/Tails on piano/keyboard
WORDS DARKER THAN THEIR WINGS – Alter Bridge/Jason + co-lead guitar/Ash on Mark Tremonti vocals as well as lead guitar/Jason opened song before performing with “Here’s one more for you, Snowstar. Listen closely…”/fadeout outro

As the previous song ended, the stage went dark and emptied of any performer, the sign that the main set had ended. Every pony, dragon and Mobian cheered happily and wanting just what little more that could be given in the performance, but Cosmo excused herself, saying she had something to do with Tails and nothing more. The ponies she became close with were confused, but Sonic and the gang just smirked or chuckled at what they knew, promising to keep it a secret.

Before any of them knew it, the stage lights shot on and electronic music, a sound of EDM and dubstep, blasted out all of the speakers, and the silhouette of a performer behind the DJ setup. Then, from unnoticed positions, the Master Four used wireless microphones to start a brand new tradition for the bend’s concerts.

“Mares and Stallions of Ponyville, fillies and colts of all ages- do you have it in you to party with us for another song?!” Gohan called out, receiving a response of immense excitement in return, especially a certain pink mare.

“We’re here to start something new that we’ll be doing for all our upcoming shows, and even better, it’s a song we’ve never played before!” Yugi followed, the audience’s cheering escalating greatly.

“We want to see every damn pony out there giving all they’ve got with us for this one-time encore! Can you do that for us?!” Jason added, the crowd confirming the request.

Then, Ash and Dan walked out onto the stage, visibly shown by the stage lights, but kept the silhouettes of others taking the stage dark. Ash then announced “This song goes out to Tails, Cosmo, and all our new friends here in Equestria! This song… is called… A LIGHT THAT NEVER COMES!!”

FULL BAND JAM:
A LIGHT THAT NEVER COMES – Linkin Park & Steve Aoki/Ash on Chester Bennington vocals and Dan on Mike Shinoda vocals/Aelita on turntables/programming/samples, Tails on lead guitar and extra vocals, Yumi and Phineas on bass guitars, Ron and Ferb on rhythm guitars, Ami on drums, Kim on keyboards/Jason, Gohan and Yugi reappear on stage after first chorus, all on co-vocals with Master Four Bands singers/during second chorus, an unknown force brings Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie on stage, joining Tails and Cosmo at main microphone stand to help sing

Immediately after the song ended, the entire field unleashed the loudest cheer of excitement and fun heard all night as the band waved out to the crowd, and Tails and Cosmo shared a group hug with the ponies. Before they all departed the stage again, Ron ran up to a microphone to yell out “Thanks a lot, Ponyville, you all rock! Show some love to Aelita who brought the electric beats tonight!”

Aelita just took a bow and waved, saying briefly into a microphone set up at the DJ setup “Thank you, it’s been a blast!”

“Now listen up,” Ash said, in a semi-commanding form, “I need everyone to hear what I have to say. Our friends, Tails and Cosmo, would not be here without these great ponies up here sharing so much care to them. We are honored to call them outstanding individuals. For your friends and ours, make some noise for these awesome ponies – THE MANE 6!” The crowd’s cheer escalated even higher, everypony giving the six onstage ponies some well-given praise.

“And lastly,” Jason addressed the crowd, “this whole night wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the help of one incredible alicorn. From the bottom of every heart of the Team JAG Band and our friends from Mobius, give it all that you’ve got left for Your Amazing, Your Wonderful, Your Friend & Ours – PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE!!!”

Then was unleashed the loudest cheer of the night, praising the Princess so much that she blushed right there on stage in front of them all. Her pony friends surrounded her for another group hug, but Tails and Cosmo found their way in to join, hugging each side of the purple pony and giving her a heartfelt “Thank you,” for everything she’s helped do.

Without stalling any longer, the stage emptied again for another minute, the Mane 6 jumping straight down to where they stood for the entire show, but Cosmo staying behind. A minute of darkness would pass until anything happened again, and this time, it was the final part of the night’s festivities. The stage-managing brothers took their places back behind the controls, and got things underway for the last few songs of the night…

FRIENDS IN MY HEART – Kingdom Hearts/audio instrumental
NUMB – Linkin Park/Ash/Dan on lead guitar and Mike Shinoda vocals, Tails on piano, Yumi on bass guitar, Jason on turntables/MIDI pad
HERE WITHOUT YOU – 3 Doors Down/Yugi/Tails on lead guitar and lead vocals

“Thank you so much, Ponyville, for making tonight so amazing!” Jason called out to the audience. “It’s all come down to this, and we’re ready to close the first chapter of a brand new story for us! This is our last song, so let’s end this with a rock and roll bang! Ash, if you’d please…” The lead guitarist then played the opening notes of the night’s final song…

WHAT IF – Creed/Jason/Tails on co-lead guitar/guitar duel bridge between Tails and Ash, each playing six solos/rest of band walks out to have fun after guitar duel/outro jam of Metallica’s ‘The Call of Ktulu’ outro/show ends with all band members taking a bow, with a second bow only by Tails and Cosmo for the Mane 6

/)∞(\

It was barely half an hour after the show when Pinkie Pie managed to turn the inside of Golden Oak Library into an after-concert party place. She always had her party cannon on her to help set things up, to which that confused those not familiar with the ways of Equestrians, but they didn’t care for it too much.

That night turned into the most festive event since the party thrown for Tails and Cosmo, and with so many guests – the Mane 6, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Snowstar, Tails, Cosmo, Team Sonic, and the entire band – it was a party on both levels of the Princess’s home, even an occasional trip onto the balcony for those who wanted a quick breath of night air. Everyone had something to say about more topics than one could hear clearly at once, including sharing the band’s big bag of tricks of how they perform the way they just showed everypony. The ponies and fillies still couldn’t believe everything they were hearing about, let alone what they witnessed just a while ago.

“…And do you remember when he was like ‘Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! AaaaAAAHHHHH!?’ Plus how, during that other song, how he and she were singing back and forth like that?! Oh, and then there was when all three of those guys were singing on that one song earlier on, which was so cool…” Scootaloo rambled on, still energized from the show’s display even given the late night time it was.

“Thanks, Scootaloo, I’m glad you liked it so much,” Kim said, having a little laugh out of flattery.

“Are you kiddin’?! That was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a whole lot of crazy, but this was a good kind,” Applejack replied. “Ain’t that right girls?”

“You bet!” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle yelled together.

Ron, having his ego slightly inflated from the praising ponies, added “Well it takes a good amount of teamwork and skill to do something like that. Maybe someday you’ll do something amazing together, too.”

That was one of the many conversations taking place, but Rarity called out to “Everyone and everypony! May I have your attention?! Please, everyone!” Her interruption brought them all back together downstairs, since there were fewer upstairs than below, noticing her levitate the two clothing bags she’s had with her most of the day.

“I just have to say how much your arrival to Ponyville has been so, ‘unique,’ to all of us. Where I must admit I find some songs too uncouth and far from charming for my taste, I will be last to say how extraordinary it was nonetheless. Since you’ve given my friends such a spectacle, allow me to return to favor. I present to you my gifts to Tails and Cosmo, and the firsts of a new fashion line I call- ‘Worlds Divine.’”

The unicorn then revealed in front of them all her newest creations, starting with a new suit for Tails. It was normal in terms of formal appearance, but crafted to specifically fit him and no one else, including a feature on the back of his pants to allow his two tails to not be an issue. When she lowered the suit for him to hold and take a closer look, he smiled and said “Wow, these are cool. I can’t wait to try them on.”

Revealed next was Cosmo’s dress, one that was described as the creative crossover between her original dress and one of the ponies’ gala dresses. It gave a strong symbolism of nature’s delights with colors right from the Seedrian Spirit Stone, shining with several gems embroidered in the fabric. She held her new dress in her hands in absolute astonishment and said “Rarity, this is beautiful. I just love it. Thank you so much.”

“It was nothing at all, darling,” Rarity replied. “The fact that you both love how they look so much is thanks enough.”

Some of the couples’ friends took a step closer to take a look, admiring how they looked. Perhaps it was Amy and Pinkie Pie whose eyes were most lit up at the sheer beauty, but the latter did think that the fox’s suit could’ve used a matching fedora. Snowstar, however, didn’t participate in the topic and had herself secluded on the other side of the room, not wanting to be somewhere she’d really have no place in. She could hear hooves walking towards her, belonging to the first ones who noticed her.

“What’s wrong, kid? Not having a good time?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I am,” the blind filly replied, sounding softly, and non-assuring. “I’m just, resting here, that’s all.”

“Well I guess that’s understandable, it’s been a long day after all,” the cyan pony said.

Those around her could tell she was not as happy as she was when the concert began, and she was then asked “Are you worried about what will happen now that we know about you?”

The question came from Fluttershy, a voice the filly was much more comfortable hearing rather than Rainbow Dash’s. She overheard about the rainbow-maned pegasus’s message sent to Cloudsdale, and did not like it at all. “I don’t want to go back. I had so much fun with my new friends, and listening to so much of that music, it was… it was wonderful. Am I going to have to leave it all?”

“Oh, Snowstar, you won’t be leaving any of this,” the yellow mare said, her tone soft and kind like always. “You shouldn’t worry about that.”

“Especially tonight,” Rainbow added.

“I know I shouldn’t, but…” the filly said, but stopped when another voice interrupted.

“What kind of party is this if there’s someone feeling down?” This new voice belonged to Sonic, he and Tails noticing her, but only he came over to say anything. “Come on, kid, let’s find a way to get you enjoying the party a little more.”

“I don’t know,” Snowstar said softly.

“Hey, there’s no sad times at one of these parties, you got that?” Rainbow told her. “Sonic’s right, we need to liven this party up.” She then turned around to get everyone’s attention to call out “Hey guys, we need something fun to do, pronto!”

“Do you have any suggestions?” asked Twilight.

“I don’t know, something cool to do to keep Snowstar out of the dumps,” the cyan mare replied.

Those who could see her directly noticed the filly seeming sad, and so the Cutie Mark Crusaders all ran up to huddle around their friend to help boost her morale. “I say we chow down on some of Pinkie’s awesome cupcakes!” Scootaloo said.

“Maybe we can play some kind of game,” Sweetie Belle added.

“How about some more music?” suggested Tails. “Let’s have a little more fun with that.”

“More music? You mean, all of that loud equipment, packed into here?” asked Fluttershy.

“Not necessarily,” Jason replied, and turned to two particular brothers. “Phineas, Ferb, is our acoustic gear still at the stage?”

“Actually, no,” Phineas said, and went out the front door to bring in a couple guitar cases. “We kinda figured this was going to happen, so we thought ahead and brought a few of the guitars with us.”

Tails smiled, taking one of the cases from him and said “Great thinking, guys. Thanks,” and he opened one of the cases. It was technically his case after all, and inside was one of his oldest acoustic guitars. “I think it would be a nice idea to play a little something, on a smaller scale, just to liven things up a little.”

“Of course. I’d prefer something a little quieter compared to that show of yours,” Twilight stated. She meant no insult by it, but the ponies could easily say they did not expect everything they saw from the Team JAG Band earlier, and the last thing she wanted was her home packed with insanely loud instruments.

No one else really said anything, only a few words exchanged when Phineas and Ferb gave the rest of the band the remaining few guitars from outside while Tails tuned his guitar just right. He then asked Cosmo to go over by Snowstar, in concern that if more cheering up was necessary, his loved one could help do so. Once everyone got situated, he strummed the guitar a couple times with his fingers, and began to play a song called “Be Somebody” by his favorite band to play, 3 Doors Down. It began to resinate with everyone, especially Snowstar and Twilight.

In Snowstar’s mind, she knew what was coming in her life, but after Tails played a song, and then the Master Four played some, joined by a couple other band mates, all while surrounded by her best friends, her attitude improved. As songs such as “What’s This Life For,” “Nothing Else Matters,” “Beautiful,” and “Mama I’m Coming Home” were played through, the entire atmosphere shifted. The party turned into something more that connected every pony and visitor together, so much so that Twilight grabbed Spike and the two went upstairs.

“Spike, take a letter, for Princess Celestia,” the purple alicorn requested.

Confused by this, the little dragon asked “A letter, right now? Why now, Twilight?”

“I have some important information that I’d like her to know about at once. It is absolutely necessary,” Twilight explained.

“But isn’t she still away on royal business?” pondered Spike.

Twilight then answered “I’m sure she isn’t currently too preoccupied to receive a letter. Now please, Spike…”

The dragon just shrugged his shoulders, and then began to write down every word Twilight was saying. It was a longer letter than most she’s sent in the past, mainly her lessons about friendship she had learned since residing in Ponyville, but the subject remained the same. Once it was completed, Spike used his magic fire breath to send the letter to wherever Celestia was. What they both failed to recognize were overhearing individuals who hid in the staircase, originally following the alicorn to see where she was going, but instead overheard everything she had said. They fled back down when the two came back to the party, seeing nothing but smiles and enjoyment all around.

What was also unexpected, at least so soon, was Spike coughing up a new message from Celestia…

Dear Princess Celestia...

Dear Princess Celestia,

Where I may no longer be your student, I have learned another valuable lesson about friendship that I wish to share with you. As you know, we have met some new friends from a world nothing like our own, the Mobians known as Tails and Cosmo. Through them did my friends and I, along with those of Ponyville, met with them and our new friends from a group known as the Team JAG Band, and tonight, they gave us a spectacle almost too unbelievable to have seen. Although you have been spending time away from Canterlot since meeting Cosmo, it is what happened here that has taught me something very important about this group of friends that have called us their own, and as we have called our own as well.

What my friends and I have learned is that where we may not judge those based on their appearances, we have to understand that some new people may seem open and kind, but also hold parts of who they are that they aren’t as open to share. There was a point a few nights ago where questions were asked that were given answers forewarned to us knowing, and others where they just had to refuse. The answers we did receive were shocking and unbelievable to say the least.

In return for the actions that had taken place around that and for the care Tails and Cosmo needed, the band performed a concert of musical wonders that nopony could have ever imagined, displaying several talents and techniques that left everypony amazed. Where it was learned that some answers are best left kept by one’s self, through that concert did we see other answers shown in our new friends’ own manners, and emotional on more than one occasion.

Their message that they try to deliver to many places, and in many worlds, was shared with Equestria this night, and it was certainly a night that none of us will ever forget. If only you, Luna and Cadence were there as well, and I’m sure after having witnessing what my friends and I saw, you all would support my statements.

What I had also discovered was a filly who felt misplaced in her world for standing out being so different. It was not my first time to see this, but the first to see it on a very different level, but also handled by some of your younger and most well-hearted subjects. Her name is Snowstar, a pegasus who has left her home of Cloudsdale in hope to find more positivity in life. I have learned that she has been treated cruelly by her peers, but rest assured that my friends and I are helping her become stronger through the bonds she’s created here in Ponyville. I wished to tell you this briefly in case of an event you hear this from another source.

As I write this letter, I am in my home with my best friends from Ponyville, and all our new friends from Mobius and Team JAG, celebrating the end of a most wonderful event that was a Team JAG Band performance. Although these events were brought to us from a known mistake in another dimension, I feel that we have come closer together amongst each other, and our world with all of theirs.

Sometimes, what you may not always understand or be told about can be explained in ways you would never expect, and that was given a new meaning tonight, and it is my hope that this new bond will evolve into greater things, much like how my friends from my home here in Ponyville have done for each other.

Along with myself, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and all our newest friends – Tails, Cosmo, Sonic, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Knuckles, Rouge, Jason, Ash, Gohan, Yugi, Daniel, Ami, Yumi, Aelita, Kim, Ron, Phineas and Ferb – we hope this lesson will spread farther out throughout Equestria and unite everypony with many other wonderful friends of other places. We all hopefully await to see you upon your return to Canterlot tomorrow.

Sincerely yours,

Twilight Sparkle

My Dearest Twilight...

My Dearest Twilight,

I am pleased to hear about the wonderful time you and your friends are having. Where I wish that I could be with you all during this time to witness this togetherness myself, I was called to Manehattan to handle a royal matter. After I had met your friend Cosmo when she first arrived to Equestria, I knew you were the only Princess who could help her, left alone already doing so before even knowing about it. I will be returning to Canterlot in a short while, where I need you to do something for us all.

With all that you’ve told me, and what I’ve come to learn from Cosmo, I have a royal responsibility for you to carry out. I seek an audience with Tails, Cosmo, and all your new friends from the worlds they are from in Canterlot tomorrow with myself, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence, so that we may meet and come to know who they all are as well.

Of course your friends from Ponyville are welcome to join and share what they’ve come to know and learn, but it is you who I entrust to help show me just how important these new creatures are to us, and perhaps Equestria as well.

As for the young Snowstar, I have not heard anything about her, or a missing pegasus from Cloudsdale. I have full trust in your judgment of how to handle this, only requesting that, like I do for all my subjects, you make sure her best interests stand above the rest. If she so chooses, she may come with you and the others as well.

I am proud of what you, your friends and all my subjects have done to show this couple the traits that everypony tries to show and embrace, Princess Twilight. Where we may not fully understand how this event has come to be, it is with both concern and interest that we may try to see if more can be learned from this experience, and as you said, build something stronger.

I have arranged a private train to arrive in Ponyville tomorrow morning, and I hope to have the pleasure to seeing your new friends for the first time, and you, your friends and Cosmo once again. Good night, my fellow princess.

Your friend,

Princess Celestia

Chapter 14

Morning dawned following a long night of fun and entertainment in Ponyville that was the result of Tails and Cosmo’s friends finding them and the Team JAG Band performing a concert for the townsponies. The party went so late before it was time to call it a night, mainly when Twilight shared a letter she received from Princess Celestia with everyone. The Master Four agreed that it was best for everyone that were visitors to this new world should go rather than just them, Tails and Cosmo, so they decided to stay the night in Ponyville.

Seeing how the library was only so big and couldn’t house an entire party to sleep, Twilight’s friends offered them all places to sleep. Applejack took all the band except Tails to sleep in the barn, telling them “There’s plenty of blankets to sleep under and hay to use as beds and pillows.” Sonic and the gang were offered to sleep at Rarity’s boutique, but they insisted that they would be fine if allowed to stay at the library, so the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Snowstar went with her instead.

/)∞(\

They all slept peacefully and awoke without a problem. Some felt more tired than others but that all depended on how much they exerted themselves yesterday, except for Pinkie Pie. Those who were unfamiliar with her antics couldn’t understand a pony with so much energy, but then again, some reminded themselves of who they were and what they’ve accomplished, so they never bothered to question it.

Tails, Cosmo and Twilight awoke and got themselves ready for the meeting in Canterlot, and around noon everyone else returned to the library. Applejack brought a cart full of apples to serve as a snack, to which some took no hesitation to wait before regrouping and already enjoy an apple on the walk over. The sound of a train whistle could be heard coming from a distance, most likely the Canterlot Express.

“That must be the train we need to take. We better get to the station before we miss it,” Twilight said, pointing her hoof to the train station across the field from her home.

“I reckon we better get a move on then,” agreed Applejack, and the ponies began to walk their way towards the station.

Their guests, however, didn’t move at all, and gave them a different suggestion. “We don’t need to take the train,” Aelita said, and suggestively asked Tails “Do you think you can get us there?”

“I might be able to, but it’s hard to say. I’d need to sense the right Ki to the palace to pull it off,” the fox replied.

Sonic smirked to himself, but Amy noticed this. “Oh Sonic, are you going to run off on us?” she asked him, foreseeing some disappointment.

“Yeah, but it will help out. He finds me, he gets the rest of you there,” the hedgehog answered. He then asked the ponies “Where is this palace anyway?”

The ponies were confused by this conversation, having no idea what they were referring to. Rainbow Dash told him “Uh, it’s all the way up there,” and from where she flapped in the air, she pointed her hoof at the direction of the capital city.

Sonic looked up at the distant city, placed high up on a mountainside, its towering buildings reaching higher into the sky. “Alright, shouldn’t be too hard to get there. Give me about two minutes, buddy. I’ll try to find the right spot to appear at,” he said, and before a word could be said, the superfast hedgehog raced away with a blue streak left showing his path.

“Is he really going to run all the way to Canterlot? Why in all of Equestria would he want to do that?” Rarity asked confused.

“That’s Sonic for you. He always wants to go for a run. You get used to it,” Rouge explained.

“Um, excuse me,” Fluttershy said. “I’m sorry, I hope you don’t mind me interrupting, but we’re going to miss our train.”

“Don’t worry, we don’t need to take it,” Cosmo said with a grin. “We’ll be able to get us all there without a problem.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Twilight asked.

“Just wait a couple minutes,” Tails answered, and so they did. The ponies were still lost about the entire idea and asked what they were planning, so Gohan explained to them about a technique his father learned and taught to a few others, including Tails. When the minutes passed, the fox tried to sense Sonic, finding him but still moving rapidly. It took a few seconds before the Ki he sensed stopped moving, and when it did he said “Alright, we’re all set. Everyone join together.”

Cosmo rested a hand on his left shoulder, followed by Amy, then Ami, then Yumi, then the Master Four, then so on. Twilight set a hoof on his right shoulder, followed by Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, a concited – her way of saying confused and excited at the same time – Pinkie Pie, Apple Bloom, Snowstar, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Tails took his index and middle fingers of his right hand and put them against his forehead, focusing himself in the process. In his left hand, he held the purple Chaos Emerald.

“Hang on, everyone. Here we go,” he told them.

As he used the technique, Apple Bloom murmured to her friends “I ain’t so sure about…”

/)∞(\

“…this.”

Before the yellow filly could finish her sentence, the entire ground found themselves in the royal courtyard of the Canterlot Castle. Standing behind them to get their attention was Sonic, who said “Nice places you got here. I could’ve been here in a minute flat, but a decided to take a quick look around.”

Apple Bloom felt speechless for a moment after seeing herself and everypony appear in Canterlot instantly, like magic. The amazement passed through to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, all three having their jaws dropped and eyes staring around.

“What happened? Did we make it?” Snowstar asked, the only pony unable to know exactly what had just happened.

“Uh-huh,” Scootaloo answered, that being all she could say.

“Wow! That’s a handy little technique,” Twilight said.

“That was totally cool! One second we were in Ponyville, and the next second – literally the next second – we’re in Canterlot! Talk about having such a super awesome bag of tricks!” Pinkie yelled.

“It has its usefulness,” Tails said, trying not to sound as much of a brag as his statement could be taken.

A door into the palace then opened, a stallion stepping out in formal attire. “Twily!” The voice caught everyone’s attention, especially its familiar tone for one pony in particular. When they turned to see who it was, Twilight saw her older brother, Shining Armor, and the two ran up to greet each other with a hug. “It’s good to see you, Kid. Did you catch an earlier train?”

“No, we found a different means of travel,” she replied. The group then stepped up towards them and she quickly introduced him to the non-pony visitors. “…and this is Shining Armor, my B.B.B.F.F.” When they looked at each other confused by what that meant, she broke down the acronym- “Big Brother Best Friend Forever.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” the B.B.B.F.F. said. “Twily, all the other Princesses are waiting for you. We should get to the throne room now since you’re all here.”

“Of course. Lead the way, please,” she replied.

“Alright. Let’s see how this goes,” Knuckles thought to himself. “The sooner it’s done, the sooner I can return to the Master Emerald.”

/)∞(\

Shining Armor led the group through each corridor that led to the Princesses, with the Mane 6 giving a little tour of the sights that were seen. Even Cosmo had a couple moments to mention things she had learned in her short time there, mainly when pointing out a couple stain-glassed windows showing Equestrian history. They soon arrived at the closed doors of the throne room, and Shining Armor used his magic to open them to reveal what was inside. Two lines of Royal Guards stood from the doors to about two-thirds to the throne, half holding spears and half playing horned instruments to signify the group’s arrival.

Standing on each side of the throne were Princess Luna, the Princess of the Night, and Princess Cadance, the Crystal Princess. Sitting at the center was the Princess of Equestria, Princess Celestia. The three alicorns waited in their positions as the large group walked up towards them, them stopping several feet before the throne, with Twilight and her friends standing right up at the staircase. Celestia stood up and walked down to greet her faithful subjects, who bowed to her in return, even Twilight.

“It is wonderful to see you all again,” Celestia greeted them. “And there’s no need to do that anymore, Princess Twilight. I admire the respect you try to show, but being a Princess yourself, it is unnecessary.”

The purple alicorn knew this, but being a peer of her former mentor was a position she was still not use to, so her action was a force of habit. “I’m sorry, Princess Celestia,” she said.

The grand white alicorn smiled and replied “It is quite alright, Twilight. Now as I can see, you and your friends have brought company as I had requested. What do you say you can introduce us to your new friends?”

“Of course, now where to start…” Twilight said, trying to think of how to introduce everyone. An idea then came to mind and she suggested “Perhaps we could reintroduce you to someone you already know, Princess.” She stood to the side and waved a front leg towards the Seedrian that found her way to Canterlot last week.

Cosmo, with Tails following, stepped forward to greet the Princesses with a bow of respect. “Hello again, your highness,” she said.

“Hello, Cosmo, and may I say how wonderful it is to see you again. I can see that your quest has found pleasing results,” Celestia said. Her eyes then turned to the new being that stood before her, stating “Am I to assume this is the one you were in search for?”

“Yes he is,” the Seedrian answered. “Princess Celestia, I’d like you to meet my best friend, the man that makes my world complete, and so much more.”

Tails bowed to the Princess and said “It is an honor to meet you, Celestia. I am Miles Prower.”

Recalling what Twilight’s letter had named him otherwise, the Princess replied “So you are the one also known as Tails. I must say that it is a great honor to meet you after hearing so much about you from not just your loved one, but from Twilight Sparkle as well.”

“Thank you, your highness,” the fox said in return. “If I may say on behalf of Cosmo and myself, although we’ve seen only a little of your world, it is a beautiful and magnificent place. You must be proud to have such subjects and peers like Princess Twilight and her friends, as we are honored to have met them.”

“It is quite the pleasure. Allow me to introduce you to Princess Cadence, and my sister, Princess Luna,” Celestia said in return, and each other Princess greeted them.

“It is nice to meet you,” Cadence said happily.

“Yes, it is of great joy to meet you, young Miles,” Luna followed. “Perhaps you would not mind answering a question for us.”

The couple looked at each other for a second, then turned back towards the Princesses. “What is your question?” asked Cosmo.

“I can ask this, sister,” Celestia said to her sibling, and turned her attention back to the couple. “We have heard about trouble with dragons that took place yesterday, and how Twilight and figures of gold sent them away. Would you please explain about what happened regarding this?”

Tails thought that perhaps that this question was best answered through demonstration, telling the Princesses “Let me show you,” and with a quick focus, ascended to his Super Saiyan form. “You see, I have abilities that increase my strength, such as this. It helps out when I’m in a fight against a strong enemy. But regarding Twilight, she used her magic, enhanced with this.”

He then showed them the purple gem he held in his hand, it glowing brightly with Chaos energy. “I don’t think I’ve seen such a gem since the Elements of Harmony,” stated Luna. “Where did you find that?”

“It’s called a Chaos Emerald,” Cosmo explained, “one of several gems that contain incredible power. Twilight combined her energy with that of the emerald to originally open a portal to send the dragons across Equestria. We had no idea that the two powers would open a path between our worlds.”

“I see,” Celestia said, and her eyes looked up at the other interdimensional guests. “I must admit that such capabilities are almost predictable, but almost never shown. Thank you for showing us your great strengths to protect my subjects. Now, who else do I have the pleasure of meeting today?”

The Master Four stepped forward to stand in a line before the Princesses. “Allow us to introduce ourselves, your highnesses,” Yugi said. They stood directly in front of Celestia, and then they did a different bow of respect all at once. They got down on a knee and rested an arm straight down with a fist against the ground, their heads bowing down as well.

Jason spoke up and said “We are the leaders of the dimensional syndicate known as Team JAG, whose sole purpose is to maintain and protect the lives of all who wish for peace, tranquility and love in their lives. We are the four leaders of this organization, titled as the Master Four. I am Jason, and in order down the line is Ash, Gohan, and Yugi. It is our honor to meet you all this day.”

“Talk about a formal introduction,” Rarity whispered to her friends from where they stood.

“No kidding. They know when to mean business,” Rainbow Dash added.

Twilight then told her fellow Princesses “As they said, they’re leaders of a whole team of other worldly beings, and in more ways than one. Perhaps we shall get acquainted with the others that are here as well?”

“Of course, go right ahead,” Cadance said, stepping forward to stand next to Celestia.

The Master Four stood back up on their feet and took the responsibility of introducing the rest of their friends that made up the Team JAG Band, and a brief summary of their origins with it. Tails and Cosmo took the liberty of introducing Sonic and the others from Mobius themselves, explaining how close they were as compared to the ponies they came to know during their time in Ponyville. Each introduced individual gave a greeting of their own to the Princesses, and the three greeted them in return. Last to be introduced was the blind little filly that hid herself behind her friends that were the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Come here, young filly,” Celestia said, noticing the filly’s tried but failed attempt, in a non-demanding and elegant voice to sound kind.

The filly, scared at first, slowly walked her way towards the Princess, unable to notice some ponies and Mobians in her path, but they cleared away before she would walk into them. She stopped just a couple feet in front of the Princess, and bowed her head.

“Hello,... your highness. It is, an honor to meet you,” she said, a short pause of nervousness at the beginning.

The white alicorn looked down at the filly, identifying her blindness when she was walking up. “What is your name, little one?” she asked.

“My… my name… is Snowstar, your majesty,” Snowstar answered.

“Ah yes, you’re Snowstar. Princess Twilight has mentioned you in her letter,” Celestia said.

Standing from her position, Luna looked down at the blind pegasus carefully. She saw her, but what she was seeing left her baffled and asking herself “How is this possible?” over and over in her mind. This filly’s appearance, it was the mirror image of her dearest friend from over a millennium ago. It was like looking at a perfect copy of a pony long gone by mortality. There came the point where she couldn’t just keep wondering if this was real or not, and stepped forward.

“Excuse me,” the Princess of the Night said as she approached the filly, “but I must ask you about your origin. Does the name ‘Snowdrop’ mean anything to you?”

“You bet it does!” Pinkie Pie answerd, much to the alicorn’s surprise. “She’s the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of Snowdrop… or something like that.”

“I… I can’t believe it. You are a perfect reflection of her,” Luna said to Snowstar. “This is surprising beyond all belief. I never thought that she…”

“Relax, my sister,” Celestia advised her sibling.

“I’m confused,” Amy whispered to one of the ponies. “What is she so worked up about?”

“The royal sisters there, Celestia and Luna, they’ve been around a might longer than other ponies. They’ve been around for so long, they knew ponies way back when most of Equestria didn’t exist,” Applejack explained.

Rouge then stated her observation on the matter with “They’ve been around that long, huh? Well I’d like to learn their cosmetic secrets because they don’t look that old at all.”

“Well of course they wouldn’t. Alicorns such as them possess magic greater than anypony else, which helps them in more ways than glorious and youthful complexion,” Rarity said to the bat, almost scolding towards what could be read as an insult.

Luna kept looking down at the filly for a couple moments before finding the voice to ask “How did you meet Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends from Ponyville, young Snowstar? I don’t recall ever crossing paths with you in the town during previous visits.”

Snowstar felt very uncomfortable with telling the story again, and hesitated doing so by staying silent. The Cutie Mark Crusaders stepped up around to talk to the Princesses.

“It’s a long story, Princess Luna, and it’s not exactly easy for her to talk about," Scootaloo started

“But the truth is she ran away from home because she was being treated so mean that she couldn’t take anymore,” Apple Bloom added. “We found her wonderin’ in my family’s orchard and helped take care of her before those dragons came out of the forest and attacked us.”

“And when we were trying to escape them, everypony else found us, and that Chaos Emerald thing she had when we found her,” followed Sweetie Belle.

Luna first said “I see,” and her attention, surprising to her, shifted straight from Snowdrop’s descendant to the Mobian fox. “That is when you said you ‘transformed’ yourself, correct? Was it a difficult challenge to face those monsters?”

Tails shook his head no and replied “They were very simple to handle. I just became a Super Saiyan to see if they would be intimidated enough to stand down and leave, but we were wrong. The fight itself wasn’t difficult at all, compared to who I’ve faced in our past.”

“What kind of enemies would that be?” asked Shining Armor.

“Many enemies, honestly,” Gohan answered. “You see, part of Team JAG existing in the first place is to combat evil from all dimensions, because they too work together to try and conquer any world at any time. They serve under the title the Brotherhood of Darkness, and are led by the most dangerous rivals we ever face.”

“The Metarex and Galvatron,” said Twilight.

All the interdimensional visitors except Tails and Cosmo looked at the newest Princess. They didn’t know how she knew about their mechanical rivals. “Twilight, did Tails and Cosmo… educate you about them?” asked Yugi with some caution.

“You… you could say that,” answered a different pony, being Fluttershy. “We, um, actually…”

“We saw everything, with one of Twilight’s spells,” Rainbow said.

Celestia turned towards her subjects to ask “Who exactly are you talking about?”

/)∞(\

Those of Team Sonic took it upon themselves to explain about the Metarex, starting with Cosmo who had the closer connection based from the history between the vile machines and her clan. They each described about the first war where they traveled across their galaxy to fight Dark Oak, the Metarex leader, and retrieve the scattered Chaos Emeralds. When the topic of the war’s climax came up, the Master Four took over, explaining about Galvatron, some of his colleagues, and what actions they and many others have done over the years in numerous dimensions.

The element of the band was explained through the Revival event over seven years ago, and how that’s been carrying on and evolving ever since. The Mane 6 knew a lot of these details already, so what new things they heard they could relate to in some ways and understood from experience, but the fillies listened in stun, and the Princesses became more and more educated of these new visitors in their world.

When explanations ended, all four fillies went “Whoa” simultaneously, blown away by these stories and some of which they’d rather not believe true.

“I guess that explains this Team JAG you have,” Cadance stated. “So many enemies from so many different places, it’s frightening just by the thought. How do you manage to handle it all?”

“That’s part of why the Team exists,” Dan Fenton said, “to work together to stop whatever our enemies try to throw at us.”

“Including our more recent events involving Dark Oak’s acquiring of the Chaos Emeralds that brought our friends to your world in the first place,” added Ash.

Twilight looked up at her former teacher, who she thought as speechless if she didn’t hear the Princess say “You all clearly fight with your lives to protect those who cannot protect themselves. What you’ve shared with me, however, is not easy to take in.”

“We wouldn’t imagine how it could,” Jason told her. “What we can assure you is that the battles happen, but not every moment of every day, only when occurring. From what we’ve learned from your peer and subjects, you have similar circumstances as well.”

“Yes, we have. Embodiments of chaos, love-hungry armies, tyrants from the shadows, just to name a few. But never were there events with such immensity and magnitudes as yours,” Celestia replied.

Luna felt uneasy about learning all of this, and addressed her older sibling with great concern. “This is a threat to Equestria, my sister. Our worlds now connected opens everypony to untold dangers and horrors.”

“What are you saying, Princess Luna?” asked Scootaloo.

“She’s saying that the connection between our worlds, mainly Mobius and Equestria, puts everypony at risk,” Celestia answered.

“We wouldn’t allow something like that to happen. The Brotherhood only knows of worlds with those that go to them because of common ground. Even with how we socially network throughout all worlds, they wouldn’t find you without someone here wanting to find them,” Gohan said.

“Or if someone here does something evil and diabolical that gets their attention,” added Knuckles.

“Don’t be sayin’ stuff like that. We’ve had our share of bad ponies in the past, but none of them as vile as that Brotherhood you’re fightin’,” Applejack told the echidna.

“I’m just being honest. If there’s something or someone here powerful enough,…”

“Man, Knuckles, relax about that, will ya?” Sonic interrupted. “We wouldn’t let them get anywhere near here.”

A timid Snowstar asked “How… how would you? If they’re that bad… would they try to beat you?”

“Yeah, they can try, but fail,” the hedgehog replied confidently.

“But it doesn’t change the potential risk on Equestria’s safety, and without the Elements of Harmony,…” Luna was saying, but stopped after mentioning the Elements.

Celestia’s thoughts built up as most of the group shared more opinions about this. The Changelings, Sombra and Discord were difficult enough when confronted, more so with Nightmare Moon, but the sound of this Brotherhood could mean untold horrors like her sister said. Even recalling meeting Cosmo didn’t give her a fully trustworthy decision to follow through with. She knew there was only one source to turn to and consider what the best mindset of this is.

“Twilight,” the white alicorn said, “you and your friends have been closest to our guests more than anypony else. You know them and where they come from the best. What do you think of all this?”

This was more than just Celestia asking for a suggestion. This was one Princess seeking the wisdom and guidance of another. In the past, Twilight was always trusted to know what she was doing with only one or two times where the older Princesses would act as a guiding force, or a story’s occasional deus ex machina, but now, it takes a new level of importance.

She looked upon her friends for mental inspiration, then the fox they found crash outside of their home of Ponyville, and then the flower girl who found them. The week’s memories and events, they formed a chain in her conscious. Something sparked for the first time since when the six Elemental ponies came together and reformed Nightmare Moon into Luna.

“Princess Celestia, I think… no, I know, that we shouldn’t have to worry,” Twilight said.

The entire group’s attention focused on her, the purple alicorn explained her stance, with the help of her five best friends.

“After getting to know Tails and Cosmo throughout this last week, we have learned so much about what other worlds have to offer. More importantly, we learned more about them, who they are and how they treat life like we do. They became more than misplaced Mobians in our world- they are others who we can trust, and have respect for. Regardless that there are threats from where they are from, or their greater levels of threat, these new friendships we made are more important.”

“Yessir,” Applejack went on to add. “That couple is mighty wonderful company to be with.”

“Yeah, and they tried helping out with what we do a few times. And the way Tails fought those dragons, they know how to handle trouble, and be awesome doing it,” Rainbow Dash followed.

“And how they acted with us, and especially with the friends who had found them here, it’s a kind of friendship that reminds me of my own friends that I’m surrounded with every day,” Rarity stated.

“Totally. I mean, sure there are big mean bad guys where they’re from, but they don’t let them get to them. In fact, they deal with so much so often and still enjoy the best times of life,” added Pinkie Pie.

“Anyone who is as loving and respectful as they are would never bring trouble to anyone else,” Fluttershy said.

Twilight then spoke again, saying “I strongly disbelieve that getting to know our new friends, all of them, has left Equestria in danger of new enemies. What we have discovered is a brand new connection with new friends, and from we’ve come to know, there are many new discoveries we have yet to scratch the surface to learn.”

She paused from facing her fellow Princesses, and turned to stand by and speak to Tails and Cosmo. “After learning about what these two mean to those they care about, what they mean to each other, and how we’ve come to mean to them, I wouldn’t want to send them away with no hope of returning. Whatever possible threat there could be against Equestria, I know we all can handle it, and we know we have great friends to stand by our side to help us, just as they know we would for them.”

Cosmo hugged the purple alicorn when she stopped speaking, with Tails finding himself and the two being surrounded by the other five ponies. A strong bond was being displayed between the two and six, and Celestia and her peers listened with much consideration.

When the hug broke, the majestic white alicorn said “If that is your case, my little ponies, I look forward to see what great things may come.” The eight of them were very happy to hear her say that, and the same with the fillies and the couple’s friends, but Celestia wasn’t finished speaking.

“However, I would still like some time to think about this myself. I have no doubts in what I’ve come to learn about Tails, Cosmo, and all those new who stand before me, but as my sister has said, I must think of what’s best for my little ponies. I must ask that I take some time to consider everything I’ve come to learn and view to see if I have any reason to reconsider. In the mean time, I will not forbid our worlds from interaction, and those of Team JAG are more than welcome to return to Equestria, whenever they please.”

The Master Four all kneeled to the ground as they did before, with Jason telling the Equestrian ruler “Thank you, Princess Celestia, and you may take all the time you wish to think. We will honor and respect any choice you feel is best, as we have with all others.”

When the four stood back up, the Princesses each nodded and smiled at their respect. With a brief moment of silence passing, Snowstar decided to ask “So, what should we do now?”

“I know,” Tails answered, and he and Cosmo looked at each other with the same desire in mind. “It’s time for us to leave and go back home.”

“Yes,” Cosmo agreed, and looked back at all their friends from home and the band. “If it’s alright with you, we’d like to make a trip back to Ponyville first.”

/)∞(\

After bidding farewell to Celestia, Luna and Cadance, Tails used instant transmission to get the large group back to Ponyville, arriving at the library. From there, all the ponies but Twilight and the fillies raced off to finish last-second errands, but not before everyone agreed to meet at the band’s stage as the Master Four would reopen a portal to Mobius to start cleaning away their belongings.

Only two hours would pass, but given all the time they spent in Canterlot it was the late afternoon by the time the entire group gathered again at the field under Rainbow Dash’s home. Phineas and Ferb’s handy work already got the entire stage and all the band’s equipment through the portal, which then shrunk down just large enough to fit a few people at a time. Even with heavy hearts beginning to show their weight, the time for farewells had come.

“Well that’s everything,” Sonic said. “Guess it’s our turn to get going.”

The band decided to go ahead and leave first, each of them having a moment to say a goodbye and their thanks to the ponies. Aelita went through first as she said “It was great meeting you all. We’ll see you soon!”

Phineas was next, saying “Thanks for the great time. We definitely need to do this again soon.” Ferb briefly added “Without Chaos Control next time,” and the two waved goodbye and exited.

“Thanks a lot for helping Tails and Cosmo out. I’d love to stay longer, but I have a wedding to get back to planning,” Kim told them. Ron followed that with “The most ‘booyah’ wedding ever I must add. But seriously, you ponies are the coolest ponies ever. Thanks for hosting our first show with the band!” The couple then made their way through the portal.

“I don’t think the girls back home are going to believe this one,” Dan chuckled to himself. “It’s been fun. Take care of yourselves, and I’ll see you soon.”

Ami decide to share some culture with them, by speaking in her native language. “Subete no kawai poni arigato arigato!” Yumi, deciding to stick with universal speaking, added “You ponies rock. It’s been a jam!” With that, the musical duo left.

The Master Four looked towards Team Sonic, imagining that they would be next, but they were wrong. “Would you please mind going back before us?” Amy asked them. There was an initial confusion about it, but only for a couple seconds, not being a big deal for them.

“Sure, we’ve got to maintain the portal back on Mobius anyway,” Yugi said, which was technically true. He was the first of the four to say goodbye, telling the ponies “It was a real honor meeting you all. I can’t wait to come back and see you all again.”

“I think that’s a mutual feeling,” Gohan added, with some humor. “Thanks for everything you’ve done. This is a very special world you have here.”

A couple ponies tried to argue that, but Ash interjected with “You do have a great world, and you should be proud of it, just like with each other. I’d wish we could stick around and see more, but there are other worlds that still need our attention.”

Jason, the last of the four, said “This new discovery may lead to great things, and after this last day, we sure hope for it. Thank you, ponies, thank you.” He then looked towards Team Sonic and told them “We’ll keep it open as long as you need,” and then stepped through the portal itself.

This just left the groups of Equestrians and Mobians together. It was also the most difficult time of this farewells, seeing how close how the most well-known couple of multiple dimensions came with the ponies. Sitting near the portal were the covered and carefully placed outfits they were given, and the purple Chaos Emerald on top of them. Judging by what the ponies had in tow, those extra items would be coming back to Mobius with them. Quiet was the environment surrounding them at first, for perhaps a good minute, before a pony was first to speak.

“It’s been some kind of week,” said Twilight humorously, “wouldn’t everypony agree?”

“Eeyup,” Applejack said, mimicking her brother.

“You have no idea,” Knuckles said, referring to the events away from Equestria.

“But it’s been great here, nonetheless. This is a pretty cool place, definitely worth a good run some time,” Sonic added.

Everyone chuckled, and the Mane 6 then turned their attention to Tails and Cosmo. They all felt happy that things worked out for the couple, but their eyes still looked sad. “I guess… I guess this is goodbye,” Pinkie Pie said, herself starting to cry as she used a handkerchief to clean tears from her eyes.

“Calm down, Pinkie,” Rainbow said, sounding, and acting, as the most collective of the ponies. “It’s not like it’s a goodbye forever.”

“Right,” Tails said. He had to clear his throat right after, claiming something had ‘gotten caught’ on it. “Listen, everypony, I just wanted to…” He paused for a moment, unsure of how to exactly say what he was thinking. “I can’t thank you enough for everything, and I mean everything, you’ve done for us.

“You welcomed us into your homes and into your lives. You helped heal me back to normal and tried to find Cosmo for me. I don’t think I know where we could begin to repay you for everything you’ve done for us. We couldn’t have been luckier to have been brought to such a great world and immediately meet amazing, amazing new friends like you. Thank you.”

“Come on, Tails,” Twilight told him, “you know you don’t need to thank us. We were happy to help however we could.”

“And I’m sure that if the shoe was on the other hoof… or foot, given anatomy… that you would do the same for us if we appeared in your home,” Rarity added.

“Of course we would, but we still,…” Cosmo started to say, but she felt a small break in her emotional wall, and started to gently cry tears. “I can’t tell you how lucky my life has been when I find myself in new worlds, and so many great people have helped me. Thank you all so much, for keeping me and my closest friend somewhere that felt so much like home.”

She felt Amy and Cream step up to each side of her, comforting their once missing friend. “If there is anything Tails and I could every do in return, please, please don’t stop from asking. More importantly, thank you for being who you are, and such wonderful friends.”

Most of the ponies began to act the same as her, except for Rainbow Dash, who tried to shake off the ‘sappy’ attitude she kept trying to hide. Fluttershy spoke next by saying “We were happy to help, and we’re more than happy to have met you, and meet so many who care about you as well.” She then stepped forward, and presented the couple a small gift.

“Here. This is a pack of seeds from flowers at my home. I know how much you love gardening, so, if you would want to, you can add these to your own home garden.” She gave the packet to Cosmo, and following her, each pony stepped forward to give additional gifts.

“I figured you wouldn’t mind a Sweet Apple Acre apple bushel, and along with a recipe for the Apple family famous apple pie,” Applejack said, giving her gift next. “Just don’t be plantin’ any apple seeds or I might lose your business,” she added as a good joke.

“I couldn’t help but put these together when I was creating my masterpieces that are your new attires,” Rarity followed, giving them each some jewel-encrusted accessories. “Here’s a nice little neck tie for Tails, and for you, Cosmo darling, a diamond-embroidered handkerchief.”

“And here, I asked the Cakes if you could take this back with you to share,” Pinkie Pie said, handing them a big square box. “It’s our new mega-fudgy-triple-chocolately-icing-smotheredly-fruity-sweetly-tasty-surprisely cake! It’s a brand new recipe, inspired by you, and this is our first one. And I didn’t even taste it- Pinkie Promise.”

Next was Rainbow Dash, holding her ‘sappiness’ back still, handing them something everypony couldn’t believe – a sealed jug of the Apple family’s cider. “I couldn’t really decide on what to give you. I tried to get an extra copy of the latest Daring Do book, but I figured you’d already be getting a book. This is some reserve cider Applejack gave me last cider season, the last of a few really. Here, you two enjoy it.”

Lastly was the Princess of the group, who used her magic to levitate a book up and hand it to Tails. The cover read ‘Equestria: The History Made.’ “It was my own copy when I was first Celestia’s student. I read that book so much I know it from cover to cover. I have a spare book in the library, and this one also has a bunch of notes I’ve taken for years. I figured, since you showed us your history, maybe until next time, you can read about ours,” she told them. She felt her faithful assistant nudge at her leg, reminding her to add “Oh, and Spike put a little something extra in there for you, too.”

Tails opened the front cover to reveal not only a few sheets of notes Twilight mentioned, but a couple pictures as well. They were from the times in the library- one of the couple on the balcony, one with them and the alicorn researching, one with them and her having a laugh, and lastly, a group photo, from the party Pinkie through when the couple reunited. Tails and Cosmo were in the center, surrounded by all of the Mane 6.

The two looked at all the gifts they were given, and couldn’t say a word. They really didn’t know what to say for that matter, other than what they already have. Amy, Cream and Cheese took the stuff to set aside as the couple stepped forward to the ponies. Cosmo then wrapped her arms around Twilight and Fluttershy, the first two in front of her, and hugged them tightly.

“Thank you so much. You’re all such wonderful friends,” she said, trying not to break out in full force tears.

Tails stepped up behind his beloved to share the same thought. “This means so much to us. You all mean so much, to all of us. Thanks, guys.” He then found himself being surrounded by Pinkie, Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity, and shared a hug themselves.

It then morphed into Tails and Cosmo being in the center as the Mane 6 surrounded them in one big hug. There was no holding back any tears that wanted out, all of them overwhelmed with such happiness. Sonic and the gang then got around the one big group to form an even larger group hug, saving the gesture from Sonic and Knuckles who respectively stood at each side.

“Thanks for watching out for them. It was really cool of you,” Sonic told the ponies.

“Thank you all so much,” Cream followed, with Cheese adding “Chao!”

“You’re not bad, girls, not bad at all,” added Rouge.

“I hope we get to meet with you again. We have to repay you someday,” Amy told them.

“Maybe someday. Until then, thanks. You guys are alright,” Knuckles said.

All of a sudden, Spike and the fillies got in front of the whole group, with an Equestria-styled camera set up. Spike positioned himself to take a picture as the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Snowstar told the group “Come on, everypony, smile…” The group stood still just long enough for a bright flash to occur.

And then, they took their leave. Sonic, Amy, Cream and Cheese, Knuckles and Rouge were first, also offering to take the couple’s gifts through the portal for them. More specifically, the echidna took the emerald to avoid it getting turned into a bat’s new ring.

Tails and Cosmo were a step away from home, but not before turning back one more time to see Princess Twilight Sparkle approach them. Out of their respect, they bowed before her.

“Thank you, your highness, for everything you’ve done for us,” Tails said to her.

Twilight just smiled appreciatively and replied “You’re very welcome, and thank you for what you’ve done for us as well. We look forward to seeing you all again, very soon.”

Both Tails and Cosmo decided to give Twilight one last hug, to which she returned with just as much care. When it broke, the couple looked into each other’s eyes and held their hands together as they took the first step through the portal. Cosmo turned back to say “Goodbye, everypony!” and waved to them.

Everypony just watched as their two newest friends, and their two closest friends from a new world, vanished through the dimensional portal as they waved as well. Just as the couple crossed through to return to their home, the bright portal shrank and closed itself behind them, ending the first of many adventures between Tails, Cosmo and Team JAG with the Mane 6, Ponyville, and all of Equestria.

Previously: Settlement

It was Twilight time in Ponyville, but not the Twilight time for a few certain fillies. Twilight Sparkle and her friends were all at the library talking to each other about who they discovered into the ground earlier that day. A strange fox-looking creature with two tails, who looked to be assaulted and wounded somehow, was just up the stairs in the purple pony’s bed resting quietly, having a dream about where he was from. Just down the stairs, a tray of food and medicine was prepared and set on the nearby desk for whenever this stranger would awaken.

The six ponies who found him didn’t leave the treehouse once since bringing him here, hoping to get some answers about what exactly was going on. Until that time would come, they waited and waited, but by the time the day’s twilight time had come, some became impatient.

“I’m sick of waiting around doing nothing. This is getting us nowhere,” Rainbow Dash complained.

“Well what do you expect us to do, mosey on upstairs and start pokin’ at the thing until it wakes up?” Applejack said back.

“It? I thought ‘it’ was a ‘he,’ I mean I think ‘he’ looks like a ‘he’ and not an ‘it,’ and I seriously doubt ‘he’s’ a ‘she,’ Pinkie Pie said as she pondered the thought.

“Girls, please,” Twilight told them sternly, “he’s right up there. We just need to let him rest for right now.”

“But for how long? Fluttershy told you what happened, Twilight. Who knows who’s exactly up there, or what will happen when they wake up,” argued the cyan pegasus.

“But he seems so hurt. You heard how he moaned when we brought him here. It would be cruel not to make sure he’s alright first,” Fluttershy pointed out in her normally soft voice.

“Fluttershy is absolutely right,” agreed Rarity. “But I must admit, I am quite curious about who this mysterious fox creature is myself, and where in Equestria he came from.”

The orange mare then said “Well we ain’t findin’ out a thing until whoever they are decides to get up, so we might as well stay patient. I’m more confused about how such a critter managed to plow a pit into a ground by crash landin’ like how Fluttershy told us.”

“Oh I know, and the signs that there isn’t a single broken bone in his body, it’s unexplainable,” added the white unicorn.

“I say it sounds like something out of the Everfree Forest. Nopony knows what exactly can come out of there, except trouble,” Rainbow argued.

“And we’re not going to get any conclusion by arguing, Rainbow Dash. We just have to be patient right now,” the purple alicorn said. Her head turned back and up at her bedroom loft for a moment, unable to see the strained face of the dreaming fox. “Whoever he is, I just hope he’s alright.”

“Me too. I wonder what he’ll be like when he wakes up. I hope that he’ll be a lot of fun, and happy to meet us too,” an optimistic pink mare stated.

Twilight chuckled a little and replied “Me too, Pinkie, but I don’t think he’ll be having much fun until he’s fully recovered.”

“Oh, I just hopes he’s okay. I mean, I know he’s not okay, but I hope he’s not as bad as he looks. I can’t imagine how he could feel waking up someplace strange and scary,” a concerning yellow mare went on to say.

“Now don’t get too worried there, Sugarcube. We’re worried too, but we shouldn’t get too panicky about it,” Applejack told her.

“I know,” Fluttershy replied. “I’m sorry. I just get so scared for any creature or anypony that gets hurt. I don’t even want to imagine how it happened.”

“But what about us? What if whoever’s up there will…” Rainbow tried to say.

“Rainbow Dash, we understand what you’re trying to say, but we won’t get anywhere circling our heads around it,” Rarity interrupted.

“She’s right. We should get our heads wrapped around something else. I’m thinking cotton candy,” Pinkie said. A lot of eyes rolled, some amused, but others annoyed.

Fluttershy spoke next, saying “What’s important here is that no matter what, we should help whoever this creature is. He’s in no condition to do much himself, and needs help.”

“Fluttershy is right,” agreed the Princess of the group. “Remember when I first came to Ponyville? You had no idea who I was, yet you still treated me so nicely. We should do the same for him, and who knows, maybe he’ll be our friend too.”

“But of course,” agreed Rarity.

“You betcha!” added Pinkie.

“You know I will,” followed Applejack, but her attention then turned towards the cross cyan pony. “You will, too, right RD?”

Rainbow Dash just grunted a little, and tried to speak again with “I don’t think that…” but an unfamiliar voice spoke from up in Twilight’s bedroom.

“Cosmo…”

All six ponies turned their heads up towards the loft, noticing that the being began to squirm under the sheets. He was starting to wake up, so now the ponies could start figuring things out. Rainbow said “About time he’s up. Come on, let’s go see just who he is.”

As she tried to fly away, Twilight used her magic to grab the pegasus by the tail, and pull her back to the ground. “No rushing, Rainbow Dash. We’ll greet him just how Fluttershy said we should treat him.”

She released the mare from her magic, and then turned her focus to lift the food tray from the desk. The purple alicorn wore a smile across her face and walked up the steps towards her bed, seeing the new being awakening from the bed, looking confused. She tried to disregard it for the moment, and said the first thing that came across her mind-

“Oh, good, you’re finally awake. We were worried you were too hurt to recover this soon.”

Chapter 15

A few days have gone by since Tails and Cosmo returned to Mobius. The moment they got back, they settled in back home with all their gifts from Equestria, putting them away accordingly. Since then, they had the first night to themselves in peace and quiet, with the next day being a visit from Cosmo’s family. Earthia and her clan were delighted to see the two safe and sound again, but also introduced the topic of the events that took place in the couple’s absence.

The next day included a visit from Dr. Eggman, Shadow, Maria, Sonic, Amy, Cream, and Gohan. They all explained about what happened after the couple disappeared – the interdimensional search party, the difficulty finding the complete set of Chaos Emeralds, all the attacks by the Brotherhood of Darkness, and the presence of Dark Oak and Galvatron. Not too many details were gone into except for what happened on Mobius, but for the two to learn about everything that happened in their absence, it was best put as unpredictable, seeing now unbelievable wasn’t the right fit given the past. Learning about all that made their time with the ponies like a vacation from war.

The day following involved working around the house with the usual chores to do. Even though they knew their friends looked over the house in their absence, they decided to check things that needed to be done again or additional effort. Cosmo’s main focus came down to her greenhouse and outside garden, tending to the plants and assuring their healthy states. It was still technically winter, even though most of the snow was gone and it was just cold, so she put main focus on the greenhouse plants. Staying inside for most of a cold day was a preferred choice to her any time.

“Alright, there we go, all nice and fed,” she said to herself, using her watering can to place some water in the soil for the plants that needed it. “I guess my mother and sister were the ones to look out for the flowers. They look very healthy, and a little Seedrian shine.”

To her, a Seedrian shine meant a stronger sense of connection between plant life and the Seedrian people, as the race did have the genetics of plants to begin with. It was more of a spiritual sense to most of the population, but those such as Cosmo and her family, they had a deeper connection that exemplifies what their people accomplish.

“Now, let’s see, what should I do next?” she asked herself, trailing her eyes around for inspiration. Sitting under one of the counters were stacked flower pot trays next to a pale of soil. She thought for a moment and made a decision. “You know, why not? I’d like to see what seeds she gave me anyway.”

She got one of the smaller trays and put some soil in it. Then, she went back into the other room to get the pack of seeds Fluttershy gave her. Her original intention was wait until she could use her outside garden again, but as a test, she would take only a few of the seeds to plant and grow to see what would happen, and the little packet was packed with seeds of many kinds.

“There’s enough to fill almost a whole row for outside. I’ll just take four seeds for now,” she decided.

Cosmo took four seeds out and planted them gently into the preset soil. After putting another layer of soil in the tray, she put a little water in and set it up on a higher sill to get some light from the sky.

“That should do it. I hope I get to show this to the ponies sometime soon,” she said happily. “Maybe I can consider a special gardening workshop to bring worlds together to discuss all types of flower care. But, maybe, with Kim I could…” Her open thinking got cut off by a small growl from her stomach, prompting her to think otherwise. “Well, maybe I can think with a snack. Or maybe, a little treat.”

/)∞(\

Down in his workshop, Tails was tending to his mechanical projects and computer systems. His productivity with them took a grinding halt after Dark Oak’s attack a couple weeks ago, and with his business launch still a dream of his, he wanted to get however much done he could. When finishing some tune-ups to his aerial fleet, he used his laptop computer to work on his interdimensional programming, most particularly the dimensional gates he had there.

“Alright, now let’s take a look at the entire interface’s catalog,” he murmured, “then we can establish the permanent connection link here.”

Dr. Eggman and Gohan explained how that, once the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds connected with the one emerald that was in Equestria, they made sure the dimensional connection was studied, analyzed and programmed into the Team JAG dimensional gate and portal systems. It was a both a failsafe in case the connection then was lost, and a desire to keep for future events. The ‘egg-ceptional’ Doctor told him the identity he gave the then unknown world of ponies – TCCE1123. Being the newest found dimension, it took the fox a while to find it.

“Here we go,” he said when it was found, and then accessed the data. “Now all I have to do is take the digital code for Equestria, program it into our home gates as a ‘preferred’ code, and it’ll automatically back up in all our electronic devices.”

As his fingers quickly typed along the keyboard to activate the process, he thought to himself about the Chaos Emeralds. “The fact that they naturally sent us to Equestria, it means that we can rely on them to travel between worlds, too, just like what Sonic did before. Even the Master Emerald has the code encrypted inside, so we have that backup, too. I think that, one of these times, I should ask to have all the emeralds and practice my powers with their energy more. If I do, then I can try learning to open portals myself and travel from my own will...”

Doing this would make him even busier than he’s already making himself, especially with his biggest intentions for the year. Nevertheless, he had the confidence to carry out as many goals as possible, just like always. He completed typing the sequence he needed for the computer program to work how he needed it, and the screen displayed a ‘Processing…’ bar, gradually increasing in completed percentage.

His eyes then noticed a book he had sitting next to his computer. It was the book given by Twilight before he and Cosmo came back. He brought it down to his workshop to see if any of its contents would be useful for his needs with the portal process, but not as much as he thought, so instead he picked it up and began to give it a read.

He opened to one page that had one of his love’s bookmarks there to save the page, a section of history that detailed events after Discord’s reign. “I’ll leave this page alone for now,” he murmured to himself. “I want to take a look at that one holiday Twilight said was like our Halloween…” He skimmed through the pages until he came across the subject. “Ah, here it is, Nightmare Night…”

Part of Tails's software work included adapting a translator program to read Equestrian script, which he managed to do a day prior, so he was able to read more than what he could before. He spent a little while reading about other world’s history as he waited for the computer process to finish. As he was reading, his ear twitched when he heard footsteps coming down the staircase. Then, he heard the loveliest voice speak to him-

“Tails, are you hungry? I brought a treat for you.”

Just a few seconds later, Cosmo entered the workshop with a couple plates of treats – slices of Pinkie’s cake, apples from Applejack, and a small pitcher of the cider from Rainbow Dash. He saw the treats, and his taste buds didn’t want to take a pass on this. “Thanks, Cosmo. That all looks great,” he said to her.

“Well it should,” she said. “I don’t think you’ve eaten a thing since breakfast.”

“Yeah, I’ve been keeping myself busy down here,” he admitted.

He closed the book and set it back next to the computer, and then wheeled over a nearby tool chest to use as a table. She sat the food down on top of it, and he poured cider out into a couple cups she brought with her. They both took a first bite of their cake slices together, and their mouths exploded with flavor. Whatever was done to make it, it blended so many flavors they couldn’t recognize all of them, and as scary as the thought was, it could give Cream and Amy’s baking a fierce challenge.

“Wow, this cake is very good. They know how to bake incredible cakes in Ponyville,” Cosmo stated.

“I know, and they gave us that whole cake to enjoy for ourselves. Just a slice would’ve been more than enough,” added Tails, and then he took another big bite of the dessert.

She could only chuckle at the sight, and continued to eat her cake in a more ‘behaved’ manner. Her eyes took a look at the computer screen, showing the current processing just moments away from being done.

“Is that the program for the dimensional gate?” she asked.

After noticing her looking at the screen, he replied “Yeah, it was pretty easy to set up. Thanks to Eggman having it preprogrammed with the Team JAG network, it saved me the hassle of going out to Angel Island and bother Knuckles and Rouge to study the Master Emerald’s energy for the data.”

“Indeed,” she said, and had another bite of cake. “It’ll be nice to know we can travel to and from the ponies’ world whenever we’d like. It’s such a wonderful place, and so many wonders we were told about but didn’t see. And the girls, they were just…”

Noticing her pause mid sentence, he looked at her sympathetically and said “They were incredible. I’ve never met friends like them since, well, all of us here.”

She nodded gently and added “I know we just came back a few days ago, but I already miss them.”

“Me too,” he said. “We owe them a lot, and I mean a lot, for that week. That show was just the start of it.”

“They treated their world as our own, and Twilight did so much to help us find a way back. In the end, she managed to do that,” she went on to say.

Tails finished off his cake and took a drink of cider before cleaning his space up and setting the apple on the workbench. He leaned back in his seat for a moment, his eyes looking at the Equestrian book again. “You know, I love all that they did for us, but being back home, it feels so much better, don’t you think?”

Looking at him, Cosmo replied with “Of course it does. We thought… well, I thought for a time we’d never get back to see everyone here. Our family, our friends, the band, all the worlds we know. Still, I do miss Equestria very much.”

“Because it felt so much like home,” the fox said, stating the common thought between the two. “It’s a brand new place with brand new faces and creatures, and it still felt like being here, but the difference is that’s their world they welcomed us into when we appeared out of nowhere.”

“And we haven’t done the same to them,” said the young Seedrian woman.

“Right. I mean, it feels so much better to find our way back here because it’s where we’re from. Now that our worlds are connected, we can share what we have with them,…” Tails said, but found himself cut off as Cosmo finished his thought with “…and we can hopefully bring them to Mobius one day.”

“Exactly, or… maybe even a week?”

Tails’s last suggestion caught Cosmo off guard as she was about to take the last bite of her cake, looking up at him with a smirk portraying an idea. “A week, like what we… but you mean that when the right time comes…”

She was interrupted when a vocal alert sounded from her love’s computer, indicating the completed process. “Dimensional Portal Synchronization for Dimension Code TCCE1123 Completed.” A window on the screen showed this and the completed processing bar, to which Tails saw this and hit a key to proceed the concluding steps.

The next vocal alert made said “Please enter password to edit Dimensional Profile.” He did just that, one longer and better encrypted than what he used years ago on the Blue Typhoon.

“Please enter new Dimensional ID. If you wish to make this a Preferred ID, re-enter password and then enter Preference Code.” That was the next command, and so the fox changed the current code into the new ID – Equestria – and then re-entered the password. Next, he entered a special code only he and Cosmo know to work the Preference confirmation. After a click of a certain keyboard key, the computer gave the confirmation.

“New Dimension ‘Equestria: Preferred’ is Saved to all Team Sonic Network devices. Dimensional Gate ‘#001HOME’ Programming Completed. Synchronizing with all Team Sonic Network Gates…

“Synchronization Complete.”

“Well,” Tails said, turning his head to his beloved Cosmo, “that’s it. We’re officially connected with Equestria.”

“That’s wonderful! We really need to plan a surprise visit there soon,” Cosmo said, beaming with joy and excitement. “But what you were saying just before, do you think… that we can give them a week of our own to offer?”

The fox just kept smiling as he answered her with “We’ll see soon enough, but Gohan and I were considering a different offer yesterday that he’s had Jason talking to the band about now.” He then grabbed his apple, a Red Delicious, and took a big bite out of its juicy and delicious body. “As for now, we should at least try to plan something little.”

“I agree, and perhaps a small gift of our own with all the things they gave us before we came back. Perhaps Mother and the girls could help with suggestions,” Cosmo said, and then looked at the book on the workbench. She opened it up to the page she had saved, a section about the Royal Sisters and their alicorn magic.

“Tails, I’ve been reading about the magic ponies like Twilight and all the Princesses have. That also made we think about how she used the Chaos Emerald to open that portal.”

“You mean her combined magic connecting with the Master Emerald?” he asked.

“Yes,” she told him, “but a part of my reading here said how alicorn magic is nearly boundless, able to perform any spell imaginable compared to unicorns. Do you think that it’s possible for Twilight to open another portal with an emerald, with a certain spell?”

This made the fox think of all the research spent in the library and how the creation of magic seemed to work for ponies. “Well, it is possible. It just requires the right focus and power to do it, and judging by how she used her magic and from what we’ve learned from them all, perhaps we could find a way to instruct her on how…”

He was technically done speaking, but he noticed something slip out of the book, catching it as it almost hit the ground. It was one of the pictures they were given with the book. He held it up in a manner so that both he and Cosmo could look at it, which gave her another idea.

“Tails, do you think you can take a longer break from your work?” she asked.

“Of course, Cosmo, but why? Did you think of something?” he asked in return.

“I want to do one of our small gift ideas for everypony,” Cosmo replied. “I want to send a note back to their world, but first, we need to go upstairs and change into our newest clothes. Then, I want to see if the Master Four, perhaps Atem would be best, to help create something special we can send Twilight, too.”

/)∞(\

Life in Ponyville always shimmers and shines, everypony looking towards their days to be fine. The small-town Equestrians were at her normal daily routines with the occasional situation that would come up, but one thing that carried on through were the memories shared of meeting the new fox and flower friends they had made. Nopony would have starting to think and talk about them more than the six closest friends in Ponyville, who were all wondering the same thought-

“I wonder when we’ll get the next chance to see them again.”

In recent times, each of the Mane 6, the title given by Tails and Cosmo’s friends during the concert that stuck to their group identity, handled their usual, and occasionally unusual, responsibilities. Applejack was busy with her family, just recently returning from a road trip regarding a genealogical mystery, who were arguing about how to take care of certain chores around the farm. Its result involved the youngest Apple breaking through the barn door, and colliding and breaking an apple storage bin, sending hundreds of apples across the front field.

Pinkie Pie, the pony of a million ways to make a pony smile, trotted around town with a baby carriage in front of her. She was showing her responsible side by taking the Cake twins on a stroll around town, teaching them when, and when not, they could tap into their natural talents in public. At the same time, she did it through a song so catchy, townsponies got caught into the fun themselves.

Feeling overworked on some orders for Canterlot customers who heard of her Manehattan Fashion Week victory, Rarity decided to spend some time at the spa, bring her less than willful sister as company. Some stress she had to have lifted was kindly but sternly telling Sweetie Belle about how the Cutie Mark Crusaders was good at heart, but at the same time wrong to do. The little white filly admitted her shame and explained her side in hope for more clarity, although the older ponies already knew the story. Afterwards, Rarity decided to share what she and her friends did with their Mobius visitors while the Crusaders had a guest of their own.

An ill bat was in the caring attention of Fluttershy after eating a bad breakfast at the mare’s cottage. It was in no condition to fly or move so much, so she gave her patient some medicine and food, and a little basket made into a bed in her bedroom to rest in. After watching it fall asleep after a big yawn, she grinned happily and left her room to finish another task – filling out and mailing an observation request form to the Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures.

But flying in the skies above were Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, both returning from a trip to Cloudsdale. The subject of Snowstar was a matter the Princess and her friends immediately took care of after Tails and Cosmo returned home, and she wanted to personally discuss what the fragile blind filly and the Cutie Mark Crusaders had told her with those in Snowstar’s life. There were moments when Twilight’s new role were an issue, but she kept her focus on the matter at hand with the help of her cyan friend, who was there to have more straight-forward discussions with her hometown’s citizens.

In the end, as hard as it was at the beginning, Snowstar remained with her family, who were more than happy and relieved to find the little filly was alright. With the purple alicorn’s promise that the solution they negotiated about would be asked for personal approval by Princess Celestia, and promising Snowstar a visit from the Crusaders in the near future, she and Rainbow returned home to tend to their own responsibilities. As they flew through the skies of Equestria, they discussed what had just happened, and to the cyan pegasus’s interest, her royal best friend’s flying.

“No, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash argued, “I think it’s important. You’ve kept trying to avoid flying, and yet here you are, flying without a hitch. Well, other than that little turbulence we hit just after leaving, but you’re flying great.”

“Rainbow, flying isn’t as big a deal to me as it is to you,” Twilight replied. “I mean, I’ll eventually fly on occasion for pleasure, and always for something important, but it’s still new to me.”

“But here’s a good tip- the more you’re in the air, the better you get. The better you get, the more fun you’ll have. Trust me, getting in the air more often will do more than you think,” Rainbow said back.

“Fine. I’ll consider it,” the purple mare said. She wanted a new topic to discussed, so she decided to talk again about Snowstar. “I just hope my suggestion for Snowstar will have Princess Celestia’s approval.”

Without much of a thought at first, Rainbow replied “I’m sure she will. You heard what her parents said, Twilight. I can’t believe I call myself a Cloudsdalean with pegasi that act so mean to a kid. Running away wasn’t the best idea for Snowstar to do alone, but getting away from all that hate will be better, even if it is only temporary.”

The Princess sighed to herself. Her suggestion to have Snowstar’s family relocate to Ponyville for a while and provide a place to stay and employment for her parents was a good idea, but it was still only temporary. “At least if this works out, she’ll be able to be with the girls for a while. I hated to see that sad goodbye when we left earlier.”

“Yeah, me too,” the pegasus said. Remembering how Scootaloo was acting choked her up a little, just enough to swallow down and keep to herself. “I wonder if that was how Tails felt. You know, before their friends showed up, and…”

The conversation led into the visions the Mane 6 saw of Cosmo’s demise and Tails’s broken heart that one unforgettable day. The two flew quietly for a few awkward seconds before Rainbow spoke again.

“Sorry. Bad topic,” she apologized.

“No, it’s ok,” Twilight told her friend. “I thought that a little, too.”

“I wonder how the two are doing back home. They must be having a blast with all their friends again,” Rainbow stated.

Enjoying the idea of a more positive topic, the purple pony said “No need to imagine that. I learned a lot about Mobius when I was helping them find a way back. It must be an incredible world to see, not to mention just amazing to live at.”

She then thought of the two friends that she and her best friends came to know during that week. It felt like it was an eternity ago, when it reality it had only been less than a week. Their times did have some ‘bumps’ once or twice, but overall the ponies shared with the couple their home as they would with anypony else, or with just about any visitor. The two flying ponies began to come close to Ponyville before she spoke again.

“I wonder if there was some kind of destiny that would bring two different worlds that shared similar virtues together like what Chaos Control did for them, what it brought to us,” she pondered.

“Can’t say I’d know that kind of stuff. That’s more up Princess Celestia’s alley,” the cyan pegasus replied. “I’m just wondering, though- do you think we’ll see them again sometime soon, or at least know how they’re doing?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight answered, “but I’m sure that they’re just fine. And hopefully someday soon, we’ll have a new adventure with them.”

The two flyers then descended down into Ponyville, landing in front of the Princess’s home with a small stretch to relax. Although they enjoyed getting back sooner than they expected, Rainbow’s lack of slowing down drove her to keep going with her day. “Thanks for helping Snowstar out so much, Twilight. I’d like to hang out more, but I need to go get my relay team to practice. The tryouts are coming up and we need to get back to training. I think I’ll stop by and check on Scoots, too.”

“It’s fine. I have some research I should catch up on anyway,” Twilight said. “Want to try to get everypony together later? We can tell them what happened and what to tell the girls.”

“Sure. We’ll figure out when we can all meet up with you here,” agreed Rainbow Dash. She then flapped her wings to get back in the air, say goodbye to her friend with “See ya later, Twi,” and then dashed off.

Twilight stood outside of her library for a couple seconds as she watched her friend take off, thinking to herself “Maybe someday I’ll get as good at flying as…” She then laughed a little at the thought of becoming Equestria’s greatest flyer’s equal. “I don’t think any alicorn abilities can make that happen.”

Then, she saw a light emitting from behind her, turning her head around to see its source. Whatever it was, it came from inside the library, lighting up every window inside the tree. The light lasted no more than a few seconds before fading away, followed by the sound of a very surprised dragon.

“Whoa!”

/)∞(\

The alicorn Princess swung open the library door as fast he her magic could, possibly ripping it off its hinges if it wasn’t for focus. When she got inside, she looked around to find, to her surprise, nothing out of the ordinary, nor her faithful assistant. She called for him to find where he was. “Spike?! Spike!?”

“Up here!” he called out.

She raced up the staircase to the second story of her home. Reaching the top, she found Spike right there by the staircase, with a small pile of books to his right as he was trying to put them away. He was staring towards the other side of the room, a shocked look on his face that resembled a Nightmare Night prank a certain pegasus pony pulled on him.

“Spike, what happened in here? What was that light?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Spike replied. “One minute I was cleaning up all the books you spent last week researching through, and the next thing I know, a little light came out of nowhere and lit up the whole treehouse!” He then lifted his claw to point out and say “And when it faded, that showed up.”

Twilight looked in the direction he pointed towards, finding an envelope lying on the ground. The top flap was pointed down, and was shown sealed with a sticker of a red rose. She stepped up to it for a closer look, not treading caution but keeping a cautious mind. After all, nopony knows what could happen anytime, anywhere in Equestria.

Using her magic, she picked up the envelope and inspected it, starting with the back. Turning it over to the front, she found writing. Across the center read ‘Princess Twilight Sparkle’ in an elegant script. When she noticed the address of origin, she got her answer, and gasped happily as a result.

“What it is, Twilight?” the little dragon asked.

“It’s a letter from where they’re from. I can’t believe it,” she replied excitedly, and she used her magic to open the item, pulling out a folded piece of paper with writing on it.

Spike walked up to see what she was talking about, stepping up to where she let the envelope hover and read it himself. The address of origin simply read ‘From: The Prower Home: Mobius’ and nothing else. This put a smile on his face as well.

The purple pony open the tri-folded paper to find it covered in a handwritten message, and to the bottom right were other items held on by a yellowish gold paperclip. Her curiosity about that was set aside to read the letter first, yet the corner of her eye saw the corner of a picture. She read every word in silence, aggravating Spike for not being able to hear or read what it said at the same time.

/)∞(\

Dear Twilight,

We hope that you and everypony are doing well, even though it’s only been a short time since we’ve seen each other. This letter is our way to just let you know how happy we are to be back home, and sharing that amongst so many others. Also, we wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done again.

You and your friends helped us so much as we were trapped in an unknown place for so long. We couldn’t have been happier to change the description of being ‘trapped’ to being ‘blessed’ after meaning you all. The way you treated us is not something other worlds have done right from the start. Thank you for caring so much with your hearts.

Also, we’d like to thank you for the gifts you gave us to enjoy here at home. The apples and cider were great, and after sharing some with our friends, they agree too! A few flower seeds have been planted and we await to see how they grow, and the cake is so delicious it may not last the week between the two of us.

The other wonderful gifts you gave us also brings up good news. Our home and several different places on Mobius are prepared to open connections between our worlds at any time we’d choose. This letter is our first test, although we were more than confident in it after how your use of the Chaos Emerald helped connect them before. That, and knowing how Tails can be when he works on such projects himself, we know you got this immediately. Your book and Rarity’s gifts of apparel inspired us to add a little something to this message. One is a picture of us we’d like you to share with everyone, and the other is especially for you.

Enclosed is research done by Tails with the book you gave us and all the magical knowledge we have to our disposal. With that, and from all we’ve come to learn about how you can use magic, we may have found new magic for you to exercise that could result with you being able to open dimensional portals to us as we have to you. We cannot lie, it may not be easy, but you may enjoy the challenge. After all, there’s no pony we have all the faith of both Mobius and Equestria in than you, with help from your friends as well.

Consider this letter the first of many times we’ll be able to communicate together in the future. For us, we consider this another of many more ‘thank you’ gifts to come. Since coming home, we’ve told about our time in Equestria to many friends of our world and others, and it gets better every time we tell it, because we are reminded of a great new world with even greater new friends. Thank you Twilight – and Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie – for everything you’ve done, and being who you all are.

We wish you all the best in mastering this new magic we give you, and everypony else in their upcoming endeavors. Most of all, we can’t wait to see you all again soon, be it your world or ours. Thank you all again for everything!

Your friends,

Tails and Cosmo

/)∞(\

Twilight’s eyes gleamed with happiness, fighting off the desire to cry a couple small tears from the kind words, and judging by the script, written and worded by Cosmo. She then turned her attention to the two enclosed gifts. The first one was a folded piece of note paper, most likely containing the spell, but she looked at the second item first – the picture.

The picture was the couple standing in what appeared to be the inside of their home, perhaps the living room as there was a fireplace in the background. They were posed as if it was a professional, formal photo shoot. The fox stood to the right smiling with his left arm down and right arm noticed reaching around Cosmo’s back, and the flower stood opposite of him with her arms resting downward in front of her and having her own smiling expression as well. What made this picture particular special were the outfits they were wearing, the ones Rarity made for them.

Tails wore a suit specially tailored to his exact fit. The pants and coat matched with a shade of black just slightly lighter than typical black. Under the coat was a button-up shirt the same red as Cosmo’s rose buds, and seven buttons that were all different colors, but one matched the same purple as a certain emerald. Under the collar was a bowtie that was a light gray color that Twilight recognized from a certain vision. Lastly was his last-second-given wristband on his left wrist, having a gold base color and images too small to perfectly identify, but with an educated guess, it looked like several emeralds with a small image of the Mane 6’s cutie marks in the centers.

Cosmo stood wearing a beautiful gown, one that with just a little additional designing could be called a wedding dress. The design was inspired by her original outfit, but it was layer after layer of fabric shaped like flower petals, each layer colored differently and with green tips. It also showed having half-cut sleeves that had a similar layered petal appearance, but there was no fabric to cover the shoulders. Connected at the upper chest and rounding her neck was a strap decoratively studded with floral prints. The upper part of the gown held her Seedrian Spirit Stone on fabric that was decorated with leaved vines on top of silver silk. Lastly, what connected the two outfits by more than inspiration, was a wristband that she wore on her wrist, but this one looked to have several floral prints with emblems that depicted Mobian and Seedrian history.

The first thing to come out of Twilight’s mouth was “Wow, they look amazing. Rarity’s going to love seeing this.”

“See what, those two outfits she made?” Spike asked, unable to look directly at the picture himself. “Come on, Twilight, let me see.”

“Oh. I’m sorry Spike,” she replied, trying to add a chuckle to lighten things up. She used her magic to levitate the picture to him.

“Whoa,” he said as he took a look. “Rarity really does how to dress anyone. Then again, she is really talented and creative… and smart… and beautiful… and giving…” He began to become lost in his own little world, a world that revolved around his feelings for that particular mare.

Twilight did nothing but roll her eyes at his actions. Then, she gave him the letter to have a read of it himself, now focusing her attention on the second item from the letter.

She used her magic to open the note paper, unfolding it from its quarter-fold form. At a first glance of it, she saw it in Equestrian script in slight surprise. Her two former houseguests could only barely understand the pony’s script, but a small flashback in her memory recalled Tails mentioning something about a translator. Whatever that translator was, it must have worked to study what Equestrian script was to translate whatever Mobian script was.

“Hmmm… I see… That does make sense…”

The purple alicorn murmured to herself as she comprehended what was written. It was studied diligently, just like anything else she would set herself to study. Her murmuring and train of thought stopped after another voice sounded again.

“…from all we’ve come to learn about how you can use magic, we may have found new magic for you to exercise that could result with you…” The dragon began to read the letter aloud at that sentence’s paragraph, but stopped after putting pieces together. “Wow, an interdimensional spell you can do on your own. What do you think about that, Twilight?”

After a brief bit of silence, she answered with “I don’t know, Spike. It looks possible, but it’s still going to take some practice. Plus, this is coming from sources of different magic, so who knows if I can even pull it off.”

“Oh, come on. You’re the most magical pony in Ponyville… I take that back, the most in Equestria. They think you can do it, and I know you know you can do it, too,” Spike told her.

“Thanks Spike. It’s not that I don’t think I can do it. It’s just like with many other spells I’ve done before, this one’s going to be specially worked on. Plus this is magic that could change Equestria more than how they did.”

“How ‘they’ did?” asked the little dragon.

“Yes,” Twilight replied, “Tails and Cosmo. They found their way here, granted by accident, but they still found us. Now they’ve opened a door for us to find them, without relying on that Chaos magic they told us about.

“If I can pull this off, then we’ll create new connections with who knows how many other worlds. The places, the people, the atmospheres, the possibilities will be endless. I mean, who knows how many other worlds have creatures like Tails and Cosmo, or their friends from that band, or even entirely new creatures we could only imagine!”

“Sheesh, Twilight, take it easy,” Spike said. “We kind of already got that when their friends came by for the night, don’t you think?”

“Yes, but this is at such a bigger scale, and so much responsibility behind it, and…”

The dragon covered her mouth with his hand and said firmly “Twilight. Calm down.”

The mare let her racing mind settle down, and thus containing her excitement. “Thanks, Spike. I almost went a little too excited with that.”

“That’s why I’m here sister,” he said, and began to walk towards the stairs up to his bed, where a small bowl of jewels and a new comic book awaited him. “Where do you want these things?”

Seeing him wave the letter and picture in his claw, she said “Just set them on the desk please.” He did so, and then retreated upstairs.

Twilight then stepped over to the desk to set down the note paper with the other two items. On the same desk sat a pile of research notes revolving around a mysterious chest from the Tree of Harmony, the visions of Equestria’s past, and magic spells found in books from the Royal Sister’s old castle. She knew she had to return to that research and try to figure things out revolving around this new mystery, not to mention help make preparations for Snowstar’s family and their transition, but for another few minutes, she waited.

On her desk were a couple picture frames of more recent events. They showed two moments that really changed her life for the better. One was from her coronation into the land’s newest princess, surrounded by her best friends, her family, the Royal Sisters, and the day’s twilight behind them as they stood in the castle gardens. Another was a picture taken just before Tails and Cosmo returned home, with all the ponies, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and the couple’s homeworld friends together,

Neither world knew that those events would happen. For Tails and Cosmo, as they said, it was discovering a new world of new friends. For the purple alicorn princess, it was discovering two soul mates who, even when misplaced from their home, found her own to be safe and pleasant.

Twilight decided that, even with all the responsibilities she already has to take care of, a new one was added to the list. Her lessons in friendship made her think that a good friend is worth any effort, especially when give effort to you. She took a blank scroll and opened it up in the air in front of her, simultaneously dipping a writing quill in ink. Speaking aloud to herself, she began to write a returning letter to the newest friends of the ponies.

Dear Tails and Cosmo,

I hope that you both are doing as well as I know you are. This letter, like what yours was about, is to tell you that all is wonderful here in Ponyville. What this letter is, and will be, is the first response from all of us. I write this prior to the event when I create the magic to connect our worlds myself, send this to you, and eventually myself and my friends, to your home…

/)∞(\

Chapter 0: Visions of a Painful Past

Author's Notes:

FINALLY! At long last I was able to complete the flashback scene I've wanted to do for so long.

A word of warning before anyone goes ahead and read this final installment to the story: if you are unfamiliar with Sonic X and the last few episodes of the series, I must recommend watching that before reading this for better context. This combines both the original dub and the English dub of the series, along with elements of my original Taismo story on deviantART and put in a new writing style to work with the ponies watching the flashback, with all the characters in the flashback's words put in bold.

I will be updating this again with certain colored lines to help identify each different character in the flashback. The colors and who they identify will be listed as followed:

Yellow - Tails
Green - Cosmo
Blue - Sonic
Red - Knuckles
Pink(ie Pie) - Amy
Purple (Rarity) - Rouge
Grey - Dr. Eggman
Orange - Chris
Bright Yellow (Fluttershy) - Cream
Dark Grey - Dark Oak
Lime Green - Galvatron
Brown - Decoe
Light Grey - Bocoe
Violet - Bokkun

I hope you enjoy this very special conclusion to Taismo: Discovering Equestria...

Twilight had taken a large drink of Zecora’s memory potion. Its magic began to course through her body, mainly towards her brain, and any and all reserves of her magic. She used that magic to spread the effects of the potion to her friends so they all could share the same visions together. As the spell kicked in with full power, all of their eyes went bright while as Spike, who gave the ponies the idea to do this, and Tails and Cosmo watched in intrigue to what this spell was doing to the six friends. Even though they weren’t completely certain that this was going to go by smoothly – in fact, they didn’t expect their new pony friends to react too well in seeing their past – this form of ‘show, don’t tell’ would give them a glimpse of the Mobian couple’s past, even though it was going to start with the worst memories of all…

/)∞(\

The six ponies found their visions, and location, very different. No longer did they find themselves inside Twilight’s library, but instead some lighted room right by a giant window. What they saw on the other side of the glass left them crossed between amazed and stunned – outer space. Nopony has ever traveled beyond a world’s atmosphere before, with the exception of Nightmare Moon’s banished to the moon long ago.

They saw what looked like a heavily damaged runway, surrounded by destroyed trees. They caught glimpse of the countless glittering stars surrounding them, and a ring of what was first thought as stars but in reality were seven brightly glowing, and rapidly spinning, diamonds of sorts. No words escaped from their mouths at first, their minds trying to comprehend everything, but before they could even do that, two shining dots of bright gold flew from below and went after what was a giant mass floating in space before them.

Twilight, staring out at the sight for a minute, watched what happened before saying “What in Equestria is…”

Before she could finish her sentence, a bright light flashed from the mass, practically blinding the ponies. Most turned their heads back, which proved useful in more ways than one as their eyes made another discovery – they weren’t alone in the vision. Several different beings, most of which animal like and a familiar fox sitting in a chair, stood in a row as they watched on, cheering for whatever was going on outside in space.

“Who are all of them?”asked Rarity as she saw all the strange creatures. “And what is going on here?”

“I d-d-don’t know,” stuttered Fluttershy, feeling frightful and overwhelmed by everything, even though they’ve been only just minutes into viewing the vision. “Do we have to stay and find out?”

“I think this is the last day of that war,” Twilight pondered aloud, but felt assured that she was correct. “I mean look there,” she added, pointing her hoof to the one in the chair, “that’s Tails. And he’s…”

Her eyes, along with her friends, then wondered at all the strange equipment that filled the room. It felt like revisiting one of Spike’s comic books, like their adventure as the Power Ponies, and that feeling was the obvious – being in a very different world than their own. Before they could question it, however, the light from out in space faded, and voices began to speak out from unknown sources.

“Something’s wrong. The energy levels are starting to reverse.

“Hmmm… It seems like it’s imploding now.”

“Foolish hedgehogs! With the help of the planet egg, you have indeed prevented me from transforming the galaxy, but you can never win this battle. If the Metarex cannot rule this galaxy, then we will destroy it!”

“What the hay is going on here?!” yelled Rainbow Dash. “What kind of messed up memory did we get dragged into?!”

“The last day of that super scary war, silly,” Pinkie Pie answered, surprisingly upbeat given the answer she just gave. She then pointed her hoof around to point out “See, there’s Tails in that chair. I bet that’s his super ultimate important captain’s chair, and those guys around him must be his friends. I don’t know about that voice that came out of nowhere, but that super big talking ball in space must be the big baddy bad guy, and those two gold dots are there to…

“Hey, wait a minute, who are those guys?”

The six turned their attention back out the window, where they found four nearly unconscious beings scattered along what seemed to be a giant plant root. The distance between the two couldn’t hide the battle scars the four have looked to endured, most likely during a fight prior to the ponies’ vision starting. This left the six more and more confused about what was going on, and Rainbow Dash readdressed this.

“Alright, I’ll ask again,” said the cyan pegasus- “What the hay is going on here?!?!”

Her eyes locked onto a target, a red creature with two limbs covered on the ends with gloves with two spikes each. She looked at it dead in the eyes to say “You, start talking! What the heck is that thing out there, and who are all of you in the first place?!”

“Rainbow, enough!” Twilight bellowed. “Remember, we can’t interact with those we find in a vision, just watch and listen to. Technically we’re not actually here as a part of all this and nothing we can do will change that. We just have to watch and see what’s happening, and hopefully hear what anyone has to say.”

“But what exactly are we looking that?! From what I can tell, we’re standing in the middle of space and staring out at some monster the size of Luna’s moon!”

Applejack opened her mouth and was about to threaten the cyan pegasus of hogtying her yelling muzzle, but was cut off by the sounds of a conversation displayed from the projected memory. After a conclusion and brief example from one that definitely stood out amongst the rest, it was explained that the sphere before them was going to explode and destroy everything within the upcoming blast. The six mares couldn’t believe what they were hearing with all this destruction from this Dark Oak or “Meta-something-or-other” as Pinkie Pie put it.

At one point, the eyes of Twilight and Rainbow Dash shined bright again, and the two were zapped away from the room they were in before. The duo now found themselves standing outside, on a giant metal structure, floating in the center of space, and behind a large rabbit and a small blue animal that Fluttershy would have given anything to see. Standing before them all was Cosmo, who was staring out at the two gold specks holding back some kind of gravitational force from the giant black mass.

These sights confirmed two things for the duo of ponies. The first was that this was indeed a vision of the distant past, as both Tails and Cosmo looked several years younger as compared to the couple they had met in the last twenty-four or so hours. The second was that the world they hailed from was clearly of a different evolution as compared to Equestria, with many more bipedal beings that make up a variety of animals considered to be wildlife to pony kind, and such technology being displayed was far beyond anypony’s comprehension. The one fact was true when they first met the fox and flower, but the second kept proving itself more and more with each new sight.

Then, a new voice began to speak, and apparently it was from one of the two gold specks. Judging by his tone, it sounded as if he came up with the best option Tails, Cosmo and all the different creatures had to work with.

“Listen up, everybody. Our only hope of saving the galaxy is to throw all of the energy we’ve got at this gravity field in one shot. Use the Sonic Power Cannon, and launch me at it!”

“Uh, a Sonic what-now?” Applejack said, lost beyond belief.

“A cannon?! They going to use a cannon to shoot SOMEONE at that THING?!” Rarity exclaimed.

“It’s way too risky. We’ve never launched you from the power cannon before when you were Super Sonic. We have no idea what will happen to you.”

“Super Sonic?” everypony pondered.

“That gravity field is extremely powerful, Sonic! If you smash into it, the force could be too much for your body to take!”

“You mean to tell us there’s a good chance Sonic won’t even survive the attack?!”

“We have to come up with another plan!”

“I don’t know if it will save the galaxy, but I have to try. And there’s no way anybody’s gonna talk me out of it, so save your breath. Now, are you gonna help me out or not?”

“Is… Is he being serious?” Fluttershy stuttered.

“I think so, Sugarcube. He sounds mighty determined,” Applejack said.

Outside, Rainbow stared out in the distance and said “Whoa… He doesn’t like to mess around. That’s pretty cool…”

“I’m routing all the energy in the network to the power cannon. We only have one chance to break through that field.”

“Prepare to transfer all power to the Blue Typhoon.”

“Cutting off the ship’s energy supply now and sending it to the Sonic Power Cannon.”

Before the ponies could ask what was going on next, the entire room they were in was nearly in complete darkness. All of the strange bright lights of all different colors disappeared, leaving only the small little bits of light and noises that would come from the strange desk Tails was sitting at.

“What in deep space nine is going on now?! Everything went dark- Oooooo, are we going to throw a surprise at somepony?!” Pinkie Pie yelled.

“Deep… Space… Ni- Oh forget it.” Rarity was about to question what Pinkie was saying, but immediately dismissed it in favor of answering the bubbly pink mare’s curiosity. “If I didn’t know better…”

Little did either pony know was that both Rarity and Twilight were saying nearly the exact same words in their respective locations.

“…Tails and all those creatures have some kind of energy reserved aboard these strange space vessels, and they’re putting all of it towards one source that will use it to their advantage. This ‘power cannon’ sounds as if it has the force to break through nearly any form of opposition and they plan to use that kind of weaponry to win this battle. And seeing how we most likely missed most of this battle, there’s no other choice they have but this plan.”

Little did Twilight know just how wrong her last statement was. During her talking, the two ponies there didn’t hear what the rabbit girl had said, but they managed to hear Cosmo speak.

“I feel so helpless…”

Then, a light began to glow from Cosmo’s front side, and judging by the alicorn’s senses, a magical light. Both Twilight and Rainbow watched as she turned around to face her friend with a content and happy expression, and the glowing light coming from an oval-shaped stone she wore on her chest, similar to the one they saw on her when they first met.

“Is she alright?” Rainbow asked her friend.

“I understand now.

“There can be peace in the galaxy, and I have the power to make it happen, Cream.”

“What do you mean?”

Twilight, unknowing she was speaking aloud at the exact same time as Cream, asked the same thing. “What does she mean?”

Cosmo began to float up, going higher and higher until she was even beyond the tall purple craft behind them. When she was too far out of sight, Cream began to race back into the vessel, all while starting to cry as her eyes flowed with tears, and Twilight and Rainbow began to run behind her. The two may have missed it, but the other four ponies with Tails and his group watched Cosmo transform into a young adult as her body grew into that of a woman, the rosebud’s on her head both come out in complete bloom, her emerald green colors turning a much brighter shade. It was all courtesy of the magic released from the now shattered chest stone.

“No, come back!”

As Cosmo began making her way towards the giant black mass, Cream and the two ponies had returned to the room with everyone else. All of them wore curious and confused looks on their faces, unaware of what the Seedrian was currently doing at that moment.

“What’s wrong?”

“Where did you two go off to?” Rarity asked.

“We were sent outside where Cosmo was,” Rainbow explained.

Twilight followed with “We were watching them watch what has going on from outside in space. We were there until-“

“Cosmo’s out there to help stop Dark Oak!”

Fluttershy gasped, unable to believe what she heard. “She’s doing w-what?! She’s out there to fight… that thing?!” Her second exclamation was accompanied by her pointed a most fearful hoof towards the giant black sphere and its surrounding gravity field.

“She is! She’s off to fight the big bad boss in the final big bad boss battle!” Pinkie yelled, nervouscitedly as some ponies could describe. “Oooh, I wonder what her big secret move is…”

“We’re about to find out,” Twilight said. “Look, everypony…”

And that’s when they saw it. Cosmo flew through the gravity field as if it was like air and was getting closer and closer to the sphere. The closer she got, the brighter an immense white glow came from the object shined, up to the point when the entire region of space before the group was blocked by an expanding white light. None could see what exactly was happening, but as the light began to fade, everyone started to see the results of Cosmo’s actions.

A gigantic tree appeared on top of the giant black sphere that was Tails and his friends’ enemy. Its roots stemmed down and around the sphere, as if containing everything that was being emitted inside the existing source. Everyone watching this phenomenon were blown away so much of this nearly unbelievable feat that they were bug-eyed and jaw-dropped, including the six ponies, but saving the two bodies that were the gold specks out in space. The light finally faded away to reveal the tree in full stature, and a single cherry blossom leaf that floated freely in the emptiness of space.

“C-Cosmo?” Tails said.

“Holy Luna! That tree’s huge,” Applejack yelled.

“Hu-wha-didshe-howdi-whereda… WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash added.

“Was that…” Twilight verbally pondered, “did Cosmo just complete… some kind of metamorphosis?”

None of them could believe that this was their Seedrian friend, that the tree was in fact Cosmo. Their belief was restored when she began calling out to them.

“It’s all right. I have Dark Oak immobilized. Now you’ll be able to destroy the Metarex and save the galaxy. Don’t worry about me. Just fire the Power Cannon now.”

All six ponies eyes widened at what she just asked to be done, with Pinkie trying to put it in other words. “Did she just ask to be shot at by-“

“But if we fire the cannon, what will happen to-“

“She’s going to die?!” Rainbow yelled.

“N-no. We c-c-can’t be seeing this right,” Fluttershy stammered.

“Dr. Eggman?”

“We can’t do anything. If we try to separate them, the compressed energy will explode.”

“Did that strange man just say she’s stuck there?” asked Rarity.

Everypony began to start feeling panicked, with Twilight expressing her saddening emotions first. “Cosmo… she’s playing the role of martyr. She’s going to let herself-“ The red creature, from what she believed to be an echidna, cut her off as he started yelling.

“I don’t want it to end like this. This isn’t right! There must be another way!”

“We have to do something! We can’t let Cosmo sacrifice herself!

“She’s going to die! TAILS!”

Both Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy screamed “NO!” in unison. Other ponies began to react worse and worse as they saw the flashback displayed before them progress.

“Would you stop screaming?! We’re all as sad and revolted as you are!”

..........

“Everyone, can you leave me alone?”

“It bothers me to ask, but I really insist.”

The next thing the six friends saw was a single tear fall onto the desk following Tails’s request. The way he said those words nearly shattered them, hearing him sound nearly void of emotion and soul, staring blankly down at what was his control panel. They neglected to watch everyone that filled the room make their way out of the room and towards a different location to watch what the next events would be. For the time being, their eyes were caught between two locations: the tree outside that was Cosmo, and the visual of Tails in despair as a press of a button transformed his desk into some sort of marksman post.

“If she says not to worry, I have to trust her.”

All there was for a couple minutes following his last statement was silence, the white noise of a beeping sound coming from somewhere in the room. The fox’s eyes remained nearly pin-pricked as he stared down, as if looking through his desk and at the floor under them all. His right hand remained clenched on a some sort of handle, and it had a cap that revealed a red button when opened. It didn’t take an expert to guess that the button was the trigger for this power cannon the ponies have heard about, another visual of disbelief for them.

“Tails, it’s time. There’s no time to lose, and we must act immediately. Prepare to fire the cannon at my command.”

“Lock cannon into place and take aim.”

“Sending all remaining energy.”

The only voice from the flashback heard was the same person that was referred to as Dr. Eggman earlier, making the commands and setting things for the imminent final attack. As he did, a giant cannon emerged from the lower bow of the giant spacecraft, and a streak of gold flew inside. The six just watched the preparations take place, unable to speak a word, but a couple did sound a whimper or two.

“Is this really real? Will Tails actually do it?” Pinkie Pie asked to nopony in particular.

“Get ready, Sonic!”

A few seconds followed before the second gold speck shot its way into the same cannon as the first. The cannon was now loaded with not one but two powerful forces to act as cannonballs, and a golden glow emitted as it prepared to launch. The time just kept getting closer and closer, and the six didn’t know how to take it anymore. Each one began to start showing signs of breaking with clenched teeth, teary eyes, their bodies wanting to gallop between the cannon and moon-sized bomb in hopes to prevent history from happening. Unfortunately, they were reminded of the truth: this was history, history that already existed and cannot be changed, and all they could do was spectate.

Twilight turned her head from Cosmo over to Tails, her face showing depression and starting to cry as she tried to stammer out “Tails… Please… Don’t do it… You wouldn’t… You couldn’t…”

“Sonic Power Cannon…

“FIRE!”

Tails’s head shot up with a determined expression, the command snapping himself out of his trance.

“Roger!”

“No Tails! Don’t do it!” the six ponies screeched.

Tails put his eyes on the trigger that his thumb was set to press, but he didn’t. He showed great struggle as he tried to force himself to hit the button and fire the cannon. The command was made, and it was time to act on the last chance they had to defeat the Metarex and save the galaxy. He tried harder, and harder, and harder still, but the strain was too much to take. As hard as he could try, he let out his breaking heart.

“AAAAAAAAAHH!!!”

*SLAM*

The fox let out a painful scream, and then slammed his head on the desk, his eyes saddened and tears starting to run down his face. All he could tell himself to do was cry, to let out his breaking heart and soul, and to do anything but pull the trigger.

“Just as I thought, I can’t do it.

“No… I can’t hurt Cosmo… Wasn’t it a promise?

“When all this was over, you said you would come live with us!”

Each of the ponies didn’t know how much more they could take to see this heartache, but they all kept watching. Some put hooves over their mouths, others began to openly weep, and one Rainbow Dash began to sound a violently displeasing growl. They were speechless, and I just continued to listen to the words that were spoken.

“Tails, I know this is difficult, but the galaxy is in danger and time is running out. You must fire now.”

“But I can’t… What about Cosmo?”

“She knows what she’s doing. Cosmo is carrying out her destiny. She was meant to save the galaxy, and we have to help her.”

Tails picked his head up to speak to Cosmo, not wanting these to be their last words spoken to each other. He felt his heart break into smaller and smaller pieces, almost becoming inexistent, and the ponies saw him display that pain more and more.

“But… I don’t want to. You’re my friend, Cosmo. I’m sorry, I just can’t do it.”

“Trust me Tails, you have to fire. It’s the only way to save all of us.”

“I trust you… But you mean a lot to me. I… I don’t want to lose you, Cosmo!”

“You won’t, Tails. You’ll defeat the Metarex and spread the seeds of my clan across the galaxy.”

“This can’t be real! There isn’t any possible way such an atrocity actually happened!” Rarity said, finding words lose enough for a proper lady to try and explain.

“Tails?...” Fluttershy said, as if attempting to try and break through to the historic projection.

“I CAN’T DO IT!”

The ponies felt a small wave of relief as Tails used his thumb to close the cap on the trigger handle, but saw him strain more and more not to open it up again for use. They could see he didn’t want to: they could feel that he didn’t want to. Who in the name of the Royal Sisters would ever consider killing someone they care for more than anything, even for the benefit of all but the martyr?

“Tails… believe in me…

“Shoot at me.”

Silence settled once again, but with the new white noise of the charged up cannon outside. Tails continued to show his struggle, yet was unaware that the four beings that were down below on the same level as where the cannon emerged from had conducted a plan of their own. He just continued and continued to fight the reality of what was to happen for as long as he could, until he reached the point he couldn’t fight anymore. As heartbroken as he knew he was, he couldn’t fight the gravity of the situation anymore.

He started to surrender to what had to be done.

“I believe in you, Cosmo. Your friendship has meant a lot to me. I wish we could spend more time together, but I understand this is your only hope to save the galaxy and bring your clan back. I’m sure your seeds will find a place to grow and build a new home. Good luck, Cosmo, and good-“

“STOP!”

“WAIT!”

The lid for the trigger was already lifted and the button nearly pressed when a voice called out from oen of the four outside. Out of nowhere, another source of light shined down by the cannon, over above Cosmo and Dark Oak.

“Now what’s goin’ on? I feel more lost than a catfish in the desert,” said Applejack.

“I don’t know. That new-” Twilight found herself cut off as she saw two new figures fly right out of this light. “Hey, look! There’s more of them!”

“It’s those ghost kids; Danny and Danni Phantom.”

Rainbow’s eyebrow arched at hearing Eggman say that. “Uh, what exactly did he mean by that?”

There was no time to explain as the two immediately went into action, but what they were doing, or why they even came to the galaxy, was a mystery to them all. Both Phantoms each took a side of the tree and placed their hands on it. What happened next was the two turning from a black and white color scheme to a bright shade of blue, and somehow they got the tree to become the same color from the tallest leaf to the lowest point of the roots.

“NOW WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“What are they doing now?!” added Fluttershy.

“Incredible!”

“What is it, Doctor? Why are the Phantoms here?”

“The Master Four must have thought of this. They must have called the ghost heroes here to use their intangibility powers and apply them on Cosmo specifically. This will allow her to keep Dark Oak in place and be able to avoid the destruction from the blast!”

“You mean she won’t die from the attack?”

The discussion Eggman was having with his two assistants caught everyone and everypony’s attention, but more so the latter, and Tails’s full attention, at the sound of the previous question. The answer he was going to give would change the entire mood of the environment.

“No she won’t. She won’t fall with the Metarex.”

This new revelation broke through the ponies with a wave of optimism, but nothing compared to what they saw become of Tails as he heard this. The fear, the anger, the depression, all of those emotions he was expressing had been replaced with a happier face of hope and relief. They could see a special twinkle in his eye as he stared out at the enormous plant that was his best friend, a twinkle that the mares could easily conclude what exactly it meant.

“So this means Cosmo won’t go away forever?” Pinkie said, trying her best to avoid the word ‘die’ or any other related term.

“I believe so,” Rarity replied.

“That’s great!” Twilight yelled. “Now we can watch them destroy their enemy and-” All of a sudden, an uncomfortable thought surfaced in her mind.

As for Tails, he showed not to waste any more time. This new turn of events made everything right again, and he and everyone that fought the Metarex so long for were ready to get this battle done and over with.

“Get ready, everyone. Soon we’ll all be going home!

“Sonic Power Cannon…

“FIRE!”

With a determined and brighter face, he pushed the trigger and launched the power cannon, sending out a massive gold streak from its chambers before the giant cannon crumbled the moment after firing. The two hurled hedgehogs that made up the strike got closer and closer, even doing a dance of spiraling with one-another as they closer to the giant sphere and intangible friends. All the spectators watched in waiting of the battle’s big bang of an ending.

That moment, however, was replaced by another.

“What the…” all six ponies said together.

“What is that?” Tails and several said simultaneously.

Another flash of light – a strange, dark source of light and energy – appeared between the golden attack and black Metarex sphere. Out of it came a gigantic being with a white body and dark purple face, looking as if it was made entirely out of metal, and it swiped away the two super hedgehogs out of the way as if they were nothing. Turning around, the being charged his fist with some kind of energy and struck it into the sphere, managing to cause it to self-destruct and break Cosmo out of her adult tree form. The resulting flash of light blinded everyone just long enough to miss seeing one of the ghost heroes, Danny, being shot straight back to the vessel.

“What’s going on now?!” Twilight said, she and her friends all in complete shock. “What is that thing suppose- “ She turned her head to look over at Tails, but the two-tailed fox was nowhere to be seen. “Where did he go?”

All of a sudden, all six ponies’ eyes lit right up, a sign that they were about to be sent to a different place of memory. In an instant, all six were sent down to the surface of the ship where the cannon once stood, and found a crash-landed creature with a black suit and glowing white hair. They saw how he looked and could tell he was just barely conscious and very tired, most likely from using that technique on Cosmo.

“AAAHH!”

“HELP!”

The sound of two voices was heard screaming form the distance, and the ponies looked up to see where the source came from. The giant metal being had two beings clenched in his fist, and squeezing them tightly. One had a similar appearance to the ghost hero before them, but the other was too easy to recognize: it was Cosmo.

“That big guy’s got Cosmo!” Rainbow yelled.

Applejack added “What does he have anythin’ to do with this? And more importantly, who and what the hay is he?!”

“GALVATRON!”

The mares turned around to see four other beings like the ghost hero, but only in physical form and traits with their own unique appearances. “I think that those enraged gentlemen have answered your questions, Applejack,” Rarity stated.

The four beings, even looking very damaged and fatigue, charged at the metal being named Galvatron together, looking as if they were prepared to fight to their last breath. The giant looked at the upcoming attackers with a look of disgust and displeasure, and with barely any ease, swiped his open limb in front of them, releasing a wave of energy that sent them hurdling back to where the ponies were standing.

It was then that Twilight picked up the sounds of footsteps, and someone running up from behind. She turned her head around to see Tails racing out of the vessel and out into the open space with them on the platform. All the replenished hope and happiness that she and the others last saw him have was not diminished and replace with a look that showed the fear of death.

“NO!”

Tails’s scream was followed by the four crashes of his friends, who had already exhausted themselves during all the battling prior to this moment. One by one they hit the ship and landed face-first. They showed no signs of movement or breathing, but fortunately they survived the landing. The fox continued to run to the bow of the vessel, to the farthest point tip, and yelled out at the new foe.

“Let them go! NOW!”

Galvatron looked down at him with a scowl, never being one to take orders from those he found to be ‘inferior.’

“You pathetic creature, do you really think I will do that? I’m here to take away from you a soul that fills me with disgust, and now I have two in my hand that will make this twice as great!”

“Galvatron, I fought for and alongside you for quite some time, but now I see your true intentions. Like the Metarex, you only wish to destroy. You have no right to get involved here. Don’t you dare do it!”

“You dare defy me you fat excuse of a genius?

“It’s time I show you what happens when you mess with me and my plans to conquer all the dimensions!”

“Wha-what does he mean by that?” Fluttershy stuttered.

Her answer came as the giant foe charged his open mechanical claw with an abundant amount of dark energy, keeping his two captives held out in full view for everyone and himself to witness what he was going to do. All eyes stared out wide open at this sight, and then, they saw the sight that could never be forgotten.

“NOW DIE!!!”

Galvatron swung his fist onto his two captives, crushing and destroying them into obliteration as they screamed blood-hurdling sounds of pain and anguish. The several seconds that the event took felt to have went on much, much longer, with jaws dropped and gasps and cries heard from all different directions.

Twilight and the others just watched in absolute horror. Never in all their lives did they witness an act of murder, even if the purple alicorn princess did come close to death herself when still a unicorn over a year ago. It was sad to say for her that there was a small sense of nostalgia and familiarities with that event, and what they just witnessed was by far the worst possible outcome they could’ve guessed from this history. Each of the ponies began to feel their hearts break, and one by one began to let out their frustrations.

“NOOO!” Pinkie Pie cried.

“No way… no bucking way… he didn’t just…” stammered Rainbow Dash.

“I… I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” said the stunned Rarity.

“He just took Cosmo… and that other girl… and he…” added Applejack.

“AAAAAAHH!” All Fluttershy could do was scream, and then start to break down and cry.

“NO! This can’t be true!” Twilight yelled, herself starting to cry. She and her friends began to let out their upset emotions more and more, but just moments following did their attention turn back to who clearly was hurt the most.

“COSMO!!!!!”

Tails cried out at the top of his lungs, the remaining bits of his heart and soul shattered into what he could feel to be no longer existent. Little did him or the ponies could notice was the growing upset reactions from the others across the vessel, but compared to him it had no volume whatsoever. The ponies broke down as they saw their new friend breaking down more and more, and what made it all the worse was the noise in the background.

From where he floated in space, Galvatron took his now open and blood-stained claw and held it out in the open with the other. He started to laugh, as if he was the happiest being in existence at that time and moment, and he showed no regret as his laugh grew louder and hardier. There was the old saying of adding insult to injury, but that laughter went far beyond such harshness.

“That… that monster!” Twilight yelled.

“WHY?!”

The ponies’ attention returned to Tails as the fox broke down completely. He dropped down onto his knees, leaning down and hitting the metal ground with his hands, all the while having tears flow out of his eyes like two waterfalls.

“Why did this have to happen? It’s… it’s not fair. It’s just not fair! Now I’ll never see her again! She… she was my frie…

“No, she was more! She was more than that to me! I loved her…

“I LOVED HER!!!!!”

All six ponies couldn’t take his eyes off of watching him break down in despair, if they couldn’t open their own eyes as they cried as well. They neglected to notice how the others around them were reacting, including the now recovered super hedgehogs watching from farther back and floating above the entrance Tails rain out of. One of them, Sonic, noticed a small white speck being flown towards him, and managed to catch whatever it was. As he did, another’s voice was heard exclaimed with pure rage and disgust.

“GALVATRON!

“That is it! I have had it with your ways of domination! Compared to you, the Metarex are a close second that can be better called just mere thieves. From now on, if you want to see me, look for me on the battlefield as I will fight alongside Sonic and everyone else determined to stop you. Mark my words, you’ll regret everything you’ve done when we’re through with you, especially now that I will challenge you…”

“Dr. Eggman, Look at the screen.”

“A great energy source is coming from the Blue Typhoon.”

“What?... What is this?”

Little to everyone else’s knowledge, all of Tails and Cosmo’s friends still inside the ship returned to the first room the ponies entered, one of them concurring the energy readings. The readings acted more like spikes, though, as they tended to shoot up, then drop down, then shoot up higher, then drop back down again, and so on. It took the six a moment to realize that this new energy was coming from the four warriors behind them, each getting up in pure rage and their eyes shedding tears as well. As they each struggled to return to standing, they each had something to say through their fatigued voices, but the last of them seemed to have not only a voice change, but identity change as well.

“GALVATRON!”

“How dare you!”

“You’ll pay for this!”

“It’s time you take what you deserve…”

“GALVATRON! IT ENDS NOW!”

/)∞(\

They saw it all. The six ponies watched the climatic battle of the Metarex War carried out right in front of them, and every single action that took place. They saw how Tails and Danny ascended into these new powers called ‘Super Saiyans,’ the four warriors summoning gigantic and powerful monsters to aid them, and a fast spinning circle of mystical items help turn their friend and his allies into bright gold super beings to face off against Galvatron, and his newly summoned allies that included Dark Oak of the Metarex. Each event kept blowing them away, only not as much as watching Cosmo’s untimely death right in front of them, but the close second came when they watched their fox friend and the ghost hero fuse together into one super warrior called Tails Phantom.

Regardless of it being a flashback, a couple of the ponies cheered on their friend as others kept themselves contently quiet, mostly because of how unbelievable this sight was and the fact that this was all reality filled their minds. The fight went on for quite a while, the sounds of all of the heroes’ friends cheering them on from inside the vessel, all the way up to the final showdown as both sides unleashed all the power in their remaining arsenal in single shots. When it seemed both sides were evenly matched, Tails called out to all to cover their ears for their own safety, something that Fluttershy did almost instantaneously out of fear and for her own protection. Everyone and everypony else followed, and then the Ghostly Wail was unleashed and helped in what appeared to be the final end.

“They did it! They won!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“FINALLY! They took down at oversized overly-meany mcmeaniest mean monster in the history of meanness!” Pinkie Pie screeched.

“That was… that was…” Rarity found herself lost for words.

“That was…” Twilight was about to help her friend finish her sentence, but a certain sight changed her intended response to the complete opposite. “That wasn’t enough! He’s still there!” Everypony joined the alicorn in panic as they saw a broken down Galvatron floating out there in the starry space sky, still willing to fight.

“You think that would stop me, you fools? You cannot win…

“NOW DIE!”

Using what little energy the villain had left, he formed an energy sword and charged for them all.

“Oh crud! We need to snap out of this and now!” Applejack yelled in panic. “He’s comin’ right for us!”

“I don’t know if I can stop it,” Twilight said. “The spell would stop showing us these visions when all we needed to see would finish.”

Fluttershy said “Well I can’t take much more of this!”

“You might now have to, darling. Look!” Rarity pointed a hoof at Tails, who had taken on Galvatron’s challenge by charging himself right at him.

“NEVER!...

“CHAOS… WRATH!!!”

Tails went straight for the enemy’s head, striking the foe with an exploding force of energy. The resulting blast launched Galvatron to his summoned allies unconsciously, and Tails Phantom separating back to Tails and Danny as they flew back to the Blue Typhoon. Their allies saw that the battle was finally over, and decided to power themselves down from their current states, returning to what the ponies saw as their normal appearances once again and the creatures they summoned fading away.

No one could say a word as they wrapped their minds around the fact that it was over. After months of fighting, the battle was over, and the Metarex War was now in the past. Galvatron and his comrades escaped by the assistance of two other allies of theirs, but given everything that had transpired in the last few hours, the heroes let it go.

Twilight, Rainbow, and everypony else watched Tails just stare out into space, the very spot where the moon-sized sphere once was and now replaced by the glow from a source much greater from any star. He looked out that direction only briefly, as he heard and sensed a certain blue hedgehog walking up towards him. When he turned to face him, he showed the return of depressed eyes with tears lining the lower areas.

“Sonic?”

The hedgehog said nothing as he walked forward to the fox, both of his fists clenched. He used one of his hands to reach out and grab one of Tails’s wrists, and then used his other hand to place something in it. Sonic then spoke in a solemn and collected voice, trying to keep a strong front in his appearance, where in reality his heart was broken.

“Here Tails…

“I’m sorry.”

The six ponies walked up and surrounded their friend, looking at what Sonic had handed to him. It was a small white seed, most likely having come from Cosmo somehow. The seed was all that was left of her, all that was left of the very person who reached Mobius with a calling for Team Sonic to help save the galaxy and stop the Metarex from their evil plans of destruction and forestation. There was no denying it when they saw it happen, and there was no denying it now.

Cosmo was killed, and now was gone forever.

“No… No…

“NO!”

Tails collapsed, unable to keep in the pain anymore. He fell onto his hands and knees and started to cry, and he cried hard. That was all that could be heard and looked at, seeing him wailing out his despair and streams of tears flowed down his face and hit the metal ground drop by drop, soaking his muzzle’s fur in the process. All Sonic could do was stand there like a statue, his eyes shut and head barely bowed, ignoring everything else, including the meteor shower of planet eggs.

And like Tails, Twilight and everypony began to collapse in grief as well. This was the answer to what they had asked the couple in the library a while ago. This was the ending result of a battle that carried so much baggage to the couple that it was no wonder they didn’t want to tell the tale in full. This was, without question, the most depressing thing they have ever witnessed happen, and they still knew that this wasn’t the full story, yet the magnitude of the situation was still too sad to hold inside.

Each of the ponies let out their sadness and frustration in their own respective manners. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie just wailed out their sadness in their respective tones and pitches, Rarity putting on what others would call an overdramatic scene, Applejack trying to hide herself behind her hat, and then Rainbow Dash, who just growled and grunted in attempt to hold back not just her anger, but a flood of tears to shed as compared to the couple, very small ones she allowed to slip.

As for Twilight, she couldn’t help but feel how she did before. This entire event, and seeing Tails break down as he did, reminded her of herself back when Nightmare Moon had returned and conquered Equestria. She recalled feeling that broken, like an absolute favor towards someone who became much more than she ever intended. The difference between the two was that Tails and Cosmo’s past saw the fox walk away with nothing, where Twilight managed to walk out of her past event with the filly that once was Nightmare Moon.

“This is not fair. It’s not fair at all,” she thought to herself. “Tails tried so hard to protect her, but failed. Yet, Cosmo was willing to risk herself for everyone she cared for, and I have no doubt she loved Tails just as much, just as much as...

“Cosmo… Nyx… they’re so much alike. No wonder I sympathize with Tails so much… he doesn’t deserve this. Neither of us did. None of us did.”

The final moments the six ponies spent in that trip through history was coming together in a circle, crying together and letting free the sadness in their hearts. A bright light shined around them and engulfed them inside. The next thing they knew, they were back inside the Golden Oak Library, staring straight at Tails and Cosmo across the room, and shared their thoughts on what they saw.