> Through The Crack
>  by grimchi3f
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> These Ends are Only the Beginning
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 1: Hero Side - Chapter 1: These Ends are Only the Beginning



Opening Theme: Dreams of an Absolution (LB vs JS Remix) by Lee Brotherton Feat. Jun Senoue


The Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, Shining Armor, locked eyes with the love of his life, Princess Cadence. The whole of Equestria was in peril and everypony was watching, but at this moment, to them, they were alone. A current flowed through them as the royal couple touched horns. A violet aura had begun to surround them and they had started to float. The higher they floated, the more vibrant the aura became until it finally exploded outward in an explosion of pure love.

The blast expanded outwards at an exponential rate, pushing Chrysalis and her changelings out of Equestria into the neighboring mountains, successfully saving the entirety of Equestria from their tyranny. However, little did anypony know that the blast had entered a strange crack in the fabric of time and space and had brought in two foreign creatures who had just been through an equally frightening ordeal...

--------

"Enjoy your future," shouted Sonic, "it's going to be great!"

He watched as his younger self and the young fox next to him jumped through the portal back to the past. A few seconds later, the portal disappeared.

Sonic glanced at his sidekick, who was standing to his left, and said, "And so ends another adventure. Thanks for the help buddy."

Tails shook his head and smiled, "I didn't do anything, it was all you Sonic."

"No way," the hedgehog laughed, "Without your pep talk I wouldn't have been able to defeat ol' Baldy McNosehair back there. I owe you one buddy."

Tails blushed."Aw shucks..."

Sonic could now hear his birthday party starting up behind him again and he wanted to go and join it so that he could hang with his other friends; after all, he didn't get to see them much since he was always thwarting Eggman's evil schemes. Hopefully nothing bad would interrupt the party this time.

"C'mon Tails, let's get back to the party." Sonic started to turn around but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned back to Tails.

"Sonic," said Tails, who was pointing off into the distance, "what is that?"

Sonic looked to where Tails was pointing. Where the portal that the younger Sonic and Tails had used to go back to the past was a large crack that seemed to be floating in midair; a crack that seemed to tear at the fabric of the universe.

He let out a short whistle."That's a good question..." He thought for a moment, "But I'm sorry to say that I have no idea."

The two friends walked up to the crack and looked into it. Inside was what seemed to be a library. But something was off; it was too colorful and the shape of the library was unorthodox to say the least.

Suddenly a huge blast of purple energy rushed out of the crack and engulfed both Sonic and Tails. Both friends exchanged worried glances before being sucked into the crack. As soon as they entered it, the crack vanished. Where the hedgehog and fox had just been standing only moments before, 7 multi-colored emeralds were laying on the grass, glittering in the midday sun.
	
> The Heroes Meet
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 1: Hero's Side - Chapter 2: The Heroes Meet


The first thing to enter Sonic's consciousness was the fact that he was laying down on a hard surface. This was odd considering the fact he had just been in a park, standing in grass. Grass wasn't normally this hard.

The next thing to enter his consciousness were the memories of what had happened at the park. The crack, the library inside the crack, the purple energy, the fact that his best friend had been with him when all this had happened...

Sonic's eyes snapped open and he sat up. The blue hedgehog looked around and took in his surroundings. He was sitting in the middle of the floor of the library that he had seen in the crack. No other library that he had seen had a staircase jutting out of a wall, nor had he seen one that was made entirely from wood and had leaves near the roof. Of course, he hadn't seen many libraries but he knew this wasn't normal.

At the sound of light breathing behind him, Sonic quickly stood up and turned around. Directly behind where he had been siting was Tails, sleeping peacefully. Sonic smiled. The young fox looked so adorable like this. He hated to have to do this but he needed help to figure out exactly what had happened and he needed to figure it out right now.

Sonic brought his hands to his mouth and yelled, "WAKE UP TAILS!"

Tails jumped 10 feet into the air and landed on his face. He quickly sat up and rubbed his head. He glared at Sonic. "Ow! Why did you go and do that for Sonic?"

The hedgehog smiled apologetically. "Sorry but I needed to wake you up to help figure out where the heck we are."

Tails looked around. As he did so, the memories came flooding back. "We're in the library that we saw in the crack."

"You don't say, Mr. Obvious," Sonic said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, other than that, I'm not sure." Tails paused. "Here, let me use my scanner."

He pulled out his handy-dandy yellow scanner and switched on the power. After it was finished booting up, Tails walked around the room scanning everything in front of him.

"Wait a minute," said Sonic, scratching his head, "I thought that that was a translator."

Tails shook his head and continued scanning. "That's just one of its many functions. I built it as a multi-purpose device. In fact, this was what I used to communicate with you when you and your younger self were fighting Eggman in the Time Vortex."

"So... it's sort of like a universal remote?"

Tails chuckled. "Yeah, sort of."

There were a few moments of silence before the scanner dinged, signaling that it had finished scanning. Tails glanced at the results and his eyes widened in shock.

"It's blank!" Tails exclaimed. "Or, well, more accurately, it can't recognize the molecular structure of anything!"

"And that means what exactly?"

"It means," Tails started, shutting off the scanner and putting it away, "that we are far, far away from home. We might even be in a different universe!"

"A different universe? But how... " Sonic stopped himself when he heard a clopping noise on the other side of what was probably the entrance to the library. He and Tails moved to the center of the room and prepared themselves for what might possibly turn out to be a fight.

--------

It was around midnight and a bone-tired Twilight Sparkle was making her way home to prepare for the sleepover that she had agreed to host. After the events of the previous day, a sleepover might not be the best of ideas but she wanted to make her friends happy, even if they hadn't believed her when she had accused the fake Princess Cadence of being fake. After all, she didn't like to hold grudges.

The purple unicorn sighed. If only Spike wouldn't have agreed to stay in Canterlot and help Princess Celestia clean up after the wedding. He could've helped me prepare for this sleepover! she thought, Of course, I didn't need to agree to this sleepover in the first place...

After a few more minutes of walking, she had finally reached her home, the library. She used her unicorn magic to open the door but was stopped short by what she saw inside. There was a blue, spiky haired creature standing next to an orange, two-tailed... fox? Adding to the strangeness was the fact that both creatures were wearing gloves and shoes.

What in the world!? "Um, hello there!" Twilight said, wondering if they could understand her. "My name is Twilight Sparkle... who are you?"

Both creatures exchanged a glance before the blue one answered, "I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"A hedgehog!? But you don't look anything like a--," Twilight covered her mouth with her hooves and blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, that was extremely rude. What I meant to say was that you look nothing like any hedgehog I've ever seen before. Most hedgehogs aren't blue... or able to stand on two feet, or even wear shoes!"

The hedgehog rolled his eyes. "Well, you don't look like any horse--"

"Pony."

"-- pony I've ever seen before either, sister. Where I come from, ponies aren't purple."

"It's not exactly common around here either," Twilight laughed. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you Mister, uh... Sonic, is it?" She held up a hoof for him to shake.

"Yeah. Just Sonic though. It's nice to meet you too Twilight," Sonic said, taking her hoof and shaking it.

The unicorn turned her attention to the orange fox beside Sonic. "And you are?"

He grinned and said, "I'm Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails."

"You're a fox, right?" Twilight asked as Tails shook her hoof.

"Yep! But I'm special." He pointed to his two tails. "These babies allow me to fly! Do you wanna see me fly?"

Twilight smiled. The fox was obviously young and something about him reminded her of Spike. "Sure, why not?"

"Hold it buddy," Sonic said. He put his hand on Tails' shoulder, "We have more important things to worry about like where we are or how we got here."

"Well, I can help you with that first one at least," Twilight said as she turned on the lights and magicked in a table and 3 chairs. When she turned back to Sonic and Tails, she found that they were staring at her like she was some sort of alien. "What? Never seen a unicorn before?"

"A unicorn? But... but those don't exist!" Tails exclaimed, finally noticing her horn.

Now it was Twilight's turn to stare at them like they were aliens, which they might actually be. "What are you talking about? There are plenty of unicorns! Not as many as there are Earth ponies or even pegasi but --"

"Pegasi? As in the plural form of pegasus?" Tails asked.

"Yes, but--"

"Wow! Pegasi and unicorns!" He turned to Sonic. "We must be in a different universe!"

Sonic nodded. "Definitely."

Twilight was confused. Different universe? she thought.

"But... how did you bring that table and those chairs in here?" Tails questioned, turning back to Twilight.

"I used magic. All unicorns can use magic."

"Magic, eh?" said Sonic. He looked at Tails. "As you said dude, this must be a different universe."

"May I ask, what exactly do you mean by that?" Twilight asked, getting more confused by the minute.

Sonic glanced at the table. "We might want to take our seats, this may take a while."

Once all three of them had taken their seats, Sonic and Tails explained all about the world they came from. They talked about their friends, their level of technology, and how their world worked. They talked about the adventures they had and how they were the heroes of their world. Twilight was astounded. Their world sounded so weird, their technology so advanced. She was also surprised by how much they had been through and how Sonic was apparently the fastest thing alive. Rainbow Dash would have a few words to say about that.

When Sonic and Tails had finished, Twilight explained her world to them. She told them about the pony races; what each of them did and the differences between them. She explained the history of Equestria and how they were ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna who controlled the rising of the sun and moon respectively. The entire time she talked, Sonic held a serious expression while Tails held one of awe.

Twilight only had one question left. "So, you two, how did you get here?"

"Well, you see, we were standing in a park celebrating my birthday," Sonic began, "when Tails here saw this crack just floating in midair. We both went up to it and looked inside. What we saw was this library which, I might add, has a very odd design."

The unicorn smiled. "That's because it's inside a tree."

"Well that explains it," Tails said, "but who in their right mind would build a library inside a-- oh, nevermind. Continue Sonic."

"As soon as we see this library, this blast of purple energy comes out of the crack and sucks us in."

"Purple energy? Wait, hold on, I think I know what that was. Earlier today, my brother got married to Princess Cadence," Twilight explained, "First, though, we had to defeat Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army. In order to do that, my brother and Cadence touched horns and sent out a huge, purple blast of pure love that threw the changelings our of Equestria. That blast must have went through the crack and taken you guys back here." She paused. "But, the real question is, what created the crack?"

"I don't know. The next thing I knew after we were sucked in was that I was asleep... over there." Sonic pointed a little to the right of where the table was.

That rung a bell for Twilight. Asleep... over. Why does that ring a... oh no, I almost forgot; I'm hosting a sleepover!

At this moment, the entrance to the library swung open and five ponies walked in carrying sleeping bags on their backs.

-------

Sonic could not believe his eyes. Five extremely colorful ponies had just entered the library. Twilight had said that ponies came in many colors but this still caught him off-guard. There was an orange one, a yellow one, a pink one, a white one, and a cyan one with rainbow colored hair. Actually, that last one looked pretty cool.

The silence stretched on for a couple of seconds before the orange pony spoke up. "Um, Twi," she said, looking at Twilight, "Who in tarnation are these fellers?" She gestured toward Sonic and Tails.

Twilight cleared her throat. "Ahem! Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, meet Sonic and Tails; Sonic and Tails meet Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash."

Silence again. All of a sudden, the pink pony, Pinkie Pie, pounced onto Sonic and knocked him to the ground.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!" she said enthusiastically. "Your new here and you know what that me--" She was cut off when the rainbow maned pony, Rainbow Dash, yanked her off of Sonic by her tail.

"Sheesh Pinkie, let the guy breath," said the cyan pony, dropping Pinkie to the ground. She helped Sonic up. "Hi Sonic, I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria!"

This piqued Sonic's interest. "Fastest flyer in all of Equestria, eh? Well, I'm Sonic the Hedgehog; the fastest thing alive!"

At this remark, all of the ponies, except Twilight, began rolling on the floor and laughing.

The orange pony, Applejack, was the first to recover. "Now if that ain't the funniest thing ah heard all day!"

"Everypony knows that Dashie is the fastest thing alive!" said Pinkie in between fits of laughter.

"Oh, he's a gem Twilight! Where'd you find him?" the white pony, Rarity, giggled.

"That's just the thing. You see, they're--"

"But it's true!" Sonic interrupted. "I am the fastest thing alive!"

"Oh please," Rainbow Dash said, flying at eye level. "Have you ever even done a Sonic Rainboom before?"

"A sonic what-boom?" Sonic asked.

"A sonic rainboom silly!" Pinkie replied, hopping up and down. "It's what happens when a pegasus pony breaks the sound barrier. It creates a loud boom and super-duper-mega-beautiful rainbow!"

"That's pretty cool," Tails said, finally entering the conversation. "In our world only the boom happens. We call it a Sonic Boom."

"Uh, Mr. Sonic?" whispered the yellow pony, Fluttershy, in a soft voice. "You don't look like any hedgehog I've seen before."

"This was what I wanted to tell you guys!" exclaimed Twilight, stamping her hoof. "They aren't from anywhere near Equestria; they're from a different world."

"What exactly do ya mean by that sugahcube?" asked Applejack.

Twilight thought for a second on how to put it in a way to make her friends understand. "They come from an alternate universe. In their universe, the sun and moon rise on their own. The technology there is much more advanced and it's run by hairless monkeys who stand on two legs."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Well that's a very blunt way to put it."

Rarity's eyes widened. "That sounds absolutely dreadful!"

"It does not!" Applejack snorted.

"Now I see why Sonic is the fastest thing alive in his universe," Dash said, smirking. "His only competition are monkeys and monkeys aren't very fast."

"Okay, first off: they're called humans," growled Sonic who was starting to get annoyed. "Second: that is not the reason; not even close! I'm willing to bet that I'm much faster than you."

Rainbow Dash flew down into the blue hedgehog's face. "Oh really? How much would you bet?"

Twilight facehoofed. "C'mon you guys!"

"Yeah, Sonic," Tails began, "we have more important things to worry abo--" He stopped when Sonic put up a finger.

The hedgehog smiled and looked Dash in her eyes. "My title as the fastest thing alive."

Suddenly, faster than Sonic would've believed possible, Pinkie Pie was between them with her forelegs around their necks. Looking down at them she asked, "Do you know what this calls for?"

"What?" questioned Dash and Sonic simultaneously, even though they already knew the answer.

"A RACE!" shouted Pinkie as she whisked them out of the library.

Applejack shook her head. "Sometimes ah wonder about that pony," she said as she and the rest of the ponies, plus Tails, walked out into the crisp morning air.
> Sonic VS Rainbow Dash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 1: Hero's Side - Chapter 3: Sonic VS Rainbow Dash


Sonic stood next to Rainbow Dash in front of the town hall and surveyed the crowd that Pinkie Pie had brought together in a surprisingly short amount of time. There were so many ponies with colors ranging from fire red to mint green; it threw Sonic for a loop. While scanning the crowd, he spotted a gray pegasus pony who's eyes were crossed at an odd angle. No other pony had eyes like that. He pointed this out to Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, that's just Derpy Hooves," explained Dash. "She's the town's clumsy mailmare. I'm not entirely sure why her eyes are like that though." She frowned. "She never answers when I ask."

"So, let me get this straight," Sonic began, a slight smile stretching across his face, "there's a pony named 'Derpy' here?"

Dash looked confused. "Yeah, so what?"

Sonic chuckled. "In my universe, the word 'derpy' means--"

"Hello everypony! Welcome to Ponyville's first ever inter-universal race!" shouted Pinkie Pie's magnified voice from up in her hotair balloon, cutting Sonic off. "Our contestants are battling for the title of Fastest Thing Alive! First up, we have Rainbow Dash, the only pegasus in all of Equestria to successfully do a sonic rainboom! Our second contestant is Sonic the Hedgehog who is from another universe and is the current owner of the title of fastest thing alive.

"The race itself is pretty simple and consists of four legs. The first leg will take our speedy-speedsters to Fluttershy's woodland cabin while the second leg will take them to Sweet Apple Acres. The third leg will take them to Froggy Bottom Bog and the fourth and final leg will take our contestants to the library. First one to the library wins!" She looked down at them and smiled. "Are you guys ready?"

Sonic hoped he could recognize all the checkpoints. Pinkie and Dash had shown him pictures of the places just a few minutes prior but, even then, it had been fleeting glimpses. As it was, Sonic grinned his signature cocky grin and said, "Yep."

Rainbow Dash flexed her wings. "Oh yeah, ready to whip hedgehog boy's butt!"

Pinkie smiled exuberantly. "Alrighty then!" she exclaimed. "On your marks..."

Sonic glanced at the crowd one last time. Twilight and Tails were nowhere to be found. He wondered where they had run off to.

"Get set..."

Sonic got into a sprinter's position and whispered to Rainbow Dash, "See you at the finish line."

"Whatever you say blue boy," Dash whispered back.

"GO!"

And off they went.

-------

Rainbow Dash loved this feeling. The feeling she got when she let herself go completely. That feeling was what Dash lived for. There was no way Sonic could keep up with her, especially when she felt so alive. She looked to her right and almost dropped to the ground in surprise. The blue hedgehog was keeping up with her! How was that even-- whatever. He probably couldn't keep that pace for long, anyway.

Sonic saw that she was looking at him and flashed her a grin. He turned around... and started running backwards! At the same speed! Dash suddenly realized that he was playing with her, trying to get inside her head. Well, she wasn't going to let that happen; she had race to win! Once Sonic saw that the trick wasn't going to work, he began running regularly again.

They were almost at Fluttershy's cabin and Dash was surprised that Sonic had kept up with her this far. Once again, she looked to her right, but this time he was looking at her in surprise. Apparently, he hadn't expected her to keep up with him this long. As they went raced past the cabin towards Sweet Apple Acres, Dash smirked. You don't underestimate the Dash.

In order to get to Sweet Apple Acres, they were going to have to pass through a huge grove of apple trees. Lucky for Dash, she could fly over it. Dash let out a hearty laugh as she flew up above the apple trees, still flying at full speed towards the farm. There was no way the hedgehog could keep up with her and dodge the trees at the same time. She had this in the bag.

A few seconds later, she was passing the trees. She laughed again. There was no sign of the blue--

"You cheated!" yelled Sonic who was just breaking out of the trees at full speed.

Dash almost dropped to the ground in surprise again. "How did you-- oh, nevermind. Anyway, it wasn't cheating; you never said I couldn't fly over the obstacles!" How did he keep up with her through the trees!? This hedgehog was boggling her mind.

Despite the fact that he had yelled at her for flying over the trees, they were still racing and still neck and neck. Either he was way too forgiving or he thought he could win even with Dash's 'cheating'. She suspected the latter, and that, in her books, made Sonic about 20% cooler.

By passing Sweet Apple Acres, they started the third leg of the race. On the other side of the farm was another grove of apple trees and after that was the Everfree Forest, in which was Froggy Bottom Bog. Once again, Dash flew above the apple trees while Sonic ran through them. Once they reached the Everfree Forest, Dash vowed to fly down into the trees to give the hedgehog a fair chance. Upon reaching the forest, she did just that,barely missing a tree trunk in the process. Still flying at top speed, she scanned the forest for Sonic. When she finally found him off to her left, what she saw made her jaw drop. Instead of just dodging the trees by running past them, he was jumping from tree to tree, sliding under fallen trunks, and even spinning through the thick underbrush.

Dash shook her head. She could be impressed later, for now they had entered Froggy Bottom Bog.. She looked at the ground and smiled because, under her at this very moment, was her savior: water. There was no way he could keep up with her now, surely he'd be slowed down by the water. She glanced to her left and, for the third time that day, almost dropped to the ground in surprise. Sonic was running on top of the water! Dash could not begin to understand how that was possible.

She and Sonic turned in the direction of Ponyville and began the final leg of the race.

-------

Sonic was extremely surprised that Rainbow Dash had kept up with him so far. He had met fast people before (Shadow, Blaze, even Eggman on occasion) but the cyan pony was something else. She sort of reminded him of... well, himself actually. Despite Dash flying over the apple trees earlier, this was the most enjoyable race he'd ever had. It was especially satisfying because of all the surprised looks she'd been giving him. Priceless.

Shortly after they had left that extremely overgrown and incredibly spooky forest, Sonic began to notice a white barrier forming around Rainbow Dash. It was still faint but it was growing brighter with every passing second. The sight chilled Sonic to the core. He remembered what Dash and Pinkie had said about the sonic rainboom and he had a hunch that this was a sign that one of those was about to happen.

In the distance, Sonic could see the town coming up. He had to think of something fast. He finally decided to use a move he hadn't used in years but was extremely fast.

The white barrier around Rainbow Dash was reaching an almost blinding level of brightness. It was now or never. With a sigh, Sonic initiated the move. 

For the first time in years, Sonic was using the Super-Peelout.

-------

After leaving the forest behind and starting on the tree-lined path to Ponyville, Rainbow Dash finally decided to use the sonic rainboom. The hedgehog was going to get it now. Dash closed her eyes and let that wonderful feeling she loved so much spread throughout her entire body. Slowly but surely, a white barrier began forming around her. She saw Ponyville in the distance and smiled. This race was in the bag.

Suddenly, Dash heard a sigh to her left. She risked a glance and was astonished by what she was. Sonic's feet were moving so fast that they had formed a horizontal figure 8. Not only that but the white barrier that was currently forming around Dash, was also forming around Sonic at a much faster rate. Seeing this, Dash tried to increase her speed, but to no avail.

With a tremendous boom that could be heard from miles around, Sonic initiated a cobalt-blue sonic rainboom. The force of Sonic's boom and her own failed attempt sent the rainbow-maned pegasus careening into one of the trees lining the path to Ponyville. She was unconscious before she even hit the ground.

-------

Sonic was ecstatic. He had created his very own sonic rainboom! Granted, it was cobalt-blue, but even then... a sonic rainboom! The feeling he had gotten when he had first created the rainboom was like nothing Sonic had ever felt before. He felt so alive! He was sure that the grin of pure joy he wore right now would never leave his face.

Because of his sonic rainboom, Sonic's speed was now tripled. Due to this gigantic speed increase, Sonic reached the library in less than twenty seconds. He almost ran into it but was fortunate enough to stop himself before something catastrophic like that could happen. He turned around and looked at the crowd. They were all staring at him with stunned expressions, even Pinkie Pie up in her hotair balloon. It took her a few seconds to recover.

"Um, uh... our winner is the blue blur himself, Sonic!" shouted Pinkie, some of her usual enthusiasm seeping back into her voice.

Suddenly, the crowd exploded with cheers and stomping their hooves against the ground. The cheering was quickly interrupted by a female voice from behind Sonic. "Where's Rainbow Dash?"

The hedgehog turned to see Twilight and Tails walking out of the library.

"Yeah, where is Dashie?" asked Pinkie Pie who was jumping out of her just landed hotair balloon and was walking towards Sonic with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack in tow.

"U-um..." stuttered Sonic, looking back down the path that he had come into town on and seeing it barren of anything resembling a cyan pony. "Uh oh..."
> Coming Up With Answers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 1: Hero's Side - Chapter 4: Coming Up With Answers


Twilight surveyed the two racers and sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Aw, quit yer worryin' Twilight," whispered Applejack who was standing to her left. "This right here's just a good ol'-fashioned race."

"Yes darling, Applejack's right," said Rarity, who was standing to Twilight's right, in a voice much louder than a whisper. "You can be such a drama queen sometimes." At the look the purple unicorn gave her, she added with a sheepish smile, "Relatively speaking, of course."

"Hello everypony!" shouted Pinkie Pie from up in her hotair balloon. "Welcome to Ponyville's first ever inter-universal race!"

Ugh, I can't watch this! "I need to go home and, uh, do some studying," Twilight told her friends. She didn't give them a chance to reply as she immediately made her way back through the crowd towards the library.

Once she was inside the library, she saw Tails sitting in the center of the room tinkering with some yellow gadget. At the sound of the door, he looked up. "Oh, hello Twilight."

"What's that you're working on?" Twilight asked, pointing a hoof at the yellow device and closing the door.

"This," Tails replied, holding it up, "is a sort of multi-purpose gadget. It can be a scanner, a translator, a communicator, and it can even play Galaga!"

"That's pretty impressive," said Twilight. "Did you build that yourself?"

"Yep, I built it a few years ago, around the time when Eggman unleashed Dark Gaia and turned Sonic into a werewolf," explained Tails.

Twilight's eyes widened. "He was turned into a werewolf!?"

Tails nodded. "Oh yeah, but he doesn't change anymore; the dark energy that caused the transformation was sucked out of him."

"Well, that's a relief," Twilight said, "I didn't want to have to deal with any were-hogs."

Tails laughed. "Me neither. But anyway, this scanner won't work in this universe for some reason. It doesn't recognize the molecular structure of anything."

Twilight thought for a moment. "Hmmm... that must mean that objects in my universe must be different at the atomic level from objects in your universe, even if they're the same type of object."

"That's what I was thinking," Tails said, putting the scanner away. "But, as you said earlier, the real question is what created the crack that brought me and Sonic here and why?"

"Well, we are in a library so why not use it?" Twilight gestured towards the shelves of books. "There's got to be at least some clues in all of these books."

Tails shook his head. "I highly doubt it. If there had been travel between our worlds before then someone would've noticed and I think the book that that someone would've written would stand out."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Twilight conceded. "Other than that, I have no... wait a second, I do have an idea! Tails, what were you and Sonic doing before you went through the crack?"

"Well, we had just said goodbye to our younger selves," Tails answered.

"Younger selves? So, your previous adventure involved time travel?" the purple unicorn queried.

"Yes but--"

"Tell me all about it," Twilight said, sitting down next to Tails. "This may help us figure out what made that crack."

-------

"And then the crack appeared," finished Tails. "So, did you get any clues?"

Twilight thought over everything Tails had said. "What exactly did you say this Time Eater thing did?"

"It went through time and changed history. Every time it changed something, the more damage it did to the world," Tails explained. "But we fixed everything when we defeated both Eggmen... unless--"

"Unless there was something that wasn't fixed," Twilight said, finishing Tails' sentence. "Do you know what happened to the Eggmen?"

"No," Tails began, "but whatever happened to them must've been the thing that caused the crack!"

Twilight smiled. "Exactly."

Suddenly, a loud boom sounded from outside and both Twilight and Tails rushed to the nearest window. The crowd was gathering around the front of the library but off in the distance, in the direction of the Everfree Forest, they saw a large cobalt-blue wave of energy and a small blue dot racing away from it, heading towards the library at an incredible speed.

"That looks a lot like a sonic rainboom but it's just plain blue," Twilight observed. "That must mean--"

"Yeah Sonic, woohoo!" exclaimed Tails, jumping into the air.

Only a few seconds later, that blue dot had stopped in front of the library. As they had predicted, Sonic was indeed the one who had created a sonic rainboom and, unquestionably, was the winner.

Twilight turned toward the door. "Let's go congratulate him." That Sonic must really be fast if he beat Rainbow Dash., she thought.

"Yes ma'am!" said Tails who was following right behind her. Upon opening the door, they were greeted by Pinkie Pie's magnified voice. "Um, uh... our winner is the blue blur himself, Sonic!"

As the crowd began cheering, Twilight noticed something odd; there was no sign of Rainbow Dash. "Where's Rainbow Dash?" she asked. She heard Pinkie Pie ask the same thing off to her right.

Sonic turned around an looked at her. "Um..." He paused and turned back the way he came. "Uh oh..."

Applejack walked up and glared at him suspiciously. "What do ya mean 'uh oh'?"

A guilty look crossed his face and he gulped. "I'm not entirely sure but it's possible that my, um, sonic rainboom thing may have slammed her into a tree... or something."

By the time he had finished, the five ponies had galloped off to help their friend.

Sonic facepalmed and shook his head. "Why do all the races I participate in end badly?"

"I don't know," said Tails, leading Sonic back into the library. "Maybe you're just too fast."

-------

"Look Rainbow Dash, I'm really sorry," repeated Sonic for the hundredth time.

"It's alright dude, no harm done," replied Dash who's forehead was currently being wrapped in bandage by Fluttershy. At first she'd refused but the gash on her forehead had been bleeding pretty bad.

They were all back in Twilight's library; all six ponies and both Sonic and Tails. The ponies had all seemed pretty ticked off at Sonic for hurting Dash, but after Sonic and (surprisingly) Dash explained that it had been an accident, they had cooldd down. Now they all sat around the cyan pony, watching Fluttershy put the bandage on her. Sonic stood next to Dash and Tails stood close behind him.

"I mean it, I am sorry," repeated Sonic for the hundredth and first time.

Just then, Fluttershy backed away from Rainbow Dash and said, "There, done. That should stop the bleeding."

Dash stood up and stretched. "Thanks Fluttershy, I appreciate it."

Sonic started up again. "I'm very--"

Dash cut him off by sticking her hoof in his mouth. "Yes, I know. It. Is. Alright. See, look, no harm done." She pointed towards her bandage with the hoof she'd just stuck in his mouth. "So, please, just shut up!"

"Yes ma'am," Sonic said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Of course, it's still only around noon, why not go for a rematch?" Dash asked, a smile stretching across her face.

"Anytime," replied Sonic who was smiling right back at her.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie was in their faces. "A rematch!? That sounds terrific! Let's go gather the crowd back up and we can get this party start--"

"NO!" shouted everyone but Pinkie, Dash, and Sonic.

"Sonic," said Tails, putting a hand on the hedgehog's shoulder, "me and Twilight have something to tell you."

"Let me guess," Rarity began, looking from Twilight to Tails, "you two are getting together. Oh, Twilight dear, I really must insist that you rethink this. I mean, you only just met him today. He's not even a pony for goodness sake!"

Both Twilight and Tails were now blushing a furious red. "No no, nothing like that," the purple unicorn said. "It's just that we may have figured out what created the crack that brought Sonic and Tails here."

"Really?" asked Sonic, all thoughts of a rematch gone from his mind.

"Yep," answered Tails.

Applejack snorted. "Well why didn't ya say so earlier? Tell us what it is and stop messin' around."

"Okay," started Tails, "but first, me and Sonic need to explain to you guys what happened to us before we were sucked into the crack."

"We do?" asked Sonic, scratching his head.

Tails nodded. "We do."

"Oooo, this sounds like it's gonna be a great story!" said Pinkie Pie enthusiastically. "Does anypony have any popcorn?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Awwww..."

"Uh, anyway," continued Tails, "it all began when we were celebrating Sonic's birthday..."

-------

"Then we got sucked into the crack that brought us here," finished Tails for the second time that day. "Anyone catch any clues?"

Everyone, except Twilight, shook their heads.

"Buddy," Sonic said, frowning down at Tails, "I lived through that and I still don't see any clues."

"Remember how every time these Eggmen guys changed history, the further time and space deteriorated?" Twilight asked the blue hedgehog.

"Yeah, but I still don't see what that has to do with--"

"Oh, I know," piped up Fluttershy. "Oh, um, I'm sorry for interrupting."

Tails smiled. "No,no, keep going."

"Okay, well, it's obvious isn't it? I mean, it's got to be the aftereffects of that mean old Time Eater," Fluttershy said.

Twilight nodded. "It's that and also the fact that something happened to this Eggman guy. Whatever happened to him must still be upsetting the fabric of time and space."

"So wait, does this Eggman dude cause trouble like this often?" asked Dash.

"Oh yeah," Sonic chuckled. "It's like our job to thwart his schemes. Can you believe he tried to enslave and entire alien race just to power his machines?"

Fluttershy gasped. "Oh no, that sounds terrible!"

"I'm going to have to agree with Fluttershy," said Rarity. "This Eggman sounds absolutely dreadful."

"A Meanie-McMeaniepants," agreed Pinkie Pie.

"Dash shrugged. "But hey, at least we know how you guys got here now and what caused it."

Everyone but Applejack nodded.

"I hate to spoil yer guys' fun," started the orange pony, "but how are y'all gonna get back?"

Twilight sighed. "I thought about this and the answer isn't good." She looked at Sonic and Tails. "Unless another crack opens up back to your world, you guys are stuck here."

Their faces fell. "You can't be serious," Sonic said

Tails shook his head. "There's got to be another way back."

Twilight could hear the hurt in their voices and it broke her heart. "I'm sorry but that's the only--"

She was interrupted by crashing sounds from outside and what sounded like extremely heavy footsteps getting closer each time they sounded. Over this racket, an electronically magnified voice could be heard, "I'm coming to get you Sonic! You won't escape this time!"

"What in tarnation is that?" asked an annoyed Applejack.

Even through the electronic filters, Sonic recognized that voice. The voice he had learned to associate with evil, oppression, and, surprisingly, incompetence; a voice he'd heard for years.

Sonic's eyes widened in horror and he gulped. "That, Applejack, is Eggman."

	


> Confrontation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 1: Hero's Side - Chapter 5: Confrontation


Twilight gasped. "You can't be serious!"

"I thought you said he was still in your world!" exclaimed Rarity.

"We said we didn't know what had happened to him," replied Tails. "He could've went back to our world or he could've been transported to another." He gulped and looked at Sonic. "What do we do Sonic?"

Sonic's face was now set in determination. "There's only one thing we can do," the blue hedgehog said, punching his fist into his open hand. "We fight."

Applejack positioned herself next to Sonic. "I reckon yer right. I don't want tuh be enslaved and used tuh power machinery."

Sonic gave her a surprised look. "I didn't mean you guys. You should go someplace where it's safe; he only wants me."

Twilight shook her head as she and the other ponies did the same as Applejack. "No can do Sonic, we'll stay with you."

"You're our friends now and friends protect friends!" said Pinkie in a matter-of-fact tone.

Rainbow Dash laughed. "You'd think I'd miss this? Time to crack that Eggman wide open!"

Sonic exchanged a glance with Tails, his own tears reflected in the fox's eyes. He finally choked out, "Th-thank you."

The loud crashing and earth-shaking footsteps outside had stopped. Suddenly, a huge explosion tore the entire front of the library clean off. Books were flying around the room, papers shooting off the desks, smoke clouding everyone's vision; it was complete chaos. Above it all, Rarity could be heard screaming, "My mane! My beautiful mane! This wind is going to RUIN IT!"

Once the smoke and dust cleared away, everyone looked to where the entrance used to be. Standing in its place was a twenty foot tall mech with Eggman sitting in his Egg-Pod at the top. Sonic recognized the design. It looked a lot like Shadow's robot friend Omega except a bunch of sizes bigger with some resemblances to the Egg Dragoon. To top it all off, connected to the right side of the body of the mech, was a cage in which resided a brown pony with spiky hair and an hour glass on his flank. This particular pony seemed to be in an extremely bad mood. Sonic couldn't blame him; being trapped in a cage was never--

His train of thought was interrupted by Eggman's overly obnoxious laugh. "Ho ho ho ho ho! At last, after all these years, I finally am going to win! You may not remember me Sonic but I certainly remember you."

This confused the heck out of Sonic. "What do you mean, Egghead? Of course I remember you! How could I forget?"

Now it was Eggman's turn to be confused. "What!? But how do you remember?" the fat scientist asked, scratching his head. Even the spiky-haired pony looked confused. "No matter, I'll kill you anyway." The mech's right hand folded up into its arm and an exceedingly large chain gun replaced it.

"But wait, how'd you get here?" Tails questioned.

"I might ask you the same question, fox boy!" growled Eggman.

"Our answer is pretty simple: we were sucked into a crack in the fabric of time and space by the energy of pure love," Tails replied.

"Oh that explains how you two remembered everything!" exclaimed the brown pony in a decidedly English accent. "The power of love will protect anything through the void between worlds, even something as easy to lose as memories. Brilliant! It wasn't, by any chance, the blast that Shining Armor and Cadence used at the wedding was it?"

"It was," piped up Twilight.

"Ooo, you're Twilight Sparkle," the pony said, his eyes lighting up, "the unicorn who represents the element of magic. I was there, you know, at the wed--"

"Doctor, enough of this! I don't have time to talk to these insignificant ponies," interrupted Eggman.

"Who're you calling insignificant, fatty?" Rainbow Dash asked, clearly insulted.

Eggman's glasses flashed menacingly. "I'm not fat, I'm big-boned! Argh, these inaccurate insults will get you nowhere!"

Sonic's eyes narrowed. "You haven't answered the question, mustachio; how did you get here?"

Eggman laughed. "Ho ho ho, it was quite simple really. You see, the Doctor here," he pointed towards the spiky-haired pony, "found me in the void using his TARDIS. I tricked him into thinking I was a good guy and he took me here. I saw a blue boom thing and knew you were the only one fast enough to create something like that."

"It's called a sonic rainboom," explained Pinkie Pie, "and Sonic is not the only one to create one. Dashie here has also--"

"Shut up! you will not insult my intelligence you--"

"Actually, she's right," the Doctor said. "In fact, I've seen it myself. One of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and that's certainly saying something!"

Dash smiled. "I don't mean to brag but--"

"ENOUGH!" shouted Eggman, throwing his arms into the air. "After all these years and all these failed plans, I will finally win! Oh, I've waited a long time for this. Sonic, Tails, time to meet your maker!" The mech's chain gun arm pointed itself at Sonic and Tails. The hedgehog, fox, and six ponies tensed up.

"Everyone, make sure to jump out of the way as soon as he presses the button, then go in for the attack," Sonic whispered urgently.

Eggman raised his finger to press the firing button when, suddenly, all the ponies gasped. This made Eggman smile. "Yes, this machine is pretty impressive."

Twilight shook her head vigorously. "Not your machine, look!" She pointed her hoof to somewhere above Eggman's head.

The portly scientist looked to where she was pointing, as did Sonic and Tails. Ten feet above Eggman's head was a very pink cloud.


END OF PART 1

> Escape From Exile
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part2: Dark Side - Chapter 1: Escape From Exile


The only thing on Eggman's mind was how the heck he was going to get out of here. This endless white void, outside of time itself, was starting to gnaw at his sanity. He had to get out of here soon or else he'd go insane. Eggman knew he and his younger self did get out of here because he hadn't faded out of existence. If they'd never get out of the void, Eggman would've disappeared. Even so, he didn't know how or when he'd get out. On that note, how come he didn't remember doing this with his own future self? Even though his younger self had said he'd dedicate his life to forgetting it, surely doing all this would've dredged up some memories?

Both Eggmen were laying on what they had guessed was the ground. They couldn't be sure, though, since everything was the same shade of white. Their only clue that it was indeed the ground was because, for one, it was solid and, two, their shadow appeared on it. As it was, Eggman looked over at his younger, 'classic' self who was laying to his left. A barely audible snore let Eggman know that his classic self was asleep. Eggman sighed. He'd thought that, with Classic Eggman's help, he could've won this time. But, alas, it wasn't to be.

Of course, maybe it was time to change and maybe give up on the evil stuff. His younger self had said something about a teaching degree. Maybe he could be a teacher? Eggman also had a strange fascination with amusement parks, so maybe he'd--

His thoughts were interrupted by a strange grinding noise that was slowly growing in volume. Eggman sat up and looked towards where the noise was coming from. Ten feet to his right was a blue... police box? How in the world did that get there? Eggman smiled and got to his feet, shrugging off the question. This must be his way out of here.

Suddenly, the door to the blue box swung open and out stepped a brown horse with spiky hair and an hour glass on his flank. No, no, not a horse... a pony. Eggman knew the difference and this creature was indeed a pony. The pony had been mumbling when it had first come out of the box, with a slightly annoyed look on his face, but stopped once he saw Eggman. This confused Eggman. To his knowledge, ponies didn't talk... or mumble for that matter. He was used to anthropomorphic animals but, even then, he'd never encountered an anthropomorphic pony before.

"Hello there, I am Dr. Eggman... and you are?" he asked the pony. He figured that if it could talk then it could understand what Eggman was saying.

The pony blinked and said in an English accent, "You're a human!"

"Yes," said Eggman, crossing his arms, "and you're a pony."

The pony shook his head. "I didn't think there were humans in Eques-- wait a tick." He looked around as if he were finally noticing his surroundings. "This isn't Equestria! Where exactly are we?"

"I have no idea what Equestria is but, currently, we're in a place entirely devoid of time," Eggman answered.

"That explains why the TARDIS went bonkers," the pony said, glancing back at the blue box.

"The what?"

The pony smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm the Doctor and this blue box here is the TARDIS. That stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's my time and space machine."

This caught Eggman's interest. This pony must be pretty smart if he created something like this. Eggman reached up and pressed a minuscule button on the side of his glasses which turned on his x-ray vision. He could now see through the TARDIS's door. He saw that it was bigger on the inside than on the outside. That was odd. Something else that Eggman noticed was that, upon looking at the spiky-haired pony, the Doctor had two hearts. Again, to Eggman's knowledge, ponies did not have two hearts. He switched off the x-ray vision.

"Why exactly do you have two hearts?" asked Eggman.

The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you know that?"

Eggman pointed to his glasses. "I installed an x-ray function into these glasses. Once you said you had a time machine, I decided to use it. Something else I noticed was your TARDIS there is much bigger on the inside."

"That's pretty impressive," the Doctor said, "and yes, it is bigger on the inside. Time Lord technology at its finest."

"Time Lord?" Eggman questioned.

"Yes, Time Lord," the Doctor replied, "You see, I am an alien. More specifically, a... hold on, I think we should take this conversation into the TARDIS. This place makes me quite uncomfortable." He gestured at the blue box.

Eggman began walking toward it. "Yes, yes, let us depart."

"What about him?" the Doctor asked, pointing his hoof at Classic Eggman.

"Oh, him..." Eggman began. He actually didn't know what to do with his younger self. Should they take him with? No, he'd probably get annoying and spill the beans on the fact that they were, in fact, evil scientists. "Let's just leave him."

The Doctor looked up at Eggman. "Really? Hmmmm... hey, he looks just like you!"

Eggman gulped. "Oh, um... uh, he's my... cousin. Yeah, cousin!" he said, his voice becoming nervous. He really hoped the Doctor didn't inquire any further.

The spiky-haired pony looked from Eggman to Classic Eggman before finally settling his suspicious gaze on Eggman. After a few moments, the Doctor smiled and turned back towards the TARDIS. "Alright, off we go then!" he said brightly, walking into the blue box.

Eggman sighed in relief, following close behind the Doctor. Just before closing the door, he looked back at his younger self. "Good luck," Eggman whispered, closing the door to the TARDIS and leaving Classic Eggman stranded in the void between worlds.


> Swapping Stories
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 2: Dark Side - Chapter 2: Swapping Stories


"So, uh, what were we talking about?" the Doctor asked after Eggman closed the door.

Eggman turned from the door and gasped at what he saw. The inside of the TARDIS was almost a uniform tan and brown with a pattern of yellow lights going covering the entirety of the domed walls. In the center of the room was a large turquoise cylinder, at the bottom of which was a very odd looking control panel that encircled the large cylinder. Past the cylinder, at the far end of the room, was a passageway that Eggman assumed led to other rooms. Leading up to the control panel were metal walkways. How did this all fit into that tiny blue box?

The Doctor noticed Eggman's gasp and smiled. "I thought you saw inside here with those x-ray glasses."

Eggman shook his head. "Not in this much detail and, just because I saw it, doesn't mean I understand it."

"Time Lord technology, my friend," the Doctor said, beaming with pride. "And that reminds me; we were talking about me being a Time Lord."

"Yeah, you said that that was some sort of alien..." Eggman paused and glanced at the Doctor. "Are all Time Lords ponies?" he asked, walking up to the control panel.

"No, Time Lords come from an entirely different universe than the ponies," the Doctor explained, fiddling with some of the buttons and knobs. "You see, there are, so far that I've found, 3 different universes: mine, the pony one, and yours... of course, I only found out about yours recently."

"How long ago did you find out about mine?" Eggman questioned, wondering if the Doctor had ever previously been to his world.

"A couple of minutes ago, when I saw you outside the TARDIS's door actually. The only reason I knew that you were from a different universe was because you're too colorful and... oddly-shaped to be a human of my universe but not colorful enough to be part of the ponies' world," the Doctor said, continuing to fiddle with the controls.

Eggman looked down at the assortment of knobs, buttons, and levers on the control panel and wondered idly how the Doctor could possibly use it. It all looked so confusing to navigate; it mad no sense! The only thing Eggman recognized was a computer monitor raised about a foot off the control panel, but it was currently blank.

"What are you doing, exactly?" asked Eggman, glancing at the Doctor. It looked like he was pushing buttons and pulling levers at random, and... how on Earth did he do that with those hooves!? That shouldn't even be possible!

"I am tracing back the TARDIS's last known path so that we can go back to where I last left from," answered the Doctor.

"And where would that be?"

The Doctor smiled. "Canterlot, in the pony nation of Equestria," he said, pushing a blue button and pulling a T-shaped lever. "Allons-y!"

Suddenly, the TARDIS began shaking and some stuff inside the center cylinder began moving up and down. The shaking intensified to the point where Eggman and the Doctor had to hold on to the metal railings surrounding the platform. At the same moment, the grinding noise Eggman had heard earlier began again.

"Is this normal!?" Eggman shouted, holding onto the railing for dear life and nervously glancing around the room, waiting for something to explode. Maybe this wasn't the best idea for escaping the void.

The Doctor nodded, his forelegs wrapped around the railing. "Definitely! Of course, it's nor-" Part of the control panel exploded in a shower of sparks, shortly followed by another shower of sparks from a different part of the panel. "-mal!"

At that, the shaking and noise ceased.

The Doctor let go of the railing. "Alrighty then Dr. Eggman, let's discuss the universes," he said. At the sight of Eggman's terrified face, the Doctor burst into laughter.

"What? What's so funny?" questioned Eggman. untangling himself from the railing.

The Doctor was laughing so hard now, tears began spilling out of his eyes. "It's just y-your face! It was hysterical!" the Doctor squeezed in between fits of laughter.

Eggman blushed. "Uh, yes, quite funny.. but, um, you were saying something about the different universes?"

"Yes, right," said the Doctor, recovering from his laughter. "Before we discuss anything though, can you tell me what caused you to be in the void between worlds?" His gaze became just the slightest bit suspicious.

Now it was up to Eggman to think of something fast. In retrospect, it probably would've been better to think of what he was going to say once this came up instead of asking all those questions. Curiosity had gotten the better of him and it still gnawed at the corners of his mind, trying to get him to ask more question, but now was a time for quick thinking, not curiosity. It occured to Eggman that he had two possibilities: he could tell the truth but say that he was going to change (which he now fully intended to do) or he could lie about it.

"Me and my, uh, cousin were trapped there by the evil Sonic the Hedgehog and his genetically mutated fox henchman Tails," Eggman lied, choosing the option that he felt he could gel with easier. After all, he'd lied before with success, the gullible echidna Knuckles being just one example. He hoped the Doctor was nearly as gullible. "That hedgehog has a history of turning poor innocent woodland creatures into robots to help with his evil plans. His latest plan involved them using a teleporter to transport me and my... cousin outside of the universe... what is it?" he asked, noticing that the Doctor had closed his eyes and frowned.

"The Doctor's eyes opened. "Nothing, nothing, it's just that those names sound familiar..." the spiky-haired pony replied, trailing off.

Eggman laughed a very nervous laugh. "Well, isn't that wierd!" he said, trying to keep his voice steady. On the inside, Eggman was freaking out. If the Doctor somehow recognized Sonic and Tails, then Eggman was doomed. "Wait a second, how do you know that that was the void between the different universes? When we were actually in there, you couldn't recognize it."

"Yes, well, I've never actually seen it before, so I wouldn't have recognized it until I heard it described," started the Doctor. "When I heard that it was entirely devoid of time, I knew that it had to be the void between worlds; no other place that I know of is completely devoid of time."

"I see..."

"Anyway," the Doctor continued, "you told me about your universe, so I'll tell you about the other two." He cleared his throat. "First up is my universe.

"My universe isn't exactly what you'd call light-hearted and fun; it can be but, for the most part, it's pretty dark and depressing. It has thousands of alien races including humans, Time Lords, Daleks, Cybermen, just to name a few. I am a Time Lord, the most ancient and revered race in my entire universe. Over time, they developed the ability to partially control time. They were a good, peace-loving race... at least, until the Time War."

"The Time War?"

"Yes, a war that was fought throughout the entirety of time and space, a war that ended up destroying the Time Lords and my home planet, Gallifrey. I barely survived. Ever since, I've been traveling through time and space seeing the sights, sometimes taking companions along with."

Eggman could tell that the Doctor was leaving something out. He wondered what it could be. "So, where does this pony universe come in?"

"Well, nearly a year ago, I tried to mess with time. Some points in time, like important events, are fixed, meaning they can't be changed. Well, I tried to change one. It backfired horribly. Now I'm a marked man, death was coming for me in that universe. I couldn't have that so I ran and somehow ended up in the pony universe."

"So, what's the universe like?" Eggman asked. If he was going to go there, he should at least know what it was like.

"I was getting to that," retorted the Doctor. "Anyway, on my journey into the pony universe, I found myself ponified! In my universe, I look a lot closer to a human, so I was pretty wierded out. At the same time, I was fascinated. A universe run by ponies? How cool is that!? Ever since that moment, I've stayed in the pony universe, going to all the important events and making sure nothing goes too out of the ordinary. If it does get out of the ordinary, I try and fix it from behind the scenes, never up front.

"The pony universe itself is very colorful, loving, and tolerant; a very nice departure from my dark and depressing universe. There are 4 types of ponies: Earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and alicorns. Earth ponies make up a majority of the population. I'm an Earth pony. Pegasi are the second most common. Unlike Earth ponies, pegasi have wings, which let them fly and walk on clouds. Their main job is to control the weather. Unicorns don't have wings but they do have horns. The horns let them use magic and manipulate their environments more easily than the pegasi or Earth ponies. Alicorns are by far the rarest. In fact, I've only ever seen 3 of them! The two royal sisters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and one that just got married, Princess Cadence. Celestia is the ruler of Equestria and raises the sun every morning. Luna raises the moon each night. The capitol of Equestria is Canterlot, which is where we're heading, but my personal favorite is Ponyville, mostly because that's where all the action happens. Ponyville is also where the Elements of Harmony live."

"Elements of Harmony?" Eggman questioned, ideas forming in his head. If these Elements were anything like the Chaos Emeralds from his universe then maybe-- no. No! He wasn't going to be that guy anymore!"

"The Elements of Harmony are actually 6 ponies who represent the 6 different traits of Harmony. The Earth pony Applejack represents the spirit of honesty, the pegasus Fluttershy represents the spirit of kindness, the Earth pony Pinkie Pie represents the spirit of laughter, the unicorn Rarity represents the spirit of generosity, the pegasus Rainbow Dash represents the spirit of loyalty, and the unicorn Twilight Sparkle represents the most powerful and elusive element: magic," the Docotr explained. "Of course, since they only represent the spirits of the Elements, they need to have the physical forms of the Elements in order to focus their power and use it fully."

Well, there went the possibility of using the Elements for any funny business. "So we're going to this, uh... Canterlot, was it called?" asked Eggman.

The Doctor nodded. "This was where I was before I ended up finding you in the void."

"But I thought you said that this 'Ponyville' was your favorite place? If that's the case, why were you in Canterlot?" asked Eggman.

"I was at the royal wedding," the Doctor replied. At the confused look that Eggman gave him, he added, "The wedding for Princess Cadence and Shining Armor."

"Funnily enough, I've never been to a wedding," Eggman said, frowning. For some reason, this bugged him.

"Yeah, well, I try to stay away from them; weddings and me don't mix very well..." said the Doctor, trailing off.

Suddenly, the grinding noise began once again and, upon hearing it, Eggman launched himself at the nearest railing and wrapped himself around it, squeezing his eyes shut. After a few moments, the noise stopped and Eggman opened his eyes. After untangling himself from the railing, he said, "There was no shaking that time." He looked at the Doctor.

The spiky-haired pony had tears in his eyes and his mouth was tightly shut. A couple of seconds later, the Doctor exploded into laughter and began rolling on the floor. The laughter echoed off the walls and made the volume increase.

"I thought you said that the earth pony Pinkie Pie represented the element of laughter," Eggman growled, crossing his arms and fiercely glaring daggers at the Doctor.

"And I thought nothing could top your face from earlier," said the Doctor, getting u and wiping the tears from his eyes. "Boy, was I wrong!" Upon looking at Eggman again, the Doctor launched into an intense fit of the giggles.

Eggman facepalmed. "Can you please just tell me what exactly that sound meant?"

"It meant," the Doctor started, recovering at last, "that we have reached our destination." He began walking towards the door, gesturing for Eggman to follow him.

"Wait, if I go out there, won't I turn into a pony like you did?" Eggman asked, hesitantly following behind.

The Doctor chuckled and shook his head as they reached the door. "Apparently not. Remember, I said I began transforming into a pony on the journey into the universe, not as soon as I stepped foot-- hoof into the universe itself." Suddenly, the Doctor kicked open the door, revealing a bright and sunny courtyard. "Anyway, welcome to Canterlot!"
> Eggman In Equestria
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 2: Dark Side - Chapter 3: Eggman In Equestria


Eggman put a hand over his eyes as he stepped out of the TARDIS into the bright and sunny courtyard. After he got used to the light, Eggman looked around, soaking in his surroundings. The ground of the courtyard was gray stone and, surrounding the courtyard, were knee-high stone walls, on top of which were beautiful rosebushes; each rose was a very vibrant red, much more vibrant than any color he had seen in his universe. Now he truly understood what the Doctor had said about this universe being colorful. Looking past the rosebushes, he could see a large castle a small ways away and a bunch of smaller buildings all around the courtyard. Even the duller, more muted colors of these buildings were more vibrant than anything he'd seen before.

"Impressive, isn't it?" asked the Doctor, leaning against the TARDIS's door.

Eggman adjusted his glasses. "This was all built by ponies!?" he exclaimed incredulously.

"Yes, but don't forget that the unicorns can use magic," the Doctor replied. "Magic can make things faster and easier."

"Are all pony cities like this?" Eggman asked, turning back towards the Doctor.

The Doctor laughed. "Of course not! This is the capitol, obviously it's going to be more regal than everything else. Ponyville is probably more your speed. Oh, before we go anywhere," the Doctor said, pulling a key out of thin air, "you  should probably take this." He handed the key to Eggman.

"And what might this be exactly?" questioned Eggman, turning the key over in his hands and examining it. "It looks like a regular old key."

"Well, it is a key; a key to the TARDIS," the Doctor explained. "But it's also a perception filter. Basically, it makes it so that people, or ponies in this case, don't notice you so long as you don't draw attention to yourself. If you didn't have one, everypony would probably freak out."

"That's pretty-- did you just say 'everypony'?"

"Yes," replied the Doctor, "it's what the ponies say instead of everybody." He paused and thought for a moment. "Which, now that I think about it, doesn't make much sense. Everybody should still work, I mean, the ponies have bodies right? In fact, everypony is downright unfair to all the other sentient creatures in this universe... so is the town name Ponyville actually. Wow! How on earth did I not think of this before!?"

"Anyway," said Eggman, slipping the key into his pocket, "I'm assuming you gave me this 'perception filter' because you're going to take me into a populated area, correct?"

"You know what? These ponies are downright ra-- huh? Oh, yes, right you are," the Doctor said, snapping out of his ramblings. "I'm taking you on a tour of Canterlot! After that, if you want, I can take you to Ponyville as well." He began walking towards one of the courtyard's exits. "C'mon Eggman; let's see the sights!"

"Yes Doctor," said Eggman, following close behind and wondering what wonders this crazy world of techni-color ponies had in store.

-------

Spike's head drooped a fraction of an inch closer to the counter and his eyelids fluttered. he'd stayed up all night helping Princess Celestia clean up after the wedding in hopes that he might be able to throw a bachelor party, even though he had no idea of what that was; he'd even sent his 6 friends back home so that he'd get a better chance for Celestia to say yes since he'd have done it all by himself. But no. When Spike had asked, the Princess had laughed and said that he couldn't because Shining Armor and Cadence were already on their honeymoon, whatever that was.

Needless to say, Spike was exhausted.

"Pony Joe, more coffee," he said. sitting straight up again. He'd gotten here about half an hour ago and had 2 cups of coffee. He needed more caffeine.

Pony Joe gave Spike a skeptical look. "Don't you think you're a little young to be drinking this stuff?"

"I said more coffee!" the purple dragon insisted, pounding his fist against the counter.

"Fine," Pony Joe sighed in defeat, going off to get the coffee.

A few minutes later, he came back with the beverage. Spike took it and chugged it immediately, ignoring the searing pain of his tongue from the hot coffee. He needed as much caffeine as he could get, for today was his trip back to Ponyville and he wanted to be wide awake when he greeted his friends. After finishing with the coffee, Spike left a few bits on the counter and umped off the high stool, beginning to walk towards the door.

"See you around Joe!" Spike called back over the counter.

"Yeah, yeah," said Pony Joe, taking the bits that Spike had left on the counter and putting them into a pocket on his apron.

Upon reaching it, the purple dragon opened the door and immediately slammed into something. He picked himself up off the ground, glancing at what he'd run into. His mouth dropped open at what he saw. Standing in front of him was a tall, two-legged creature with pale skin and a large mustache wearing black pants, a red jacket with gold... button things, gloves, and glasses. The creature had a panicked look on his face. Standing beside it was a spiky-haired brown pony.

Spike gulped. "Uh, sorry for running into you mister but, um, I need to go... now." 

As soon as the words left his mouth, he bolted past the creature and the brown pony without giving either of them a chance to reply. He wouldn't stop running until he got to the castle; he needed to tell the Princess about this right away!

-------

Eggman stared in the direction the little purple creature had run off in. "That's not good, is it?"

"No, no it isn't," said the Doctor, frowning. He was silent for a moment before adding, "I don't know why he's still in Canterlot though. He should've went back to Ponyville with Twilight Sparkle."

"That creature knows the Elements of Harmony?" Eggman asked.

"That creature is a dragon and yes, he's Twilight's assistant," the Doctor replied.

"He's a dragon!? But he's so small!"

"Well, he is a baby dragon after all," the Doctor said.

"A baby dragon? But--"

"Are you guys coming in or what!?" asked a voice from inside the donut shop.

Eggman glanced back inside and was surprised to see that he was holding the door. When did that happen?

The Doctor leaned around Eggman and shouted back, "No, we're just seeing the sights!"

The pony behind the counter glared at them. "Then shut the damn door!"

"How rude!" exclaimed the Doctor as Eggman closed the door. He sighed and shook his head. "Anyway, I think it's time we visit the castle. Well, to be more accurate, the grounds around the castle. The interior of the castle is only for the Princesses or guests of the Princesses."

"Bu what about the baby dragon? He saw me!" Eggman said loudly. Hadn't the Doctor given him the perception filter key so that situations like this couldn't happen?

"I don't think we need to worry about that too much. Pony Joe in there didn't really care about you so I don't think anyone that he tells will react any differently," the Doctor explained.

"Maybe he didn't care because of the percep--"

"No," said the Doctor, cutting Eggman off. "You drew attention to yourself so anyone who saw you during that moment won't be affected by the filter... at all."

"I see. Well, I guess if you don't care, then I don't care either," replied Eggman, rubbing his head. "The castle grounds then?"

The Doctor nodded. "The castle grounds. Follow me."

-------

"Princess! Princess!" yelled Spike, barging into the throne room where the royal wedding had been held the previous day. A few decorations still hung around on the walls that Spike had missed during his cleanup. The Princess was sitting in her throne, reading a book; two guards were stationed on either side of her.

"What is it Spike?" asked Celestia, looking up from her book.

Spike ran until he was a few feet from the throne. "Princess there's this..." He paused when he saw the book she was reading. "Are you... are you reading Daring Do?"

"Yes I am. Twilight introduced it to me yesterday, it's actually a good read. Anyway, back on topic, what did you want to tell me?" the Princess asked again, levitating the book down onto the floor beside the throne.

"When I was leaving Pony Joe's, I ran into this... creature," Spike began. "It was horrifying! It had pale skin, a large mustache and wore a red jacket, black pants, glasses, and white gloves on his hands."

Celestia's eyes widened. "Is that... is that all you remember?"

Spike thought for a moment. "Well... oh! He walked on two legs!"

The Princess's usually flowing mane froze midflow. "Did his red jacket have golden bumps on it?"

"Yes but... how did you know that?" asked Spike. Celestia hadn't been anywhere near Pony Joe's, at least, he didn't think so anyway.

Celestia got up from the throne and walked over to the window overlooking Canterlot. "Guards, leave us!" she commanded. As the guards took their leave, Spike could hear the Princess whisper, "How in Equestria could he be here?"

"Princess..." Spike said tentatively.

"Spike, have you ever heard of humans before?" asked Celestia, turning to face Spike.

"No... should I have?"

"No, I was just wondering," she replied. She looked out the window once more. "Humans are, to put it bluntly, tall hairless monkeys that walk on two legs and are extremely smart. The creature you saw today was a human."

"Really? That's pretty cool," Spike said. He couldn't wait to tell Twilight about these humans. She'd probably be jealous that he saw one and she didn't.

Celestia shook her head. "No, it isn't. This is bad. The human you found is evil. He goes by the name of Dr. Eggman."

"You know, now that you mention it, he did look kind of egg-shaped."

"Spike, this is serious!" shouted Celestia, turning back to Spike, a fierce look in her eye. "Everypony is in danger!"

"He didn't look all that dangerous," Spike retorted, crossing his arms.

"Oh, he is," said the Princess. "He takes small woodland creatures and uses them to power his machinery... against their will! He's even tried to enslave an entire alien race!"

"Now that does sound evil," Spike said, his eyes widening. "But Princess... how do you know this? I've never heard of this before and this sounds like stuff that would've been big news!"

"That, young one, is a secret," Celestia answered.

"Well, shouldn't we go after this guy if he's so evil?" Spike questioned. "What if he tries to enslave all of ponykind!?"

Celestia shook her head once again. "We will not be the aggressors; we will wait until he does something first." She paused a moment before adding, "Besides, he might've forgotten everything he once did. He might even be good now, we just have to wait and see."

"Why would he forget all that evil stuff? How could someone forget all that?" Spike asked, getting confused.

"That too is a secret," said the Princess.

"Well, I've got to warn Twilight! She'll want to--"

"No," she said, cutting off the purple dragon. "This must be kept a secret between us. Nopony else can know about this."

"But-- fine, if you say so," Spike sighed in defeat.

"I'm sorry for all these secrets Spike, but this is how it must be," Celestia said, smiling a sad smile. "Come sit with me and we'll watch together."

-------

"This world is so colorful!" Eggman exclaimed as he and the Doctor walked into a statue filled courtyard adjacent to the castle. "It's much more vibrant than anything in my world."

The Doctor laughed. "Yes, well, you're very lucky you remember anything from your world at all, actually."

"What do you mean?" Eggman asked, stopping in front of a tall statue and turning to face the Doctor.

"Well, if you travel into a universe unprotected, you forget everything that happened in the last universe you were in," the Doctor explained, looking up at Eggman.

"How exactly do you know that?" questioned Eggman, leaning against the base of the statue. "You couldn't have done it yourself, you wouldn't have remembered what happened in your home universe then."

"Quite right," the Doctor said, frowning. "You see, after I figured out I could travel between my universe and this universe, I went back to my world to see if any event like mine had occurred before."

Eggman was intrigued. "Did any?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yes. A human, who's nickname was 'Derpy' because of how klutzy she was, tried to build her very own time machine. When she tested the prototype, something went horribly wrong. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong, but whatever it was sent her here unprotected." The Doctor's eyes turned sad. "The poor thing could only remember her mean old nickname 'Derpy'. When the ponies found her, she told them that and it stuck. Derpy Hooves." He shook his head and looked up at the stature they were standing next to. "The accident had a couple of side effects: it made her eyes permanently crossed and it made it so that she could never age. All this happened around ten years ago. Since then, she's gotten a job in Ponyville as the town's mailmare and has had a daughter, a little unicorn named Dinky."

Eggman looked up at the statue. It looked like a long dragon with a pony's head and a mish-mash of different creatures for the other body parts. It seemed to have a very distressed look on it's face.

"What's this statue supposed to be?" Eggman asked, pointing up at the statue.

"That is Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony. He's a draconequis," the Doctor explained. "Before Celestia and Luna ruled over Equestria, Discord was king. Equestria was in a state of total chaos. The  two sisters used the Elements of Harmony to seal him in stone. A few months ago, he got free. Since the Princesses were no longer connected to the Elements, the 6 ponies who now represented them had to seal Discord. And they did, so here he sits."

Eggman's glasses flashed. "Interesting..." he said, putting his hands on the base of the statue, memories flooding into his head.

	
> Glimpse of the Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 2: Dark Side - Chapter 4: Glimpse of the Past


Eggman zoomed over the jungle in his Eggpod, scanning the treeline for a  sign of the ruins his scoutbots had detected earlier. After a couple more minutes of searching, he found it sitting in the middle of a courtyard. His lifterbots were already there as was the prototype to his new line of robots, E-99 Proto. Upon landing, E-99 came over to greet him.

"All hail the great Dr. Robotnik!" said the robot, saluting.

Eggman gave E-99 a once over. The tan robot was tall and gangly with one hand replaced with a gun and the other remaining hand having only three fingers. On the robots back was a crude and bulky jetpack. Eggman made a mental note to change that design quirk when he finally began building the actual E-Series line of robots. Maybe he could replace it with wirelessly connected jet boosters?

"Are the lifterbots ready in case we need them?" Eggman asked, climbing out of his Eggpod and steadying himself upon the ground.

"Affirmative, Dr. Robotnik," answered E-99, "the lifterbots are warmed up and ready to serve."

Eggman glanced over at the lifterbots. Their designs were actually quite simple really. They were basically forklifts that could hover and operate without anyone controlling them. Simple, but effective. Looking at them now, they did indeed look ready to go.

"Good," Eggman said, beginning to walk towards the temple. "Come on, let's see what these ruins have in store for us."

As Eggman, E-99, and the two lifterbots climbed the steps, Eggman began studying the architecture. The temple itself was pyramidal in shape and on either side of the base of the large and very steep staircase were statues of someone sitting in a throne or chair. Something about this temple seemed familiar to Eggman but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly that something was.

At the top of staircase was the entrance, but it was blocked by what appeared to be a large stone snake head. Upon reaching it, Eggman tried everything he could think of to try and open it, but it just wouldn't budge. Just before he could order E-99 to blast it open with his gun hand, the snake's mouth opened, revealing a long, dark passageway.

Eggman scratched his head. "E-99, analyze the entrance and tell me how exactly that snake head opened."

"Yes Dr. Robotnik," E-99 replied. After a couple of seconds, he added, "Data inconclusive. Cause of opening unknown."

"How odd," whispered Eggman, frowning.

"Should we abort the mission, sir?" asked E-99.

"No, we must continue," Eggman said, clearing his head of all the questions. "E-99, turn on your flashlight." He turned back towards the lifterbots. "You guys do the same."

"Yes Dr. Robotnik!" chorused the lifterbots' deep, robotic voices as they and E-99 all switched on their flashlights. The area in front of them was instantly bathed in a bright, white light.

"Onward!" exclaimed Eggman, walking into the corridor with the others following behind single file.

The corridor itself was pretty barren. Every couple of feet, there would be a torch on each wall which, when passed, would light up and illuminate the corridor behind them. Not exactly the most useful way to do it. Probably would've been better if they lit up before they got to them but, hey, it helped if they had to run back the way they came... which Eggman fervently hoped didn't need to happen.

After walking for a good five minutes, they came to a point where the corridor sloped down and to the left. After another five minutes of walking, the corridor sloped down and to the left once again. It continued like this for nearly an hour until the corridor opened up into an extremely large and decidedly dark room, the only light coming from the robots' flashlights. The sounds of rushing water could be heard far below them.

Upon entering the chamber, all the torches in the entire room lit up. The group was on a platform and seemed to be very high up. Eggman crept up to the edge and looked down. They were indeed very high up, nearly 100 feet above the ground it looked like! There were platforms every so often along the walls and some of these even had corridors going back into the walls. On some of the walls were panels with glowing purple arrows on them which lead to many different platforms along the walls. At the very bottom of the chamber, taking up half the floor space, was a pond with holes in the walls letting the water flow in and out. That must have been the source of the sound. Also at the bottom of the chamber, was what appeared to be a large switch and, on the opposite wall from where Eggman was standing, there was a huge, ornately carved door.

"Sir, my analysis concludes that we are over 100 feet above the ground," E-99 said suddenly, making Eggman jump.

"Yes," retorted Eggman, annoyed at the robot for scaring him, "I can see that."

"A fall from this height could be fatal," continued E-99.

"No, you think?" Eggman asked sarcastically, turning to face him.

"Yes I do," E-99 said, not detecting the sarcasm.

Eggman facepalmed. "Ugh." After removing his hand from his face, Eggman looked from E-99 to the bottom of the chamber. "E-99, do you think you could fly me down there?"

"It would probably stretch my load-bearing capacity to its limit... but yes, I should be able to," replied E-99.

"Excelle-- wait, what did you say?"

"I said that yes I can fly you down there Dr. Robotnik."

Eggman squinted at the robot. "That's what I thought you said." He looked past E-99 at the lifterbots. "You two, follow us!" Eggman shouted, his voice magnified because of the echoes caused by the largeness of the chamber.

E-99 placed his hand and his gun hand under Eggman's armpits, securing his grasp. His jetpack started itself with a loud bang and he and Eggman began descending towards the ground closest to the door. Behind them, they could hear the lifterbots put their hover engines into overdrive so that they too could descend. After about a minute, E-99 landed on solid ground and his jetpack disengaged with another loud bang. eggman revised his earlier mental note so that he would remember to definitely change the jetpack for future E-Series robots. That banging noise was very annoying.

A couple of seconds passed until the two lifterbots landed and Eggman opened the large, ornate door. The room on the other side of of the door wasn't nearly as big as the chamber they'd just left. The group stood on a small walkway surrounded by water. The end of the walkway opened up into a platform with a pedestal going along the length of the opposite wall. On the opposite wall, and the walls to the group's left and right, was a mural that depicted a large ater serpent laying waste to a devastated city. The sight chilled Eggman to his core; he'd seen something like this once before, a couple years back on Angel Island when he'd still believed in his ultimately worthless Death Egg. The mural on Angel Island had depicted his own downfall at the hands of Sonic, his mortal enemy. That was mural had been crafted by the echidnas, a highly advanced race who became nearly extinct. There was only one surviving echidna, Knuckles, and he guarded the Master Emerald on Angel Island. Because of the similarities between both murals, Eggman guessed the mural in front of him had been made by the very same echidnas.

"I will go analyze the mural and the pedestal," said E-99, making Eggman jump once again.

"Would you stop that!?" Eggman exclaimed, glaring at the oblivious robot.

As soon as E-99 took one step forward, a long, pointy stone spear shot out of the wall to their right and impaled him straight through his chassis, killing his power supply and barely missing the jetpack's fuel tank. E-99 immediately crumpled to the ground, his green eyes dying out. Eggman bent over, carefully removed the spike, and opened up E-99's chest plate. The small bird that had been inside powering E-99, commonly known as a Flicky, was dead, impaled by the spike; the bird's blood stained the walls and equipment inside of E-99's chassis. Eggman slammed the chest plate shut,

Eggman turned back to the lifterbots. "Watch out for booby traps!" he shouted. He immediately began walking towards the pedestal, kicking E-99's corpse into the water and avoiding any suspicious looking floor tiles. Upon reaching the wall-length pedestal, Eggman gazed at the stone tablets resting upon it. He recognized the heiroglyphics written on the tablets instantly; it was the language of the echidnas. During his time on Angel Island, Knuckles had taught him a couple words. The only words Eggman understood on the tablets were 'God', 'of', 'Destruction', 'unleash', 'Chaos', and 'Master Emerald', but that was enough for Eggman. He now had the perfect scheme to build Robotnikland, if he could control the beast once it was unleashed, which Eggman had full confidence he could do.

"Lifterbots!" yelled Eggman over his shoulder, "bring these tablets to the Egg Carrier, I'm going to study them some more!" Meanwhile, he was going to pay a visit to Angel Island. Eggman glanced up at the water serpent mural one last time and smiled. 

He had a god of destruction to unleash.

-------

Now, standing in front of Discord's statue, in a universe run by talking ponies, with a time-traveling alien beside him, Eggman rolled the memory over in his head, as well as all the subsequent times he had tried to release divine beasts. Chaos, Solaris, Biolizard, Dark Gaia, all these plans had ended in the monsters sending him and his plans into oblivion. Every time, Sonic had to be the one to defeat them and save the day. Here, in another world, he was faced with the same thing: should he release another monster? All previous attempts had ended in failure, could he risk everything and all his outlook changes on another gamble?

"Is something wrong?" the Doctor asked, seeing the indecision on Eggman's face.

"I just... I just need to... collect my thoughts," answered Eggman, putting his face into his hands and shaking his head.

The Doctor smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, this pony world is a lot to take in. I'm going back to the TARDIS, come back when you're ready. Take your time. If you don't want to visit Ponyville after this, then really take your time because I haven't exactly figured out how to get you back home yet."

As the Doctor walked away, Eggman looked up at the statue again. He'd come so far, made the decision to change his ways, how could he give all that up? He'd even made a friend! Thinking of the Doctor made Eggman take the TARDIS key out of his pocket. Looking it over, Eggman realized this was a sign of trust. The Doctor trusted him enough to give him a key to a machine that could travel almost anywhere he wanted... that decided it. He wouldn't try to release Discord. Besides, Eggman didn't even know how to release Discord.

Suddenly, there was an extremely loud boom from behind that caused Eggman to jump, the TARDIS key flying from his hand and landing on the statue's foot. Eggman immediately turned around. In the distance, he could see a large, cobalt blue shockwave and, running from it at an incredible speed, was a blue dot speeding towards a small town. Eggman recognized that blue blur, for only one thing could ever run that fast: Sonic the Hedgehog.

Eggman's mind was suddenly filled with an anger so intense his head felt as though it would burst. How did he, of all people, get here!? This changed everything; he had to get revenge on that little blue rodent for causing him years of pain and suffering. Eggman glanced up at the statue again. No, he wouldn't release Discord, he'd do this himself. Eggman picked the key up off the statue's feet and put it in his pocket, not noticing the small crack where the key had been resting. His mind was too full of anger and revenge to notice such trivial things. Eggman began running back to the TARDIS, one mantra repeated in his head over and over:

Change could wait.
 


> Change Can Wait
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 2: Dark Side - Chapter 5: Change Can Wait


The Doctor rushed into the TARDIS and carefully shut the door. Afterwards, he walked up to computer monitor on the control panel and pulled a small switch nearby which made a keyboard and mousepad rise up from underneath the monitor. The Doctor needed to research this 'Dr. Eggman' and the ones he called 'Sonic' and 'Tails'. Those names sounded awfully familiar and the way Eggman acted back in the void was pretty suspicious. Luckily for him, the TARDIS was still connected to his universe's internet. He wasn't sure why and, even though he often looked gift-horses in the mouth, he honestly didn't care right now. He had a more pressing matter at hand.

Once he had the internet up oh his monitor, he searched 'Dr. Eggman' on Google. The first link was a Wikipedia page, so he clicked on it. Wikipedia was one of the Doctor's favorite websites; it had tons of information on a large variety of topics. It helped sate his hunger for knowledge. Eggman's Wikipedia page loaded up and the Doctor began reading. After he finished, he knew exactly why the names had sounded familiar. He'd played the games they'd originated from.

There was a loud boom outside of the TARDIS, but the Doctor didn't notice, mostly because he was too busy re-reading the Wikipedia page. The man that this page described couldn't be the guy he brought here, could he? But... it had to be. The picture the page used looked exactly like the Eggman he'd brought here and, to top it all off, they shared a name! It even said that Sonic and Tails were his mortal enemies, although on the Wikipedia page, it said that they were the good guys and that Eggman was the bad guy.

Looking over the things that Eggman had done made the Doctor shake his head in disbelief. This guy was a monster, not as bad as some of the people the Doctor had faced over the years, but still pretty horrible. he locked animals in machines to do his bidding, he enslaved an entire alien race just to help destroy Sonic's planet, he's even released divine beasts without thinking of the consequences... this guy was most definitely a monster. And he'd just unleashed that monster on Equestria.

Suddenly, something cold and hard was pressed up against the back of his head, followed by the sound of a pistol cocking. "Take me to Ponyville," said a sinister yet familiar voice, pressing the gun harder into the Doctor's head. "Now!"

-------	

Classic Eggman woke to the sound of a boom that sounded as if it had come from a very long way away. He immediately sat up and looked around for the source of the noise. Everywhere he looked, he saw the same thing: a white, never ending void. It looked like he was going to be stuck here forever. Classic Eggman fell back and sighed.

If only he hadn't listened to his buffoonish, insane future self. Then he wouldn't be stuck here! Classic Eggman didn't care that his future self had saved him from dying as the Death Egg crashed into that floating island. No, he'd rather be dead than stuck in this... this white hell, this never ending, undying white hell! Thinking of his future self made him wonder what had happened to his older counterpart. Had he wandered off, disappearing into this void forever?

Something else gnawed at the back of his mind: where had that boom come from? Could he have been hallucinating? Dreaming? No, it was too real to have been either of those things, even if it had sounded like it had been a good distance away. But... where had it come from!?

Classic Eggman closed his eyes and yelled at the top of his lungs, hoping that whatever had caused the boom would hear him. There was a sudden cracking noise and Classic Eggman froze, keeping his eyes tightly shut. He waited a few seconds before asking, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

There was no reply. Classic Eggman opened his eyes and gasped at what he saw. Sitting there, in midair, was a crack. A crack that hadn't been there just seconds before. A crack that seemed as if it was causing the whole of time and space to split at this one point. Classic Eggman stood up and went to get a closer look. Strangely enough, he could see what was inside it.

Through the crack, Classic Eggman could see a lush, green jungle. In the distance, he could see the wreckage of what appeared to be the Death Egg. Looking at all this, Classic Eggman realized that his must be right after his future self had saved him. Of course, he now knew how this little episode turned out; he'd seen the outcome when he and his future self had went through time undoing their past defeats. He knew this adventure on Angel Island ended in his Death Egg being permanently destroyed and him being back at square one.

Then again, since he now knew what the outcome was, maybe he could change it. Change it so that he, Dr. Ivo Robotnik, conquered the world. Classic Eggman smiled. He liked the sound of that.

Suddenly, he saw movement in the forest. The movement continued until a red echidna burst out of the underbrush, looking towards the wreckage of the crashed Death Egg, his back to Classic Eggman and the crack. This was it, the time to conquer the world. But first, he'd have to deal with this echidna.

Classic Eggman thrust his hand straight into the crack. As soon as he did, a sudden force began pulling the rest of his body through the crack. As his head passed through, a felling of bliss passed over Classic Eggman and he instantly forgot about everything that had happened since his future self had saved him.

-------

Eggman cocked the pistol that he held to the back of the Doctor's head. "Take me to Ponyville. Now!"

"I know who you are now, Eggman," the Doctor said, staring at the computer monitor. "You are a monster and I... I let you into this peaceful world. How stupid am I?" He paused for a moment before adding, "Tell me though, after all I read about you, it never said anything about you having a personal gun. When did you get it?"

"I've had it ever since that business with the Black Arms," replied Eggman. "I saw Shadow carrying one and I thought 'Hey, why don't I get one?' so, I got one. A nice, old fashioned revolver; crude, but effective. Of course, I only use it in emergencies... like this one. Take me to Ponyville, Doctor!"

"And why should I do that?" the Doctor asked.

"Because, if you don't, I kill you," Eggman answered, pressing the gun even harder into the Doctor's skull for emphasis. "Simple as that."

"That doesn't scare me," growled the Doctor.

Eggman leaned forward until his mouth was next to the Doctor's ear. "Oh, but I think it does. You said before that you came to this universe because you were running away from the death that was coming to you. You're a coward. You'll take me to Ponyville because you're too afraid to die."

The Doctor's face paled. He turned his head until he was looking Eggman dead in the eye. 'You-you're right," he whispered, a lone tear falling down his face. "Okay, fine, I'll take you to Ponyville." He turned off the computer monitor and began walking around the control panel, fiddling with the controls.

The devastated look on the Doctor's face struck a chord with Eggman. He hated to do this to the Doctor. He honestly did. What Eggman was saying now, doing now was the old him. But it had to be done. He had to get revenge on that blue pest. Change would just have to be patient.

The Doctor paused when he got to the T-shaped lever he'd pulled earlier and locked eyes with Eggman. "You can stop this, you know. We can forget this ever happened. You and me, we can stay in this universe and watch what happens. We can travel the stars, see if there are planets like yours or mine in this universe," the Doctor pleaded, a sad look in his eyes. "I can help you change."

"Change can wait, Doctor," spat Eggman. "It can wait until I've gotten revenge on the one person who ruined my life: Sonic the Hedgehog. That rodent has caused me so much pain and misery that I have very nearly gone insane. Every time I try to do something, he's always there to stop me, EVERY TIME! Well, no more. Once we get to Ponyville, I will kill him, even if it means the destruction of an innocent universe. You hear that? I WILL KILL HIM!" In a fit of pure rage, Eggman slammed both his fists onto the control panel, causing a shower of sparks and nearly jarring the pistol out of his hand. After a few seconds, he noticed that the Doctor still hadn't pulled the switch. "Well, what are you waiting for!? Pull the switch!"

"How do you know that Sonic's in Ponyville? Shouldn't he still be in--"

"Well, he's not!" shouted Eggman, pointing the gun at the Doctor again. "That loud boom from earlier? That was Sonic. I saw it. He's the only one who could go that fast."

"Well, actually, there's this one pegasus--"

"Pull the switch, Doctor!" Eggman interrupted, waving the gun menacingly. "Or die!"

"Fine, fine," said the Doctor, putting his hoof on the lever and pulling it down.

-------

"So, what's your plan if Sonic actually is in Ponyville, which I still don't believe he is," muttered the Doctor, stepping out of the TARDIS onto the tree lined path to Ponyville, followed closely behind by Eggman who was keeping the gun trained on the Doctor.

Eggman smiled. "Believe it, because I saw him. And don't worry, I have a plan," he said, looking up at the sun. "Good, it's only about noonish. That gives me plenty of light to kill Sonic by." He glanced at the Doctor and thrust his hand into his pocket before pulling out a small black cube with a blue button on top.

The Doctor looked curiously at it. "What is that?"

"This, Doctor," began Eggman, "is E-124 X. After I finished building my E-Series robots, I decided to make something that took the best attributes of all previous E-Series robots and put them together. This is that something." He layed it on the ground, pressed the button, and stepped back.

For a few moments, nothing happened. Then, the inside of the cube suddenly exploded outward, unfolding and expanding until it took the shape of a very sinister and deadly looking 20 foot tall mech. Eggman had based much of the design off of E-123 Omega. Large, rounded arms filled with all types of weapons, ending in sleek, metallic hands. The abdomen was wide and sturdy. On it's back was a bulky jetpack, on top of which, and hidden from view, was a launcher that held thirty missiles. The entire body had a red-black color scheme. Where the head should've been, was Eggman's Eggpod, open and ready to be sat in.

Eggman rubbed his hands together and laughed. "E-124, initiate protocol 1!" At his command, the Eggpod zoomed down to him and he climbed in. Once he was in, the Eggpod locked back into place at the top of the mech. Eggman put his gun back into his pocket.

The Doctor stared at the mech, a horrified look on his face. "And what are you going to do with that, exactly?"

"I'm going to rampage through Ponyville until I find that blue pest," Eggman replied bluntly.

The Doctor's face became suddenly angry. "No, I won't let you do this! I don't care if I die, I won't let you hurt innocent ponies just to kill one person!"

Eggman's glasses flashed. "I was afraid you'd say that. E-124, materialize cage and transport the Doctor into it." A cage materialized on the right side of the mech's body and the Doctor was instantly transported into it in a flash of blue light.

"I beg of you, don't hurt these innocent ponies; they've done nothing to you!" the Doctor shouted, banging against the bars of the cage with his hooves. "Please!"

"Quiet! I said before that I'll kill Sonic even if it means the destruction of an innocent universe, and I plan on sticking to that. You're just going to have to deal with it," growled Eggman, putting his hand on the mech's control stick and pushing it forrward, causing the mech to begin walking towards Ponyville.

There was silence, save for the mech's earth-shaking footsteps. Eggman was positively giddy with excitement. Finally, after so long, he was going to win! He was going to wipe Sonic off the face of the multiverse! Eggman idly wondered if the annoying fox, Tails, would be with Sonic. He also wondered if he'd feel bad if he killed Tails. Probably not, considering the fox had caused him almost as much trouble as Sonic had. Eggman hadn't forgotten about that missile in Station Square...

"When I left you alone by the Discord statue, did you, by any chance, try to release him?" the Doctor asked cautiously. "Tell me the truth."

"No," answered Eggman. "You said that you know who I am so I'm assuming the reason you're asking is because you know that I've released many divine beasts in the past. Am I correct?"

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, you are."

"I'm curious, how did you find out about me? You didn't seem to know me before, when you were showing me aroud Canterlot," Eggman observed.

"Well, when you told me your fake story about how you got in the void, the names you used sounded familiar," explained the Doctor. "So, when I left you by Discord's statue, I checked who you were on the TARDIS's computer which, funnily enough, is still connected to my universe's internet. You see, Eggman, in my universe, you are a video game character." He said that last line in what sounded like a very smug tone.

"A video game character?"

"Yes, you're the main antagonist in the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. I've played quite a few games in the series myself. Sonic CD is my favorite by far; I always appreciate a game involving time travel," the Doctor replied. "Oh, by the way, I'll be able to tell if you're lying about releasing Discord or not."

Eggman chuckled. "And how will you be able to tell, Doctor?"

"Chaos comes with chocolate rain Eggman, chocolate rain," said the Doctor. "And also pink clouds made of cotton candy."

"This universe just gets weirder and weirder," Eggman said, rubbing his head.

About a minute later, they had successfully entered Ponyville. A crowd was beginning to gather around the mech, which Eggman had stopped so that he could talk to the assembled ponies.

Eggman cleared his throat and a microphone rose up out of the Eggpod's control panel. "Do any of you ponies know where Sonic the Hedgehog is?" he asked, his voice digitally magnified by the microphone.

The crowd of ponies continued to gawk at Eggman and his mech, although one mint green unicorn shouted, "I knew humans existed! I told you guys but none of you listened!"

This was beginning to annoy Eggman. "I said, do any of you know where--"

"He's over at the library," piped up a small orange pegasus filly with a magenta mane. "The one inside a tree."

Eggman smiled down at her. "Thank you." He looked up and scanned the town, looking for a large tree. He saw one near the cneter of the town. Eggman was about to start making the mech walk forward again when a cream colored Earth pony with a purple-pink mane stepped in his way.

"I won't let you pass until you tell me why you have that pony there locked up," she said, firmly planting herself between him and the road to the library.

There were mutterings throughout the crowd and the mint green unicorn from earlier shouted, "Bon-Bon, what are you doing!?"

Eggman's glasses flashed. "Argh, I don't have time for this, I have a hedgehog to kill! Out of the way pony, or you die as well!"

The crowd let out a collective gasp but the pony shook her head. "No."

"So be it," Eggman muttered as he lifted the mech's left leg and crushed the pony beneath it's foot. Moving the foot away form the broken corpse of the pony, he began walking towards the library. He heard the cries of what he assumed was that mint green unicorn behind him.

Suddenly, rocks, fireballs, and an assortment of other objects, began pelting the back of the mech. Multiple ponies began kicking the feet of his mech as he walked. Luckily for Eggman, the mech had plenty of shielding, so nothing short of an Eclipse Cannon blast was going to destroy this machine.

Eggman punched in a couple buttons on his control panel. "Missiles 1 through 15, lock on to random houses and fire!" The area above the mech's jetpack opened up and fifteen missiles streamed out, hitting homes all across the town and setting them ablaze. As expected, the ponies immediately ceased their useless attacks and began focusing their efforts on putting out the fires. 

"I'm coming to get you Sonic!" Eggman shouted into his microphone, keeping his eyes on the incoming library. "You won't escape this time!"

"You monster, you horrible, horrible monster!" exclaimed the Doctor, stamping his hooves. "Killing innocent ponies, setting their homes on fire, for what? To get revenge on a hedgehog who was just trying to make the world a better place! You're much worse that I thought Eggman."

Eggman sneered. "I don't care about your opinions, Doctor. Right now, I only care about killing Sonic."

They were at the library now and Eggman could hear voices inside, determined voices. Eggman smiled. It was time, time to kill Sonic. Too bad Sonic wouldn't remember him. That took some of the fun out of killing the pest but not enough that Eggman wouldn't enjoy himself. He'd wanted this too much not to.

"Missile 16, fire!" said Eggman.

A missile flew out of the mech's back and hit the front of the library causing it to explode. Over the noise of the explosion, Eggman could hear a female voice shouting, "My mane! My beautiful mane! This wind is going to ruin it!"

After the dust cleared, Eggman got a good look at who was in front of him. There were six ponies as well as the cursed hedgehog and his annoying sidekick Tails. Eggman guessed that the six ponies were the Elements of Harmony. Of course, the heroes of his universe would find the heroes of this universe. Things always needed to be more difficult than they should be. No matter, these ponies wouldn't be able to stop him for killing Sonic.

Seeing Sonic and company gawk at his marvelous machine cause Eggman to laugh. "Hohohohoho! At last, after all these years, I'm finally going to win! You may not remember me Sonic, but I certainly remember you."

That last remark apparently confused Sonic because he asked, "What do you mean, Egghead? Of course I remember you. How could I forget?"

"What!? But how do you remeber!?" Eggman exclaimed, scratching his head. Didn't the Doctor say that if someone traveled into universe unprotected they wouldn't remember what happened in the last universe they were in? "No matter, I'll kill you anyway." He pressed a button on his control panel labeled 'Gatling Gun' and watched with satisfaction as his mech's left hand was instantly replaced with a large chain gun.

"But wait, how'd you get here?" questioned Tails, eyeing the chain gun nervously.

Funnily enough, Eggman had the exact same question for the both of them. "I might ask you the same question, fox boy!"

"Our answere is pretty simple," Tails said, taking his eyes off the chain gun and putting them on Eggman. "We were sucked into a crack in the fabric of time and space by the energy of pure love."

"Oh, that explains how you two remembered everything!" the Doctor exclaimed. "The power of love will protect anything through the void between worlds, even something as easy to lose as memories. Brilliant! It wasn't , by any chance, the blast that Shining Armor and Cadence used at the wedding, was it?"

"It was," replied the purple unicorn who was standing to Sonic's right.

So the power of love got Sonic and Tails into this universe and let them keep their memories? Fate must really not want Eggman to win. Too bad for fate though, because today Eggman was going to win.

"Ooh, you're Twilight Sparkle," the Doctor observed, "the unicorn who represents the element of magic. I was there, you know at the wedd--"

"Doctor, enough of this!" interrupted Eggman. The Doctor could ramble later because, for now, there was still a hedgehog to kill. "I don't have time to talk to these insignificant ponies!"

This remark caused the cyan pony to become angry. "Who're you calling insignificant, fatty?"

"I'm not fat, I'm big-boned!" Eggman lied, quickly getting impatient. "These inaccurate insults will get you nowhere!"

"You haven't answered the question, mustachio; how did you get here?" asked Sonic, his eyes narrowing.

That was an easily answerable question. "Hohoho," Eggman laughed. "It was quite simple really. You see, the Doctor here found me in the void using his TARDIS. I tricked him into thinking I was a good guy and he took me here. I saw a blue boom thing and knew you were the only one fast enough to create something like that."

"It's called a sonic rainboom," the pink pony piped up, "and Sonic is not the only person to create one. Dashie here has also--"

"Shut up!" interjected Eggman. "You will not insult my intelligence you--"

"Actually, she's right," the Doctor said. "In fact, I've seen it myself. One of the most amazing thins I've ever seen, and that's saying something.

The cyan pony smiled. "I don't mean to brag, but--"

"ENOUGH!" Eggman yelled, his arms thrown crazily into the air. This conversation was starting to get on Eggman's nerves. It was time to end this, once and for all. "After all these years and all these failed plans, I will finally win! I've waited a long time for this. Sonic, Tails, time to meet your maker!" He moved a joystick on his control panel until the mech's gun arm was pointing at the group assemble in front of him.

As the group tensed up, Eggman raised his finger to dramatically press the big red button. In reality, the chain gun was mostly for show. The button would actually fire fourteen heat-seeking missiles at the heroes. While they were busy dodging the chain gun, the missiles would come in and finish them off. Genius!

Just as he was about to press the button, the ponies gasped. "Yes, this machine is pretty impressive," gloated Eggman, smiling.

The purple unicorn shook her head and pointed her hoof to some point above Eggman's head. "Not you machine, look!"

Eggman looked up. Floating a couple feet above his head, was a bright pink cloud.


END OF PART 2

> Return of Disharmony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 3: Last Story - Chapter 1: Return of Disharmony


Princess Celestia gazed out her window overlooking Canterlot, searching for the elusive Dr. Eggman. Ever since Spike had told her about meeting him, nearly 45 minutes ago, she'd sat herself down next to this window and searched for any sign of the evil scientist. So far though, she hadn't seen anything unusual. This surprised her; she'd expected something to have happened by now. The Princess sighed and glanced down at the purple dragon sleeping directly on her right, his head resting against the window pane.

When Celestia had told Spike exactly who he'd run into, he hadn't taken it seriously. She'd explained a bit more and Spike seemed to take it more seriously, but Celestia had a feeling he didn't truly understand the gravity of the situation. Then again, who could? She was the only one to have discovered the Gates and seen into the other worlds. When Spike had questioned where she'd gotten the information from, of course she had to keep it a secret. Only she could possibly handle the knowledge of the atrocities the other worlds had committed. Yes, the Gates must be kept a secret.

Celestia looked back out the window. Maybe... maybe Eggman had changed. The Princess knew that if you went into a universe unprotected you'd forget everything that happened in the last universe you were in. Of course, if Eggman had forgotten everything, then he wouldn't even know who he was. If that was the case, it might cause more problems and questions than Celestia was prepared to deal with. She needed to find Eggman now before those problems could occur.

Suddenly, a red, sandy-maned stallion barged into the room, the mark on his flank was that of a winged sandal. "Princess, Princess!" exclaimed the royal messenger, Swift Wind, rushing up to the small stairway that led up to the throne. The shouting immediately woke up Spike who began grumbling about not getting a decent sleep.

Celestia gazed down at the messenger. "What is it, Swift Wind? Please tell me it's good news, I don't think I could take anymore bad news," she replied.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you Princess, but I do have bad news," Swift Wind said. "In fact, it's downright terrible news!"

"What is it?" sighed Celestia. She already had an idea of what this was about.

"Reports coming out of Ponyville indicate that Ponyville is under attack by some sort of large machine piloted by a pale-skinned creature with a mustache and a red jacket," explained the messenger. "Reports also say that he has taken a prisoner. The prisoner is said to be a brown, spiky-haired Earth pony."

"Oh no! That must be that Eggman guy terrorizing Ponyville! We have to go and stop him!" Spike exclaimed, looking up at the Princess. He instantly regretted the action however, as the expression on her face nearly scared him half to death. She looked horrified! "Princess?"

"Did... did the reports say anything about this Earth pony's cutie mark?" Celestia inquired.

"As a matter of fact, they did," Swift Wind said. "They said that the cutie mark was an hour glass."

The Doctor. Celestia knew who he was, the same way she knew who Eggman was. She'd seen him save his universe a countless number of times. She'd seen him survive everthing that was thrown his way. She'd also seen him cross over into this world when he was running from his death. Celestia hadn't really minded as long as he didn't cause trouble. If Eggman had captured the Doctor, then things were worse than she had imagined.

"Wait a second," began Spike, scratching his chin. "I remember seeing somepony that matched your description with Eggman here in Canterlot. But... he didn't seem to be Eggman's prisoner then. In fact, they looked like they were friends!"

"He was probably tricked into thinking Eggman was a good guy. Eggman's done that before," Celestia replied. "C'mon Spike, we need to get to Ponyville fast, and stop Eggman."

Spike saluted. "Yes ma'am!"

Celestia closed her eyes and let the magic flow through her. Her horn began glowing as she readied the teleportation sp--

"Wait, Princess! There's one more thing!" interrupted Swift Wind.

Celestia opened her eyes. "What is it?" she asked, slightly annoyed. What could possibly be more important than stopping a mad scientist from destroying an entire town? A town that housed the ponies who represented the Elements of Harmony no less!

"Discord's statue is gone!" answered the messenger. "He's been released!"

Celestia froze, letting the magic ebb away. That was most definitely more important. "Why didn't you tell me this before you told me about Ponyville?"

Swift Wind blushed and looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, but you told me that, whenever I have news for you, to tell you any news that could put immediate danger on Twilight Sparkle before anything else."

Spike scratched his head. "Why would you have a rule like that for?"

"It doesn't matter," Celestia said, shaking her head. "We need to get to Ponyville with the Elements of Harmony. I have a feeling Discord's going to be there and, if so, we might be able to kill two birds with one stone."

-------

Sonic looked from the pink cloud to the six ponies beside him. Their faces were a mix of horror and shock. Sonic glanced at Tails and his confused face told the blue hedgehog that he was asking himself the same question: what was so bad about the pink cloud?

"You lied to me again!" shouted the caged pony, breaking the silence. "You did release Discord!"

Eggman shook his head, still staring up at the pink cloud. "I didn't, I swear! I wouldn't  even know where to begin trying to release him!" he replied frantically.

"Can someone please tell me what is so terrible about this pink cloud?" Sonic asked, finally voicing his question.

"That pink cloud is a sign that Discord, the god of chaos, has been released from his stone imprisonment," responded Twilight Sparkle. "The last time he was free, he turned all of Ponyville upside down and took away our friendship."

"Yep," said the caged pony, glaring up at Eggman, "and this egghead just released him again."

"I did not!" exclaimed Eggman who was still staring up at the cloud. 

"Well, how'd you guys beat Discord then, if he's so powerful?" Tails asked. Sonic had been wondering the same thing.

"We renewed our friendship and used the Elements of Harmony to imprison Discord once again," explained Twilight.

"You know," began Rainbow Dash, tapping her hoof against her chin, "I still can't believe he made me think a tiny little cloud was Cloudsdale."

Applejack shrugged. "I can't believe he made Rarity here think that an ugly old boulder was a bonafide diamond."

Rarity glared daggers at Applejack. "I thought we agreed never to speak of that again," she whispered icily.

"So wait," Sonic started, scratching his head, "what are these 'Helements of Armory' exactly?"

Twilight facehoofed. "I forgot to tell you guys about the Elements, didn't I?"

"No worries Twilight Sparkle, I can explain it," the caged pony offered. "The Elements of Harmony are--"

"QUIET!" yelled Eggman, finally turning back to face Sonic and company. "Doctor, I'm going to kill Sonic now, and nothing is going to stop me, not even some silly god!" He raised his finger to press the button again.

At that moment, a sinister chuckle filled the air, growing in volume. Suddenly, the pink cloud exploded and became a tall serpent with the head of a pony and limbs from a multitude of other creatures. 

The serpent wagged a finger. "Tsk, tsk. Now where's the fun in that?" With a snap of his fingers, the mech disappeared from under Eggman, as did the cage trapping the Doctor. They both hit the ground, each with a particularly nasty thud. "I can't have you killing the person who's responsible for releasing me; we should be throwing him a party!"

At these words, everyone turned to stare at Sonic who's expression was just as confused as the rest their's was. "M-me?" the hedgehog stammered. How in the world had he released this Discord guy?

"Yes, of course," answered Discord, smiling down at him. "Without you, I would still be a statue on the castle grounds."

Applejack snorted. "Quit lyin', we all know it was that Eggman feller who released ya."

"Oh, come now Applejack, you're the Element of Honesty, surely you'd be able to detect the truth when you hear it?" replied Discord. "Eggman helped it along, in more ways than one, but Sonic's rainboom is the main reason I'm free."

"Now I know you're lying," Rainbow Dash retorted, flying up to eye level with the serpent. " I do sonic rainboom's all the time, but you're never released when I do them."

Discord rubbed his chin. "Maybe I didn't say exactly what I meant. You see, it's more of what the boom caused to happen... Eggman, I think you know what I'm talking about," said the serpent, turning to face the fat scientist who was currently sitting on the ground, recovering from his fall.

Eggman thought for a moment. "Yes... yes, I think I remember." He thrust his had into one of his jacket pockets and pulled out an ordinary looking key. "I was holding this when I saw Sonic's boom. I was... startled by it and the key flew out of my hands right onto... the statue's foot." His mustache drooped a little. It was obvious to Sonic that Eggman hadn't meant for this to happen.

"Bingo!" exclaimed Discord, clapping his hands together. It seemed to Sonic that he was enjoying this way too much.

"But how exactly did that release you?" the Doctor asked, eyeing the key with avid curiosity.

"Good question, Doctor," complemented Discord. "You see, while Eggman was standing in front of my statue debating on whether to attempt to released me or not, his inner turmoil caused the stone imprisoning me to soften. Then, when Eggman was startled, the key landed on my feet, causing the stone to crack, thus allowing me to escape."

Sonic crossed his arms. "So, technically, it was Egg--"

Discord raised a finger to silence Sonic. "I wasn't finished yet. It couldn't have been just any old key that could've caused it to crack; no. This key was special," said Discord. He glanced down at the Doctor. "Care to explain, Doctor?"

The Doctor sighed and faced Sonic's group. "The key I gave Eggman was a key to my TARDIS, which is my time and space machine. Not only that, but the key was also a 'perception filter' which makes it so that no one pays attention to the holder of said perception filter unless the holder draws attention to himself."

"Exactly," replied Discord, rubbing his hands together. "That key is from a different universe; it causes a small amount of chaotic energy just by being in this universe!" The serpent laughed heartily. "The chaos caused by that key, combined with Eggman's inner turmoil, is what caused me to be freed!"

Applejack glared at the Doctor. "Now why'd you go and give a key like that to this guy right here?" she questioned, pointing at Eggman.

"Well, I didn't know he was evil until after I gave him the key," the Doctor retorted.

Sonic barely noticed this little exchange because he was busy staring at Eggman's face. The mad scientist was currently staring up at Discord with an expression that Sonic had seen only once before, back during the whole Chaos business when Chaos had turned on Eggman. Stripped of the usual anger and insanity, Eggman's face was a strange mix of fear, sadness, and regret. However, unlike the time with Chaos, something was different. Something had changed, although Sonic couldn't put his finger on what exactly that something was.

Discord let out another hearty chuckle. "It's been a riveting discussion everypony, but I have lots of chaos to wreak!" He looked down at Eggman and added, "Oh, and thank you for causing some splendid chaos in Ponyville already. Makes my job just that easier."

"Just you wait, Discord!" shouted Twilight, her face set in determination, glaring at the chaotic serpent. "Once we find the elements, you're going down!" There was a chorus of "yeah's" from the other five ponies.

"Oh Twilight, you don't need to worry about finding those silly elements," replied Discord, pointing at the undestroyed back wall of the library, "they'll be arriving in about 3 seconds."

Twilight scrunched up her eyebrows. "What do you--"

There was a bright flash of white light from where Discord had been pointing to. Standing where the flash had emanated from, was a tall, alabaster pegasus-unicorn hybrid with a flowing multi-colored mane. Next to the hybrid stood a small, purple scaly creature with green spines and, in its hands, was a jewel encrusted box.

"This stops now, Discord!" commanded the hybrid, glaring up at the serpent.

"Princess Celestia!" the six ponies exclaimed in tandem. 

"Hello Celestia," sneered Discord. After a quick glance at Sonic and Tails, he added with a grin, "Long time no see."



> Finding A New Solution
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 3: Last Story - Chapter 2: Finding A New Solution


Celestia glared fiercely at Discord. "Chaos has no place in Equestria, Discord," she said. She then took the time to glance at Sonic, Tails, Eggman, and the Doctor. "And neither do any of you."

"It wasn't our fault Princess," Tails replied, frowning. "We were brought here by the power of love; it sucked us through a crack in space and time."

Celestia raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.

"What he says is true, Princess," Twilight said, coming to their rescue. "He's told us the story and it all makes sense. Sonic and Tails were sucked through a crack by the blast Shining Armor and Cadence used at their wedding!"

"Alright, I understand," said Celestia, nodding. She settled her gaze upon the other two otherworldly interlopers. "Those two on the other hand--"

"You know, as necessary as this conversation is, can we please just skip to the part where you use the Elements on me?" interrupted Discord, crossing his arms.

Everyone stared at the serpent incredulously.

"Wow," Sonic said, letting out a low whistle, "I wish the bad guys in our universe were just as easy as this guy is."

Celestia's eyes narrowed. "No, he's up to something. There's no way he'd want to be imprisoned again; it's not in his nature." 

"What could he possibly have planned?" asked Rainbow Dash, glancing questioningly at the Princess. "What could he possibly do?"

Celestia gazed down at the rainbow maned mare. "I don't know, and that's what worries me."

"You guys know that I can hear you, right?" Discord interjected. "I promise I don't have anything planned."

"Do you Pinkie Promise?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Of course Pinkie Pie. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye," promised the serpent, going through the motions a Pinkie Promise required.

"Alright, good enough for me," said the pink pony cheerfully, turning to the Princess and smiling.

"I don't know..." Celestia muttered, still unconvinced.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "C'mon, just do it. You have no idea how good it is to have these sorts of evil gods go down without a fight. If you'd have seen the stuff I've faced, you'd understand why you should just go ahead and do it."

The look that Celestia gave Sonic gave him the feeling that she had seen the stuff he'd faced. Strange. However, after a few moments, the Princess let out a sigh of defeat.

"Spike," she began, "open the box."

"Oh goodie!" shouted Discord, pumping his fists into the air triumphantly.

The purple creature, Spike, opened the ornately decorated box. Inside were five sparkling necklaces and 1 shiny crown-thing, each adorned with a jewel of different shapes and colors. Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy each took the ones who's jewels matched the marks on the corresponding pony's flank. Once the Elements were in place upon the ponies, they turned to face Discord, who had pinned a target to his chest.

"Fire away!" cried the serpent, throwing an arm over his eyes dramatically.

The six ponies stood in formation and closed their eyes. Everyone else, except Discord, took a step backwards. Twilight's eyes snapped open, emitting a bright, white light. She was immediately followed by the five others doing the same thing. They began to float up into the air, the jewels adorning the Elements beginning to glow. Once thy rose to Discord's height, beams of light shot out of each jewel, shooting high into the air before coalescing into a single massive rainbow. Upon nearing the roof of the devastated library, the rainbow instantly curved downward, straight towards Discord, at a mind-numbing velocity. It struck the serpent with a loud bang and a large explosion. The force of the explosion propelled everyone, including the Elements of Harmony and both the Doctor and Eggman, into the back wall of the library.

Sonic was the first to recover. He quickly picked himself up off the ground. "Is everybody all right?" the hedgehog asked, looking around the room. The entrance was still shrouded in smoke.

"Ya mean 'everypony', right?" responded Applejack, as she and everyone else began dusting themselves off.

"Everypony?" questioned Sonic and Tails simultaneously, exchanging a glance.

"Yeah," answered the Doctor. "It's what ponies say instead of everybody." He turned to the Princess. "You should probably change that, Princess, because it's incredibly unfair to the other sentient life here in Equestria."

Celestia gave a slight smile. "I'll get right on that." She witched her gaze to the now clearing smoke. She could see the faint outline of what she assumed to be Discord's statue in the entrance. "Good job, my little ponies," Celestia congratulated. "Time to bring the statue back to Canterlot."

"I'm afraid not," said a sinister voice. The smoke clouding the entrance vanished revealing a smiling and very un-stony Discord. "Did you actually think that that would work a third time? Ha!"

Celestia's eyes narrowed. "I knew it!" she said in the midst of the others' gasps.

Twilight's eyes widened in horror. "Bu-but how--"

"YOU BROKE A PINKIE PROMISE!" screamed Pinkie Pie, who's eyes seemed to have been lit aflame and who's ears seemed to be releasing smoke.

"Yes, I'm Discord; god of chaos, bringer of disharmony. Maybe you've heard of me?" retorted Discord, leaning forward and poking Pinkie's nose. "I've been known to do that sort of thing."

"You won't get away with this, Discord!" shouted Celestia, fiercely glaring at the serpent again.

"Oh, but I think I will," Discord said, pulling himself away from Pinkie Pie. "You see, I've grown an immunity to the Elements. After being frozen in stone the same way twice, my body developed the immunity the same way you ponies develop immunity to Pony Pox after you've already had it once. Now your precious Elements of Harmony can no longer control my chaos!" He immediately burst out laughing.

"You monster!" squeaked Fluttershy.

"I am, aren't I?" chuckled Discord. "Well, it's been fun, but the forecast calls for a big ol' storm of chaos and I'm just the one to cause it. Arrivederci!" Suddenly, his right hand shot out and grabbed Celestia by the horn. "You're coming with me." Then, with a snap of his fingers, they were both gone.

There was stunned silence. Everyone was too shocked by what had just happened to speak. The silence stretched on for nearly five minutes before someone spoke.

"Wha-what do we do now?" asked Twilight, looking around at her friends.

"I say we go find Discord and teach him a lesson, the old fashioned way," replied Rainbow Dash, flying up into the air and punching with her front hooves to demonstrate what exactly the "old fashioned way" was.

"I'm afraid that isn't a realistic option, darling," Rarity said, frowning. "We couldn't defeat him before without the Elements and, now that he's immune to them, we don't even have that as an option."

Applejack nodded. "Ah'm gonna have to agree with Rarity; a frontal assault won't do us any good."

"There's got to be something we can do," said Fluttershy.

Twilight shook her head. "I can't think of anything," the purple unicorn said sadly. She turned to Tails. "Do you have any ideas?"

"No," answered Tails, shaking his head. "Unless there's something in this universe more powerful than your Elements of Harmony, I've got nothing."

Twilight sighed. "Well girls, I guess we won't be needing these," she said, taking off her crown-tiara-thing. The five others followed suit. The Elements each hit the ground with a tinny ringing noise.

"Hold on, I've got an idea!" exclaimed the Doctor, his eyes lighting up.

"Oooo, what is it Mr. Doctor?" Pinkie Pie asked, excitedly bouncing up and down, the anger over Discord's broken Pinkie Promise seemingly forgotten.

"It's just the Doctor, thank you," replied the spiky haired pony, turning to face Sonic. "Anyway, I've read that you have mystical items in your universe called the 'Chaos Emeralds'. Is that correct?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Yeah... so what?"

"Yes, the Chaos Emeralds!" shouted Eggman who, up until that point, had been sitting against the wall and staring at the ground with a distant expression. Now though, his expression was hopeful. "We can use them to defeat Discord!"


"Chaos Emeralds?" Rainbow Dash asked, frowning.

"Oh, hold on, Tails told me about them," Twilight said. "They're seven mystical gems that give the user untold power and, when all seven are collected, miracles can occur. But... how do you expect to take down the god of chaos with these Chaos Emeralds?"

"That's easy," Sonic replied, grinning his signature cocky grin. "I'll just use the positive chaos energy to defeat him, just like I did with Chaos. This Discord guy probably only uses the negative energy anyway."

"Well, how do ya'll 'spect to get these emeralds anyway?" questioned Applejack. "It's not like we can just travel to yer universe and take 'em."

"Actually, we can," said Eggman, standing up and looking at the Doctor, who began nodding.

"My TARDIS," he said.

"Yeah," Tails began, "you said before that that was your time and space machine."

The Doctor nodded again. "Right you are. I can use it to try and travel to your universe. It's going to be a lot harder than traveling between my world and this one, mostly because I've never traveled to your world before, but it should still be within the realm of possibility."

"It's settled then," said Twilight, "Doctor, you go get the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic's world. Sonic, when he gets back, use their positive energy to take out Discord."

Eggman put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "I'll come with you."

"No, I don't need your help," the Doctor said coldly, moving out of Eggman's grasp. "I don't want to be tricked again." With that, the Doctor ran out of the library to go get the TARDIS.

The tension inside the room instantly skyrocketed. The six ponies, Sonic, and Tails, turned their gazes upon Eggman, wondering what he'd do next. The fat scientist looked from wary face to wary face, until his gaze finally landed on the purple dragon who was out cold on the floor beside him.

Eggman sighed, took off his glasses, and looked Sonic dead in the eye. "Sonic," he said, "I owe you an apology."
	
> A Big Ol' Storm of Chaos
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 3: Last Story - Chapter 3: A Big Ol' Storm of Chaos


With a flash of light, Discord and Princess Celestia materialized in the center of Ponyville. They were surrounded by destroyed houses from when Eggman had fired his missiles. In the distance, fire still blazed on a couple of houses; this was where most of the ponies had went. The part of town Discord and Celestia were in was almost completely deserted, save the lone mint green unicorn crying over the broken corpse of her one true love.

"Oh no," whispered Celestia, tears forming in her eyes. "What happened?"

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Discord quietly. "This was all Eggman's doing."

This quiet conversation caused the unicorn's head to perk up. "Who's there?" asked the unicorn.

Before Celestia could say anything, Discord said, "Someone who understands how cruel fate can be."

The unicorn turned around slowly. When her eyes fell upon Discord and the Princess, she gasped. "P-princess and--"

"Discord," said the draconequis, leaning forward and taking the unicorn's hoof, "the god of chaos. Nice to finally meet you Lyra." 

"H-how do y-you know my name?" Lyra questioned, glancing from the Princess to the serpent.

"Oh Lyra, I know all about you," Discord answered, smiling. "Still obsessing over humans?"

A dark look passed over the unicorn's face. "Not anymore," she said coldly. "If the one who came through here is anything to judge them by, they mus all be a bunch of monsters." She looked down at Bon-Bon's body, tears forming once again in her eyes. "I can't believe she's actually d-dead!" She burst into tears upon completing her sentence.

While Discord began laughing, Celestia looked on in sadness. "You poor thing."

"Alrighty then," said Discord, recovering, "I think it's time you leave, Miss Heartstrings. And take your dead friend with you; she's lying on the perfect spot for my throne."

Without complaint, Lyra lifted her lover delicately off the ground with magic and began walking away. Once she was out of sight, Discord flew to the spot where Bon-Bon had been, keeping Celestia's horn tightly in his grip and dragging her across the ground. With a snap of his fingers, the blood that had been on the ground disappeared.

"Now for the fun part," Discord said, glancing down at Celestia evilly. "This going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me."

"What do you me-AAAAHHHHHHH!" the Princess screamed as Discord tightened his grip on her horn and began dragging magical power out of her, letting it coalesce into the palm of his free hand as a dark red orb that was slowly growing in size.

"Heheheheh," Discord chuckled sinisterly, relishing in Celestia's pain. He could only imagine the agony that she must be feeling. And he enjoyed every second of it. Sadly though, like all good things, this had to come to an end. With a sigh, he stemmed the flow of magic. As Celestia's knees buckled, Discord examined the red orb of magical energy in his hand. It was about a foot in diameter. That was good; it was big enough to achieve what he planned to do.

Celestia looked up at the orb. "Wha-what are you going to... to do with that?" she asked weakly in between breathes.

The draconequis sneered down at the alabaster alicorn. "Create my perfect world." With that, Discord slammed the crimson orb into the ground, plunging it deep into the dirt and then letting it go.

The ground shuddered once, then twice. In a split second, the sky went from light blue to blood red and the area around where Discord had plunged the orb began cracking. Out of the cracks, a red shockwave exploded outward, enveloping all of Equestria and plunging it into a state of chaotic limbo. Buildings were being ripped up out of the ground and turning upside down; pink cotton candy clouds began appearing throughout Equestria, soaking it in a mixture of chocolate milk and cola. Everything changed into something that didn't make sense, something more chaotic. Cycles were reversed and Equestria became isolated from the outside world. Then, after a final flash of scarlet light, the cracks on the ground mended and out of the ground rose Discord's ornate stone throne.

"My dear Celestia," said Discord, bringing the Princess up to his level by her horn and gesturing to the world around them, "welcome to Chaostria."

-------

The Doctor galloped into the TARDIS at full speed, kicking the door closed behind him. Despite all the pressure on him to travel to Sonic's universe and get the Chaos Emeralds, the Doctor felt more alive than he had in ages. He hadn't run like that since... since that incident with the waters of Mars and Captain Adelaide Brook.

"No!" exclaimed the Doctor, shaking his head. "I mustn't think about that. I've got more important things to worry about right now!"

Rushing to the control panel, the Doctor examined it and tried to think up a solution to getting to Sonic's world. After a few seconds, he had an idea.

"Let's say that my universe is in the middle," the Doctor said to himself, pacing around the control panel, "and that the other two are on either side of it. If I take the coordinates for the pony universe and use the exact opposites, with the coordinates of my universe directly between those two sets of coordinates, then I should get to Sonic's universe! Brilliant!"

Suddenly, the TARDIS shook once, then twice before becoming still again.

"What was that?" the Doctor asked, turning to face the door. He stood there, staring at the door, trying to decide if he should take a look outside to see what had happened or to forget it and go and get the Chaos Emeralds. Finally, his sense of duty overwhelmed his overbearing curiosity. "Whatever just happened there probably can only be fixed by the Chaos Emeralds. I need to get going, I've wasted enough time as it is!"

With that, the Doctor began traveling around the control panel and fiddling with it, getting the coordinates exactly right. Once they were, he walked up to the final T-shaped lever. He put is hoof on it.

"Here goes nothing," he said, pulling the lever down. Then, with a smile, he added, "Allons-y!"

-------

"What!?"Sonic and Tails exclaimed simultaneously, their jaws dropping.

Eggman nodded and slipped his glasses into his pocket. "I would like to apologize for everything I've done here and back home."

This was beyond weird to Sonic. Could Eggman really be apologizing? And... did he actually just take off his glasses!? Not once, in all the years they'd been fighting each other, had Eggman taken off his glasses in Sonic's presence. For the first time ever, Sonic could see Eggman's actual eyes; they were a brilliant blue, the same color as Sonic.

"How do we know this isn't another trick?" asked Tails, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "We haven't forgotten the Interstellar Amusement Park."

"I didn't thinks so," Eggman chuckled. "Here, let me expl--"

The fat scientist was interrupted by a sudden earthquake which was followed instantly by another equally powerful earthquake.

"What was that?" asked Eggman, looking past Sonic and Tails to the outside of the library.

"Look!" they heard Twilight shout from behind them.

Both Sonic and Tails turned around. Twilight and the other five ponies were standing next to the destroyed entrance, staring out into the outside world. What was currently happening outside was extremely unnerving. The sky had turned blood red and most of the houses in Ponyville had been turned upside down-- literally! In the sky, there were tons of pink clouds pouring brown rain and, on the ground, were what appeared to be buffalo dressed as ballerinas... doing ballet. Alongside the buffalo, were a multitude of different woodland creatures with extremely long and skinny horse legs.

Sonic let out a low whistle. "That Discord guy wasn't lying when he said he had chaos to wreak. This is the most chaotic thing I've ever seen!"

"Well, I don't know about you guys," began Pinkie Pie, preparing to go outside, "but I think I'm going to get a taste of that delicious chocolate ra--"

"No, Pinkie," said Twilight, holding the pink pony still with magic. "We have to stay here and wait for the Doctor to get back with the Chaos Emeralds."

"Aaawww, you're no fun!"

"You know," started Rainbow Dash, looking up at the sky, "I don't remember the sky being red the last time Discord was released."

"Hey, you're right!" Twilight replied.

"Yeah, the Doctor didn't say anything about red skies either," said Eggman. "Then again, he only told me about the pink clouds and the chocolate rain so I had no idea about the buffalo or the upside down houses.

"Hey, weren't you supposed to be apologizing?" Tails asked, turning to face Eggman.

"Yes, I am," Eggman answered as Sonic and the 6 ponies also turned to face him. "But first I have to explain why I am so that you won't be so suspicious."

Sonic nodded. "Makes sense," he said, crossing his arms. "Oh, and nice eyes by the way. Very nice shade of blue." 

Eggman couldn't help but smile. "Thank you." Then, after clearing his throat, he began, "It all started shortly after you and your younger self defeated me..."

And so he went on to explain the changes he'd been going through. He explained that he'd only tricked the Doctor because he thought that the Doctor wouldn't believe he was changing and leave him in the void. Eggman also explained the difficult decision he had faced in front of Discord's statue and what his final decision had been. He explained nearly everything that had been going through his head until the moment he saw Sonic's boom.

"You really must have changed," said Tails. "You deciding not to willingly unleash a divine beast upon the world is most definitely out of character for you."

"Yes, well, whatever changes I made were utterly worthless once I saw Sonic's, uh... rainboom," Eggman replied.

"What, do you have something against sonic rainbooms?" asked Rainbow Dash defensively.

"No," answered Eggman, shaking his head, "but seeing Sonic in Equestria angered me immensely. Why did the one person who I hate above all others have to be here? Seeing Sonic brought all the horrible memories into my head; all the pain and suffering I've been feeling throughout the years was forced into focus. All my changes were reversed and my main goal was, once again, evil."

"But all that pain and suffering you felt, according to what Sonic and Tails told me, you brought all that upon yourself," Twilight pointed out. "Sonic wouldn't have had to stop you if you hadn't done the evil stuff in the first place."

"Right you are," said Eggman, nodding. "Before, when Discord was here, I saw what my actions can cause even when I don't mean for them to. Seeing that caused me to look back at all my past deeds and, in doing so, I truly realized what a monster I've been. In that instant, my hate for Sonic vanished and was replaced by a hate for myself." He looked Sonic dead in the eyes. " I'm sorry Sonic, for everything I've done to you and our world. It was evil and wrong and, for the rest of my life, I pledge to do the right thing and make the world a better place. I don't expect you to forgive me so easily, as the stuff I've done  is absolutely horrid, but I hope that, in time, you do end up forgiving me."

Sonic, who had been silent during the entire conversation so far, walked up to Eggman, held out his hand, and said, "Welcome to the good guys, Ivo."

As Ivo smiled and shook Sonic's hand, there was a cacophony of protests from the other seven people in the room.

"You're going to forgive him, just like that?" asked Tails. "After all he's done?"

"Who's Ivo?" questioned Rainbow Dash. "I thought his name was Eggman."

"I really think you should reconsider this, Sonic," Rarity said.

The complaints continued until Sonic couldn't take it anymore. "SHUT UP!" the hedgehog shouted. Just like that, everyone shut up.

Rainbow Dash raised a hoof.

Sonic facepalmed. "Yes, Rainbow Dash?"

"Why'd you call him Ivo? You said his name was Eggman," replied the pegasus, lowering her hoof.

Just as Sonic was about to answer, Ivo put a hand on his shoulder. "Let me explain," the scientist began. "My actual name is Ivo Robotnik. A few years ago, Sonic and his friends started calling me 'Eggman' as an insult and it kind of stuck."

"His name isn't the problem here," interjected Tails, looking at Sonic. "Sonic, how can you forgive him so easily? Did you forget all the things he's done? Even he didn't expect you to forgive him that easily. This could still be some elaborate ploy."

"But it isn't," Sonic replied, shaking his head. "I can tell. Not once, in all the years I've known him, has he actively apologized or explained himself in so much detail. This time it's genuine. And come on, he took off his glasses! He's never done that!" He glanced up at Ivo and added, "Of course, despite the awesome shade of blue, you might want to put those glasses back on. Seeing your eyes is starting to creep me out."

Ivo laughed. "As you wish," he said, taking the glasses out of his pocket and putting them on.

Tails glanced from Ivo to Sonic and back again. "I don't know Sonic. This still seems pretty suspicious."

"Here, let's ask Applejack," said Sonic, turning towards the orange pony. "You're the Element of Honesty, right? Well, do you think Eggm-- Ivo here has genuinely changed?"

Applejack gazed intently at Ivo for a couple seconds before saying, "Ah reckon... ah reckon he's genuinely changed. He's no longer evil."

"Well, if Applejack says it's true, then it must be true," said Pinkie Pie. "But that means we have to throw Ivo an I-Was-Evil-But-I've-Just-Turned-Good-And-Now-I-Pledge-To-Make-The-World-A-Better-Place party! I need to go get the party supplies from Sugarcube Corner. See ya!"

"No Pinkie!" Twilight shouted, using magic to stop Pinkie from doing just that. "We have to wait here for the Doctor to get back."

"Anyway," Tails said, putting the conversation back on track, "I guess that if both Sonic and the Element of Honesty think you have changed, then it has to be true." He walked up to Ivo and held out his hand, just like Sonic had before. "I'm sorry for doubting you so much."

Ivo chuckled and smiled down at the young fox. "It's quite all right," replied the scientist, shaking Tails' hand. "I understand."

In the following minutes, the six ponies followed suit and shook their hooves with Ivo.

"Your eyes really are a brilliant shade of blue," Rarity complimented when it was her turn.

"Despite all that evil stuff you've done, you seem like a pretty cool gut," said Rainbow Dash on her turn.

"I still don't like what you did to your world's woodland creatures," Fluttershy said, glaring up at Ivo as she shook his hand.

"When this is all over, I'm going to throw the bestest party ever!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie once her turn arrived.

"Welcome to the good side Ivo," said Applejack, vigorously shaking his hand. "It's nice tuh properly make yer acquaintance!" 

When it was her turn, Twilight said, "It's good to know that even the worst of us can change their ways."

During these proceedings, Sonic couldn't help but smile at the surrealism of it all. Eggman turning good? For real this time? Shaking hands with magical talking ponies? Seeing all this made Sonic wonder what would happen once they got home. Since Eggman had changed, what would he, Sonic, do? Without the almost constant thwarting of Eggman's schemes, things would get boring pretty fast. Of course, if that was the price to pay to have Eggman become good, then it was most definitely worth it.

"All right, now that we got that out of the way," Sonic began, rubbing his hands together, "we should probably--"

The blue hedgehog was interrupted by a loud snore that came form the purple creature on the floor by Ivo's feet. The snore was immediately followed by the small purple creature grumbling, "Of course you can kiss me Rarity, I don't mind at all."

Everyone turned to look at Rarity who's face had turned bright crimson. "M-maybe we should, um, bring Spike to his, uh, bed?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"Yeah, probably," Twilight giggled as she and Rarity walked up the stairs to the bedroom, levitating the sleeping dragon close behind and leaving four hysterically laughing ponies and Ivo, Sonic, and Tails utterly confused.

-------

The sounds of small explosions filled the air as the Doctor held on the the railing inside his TARDIS for dear life. The control panel in the center of the room was sparking and exploding. Cords and wires were hanging form the ceiling, sparking with electricity. The TARDIS itself was shaking uncontrollably. Of course, the Doctor knew why this was happening as the first few times he tried traveling to the pony universe the same thing had happened, but that didn't make the Doctor any less worried.

Now, to make matters worse, the Doctor could feel a familiar bubbly sensation in his chest that was slowly spreading outward into his limbs. He'd felt this sensation a couple of times before and it meant only one thing: his body was changing form.

As the bubbly sensations spread into his head, the last things the Doctor's mind registered before losing consciousness was  that the shaking had stopped and the explosions had ceased. The noise filling the air now was that of a very familiar grinding noise.

"It actually worked," whispered the Doctor as he dropped from the railing and lost all consciousness. "I can't believe it actually worked..."

-------

Knuckles was annoyed. No, he was much more than annoyed; he was down right pissed.

"What's the point of throwing someone a birthday party if that someone leaves before the party can really begin!?" the red echidna screamed at nothing in particular. "And without telling anyone!"

Knuckles was currently walking through one of the jungles on his home, Angel Island, trying to get back to the Master Emerald's shrine. In his right hand he held a burlap sack, containing the seven Chaos Emeralds which Sonic had just left lying around in the park. Sonic's birthday party had been a total disaster. First, Eggman shows up with his Time Eater machine and sucked them into a black void of nothingness. Then, once that was over, Sonic left without telling anyone where he was going. In fact, no one had even seen Sonic leave! Knuckles sighed. Even Tails, the one who had planned the party in the first place, had left without telling anyone. Sometimes he wondered why he was even friends with those two at all.

Maybe, said a voice in his head, your friends with them because you get lonely after guarding the Master Emerald alone for so long.

"Ergh, SHUT UP!" shouted Knuckles, punching the nearest palm tree with his free hand, causing the tree to shake and emit a 'thwong' sound.

As the red echidna began walking away, he noticed that the 'thwong' sound wasn't going away. In fact, it was actually getting louder. And, to top it all off, there seemed to be a sort of grinding noise that was also increasing in volume. Knuckles turned around to see just what the heck was going on.

Next to the shaking tree, becoming more visible with each passing second, was what appeared to be a blue police box. He knew what a police box was mostly because he'd seen a few in Station Square. But... what was a police box doing on his island? The sight of it caused Knuckles to drop the sack holding the Chaos Emeralds. There was a sudden cracking noise as the roots to the palm tree snapped. However, Knuckles was too transfixed by the now completely visible police box to notice as the palm tree, now at gravity's whim, fell onto Knuckles' head, knocking him out cold.

-------

Upon coming back to consciousness, the Doctor opened his eyes slowly and stood up. He had a bit of trouble standing up as he now had two legs instead of four. Since he'd been in the pony universe for so long, he'd gotten used to walking on four legs. Finding out that he now had two legs caused the Doctor to look down at himself and see what the rest of his body looked like, afraid that something had gone wrong. What he saw, however, relieved his fears immediately.

He had the same two legs, two arms, and, once he checked, two hearts. Over those appendages, he wore his favorite brown suit with magenta tie. Everything seemed in order. Even the Converse sneakers were right. After walking a couple of feet towards the door, he stopped.

"Wait a moment, I've forgotten something," the Doctor said. After a few moments of thinking, he had it. "My face! I've forgotten to check my face!" He immediately began feeling his entire face, putting his fingers into every nook and cranny he could find. Once again, everything seemed in order; same unkempt and spiky hair, same scratchy chin, same snot filled nostrils... it was good to be back in this form. He'd missed it.

After walking another couple of feet towards the door, the Doctor quickly turned around and walked back to the control panel where he pressed a button and watched as his sonic screwdriver, a thin, cylindrical contraption with a blue tip, rose up out of the panel. Once it had risen up to its full height, the Doctor plucked the screwdriver up from its pedestal and put it in his pocket.

"I can't believer I almost forgot my sonic screwdriver!" exclaimed the Doctor who was once again walking towards the door. "Well, then again, I haven't really used it much since I came to the pony universe as I can't really use it very effectively with as a pony."

Upon reaching the door, the Doctor opened it and poked his head out to check his surroundings. The TARDIS seemed to have landed in a jungle of some sort and, judging by the position of the sun, it was about 2 PM. On the ground in front of the TARDIS was a fallen palm tree and, under the leafy end, some sort of unconscious red anthropomorphic creature that looked vaguely like Sonic.

"Knuckles the Echidna!" the Doctor shouted enthusiastically. "Isn't that just the darndest... hold on a second, something's not right here." The Doctor looked from the fallen tree to the unconscious Knuckles and finally to his TARDIS. "Woops."

Over on the ground beside Knuckles was, completely untouched by the tree, was a large burlap sack. The Doctor, being careful to step over the tree and Knuckles, went to investigate. After grabbing the bag and opening it, he found that contents of the bag were the very things he'd come here for: the Chaos Emeralds.

Despite his relief at finding them, he couldn't help but feel a twang of disappointment. The Doctor had wanted to stay in this form just a tiny bit longer. The one time he wanted a little bit more challenge, the stuff he wanted was presented to him on a silver platter. Then again, why didn't this happen more often? He wished it would've been this easy and uncomplicated the last time he'd faced Davros and the Daleks. If it had been, Donna would still be with him and he'd never have had to run away from his death which would've meant that none of this would be happening...

After closing the bag, the Doctor took it and rushed back into the TARDIS, snapping his fingers to shut the door. He put the brown sack on the floor next to the control panel and immediately began putting in the coordinates for the pony universe.  Once the coordinates were in, the Doctor put a hand on the final T-shaped lever and pulled.

"Allons-y!" he shouted, grabbing the nearest railing and mentally preparing himself for the treacherous ride back to Equestria.

-------

The mighty draconequis, Discord, sat upon his throne and surveyed the new and improved chaos capitol of the world, Ponyville. Seeing all the delightful chaos made Discord extremely happy. Looking to his right, he saw Celestia chained to his throne, absolutely miserable, which made him happier still.

"Oh Celestia, doesn't all this chaos make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?" asked Discord jubilantly, gesturing to everything around them.

"No, no it doesn't," the Princess replied, glaring up at the serpent. "Seeing my subjects submitted to this horror doesn't make me feel good at all."

"Horrors?" the draconequis retorted, rolling his eyes. "You always were overly dramatic. You should lighten up; have some fun! You might as well, seeing as all this isn't going anywhere anytime soon and neither am I."

"But why, Discord, why?" Celestia questioned. "Why are you doing this? Why be a monster when you can be so much more?"

"Don't play dumb with me Celestia, you know perfectly well why!" shouted Discord, his tone suddenly becoming icy. "Unless you've forgotten?"

"But that was so long ago, surely you still can't be angry about that?"

"Au contraire, Celestia," growled Discord, "I am still mad about that. You were the only person I ever loved. I thought you'd be able to see past my mismatched exterior and find my heart of gold inside, but no, in your vanity, you turned me away. You thought me a monster so that's what I became."

"Okay, I agree that that was stupid and vain of me but--"

"But nothing, Celestia. If you think the decision you made all those years ago was stupid and vain then why not be with me now?" asked Discord, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "I promise I'll stop all this right now and be a good little draconequis from here on out."

"I-I can't," Celestia admitted, looking shamefully down at the ground.

The hope that had jut been in Discord's eyes was instantly replaced with fury. "And why not?"

"Because... because I'm in love with somepony else," answered the Princess, looking up into the serpent's eyes.

This caught the dracnoequis's interest. Celestia was in love with someone? Who was it? "And who might this 'somepony' be, exactly?" asked Discord, staring right back into Celestia's eyes. "You can tell me because I won't tell anyone. I, unlike you, don't enjoy crushing people's love lives."

Afraid that, if she didn't tell him, things would get worse, the Princess decided to tell him. "It's... it's..."

"Yes, yes?" Discord questioned, leaning forward in anticipation.

"... it's Twilight Sparkle."
> Super Sonic!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 3: Last Story - Chapter 4: Super Sonic!


Discord blinked a couple times before bursting into laughter. He was laughing so hard that he fell off his throne and began rolling on the ground, kicking his legs into the air feebly. The Princess looked on worriedly, hoping that the serpent didn't zoom off to Twilight and tell her all about this.

"It's so painfully obvious!" exclaimed Discord, still rolling on the ground and laughing. "How did I not think of this before?"

"You mustn't tell anypony," Celestia whispered, glancing around to see if any of her subjects were close enough to eavesdrop. There were some within hearing distance, but they were all too preoccupied with the horse-legged woodland creatures who were chasing them. "This must be kept a secret."

Recovering from his laughter, Discord wiped the tears from his eyes and got back on his throne. "Don't worry, when it comes to secrets of the heart, my lips are sealed," the draconequis assured her, gazing down at the alabaster alicorn. "But why, exactly, do you want this kept a secret?"

"If my subjects found out, they'd want me off the throne, thinking me compromised by my love," said Celestia. "Everypony would think me crazy for liking her when, in their eyes, there are much more worthy candidates for my affection."

Discord looked Celestia right in the eyes, deep into what some people called "the windows of the soul". In them, the draconequis saw the real reason behind the secrecy. "You're afraid of rejection!" he shouted, smacking his forehead. "That's the real reason you want it kept secret!"

Celestia's eyes widened. "What!? No, of course it isn't! Why would you think that?"

"Oh, don't lie to me Celestia, I know that feeling when I see it," retorted Discord, rolling his eyes. "You're afraid that Twilight will say no. Ha, isn't that rich? The Princess of Equestria, afraid that an insignificant unicorn will turn her down. Oh, the irony."

The alicorn glared up at the serpent. "She is not insignificant! She's the most beautiful and smart unicorn in all of Equestria!" After a few moments, she looked at the ground. "But I can't tell her... I just can't," she muttered.

"Well, whatever. I've got more important things to worry about," said Discord, putting a hand to his ear as he heard a faint grinding noise in the direction of the library. "Like that."

-------

Twilight watched as a blue box with a light on top and windows on the sides materialized in the center of the main room of her library. The increasingly visible blue box seemed to be emitting a strange grinding noise that was slowly getting louder. All of Twilight's friends, including Sonic, Tails, and Ivo, were gathered around and watching the box materialize.

"Now what in the hay is that?" asked Appleack, staring curiously at the box.

"Are your eyes not working or something? That's a blue box," replied Rainbow Dash, looking at Applejack as if she were some sort of idiot.

The orange pony rolled her eyes. "Ah know that, but it's got tuh be more than just a plain old blue box. Blue boxes don't usually appear out of thin air or make strange noises."

"It's the Doctor," said Ivo, beaming at the strange box.

"That's not the Doctor, silly!" Pinkie Pie giggled. "That's a blue box!"

"Yes, I know. The box itself isn't the Doctor; the Doctor's inside the box," Ivo explained. "The box is the Doctor's TARDIS."

"Hold on," said Tails, looking up at Ivo and pointing it at the box, "the Doctor's time and space machine is a police box?"

"Well, yeah, but..." Ivo replied, trailing off.

Sonic looked from Ivo to the TARDIS and burst out laughing. "You've got to be kidding me!" the hedgehog exclaimed, clutching his stomach. "That's the TARDIS!? I expected something closer to the stuff you build or at least something bigger.  I mean, how'd he fit both himself and you in there? You'd probably take up all the space by yourself!"

Ivo's glasses flashed. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Ivo said through gritted teeth, "and explain to you exactly why we couldn't both fit in there. You see, it's--"

"Bigger on the inside than on the outside," finished the brown spiky-haired stallion stepping out of the TARDIS with a burlap sack in his mouth, the sack muffling his words. "Hey, Twilight, do you think you could magic the door closed for me?"

"Of course," the purple unicorn obliged, magicking the door closed before anyone could catch a glimpse of what was inside. "There you go Doctor."

"Thank you," the Doctor replied, dropping the sack.

"I'm sorry, unless I'm very much mistaken, did you and Ivo just say that that, uh, police box is bigger on the inside?" asked Rarity, looking extremely puzzled. "How is that possible?"

"Time Lord techn-- wait," said the Doctor, pausing for a moment, "did you just call Eggman Ivo?"

"Ugh, we've already went through this," Rainbow Dash retorted. "Eggman's real name is--"

"Ivo Robotnik, yeah," the Doctor interrupted, finishing the pegasus' sentence. "But... why are you all calling him that and why are you all acting as if he's your friend?"

There was a collective groan from the six ponies, Sonic, and Tails.

"Do we really have to explain this again?" Sonic asked, rubbing his head.

"Yeah, we've got more important things to worry about!" Rainbow Dash insisted.

"Suffice it to say, Doctor," said Ivo, glancing at the others' impatient faces, "that I'm not the same man you found in the void or trapped you in a cage. I've changed; I'm no longer evil."

The Doctor stared at Ivo for what seemed like forever wearing an unreadable expression on his face. Then, with a shrug, he said, "Okay, whatever. If they think you've changed, then I guess it has to be true."

Ivo blinked a couple times, registering the Doctor's words. "Oh, um, I didn't think you'd take that so easily."

"Yes, well, I'm full of mysteries like that," replied the Doctor, putting a hoof on the sack he'd brought with him out of the TARDIS. "Anyway, you're all probably wondering what's in the sack."

Everyone nodded.

"Well, it should be obvious as it's the reason I left in the first place. In this bag are the Chaos Emeralds," the Doctor explained, opening the bag and tipping it over, letting the seven mystical gems spill out. As each one spilled out, they glinted in the red light of the sky.

"My word! Those are gorgeous!" Rarity exclaimed in awe. "These are the most beautiful gems I've ever seen!"

"And the most dangerous," said Tails.

"D-d-d-dangerous?" asked Fluttershy, her eyes widening in horror.

"If they're in the wrong hands," Sonic replied. Glancing at The Doctor, he added, "Speaking of which, how did you find these?"

The Doctor smiled. "Oh, it was actually quite easy. As soon as I stepped out of the TARDIS, there they were in this bag lying next to your friend Knuckles' unconscious body."

"Why was he unconscious?" questioned Sonic, raising an eyebrow.

"A tree fell on him," the Doctor answered.

Sonic blinked. "I don't even want to know."

"Who's this Knuckles guy ya'll are talkin' 'bout?" Applejack asked.

"Yeah, he sounds like they type of guy I'd want to know," said Pinkie Pie enthusiastically.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever Pinkie, you haven't even heard anything about him."

"So?"

"Well," Dash began, "you can't know what type of guy he is if you haven't heard anything about him."

"To answer your question Applejack, Knuckles is one of my friends," Sonic said, ignoring Pinkie and Dash's conversation. "He's an echidna and he's got spikes on his fists."

"What in tarnation is an 'e-kid-nuh'?" asked Applejack, a confused look on her face.

"Well, an echidna is..."

As these conversations continued, Twilight exchanged glances with Ivo and Tails who, she guessed, were thinking along the same lines as her. This had gone on long enough; they needed to get going and stop Discord... now.

"Guys!" Twilight shouted, stomping a hoof. Everyone immediately stopped talking and looked at her. Once everyone's attention was focused on her, Twilight continued, "We've got to get going and stop Discord, talking will get us nowhere!"

"She's right," the Doctor agreed, looking around at everyone and stopping once his gazed landed on Sonic. "Sonic, use the Chaos Emeralds, like you always have, and stop Discord. No more questions, no more conversations-- this has to end now."

Sonic nodded. "Okay, let's do this."

The hedgehog closed his eyes in concentration. Suddenly, the Chaos Emeralds floated upward and began spinning around Sonic in a circle. Each emerald glowed its respective color: green, red, yellow, pink, white, blue, and cyan. As Sonic brought his tightly closed fists closer to his body, the emeralds spun faster and faster, spinning closer and closer with each passing second. Then, with a flash of golden light, the emeralds disappeared and Sonic transformed.

Instead of being blue, Sonic was now golden. The quills on the back of his head were upturned. This super powered hedgehog seemed to give off an aura of confidence, power, and danger, and his entire body seemed to emit a soft golden light that penetrated all darkness. To top it all off, he was floating a couple of inches off the ground.

Super Sonic opened his eyes, the pupils of which had turned from green to red, and said, "It's time to end this." With that, he turned and zoomed out of the library's destroyed entrance without even touching the ground.

After a few moments of silence, Rainbow Dash spoke up. "That was so awesome!" The rainbow maned mare looked around at the others. "Come on, let's go!" she exclaimed, flying off in pursuit of Super Sonic.

Everyone rushed out of the library, following the two speedsters. However, just before leaving, Ivo looked back at the apparently useless Elements of Harmony discarded on the floor. He picked up the burlap sack that the Doctor had used to carry the Chaos Emeralds.

"Just in case," Ivo whispered, stuffing the Elements into the bag before rushing off after the others.

	
> Harmonious Chaos
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Part 3: Last Story - Chapter 5: Harmonious Chaos


Super Sonic zoomed to the center of town and looked down at the area in front of him. Directly in front of Sugarcube Corner was Princess Celestia who was currently chained to a throne that Super Sonic assumed to be Discord's. Strangely, the throne was empty.

"Sonic!" Celestia shouted, her eyes wide. "Look out behind you!"

Super Sonic immediately turned around. Floating directly in front of him was Discord, both hands behind his back and a smug look on his face.

"Hello Sonic, I've been expecting you," said the draconequis.

Faster than lightning, Discord brought his right hand out from behind his back and poked the golden hedgehog on his forehead. All was still for a moment before the hedgehog suddenly hurtled backwards,slamming through the roof of Sugarcube Corner into the front room of the bakery. Super Sonic quickly got back up and brushed off all the frosting and cake he'd gotten covered in. Before he could zoom back outside though, some invisible force pulled Super Sonic through the wall in front of him and up into the air in front of Discord. That same force seemed to be restricting the hedgehog's movement making it impossible for him to fight back against the serpent.

"H-how are y-you doing this?" Super Sonic asked, struggling against the invisible force restraining him.

"How did I do all of this?" Discord shot back, gesturing all around. "I'm more powerful than you can imagine. I am a god after all."

Super Sonic glared at the serpent. "I've faced gods before and I've beaten them."

"Yes, yes, but they were all just dumb brutes, especially when compared to me," replied Discord, tapping his head. "I actually use my brain."

"Sonic!" shouted a voice Super Sonic recognized as Tails'.

Looking behind the draconequis, Super Sonic could see his friends gathering on the ground below, beside the throne and Celestia.

"Oh no," the Doctor whispered, putting a hoof to his mouth.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted again, this time his voice was thick with worry.

"Don't worry Tails, I'll help him," said Rainbow Dash, beginning to fly up to where Discord and Super Sonic were.

"No Dashie!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, jumping into the air and biting down on Dash's tail, dragging the pegasus back down to the ground. "It's too dangerous!"

"Let go Pinkie!" growled Dash, struggling to get out of the pink pony's grasp.

"She's right Dash!" Super Sonic shouted down at them. Glancing at Discord, he added, "You wouldn't stand a chance!"

"Hoho, now you're getting it," Discord said, patting the golden hedgehog on the head. The serpent looked down at the others. "Hello everypony, it's nice to see you again. If you all were expecting a huge, climactic battle between myself and Super Sonic here, then I'm not sorry to say that you're all going to be disappointed. You see, I'm much more powerful than Super Sonic so a huge, climactic battle would probably take less than 10 seconds. In fact, I could probably just make him disappear right now but, come on, where's the fun in that?"

"Come on, Sonic, break out of his grip!" Tails shouted, pumping his fist into the air. "You can do it!"

"Yeah Sonic," said Ivo who was carrying a burlap sack over his shoulder, "you've beaten me and all the beasts I've thrown at you multiple times, what's to stop you from doing the same to him?"

"You know, funnily enough, I was just talking to Sonic about that," Discord replied. "All the stuff you've 'thrown' at Sonic was not nearly as powerful as me, and even if they were, they probably only had a brain about the size of a pea. Oh, and I wouldn't try to unchain Celestia if I were you as the chain is unbreakable," he explained to Twilight and Rarity who had been trying to do just that.

Looking at everything around him and thinking about how hopeless the situation seemed made Super Sonic worried, not only for himself but for his friends as well. If he failed, this entire universe would be plunged into eternal chaos and it would be all his fault. But how could he succeed when not even his super form could scratch this Discord guy. Was it possible that, after all the things he'd faced and all the things he'd done, this was the end? Was it possible that he'd finally be defeated?

Discord put a hand to his mouth as he let out an extremely obnoxious yawn. "Okay, this is starting to get boring. Here, let's liven it up a little and demonstrate to you how hopeless your situation is."

The draconequis pointed his right index finger at Super Sonic. As he did so, Super Sonic felt as if an invisible rope bound both himself and the finger together. Then Discord moved his finger up slowly until it was pointing up into the sky. As the finger moved, so did Super Sonic, both at the same speed. Then, faster than a speeding bullet, Discord pointed his finger at the ground, causing the hedgehog to slam into the dirt at a tremendous velocity. The impact caused Super Sonic's vision to flicker.

The seemingly unstoppable serpent cackled. "Oh that was fun! Let's do that again!"

With that, Discord repeated the process, continuously  slamming the golden hedgehog into the ground. With each successive impact, Super Sonic's condition got progressively worse. Not in terms of physical damage, as every time he got cut or broke a bone the wound healed itself, but in terms of energy and stamina. After he'd been slammed twenty five times, he was just about ready to pass out.

"Enough of this Discord!" Princess Celestia shouted before Discord could do it a twenty sixth time, finally overcoming the shock and horror she'd just been feeling, something that the others hadn't accomplished as of yet. "This is just wrong!"

Discord frowned at the alicorn. "Oh, be quiet Celestia. I'm tired of hearing your dribble." He snapped the fingers on his left hand and Celestia's mouth zipped itself shut. Unable to speak, the Princess glared daggers at the powerful serpent. Plastering a smile to his face, he gazed at Super Sonic and added, "Now for some variety."

He pointed his finger at the nearest house and watched as the golden hedgehog crashed into it. Like before, Discord continued to do this, watching sadistically as Super Sonic slammed into every house in sight.

-------

Ivo tore his gaze from the horror above and cast it at his companion's faces. The six ponies and Tails all wore expressions of shock and horror, although Tails expression had more worry in it than the others, understandable since the hedgehog was his best friend (and, very nearly, his brother). The Doctor, on the other hand, looked positively angry. That was odd but, then again, he was the Doctor so odd was relatively normal.

Ivo looked back up at Discord who was now slamming Super Sonic into nearby buildings with nothing but a finger. The scientist sighed quietly and shook his head. What cruel irony. Of course, now that Ivo was a good guy and didn't want  Sonic to die, it looked like the hedgehog was going to die. Of course. But... it couldn't end like this, it just couldn't. After all the things Sonic had beaten, he wasn't going to lose to a crazy serpent obsessed with chaos. There had to be something that they could do.

The draconequis stopped brutally beating Super Sonic and, with a flick of his finger, sent the golden hedgehog flying into the dirt directly in front of everyone. "Alright, I've had my fun with you. Run back to the library and try and scheme up another fruitless plan to defeat me. I'll be sitting here, enjoying all this exquisite chaos," said DIscord, descending until he was floating a few yards away.

While he'd been saying this, the others ran to Super Sonic who had been trying to get up. The aura of power he'd exuded earlier was almost nonexistent. In fact, the hedgehog seemed just about ready to de-transform and pass out.

"Are you all right, darling?" Rarity asked, eyeing the hedgehog worriedly.

"Yeah, Sonic, you took a pretty nasty beating there," Tails said, putting a hand out to help his buddy up.

Super Sonic took Tails' hand and used it to pull himself up. "I'm fine. No need to worry."

Ivo continued to stare at Discord, trying to think of some way to defeat him. The serpent was watching the others help Super Sonic up with a smirk on his face. Ivo knew that look; he'd worn it himself many times before. Discord thought himself invincible. Well, Ivo wasn't going to buy that. There had to be a way to defeat him.

It was at that moment that Ivo remembered what was in the bag he'd brought. An idea formed in his head and the scientist looked from his bag to the six ponies standing around Super Sonic to Super Sonic himself. Ivo smiled. If Harmony wasn't working and Chaos wasn't working, then what would happen if they were combined?

With this idea in mind, Ivo quickly took the Elements of Harmony out of the bag and began putting them on the corresponding ponies.

"What are you doing!?" exclaimed Twilight Sparkle after Ivo had put the tiara-crown thing on her head.

"Uh, dude, we tried this before, remember?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking down and finding the red-jeweled lightning bolt necklace around her neck.

Seeing Ivo putting the Elements on the ponies made Discord chuckle. "Do you think the Elements are going to work? I already told you, I'm immune. What, do you think Super Sonic weakened me to a point where I'm no longer immune? In case you haven't noticed, Super Sonic's the one who's weakened, not me."

The Doctor, who was standing directly beside Discord's throne, gazed at the Elements with a puzzled expression. However, after a few moments of observation, his puzzled expression was replaced with one of wonder and excitement. 

"Oh, brilliant. That's brilliant. Eggman, you're a  genius!" the Doctor exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

"Thank you Doctor," Ivo said, finishing putting the final Element on Fluttershy. After he was done, he stepped back. "Alright ladies, use the Elements on Sonic."

Everyone, except the Doctor, stared at Ivo. Even Discord stopped laughing for a moment although, once he processed what the scientist had said, he began laughing even harder.

"What are you going to do?" the draconequis laughed. "Turn him to stone?"

"You haven't changed at all, have you?" Tails accused, glaring at Ivo. "You just wanted to turn Sonic to stone this entire time!"

"Of course not!" Ivo replied, glancing around and seeing all the suspicious stares. "If Harmony and Chaos aren't working alone, what would happen if they were combined? Think about --"

"Do it."

Now it was time for everyone to stare at Super Sonic incredulously. He gazed back at each of his friends faces.

"It makes sense," the golden hedgehog stated. "I'll take the risks. We don't have much choice anyway."

The ponies nodded. They knew they had no other choice and they'd take even a slim chance at victory.

"You're really going to use the Elements on Sonic?" questioned Discord, scratching his head. "Okay, but let me get some popcorn; this outta be good. Especially when whatever you think is going to happen doesn't happen." He snapped his fingers and a bag of popcorn appeared in front of him. He grabbed the bag and began munching on the snack inside.

The six ponies took their places and closed their eyes. When they opened their eyes again, they emitted a white light. Beams of multi-colored light shot out of the Elements glowing gems. Rising up high into the air the beams coalesced into a blindingly bright rainbow which shot downwards at Super Sonic at an incredible speed. The golden hedgehog braced himself as the rainbow struck, swirling around and enveloping him in multi-colored light. The swirling rainbow spun faster and faster around Super Sonic, turning so fast that all the colors blurred together into a single shad of white. Then, with a flash of bright white light that caused everyone in the vicinity to cover their eyes, it was over.

Uncovering his eyes, Ivo looked around to see what exactly had happened. Regular, cobalt blue Sonic stood a few feet way, in between Discord and everyone else, facing Ivo and the others. Scattered around his feet were the Chaos Emeralds, drained of all their color. The same seemed to have happened to the Elements of Harmony which, while still being worn by the ponies that represented them, were also drained of their color. The thing that caught Ivo's eye, however, was what was at the end of Sonic's right index finger.

Sonic held up his index finger and examined what was at the end of it. There was a small, white orb, about the size of a golf ball, at the end of his finger. The light of the orb reflected brightly in Sonic's pupils.

"So you didn't turn to stone? Well, isn't that a shame," said Discord as Sonic turned around. "Of course, it obviously didn't wo--" He cut himself off upon seeing what was at the end of the hedgehog finger. The popcorn the serpent had been holding fell from his hand, disappearing before it had even hit the ground. "What... what is that?"

The hedgehog looked up at the draconequis and smiled. "Your downfall."

Ivo and the others watched in silence as Discord stared at the orb of pure Harmony and Chaos. The disorderly creature touched it with his consciousness and recoiled, feeling as if he'd been zapped by lightning.

The draconequis backed away slowly. "No. No. NO! I know what that is but... it's-it's impossible!"

"No, it's not," the Doctor began, looking at the orb with satisfaction. "It's your worst nightmare: Harmony and Chaos in complete, well, harmony."

"You know Discord, there's a move I use quite a bit but it's name has always been a sort of oxymoron," said Sonic, pointing his finger at the serpent. "Now though, it makes complete sense."

Discord's eyes widened. "No! It can't end like this!" As a last ditch attempt to win, the draconequis threw every last bit of his power at Sonic, trying to incapacitate him. It was all for naught, however, as the orb of harmonic chaos protected the hedgehog from everything thrown his way.

"Chaos Control!"

A beam of white energy blasted out from the end of Sonic's finger, striking Discord in the chest. Where the beam had struck, a small crack appeared, emitting a bright white light. Sonic closed his hand into a fist, cutting the flow of power and extinguishing the orb of harmonic chaos.

Discord looked down at himself and at the glowing white crack that was growing and snaking its way up and down and all around his body. The draconequis groaned and stomped his foot.

"Oh come on! I was so close this time! Ugh, fine, I guess you win," Discord conceded, folding his arms and glaring at everyone. As the cracks began snaking their way up his neck towards his head, he added, "But you should know this: things are going to get much worse and very strange. What's to come will make the stuff I've done look like child's play and me like an adorable kitten. You've been warned." The cracks finally reached his head. The serpent sighed. "Well, so long everypony. Arrivederci!"

With the sound of shattering glass, Discord exploded, sending out a shockwave of white energy. Expanding exponentially, the shockwave enveloped Equestria within a matter of seconds, undoing all the things that Discord had done. Houses turned rightside up, the sky became blue again, the dancing buffalo disappeared, and the pink clouds faded out of existence. The red wall of energy that had been isolating Equestria from the rest of the universe dissipated and Discord's throne sank into the ground, freeing Celestia. Everything was right with the world; even Celestia's mouth got unzipped.

Upon seeing that Discord was gone and that the world had returned to normal, the ponies, Ivo, Sonic, Tails, the Doctor, and Princess Celestia all cheered. Not only was their nearly hopeless situation over, but Discord could never bother them again for he was actually gone, not just turned to stone.

In the midst of the cheering, Pinkie Pie lost control, hugging Rainbow Dash close and shouting, "I love you Rainbow Dash!"

Dash's eyes widened. "What!?"

Realizing what she had just said, Pinkie blushed and backtracked quickly. "Uh, I mean as a friend, you know, like everyone does!"

Dash rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Pinkie Pie. You can be so random sometimes." With that, the pegasus flew over to join the others who were still high-fiving and congratulating Sonic and Ivo for defeating the dreaded draconequis.

Pinkie Pie watched Dash go, sighed, and smiled a sad smile. "Someday," the pink pony whispered, beginning to follow the rainbow-maned mare.

Everyone gathered around the now unchained Celestia. The Princess stood up and stretched her legs. Finishing with that, the alicorn looked Sonic in the eye and held his gaze.

"Sonic the Hedgehog," Celestia began, "on behalf of Equestria, I thank you for vanquishing Discord and setting the world right again. We are in your debt."

Sonic waved it off. "It's no problem. I do it all the time, after all."

The Princess turned to Ivo and, like she had with Sonic, looked him in the eye... or glasses, to be more accurate. "I would also like to thank you, Eggman, for coming up with a solution when all hope was lost.  However," she said, her voice turning cold, "That does not excuse the reckless disregard for safety of the residents of Ponyvill nor does it excuse the fact that you murdered the Earth pony Bon-Bon in cold blood."

The six ponies gasped and Sonic and Tails just shook their heads.

"He did what!?" asked Rainbow Dash incredulously.

"He k-k-k-killed Bon-Bon?" stammered Fluttershy, her pupils shrinking in fright.

Ivo nodded and looked down in shame. "Yes, I did. And before you ask, no, it wasn't an accident. I killed her because she got between me and Sonic and... I'm sorry. I truly am. I wish I could offer more than an apology but, at the moment, that's all I can give."

Celestia gazed at the apologizing man in front of her. The Eggman she knew, the one she'd seen do a number of terrible things, would never have apologized like that, with that much meaning. He would've said it in a sarcastic manner. Hearing this apology, Celestia truly believed that the scientis was sorry for what he'd done.

The Princess nodded. "Apology accepted."

Suddenly, there was a flash of indigo light a couple of feet away. Standing where the flash of light had come from stood a dark-coated alicorn with a mane as blue and sparkly as the night sky.

"Sister!" the alicorn shouted, running over and hugging Celestia tightly. "I've been on the moon but I couldn't get back because of that red barrier. I was worried sick!"

"I'm alright Luna, no need to worry," Celestia assured, nuzzling her sister. "I'm all right."

Breaking the hug, Luna glanced between Celestia and the Elements of Harmony. "What happened here?" Upon catching sight of Sonic, Tails, and Ivo, the princess of the night raised an eyebrow and asked, "Who are they? They looke quite... interesting."

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!" said Sonic, striking a pose. Pointing at Tails, he added, "And this is my best bud Tails."

With a bow, Ivo introduced himself. "I am Dr. Ivo Robotnik. It's nice to meet you, Princess Luna."

Luna nodded slowly. "Alright but... you don't look like a hedgehog."

Before anyone else could respond, Twilight stepped forward to explain. " Princess, they're from another universe--"

"As am I, Luna," the Doctor interrupted, smiling at the dark-coated alicorn.

"Doctor! What a pleasant surprise!" exclaimed Luna, returning the smile.

"Sister," Celestia started, gazing curiously at Luna, "how do you know him?"

The Doctor shook his head. "It's a long story which, right now, we don't have the time to tell. The cracks that brought Sonic, Tails, and Ivo here were caused by them being outside their home universe. Being outside of a home universe isn't good. Me? I'm okay. Them? Not at all. We need to get them home as soon as possible and I'm not entirely sure how to do that."

"Can't you just use your TARDIS?" Tails asked.

"Not after that last trip,"the Doctor replied, shaking his head again. "The TARDIS almost blew up traveling to your universe and back. Journeying into a new universe puts a lot of stress on it, same with traveling out of one. It usually takes a few trips to do it without much problem. In any case, until the TARDIS repairs itself back to full capacity, I can't take you home."

"Well, how long is that going to take?" Sonic questioned.

"Anywhere from one minute to a hundred years," answered the Doctor. "It fluctuates," he added with a shrug.

"I have a solution," Celestia interjected, gazing at Sonic, Tails, and Ivo.

Turning to look at the Princess, Sonic said, "And what would that be Princess?"

Celestia sighed. She knew what she was about to say might be a big mistake but these three needed to get home, before more cracks appeared. "There is a place I discovered nearly one thousand years ago, shortly after I banished Luna to the moon. Deep beneath Canterlot are where the Gates lay. These Gates lead to other universes."

"Well isn't that fascinating!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"But sister," Luna began," why didn't you tell me about this? Or, anyone for that matter?"

"Because I thought that only I could bear the atrocities that the other worlds had committed," Celestia explained. She looked at the Elements of Harmony. "I know now that I thought wrong."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Okay, there have been a lot of bad things in our universe but they weren't exactly atrocities."

"I wasn't necessarily talking about yours," Celestia replied, eyeing the Doctor.

The spiky-haired stallion let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah, atrocities. I'm afraid my universe is chocked full of them."

"So, uh, Princess," piped up Applejack, "are we gonna go to these 'Gates' er not?"

"Yes, Applejack, we are," Celestia answered. "Come close everypony so I may teleport us there." Everyone obliged and gathered around the alabaster alicorn. Seeing that Luna had lagged behind she smiled and said, "You too, Lulu."

Hearing this, Luna's face lit up and she joined the others. Once everyone was close enough, Celestia began the spell. Then, with a flash of white light, they were gone.

-------

A moment later, they all reappeared in a large, circular stone cavern, lit with torches scattered around on the walls, with a domed ceiling. Behind where they had reappeared was a large, arched gateway leading into darkness. Above this large arch, carved into a stone plaque, was the number '2010'. On the wall in front of them, spaced evenly, were three smaller arches. The one furthest to the left had a plaque above it that read '1991' and, inside the gateway, was what seemed to be a picture of Green Hill Zone. The one furthest to the right held a picture of a blue police box sitting in an alleyway and the plaque above this one read '1963'. The one in the middle, however, was blocked off by fallen rocks and the plaque read simply '?'. 

"Wow," whispered Sonic, taking in his surroundings. "This place is tight."

"No kidding," Tails agreed.

There was silence as everyone soaked it all in. The room held an aura of mystery and of major importance. It seemed as if this was the focal point of everything that was and that ever had been in the entire pony universe.

"That gateway over there," Celestia said, breaking the silence and pointing to the arch with the picture of Green Hill Zone in it, "leads to your universe, Sonic. That one," she pointed to the one furthest to the right, "leads to yours, Doctor."

"Where does that one lead to Princess?" asked Twilight Sparkle, pointing her hoof at the middle one.

Celestia shook her head. "I don't know. It's always been blocked off like that."

The Doctor turned and looked at the arch that had been behind them when they had appeared in this place. "That one, I'm guessing, leads up to your universe?"

"Well, technically, we're still in Equestria. That pathway leads up to my throne room," Celestia explained.

"But why... why does it have a number above it?" squeaked Fluttershy.

"I'm guessing that's a date. Well, to be more specific, a year," the Doctor said. He pointed to the plaque above the gateway to Sonic's universe. "I think that because the year 1991 is the year when the first Sonic the Hedgehog video game was released." He walked over to his world's gateway and looked up at the plaque thoughtfully. "But I don't understand what significance the year 1963 has for my universe. As far as I know, that's a pretty uneventful year... well, except for President Kennedy's assassination."

"Wait... did you just say video game?" asked Sonic, scratching his head.

"What's a video game?" Rainbow Dash interjected.

Ignoring Dash's question, the Doctor turned to Sonic. "Yes, in my universe you are a video game character. Isn't that right, Eggman?"

Ivo nodded. "Yeah, he told me the same thing."

"Sister," said Luna, still taking in the surroundings and the whole 'other universes' business, "why'd you keep this secret  from me?"

Celestia leaned over and nuzzled her sister. "I'm sorry, I should've told you," the alabaster alicorn apologized. "I promise to never keep secrets from you again."

Once again, there was silence. This time it was Tails who decided to break it.

"I think it's time we leave, don't you think?"

"Yes," said Celestia, nodding. "It's time to say goodbye."

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie rushed forward and hugged Sonic and Tails tightly. "Oh, I'm gonna miss you guys!"

"Can't... breathe!" gasped Sonic.

"Oops, sorry," the pink pony giggled, breaking the hug.

At that moment, the other five ponies walked up to say goodbye as well.

"We're going to miss you too," said Twilight. "Right guys?"

"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, brohoofing Sonic. "So long, fastest thing alive."

"So long, fastest flyer in all of Equestria," the blue hedgehog replied.

As the others said their goodbyes, Rarity dropped the burlap sack from earlier at Sonic's feet.

"What's this?" asked Sonic, picking it up.

"The Chaos Emeralds," she answered. "I picked them up just before we left. Their colors are back now." The white unicorn sniffed. "I hope you know how hard it was for me to give these gorgeous gems back."

Sonic smiled. "Thank you."

With that, Sonic and Tails walked up to the portal leading to their universe. Reaching out, Sonic touched the surface of the portal. The surface rippled outward from the point of contact as if it were water. Then, the picture changed. It went from Green Hill Zone to the park they'd been in when they'd seen the crack.

"You know, despite all the perilous stuff at the end there, our time here has been awesome," Sonic said, turning around one last time to face everyone. "Goodbye; it's been a blast!" His goodbye said, the hedgehog turned and jumped through the portal.

Standing alone in front of the gateway, Tails waved at everyone. "It was nice meeting all of you." Without further ado, he followed his friend through the portal.

The last person from his universe left, Ivo walked up to the portal. Like Sonic had before, Ivo touched the surface of the portal. Rippling, the picture changed once again, this time into his base located deep within the heart of the Mystic Ruins. Before he walked into the portal, Ivo felt he had one last thing to say.

The scientist turned around and faced everyone. "Once again, I'd like to say I"m sorry for everything I've done. It was wrong and evil and I apologize profusely. When I get back home, I promise to make my world a better place. I will be good from now--"

"No you won't."

Everyone stared at Celestia, confused as to why she'd say such a thing. She had a pained expression on her face so she hadn't meant it in a mean way.

"W-what do you mean?"

Celestia fixed Ivo with a sad gaze. "You won't be good from now on because you'll forget everything that's happened since the Doctor found you."

This statement chilled Ivo to the core. "So... all of my changes undone? I'll be... evil again?"

The Princess nodded.

"Wait," Twilight started, "does that mean Sonic and Tails don't remember meeting us either?"

"Yes," Celestia confirmed, "they no longer remember any of this."

Ivo's mustache drooped. After all those wonderful things, after finally turning his back on evil, he had to go back to the way he had been. Evil, manipulative, calculating,mad; the traits that had once defined his essence, but that he now scorned, would return. How cruel could fate be?

"Doctor!" Ivo exclaimed, going up to the spiky-haired stallion and kneeling down to his level. "Let me stay with you. We could travel the stars and see new worlds, just like you promised! That way I'd stay good and I'd still be with the first and only friend I've ever had!"

Ivo looked into the Doctor's eyes and found the saddest eyes he'd ever seen. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," the Doctor said, shaking his head slowly. "You can't. If you stayed, the whole of reality would rip apart at the seams and all the universes would burn. You have to go back." The Doctor placed a hoof on Ivo's shoulder. "I'm so, so sorry."

Closing his eyes, Ivo stood up. A single tear fell out from under his glasses, straight to the ground, before disappearing.

"So be it."

Turning around, Ivo opened his eyes and walked forward, disappearing into the portal without another word.

Saddened by what had just happened, no one could speak a word. Celestia tried to think of a way to cheer everyone up.

"C'mon, let's head back up to the castle," said the Princess. "We can throw a party."

If anything, this cheered up Pinkie considerably. "A party!?"

"Yes, Pinkie, a party," Celestia replied, smiling.

"WOOHOO!" the pink pony shouted, bounding through the gateway into the now dimly lit passage that lead back up to the throne room.

Everyone laughed and followed behind, all except the Doctor who had a strange look on his face. Upon entering the passageway up to the castle, the Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out of thin air and put it in his mouth. Turning back towards the room of the World Gates, the Doctor pointed the screwdriver up at the ceiling of the gateway. He pressed the activation button with his teeth which caused the sonic screwdriver's blue tip to light up and emit a high-pitched whine. The noise caused the roof of the gateway to collapse and seal the room of the World Gates with fallen rock.

At the sound of the entrance to the Gates collapsing, everyone but Pinkie ran back to see what had happened.

"Doctor, what happened?" asked Luna, walking up to the Doctor and eyeing the fallen rocks.

"Did a rock fall on you?" snickered Rainbow Dash's distant voice.

The next person to reach the Doctor was Celestia. Seeing the rocks blocking the World Gate room, she gasped. "Doctor, what did you do?"

Once the others had arrived, the spiky-haired stallion put away his sonic screwdriver and spoke, "I sealed it off. If the wrong people knew about this, things could get messy. Now, people won't ever know about the Gates and, even if they do, they won't be able to get to them. On the bright side Princess, you no longer need to worry yourself with the affairs of the other worlds. Anyway, now we can head back up to the castle. I hear there's going to be a party."

However, unknown to the Doctor or anyone else, the collapse of the entrance of the World Gate room had an unintended side effect. The vibrations of the collapsing rock caused the rock blocking the middle gate to fall away, unsealing it. With the rock now gone, the light from the middle gate flooded the chamber and a new portal opened up.


END OF PART 3


> EPILOGUE: Man In the Mirror
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Epilogue - Man In the Mirror


Celestia stood beside her throne and surveyed the party that was currently taking place. As soon as they had gotten back up from the World Gate room, Pinkie had begun setting up the party. Since it had only been a day since the wedding, many of the ponies who had attended that were still in town. Pinkie had rounded them up and brought them here to party for the second time in two days. Even Spike was there since Twilight had teleported to Ponyville to fetch him.

Powerful dance beats blasted out of the speakers that Vinyl Scratch, or as she liked to call herself, DJ Pon-3, had set up. All across Celestia's grand throne room, ponies danced, laughed, and had a good time. Pinkie Pie was hopping around seeing if everypony was enjoying themselves, Rarity was criticizing Rainbow Dash for not trying to pretty herself up for the party, Fluttershy was out in the gardens trying to make friends with the animals once again, Applejack was trying to decide what food to start eating first, and Spike was complained to Twilight about how he hadn't seen Sonic defeat Discord. Celestia smiled. All was well.

"Sister?"

Celestia looked over to her right and saw Luna walking up to her, stopping once she was directly beside her bigger sister.

"What is it, Luna?" Celestia asked.

"After we got back from the room with the gateways to the other universes, you pulled me aside and told me you had a secret to tell me," Luna replied, looking up at the alabaster alicorn. "What is that secret?"

Celestia glanced around to make sure none of the partying ponies were listening and leaned a little closer to Luna. "I'm in love with somepony," she whispered into her sister's ear.

Luna gasped. "Who is it? Who are you in love with?"

"Shhhh!" Celestia shushed, glancing around again. "This is supposed to be a secret!"

"Oh, sorry," said Luna sheepishly. Lowering her voice down to a whisper, she asked again, "Who is it?"

"Twilight Sparkle."

Luna's jaw dropped. "R-really?"

Celestia nodded. "Since a couple of years ago actually. I fell in love with her once I finally understood how smart and powerful she truly was."

Luna looked over at Twilight. "But why her?"

"Why does anyone fall in love?" whispered Celestia, also glancing at Twilight who was still talking with Spike. Seeing both Princesses looking her way, the purple unicorn smiled and waved. "She's beautiful, smart, but it's a lot more than just those things. It's hard to explain."

"I think I understand," Luna said quietly, turning back to Celestia. "But, if you lover her, why don't you tell her?"

"Though Discord was wrong a lot, there was one thing he was right about," Celestia admitted, looking at Luna. "The real reason is because I'm afraid of her rejection. I don't know what I'd do if she said no."

Luna rolled her eyes. "But you're the ruler of Equestria, the one who brings the sun up every morning, of course she'd say yes. You need to have more faith in yourself, sister."

Celestia looked her younger sister in the eyes. "You don't know she'll say yes for sure, Lulu. She might think being with me is as weird as everypony else would." The Princess shook her head and looked away. "I'll tell her someday, but that day isn't today."

Silence settled between the two sisters as each of the two alicorns turned their attention to the party going on around them. After a few moments, a question popped into Celestia's head that she just had to have answered.

"So," the alabaster alicorn began in a nonchalant voice, "how did you meet the Doctor?"

-------

The Doctor stood on the large balcony that was just outside the throne room and observed the city before him. Canterlot at night was usually exciting, but after the events of today, it was the exact opposite. Ponies stayed inside their decadent homes just in case the chaos returned. The only trace of excitement came from the party that was currently going on behind him, sounds of which drifted through the open windows and doors leading out onto the balcony.

Thinking over the events of the previous day, the Doctor couldn't decide whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that he found Eggman in the void. On the one hand, Discord was permanently gone and Equestria didn't ever have to worry about his antics again; on the other hand, the entire country had been devastated and someone had died. Though the Doctor was used to death, he had never seen anyone die in this universe so it was still a bit of a shock. Still, he had found a friend in Eggman, even if the scientist had backstabbed him. In the end, Eggman had turned good and that was very nice. It was sad that all that change was for nothing though.

Suddenly, the air on the balcony turned colder, much colder and something appeared in the corner of the Doctor's right eye. Turning, the Doctor froze at what he saw. Standing in front of him, a couple of feet away was an Ood. The tall, bipedal alien wore plain black clothes with the Greek symbol 'Sigma' emblazoned upon the chest. Coming out of the creature's mouth were a multitude of tentacles and a thin white tube connected to a softball sized white orb that attached to the creature's shirt. The Ood looked at the Doctor with what could be described as an expression of sadness laced with disappointment.

"No, you can't be here!" the Doctor exclaimed, jumping back a bit. "It's impossible!"

The Ood plucked the white orb from his chest. "How I got here is not important, Doctor. What is important is that you must come to us; we have some important news we must share with you," came the alien's soothing voice, the orb in his hand lighting up as he spoke.

The Doctor shook his head. "I can't. If I go to you then that means my death and I'm not having that."

The Ood cocked it's head. "But Doctor, you don't truly die, you regenerate."

"But it feels like dying!" the Doctor shouted. "Why can't anyone understand that!? It won't be me anymore, it'll be someone else walking away! I like me the way I am!"

"Your song is ending, Doctor. Not even you can change that," said the Ood. "Your final battle is almost upon you. You must come to us so we can give you the information you need to prepare yourself. Running only causes grief to those around you. Look at this world and then remember Adelaide Brook. You caused these things and it will only get worse the longer you run from your fate."

Those last few sentences hit the Doctor like a sack of bricks. The Ood was right. Everything that had happened over the previous days was his fault. There was no denying it. If he hadn't been running from his death, he would've never found Eggman in the void and no one would've died.

"You're right," the Doctor whispered his eyes widening. "This was all my fault."

The Ood nodded. "Come home, Doctor, so that your final battle may begin." A second later, the Ood vanished, leaving a speechless Doctor in its wake.

The Doctor stared at the place where the Ood had just been and mulled over their conversation. After thinking for a few moments, the Doctor sighed and came to a conclusion: it was time to go home. He'd been in this universe for far too long and staying would only make things worse.

"Doctor? Are you all right?" said a familiar female voice from the direction of the party.

Startled, the Doctor turned quickly to face the purple unicorn approaching him from the throne room. "Oh, yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Well, you did just have a distressed look on your face."

"Yes, I did," the Doctor said. He sighed heavily. "Okay, you caught me. I'm actually not okay. The sad truth is that I must go home as I've spent too much time in this universe."

"You don't have to leave," Twilight replied, shaking her head. "You're perfectly welcome here. Besides, now you have friends here. You don't have to be in Equestria alone anymore."

"I know, I know, it's just that I have to leave or else there would be disastrous consequences," explained the Doctor.

"Like what?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Like,uh..." the Doctor began, pausing for a moment. Deciding to lie about the true reason he was leaving, the spiky-haired stallion said, "Like more cracks appearing."

"But... I thought you said that those were only caused because of Sonic, Tails, and Ivo," the purple unicorn said, puzzled.

"Yes, well, I lied," the Doctor lied. "It was because of all four of us."

"Well, how come--"

"Twilight," the Doctor interrupted, looking her in the eyes, "please don't ask anymore questions."

Staring into the Doctor's eyes, Twilight saw a deep sadness and hopelessness. While she herself wasn't very young, she knew she had to live through a lot more, experience a lot more, to know such despair. Those were the eyes of someone who'd given up hope, and it broke her heart.

"Okay," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"Before I leave, I just want to say it's been amazing," the Doctor said, smiling wide. "Meeting you and all the others, I mean. This universe and the way you ponies live is brilliant! I thank you and all your friends for everything." He began walking towards the stairway leading down from the balcony to the castle's exit.

"W-will we every see you again?"

Just before reaching the stairs, the Doctor stopped and looked back. "Not like this." With that, the spiky-haired stallion started down the steps and continued out of Twilight's sight.

Savoring his final moments in this universe, the Doctor walked slowly. Exiting the castle grounds, he trekked through Canterlot, trying to get back to the TARDIS which was parked in the same courtyard that it had been parked in when he and Eggman had arrived early that morning. The Doctor stored every sight, smell, and sound in his brain so that he'd remember it vividly, even after he had regenerated.

Upon entering the courtyard, the Doctor walked up to his TARDIS. Resting his head on it, he rubbed the blue box with his hoof affectionately. "It's time to go back home, old girl."

"Doctor?"

The Doctor brought his head up and turned around. Standing a couple of feet away was a red pegasus mare with a messy green mane. This mare's cutie mark appeared be some sort of laser beam.

"Who are you?" asked the Doctor, wondering how this pegasus knew his name.

"Someone from your future," the pegasus answered, "and I know what you're about to do."

"You know that I'm going to--"

"Die, yes," she said, finishing his sentence. "Well, to be more accurate, regenerate. I'm not here to try and stop it, as it must happen, but I am here to tell you something you need to hear."

"And what would that be?" the Doctor questioned, raising an eyebrow.

The pegasus smiled brilliantly. "I'm here to tell you that you are loved. Deep down you think you aren't, but you are, and not just by your companions. You are loved by millions of people, millions of people you don't know and who'd do anything to be where I'm standing right now." She closed her eyes. The next moment, she opened them again and they were glazed in a film of tears. "Especially you, the Tenth Doctor. You made Doctor Who a global phenomenon and one of the most popular sci-fi shows ever made. You're run as the Doctor has been fantastic and will be remembered for years to come. Goodbye, Tenth Doctor, you will always be my favorite." With her message said, the mysterious pegasus galloped out of the courtyard.

For the second time that night, the Doctor was speechless. Where had she come from? What did she mean by sci-fi TV show? Despite all the questions buzzing around his head, what the pegasus had said made him feel good. It had been exactly what he needed.

Cheered up, the Doctor rushed into the TARDIS and began putting in the coordinates for his home universe. Once the coordinates were in, he pulled the final T-shaped lever.

And so the Doctor went home to die... after a couple detours, that is.

-------

Eggman leaned over a messy work desk, his head in his hands. noise from the robot factory that resided in his Mystic Ruins jungle base could be heard, even through the thick steel walls. Autonomous beings stood in lines, creating other, newer autonomous beings. Guard bots patrolled the corridors looking for signs of any sort of intruder. Cargo craft flew in and out distributing supplies throughout the base. Outside the perimeter of the base lurked dangerous beasts ready to devour anything they could find, living or mechanical.

The fat scientist growled in frustration. There was something he needed to remember, but  every time he tried to remember exactly what it was he was supposed to remember, the memories slipped through his mental grasp. He absolutely hated this feeling. Funnily enough, this feeling felt familiar, as if he'd felt it before. Weird.

Suddenly, while trying to get a hold of the slippery memories again, he finally caught something. Something having to do with his pocket. This in mind, Eggman reached into his pocket and pulled out an ordinary looking key. What was so important about this? Examining it more closely, Eggman saw that there was a word stamped into the metal on each side: TARDIS.

Upon reading this one simple word, Ivo remembered everything.

-------

" 'Evil scientist donates one million dollars to charity and plans on building a children's amusement park on the ruins of his old factory, Metropolis,' " read Tails, staring incredulously at the newspaper currently in his hands. Looking over the top of the paper at his best friend, the two-tailed fox said, "Wow, that seems really out of character for Eggman. I wonder what his evil scheme is this time."

Sonic shrugged. "I don't know. It might not even be an evil scheme."

The tow friends were both in Tails' workshop in the Mystic Ruins. Tails was sitting in a chair by his workbench that was turned to face Sonic. Sonic, on the other hand, was laying on the couch that Tails usually brought up form the basement whenever the blue hedgehog stayed over, his eyes closed. It had been a couple of days since Sonic's disastrous birthday party, which all of their friends were pretty ticked off about, especially Knuckles who got hit in the head by a palm tree he swore was knocked over by a blue police box. Good old delusional Knuckles; always good for a laugh.

"How can you say that!?" Tails exclaimed, folding up the newspaper and placing it on the workbench. "Especially after the Interstellar Amusement Park! He was supposedly reforming that time too!"

Sonic shrugged again. "I just have this feeling that he's finally changed is all."

Tails rolled his eyes. " A feeling, yeah, whatever."

Sonic opened his eyes and sat up. Grinning at Tails, the hedgehog replied, "When have my gut feeling ever been wrong? The Interstellar Amusement Park being bad was my gut feeling, was it not? Not to mention that my hunch that we had been to Soleana before turned out to be correct too."

"I still don't believe that last one," Tails retorted, crossing his arms.

"We saw it during the whole Time Eater debacle, dude. Eggman even said it had been the place of one of his many defeats," Sonic pointed out.

Tails scowled. "Yeah, well... we should get ready just in case this is another evil plan."

"No, we shouldn't," Sonic said, getting up and walking over to Tails. Putting a hand on the fox's shoulder, he added, "Trust me buddy, he's really changed this time."

Tails looked into Sonic's eyes for a couple seconds before glancing away and sighing. "Okay, fine... but you'll be sorry when it does turn out to be evil."

Sonic glanced at the photo on the front page of the newspaper that was laying on the workbench. In the picture, Eggman was shaking the President's hand and looking at the camera. His face looked happy, happier than Sonic had ever seen it. However, it wasn't the happy expression the hedgehog usually associated with Eggman; the one of victory and triumph.

It was an expression of pure joy.


THE END


Closing Theme: Man In The Mirror by Michael Jackson