> Sonic Forces: Into the Mania
>  by GreenS21
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Phantom Threat
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Breaking news! The royal princesses retiring! I have so many questions! Who’ll take over? Who will run Equestria? Will it be someone tall, dark, and handsome? Or will it be the Lord of Chaos? …Oh, fine. Go with the obvious choice.”

Discord’s words echoed in Twilight’s head as she frantically paced in a circle around her room. She still couldn’t believe it. Celestia and Luna, retiring? And putting her and her friends in charge of Equestria? It was unthinkable. Laughable, even. It had to be a joke. But she saw the looks on their faces, heard the sincerity in their voices. She knew deep down the only one she was trying to fool was herself.

Her friends had managed to calm her worries back in Canterlot, but now she was back in Ponyville and it was a new day. A day closer to the princesses publicly announcing their retirement. She shuddered at the reminder of how little time she had before then, to make her decisions before her life changed dramatically. What was she going to do about the School of Friendship? What about her castle here in Ponyville? And what were her friends going to do? If they went with her, they’d be leaving so much behind, but if they didn’t, would they be able to stay in touch and help her handle all her new responsibilities?

Twilight stopped pacing suddenly and sat down, dragging her hooves down her face as a groan escaped her lips. “Why is this happening so suddenly? Why now?” she wondered to herself. The Princesses had given the long period of peace in Equestria as their reason for stepping down, but Twilight wasn’t sure she agreed with their definition of ‘long’, especially not recently. She looked over at her bed, at the long cylindrical glass container and the notes she had left on top of the made sheets. She’d gotten them both out minutes ago, just before the feeling of refreshment from cleaning herself up had worn off and she remembered what happened yesterday.

“It feels like it’s been about that long since we took on Lyric with Team Sonic and were nearly overwhelmed. Even the other Eggman and Shadow couldn’t handle him. I think we were very lucky that the gamble I took worked in the end; I’m not sure we would’ve been able to stop him otherwise,” she thought. It had been several weeks since that night and things had thankfully been quiet in Equestria since then. Twilight and Starlight’s research had so far yielded the results they were hoping to see, and they were getting to the point where they were fairly confident that they could get the Warp Ring working. And now this bombshell had to come along and throw all those plans into disarray.

Realizing she was going around in circles with her thoughts now, Twilight stood up, walked over to her bed, and rolled the canister next to her notes before flopping down on her back. She stared up at the canopy, her forelegs and wings splayed out on the sheets. “I only really told them about the crystal that Sunset and Twilight gave me. I was so excited to tell Princess Celestia and Princess Luna about it that I didn’t really mention Lyric. Should I have told them back there? Should I have made a case that maybe things aren’t as peaceful as we’d like to believe?” she wondered. She tilted her head back a little and raised her eyes to look at the container behind her, seeing the crystal shard through the glass and the slight rainbow glow it was giving off.

She raised her head after a few moments and looked to her right over at her bookshelf. She noticed she liked to switch out what was on top of it a lot. Because of recent events and her own hopes, she currently had two photo frames, one containing the group photo from Sonic’s birthday party and the other containing the photo of her, Sonic, Shining, and Cadance that her brother and sister-in-law had insisted they take that they’d recovered from the remains of the Golden Oak Library, on the sides of the top, and in between them, sitting on top of her own CHS yearbook, was the Warp Ring and the latest addition to her photo collection: a group photo she, Spike, and the girls had taken with Team Sonic, Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot before they parted ways.

She kept staring over at the photos as the memories came to her, remembering all the times that had led up to those pictures, remembering all the signatures and notes the other students had written to her and Spike in the yearbook. Even if she didn’t know all of them as well as she knew her closest friends, they knew what she was like and they liked her and had faith in her. They would surely support her and say she was ready if they knew she was about to take such a big step into a new life, but she supposed that was the problem. Whether protecting it or running it, Equestria was a huge responsibility and she wasn’t sure she was ready for it. It meant there would be even more eyes on her than she already had, and she certainly wouldn’t have time to do all the things she wanted to anymore.

Twilight sat up suddenly, a newfound determination filling her. “I might be allowed to move things from here to Canterlot, but even if I found time for it, I can’t be doing experiments in the castle. This has to be done now, before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna step down. At the very least, I want to see them and talk to them one more time,” she thought. She used her magic to grab the container, the Warp Ring, and her notes before she leapt off of her bed, one stray scroll falling back onto the bed as she lifted everything up and trotted out of the room.

Starlight and Spike found her in the library a short while later, working with the wiring, cables, and pieces of machinery they’d brought back to develop an apparatus for the Warp Ring similar to the one she’d built for the Crystal Mirror. Starlight was quick to join in to help her complete it and test it faster after she explained what she was doing, helping her move the tables off to the sides while Spike excused himself from the room, leaving them to work out the details while he took advantage of having a little downtime after having a lot to do recently. It also didn’t hurt that Twilight being preoccupied kept her from fully Twilight-ing over becoming the new Princess of Equestria. Of course, he wanted to see Sonic and his friends again too, but he had a feeling Twilight and Starlight could handle all the difficult stuff without his help.

He came back around lunchtime to check how they were doing. As he stepped in, he saw Starlight pull away with the crystal canister in her magic as the Warp Ring suddenly expanded to its full size in Twilight’s grip, the golden part of the ring now shining brightly like it had before it ran out of energy, matching the magenta luster her magic had given it. “All right, that looks good,” Spike heard Twilight say before she levitated the ring over to a raised metal platform, holding it up above it. Starlight brought over a clamp that had a cable running to the top of a nearby tower that had a computer built into it and cables coming out of the bottom of it. She fastened it to the left side of the ring, the clamp covering about a half-quarter of it, and made sure it was secure before signaling to Twilight to stop using her magic. She then went to drag the cables from the tower behind the ring over to a computer console on the other side of the ring while Twilight checked the platform.

When it seemed like they were finished, Spike cleared his throat, causing both mares to notice him. “So… it seems like you two have made a lot of progress in one morning. That’s my girls!” he remarked while walking closer and fiddling with the wrist straps of his Enerbeams.

Starlight gave him an odd smile as she said, “That’s kind of an odd thing to say, Spike, but you’re right. We should be ready for our first test of this system soon.”

Spike asked, “Do you really need all these machines hooked up to the Warp Ring? It never needed them before.”

While still checking the platform under the ring and grabbing the canister and placing it in, Twilight said, “Well, that was back when it was on the world it came from, Spike, back when it was charged the way it was supposed to be. It hasn’t had any Chaos Energy in it for a long time, plus it has magic in it as well. This crystal contains several different types of energy in it. We think we’ve got it all worked out; we just have to be sure. We want to be able to visit Sonic’s world, after all. We don’t want to get stranded there.”

Starlight checked the console on the right as she added, “We also want to make sure we don’t end up in the wrong world. Star Swirl’s notes mentioned that happening before.” She finished after a few moments and made her way over to the tower to look at the screen. She watched it while Twilight double and triple-checked everything. As she was finishing up, Starlight reported, “Okay, it all looks good here. The readings are coming in and they’re consistent with what we expected to see. I’m not picking up any problems with the equipment on this end.” She looked over at Twilight, “I think we’re ready.”

Twilight nodded and walked over to the other computer. “We’ll start with the gateway test like we planned, then. We’ll select the destination and see what kind of effect the crystal has on the ring and the portal,” she said as she stopped in front of the console.

Starlight brought a hoof up to the base of her neck like she was reaching for something and, when she didn’t feel anything, began looking around on the floor. “Where did I put that stopwatch?” she asked.

Spike’s gaze drifted over to the table and he noticed the metal casing of the circular watch on the edge of it. He flapped his wings a bit to get off the ground and used the Enerbeam on his right wrist to grab it and pull it towards him. He then landed and called to Starlight, who was still looking around her while Twilight was messing with the computer, “I found it, Starlight! It’s right here!”

Starlight turned to him as he walked up to her and took the stopwatch with her magic, saying, “Oh, thank you, Spike.” They both looked over at Twilight and saw that she seemed to be done and was just staring at the screen in front of her, an apprehensive look on her face. “How long should the test go, Twilight?” Starlight asked.

“Please make it short, Twilight. I want to get something to eat,” Spike thought.

Twilight looked over at her for a moment before glancing up, “Uh, let’s see…” She looked down a moment later, “Let’s do three minutes. If there are any problems, it shouldn’t take long for them to show up, right?” Starlight nodded and looked at her expectantly. Twilight turned back to the computer and, after checking the information on the screen one more time, raised her right hoof up. “Contact!” she said before she brought it down and pressed a button that lit up blue below the keyboard. Starlight clicked the stopwatch and they all turned their heads to look at the ring.

Both it and its magic luster had begun to glow brighter, but there was nothing in the center yet. Suddenly, magenta-colored streaks of light began to emanate from the inside circumference of the ring, all moving towards the general center and forming a glowing point like a small star. It flashed a few times before it began to shine brightly, forcing everyone to look away. When it died down a little several seconds later, they looked to see that the streaks of light and glowing point were gone and were replaced by a shimmering surface that Twilight and Spike recognized showing checkerboard hills that they’d only heard about. As well as a lot of sand…

“Look at that! That must be that Green Hill place Rainbow Dash told us about! The Warp Ring is working again!” Spike cheered. He then held a claw up to his mouth, “She didn’t say anything about there being a lot of sand, though.”

This new detail wasn’t bothering only him. “Starlight?” Twilight called while looking down at the computer screen.

Starlight blinked and looked down at her stopwatch and then at the screen next to her. “Uh, twenty seconds, no abnormal readings on this side,” she reported.

Twilight looked back up at the ring, still feeling uncertain. “I guess it has been a while. Did things really change that much, though? Oh please, let this be right. Let this work,” she thought. She and Spike continued to look at the ring while Starlight watched the test time and readings, reporting at fifteen second intervals.

“Still no changes, and we’re at a minute and forty-five seconds,” Starlight reported, turning her eyes to look down at the stopwatch. She started to raise her eyes back to the screen, “I think… huh?” She blinked and squinted at the screen.

“What’s wrong?” Spike asked.

Starlight brought her head back a little, still staring at the screen as she said, “I thought I saw something. Not a reading change, but… something. Maybe…” She hesitated, wondering if she’d just been seeing things, but her eyes widened a moment later. “What the-?!” Spike peered around her to look at the screen. It looked like it was malfunctioning, flickering and glitching out part or all of the screen. The numbers and visual displays were all over the place as well, going far above or below what the norm had been and showing up in the wrong places. Electric sparks were starting to come out from behind the screen as well as small smoke trails.

Twilight was starting to notice some errors occurring on her side as well and called, “Starlight?! Spike?!” Before either of them could say anything, they heard an odd sound followed by another one as the colors of Green Hill in the portal turned negative. Suddenly, it was replaced by a new swirling pink-purple portal accompanied by a gust of wind blowing out into the library, causing them all to shield their faces and look away, leaving them unable to see anything or hear much else besides the wind and books being blown off their shelves nearby.

Several seconds passed with the wind not letting up before Starlight cracked her left eye open and looked towards her screen. It was still displaying information, but it looked incomprehensible now, and there were more sparks shooting out from behind it. She gasped and placed her hooves on the tower before calling over the wind, “Twilight, it looks like it’s about to burst! Cut the power!”

Twilight, who was trying to keep her hooves on the ground and not get pushed back any more by the wind, opened her eyes and looked towards her as she called, “What?!”

Starlight called back, “We need to try to shut it down! If this continues, we’ll lose everything!” Twilight looked at her for a moment before looking at Spike, seeing the baby dragon using both Enerbeams to hold onto the tower as he bobbed up and down in midair. Seeing this, she faced forward and steeled herself before dashing forward against the wind, aiming for the computer. She managed to reach it and slapped her right hoof down on a red button in the middle of a black and yellow striped pattern below all the rest.

It had an immediate effect as the wind began to die down and the portal began to shudder before it began to diminish, the Warp Ring’s usual shimmering surface reappearing as it shrank away completely. They only saw it for a moment or two before it vanished and the wind stopped. Spike landed hard on his front, but he was quick to look up, half-expecting something else to happen. After several long, tense moments, nothing did; whatever the strange occurrence was, it seemed like the only thing they had to deal with was the damaged equipment.

Spike let out a sigh before standing up and dusting himself off. “Well, that was unexpected. I guess maybe there’s still something you need to figure out before it’ll work?” he asked.

Starlight looked up at her screen as she said, “I don’t think that was us, Spike.” She slapped the side of it with a hoof. This caused it to come back on, but it flashed with static every few moments. “I have no idea what that was. All the equipment was working as it should, the readings fell within the expected range, there was nothing wrong with the ring, and then it just suddenly went haywire without any warning! With no logical explanation either!”

Spike walked up next to her as he asked, “No explanation? You sure it didn’t have anything to do with magic?”

Starlight looked down at him, “If that was magic, then it was no magic I’ve ever seen or heard about before. I do think there was some sort of interference, but it would have to be some incredibly powerful magic to do that.”

Spike was going to continue asking questions, but then he realized Twilight hadn’t said anything since the ring powered down. He looked over at her and saw her sitting in front of the console with a hoof on it. She wasn’t looking at it or them; her gaze was directed downwards, a despondent look on her muzzle. It almost seemed like she hadn’t even heard their discussion. “Uh, Twilight?” he asked as Starlight looked over at her as well.

When she didn’t respond, Starlight made her way over to her and said in a louder tone, “Twilight?”

With as close as she was to the mare, she could hear Twilight muttering to herself. “That wasn’t supposed to happen… It’s going to take too much time to figure out where it went wrong, fix the ring, and get it working again… I guess we won’t get to see them again after all…”

Her mumblings were cut off when Starlight grabbed the sides of her head with her hooves and made her look at her. “Twilight. Twilight, look at me. Do not start that now. I would prefer if you started ‘Twilight-ing’ rather than ‘Tempest Shadow-ing’ on us. …Actually, don’t start ‘Shadow-ing’ on us either,” she said as she briefly put her face closer to the alicorn’s before backing off.

“You’re using that now too? And what do those last two mean?” Twilight asked as Starlight let go of her head.

“You know, angry all the time, looking down on everyone else as inferior, preferring to be alone because of that…” Starlight listed.

Twilight looked at her for a moment before saying, “Okay, I don’t know if I would say all that about Tempest when we first met her, and while that does describe the other one pretty well, I’ve told you about Shadow, how…”

Starlight interrupted her, “Yes, how he’s capable of working with Sonic under certain circumstances, is calmer by comparison, actually has a reason for all that. I know what you said and I’ll believe it when I meet him. But you still don’t want to turn out like him or the other guy, do you?”

Twilight started, “Well, no. I just…” A loud cracking sound rang through the library, startling Spike and both mares. “What was that?” Twilight asked as they all looked around.

A couple of tense seconds went by before Starlight said, “I don’t know… It sure was oddly timed… Hopefully, that’s a coincidence.” She looked back at Twilight, “The point I was trying to make is, it’s not too late. If you really want to insist on getting this done before the Princesses step down, there’s still time to do it. It shouldn’t take long to repair the machines, and I should be able to extract the readings from when things went haywire. We can use that to help figure out what happened and prevent it in a future test.”

Spike came over and said, “And I have no doubt you two will be able to figure it out.” He then patted his stomach with his claws as it let out a rumble, “Of course, it’s not a good idea to think on an empty stomach…”

Starlight replied, “You’re right, Spike. I do feel a little hungry myself.” She looked back at Twilight, “Why don’t we go out and get something to eat? Spend some time outside before we come back to this.”

Twilight’s gaze wandered around the library, properly seeing the mess that had been made. “I should probably clean this up and gather up and put away my notes before we go…” she uttered.

Starlight stared at her for a moment before saying, “Well, we can take care of the books while you get your notes together. It shouldn’t take too long to put everything back where it belongs.” Twilight decided not to argue and began looking for her scrolls while Spike gathered up the books and Starlight returned them to their proper spots.

They were close to finished by the time Twilight had gathered up all the notes she’d brought and was leaving the library. As she was passing through the open doors, she suddenly stopped, blinked, and took a few steps back, turning her head to her left. There on the inside of the door frame, below where her neck would be if she was standing right next to it, were five jagged parallel lines etched into the frame. She raised an eyebrow and thought to herself, “I don’t remember seeing those before… Then again I don’t usually look there.” She shook her head after a moment and continued on her way, though she still felt uneasy about this discovery.

She soon reached her bedroom and shifted her stack of rolled up scrolls to lay them out on her bed. As she approached it, she noticed the one she’d left behind. Initially surprised by this discovery, she became a bit concerned when she noticed it seemed to have holes in it that she was positive it didn’t have before. She set her stack down near her pillows and grabbed the scroll with her magic, bringing it up to her face before unfurling it. She found that it was indeed full of holes, or more accurately scratch marks. Scratch marks that went through the paper and were shaped like letters that seemed to be arranged to make a message. By holding the scroll sideways, she was able to read it, though it didn’t make it any less confusing. “‘THE FUN IS INFINITE’? What does that mean?” she wondered aloud. She looked around the room as she lowered the scroll down and soon noticed something off to her left.

One of her photo frames was lying face down on the floor in front of her bookcase. She let go of the scroll, causing it to fall back onto the bed, and ran over to it, picking it up with her hooves. Flipping it over, she saw that it was the picture of her, Sonic, Shining, and Cadance. There were cracks in the glass, but it didn’t seem to be damaged as if it had fallen. There was a hole right over Sonic’s face that looked like it had been made by something hitting that exact spot, and there appeared to be scratches almost covering up the ponies. A shiver ran down Twilight’s spine; she was starting to have second thoughts about the marks she found in the library.

She sat up a bit to look at the top of her bookcase and saw that while the other two frames were still there, they were similarly disturbed. They were both lying on their backs and had the same damage done to them: a hole over Sonic and the rest of the glass scratched. Her yearbook was missing and the pictures she usually kept taped to her mirror had been ripped off as well. She was getting really freaked out, but she wasn’t addled enough to not notice one detail. “Why was this one the only one on the floor?” she wondered aloud as she looked down at the photo in her hooves. She had a thought and lowered herself down again to check her books. Sure enough, they’d been disturbed too, and there were some missing. She looked to her right and saw a pile of books against the wall near her telescope, including her yearbook. She set the frame down on the bookcase and moved towards the pile. They were all there, but one had pages torn out.

Spike and Starlight came in while she was over by the pile, the former calling, “Twilight, we’re finished! Are you done yet?” Twilight sat up straight at that, but she just looked around at the books on the floor, her mouth hanging open and her worried expression visible to Starlight and Spike even from where they were standing. “Uh, Twilight?” Spike asked.

The strain was too much for Twilight and she placed her hooves on the sides of her head as she let it out in one loud panicked shout, “WHO WAS IN HERE?!”

Meanwhile, in a remote part of Equestria…

Three swirls of black smoke appeared in a cavern, each one depositing a being that had been a threat to Equestria in recent times. The first to appear was an elderly-looking centaur whose coat and skin were faded. He had little stubs for horns, a metal chain that went around his chest, and guards on both of his forearms. He was frail and had very little muscle mass, but he once had so much more, back when he had absorbed the magic of all the ponies in Equestria. He was Lord Tirek, and he was disoriented and confused by his sudden teleportation from Tartarus.

Another swirl of black smoke briefly appeared next to him and he turned and looked down to see his fellow prisoner, a young pegasus filly named Cozy Glow who had a pink coat and a curly pale blue mane and tail with a light gray stripe running through them. She had briefly managed to become all powerful by stealing magic artifacts from Twilight’s School of Friendship and tried to gain even more power for herself. Her efforts were undone by the Tree of Harmony stripping the magic from her and returning it to where it belonged. She was sentenced to Tartarus for her actions and now she was as surprised as Tirek by the sudden change in location.

On the other side of the cavern from the two, a third swirl of black smoke deposited Chrysalis, the former Queen of the Changelings. After that traitor Thorax had caused the changelings under her rule to become something different and destroyed her throne and kingdom, she’d sworn revenge on Starlight and her friends and has been trying to carry out her revenge ever since. Her attempt to create evil clones of Twilight and her circle of friends had failed, but she had still managed to avoid being captured, and now she wasn’t sure why she’d suddenly disappeared from the nest she’d made in the woods.

It didn’t take Chrysalis long to notice Tirek and Cozy Glow behind her, and she immediately recognized the former. “Lord Tirek!” she sneered.

“A changeling?” Tirek asked as he and Cozy Glow stared across at her. He leaned over Cozy Glow a moment later and held his arms out towards Chrysalis as he told her, “See? She gets it.” The filly just rolled her eyes in response as she looked back at Chrysalis.

“Chrysalis, queen of the changelings! Or at least I WILL be when I’m restored to my rightful place!” the former queen stated as she made her way down the carved steps of the ramp in front of her while Cozy Glow and Tirek descended the path and steps on their side. Once they were standing across from each other, Chrysalis’ horn glowed green as she demanded, “Why did you summon me? What do you want?!”

Cozy Glow yelped and hid behind Tirek’s left foreleg before saying, “Oh golly! We didn’t bring you! I thought YOU freed US from Tartarus!” She grinned nervously with big eyes at the changeling.

Chrysalis’ horn stopped glowing, but she still regarded the pair with suspicion. “Tartarus? Whoever pulled you from there must have been somepony very powerful indeed,” she remarked. They were all struck silent when a dark laugh rang out through the cavern. The three of them turned towards a nearby table with a glowing crystal ball on it, looking at the pedestal above it as another swirl of smoke appeared and faded away to reveal King Sombra, a unicorn who used dark magic and ruled the Crystal Empire a thousand years ago before his curse caused it to disappear when he was banished. It was believed he was destroyed by the Crystal Heart when the empire returned, but Chrysalis and Tirek could clearly see it was him standing there, looking down at them. “King Sombra! You have returned? Why did you bring us here?” Chrysalis asked while Tirek created a small red orb of magic between his horns.

“He didn’t,” a new voice stated, causing Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow to look behind them towards the cavern’s entrance. A silhouette was emerging from the fog at the cavern’s entrance, revealing a blue ram with dark azure horns and a light blue-gray mane and tail. Cozy Glow stayed behind Tirek’s foreleg as the ram walked past and Sombra turned into black smoke before he sat behind the crystal ball. “It was I. You may call me… Grogar,” he said, leaning forward to put emphasis on his name.

Both Chrysalis and Tirek gasped in surprise while Cozy Glow looked confused for a moment before looking worried again. “THE Grogar?” Chrysalis asked.

As Sombra reappeared next to Chrysalis, Tirek admitted, “I thought you were a legend!”

Sombra pointed his left hoof at the ram, “I’ve heard of you.”

As they all approached the table, Cozy Glow asked, “Who?”

Grogar eyed them all as they gathered around the table and said, “I assure you, I am VERY real. And you have all been brought here as part of MY plan to rid Equestria of Twilight Sparkle and her friends once and for all.” He let out a sinister chuckle afterwards.

Cozy Glow fluttered up to the edge of the table and spoke, “I am so sorry, but the name ‘Grofar’? It just doesn’t ring any bells.”

She was sent reeling back when Grogar leaned across the table and angrily shouted, “GROGAR!” Sombra, Chrysalis, and Tirek looked down at the filly laying on her back as the ram came around and stood over her as he said, “I have been away too long if my name no longer strikes fear into the heart of one so tiny.” He went back behind his table and faced everyone again, “Perhaps a demonstration of power is in order?” Once Cozy Glow was seated on the table, Grogar reached his left hoof up to his bell necklace, causing the symbols on the side to glow brightly. From the necklace he produced a yellow sphere of magic and blew it towards Tirek, the centaur catching it in his hands.

After examining it for a moment, Tirek eagerly placed it in his mouth and his body began to glow white and grow. When the glow faded, he was taller and more muscular. Not as tall and muscular as he had been in the past, but certainly a far cry from the frail centaur he’d been just moments ago.  After kissing his biceps, he began, speaking mainly to Cozy Glow, “Grogar is ancient and extremely powerful. The land that would become Equestria was a mere collection of farms and pastures until he declared himself emperor of all he saw. I remember hearing tales of his tyranny when I was young.”

Sombra added, “I have also heard of the First Emperor of Equestria. The ‘Father of Monsters’.”

As the villains continued their discussion, they were unaware that a pink-purple portal opened at the back of the cave, someone stepping out of it. The new arrival was a jackal that walked on two legs that ended with pointed, metal black hi-tops on his feet that had an infinity symbol on the soles, he was covered with black fur save for some white stripes on his back, had a bushy tail with a white tip, he wore black gloves that had a silver streak on the back as well as a silver mask that had a black lightning bolt-shaped piece that covered his right eye entirely, had a red visor over his left eye, and large ears on top of it. His sharp fingers ran over a tetrahedron-shaped gem on his chest as he hid behind one of the rock columns and listened in.

“What are you suggesting?” Chrysalis asked Grogar.

“I suggest nothing. I DEMAND that you join me, and together, Equestria will be ours!” the blue ram answered.

Sombra stuck his nose in the air and threw his mane back as he said, “I don’t do ‘ours’.  I only do MINE.” He jumped up onto the table and stood in front of Grogar, briefly pointing his right hoof at him before turning away as he went on, “I will take back the Crystal Empire on my own, and I will destroy any pony who gets in my way!” Before Grogar could reply, a short, dry laugh rang out, causing Sombra’s eyes to snap open. He glared back over his shoulder at Tirek, “You dare laugh at me, Tirek?” The centaur just shrugged and raised an eyebrow in reply.





Suddenly, they all heard a new voice say, “Laugh at you? Don’t be mistaken, Sombra.” All of them, including Grogar, turned to look up at the pedestal as the newcomer stepped out onto it and crossed his arms as he looked down at Sombra. “I simply have respect for your desire to go solo. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were after my own heart. Of course, if I actually had any respect for you, I would’ve applauded you.” Sombra didn’t reply; he simply glared up at him.

“And you are?” Tirek asked. The stranger turned his head to look at Tirek, but didn’t say anything.

“He asked you a question,” Cozy Glow piped up after a few seconds of silence.

“I don’t speak to old fossils. And what are you? His pet?” he replied.

“What?! No! I’ll have you know that I-!” Cozy Glow’s rant was quickly cut off by Tirek reaching up and closing two fingers and his thumb around her mouth.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes as she looked up at the jackal. “I don’t know who you are, but there’s something familiar about you,” she said.

He looked at her, “Ah, I see you remembered.” He then looked down at Grogar, “As do you, don’t you, ‘Grogar’?”

Sombra looked at the ram and asked, “Do you know him?”

Grogar stepped down from the table as he said, “No. I don’t associate with nobodies, and certainly not nobodies who are more overconfident and reckless than you.”

The jackal replied, “Is that so? Well, you can continue to feign ignorance if you wish, ‘Grogar’, but it’s not going to last.”

Cozy Glow managed to get out of Tirek’s grip and fluttered next to him as she spoke, “Well, you know, you talk big, but it doesn’t sound like you’ve done anything to back up what you’re saying! Who are you and what are you doing here?”

The jackal looked away, “Well, if baby must know…” He faced forward and, in one quick movement, bent his knees slightly and leapt forward, Equestria’s villains following him with their eyes as he flipped around in midair and landed facing them at the edge of the water in the cave. “You may call me Infinite, and I was drawn here because I sensed your meager gathering of power.”

Sombra stepped off the table and growled, “Meager?!”

Chrysalis supported him, “And what sort of power do you possess that you believe is SO much greater than ours?”

Infinite raised his right hand up next to his head, a red orb of energy beginning to form above his palm. “I understand your species likes to prop themselves up behind magic and a wall of lies, so you’ll surely enjoy this. Allow me to expose the lie that’s been in front of you all this entire time.” The orb continued to hover above his palm as it finished forming. Suddenly, they all heard a strange sound and it seemed to them that all the colors they could see were either inverted or replaced by pink or pink-purple. This lasted for several seconds before everything went back to normal and the orb vanished.

Sombra returned his gaze to Infinite. “A light show? Is that all?” he asked, unamused.

Grogar spoke up, “How pathetic. There is no place here for those pretending to have power. I will send you back to where you came from, you little fool.” While he was speaking, Tirek briefly glanced back in his direction before returning his gaze to Infinite, only to do a double take and look again. There was no longer a blue ram standing behind the table; instead, there was someone far more familiar to the centaur.

“Discord?!” Tirek exclaimed, the other villains turning and staring at the draconequus as well, who looked surprised at being called out.

Discord looked down at himself, noticing for the first time that his disguise was gone. “What… How…?” he stammered, the occasionally loudmouthed Lord of Chaos who loved to showboat suddenly at a loss for words as he realized he was completely exposed. He looked up and saw some of the villains' expressions beginning to shift to anger, causing him to grin sheepishly and give them a nervous expression. He raised his lion paw and snapped his fingers… only for nothing to happen. He looked at his paw and snapped his fingers again. Still nothing. He began snapping his fingers repeatedly, looking more and more worried each time. He stopped after a few seconds, still staring at his lion paw. He could feel his magic; it hadn’t been taken from him, so why wasn’t it working?

Infinite let out another dry laugh, causing everyone to look back at him. “I know what you’re thinking, Discord. Yes, you do still have your magic, but under my power, it’s nothing. I don’t need to take it away to render you powerless. Right now, you are no more than a circus freak.” Discord looked at Tirek when he heard him crack his knuckles, seeing the centaur glaring at him. Before anyone could move, Infinite spoke, “Wait.”

Tirek whirled his head around to look at the jackal, “What?!”

Infinite replied, “I came to this world to deliver a message to him, and since you’re all here, you’ll want to hear it too.” He looked back at Discord, “If you were still a statue, Discord, I would’ve left you as one for this despite being told otherwise. Regardless, this message is from the Doctor.”

Discord blinked and his eyes widened a moment later when the title clicked in his head. Like Chrysalis, he’d noticed something familiar about Infinite when he saw him and had been trying to piece it together while still keeping up the Grogar act. He knew only one person who might be referred to by that title. “Eggman?!” he managed to say loud enough to be heard.

Infinite continued, “You lost to Sonic. Sonic lost to me. Thanks to my power, the empire has controlled the planet for months now and he’s going to add this world to it very soon. I don’t know what you were actually planning to do with this band of fools, but it doesn’t matter. By bringing them together in one place, I now have everything I was missing and more. You and the rest of these pathetic failures are no longer of any use.”

Sombra growled and dark magic started to flicker around his horn like a flame. “Is that so? Well, I can still call upon my magic, so I’m not impressed by your power. And I will not stand here and let you claim you’re greater than me.” Chrysalis and Tirek stepped forward as well, ready to challenge his words, while Cozy Glow hid behind Tirek once again.

“That was only ever intended to affect the reject. I was hoping the rest of you would not be so easily cowed. I could use some entertainment. Putting down the Resistance has become boring,” Infinite stated.

Cozy Glow nervously peered at him from behind Tirek’s back. “W-We can take him, c-can’t we? I mean, there’s four of us and one of h-him,” she squeaked.

Infinite spoke, “You think you have me outnumbered? Hardly. It was going to be a surprise, but why bother anymore?” He raised his right hand and tapped the tip of his gem with two fingers, causing it to start to glow and make that strange sound again, though it was at a lower pitch this time.

Suddenly, a pink-purple portal opened where Tirek and Cozy Glow had appeared from, a large muscular creature coming through it and landing on the ground before it closed. It was Zavok, the leader of the Deadly Six. He rotated each of his shoulders before his purple eyes settled on Tirek and he beckoned to the centaur with his left hand. Tirek growled and began to form a sphere of magic between his horns as he turned to face the Zeti.

A roaring sound came from the cave entrance and Metal Sonic suddenly shot in through the fog, coming to a stop above the ground in front of Infinite and off to his right. He landed and pointed his right finger at Chrysalis before beckoning to her. The former Queen snarled and her horn lit up green, almost immediately knowing who the robot was based off of. “You just had to say something, didn’t you?” she growled to Cozy Glow as she readied herself.

The pink filly said nothing as she looked between Chrysalis and Tirek nervously. Suddenly she felt drops of water landing on her head and looked up. There was a big blue puddle on the ceiling that stopped dripping after she saw it. It fell from the ceiling and landed between her and the table, Chaos Zero rising up out of it and staring at her with his big green eyes. Cozy Glow shivered; she didn’t like the way that… water creature was staring at her.

Sombra stepped forward and glared at Infinite, the jackal having hardly moved the entire time. “Well, looks like it’s just us now. Shall we?” he mocked. Sombra replied by filling his horn up with dark magic and leaping towards the jackal, Infinite responding in kind.

Discord backed up against the base of the pedestal as he watched the fighting break out in front of him. He’d only meant to bring Tirek, Chrysalis, Cozy Glow, and Sombra together to act as a sort of final test for Twilight and her friends to prove that they were ready to take over for Celestia and Luna. It had been genius and there was no possible way it could go wrong. What sort of forces beyond his control conspired to not only make it go off the rails, but also over a shark and inside a fridge just in time to escape a nuclear explosion?

After a quick snap of his fingers to determine if he could teleport away again, he turned and began climbing up the pedestal. He had to get out of this cave first of all. Hopefully without anyone noticing; they might just all stop what they were doing and start attacking him if they saw him trying to escape. He then had to get to Ponyville and alert Twilight and the others about Infinite and that Eggman was coming, even if he had to go on all fours to get there. And then…

He had his lion paw and eagle claw on top of the pedestal when he heard a footstep in front of him. He looked up and his eyes widened again when he saw a familiar black and red hedgehog standing a short distance away staring directly at him. “Shadow?!” he squeaked, the hedgehog narrowing his eyes in response.

Outside the cave, the real Infinite stood on one of the stone blocks in the swamp as he looked at the structure shaped like Grogar’s head, seeing various flashes of light and hearing the sounds of fighting coming from within. “That should keep them occupied for a while,” he said to himself. He raised his left hand and looked down at the pages he’d ripped out of Twilight’s book. While trying to find the information he’d actually been looking for, he had learned of the existence of Lord Tirek and Cozy Glow as well, and now that he’d seen and learned enough about them, he could return to the real task at hand.

He looked up at Grogar’s Lair and remarked, “I’ll be back later to finish off you lot.” He raised his right hand as he looked back down at the pages and slashed his claws across them, cutting right through them. He then turned and let go of the shreds, letting the wind carry them off as he left the swamp, “Now I need to find this ‘Tempest Shadow’.”
> Episode Tempest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


KLUGETOWN


The lands to the south of Equestria are often considered dangerous and, to some, unable to be fully documented on. Records that do exist tend to be vague and even when maps do exist for locations such as beyond the Appaloosan Mountains, they’re often rare and, in some cases, not readily available to the general public. Because of Twilight and her friends, ponies and other creatures have started to become a little bolder and more adventurous, some of them traveling into these lands once considered perilous or even inhospitable to learn more about them and what sorts of settlements may be found and what kind of creatures live there.

One location that has experienced an increase in the number of travelers is Klugetown, a settlement located beyond Equestria’s Forbidden Jungle and across the Bone Dry Desert. Since the end of the Storm King’s reign, the rundown town had seen an influx of new arrivals from Equestria as well as remnants of the Storm Creature Army that chose to settle down in the Army’s old barracks outside of town. Thanks to the Storm Creatures and the Equestrians bringing new goods and the tricks of their trades, especially if they decided to stay, Klugetown was starting to show some new developments and refinement. The buildings looked less dilapidated, new structures were under construction, and the town’s way of life was improving.

Of course, just because the town was getting better didn’t mean everyone who came was going to have an easy time. There were still plenty of con artists looking to swindle newcomers and gangs and organizations that could cause trouble, but there were also friendly faces that looked out for them. Undoubtedly the most well-known fellow to turn to was Capper Dapperpaws, a cat with deep saffron fur, dark gray indigo hair, and green eyes who stood on two legs and was a con artist prior to meeting Rarity and her friends and helping them overthrow the Storm King. Since then, he has become something of a self-help guru, teaching new ponies how to take care of themselves in Klugetown and keeping an eye out for trouble while still occasionally playing tricks and having some fun with them.

It was past midday and Capper was out leaning against the side of a building and looking rather snazzy in the top hat and cape Rarity had given him, his arms crossed over his chest while he eyed passersby. As he watched, he noticed a mare wearing a hooded brown cloak who was taller than most of the ponies he knew coming up the street, a sack of what was likely goods from the market stalls tied around her neck and placed on her back. The hood and cloak hid most of her appearance from view, but he could see the tip of her muzzle was a dark orchid and had a feeling he knew who she was. Her head briefly turned in his direction and he gave her a slight nod, giving a small smirk at the nearly imperceptible nod he received in return. “Yep, that’s her, all right. Wonder how long she’s planning to stay this time,” he thought as he watched her continue on her way out of town.

The mare in question was Fizzlepop Berrytwist, though only a select group of ponies knew her by that name. The rest of the world knew her as Tempest Shadow, a unicorn with a broken horn and a scar that ran down over her right eye who once served as the Storm King’s lieutenant. Since finding redemption and aiding in his downfall, she and her hedgehog companion Grubber had returned to the lands beyond Equestria to spread the word of the Storm King’s defeat and try to spread friendship, but there was more to it than that. Twilight had once offered her to stay in Ponyville, but she had declined because she wasn’t sure she fit in there, that it wasn’t the place for a mare with a history like hers. In spite of Grubber’s occasional protests, she continued to wander because she was trying to find a new purpose, something where all she’d had to learn could be put to good use. So far, she hadn’t managed to find it, but she was still hopeful she’d find something.

She exited Klugetown and soon after reached a building on the outskirts where Grubber ran a tavern and a spot for trading goods. It wasn’t a particularly big building, but it did have a small living area inside and stairs that led to the roof. The building was made of stone save for the top of the entryway to the roof, which had red shingles on it. It had two patched cloth canopies. The tavern side, which was where the building entrance was, had a dark green canopy while the trading post had a lighter green canopy. It wasn’t much to look at, but it was, for the moment, home for the unicorn and her companion. “It almost seems like the kind of place Twilight and her friends would’ve stayed in if they hadn’t been on the run at the time,” Tempest thought as she approached it.

Grubber was seated on a stool behind the counter, a rag in his right hand and a cup in his left hand. He had just finished cleaning one cup and was starting on this next cup when he looked up and noticed Tempest coming. He quickly set the cup and rag down on the counter and stood up on his stool, leaning across the counter as he said, “Tempest! You’re back! That was quick! Did you get-?” Tempest, who had come to a stop when he started talking, swiftly raised her right hoof in front of her muzzle, cutting him off as he realized what she meant and clasped his hands over his mouth. “Sorry,” he uttered as she walked around the counter and went through the entrance behind it, Grubber leaping down from his stool and following her.


PATCHWORK TAVERN


The opening led to a small room that was stocked with extra supplies against the side walls for the tavern. Off to the right on the wall opposite the entrance was a door that led into the back room, where the living area was. The back room was rather simple, containing a few wooden chairs, a wooden table, a wooden counter that had several drawers in it and a few cabinets above it against the far wall, a few colorful rugs on the floor, and a doorway that framed the stairs to the roof. The surfaces were just recently dusted and cleaned and the rugs shaken out, making the room seem a little brighter.

Tempest walked over to the table and set the sack down on top of it before raising her right hoof and pushing back the hood, letting it fall back while she shook her head to get her mane back to its normal look. She then looked to her right at Grubber, who had pulled back one of the chairs and was now struggling to climb onto it, and said, “Grubber, I’ve told you before not to say my name so loud around here. The fewer inhabitants that know I’m here, the better.”

Grubber managed to climb onto the chair and sat down on it before saying, “I know, Tempest, and I know, uh, what you’re concerned about. I just… I was glad to see you made it back okay.”

Tempest sighed and said, “Yes, I’m aware. I just feel this is not a good time to test how friendly everyone in Klugetown is.” She glanced at Grubber, “After all, you’re hungry now, aren’t you?”

The hedgehog perked up at that, saying, “Oh yeah! My tummy definitely wouldn’t mind a little something in it!”

Tempest turned back to the sack and reached for it with her hooves, bringing it a little closer while saying, “So give me a few minutes to put a little something together and we’ll decide what we’re going to do next afterwards.”

A couple of minutes later, the two were seated on the building’s roof as they polished off the last bit of their food while looking towards Klugetown. Grubber raised his plate to his lips and gave it a few licks to get the last bits before he said, “Thanks, Tempest. That was really good.”

Tempest glanced down at him, “There’s no need to be so nice all the time.” She looked forward, “I know my food preparation is average. It passes as food, but that’s about it.”

Grubber replied sincerely, “Well, I like it.” A minute passed with them observing their surroundings before Grubber spoke, “So, uh… I know it’s been a while, but you said that Princess Twilight offered you a place in that new school she opened up. Have you given that any more thought? Or just, like, returning to Equestria at all?”

Tempest let out her breath through her nose and hesitated for a moment before she began, “I know we didn’t spend much time together, but I do feel that Twilight taught me all she needed to. I was so caught up in my own twisted endless loop of wanting to get my broken horn repaired and get back at the ponies that turned their back on me that when I fell out of it and she chose to help me… it really meant a lot to me. I won’t say it completely changed me, but I do feel there’s not much more she could help me with. It’s better if the spot she offered went to someone who needed her help far more than me.”

Grubber waited a moment before asking, “And what about Equestria?”

Tempest closed her eyes, “I’m not ready for that. I have a long checklist that I’m nowhere near finishing, and I still can’t see myself having a normal life like Twilight. All those parties and picnics and other social gatherings… it feels awkward to think about still. And being a guard doesn’t feel like it would be enough.” She opened her eyes, “There has to be a fitting place for all I’ve learned. I just have to find it.”

Grubber reached over and placed his right hand on the side of Tempest’s left leg as he said, “And while you’re looking, I’ll keep being your sidekick and helping you along the way if you still want that.” Tempest didn’t respond, but she did reach over with her right hoof and rest it next to his hand, the two of them letting silence rule the air.

A few minutes later, Tempest and Grubber began making their way down the stairs with Grubber carrying their dishes. They were about halfway down when Tempest suddenly came to a stop and stood up as straight as she could, her eyes shifting to her left. Grubber noticed and came to a stop a few steps before bumping into her. “Te-” he started before Tempest held her left hoof up across her front and shushed him. She then lowered her hoof and pressed her ear against the wall, listening.


MYSTERY VISITOR


“There’s someone outside,” she murmured after a few moments.

“Doing what?” Grubber asked in a normal tone.

“Just… walking, I think. Or maybe pacing,” Tempest answered, still keeping her voice low.

“Well, that’s not so b-” Grubber was cut off when they heard a shattering sound outside almost right next to them, followed by another a few seconds later that came from the front of the tavern.

Tempest stood up straight and said, “Stay inside, Grubber. I’ll go see what’s going on.” She quickly walked down the steps and headed for the door, quietly opening it and sticking her muzzle out through the opening, checking. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she stepped all the way out and quietly shut the door, walking along the wall next to her while keeping her eyes on the entrance. Once she was standing across from it, she walked towards it slowly, bracing herself.

She stood in the entryway as her eyes scanned behind the counter. “Nothing’s been disturbed here,” she assessed after a few moments. She took a few steps out and turned her head to look right and left. To the left she spotted the remains of a brown/green vase sitting a short distance away from the building. She started to walk towards it while still keeping an eye out, noticing some tracks in the dirt as she walked. She raised an eyebrow; they were oddly shaped and seemed to have been left by someone wearing shoes. “I highly doubt anyone has a stylized infinity symbol on the bottom of both feet, hooves, paws, or whatever they claim to have. That would be a very odd birthmark to have, and for it to show up so perfectly in both prints,” she thought as she continued walking and looking for whoever the tracks belonged to.

When she reached the vase, she stood over it and examined it. She knew it was one of the vases that had been on the trading post side, so someone had either brought it over to this spot or thrown it there so she would notice it. She looked towards the trading post and saw that the other vase that had been sitting out, a larger blue one, was still there but it had been smashed as well. Clearly whoever had done this had wanted to make sure she came outside, but why? And where did they go? Her uncanny sense for picking up on the presence of others and danger had suddenly gone silent. She began to slowly step back towards the building, still searching for their mysterious vandal.


TEMPEST AND INFINITE


She was almost back to the front counter when she heard a voice behind her and came to a stop, “Containers. So-called ‘works of art’. In reality, worthless trinkets. Hardly worth preserving.” Tempest turned her head to the left and looked behind her, seeing Infinite walk into view from the side of the building a few seconds later. She watched him as he continued to walk, observing the way he carried himself and eying his attire as she made notes in her head. He stopped walking when he was standing opposite her and turned to face her. “Are you Tempest Shadow?” he asked, giving her last name a minor but noticeable emphasis.

Tempest didn’t flinch or move much at all at his words. She didn’t know who he was or what he wanted, but she didn’t need to know what he was referring to or her years of experience to know that he wasn’t someone from Klugetown or a wanderer. The thinly veiled sharp tone behind his words, the pointed tips of his gloves and shoes, the way he walked like everyone was beneath him, the weird designs on his mask… actually, his mask in general. Aside from a few things, particularly the mask, it all brought up memories of her time serving the Storm King. She needed to find out more about him, and to do that, she’d have to tread carefully. “What if I am?” she asked back in a calm tone.

Infinite crossed his arms, “You’re not much to look at, but I suppose you horses never are, even with a history like yours. Horn broken at a young age, disappeared for years, returned to Equestria under the Storm King’s command and nearly conquered it… Now look at you: reduced to living in these conditions, no doubt just barely getting by and trying to believe the world can’t get to you while believing what someone beneath you implanted in your mind. How far you’ve fallen.”

Tempest had turned around fully to look at him while he was speaking, still maintaining her composure despite his evaluation of her. “One can’t fall much further when they hit the bottom of a pit, and I have no intention of going back to the one that I spent many years in. It’s all yours now,” she replied evenly.

“I don’t remember anything about that. Something you’ve never told anyone, Tempest Shadow?” Infinite asked.

“Hmph. That shows what you know. I have far more now than I ever had for years. What do you claim to have?” Tempest retorted.

Infinite held up his left hand and closed it into a fist as he spoke, “Far more. Far greater power than I ever had before, power that I alone control and use against whoever I please. Weren’t you also close to having that as well, Tempest Shadow? Wouldn’t you like to have that kind of power and possibly even more again?”

Tempest was silent for a moment before saying, “It may seem like it was just a source of power to you, but I feel that the Staff of Sacanus would at least have more practical uses as well compared to whatever you have.” She eyed his mask and the gem on his chest as she added, “And I wouldn’t have to dress up and look tacky with it either.”

Infinite gave a dry laugh and said, “You are quite the funny one, Tempest Shadow.”

By this time, Tempest was getting rather annoyed by how he kept saying her name and was wondering why he said it the way he did, one part in particular. “You seem to be fixated on the name Shadow. What is your fascination with it?” she asked.

Infinite lowered his fist as he answered, “I’ve only ever met one other who had that name. When I met him, I still cared to show my face as much as you seem to care about showing your pathetic broken horn to the world. After that, I gave up my unsightly face and abandoned my old weak self so that, unlike you, I might be reborn as something stronger.” He held up both fists and looked up as he went on, “And now I have that power. The power to make all yield to my will!” He blinked when he heard a slight scuffing sound and looked down to see Tempest tapping her right hoof against the ground.

She pretended to notice him looking at her a few moments later and said, “Oh, excuse me. I’m just applauding. Applauding that guy, to be exact.” She stopped tapping her hoof, “Whatever he did to you, it sounds like he had you cleaning both the front and back of your legs when he was done.”

Infinite dropped his hands to his sides and his tone grew darker, “What did you just say?”

Tempest could tell she hit a particularly sensitive nerve for the jackal and decided to keep going with it. Anger often led to making mistakes; she knew that quite well. “Sure, I stopped using my birth name and became the lieutenant of the Storm King’s forces, aiding him in his conquests. I’ve done things I wasn’t proud of even then. I was even scared for my life at times. And yet I ultimately never tried to hide it; everyone I came across knew who I was and could see my scar and broken horn. You? I may not know anything about you, but I have a feeling that mask is all you’ve got,” she said.

Infinite’s right hand closed into a fist and started shaking as she finished speaking. He began to walk to the left and Tempest did the same, both keeping their eyes on each other. “You dare mock me? I am far more powerful than you ever could’ve been! I am the sole reason the planet is now in an iron grasp! I strike fear into the hearts of all who cross my path! The empire has never been stronger, and I fear nothing! I am NOT WEAK!” he growled, his voice rising in pitch as he finished.

“And yet here you are, out in the middle of nowhere, hiding behind a mask while you make such elaborate claims and try to convince a former enemy of Equestria to join your cause. Equestria may be full of bright colors and parties, but it does have a shortage of evildoers who are afraid to show their faces. Why did you come here? If you’re as powerful as you claim and you’re so proud of your ability to instill terror and take what you want, then why bother with me?” Tempest questioned, coming to a stop and glaring at Infinite as he stood in front of the tavern’s counter.

Infinite unclenched his hand and swung it backwards, imbedding his claws into the wood and shaking it enough to knock some of the glasses off of the shelves. A loud cracking sound filled the air and he ripped a piece of wood off. “You weak-minded FOOL!” he yelled as he shifted the wood to his hand and whipped his arm around towards Tempest, sending the wood flying at her. It came faster than she expected, but she was able to turn to avoid being hit by it, the splintered end of the wood only making a tear that ran across her brown cloak. She glanced down at it briefly before looking back up at Infinite. “You disappoint me. I thought perhaps there was one horse in this world that knew better than all the rest, but your mind has clearly been poisoned by them already.” He held out his hands, “I’ll grant you one mercy… and put you out of your misery!”


TEMPEST VS. INFINITE


Tempest regarded him for a moment before turning slightly away from him, the right side of her body now facing him. “Are you going to show me your great power now?” she asked.

“Foolish horse. I was once known as the Ultimate Mercenary. I don’t need my power to defeat you; I’ll crush you with my bare hands!” he declared.

Tempest raised her right hoof to her cloak and turned around to face him again as she threw it off, revealing… a shorter cloak without a hood that was about the same black color as her old uniform. “Impress me, then,” she taunted as she lowered her hoof to the ground.

With a growl and a burst of anger, Infinite turned briefly to kick one of the sticks holding up the canopy over the bar and grab it, turning back to Tempest and throwing it at her like a spear. She made a short dash forward and leapt over it, getting a little closer to him. She didn’t continue moving after she landed, instead opting to watch to see what he would do next. He rushed her suddenly, surprising her a bit with how quickly he closed the gap, but all the things she’d picked up from her years of tough training and harsh lessons hadn’t gotten rusty yet. When he swung his fists at her three times in succession, she easily moved to the sides to avoid the first two and backed away to evade the third. He seemed a bit surprised by her agility and wasn’t prepared when she said “My turn” and hit him in the middle of the face with her right hoof, causing him to reel back.

He recovered after a moment and faced her again while remarking, “Hm. Almost felt something. Do you have anything worth my time?” Tempest responded by delivering a hook across his left eye with her right hoof and followed it up with a blow to his torso just below the gem on his chest. She finished up with another strike to his face with her right hoof, making him stagger back with a grunt. He glared at her and moved forward, punching at her twice while she stepped back. When he tried to kick her, she jumped back and slid back a little when she landed. She then charged at him and he did the same, leaping at her with his claws extended. She managed to get between his hands before she leapt, slamming her right shoulder up against his front. She may have been a pony, but her years of physical training clearly exceeded those of the comparatively weaker jackal.

Infinite was sent flying backwards and tumbled over once when he hit the ground, stopping on his front. He got up on his hands and knees and let out an angry shout before jumping to his feet. While they stared each other down for several seconds, Grubber, who had been getting worried because of all the loud noises he heard outside, came out and peered around the side of the bar, watching them. Infinite suddenly rushed at Tempest, swinging his right fist at her. She sidestepped to the left and grabbed his arm with her hooves, flipping him over onto his back. He tried to retaliate by swinging his left leg up to kick her, but she blocked his foot with her forelegs as she stepped back. He rolled over onto his front and stood up slowly, keeping his right hand behind his back as the gem on his chest glowed weakly. “Playtime’s over,” he declared as he stood up all the way.

He brought his right hand out from behind his back a moment later, revealing a short red sword that was curved near the tip and a had a blue spot in the center of its crossguard with two blue lines on each side and a blue hilt. Tempest blinked and stared at it as he shifted it from a reverse grip to a normal grip. “Where did he get that from? There’s no way he could’ve had it on his back this entire time; I would’ve noticed it!” she thought. Despite her confusion, she wasn’t about to let him intimidate her and it seemed like he picked up on that given the way his left eye narrowed after looking at her for a few moments.

Infinite ran towards her and tried to stab Tempest with the sword, only for to step to her right to avoid it and hit him across the face with her right hoof. He alternated between trying to slash at her and trying to stab her several times with her moving around his attacks to avoid the blade. He attempted to stab her one more time, but this time, she moved to the left and grabbed his arm with her right foreleg as she kept moving. Infinite let out a pained groan seconds later as she brought it a full one hundred eighty degrees behind him, the shock and pain causing him to drop his sword even as she got behind him and pushed him to the ground. She kicked the sword away with her right back hoof before she used all but her right front hoof to hold his legs and left arm down.

Grubber had to hold his hands over his mouth to keep his cheers in check as he watched Tempest keep Infinite essentially pinned despite his struggles. She placed her right hoof on the ground between his head and his right arm and he tried to hit it away with his right fist while still struggling. She thought about pinning that arm down as well, but then she had another thought. She placed her hoof on his mask instead and began to pull it off. Almost immediately, his hand moved to grab the mask and keep it on. While they both struggled with the mask, Tempest leaned forward and spoke, “You see? I was right. Your whole identity, your entire world even, is this mask. Are you so wrapped up in it that you’ve lost sight of what’s real and what’s an illusion?” Infinite froze and his left eye visibly widened at her words, but it narrowed again a moment later.

Tempest felt him go rigid and thought she might have a chance to pull the mask off, but she had barely started pulling it when Infinite’s right elbow connected with her neck, surprising her and causing her to step off of him. Now freed, he kicked her in the side to further throw her off balance and got up as she regained her footing, moving towards her in a blind rage. She started backing away when she saw him coming, but he was coming at her with his claws faster and angrier than before. He managed to make some tears in the front of her cloak and a few of his slashes left red marks on her chest, finishing up with a punch to the face that knocked her onto her side. She started to get up, but he leapt on her before she could, pushing her back down and rolling her onto her back before pushing down again so the back of her head hit the ground. “You want to know what’s real?” he sneered. Tempest shook off her disorientation and looked up to see him raising his right fist back above his head, “I never end. You on the other hand…”

He was interrupted when something hit against his mask, Tempest hearing a shattering sound and seeing bits of glass rain down. She glanced up behind her and Infinite looked up too to see Grubber had come out from behind the bar and he was holding some of the glasses in his arms. “You leave Tempest alone, you… tall, mean creepy guy!” he yelled while grabbing another glass in his right hand and holding it up. Infinite stared at him for a moment… then he suddenly shot towards him. Grubber panicked and began throwing glasses as fast as he could, but none of them hit the jackal and he soon found himself snatched up by his cupcake tabard and slammed down on top of the counter.

When the pain in his butt subsided, he looked up to see Infinite glaring down at him, the jackal’s hands gripping his sides, though they didn’t pin his arms against them. Despite his fear, he began pounding his fists against Infinite’s hands, but to no avail. “So, you fashion yourself a companion to her. Caring for an insignificant speck like you… no wonder she’s acting the way she is,” he said. He began to tighten his grip on the hedgehog, “Once I’ve taken care of you, she should start to behave normally again.” Grubber let out a loud whine of pain and discomfort as the pressure increased.

All of a sudden, Tempest got up behind Infinite and brought her forelegs up underneath his arms and smacked them away, causing him to release Grubber. She then wrapped her forelegs around Infinite’s torso and pulled back quickly, slamming the top of his head against the ground while she landed on her back. He flopped onto his front and quickly stood up, only to see that Tempest had already gotten up and was glaring at him with an angry look he hadn’t seen her make before.

Before he could react, she began striking him in the face with her hooves, not giving him a chance to recover. “DON’T!” she hit the right side of his mask, leaving a dent in the black lightning bolt. “YOU!” she struck the left side, causing the visor to develop a multitude of cracks. “DARE!” she brought both hooves down on top of his head. “THREATEN!” both hooves struck the bottom of where his chin would be. “HIM!” she quickly whirled around and bucked him both hooves, sending him flying and knocking his mask clean off of his face. He spun over as he flew and landed on his front, his mask landing a short distance away.

Tempest panted heavily for several moments as she calmed down while Grubber stared breathlessly at what he had just witnessed. The unicorn soon calmed down enough to breathe normally and stand up straight. She looked over at where Infinite had landed and saw him not moving. She looked back at Grubber and held up her right hoof, saying, “Stay here.” She carefully walked over to Infinite, watching him for any signs of movement. When she was standing over him and he still hadn’t moved, she raised her right hoof and said, “Hey…” Suddenly Infinite flipped over onto his back and swiped his left hand across the tip of the gem on his chest, causing a bright glow that sent Tempest flying backwards.

Grubber gasped and stood up, leaping out of the way as she hit the top of the counter and bounced off of it, managing to miss hitting the top of the doorway behind the bar and coming to a stop on her side in the room past it. Grubber leapt down and ran to her, stopping near the back of her head. “Tempest?! Tempest!” he cried frantically as he tried to wake her, seeing her mouth hanging open slightly but not seeing a barely visible pink-purple glow over her pupils.

________________________________________


CRYSTAL CAVE


Tempest squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, feeling a sudden disorientation. She slowly blinked several times as she uttered, “Ugh, what…?” As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was in a cavern full of large reflective crystals and she could hear the sound of machinery somewhere off in the distance. “What? Where am I? How did I get here?” she asked as she quickly turned in a circle looking at her surroundings. As her gaze stopped on one of the crystals close to her, she realized she was clad in her old Storm Army uniform, which confused her further.

Before she could say anything, she heard Grubber calling, “Tempest! TEMPEST!”

She turned and looked in the direction it sounded like his voice was coming from before exclaiming, “Grubber?!”

She heard him call back, “Tempest! What are you doing?! You gotta help! Twilight’s been trapped down here for months, and now I’m stuck too! Hurry!” The urgency in his voice was unmistakable. Tempest immediately broke out into a run, making her way through the cave towards Grubber’s voice.

As she ran, she began to see the machinery she’d been hearing to her sides against the walls and amidst the crystals. She could see large gears turning to make conveyor belts move, the belts carrying devices she wasn’t exactly familiar with but had a general idea of what they were. “Are they making weapons down here? I need to put a stop to this as soon as I find Grubber and Twilight and get them out of here!” she thought as she ran.

It didn’t take Tempest long to reach a flat stone ledge that seemed to be where the cave ended. She could see a light shining in through a nearby hole in the wall and there didn’t seem to be anywhere else she could go. She was getting really worried as she looked around, hoping she had missed something. There had only been one path available to take and it seemed to lead to where Grubber’s voice was coming from, but she hadn’t seen him or Twilight at any point. “Where could they be?! Grubber said he and Twilight were down here!” she muttered.

She then heard a voice say, “Oh, is that what you thought, my dear Tempest? Because unfortunately for you, that’s completely wrong!”

Tempest gasped and looked towards the hole in the wall, where it seemed to be coming from. She knew that voice. “The Storm King?! But… you were turned to stone! And shattered!” she exclaimed.

The Storm King let out a raucous laugh at that before he spoke, “Aw, what’s the matter, little pony? Did you hit your head? Or did my lying about fixing your poor broken horn make you unable to see what’s real and what’s an illusion? I’ve controlled Equestria and the weather for three months now! Come outside now and see what you’ve been missing!” Not sure what else to do, Tempest did as he instructed and leapt into the hole to get out of the cave.

Upon landing on something soft, she looked around and saw that she was in the royal gardens near Canterlot Castle. The sky above was filled with swirling dark clouds, exactly like when the Storm King had the fully powered Staff of Sacanus in his possession. She didn’t see the Storm King or anyone else around, so she made her way out of the gardens and into the city itself, where she found Storm Creatures standing guard and ponies locked in cages. Tempest couldn’t believe what she was seeing as she walked down one of the streets. Canterlot looked exactly as she remembered it prior to the Storm King’s defeat. She came to a stop after a moment and thought about that. Exactly as she remembered it…

She looked at the Storm Creatures. They simply stood in place staring straight ahead. None of them seemed to notice her; at the very least, they didn’t turn their heads to look at her. She then looked at the ponies in some nearby cages. They were sitting down and had their heads bowed down, but other than that, they were acting like statues just like the Storm Creatures. She heard a thudding sound behind her and turned to see the Storm King on top of a fountain. The crown atop his head and the armor that mainly covered his upper body were just as she remembered, along with his white fur and blue eyes. He held the Staff of Sacanus in his right hand, the blue gem atop it glowing brightly but otherwise doing little else.


ESCAPING THE ILLUSION


The Storm King stood up straight and grinned down at her. “Do you remember now? I took the magic from Equestria’s princesses and had them all destroyed! The little invasion attempt was squashed like a bug! I’ve dealt with all other challenges to my power the same way, including your attempt to steal my staff! And now that you’re back, I have to ask: do you like what I’ve done with the place?” he taunted.

Tempest stared up at him for a moment before she narrowed her eyes, “No! I don’t know how this happened, but that’s not what happened! Your last-ditch attempt resulted in you being turned to stone and shattered! You were defeated!”

The Storm King’s grin disappeared and he seemed to freeze up at her words. After a few seconds, he put on a smile that seemed a bit wide and forced as he spoke, “Defeated? Oh, you must be mistaken! I have never known d-d-de-defeat!”

Tempest raised an eyebrow at the way he finished his sentence and how his head shook as he tilted it to the side. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked.

The Storm King straightened up and glared down at her as he said, “I was not defeated! I am not weak! I am not weak. I AM NOT WEAK… I AM NOT WEAK…! I AAAAAAAMMMMMM NOOOOOOOOTTT WEEEEEEEAAAAAAAKKKKKKK!” His voice became higher pitched and sounded more like he was droning as he went on and raised his head to look at the sky. Towards the end, it started to sound like another voice entirely. One she’d heard before…

Suddenly, Tempest remembered Infinite and what had happened before her mind became hazy. Seeing that the Storm King seemed to be stuck for the moment, she looked around once before looking up at the Storm King and then down at the ground. “This… isn’t really happening,” she murmured. She looked up at the Storm King again and said, “I need to get out of here.” Her broken horn filled with magic, sparks shooting out as she tried to keep it in check, “And I have a feeling you’re the way.”

The Storm King seemed to return to normal at her words. He glared down at her and took the Staff of Sacanus in both hands, pointing its tip at her. He fired a bolt of lightning at her, but Tempest had anticipated this and leapt to the side to avoid it. The Storm King kept firing at her, but she kept making good use of her agility and evasiveness to dodge his bolts as she worked her way to him. When she almost reached the fountain, he fired a bolt directly down at her, but instead of moving to the side, she jumped towards him, narrowly missing the bolt as it streaked under her. The Storm King let out a yell as she got closer and unleashed the magic that she was holding at him, the sound of fireworks going off being heard as everything started to fade to white…

________________________________________

“…Snap out of it! Come on, Tempest! Tempest!” Grubber cried, still trying to rouse the unicorn. Slowly, the pink-purple glow over her pupils faded away and she blinked, finding herself back in the backroom of the tavern outside of Klugetown. Grubber calmed down a little when he saw her raise her head since it wasn’t a frantic movement like he’d been seeing her doing for a while and it was more movement than no movement at all, but he was still worried.

Tempest suddenly rolled onto her back, causing Grubber to leap back in alarm, and placed her hooves on the sides of her head as she grit her teeth. “Ah, my head… What… What did that guy do to me?” she groaned.

She and Grubber heard Infinite speak a moment later, “So you managed to overcome it as well.” They both turned to see him standing outside on top of the bar, his arms crossed and his mask back on his face. “You really are just like him. I guess I made it too easy for you. Hope you enjoyed the show all the same, though.”

Tempest rocked herself forward back onto her hooves and turned to face him. “You! What did you do?! What are you planning?!”

Infinite simply replied, “I have no time for any more games. My time in this world grows short, and I still have things to do. Before I return, I have a gathering to break up and one... no, several disgustingly brightly colored links to you that I must remove from the equation. Perhaps then you’ll come to your senses. Not to worry, though; I have a parting gift for you: a much greater display of the power I possess. If you survive, perhaps you’ll beg to join me when I return.” He swung his right arm out and broke the other stick supporting the canopy before leaping back as it flopped down.

Tempest growled and ran forward, leaping over the bar and tearing the canopy off, bringing it with her as she landed on her hooves a second later. Grubber ran outside a moment later and stopped next to her as she shook the canopy off and threw it to the side. She then growled as she glared at Infinite, seeing him hovering just above the ground a short distance away. Before either of them could move towards him, what appeared to be a large yellow star suddenly fell just in front of them and exploded. They weren’t caught in the blast, but it did keep them from running towards Infinite. Temporarily forgetting the jackal, they both looked up as the smoke cleared, wondering where the star had come from. When they looked back towards the building, their eyes widened and their mouths fell open.


SILVER MOON MECH ATTACK


There was a large, mechanical silver sphere hanging above the building that sort of looked like the Moon and had a face on it that had two purple eyes with black scleras and a mouth that looked to be full of serrated teeth with a blue glow behind them. It seemed to be sentient since its eyes and mouth moved and, as soon as it noticed them looking at it, it began shooting more exploding yellow stars out of its mouth. It shot them quickly too, the stars landing close to Tempest and Grubber and forcing them to duck inside the building as it began to spin around and blanket the area with them.

They could still hear the explosions going off all around as they got into the living area. “Tempest, what are we going to do?!” Grubber cried.

“I’m not sure yet, Grubber! I don’t know what that thing is or where it came from! I guess I could try to attack it from underneath, but it could probably still shoot those exploding stars down and destroy the building!” Tempest grunted.

“Well, it could still do that now, but it has to stop at some point, right? Maybe then…” Grubber paused as he realized he suddenly couldn’t hear any more explosions. “Hey, you hear that? Sounds like they stopped! So now…” He stopped again when he felt the ground beginning to rumble beneath his feet. “Uh, why is the floor shaking?” he asked.

Tempest could feel the vibrations as well and looked down wondering. She gasped as she suddenly had an idea and looked up at the ceiling. Grubber looked up as well when they started to hear crunching and snapping sounds overhead that began to steadily get louder. The ceiling began to cave in seconds later and Tempest leapt over onto Grubber, wrapping her forelegs around him as she braced herself.

________________________________________

What was going on at the tavern hadn’t gone completely unnoticed by the denizens of Klugetown, but it was only when the sphere of death appeared and began raining explosions down around it that nobody could even pretend that they didn’t see what was happening. Capper was one of the first to notice, having seen Tempest and Infinite fighting off in the distance. He had decided to stay out of it since he was confident that his unicorn pal could beat the catnip out of whoever it was and he could get the gist of what happened later, but the big ball that was dropping explosions was starting to make him regret not going up there to help.

That regret became even worse when the sphere suddenly came crashing down on top of the building and exploded, causing him and everyone else looking to look away. When the light died down and he looked back, all he could see was a pile of rubble where the tavern used to be. As Capper stared, Infinite suddenly flew past him, laughing manically all the while. Capper whirled around in time to see him turn left and disappear down the main street before turning and running towards the tavern, almost losing his hat in his haste. A couple of ponies and a few other creatures did the same as him.

When he got closer to the tavern, he was able to better see that the entire structure had collapsed and the rubble was burnt from the explosion. “Tempest? Grubber?” he called as he and the others began sifting through the remains. Suddenly, they all heard a muffled shout followed by a dark orchid hoof knocking a piece of rubble away that was on top of it. They all looked over and saw Tempest knock some small rubble off of her as she rolled onto her haunches, Grubber curled up into a ball against her abdomen.


REUNION


Capper breathed a sigh of relief and looked them over as he made his way over to them and they disentangled and sat up. Tempest seemed to be somewhat singed, her mane and tail were frizzy, and her cloak was even more torn, though it was holding together well enough to cover her flanks. Grubber's tabard looked a bit damaged, but otherwise, he didn’t look as bad as Tempest and based on his position, Capper could guess that she did her best to shield him. “Thank goodness. You two okay?” he asked as he knelt down next to them.

Tempest and Grubber looked at each other for a moment before the former said, “I think so.”

Capper spoke, “That’s a relief. What happened? What was that thing just now?’

Tempest sighed as she rubbed the back of her head with her hoof, “I don’t know. All I know is it had to have been called upon by… him…” She slowed down as she finished and then turned to Capper, grabbing his right arm with her left hoof as she asked, “Capper, you didn’t happen to see him on your way here, did you? He had black fur and was wearing a strange mask.”

The feline nodded a moment later, “Yeah, yeah I did. He was… a jackal, I think. He flew past me before I made my way over here. And I mean he actually looked like he was flying, even though I don’t remember seeing any wings.” He looked back at her, “Who was he?”

Tempest sighed and let go of his arm, “I don’t know. He didn’t tell me his name. He… made it sound like what just happened was just a fraction of his power.”

Capper stared at her with concern, “Well, that's not good at all.”

Tempest held a hoof to her forehead. “He said something before that. What did he say?” she muttered, closing her eyes and trying to think. She remembered his words clear as day after a few seconds.

“Before I return, I have a gathering to break up and one, or rather several disgustingly brightly colored links to you that I must remove from the equation. Perhaps then you’ll come to your senses.”


REALIZATION


Her eyes shot open as she realized what he must’ve meant. “No…” she uttered.

Grubber beat Capper to the punch, asking, “What is it, Tempest?”

Tempest looked down at him, “What he said, about a gathering, and bright colors that I would know…” She looked at both Grubber and Capper, “I think he was talking about Ponyville. He must be going after Twilight and her friends!”

Capper blinked, “Whoa, you sure about that?”

Tempest replied, “If he’s planning to do something bad to Equestria, the smart thing to do would be to get them out of the way so they wouldn’t try to interfere!” She looked back at Grubber and said, “Climb on and hold tight.”

Grubber stared, “What…” He wasn’t picking up on it fast enough for Tempest’s liking since she dipped her head and managed to get her broken horn underneath him, tilting her head up afterwards to make him go over her head. He let out a yelp as he fell and then a grunt as he landed on her back. Now getting it, he sat up and quickly turning around to place his hands on her neck. Tempest then stood up and, after shaking off a little dust, leapt to get on top of the rubble and began moving towards Klugetown.

Capper stood up and turned to look at her, holding his right hand out towards her as he called, “Hey, Tempest!”

The unicorn came to a stop past the rubble and looked back at him, saying, “If you don’t hear from either of us in a couple of days, then something bad happened!” She then took off running towards Klugetown as Grubber struggled to hold on, “They have to be warned about him, and every second counts!” Capper and the other could only watch silently as she and Grubber left their sight.
> Dusk Falls
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


REAL FAKER BATTLE


Chrysalis snarled as she channeled her magic into her horn and unleashed it as a green beam, Metal Sonic moving back slightly as he jumped and hovered in the air while the beam hit the wall beside the entrance to the lair. The robot then shot down at her at an angle while swinging his right fist. Chrysalis barely managed to jump and flutter her wings to raise herself up and out of the way, Metal Sonic’s fist making an indentation in the ground. Unphased, he pulled his hand free and looked up, scanning for Chrysalis.

He heard a shout behind him and spun his upper body around to see her flying down at him, her horn once again filled with magic. He leapt to avoid having her tackle him, spinning his lower body around while he was in the air, but she charged after him. Metal Sonic’s back collided with that of ‘Infinite’ as the jackal’s copy leapt back to avoid a burst of dark magic from Sombra. They looked at each other briefly before jumping straight up in the air, causing Chrysalis to lock horns with Sombra as he charged as well. The dark magic in his horn caused Chrysalis some pain, the former queen groaning as she tried to pull her horn free.

‘Infinite’ landed on Sombra’s back and jumped off behind him, rolling as he landed, while Metal Sonic remained in the air. Sombra roughly pulled his horn out of the lock, taking out a small chunk of Chrysalis’ horn, and growled “Stay out of my way!” before turning to look at ‘Infinite’ as the jackal’s copy created red cubes in the air around him. Chrysalis growled at the unicorn but returned her attention to Metal Sonic and flew up after him, the two of them flying outside the cave as she tried to catch him. She didn’t understand how he still seemed to be undamaged, especially since he seemed to be shorting out and giving off red sparks just a little while ago. Regardless, she refused to be outclassed by anyone, especially not a cheap imitation.

Back in the cave, while Sombra and ‘Infinite’ continued to tussle, Tirek and Cozy Glow had their arms and forelegs full. While being at his full strength would probably not be a good idea in this cave, Tirek certainly wished he had more of his strength available to him at the moment. Discord’s magic sample had only restored a little bit of his strength and none of the attackers seemed to have any magic to steal, so the centaur was having trouble matching Zavok’s strength, plus he had to keep an eye on Cozy Glow. The pegasus filly was certainly doing her best to fight back against Chaos, but it seemed no matter where she flew, he was able to extend his arms far enough to reach and try to grab or attack her. And even if she did manage to swoop in and land her own attack, she would often get her hooves or wings stuck in his body and be pulled in, forcing Tirek to have to come to her rescue before she drowned. He wasn’t overly fond of the filly, but if they all got through this, it might be worth it to keep this little legion together.

At the back of the cave behind the pedestal, Discord stood up straight against one of the rock pillars, his breaths quiet as he tried to hide from Shadow behind the stalagmites as the hedgehog paced around, a number of stalagmites and rock pillars broken by him already. Earlier, Discord tried to talk to him, tried to convince him he was a changed draconequus and that he thought Shadow had no love for Dr. Eggman, but the hedgehog hadn’t been moved by his words. At least it didn’t seem like he had been; he hadn’t said a word in reply the entire time. His fists and feet had plenty to say, though, and since Discord still couldn’t use his magic, he’d been forced to hide from him and try to sneak past him like in some indie horror game. So far, his efforts to get past Shadow and escape unnoticed had not been successful.

Discord slowly turned his head to the left, about to peer out when the middle of the pillar broke and crashed into his backside, sending him to the ground with a girly yelp. He landed on his front, the pillar piece hitting the ground a short distance in front of him, and looked up and behind him a few moments later to see Shadow standing on top of the bottom half of what was left of the pillar. Discord squeaked and scrambled away on all fours like a lizard while Shadow’s eyes followed him robotically.

Discord crawled behind a set of stalagmites and came to a stop behind a spot where his horn and antler might not be easy to see. It didn’t matter since, after a few seconds, Shadow came crashing into the stalagmites, sending the rocks flying and narrowly missing Discord. The draconequus managed to pull his head back and leapt up on two legs as Shadow turned to face him. Before he could try to hide again, the black hedgehog suddenly vanished in a flash of red, causing Discord to look frantically around for him. Shadow reappeared from a red flash next to the left side of his head when he was looking away and kicked him in the side of the head, vanishing again and reappearing immediately afterwards in front of him to slam both of his fists down on his head. While the draconequus was stunned, he vanished again and reappeared behind him, spinning around and striking him in the back, sending him down to the cavern floor.

Discord rolled onto his back while complaining, “That’s not fair! I can’t use my magic; why do you get to use your super powers? That’s just mean!” He was silenced when Shadow appeared again, this time standing to his left next to his waist. Before Discord could react, Shadow reached down and placed the palm of his right hand under his chin, quickly lifting him up above his head. He then gritted his teeth and raised his left hand, which was closed into a fist as he glared up at the draconequus. Discord’s eyes widened and he began to flail, trying to get out of Shadow’s grip, but to no avail. He had a bad feeling this one was going to hurt.

After a few moments, Discord’s struggles slowed down as it seemed as though a punch or some other form of attack wasn’t coming. He dared to look down at Shadow and saw that he seemed to be frozen in place. He snaked his neck around so he could look at Shadow’s face and noticed for the first time how dull and lifeless his eyes appeared to be in comparison to the rest of him. All of a sudden, Shadow began to distort, his form becoming fuzzy and odd shapes coming off of him. Without warning, he faded out of existence, leaving Discord with nothing holding him up and causing him to hit the ground hard. As he was rubbing the back of his head, he heard surprised and pained exclamations coming from the others. Intrigued, he flipped himself over and crawled on all fours to the edge of the pedestal to look.

At the time Discord had been held up in his perilous situation, Tirek had managed to stun Zavok by having him crash into a wall before jumping on his back, pushing him down and keeping him on the cavern floor, Chrysalis was flying back into the lair after Metal Sonic, Cozy Glow was putting her speed and small size to good use to attack Chaos’ brain, and Sombra was grinning down at ‘Infinite’ as the jackal’s copy lay on his front near the stones sticking out of the water at the lair entrance. When Shadow disappeared, so did the others, which was particularly bad for Cozy Glow and Chrysalis since they ended up crashing into the floor and the front of the pedestal respectively, leaving them all befuddled.

As Discord peered over the pedestal, he saw Sombra and Tirek looking around in confusion and Chrysalis and Cozy Glow nursing their injuries while angrily looking where they’d last seen their targets. “Incredible! Even that Infinite guy was a fake? But they all moved, and attacked, so realistically.” Discord took a moment to rub a spot on the side of his head that still hurt. “And he was able to use whatever power he had to reveal me and seal my magic.” Remembering this, he tried snapping his fingers to teleport away, but nothing happened. “I still can’t use my magic! How did he do it?! How is he still doing it if he faded away?!” Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, it wouldn’t be long before something happened.


INFINITE'S WARRANT


The sound of Discord’s fingers snapping caught the attention of some of the villains, but they all turned to look at the entrance of the cave when a pink-purple portal opened in front of it. A silhouette came from it that was revealed to be Infinite a second later, the jackal’s mask appearing to be undamaged as he landed on the third stone from the end in the water, his sword in hand and his head bowed as he knelt down upon landing. He soon looked up at the villains and asked dryly, “Did you all have fun?”

Chrysalis turned and leapt over the stone in front of the pedestal, the former queen standing over Cozy Glow as she demanded, “You! What did you do?! How did you do it?! …Is that really you?!”

Infinite stood up, “Of course it’s me. Why would you think it’s not me?”

Cozy Glow pointed out, “Well, the one we thought was the real Infinite suddenly just disappeared and so did everyone else…”

Before she could say any more, Infinite spoke, “All part of a test I arranged. And I must say, not one of you gave a satisfactory performance if you’re just now realizing it. Is this really all this world has to offer?”

Sombra growled and stepped forward, “My power far exceeds your flimsy projections and frail body. Once I struck it, your illusion was easily overpowered.”

Infinite countered, “And it only took you until now to figure out that you weren’t really fighting me. The rest of the time, you were struggling to keep up, getting in the way of your ‘allies’, and showing off so much power yet you never managed to make the cave collapse. It may have been an illusion, but I know what you’ve been doing. And not just you; I know what the others were doing as well. Seems you really are the only one who doesn’t want to cooperate.”

Sombra said, “As I said, I only do MINE; I will take what I desire for myself and that’s that. Nothing you can do will convince me to change my mind.”

Infinite replied, “The empire has no room for that attitude, and I will not have anyone serving under me who would seek to undermine the Doctor. You do have great power, Sombra, but in you, it will only be wasted. It deserves a more suitable user.”

Sombra snarled, “You? You’re threatening ME?”

Infinite answered, “You’ve made your position clear. I’ll give you the empire’s judgement myself.”

Sombra growled, “The empire belongs to ME!”

Infinite held up his sword, “The empire you’re thinking of pales in comparison to the one I serve, and it won’t be long before I wipe it off the face of this planet.”


INFINITE VS. SOMBRA... FOR REAL


Sombra changed into black smoke, only his eyes appearing in the cloud. “Then once I have dealt with you, it will be mine as well. You’ll suffer the same fate that your copy was about to,” he boomed, unleashing a beam of dark magic at Infinite a few seconds later. While he was doing this, the jackal lowered his sword, held up his left hand, and swiped it horizontally from left to right, a multitude of red cubes appearing in front of him and forming a shield in front of him in response. Sombra’s beam knocked the cubes out when it hit, but every time a cube popped out of place, a new one appeared from nowhere to replace it, keeping the beam at bay.

After several seconds, Infinite thrust his left hand up at Sombra, which caused the shield to move up towards him in spite of the beam. Despite pouring more dark magic into it, the unicorn couldn’t stop or break the shield and was forced to become solid again, falling down on the last stepping stone while the cubes flew past where he’d been and broke apart harmlessly against the cave’s ceiling. Sombra turned to look at Infinite as he said, “That ‘copy’ did not have access to my full power, not that you would’ve earned the right to see it.” He raised his left hand up, a red orb swiftly forming above the palm, “I’ll allow it, though, as it will be the last thing you’ll get to see.” They all heard the sound from before a moment later, followed by the colors of their surroundings flickering for several moments before returning to normal.

After a few moments, Sombra noticed the water near Infinite bubbling and rippling. Suddenly, four distorted clones of Infinite burst out of the water, two on each side of the jackal. Sombra was admittedly shocked by them. The only visible parts of them were their long, dragon-like necks, making them nearly touch the ceiling, and their masked faces, which looked down at him with blank, pink-eyed gazes. He looked back down at Infinite when he spoke, “This entire cave is mine now. Everything you see can be a weapon I can use against you. What can you do? Make crystals grow?” Sombra responded by making black crystals come out of the ground behind him diagonally, more crystals sprouting from them to redirect them towards Infinite and his copies as the latter moved towards Sombra.

The crystals struck the copies, some of them running through their necks, but they kept aiming for the unicorn despite being held back. Sombra smirked since they didn’t seem to be strong enough to break through, but after a couple of seconds, Infinite flew up and landed on the head of the one being held the furthest back. “You’ll have to do better than that,” he remarked as he held out his left hand and charged a red energy beam in it, firing it in a sweeping motion at the base of the source crystals, cutting through them and causing the rest to fall, allowing the copies to resume their approach. Sombra once again became smoke to evade their attack and floated up, firing beams of dark magic down at their necks that made them collapse. Infinite leapt down towards the water, using his power to create more platforms on the surface and landing on one as Sombra became solid again and fell towards him.

While they continued to tussle, Chrysalis and Tirek had moved back closer to the pedestal while Cozy Glow got on Tirek’s back and peered out from behind him, all three of them and Discord watching the fight. Cozy Glow finally broke the silence amongst them by asking, “Should we help him?”

Tirek shrugged as he glanced in her direction, “Which one?”

The filly gave him an angry look, “King Sombra! You know I meant him!”

Tirek looked back the fight as he replied, “No, I don’t think we should.”

Chrysalis nodded, “I agree. He belittled us and decided everything should belong to only him. Now’s his chance to prove his words are worth anything.”

Discord remained silent as he kept watching, though he moved back from the pedestal a bit in case anyone decided to turn their attention to him. The draconequus kept switching his attention between the fight and the cavern entrance. “This is not good. Either one of them could notice me if I try to slip out now, and with the fight going on right there, one of the others will notice me as well. What am I going to do?” he wondered.

After a little more moving around each other’s attacks, Infinite decided to switch it up a bit when Sombra leapt towards him again. Instead of immediately dodging out of the way, he held up his left hand and created a wall of red cubes in front of him. Sombra didn’t think much of it, his hooves easily breaking through the wall and just missing Infinite as he leapt back. He didn’t realize anything had happened until he landed. As he stood up straight and looked around, he realized his vision seemed to be tinted red and he couldn’t see Infinite anywhere, only clusters of red cubes rising up out of the water as he stared. “What? What is this?!” he demanded. After he finished, the cubes suddenly all came together and shot straight towards him, breaking apart as they hit him. Sombra grunted as he felt them pushing him back, making him stand up on his hind legs. As they hit, he noticed the red tint leaving his vision and the pain quickly going away. It seemed the cubes had only managed to stun him for a few seconds, but that was enough.

While Sombra was distracted by the illusion, Infinite, who was right in front of the unicorn the entire time, held his sword out and ran towards him once the cubes started striking him. Predicting the rearing up, he leapt up and made a horizontal slash with his sword, cutting off his horn just above the midline. As he brought his sword back to his side, he swung his legs forward and pressed his feet against Sombra’s chest, jumping back off of him. The unicorn struggled to keep his balance while Infinite reached out and closed his left hand around the horn. He then flipped over and landed on one of the stones in the crouched position while Sombra managed to get his forehooves back on the ground. As the unicorn glared at him, Infinite raised his sword again… and then seemingly carelessly threw it back over his shoulder towards a portal he opened on the platform behind him, the weapon still spinning end over end as it fell in.

“Seems you misplaced that,” Sombra grunted, his horn beginning to grow back.

“I don’t need it anymore. It served its purpose here, and so have you,” Infinite replied, holding up the piece of Sombra’s horn for him to see. “It’s time for you to die.”

Sombra let out a laugh before saying, “You really think cutting off my horn changes anything? And you, kill me? The Crystal Heart couldn’t destroy me!”

Infinite replied, “No, but as I understand it, it’s only now that you’ve been reconstituted from just this. And now there’ll be even less of you left. You should’ve been more grateful to the one who brought you back and more willing to work with the others he called. That’s your final mistake.” Sombra growled and began to call his magic into his horn. Any second now it would finish repairing itself and he’d…


LONG LIVE THE KING


He was brought to a stop when his magic filled his horn and instead of gathering like he intended, it instead began to shoot all over in small beams. He stopped his magic and looked up at his horn. He was surprised to see that it had stopped short, the horn ending in a mostly flat circle rather than a point. He narrowed his eyes as if he was trying to will it to finish repairing itself, but nothing happened. His gaze shifted down at Infinite when he let out a dark chuckle, the jackal looking at him expectantly with his arms crossed.

Sombra wanted to know what he was laughing about, but before he could say anything, he became distracted by a sudden sensation within him. It started out as an itching on the side of his neck, but it began to get worse as it traveled down his body, Infinite noticing with satisfaction a discoloration in the unicorn’s skin that was visible under his coat as the feeling spread. Sombra suddenly fell forward after several moments, agonized growls coming from his mouth as the feeling got worse, going from itching to outright burning. He felt like his insides were literally on fire as he rolled onto his side, his forehooves moving across his body as if he was trying to scratch or dig out the pain he was feeling while Infinite calmly watched him writhe.

Sombra managed to sit up and let out a scream before he leaned back too far and fell on his back, his eyes opening and moving up to meet Chrysalis and Tirek’s, the two backing up against the pedestal as they stared back with wide eyes. Discord stared as well, a horrified look in his mismatched eyes. They could see not only the discoloration in his skin, but also a new discoloration appearing in his eyes. Cozy Glow was shaking as she peered out from behind Tirek, the centaur trying to keep her from seeing the unicorn.

Despite his worsening pain, Sombra was able to twist himself back around onto his front, his eyes settling on Infinite. The jackal hadn’t moved at all since his pain had started, still watching him burn away from the inside. All he knew was that he was responsible for this. He didn’t know that Infinite had been scanning him during the fight and using the power of his gem to locate the source of his return since the Eggman Empire’s records indicated there should have been no chance for him to come back on his own. When he’d thrown his sword earlier, it landed in the cavern where the magic circle and insignia had been drawn, landing on its side next to the circle. The power that created the blade was seeping out from it and as it did, it changed the circle from blue to red and began to cancel out the magic, the lines in the circle breaking like guitar strings.

In spite of what was happening to him, Sombra refused to accept defeat. He would make sure Infinite fell before he did. His anger driving him forward, he managed to extend his legs, raising himself into a hunched over standing position. He tried to push himself forward, but in the distant cavern, both the magic circle and Infinite’s sword faded into thin air, bringing a new wave of pain to the unicorn that stopped him from moving. His head swung downwards and he stared in horror at his right foreleg after a moment, seeing it beginning to shrivel up and decay, not noticing that the hair in his mane and tail were doing the same. After less than half a minute, his coat and skin began to peel like a banana, exposing more and more of his skeleton. It only took several seconds for him to be completely reduced to a skeleton that then crumbled to dust, only his crown, cape, and armor being left behind.

There was silence in the cavern for a long moment. Then Infinite held up the piece of Sombra’s horn in front of him and spoke to it, “You will not be receiving a vision of victory. You’ll only be remembered as a relic of the past, a former conqueror who never reclaimed what was once his. I still have some use for this, but not for you. This is where your delusions end.” He raised his eyes from it when he heard sobbing coming from Cozy Glow, the pink filly covering her eyes with her hooves. “Oh, will one of you shut her up? I don’t know why you brought her here, but I’ll put her to good use since you two can’t,” Infinite grunted as he began to move towards the other villains, kicking Sombra’s crown out of his way as he walked across his cape.


STRIKING A DEAL


Despite feeling more than a bit perturbed after witnessing Sombra’s fate, Tirek and Chrysalis were both indignant at the way the jackal was addressing them. They sure weren’t going to let him act like he had the right to insult them and tell them what to do. “Quiet! Of all the unexpected things that have happened today, I would think seeing a pony be reduced to dust was the last thing she thought she would get to see today!” Tirek said, sticking up for Cozy Glow even if he wasn’t sure why he was.

Infinite noticed Chrysalis’ horn lighting up as he finished crossing the water and spoke, “I see. I did you all a favor and you’re acting like I did something wrong? If, by some chance, he’d managed to succeed in claiming all he wanted, he would’ve come back to deal with all of you. Don’t try to pretend he wouldn’t have.”

Chrysalis retorted, “Is that supposed to make us feel better about witnessing that? What reason do we have to believe you won’t try to do something like that to us behind our backs?”

Infinite stood at the edge of the water as he spoke, “You think I completely enjoy having this power but having to serve someone in order to possess it? No, but I was once known as the Ultimate Mercenary, so being forced to follow someone’s orders to get what I want isn’t new for me. And as a former leader, I recognize potential when I see it and don’t enjoy watching it go to waste. I think it’s particularly important to note that all concerned parties here share a common group of enemies.”

Chrysalis thought about what he said and her eyes narrowed a second later, “Twilight and her friends…”

Discord began crawling backwards as Infinite said, “Retrieving them and taking them to their doom is my primary objective in this world.”

Tirek asked, “‘This world’? Why do you keep saying that?”

Chrysalis turned to him, “Are you serious? How can you not look at him and wonder if he’s from a different world?”

They looked back at the jackal when he continued, “I know how to get them right where they need to be, and you can all play an important role in making sure it goes as planned. You’ll get you revenge and far more than you would get doing whatever an overgrown child trying to pull the wool over your eyes tells you to do.”

While Tirek and Chrysalis looked at each other, Cozy Glow, who managed to stop crying though her eyes were still a bit red, peered out at Infinite and managed, “B-But… if you recognize potential and all that, then why did you… King Sombra…?”

Infinite raised his left arm, holding the horn piece up in front of him. “I thought you might get more use out of it than he did,” he said, holding it out.

The filly shook at the sight of the horn and Tirek noticed, the centaur moving his left arm in front of her. “You keep that away from her,” he warned.

Near the back of the cave, Discord was hiding behind one of the rock columns, peering out as he listened in. He was still hoping to slip away unnoticed, but his worry began to grow when Infinite lowered his left arm and said, “You’re testing my patience. This conversation is unnecessary. I’m reaching out to you and none of you can give me an answer either way.”

Chrysalis asked, “And what will you do if we refuse?”

Infinite raised his right hand up, “I still have work to do. You’re wasting my time, and even if you weren’t, I don’t have time to hang around here, so let me give you all a nudge in the only direction available.” As he swiped his hand across the tip of his gem and it began to glow, Discord abandoned his hiding spot and ran for the pedestal, leaping from the top of it as red-pink light filled the cave and that strange sound filled the air…

________________________________________


REGRETS


Spike sighed as he leaned back on the front steps of Twilight’s castle, looking up at the blue sky. It was a wonderful day, but he wasn’t really feeling the same at the moment, even with a full belly. He and Starlight had managed to drag Twilight out of the castle for lunch like they’d hoped to, but she spent nearly the entire walk to the Hayburger being in a panic over her apparent home invader. They calmed her down by the time they got to the restaurant and she was able to eat her food, but it was clear she was still worrying about it quite a bit. They checked everything that Twilight told them before they left and agreed that it was very unsettling, but neither one of them knew what to say to assuage her anxiety.

Fortunately, they bumped into Pinkie Pie while they were sitting at the table and, after hearing about the situation, she quickly gathered up the rest of their friends and they all went back to the castle with them to investigate further. They spent a while searching the whole castle, but even with Rarity and Pinkie leading the investigation, they were unable to find any more evidence that might point to who the culprit was. Pinkie even suggested it might’ve been the work of a phantom. Spike had to smile as he thought about that. “Good old Pinkie, always trying to lighten the mood,” he thought. His smile didn’t last long, though.

After their search was done, the girls apologized to Twilight for not being able to help her and told her they’d keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Starlight left shortly afterwards, saying she and Trixie had already made plans for the day to hang out. That left Spike and Twilight alone in the castle, and Twilight was still worrying quite a bit. She wasn’t exactly Twilight-ing, but she wasn’t able to keep it to herself either. Between that and his own frustration at the situation and the lack of progress they’d made, he ended up needing to take a few moments to get his anger in check before excusing himself, saying he needed to get some fresh air.

That had been a little while ago and now Spike was feeling bad about it. Sure, he managed to avoid snapping at Twilight and saying something he’d probably regret, but he knew from the way she looked at him and stepped back that she knew he was angry, and that was making him feel like he actually had said something. He wanted to go back inside and apologize to her, but he was more than a little nervous about doing so, his own anxieties keeping him on the steps. He was afraid she wouldn’t accept his apology, but he knew he had to go in and start making things right.

While he was working up the nerve to go back inside, Twilight was thinking similar thoughts as she walked through the castle. She felt that she was responsible for Spike’s display of aggression and was trying to think of a way to make it up to him. She came to a stop after a few minutes, trying to think harder on the matter as she let her eyes wander. She then noticed something out of the corner of her vision to her left and turned to look fully. She saw a light shining from the library and she ran down the hall to investigate, her mind clearing somewhat to try to focus on whatever was going on in there.


MORE THAN A THREAT


As she got closer, she realized the it was the Warp Ring, which she remembered Starlight bringing with her in its inactive state when she and Spike came to get her. Now it was here expanded to its full size and appeared to be gathering energy despite not appearing to be hooked up to the machinery. Twilight looked around the room for any sign of anyone else before moving to check the computer in the tower. The screen was still flickering with static, but she could make out readings on it in between the flickers. “Who did this?! Who in Equestria would know enough about the Warp Ring to be able to activate it? And how is it gathering power? It shouldn’t be hooked up to the crystal. What the…?” Any further questions were cut off when the static turned red and filled the screen for several seconds. It then disappeared, revealing the symbol of a familiar grinning face. It then moved back to reveal it was part of a larger, more dominant-looking symbol. She didn’t have time to dwell on it, however.

From seemingly nowhere, Twilight was struck across the top of her head fairly hard. She backed up a couple of steps and stopped before she opened her eyes. She rubbed her head with a hoof as she looked around for her attacker. “Who did that?! Who’s in here?!” she exclaimed. She felt a blow against her left side a few moments later and she saw a silhouette quickly move across the room as she turned due to the strike. When she looked where she’d last seen it after stopping, she didn’t see it anywhere. “Where did you go?! Show yourself!” she yelled. After a few moments of nothing happening, she started to walk, but didn’t get more than a few steps before she felt claws running along her right side. The pain wasn’t bad, so she assumed they didn’t break the skin, but it still hurt. She spun around after the feeling stopped and saw the assailant standing behind her.

“Spike?” she asked, confused. The baby dragon simply stood there smiling at her, his smile soon becoming a toothy grin. Before she could say anything, she noticed that his teeth began to change slightly, becoming sharper and more fang-like. Suddenly, in a burst of green flames, the dragon was gone, replaced by a familiar former queen. “Chrysalis?!” Twilight exclaimed as she looked up at the changeling before her who continued to grin down at her.


HOPE ENDS HERE


Twilight was taking a few steps back when she suddenly heard a loud crashing sound behind her. Turning her head to look back, she saw a black smoke cloud with deep red eyes floating above where one of the tables had been sitting. She immediately thought it was King Sombra, but she hesitated when a pink head, a curved horn that was mostly red, and a long curly pale blue mane with a light gray stripe appeared from the cloud. The cloud lowered itself down to the floor before it dissipated, revealing a fully grown alicorn wearing a scarlet chest piece that looked like her rook cutie mark and similarly colored shoes on her hooves. Her mane and tail billowed like Celestia and Luna’s and they still had bows tied around them, and she had a long ribbon around her waist that blew in a nonexistent wind like her mane and tail. “Cozy Glow?!” Twilight gasped, getting a vicious smile in response.

The doors to the library suddenly slammed shut and Twilight turned to see a brawny moderate raspberry left hand on them, the arm it was connected to wearing a silver bracer just above the wrist. Her eyes widened, “Tirek?!” The centaur’s colors weren’t as deep and he wasn’t as tall as when she’d first seen him herself, but she could never forget him. She had no idea how he managed to get into the library without making a sound, but that didn’t matter right now. Unlike the other two, he glared down at her, his yellow and black eyes, though dull, making it clear how he felt about seeing her again. Twilight began to back up towards the Warp Ring as she looked between all three of them, wondering who was going to make the first move. Her backside soon came into contact with something and she slowly turned her head to the left to see Infinite standing there. She didn’t know anything about him, but the way he looked with his undamaged mask unnerved her almost as much as the guests at this surprise villain reunion she was suddenly hosting. And things were really going to heat up in a moment.

Without warning, Infinite punched her across the side of her face, causing her to stagger forward a bit. When she recovered, she looked up to see Chrysalis’ horn was filled with magic. She managed to leap back to side to avoid the magic beam, which left a black scorch mark on the floor. She looked to her left to see Cozy Glow preparing her own magic and spread her wings, taking flight and just avoiding the beam, which hit some of the bookshelves instead. She had barely spent a second in the air before Infinite suddenly flew up and delivered an uppercut to her chin, which he followed up with a kick that sent her crashing into back first into another set of shelves, some of the books falling down around her as she landed on her front.

Twilight managed to pick herself up after a few moments, shaking her head a bit. She looked up at Infinite to see him hovering in the air, surrounded by a red aura. He opened his left hand and held out his palm towards her, firing several red shots at her that missed because she backed up against the shelves. She then looked to see Cozy Glow coming at her, ready to pounce with bits of red and orange symbols around her. Twilight used her magic to teleport before she could land and reappeared near Chrysalis, who looked a bit surprised and had some of the same symbols appear around her as she turned to the alicorn. They both charged up a beam, but Twilight’s was ready first and it quickly overpowered Chrysalis’, knocking the changeling to the floor.

Twilight turned her head to look at Infinite, getting the feeling he was somehow responsible for this. She readied another beam and fired it at him, but he easily floated out of the way of it. Before she could do anything else, Tirek suddenly crossed the room, wrapped his left hand around her midsection, and quickly threw her to the floor in the middle of the room. She quickly leapt to her hooves and saw Cozy Glow flying above her in smoke form for a moment before becoming solid to land on her. Twilight ran forward to avoid her, but Infinite dropped down and kicked her in the side while she was running, sending her into the table that sitting on its side atop one of the other tables, breaking it.

Twilight flopped out of the indent she’d made in the table and fell down onto the floor, landing on her front. “What is going on? How did all this-?” She stopped when, out of the corner of her vision, she saw Chrysalis charging at her. She managed to create a force field around herself in time, but the changeling’s glowing horn pressed hard against it. It bought Twilight enough time to get up, which she needed since Tirek was suddenly standing over her again, swinging his right fist down at her. She was able to spread her wings and take off as it broke through the shield, leaving a moderate crater in the floor. “I don’t know what to do!” she managed to scream in her head before Cozy Glow came up underneath and knocked her backwards, flapping her wings to remain in the air.

It was at this moment that the library doors swung open, revealing Spike in the doorway. “Hey Twilight, what’s all the noise in- What the-?!” His confusion and worry quickly gave way to shock and horror as he took in the entire scene, seeing Infinite and some of the villains that Twilight and her friends had defeated in the room and Twilight battered and bruised.

“Spike! G-!” Twilight was cut off when Chrysalis fired a beam up at her that seemed to send an electric shock through her, her body sparking as she began to drop down. It wasn’t fast enough for Cozy Glow’s liking since she turned to smoke and floated up above her before changing direction and shooting her straight down towards the floor, the pink alicorn floating off to the side before becoming solid again while the lavender alicorn was lying on her back. Tirek moved forward and grabbed her with his right hand, flinging her up into the ceiling. As she fell, Infinite levitated around into position and kicked her into one of the bookshelves, books raining down around and on her as she fell to the floor and, after a few moments, didn’t get back up.

Spike could only watch as she was beaten up and knocked around the room, his horror increasing when she didn’t get back up after landing. He could see her head, part of her neck, and part of her forelegs sticking out from under the pile of books, but her eyes were closed and he couldn’t tell if she was moving. “TWILIGHT!!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs, not caring who heard him. Maybe he was hoping their friends would hear him and come to help at the speed of a Sonic Rainboom, but unfortunately, the only ones who seemed to hear him were Cozy Glow and Chrysalis, both of them locking him in place with their piercing eyes.

He began to back up, but he didn’t get more than a few steps before they swiftly moved towards him, the dragon falling onto his rear as they stopped and stood slightly off to the side over him, glaring down at him. He looked up at them for several moments before his eyes shifted to look at Twilight, seeing Tirek lift her out of the book pile with his left hand, holding her by the tips of her wings. She still wasn’t moving, her body hanging limply as Tirek held her up in front of his face. “Twilight, no…!” he thought before looking back up at Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, sure it was the end even as he heard the sound of hoofbeats getting closer behind him…


A STEP BACK


A few minutes earlier…

“Ah! Such a beautiful day! I’m so glad we’re going to spend it together!” Trixie stated as she and Starlight sat outdoors at a café, her words causing a couple of ponies to look over at them.

“Uh-huh,” Starlight replied simply, glancing down at her plate. She had decided on an order of hay fries while Trixie was enjoying a sandwich. She’d tried not to eat too much at the Hayburger earlier since she knew she was meeting Trixie for lunch, but she really didn’t feel hungry now, the unsolved mystery at Twilight’s castle weighing on her mind.

“Trixie is so glad for it. With all the work you do for the School of Friendship, Starlight, we really haven’t spent much time together lately! Now that summer has come, we’ll be spending a lot more time together!” Trixie went on.

“Yep,” Starlight remarked before finally grabbing a few hay fries.

Trixie finally noticed that her friend seemed preoccupied and asked, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Starlight looked up at her in surprise for a moment before glancing back down as she said, “Oh, it’s just… I was almost late for our lunch date because…” She paused, stopping herself from saying it too loud and looking around to see if anypony was looking at them. She then quickly leaned across the table and whispered, “Twilight had an intruder in her castle earlier.” She then sat back normally in her seat.

Trixie blinked and spoke, “Oh my. Is she okay?”

Starlight waved a hoof, “Oh yeah, she’s fine. She was with me and Spike when we think it happened. There was just a mess in her room and some vandalism. That’s all we’re sure of.”

Trixie sighed and said, “Well, that’s a relief. So… you’re concerned because you don’t know who did it?”

Starlight answered, “Well, that and the lack of anything else that might help. I mean, the front doors were still closed, there weren’t any open or broken windows… We have no idea who it was or how they got in.” She was a bit hesitant to tell Trixie about what they had been doing. Even though she knew the showmare had met Sonic and his friends during the crisis, she didn’t know how close she was to any of them or if she even remembered them.

Trixie spoke, “Well, perhaps there’s nothing to worry about. Perhaps that’s all they wanted?” Starlight raised an eyebrow at her, prompting her to say, “W-Well, Trixie means there are no more enemies. No one should be after Twilight, yes?”

Starlight lowered her eyebrow and said, “I don’t know. I mean, Chrysalis kinda disappeared, no one’s seen her in a long time, but this doesn’t seem like something she’d do.”

As she turned her attention back to her hay fries, Trixie sighed and rolled her eyes, feeling irritated that their day together was starting to go off the rails. She placed her left foreleg on the table and rested her head against her hoof, letting her eyes wander. After a few moments, she looked to her right and noticed somepony coming down the street at a fast pace, though she couldn’t tell who it was. She sat up straight and asked while still looking, “Who’s that?” This caused Starlight to look up and see what Trixie was looking at.

It didn’t take the pony long to reach and dash past the café, but in the brief moment she got a clear look, Starlight saw that it was Tempest Shadow with Grubber on her back. The mare was sweaty and looked more than a little winded and Grubber was holding onto her neck for dear life. After she ran past, Starlight spoke, “That was Tempest Shadow. What’s she doing in Ponyville?”

Trixie shrugged, “Hm. Twilight offered to teach her about friendship, didn’t she? Maybe she wants to be the first to sign up for next year now.” Starlight wasn’t so sure about that. Tempest was clearly running as fast as she could and she did seem to have a desperate look on her face, but she had a feeling something else was going on.


HURRY TO TWILIGHT'S SIDE


Tempest was panting heavily as she galloped through the streets of Ponyville, occasionally glancing back to make Grubber was still hanging on. Running all the way here had taken quite a bit of pushing herself on in order to not stop, but she was determined not to stop, especially not now when she was so close. As she got closer to Twilight’s castle, she passed through the market and caught sight of Twilight’s friends hanging around Sweet Apple Acres’ stall with Big Mcintosh. The girls had been talking about their inconclusive search of Twilight’s castle while Applejack helped her brother tend to the stall when Pinkie saw Tempest coming and waved to her while calling, “Hey, Fizzy!”

The other girls and Big Mac looked as she, upon seeing them, slowed down and came to a stop near them, taking a moment to exhale loudly and then suck in a big breath. She then looked at them and, before they could say anything, asked, “Why are you all just standing around here?!”

As she started to run again, Grubber called back, “Come on!”

Confused, the girls all stared at her as she left the market, Rarity asking after a moment, “What was that all about?”

Fluttershy offered, “Well, she looked like she’s been running for a long time, and um… she sounded rather rushed.”

After a moment, Rainbow said, “Something’s going on. If she was just visiting Ponyville, it’d be one thing, but with how fast she’s going and what she just said… There’s trouble. There has to be.” As if in response, they all heard Pinkie making noises and turned to see it was her Pinkie Sense going off. It wasn’t one they saw often, but they all knew it: it was a doozy.

Setting her Stetson straight, Applejack turned to her brother and spoke, “Ah gotta go see what’s up, Big Mac. Can ya keep an eye on the stall while Ah’m gone?” The red stallion gave a simple “Eeyup” and watched as she and her friends took off running after Tempest and Grubber.

After leaving the market, it didn’t take Tempest long to reach Twilight’s castle and she slammed into the doors with her left shoulder to open them. She tried to catch her breath again as she walked into the foyer. As she made her way inside, Grubber, who was sitting normally now that he didn’t have to hold on so tightly, asked her again, “You really think that guy’s after Twilight, Tempest? Not… someone else?”

Tempest continued on as she answered, “I’m positive, Grubber. He came to Klugetown to find me, and what he said implies he knows Twilight. That’s probably how he learned about me, but I’m not so sure she knows him. Once I know she’s okay, I can…” As she approached the stairs further in, she came to a stop, hearing what sounded like Spike screaming Twilight’s name. Tempest and Grubber looked at each other; that was not a good sign. Grubber grabbed onto her neck tightly as she began running through the castle searching for the baby dragon.

It didn’t take her long to reach the hallway leading to the library, seeing Spike, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow in the doorway. Because of how fast she was going, she had to double back, but once she was pointed the right way, she ran towards the library at full speed. Cozy Glow and Chrysalis didn’t notice her until she leapt over Spike and slammed her right shoulder into Cozy Glow’s head, knocking her to the ground. Chrysalis looked at her, but wasn’t fast enough to react as she spun on her forehooves and bucked her towards the nearby shelves.

Tempest then saw Tirek holding up Twilight and ran towards him, the centaur not noticing her until she called, “Face!” At that, he turned to look at her as she leapt up at him, though not high enough to reach his head. As she reached the height of her jump, Grubber suddenly jumped off of her back with a yell and landed on his face, grabbing onto the sides of it. While he struggled trying to get the hedgehog off, Tempest landed on his left arm and began pounding on it with her hooves, trying to get him to release Twilight. She heard Grubber let out a yelp as Tirek pulled him off with his right hand and turned to look at him, leaping up at his face and unleashing a small explosive magic shot at it, causing him to let out a groan as he staggered back, Grubber falling from his grip while Twilight was thrown upwards.

Moving fast, Tempest managed to get underneath Grubber before he hit the floor and turned to catch Twilight on her back as well, but before she could move more than one step, Infinite suddenly shot in front of her and punched her, his fist connecting with the left side of her face. Since she was trying to take another step, his hit knocked her onto her side and caused Grubber to slide back a bit. Infinite, meanwhile, leapt up and caught Twilight, draping her neck over his right shoulder and holding her there with his hand as he dropped back down. He then looked at Tempest and asked, “So, my demonstration wasn’t enough for you? You wanted the real experience?”

Tempest raised her head and glared at him with her teeth bared. “Let her go!” she growled.

“Hmph. You’re in no position to tell me what to do,” Infinite replied. Tempest and Grubber heard movement and they looked to see that Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis had recovered and were looking down at them. “Look at you two. Just like this one, you were fools to think you ever stood a chance against me. Outnumbered, outpowered, and all alone as you face your final fate,” he taunted.

Rainbow Dash’s voice suddenly rang through the room, “They’re not alone, you creep!” Everyone looked to see her land just inside the library, Applejack and Pinkie coming up on her right and Rarity and Fluttershy coming up on her left, Rarity using her magic to pull Spike over once she noticed him and move him over to Fluttershy who lowered herself down as she held him in her hooves while they all glared at Infinite, though they all soon noticed who else was in the room.

“As expected, you all, eventually, came running,” Infinite remarked. He turned to look at the Warp Ring a moment later, seeing its normal shimmering surface appear within it, faintly showing its destination, “And just in time, too.”

The girls and Spike all stared at the ring, as did Grubber and Tempest as the latter was standing up. “What is this…?” Tempest uttered.

Rarity looked down at Infinite a moment later and said, “You! You’re the reason the Warp Ring acted strange before, aren’t you?!”

Infinite looked back at the mares, saying, “The Doctor is expecting you. He really wants you fools to see his empire before you meet your end.”

Pinkie gasped, “You mean Eggy?!” She then had a more thoughtful look as she asked, “Wait, you mean the fat Eggy or the General Eggy?”

Infinite didn’t answer her, instead turning his body towards the Warp Ring. Guessing what he was about to do, Tempest yelled, “Stop!” When he turned his head to look back at her, she said, “Put. Her. Down!”


LEAVING A MARK


Infinite asked, “You want her back?” Then, in one swift movement, he threw Twilight at the Warp Ring, her body disappearing through the portal. The girls, Spike, Tempest, and Grubber all gasped at this. “Go get her, then,” Infinite taunted. He then turned back to the ring and walked towards it as he said, “Come.”

Seeing he was about to go through himself, they all began trying to reach the ring themselves, only for the other villains to interrupt them. Chrysalis shot Rainbow down with a beam of magic, Cozy Glow shifted between being smoke and solid to trip up Pinkie and Rarity, and Tirek used his body to block Applejack and Tempest before grabbing them and throwing them back while also scaring Grubber, Fluttershy, and Spike just by glaring at them. With all of them temporarily unable to follow, the villains turned and followed Infinite into the portal.

As they were being helped up by Fluttershy, Spike, and Grubber, the mares all realized the portal was still open. “Twilight’s on the other side of that…” Spike uttered numbly.

“He said Eggman’s expectin’ us. There could be a trap on the other side,” Applejack cautioned.

“Well, let’s not keep him waiting, then! Come on! We gotta help Twilight!” Rainbow said before shooting towards the portal with Spike and Tempest right behind her, Grubber, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy bringing up the rear.

For several seconds, the library was silent aside from the sound of the portal as it shimmered in the Warp Ring. Then Infinite stepped out from behind it, his arms crossed as small red cubes lifted away from his mask, revealing the damage Tempest had done to it. “Like moths to a flame,” he remarked as he made his way around to the front of the ring, where he crouched down and lifted up a plate on the damaged platform, revealing the crystal canister. He pulled it out and held it in his hands for several moments looking at the crystal before he tossed it over his shoulder. “Worthless,” he stated as the canister hit the ground and rolled, ending up in the crater Tirek left.

As he stood up, he heard the sound of hoofbeats and turned his head left to see Starlight and Trixie enter the library. “What happened in here?! Who are you?! What did you do to the Warp Ring?!” Starlight exclaimed upon seeing the damage and Infinite.

Trixie began to get nervous as Infinite stared back at them. “I don’t like the way he’s looking at us, Starlight,” she murmured.

Infinite stared at them a moment longer before saying, “Insects. Hardly worth the effort it would take to crush you.” He brought his left hand up to the tip of his gem as it began to glow, “But you may have some use.” Before they could react, he thrust his left hand out towards them, a pink-purple flash of light coming from his palm that caused Starlight and Trixie to gasp. Once it faded, Infinite turned and stepped into the portal which closed after he went through, the Warp Ring shrinking down and falling down into the spot where the canister had been, now looking dull and having a few red sparks coming off of it as it lay there.

Starlight and Trixie just stared dumbly ahead, their mouths hanging open slightly and a pink-purple glow appearing over their pupils. Shortly after the portal closed, they closed their mouths and turned around, using their magic to pull the doors closed as they left the library. Once they were outside, they blinked and began to act more like normal, talking with each other as they walked away as if they’d seen nothing out of the ordinary in the library.

________________________________________

Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow laughed evilly and triumphantly. They had achieved their end goal of conquering Equestria and it hadn’t taken long at all. Twilight and her friends easily fell before them, their students were no match for them, the princesses were a joke, and Discord was worthless. With all of them out of the way, nothing could stand in their way. They all ruled… individually, since they weren’t going to share their power with anyone else. At least that’s what they thought had happened.

In reality, they were still in Grogar’s Lair, all of them stuck in a virtual world where they were the sole conqueror, a faint pink-purple glow over their pupils as they stood in place. Off to the side, Discord was laying on his back on the ground, similarly trapped in a virtual world, one where he was constantly being tormented in all kinds of different ways. The illusions were quite strong, none of them quite able to tell that what they were seeing wasn’t reality.

And standing in front of them watching them all was the Infinite illusion that the real Infinite had left behind to finish the job. The illusion watched the show for another minute before it dropped the piece of Sombra’s horn on the ground and looked up at the ceiling, nodding up to it before fading away. Above the lair, the silver mech that had tried to kill Tempest and Grubber hovered in the air, beginning to rain exploding stars down on the lair at the nod. A maniacal laugh came from the top of it as the explosions destabilized the structure, causing it to collapse on top of everyone and everything inside of it.
> The Resistance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


SETTING HOOF IN ANOTHER WORLD


Tempest had had no idea what to expect when she jumped into the Warp Ring's portal, but she certainly wasn't prepared for the sudden landing on her front on what felt like hard stone with a grunt. It only knocked the wind out of her briefly and she raised her head and looked to her left when she heard Spike let out a yelp. The baby dragon wasn't ready for the drop and he flailed his arms and legs as he fell, managing to land on his feet with a stumble. 

Tempest stood up and she and Spike quickly moved to get out of the way as Grubber and Applejack and the rest of the girls came through the opening behind them. Grubber landed hard on his rear while the girls were able to land on their hooves with varying degrees of finesse. The portal remained open after they were all through, hovering in the air in front of a rock wall.

Grubber groaned as he rubbed his butt for a few moments, checking to make sure nothing was broken. While he was doing this, Applejack took charge and asked, "Is everyone here? Everyone okay?" After receiving mostly nods, she realized who was missing and turned to Tempest, "Where's Rainbow Dash?" 

The unicorn replied, "I don't know. She wasn't here when we landed." 

As he finished nursing his butt, Grubber looked around and asked, "Hey, speaking of here… uh, where is here?” At his words, everyone took a look at their surroundings and realized they were standing in what appeared to be an alley, a moderately large house on each side of the short path they were standing on. Looking further down the path, they saw it seemed to open onto a street that, from the look of it, sloped downwards, making them acutely aware that the path they were on was also a bit slanted.

“Twilight…!” Spike remembered, the baby dragon suddenly breaking out into a run towards the alley entryway.

“Spike!” Rarity called, but he didn’t stop. She and Tempest hurried after him, followed by Grubber and the other girls. As they all reached the other end of the alley, the Warp Ring’s portal shimmered and Infinite leapt out of it, the ring shrinking and vanishing as the jackal landed on his feet without any difficulty. He caught sight of the ponies’ backsides as they exited the alley and headed to the right.

The alleyway hadn’t offered anyone much information on where they were, but none of them were expecting the destruction they saw when they got a good look down the road. The road seemed to have been built on a cliffside due to how it went down and around. There were more houses in addition to the two they’d just been between to the right and they all showed signs of damage. Cracks marring the outside walls, broken windows… Some even had walls that were destroyed, revealing the inside of the house if the roof hadn’t also fallen in. To their left they could see a city below at the base of the cliff face in a similar state of destruction. Everyone moved closer to what was left of the railing at the edge as they surveyed the urban landscape, seeing a large red bridge that was broken in places and fires still burning in parts of the city in addition to more structural damage similar to what they’d seen with the houses.

“Whoa. What happened to this place?” Grubber asked.

“Nothing good, clearly,” Tempest remarked, remembering the state of Hippogriffia after the Storm King’s invasion. She looked over at Spike and Twilight’s friends and asked, “Do any of you know where we are?”

Fluttershy was the one who answered, “Um, yes… and no.” Grubber looked over at her while Tempest raised an eyebrow.

Applejack clarified, “Unless the Warp Ring got seriously messed up, we know which world this is, just not where we are exactly.”

Tempest asked, “‘World’?”

Before anyone could respond, Rarity’s hooves shot up to the sides of her face as she exclaimed, “The Warp Ring! We left the Warp Ring behind!” She turned and doubled back up the path.

Grubber watched her for a few moments before looking at the others and asking, “Uh, what’s the big deal about a ring?”

Pinkie piped up, “Oh, that’s easy, Grubby! It’s from this world, and when it’s full of power, it lets anyone travel far away in a second! Twilight was given it to try to restore its power so we could come back here one day!”

Tempest looked back towards the city as she remarked, “There must be something really good if you wanted to come back here…”

Grubber looked back at the city as well and his eyes soon caught sight of something. “Hey, look! There’s a rainbow shooting through the city! So cool!” he exclaimed. Everyone looked and saw a familiar rainbow trail going down one street after another.

“That’s Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said. They all watched the pegasus continue flying through the city until she approached a spot amongst the buildings that was slightly more open due to some of them being collapsed. The pegasus came to a stop at one end of the road, and moments later they could make out small blasts being shot at her from the other end of the road. “Uh-oh! That doesn’t look good!” Applejack exclaimed.

“What do you think is going on down there?” Fluttershy asked.

Pinkie piped up, “Ooh! Maybe she found Twilight!”

Spike’s eyes widened at that, “Twilight?!” Without warning he went under the railing and leapt off of the ledge, spreading his wings wide. He heard Grubber, Tempest, and the other girls calling out to him, but he kept going, flapping his wings as he flew straight towards the scene.

Shortly afterwards, while everyone was still looking in the direction Spike had gone, Rarity came back, exclaiming, “I can’t find the Warp Ring! It’s not there! We could be trapped here…!”

Applejack turned to her and said, “This ain’t the time fer that, Rarity!” When the fashionista looked like she was going to argue with her, Applejack came over and grabbed the sides of her face with her hooves, turning her so she could see what was happening below. “Rainbow’s caught up in that, and Spike just flew on ahead to try ta help her!” Rarity’s eyes widened at that. Applejack released her and they looked at each other as she finished, “So let’s get down there, help ‘em out, make sure Twilight’s okay, and then we’ll worry about findin’ that ring!” Rarity nodded and the group began running down the path to get to their friends.


EGG PAWN ATTACK


As Spike got closer, he was able to make out more of what was going on. First, he could see Rainbow Dash taking cover from the shots behind a sizable piece of rubble, the pegasus peering out from behind the stone every few moments, looking for an opening. The shots were coming from a group of robots that looked like Egg Pawns, but their appearance was a little different. Instead of the mostly orange bodies, big smiles, and blue eyes that Egg Pawns had had last time any of them had seen them, these had gray and tan bodies and big red eyes, their overall appearance looking less goofy. And in between the two sides, lying in the middle of the road, was Twilight, still unconscious.

While he was very tempted to immediately fly to Twilight’s side, Spike turned and flew to the left, landing next to Rainbow when there was a break in the shots. “What’s going on, Rainbow?!” he asked, raising his voice due to the shots starting again.

“It was a trap! I saw Twilight over there and thought one of those guys dropped her, but once I got close, these guys came out of nowhere and started shooting at me! I can’t get to her like this!” Rainbow explained. They both looked in the Egg Pawns’ direction, the shots from the robots coming to a stop a few seconds later. Realizing this, Rainbow scooted closer to Spike and whispered, “If we work together on this, we’ll be able to get Twilight out of there. And I know how to do it.” Spike stood up attentively at that.

When there was a slowdown in the Egg Pawns’ shots, Spike flew straight up out of cover and flapped his wings to hover in the air over the rubble, almost at the level of the rooftops of the standing buildings. The Egg Pawns immediately turned to look up at him and, after identifying him, began shooting at him. Spike began flying around, turning and weaving around to avoid their shots while occasionally spitting out flames to keep their attention on him. Seeing this, Rainbow made her move.

The pegasus darted out from cover, ducking behind a smaller piece of rubble nearby and peering out to make sure they hadn’t noticed her. They were still focused on Spike, so she quickly shot back out towards Twilight, reaching her in less than second. She checked her when she got to her side, finding her still unresponsive but with telltale signs that she was alive. It didn’t take long to shift the alicorn onto her back, but she must’ve taken too long since, immediately afterwards, she looked up and saw one of the Egg Pawns turn its attention to her, its weapon already glowing. Rainbow yelped and leapt to the side to avoid the shot, the others quickly turning their attention to her as well. She jumped, moved, and made use of her wings as much as she was able to without knocking Twilight off to avoid the shots while moving back towards cover, but just as she was almost to cover, a shot hit her left wing, causing her to cry out as she fell the short distance to the ground and landed hard on her front, Twilight rolling off of her back in front of her as she stopped.

“Rainbow!” Spike cried, flying down to her and Twilight. The pegasus was starting to shake off the disorientation from the crash landing by the time he reached them, so he moved towards Twilight and started trying to pull her behind cover instead. Rainbow recovered soon after and leapt to her hooves, helping him get her behind the rubble before the barrage of shots started again.

While the two stayed behind cover with Twilight and tried to figure out what to do, Tempest and the others finally caught up with them, all of them having to take cover when the Egg Pawns identified them as priority targets. Tempest and Applejack managed to reach Rainbow and Spike and take cover with them while Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, and Grubber hid behind another smaller piece of rubble a short distance behind them.

Once everyone was caught up, they all began to think of a way to either deal with or get away from the Egg Pawns and find a place where they could get Twilight some help. Before they could do anything, they suddenly heard more shots being fired, but they sounded different as well as further away. What’s more, the Egg Pawns stopped firing on their cover seconds later. After a moment, it sounded like they were firing at the source of the new shots. Taking a chance, everyone peeked around the side of their cover to look.


IT'S THE RESISTANCE


They saw an Egg Pawn explode and briefly saw a lithe bipedal figure with long ears atop its head wearing a white mask over its eyes and a black coat and holding some kind of gun in its right hand before it turned and ran to take cover in the remains of one of the nearby buildings. While the Egg Pawns turned to shoot at the building, a bird person wearing some sort of flight suit with down and feathers that were almost Sonic blue and wings on his back swooped down and landed in the middle of the Egg Pawns, sliding across the ground for a moment. When they turned and pointed their weapons at him, he called, “Bear-doze ‘em!” before giving a mighty flap of his wings and flying away as the robots began firing up after him.

While they were distracted by the bird, a large, burly creature covered almost entirely in brown fur jumped out of hiding at the other end of the street and charged on two legs straight towards the Egg Pawns, the robots noticing too late to stop it from crashing into and landing on top of half of them. While it pinned and began to beat them down, Tempest and the others could see three more creatures that had been holding onto the larger one’s black hoodie, all of them still holding on with one hand while using the other to draw a small weapon and opening fire on the remaining Egg Pawns. The robots stood up to the shots at first, but after several seconds, they began to crack from the shots and were destroyed soon afterwards along with the ones that were being held down.

The air was silent for a couple of seconds as the tension in the air dissipated, being broken by the comparatively quiet taps as the three creatures let go of the larger one and dropped down onto their feet. It was then further broken by one of them saying loudly, “Whoo-hoo! That was great! We took those robots out nice and easy!” The voice sounded like a male’s and it had a bit of a Southern accent to it.

One of the others, this one sounding female, said, “That’s partly because they were distracted when we saw them. It didn’t take much to get the drop on them. Wonder what caught their attention?”

Tempest saw the larger creature stand up straight and quickly pushed Rainbow, Applejack, and Spike back behind what was left of the rubble, hoping it didn’t see them while signaling with a hoof for Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Grubber to do the same. The movements didn’t go completely unnoticed by the larger creature, but she already suspected what it was that had caught the Egg Pawns’ attention. “I think I know,” she remarked in a surprisingly sweet voice.

Tempest’s heart began to pound as she heard footsteps coming towards their hiding place. She glanced over at Rainbow and Applejack and noticed the former looked like she was ready to spread her wings. She quickly reached over with her right hoof and placed it on the side of her head, shaking her head when the pegasus looked over at her. “Just because they stopped those things does not mean they’re on our side,” she reasoned to herself while trying to keep the fear growing inside of her to herself.


MEETING THE RESISTANCE


Suddenly, the piece of rubble began to shift behind them and, after several moments, it slid to the side, revealing the ponies and dragon. While they all turned in surprise to look up at the creature, Tempest’s breath caught in her throat as she realized she’d been right; it was indeed a bear. Tempest continued to stare up at her with wide eyes as she finished pushing the rubble and dusted off her white gloves with little flowers on the borders before turning to look down at them. “Well, looks like my little hunch was right, dearies,” she remarked after a moment. She reached up to the white communicator on the left side of her head and, after a moment, said, “Terv, I’ve found some survivors. I need you to come back right away.”

While she was speaking, Rarity, Pinkie, and Grubber peered out curiously at the bear, seeing the other three making their way over. Fluttershy peered out as well, though her curiosity soon gave way to excitement. She’d only learned a little bit about what the animals in Sonic’s world were like last time they’d seen him, and Twilight and Starlight’s talks about the other Sonic’s world had only made her more interested. Now that things had settled down for the moment, she had a chance to get acquainted with what was, to her, a new type of animal and she wasn’t going to waste it.

As two of the others, one of whom was a red cat with black markings around his face and the other a pale purple wolf girl, both of which were wearing the same tan uniform and helmet, came over, Fluttershy suddenly shot out from her hiding place and wrapped her forelegs around the bear’s midsection, surprising the ursine enough to get her to take a few steps back and turn to the side. “Oh my! You’re a friendly one, aren’t you, dear?” she asked as she looked down at the pony who, for the moment, seemed to have great interest in her fur.

The cat adjusted his helmet, noticing Grubber and the other girls starting to come out as he said, “That’s for sure. You got yourself a real hugger there, Matka.”

A third voice, this one sounding male and like it was coming through a speaker, spoke up, “Oh yeah, great. Just what we need: more dead weight. Can we make it our new mascot while we’re at it?” Everyone looked past the three and saw the fourth guy standing behind them, this one taller and slenderer than the cat or the wolf and clad in a black suit with a gray box on the back that covered him up completely save for part of the front of his head, which was visible through the visor in the helmet he wore. The shape of his eyes was similar to Sonic’s, but the eyes themselves were an icy blue, he appeared to have gray fur, and they could see several patches on his head that did not match the rest of his fur.

“Oh, don’t start this now, Gen,” the wolf girl said, glancing back over her shoulder at him.

“Yeah, I tell you what, they look like they’ve had enough to deal with today. They don’t need your anger fits as well, especially when one of them is hurt,” the cat added.

The gray hedgehog stepped forward, walking past the two as he dryly remarked, “Oh, well that’s just super. You two are absolutely right; we have to take them in now. After all, this is nothing but a charity group, isn’t it? Especially when it comes to taking care of a bunch of unknowns.” He came to a stop in the middle of the gathering, turning around to look at the wolf and the cat as he finished.

Rainbow felt indignant at Gen’s attitude and words. “Hey, we are not unknown! We helped Sonic save your world once! He would’ve had a tough time defeating the Time Eater if he didn’t have us and the rest of his friends!” she argued. At her words, the cat discreetly pulled out a small, yellow rectangular device and pointed it at the Equestrians while looking at the screen.

Gen turned to look at the pegasus, “Oh really? And who might you be?”

Rainbow stood proud as she answered, “I’m Rainbow Dash, full-time Wonderbolt member and coolest pony in Equestria!”

Gen turned back around and called, “Hey, you hear that, everyone? Rainbow Dash! We’ve got Rainbow Dash here!” A second of silence passed before he turned back to the cyan pony, getting up in her face to say, “You hear that? Nobody cares.” Rainbow glared at him as he turned away, his eyes falling on Applejack and the angry look she was giving him. “Nice hat. It’s almost as silly as Felix’s here,” he remarked to the earth pony, reaching over and knocking it off her head.

“My name is Salten, Gen. You know that,” the red cat grumbled as he lowered his left arm to his side.

“Yeah, ooh, nice name, cat. What, was ‘Scorch’ too cliché for you? Needed something that sounded fancier when you joined up?” the hedgehog questioned. “You know, I think I’m going to take back what I said. Now that we’ve got an actual rainbow here, it’s not silly; I think it would be more accurate to say fr…”

He was cut off by a new female voice saying, “That’s enough, Gen!” The long-eared figure from earlier, which they could now clearly see was a rabbit with gold-colored fur and a blue ribbon next to her left ear, suddenly leapt up on top of the piece of rubble, looking down at the hedgehog while the blue bird from earlier flew down and landed next to the wolf and Salten. “I believe you’ve said far more than is necessary,” the rabbit stated, her voice calm.

The bird, on the other hand, was clearly not calm as he said, “Yeah! So, if you’re not going to contribute anything worthwhile, you might as well head back to base!”

Gen threw his hands up in exaggeration as he replied, “Sure, whatever. I’ll be sure to leave your suit with the cleaner.” He then started walking away from the group, everyone watching him until he turned the corner at the end of the road and left their sight.

Applejack looked over when she heard footsteps approaching to see the wolf coming towards her. She knelt down and picked up the earth pony’s Stetson, dusting it off before standing back up and offering it to her as she said, “Sorry about that, everyone. As you can tell, Gen… isn’t exactly a people person these days. I assure you we’re not all like him.”

Applejack gratefully took her hat back and put it back on her head as she spoke, “Thanks. There’s more o’ y’all?”

The wolf nodded and put her hand on her chest, “I’m Aventura. You’ve already met Salten and Matka.” She gestured to the cat and bear as she spoke, Tempest nervously glancing back at the bear as she and Fluttershy moved to check on Twilight. Aventura gestured to the rabbit, who tipped two fingers to the group in response, and said, “This is Sona, and this is Terv, one of our medics.”

The blue hawk waved, “Nice to meet you all.”  Now that he was on the ground in front of them, the Equestrians could see that he had longer feathers on his arms that allowed them to act as his wings and the gray uniform he had on wasn’t exactly a flight suit. It was similar to one, but the sleeves and legs were short and he wore a silver-colored vest on top of it. He also had a pair of orange goggles on his forehead and a red backpack slung across his back. He adjusted the bag as he looked at Aventura, “If it’s all right with you, Aventura…” The wolf nodded and stepped back as he stepped forward, asking, “Now, do we have anything to deal with right away?” His eyes fell on the burnt spot on Rainbow’s left wing and he pointed at it, “That looks new. What happened?”

Rainbow was a bit surprised by how forward he was being, but she replied, “Oh, it was one of those robots… Egg Pawns or whatever? Managed to hit me before you guys showed up. I’ll be fine, though. This isn’t too bad.”

Matka spoke up, “I think this is probably your main patient over here, Terv.” The hawk looked over and saw the bear was kneeling down and cupping the back of Twilight’s head in her hand, lifting it up off the ground slightly while Fluttershy and Spike stood next to her, looking at Twilight with worried expressions. She looked up, “Not sure what happened, but she definitely went through the worst of it.”

Terv replied, “Sure looks that way, Matka. Okay, let me take a closer look.” He walked over and knelt down on the other side of Twilight, Matka gently resting the alicorn’s head back on the ground as he began to palpate and look her over closely. “Hm… Quite a bit of blunt trauma here. I see signs of burns, but they don’t look too bad. Doesn’t seem like anything’s broken,” he said to himself a minute later as he checked her vitals and glanced at the watch on his left wrist.

Spike asked, “Can you help her, doctor?”

Terv looked up at him, staring for a moment before replying, “Oh no, I’m not a doctor; not quite, anyway. And no, not here. I don’t have a lot of medical supplies on hand right now; there’s only so much I can take with me when we go out. Right now, this is just a cursory examination. I’m checking to make sure it’s safe.” He then returned his attention to his watch.

Rarity asked, “Safe for what?”

Sona leapt down next to the unicorn and said, “If it’s safe to move her, of course. Wouldn’t want to give her a full medical exam out here if we can avoid it, especially nowadays.” She had a feeling she was being watched a moment later and turned her head to see Pinkie standing behind her, looking at her intently with wide eyes. “Yes?” she asked.

Pinkie spoke, “You look like a real mysterious bunny! All that black you’re wearing even though you’re fluffy and yellow… Are you a vampire? Or a time traveler? Ooh! Maybe you’re some kind of new joker I’ve never heard about! Is that why you wear a mask?”

Sona gave a light chuckle and replied, “You’re a really curious one. Well, I don’t want to spoil any of this little mystery for you so soon, so you’ll just have to wait to get the answers.”

Terv spoke up a moment later, “Okay, our friend here seems to be stable. It should be okay to move her.”

Salten said, “Good. I just got an answer from Techni. She was able to find some information on most of these ladies and their dragon friend in our database from the picture I sent her. She told the Commander and he wants us to bring them back to base right away.” Everyone looked over at him while he was talking and saw him looking down at his device, which he slipped back into his pocket when he was done talking.

Terv replied, “Well, that’s an order if I ever heard one.” He looked back at Matka and started, “Matka, do you think you could…?” The bear nodded and gently maneuvered her hands underneath Twilight, lifting her up bridal-style.

Tempest glanced back down at Terv, asking as he took off his backpack and began to dig through it, “There’s a base around here?”

Aventura answered, “You bet. It’s not that far from here, and you all just might run into some familiar faces there.”

Terv stood up and turned around, revealing he was holding a tube of ointment and some bandages in his hands, “But before we go, let me quickly take care of that burn, Miss.”

Rainbow blinked and turned slightly, backing away as he began to walk towards her. “Uh, no. Seriously, it’s not that bad. I’ll be fine, really! You don’t…” She came to a stop in both her words and her steps when she felt someone at her sides and looked to see Aventura on her right and Sona on her left, both girls putting their hands on her when she saw them.

“Come on, hold your wing open for him. He’ll only be a second,” Sona urged.

Aventura noticed that Rainbow still looked hesitant so she leaned over and whispered, “Just let him do it. Terv is really dedicated to helping people get better. Once he knows he can do something to help someone feel better, he’s not easy to convince otherwise. Make it easy on yourself and don’t get off to a bad start with him, okay?” Rainbow thought about what she said for a moment before relenting, holding her left wing straight out so Terv could apply the ointment and bandage it.

After he was done and had gathered up his supplies, the animals began leading the way down the street and Grubber, Spike, and the ponies followed close behind. As they were leaving, they were unaware of Infinite standing on a nearby rooftop, watching them with his mask in his left hand. He knew he could destroy them all right then and there or stick to the order he was given, but since he’d played along this far, he decided to make a change and let them go in the hopes that they might prove to be amusing. If it were up to him, he would’ve dealt with them back in Equestria and not even bothered dragging them here, but Eggman had told him specifically what to do, so Infinite went to the trouble of dragging them all from their world plus a few extras for the sake of Eggman’s desire for revenge. He was the reason Infinite had the power he had, so he had to be good for now and not stray too far from what he was told. He would get his opportunity; he just had to be patient.

He took his mask in both hands and looked down at it, looking at the damage Tempest had done. The gem on his chest began to glow and a moment later, small red cubes appeared from it and hovered over to the mask, spreading across it until it was completely covered. They faded away a few seconds later, the mask no longer appearing damaged. As he slipped it back on, a thought entered his mind: was it really no longer damaged or did he fool himself into thinking it wasn’t? “Of course not,” he thought, “That Tempest horse is the deluded one. I am the master of this power; I can create whatever I wish and torture all who oppose me before I end them, if I decide to end them. Soon, they’ll all know what fear really is.” With that, he hovered just above the roof, turned, and shot off through the air, heading for Eggman’s base to deliver his report.

________________________________________


RESISTANCE BASE


Matka, Aventura, Salten, Terv, and Sona led the Equestrians to a large building that stood by itself near the edge of the city, its outer structure damaged and, in some places, collapsed. Inside, they found the main room was a wide-open space that reminded Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Pinkie of the chamber where they’d faced Nightmare Moon, just with more stairs, entryways, and levels above them. Structural debris littered the area, some of the entryways being blocked off by it.

“Whoa! What is this place?” Rainbow asked as they walked down the stairs in front of the entrance.

“Used to be a train station; at least, it was going to be. It was abandoned long before the Resistance moved in,” Sona explained.

“The Resistance?” Tempest asked.

“The Resistance to Retake the Planet. Have you never heard of us?” Terv asked.

Salten answered for the Equestrians, “Terv, they haven’t been to our world in quite some time, according to what Techni sent me. They don’t know what’s been going on, but we’ll tell ‘em what’s been going on soon enough.”

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Applejack asked, “Why can’t y’all tell us now?”

Sona smirked as she looked back, “Hope this doesn’t offend you, but I think it’ll be better if you hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.” The ponies all gave her an odd look at that.

Aventura walked ahead of the group over to an obelisk that was still standing slightly off to the side, stopping in front of it and pulling out her own handheld device. While she was tapping the screen with her index finger, Matka, Terv, Sona, and Salten walked over, stopping a couple of feet away. As the Equestrians came over, Tempest noticed something: there was a small circle around the obelisk that the pillar was almost in the center of and it was surrounded by a much larger circle that the animals were standing outside of. “Is there an opening here?” she wondered as they all stood near the group. It didn’t take long for her to get an answer.

After about half a minute, a noticeable whirring sound filled the air and Aventura looked down to her side. The sound was coming from a circular door opening, the door’s points pulling into the larger circle as everyone watched. Once the door was open all the way, Matka leapt down into the opening, followed by Salten, Sona, and Terv. Tempest, Spike, and Rainbow didn’t hesitate to leap down after them, but the others were a bit hesitant. Seeing this, Aventura said, “Don’t worry, it’s not that far down. As long as you’re not scared of slides, there’s nothing to be afraid of.” Pinkie happily leapt down into the hole at that, followed by Applejack, Rarity, and Grubber. Fluttershy took a little longer before she jumped, but after she did, Aventura did the same and the door began to close shortly afterwards, hiding the entrance once more.

It turned out it really wasn’t too far a drop. After a few seconds of falling, Spike, Grubber, and the ponies came into contact with something solid beneath them, which was quickly followed by the realization that it was cold and metallic. Because they didn’t know what to expect, the ponies, save for Pinkie, ended up going down the slide awkwardly, and a bit painfully, on their fronts. Luckily, it wasn’t a long slide and there were no twists or turns; it was just a straight shot to the bottom. They came out into the room it led to and found Terv, Salten, Matka, and Sona waiting for them. They all stood up and moved out of the way of the tube when they arrived, and Aventura joined them soon after Fluttershy came down.

Looking around, the Equestrians saw there wasn’t anything special about the room they were in. It was smaller than the station entrance and there were only a couple of scattered crates lying around and a few moderately bright lights on the ceiling. Tempest heard footsteps a few moments later and turned to see Sona, Terv, and Matka walking over to the wall to the right of their entrance and walked over to see what they were doing, Grubber quickly noticing and hurrying to walk alongside her. Sona reached the wall first and held up her right hand, the red fingers of her black gloves coming to rest underneath a barely noticeable rusty-looking panel on the wall and lifting it up to reveal a much newer-looking keypad underneath. Her fingers practically skipped across the buttons, but Tempest could make out the numbers on the display. “#-7-3-7-4-7-8-2-6-2-3-#,” she read to herself before the display changed to green, a soft beeping sound coming from the keypad as Sona put the panel back down.

Everyone looked over when they heard the sound of something heavy sliding and saw a hidden door opening in the wall. After it was opened fully, Sona looked at Matka and Terv and said, “After you two.” They nodded and went into the lit passage beyond, Sona watching them for a moment before she turned to Tempest and the others, saying, “Well, come on in, everybody. Welcome to Resistance HQ.” She headed down the passage as well and, after a moment, the Equestrians followed her, Aventura and Salten bringing up the rear and stopping for a moment to make sure the door slid shut behind them.

After a minute of walking, the passage ended at a door that slid open when they approached it. The room beyond looked similar to the one they were just in with better lighting, but Spike and the girls finally saw a familiar face as well. Three familiar faces, actually: Amy, Cream, and Cheese, all three of them currently turned away as they talked to Terv and Matka. Both Cream and Cheese looked how they remembered them, but Amy’s wardrobe had changed a bit. She still had her red hairband and boots, but she had traded her dress for a pair of blue jeans and a light gray bomber jacket that was zipped up.

After Matka and Terv turned and went through the nearby door into the base, Amy, Cream, and Cheese turned around and immediately spotted the Equestrians. They all gasped and Cream ran over to hug Fluttershy, Cheese flying over to do the same while Amy walked over. Rarity looked between the reassured look on Amy’s face and Cream for a moment before remarking, “Goodness. And I thought we were going to be happy to see our old friends again. You girls must’ve missed us quite terribly…”

Cream murmured, “I’m just so glad to see you all again. And relieved that you’re all okay…”

Amy wrapped her arms around Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy as she said, “We’re all relieved. When we heard about Twilight, we were all worried she wasn’t the only one who’d been badly hurt. It’s so good to see you all again, and in such good health too.” While she was talking, Aventura and Salten excused themselves, heading into the base. Amy let go of the ponies after a few moments and bent down to scoop up Spike. While she was hugging him, she noticed something different about him and held him out to take a better look at him. “Wings? I don’t remember you having wings before, Spike.” She became thoughtful, “Come to think of it, Twilight looked like she had wings too…”

Spike thought for a moment what to say. His interactions with the other Amy had calmed some of his fears of the pink hedgehog and made him more relaxed, but he didn’t want to incur her wrath, even if it did seem like she’d matured somewhat since the last time they’d seen each other. “Uh, yeah, Amy. There’s… been a lot of changes back in Equestria since the last time we saw each other,” he settled on.

Tempest spoke bluntly, “Yes, a lot has happened. While we’re on the subject of Twilight, where did they take her?”

Amy, Cream, and Cheese looked up at the scarred unicorn, noticing her for the first time as well as Grubber. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to overlook you and your friend, miss!” Cream said.

“What are your names?” Amy asked.

Grubber piped up, “Hey! The name’s Grubber, and I’m the assistant to this fine pony!”

Pinkie started, “And her name is Fi…”

Tempest interjected, “Tempest Shadow. I prefer to go by Tempest Shadow.” She shot an apologetic look over at Pinkie before looking back at Amy and asking, “Now, can you please tell us where Twilight is?” Everyone else looked at Amy expectantly at her question, especially Spike.

“Matka was taking her to the infirmary so Terv can take a better look at her. It should be okay if you go to see her, as long as you don’t get in anyone’s way. We set up signs on the wall that’ll point you in the right direction.” That was all Tempest and Spike needed to hear, both of them turning and heading into the base, with Spike taking a moment to tell the hedgehog, rabbit, and Chao he was glad to see them again before flying after Tempest. The other ponies and Grubber did the same, adding that they’d catch up later before they followed the two.

Resistance HQ wasn’t huge from what the Equestrians could tell; at the very least, it didn’t seem like it spread far out from the abandoned station it was hidden under, but it was clear the Resistance was making the most of the somewhat drab and dilapidated-looking structure they had made into a base. The signs, while a bit rundown, clearly pointed them where they needed to go, the little bit of tech they were able to see while they made their way to the infirmary looked pretty advanced, and they passed a number of other Resistance members as they walked: a light teal bird in an orange and blue flight suit, a blue dog wearing green shades that hid his eyes, a pink cat wearing a black vest, a skirt, and combat boots, a cyan bird wearing a black shirt, camo pants, green goggles, and black sneakers… They also passed a red wolf who seemed underdressed compared to everyone else they’d seen. He nervously looked away when they noticed him and turned to look after they passed by him.

It didn’t take them long to locate the infirmary. When the door slid open, they could see multiple beds lined up in a row on both sides of the room beyond, taking up a little more than half the space available. The rest of the room was taken up by some pieces of furniture, medical equipment, and a few bathroom fixtures. More beds were occupied than any of the Equestrians expected to see, but off to the right, about a third of the way down the row, they could see Matka standing on the other side of one of the beds laying Twilight down on it while Terv and a familiar red echidna stood on the other side. The echidna was a welcome sight to Spike and his friends, but they still couldn’t see the blue hedgehog they were hoping to see.


THE INFIRMARY


Matka soon looked up and saw everyone standing in the doorway, Knuckles soon noticing and following her gaze to see them as well. He smiled and waved at them before waving them over, Spike immediately rushing over and jumping up onto the bed, resting on his hands and knees as he looked at Twilight. After a few seconds, he looked up at Terv, who had returned his attention to a clipboard he was writing on, and asked, “How is she?”

Terv, without looking up, answered in a bit of an annoyed tone, “I haven’t had a chance to continue my examination yet. I’m kinda busy using the information Techni sent Salten to make a chart for our unicorn friend here.”

As everyone else approached, Rainbow spoke up, “Uh, Twilight’s got wings now. That means she’s an alicorn now.”

Terv glanced over at her with a raised eyebrow for a moment before turning his attention back to his clipboard, scratching something out as he remarked, “Well, that needs to be updated, then.”

Knuckles shook his head in amusement before stepping around Terv, walking over to Applejack. “Hey there, Knuckles,” the earth pony said, raising her right hoof. Knuckles replied by bringing up his right fist and bumping it against her hoof.

“It’s good to see you guys again. Looking pretty good, all things considered,” he stated.

Applejack replied, “Ah’d ask why everyone keeps sayin’ that, but, uh…” She trailed off as she raised an eyebrow, her eyes glancing around the room.

“Yeah, it’s kinda bad in here today,” they heard Salten say. They looked towards the back of the room and saw the red cat coming towards them. He was still wearing his gloves and boots, but he’d changed out of his uniform and was now wearing a white vest with a black sash near the bottom and a hat similar to Applejack’s. His ears flicked a moment later and he said, “Uh, you might want to move out of the way. I think I hear Mr. Chip on His Shoulder coming.”

They realized who he was talking about a few seconds later when the infirmary door slid open and Gen stormed in, followed closely by Espio and Silver. “I just can’t believe you walked off and abandoned everybody, Gen!” Silver was saying.

The ponies moved between the beds on both sides and Grubber stayed close to Tempest, clearing the way as Gen looked back over his shoulder and replied, “Bird nurse told me to leave if I was done being helpful, so I did. What’s the problem?”

Espio said, “I believe he was trying to point out that you were taking things too far, that you needed to rein in your attitude and not let it get out of control.”

Gen came to a stop not far from the group and turned to face the two as he yelled, “Well, you wouldn’t have to worry about that if you’d just let do what has to be done! Let me loose and send me after that guy! I’ll take care of him and end all this right now!”

Matka walked up behind him while he was talking and placed her right hand on his back when he was done, her thumb and fingers going over his shoulders as she grabbed and lifted him up, the hedgehog giving a surprised yelp in response. “Okay hon, we’ve all heard this before. Let’s have Tina get you out of that suit and into your bath now,” she cheekily said. Gen didn’t fight back against her, though he did cross his arms and look angry as she turned and headed to the back of the infirmary with him. After she passed the group, she moved to the side for a moment while saying, “Oops, excuse us, Windra.” As she continued moving, the Equestrians saw that Windra was a cream-colored poodle wearing a green pinafore with yellow edges with black leggings, a black watch-like device on her left wrist, what looked like safety glasses, and a strange red hat that had purple eyes on the front and was floppy on top.

Windra turned around after nodding to Matka, allowing everyone to see she was carrying medical supplies in her arms. She came over to Twilight’s bed and stopped where Matka had been before saying, “I got those supplies you asked for, Terv.”

The hawk looked up at her and said, “Ah, thank you, Windra.” He pulled out one of the papers on his clipboard and placed it on her side, “Here’s my preliminary examination notes. Do what you can; I’ll be with you in a minute or two.” Windra nodded and began to look over the notes while Terv returned to his clipboard.

While the other girls reconnected with Espio and Silver, Tempest’s eyes wandered to the back of the infirmary. She saw a dark yellow hedgehog, whom she presumed was Tina, messing with the box on the back of Gen’s suit as Matka stood in front of him. After a couple of seconds, she removed it and moved to set it down on one of the nearby tables while Gen shuddered and leaned forward a bit before he began to take the suit off. As he took the helmet off and removed the suit, Tempest started to get concerned. Without the helmet’s visor acting as a filter, the discolored spots on his head looked like they were burns, and there were more on the rest of his body as the suit dropped away from him. He was having trouble reaching anything below his waist, so Matka carefully picked him up with her left hand and used her right hand to pull the rest of the suit off, leaving him in just a pair of black socks. She then turned around and set him in a prefilled bathtub, the gray hedgehog leaning back and looking relaxed for a change after being set down.

She turned her attention away when she heard Terv speaking, “Now, Ms. Sparkle was already in this state when we came across your group. Can anyone fill me in on what exactly happened to her?”

Fluttershy spoke up, “Um, well, we were trying to catch up with Tempest at the time because she and Grubber suddenly showed up in Ponyville and, well, she looked and sounded like she was in a hurry when they saw us and said to hurry. So, we did and, um… we found Queen Chrysalis, Tirek, Cozy Glow, and someone else in the library, Twilight was unconscious, and the Warp Ring was activated.”

Terv was quickly writing while she was speaking, asking when she paused, “And these individuals you identified, they’re…?”

Pinkie piped up with her forelegs held up, “Bad guys! Like, real bad guys! You guys already knew about Chrysalis, but not Tirek or Cozy Glow! And that fourth guy mentioned Eggy was expecting us!”

Terv kept writing as he moved away from Pinkie a little and said, “Hm. So there’s no doubt in your minds that they’re responsible for her injuries?”

Spike spoke up, “Yeah! I saw them! She was still up when I saw her, then they ganged up on her and knocked her into a bookshelf! That last guy was the one who did it!”

Terv asked, “And you don’t know who he is?”

Rarity admitted, “He never mentioned his name to us, just that he was associated with Dr. Eggman.”

Grubber spoke, “He never told us his name either, when he came after Tempest.”

Rainbow said, “So that’s how you knew.”

Tempest nodded, “Yes. From his words, it was clear where he was going after he destroyed the tavern outside of Klugetown and he wasn’t joking. And the way he looked, with that white hair, black fur, the gem in his chest, and that mask with one red eye…” Terv’s clipboard and pen hit the infirmary floor at her description along with multiple other objects around the room, which caught the Equestrians’ attention.


BAD MEMORIES


They looked around the room and saw everyone, even Gen, frozen stiff and looking in Tempest’s direction with wide eyes. “Whoa. Talk about tension,” Rainbow remarked.

Tempest turned to look at Espio when the chameleon asked, “That monster made it to Equestria? And you fought him?”

Tempest blinked, “Yes…”

Terv bent down to get his pen and clipboard as he asked, “Did he do anything to you?”

Tempest answered, “Well, he mainly attacked me at close quarters, both unarmed and armed. Until the end where he did… something and made me experience a vision or hallucination or something.”

Grubber added, “Yeah, she was just lying on the floor staring straight ahead after he did whatever, and it took a while to respond to me.” Murmurs started up around the room at their words.

Terv stood up and tucked his clipboard under his left arm before saying, “Well, you are very lucky, then. And so is Ms. Sparkle.”

Tempest’s eyes narrowed, “This is your idea of lucky?!”

Spike said, “Twilight’s badly hurt! And unconscious!”

Terv pointed his pen at the baby dragon, “Considering months ago, that guy would simply kill on sight? Yes, I would consider her lucky to be alive.” He looked back at Tempest, “And you’re lucky because you managed to break free of his power. Not many can claim to have done that.”

Applejack asked, “So y’all have been dealin’ with this guy fer a while?”

Knuckles replied, “Unfortunately.”

Espio explained, “We’re not exactly sure where his power comes from, but like Terv said, he started out simply destroying anyone who crossed his path. Lately, though, he seems to prefer dealing with his enemies through more… indirect means.”

Rarity asked, “Such as?”

Espio said, “We’ve noticed he prefers to do one of two things. One method is he allows his enemy to live and they return acting normal… for the most part. Usually they have no recollection of their encounter with him, and perhaps certain other memories don’t line up with what’s actually happened, but otherwise they’re fine. Then suddenly, out of nowhere…” He raised his right hand and snapped his fingers, “Turns out he turned them into a sleeper agent.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “A what?”

Tempest answered, “It’s a type of saboteur. Someone who claims to be serving one faction when in reality they’re serving another. And they can remain inactive for long periods of time.”

Knuckles said, “We’ve had cases of Resistance members suddenly turning and trying to eliminate everyone around them, but he mainly likes to do that to the military. G.U.N. has had to go underground to avoid being completely wiped out.”

Grubber asked, “What’s a ‘G.U.N.’?”

Windra answered while still working, “The Guardian Unit of Nations. It’s a worldwide military and law enforcement agency that serves under the United Federation.”

Knuckles continued, “We were able to contact them freely when this war started. Now that they’ve gone into hiding, it’s not so easy to get in touch with them. Unless we go through one of their contacts, we’re on our own.”

Silver spoke, “And the other thing he’s been doing is exactly what Tempest described:  cause someone to experience some sort of hallucination that they become trapped in unless they can manage to break out of it.”

Terv pointed his pen down at Grubber, “And you said she was lying on the floor the whole time, unresponsive?” At the hedgehog’s nod, he said, “Again, I say you’re very lucky. Not everyone does that when they’re trapped in one of his hallucinations.”

Grubber asked, “What else do they do?”

Terv answered, “Well, they can be a lot more active. They can be flailing their limbs, jerking their head around, saying things that might make no sense. Basically, they’re giving anyone who comes across them an outside look at what they’re experiencing.”

Windra stopped working and looked up, “From a medical standpoint, that’s a lot worse. If they’re lying on the ground, the body is getting some rest in a way and we can use intravenous methods so they can receive nutrients and remain hydrated. That’s not easy to do when they’re flailing around. At least if they remain still, we can help them as best we can until they get free. If they’re thrashing around, we can’t do much except hope that they can get free before they die from not keeping up with their body’s needs.” The Equestrians gave her horrified looks at that.

Terv spoke as he went back to writing, “And in most cases, getting free is not the end of their problems. I swear, if I live to see this war end, I might have to seriously consider classifying a new sub-type of PTSD.”

Tempest asked, “PTSD?”

Salten nodded, “Yep. They might get free of whatever horrors he subjects ‘em to, but the memories don’t go away so easily.”

A dog soldier in uniform who had been in one of the beds came over and said, “I can definitely say they don’t. I had one such encounter with that guy; he made me think I was in a giant grassy field full of cows and cakes.”

Pinkie asked, “Aw, what’s wrong with that? That sounds like an awesome vision to have!”

The soldier replied, “It’s not so great if you’re lactose-intolerant. I thought I could handle it at first since nothing bad seemed to be happening, but then it got so much worse. The cows became devilish, and the cakes sprouted mouths and started shooting flames out of their toppings, and they all came after me…” He shuddered, “It’s hard to look at a glass of milk without being reminded of it…” He put his helmet on as he walked away, leaving the infirmary.

Rainbow couldn’t take it anymore. She’d done her best to keep the inevitable question in check this long, but after hearing the soldier’s account, combined with everything she’d seen and heard, she couldn’t hold back any longer. She turned to Knuckles and asked, “Where are Sonic and Tails? I want to have a talk with them.”

Espio crossed his arms and evenly replied to the pegasus, “You can’t.”

Rainbow whirled around to glare at him, “Excuse me?! This guy works for Eggman! Sonic said dealing with Eggman was his and Tails’ job! They’re not doing their job like they’re supposed to!”

Knuckles put a hand on her shoulder and said softly but firmly, “There’s a reason you can’t talk to them, Rainbow. Tails has been missing for weeks, and Eggman’s probably the only one who knows where Sonic is.”

Applejack asked, “What? What do ya mean?”

Knuckles lowered his hand and sighed as he closed his eyes and shook his head, “It’s still not easy to talk about, even after six months. But I knew the question was going to come up sooner or later. I actually expected it to come up sooner.” He opened his eyes and looked at the ponies, “Let’s go find Techni. It’ll be easier for her to show you what happened.”

Salten asked, “Uh, you mind if I come with, Commander? I kinda want to thank Techni for pulling up and sending me that information again.” Rarity noticed that he seemed to be a bit excited about going to see this Techni again. Knuckles shrugged and said it was okay and both he and Silver led the way out of the infirmary with Salten following close behind.

As Grubber and the ponies began to follow them, Rarity looked back at Twilight’s bed and saw that Spike was watching them, but he wasn’t moving to follow them. “Spike, aren’t you coming?” she asked.

The baby dragon blinked and quickly moved up against Twilight’s side, placing his hands on her as he murmured, “I don’t want to leave Twilight, Rarity…”

Tempest could clearly see that he wasn’t going to budge on this matter. The memory of Twilight being beaten was no doubt still fresh in his mind. She looked at Rarity and said, “Let him stay. We can fill him in on the details later.” Rarity looked reluctant to leave Spike behind, but she gave in and turned to follow the scarred unicorn out of the infirmary.

As the two walked away, they heard Terv say, “I’ll be taking a look at you next once we’re done patching her up.” He then called, “I’m going to need to take a look at all of you eventually if you plan on staying here!” before turning back to help Windra with Twilight. As they left the infirmary and followed Pinkie to catch up with the others, they didn’t notice the red wolf from before watching them from around the corner for a moment before he turned and headed for one of the base’s R&D rooms.

________________________________________


GETTING CAUGHT UP


As they expected, Knuckles and Silver found Techni in the main meeting room along with Aventura, who had switched out of her uniform and was wearing a black T-shirt, dark green pants, a bandanna that was the same blue color as her gloves, and sneakers that were white, pink-purple, and light blue. They were talking near the table when they heard the doors slide open. Stepping into the room, the Equestrians saw that Techni was a dark teal cat wearing a black vest and dark gray short-sleeved shirt over a black jumpsuit that had an aqua stripe on both sides, black and yellow fingerless gloves, blue-gray and black boots, and a communication device and scanning device on the left side of her head.

Silver spoke first, “Sorry to interrupt you two, but, ah…”

Knuckles took over, “We need a quick favor.” He looked at Techni, who was leaning against the table with her hands in her vest’s pockets, “Techni, these are our friends from Equestria. They’re not quite up to date yet on what’s happened since the last time we saw them, especially regarding Sonic, so…”

Techni picked up on what he was getting at and nodded, “Ah, I hear you, Commander. You want me to pull up THAT video for them. Will do.” She stood up straight, walked over to the computer console, and began typing on the keyboard. While she was searching for the video in question, Knuckles and Silver walked over to stand at the far end of the table and Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy moved to stand around the front of it. Aventura and Salten stood up against the wall near the doors, the latter looking dreamily at Techni while Grubber hesitated for a moment before going over to stand near Fluttershy.

Tempest stood where she was for a minute longer, watching what was displayed on the large monitor change as Techni pulled up and went through several different windows. She then walked over to the cat and asked, “Is it hard to find?”

Techni replied while keeping her eyes on the screen, “Oh no, not at all. Eggman sends this video out every day, along with his ‘advertisement’ about how much better our lives would be if we were all part of the Eggman Empire.”

Rainbow groaned, “Ugh. I don’t know even know what it talks about and it already sounds awful.”

Techni glanced back at the pegasus, “It is. First of all, ‘Robotomy’? Not even a real word. And second, I don’t know about you, but I like being able to eat, sleep, and think.”

Applejack asked, “Even if ya don’t watch it, how do ya put up with him botherin’ you with that every day?”

Techni replied, “It’s not so bad. When the war started, he was doing it incessantly. Multiple times an hour at the worst, multiple times a day at best. Once a day is… manageable.” She returned her attention to the computer and resumed computing for a couple of seconds. She then said, “Ah, here it is.” Tempest walked over to stand near Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie on the left side of the table as Techni turned to look at everyone, “Brace yourselves. This is going to be a terrible video to watch, because it captured an ugly moment… and because Eggman will give you a headache.” She turned back and made the video go full screen before hitting ‘PLAY’.

For the first few seconds, the video showed what appeared to be the sky, initially making it seem like it was going to have a nice, calming mood. That was quickly broken when a voice that most of the ponies recognized asked, “Is this thing on?” The camera suddenly tilted down and Eggman’s face filled the screen. “Ah, hello, future citizens of the Eggman Empire! I’m so glad to be speaking to you today of all days, for today is a monumental occasion for my empire, where the possibilities are… infinite!” he smugly said. Already the Equestrians knew that Techni hadn’t been kidding.

Eggman turned the camera away from him, revealing he was in what looked to be the same city they were underneath. It was clearly under attack, Egg Pawns similar to the ones they’d seen earlier, blue Aero-Chasers, and Buzz Bombers all shooting at the buildings. The city’s inhabitants were trying to help each other escape the attack force with the help of Tails, the two-tailed fox suddenly appearing in the video to surprise attack the Buzz Bombers by curling up and spinning into several of them before uncurling and using his namesakes to hold himself up. He said something to Eggman, but they couldn’t make it out since Eggman turned the camera back to him and said, “Oh look, the fox boy has come to stop me. No matter. He’s just a small fish; the real catch of the day should be along soon enough!”

As the video continued, Tails was able to make short work of the Buzz Bombers and Aero-Chasers, Pinkie loudly cheering for the fox while Fluttershy quietly cheered and the rest stayed quiet. Once they were dealt with, though, the Egg Pawns became more aggressive, firing up at him and making it difficult for him to approach. When they reach an open area that looked like a small square, one of them managed to land a lucky shot and knock the fox out of the air, causing him to land hard on his front. Fluttershy gasped louder than usual at this, “Oh no! TAILS!” The fox was beginning to recover as the Egg Pawns marched closer, the citizens seeming to hesitate on trying to escape down a nearby alleyway at this.

Suddenly, one of the Egg Pawns exploded when a blue blur ricocheted off of it, the blur slowing down as it bounced back and up and uncurling from a ball to reveal it was Sonic. He used his Homing Attack to take out several more before landing to the side of squad of Egg Pawns, quickly turning around and Boosting to send the rest of them flying before they could shoot at him. This time, Rainbow couldn’t contain herself, “Yeah, that was awesome! Go, Sonic!”

As the hedgehog moved to help Tails up, Eggman turned the camera back to himself and grinned, “Ha! Speak of the daredevil! I believe it’s time for the dramatic encounter!”

He turned the camera away, allowing them to see Sonic, Tails, and the citizens again. The citizens resumed trying to escape as Sonic turned to face Eggman and said, “Okay, it’s over, Eggman! Let’s finish this!”

Eggman replied, “It will be your finish, Sonic. Behold the power of my ultimate masterpiece!” While he was talking, Sonic shrugged before running towards him, jumping up and curling into a ball as he prepared to strike the Eggmobile.

Before his attack could connect, a red-purple blur struck him from the side, knocking him back. He grunted and flipped over due to the surprise attack, but he managed to land on his feet in a crouched position. He looked up to see Shadow land in front of him, some sort of strange static and flickering surrounding him for a moment before he stood up and crossed his arms as Sonic spoke, “Shadow! What are you…?”

Eggman turned the camera away slightly and leaned over to get in the shot as he uttered, “And now for the dramatic reveal!” He then sat back and turned the camera back to reveal that Zavok, Metal Sonic, and Chaos Zero had joined the black hedgehog.

Infinite floated down and landed in front of the group a few seconds later, causing Tempest to gasp. “That’s him!” she uttered, everyone looking over at her for a moment before looking back at the screen.

Despite being outnumbered and outmatched, Sonic refused to give in or let them intimidate him. Even after Infinite managed to dodge one of his Spin Attacks and kick him into a wall, he was soon back on his feet, stepping out of the way of several lasers Infinite fired at him and managing to block a punch from Zavok before kicking him in the chest, the Zeti falling onto his back afterwards. For a moment, despite Infinite seeming untouchable, it seemed like Sonic had a chance since he was able to dodge a charge from Metal Sonic and stop Chaos from grabbing him, but then Infinite came up behind him and kicked him down onto the ground below. “Nice!” they heard Eggman say before the fight quickly became one-sided.

Although Sonic was able to recover, Infinite soon managed to kick him into another wall. Sonic didn’t even get a chance to drop down before he was kicked up into the air, the others leaping up after him and kicking and punching him around like a sandbag for several seconds before Infinite kicked him one last time, straight down onto the ground. For a second, it seemed like Sonic was going to get back up, but then his arms and legs gave out and his body flopped back onto the ground. “SONIC!!!” Tails screamed in a bloodcurdling cry.

Even Tempest was feeling a bit horrified at the savage beating she’d just seen him go through. Eggman turned the camera back to him a couple seconds later, after Infinite and the others made Tails escape down the alleyway, and spoke, “Did you all see that?! Sonic has fallen! He’ll stand in my way no more, and this is just the beginning! It won’t be long before the entire planet is under my control! Surrender to the Eggman Empire and you will be shown mercy! Resist and… well, I don’t think I need to explain what will happen to you, now do I? I’m saying this for your sake; my ultimate masterpiece is certainly hoping there will be plenty more foolish fighters to put down in the future! GAH HAH HA H-” His laughter was cut off when Techni paused and closed the video.

“I think that’s just about enough of that,” she said through clenched teeth.

Silence ruled the room for a short while afterwards, being broken somewhat by Pinkie uttering, “Sonic…? Tails…?”

Rainbow shook her head and exclaimed, “I can’t believe it! Shadow helped Eggman take Sonic down? I thought he was on our side! Him and Chaos!”

Applejack looked at Knuckles and asked, “Are they still…?”

The echidna replied, “Yeah. For the last six months, they’ve still been with Eggman. And from the sound of things, it looks like that guy’s managed to drag some of your villains over, which is going to make things a lot more complicated for us.”

Rarity suddenly gasped, “Oh my goodness! Eggman’s probably held Sonic captive for the last six months! So, does that mean…” She looked at the others with a grave expression, “If he’s still alive… do you think he’s been torturing him?” Grubber and the other ponies looked at her with shocked expressions, all of them realizing how realistic that sounded.

“Sweet Celestia, he totally would, wouldn’t he?” Rainbow uttered.

“Him and Tails both!” Pinkie cried out.

Silver spoke up, “Uh, maybe not Tails. Like Knuckles said, he was with us until a couple weeks ago.”

Grubber asked, “What happened?”

Knuckles answered, “We’re not sure. He went missing and we haven’t been able to contact him since. We’re pretty sure he ran into trouble, though.”

Techni clarified, “A search team was sent to his last location. All they found was this.” She reached her left hand into her vest and pulled out a small square-shaped yellow device that had a black handle attached to it, holding it up.

“What is it?” Rarity asked.

“It’s a newer, smaller version of his Miles Electric handheld that we developed. We were working together to make a version that we could give to everyone in the Resistance. He allowed me access to all the data and files he had; that’s how I was able to pull up everything he had on Equestria when Salten contacted me earlier,” she explained. She then pulled out her own small handheld device and held it up before continuing, “We got as far as making the blueprints for the current model that the Resistance is using, but Tails went missing before we could start making them. I was able to take the blueprints, build this, and make more for the Resistance, but I’m sure it would’ve been even better if he’d been here…”

As she walked over to the table and set the older handheld on the table, Applejack realized something. “Speakin’ of bein’ here…” She turned to Silver and asked, “Silver, how come you’re here? Were ya able to get back to yer own time after we stopped the Time Eater?”

The silver-white hedgehog replied, “I was, but I came back to this time because I learned of something happening that brings the world to ruin. The records I found were sparse or made no sense, but I was able to figure out when it started and traveled back to that point to try to prevent it from happening. That was almost six months ago.”

Rainbow started, “So you came back when…”

Silver interrupted, “No, I arrived before Eggman pronounced Sonic defeated, but I went straight to Knuckles to alert him to the calamity. Something weird happened while we were talking; an ancient village appeared in front of us and Chaos appeared briefly and attacked us before they both vanished like they were never there. Afterwards, Knuckles listened to me and agreed to come help me. We had no idea what we would be up against, though, so we weren’t ready when Eggman unleashed that guy on the world.”

Knuckles spoke, “Not just us. No matter what we did, we didn’t know what he was really capable of, so we weren’t able to properly prepare anyone for him. It didn’t take long for Eggman’s conquest to begin. We’ve been doing our best to fight back the last six months, but things have been rough for us all around.” He was silent for several moments before saying, “You know, this isn’t really how I imagined we’d meet up again, but from the sound of things, this might actually be a lucky break, especially for you.”

Tempest asked, “How so?”

Knuckles replied, “From the sound of things, that guy has the power to travel to Equestria and was planning to drag Twilight and her friends back here. If he hadn’t come after you and Grubber, no one might’ve been aware of what he was doing until it was too late. Eggman could’ve just shown up in your world at a later point and taken it with absolutely no resistance.” Tempest had to admit she hadn’t thought about that. Knuckles addressed all the Equestrians, “I hate to ask this of you all now, but you’re here now and Eggman’s probably planning to attack your world soon as well. So, do you think…?”

Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy all looked at each other for a moment before they turned back to him, Rainbow answering for them, “You even have to ask? Of course, we’ll help you put fat old Egghead in his place again!”

Pinkie added, “Ooh! I was feeling super scared before, but now I’m getting nervicited!”

Tempest spoke, “Clearly there’s a lot I need to be brought up to speed on, but regardless, you can count me in as well. I may have been able to turn the other cheek if he just came after me, but he and this Eggman made it personal by going after my friends. I will see this Eggman Empire fall.”

Grubber said, “Well, I intend to stick with Tempest no matter what, so I’ll be sure help out any way I can as well!”

Knuckles nodded, “Then it’s settled. Welcome to the Resistance, everyone.”

________________________________________


MEANWHILE...


“…And you saw them walking away with members of the Resistance. And you allowed that. Would you care to explain why?” Eggman was addressing Infinite in what appeared to be a control room, Eggman standing in front of a computer console with his back to it and Infinite standing a short distance in front of him. Orbot and Cubot hovered close together near the door, both of them nervously looking at Infinite.

“I don’t really see what the issue is with letting them go off on their own. I fully support your desire for revenge, Doctor, but I don’t see why they need to be captured. They seem harmless enough,” Infinite replied. While he was talking, he tapped into the power of his gem, causing flickers of static to appear around Eggman for a moment before a black coat began to appear over his red shirt, soon becoming solid.

Eggman glanced down at it with a raised eyebrow for a second before glaring back at Infinite, “Stop that! Do I look like Eggman Nega to you?!” At this, the coat flickered for a moment before vanishing completely.

“Doctor, I fail to see how their addition to the Resistance will change anything, especially after I beat one of them into submission. Even the one that actually seems like it can fight can’t possibly change the situation. Let them think they have hope before we crush them and it completely. That’s always been part of this plan you’ve had for the Resistance, hasn’t it?” Infinite questioned.

Eggman replied, “We will discuss the finer details of my plan at a later time. Right now, I have a new assignment for you.” He turned around to face the computer console and began typing on it for several seconds, a map of the world that included what looked like a travel route appearing on the floating screen when he was done. “The Resistance managed to learn one of my transportation routes and shot down a transport that was heading for the Mystic Jungle earlier today. This transport was carrying, among other things, a case containing all the Phantom Ruby prototypes.”

Infinite ran his fingers along the gem on his chest as he said, “Yes, I’ve heard about the prototypes.”

Eggman continued, “They were being taken back to the lab to be destroyed, and now they’ve been scattered. This won’t stand!”

Infinite said, “So you want me to deal with the Resistance fools who attacked the transport.”

Eggman whirled around to look and point at him as he yelled, “Wrong! Your assignment is to track down all those prototypes and destroy them before the Resistance gets a hold of any of them!”

Infinite asked, “What would it matter if they got a hold of one of the prototypes? Shouldn’t their power be exhausted now?”

Eggman answered, “It doesn’t matter if they’re worthless or not! I’m not going to have the Resistance getting a hold of my work and potentially finding a way to use it against me! Your focus is finding and destroying the Phantom Ruby prototypes; that is first above all else! Now get out there and do your job!”

Infinite bowed his head, “As you command, Doctor.” He then raised his head and turned, making his way out of the room. As the doors slid shut, Orbot and Cubot continued to stare nervously at them for a moment before looking back at Eggman. He had already turned back to the computer screen and was looking up at it with his hands behind his back, but what they couldn’t see was that one of his eyebrows was raised, as if he was looking at something out of the ordinary.

________________________________________

Sonic stirred and slowly woke up on his prison bed. He blinked a few times before pressing his cuffed hands against the bed to raise himself to a sitting position. It hadn’t been a bad day and he had been looking forward to getting a good night’s (or whatever it was; the only way he could tell time in this prison was when he was taken out of his cell and put back in it) sleep, but something had managed to rouse him. As the last bits of sleep left him, he remembered what it was: it sounded like a familiar voice had called his name.

He slid to the edge of the bed and set his feet down on the floor. His shoes and socks had been taken away months ago and he was forced to make do with what he was given. His latest footwear was no better than any of the previous offerings that sat in a pile in the corner of his cell, with the beaten-up gray shoes looking ready to fall apart and several holes in his socks. He couldn’t do much about the socks, but he figured it was time to swipe some more duct tape the next opportunity he got. That would help keep the shoes together and offer a little protection from the cold metallic floors.

He had to do a bit of an awkward shuffle to move since his legs were shackled together like his hands. He didn’t enjoy it one bit, but he’d gotten to a point where he could move as normally as he could. He made his way over to the bars of his cell and peered out. The prison block was quiet at this time; everyone else must’ve still been asleep. Sonic rested his hands on one of the bars and tilted his head upwards in thought. Nobody out there was calling him, but he was sure he’d heard the voice and that it wasn’t a dream. And it sounded so familiar too. “Is something going to happen soon?” he wondered to himself.
> First Assignment
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A NOT-SO-PERFECT START


Princess Celestia stood outside of Canterlot Castle, looking at the blue sky above. The morning was over and it was early in the afternoon. Today was the day. She and Luna were finally going to announce that they were going to step down and name Twilight the new ruler of Equestria. She couldn’t help but feel immense pride in her former student’s accomplishments, although at the moment, she was also feeling something else that she shouldn’t be feeling: worry.

The last time they’d spoke, before they left, she had told Twilight and her friends not only what day the ceremony was going to be held on, but also what time they should arrive. She had said to arrive early in the afternoon so they would have ample time to inform the nobles in Canterlot and get everyone and everything ready for the ceremony in the evening. They were expecting it to be a big one; a number of the guests they had invited were coming from far away to see Twilight take the throne. It was going to be a perfect day, so why was it already starting to seem like it wouldn’t be?

There’d been no doubt in her mind when she woke up this morning that, regardless of how much she’d been stressing over it, Twilight would be punctual and arrive in Canterlot on time if not earlier. Despite that, she still decided to send a message reminding her what day it was and when she expected to see her by, mainly to see how she’d react. When she tried to send it to Spike, though, something unusual happened. The scroll changed into magic sparkles like usual, but instead of flying away, it almost immediately changed back and fell on the floor. Celestia tried sending it again, only for the same thing to happen. She was at a loss; her scrolls always reached Spike, even when he wasn’t feeling well, and aside from early mishaps, her spell had never failed like this.

The Princess returned her attention to the sky, looking in the direction of Ponyville. Her spell hadn’t worked, there was no word from Twilight, and it was starting to look more and more likely that she wasn’t going to arrive on time. “Something’s not right,” she thought. She looked back down at Canterlot, “But I can’t leave the castle now. Someone needs to be here to greet the dignitaries if they arrive early, and it wouldn’t be right to wake Luna and thrust this on her.” She remained where she was for about a minute longer before she turned and made her way back into the castle.

Soon, in Ponyville

Starlight was in the foyer of the Castle of Friendship cleaning when the front doors swung open. She looked up to see three pegasus Royal Guards step inside, all of them standing tall and attentive as they walked forward. Starlight set down her spray bottle and rag and walked over, meeting them about a third of the way down the rug. She bowed her head slightly to them, “Hello.”

One of the pegasus guards spoke, “Good day, Miss Starlight. We’re here on behalf of Princess Celestia. Is Princess Twilight here?”

Starlight raised her head and answered, “She is. Unfortunately, she’s not in any condition to see anypony at the moment.”

The guard said, “This is an important matter. The Princess has insisted she come to Canterlot Castle as soon as possible.”

Starlight replied, “Yes, today is a big day, not just for the princesses, but for all of Equestria. But I’m afraid Princess Twilight is not feeling well. She’s been working herself to the bone to sort out everything before she leaves, and it finally caught up with her today. Spike as well. He’s been very diligent in helping her tie up her loose ends, and there were a lot more than they expected. There’s no way they’re getting up anytime soon.”

One of the other pegasus guards spoke, “Well, that’s not good. What are we going to tell Princess Celestia?”

Starlight said, “I’m sorry. Twilight wanted to get up and fly all the way to Canterlot herself even though she woke up feeling exhausted and sick. I had to explain to her that it probably wouldn’t be a good start to her being the new ruler of Equestria if she collapsed from exhaustion in the middle of her coronation, or that she wouldn’t make a good first impression being sick when a lot of ponies and other species were all packed close together. You have no idea how much insisting I had to do to get them both to stay in bed and rest.”

The third pegasus guard couldn’t help but chuckle, “That sounds like Twilight, all right.”

Starlight spoke, “Since Spike isn’t feeling well enough to use his fire, I’ll be the one to send Princess Celestia any updates on how they’re doing. Can you please tell her to send any scrolls directly to me and that I’ll be taking over Twilight’s duties here until she’s better?”

The first guard replied, “That’s not what she’s going to want to hear, but we’ll be sure to pass along the message.”

Starlight bowed her head again, “I’m very sorry.” The guards turned to leave and Starlight raised her head to watch them walk away. After they left and closed the doors, her mouth stretched into a smirk and she chuckled, “What good soldiers they are.” She turned and made her way out of the foyer.


TROUBLE'S BREWING


She made her way to the throne room, where Trixie was seated in Rarity’s chair, her forelegs behind her head and her hind legs on the Cutie Map. The showmare looked up when Starlight entered the room and asked, “So? How did it go?”

Starlight replied while she made her way around the circle, “They bought it. Pretty much without question. Don’t know how Princess Celestia is going to take it, though.”

Trixie replied, “Trixie is sure she won’t question it. She wouldn’t doubt the words of her own guards. That takes care of that, then.”

Starlight said, “Only for now. Celestia’s not going to be satisfied with that for long, and she’s not the only one who’s going to come around asking questions. I’ve already had to convince the Cakes and Applejack and Rarity’s families that they had to leave with Twilight for royal business, and the animals that Fluttershy takes care of are starting to get agitated without her, especially that horrible bunny.” She sat down in Twilight’s seat and looked over at Trixie, “This is probably going to be the best time to start making plans. What’s a good way to herald that big changes are coming to Equestria?”

Trixie looked up in thought for a couple of seconds before looking back down and suggesting, “Let’s give them a show. The greatest show Equestria has ever seen, and the last it will ever see.” Starlight settled back into the chair, seemingly considering Trixie’s idea.

________________________________________


GETTING READY


Tempest stood still as Cream, Tina, and the blue dog known as Hip put the finishing touches on her new uniform. They’d shown her what it looked like already: a bodysuit that was the same color as her cloak that had short sleeves where her forelegs went and went all the way down to just above her back hooves. It reminded her of her old Storm King uniform except it had less armor and a zipper that ran down the front of the uniform as well as two short white stripes next to the zipper on the right side of the chest. The last several days had been about getting acquainted with the Resistance and how things worked, and now it looked like she and the others were ready to get out there and join the war effort.

She heard several clicks as they attached straps with pouches to her uniform about a minute later. The three of them then stepped away, with Tina going over to a nearby table to grab two pairs of black and gray shoes that were sitting on top. She brought them over and knelt down to set them on the floor in front of Tempest. “All right, Miss Tempest. Here are the new shoes; let’s see how they fit,” she said, looking up at the unicorn. Tempest looked down at her while she was talking and then shifted her attention to the shoes. She raised her hooves and set them into the circular holes, finding they fit quite comfortably. “What do you think?” Tina asked.

“Not bad at all,” she remarked, taking a few steps in place to get a better feel. “So, you all worked together to make this?” she asked once she felt satisfied.

“Cream and Tina deserve most of the credit for this. I just did the shoes and gave your uniform some personality,” Hip said.

Tempest looked at him, “Personality?”

Hip started looking over the straps as he replied, “If someone wants to wear the typical Resistance uniform, I’m good with that. If that’s what they prefer, I’m not going to argue. But if they want to wear something a little different, then I feel it’s gotta be something made for them. Take yours, for instance; I decided it would feel more you if it included something similar to the magic tattoos you ponies have.”

Tempest glanced back and noticed that the uniform had a red Resistance Double Star on each of the flanks, right where her cutie mark would be. Another similarity it had with her Storm King uniform. “Clever,” she remarked dryly.

Hip replied, “Hey, we’re the Resistance, after all. I think that includes resisting taking cues from the boring, lifeless colors that Eggman is so fascinated with.”

Tempest turned her attention to Cream, the young rabbit holding her cloak and Grubber’s tabard in her arms as she said, “I’ll be sure to get yours and Mr. Grubber’s clothes fixed, Miss Tempest. My mother taught me how to sew.” Tempest noticed there was some sadness in her voice when she mentioned her mother.

She replied, “That’s very nice of you to offer, ah, Miss Rabbit, but I don’t want you to push yourself. You must be very busy; I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”

Cream brightened up a little as she replied, “Oh, it’s no trouble at all. This won’t take long to fix. And Mr. Grubber seemed to be excited about trying on something new.”

Before Tempest could respond, they all heard Grubber call, “All right! I’m ready now!” The door to the nearby walk-in closet opened and Grubber leapt out before saying, “Check this out!”

Tempest turned slightly to get a better look at him, and her expression instantly changed to one of bewilderment. “Grubber… what IS that?” she managed to ask.

“I think it’s called a t-shirt, Tempest,” Grubber innocently replied. Indeed, the green garment the hedgehog wore was most definitely a casual top, even though it looked like he had selected a shirt that hugged him a little tightly. What had caught Tempest’s attention was what was on the front: it appeared to be a very poor, almost child-like, drawing of Sonic the Hedgehog. Tempest couldn’t help but stare at it. It just looked so unpolished, so twisted, so… surreal.

She managed to pull her eyes up to look at Grubber’s face and, after pausing momentarily to select the right words, asked, “Grubber, are you sure you want to wear that?”

The hedgehog replied, “Yeah, sure! I was looking through the closet and couldn’t find something I liked until I found this in the back! It even still had tags on it! I don’t know anything about this Mt. Fuji place, but there must be some great people working up there!”

Tempest got an idea at this and said, “Well, if it’s so unusual, that must mean it’s very valuable. It wouldn’t be good if something happened to it.”

Grubber looked down at the shirt and raised a hand to his chin thoughtfully, “Hmm, you think so? You know, you’re right. Guess I’ll find something else so this stays nice.” He turned around and walked back into the closet, pulling the door closed behind him.

Hip leaned close to the left side of Tempest’s head and whispered, “Yeah, we keep it back there for good reason. I don’t even know how those shirts ended up in there.” Tempest turned to look at him in disbelief at that.

She soon looked to her right when she heard Tina say her name, the hedgehog standing next to her holding up one of the Resistance’s Miles Mobiles in her right hand. “Where’s a good spot for you to be able to easily reach this?” she asked. Tempest responded by reaching her left foreleg around, placing her hoof just off to the side on her back, and tapping the spot. Tina nodded and placed the device in a holder before attaching it where Tempest’s hoof had been. “Okay, I think that will do it,” she said as she stepped back.

Grubber came out of the closet soon afterwards, this time wearing a purple T-shirt with two upward-pointing blue arrows on the front. “How does this look?” he asked.

“I think that’s better. It seems more appropriate,” Tempest replied.

Hip said, “Well, I’d say you two are good to go, then.”

Cream spoke, “I’ll be sure to sew these up and return them to you both soon.”

Tempest replied, “Thank you. We really appreciate it. Now, if you’ll excuse us.” Both she and Grubber turned to go, the doors opening and shutting as they left the room.

As they walked through the base together, they made a detour to pass by the infirmary on their way to the meeting room. They got close enough to make the doors slide open, but they didn’t step through them. There was no need to; they could see Twilight’s bed from the entrance, the bandaged alicorn still lying on top of it in the same position they’d seen her last. They could also see Terv and Windra trying to get Spike off the bed while the baby dragon protested. It was difficult to pry him away from her for any reason, even if it was for a bath. He was determined to remain by her side until she woke up. She watched the scene for a few moments more with a sad smile before continuing on her way, Grubber quickly following her.

It didn’t take them long to reach the meeting room, where they found Knuckles, Silver, Amy, the Chaotix, Techni, the teal swallow known as Trish, and the rest of their friends from Equestria already in the room. Like Tempest and Grubber, some of their friends decided to switch things up a little and wear something new. Tempest wasn’t surprised to see Rainbow Dash had decided to wear the standard Resistance uniform, though she had added a pair of matching goggles that sat atop her helmet. Rarity had clearly decided to maintain her classiness despite the state of the world as she had on a gray overcoat with a red scarf inside the collar. It was a little harder to discern what Pinkie had been thinking as she wore a Resistance helmet, but also a white apron. Tempest couldn’t tell if she was going to be assigned to the kitchen or the front lines.

As they were stepping through the door, they saw Techni was working at the front of the center table with a new keyboard and screen that hadn’t been there the other day, the frame around the screen looking nearly transparent. They stopped inside the room and watched her work along with everyone else, noticing that the station seemed to be connected to the computer console since her typing and clicking showed up on the large screen. The cat stopped typing after a minute and said, “That should do it. The new terminal’s all synched up.” She looked up and noticed Tempest and Grubber standing by the door and waved them over, “Hey, come on in, you two. Feel free to join in.”

The others turned to look at them as well. “Looking good, Tempest! You too, Grubber,” Rainbow remarked.

“Thanks!” Grubber said while Tempest simply nodded in reply.

“Has that been planned for a while?” Tempest asked as they walked over to the table, indicating the terminal.

Techni replied, “No, but our old one shorted out recently and it took longer than expected to put this one together. We’re trying to keep things clutter-free as much as we can; we used to have more monitors and towers taking up room in here.” She turned and walked over to the computer console to unplug the wired keyboard while Amy took her place at the terminal.

Vector spoke, “Gotta take what we can get. It hasn’t been easy; no matter what we do, Eggman’s army seems unstoppable!”

Amy looked up from the keyboard and started, “And Sonic… Do you think…?”

Rainbow was quick to say, “No! No way, Amy! Don’t even say it! If Sonic was gone, Egghead wouldn’t be able to shut up about it! You know he would, so he’s gotta be okay!”

While Techni headed to the back of the room with the keyboard under her arm, Silver said, “I want to remain optimistic too, Rainbow, but we can’t ignore the reality we’re in. We haven’t found anything in the last six months that could clue us into Sonic’s whereabouts, not even a loose quill. And Tails… If he’s still okay, then he’s trying to stay hidden from everyone.”

Fluttershy spoke, “But he should know where his friends are and how to reach them. Why would he want to do that?”

Silver replied, “I don’t know, Fluttershy. There’s so much going on that either we don’t know or just doesn’t make sense. We should be making progress, not still wondering who that guy is.”

Espio put his hand on the hedgehog’s shoulder, “Your frustration is understandable, Silver. We’ve been hoping for a sudden major shift in our favor and perhaps our friends from Equestria, new and old, are it, but that doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels. Everyone’s terrified of Eggman’s army, so we all have our work cut out for us, but that’s to be expected in a war.”

Knuckles nodded, “Exactly. Things may look bleak, but we can’t let it get to us. We’re all alive, we’re here, and that’s a good start. We have to keep rallying for our cause, and right now, the best way to do that is to show them that it’s not just strength that determines the winner. We have to keep fighting back and keep everyone’s spirits as high as we can because the planet’s not going to save itself.”

Applejack asked, “So where are we supposed ta start?”

Charmy answered, “We’ll start by introducing you to our newest recruit! Today’s his first day as an active member of the Resistance!”

Tempest asked, “Who is he?”

Silver answered, “He’s the only survivor of an attack that happened in the city a few months ago. It was led by that guy that took down Sonic.”

While typing, Amy continued, “The experience left him pretty shaken up for a while, but he’s been getting better since and he’s determined to aid the Resistance. He’s shown that he has proficiency with the Wispons and has offered to help test the new ones we’ve been developing, and he’s been working on some gadgets of his own that he’s ready to field test.”

Pinkie said, “He sounds like fun! When do we get to meet him?”

Amy looked up, “Very soon. I just contacted Hip; he’s coming here with him now.”

Vector added, “You might have seen him around the last few days. I think your presence has already given his confidence a bit of a boost.” Almost immediately afterwards, the door Tempest and Grubber came through slid open and everyone looked to see Hip standing with his hand on the shoulder of the red wolf that they had indeed seen around the base, but he looked better equipped now. He wasn’t wearing a full uniform, but he had swapped out his beaten-up gloves and shoes for the dark green and black gloves and boots as well as a radio headset on the left side of his face. He also had a black band of some sort on the wrist of his left glove, a tan set of pouches, and black square-shaped glasses on. He was looking down towards the floor when they saw him, but glanced over at Hip for a moment when the dog patted him on the back and then held his head up as they stepped into the room.

Knuckles walked around the table and over to the two as he said, “There they are. Thanks for bringing him over, Hip. This brave kid survived the city attacked and managed to find us himself. I’ve decided to have him be with you guys to start.” As he finished, he slapped the wolf on the back, causing him to let out a grunt as he bent forward and unintentionally took a step.

“With us? Commander, bravery and motivation are all well and good, but you were saying that we would be involved in particularly dangerous assignments. Are you sure sticking someone who just joined up with us is such a good idea?” Tempest asked.

Charmy buzzed over to the wolf as he straightened up and remarked, “Yeah, he kinda doesn’t look like much.”

Knuckles smirked, “Neither do you, Charmy, but I still manage to find good use for your pointy butt!” Charmy couldn’t help but giggle at that.

Applejack spoke, “Back ta what Tempest was sayin’, y’all really think he’s got what it takes already?”

Trish, who had been mostly quiet up to this point, spoke while still leaning back against the wall, “I’ve seen the kid while he’s been working. He’s got spirit, and he’s got talent. He just needs some help bringing out both as a member of the Resistance.”

Knuckles said, “He does have some learning to do, and he’ll be learning from not only the best in the Resistance, but also the best Equestria has to offer.”

Rainbow started, “Well, there’s no doubt about that, Knuckles, but, uh…” She spread her wings and flew over to the wolf, stopping and hovering just above his head. She took a closer look at him, noticing he suddenly seemed a bit nervous, before continuing, “I mean, I’m worried about this kid, this… rookie. Sounds like he went through something awful. Is he really ready to go out there? Is he gonna freeze up in a fight like Fluttershy facing a full-grown dragon and need to be saved? That’s what I’m wondering.”

Knuckles asked, “Can anyone ever really be ready for war, Rainbow? I know it’s not ideal, but we can’t hold everyone back because of that. The people need hope, and they’re not going to get it if we all stand around doing nothing.”

Grubber commented, “Man, what a rough spot to be in.”

Pinkie added, “If only we had some super important mission that Wolfy could go on that would really give him a chance to show how good he can be!”

There was silence for several seconds. During this time, Techni made her way back over to the table after putting the keyboard back in one of the crates. She was halfway there when a sudden beeping sound from the computer console caused her to stop, ringing for several seconds before stopping and sounding again a second later. “What’s that?” she asked as she made her way over to the terminal.

Amy looked at the terminal screen for a moment before looking up and saying, “It’s a call! It’s from B.B., Knuckles.”

Knuckles turned to look at the large computer monitor as he said, “Patch it through.”

While Amy typed on the keyboard, Rarity asked, “Who is ‘B.B.’?”

Trish came over to the table and said, “Pretty sure you know her. You’ll see.”


LONG-DISTANCE REUNION


Amy soon finished typing on the keyboard and turned to look up at the monitor as it changed to static, everyone else in the room doing the same. After a few seconds, it faded and changed to show the upper body of a familiar-looking bat who was currently turned to the side, looking towards the snow-covered landscape and white and gray skies in the background of what they could see.

She turned her head to look at the screen a second later and they saw she was indeed Rouge, though she, like Amy, had undergone a wardrobe change since the last time the ponies saw her. From what they could see, she was wearing a new black outfit with purple lines that looked like they might go all the way down the front of her legs and purple edges on the collar, though as she turned to face the screen completely, they saw it was unzipped at the chest and she seemed to have her usual top on underneath. Her arms, which were crossed below her chest, were covered by the black outfit all the way to her hands, though she also had on white and purple fingerless gloves over them. Her eyeshadow was dark purple and she had a light blue scope next to her right eye that was currently closed.

“Hey there, kids. Knuckles, can you hear me?” she asked as her image went up and down a little, which was likely from whatever device she was using to communicate with them.

“Rouge. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from you. I… well, some of us were starting to get worried,” the echidna said.

“Hmm. Well, as your detective crew might tell you, this kind of investigative work takes time,” Rouge replied.

Rarity took a few steps forward and said, “Rouge! It’s so good to see you again, dear, as well as your wonderful fashion sense.”

Rouge looked at the unicorn while she was talking and gave a small smile and wave as she spoke, “Hey there, Rare’. I heard some chatter that you and your friends showed up out of the blue. Looking pretty good if you ask me.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow, “So tell me, what does ‘B.B.’ stand for? ‘Beautiful Bat’?”

Rouge ribbed, “Who says a girl can’t have looks and smarts? Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise, hon’.”

Rainbow asked, “Uh, yeah, it’s great to see you and all, but you were calling for another reason, right? Can we get back to that?”

Rarity glanced back at her with her eyebrow still raised, but Rouge replied, “Right, of course. This is important; you all need to hear this.” Everyone looked at her expectantly at that. “It took cracking into Eggman’s top secret files to do it, but I can now confirm: Sonic is alive.”

Everyone looked surprised and began murmuring at that. “No way! That’s excellent news!” Silver gasped.

“Oh, thank goodness! What a relief! I knew it! I knew it!” Amy exclaimed.

“I’m guessing Dr. Eggman tried to bury the information as deep as he could?” Tempest asked.

“Yes and no. Eggman was actually smart in trying to keep him hidden, but the way he did it was also classic Eggman in a way.” She raised her right hand to her scope and moved the square-shaped glass over her eye. She tapped her side of the glass with her thumb, causing images to appear on the Resistance computer’s screen. At first, an image of Sonic appeared, but after a moment, he morphed into a brown hedgehog with brown hair wearing clothes and wide glasses. Noticing the looks of everyone present, Rouge said, “Yeah, that’s what he did. He messed with a picture of Sonic and filed him away under the name ‘Nicky’. It’s not a name that’s shown up on any of the prison lists we’ve recovered so far, but looks like he wanted to make sure he was hard to find anyway.”

Vector spoke, “That’s a pretty cheap trick. Did Eggman really think that would be enough to keep us from trying to find Sonic?”

Espio remarked, “You have to admit, it likely would’ve thrown us off at first, Vector. The name might sound similar, but that doesn’t really look like Sonic.”

Charmy said, “Yeah, he seems like a totally normal guy!”

Pinkie added, “He looks like he could secretly be a superhero!”

Amy looked back up at Rouge, “Do you know where Eggman is keeping him, Rouge?”

The bat nodded, “I sure do.” She tapped on her scope again and an image of a spherical station in space appeared on the monitor.

“Is that the Death Egg?” Espio asked.

Rouge replied, “That’s right. I was able to pull up some blueprints from Eggman’s database while I was at it.” She tapped her scope several times, causing the blueprints to appear below the image, “From what I can tell, it’s not as heavily armed as his previous Death Eggs, but that’s because he’s been using it as an off-planet prison. He didn’t want us to know about it since that’s where he’s holding Sonic and a number of other prisoners.”

Rainbow growled, “And he’s been torturing all of them all this time, like Rarity said.”

Rouge raised an eyebrow, looking in the fashionista’s direction, “‘Torturing’?”

Rarity answered unsurely, “W-Well, I said that after we heard that Sonic hadn’t been seen in months. Considering how Eggman feels about him, it does seem like the kind of thing he might do, don’t you think?”

Rouge nodded, “I suppose I could see how you’d think that. Well, I can reassure you that Eggman hasn’t sunk that low yet. Or, maybe more accurately, he’s tried to and it hasn’t been working for him.”

Trish asked, “What do you mean by that?”


SLOWED DOWN BUT STILL FIGHTING


Rouge shrugged, “You be the judge.” She reached up to her scope again and gave it a few presses. A new window opened on the monitor, one that almost filled the entire screen. It was black with a short red line inside of a longer white line, both of which went around in a circle. After several seconds, a video loaded. The first thing it showed was an older rabbit in a dress that had a number of tears in it kneeling down over a green hedgehog in an orange jumpsuit who was lying on the floor facedown, his face turned away from the camera.

“That’s Cream’s mother!” Amy exclaimed before a monkey and a female wolf who was taller and leaner than Aventura with gray and white fur leapt in from the sides to stand in front of the two, both of them wearing orange jumpsuits as well. They held out their arms as if to protect them further, but they both looked nervous as well. Vector was initially surprised when he saw Vanilla, but now he was starting to look angry as he realized this video was coming from the perspective of one of Eggman’s robots and it was beginning to move closer. And from the sound of the footsteps, there was more than just the one.

Suddenly, there was an explosion and the camera quickly turned to the right, revealing a lone Egg Pawn with a smashed head and a pair of blue legs in beaten-up shoes standing on top of it. Sonic leapt off the robot, sending it crashing to the floor, and the camera followed him as he landed in front of the monkey and the wolf and turned to face the robots a moment later, an angry look on his face. “Hey! You guys want to know how much trouble a guy in ‘cuffs and shackles can cause?!” he asked. It took them a moment, but while he was speaking, the wolf and monkey turned and helped Vanilla get the green hedgehog to his feet.

As they began to lead him away, the screen suddenly changed to a red tint before the Egg Pawn charged at Sonic. In response, he hopped back once before suddenly leaping forward, meeting the Egg Pawn head on while swinging his arms. His handcuffs connected with the robot’s face, static obscuring the screen somewhat as it was thrown to the floor. Before the video ended due to the system shutting down, amidst the static everyone could make out Sonic standing his ground as the rest of the robots began to close in on him.

Knuckles couldn’t help but chuckle, “That’s Sonic, all right. Leave it to him to keep him smashing Eggman’s robots while imprisoned.”

Vector added, “At least when it makes him look like a hero.” Although he said that, he was actually glad to see Sonic was still himself despite being imprisoned, and of course he was happy that he had protected Vanilla. It gave the crocodile hope that he’d see her again.

As the window on the screen closed, Tempest remarked, “Have to give him credit, I suppose. Being shackled apparently isn’t enough to stop him completely.”

Rouge replied, “Mm-hmm. That’s just one of the things he did that got him moved to try to break him, but he still managed to make waves. Take a look here.” She called up another video, this one showing an overhead corner view of Sonic sitting on a stool in a dark room that was illuminated by a single light above his head, almost like an interrogation room. Zavok stood a short distance in front of him while his fellow Zeti Zazz and Zeena stood behind and beside him respectively. Zavok was standing patiently with his arms crossed while the other two mocked and jeered Sonic, poking him and making kissy faces while he sat looking bored out of his skull. It seemed like the only part of him they were killing was his brain cells.

After about ten seconds, Zavok uncrossed his arms and spoke, “Enough!” Sonic, Zazz, and Zeena looked up at him at that. “Are you starting to feel it now, Sonic? The despair? That crushing feeling of hopelessness? An overwhelming desire to submit and be done with it?” the red Zeti questioned.

“Nope. It’s the same as every other time you’ve dragged me in here. It was boring the first time and it’s boring now,” the blue hedgehog replied simply.

Zazz burst out laughing for a moment and then started poking Sonic’s right cheek as he spoke, “You hear that? Isn’t this guy so cute? So hilarious!”

Zavok said, “So it’s excitement you desire. Perhaps we have been too lenient on you. It may be time to end these games and simply end you.”

Sonic turned his head to look at Zeena at that, the green Zeti noticing after several moments. “What?” she asked. It was hard to see on the camera, but a smirk started to creep onto Sonic’s face at that. “What?!” she asked again, sounding irritated.

“Well? Aren’t you going to listen to your leader? You gonna show that those pipes of yours are good for more than just complaining?” Sonic asked, his smirk getting a little wider.

“Excuse me?!” Zeena demanded, turning to face him fully.

“Haven’t you heard? It ain’t over ‘till the fat lady sings!” Sonic cheekily replied.

Zeena grabbed him by the shoulders and got close to his face, “Did you just call me fat?!”

Sonic took a moment to look down her body before looking back up at her angry eyes and saying, “You know, you’re right. That’s not right at all.” He then smirked, “‘Ugly’ fits a lot better.”

Zeena’s rage was boiling over at that point. “Oh, why you… YOU…!” she snarled as she took a step back before she suddenly swung her left fist at his face. He managed to move enough to avoid it and continued to shift and move in his seat to evade the punches and swipes she continued to throw at him.

“Come on, don’t you know how to swing? Or did you get soft since the last time we fought?” Sonic asked as he continued to evade her.

“That’s enough!” Zavok ordered after a moment, but Zeena didn’t heed him.

Zazz suddenly placed his hands on Sonic’s shoulders, squeezing them and holding him in place. “Here. You clearly need some help with this guy,” he sneered at Zeena. She didn’t respond, instead taking the opportunity to punch him in the face several times. Sonic didn’t resist, instead taking the hits and staying still. Zazz watched him, his head directly behind the hedgehog’s.

After a few more punches, Zeena stopped and took a moment to wind up before throwing her right fist at Sonic. At the last second, he suddenly jerked to the left, causing her punch to connect squarely with Zazz’s face instead. The pink Zeti quickly took his hands off Sonic’s shoulders and placed them on his face, crying out as he staggered back a bit. Before Zeena could react, Sonic sat up straight again and suddenly swung his legs up, his feet hitting her under her chin and pushing her backwards while he leaned back, tumbling out of his seat and managing to roll back onto his feet. He then leapt backwards a few times, crashing into Zazz and knocking him down before he left the camera’s sight.

Everyone could still hear him, though. “Hey, your aim’s improving, Zeena!” he cheekily called. Soon after, Zazz rolled over onto his front and crawled on all fours towards where they’d last seen Sonic, stopping before he left the screen completely. They could see him start hopping left and right after a few moments, no doubt due to whatever Sonic was doing, and after a couple of seconds, Sonic suddenly came sliding underneath him, using his cuffs to whack the Zeti’s right leg and throw him off balance. Once he stopped sliding, he pushed himself up and began jumping forward. It looked like Zeena was going to get back at him, but Zavok swiftly and suddenly moved in front of her, swinging his left fist down at Sonic. He hopped to the left and Zavok ended up smashing the stool flat instead. “Aw, look what you did! Now it’s broken!” Sonic said.

“Which is nothing compared to what I’ll do to you!” Zavok retorted, raising his arms over his head, his hands clenched into fists.

“Bad idea, Zavok!” Sonic said, bending his knees before jumping up towards the Zeti, bringing his legs up to plant his feet firmly against his chest. Zavok grunted at this and he began to lean further back and flail his arms while Sonic landed on his rear on the floor. Zeena turned to run as he continued to lean back further, but wasn’t fast enough to get out from underneath him. She was pushed to the floor, her upper body sticking out as she let out a loud scream. Sonic got back up and leapt up on top of Zavok’s chest, leaning over to look at her as he remarked, “Bet you’re wishing you were fat now.” Zeena let out a growl, but was unable to pull herself free.

They all heard a laugh and saw Zazz rushing towards Sonic. The blue hedgehog noticed him coming and turned to the right, jumping as he was about to reach him and leaving him to crash on top of Zavok, pushing the red Zeti back down onto the floor. As Sonic kept jumping and left the camera’s view, Zavok growled, “I’ll deal with you two later!” He then turned his head to the left and pointed in Sonic’s direction, “And you’ll get your punishment right now, you blue insect! I’ll kill you!”

They heard Sonic call back, “First off, no you won’t! And second, totally worth it!”

As she closed the video, Rouge remarked, “Like Tempest said, gotta give Big Blue some credit for adapting.”

Trish said, “Well, I’m sure he won’t mind going back to the way things were before.”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah! Now that we know where he is, we’re gonna rescue him!”

Rouge spoke, “Yeah, you need to. I didn’t just call because I happened to find out he’s alive and where he is; this is also an urgent matter.”

Applejack asked, “What do ya mean?”

Rouge explained, “I managed to sneak a look at Eggman’s daily operation files while I was in. He’s planning to send Sonic into deep space so that he’ll never be able to return.”

Amy, Silver, Rarity, and Pinkie all gasped, “What?!”

Rouge said, “As I said before, whatever Eggman intended to do with Sonic has not worked out like he expected, and the arrival of our Equestrian friends might have made him decide to move forward sooner. The file only said that he would be doing it soon, but knowing Eggman, ‘soon’ could mean ‘today’, so…” She stopped and looked to her left, taking a few steps away from the camera. In the background, everyone could hear something stomping, sounding like it was getting closer. Rouge came back after a moment, grabbing the camera with her right hand before saying, “The clock is ticking, boss.” She then clicked something and cut the transmission, causing the normal blue screen to appear on the large monitor after a few seconds.


MISSION TO RESCUE SONIC


Silver looked at the others and said, “We can’t let Eggman throw Sonic into space!”

Rainbow flapped her wings and hovered above the table, “So what are we waiting for? Let’s go get him out of there!”

Applejack spoke, “Hang on there, Rainbow. How are we supposed ta get to him? The Death Egg’s in space, remember? Ya can’t just fly up to it!”

Knuckles said, “Not like that, no. But there is a way we can get up there.”

Vector and Pinkie looked at each other for a moment before looking back at Knuckles, the former saying, “Sounds like you have a plan, Knuckles.”

The echidna replied, “Enough of one. Rouge was contacting us from West Side Island, which is where the answer is.”

Hip rubbed his chin with a hand, “Right, Eggman’s old Chemical Plant…”

Tempest asked, “Chemical Plant? How is that going to help us?”

Rarity added, “Please tell me you’re not thinking of having us cover ourselves in things that Eggman created. I only trust products that I know what they’re made from.”

Amy spoke, “The Chemical Plant’s been left to rot ever since Sonic stopped Eggman’s first Death Egg. It probably already had leaking chemicals and weakened structures before, but when Eggman took over West Side Island, our spies reported that he was focusing much of his efforts in the region on the Chemical Plant, though not to rebuild it. He’s left it as is; he actually built a spaceport at the edges of it.”

Tempest looked at Knuckles, “I think I’m starting to see what your plan is.”

Knuckles nodded, “He keeps shuttles for transporting prisoners at the spaceport. We’ll ‘borrow’ one and use it to get to Sonic.”

Rarity said, "But that still leaves one question: who's going to fly it? None of us know how to fly a craft, and certainly not one of Dr. Eggman's."

Trish spoke, "I do." When the Equestrians looked at her, she explained, "I've practiced on the simulators. It's not the real thing, but it's meant to help prepare for that. I can do it."

Techni said, "I'll be going too. We're going to need a clearance code to land in the Death Egg no doubt. I'll take care of that little detail."

Knuckles nodded, "All right, we have a team going here." He looked to the left and noticed Hip was heading for the door. "Hip? What about you?" he asked.

The blue dog stopped and looked back. His sunglasses hid his eyes well, making it hard to tell how he was feeling, but he evenly replied, "Eh, not sure yet, Commander, but I'm going to spread the word around, let everyone know about the mission. I'm also going to grab something; I think Sonic's going to need it when he gets out." He resumed walking and left the room.

Espio remarked, "Well, we should have a team together soon, then."

Knuckles nodded, "Yep." He looked at the Rookie, "So who's up for an old-school style jailbreak?"

________________________________________

Tempest stepped up behind Amy and Grubber to peer out of the red canopy of the ‘borrowed’ Hover Unit, Amy sitting in the pilot’s seat while Grubber played co-pilot. Behind the unicorn, Rainbow paced around in short circles impatiently while Applejack, Aventura, and the Chaotix tried to pass the time with a game of cards. The sleek white and silver egg-shaped craft flew low over the water with another Hover Unit on its right carrying the rest of their small team. Tempest had no reason to doubt her own abilities, but she quietly hoped that their group would be enough for this mission.

Even with the red tint on the glass, it was easy to see the weather outside go from relatively clear skies to gray and overcast as they got closer to West Side Island, the mostly white covered mountains coming into view not long after. “We’re almost there. You’ll have to pick up the game later, guys; we’ll be landing in Emerald Hill soon,” Amy called back. Rainbow stopped pacing and Applejack and the Chaotix looked up at that. Charmy moped that he’d been winning, but he got to his feet as well. It was time to get to work.


WEST SIDE ISLAND ARRIVAL


The Hover Units soon reached the island and flew through the Emerald Hill area, flying behind several taller hills before setting down in an open area. Espio poked his head out to look before stepping out into the snow, taking another look around for any signs of trouble before looking over at the other Hover Unit to see Salten doing the same. They nodded to each other and Espio stuck his head back inside to say, “All clear.” He, Vector, Charmy, Amy, Rainbow, Applejack, Tempest, Grubber, and Aventura disembarked at that while Salten let Techni, Sona, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Trish, Rookie, and Terv off before getting out of the way so Matka could get out.

As both groups began to spread out, Rarity walked over to Applejack and Rainbow and said, “And you two said it was silly to pick out a coat to wear. Well, I had a feeling we’d have to put up with some dreadful weather sooner or later, so I prepared in advance. See, even Amy knew to pack extra for this venture.” The two looked over and saw the pink hedgehog adjusting the blue windbreaker she slipped on.

Rainbow glanced up at the top of a snow-covered coconut tree and said, “This place looks more like Winter Hill than Emerald Hill. Why is there so much snow here? It looks like it should be warmer.”

They heard Sona say, “It used to be.” They looked over and saw the rabbit looking at the hills in the distance, her hands in her coat pockets and an angry look on her face that they couldn’t see due to her back being to them. “These hills used to be vibrant, green, and full of life, but now… First South Island, then here… Warzones are bad enough, but these environmental changes Eggman has caused are unbelievable,” she said, anger creeping into her voice.

Aventura walked over and put her hand on the rabbit’s shoulder, saying, “We’ll get him, Sona. We’ll dismantle his empire one piece at a time, and this should be the start of taking out a big piece of it.” Sona turned her head to look at the wolf, but didn’t say anything, instead adjusting the bag on her back.

The two turned to look when they heard crunching in the snow and saw Pinkie bouncing around while Charmy watched her curiously. Looking past the two, they saw Rookie getting a feel for his White Wispon sidearm, looking it over and aiming with it, while Terv and Matka offered him a few pointers and Amy, Espio, Vector, Tempest, Techni, and Trish all going over the plan one more time while Salten stood nearby with Fluttershy and Grubber, the cat keeping an eye out for trouble. After a minute, everyone reconvened and began to leave the area.

They didn’t get far before Rainbow stopped and looked back at the Hover Units before looking at the others and asking, “Uh, I know what you said about Eggman’s radar and that’s why we’re not taking them all the way to the Chemical Plant, but isn’t it a bad idea to leave these things sitting out in the open like this? Shouldn’t we cover them with snow or move them into a cave or something?”

Everyone else stopped and looked at her, Aventura saying, “You’re not wrong, Rainbow, but I don’t think covering them is going to be much help. Snow piles that big in a clearing would look pretty suspicious.”

Applejack asked, “So what should we do, then?”

Techni spoke, “We’re going to do a field test.” Everyone turned to her and saw she was tapping her fingers on her Miles Mobile, which was in its holder on her left wrist. “We’ve been working on a new stealth system for these to help keep them hidden from Eggman. Seems like as good an opportunity as any to see how well it works.”

Salten said, “Well, if you’ve had a hand in it, Techni, I’m sure it’s gonna work perfectly.”

Techni kept typing, not looking up as she absently replied, “Hm.” She finished after a few moments and turned her head to look at the Hover Units as did everyone else. All of a sudden, they seemed to completely vanish into thin air, surprising the Equestrians. “Yep. Looks like it works. That should keep them from being found by any patrols. As long as nothing bumps into them, the trackers can be used to find and retrieve them later,” Techni said. With that, the group continued moving.


TROUBLE AHEAD


Not much later, the group was partway through a cave when they heard a metallic stomping noise ahead of them. Moving quietly and carefully to the exit, Amy, Espio, Vector, Tempest, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie peered out. They saw three tall bipedal robots patrolling the area, all of them mostly black in color with some gray in spots, two spikes on the side of their arms, and a red visor-like spot where their face would be showing where their optics were. “Wh-What are those?” Fluttershy quietly asked.

“They’re Swat Bots. Real old Badniks from what I’ve heard. Wouldn’t exactly call ‘em vintage,” Salten said.

“So that’s what they look like,” Rainbow murmured, remembering the Badniks being mentioned when they asked about the Hover Units.

“If they’re so old, how come Eggman still uses ‘em?” Applejack asked.

“And why do they look so not-old?” Pinkie added.

Techni replied, “Seems there was a time when he built his Badniks to last. These things sure were; their armor is pretty tough, which makes them great for keeping trespassers out. They can take a lot of punishment before they crack.”

Espio said, “True, but like most things, they have weaknesses, and one of them should be fairly easy to take advantage of here.”

Amy nodded, suddenly holding her Piko Piko Hammer up in her hands, much to Tempest and Grubber’s surprise. “Blind ‘em, then beat ‘em. Get ready to rush them. They just need to be set up.” She looked at Espio and he nodded before he camouflaged himself, his location briefly discernible by the prints he left in the snow before they stopped, leaving the Equestrians wondering where he was though they remained ready to attack like their fellow Resistance members.

The reason Espio's footsteps disappeared was because the chameleon had jumped onto the wall and was crawling up to get to a better vantage point while watching the Swat Bots. He stopped after a minute and turned to look at the Swat Bots while using his left hand to hold onto the wall. He then started to throw kunai daggers at the ground, the sounds catching the Badniks’ attention and luring them where he wanted them.

Once they were in position, he leapt away from the wall and landed roughly in the middle between the Badniks. He then decloaked and stood up, both hands behind his back, and said, "Hello there." The Swat Bots turned almost immediately at the sound of his voice. As soon as he saw the red eyes, he brought his left hand out and threw a shuriken at the one in front of him, hitting it in the eye, before whirling around and hitting the other two in the same spot with the two shuriken he had in his right hand. While they were stunned, he knelt down on one knee and closed his eyes for several seconds, at which point the stars exploded.

As soon as the explosions went off, Amy and Vector yelled, “Attack!” With the exception of Fluttershy, Techni, and Trish, everyone moved to join Espio, gravitating towards a Swat Bot as they ran. Amy, Rarity, Matka, Aventura, and Sona took one, Rainbow, Applejack, and the Chaotix took another, and Tempest, Pinkie, Terv, Salten, and Rookie took the last one.

The Equestrians quickly learned that the head of the Swat Bots was their most vulnerable part, not being quite as armored as everything below, and with all of them working together, they were able to make short work of the Badniks. Matka was able to get behind the Swat Bot and wrap her arms around it with Rarity joining Aventura and Sona in firing up at its face to further immobilize it, allowing Amy to leap up and crush its head with her hammer. The Chaotix group couldn’t pull a similar trick with their Swat Bot, but Rainbow, Charmy, and Espio’s quick movements past it kept its damaged vision from being to lock onto them, allowing Vector and Applejack to go for the head. The Rookie got into a bit of a dangerous spot when he revealed his grappling hook, firing it directly into the Swat Bot’s eye and being dragged up to it without really doing anything. Fortunately, he did block its vision and Pinkie helped him by bouncing onto its head, Tempest leaping in after he fell off and thrusting her horn into its eye before unleashing her magic. Once the three Badniks fell on the ground, they called for Fluttershy, Grubber, Techni, and Trish before they continued on their way, keeping an eye out for more Swat Bots.


CHEMICAL PLANT OUTSKIRTS


The group was able to avoid crossing paths with any more Swat Bots as they made their way through Emerald Hill and soon found themselves standing on a hill that gave them a good view of the Chemical Plant. The Equestrians were surprised not just by how big it was, but also that Amy hadn’t been kidding when she said Eggman hadn’t been trying to rebuild the plant. From where they were standing, they could see that some of the plant’s structures hadn’t been maintained, their supports collapsed and pieces missing. They could see that reaching the spaceport was going to be a bit more challenging than they had thought.

Rainbow squinted and asked, "Is that the spaceport over there, where all the lights are?"

Amy, who was looking at her Miles Mobile, replied, "That's right. That's where all of you have to go."

Applejack looked at her, "Us? What about you?"

Amy looked back at the mare, "I'll be providing support from here. The signal is clearer out here, so it'll be easier to stay in touch with the Resistance and monitor the Chemical Plant and make plans if someone stays behind. Remember, getting a ship is only part of the mission here; we still need a clearance code to actually land in the Death Egg."

Applejack nodded, "Fair enough."

Amy looked at everyone else and said, “Listen up, everyone. You’ll all enter the plant together, but once inside, you’ll split off into groups so that you’ll be able to travel faster. You’ll all meet up again at the spaceport, but remember that we need to give Techni time to get the code. Matka, I definitely want you with her. She could use the protection.”

Techni crossed her arms, “Not complaining; just saying I can defend myself just fine.”

Amy replied, “I know you can. Better to be safe than sorry. As for everyone else, I trust you’ll be able to decide who you’ll want to stick close to without forming too large a group. Remember, try to avoid detection as much as possible. We don’t need them locking down the spaceport before we have a way to reach Sonic.”

Tempest thought about what she said for a moment before she looked down at Grubber, "Grubber, stay here."

The little hedgehog exclaimed, "What?! But you're going to space, Tempest! I want to go to space too!"

Tempest replied, “Perhaps there will be a better opportunity for that later. Right now, I don’t think you going down there is such a good idea. You’re good at this kind of support, so stay and help Ms. Rose ensure this mission goes smoothly.”

Grubber uttered while twiddling his fingers, “But I want to stay with you, Tempest.”

Tempest maintained her composure as she said, “I have no intention of not coming back, Grubber. Be patient; we’ll be back before long with good news.” Without another word, she turned and started making her way down the hill, everyone except Amy and Grubber following her. Grubber still looked a little downhearted about being left behind, but he perked up a little when Amy knelt next to him and placed a hand on his back and gave him a reassuring smile.


INFILTRATING THE CHEMICAL PLANT


As they approached the Chemical Plant, everyone checked that they would be able to communicate before they split up, Applejack, Pinkie, and the Chaotix taking the walkways with Matka, Techni, Trish, and Salten before they split up further, Matka’s group looking for a point where Techni could connect to the Eggnet while Applejack’s group headed for the spaceport. The others followed the large blue pipes that were near the walkway and followed them into the plant, Rookie, Sona, Rarity, and Fluttershy taking the upper path while Tempest, Rainbow, Terv, and Aventura took the lower path.

As they all continued moving, Knuckles radioed in, “Come in, everyone. Give me a status update.”

Tempest clocked in, “Tempest here, Commander. My team is moving quickly. We haven’t encountered much resistance on our path.”

Matka radioed in next, “Matka reporting. We’re still looking for a spot for Techni to hack into the Eggnet from.”

Espio’s voice followed, “Espio here. We’re approaching the orbital tunnel. It seems unusually quiet…”

Rarity spoke, the sounds of shots being fired audible in the background as she said, “It’s Rarity. We’ve run into some, ah, Egg Pawns, but they’re being dealt with. I don’t believe they’ve alerted anyone.”

Espio started, “Good, we…” He stopped and gasped suddenly, “No, wait!”

Knuckles asked, “Espio, what is it?!”

The chameleon responded, “It’s him! The masked one!”

Tempest stopped in her tracks and growled, “He’s here?!”

Rainbow asked, “Where is he?! I’ll be right over!”

Amy spoke, “No! Do not do that! Unless… Espio, has he seen you?”

Espio peered out from behind the wall while Vector and Applejack held onto Charmy and Pinkie and said, “No, he didn’t spot us. …It almost looks like he’s looking for something. And not necessarily intruders.”

Knuckles spoke, “Everyone, keep your distance. Do not engage him unless he attacks. We can’t risk the spaceport being locked down until we have a way to reach Sonic.”

Tempest gritted her teeth, but responded, “Copy that, Commander.” She then gave Rainbow a look and the pegasus landed after looking back at her for a moment.

Vector spoke, “Stay focused, everyone! Let’s find a shuttle and get out of here!”

Not long after, Techni radioed in, “I’m picking up a communication tower nearby. I should be able to access the Eggnet from there.”

As everyone continued on their way, Amy and Grubber kept track of them on the former’s Miles Mobile, the device able to track the Miles Mobiles of the others and display them. “Well, so far, so good,” Amy remarked, noticing that Espio’s group was steadily moving again.

“Yeah,” Grubber nodded. He then pointed to something on the map, “Hey, what’s that?”

Amy held up the Mobile to take a closer look for a moment before saying, “I’d say it’s a road or track, probably for a supply route. Maybe for a train?” She blinked a moment later and said, “Must be a train. Looks like Rarity’s group hitched a ride.”

She was correct; Rarity, Fluttershy, Sona, and the Rookie had indeed gotten themselves onto the top of the second car from the front of a supply train, with Sona currently watching as Rarity and Fluttershy helped the Rookie back on top after he nearly slid off upon landing. They managed to get him back up after a few seconds and the two mares sat back to give him room. “You okay, kid?” Sona asked. At the wolf’s nod, she said, “Good. Bit slicker than we thought, but good on you for helping us catch the express. You got some talents.”

Fluttershy murmured, “That was a bit scary. We were going so fast, and without wings…”

Rarity turned to her, “It’s okay, Fluttershy. We’ll see how close this puts us to the launch pad and then get off at a more reasonable pace. Hopefully…” She wasn’t able to finish her sentence when a loud noise from the front of the train caught everyone’s attention and they looked to see a familiar changeling queen on top of the engine, raising herself up to her full height a moment later. “Chrysalis!” Rarity exclaimed, Fluttershy huddling close to her as the queen grinned at them.

The Rookie stared at Chrysalis as he lay on his belly. He was intimidated and a bit scared, but he was also analyzing her. What the others didn’t know was that his new glasses were no ordinary glasses; they had sensors overlaying the lenses and small processors built into the frame, and he was using them to try to gather more information on her. His tech was still in the early stages, though, and while it was gathering and displaying data to him, it wasn’t working as fast as he would’ve liked it. In the middle of his scanning, Sona called, “Come on, Rookie! Don’t just sit there! There’s not enough room for her!” He looked up to see her pull her White Wispon out of her coat and take aim. He nodded and got up, moving to stand next to her as he grabbed his own White Wispon.

Chrysalis began to advance on them as they began to fire their Wispons. In response, she used her magic to create a force field in front of her as she continued to walk, their shots hitting the field and seemingly doing nothing since she didn’t slow down. She made it to the middle of the car adjacent to them before she came to a stop, letting out a chuckle before she was suddenly engulfed by green flames, causing her force field to drop. Rookie and Sona stopped firing and stared as the flames died down to reveal she had taken on the form of Sonic, the grin on her face getting wider at their shocked expressions.


STANDING UP


“She’s trying to confuse you! Don’t be fooled!” Rarity exclaimed. For a second, they still seemed too stunned to react as Chrysalis began moving again, but in a flash, the Rookie suddenly put his White Wispon away and grabbed his Red Wispon, unleashing a stream of flames before the changeling could react. She yelled in pain as the flames pushed her back, almost going over the edge of the space between the cars. Rookie stopped firing as he and the others watched her flail her arms, trying to keep her balance. She seemed to regain it after a moment and glared at them, only to get shocked when what looked like a cyan shot hit her in the side of the head, knocking her onto her side, almost off the train, and causing her disguise to disappear. Rarity looked to the left, where the shot seemed to have come from, wondering, “Who did that?”

Sona spoke, “Never mind that right now! More trouble!” Rarity looked forward and saw what the problem was: the train was quickly approaching a structure that it would have to go under and they’d be knocked off if they stayed where they were. Everyone began looking around for a place to get off the train. Rookie’s eyes locked on a crane to the right a little further ahead, mere seconds before they’d be knocked off from the look of it. He pointed it out to Sona and she said, “Yeah, that’ll work.” She looked at Rarity and Fluttershy, “Let’s go!”

Chrysalis recovered from the surprise shot and growled as she looked up at the group, which had moved to the edge of the train car and were holding onto each other as they waited for their chance. They saw her getting up, but Rookie tried to stay calm; everything was telling him they weren’t in range yet. Chrysalis growled and jumped at them as the Rookie raised his left hand and fired his grappling hook at a large pipe, snagging it and narrowly pulling everyone away in time. Chrysalis glared at them before turning and seeing the structure a moment before she crashed into it.

Despite hitting the metal structure and falling on the tracks, Chrysalis recovered surprisingly quickly and glared after the group, which was currently swinging on the crane to make it back to solid ground. She was about to follow when she was hit from behind by a pink shot. She immediately whirled around and snarled as she glared up at the top of a nearby building. Forgetting the Resistance for the moment, she flapped her wings and flew to the top of the building, landing and looking around for the sniper.

She heard a sound from behind a nearby pole a second later and whirled her head around to look, only to see a glowing blue hammer head swinging towards her at an angle. It struck the left side of her face and then struck her sideways on the right side of her face before an upward swing knocked her off her hooves backwards. She landed on her side not far from the edge of the building, hearing the same sound a moment later as she recovered. She then looked towards where she’d seen her assailant, only to not see anyone. She looked around for a moment before looking up at a nearby pole upon hearing the sound again. What looked like a bazooka was pointed down at her, an orange rocket being fired a moment later that blew her off the building.

Her attacker, a female wolf with biscotti-colored fur and a brown muzzle wearing a black cloak over a beige top and gray pants, black gloves with gray palms that ended in claws, black combat boots, an ornate mask above her right eye, and her hair in a ponytail, closed her eyes so much that she looked like she was squinting as she moved her umbrella-like Wispon to her side, panting a bit. She leapt down from the pole a moment later and moved to the edge of the building, peering over the side and seeming satisfied when she didn’t see Chrysalis anywhere. She was still breathing a bit heavily, something several Wisps noticed when they floated up behind a few seconds later. She turned to them and, after a moment, gave them a reassuring nod.

The jump from the swing off the crane managed to get Rookie, Sona, Rarity, and Fluttershy to another part of the Chemical Plant, not far from the landing pad they were aiming for. While they were calming Fluttershy, Trish radioed in, “Techni’s finished hacking the Eggnet. We’ve got our code.”

Terv answered, “Good! Then let’s stop wasting time and get to a shuttle before something happens.”

As Rarity’s group started moving again, Silver called, “Amy, how are things looking?”

The pink hedgehog replied, “All quiet at the launch pad for now. We can still get away before anyone notices!”

Charmy cheered, “We’re almost there!”

Rainbow chuckled, “We’re already there! And looks like there’s a ship just waiting for us to take it!”

Tempest said, “There’s a few patrols. We’ll relieve them of duty.”

Vector replied, “Perfect! I’m sure they won’t miss a ship.”

Knuckles ordered, “Get a move on, teams! Once everyone’s on board, get out of there!”

Amy and Grubber continued to monitor the teams until a few minutes later when all the trackers gathered at the launch pad’s location. “Looks like they’re all ready to leave, huh?” Grubber asked.

“Yes,” Amy nodded. She stood up and started to turn, “We should…” She stopped when, upon turning around, she almost bumped into someone and she leapt back with a start. Fortunately, she realized it was Rouge after a moment.

“Hey there,” the bat said cheekily.

Amy sighed before saying, “Don’t sneak up on me like that, Rouge.”

Rouge let out a titter and said, “Looks like you two are ready to leave. Mind if I take the other ride?”

Meanwhile…


UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTERS


In a corner of the city that had escaped the Resistance’s surveillance, Tails had his toolbox and his tools spread out on the ground behind him as he tried to repair Omega. The walking arsenal was scuffed up and deactivated, seemingly left to rust in the city streets. Tails was hoping to at least reactivate him and find out who did this to him. He finished up his repairs and flipped a switch in his back compartment to take his systems off standby, but nothing happened.

“Hmm, that should have done it,” he uttered to himself. He walked around to Omega’s front and held the robot’s head in his hands as he said, “I couldn’t figure it out for you, buddy. I’m sorry I wasn’t smart enough.” What the two-tailed fox wasn’t aware of was the pink-purple glow over his pupils. It wasn’t just that he lacked the knowledge to fix Omega; his entire mind was hazy and he was unaware that it was being messed with. He currently had no memory of the Resistance or just how bad things had gotten in the world. All he could remember was Sonic being defeated and that’s where his memories became fuzzy. His head and senses were being messed with, but not so much that he wasn’t aware of what was going on around him as he heard a noise behind him and turned to look.

“Whoa! Chaos!” he exclaimed, seeing the watery being finish rising out of a nearby manhole and go from being a puddle to walking upright. It began to walk towards him slowly and Tails cowered back. He was already feeling the effects of its fear aura and he couldn’t muster up the strength to try to run away. It looked like this was the end. “Sonic, help me!” Tails cried out as he cowered. Chaos began to extend his right hand towards the fox…

Suddenly, the air shook and their surroundings seemed to distort for a second, a shockwave causing Chaos to stop and take a step back as his body sparked red and causing Tails to look up, the glow around his pupils fading and his mind clearing. “Wait, Chaos doesn’t project an aura of fear. Why did I ever think he did? What have I been doing all this time? Where… The Resistance!” These and many other thoughts filled Tails’ mind, no longer being held back by whatever power had been in his head. He and Chaos looked over to their right to see a swirling pink-purple portal forming, both of them noticing something coming from it after a few seconds.

A blue blur suddenly shot out of the portal and slammed Chaos into the wall behind him, Chaos breaking into a smear on the wall as the blur bounced back and uncurled to reveal Sonic, although something was different about him. He turned to Tails, the fox looking him over as he spoke, “Sonic? Wait… Oh, I know! You’re the other Sonic I know! Do you remember me?” Sonic smiled and nodded in reply. “How did you get here?” Tails asked, Sonic shrugging in response.


VS. CHAOS ZERO


Before they could continue, Chaos began to resolidify, the water that made up his form continuing to gather as he stepped away from the wall. Tails and Sonic were quick to notice his footsteps and they both got ready to fight. “Let’s get back to this after we stop Chaos,” Tails said. Sonic nodded and they both leapt back as Chaos extended his arms to punch them. Upon landing, Sonic curled up for a Spin Dash and shot forward, hitting Chaos in his brain and making him break apart.

He reformed after a few moments and looked at Tails for a moment before extending his arms out to the sides. He then began spinning in a circle, his hands leaving water on the ground and spreading it around as he spun several times. Tails flew up to avoid getting hit while Sonic ran around to avoid getting hit. He stopped after a minute and retracted his arms, holding them up in front of him before swinging them out. In response, the water began to freeze, Sonic jumping up to avoid having his feet frozen. He slipped when he landed, though, and it was clear he couldn’t get any traction when he got back up, falling over again when he tried to run.

Seeing this, Tails flew down and grabbed his hand, lifting him off the ground. Chaos watched him fly up for a few seconds before he reached for them again, his arms easily able to extend up to them. Tails flew around, dodging Chaos’ reach and trying to find an opening to attack him from. After a minute, Sonic reached up and tapped Tails’ shoulder and, when he looked down, pointed down at the at the edge of the ice. “What? You want me to throw you down there, Sonic?” he asked, the hedgehog nodding in response. Although he was confused, Tails dodged another punch from Chaos before doing as he was told, throwing Sonic down at an angle to the ice. As he went down, Sonic began spinning in midair and landed in a Drop Dash, shooting swiftly across the ice and hitting Chaos again, causing him to break apart again and the ice to shatter.

Tails landed next to Sonic as Chaos reformed again, his body hunched over as red lightning sparked across him. He shook for several moments before he stood up straight with his arms out at his sides, his body growing until his head was above the nearby buildings. He looked down at Tails and Sonic. He could’ve stomped them easily, but instead water began to spill out of his body with no visible effect on him. It spread across the square, forming a circle that Tails and Sonic were in before it suddenly lifted up, forming a sphere the floated up until it was at the level of Chaos’ torso, the water god’s body in the middle of the bubble.

Sonic and Tails flailed a bit, disoriented by what had happened and the bubble shaking them. Tails managed to right himself and looked up, noticing Chaos still stood motionless. He then swam over and grabbed Sonic’s hand in both of his before gesturing up at Chaos’ brain. Sonic nodded and Tails used his namesakes to propel them both through the water towards the top of the sphere despite the shaking. As soon as they managed to break the surface, Tails quickly spun Sonic around several times before throwing him towards Chaos’ head, Sonic crashing into his head next to his brain and spinning quickly to vibrate the water enough to give him the push he needed to launch himself at the brain again.

He managed to hit it hard enough for Chaos to take a step back before he broke apart again, water from him and the bubble spraying across the area. Tails quickly flew up and grabbed Sonic and they stayed up there to survey the scene below them. Most of the water dried quickly, the little bit that was left draining back under the manhole cover Chaos had come from. It seemed like the fight was over.


STILL A LONG WAY TO GO


Tails set Sonic down before he landed next to him. “Way to go, Sonic… Ugh!” He suddenly fell forward, holding himself up with his knees and right hand while his left hand clutched his stomach. Sonic blinked and held his hands out towards the fox, worried. “Uh… I guess I didn’t notice earlier because of Chaos, but my head feels funny and I feel kind of sick. Did I get affected by whatever power Eggman has?” he wondered.

Sonic placed his hands on Tails shoulders and got him to look at him, the concern evident in the hedgehog’s expression. Tails took a couple of deep breaths before nodding, “Yeah, I think I’ll be okay, Sonic.” He got to his feet and looked around before looking back at Sonic and explaining, “Sonic, the one you met before, was overwhelmed and beaten by Eggman… some months ago. It didn’t take long for a war to break out. I… I don’t know how I got here. The last thing I really remember was encountering that guy that helped Eggman take down Sonic. Nearly everything after that is fuzzy at best, but…” He stopped and closed his eyes for a moment to collect his thoughts before looking at Sonic again and saying, “We need to find a way to contact the Resistance, to let them know where we are. And maybe get a better handle on the situation as well.”

He had a thought and turned, running over to his toolbox while Sonic walked after him. As he got closer, he saw Tails hold up his Miles Electronic. “Good. I still have this, and it’s still working.”  He fiddled with it for a minute before saying, “Hm. Some of my programs are missing. And I can’t seem to pick up anything from the Resistance. Signal’s a bit fuzzy; maybe if we move out of this area, it’ll clear up.” He looked over at Sonic, who was looking over at Omega. He looked at Tails after a few seconds and gestured to the robot. “I couldn’t reactivate him, and he’s too heavy to move. We’ll have to leave him here until we can get some help,” Tails said, knowing what he was getting at. He gathered up all of his tools and tucked his toolbox under his arm before turning back to Sonic, “I think we should get moving.” Sonic nodded and they set off, heading into the ghost town the city had become.
> Death Egg Rescue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


NIGHTMARE


The situation was a mess. The city itself was a warzone, but the surviving members of the Resistance felt like they were in a massacre. The day had started out with their full force attempting to drive Eggman's robots out and reclaim the city, but things quickly fell apart when Infinite arrived and began cutting down their numbers. Now the remaining Resistance fighters were figuratively backed into a corner, the square they were in looking like it was going to be the site of their last stand.

As the Resistance opened fire on him, Infinite calmly remarked, "There is no reason to resist. Your savior is no more." While he was speaking, he charged up a red beam in the palm of his right hand, firing it while moving his hand from left to right. The beam created explosions as it swept across the ground, sending Resistance troopers flying, all of them dead before or after hitting the ground. Only one remained.

A red wolf wearing only a pair of white and yellow shoes sat behind a piece of stone, cowering in fear and holding the sides of his head as he heard the explosions. A White Wispon from one of the troopers suddenly landed on the ground in front of him and, after a moment, he stood up and reached for it. Before he could grab it, Infinite spoke, causing him to miss it a few times, “I can taste your terror, child. All that anxiety and doubt…” The wolf grabbed the Wispon and pointed it up at the jackal, unsuccessfully using his left hand to try to steady his shaking right arm. “It’s delicious,” Infinite finished. He charged up a single shot in his right hand and fired it so it hit the ground just in front of the wolf, causing him to stagger back and fall on his rear, the Wispon falling from his grip.

As the wolf’s mind raced with thoughts, Infinite said, “Give in to your fear. Flee, screaming, and I’ll let you live.” The wolf looked between the Wispon, the bodies of the Resistance troops, and Infinite for a moment, the jackal looking like he was preparing another attack if the wolf didn’t heed him, before getting to his feet and turning to run. He could clearly hear Infinite’s dark laughter even as he ran from the square as fast as his legs could carry him.

________________________________________


APPROACH


Tempest walked over to the Rookie, seeing his eyes closed and his head bobbing up and down a bit, but also his body shaking as he sat on the bench. She watched him for a few seconds before she raised a hoof and shook his shoulder while saying, “Hey.” When he didn’t wake up, she gave him a harder push and said, louder, “Hey!” That caused him to wake up and he sat up straight as he looked up at the scarred unicorn. “Get up! Trish said we’re approaching the Death Egg.” She held up a facemask that appeared to have some kind of machine built into it, “Here. Techni suggested we all wear these until we at least dock so they don’t pick up on our chatter.”

As she walked away, the Rookie saw Sona sitting across from him, the rabbit already wearing her face mask. "You feel okay, kid? You looked like you were having a bad dream," she said, the waveform of her words appearing on the yellow screen on her mask as she spoke. He nodded, so she replied, "Okay. You did good back at the Chemical Plant. We're really going to be in the lion's den now; keep your wits about you." She stood up and started to walk towards the front. The Rookie watched her for a moment before reaching up to put his mask on.

Tempest, after tying her own mask behind her head, went up to the ship's controls, where Trish and Techni were seated in the pilot and co-pilot seats respectively with Rainbow, Applejack, and Salten standing nearby. Looking out through the canopy, the scarred unicorn could see the Death Egg and the fleet of ships surrounding getting closer, the station in particular getting bigger every second. The image Rouge had shown them hadn't been too great, but even if it was, Tempest guessed it wouldn't have been the same as seeing like she was now. The station was a lot bigger than she thought it was, almost the size of a small moon. A replica of Eggman's grinning face was built onto the front of it, almost seeming to leer at them in their comparatively smaller craft. "We'll see if you're still grinning after we're finished here, Eggman," Tempest thought.

After a couple of seconds, a robotic voice came through the ship’s communication systems, causing everyone present to look at the controls, “ATTENTION, UNIDENTIFIED SHIP. YOU ARE APPROACHING RESTRICTED SPACE. IDENTIFY YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY AND STATE YOUR PURPOSE OR BE DESTROYED.”

Trish unclipped her Miles Mobile and held it up in her right hand while the voice was talking, using her thumb to tap the screen a few times. She then shared a look with Techni, the cat giving her a nod, before she brought her left hand forward and used her finger to press a button to open communications on her end. She held her Mobile up in front of her mask as she said, “This is Prisoner Transport #08152017. We received new orders from command to deliver our prisoners to the Death Egg for special detainment. Our prisoner list includes three high-profile members of the Resistance: Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee, and Vector the Crocodile. Requesting permission to land.” Thanks to her mask and the program she opened on her Mobile, her voice came out sounding like an Egg Pawn’s.

There was silence from the other end for several moments after she released the button, then there was a whirring noise and they all heard, “CONFIRMED. TRANSMIT CODE FOR LANDING CLEARANCE. MAINTAIN CURRENT FLIGHT PATH.”

Techni began to type while Trish radioed back, “Code transmission commencing. Maintaining flight path.”

While she took her finger off the button and reclipped her Mobile, Applejack remarked, “Sure hope this works…”

Techni didn’t look up or say anything, so Rainbow said after a few seconds, “Relax, AJ, it’ll work. I’m sure Techni’s got it all figured out.”

Applejack turned to her and asked, “And what if somethin’ goes wrong anyway?”

Rainbow shrugged, “Then we just get out of here and come up with a new plan. We can do that, right?”

Tempest spoke up, “Unlikely. Our current path is going to put us right in the middle of that fleet. Unless this crate is swifter and more maneuverable than it looks, we’ll be destroyed before we even get a chance to turn around.”

Before anyone else could say anything, Trish annoyedly asked, “Could you all keep it down? We’re wearing these masks for a reason, but there’s no guarantee they’re completely keeping anyone from eavesdropping.” Everyone kept quiet at that.

Techni finished entering and transferring the clearance code and a tense minute of silence followed as they waited to find out what would happen. Before it could get to them, they received a call, “CLEARANCE CODE CONFIRMED. BEACON ACTIVATED. ESCORT CRAFT EN ROUTE. STAY WITH ESCORT CRAFT AND FOLLOW THE BEACON TO HANGER NINETY-FOUR. AN INSPECTION PARTY WILL MEET YOU UPON YOUR ARRIVAL.”

A collective sigh of relief was let out at that. “All right! I knew Techni wouldn’t let us down!” Rainbow said.

The cat replied, “Don’t celebrate yet. We’ve got our in; now we just have to secure it.”

Salten nodded, “Right.” He turned to leave, “I’ll go tell everyone to get into position.”

It didn’t take long for two red bird-like ships to flank the sides of their ship, guiding them along the intended path to their landing point. The rest of the trip passed in relative silence on the bridge, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie joining them as they continued on their way. Aside from an occasional glance out the sides at the escort ships, everyone looked straight ahead as the Death Egg filled the view from the front. As they made their final approach, the escorts broke off and the hanger doors slid open shortly afterwards, the doors sliding shut again after the ship had landed on the turntable in front of it.


INSPECTION AND ENTRANCE


Through the glass, Trish and the ponies could see the inspection party, comprised of two Egg Pawns and four Swat Bots, approach the front of the ship. Trish lowered the ramp so they could board while Tempest and Rarity moved to the back to peer down at the deck below. The holding area for prisoners was actually below the entrance deck, but they had everyone move up and stand on the sides for their plan. From where the two ponies were standing, they could see the Rookie standing with his back to the wall on the ship’s starboard side. Sona, Salten, Charmy, and Terv stood to his right and Matka, Espio, Vector, Aventura, and Techni stood across from them, all of them wearing handcuffs that were made to look like they were secured. All of their masks and Wispons were in the overhead compartments, kept out of sight until they needed them.

Everyone did their best to keep their gazes pointed forward as the inspection party came aboard. The Swat Bots began to look over the prisoners, two of them moving directly in front of Espio and Vector, while the Egg Pawns seemed to be searching for the ship’s pilot. Once they were all on board and sufficiently far from the door, Matka nodded at the Rookie and he raised his hands to his glasses in response, fiddling with them rather noticeably. He stopped when one of the Egg Pawns came over to investigate, but that was okay; Rarity and Tempest had gotten the signal. They looked towards the front and Tempest nodded to Trish, who turned back to the controls.

The robots stopped what they were doing and turned to look when the entrance ramp suddenly closed, sealing them all in. The other Egg Pawn walked over to the door to investigate. When it was standing in front of the door, Matka looked at the Swat Bot in front of Espio as she quietly undid her handcuffs, dropping them on the floor. When the Swat Bot turned to look, she brought her right fist up and slammed it against its face, damaging its optics. This immediately caught the other robots’ attention, but the Resistance members were ready. While the others undid their handcuffs, the Rookie used his grappling hook to grab the Egg Pawn’s foot and pull it out from under it and Espio grabbed an exploding throwing star and threw it up at the face of the Swat Bot in front of Vector, the crocodile turning his head away as it exploded. Matka hit the overhead compartment above her with a fist, shaking some of the Wispons out, and Trish and the Equestrians leapt down, and a close-quarters fight broke out.

A minute later, the ship’s ramp lowered again and Espio, Vector, Sona, and Aventura walked down it, Espio and Vector on the right and Sona and Aventura on the left, Espio, Aventura, and Sona with their masks tied behind their heads and Vector holding his over the end of his snout. While the others finished sweeping the remains of the robots into the holding area, they checked to make sure the hanger was clear. They peered out and, after not seeing anything after several moments, Espio and Sona went stepped off the ramp and began to survey the rest of the hanger. After a minute, they came back and Espio reported to Vector and Aventura, “All clear. For now.”

As the others came up behind the two, Aventura said, “Right. Our intrusion’s not going to go unnoticed for long. We’d better get moving, get as far as we can before security complicates things.”

Vector nodded, “Right. We’d better divide up our forces.” After getting in touch with Knuckles and Rouge and talking it over for a minute, it was decided that Fluttershy, Terv, Trish, and Matka would stay behind with the ship. Everyone else left the hanger, beginning the search for Sonic and the rest of the prisoners being held on the Death Egg.

After a few straightforward hallways, the group passed through a pair of doors into a much more open space. From where they were, they could see walkways running all around the room connecting to other parts of the station as well as lights of different sizes and what looked like large exposed pipes, giving it a more desolate feeling. Applejack looked up and around as she spoke, “Whoa Nelly! How are we gonna find… anything in this place?”

Pinkie piped up, “Look at all the lights! It’s almost like we’re looking at the stars outside!”

Vector adjusted his mask a little before he spoke, “Focus, everyone! There’s no time to admire the scenery; we’ve gotta find Sonic and the rest of the prisoners!” He started to lead the way down the walkway in front of the group and everyone followed. While they were walking, he looked over at Techni and asked, “Techni, you got any suggestions?”

The cat replied while looking at her Miles Mobile, “I was looking over the blueprints Rouge recovered while we were on our way up and I think I have… a decent idea of the station’s layout. Can’t say for sure since I don’t have an exact map, but basically…” She stopped talking and everyone came to a stop when an alarm suddenly started ringing.

“Yeah, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to take them long,” Aventura remarked.

“Goodness, that was fast,” Rarity commented.


ATTACK OF THE BALKIRIES


Vector brought his mask down and said, “Come on, let’s move!” The Chaotix started running and everyone hurried to keep up. As they ran, they began to hear noises up above and they came to a stop and looked up. At first, they saw a big swarm of Buzz Bombers flying down, their laser stingers currently pointed back, but they soon heard a louder noise and saw a large number of red, bird-like Badniks further up, circling like a pack of vultures. “Balkiries! Those things are gonna cause problems! Take them and those Buzz Bombers out!” Vector ordered. Sona, Aventura, Techni, Salten, and the Rookie whipped out their White Wispons and started firing up at the Badniks while Rarity and Tempest shot bolts from their horns, Espio started throwing shurikens and kunais at any that started getting too close, and Charmy and Rainbow flew up to intercept them. It looked like they might have a chance at holding them back.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just their dwindling reserves and stamina that they had to worry about. More of both Badniks kept coming and they weren't making it easy to hit them, especially since the shooters had to be careful not to hit Rainbow or Charmy by accident, and some were still getting through. Vector urged everyone to keep following the walkway while still trying to fend them off and avoid their attacks. In the midst of the chaos, one Balkiry managed to slip through and crash into the walkway to the left of Techni. The resulting explosion blew her off her feet with a cry. Salten heard her, as did the Rookie, and turned, running back to her as he yelled, "Techni!" He soon reached her and knelt down next to her, asking, "Techni, are ya okay?"

Techni started to push herself up off the floor and said, "Yeah, I think so, Salten…" Before either of them could say anything more, Salten let out a grunt when he was hit in the back by a laser sting. "Salten!" Techni cried as he staggered towards the edge of the walkway without realizing it. She grabbed her White Wispon and quickly shot down the offending Buzz Bomber before jumping to her feet and running to grab him. She managed to grab the back of his uniform and pull him back, keeping him from going over the edge.

She looked at the scorch mark on the back of his uniform and put her hand on his right shoulder to steady him. “Are you all right, Salten?” she asked, but before he could answer, a trio of Balkiries made it past Rainbow and she turned in time to see them explode behind the two, sending them both over the edge.

The pegasus wasn’t the only one who noticed their predicament, thankfully. The Rookie had gone back to help Techni as well, but stopped short when Salten got to her first. He had noticed another walkway off the path they were following during the few calm moments that came afterwards and was working out if there was a way for them to reach it when the two were blown off the walkway. He noticed immediately and set the scanners in his lenses to help him process what he was looking at as he, a bit nervously, dove off the walkway after a few moments and using his grappling hook to latch onto one of the numerous pipes and run down it, using the momentum he gained to try to catch up to them.

He managed to reach them before they disappeared into the blackness and grabbed Techni’s foot with his right hand while he raised his left hand to fire his grappling hook up at an angle, the hook reaching one of the pipes and getting caught, allowing him to pull them up. They were still well below the walkway they’d been on and nowhere near another, so he broke the line off and continued shooting to keep going up, moving away from the walkway in the process. A group of Buzz Bombers up ahead noticed their progress and started to fly towards them to intercept them. The three of them didn’t notice, but Rainbow, who’d been keeping an eye on them, did and flew down, getting up behind the Rookie as he finished pulling himself up again and grabbed him under his arms, carrying him, Techni, and Salten forward while crashing through the Buzz Bombers in the process.

They managed to reach the other walkway without any further difficulty and land on it, taking a moment to catch their breaths. They then received a call on their Mobiles. Techni grabbed hers and looked at the screen, seeing the call was from Silver. She answered it and asked, "Hello? Silver?"

The hedgehog on the other end spoke, "Techni? Oh, good. We were just in contact with the others; they said they lost track of some of you during the 'fracas,' as Pinkie called it. What happened?"

Techni replied, “Well, to make a long story short, Salten and I both got clipped by a few lucky shots and fell, but Rainbow and the Rookie were able to catch us and get us back up, although we ended up on a different path than everyone else.”

Knuckles joined the conversation, “That might not be such a bad thing. Everyone else is further ahead, but it looks like they still have robots to deal with. Your path might allow you to continue the search for Sonic while getting around some of that.”

Techni said, “Good idea, Commander, although I think we should try to find a control room connected to the internment areas. Having access to one of those would do more than just help us locate Sonic faster. We’d be able to open the prisoners’ cells and free them from their restraints; it’d make it easier to help them get out when the inevitable riot breaks out.”

Knuckles replied, “Good thinking, Techni. I’ll leave it up to you. Do what you do best.” Techni nodded and disconnected from the call, returning her Mobile to the main screen.

She looked over at Salten and the Rookie a moment later and said, “All right, you two heard the Commander. Let’s find a control room and start messing with the system.” The two nodded and moved to follow her.

“Hey, what about me?” Rainbow asked a second later.

Techni stopped and looked up at the pegasus, saying, “Well, you can either come with us or go back to the others. It’s your choice, but we really shouldn’t hang around here.” She faced forward again, “Security’s going to be tight both ways, so let’s get moving.” She started to run and the Rookie and Salten hurried after her. Rainbow, meanwhile, took a few moments to think. Techni was a bit standoffish, sure, but her group was clearly the more underpowered of the two. She nodded to herself and flew after them, catching up in a second.


INFILTRATION


As they continued onwards, Rainbow grabbed her Miles Mobile and tapped on Applejack’s icon, calling her. It connected after a few seconds and she could hear noise in the background almost immediately. “Hey, AJ. What’s going on over there?” she asked.

On the other end, the orange earth pony pressed back against a wall as she held up her Mobile and said, “Ah’m gonna have ta call you back, Rainbow. We’re… slightly busy here.” She hung up and peered to her left out from behind the wall, seeing the others spread out behind barriers as they fought back against Egg Pawns and Swat Bots. The Egg Pawns had them pinned with their weapons, so Sona, Aventura, Rarity, and Espio were the trying to take them out first, but the Swat Bots were going to be the main hurdle to overcome.

All of a sudden, Pinkie let out an angered scream and pulled her Mark VI party cannon up out of her apron, much to the shock of the Resistance members. She poked her head up enough for her eyes to peer and, when she felt sure they weren't going to hit her, she swung the cannon up over her head and set it on top of the barricade, aiming it somehow before firing it at the robots.

The streamers, confetti, and pastries that came flying out knocked over the remaining Egg Pawns, but the Swat Bots stood unfazed, too heavy to be lifted off their feet. The party supplies did, however, get on their eyes and mess up their sensors, leaving them temporarily blinded. Seeing this, leapt to take advantage of it. Rarity, Aventura, and Sona started firing on them again to try to hold them like that while Tempest and the Chaotix left their cover and moved up, getting close before attacking. It took a minute, but they managed to take down the attack force.

Afterwards, they continued on for a short time until they passed through a corridor that emptied into a round room that had three doors they could choose from. They moved to the middle of the room and looked at the doors. "Which way do we go now?" Rarity asked after a moment.

“We don’t even know that we’re goin’ the right way, Rarity,” Applejack reminded her.

"Ooh! I love guessing games!" Pinkie piped up.

Tempest took a few steps towards the door on the right. “Unfortunately, we don’t have time for games right now. We’re no longer in a wide-open space and could easily get overwhelmed here. We need to make a decision,” she said as she looked at the door.

"How about we flip a coin? Or, ooh! Let’s play about Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo!" Charmy suggested.

Vector placed his hand over the bee's face, causing him to flail and utter muffled complaints while the crocodile said, "Pipe down, Charmy! Just give me a minute here; let me see if Techni has any updates for us." While still holding Charmy, he grabbed his Miles Mobile and, after seeing no new messages on the screen, called the cat. The call was answered after a couple of seconds and Vector asked, “Techni? You got anything for us?”

On the other end, Techni answered, “Just give me a minute or two, Vector.” She glanced to her right at Rainbow, Salten, and the Rookie, who were all gathered around a door. “We’re about to storm one of the control rooms. I’ll be plugged in soon,” she reported.

“Well, hurry it up! We’re at a junction and we’re not sure which way to go!” Vector replied.

Sona turned to look at the door on the left, her ears perking up slightly. She could hear multiple metallic footsteps on the other side of the door, the sound getting louder and louder. “I don’t think we’re going that way!” she said a moment later, backing up and adjusting her mask. The door slid open before anyone could ask, revealing a large squad of Egg Pawns on the other side of it.

Instinctively, Vector pushed Charmy back, the bee’s wings buzzing as he moved back through the air. He ended up bumping into Tempest, the tip of his stinger poking her in her flank and causing her to let out a yelp as she leapt forward without thinking, the door in front of her opening upon sensing her proximity and sliding closed as her hooves touched the ground. She spun around and tried to go back, but she could hear machinery working in the door before she started to run, the door locking before she could reach it. “Hey! The door won’t open!” she yelled, hoping someone on the other side could hear her.

Aventura had already started running towards the door when it closed and put her hands on it, hearing Tempest’s shout. “It’s locked on this side too!” she called back.

Espio over to the middle door and it opened for him. “This one’s still open! Come on, let’s get out of here!” he said to the others.

As everyone else ran towards the open door save for Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack, Aventura turned back to the right door and called, “Get moving, Tempest! They might be able to come through!” She then turned and ran for the middle door as the Egg Pawns raised their weapons.

As she, Rarity, and Pinkie followed behind the wolf, Applejack yelled, “We’ll try ta figure out where we are and meet up with ya later!” They managed to get through the door as the robots started firing and Tempest could easily hear the shots through the door. The hallway she was in was even narrower than the room they’d just been in, so she heeded Aventura’s words and turned to run away from the door.

Most of this was picked up on Techni’s end due to the call still being connected. “Ah, figs,” she uttered, moving the end of her earpiece up away from her mouth. She pushed away from the wall and moved to stand behind the Rookie to the right of the door.

“What’s going on?” Rainbow asked, Salten looking over her head curiously as well.

“They’re in trouble. No more waiting; we need to get in there and take control now,” Techni replied.

“Yes!” Rainbow uttered, pumping her hoof. She flapped her wings and, when Techni opened the door, shot into the room, surprising the Egg Pawns inside. While she flew around the room and took them out herself, Techni, Salten, and the Rookie stood in the doorway and watched, waiting to see if she would need any help. As it turned out, they didn’t have to worry.

Techni stepped up to the computer console in the room afterwards and plugged her Mobile into it, setting it to hack into the system while she used the keyboard to see what she could access. The Rookie stood close by watching her work and taking notes on what was appearing on the computer screens while Rainbow and Salten stood near the door. Less than a minute later, there was a beeping sound and she held up her left arm to look at the screen. “All right, we have access,” she announced.

“Really? That was kinda fast,” Rainbow said.

"A lot of my tech and programs are built off of Tails' innovations. I know a couple things, but he helped me get off the ground," Techni replied. She then turned back to the console and, after taking a couple of seconds to find what she was looking for, opened a communication channel on her Mobile and spoke, "Heads up, everyone. I've got access; I'm sending you all a map of the Death Egg right now."

Espio's voice came through a minute later with the sounds of fighting in the background, "Good work, Techni. We're a little pinned down at the moment, but once we get a minute, we'll try to figure out where we are."

Techni replied, "Actually, I might be able to save you a little time there. Let me see if I can figure out where everyone is." She started typing on the keyboard again, looking for something. "Where is it? I could've sworn I saw some security footage a minute ago," she said after a few moments, stepping back to look up at the screens. She noticed the Rookie step up next to her out of the corner of her vision and turned to look at him as he began typing. He soon clicked on something and footage from various security cameras filled the screens. “Huh. How’d I overlook that?” Techni wondered, feeling a little impressed. She looked at the Rookie and patted him on the shoulder, “Nice work, kid.” Salten let out a quiet hiss under his breath at this, feeling just a little jealous.

After a minute of searching, Techni radioed everyone, “Okay, I got a bit of good news, guys. You all ended up going the right way; you’re all close to the internment facilities. All three paths lead to an internment facility where the Death Egg’s prisoners are being held.”

While she kept working, on one end, Aventura ducked back behind cover and remarked, "No wonder they're throwing everything they've got at us. We must be getting close to Sonic."

Espio said, "I can sense his presence… but it seems faint."

On the other end, Tempest leapt to the side as she ran to avoid the beams fired by an Aero-Chaser as she replied, "I'm seeing some more dangerous robots that fly over here. I'm probably closer to him."

Techni replied back a few moments later, "Very astute, Tempest. Everyone's headed towards one of the internment facilities, but it looks like you're headed for the one Sonic's being held in."

Vector spoke, "Well, that's fine. Tempest should have no problem busting Sonic out of there, and once he's loose, they're gonna focus on keeping him from getting out. Should make it easier for us to get the other prisoners out."

Charmy cheered, "Yeah, it'll be super easy once he's running again!"


BREAKING SONIC OUT


Tempest raised an eyebrow at the way they were handling this, but decided now wasn't the time to say something. She avoided another pair of beams from the Aero-Chaser before firing a magic bolt from her horn to destroy it. She then tapped her Mobile to rejoin the conversation and said, “All right. Techni, do you have any directions for me?” She started running down the metal hallway again while she waited for a reply.

After following Techni's directions for a few minutes, Tempest walked through another door and found herself in a large circular room that had an almost as big hole in the center. A glance to the left and the right revealed prison cells lining the walls, most of which were empty, and when she walked over to the edge of the hole and looked up, she saw there were quite a few more levels above her. Looking back down, she eyed the large platform in the center of the hole, noticing the three short walkways leading to it.

She suddenly heard Techni's voice come from her Mobile, "I see you on the security feed, Tempest. That's definitely the section where Sonic's being held."

Tempest looked up again as she asked, "Where is he?"

Techni replied, "All the way at the top all by himself. The lift is still working; you can use that to get to him."

Tempest turned and made her way over to the nearby walkway and ran across it to the center platform. She saw a control box across from her when she reached the platform and walked over to it to examine it. It seemed like it would be pretty simple to work: it had a lever on top that could be moved towards or away from her. She messed with it a few times to get the hang of it before pushing it away from her slightly and holding it in place while saying, "I'm going up.”

Techni replied, “Okay, I’ll give him a chance to see you before I work my magic. I’m ready to open all the cells, deactivate all the ‘cuffs, mislead the secu- huh?” She stopped short and leaned forward to look at one of the monitors, both Rainbow and Salten turning to look at her at the sudden pause.

Tempest also paused, stopping the lift as she asked, “What is it, Techni?”

The cat was silent for a few moments before saying, “Oh no! I see Zavok approaching Sonic’s cell! It must be time to move him and send him into space!”

Tempest gritted her teeth and said, “Well, let’s not stand on ceremony then!” She returned her attention to the lever, ready to push it away as far as it could go, “Start opening the cells, deactivate the restraints, and grant that hedgehog a pardon!”

________________________________________

Sonic sat on the edge of his bed, looking around a little as he felt the room shaking a bit. He didn't have much time to wonder about it due to hearing a familiar voice say, "Hello, Sonic." He turned his head and saw Zavok standing on the other side of his cell door.

As the door started to slide open, Sonic remarked, "Oh hey. Sounds like something fun is going on out there. Mind if I go join in?" He rolled his eyes, "Oh wait, I forgot. You don't understand fun. Wouldn't know it if it bit you on the butt."

The door finished opening as Zavok replied, "Flippant to the end, I see, and this is the end for you. The Doctor has issued your sentence and it's time to carry it out." He took a few steps in before stopping as a new alarm rang out, a red light flashing inside the cell.

Suddenly, the electronic shackles around Sonic's legs and wrists faded away as they deactivated. He waited a moment to make sure they were gone before sliding off of the bed and taking a few steps forward as he said, "Huh. Looks like I just made parole!"

Zavok's expression didn't change at this. “Do you think you’re free because you’re no longer in chains? Foolish hedgehog. Without your chains, you are an escaped prisoner, which means I am now free to deal with you however I deem fit. I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment,” he declared.

While he was talking, Sonic looked past him and saw the lift come to a stop outside his cell, Tempest turning and spotting him a moment later. Although he was surprised by her, he picked up on the fact that she was hailing him, so he looked back at Zavok and spoke, “Oh yeah? Well, there’s something I’ve been waiting for too: your face being reunited with my foot!” Zavok lunged for him after a moment and he leapt back onto the bed. Not stopping there, he leapt back and planted his feet against the wall, curling up into a ball as he pushed off and struck the Zeti in the face, bouncing up and landing on his back, where he spun in place for a few seconds before shooting off of him. He uncurled before he touched the floor and leapt for the lift as he ran out of the cell, landing near the center of it. Tempest was admittedly impressed by his maneuver, but she knew this was no time to stare.

After he landed, Sonic turned to Tempest and started, "Hey…"

Tempest didn't intend to be rude, but she cut him off as she turned back to the panel, "Hold on!" She pulled the lever all the way towards her, causing the lift to go down at full speed. It wasn't super-fast, but she kind of wished it was considering what still needed to be done. "There's a team working on getting all the cells open and the prisoners free. We already have trouble to deal with, so once they're free, we have to…" She was stopped suddenly when the lift suddenly came to a stop just above the first occupied level. Tempest pushed and pulled the lever a few times, but nothing happened. "Techni! Why isn't the lift moving now?" she asked.

Sonic heard the cat's reply coming from the unicorn's Mobile as he walked over, "It's not something over here! Everything's still unlocked; the only thing I can see is that power is somehow being diverted from the lift."

Sonic overheard this and came to a stop near Tempest. "Diverted? Wait… the Deadly Six were able to take control of Eggman's Badniks last time. If they can do it to other machines too, then that means…" Suddenly, as if in answer to his thoughts, both he and Tempest heard maniacal laughter ring out from below.


PREPARING FOR BATTLE


A familiar yellow orb with an equally familiar pink and black horned Zeti atop it rose up a moment later. "Where you going, blue? Think you and your friend are just gonna waltz on out of here? I don't THINK so! You want out, you gotta get past US!" Zazz jeered.

Sonic and Tempest heard a shout behind them and turned to see Zeena hover up into view at the other side of the lift. "I warned you I'd get even for all the times you insulted me and my beauty," she said. She held up her left hand, displaying her polished nails, "Now you and your little squeeze are going to feel my venom!"

A long large black and red creature flew behind her a moment later and Sonic recognized it as Zavok's robot dragon. The Zeti in question stood on its head with his arms crossed as it twisted around and came to a stop with its head hanging over the edge of the lift. "The time has come to face your end, Sonic. Do try to keep it interesting; we’re all going to savor watching you suffer," he said as he uncrossed his arms.

Sonic and Tempest stood back to flank as they sized up their situation. “Three of them and two of us,” Tempest stated.

“Doesn’t seem fair… for them,” Sonic remarked.

Tempest glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow, “You sure you’re up for this? You didn’t exhaust yourself with that last stunt?”

Sonic smirked back at her, “Are you kidding? I’ve been holding back all this time just waiting for the chance to stretch my legs. How about you? Feel up to knocking some Zeti heads?”

Tempest returned the smirk, “Whatever happens from here, I will remember that I enjoyed this moment.” They both faced forward and stood ready to fight as Zavok let out a loud roar.
> Sonic Breakout
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


INTERFERENCE


“Didn’t they hear me? I said Sonic’s name when I heard him! Why aren’t either of them saying anything?” Rainbow asked as she looked at her Miles Mobile in her left hoof.

“Some kind of interference just showed up out of nowhere. I don’t get it. It almost seems like what’s stopping the lift, but how did it spread here? It looked like it was localized,” Techni replied as she looked between the screens and her own Mobile.

“Does someone know what we’re up to? Does the Death Egg somehow know?” Salten asked.

Rainbow looked up at him, “Wouldn’t that make it, like, alive?”

Techni started, “It could be in a sense if there’s an AI in charge of it, but I can’t see Eggman…” She paused and looked at her Mobile intently for a few moments. “Something’s trying to cut my connection and lock me out!” she said.

Salten heard a noise coming from outside the room and peered out through the doors, saying a moment later, “We’ve got incoming!”

Techni’s began rapidly tapping her fingers against her Mobile’s screen, “Keep them out of here! If we lose this connection, getting out of here is going to be a lot harder!” The Rookie turned and ran back over to the door to help Salten and Rainbow defend the door at that.


SONIC AND TEMPEST VS. HALF THE DEADLY SIX


While they were holding back the approaching robots, Sonic and Tempest were already locked in their own battle. At the moment, Zeena was swooping down at them and slashing at them with her nails, which was easy enough for them to avoid, but she wasn’t the only thing to worry about. Zazz hovered around the perimeter of the lift atop his Moon Mech, occasionally shooting star projectiles at the two while Zavok was, for the moment, content to watch. The commotion had quickly caught the attention of the other prisoners, all of them standing at the doors of their cells cheering and watching as best they could.

Suddenly, Zazz decided to switch it up a little and hovered his Moon Mech over the lift while dropping more projectiles, forcing Sonic and Tempest to jump to the sides to avoid them. While it was passing over, Zazz jumped off and landed on Tempest's back while Zeena took the opportunity to get up in Sonic's face. She made a swipe at him with her left hand, which he easily caught with his right hand and swung it back, throwing her off balance. Tempest, meanwhile, was trying to throw Zazz off while he laughed. "What's the matter, pony? Can't get me off? Aren't you angry?" he taunted.

Tempest gritted her teeth as she came to a stop, "You want angry? Your ridiculous ball destroyed my tavern!"

Zazz let out a laugh and asked, "Aw, did it? Did the pretty pony lose her ho-" He was cut off by Tempest suddenly leaning back before she leapt up, resulting in her slamming Zazz's back against the floor and pressing her weight against him.

As soon as she felt his arms release her, Tempest rocked forward, landing on her hooves. She then whirled around and waited for him to get back up before she tested up and struck him across the face with her hooves, first the left and then the right. She then dropped back down and quick charged her horn with a small amount of magic, which she fired directly into his face, sending him flying over the edge of the lift. "Is that angry enough for you?!" she yelled after him.

Zazz rose up a few moments later, once again standing on top of his Moon Mech. “Not bad. But you ain’t getting lucky again! And neither is he!” the Zeti said, pointing behind the unicorn. She turned her head to see Sonic duck to avoid a lunge from Zeena before he curled up and dashed into her, sending her flying backwards.

Instead of falling when she went over the edge, she stopped herself and started hovering in midair. She glared at Sonic, bringing her right hand up behind her head for a moment before bringing it forward a little, revealing what looked like a snowman's head with a fuse attached to it. "I hope your heart gets pierced" she said coldly before throwing it, but Sonic was surprised when she didn't aim for him beforehand. Instead, she threw it over him and it bounced a few times before exploding near the center of the lift, creating a sheet of ice that spread almost all the way to the edges. Tempest and Sonic weren't expecting it and their hooves and feet were frozen to the lift before they could react.

While the two tried to get unstuck from the ice, Zavok’s dragon suddenly moved forward. It brought its long body around and slammed the end of its tail down across the lift between where Tempest and Sonic were. The impact caused them to be lifted up off the ground, but it also shattered the ice and sent it up as smaller shards. Tempest instinctively pulled her legs up closer to her underside to try to shield it from the shards.

Sonic didn't make a similar movement to protect himself. As his feet left the ground, he could hear Zazz starting to laugh again and time suddenly seemed to slow down around him. He looked to his right over at Tempest and saw Zazz's Moon Mech starting to move towards her. Running the numbers through his head, he predicted that it would reach her in about a second, right when she was level with its mouth. He then looked slightly to his left and saw Zeena making a similar play for him. He narrowed his eyes a Sonic moment later, "I got this."

He turned back to Tempest and readied himself to Boost. Time snapped back to normal as he shot towards her, twisting himself around as he got close to place his hands on her sides and roll over, his feet pressing against the forehead of the Moon Mech with Tempest's back hooves positioned above them. Even with all she experienced over the years, the scarred unicorn was still surprised by the sudden rush of action and didn't quite know how to react. She did know enough to plant her front hooves down on the Mech as she was flipped around, though, which resulted in her bucking Zazz in the stomach after she was let go.

While they were both catching up, Sonic turned and shot towards Zeena, meeting her head-on with a Homing Attack. It messed up her flight and caused her to crash into the lift while Sonic bounced up high enough to get Zavok in his sights. He unleashed a series of Homing Attacks on him, hitting the Zeti leader in the face several times before rebounding and landing on the lift. Zavok was a bit disoriented afterwards and his Mech Dragon tried to keep him balanced, wrapping the end of its tail around the lift. It wrapped a bit hard, though, since a groaning sound filled the air as the lift began to tilt.

Tempest noticed that, despite Zavok recovering a second later, the dragon continued to pull the platform. She didn't know if he was trying to drop Sonic down the shaft in retaliation, but she did know that if this kept up, they were going to lose the lift. "Sonic!" she called to get his attention before bringing her hind legs up and bucking Zazz again as he tried to sneak up on her.

Sonic noticed the end of the tail across from him. "I'm on it!" he called back as he dashed towards it. He leapt up and launched into another Boost, knocking it away and holding on as it swung down.

Zavok grunted in surprise before saying as he turned around, "So you wish to fall so easily? So be it!" The segments on the dragon's body kit up at this and they fired lasers down at the end of the tail. Sonic managed to pull his feet up and place them on the dragon after it had stopped and was hanging straight down, getting some traction. When the lasers were fired, he shot straight up its back in a Boost, dodging the initial lasers and a few scattered ones that managed to fire before he reached the top.

He came to a stop when he was face to face with Zavok, the Zeti attempting to grab him with his big hands. He ducked to avoid them and quickly stood up straight afterwards, delivering several barrages of punches and kicks to his opponent's face, bits of his beat-up shoes breaking off with each kick. He knelt down afterwards with the fingers on his left hand touching the ground and, when Zavok recovered a moment later, he leapt up and shot into his face, uncurling and leaping off of him to get back to the lift. Zavok turned around a few seconds later and glared, "You're not making this easy, are you?"

Sonic gave him a smirk as Tempest leapt off of the Moon Mech, "What, you thought I would? Who's foolish now?"


ROUND TWO STRIKEOUT


Zavok snarled, "Impudent hedgehog. For that, you'll get no mercy!" His dragon lunged forward at that and Sonic and Tempest had no difficulty leaping out of the way. After it finished sliding across the lift, they saw Zazz standing across from them holding his Moon Mech in his hands over his head. With a laugh, he threw it at them, the Mech bouncing like a ball across the platform at them. This wasn't too hard to dodge either, but neither Zazz nor Zavok were ready to back down.

After Tempest and Sonic got out of the way of Zazz rolling the Mech across the platform and jumped over a beam that Zavok's dragon fired, the latter noticed Zeena was floating towards the lift again, the female Zeti having stayed on the sidelines up to this point after her initial freeze, and the other two moving off to the sides. Sonic got beside Tempest and murmured, "Hey, you think she's gonna try to freeze us out again?"

Tempest glanced up at Zeena. "Could be. She hasn't done anything else worthwhile. ...You have an idea?" she asked.

“If she does it again, I think we can probably turn it back on them. Stay close,” Sonic replied. Tempest nodded and stood ready to move at that.

Sure enough, Zeena held out two more snowman head bombs in her hands after a few seconds and Sonic started jogging towards her, Tempest following a short distance behind. When she held up her right hand to throw the bomb, Sonic ran faster and managed to catch it before it hit the platform. He whirled around and quickly threw it to Tempest, who came to a stop and caught it with her hoof, before turning back around and leaping up to catch the second bomb as Zeena angrily threw it down. He held onto it and wound up as he turned to look at Zavok, calling “Strike out!” before he threw it. The bomb hit the head of the Mech Dragon as he landed on his side, coating the top and bottom in ice and freezing Zavok as well.

Zeena was glaring down at Sonic, but she turned when she heard Tempest let out a shout. She saw the unicorn jump up with the bomb and let go of it as she whirled around, putting her time serving the Storm King to good use as she sent it flying straight at the Zeti. She was too slow to move and was covered head to toe in ice mid-reaction. She fell face first onto the lift and Tempest turned around to look at her after she landed. “You need to learn how to throw better,” she remarked.

She turned again when Zazz let out a yell and saw his Moon Mech firing stars at them again. She and Sonic ran towards him, both jumping and moving to avoid getting hit. When they got to the edge, they both jumped and landed on the Mech, just above its brow. Zazz straightened up and started to turn around when Sonic zipped behind him, but the hedgehog gave him a hard shove forward while saying, “No, home is that way!” While he was off balance, Tempest wrapped her right foreleg around his arm and turned, leaping back towards the lift and throwing him down on it, the pink Zeti sliding back when he landed and stopping when his head bumped into the still-frozen Zeena.

Sonic, meanwhile, lowered himself down, placing his hands on top of the Moon Mech and looked directly at Zavok’s dragon. Nodding to himself, he slid down the Mech’s back and focused before unleashing a Boost, sending it straight towards the dragon. Sonic let go when he was over the lift and rolled, coming to a stop near Tempest close to the center. Zavok, meanwhile, managed to free himself from the ice, but not with enough time to stop the Moon Mech or get out of its way. The yellow ball crashed into the dragon and pushed it back into the wall, where they both exploded. Zavok was sent flying and landed on the lift, landing on top of both Zazz and Zeena, while the rest of the dragon’s body fell down the shaft. Sonic pumped his fist as he stood up and said, “And the quarterback is toast!” Tempest gave him an odd look at that, but returned her attention to the Zeti pile a moment later.


NOT DONE YET


Suddenly, the three Zeti seemed to become fuzzy and bolts of red electricity seemed to be coming off of them, an odd droning sound filling the air. All three of them slowly faded out of view a few seconds later. “They’re gone? And what was that noise just now?” Tempest asked.

“I know I’ve heard that sound before,” Sonic said. He looked up in thought, “Where was it…?”

________________________________________

Back in the security room, Techni was still fighting to stay linked up while Rainbow, Salten, and the Rookie fought to keep the Egg Pawns out of the room. So far, they’d managed to keep any from crossing the threshold, but some had gotten close and Salten and Rookie’s Wispon reserves were getting low and Rainbow was starting to tire out, which led to her racking up a couple of near misses and a few hits that her uniform thankfully held up against.

“Come on… Come on!” Techni uttered as her fingers continued to tap the screen of her Miles Mobile. All of a sudden, she stopped as the screen flashed green several times. “That’s it! I got it!” she exclaimed.

Rainbow stuck her head in the room, “You want to come out here and help out then, Techni?! These guys are running low and could really use your help!” She pulled her head out and looked past the Rookie and Salten to see another squad of Egg Pawns coming with another bringing up the rear, but before anyone could do anything, an explosion suddenly destroyed the second squad of Egg Pawns, causing the first to pause and start to turn around. They weren’t able to turn all the way before another explosion took them out. “Huh? What happened? Who did that?” Rainbow asked.

Salten squinted his eyes as the smoke cleared, looking for their mysterious helper or helpers. “I don’t see anyone,” he said after a couple of seconds. He raised an eyebrow, “Someone helped us, but who?”

Techni spoke up, “Never mind that now! Look! The interference is clearing up!” She tapped her screen a few times to call Tempest, which went through after a few seconds. “Tempest? Are you there?” she asked.

On the other end, Tempest blinked and reached back with her right hoof to grab her Mobile, bringing it in front of her. “Techni? What’s going on?” she asked.

Suddenly, Rainbow’s voice came through so suddenly that the unicorn flinched, “Sonic! Can you hear me?!”

Sonic took a step back in surprise, “Rainbow?”

Techni spoke up a moment later, sounding irritated, “You’ll see him soon enough, Rainbow! Will you hold your hors- er, wings!” She then returned to the subject at hand, “Anyway Tempest, it looks like the interference that was blocking both of us has gone away. Maybe it had something to do with the Deadly Six members? I don’t know; at any rate, the lift should move for you again. Can you check it?”

Tempest turned and walked over to the control panel, which had miraculously not been destroyed during the fight. She put her right hoof down and used her left hoof to mess with the lever a few times. There was a bit of a delay and a metallic groaning from below accompanying its movements, but the elevator was working again. “Yes, it appears to be working again,” she reported.

“Great! I’m gonna get the rest of the prisoners free and leave these guys a little something that’ll make our escape easier, then we’re going to make our way back to the ship. You guys better get moving too; they’re gonna send everything they’ve got to try to keep Sonic from escaping,” Techni replied before ending the call.

Tempest looked at her Mobile’s screen for a moment before saying, “Well, I guess that’s that.”

She heard Sonic say, “Yeah, sounds like it. Hang on a second.” She began to hear tearing sounds mixed with him grunting and turned to see him turned away from her and sitting down, doing something. After about ten seconds, he stood up and turned around to reveal he had applied new duct tape around his shoes. “There, that should hold them together for a little while.”

Tempest shook her head and said, “We need a plan to get all these prisoners out of here.”

Sonic looked up at her and replied, “I had a plan in mind. You’re here to save them too, right?” Tempest nodded, so he explained, “Well, I’m gonna leave the prison first and be seen by the first robots I can find. That should make them put an APB on me and have them redirect, like, eighty percent of their forces to pursuing me. I’ll lead them away while you take everyone else and go to… wherever you guys are meeting up. Which I’ll make my way around to.”

Tempest stared at him. He’d said the same thing everyone else had been saying. Before, even after seeing the footage Rouge had shared, she hadn’t quite understood where it had been coming from, but after seeing him in action for herself, she was starting to get it. She took a few steps towards him and said, “We stole a shuttle in order to reach the Death Egg. Hanger ninety-four. That’s where we’re regrouping.”

Sonic nodded, “Ninety-four. Gotcha.” As she started to turn around, he started, “And, Tempest? That’s your name, right?” She looked back at him and gave him a slight nod. He gave her a thumb up, “I trust you.”

Tempest blinked, “Oh… Okay.”

True to her word, Techni had the shackles unlocked and the cell doors in the two prison blocks open in a minute. Both blocks had many of their cells filled so it took both sides more than one trip down to drop some off, but they were able to clear out both prisons and get them all gathered together. Then came the tricky part: getting them all to safety.

While the Chaotix had little trouble getting everyone to listen, a number of the prisoners in the other group were initially less keen on following Tempest instead of Sonic to freedom until Vanilla had had just about enough of their protests. Having managed to see what the broken horned unicorn was capable of and how she helped Sonic fight off the three Zeti, the rabbit mother didn’t need to be convinced to give her a chance; she readily took her side and scolded the naysayers, who relented under her gentle but clearly firm words. Tempest was amazed, not only by how supportive she was but also how easily she quieted them while remaining calm. She was beginning to see where Cream got her manners from.

After a quick review of the Death Egg map Techni had sent everyone and going over the plan one more time, Sonic turned and left the prison ahead of Tempest, checking to make sure that robots weren’t right around the corner ready to box them in. Thankfully, they hadn’t responded fast enough to find them when there was only one way to go, and as soon as they bumped into each other, he turned and ran the other way. Tempest was in a corridor when this happened, her, Vanilla, and the prisoners near the front seeing Sonic run past the opening at the end with a large group of Egg Pawns and Aero-Chasers trying to catch up with him. Tempest waited a few moments to make sure there were no stragglers before looking back and saying, “He has their attention. Let’s get moving!”


FIGHTING ON ALL SIDES


Elsewhere, Espio peeked around a corner and saw several Swat Bots and Egg Pawns searching the area, no doubt searching for them. “The distraction has thinned their numbers, but getting past these and keeping everyone safe might be a challenge,” he murmured. He pulled back around and held his Miles Mobile up to talk into it. “Techni? Are you there?” After receiving a hushed affirmative in response, he said, “We’ve encountered a bit of a, uh, road block. Any chance you’re still in the security room?”

Techni replied, “No. We’re not even close to it now. We’re working our way around to the hanger, but let me see if I can call something in for you guys.” She leaned back against the wall she was against, hearing Rainbow dealing with their own robot hold up as she tapped her screen. She held it up a moment later and said, “Trish, come in.”

Back on the stolen shuttle, Trish and the others had been waiting with bated breaths since they first heard the alarms going off. Matka had been standing guard in case any robots tried to get inside, but it seemed they either hadn’t figured out the shuttle was stolen or were more focused on stopping the intruders they knew about. They’d been listening to the action on their Mobiles but had they’d remained on the sideline so far so as not to potentially compromise their escape, so it was a surprise to Trish when she heard Techni’s voice. “What is it, Techni?” she asked.

“Hey, are you still on the shuttle?” the cat asked.

“Uh, yeah?” the teal bird shrugged.

“Good. We could use your help. Use the radio to get in touch with their communications, see if you can direct their forces away from the cell blocks. You might be able to throw the fleet outside into disarray with it too. Would be really helpful!” Techni said before suddenly ending the call.

Trish looked at her Mobile for a moment before looking at the ship’s controls. “Uh, okay,” she uttered, setting her Mobile down before beginning to type. While the radio was connecting, she put her mask back on and taking one last quick look at the map of the Death Egg before reopening the program from earlier. Once the connection was established, she pressed the button to open communications and said, “Alert! Alert! Escaped prisoners spotted approaching the armory! All available units, redirect at once!” She let go of the button and thought for a moment before pulling her mask down, turning, and calling, “Terv, get up here!”

The blue bird poked his head up a few seconds later and asked, “What is it, Trish?! Have we been found out?!”

She held up her Mobile, “No, I need you to help me misdirect Eggman’s forces so the others can get here!”

Terv asked, “What?! How?!”

Trish yelled, “Look at your Death Egg map, get over here, and tell them there are intruders somewhere that’s not our hanger or the prisons!

Terv pulled himself up all the way while saying, “Okay, okay, I’m sorry! Relax!” While he was making his way over to Trish, he put his mask on and consulted his map. Once he picked a spot, he took her Mobile, pressed the button, and said, “Resistance saboteurs sighted at the battery generators! Request urgent support!”

While the two continued to radio in false alerts, Espio noticed that the robots searching the area were beginning to disperse, soon leaving behind only a sole Swat Bot and a handful of Egg Pawns. He turned and signaled to the others to move up, Vector and Rarity moving up first to get a look at what they were dealing with before formulating a plan. Needless to say, it didn’t take long to deal with the robots and get the prisoners moving again. As they were running, Rarity remarked, “This has gone surprisingly well, I must say.”

Applejack nodded and asked, “Ah wonder how Sonic’s doin’?”

Vector overheard them and spoke, “Knowing him? He’s probably getting back in the swing of things and messing with Eggman’s robots.”

Which is exactly what the blue hedgehog was doing as he ran along a section of the Death Egg that had an opening to the outside. At the moment, a squadron of red manta ray-like robots had flown in and were trying to take him out from above while he weaved around and forced them to either follow him as he ran under the large turrets stationed there or get them to shoot the turrets instead, which many of them actually did to try to get him. “Ha, ha, you guys are doing great! Keep it up! You’ll totally get me with that this time!” he called to them before he went through the opening of another turret, which, because they tried to stay on him and fire on him, ended up being destroyed as he came out on the other side.

He soon turned to follow the path that had been laid out back inside, forcing the robots to break off. As he ran up past several large cylindrical tubes going up and down, Sonic thought to himself, “This is fun and all, but I’d better wrap it up soon. With nearly everyone after me, getting to the hanger probably hasn’t been too hard for everyone else. They could all be there now and waiting on me. Better get to ninety-four before we all get eighty-sixed.”

Soon…

“Let’s go! Everyone, get onboard! It’s time to leave!” Tempest yelled. A small group of robots had managed to track the prisoners and their rescuers to the hanger and were able to alert the others before being silenced, forcing Terv and Trish to join the fight with their still fresh Wispons along with Matka and her strength. With their help, it was easier to hold back the attackers while Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and the Chaotix got everyone on the transport. Now they were all on board and they had to get the ship ready for takeoff, so Tempest was ordering everyone back inside.

As soon as they caught a break in the robots entering on their level, everyone turned and made their way to the ship, which was now being turned towards the bay doors. As Tempest watched them run, she realized someone was missing. “Where’s the kid?!” she asked, taking a few steps while looking around. She soon heard metallic footsteps on the walkway overhead and moved out from under it to look. She saw the Rookie fall on his rear as he got close to the railing. She could see one Egg Pawn on his left and one on his right and guessed there had to be at least one more boxing him in. “Oh no…” she thought before running out further away from the walkway, hoping she could get into position in time to help him.


FATEFUL MEETING AND REUNION


Suddenly, a blue blur shot across the walkway from the left, Sonic jumping and curling up as he got behind the first Egg Pawn, destroying it as he bounced off of its head. Without missing a beat, he went forward and destroyed the one across from it and bounced off of it to destroy the third one. He then landed and uncurled in front of the Rookie, standing up and holding his left hand out to the wolf as he said, “Easy there! Everything’s cool.” The Rookie took his hand and allowed him to pull him up. Once he was standing up, Sonic remarked, “I’ve never seen you before. Did you come here to rescue me?” The Rookie nodded, so Sonic replied, “Can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. It’s good to see another friendly face up here.”

The Rookie’s Mobile beeped a moment later and Tempest’s voice came from it, “You okay up there, Rookie?”

Sonic spoke, “Yeah, he’s okay, Tempest. Oh, and I’m doing fine too, thanks for asking.”

Suddenly Amy’s voice came through, catching Sonic by surprise, “Sonic! Oh, I’m so glad!”

They then heard Knuckles’ voice, “Hold up, Amy. We’re all happy to hear Sonic is alive and well. But now’s the time to go before someone shows up looking to change that.”

Sonic replied, “Mm, noted, Knuckles.” He looked at the Rookie, “This is the right hanger, right? Is the ship around here?” The wolf gestured to the other end of the walkway, where the ship was almost finished being turned around. Sonic nodded, “Sweet. Let’s ditch this joint!” They both broke out into a run towards it.

Tempest had made her way over to the ship after Sonic saved the Rookie and was waiting for them to do the same. She looked up when she heard a metallic sound and saw the Rookie’s grappling hook attached to the side of the ship. It detached a moment later and the wolf landed in front of her. As he stood up straight to look at her and Sonic landed behind him, she said, “You were lucky he showed up in time to help you. You need to be more careful and not freeze up like that.” She then gestured to the ship’s ramp, “Let’s get out of here.” The Rookie quickly ran up the ramp while Sonic walked past Tempest and gave her a sidelong look before doing the same.

He had barely set foot on the ship when he heard a loud cry of “SONIC!!!” Almost immediately, he found himself knocked onto his back by five ponies, all of which were hugging him and saying how glad they were to see him.

Sonic couldn’t help but chuckle at this, recognizing their voices. He looked up at them and, after a second, said, “Okay, okay, girls, take it easy. I’m glad to see you too. Mind letting me up?” They backed off after a few moments, Applejack and Rainbow offering him their hooves to help him up. As they were pulling him up, he quickly noticed who was missing. “Hey, where are Twilight and Spike?” he asked, causing the girls to lose their smiles and look off to the sides.

Fortunately, Tempest came to their rescue when she walked in and said, “They’re fine for the time being. Take a seat; there’ll be plenty of time to get you caught up on the way back. That goes for the rest of you as well.” She looked up and called, “We’re all present and accounted for, Trish!”


SUCCESSFUL ESCAPE


Up at the controls, Trish nodded and pressed the button to bring up the ramp. She then looked over at Techni in the co-pilot seat and asked, “Are we good to go, Tec?”

The cat replied while typing on her Mobile, “They say magic works in mysterious ways. Mine, however, is straightforward.” She tapped her index finger on the screen one last time and held it there, the screen turning green as she said, “Open sesame.”

Trish looked forward to see the bay doors beginning to open and rolled her eyes. She pulled up the landing gear and got the thrusters ready before she remarked, “You’re an odd one, Techni, but you do good work.”

Techni looked over at her, “I’ll take that as a compliment.” The doors finished opening and Trish got ready to fly the ship out.

In the nearby control room, Shadow stepped up to the computer console, his eyes, which shone with life, focusing on a monitor showing an overhead view of the hanger. He watched the transport’s engines fire up before it launched out into space. He looked at the monitor for a few moments before nodding.


DEADLY PLANNING


The same scene was also witnessed further away, in one of Eggman’s old bases. Zavok watched the transport fly out on the screen in front of him before remarking as he rubbed his chin, “Unfortunate… for the Doctor. But this is hardly unexpected. There’s still much we can learn from here.”
> Don't Call It A Comeback
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


RETURN TO EARTH


The stolen prison transport broke through the clouds above the ocean, the craft leveling out once Trish and Techni could see the water. The flight back to Earth had gone surprisingly well; whatever Techni had done on the Death Egg had essentially granted them free passage, seeing as not one ship in the fleet had opened fire on them. Now that they had completed the bumpy re-entry, the communications with Resistance HQ were coming in clear again, allowing Knuckles to check in.

"That sounded like a rough return. Everyone still there?" Knuckles asked.

“Everything’s good up here, Commander. It’s not one of our fighters or battleships, but it’s holding together just fine,” Trish replied. She looked back over her shoulder and called, “How’s everyone doing down there?”

“We’re fine, Trish,” Espio called back.

Rarity checked her mane with a hoof and looked over at Fluttershy, who was huddling under the bench while Applejack, Pinkie, Vector, Charmy, and some of the other Resistance members looked at her, before uttering, “Well, more or less…”

Tempest remarked, "I've had rougher." She looked over at Sonic, who had his head bowed down as he sat forward. During the flight back, he had been filled in on what had happened on Earth since his capture and recent events in Equestria and he hadn't said anything yet, the re-entry not helping anything. "What about you?" she asked, catching everyone's attention.

Sonic raised his head and looked at her, "Oh, I'm great. As if I didn't have enough reason to kick Eggman in his wide behind before. It's not just a professional butt kicking anymore; now it's personal."

Knuckles' voice came through Vector's Miles Mobile, "Glad to hear it, Sonic. Learning you were alive was some of the best news we've had in months. Word's already starting to spread around HQ; between you and the girls coming back, there's a lot of hope here now."

Rainbow spoke up, "Well, that's no surprise. We're almost back to full strength! Once Twilight recovers and we find Tails, that creep's gonna see some major changes around here! Of course, we're going to have to do what we can while we wait, but you know…"

Knuckles replied, "I'm glad you brought that up, Rainbow. Sonic, I know you're technically not back yet, but I've got an assignment for you. We’re spread thin right now and we need to start filling in the holes.”

Sonic nodded, “Sure thing. My legs could use a little more stretching, and I think these shoes will hold together for a while before I need to fix them again.”

Sona spoke up, “Ah. In all the excitement, I completely forgot.” Everyone turned to look at her as she stood up and walked over to Sonic. She knelt down and placed the red backpack on her back on the floor. “There are a few essentials in here that everyone in the Resistance carries, Sonic: Miles Mobile, radio, the basics. But Hip, one of our members who helps make clothing and footwear for the Resistance, included a special gift for you.” She started unzipping the pack’s main pocket as she finished. She reached her hands inside, “He mainly makes footwear that anyone can wear, but he made these specifically for you.” She pulled out a pair of red sneakers that were white on the bottom and had several short white lines running across the top and a white stripe that ran towards the front of the shoe on each side, each shoe having a white sock sticking out of the collar. “He saw what they were making you wear and thought your feet could use a ‘refresh’ as he put it.”

Sonic took the shoes as he said, "Really? Thanks! I'm going to have to thank Hip when I meet him too." Sona stood up and took a step back while Sonic used his feet to push off his shoes, kicking them to the side.

Sona looked over at the worn-out shoes and leaned over to pick one up, holding it up to examine it. While she was doing this, Applejack commented, "Hoo-wee! Now there's somethin' that hasn't seen a lotta love."

Rarity cringed, "So inelegant! Those do not match you at all, Sonic."

Sona mused, "Well, they're not much to look at, but they can go back to HQ anyway. Seems like they at least cover your feet." She walked back to her seat after grabbing the other shoe as well.

Sonic slipped the second shoe on as he replied, "Yep. It's no fun walking barefoot on cold metal. Those are the best shoes they gave me; had to take care of them somehow." He finished getting the shoe on and stood up, doing a little dance and making a few poses while looking down at the shoes. "Yeah! This is more like it!" he said before sitting back down a second later. "So, what do you got for me, Knuckles?"

Knuckles responded, "During the rescue mission, we learned that Eggman has set up a weapons plant in Green Hill. We can't have him producing new weaponry if we're going to take him down, so I sent a team to destroy the factory. Looks like they ran into trouble because we just received an SOS from the factory's coordinates. We need you to make a rescue of your own and help them complete their mission. Take the rookie with you." The red wolf's ears perked up at being mentioned.

Vector asked, "You sure that's a good idea? The kid helped, sure, but he was still shaking like a leaf on the Death Egg."

Charmy piped up, "That's because we were in space, Vector, and it's cold in space! The factory will be nice and warm!"

Pinkie asked, “Was it cold? I had no idea! I must’ve been too focused on trying to help Sonic!”

Knuckles said, “Well, the factory will definitely be warm when it’s burnt to the ground! Sonic, you take the lead. Rookie, just try to keep up and take good notes.”

Tempest asked, "What about the rest of us, Commander? There's nothing we can do to help?"

Rainbow added, "Yeah, I could totally help out with a rescue mission!"

Knuckles spoke in a slightly firmer tone in order to keep an argument from breaking out, "I know that, but as I've said before, we're spread thin right now. Besides, I already have assignments for the rest of you."

Pinkie squeaked, "Ooh! So, what are they, Knuckles?"

Knuckles replied, “I’m glad you asked, Pinkie. I’ve got a mission for you, the Chaotix, and Terv.”

Terv heard his name and stopped his rounds to come out of the holding area, poking his head out of the entrance and holding himself up with his hands. “Me?” he asked while Pinkie squirmed excitedly in her seat.

Knuckles explained, “I’m going to have Trish drop you off near Adabat before returning to base. We’ve been hearing rumors that there have been a lot of visitors spotted around the surrounding coastline and going into the jungle. They think they might be members of Eggman’s Battle Bird Armada, but I need you to go there and find out for sure.”

Terv blinked when he heard the name of the group, but a fixed expression settled on his face as Knuckles finished speaking. He reached his right hand up and adjusted his goggles as he pointedly said, “I’ve got a few more former prisoners left to see. I’ll be ready, Commander.” He then dropped back down into the holding area.

Before anyone had time to wonder about the way he reacted, Knuckles went on, “Tempest, Rainbow, I’m sending you two with Aventura, Matka, and Techni to Eggman’s old Scrap Brain base. Seems he didn’t take us shooting down one of his transports too well; intel indicates he’s gathering forces of his own there. Not just robots, but other allies as well.”

Rainbow asked, “Wait, you mean like other animals? That guy who dragged us here is one thing, but why would regular animals join up with Eggman?”

Knuckles replied, “I’m sure they have their reasons, but that’s all the more reason to stop them. We can’t have them messing up our efforts when we’re starting to gain some real ground in this war. Trish will drop you off as close as she can, and Techni will help you get into the base. Eggman may have abandoned it, but it looks like the systems will still work. Once you’re in, take out the robots, subdue the others, and see what you can find out about Eggman’s operations. Now…”

Soon…


RESCUE MISSION


Sonic and the Rookie stood in front of the shuttle’s bay door as it opened, Sonic stretching a bit while the wolf adjusted the backpack Sona had given Sonic. The shuttle was currently holding position a short distance above a part of Green Hill that hadn’t been engulfed by the desert sand yet, the grass and flowers on the hill still actually green. As he looked out the opening door, Sonic said, “Oh yeah, I’m gonna have these shoes broken in by the time this mission’s over. I’ve got six months of payback I’ve been waiting to spend, and this’ll be the perfect way to start.”

Tempest came up behind the two and asked Sonic, “Are you sure about this? You wouldn’t rather have someone other than the ‘Silent Omega’ watching your back?”

Sonic and the Rookie looked back at her, the hedgehog replying, “Don’t worry. The two of us will be more than enough. We’ll blitz the place and get the members of the Resistance out of there!” He looked at the Rookie, “Right, partner?” The wolf nodded a bit hesitantly in reply. The bay door finished opening and Sonic ran forward and jumped out, landing neatly on the grass below. The Rookie followed a moment later, firing his grappling hook up at the ship to slow his descent as he fell and landed beside Sonic. Tempest regarded them both from above as the bay door closed again, the ship flying off to its next destination once it had closed completely.

Sonic and the Rookie watched the ship fly away until it was just a red speck in the sky. Sonic looked at the wolf and said, "Hey, don't worry about it, pal. Whatever happened up on the Death Egg, now's a great chance to make up for it. We'll convince Tempest you have what it takes." The wolf nodded softly and, a moment later, they both turned to look at Eggman's weapons factory.

It looked like a large metallic pyramid with a circular depression on the sides near the top, the structure built away from the surrounding hills to make it difficult to approach. Even though they were some distance away from it, they could see that there was a metallic walkway running diagonally up the side of the pyramid, leading to the top of it. Sonic pointed to the walkway, “Let’s use that to get to the top, see if we can get in from up there. Probably the best way we can get in, especially if they’re trying to make sure the Resistance members don’t get outside.” The Rookie nodded and they began making their way towards the pyramid.

It didn’t take them long to get to the end of the green part of the hill they were on, and it didn’t take much longer after that to reach the end of dried out part that followed. They encountered some Egg Pawns near the end that Sonic Boosted through to get them out of their way and the Rookie used his grappling hook to swing them over to a structure composed of metal and pipes, the pipes dumping sand and likely the factory’s byproducts into the environment. “Just another reason to shut this place down, as if building weapons and making everyone work like robots wasn’t reason enough,” Sonic thought to himself as they made their way across the structure.

The Rookie held on tight as Sonic led the way across a narrow curve and used his grappling hook to get them both across a chasm to the walkway they were aiming for. They started running down it, but soon came to a stop when they saw a large number of Egg Pawns and Swat Bots up ahead, all of them noticing the two. Sonic just smirked, “They think they can force us from the straight path onto a detour? I don’t think so!” He backed up a few steps to get closer to the Rookie, “Grab onto me.” Although he was a bit hesitant, the wolf wrapped his left arm around Sonic’s midsection. The hedgehog then bent forward slightly, causing the wolf’s feet to lift up off the ground. “Hang onto your glasses! I’m gonna go really fast and push right through them. I’ll worry about what’s in front of us; you handle the sides, okay, pal?” The wolf gave a more confident nod, securing his Red Wispon to his belt and squeezing a bit more to tighten his grip.

After taking a moment to brace himself, Sonic started running forward for a second before he rocketed into an unexpectedly fast Boost. Rookie reeled back from the sudden force and reached up with his free hand to secure his glasses. Looking forward afterwards, he saw the robots getting closer fast and remembered what Sonic said, grabbing his Wispon and pointing and firing it to the sides to take out any missed robots. The sensors in his glasses helped him aim a little bit, but they also picked up on something unexpected. The tailwind was nothing unusual, but the sensors were picking up minute sparks that seemed to be coming from his body.

Sonic kept pushing through and kept going when the walkway inclined upwards, going up the side of the pyramid. It only took a matter of seconds to reach the top, which, unlike most pyramids, was flat with three spires around it. Upon landing and separating, they found a circular metal grate in the center covering an entrance. “Looks like we can get in this way,” Sonic remarked. He turned to the Rookie, “We just need to weaken this grate a little.” The wolf nodded and held his left hand up to his glasses, scanning the grate for several moments. He then began to run around its circumference, using his Wispon at a number of points to heat them up until they were starting to glow red. As they began to cool off, Sonic moved in and spun into them several times until they broke. It didn’t take long before the grate broke loose and fell down the opening.

With the grate out of the way, they could see there were lasers in the shaft, pink beams stretching across at several points. They were likely intended to deal with intruders, but they would also do a good job of keeping anyone from trying to get out as well. That didn't concern them, though; they had their way in. Sonic took the Rookie by the hand and they both leapt in, diving down the shaft. Sonic steered them around the lasers and, when they got near the bottom, the Rookie used his grappling hook to hit the shaft wall and swing them to a softer landing.

Their entrance had put them on the walkways above the main factory, nestled amongst the large gears and other machinery. As they fought their way through the Egg Pawns that had been dispatched to stop them, they began to hear what sounded like fighting off in the distance. The noise was coming from the main factory floor, where the teal bird, pink cat, and a couple more Resistance soldiers were pinned down by Egg Pawns. The cat and the bird were keeping the pressure on the robots, but only a few of the soldiers were able to help them. Some were wounded had to be looked after, forcing the others to divide their attention. The situation was looking bleaker by the second.

The cat ducked back behind the cart she was using for cover and put her left hand to her ear, “Can anyone hear me?! We’re still pinned down on the factory floor! We thought we caught a break, but more Egg Pawns showed up and we can’t hold out much longer!”

A voice came through her earpiece, “This is Amy. Stay put and try to hold out a little longer! Sonic is on his way with backup! He should be there soon!”

The cat looked over at the cart next to hers at the bird as he stood up to shoot while replying, “He’d better be putting that famous speed of his to good use! These robots are getting a little close for comfort!” He ducked down as a wave of shots flew past where his head had been, “Won’t be long before they start knocking us on the head!”

A new voice came over their earpieces, “Think it’s about time they found out what it’s like to be knocked around! Heads up!” The bird and the cat looked up and saw Sonic and the Rookie swinging down from the walkway high up. The Rookie let Sonic go at the bottom of the swing and he immediately went to work, slamming his feet into an Egg Pawn and sending it flying into a group. The Rookie, meanwhile, broke his line and twisted around to fire another hook at an Egg Pawn to pull himself towards it. He managed to knock it down and used his White Wispon to blows its head out before switching to his Red Wispon and turning it on the Egg Pawns around him, Sonic’s confidence giving his a much-needed boost for this situation. The two of them stuck to the back of the horde of Egg Pawns while the reinvigorated members of the Resistance, even the injured ones, went on the offensive against the ones closest to them. It didn’t take long for them to clear out the Egg Pawns. “Huh. So much for their reinforcements!” Sonic remarked while looking at the Rookie.


MEETING


“See? I knew he wouldn’t let you down,” Amy said over the radio.

“I guess so, Amy,” the cat said. She came out from hiding and walked over to Sonic and the Rookie, the bird coming out as well while the other Resistance members returned their attention to the wounded. The cat walked up to Sonic and shook his hand, “Thanks for saving us, Sonic. It’s an honor to meet you. I’m Fuchsia.” She gestured to the bird, noticing him come up beside her, “And this is Corvin.”

Sonic took Corvin’s hand and shook it, “Nice to meet you both.”

Corvin replied, “Same here. You sure saved our bacon, Sonic.”

As their hands dropped, Fuchsia pointed at the Rookie as she said, “And you sure helped us out too. So, thank you.” The wolf looked at her for a moment and nodded before he started looking around.

Corvin didn’t seem as impressed. “Yeah, he also has that Red Wispon, Fuchsia. Anyone could help out with one of those once they figure out how to point and shoot it.”

Sonic looked at the bird, “Hey, he did a good job. Both here and on the Death Egg.”

Corvin replied, “I’m sure he did since he’s still around after going into enemy territory like that. It’s just that a few days ago, he seemed more scatterbrained, wandering around without a clue what to do.” He looked back at where the Rookie was standing and realized he wasn’t there anymore. He glanced back and caught sight of the wolf walking over to one of the carts. “Seems like that’s still the case to a degree,” he remarked.

Sonic walked over to the Rookie, watching him raise himself up and start sifting through the cart as he got closer. “Whatcha doing there, bud?” he asked when he was standing a short distance behind him. The wolf pulled his head out a few moments later, turning it to look at the piece of tech he was holding in his right hand. “Hm. Something you can use?” Sonic asked, the wolf turning to him and nodding. “All right, see what else you can grab and fit in that pack. I’ll start working with these guys on how to take out this factory.” He turned and started walking back over to Fuchsia, Corvin, and the gathered Resistance soldiers while the Rookie tucked the piece away and went back to digging.

As he got closer, Fuchsia said, “I’m not sure destroying the factory is the best idea, Sonic.” She pointed past where they’d been hiding earlier, “We found a room on the other side of that wall that’s making some rather sizeable bombs. And if their destructive power is equal to their size…”

Corvin finished, “Destroying the factory might just leave a massive crater here in Green Hill. Might give all the sand a place to go, but who knows what other destruction it would cause.”

Sonic said, “Hm, yeah, that would be a problem. Especially since I was planning to make a stop on the way back to base.”

Fuchsia asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Sonic replied, “Nothing, don’t worry about it. It’s not important right now. Okay, let’s figure out what we’re going to do instead.”


IN THE JUNGLE ZONE


While they were working out the finer details of what to do with Eggman’s weapons plant, further inland, Rainbow and Tempest had arrived at the Jungle Zone with Aventura, Matka, and Techni and were making their way through. As they were walking, Tempest looked around at the foliage and noted, “A lot of these plants have been cut down. Eggman’s supporters?”

Aventura replied, “Probably Eggman’s robots, maybe even him. He took over part of the jungle months ago, built a base in its depths and started putting his own touches on it. He’s been referring to that part as the Mystic Jungle.”

Rainbow said, “I bet that’s not really the right word for it.”

Matka replied, “Not really. It’s very bright, and it looks more like a casino. Definitely not what I would call mystic.”

Tempest asked, “How come it hasn’t been destroyed yet?”

Techni answered, “Shadow was supposed to have destroyed it months before the war even started. Maybe Eggman rebuilt it, or something stopped Shadow from destroying it, I don’t know.”

Rainbow asked, “You think that might have something to do with why he changed sides?”

Aventura replied, “I don’t think so. Nothing about Shadow suddenly joining Eggman seems to make sense to anyone. It just happened out of nowhere and…”

She was cut off when Tempest suddenly said, “Wait.” Everyone looked back at her and saw her glancing back warily, standing in a battle-ready stance as her eyes looked around. After several long moments, she blinked and shook her head, relaxing.

“What’s up, Tempest?” Rainbow asked.

The unicorn turned to her, glancing back briefly as she said, “I thought I heard something. Let’s keep going.” They resumed their journey through the jungle as a familiar biscotti-colored wolf continued to follow them at a distance, watching over them.
> Investigations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


ADABAT JUNGLE


A large leaf crunched under Rarity’s hoof and she came to a stop, lifting her hoof up to take a look. Seeing no offending green on the underside, she set it down and looked around. There were signs that the jungle had seen some fighting in recent times, trees with broken branches, burnt leaves, and holes of varying sizes in the ground and walls, but it seemed as though the war hadn’t really affected it much, at least compared to Adabat. Things were tense in what was left of the coastal village when they’d arrived; it took the Chaotix and Terv hastily disembarking from the shuttle to convince the villagers that it was the Resistance and not the Eggman Empire. After exchanging some words, they allowed them to make their way across the water to search for clues in the jungle.

“Hm. Well, it’s certainly nice to see that some parts of the world haven’t been utterly ruined in spite of Eggman’s takeover. At least he didn’t decide to completely burn this jungle to the ground,” Rarity remarked.

Espio came to a stop next to her and looked at her as he said, “Yes. And hopefully, that’ll help us locate some clues that will help us uncover any unusual activities in the area. Fortunately, Terv is helping us search from the air. As is Charmy.” He turned to look at Pinkie, seeing the pink earth pony with her nose pressed against the ground and her right eye looking through a magnifying glass as she moved like a dog sniffing out a trail, her chef’s hat replaced with a deerstalker cap. “And we have Pinkie as well,” he added after a moment.

Rarity replied, “Pinkie is most definitely giving it her all, as usual. As long as she gets to be herself.”

Vector came up behind the mare and commented, “I’m surprised you wanted to be a part of this, Rarity. Didn’t think this was really your scene.”

Rarity brushed her mane aside with a hoof as she began, “Well, this is hardly the first time I’ve been in a jungle, my green friend. That’s not to say I’m in them often, but this is not my first showcase.” Espio turned and started walking away as she continued, “As for private investigator work, I’m rather fascinated by the literary works of Shadow Spade and I channeled her once when I solved a crime that would’ve cost Rainbow Dash her place in the Wonderbolts.”

Vector crossed his arms as the two resumed walking, “Did ya now?”

Rarity glanced up at him, “Oh, I see that look in your eyes and that smile of yours, crocodile. I assure you that, in spite of Rainbow Dash’s impatience, I solved that case and uncovered the culprit. Not as fast as my costume change, sadly, but I still solved it with time to spare.”

Vector nudged her a moment later and asked, “Speaking of costume changes, you doing okay with that coat on?”

Rarity came to a stop and Vector did as well, uncrossing his arms as he turned to her. “Actually, it has gotten a bit too warm for this,” she admitted. She used her magic to open her coat and pull it off, holding it up. She started to take a step when Vector cleared his throat. She turned to him and saw him holding his right hand out to her. After a moment, she lowered the coat into his hand and he took it with a slight smile and nod, swinging it back so it rested on his shoulder.

Pinkie suddenly dropped down from above between them with three of her legs tangled up in vines, allowing her to dangle upside-down. Rarity and Vector yelped at this, but before Rarity could chastise her, Pinkie spoke, “I spy with my blinky inky Pinkie eye… a green and yellow thingy that does not belong here!” Rarity noticed she was looking intently through her magnifying glass and tilted her head to try and see what she was seeing.

She didn’t have to look long before Espio called, “Over here!” Vector and Rarity looked and saw him further ahead standing next to an object sticking out of the ground that, now that it was pointed out to them, did not belong there. Pinkie untangled herself and followed them over. A closer look revealed that it was in fact a board of some kind.


A WORRYING DISCOVERY


Rarity stared at it for a moment before saying, “I’ve seen a board like this before. What was it called again? We briefly used them before. They were called…”

Vector answered while he pulled it out, “Extreme Gear. And this one’s gotta be Jet’s.” He held up the board and pointed to the insignia on the bottom of it, “The Babylon Rogues always mark their Gear with this symbol. It’s a dead giveaway.”

Rarity nodded, “That’s right.” She then raised an eyebrow, “But what’s it doing here? And where is the unruly hawk it belongs to?”

Espio spoke, “Well, judging from how we found it, I’d say it hasn’t been here too long, which would suggest that he was attacked.” Vector nodded in agreement as he examined the other side of the side of the board, a pensive expression on his face. 

Suddenly, Charmy flew above them and yelled, “Hey guys! Come quick! Terv found something!” He turned and flew back the way he came, Vector tucking Jet’s Extreme Gear under his left arm as he and the others followed the bee. He led them through the jungle for a bit and out through an opening amidst all the plants that emptied out onto a beach. They saw Terv up ahead, the blue hawk standing near the water’s edge. As they got closer, they saw what had caught his attention, Terv briefly turning to look at them as they came to a stop next to him.

In the water outside the line of buoys that marked where the water was less deep was the Babylon Rogues’ airship. While it was to be expected that the ship would be in the area where the Rogues were, the group could see from where they were that they had not landed in the area entirely by choice. The front of the blimp was tilted down towards the water, smoke was rising from several propellers, and though they couldn’t see it from where they were, the rudders were missing. Even so, it was clear to everyone that the Babylon Rogues had been attacked, and it was likely that whoever was responsible had followed them down to finish the job.









OUT OF THE DEPTHS


Aventura, Matka, Techni, Rainbow, and Tempest’s heads all broke the surface of the water at the exit to the Labyrinth, Techni breathing heavier than the others as she held onto Matka’s back. The cat quickly checked her electronics while everyone swam to dry land and pulled themselves out of the water. While the others shook the water off, Matka remained on all fours as she looked back at Techni and said, “Okay, Techni dear, you can let go. We’re safe now.”

The cat nervously replied, “If you say so.” She slid off the bear’s back and ran a short distance away before shaking the water off while the others moved away from Matka so she could do the same.

After shaking and patting herself for what seemed like longer than necessary, Techni went back to checking her gear.  Tempest walked up behind her while she was doing this and asked, “You can’t swim, and you don’t seem to like water at all… Did you know we would be traveling through an underwater maze when you accepted the Commander’s orders?”

Techni answered while checking her scope, “I’m a cat; we typically don’t like getting wet, and it’s not like I’m the only one who doesn’t know how to swim.” She then glanced back at Tempest, “And yes, I had a feeling this was the way we were going to go.”

While they were talking, Rainbow looked at Aventura and said, “That place was kinda rough, especially when we had to swim all that way at the end. Is this really the only way to reach Eggman’s old base?”

The wolf replied, “No, but under the circumstances, it’s probably the best way. The other way would involve passing through the Star Light Zone, and that place was razed a while back. If he really is setting up something here, then we wouldn’t have a lot of cover available to us if we went through there.”

Rainbow replied, "Hm, okay." She looked around the passage they were in, "So, where does this put us again? I don't usually have a problem going up and down and all around, but going through all those tunnels was confusing."

Aventura replied, "Well, between all the water and having to find alternate ways around collapsed passageways, that's understandable. We should be right below the Scrap Brain base. Just a short climb up."

Rainbow said, "Well, let's get going, then! Right, Tempest?"

The unicorn gave one last look at Techni before glancing over and saying, "Yes, let's. I'm tired of wasting time here."

Matka raised a finger, "As long as everyone is ready to keep going." No one had anything to say against that, so they all made their way towards the exit.


SCRAP BRAIN RUINS


As Aventura said, it wasn’t long after leaving the Labyrinth before their surroundings became less natural and more metallic. As they walked past the derelict old buildings, they could see signs of recent visitors, but the Scrap Brain was still gloomy, lights barely functional and flickering and various parts ready to break off. This became apparent when Tempest and Aventura were the first to walk across an old trapdoor that was barely open and the second half broke off shortly after they stepped on it, forcing them to have to jump to safety. Rainbow flew over and hovered in front of them, asking, “You guys okay?”

Tempest looked up at her, “Yeah.” She stood up and, while Aventura got up, looked around and asked, “How did this base fall into such a state of disrepair? Was it in such a bad state that Dr. Eggman saw no reason to maintain it until now?”

While dusting herself off, Aventura answered, “Probably not, but that’s Eggman for you. Most of his bases end up destroyed nowadays, but even if they haven’t been damaged that much, he’s still prone to abandoning them and leaving them to rot.”

Tempest raised an eyebrow, “That doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do.” She glanced back and shuddered a bit as Matka jumped over the gap while carrying Techni with her.

After she was set down, Techni remarked, “You’d think that, but it doesn’t seem like he leaves much behind on the rare occasion that he does abandon a base. I’m guessing he does it mainly to avoid being caught.”

Matka stood up straight and looked at the buildings off in the distance as she said, “I’d prefer if this one remained inactive. The pollution from Eggman’s factories was so bad, it was making a cloud over South Island. Fortunately, it managed to clear up all at once, but I’d rather not look up and have to see something like that again.” She faced forward again, “So, let’s empty this old base out and shut it down for good.” With that, the group started moving again.

A little later, after moving carefully and keeping an eye out for patrols, the group arrived at the building that Techni identified as the main base. The front door was locked, but she was able to patch into the old security system and override it, causing the door to noisily slide up. The fact that it was locked was a sign to them that they weren’t alone, so once they confirmed that there was nobody waiting for them in the dimly lit entrance, they carefully walked in, Aventura taking the lead.

A short while later, Aventura suddenly stopped and raised her hand, signaling to the others to do the same. "What's up?" Rainbow asked.

Aventura bent down and picked up something on the floor. Turning around slightly, they could see it was a closed switchblade. She held it up to her nose and sniffed it a few times. "You recognize that smell?" she asked, holding it out towards Matka.

The bear stepped forward and sniffed the blade's handle. "Hog… and something else. Something putrid. I’d say we’re on the right track," she stated a moment later. Aventura put the blade in her pocket and the group continued moving.

Not long after, while walking on a deactivated conveyor belt, everyone heard a voice from further ahead say, "Hey, watch what yer doin' over there! You're gonna set somethin' off if you keep that up!" They heard a snorting sound, seemingly in reply, and hurried to get a closer look.

While working their way around, they heard more voices. “Look at these things! How many more do ya think they’re keeping here?” a second one asked.

“Hopefully a lot more. Not sure what they’re doin’ here or when that madman ever made ‘em like this, but I’m glad that tip paid off. What a haul!” a third voice replied.

“Tone it down! And get back to work! We gotta get these back to the bosses and see if they’re still good for anything! Come on, let’s go!” a fourth voice that sounded more commanding than the others said. As the group walked across another conveyor belt, the dim lights allowed them all to see below into another room and they stopped as they could make out the owners of the voices.

Four burly hogs were on the floor below, one of them overseeing as the other three were carrying some slim, humanoid robots that looked like they had guns in place of hands. The hogs appeared to be dressed like they were part of a bike gang and they looked to have motorbikes with trailers attached, which is where they were placing the robots. The design of their bikes and the lack of wheels made Rainbow and the Resistance members wonder if they were Extreme Gear.

“Who are these jokers?” Rainbow whispered.

“No idea. Pretty sure they’re not allied with Eggman, though; he’d never approve of those fashion choices,” Aventura whispered back.

“They may not be part of Eggman’s extended army, but they’re clearly working for someone. We need to figure out who and whether they’re someone we can trust,” Matka said.

Tempest remarked, “Well, we should be able to discern that fairly quickly.” She looked up at Rainbow and nodded to her when the pegasus caught her gaze. She then moved off the conveyor belt and began making her way down to the floor, Rainbow quickly following after her.

“What are they doing?!” Techni quietly hissed while she, Matka, and Aventura watched them.

“Calm down. Let’s see what happens,” Aventura whispered back.

Down on the floor, the hogs were still loading up the deactivated Egg Gunners when they heard a sound behind them and turned to see Tempest standing up straight across from them. They stared at her for a moment before the leader asked, “The heck are you supposed to be? And what do you think you’re doing here?”

Tempest replied evenly, “I could ask the same of you. Sneaking around an old base, helping yourselves to some old robots… None of us should be here, but you four seem to have an ulterior motive. Care to explain what it is?”

The lead hog said, “That’s none o’ your business.” He pulled out a switchblade and flipped it open, “Now you better get outta here if you don’t wanna get hurt!”

Tempest eyed the blade for a moment before looking back at the hog’s face and asking, “Are you trying to intimidate me or humor me? Because you’re not succeeding either way.”

The hog replied, “Oh, a wise guy, eh? Well, let me show you what I do to-” He was suddenly cut off when a rainbow blur shot past him, knocking the blade out of his hand. After it hit the ground, he looked to the left and saw Rainbow against the wall, her wings spread and her hooves pressing against it.

“She could totally take all you guys no problem, but I’ve made it a rule to not stand by when someone threatens my friends,” she said. She dropped down onto the floor, “And you mess with one of us, you messed with all of us!”

The lead hog asked, "Oh yeah? Who's ‘us’?"


HOG FIGHT AND CHASING WHISPER


He was answered by Aventura, "Look up, piggy." He and the other hogs did and saw her, Matka, and Techni had moved down closer while Tempest and Rainbow had been talking, now close to almost being on top of them. Now that they were revealed, they leapt down.

Although they were surprised, the hogs were quick to respond. With the exception of Matka, they were able to throw off the attacking Resistance members fairly easily when they tried to grab them, and while their fighting style was a bit wild, they were able to keep them at arm's length.

About a minute later, one of the hogs intercepted Tempest when she tried to leap at him, grabbing and trying to restrain her. She struggled against him, causing him to stagger a bit. Her movements slowed when she saw Matka rushing towards her, but the hog noticed too late to try to stop her. She tackled him from the side and knocked him off his feet. He landed on his back near one of the bikes.

Tempest was sent flying with him and bounced off of his belly before she landed on the floor. As she bounced, however, a sizable spark escaped her broken horn and hit one of the robots in the trailer, causing it to shudder and convulse as it sparked like it was being electrocuted. After a moment, its machine gun began firing, the robot's convulsing making its already jerky shots even more erratic.

"Get down, everyone!" Matka yelled as she dropped to the floor, Aventura, Techni, Rainbow, Tempest, and the hogs quickly doing the same as it was the only option available. With the way the robot was laid out in the trailer, the shots were currently going high and there was nothing available to take cover behind.

One of the hogs started crawling towards one of the bikes. “Boss, we gotta get-” he started before several stray bullets suddenly hit the bike when he got close to it and caused it to explode, throwing him on his back. Tempest glanced at the robot, watching the way it was shooting for a moment before she raised herself up and ran towards it. By keeping her head low, she was able to stay below the shots and reach the trailer. She put her horn underneath it and used all her strength to lift it up, knocking the robot into the air. She was about to leap up and buck it into the wall, but Rainbow beat her to it, shooting up from the ground and sending it flying into the wall where it broke apart.

“Hey, ‘ppreciate the help,” the lead hog said a moment later. Tempest and Rainbow turned to see him and the other hogs running over to their bikes, the one from earlier jumping into one of the trailers. “Now if you’ll excuse us, we’ll just be…” He was cut off when a cyan laser shot down at an angle and hit his bike, causing it to explode. Before they could react, two more cyan lasers shot down and destroyed the other two bikes, all of the hogs being sent flying.

“What the…?” Rainbow uttered before running a few steps forward and turning her head to look up where the shots had come from. Despite the dim lighting, she could see the biscotti-furred wolf standing on the highest conveyor belt, her unusual Wispon in her hands. She only saw her for a second, though, because she quickly turned and ran further into the base. “Hey, wait!” Rainbow exclaimed, spreading her wings and flying up after her.

“Rainbow Dash!” Tempest called after reaching the spot where the pegasus had been standing a moment too late, seeing her rainbow blur disappear from sight. She heard some exclamations and grunting and turned to see the leader hog had gotten up and pushed his way past Aventura, Matka, and Techni, and he was now charging towards her. She leapt out of his way and turned to see him climbing up the conveyor belts surprisingly quick for a hog of his side. Tempest grunted and turned back to the others, “Can you handle these three?” She received affirmatory responses, so she said, “I’ll go after him, then, and try to find Rainbow afterwards.” She turned and ran over to the conveyor belts, jumping up from one to the next.

Rainbow, meanwhile, was flying through the base looking for their mystery helper. She’d lost sight of the wolf when she caused her to shoot down one passageway before running down the one next to it. Rainbow had quickly doubled back, but so far, she hadn’t been able to catch even a glimpse of her. “This place is like a maze,” she thought as she flew up a shaft and through a door that was mostly open. After almost a minute of flying, she flew through a doorway and found herself outside. She came to a stop and fluttered her wings as she looked around and asked aloud, “Where did that wolf go?”

She heard a voice behind her, “No idea who you’re talkin’ about, but with all your zipping around, you weren’t too hard to find.” She turned her head to see the hog leader standing in the doorway. He got into a fighting stance, “Now, where were we?”

Rainbow turned around completely and replied, “Hmm… Pretty sure I was about to kick your big piggy butt!” She shot towards him, but he retaliated by thrusting his belly forward, stopping her charge and sending her flying onto her back. She recovered after a moment and looked up to see him rushing at her; before she could react, he jumped up and was going to belly flop on top of her when he suddenly froze in midair, a green aura surrounding him.

Rainbow tilted her head up and saw Silver descending. When he landed behind her, he moved his outstretched right hand to move the hog back a short distance and straighten up. "Care to do the honors, Rainbow?" he asked.

Rainbow leapt to her hooves, "With pleasure!" She shot off the ground and swung her hind legs around, Silver releasing his psychokinesis as her hooves connected and sent the hog flying up into the wall behind him. He dropped down and landed on his front a few seconds later.

The hog raised his head to look up at the two and managed to say, “Ya know… the two of you doin’ that… gangin’ up on me… that seems a little unfair, don’t you think?”

Rainbow replied, “Yeah, well, someone as big as you counts as, what, two, three people? Seems fair to me. And I bet you and your guys would’ve ganged up on Tempest before the rest of us stepped in.”

She then heard Tempest say, “I would imagine so.” She and Silver looked up to see the unicorn standing in the entrance. Said unicorn noticed that the hog still seemed to be moving, so she ran over, jumped on his back, and brought her hoof down on top of his head. He let out a grunt before his head dropped down, his body going limp. “And that completes it,” Tempest remarked as she leapt off of the hog’s back.


TALKING WITH SILVER


“Nice one, Tempest,” Rainbow said. She then looked at Silver and asked, “What are you doing here, Silver?”

The hedgehog replied, “Knuckles told me what was going on, so I thought I’d come out and see if you guys needed any help. Sorry it took so long; I got attacked by Eggman’s forces and needed to deal with them. What’s going on around here? Who is this guy, and how’d you get separated from everyone, Rainbow?”

Tempest spoke up, “No idea who he or his little gang are, but they don’t seem to be working for Eggman. From the sound of things, they’re working for someone else and were planning to raid this old base for anything useful. As for Rainbow Dash, she caught sight of a strange wolf who helped us and was trying to catch her.”

Silver asked, “A wolf?” He turned to Rainbow, “You saw her? The Guardian Angel?”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “Who?”

Tempest asked, “You know this wolf?”

Silver replied, “Well… no, I don’t know her… but for a while now, she’s been appearing and helping the Resistance fight Eggman. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of pattern to when she shows up, but when she does, she helps us. She’s saved a lot of lives these last few months, so she’s gained a bit of a reputation. Some of us have been referring to her as the Guardian Angel of the Battlefield.”

Rainbow remarked, “Whoa, cool.” She shook her head, “Wish I could’ve caught up to her. I’d like to know why she hasn’t joined the Resistance if she’s been helping so much.”

Tempest said, “I was wondering that myself.”

Silver shrugged, “She must have her reasons. Maybe she prefers to have the element of surprise or something.”

Tempest nodded, “Perhaps.” She looked at the hog beside her, “Back to the matter at hoof… I think we should try to get everything we can out of this hog and his gang. I get the feeling whoever they’re working for isn’t interested in aiding the Resistance’s efforts. If they’re actively impeding the Resistance in any way, we need to find out and put a stop to it.”

Rainbow and Silver nodded, the latter saying, “Okay. Where’s the rest of the gang, and where are the others?”

Tempest replied while taking a few steps towards the doorway, “I should be able to figure out the path I took to get here.” She looked back at Silver, “Do you think you could carry him?” The hedgehog replied by raising his right hand, a green aura forming around it and the hog. Seeing him get raised up a moment later, Tempest turned and resumed walking, Silver and Rainbow following with the hog in tow.


RETURN TO BASE


A short while later, at the Resistance HQ

Sonic followed Corvin, Fuchsia, and the rest of the Resistance soldiers through the door at the base’s entrance, the Rookie following close behind him. In his right hand was a bouquet of flowers he’d managed to find and pick in Green Hill. He’d sought them out because he knew someone who liked flowers and wanted to give them a gift.

“SONIC!” The sound of the cry alerted the hedgehog that he was going to have to change his plans slightly. It belonged to Amy and, given where she was standing in the entrance, it seemed like she’d been waiting for his arrival.

“Well, was kind of expecting that,” he thought. Fortunately, Fuchsia and Corvin started giving Amy their report when she approached them and she stopped and seemed to be listening to them, so that would buy him a few seconds. He turned to the Rookie and held the flowers out to him while whispering, “Hey bud’, do me a favor. Take these and give them to Cream. You can tell her who they’re from if she asks.” The wolf took the flowers and looked at them for a moment before looking back at Sonic. He nodded, “Just go. I’ll cover for you.” Although he was still a bit uncertain, the Rookie turned and went to the left before moving forward.

Amy making her way through the line of soldiers meant the Rookie was harder to notice, but it was unlikely she would've noticed him anyway since her focus was on Sonic. "Oh, Sonic! I was so worried about you!" she exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him.

"Hi, Amy. I missed you too," he replied while rolling his eyes at the display of affection. He noticed something different about the hug and glanced down, noticing her outfit for the first time. "Is that a new outfit?" he asked.

Amy let go of him and took a few steps back, doing a little pose as she asked, "Do you like it?"

Sonic looked her up and down for a moment before looking at her and saying, "It's different, but I kinda dig it already." He heard the door behind her open and looked to see Knuckles coming through it. "Speaking of digging…"

Knuckles walked over to the two and said, "Welcome back to Earth, Sonic. I heard the news; good job on the rescue and sabotage mission."

Sonic replied, "Yeah. Hope that deals a major blow to Eggman's war efforts." His smile eased off and he asked, "I heard about Twilight. Is she still…?"

Knuckles nodded, "I'm afraid so."

Amy added, "Terv's assistant Windra has been keeping an eye on her since she was brought in. She says her injuries are healing nicely, but she hasn't shown any major signs of waking up."

Sonic looked down for a moment before saying, "I'm gonna go see her."

Knuckles replied, "Sure, that's fine. Spike would probably appreciate it too; the kid's determined to stay by her side until she wakes up, and probably afterwards too. The way he's acting, I'm guessing he was there when their bad guys attacked Twilight."

Sonic said, "I'll see what I can do. Let me know if anything comes up." He made his way around Knuckles and Amy and headed into the base, both of them following behind him.

It didn’t take Sonic long to find the infirmary. Stepping inside, he looked around and saw a lot of the beds were being used by mostly former Death Egg inmates. Windra and the other medics were doing their best to see all of them and determine what they needed, but it was clear it was going to take a while to get to all of them. Sonic began carefully walking through the room, looking for Twilight and Spike.

He found them after only a couple of seconds. In addition to the two, Grubber was sitting on the bed as well, one of his hands resting on Spike’s shoulder. Sonic walked up to the end of the bed and tentatively asked, “Spike?”

The baby dragon looked to his left at the sound of his name. “Sonic…?” he murmured. He then smiled for the first time in days as he suddenly used his wings to launch himself at Sonic, pressing against the hedgehog’s chest and wrapping his arms around as much as he could as he exclaimed, “Sonic! You’re okay! I heard you were, but… it’s so much better to actually see you!”

Sonic placed his left hand on Spike’s back and held him there, feeling a little bit of wetness on his chest fur. “There, there, Spike. It’s great to see you too, bud,” he said. He glanced up and saw Grubber had slid off the bed and was walking over. “Hey. You’re Grubber, right?” he asked, bending his knees a bit and holding out his right hand.

Grubber eagerly took the hand in both of his and shook it, saying, “Yeah, that’s me, all right! I guess you heard about me from Tempest and the other girls, huh? I’m a hedgehog just like you! Isn’t that cool?”

He released Sonic’s hand after a few moments and the blue hedgehog acted like he was scrutinizing the other hedgehog as he straightened up. “Hm… Tell you what. Get yourself some shoes and gloves and maybe we’ll talk…” He let that hang for a moment before raising his right hand and saying, “Ah, I’m just messing with you, dude. It’s cool.” He moved around Grubber and took a seat on the edge of Twilight’s bed. He reached over and patted the spot to his left with his right hand.

Grubber grinned and ran over, jumping up and struggling to climb up onto the bed again. His struggling was pulling on the bed sheets, so Sonic set Spike down on his lap and reached over to help him up. “Thanks!” Grubber said as he sat down on the bed.

Sonic nodded and turned his attention to Spike, who had turned his head to look at Twilight. “Hey Spike, you okay?” he asked softly.


DESPAIR


Spike blinked, “Huh? Oh, uh… I guess, I don’t know…”

Sonic turned to Grubber when he started talking, “I’ve been trying to keep him company since we got back from that West Island or whatever it’s called. Been trying to comfort him and all that.”

Spike said, “You should be doing something else, Grubber. This is my fault…”

Grubber asked, “How is it your fault, Spike? You didn’t cause this to happen to Twilight. It was that… jackal guy.”

Spike uttered, “But I got angry, again. I walked out and left her alone, again. And something bad happened when there was no one there for her… again.” Tears started to leak from his eyes, “It doesn’t matter if I could’ve helped or not. I should’ve been there with her when it happened. I should’ve gotten beaten up too…” Sonic was about to say something to him, but he suddenly leapt from his lap and wrapped his arms around as much of Twilight’s neck as he could reach, squeezing hard. “I’m sorry, Twilight! I didn’t mean to leave you alone! Please, wake up!” he cried.

Sonic noticed a slight change in the way Twilight was breathing and turned on the bed slightly and started to reach his hand out towards Spike, saying, “Spike, ease up a bit, bud. I think you’re squeezing too hard.” He heard a noise and glanced up to see Twilight’s horn sparking slightly. More sparks started to appear on its surface, so he reached forward and grabbed Spike with both hands. He started to pull him back, “Spike, you need to back off, seriously.” It took Spike another moment or two to come back to reality and notice what Twilight’s horn was doing.

As the sparks gathered into the tip, Sonic got on his knees and gave Spike a hard pull back, the action nearly knocking Grubber off the bed and disturbing the position Twilight was laid out in. As she moved a bit towards the foot of the bed, her head briefly flopped forward, at which the sparks were released from her horn as a bolt of magic that hit Sonic. He grunted from the shock and nearly fell backwards, dropping Spike back onto the bed. He managed to steady himself by placing his left hand on the bed and his right hand on his knee and opened his eyes to look at Twilight, seeing her lying in a more lopsided position.

Windra, who was already coming over to investigate the outburst, ran over when she saw Sonic get hit. “Are you okay?” she asked. Despite receiving a nod, she took a closer look at where he was hit before she was satisfied and then moved around to the other side of the bed. She placed her hands on Twilight, “Can you help me get her into a more comfortable position?” Sonic slid off the bed and helped her adjust Twilight until she was lying like she was before. Windra then picked up Spike and began rubbing his back, comforting and calming him. While she was doing this, she looked at Sonic and said, “I should’ve warned you about that. Her magic has started going off like that in the last day. We’re not sure why. That was the strongest display she’s shown so far, though.”

Grubber looked at Sonic, “I’m surprised it didn’t seem to do much to you. Sure, it wasn’t a big spell, but I thought it would’ve seemed more painful than it looked.”

Sonic glanced down at himself with a raised eyebrow, “Me too…”


EMERGENCY SITUATION


Suddenly, the infirmary door slid open and Amy ran in exclaiming, “Sonic!”

Everyone turned to look at her, Sonic asking, “What’s up, Amy?”

The pink hedgehog answered, “We just received an emergency call from Silver! He was on his way back here when he got attacked by that… that thing!” There were many surprised looks and some gasps at that.

Sonic’s expression turned serious and he quickly walked over to Amy. “Where?” he asked her.

“In the Mystic Jungle. We’re also picking up reports that Eggman’s forces are sending backup units there. We’ll try to send over some of our own, but you’d better hurry!” she replied.

Sonic nodded, “I’m on it. I’ve been waiting for the chance to get a second round with that guy!” He walked past Amy and she saw him start to run in the direction of the exit tunnels.

Back in the infirmary, Spike let out a gasp and Windra soon saw what had caused it: Twilight was moving. It wasn’t much movement, but it almost looked like her front hooves were trying to reach for something, which was a lot more movement than they’d seen since she was brought in. Was she starting to regain consciousness?
> Round Two: Electric Blue-galoo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


FLASHBACK TIME


Earlier
 
“You sure you can handle this?” Tempest asked, glancing to her right at the hog gang. They had a long cable wrapped around them several times, keeping them pressed together and unable to move much. Despite that, they continued to struggle against their binding.
 
Silver looked at them for a moment before turning back to the unicorn and answering, “Sure. I’ve held up heavier things and been able to do perform other things before. Carrying them back to the city shouldn’t be too hard.”
 
Tempest looked at him for a moment before saying, “Very well. You or someone else will contact us if the interrogations reveal any pertinent information?”
 
Silver nodded, “Definitely. Hopefully, we’ll find out who they’re working for.” Tempest nodded and he turned back to the hogs. Using his psychokinesis, he lifted them off the ground and then lifted himself off the ground, flying away with them a second later. She watched him for several seconds before she turned and walked back inside.
 
The entrance they had been near was close to Eggman’s old private laboratory. They moved the hogs, their bikes, and their haul there when they tried to question them. While there had been some actual squealing, the hogs had been remarkably tight-lipped for being so loud and grating. Tempest hoped Gen and the other interrogation experts could get something out of them after having to put up with their annoying voices.
 
Tempest walked into the laboratory, stepping across the old pistons in the floor to the computer terminal past them. She didn’t find anyone behind it and looked past it, seeing Techni and Aventura examining and dismantling the gathered Egg Gunners. Aventura looked up as Tempest approached while Techni remained focused on her work, so the unicorn addressed her, “I thought you were trying to determine if there was any useful information in that old computer?”
 
Techni turned her head up to look at her, “I am. That’s being worked on right now.” She gestured to the console with her thumb and Tempest noticed her Miles Mobile was sitting on it. “I’m hooked in and my program is scanning and downloading any files on it. It was almost half-complete last time I checked.” She turned back to the Egg Gunner, “Figured I’d start taking these apart while we waited. These robots are pretty unusual, but they’ve got some good components. We can make use of this stuff.”
 
Tempest asked, “Where are Rainbow Dash and Matka?”
 
Aventura answered, “They’re running a sweep of the rest of the base, seeing if there’s anything else we can take and making sure there are no other surprises. They should be back soon.” Tempest nodded and turned around, deciding to go check on the progress of Techni’s program. As she stepped on the platform, she saw that it had passed the halfway point, but it wasn’t quite done yet.
 
She looked up when she heard a noise in front of her and saw Rainbow and Matka approaching. "Hey, Tempest. Techni almost done?" Rainbow asked.
 
Tempest glanced down before saying, "We're just waiting for her program to finish. It seems like Eggman left a lot behind." She looked up, "How did your search go? Did you find anything?"
 
Rainbow replied, "Eh, not much. Found a couple of robots like the ones those guys were trying to take, and some pieces from some that looked older and more broken. Might as well let her know that." She made her way around the terminal to go talk to Techni and Aventura.
 
Tempest watched her for a moment before facing forward again, flinching a bit when she saw Matka had moved closer. “Did everything go okay with the hog gang, Tempest?” the bear asked.
 
Tempest looked away while quickly saying, “Yea- Yes. Yes. Silver’s taking them back.”
 
Matka looked at her, concerned. “Tempest, dear…” she started. When the unicorn’s eyes looked back at her, she continued, “Perhaps it’s just me, but you seem to behave differently around me. Why is that?”
 
Tempest looked away and said, “It’s nothing personal, Matka. By which I mean, it has nothing to do with who you are.”
 
The bear took a few steps back and sat down, “If you want to tell me what the matter is, I’ll listen. You can always come to me with your problems.”
 
Tempest remained unmoving for a few moments before sharply letting her breath out through her nose. “I’m sure you realize by now that the appearance of my horn and this scar are not a ‘statement’.” Tempest turned her head to look at her, "I had an encounter with an Ursa Minor when I was a filly. It was an accident since it involved retrieving a ball, but I was still attacked and the ponies I called friends were scared of me because I couldn't control my magic. I ran away and eventually ended up becoming the Storm King's highest-ranking commander." Her eyes shifted downwards, "It took Twilight showing me kindness to get me to believe in having friends again, but it's taking some adjusting. And I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at any bear and not feel a little afraid.”
 
Matka bowed her head slightly, “I’m so sorry, Tempest.”
 
The unicorn sighed and looked up at the bear, saying, “You didn’t do anything, Matka. You have nothing to apologize for.” She looked away with a slight glare, “And I doubt that Ursa Minor would ever even think of apologizing if it knew what it caused.” She glanced back at Techni’s Miles Mobile, seeing the progress bar almost full. “Looks like we’re almost done here. Another minute or so,” she remarked.
 
A short while later, after ensuring all the data had been retrieved and all the available spare parts had been salvaged, the group made their way back to the base entrance. They stepped outside, Matka carrying the parts in her backpack and carrying the confiscated Extreme Gear bikes under her arms. The bear set them down and remarked, “Well, I think we’ve done all we can here. What do you all say we get back to our own base?”
 
Before anyone could answer, all of their Miles Mobiles started ringing wildly. Aventura was the first to pull hers out first and she looked at the screen. “It’s an urgent call. Looks like it’s from Silver,” she reported.
 
As she answered it, Rainbow asked, “Wow, he got those guys back and they got info out of them already?”
 
Once she was connected, Aventura spoke, “Hello?”
 
Silver’s panicked voice came through, “If anyone can hear me, I need your help! I’m under attack! It… It’s him!”
 
Tempest’s gaze darkened, “That guy?”
 
Silver continued, “I managed to lose him, but I’m sure he’s going to find me soon! My psychokinesis is having little effect on… Ah!” An explosion was suddenly heard on the other end and the signal became distorted.
 
“Silver! Where are you now?!” Aventura yelled.
 
Another explosion sounded and the signal distorted further, but they managed to catch “…Mystic Jungle… Eggman’s lab…” before the call dropped.
 
“Aw man, he needs help! He can’t take that guy alone!” Rainbow said.
 
“But we have to get this intel back to HQ,” Techni argued.
 
Tempest looked at Rainbow for a moment before looking at the others and saying, “We’ll go help him. You three, head back to base. We might slow each other down if we all go, and chances are the Commander is calling in more reinforcements.”
 
Matka set two of the bikes and carried the third over to the two ponies. “Take this one, Tempest. It should allow you to travel faster,” she said as she set it down.
 
“Hey, what am I supposed to ride then, Matka?” Techni complained.
 
The bear looked back at her, “Well, you can ride with me, or you can ride with Aventura. You weren’t really thinking we were going to make use of these and make someone walk, did you?”
 
The cat looked at Aventura when the wolf remarked, “You know I don’t bite my friends, right?”
 
Techni gave her an odd look before saying, “All right.” She turned and walked over to Tempest, “Let me just check a few things and give you a few pointers. These things take a little practice to really get the hang of them.” After a few minutes, the group set out, Techni holding onto Aventura as they left Scrap Brain behind. For now, they were together, but Tempest and Rainbow would soon split off to go help Silver.


LUMINOUS FOREST


Present

Tempest’s Extreme Gear slid to a stop near the edge of one of the hills in the Mystic Jungle and she pressed her right back hoof against the ground to keep it upright as Rainbow came down and hovered near her. Looking around, they could see bombs falling from the sky both on their and the other side of the gorge, the bombs causing fires when they exploded against the ground.

“Look at this. Are they trying to carpet bomb this entire forest?” Tempest wondered.

“Geez, it’s like Pinkie when she goes wild with her party cannon, only what’s being fired is a lot more dangerous. This is really gonna slow our guys down, and it’s gonna be really bad for Silver if this reaches him while he’s trying to fight that guy,” Rainbow said.

Tempest looked towards the other side of the gorge and noticed something. “Is that…?” she started.

Rainbow followed her gaze and saw a blue streak speeding by on the other side, crashing through robots on the path. “It’s Sonic! Someone must’ve passed Silver’s message to him!” she said. She looked at Tempest, “Let’s keep going this way. If that guy’s up ahead somewhere, we should be able to find a way around and meet up with him!” The unicorn nodded and lifted her hind legs up, both ponies continuing deeper into the forest.

Over on the other side of the gorge, Sonic observed the explosions and flames as he continued to crash through Egg Pawns and Egg Walkers in his way. “The whole place is going up in flames. Not the kind of fireworks I like,” he thought as he returned his attention to the path in front of him. It didn’t take long for the path to veer off and change from dirt and moss to stone. The line of trees along the sides also became less consistent and were replaced with neon poles and palm trees. “What the heck did Eggman do to this place?! Sure, this jungle wasn’t exactly the safest place before, but now he’s built a casino in it? Another thing he’s going to have to answer for!” he angrily thought as he continued past the neon structures, still Boosting through robots as he looked for Silver.

Not long after, while running down a long winding log, his Mobile picked up a call. He used his right hand to click the button on his earpiece and heard the voice on the other end say, “This is Lieutenant Phinny! We’ve arrived at the Mystic Jungle, but the fires are spreading too fast! We won’t be able to continue until we get them under control!”

Sonic responded, “Those fires are going to make things difficult for everyone. Do you want me to head to your location?”

Amy chimed in, “No. Keep going, Sonic. We’ll work on helping our additional forces get the water from the jungle to the fires. We’ve picked up an energy signature in the ruins up ahead; it’s from that unknown enemy. Hopefully, Silver is there as well. We haven’t been able to raise him or get a lock on his position since he contacted us.”

Sonic replied, “Okay, Amy! I’ll be there soon!” He looked to the side and saw a path on the ground below, so he leapt down to it when he got near the end of the log. He didn’t get far, though, before the ground suddenly started shaking. He came to a stop near a grassy area and looked around, “What’s going on?”

Amy spoke in his ear, “We’re picking up a large life form on the radar closing in on your position! Something from the jungle?!”

Suddenly, a large head emerged from the ground in the grassy area followed by an equally large, long, scaly body. It was a giant snake, its forked tongue poking out of its mouth several times after bringing a sizable portion of its long body out of the ground. It soon lowered its head and its red and yellow eyes settled on Sonic. Without warning, its head shot down towards him, its mouth open. Before it could reach him, he dashed to his left, running partway up a tall tree and stopping when he was able to place his left hand on top of a branch near the top, his feet still pressed against the trunk. The snake soon swung its head around and darted at him again and he quickly let go of the branch and used his legs to push off of the trunk, narrowly avoiding the mouth again as he shot down diagonally towards the ground.

“All the explosions must’ve riled this fella up. Don’t really want to fight it or have time for one now, but I might not have much choice,” he thought as he landed on the grass and ran under part of the snake’s body that was raised up. A brief chase around the area ensued, the snake shifting its long body around to try to stop him and its head twisting around the surrounding trees and its own body to get him.

Suddenly, it dropped part of its body directly in his path. He was going to stop, but a quick glance to the left allowed him to see the snake’s open mouth shooting straight towards where he would be, so he instead leapt forward and planted his feet on the side of the snake’s body and pushed off. He landed on top of the snake’s head and held on tight as it raised it up and tried to shake him off. It managed to do so while swinging its head forward and, while he was flipping over, prepared to snap him up while he was in midair. He was able to use his momentum to his advantage, however, and managed to reach the snake’s lower lip when it came up at him and placed his hands on it, flipping himself out of its way once again.

As he pressed off and righted himself in midair afterwards, the snake was quick to come up behind him again. He managed to twist and flip himself to the right just enough to avoid its lunge and was able to reach a tree. He used his hands and feet to stop himself and then pushed himself off as the snake was once again in pursuit. It was clearly getting very angry at him since it stopped using its body as effectively and began snapping at him more viciously. It also didn’t seem to be moving as gracefully as before as it began hitting the trees while chasing him around them. The chase ended when Sonic landed on top of a log and leapt off it as the snake’s jaws came at him, leaving it with a mouth full of wood and causing it to hit its head against the ground pretty hard, leaving it dazed. Sonic looked back at it, seeing its long body slump against the ground, and muttered, “Sorry, pal, but I got someplace to be.” He faced forward again, “And you gotta know: there’s food, fast food, and too fast to be food.” He made a left turn and continued on towards the ruins Amy mentioned.









SILVER VS. INFINITE



Silver panted as he hovered across from Infinite, both of them levitating just above the top of a nearby totem pole. He had some dirty patches of fur and bruised spots hidden by the fur, but the jackal seemed hardly winded as he said, “This wasn’t part of my agenda, but I’m always happy to crush a hero. It keeps the rabble in line, shows them how fragile hope really is.”

Silver glared, “Do you even listen to your own lies, or do you just say them as they come to you?” He almost didn’t finish his sentence because Infinite suddenly shot at him and he just barely managed to move to the side around him. He then turned and shot off after the jackal. For a few seconds, he seemed content to let Silver chase him around in front of the ruins, but then he turned and began trying to meet him head-on, both of them veering around each other and briefly colliding before they both moved back.

During one of their collisions, Silver managed to not only stop him, but also push him back while delivering a punch under his chin. It didn’t faze him much and they were soon flying around again, but what neither of them noticed was, during the punch, what appeared to be a magenta icosahedron gem fell from Infinite towards the ground near the jungle, the gem rolling several times upon landing and stopping behind some foliage, hidden from plain sight.

Soon afterwards, Silver and Infinite shot towards each other again, but this time, Infinite easily overpowered Silver and sent him flying into the ruins, the hedgehog crashing above the door Eggman had added and falling to the ground on his side, small rocks that had been knocked loose landing around him. He groaned as he tried to get back up, but he was having trouble finding the strength to push himself up off the ground with his hands. Infinite landed a short distance in front of him and asked, “Now do you see that there is no hope? It’s as easy to put out as a candle.” His right hand went behind his back and came back a second later holding his sword, “And now it’s time to snuff out your light permanently.” He raised his sword and leapt into the air, bringing it down as he closed the gap between them…

Suddenly, Sonic shot in from the left and, while spinning, intercepted Infinite and pushed him down to the ground short of Silver. As he uncurled on top of him, he leapt down and planted his feet on Infinite’s right arm, the jackal letting out a pained groan and loosening his grip on his sword. Sonic quickly used his left foot to kick it out of his hand and then turned around while leaping off of his arm and used it to kick Infinite away. Silver noticed the sword land nearby and raised his left hand. He then used his psychokinesis to pull it towards him. “Sonic!” he said after he caught it, looking up at the blue hedgehog.

Sonic glanced back at him, “Tag me in, Silver! I’ll keep him busy while you find a place to hide and get your strength back!”


INFINITE


While Silver raised himself up on one knee, Infinite began to levitate again, a red aura surrounding him as he lifted off the ground and looked down at the two hedgehogs. “Well, look who’s back from the dead. The little blue savior,” he stated. He placed his right hand on the front of his mask, “But what’s this? You appear to be sweating, and you reek of fear. Glad to see I left an impression.”

Sonic replied, “Actually, I ran into a giant snake on the way over here. That’s just drool.” He then shrugged, “And you think you’ve left an impression? I don’t even know your name!”

Infinite crossed his arms, “You may call me ‘Infinite’ in the brief moments that remain to you.”

Silver managed to stand up while Sonic was saying, “Infinite, huh? See, that’s more like it! As long as we’re getting to know each other, what’s your favorite color? Do you like walks on the beach? Ooh! What’s the source of your power? Feel free to skip the first two questions.”

Infinite said, “The source of my power is none of your concern.”

Sonic replied, “Aw, come on! If these really are my ‘brief moments that remain to me’ like you said, then I gotta know your secret. Please, tell me!”

Infinite uncrossed his arms and clenched his hands into fists, “Your pleading is irritating!”

He unclenched his hands and the gem on his chest started to light up as if he was tapping into its power, but he suddenly heard Rainbow call from behind him, “Hey, No-Face!” He glanced back over his shoulder, having enough time to see her flying straight towards him but not enough time to avoid her outstretched hoof, which connected with the side of his face and caused him to fall to the ground. She then flew down and slid a short distance when she landed, stopping near Sonic. “Hey, Sonic! You just get here?” she asked.

Sonic replied, "Something like that. You by yourself?"

Rainbow answered, "Nah, Tempest came with. She just told me to go on ahead while she deals with the water slides back there. She should be here soon."

As she finished talking, Sonic noticed Infinite was getting up. He looked back at Silver and saw he was having some trouble staying up, so he looked back at Rainbow and said, "Why don't you help Silver get out of sight and then come join the party." She nodded and moved past him towards Silver while Sonic turned to look at Infinite again, who had finished standing up.

He started to run towards the jackal, but Infinite suddenly crossed his arms in front of his chest and then held them out to his sides, a red sphere of energy coming from his gem and growing in response as he began to hover. Sonic was brought to a surprising stop as he came into contact with the growing sphere, his surroundings becoming red and distorted due to it. It grew further and reached Rainbow and Silver as the former was about to reach the latter. They all began to lift off the ground along with some loose stones, Sonic flailing his arms and legs while Rainbow found she similarly couldn’t move even when flapping her wings.

“Sonic, Rainbow, you okay?” Silver called. Before either one could answer him, Infinite shot towards Sonic, moving in a downwards arc and punching him from below, sending him flying up over the top of the trees on top of the ruins. Barely a second later, he did the same to Rainbow and kicked Silver straight towards the ground. He considered the white hedgehog thoroughly beaten down, so after looking at him for a few seconds, he turned and shot after Sonic and Rainbow.

Silver wasn’t feeling too good as he lay on the ground, but as he opened his eyes, it seemed that the red and distortions had gone away along with Infinite. He heard something coming closer after a couple of seconds and raised his head to look. It was Tempest; she stopped her Extreme Gear near him and jumped off, running over to him. As she got him on her back and carried him over to the bike, she asked, “Are you okay? Where’s Rainbow Dash?”

Silver winced and grunted as she sat him on the seat. He settled down after a moment and looked at her, “Infinite threw her and Sonic that way.” He pointed towards the trees on the ruins.

“Infinite? Is that that thing’s name?” she asked as she looked. Silver nodded in reply.

He lowered his hand and said, “I think I might have the strength to give you a boost if you want it.”

She looked back at him for a moment before saying, “All right. But you have to agree to stay here until we get back.” He nodded and an aura surrounded him as he began to focus.

A minute earlier…

Rainbow was briefly disoriented from being launched by Infinite's punch, but she was able to shake it off. As she did, she realized that the red distortions in the air had cleared up and her wings were working like they were supposed to. She turned her head and saw Sonic ahead of her, still flying through the air though his trajectory was now angling downwards. She spread her wings to slow herself and then turned around, shooting after him. She quickly caught up with him and gave him a much softer landing in the forest below where the fire hadn’t reached yet. As they reached the ground, she asked, “You okay, Sonic?”

As he set his feet on the ground, he replied, “Yeah, I’m good. How about you?”

She answered, “Same here.” She looked back over her shoulder, “Now which way did we come from? I still got a few words and punches for that creep in the mask.”


ESCAPE FROM THE FIRE


They both heard Infinite ask, “Is that so?” They looked up and saw him appear above the treetops a moment later. “Because I have something for you as well.” He held out his right hand and a red sphere began to form in his palm. Sonic and Rainbow leapt back as he fired a beam from it, but he didn’t stop. Rather than try to hit them, he began to sweep it around the area for several seconds, causing explosions that started more fires.

Sonic and Rainbow took off, moving away from the trees that were close together and hoping to get somewhere a little more open. They didn’t really need to look around to know that the fires were spreading fast. “Geez, I figured Infinite was upset after you hit him, but I didn’t think he’d take it personal like this,” Sonic remarked.

“Wait, ‘Infinite’? That’s that guy’s name? Seriously?” Rainbow asked.

“That’s what he told me,” Sonic shrugged. Several burning tree branches fell as they zoomed past. “We need to get on top of this and figure out a way to stop this forest fire before it gets worse,” he said.

“Well, that’ll be easy. I’ll just fly up to the weather factory in Cloudsdale, grab a couple of rainclouds, and bring them here,” Rainbow replied.

Sonic gave her a look, “You can’t do that, Rainbow. We’re not in Equestria, remember? You can’t just jump back, and we sure don’t make rainclouds here.”

Rainbow blinked, “Oh yeah.” She looked up and spotted what looked like a long log that curved around a tree situated above the blaze ahead. “Well, how about we get up on that log and then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do instead.” She raised herself up and let Sonic grab her forehooves before she flew up to the log, landing behind Sonic after he let go.

After they landed, Sonic noticed something off about the log. Not only was it way longer than any tree either of them had seen in the jungle, but the way it curved shouldn’t have been possible for a log. It also seemed to be scaly instead of wooden. “This isn’t a log,” he said. He looked up and, after a moment, Rainbow did too. Looking around, they could see chunks of land, some with trees and some with structures from the casino area on them, floating in the air.

Suddenly, Infinite floated down in front of them, a red aura surrounding him. The left eye of his mask was dark, but it brightened after a few seconds. “Still thrashing around, I see, like the filthy sewer rats you are,” he remarked as he held his arms out and a pink-red vortex briefly appeared behind him.

Sonic and Rainbow both straightened up, the former saying, "Haven't you seen a hedgehog before? Hold still; I'll give you a good look at my spines."

Rainbow added, "And I'm a pegasus, and I'm still gonna smash that mask of yours and beat you down for everything you've done!"


BATTLE WITH INFINITE


Infinite replied, "Then come. Face your doom." He levitated up and backwards, remaining above the long scaly path as he went. When Rainbow and Sonic shot after him, the gem on his chest lit up, causing numerous red cubes to materialize around him. He raised his left hand and, with a flick of his wrist, they shot downwards.

The cubes congregated around a section of the winding cylindrical path, forming a ring. Sonic leapt over it and Rainbow flew above it as they approached it. The pegasus remarked afterwards, "I don't know what's up with those things, but we probably better avoid them." She then looked forward and saw about half a dozen of them coming down at her. She yelped and swerved to avoid them, both of them returning their attention to Infinite.

As they continued their pursuit, Tempest reached the edge of a nearby ridge and stared for a moment at all the unusual things she was seeing before she noticed Infinite was being chased by Rainbow and Sonic. She saw Infinite get struck head-on by Sonic and barely dodge several punches thrown by Rainbow shortly afterwards. With the way the large snake went around, it would likely take him a little time before he’d notice her. She looked around, “I should be okay here as long as I keep moving. If he wants to have a good shot at me, he’ll have to get close to me, and his close-range fighting leaves something to be desired.”

Rainbow and Sonic continued to pursue Infinite, avoiding the cubes he created as best they could while going up the body of the giant snake. Oddly, they both noticed that it didn't seem to be moving at all even though it seemed to be alive. Infinite suddenly came to a stop in midair, half a dozen copies splitting off from him a few moments later. The two came to a stop and looked at the copies. They all seemed poised to attack, but they couldn't tell which was the real one.

Suddenly, a ball of magic came shooting in from off to the side, hitting the head of one of the Infinites and then breaking into multiple smaller balls that bounced up and came back down. Rainbow and Sonic shielded themselves with their wings and arms respectively since there were several falling towards them. Aside from Rainbow feeling some slight burning in her wings, they didn't feel much pain at all. In fact, the bits that missed Sonic's arms and hit him barely felt like they burned a second later.

Despite the little damage the magic seemed to do, it did help Sonic and Rainbow out a bit. The first Infinite that was hit disappeared afterwards and the others flickered when they were hit save for one to the left who remained solid. Rainbow noticed this first and launched up at him, slamming both hooves into the eyes of his mask. Sonic quickly followed up with a Homing Attack, knocking him back further.

While Rainbow helped him get back on to the snake, Infinite looked around for his attacker. He soon spotted Tempest and his gem lit up briefly before he returned his attention to Sonic and Rainbow. On the plateau she was standing on, Tempest looked around, seeing lots of the red cube appear near the edges, forming a square around her. They soon closed in on her and she leapt to avoid being caught. They disappeared when they collided, but she noticed more were coming towards her in rows going sideways, high and low. She figured Infinite was going to keep trying to get her, but for the time being, his attacks weren’t hard to dodge, so she stayed where she was and stood ready to dodge the incoming rows.

Sonic, meanwhile, reached the giant snake's head and had nowhere left to run, so Rainbow gave him a lift over the fire to a spot further down the snake's body, the pegasus dodging a charge from Infinite during the process. After they started going up the snake's body, however, they heard a loud hissing sound and looked up to see the snake Sonic had escaped from earlier, its fangs bared. "Oh boy, this guy again. And he still looks pretty upset," Sonic said.

"Wait, that snake is real? And you ran into it earlier?!" Rainbow asked.

"Oh yeah, you weren't there when I said it drooled on me," Sonic shrugged. Infinite was also eying the large snake, but his mind was already considering how he could make use of it to destroy his enemies.

The snake began moving after them soon afterwards, its long body allowing it to make use of not only the immobile snake but also the chunks floating in the air. It was still angry about Sonic escaping earlier, but it wasn't insistent on only getting the blue hedgehog as well as his rainbow companion. Infinite and Tempest could also be responsible for disturbing its slumber in its mind, so it went after them as well.

This was particularly rough for Tempest since she had to keep an eye on it while avoiding Infinite’s seemingly endless supply of cubes and trying to provide support, which made it harder for her to line up her shots, and now that Infinite knew where she was, hitting him was going to be even more difficult. To add a bit of insult, he seemed to know when she was attacking and not only deliberately dodged, but he also taunted her, angering her further.

Not long after, after dodging another round of cubes, she tried to take a shot while his back was to her and he turned to look moments before it would hit him and lazily rolled his head to the side to avoid it. It kept going and struck Sonic as he was reaching the height of his jump to attack Infinite, only to get knocked back into a floating chunk of stone instead. Tempest gasped, her eyes going wide as she watched his body spark with the magic from her overcharged spell. Rainbow saw what happened and knew it was an accident, so she turned back to Infinite and shot after him, thinking Sonic wouldn't be getting up so soon afterwards. It was only seconds after that she noticed a shadow fall over her and looked up to see the snake going past her and towards Sonic. She wasn't able to stop herself right away and could only turn as she saw the snake's head lunging at him.


SUPERCHARGED


Suddenly, Sonic's eyes shot open and he stood up and made a massive leap upwards. What looked like a trail of lightning followed him up, the snake coming into contact with the trail and getting a bit of a shock from it. He landed on the unmoving snake a second later and even Infinite looked more than a little intrigued as he looked at him. Bolts of light blue lightning shot off his body intermittently and parts of his body looked like they were retaining the electricity since parts of his legs, arms, torso, and his quills in particular lit up in light blue lines with smaller bolts traveling to and from them. And when he opened his eyes and narrowed them, they had changed from green to the same light blue color, glowing as if they too were holding in electricity.

Sonic turned his head to his left and his eyes fell on Infinite. It took him another moment to turn the rest of his body and break out into a run, a trail of sparks and small bolts following in his wake. Infinite regained his composure and summoned red cubes behind him, which he sent flying at Sonic. As they got close to him, however, the bolts coming from Sonic's body were drawn to them and pushed them back, moving them out of his path like they were obeying his will instead. “Impossible! There’s no indication of anything like this in your previous data!” Infinite exclaimed.

“Unlike some machines, I can grow and get stronger. I’m changing all the time!” Sonic grinned as he got closer.

Infinite glared as he floated backwards, "I'll teach you to hold your tongue!" He summoned many more cubes and dropped them on the track, laying some in long rows along the snake that seemed like they would be difficult to either jump over or run through even with the addition of Sonic’s surprise lightning protection and others raising up from the snake that would be difficult to weave around.

Fortunately, Rainbow quickly shook off her surprise and moved to help Sonic. She wasn’t afraid, and any stray bolts that came into contact with her didn’t shock her that much as she helped him over and through the blocks that Infinite had created. After a minute, Tempest managed to stun the jackal with a magic shot, allowing Sonic to hit him dead center with a Homing Attack, sending him flying. Rainbow flew around to the side and intercepted him a little further up, bucking him off to the side, though to everyone’s surprise, the giant snake’s head suddenly came up as he was sent flying. It snapped its jaws shut around the jackal and swallowed before it eyed the others, causing them to tense up.

Before it could move, something started happening to the snake. First, there was a sudden swelling further down its neck that went down a moment later. Then there was another, which was quickly followed by another. Several more happened in quick succession, and everyone noticed that not only were they moving up towards the snake’s head, it was jerking around and looked to be in a lot of pain. Sonic’s eyes narrowed, “He’s coming back up!”


LOST THE BATTLE...


Sure enough, the snake’s mouth opened and Infinite came flying out, a dark red aura surrounding him. He stopped and turned to face the snake a moment later; it was dazed and hit its head on the other snake, but that wasn’t enough for the jackal. He summoned many cubes and had them all come together before sending them at the snake, causing it to go flying off into the distance. “Disgusting beast. You deserve this,” Infinite remarked.

“Hey!” Sonic called and Infinite turned to look at him. He leapt towards him, only for the jackal to move out of his way. He managed to reach one of the floating chunks of land and flipped over to press his feet against it and jump off, this time managing to nick him as he went past. He landed and turned to face him again, Rainbow flying by his side.

“You have changed since the last time. But this is where it ends,” Infinite said. He created a red sphere and unleashed its power a moment later, sending a cloud of red and distortions in every direction. It caused both Rainbow and Sonic to be thrown off-balance and the lightning coming from Sonic disappeared, which caused him to feel suddenly drained afterwards.

Infinite then shot towards them, getting in between them and pressed his left hand against Sonic’s chest, sending him sliding a short distance away, and seized Rainbow by the throat with his right hand. He then slammed her against the ground and then spun around as he rose up before throwing her down to a ledge above the fire below, Rainbow too disoriented by the attack and his power to try to catch herself. He then turned to Sonic and held up both hands, creating a red sphere above each. He threw the left one first, it hitting the snake harmlessly as Sonic managed to get out of the way, but the second sphere hit him before he could see it coming, knocking him down to the ledge as well.

“Now then, it’s time to end-” He was cut off when something struck him in the back and he turned to see it came from Tempest, still standing strong despite being caught up in his power as well. Before she could react, he shot towards her and punched her in the chest, knocking her off the plateau to a lower spot on the rock. He hovered to the edge and peered over; she was lying on her side, but despite the attack and the resulting fall, she was still moving. “Not even worth the effort to finish off,” Infinite remarked. He turned around and moved to the other edge, searching for Sonic and Rainbow but he couldn’t see them. “Have they recovered and run away already? Good. If they needed to be taught to fear me, then they only have themselves to blame,” he said. He turned, “We’ll settle this later. My work here is done, but there are still prototypes to locate.”


...BUT NOT THE WAR


Rainbow and Sonic emerged from the bush they had fallen in just in time to see Infinite shoot off into the distance, a red trail that dissipated a few moments later marking his flight path. “He’s getting away. I can go after him,” Rainbow grunted as she rolled her neck around, trying to get out the kinks.

Sonic placed his right hand on her shoulder while he rubbed the side of his head with his left hand. “Let him go, Rainbow,” he sighed. When she turned her head to look at him, he explained, “We still gotta figure out what kind of power that guy has and where he’s getting it from.” He then turned his head to look at the forest, “Plus there are still Resistance troops out there battling robots and the fire out there, and Infinite made the second one worse. I think we’d better focus on helping out here right now.”

Rainbow nodded after a moment, “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Why don’t you go try to find them, wherever they are? I’ll go check on Tempest, and then we’ll all meet up to fight the fire.” Sonic nodded in reply and they both went in different directions, Rainbow flying to where she’d last seen Tempest while Sonic ran towards where he could see the light of the fire in the distance.
> All Tangled Up
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


IMPASSE


Tempest paced impatiently around outside the medic tent in the makeshift camp the Resistance had set up close to the entrance of the forest as she waited. With all of them working together, they’d managed to get the fires mostly under control, so she, Sonic, Rainbow, and Silver had been ordered back to the camp to be checked by the medics that had been sent while the rest of the troops quelled the remaining fires. They’d finished looking her over and cleared her several minutes ago and now she was waiting for them to get done with the others so they could go after Infinite.

After several minutes, the tent flap opened and Tempest stopped and turned to look. Sonic still had some signs of where he'd been hit, but he hadn't gotten any bandages. Rainbow, however, was not wearing her helmet due to having bandages wrapped around her head, and Silver had been given the most bandages, having some on his arms and legs. He walked slower than the others, seemingly mindful of how fast he went.

"Well?" Tempest asked.

"Well, aside from some dings and dents, we're pretty good," Sonic stated.

"Then let's go after Infinite!" Tempest said, turning to walk over to the Extreme Gear.

She only got a few steps before Silver held up his right index finger and started, "Um, about that, Tempest…"

The medic, a female albatross with light brown plumage, stepped out and said, "Commander Knuckles was contacted and told what happened while I was tending to all of you. He advised against going after Infinite."

Tempest turned her head to look back at the bird, one eyebrow raised. “What?! Why?!” she asked.

The medic answered, "I don't think I need to remind you that you were all involved in a serious fight against an enemy who has a power that we don't understand. I would think a little bit of your self-preservation would kick in now that he's left."

Tempest glared, "I'll worry about myself when he's paid for what he's done, both to this world and Twilight."

The albatross replied, "And I think it’s wonderful that that’s what’s driving you on, but I still have to agree with the Commander. I must advise against doing something so reckless at this time.”

Rainbow asked, "But what about that guy? Of course, finding and helping everyone in the forest was more important at the time, but I agree with Tempest. We’re not just gonna let him get away, are we?”

The medic answered, "Don't forget that you are part of the Resistance now, Rainbow. The intel teams and spies have probably been alerted by now, so they'll be assigned to tracking him. There's no need to do everything on your own."

Rainbow groaned and asked, "So what are we supposed to do, then? Just sit around here?!"

The albatross replied, "That's my best suggestion for you." She turned and walked back into the tent.

Tempest growled in frustration as she walked over and sat down on the Extreme Gear. "This is unbelievable. We weren't hurt that badly. What happened to the Resistance being stretched thin?" she grumbled as she laid her head on her forelegs.

Rainbow flew over and leaned on the side of the bike as she said, "I'm with you; I don't like this. We did a good job at Egghead's old base, we rushed to help Silver, we all gave Infinite a beat down, and now we're being treated like the time I broke my wing. It's annoying." She had a thought and turned to look at Silver as he and Sonic walked over. "Hey Silver, what happened to those hog guys?" she asked.

Silver's eyes widened a bit at that and then he sighed as he placed his right hand against his forehead. "I was flying over the forest when Infinite attacked me. I was able to lower myself a little while holding onto them, but then I lost my grip when he attacked me again. I don't remember where I was, and I don't know what happened to them," he explained.

A raccoon soldier came around the side of the medic’s tent and approached the group, calling out, “Excuse me, sirs, ma’ams.” Sonic and Silver turned to look at him while Rainbow and Tempest looked over. He held out a long cable in his hands, “Do any of you know what this is?”

Everyone except for Sonic almost immediately recognized it as the cable that was used to tie up the hog gang. “That’s… Where did you find it?” Silver asked.

“It was found by one of the scout teams, I’m afraid, sir, so I’m not certain. They said they found fresh prints near where it was, though,” the soldier answered.

Sonic looked at Silver, “So they’re okay.”

The other hedgehog nodded, “And they managed to free themselves.” He looked back at the soldier, “Thank you for letting us know. Uh… you can do whatever you want with that. I don’t think we need it anymore. You can go now.” The raccoon saluted and left, taking the cable with him.

The two hedgehogs turned back to the ponies when Rainbow said, "Aw, man… I'm glad they're still alive and all, but that still kind of stinks. After the mess they made, we should've been able to get something out for them for all that trouble."

Tempest nodded, "Especially for having to put up with their voices, and that smell." She shook her head in disgust, "I may not spend a lot of time around pigs, but that stench they had did not seem like what a pig would smell like. It was like something lingering in the air, following them around."

Sonic and Silver shared a look before looking back at them, Silver saying, "Yeah, things really haven't gone how we were hoping them to these last few hours, but at least we're all still feeling mostly healthy, you guys made Infinite retreat, and the day isn’t over yet. We still have time to do something to make up for not defeating Infinite." He noticed Tempest giving him a shifty look after a few moments and asked, "What?"

Tempest replied, "I'm waiting." Silver gave her a confused look at that, so she asked, "Isn't this that moment? The one where something happens to come up at just the right time to justify what you're saying? It seems fairly common in Equestria; why should it be any different here?"

Sonic looked over at Silver and smirked, "Wow, she's good. I didn't realize she had that much experience."

Rainbow fluttered over while saying, "Yeah. Tempest has seen a thing or two, so she knows a thing or two." She stopped in front of them, "That would be pretty cool if something happened, though." A couple moments of silence passed, nothing happening as they all remained where they were.


EMERGENCY CALL


A sudden ringing sound pierced the silence, surprising them. Sonic reached into his quills after a moment and pulled out his Miles Mobile. It was shaking and saying it was picking up an unknown transmission on the screen. He looked at the others before he flicked his thumb up across the screen, answering it with a "Hello?"

A female voice on the other end spoke, "Uh, hello? Hello, hello?”

Sonic answered, “We can hear you here.”

The voice said, “Oh good, it’s working. May I ask who I'm speaking to?"

Sonic replied, "I'm Sonic. Who are you?"

The voice answered, "My name is Jewel. I'm calling from Spiral Hill Village." An explosion sounded in the background, prompting her to let out a yelp before saying, "Are you with the Resistance, Sonic? Can you please help us?! We really need it!"

Sonic asked, "What's going on over there?"

Jewel explained, "We've been experiencing attacks from Dr. Eggman's robots for some time now, but this is the worst one yet! I don't know if we can push them back this time! And…" There was a momentary pause before she started, “What… Is that a centaur?! I didn’t know those were… How did Dr. Eggman…?” She was cut off by another explosion and exclaimed afterwards, “Please, help us!”

During the second explosion, Sonic looked up at Rainbow and Silver and they shared a nod. When Jewel finished, he said, “Hang tight, Jewel! Help’s coming!”

As he ended the call, Tempest asked, “Is that really the way you should’ve ended that?” When everyone looked at her, she clarified, “I haven’t learned the geography of this world, but I don’t know where this Spiral Hill Village is. Do any of you?”

Silver answered, “Yeah. Here, I’ll show you.” He reached over and tapped on the screen of Sonic’s Mobile for a minute, pulling up a map and the destination on it. “It’s right here. It’s not that far from the city and, by extension, here.”

Rainbow peered at the map before saying, “Oh yeah, that’s not far at all. We should have no problem getting there to help them out.”

The flap to the medical tent suddenly whipped open again and the albatross medic stepped out. "I beg your pardon? Forgive me if I didn't hear you all correctly, but I could swear you were all just talking about going back into battle," she said.

"That's exactly what we're talking about," Sonic replied.

The albatross let out an annoyed trill before saying, "Did I not make myself clear before? I specifically forbade that! You all need to rest! Don't you remember that?"

Rainbow shrugged, "Yeah, well, that was before we got word that Tirek might be back in play. And speaking from experience, believe me when I say we do not want him walking around, okay?"

Silver said, "You and your friends mentioned he's one of the most dangerous bad guys you've ever faced."

Rainbow nodded, "Yep. He stole everypony's magic, including Discord's, the princesses', and Twilight's, and he destroyed the library and would've destroyed the rest of Equestria if we hadn't stopped him. If he's got a lot of power on his side, he could destroy Spiral Hill Village by himself." She bowed her head, "I'd be willing to wait if the rest of the girls were available, but Twilight's still out, Applejack and Fluttershy are helping the Resistance, and Pinkie and Rarity are still away." She looked up, "We can't wait. We gotta go now."

Tempest stated, "She makes a good point. We'll call HQ on the way and tell them what's going on. Hopefully they'll be able to redirect some support our way." She looked at Silver and motioned for him to get on.

Sonic said, "Then let's go!" Once Silver was seated and holding onto Tempest, they all quickly shot off.

As she watched them disappear into the distance, the albatross shook her head and sighed, "And I thought Gen was the most difficult patient I've had to treat. They're going to get themselves hurt. Badly." As she turned and walked back into the tent, the light inside shone off of her eyes, causing a nearly imperceptible pink glow over her pupils to be visible for a moment.

Soon…

Sonic and Tempest slid to a stop and Rainbow slowed down, flapping her wings above them as they all stared. Off in the distance in front of them was a hill so large it could almost be called a mountain with a town on top of it and a long, curving stone bridge extending out from it to the ground. Even in the dark of night, they could see the town due to it being lit up by flashes of light and explosions from within. And above it, blocking out part of the night sky, it looked like there was a large number of robots overhead, glowing shots firing down from them.

"That's it, isn't it?" Tempest asked.

Silver looked down at his Mobile for a moment before saying, "Yeah. That's Spiral Hill Village."

Sonic put his hands on his hips, "They must have something Eggman wants. That is a pretty big attack force."

Rainbow nodded, "Yeah. There's so many robots up there, it looks like they got a giant cloud hanging over them." She winced a bit as she flipped her helmet back on her head, but she grinned all the same, "And when it comes to clearing clouds, I'm the best!" She readied herself and then shot up towards the robots, her wings flapping furiously.

"H-Hey, wait for me, Rainbow!" Silver exclaimed, using his psychokinesis to raise himself up and go after her, leaving Sonic and Tempest alone.

The two looked at each other. "Take the bridge?" Sonic asked.

"Why not," Tempest replied. She revved up her Extreme Gear and balanced herself before driving after him.


ATTACK ON SPIRAL HILL VILLAGE


It didn't take them long to get to the end of the bridge and enter the village, both stopping inside the entryway to take stock of the situation. Even from where they were, they could see most of the village's inhabitants were running scared with only a small number attempting to fight back. They were mainly being attacked by Egg Pawns, but some Buzz Bombers and Nebulas had descended low enough for a more direct attack. Some buildings were on fire and some were beginning to fall apart from all the fighting. It was starting to resemble the city a bit too much.

Tempest got off her Extreme Gear after setting up the kickstand and moved next to Sonic. "What's your plan? Same as Rainbow Dash's?" she asked.

Sonic replied, "Just about. It kinda goes like this. Step one: rescue everyone in danger. Step two: destroy Badniks. Step three… Eh, we'll figure that one out when we get there. Cool?" Tempest raised an eyebrow, but she still nodded and they ran into the village.

They headed towards a small group of Egg Pawns they spotted, which was firing on what looked like a hastily built barricade. Sonic and Tempest looked at each other and nodded, Tempest facing forward again and firing a bolt of magic from her horn at them. It temporarily shorted out its target and caught the attention of the others, all of them turning to look and reprioritizing when they spotted Sonic. The two stepped and leapt to avoid the shots for a moment before they broke off, Sonic running for the barricade while Tempest leapt into the group. She was able to take them out easily due to them recalculating while Sonic checked on the animals.

Once the Egg Pawns were reduced to scrap, Tempest turned to look at the barricade, Sonic and two young wolves and two young lionesses coming out from behind it a second later. She ran after them and got alongside the hedgehog before asking, "What's going on?"

Sonic answered, "They got separated from their mama when the attack started, but they know where to go when there's an emergency. I'm gonna make sure they get there safely." They heard a yelp behind them and looked to see one of the wolves had stumbled and fallen. They all stopped, the other wolf and the lionesses running back over to him.

Sonic and Tempest noticed several Buzz bombers and Nebulas coming in from above, their sights seemingly locked on the kids and their weapons almost ready. Sonic shot towards the smaller animals and grabbed them, leaping to avoid the barrage of shots that came down. He managed to keep a hold of them as he landed on his feet further down the road and Tempest fired a strong bolt of magic to destroy the robots. The children whimpered at the sounds of the explosions and the debris raining down, but Sonic patted them to comfort them.

As he stood up straight, he winced and let out a grunt as he felt a sudden burning sensation go across two of his quills. He looked to his left and saw another group of Egg Pawns down the side road, smoke coming from the blaster of the one at the front. As they began to approach, Tempest leapt in front of Sonic and the kids, glaring at the robots. "I'll handle them. Get the kids to safety!" she said.

Sonic nodded, "All right. Be careful!" He turned to the kids, "Come on, let's get to your parents' special hiding place." He started running down the street again and they followed close behind him.

Tempest, meanwhile, charged at the Egg Pawns, all of them raising their blasters at her. This did nothing to intimidate her and she had no trouble leaping out of the way and stepping around their shots while continuing to move towards them. She did fire off a magic bolt when she was about halfway to them to scramble the circuits of some of them, allowing her to get close and finish them off easily. There were a few more scattered behind them as well as a few low flying Buzz Bombers and Nebulas, so she eagerly moved to deal with them as well.

After a few minutes, there were no more robots near her, at least not ones that were still together. As she stood surrounded by various different piles of scrap, she suddenly heard something hit the ground nearby; she looked and saw it was the remains of a Buzz Bomber. She looked up and realized it came from the fighting in the sky. She could see a few more falling that seemed like they were going to land near her and she started running down the street again, hearing them hit the ground behind her. She kept running until she approached what looked like a town square, at which point she slowed down since she couldn’t hear pieces falling behind her as loudly. She slowed to a trot and looked back over her shoulder as she got closer; sure enough, the rain of Badnik parts had stopped for the time being.

She came to a stop when she heard a clanging sound in front of her and quickly faced forward. An Egg Pawn had dropped out of the sky, landing a short distance in front of her. It charged at her after a moment and she prepared to retaliate, but suddenly, something smashed into it from its left side and knocked it off the ground. Sparks shot out of it after it landed a second later, but Tempest’s focus was on the being in front of her. She only had time to see that it had primarily light gray fur and a long bushy tail before it suddenly used that tail to spring up into the air. She followed it and saw several more Egg Pawns dropping down behind where the first had been. The figure spun in a circle, using its long tail to intercept them and send them flying, causing them to explode when they hit the ground. From her vantage point, Tempest could make out more details. The figure appeared to be wearing a short-sleeved black bodysuit with dark orange stripes that ran down the sides, an amber sleeveless top, amber high tops, amber sports tape around the wrists, and black fingerless gloves that also appeared to be made of sports tape with dark orange back rings.


TANGLE


The figure finished the impromptu pirouette as it came back down, landing on its feet. It then looked at Tempest with orchid eyes and said, "Hey there! Hope I didn't frighten you; just wanted to help!" Its tone of voice indicated to the unicorn that it was a girl.

Before she could say anything, Sonic ran into the square, slowing down when he got closer to Tempest and walked towards her saying, "There you are, Tempest! I didn't know how far you…" He trailed off when he noticed the other girl, looking at her for a moment before looking back at Tempest and asking, "Who's your lemur friend?"

She replied, "We just met."

The lemur pointed a thumb at herself, "Yep. My name's Tangle!" She looked at Sonic, "You're Sonic, right? My friend Jewel told me she talked to you; she said you were coming to help."

Sonic nodded, "You bet. We all answered her call." He gestured to Tempest, "She's Tempest Shadow." He then pointed up, "And that's Silver and Rainbow Dash up there."

Tangle replied, "Awesome! Nice to meet you two, and I guess I'll meet them later. The last couple of attacks weren't too bad, but this is definitely the worst one so far, so I'm glad for the help." They heard a loud clanging sound a moment later and looked to see that they were surrounded on all sides by a large group of Egg Pawns.

The three of them turned and backed up next to each other as they surveyed the group. "Looks like any more talking will have to wait until later as well," Tempest remarked.

“Guess so,” Sonic said. He held his right fist up, “You up for some more of this, Tangle?”

The end of Tangle’s tail bumped against his fist, “I thought you’d never ask!” With that, they all leapt at the robots surrounding them.

They continued on like this for a while, destroying Eggman’s robots, protecting and helping the other villagers, and dodging Badnik pieces raining down from above. Eventually, it seemed like they had gotten the situation under control: the skies were clear and the remaining robots on the ground seemed to be retreating, at which point Silver and Rainbow came down and introduced themselves to Tangle. Shortly afterwards, however, they felt the ground beginning to shake, though it wasn’t from an earthquake. Rather than a continuous shaking, there were brief, intermittent shakes like something very large was walking close to the village. And they were getting stronger each time they occurred.


TIREK ARRIVES


Suddenly, they heard a loud explosion, which sounded like it came from the village entrance. They ran towards one of the streets leading to the square, which offered a good view of the entrance gate. It was heavily damaged, the doors hanging from their hinges and the top blown almost completely off the cracked and burnt support columns. And further up the road, Tempest's Extreme Gear was laying on its side. And then they heard a loud yell before something crashed through the columns, reducing them to rubble.

After a few moments, the one responsible was revealed to be Tirek, the centaur standing up straight as the dust fell around him. “Tirek!” Rainbow exclaimed.

He soon spotted the small group and, with a sneer, generated an orange orb between his horns. He then turned his head and fired a beam back at the bridge, leaving a sizable hole in it. He looked back at them and said, "Nowhere to run now." He then grabbed a small house nearby and ripped it out of the ground, throwing it at them.

Silver had predicted he was going to do this and leapt forward, stopping and planting his feet on the ground a short distance ahead of the group. He held his hands out and used his psychokinesis to catch the house in midair. He managed to stop it, but he grunted and slid back a bit before it did. He didn't get to hold it long before Tirek let out a roar and came smashing through the house moments later, swinging his fist. Fortunately for Silver, Rainbow had flown by and seen him coming and was able to fly back down and grab him before the punch connected, flying him away and leaving Tirek with nothing but the ground to punch.

He punched the ground hard enough to get his hand stuck momentarily. Seeing this, Sonic shot forward and spun into his chest. The hit made Tirek grunt and take a few steps back, but it didn't do much else. Sonic bounced back a fair distance and Tangle ran over to him as he stood up. Tirek glared down at them and created another orange orb between his horns. They both broke to the sides as he fired it down at them, avoiding the brunt of the explosion and leaping towards the buildings, using them to parkour their way towards the centaur.

Tirek saw what they were up to, however, and picked up on the fact that Sonic was going to reach him first. He clapped his hands together as the hedgehog came spinning towards him, catching him between them. He could feel the vibrations from his spinning, but they weren’t enough to stop him from throwing Sonic straight down at the ground, leaving the hedgehog stuck in the street on his back. The end of Tangle’s tail struck him in the face a moment later, but he quickly brought his right hand up and grabbed it, giving it a hard yank up and letting go so he could close his hand around the lemur’s body.

Tempest clicked her tongue as she thought, “He’s faster than I thought.” She then steeled herself, “I’d better help them.” She started galloping forward, firing a shot from her horn at Tirek’s face to get his attention. He responded by firing a series of smaller beams at her, which she had little trouble avoiding. That didn’t matter to him, though; when she was almost to Sonic, who was trying to get up after the hard landing, he stomped the ground with his left front hoof, which caused the ground to shake and Tempest to lose her balance. While she was trying to get her hooves back on the ground properly, he reached forward and grabbed her with his left hand. As he held both her and Tangle up in front of him, he eyed the unicorn’s broken horn and a smirk crossed his face. He brought her towards Tangle like he was going to jam her horn into the lemur’s body, but she managed to twist her tail around and hold it up in front of her protectively. She managed to stop Tirek’s hand inches away from her, but it was taking all of her strength to hold him there.

Suddenly, his left arm jerked back, pulled by an unseen force. Sonic looked up from where he lay and saw Rainbow descending with her forelegs still wrapped around Silver. “Silver!” he said, causing the others to look up as well. The white hedgehog pulled his hands back for a moment before thrusting them forward again with a shout, shifting his psychokinesis from Tirek’s arm to the rest of his body, trying to push him backwards. He succeeded in causing him to slide back a few feet away from Sonic, but then he began to resist it, planting his hooves against the ground and beginning to slowly step forward while still holding Tangle and Tempest while Silver struggled to keep him back. And he was beginning to generate another orange orb as well…


TURNAROUND


His concentration was suddenly broken when two wooden barrels filled with water hit him in the face. This disoriented him enough to get pushed back a bit by Silver and release Tangle and Tempest, the former using her tail to catch herself while the latter landed on her hooves okay. Silver stopped pushing after a few more moments and, while Tirek wiped his face, Rainbow asked him, "That wasn't you, was it, Silver?"

The hedgehog replied, “Nope.”

Down on the ground, Sonic looked up and saw a familiar figure rushing forward, and behind him was a cart that was tilted in Tirek’s direction. “Big!” he exclaimed. The cat came to a stop a reasonable distance away from everyone and held up his fishing rod, waving it a bit before he cast the line, aiming for Sonic. The hedgehog reached up and grabbed near the end of the line when it got close enough, holding on when Big gave a sharp pull and then started swinging it around in a circle. Sonic quickly picked up on what he was doing and went along with the swinging to pick up speed; the others soon got it as well and readied themselves, waiting to see what was going to happen.

When Tirek had finished wiping away most of the water and bits of wood, he started to say, "Do you think petty tricks will…" He stopped when his glaring eyes locked with Tempest's and she fired a bolt of magic up at his face. Tangle followed up by striking him in the face with her tail to disorient him further, at which point Sonic, Rainbow, and Silver made their move. Sonic let go of Big's line at the right moment and went shooting towards Tirek while Rainbow flew down almost as fast with Silver following in her slipstream. Sonic and Rainbow struck at about the same time, the centaur recoiling from the impact, and Silver unleashed his psychokinesis at them to enhance their attack and add his own. The combination attack sent Tirek sliding straight back towards the gate, Sonic and Rainbow rebounding off of him before he went through the remains of the gate and fell down through the hole in the bridge.

One of his hands managed to grab onto the ledge and Sonic, Rainbow, and Silver could hear him growling, the appearance of his other hand followed by the sound of his hooves thumping against the side of the hill moments later indicating to them he was trying to climb back up. He seemed to be climbing fast, so Silver suggested, “Let’s regroup!” He turned and ran back towards Tempest, Tangle, and Big and Sonic and Rainbow followed suit.

As they got closer to them, they could hear Tempest asking Tangle, "So you know him as well?"

The lemur replied, "Well, sort of. He just kind of showed up about a week ago and has been kind of hanging around since then. I'm not complaining; he's been a good guy to be around, and when the attacks started, he's been nice enough to help us protect the village."

Tempest raised an eyebrow, "So the attacks really started after he showed up?"

Rainbow, Sonic, and Silver stopped near them, Silver saying, "Let's not worry about that now! We need to focus on stopping Tirek!" He looked at Rainbow, "Rainbow, what's it going to take to bring him down?"

Rainbow replied, "Your guess is as good as mine. We didn't exactly fight him before. The princesses found out he escaped from Tartarus that one time after he started stealing magic from ponies, and he got nearly all the magic in Equestria when he tricked Discord. He turned on him and stole his magic when Twilight was the only one left, and she wasn't able to beat him!"

Tempest asked, "What do you mean?"

Rainbow explained, "She was holding onto the magic from the other princesses, so she wasn't outmatched, but she was only able to tie with him. He had to use us to get her to give up all the magic she had."

Silver stated, “That’s terrible! …Not that what he’s doing right now is any better, of course, but…”

Tangle said, “Yeah, I’ve had enough of him too. We’ve already had to deal with enough damage that Eggman’s robots have caused. I don’t want to know what else he’ll do.”

Big suggested, “Maybe we should make him leave?”

Tempest glanced over in Tirek’s direction, seeing his hands causing more damage nearby as he got closer to pulling himself up the rest of the way. “A valid thought for protecting the village, but he seems determined to make sure it’s unsuccessful,” she remarked.

Sonic followed her gaze, looking as well. “Maybe we just need to get him facing the right way,” he said after a second. He turned to Tangle, “Tangle, do you know if there are any parts of the wall that have taken a lot of damage already?”

The lemur thought for a moment before saying, “Uh, yeah, I can think of a spot or two. Why?”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “You’ve got an idea, don’t you?”

Sonic smirked back at her, “I might.”

About a minute later, Tirek managed to get his front hooves on the pavement, letting out a yell as he did. He soon got the rest of his body up and looked around. He couldn't see any of the interlopers, so with another yell, he charged into the square and began looking around again. "Where are you?! Show yourselves, you puny fools! I will destroy this entire town if that's what it takes to find you!" he shouted.

“Hey, Tirek!” Sonic called. The centaur looked back over his shoulder to see the hedgehog standing on the roof of one of the buildings at the edge of the square, Rainbow and Tangle joining him as he held up his left index finger and said, “There’s no need for that. I think Spiral Hill’s been through enough to earn a pass from any more destruction for a long time. Can’t we take this somewhere else?” Tirek responded by firing a beam at the trio. As they leapt out of the way, Tangle jumping up and being grabbed by Rainbow and Sonic leaping off the roof, he remarked, “I was hoping he’d say that.”

After landing, he shot towards Tirek and hit him with a Spin Attack that went from the front of his lower half up to his chest before bouncing off and landing on the ground again. Tirek prepared to attack him, but Sonic ran forward before he was ready and came to a stop underneath him. He began darting out from under him briefly before going back underneath him, his speed making it next to impossible for Tirek to step far enough to be away from him. Rainbow swooped down with Tangle after a minute and let go of her close to him, the lemur using her tail to move and swing around under him while the pegasus flew around, throwing him off further.

Their antics made Tirek go from irritated to aggravated, his anger starting to cloud his mind. Suddenly, Tangle swung out from under him and used her tail to swing around one of his horns and land on his face. It was a bit of a shaky landing, but she regained her balance and used the end of her tail to grab his nose while she thrust her hands at his eyes. He closed them before she could touch them, but he couldn’t take this mockery anymore. He closed his left hand into a fist and swung it at Tangle, but she used her tail to pull herself back and lower herself to the ground, leaving him with only his face to punch. As he held his face and groaned and growled, Sonic, Rainbow, and Tangle took off down one of the streets, laughing loudly.

Their laughter pushed Tirek’s anger over and he charged after them, yelling, “I’ll get you!” When they turned and went down a street to the right, he slid slightly as he slowed down, his hooves scraping up the road under him before he turned and continued pursuing them. He had no idea that Tempest was in the alley behind him, watching. After a few moments, she turned her head to the right and raised her hoof, signaling to Silver and Big.

The trio continued to follow the road until it ended at part of the wall surrounding the village, the wall itself lined with cracks and holes that had not all been tended to yet. They turned around as the heavy stomping got closer, turning around completely several seconds before Tirek reached them. He grinned down at them, “Now you really have nowhere to run. Any last words?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah.” He smirked a moment later, “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.” At that, Silver, who had been hovering closer with Big held in his psychokinesis, made his move. While Tirek was stalled, he swung his right arm and sent the cat flying at the centaur. Big held his fishing rod in both hands and watched carefully as he flew, sending the line flying when he was close enough and wrapping it around Tirek’s horns. The centaur noticed him when he dropped down past his face, the line long enough to allow Big’s feet to touch the ground. He immediately gave a sharp pull, Tirek giving a surprised grunt as he felt himself get dragged down, his back hooves leaving the ground.

“Now!” Rainbow yelled, both her and Sonic shooting past Tirek while Tangle moved towards his front legs and extended her tail past in front of them. Silver and Tempest met up with Rainbow and Sonic and aided them, Silver using another psychokinetic force and Tempest firing another burst of magic while the two speedsters struck Tirek from behind, Rainbow against his back and Sonic against one of his front legs. Tangle’s tail didn’t really contribute much considering Tirek’s size, but it still helped unbalance the centaur and caused him to stumble forward, crashing through the wall with a loud yell. Big’s line snapped from the strain a second later, and it only took a few more seconds before they heard Tirek crash into the ground below, debris from the broken wall raining down on him.

Everyone moved to peer over the edge. They saw Tirek lying on the grass just a little way away from Spiral Hill, small and moderately sized pieces of stone strewn on and around him. Suddenly, a few seconds later, the centaur's body began to flicker, red bolts of lightning flashing across him as his body became fuzzy. Rainbow, Silver, and Tangle tensed at this, wondering what he was doing, but Tempest and Sonic recognized what was happening. They couldn't hear it, but there was a strange sound a second later followed by Tirek disappearing, the stone on him falling to the ground.

"Hey, where'd he go?" Tangle asked.

"He just disappeared," Silver said.

"Just like those three on the Death Egg," Tempest stated.

Rainbow suggested, "Maybe he teleported? He has magic; he might be able to do that. Or maybe Eggman teleported him away!"


MEETING JEWEL


They all heard a familiar voice ask, “Tangle?” They all turned to see a beetle with light blue skin and antennae, pink eyes, and a white muzzle wearing a pink blazer with a matching miniskirt and pumps, a white cravat attached to a golden brooch with a blue gem, white gloves with navy cufflinks, and navy tights approaching them slowly.

“Jewel!” Tangle exclaimed, running over and giving her friend a hug. She pulled back after a few seconds and looked at her, asking, “Are you okay? What are you doing out here?”

Jewel replied, “I got worried about you when I kept hearing lots of different sounds almost at once. Are you okay?”

Tangle nodded, “Yeah. You don’t have to worry about me. We took care of that big centaur guy. It’s over now. Unless there’s another attack going on that we don’t know about?”

Jewel answered, “Not as far as I know.” She stepped back from Tangle and looked past her and saw Sonic, Rainbow, Tempest, Silver, and Big walking over. “Oh, Mr. Big! I’m glad you came to help as well.” She looked at Sonic, “And you’re Sonic, correct?”

The hedgehog replied, “You got it, Jewel.” He then pointed, “This is Rainbow Dash, Silver, and Tempest Shadow.” All of them nodded at being named. He then asked, “Is everyone okay?”

Jewel replied, “I think so. With the rising frequency of the attacks, everyone has been on edge, anticipating the next one. Some citizens came to me when this attack started, but we’ll have to do a proper census later to find out for sure.”

Silver asked, “Do you think there might be a reason Eggman has been attacking more frequently? …I mean, besides him not being happy that you fended him off the first time.”

Jewel and Tangle shared a glance for a moment before looking back at them. “We actually might know what the reason is.” She held out her right hand, “Come with us. I think it’ll be easier to just show you.” She turned and started walking, Tangle immediately following her. Sonic, Rainbow, and Silver quickly followed after while Tempest waited a moment before doing the same, Big walking behind her.

Jewel and Tangle led the group to a two-story building that had a blue-framed entrance with glass windows. Parts of the outside showed signs of damage, but it seemed to have held up well.  As they approached the front doors, Jewel looked back at the others and said, “Wait here a minute.” She walked over to the doors and opened one, poking her head inside. The others could hear her say, “Okay, everyone, it’s safe to come out now.” They could make out some talking inside that lasted a minute before the citizens of Spiral Hill Village began to empty out. Once they were all gone, Jewel invited everyone to follow her inside.

Inside, they found an open hall with stairs on the sides leading up to the second floor, many shelves and display cases taking up the open space. “Is this a museum?” Rainbow asked as they walked through the building.

“You bet! It’s the Mineral Museum! I help Jewel keep it going. I help her collect all kinds of different minerals, and she puts them on display for everyone to see. We both contribute to it in our own way!” Tangle explained.

Tempest eyed one of the cases they passed, seeing a rather sizable mineral sample inside in the middle surrounded by smaller samples. “As we can clearly see,” she remarked.

Jewel led them to a door near the back of the museum, pulling her keys out of her blazer as they approached it. They all came to a stop in front of it while she inserted the key. Once it was unlocked, she pushed it open and looked at Sonic, “Go ahead.” He stepped forward and peered into the dark room for a moment before looking back at her. “Oh, the light switch is on the wall to the right, next to the door,” she said. Sonic nodded and then stepped into the room.


OLD FRIEND


Reaching over, he flipped the switch, revealing the room appeared to be a storage room due to all the boxes stacked up on the sides. He quickly saw the object of interest, though, due to it being against the wall opposite the door. A humanoid mostly black robot with yellow highlights and yellow three-pronged horn on its forehead with a blue gem in the center was slumped against it. It was in a sitting position and was clearly badly damaged, wires poking out in several places. He recognized it almost immediately. “Gemerl!” he exclaimed, running over to the robot.

As he knelt next to it, Silver came over and asked, “Gemerl? Isn’t he Cream’s friend?” Sonic nodded in reply.

Jewel, Tangle, and the ponies stepped into the room and walked over. “What happened to him? If he’s Cream’s friend, shouldn’t he be with her in these dangerous times?” Tempest asked.

“I’d rather know more about him. You guys never talked about him before,” Rainbow said.

Sonic started, “Well, it’s kind of a long story, Rainbow, but to sum it up, we had another robot friend named Emerl. Ancient tech, Eggman’s grandfather discovered him. He went a bit haywire because Eggman tried to sway him and had to be taken out before he destroyed the Earth.” He gestured to Gemerl, “Gemerl here was made from some of his parts. Basically, Eggman wanted a new, obedient version. During his plot, though, Gemerl also ended up going haywire when we were at the Master Emerald Altar and tried to take the Chaos Emeralds for himself. We managed to stop him and afterwards, Cream and her mother found him washed up on the beach and took him to Tails. He was able to repair and reprogram him so he would be more like Emerl. Since then, he’s been our friend, though mostly Cream’s friend.”

Tangle put her hand to her chin, “She found him on the beach, huh? Big brought him to us about a week ago, saying he caught him while he was fishing. That’s about the time Eggman started attacking Spiral Hill Village more frequently.”

Jewel added, “We tried to clean him up as best we could, get all the salt water off of him and everything, but actually fixing him is beyond us. We’re not sure how to get him working again or what happened to him.”

Rainbow said, “I think I know.” When everyone looked at her, she explained, “When Eggman started all this world conquest garbage all those months ago, he had to have come after Cream at some point. Gemerl must’ve stepped in to protect her, Cheese, and her mother so they could get away, no matter what it was he had to protect them from. But he suffered some major damage and was thrown in the ocean, where he disappeared until Big pulled him out. Eggman must’ve seen him get reeled in and now he wants him back to being his robot again.”

Silver said, “Well, in that case, we’d be happy to take him off your hands. It might not stop Eggman’s attacks completely, but he might ease off if he knows Gemerl isn’t here anymore.”

Tangle remarked, “That’d be great. It would be a nice to get a little break after all this.”

Jewel nodded, “It certainly would.” She turned to look towards the front of the museum for a moment before turning back and saying, “Speaking of which, it’s getting rather late and I’m sure it’s going to be a long way back to your base, especially after all this. Would you all like a place to stay for the night?”

Everyone looked at each other for a second before looking back at the beetle. “Well, I don’t know…” Tempest started.

Tangle interrupted her, “Aw, come on! You guys came to help us out and did a pretty darn good job if you ask me! The least you could let us do is repay you for it!”

Rainbow spoke up after a moment, “I think we should take them up on their offer, and not just because I really want to crash after how busy today was. I’m actually thinking about Tirek and the way he disappeared. That guy was relentless last time; if we hadn’t managed to free all the magic he stole, he would’ve destroyed everything in Equestria and probably beyond. I’m just worried he’s gonna come back and start attacking the village again. It’d be better if we were here in case he does.” The others had to agree she made a good point, so Sonic grabbed his Miles Mobile to make a call to Resistance HQ.

The Next Morning…


READY TO LEAVE


Tangle and Sonic grunted as they finished securing Gemerl to the seat of Tempest’s Extreme Gear with cords, both checking afterwards to make sure he wouldn’t move much. “I’d say he’s secured. We’re good to go,” Sonic said a second later.

Rainbow hovered overhead, looking down at them. “And you’re sure this thing still works?” she asked.

“Already checked it. Still fires up and runs like a dream,” Tangle assured her.

Tempest nodded, “Then let’s get going. The sooner we get Gemerl back to base, the better, and we can’t keep wasting time looking for Big, even though he would be a powerful ally.”

Rainbow said, “I can’t believe he just disappeared without a trace while we were looking away. How does he do that?”

Sonic shrugged, “No idea. He does have a habit of turning up in the strangest places, though.”

Silver turned to Jewel, “Sorry we have to leave like this, but… well…”

The beetle replied, “Don’t worry. We know you have a war to fight. But maybe when it’s over, you and the rest of the Resistance could help with the reconstruction in some places?”

Silver nodded, “Oh, of course. Absolutely!”

Sonic looked at Tangle, “If anything else comes up, you know how to reach us.” He held out his right hand, “And hey, if something’s going down nearby, we might just extend you an invitation to join the fun.”

Tangle took his offered hand and shook it, “Sounds great. I’ll look forward to it!” After releasing hands, they stepped back to allow Tempest to get on her Extreme Gear. She turned it on and its engine started up while she got comfortable. Once she was ready, Tangle and Jewel stepped back and waved to them. “Good luck, you guys!” Tangle called. They all waved back and then they headed out, Sonic and Tempest going out over the wooden boards that had been put down to make it possible to use the bridge until it could be repaired while Rainbow and Silver took to the air, all of them refreshed and in better spirits for the journey back to HQ.
> Justice Calling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


EGGMAN'S MADNESS


Orbot and Cubot peered around the corner at Eggman, looking at him intently. He was at his computer with his back turned to them, standing stiffly with his arms at his sides and the slightest hint of a tremor running through his frame. He remained like this and they continued to stare at him for about a minute before Cubot shifted his head to look at Orbot and whispered, “Is he…?”

Orbot continued to watch Eggman as he started, “I’m not certain yet. I… Oh?” He stopped and stared even more intently when he noticed it. It was subtle, but the tremor running through Eggman had shifted, a sign that it was getting stronger. And sure enough, seconds later, he saw the spike beginning to spread, the shaking in Eggman’s body becoming noticeable. “No, the Boss is definitely losing now. Brace yourself, pal,” Orbot whispered, both him and Cubot placing their hands over where their ears would be as they knew what was coming next.

“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The shrill, rage-filled scream seemed to echo through the room well after Eggman had actually stopped screaming, the madman’s arms and legs out to the sides as his mouth hung open. When it finally seemed like their auditory processors were functioning as normal, Orbot and Cubot shifted to their closed state and slowly floated over towards him, Eggman going back to standing up perfectly straight as they got closer, though his face was still contorted in rage. The two robots dared not get too close to him, opening up at what they thought was a safe distance and Orbot allowing Cubot to be the one to ask for them, “Boss?”

Eggman whirled around and yelled, "WHAT?!" It hit the two like a roar, both of them getting pushed back slightly and closing their bodies submissively. Eggman glared down at them for several tense moments before turning back to his screen, looking it over and reading it once again to make sure he hadn't misread it thousands upon thousands of times. "The Resistance not only located my Death Egg, they released Sonic and made a mess of the fleet's communication systems in order to escape. That hedgehog helped the Resistance take out one of my weapons plants, helped them gain ground in the forest, getting them closer to my old lab, and now they have Gemerl," he said, sounding remarkably calm. That veil was torn asunder a moment later when he screamed, "Why am I just learning all this now?!"

Orbot popped open, Cubot doing the same as he placed his hands together and suggested, "Maybe because of that first problem, Boss? I imagine it would be a little hard to report all the trouble Sonic is causing if they can't report that he's escaped."

Eggman whirled around again, "Be quiet! You're not here to play tech support!"

Cubot asked, “Why are we here right now, anyway? It’s still morning; we could’ve slept in if you didn’t need us for anything.”

Eggman turned back to his computer as he uttered, “I wouldn’t mind having you two be out of my hair right now if you’re not going to be any help whatsoever.” Cubot’s mouth piece moved like he was about to say something and Orbot slapped his left hand over it to stop him, almost positive that he was about to say something about Eggman not having any hair on his head. Eggman turned to the side and began to pace as he growled, “Grr, what a lousy way to start the day off. First, I find out I’ve had a security alert for almost an entire day, and now I know that Sonic’s on the loose!”

Orbot said, "So I guess it's back to how things were before. Sonic running around, destroying your things, while you plot to destroy him."

Cubot added, "Just like the good old days!"

Eggman paused for a moment before he continued pacing. "That's the one thing I've never wanted. I would so like to just destroy him in one attack and be done with it… but knowing him, even if I knew he was in the middle of a valley and I ordered a carpet bombing on it, he'd still find a way to get through it," he growled. He paced for several moments more before he came to a stop facing sideways with his head tilted down. He looked up, "Perhaps it's time to hit him with something neither he nor anyone else can outrun or survive."

Cubot asked, "What's that, Boss?"

Eggman ignored him, a familiar grin starting to spread across his face. "Yes, that should work quite nicely. Nowhere to go, and how ironic it should be for Twilight and her friends. How inspiring their crazy world can be," he said. He turned to his computer and began typing.

Orbot and Cubot looked at each other, confused. What was Eggman thinking of doing? They looked back at him and Orbot ventured, "Boss?" He continued to ignore the two, focusing on his typing.

After a couple of seconds, a map appeared on the screen with a moving red dot over part of it. Eggman looked up at the screen. "Ah, so he's moving towards Green Hill," he said.

"Sonic?" Orbot asked.

"No, Infinite, you fool!" Eggman yelled. He observed the way the dot was moving for several seconds before dismissing the map and typing again, multiple windows opening and closing on the screen too fast for the two robots to catch. After a minute, he stopped and looked up as he closed the last window. "That should keep the Resistance busy for now. Meanwhile, I’m going to go talk to Infinite directly. I’ll contact him from the Eggmobile to tell him to finish what he’s doing in Green Hill and then hold position until I arrive." He looked up, "And you're coming with me for this… Posey Twinkle or whatever, so get down here! We have work to do."

As he turned to leave, a black smokey cloud came down from the ceiling, both Orbot and Cubot turning and floating away at the sight of it. As they peered out from behind one of the large tubes in the room at it, they saw, in the cloud, Cozy Glow in her normal filly form, the cloud obscuring her slightly but not enough to hide her green and red eyes and malicious smile.









SNACK RUN


Applejack lightly shifted the basket saddlebags on her back as she walked down the hall, making light conversation as she passed members of the Resistance and let them pick apples out of her baskets. She still had her Stetson on, but she also had a hairnet on as well as a gray tiger stripe top. With her help, the Resistance's food production had gone up, thus making it easier to keep everyone fed. Not everyone was happy with the surplus of apples and apple delicacies, but it was the best she could do after only a few days, and she'd yet to hear anyone say anything bad about her cooking, which she thought was pretty good considering she didn't have her usual cooking utensils.

She stopped in front of the door leading to a workshop-type area and waited for it to open. Inside, she saw the Rookie and Techni working on a Wispon shaped like a lightning bolt. They didn't immediately look up when the door opened, so she guessed it was okay to enter. She stepped inside and spoke, "Hey, y'all. Care for a little snack break?"

The Rookie looked up when she spoke, but Techni remained focused on her work, so the wolf had to give her a gentle nudge to get her to look up. “Huh? What is it?” she asked, looking at him. He pointed and she looked to see Applejack standing patiently. “Oh, snack break run already? Okay.” She set her tools down and walked with the Rookie over to the mare, both selecting an apple. One bite later, Techni remarked, “Mmm. I don’t know how you do it in such a short period of time, Applejack. It’s like you just make these great apples out of nothing.”

Applejack figured she could hang and talk, seeing as she was near the end of her rounds. "Well, Ah can tell ya fer a fact that it don’t take nothin’ fer me. That’s why Ah’m an apple farmer," she said proudly.

Techni took another bite before saying, "Mm-hmm. You sure there's no secret to it? There's no secret earth pony magic involved? Eh, doesn't matter to me; it's good all the same." She took a moment to swallow the bits of the apple before she looked back at the earth pony and asked, “Hey, uh, is there any news? You know, on, uh, Princess Twilight?”

Applejack’s slightly indignant expression softened at that. “No. I went ta talk to Fluttershy and Windra about her a couple o’ minutes ago. They’re still not sure when she’s gonna wake up. It’s gotta be soon, though, and when she does…” She was cut off by a violent tremor suddenly rocking the room, throwing them all off balance and causing apples to spill from Applejack’s saddlebags. They were lucky not to hit anything on the way down and the shaking only lasted a few seconds, but it soon started again, happening at frequent intervals.


ASSAULT


“What’s goin’ on?! This can’t be an earthquake, can it?” Applejack uttered as she, Techni, and the Rookie tried to get up off the floor. Fortunately, the metal tables were stable so the Rookie and Techni were able to grab onto the legs of one of them to help them get up while Applejack couldn’t really do the same and she couldn’t reach the top of the table, so she had to make sure her hooves were stable as she attempted to get up. Amidst the shaking, they could hear anxious chatter from outside the room.

“No… We must be under attack! A bombardment?” Techni guessed as she and the Rookie stood up. They noticed the Wispon on the table being pushed closer to the edge by the shaking, so the wolf grabbed it and held it close. Techni turned to look at the apples on the floor and then at the workshop door. “Come on, we need to find out what’s going on!” she said as she ran for the door, the Rookie quickly following after her. Applejack wasn’t as quick to get up and do the same as she was trying to pick up the apples on the floor, giving up after a couple of seconds and leaving behind her saddlebags since the constant shaking just caused them to fall out again anyway.

The mare waited for the door to open and then observed the pandemonium going on outside. Resistance members were running this way and that, some panicking while others were trying to keep a level head in spite of the shaking. Applejack saw an opening after a few moments and leapt out into the hall, joining all the running. Techni hadn't said where she was going, but she thought she had a pretty good idea where she would go.

Sure enough, after a minute or two of running and weaving, she arrived at the meeting room and found the Rookie, Techni, Matka, Tina, Amy, and Knuckles standing around the table. Amy was rapidly typing something on the laptop when Applejack walked in, everyone's attention on her. "Anything yet?" she asked as she approached the table.

"Hang on. We should be getting a view of the city any second now," Amy said. She stopped typing and looked up at the console screen a couple moments later, everyone else looking as well. Satellite and footage from still operational security cameras around the city populated the screen, revealing the attackers to be giant, mostly gray Eggman-like robots with large spikes on their hands for fingers and a single glowing red eye that shot lasers.

"Those are Death Egg Robots! How did Eggman get so many?!" Matka exclaimed.

"He must be mass-producing them. They're all probably actual robots as well; he may have sub-bosses, but I doubt he'd trust any of his living subordinates with a Death Egg Robot," Techni said.

"What are they doin'? They look like they're attackin' the ground," Applejack noted.

"That's exactly what they're doing. They're trying to draw us out of hiding, and if that doesn't work, they'll try to destroy our base and us with it," Knuckles said. Applejack cursed under her breath at that.

Tina asked, "What should we do, Commander? There are too many injured here; we can’t just abandon the base."

Knuckles replied, “You’re right. So, I say we fight. Amy?"

The pink hedgehog said, "Already on it." Her fingers were going across the laptop keyboard, an alert being sent out and a communication channel opening on the console screen a couple seconds later. Once the connection was established, she spoke, "This is a red alert! Eggman's robots have launched an attack on the city! I need everyone available to return to the city and repel the attackers! Eggman's forces include a number of Death Egg Robots!"

A window opened on the screen a few moments later, revealing Silver. "This is Silver! We're on our way back to the city, but it's going to take us a little while to get there!" he said.

Another window opened, Espio appearing in it. "Espio here. We've had to take a detour to Seaside Hill to supply aid to our forces in the region. We just got picked up; we won't be back for a while," he reported.

A third window opened, showing a Resistance soldier. “This is the Eighth Unit! Egg Pawns have broken through the barricades near the Green Hill entrance! We’re trying to protect civilians, but we’re under heavy fire!” The window shook a moment later, followed by static filling it. A message appeared over it saying ‘-CONNECTION LOST-’.

There was silence for several seconds as they waited to see if the soldier could reestablish contact, but nothing happened. Amy returned her attention to the laptop and began typing again as she said, "I'm going to see if I can figure out where he was calling from. We'll send our team there first."

Applejack asked, "Team?"

Knuckles crossed his arms, "Yeah, I don't think we have a lot of other options to go with." He turned to look across the table, "Until more help arrives, we need to do all we can in the meantime. Everyone who's able needs to get out there, help civilians and our troops, and stop this attack." He looked at the Rookie, "That includes you, Rookie. Time to show off what you learned from working with Sonic the other day."

Applejack asked, “Well, what are you two gonna do?”

Amy stopped typing when she looked up and said, “We’ll be helping out as well, Applejack, just as soon as we’re done seeing who else we can raise. There are a few signals close by that might be able to spare some help.”

Knuckles nodded as she returned to typing and said, “So gear up, spread the word and see if anyone else would like to join in, and get out there and drive them out of the city!” He received several salutes at that and the Rookie left with Techni and Matka to get ready.

The three of them went straight to the armory to arm themselves. Techni grabbed an Asteroid Wispon and began checking it while Matka went for a Cube Wispon. The Rookie, meanwhile, hovered near the door, trying to decide what to do. His eyes were drawn to one of the Burst Wispons, but then he looked down at the Lightning Wispon he was still carrying. He and Techni had finished it, but it hadn't been tested yet. They hadn't gotten a chance to do a safety check before the attack started, so using it carried some risk, but he kind of wanted to.

"Hey, you do good work, buddy. You just gotta believe in yourself!"

The words Sonic had said when they were leaving Eggman's weapons factory echoed in his head. The mission there and on the Death Egg had raised his confidence, but he still felt unsure of himself. Still, even though the Wispon was untested, he was certain his and Techno's work was sound. He had to decide.

“Hey!” He was suddenly jarred out of his thoughts by Techni’s voice and he turned to see her standing in front of him, Matka standing behind her. “We need to get a move on, Rookie! Put that down, grab a Wispon, and let’s go!” the cat said. The Rookie looked back down at the Lightning Wispon for a few moments, thinking about it for a few moments before moving it down next to his side and standing up straight, looking at Techni. The cat was surprised by this. “Whoa. Are you sure you want to do that? We haven’t properly tested that Wispon, you know,” she warned him. He simply gave her a nod in reply. “…Okay. If you’re sure about this,” she relented.

Matka placed a hand on her shoulder, “Show a little faith, Techni. Remember, sometimes you have to be willing to take certain risks in order to progress.” She looked at the wolf, “I’m glad you’re starting to have a little more confidence. Now come on; let’s find Aventura, Salten, and Sona and get out there.” She took the lead, the Rookie and Techni following her out of the armory.


CITY BATTLEFIELD


Soon…

The Rookie, Techni, and Matka stayed with Applejack, Aventura, Salten, and Sona briefly while they were in the exit tunnels before the two groups split up to take separate exits. Applejack's group emerged from the remains of a destroyed home not far from the spot where the soldier's last transmission had been pinpointed while the Rookie's group came out further away, where part of the invading force had taken part of the city. The plan was for them to break their hold and hopefully draw the attention of the rest of Eggman's robots so Applejack's group could start rescuing stranded troops and civilians.

Matka was putting her strength to bound across the top of the buildings near where they came out while the Rookie was using his grappling hook to follow closely, Techni holding onto him very tightly. While they were moving, they heard Amy's voice over the communication channels, "Applejack, what's your team's status?"

Applejack responded, "We're ready ta move, but these robots ain't budgin'. We can't rescue anyone until they thin out a little."

A soldier's voice sounded over the line, "The fighting's too fierce for us to get through! We need help as well!"

Knuckles spoke, "Sounds like it's up to you, Techni, and Matka, Rookie. Make some noise out there!" As he was saying this, they were going through a heavily damaged building, most of its outer walls collapsed, finding a squad of Egg Pawns on the street below when they came out of the other side.

The Rookie snagged a piece of the building that was sticking out with his grappling hook, allowing him to lower himself and Techni down carefully. As they were going down, Techni brought out her Wispon and said, "I've got these! Keep going!" She took aim and fired at the Egg Pawns, indigo projectiles shaped like asteroids coming out of it. She fired several times, each shot either badly damaging or destroying its target before returning and orbiting around the Wispon. The ones that weren't destroyed were finished off by Matka. With the way clear, they began making their way up the road.

The path was littered with destruction as they went, parts of the road cracked, broken, or pushed out with the ground underneath. The bits of the ground that stuck out offered a little cover, giving them a chance to get a drop on the Egg Pawns and Egg Walkers they came across. The road sloped up as they went, and at the top of the slope, they found a steep drop between them and another part of the city in front of them and one of the Death Egg Robots to their left. The robot soon noticed them, its glowing red eye locking on them and beginning to glow brighter after a few moments. The Rookie turned to look back across the gap and fired his grappling hook at the closest building, the hook embedding in the side of it. He then let out a grunt and Matka and Techni grabbed onto him, all of them shooting across the gap and getting about halfway across before the robot fired its laser at where they’d been.

They made it to the other side and had to run as soon as their feet touched the ground due to the sharp downward slant the road had. The road cut off at the bottom, requiring them to either jump down a somewhat lengthy distance or find another way down, so the Rookie fired his grappling hook at a nearby building and stopped the line from retracting so they could swing down safely. They landed near the middle of a town square-like area, a circle around the perimeter separating it from the buildings around it. It didn't take them long to notice a squad of Egg Pawns lying in wait for them at the sides of the square, ready to spring their ambush.

As they stood looking around at them, the robots raised their arms, pointing their blasters at them. "Duck!" Matka yelled, all three of them diving to the ground as the firing commenced. They avoided the shots, but so did the Egg Pawns, all of them stepping out of the way of the incoming shots. They then took aim again, targeting the Resistance members while they were still on the ground.

Seeing this, the Rookie looked at the nearest Egg Pawn and brought up his left hand, firing his grappling hook at it. It struck it in the left eye and held as the Rookie retracted the line, pulling him from the ground towards it. He brought his legs around as he soared and planted his feet against its midsection when he reached it, managing to knock it on its back. While standing on top of it, he brought out his Lightning Wispon and activated it, an electric whip coming out of the end of it that he swung at the surrounding Egg Pawns while they were recalculating.

The display of courage psyched up Matka and she turned to look at the Egg Pawns on the other side, which were hesitating due to trying to them trying to identify which party was the more immediate threat. She pushed herself up off the ground with her left hand and raised her Cube Wispon in her right hand, throwing it at the closest Egg Pawn as hard as she could. It hit it right in the chest area and knocked it on its back, the robot exploding when it hit the ground. The Wispon, meanwhile, bounced up for a moment before falling and emitting a shockwave that threw off the remaining Egg Pawns when it hit the ground. Seeing this, Matka dashed on all fours into the group, putting her ursine strength to good use as she stood up and swung at them, knocking them away and retrieving her Wispon in the process. Techni didn’t even have a chance to get up and help either one due to them both easily wiping out the two groups.

The two ran back over to Techni once the square was clear and helped her up. Once she was up on her feet, Matka looked over at the Rookie and said, "Hey, that was some real quick thinking just now, kid. Nice job." The wolf rubbed the back of his head with his right hand in response.

"Yeah. Amazing fight or flight response," Techni admitted. Seeing no more danger, the three of them started moving through the city again.

While they were moving, they suddenly heard Applejack's voice over the radio, "Hey, what's goin' on? Some of 'em are turnin' around and leavin'!"

Amy responded, "I know. We're monitoring their communications. It looks like they weren't expecting Matka, Techni, and the Rookie to not only get out of the trap they set, but also destroy all the Egg Pawns. They're diverting some of their numbers to stop them!"

Knuckles spoke, "That means the plan's working so far. This should make it easier to get to the stranded soldiers and civilians. We're going to join the action soon as well, so let's keep this momentum going!"

Sure enough, more Egg Pawns showed up as the three of them moved to meet up with Applejack's group, leaping down or standing guard along the path they were taking. Initially, there were a lot of them, but their numbers began to dwindle as they pushed through. The different squads attacking the city were running out of Egg Pawns to spare as they were trying to stick to their objectives.

They weren't the only thing they had to worry about. They still had to keep an eye on the Death Egg Robots, even with other troops trying to draw their attention, and there were still Egg Walkers running around as well. Buzz Bombers also became a problem when they got close, the mechanical bugs flying in and firing from above. Matka, Techni, and the Rookie managed to evade a swarm of them, Techni taking a few out with her Wispon, and reached the edge of a hole in the road, which they found out was a lot deeper than it seemed when they accidentally slid down the slope made of broken concrete at the edge of it while trying to avoid Buzz Bomber fire.

There was a raised section of road on the other side of the road, which the Rookie was able to snag the edge of with his grappling hook. Techni and Matka managed to grab onto him, so they were able to hold on while he lowered down into the hole. At the bottom, they found Applejack's group in a small passageway with several civilians and Resistance troops. They were all alarmed when the trio dropped in, but relaxed and lowered their weapons when they got a good look at them.

"Oh, it's you guys. That's a relief," Sona said.

"What are you all doing down here?" Techni asked.

Salten stepped forward, “When those Buzz Bombers attacked, we took cover down here since we saw too many to take them all out. We’ve been down here for a couple of minutes, so they must not have seen us.”

Aventura added, “Aside from it being risky to climb back out that way, we think there might be another way out of here, but…” She trailed off as she turned her head and glanced back over her left shoulder. The Rookie, Matka, and Techni followed her gaze and saw Applejack bucking a wall of scrap at the end of the passage. It shook a little every time her hooves hit it, but it didn’t seem to be budging otherwise.

After several more attempts, she lowered her hind legs and let out an annoyed sigh. “Ah ain’t makin’ any progress. Mah applebuckin’ is just makin’ a dent, and mah front legs ain’t quite as strong so Ah can’t pull it apart,” she said.

Matka stepped forward, “Let me help with the pulling, Applejack. If it can be taken apart, the two of us should be able to do it.”

As the bear stopped next to the earth pony, Sona turned back around and looked up towards the opening of the hole, pulling out her White Wispon as she said, “We’d better stay alert. They might still come down here.” Everyone else heeded her words and knelt down, readying themselves for a possible fight while Matka and Applejack started trying to tear the wall down.

Suddenly, they all felt the ground shake. It was brief, but it caught everyone's attention. A second shake soon after confirmed everyone's fear: a Death Egg Robot was coming closer, likely the one that Techni, Matka, and the Rookie had passed before joining up with the other group. Matka and Applejack retuned to the wall; they were making progress, but not enough that someone could squeeze through, if need be, and the steps were getting closer still.

The Rookie stepped out into the hole and used his grappling hook to pull himself up to the opening, grabbing onto the rim. While hanging onto the concrete, he looked back over his shoulder and saw the Death Egg Robot approaching, almost looking as if it was towering right over him. And its eye was looking directly at him. The wolf's eyes widened and he lost his grip, falling partway down before using his grappling hook to grab the edge again.

Aventura, Sona, and Techni had been waiting there for him to return. They had gotten worried when he fell, but relaxed when he caught himself, only to worry again when they saw his face. "It's really close, isn't it?" Aventura asked, the other wolf nodding in reply. She looked back towards the passage and called, "Applejack, Matka, how's that wall coming?!"

Applejack grunted as she tossed aside a slightly tangled piece of lead pipe before calling back, “Not quite down yet! Just give us another minute!”

Techni groaned and said, “We really don’t have another minute! We already have a Death Egg Robot bearing down on us! Right now, they’ve got us!”

They suddenly heard Rainbow's voice over the radio a second later, "Not for long! Keep working, AJ! We got this!" At this, the Rookie went back up to the top of the hole to look. Turning to look at the Death Egg Robot, he saw that it seemed to have stopped and it had a faint green aura surrounding it. It was turning its head to look over its right shoulder at something. As it finished turning, a rainbow streak with a blue outline shot down from, pulling up when it was almost level with the robot's head and shooting straight into its eye at full speed. It took a moment, but it came shooting out the back of its head, the streak coming to a stop afterwards as the robot went limp. It looked like it was going to fall forward, but then it fell backwards, raising a wave of water when it landed at least partially in the water.

The Rookie watched as the rainbow streak started moving again, a glowing green flame following it. They both came closer for a moment and he could make out that the former was Rainbow Dash carrying Sonic and the latter was Silver. He heard a roaring sound shortly after and looked up to see a Resistance transport flying overhead, heading for the fighting in the city. It seemed their backup had arrived.

The Rookie rappelled back down into the hole and saw that everyone had moved back into the passage. Looking into it, he saw that Matka and Applejack had almost finished tearing down the wall. They had finished clearing the way after a few more swings at it and, after seeing it continued on the other side, Applejack called to everyone, "C'mon y'all, let's get outta here!" Everyone followed her past the barricade and found a way up out of the hole. They just had to climb up where the infrastructure had given way.


TURNAROUND


It didn't take long for the Resistance members to climb out and help the civilians do the same, but they didn't get far before the ground shook suddenly due to another Death Egg Robot landing near them. It wasn't facing them, fortunately, but Sona had had enough. She turned to look up at the robot for a moment before turning to the Rookie. “Hey,” she said, the wolf turning to look at her. “You think you could get me up to that thing’s face?” she asked.

The others turned to look at her at that. “Sona…” Aventura started, sounding like she knew what was going to happen.

Applejack quickly interjected, “Why would you ask him that, Sona?! That’s crazy!”

The rabbit’s eyes narrowed a bit before she replied, “The only crazy one is Dr. Eggman, especially if he thinks he can just send all these robots here to make a bigger mess of things and try to cut us off at every turn. We ran before, but now it’s time for a change.” She looked back at the Rookie, “Can you help me, kid?” The wolf looked a bit hesitant at first, but he steeled himself and took on more of a neutral expression before nodding. Sona looked back at the others, “Go. We’ll catch up.”

Despite the different misgivings about the idea that everyone else had, they did as she said and continued following the road while the Rookie took her and fired his grappling hook at a nearby building so that they could get closer to the robot. It was likely the defending forces were going to focus their efforts on trying to bring down the Death Egg Robots, at least from what they could tell from the radio chatter. Rainbow, Sonic, Silver, Amy, and Knuckles were responding to calls for help in dealing with them, and it sounded like the transport had brought the Chaotix back since their voices joined the cacophony on the radio. That meant it fell to them and anyone else in the city who wasn’t focusing on fighting to help anyone in the city get to safety.

Their efforts to do so were hindered when another squad of Egg Pawns were dropped off by Buzz Bombers onto the road in front of them. Applejack and the rest of the Resistance members moved in front of the civilians to protect them, but they suddenly heard something behind them and turned to look. It was Tempest on her Extreme Gear with Gemerl still tied to the seat. She veered onto a raised patch on the road and made the jump over the group, turning her Gear to the side as she made the landing and crashed through most of the Egg Pawns. The few that remained were easily dispatched with her magic.

Applejack ran over to her once the road was clear, "Tempest! How did ya find us?"

The unicorn replied, "Simple. I followed the communication trail." She looked around and took stock of the other members of the Resistance. “I thought there were more of you here, based on what I was hearing. Did we lose anyone?” she asked. Before Applejack could answer, they all heard a loud explosion and turned to look. The nearby Death Egg Robot had smoke coming out of the top of its head and it was falling over. They soon saw the Rookie and Sona swinging towards them, the latter trying to adjust her mask while hanging onto the former. When they landed, the Rookie looked at Sona worriedly while she used both hands to properly fix her mask. Her eyes glowed briefly when she opened them before they returned to normal.

"What the hay did you two do ta that thing?" Applejack asked, clearly shocked.

"They worked together to give it a piece of their minds, clearly. Now let's get moving before more reinforcements show up," Aventura said.

Tempest nodded, "I agree." She motioned to Gemerl, "I'm heading back to the base. Anyone going that way, follow me; I'll clear the way. Everyone else, get to the bridge." She revved up her Gear and drove off, taking a makeshift side path back into the city. Techni, Salten, Sona, and the Resistance members followed her while Applejack, Matka, Aventura, and the Rookie continued to lead the civilians out.

As they neared the bridge, Espio’s voice was heard over the radio, “We’ve nearly secured this sector of the city. We’ve found another escape route and we’re using it to get the wounded out.”

Vector’s voice came on after, “It’s weird, though. Seems like someone’s been through here recently. There are a lot of destroyed robots here, and not just the ones we’ve taken out…”

Charmy piped up, “Who cares, Vector! We’re winning this fight! They’re gonna be running away soon!”

Knuckles spoke, “Might’ve spoken too soon, Charmy. We’re getting an update from HQ!”

Amy reported, “Metal Sonic’s been spotted in the city! He’s not attacking yet, but it looks like he’s heading for the bridge!”

Sonic said, “Gotcha. I’m heading there now to help!”


ENCOUNTER AT THE BRIDGE


While the radio chatter continued, Applejack's group continued making their way to the bridge, the Rookie bringing up the rear. It didn't take them long to reach it, but as they were starting to cross it, they began to hear the sound of a rocket booster in the distance, getting closer. The Rookie paused and looked back, his glasses trying to pinpoint the source. He was interrupted when he managed to hear Applejack calling to him to hurry up and turned to see she had stopped almost halfway across the bridge while Aventura and Matka were further across with the civilians. She resumed running when he did, but before he could get halfway across, the roaring became almost deafening and a few seconds later, Metal Sonic shot up through the middle of the bridge, making a fairly sizable gap and causing the Rookie to come to a stop. He took a few nervous steps back as Metal Sonic looked down at him, his engine quieting down as he hovered in the air.

Although she had just about finished crossing the bridge, Applejack was going to try to go back and help him, but she paused when she saw Sonic appear at the other end of the bridge and slide to a stop next to the Rookie. The blue hedgehog looked up at his robotic doppelganger and said, “Hey, Metal! You know, there are better ways to get my attention!” Metal Sonic didn’t respond, but a second later, his booster revved up and he shot straight up. Sonic and the Rookie stared up at him as he seemingly left, the former wondering, “What’s he up to? Is he going to attack from above? Or…”

Suddenly, they heard the sound of water splashing coming from below, sounding like whatever was coming up was doing so rather heavily. Sonic grabbed onto the Rookie and started to move, only for another Death Egg Robot to shoot up under the bridge, making it go from a bit broken in the middle to almost completely destroyed, only a small part of each end remaining attached while the rest went flying or fell into the water. Fortunately, thanks to Sonic’s moving and the Rookie’s grappling hook, they were able to make it over to a small plate of metal sticking out of the rock to the right of where the bridge had been. “Phew! That was a close one,” Sonic remarked as he and the Rookie stood up. They looked towards the other side of the bridge and could make out Applejack laying on her back next to the bridge. “AJ! You okay?!” Sonic yelled to her as loud as he could.

It was unlikely the earth pony actually heard him from where she was, but she raised a hoof and waved as she called, “We’re fine! Watch yerselves!”

The two looked back at the Death Egg Robot and saw that it had landed and was pulling its right arm back. Thinking quickly, the Rookie fired his grappling hook at it and Sonic grabbed his free hand, both of them shooting towards it as it swung its right arm forward. Its spikey fist slammed into the rock face behind where they had been, causing it to collapse around the impact site and revealing a hidden chamber behind it. “Good work, partner! Keep it up!” Sonic said as the Rookie continued to use his grappling hook to swing around the Death Egg Robot several more times to avoid its laser beam eye. They soon ended up just above its face, energy already gathering in its eye for another beam. “It’s lights out for you,” Sonic stated as he began to spin and the Rookie fired his grappling hook at the eye while holding up his Lightning Wispon. The wolf shot towards it first, but Sonic was right behind him with a Boost and they struck together, going through its eye and out the back of its head. The robot’s head exploded and it slumped down into the water while Sonic and the Rookie’s momentum carried them into through the broken rock face and into the revealed chamber, the Rookie grabbing Sonic’s hand before firing his grappling up at the chamber’s ceiling. It managed to catch and stopped them from falling down into what was a shaft that connected to a tunnel.

The Rookie adjusted his grappling hook to give them a way to go down the shaft at their own pace. As they went down, Sonic said, "We can't let these things keep tearing things up. Maybe the next factory we go after should be the one making these things." The Rookie didn't respond, instead focusing on the rope as he tried to calm his still racing heart. It took them about a minute to lower themselves back down to where the hole was, where they also found ladders and grid work along the sides of the shaft. The Rookie swung them over and they proceeded to use the ladders and girders to make their way down to the tunnel.

While they were climbing down, they could make out bits of chatter over the radio. Even with the shaft open to the outside, the radio signal was still somewhat garbled. “Is everyone all right? I’m getting a report that part of the Red Gate Bridge was destroyed,” Amy said.

“‘Fraid so, Amy. One o’ them robots came up from right under it after Metal Sonic took off. Sonic and that kid took it out; think Ah saw them go into that hole in the wall the robot made,” Applejack replied.

“Well, I’m sure they’re okay, then. What happened to Metal Sonic?” Knuckles asked.

“The recon teams are searching. They haven’t found him yet,” Amy answered.


IT'S METAL!


They had reached the bottom when Salten suddenly called, "Heads up! I think he's coming back!" Both Sonic and the Rookie turned their heads to look up at that. They soon heard the sound of the rocket booster getting closer again, and shortly after, they saw a light outside the hole that was getting brighter. Sonic grabbed the Rookie's arm and dashed into the tunnel across from them. Almost as soon as they passed through the entrance, Metal Sonic slammed into the ground, an electric field emanating from him that barely missed catching the Rookie's feet.

Sonic slid to a stop a short distance into the tunnel and he and the Rookie turned to look. As the dust and electricity dissipated, they could see Metal Sonic standing in the middle of the cracked floor, his knees bent. His eyes soon turned to look at Sonic's and he leapt up a moment later, activating his booster to hover in the air. The Rookie worked up his courage and stepped forward brandishing his Lightning Wispon, but when he clicked it on, a few sparks were all that came out of the end. He nervously tried to turn it on a few more times, but the same thing happened. All he could guess was it got damaged while attacking the Death Egg Robot. Metal Sonic's booster began revving up again and Sonic grabbed the Rookie's arm again, turning and taking off down the tunnel to try to get out before his metal counterpart took off.

They managed to get out of the tunnel before that happened, Metal Sonic's launch being followed by a wave of flames and electricity that would've caught Sonic and the Rookie had they been much slower. The tunnel's exit put them out on the water, but luckily there were pieces of the bridge and its metalwork drifting above the water's surface that they were able to jump to. Sonic held on tightly to the Rookie while Metal Sonic swooped around them, trying to interrupt his jumps and make him come up short.

With help from the Rookie's grappling hook, Sonic was able to avoid Metal Sonic's charges and get to a bigger, more stable piece of road floating in the water, which would give them more of a fighting chance against him. While they were stopped and taking a moment, Metal Sonic came down, hovering a short distance in front of them. They looked at him and he held his right fist up in front of him for a moment, a tremor running through his arm before he turned and shot off down the road.


VS. METAL SONIC


"Looks like he's been looking forward to this. What do you say we give him a good performance, partner?" Sonic asked the Rookie, who nodded in reply. They hurried after him, following the road across more broken chunks of land and bridge pieces. They soon caught up to him and he slowed down in order to fly around them. He attacked them by getting ahead of or behind them in order to Spin Dash into them, attacking sections of the road to break them, and charging at them with his Maximum Overdrive Attack. They jumped and moved to avoid him as best they could, going high or low when the road raised or dipped and riding on rails while trying to attack when he needed a moment.

Metal Sonic's body was shooting off sparks by the time they one of the other, larger bridges in the city, where they had to stop due to half of it being mostly submerged. Metal began flying around the bridge, staying out of their reach and only moving into attack when he was safe from their attacks. The Rookie's grappling hook couldn't reach him from where they were, and now that they weren't constantly moving, they were easier to hit as well. It wasn't quite a stalemate, but they weren't in a good place to turn things in their favor.

The Rookie got sideswiped by one of Metal's Spin Dashes, feeling several cuts along his right leg before he hit the ground. He heard Metal preparing a Maximum Overdrive Attack behind him, but he couldn't pick himself up quickly. Sonic was able to run over and grab him, along with his dropped glasses, and get out of the way, though he felt Metal Sonic come dangerously close to him from behind. Metal pulled up at the end of the bridge and returned to circling, giving the two a chance to recoup while he recharged.

Sonic set the Rookie down at the side of the bridge, the wolf's hand almost immediately going to press down on the cuts on his leg and feeling a bit of warmth through his glove. Sonic held out the glasses to examine them, seeing some small cracks in the lenses though they still seemed to work as he could see them displaying information. “Huh, these are pretty neat glasses he made. Tails would probably like to know how they work if he were here,” he thought. He turned back to the Rookie and put them on his nose. When the wolf looked up at him, he said, “Just nurse that for a minute, buddy. I’ll keep Metal busy, and maybe come up with a way to bring him down to us.”

The Rookie watched Sonic dodge around Metal's attacks while he kept applying pressure, feeling the pain in his leg beginning to lessen as he tried to think. His eyes fell on the bridge supports after a couple of seconds and they moved to look up at the top of the gate. Pushing through the pain that was creeping back in as he did so, he stood up while keeping his hand on his leg and turned to look up at the cable and supports beside him. He took his hand off of his leg and pointed it up at the cable, firing his grappling hook up at it. It caught and he began to make his up as high as he could go.

Sonic didn’t notice what the Rookie was doing until he was almost at the top of the gate due to Metal Sonic coming at him with a flurry of quick attacks that kept him on his toes. When the metal doppelganger finally backed off, Sonic looked over where he’d last seen the wolf and started looking around quickly when he didn’t see him. He soon spotted him as he climbing onto the top of the gate and called up to him, “Buddy! What are you doing?!” The Rookie couldn’t really answer him from where he was, especially since as he finished climbing up, he saw Metal Sonic getting into position for another attack run and knew he had to act fast.

As he was revving up to attack, Metal Sonic was suddenly disoriented when something struck him in the chest. He looked down to see the Rookie's grappling hook lodged in it and looked up to see the wolf coming at him feet first. The attack didn't really do anything to him, but it allowed the Rookie to grab onto him. He looked back at the bridge gate and fired his grappling hook at it, but Metal reached forward and slashed it with his left hand before it could reach its target, the sharp ends of his fingers cutting through the rope. He then seized the wolf's arms above the elbows and turned him back around, restraining him. The Rookie struggled and kicked his legs, but he couldn't break Metal Sonic's grip, there wasn't much for him to hit, and what he did hit didn't seem to affect Metal much.

Sonic stared for a moment before turning and running to the end of the nearby cable. He leapt on it and rocketed up it with a Boost, reaching the top of the gate in seconds. He then moved to the middle of the gate and, after taking a moment to gauge himself, leapt towards the two. Metal Sonic looked up and saw him coming before he reached him, but he was unable to react fast enough as Sonic struck him in the head with a Homing Attack and rebounded straight up. The hit shook up Metal enough for him to release the Rookie’s right arm, which was all he needed. He reached for the Lightning Wispon on his belt and pushed it into the robot’s chest before flicking a switch to release the Wispon’s power. The Wispon being shoved into his chest caused Metal Sonic to release the Rookie’s left arm and the wolf grabbed Sonic’s hand before firing his grappling hook towards the bridge, the hook catching and allowing them to swing down to safety.

After they landed, they looked up in time to see the Wispon explode, causing a large discharge of lightning to be unleashed that was quickly drawn back to Metal Sonic. He likely would have been able to endure normal use of the Wispon due to it using only a small amount of a Lightning Wisp’s power, but the full force of lightning-infused Hyper-go-on energy very quickly overloaded his systems and left him hanging in the air shaking heavily as the lightning ran through him. It lasted about a minute before it dissipated, a few bolts still running across Metal’s body as he began to fall. He’d managed to hold together just barely, but his main system required a reboot before he could disengage and return to base, his eyes flickering on and off as he ran through the process.

Sonic figured he’d had enough and wasn’t about to give the robot a chance to flee. He turned to the Rookie and gestured at Metal with his head, the wolf giving a nod a moment later. He took Sonic’s hand and fired his grappling up at the gate, both of them swinging up towards Metal, who had nearly completed his reboot. He looked up and was able to make out Sonic and the Rookie coming up towards him right before the former swung his right leg up and delivered a strong kick to the side of his neck. It delivered enough force not only cause his head to start to separate, wires poking out from where it had been attached, but also sent him flying end over end for several seconds before he exploded, both of them able to enjoy the fireworks as they swung back down.


VICTORIOUS


After landing, the Rookie took a few steps before placing his hands on his knees and leaning over to catch his breath, the sudden rush taking him by surprise. After checking to make sure he was okay, Sonic radioed in on his Miles Mobile and said, “Hey guys! Metal’s out of commission. How’s everyone doing?”

Knuckles responded, “We just got an update from HQ! The enemy’s on the run!”

Rainbow added, “Yeah, Tempest came back and helped out big time! We just got a few Death Egg Robots left to take care of, and I’m getting ready to Rainboom one right now!”

Vector reported, “We helped with that too. Now we’re looking for anyone who still needs help. Mind helping out a little if you’re not too worn out from dealing with that one robot?”

Sonic replied, “Sure, Vector. We’ll head back now.”

Espio said, “I heard the Rookie was helping you deal with Metal Sonic. I look forward to hearing about that.”

Sonic put his Mobile away and turned to look at the Rookie, who was still panting. He walked around to his front and said, “Hey!” When the wolf looked up at him, he went on, “Great job, partner! I knew you could do it if you believed in yourself. We probably could’ve been a little more in sync than we were, but that’s fine. We’re only gonna get better, right?” He held out his left fist and the Rookie looked at it for a moment before smiling and bumping it with his right fist.









The Rookie was standing outside of Resistance HQ with Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Silver, the Chaotix, Tempest, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Aventura, Sona, Matka, Techni, and Salten. Sonic had just finished recounting to everyone how the wolf had brought Metal Sonic down and helped deal the finishing blow. “Impressive! But we still have a lot to do,” Knuckles said.

“Nice job, but if you start hogging all the glory, how am I going to look good?” Vector asked.

“Eh, we’ll give him this one, Vector. It should be no problem to be on top next time. It’s not like he did everything right this time, anyway,” Rainbow said.

Techni nodded, “I’ll say. That was a perfect good Lightning Wispon he blew up before it was ready. Not only did we lose it, that could’ve been a lot more disastrous.”

Matka looked at her sympathetically, “At least it went to a good cause, Techni. It helped defeat one of the most dangerous normal-sized robots Eggman has, and I’m sure the next one you make will work even better due to the impromptu field testing.”

Sona nodded, “Yep. The kid’s a good observer; I’m sure he can relay plenty of information back to you.” She finished putting in the code for the door and it slid open as she closed the keypad, the bunny leading the way inside.

As the door inside the base was sliding open, Fluttershy suddenly appeared in front of everyone, moving incredibly fast. They were all surprised, especially since she had a wide smile on her muzzle and she almost seemed to be glowing. “Fluttershy?” Rarity ventured after some of the shock had worn off.

“Girls, come quick! Hurry!” Fluttershy exclaimed.

Rainbow started, “Why, what’s going…” They weren’t moving fast enough for the other pegasus since she suddenly shot around everyone, gathered up Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie in her forelegs, and then shot back into the base.

There was a moment of silence before Charmy asked, “What’s gotten into her?”

Espio held a hand to his chin, “She seems unusually excited. What has she been doing?”

Amy answered, “She’s been helping out in the infirmary ever since she got back.”

Silver looked at her, “So that’s probably where she was during the attack as well?” Amy shrugged in reply. Silver looked down and thought for a moment. “If she’s that excited, and she wanted the rest of her close friends…” He looked up at the others, “Do you think maybe Twilight…?” Everyone quickly realized what he stopped short of saying. Sonic ran ahead of everyone, heading straight for the infirmary. He stopped in front of the door and impatiently tapped his foot as it slid open. He poked his head through the doorway when it had opened all the way and smiled a moment later at what he saw, everyone else doing the same when they joined him seconds later.


SHE'S BACK


The girls were all standing around Twilight’s bed, all of them hugging her and voicing their relief along with Spike. It was difficult to see due to all the ponies, but Twilight had regained consciousness, her eyes closed and her movements, though a bit hindered at the moment, indicated she was moving on her own. The girls let go of her a minute later and backed off, though Spike remained attached to the side of her neck. As they were stepping back, Sonic, Knuckles, Silver, Amy, the Chaotix, and Tempest made their way over, some of them waving to her when they were sure she saw them. Twilight didn’t say anything, but it was clear from her expression and the way her eyes twinkled that she was surprised to see them.

The moment was ruined when Terv stepped up and announced, “All right, everyone, break it up. I need to do my job and you’re all in my way.”

Everyone except for Twilight turned to glare at him, Tempest remarking to the hawk, “And I’ve been told I’m not very subtle.”

Terv responded, “Look, I get that you’re all happy that Princess Twilight has come out of her coma, but I have to perform a check-up on her. She’s been unconscious for days and I need to see how she’s doing and make sure there’s nothing wrong that I missed.”

Tempest walked over to him as she said, “And you will. It’s just that there’s one patient ahead of her you need to tend to.”

Terv raised an eyebrow, “What are you talking about? Windra told me she’s already seen everyone else. I trust her; she would’ve told me if there were any problems. Who is there to see?”

In one swift motion, Tempest raised her right hoof and slammed it into Terv’s belly, causing him to let out a strangled cough as the wind was knocked out of him. She then quickly picked him up in her forelegs and threw him onto his back on a nearby empty bed. “There’s your answer,” she said after her hooves were back on the ground.

A laugh came from the back of the infirmary and everyone turned to look at Gen, sitting in his tub. “Ah, that was so good,” he remarked.

Rarity raised an eyebrow and asked, “I assume Tempest punching him was the only enjoyable part of all this for you, Gen?”

She was a little surprised when he leaned back and said, “Nah, that was the cherry on top.”

Everyone turned back to Twilight when she spoke up. She’d been given a glass of water shortly after she woke up and was a little better now, but her words were still a little slurred. “Okay… It’s pretty clear I’ve missed a lot…”
> Where Does the Fox Wander?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A SLIGHTLY UNUSUAL DAY IN EQUESTRIA


The front door to Twilight's castle opened and a young earth pony with a pale light gray coat and a light cyan and moderate opal mane and tail was led out by Starlight. Sandbar, the pony in question, turned to look at the unicorn after she left him go and asked, "Are you sure we can't see her, Miss Starlight? Nopony has seen Princess Twilight or Spike around Ponyville for days and they're all getting worried. Are they really that sick?"

Starlight gave him a comforting smile as she said, "No, Sandbar, they're not sick anymore. They're just very busy right now. See all this?" She gestured inside the castle at the banners and decorations hung up in the entrance. "Twilight is going to be making a big announcement tomorrow to all of Ponyville regarding the future, and we're all trying to get everything ready. You'll see her tomorrow, I promise."

Sandbar replied, "Huh. Well, maybe we could help? I know school's out so you can’t really offer us anything for it, but…"

Starlight stopped him short, "Sandbar, I think it's great that you and your friends want to help, but really, it's okay. Twilight has been resting peacefully these last few days and is in rare form today. When she addresses the whole town tomorrow, it's going to be something you'll remember for the rest of your life, so you should spend today getting ready because it's going to blow you away." She stepped back inside and used her magic to close the door. Sandbar stood there staring at the doors for several moments before letting out another “Huh” and turning and walking away.

He headed back into town and found his friends Yona, Gallus, Silverstream, Ocellus, and Smolder waiting for him near the path leading to Twilight's castle and the school, just like they said they would. Smolder looked over at the earth pony as he approached them and asked, "No luck this time either?"

Sandbar answered, "No. Miss Starlight still says we can't come in, but she said Princess Twilight is preparing to give a big announcement tomorrow. She says it's going to blow us away."

Silverstream cooed, "Ooh! Sounds exciting! I wonder what she's going to say! Do you think she's going to have a party?"

Gallus snorted and said, "Yeah, Twilight preparing a party on her own while Pinkie and the rest of our teachers are off taking care of something important. That sounds like a great idea."

Sandbar shrugged, "I don't know, Gallus. Miss Starlight said Twilight is in rare form today. Maybe she can do it herself."

Ocellus spoke up, "It's a bit strange though, isn't it? Miss Starlight said Princess Twilight was feeling sick several days ago and now she's preparing to give a speech? And everypony who says the others were called away by the map all heard it from Starlight the same day. They didn't tell anypony close to them they would be gone? And what about that other unicorn, Tempest?"

Smolder crossed her arms, "I'll give you it's a bit coincidental, but it's not really weird, Ocellus. We've seen a lot stranger stuff since we came here."

Yona let out a shout, catching the attention of nearby ponies as well, and said, "Yona no like this! Yaks no like uncertainty! Should go see Princess Twilight now!"

Gallus rolled his eyes, "Geez, we haven't even done anything and you're already looking to break something."

Sandbar said, "Just… calm down please, Yona. We don't know what's going on with Twilight, but after all she's done, we should give her the benefit of the doubt. We can wait one more day to see her, can't we?"

Yona did feel calmer due to Sandbar's voice, but she did look away as she uttered, "Still no like…"

Smolder raised an eyebrow, "So what should we do now, then? No one said anything about any other plans beyond trying to see Twilight."

Ocellus said, "I was going to go check on Fluttershy's animals. I've been stopping by to see them a few times a day since she left. Would you all like to come with me? I… might need a little help with some of them…" The others agreed to accompany her, some a bit reluctantly. As they walked off, they didn't notice a pair of green feline eyes watching them from a nearby alley.









COMING TO TERMS


Twilight grunted softly as she took each measured step, making sure the cane she was given was firmly on the ground before readying herself for the next step. Her legs had some pain in them from her injuries and her balance was shaky due to not using them for a couple of days, but Terv had cleared her to start getting back on her hooves, something she was all too eager to do. Sonic stood close behind her, ready to catch her if she started to lose her balance, and Spike, Tempest, and Grubber were behind him watching, all of them getting her up to speed while they watched her.

Twilight managed to take the remaining steps to her bed without losing her balance and sat down on the edge heavily with a sigh, Spike climbing up and sitting down next to her while Sonic, Tempest, and Grubber sat on the empty bed next to hers. She collected her thoughts for several moments before speaking, her voice sounding less hoarse compared to when she first woke up, "It’s all so much to take in…” She looked at Sonic, “You’ve been locked up for six months… Eggman’s been waging all-out war… Tails is still missing…” She turned to Tempest, “And now we’re here…”

Tempest nodded, "I know. It's… it's madness that this all happened."

Spike looked at Twilight and put his claw on her flank, "Well, you're back now, Twilight, so everything's going to be alright!"

Twilight sat still for several moments, her gaze dropping to look at the ground. Then her cane suddenly fell from her grip and she hung her head, burying her muzzle in her hooves. "This is all my fault…" she moaned.

"Oh, not this song and dance again," Sonic said as he slid off the bed onto his feet. He stepped in front of Twilight and bent his knees, crouching in front of her. "This is not happening all because of you, Twilight," he stated, looking up at her.

Twilight raised her head up from her hooves to look at him, "Yes, it is! I was the one trying to get the Warp Ring working again as fast as possible! I gave Infinite an entrance to Equestria! He's the one who went through my things! That's how he found Tempest as well as Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow! My notes must've had enough information for him to find them! I put my friend in danger, and now the rest of my friends and Equestria are in danger too! I…" She lowered her head again, "If I'd been more careful, if I kept all that in a safer place, if I hadn't been so worried about taking the throne, this wouldn't have happened…"

Sonic let her sit and cry for several seconds before quietly saying, "You don't know that."

Twilight raised her head a little, "What…?"

Sonic repeated, "You don't know that. You couldn't have known what was happening a world away, what Eggman was plotting any more than you could have known what your own bad guys were doing. I mean, it's not like you're watching them 24/7, right?"

Twilight lowered her hooves as she admitted, "Well, no… but Chrysalis was the only one we didn't know the whereabouts of, and she was the only one who didn't change. And Eggman didn't know about Tirek or Cozy Glow…"

Sonic shook his head, "No, he didn't. He didn't even mention either of them after we beat him. But… well, did anything happen to Discord?"

Twilight replied, "Yes, he's friends mainly with Fluttershy. She reformed him. …Mostly."

Sonic said, "And no one's said anything about him being around here."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, "What does that have to do with this?"

Sonic replied, "I'm not sure why he's not here with Fluttershy if they really are good friends like that. Infinite could have even done something to him, but he clearly didn't convince him to side with Eggman again."

Twilight said, "No, I think he probably learned his lesson about that after Tirek did the same and then betrayed him."

Sonic continued, "And it could even mean Infinite did something bad to him, but I don't think it could be too bad. I mean, if he was as ruthless and edgy as he makes himself look, don't you think he would've dealt with me back then?"

Twilight said, "I guess that's true, but I still don't get it."

Sonic replied, "The point is Eggman didn't just send him to Equestria for a kidnapping. He probably wanted to strengthen his army even more and told Infinite to do some research. Sure, he got the info from you, but he could've found it elsewhere and not been too pleasant about it. And as for Infinite getting to Equestria… You know how Eggman is. He reacts about the same to a remark about his mustache as he does to his plans getting foiled."

Twilight found herself smiling a little as she glanced at Spike and said, "Yes, we actually do know a thing or two about that."

Sonic finished, "The Warp Ring probably made it easier to get there, but Eggman was never going to let the Time Eater thing go. He was going to find a way to get to you girls for helping to stop it and undo his work. Sure, this isn't how I thought we'd meet up again, but look what happened while you were out. Tempest and Grubber came to help you, all your friends came, and when you all came over, the Resistance found you all before something worse happened. It's not the best situation, but it could've been a lot worse."

Twilight sniffled and smiled lightly, "Yeah… You're right."

Sonic stood up and said, "Well, sure. Is it weird when I am or something?" She smiled a bit wider at that.

There was silence for several moments and then Spike asked, "How did you do that?"

Everyone turned to look at him and saw him staring at Sonic with awe. “Do what?” Sonic shrugged.

Spike held his arm out, “Dude, you totally calmed Twilight down! Right at the start of one of her ‘Twilight Zone’ moments! How?! I’ve never been able to calm her down until she’s at the end of one and I’ve been with her my whole life! This is what, your second, third time with her? What did you do?!” Sonic and Twilight looked back at each other with raised eyebrows, neither one getting what he was so worked up about.

Tempest and Grubber were also looking at each other, their gaze being broken when everyone heard a familiar voice say, "Excuse me, Miss Tempest?" The unicorn turned her head to the left and saw Cream standing a short distance away behind her, her arms behind her back.


HOPEFUL


"Oh… Cream, correct? What is it?" she asked while the others waved to the rabbit.

"Mama told me about what you did on the Death Egg, and she agrees with me that you're a good person," Cream said.

Tempest nodded, "Okay…"

Cream finished, "So I wanted to give you the gift I was making for you."

Tempest tilted her head, "A gift?"

Cream nodded and said, "Come here." Tempest complied, standing up from the bed and going over to the rabbit. Cream motioned for her to bend down and when she did, she brought her arms forward, revealing a crown made from the flowers Sonic had picked for her, surprising Tempest. She placed the crown on her head, the front of it touching Tempest's horn, and smiled at her. She then looked at the others, "I'm making more flower crowns. I'll bring them when they're ready." With that, she turned and made her way out of the infirmary, a skip in her step.

Tempest stood up after she left, still surprised by the gift. Sonic spoke up, “Nice!”

Tempest turned her head to look at him, giving him a slight glare. “Are you making fun of me?” she asked.

Sonic replied, “Nope. Those flowers do look good on you, but also, Cream only makes and gives her flower crowns to folks she really likes.” This made Tempest raise her brow, surprised.

Spike asked, “Really?”

Twilight added, “Has she given you any, Sonic?”

He turned to look at them, “You bet.”

Grubber twiddled his fingers together as he said, “I hope she really likes me too. I’d like to get a flower crown too.”

Tempest had conflicting feelings about this new information, but as she looked up at the flowers with an uncertain expression, she couldn’t resist a small smile appearing on her muzzle. “So, she’s not afraid of me?” she uttered.

She looked down when Sonic said, “No way. She’s braver than some people think. If you’re curious and you get a chance, ask her to tell you about the time she met the guy with the big ax.” His Miles Mobile went off suddenly and he pulled it out. It was Knuckles, so he answered it and said, “Hey Knuckles. What’s going on?”

The echidna’s face appeared on the screen and he asked, “Hey Sonic, you still in the infirmary with Twilight?” Sonic nodded, so he said, “I need you to send Spike down to the meeting room if he’s not on his way already. It’s time for him to take on an assignment.”

Spike overheard this and exclaimed, “What?! But… Twilight just woke up! She’s still getting rehabilitated! She needs someone here with her! That can be my assignment!” While he was talking, Sonic turned his Mobile towards the baby dragon and moved it closer so Knuckles could see him and hear him better.

Knuckles sighed and said, “Listen, Spike, I get you want to help her get back on her hooves, but we made an agreement. And that agreement was you could stay by her side until she regained consciousness. She has, so you can’t just stay in the infirmary all day anymore. It’s time to start pitching in.”

Vector’s face appeared in front of Knuckles’ on the screen, “Yeah, come on, kid! If Charmy can focus enough to help out, then you really have no excuse now! You’ve got five minutes to get over here on your own, and then I’m coming down there to bring you here, even if I have to drag you the whole way!” The call ended and the screen went blank.

There was silence and no movement for several moments aside from Sonic putting his Mobile away. Spike then reached over and grabbed onto Twilight’s flank, saying, “Well, then I’m going to make the most of those five minutes.” Twilight, Sonic, and Grubber gave him sympathetic looks at that.

Grubber had a thought looking at the two and turned to Sonic. “Hey, uh… What about your friend? Do you think he’s…?” he trailed off.

“Nah. I’m not worried about Tails,” Sonic replied.

“Not even a little bit?” Twilight asked.

Sonic hesitated for a moment before answering, “Well, maybe a little, but this is Tails we’re talking about. You’ve seen him; he’s still a kid, but the days of people calling him a sidekick are over. He knows how to take care of himself.” He crossed his arms, “It is weird that he hasn’t tried to contact the Resistance in so long, but I’m sure there’s a good reason for that. After all, if Eggman had gotten him, I’m pretty sure he’d be letting the world know it.”

Tempest asked, “Like when he captured you?”

Sonic nodded, “Exactly. He hasn’t done that, so Tails has to be out there and doing well. As long as that’s the case, I know he’ll figure something out and find his way back.”









DIFFICULT, BUT STILL GOING
 

Tails let out a groan as he returned to the waking world, the reminder that he'd fallen asleep in a cave hitting him immediately due to feeling the pressure in his side. It was enough of a reason for him to wake up almost all the way and he rolled onto his rear, placing his hands on the rocky ground to steady himself. His eyes opened a couple moments later, his vision a bit blurry. It hadn't been the most comfortable or restful sleep, but he was feeling better.

As he rubbed the last traces of sleep out of his eyes, he recalled the events of the previous day. After meeting the other Sonic and dealing with Chaos, the two headed into the main part of the city. Some of Eggman's robots were patrolling the streets, so they dealt with them swiftly while avoiding being caught. Tails knew the Resistance base was somewhere in the city, but he couldn't recall where, and without the right program on his Miles Electric, he wouldn't be able to open the secret entrance anyway. The two ended up making their way to the outskirts of Green Hill since his Miles Electric finally started functioning normally there. Unfortunately, they had no way to contact anyone in the Resistance and they hadn't seen anyone in the city, and they were both getting exhausted from going through a lot in a short period of time, so they decided to crash in the small cave they found and rest for a while.

As his thoughts caught up with him, Tails turned to look at the other Sonic, who was still asleep. He seemed much more comfortable with the accommodations, his hands behind his head against the cave wall and one leg crossed over the other. "I don't know how he does it, but that's Sonic all right. And right now, the world needs a Sonic to help it," he thought. He let him sleep for another minute before crawling over and giving him a light shake, "Hey Sonic, wake up." The light blue hedgehog cracked open his right eye to look at the fox. "I think we'd better get going. Eggman has patrols in areas like this, so it's not a good idea to stay in a place like this for long," he explained. He scooted back and turned to gather his Miles Electric and tools while Sonic stretched and leapt to his feet.

The two stepped out of the cave a minute later, both breathing in the still fresh air. They were both ready to resume their search, but they soon noticed that the light on the horizon was not where it should've been. Tails turned to Sonic, "We must've been more exhausted than we thought. We were asleep almost a whole day." Sonic gave him a concerned look. Tails caught onto what he was getting at and said, "Don't worry, Sonic, I'm feeling better. My stomach still feels a little funny, but I'm fine otherwise."

Tails set his toolbox down and brought up his Miles Electric, switching it on. After giving it a minute, he set it to perform a scan of the surrounding area, setting a focus on open communication lines. It came back several seconds later with the results. "Hmm… The signal is still clear, but I'm not picking anyone nearby. Let me increase the search area." He tripled the search radius and this time it gave him something interesting. "I've picked up some strange readings. They look similar to the readings I got the day… the last time I…" He shook his head, unable to finish the sentence. He looked back at Sonic, "I think we'd better take a look." The light blue hedgehog nodded and they headed into Green Hill after Tails grabbed his toolbox.


SANDY HILLS


When they reached the top of a hill that offered a good view of the surrounding area, Tails and Sonic came to a stop atop it, the latter looking around in surprise and confusion. Green grass and brown hills that had a checkerboard-like pattern to them, palm trees, tall sunflowers, ancient totem poles… this Green Hill was exactly like the one from his world except for one thing: it seemed to be in the middle of a desert. There didn’t appear to be a drop of water in the otherwise lush landscape. There was only sand where he expected to see water; even the waterfalls had been replaced with sand spilling down.

Tails noticed the way he was looking around and said, “I don’t know how Eggman did this to Green Hill, Sonic. As far as I know, this desert first appeared six months ago, right before the war started. Sonic… er, the Sonic from this world saw it when he passed through a valley here to get to the city.” He glanced around, “It’s weird, though. I would’ve expected the plants around here to have started to suffer with the water gone, yet everything still looks pretty vibrant. Something strange is going on here.” He consulted his Miles Electric for a second and then looked up and pointed, “The readings are coming from that way. The enemy is still in this area, so we’d better watch out.”

They encountered Egg Pawns, Buzz Bombers, and Choppers that were somehow able to move through the sand like it was water despite not appearing to have any modifications as they traveled through Green Hill. They fought their way through them while Tails kept an eye on his Miles Electric to make sure they were still going the right way. After evading a school of Choppers that attacked them while they were going across a bridge, he checked again and saw they weren't far from the signal. "The source of the signal is just up ahead! Be on your guard, Sonic," he said. They proceeded forward, Tails keeping an eye out as they did.

The signal was coming from the other side of a large hill, so they made their way around it. As they were approaching the other side, they saw that part of its base had broken off and was lying on the grass. Tails also noticed someone standing further past it and motioned to Sonic to take cover behind the broken rock as they got closer. Peering out over the top of it, they saw it was Infinite, the masked jackal holding up a magenta icosahedron ruby in three fingers in his right hand. Looking to the right of him, they saw Dr. Eggman hovering above him in his Eggmobile a short distance away and some sort of small black cloud that was leaving a trail behind it as it circled above the two.


VILLAIN GATHERING


Their attention was initially drawn to the cloud as it was the one thing neither one of them had seen before, but they turned to look at Infinite when he crushed the gem in his hand and then said, "And with that, the disposal of the Phantom Ruby prototypes is complete."

Eggman replied, "It was a defective model. It could only be activated once by someone it formed a mind connection to."

Infinite huffed, "Mind has nothing to do with it. Only a being with my strength of will could ever hope to activate it."

Eggman waved a hand, "It doesn't matter now. All the missing prototypes have been found and I've had the lab in Mystic Jungle locked down. By the time the Resistance manages to get in, any data they could get will be either fragmented or wiped completely." He then raised an eyebrow, "That reminds me, did you encounter Sonic there after he escaped?"

Infinite answered, "Yes. But even with help, he was no match for me. I sent them all running; there is no need for concern."

Eggman glared, "Excuse me? First of all, you let that hedgehog live! Second, whether he actually ran from you or not is a minor point when he ran straight to Spiral Hill Village afterwards and helped them defeat Tirek, suggesting that on your own, you didn't beat him anywhere near as soundly as the first time! I consider that a great cause for concern!"

Infinite replied, "I suppose you would think that. After all, he has beaten you numerous times. Perhaps you unknowingly give him too much credit. Meanwhile, I have defeated him in both of our encounters." Eggman continued to glare at him, though his brow rose a bit.

Behind their cover, Sonic looked at Tails as the fox murmured, “Phantom Ruby prototypes? Mystic Jungle lab? Tirek? And Sonic… is alive?” He looked back at the villain gathering a moment later and his eyes focused on the cloud again, this time because it had stopped moving. He tapped Tails’ arm and the fox followed his gaze. As they looked at the cloud, they saw it dissipate a little, revealing a pair of red eyes with green scleras and part of a muzzle. They saw the left eye turn to the left, looking in their direction. They quickly ducked, managing to get down before both eyes turned to look directly at them.

Infinite noticed what Cozy Glow was doing and turned to look, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. “What is it?” Eggman asked.

He turned back and said, “Nothing. This Flowey Glint must be seeing things. It may need to be fixed.”

Eggman replied, “Well, as long as she can fight the way she’s supposed to, we can wait to do that.”

Infinite nodded, “Very well. As for this new plan of yours… You’re ready to move forward with it?”

Eggman replied, “Of course! When it’s complete, the Resistance will be wiped out and the rest of the world will be reduced to ashes. And from those ashes, a glorious new empire will rise!”

As he started to rise off the ground, Infinite said, “The only potential survivors will be fools who think they can stand against the Phantom Ruby’s power. All will either be erased or submit.” Eggman nodded in confirmation. “I will begin preparations,” he said before flying off, leaving him and Cozy Glow alone.

Back behind cover, Tails started, "There's a lot more going on here than we thought. I think we'd better…" He didn't finish because Sonic had already made the decision to confront the problem directly.

As he leapt out, Eggman saw him almost immediately and exclaimed, "What?! Sonic?!" He took a closer look as the hedgehog stood up and glared at him. "No, you're not the one. You must be that other Sonic that briefly showed up before," he mused. He noticed Sonic running towards him and raised his right hand and snapped his fingers while saying, "Please."

At this, Cozy Glow shot down, intercepting Sonic as he was jumping up to attack Eggman. He was knocked back onto his rear on the grass while Cozy Glow’s body fully materialized before she reached the ground, the hedgehog looking up at the pink alicorn standing in front of him a moment later. Tails left his things behind the debris and leapt out, asking, “Is that… Sombra?!”

Eggman looked up at the fox and said, “Tails? Well, isn’t this a nice reunion. Too bad I’ve got more important things to do right now, so I must be off. And if either of you think of following me, Salty Glimmer here will make you think twice about that!”

While he was talking, Tails ran over to Sonic and helped him up. After he finished, Tails looked at Eggman with a raised eyebrow and asked, “Wait, I thought that guy said her name was Flowey Glint? But it’s actually ‘Salty Glimmer’?

Eggman stuttered, “Yes- er, no! No, it’s not! It’s actually…” He thought for a moment before saying, “Whatever! Rosie Soles will be your doom!”

Tails deadpanned, “Neither one of you knows her name? Why is she okay with that?”

Eggman yelled, “ENOUGH! This is insolence! Fizzy- no, Sombra Shimmer, get rid of them!” With that, he turned and shot away, leaving the two with Cozy Glow.


VS. EGGMAN AND SOMBRA GLOW


Tails and Sonic looked up at Cozy Glow as she spread her wings and flew up a little bit, her body past her wings dissipating and forming a black cloud behind her. Her horn began to glow red and she fired a beam down at them moments later that they leapt back to avoid. She kept the beam going, however, and swung her head up a moment later. They jumped to the sides to avoid it, the beam leaving a black line down the grass, the grass near it beginning to wilt as well. She snarled, but she had more options available.

Tails looked at Sonic and the hedgehog gestured with his head past Cozy Glow. Tails got what he was saying and said, "You're right, Sonic. We can't let Eggman get away!" They both looked at Cozy Glow and saw her preparing to divebomb them. She swooped down and Sonic curled up into a ball and rolled to go under her right wing and the cloud while Tails spun his tails around and flew to the side to avoid her. They then regrouped and hurried after Eggman while Cozy Glow stopped and turned to glare at them while the rest of her body became part of the cloud.

Eggman looked down at his Eggmobile's console when it started beeping and saw that he was being followed. He looked back over his shoulder and saw Sonic and Tails coming up behind him, having enough time to utter "What?!" before Sonic caught up and jumped up to hit him. Eggman was sent spinning from the hit, going end over end once before his Eggmobile righted itself. He shook his head and then glared, turning around to face them while still moving away as he said, "So you want to play like that? Well, fine! I can run and fight you two at the same time!"

As he was priming his missile systems, he noticed something behind the two. They noticed it as well due to a sudden sense of dread coming over them. They looked back and saw Cozy Glow further behind them, still in her cloud form; only her eyes and horn were visible. She started by launching another sweeping magic beam at them, but it seemed that was just to get them to separate since Tails flew up to get away from it. Her horn began sparking afterwards and she fired a lightning bolt that flew past Sonic. Upon hitting the grass, it caused a black chunk of crystal the size of a landscape boulder to appear.

Sonic was able to jump over it easily, but she continued to fire bolts in front of him, creating more crystal chunks in his path. They wouldn’t have been too hard to avoid on their own, but Eggman began firing missiles at him as well. Sometimes the missiles hit the chunks before Sonic could get near them, but their timing was good otherwise and he had to stay alert to avoid their attacks.

After dodging a missile from Eggman, Sonic tripped over a crystal chunk that Cozy Glow created right in front of him. He fell face first and slid a short distance before stopping. "Yes!" Eggman said at this, pumping his fist. He then noticed Cozy Glow speeding up, her cloud almost like a black abyss looking to swallow the hedgehog up. Tails swooped in before she could reach him and grabbed him off the ground, though, holding onto his hand tightly. Eggman was a little disappointed by this, but he still seemed impressed by Cozy Glow. "Look at that power! It goes beyond my expectations!" he exclaimed.

Tails heard him as he was flying closer and said, "That just shows you don't know anything about this new Sombra! Or you miscalculated; either way, you're not doing what you should be doing, Eggman."

Eggman retorted, "Ha! To exceed expectations is what every great scientist aspires to, the mark of a true genius! Not that a mundane, play-it-safe fox mechanic like you could hope to understand." Tails retaliated by swinging and letting go of Sonic, the hedgehog curling into a ball as he flew. Eggman grunted when he hit the front of his Eggmobile and commented afterwards, "No need to get snotty about it, Tails."

Sonic resumed running as soon as his feet hit the ground, so Tails flew down and switched to spinning his tails behind him to follow and stay close to him. They both heard a low growling behind them and looked back to see Cozy Glow sink into the ground. They looked at each other, wondering what she was doing. They found out about a minute later after they were able to catch up to and attack Eggman when, after landing, they got a scare when her cloud suddenly shot up to the left of the hill, the top of it towering over them while she stood in the center of it on a black crystal. She let out a distorted roar before large black tendrils began to emerge from the cloud that aimed for them.

Tails got nervous at the sight of the tendrils and flew up, making quick movements around to avoid them, but Sonic remained calm and kept going after Eggman while jumping and rolling to avoid getting grabbed. Some of them attacked by slamming against the ground as well. One slammed a little too far ahead of Sonic and he managed to grab onto the end of it as it pulled back. It swung around trying to shake him off, but he held on until it swung back the way he wanted, at which point he let go and went flying at Cozy Glow, hitting her and causing her to take a step back. The tendrils retreated back into the cloud at this as well.

Tails flew over to grab his hand as he bounced back, returning to the path. Cozy Glow recovered a moment later and spread her wings, flying after them. She got between them and Eggman, preventing them from attacking him. Tails looked down at Sonic and he gave him a nod. Tails nodded back and he helped him attack Cozy Glow, swinging him forward so he could jump at her and catching him when he came back. They did this several times before she was knocked off course and she went into a free fall off to the side of the hill.

Sonic resumed running after she fell out of sight. Tails flew close behind him as Eggman said, "You have a lot of nerve for a pint-size Sonic that doesn’t belong here. Still, that Spotty Cow is far from finished."

Tails countered, "That sounds like a lie. You can't even remember her name; how would you know what she's capable of?"

Eggman replied, "You won't have to wait long to find out." Sure enough, Cozy Glow flew back up a couple of seconds later, but instead of moving to intercept Sonic and Tails again, she flew ahead of Eggman for several seconds before stopping and turning to look back. Eggman grinned at this and looked back at the two, saying, “Well, that’s that! I’ll be seeing you!” He then turned his Eggmobile around and went full throttle, shooting away from them. He flew underneath Cozy Glow after a few seconds and she used her magic to make a giant crystal formation sprout from the ground beneath her. It finished growing a second later and she landed on one of the rises in the center afterwards, looking at the two.

Although they kept moving forward, Sonic and Tails weren’t sure what they were going to do about this obstacle. It looked to be quite sturdy, but as they shared a look, they both knew they had to keep going if they were going to catch Eggman and put an end to the war. So, steeling their nerves, they went to full speed and prepared themselves to give it their all. As they approached the crystal structure, Tails flew slightly ahead of Sonic and he jumped up to grab his hand. Tails then closed his other hand around Sonic’s and tilted a little to the side before he began to spin around, the two soon becoming a spinning blur. Cozy Glow remained where she was as they shot towards her, though a small gasp did escape her lips.

There was a loud crashing and shattering sound and Eggman turned to look back over his shoulder. The crystal structure had shattered and something was flying towards him, and as it got closer, he realized it was Cozy Glow. He also realized she was coming straight at him, the wind resistance from her wings being open not doing much to slow her down. Eggman tried to move out of her path, but he was too late to react. Cozy Glow crashed into him and bounced off, landing hard on the ground a second later and rolling on her side for several moments before stopping while Eggman's Eggmobile hit the ground and slid for a few seconds before stopping, both of them dazed.

Sonic and Tails high-fived each other and ran straight for Eggman. Before they could reach him, though, Cozy Glow recovered and vanished into a black cloud, reappearing directly in front of Eggman on her hooves, forcing them to skid to a stop. She stood battle-ready, glaring at them with her teeth bared.


EGGMAN'S PLAN


They broke their gaze with her when Eggman laughed and said, "I have to admit I'm surprised, Tails. I didn't think you two would be able to get past that. Not bad."

Tails replied, "You shouldn't have come out, Eggman. We're ending this here!" While he was talking, Eggman pushed himself off of his back and righted himself.

Once he was upright, Eggman gave a short laugh and said, "Isn't that cute? Fighting like you have a chance, expecting to end it all here… It's almost a shame this is the last time we get to do this little dance."

Tails asked, "What are you talking about?"

Eggman replied, "I see no harm in sharing this with you." He raised his right hand and held up three fingers, "In three days, my preparations will be complete, and when my plan is unleashed, the Resistance will cease to exist!"

Sonic and Tails looked at each other for a moment before looking back at him, the latter asking, "Three days? What plan? And how did she get here?"

Eggman answered, "If I told you, it wouldn't be much of a mystery." He started messing with his control panel to get his Eggmobile started again, "I'll leave you to stew over that. You know what they say: the anticipation of the end is worse than the end itself." His Eggmobile fired up and it was hovering above the ground a moment later, "Although in this case, that may not be true. At any rate, I bid you adieu, my friends. I look forward to seeing you meet your end from the sidelines!"

They got ready to attack him, but stopped when Cozy Glow's body faded from view, leaving only her eyes and part of her muzzle visible. She then flew around Eggman once, her black streak circling around him, and then went behind him before flying up over him and shooting down into the ground. A black veil rose up behind Eggman and came down over him, causing him to vanish from view. It then followed Cozy Glow into the ground, a black spot remaining on the ground for several seconds before it began to fade, the grass beneath appearing to be unharmed.


NOT GIVING UP YET


Tails and Sonic stared at the where the spot had been. "Three days…" Tails murmured. Sonic looked over at him while he was thinking. He then looked at the hedgehog and said, "Eggman said the Resistance has been making progress in the Mystic Jungle with Sonic's help. We need to tell them about this. If we go there, we might be able to get in touch with them." Sonic nodded in agreement and waited while Tails went back to get his belongings. Their next stop was the lab in the Mystic Jungle.
> Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


WORKSHOPPING IT


Twilight let out a sigh as she sat down on a small crate in the workshop. She was still relying on the cane to help her maintain her balance, but she could feel she was getting stronger throughout the day, and they had found her wings could still support her without much difficulty. Tempest, Grubber, Rainbow, and Windra stood at the end of the table opposite the crate and Sonic sat on the table, all of them watching her. Once she was sure her friend was firmly seated, Windra and Grubber gave her a brief clap, Sonic and Tempest smiled at her, and Rainbow walked over to her and told her, "All right, Twilight, that was good. You went pretty far. Keep this up and you'll be walking without any help by tomorrow morning!"

Twilight gave a short laugh and said, "I'm feeling kind of exhausted right now, Rainbow. Don't get me too hopeful." She looked to her left. One of the tables had been moved up against the wall and there was a laptop on it that had a cord running from it to Gemerl's head, the robot sitting against the wall next to the table. Techni was typing on the laptop, the cat having been assigned to getting Gemerl reactivated. Twilight couldn't see what she was doing, but based on the furrow on her brow, she guessed she had hit a roadblock.

She looked over at Sonic when she heard scratching coming from his direction and saw he had picked up the pencil and notebook that been sitting beside him on the table and was scribbling something. It caught everyone else's attention as well, with Grubber asking, "Whatcha writing? Keeping notes on Twilight's progress?"

Sonic replied while still writing, "Nah. I'll leave that to an expert." He looked up and gestured to Windra, who was writing on a clipboard as she was leaving the workshop. Sonic looked down at Grubber and said, "I'm working on something a little more personal, a little more relaxing, a little…" He trailed off as he looked up in thought, giving an affirmative hum a moment later and returning to his scribbling. "Yeah, I think that'll sound good," he remarked.

In her frustrated state of mind, Techni was already getting annoyed by all the talking, but the scratching of the pencil was what was really getting on her nerves. She gritted her teeth and tried to ignore it, but she couldn't do it. She looked over at him and blurted out, "Could you go somewhere else and do that… please?! I can't stand that scratching right now!"

Sonic held his hands up, “Okay, sorry, Techni.” He lowered dropped his notebook and pencil on the table, “Man, bad time for inspiration to strike, apparently. Critics.”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, you don’t need to yell, Techni. Twilight never lets noise bother her when she’s trying to do something.”

Techni replied, "Look, I am trying to get Gemerl up and running again and I have run into an issue I have never seen before, and all this noise is not helping!" She turned back to the laptop with a groan and said, "I could sure use a burst of inspiration myself, because right now, this is a pain in…" She was cut off by the door sliding open again, everyone turning to look.

Knuckles and Silver stepped into the room, both of them looking around at everyone present. Knuckles then looked over at Techni and asked, "Techni, any luck with Gemerl?"

Techni sighed and said, "No, Commander.” She gestured to the robot, “There are signs that the residents of Spiral Hill Village may have tried to fix Gemerl, but he’s not too badly damaged. That’s not the problem, though.” She looked back at the laptop, “There’s something inside of him, some sort of… I don’t know how to describe this thing. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Silver asked, “What do you mean?”

Techni clarified, “I want to call it some kind of malware, but I feel that’s not descriptive enough. I’m trying to identify it and come up with a way to remove it from his systems, but so far, every time I get close, something changes that throws everything I’ve done off and it disappears again, like it knows what I’m doing and is adapting. It’s like a… a…” She trailed off, looking for the right word.

“A virus?” Twilight suggested.

Techni looked at her hesitantly for a moment before saying, “Sure. But paradoxically so. It’s like a computer virus and a real virus merged together. Until we can figure this out, we’re not going to be able to reactivate Gemerl, at least potentially not like he was before this happened.”

Knuckles sighed and said, “All right, Techni, that’ll do for now. Why don’t you step away from this for a little while? Matka said she wanted to talk to you about something.” With a sigh, Techni complied, pulling her scanner off and rubbing her forehead in frustration as she left the room. Afterwards, Knuckles looked at the others and remarked, “Considering what Cream said about him protecting her from Infinite the last time she saw him, I guess it makes sense that it wouldn’t be easy to repair Gemerl.”

Silver asked, "What could he have done to him?"

Tempest said, "Well, you already told us what he seems to enjoy doing to members of the Resistance. Perhaps he did something similar to Gemerl."

Silver replied, "But we don't even know how he does it or how to fix it! How can we help Gemerl if we can't really help each other?"

Sonic looked over at the laptop, "Hm. Techni said she's able to see whatever's inside Gemerl. At least that's something to work with." He shrugged, “Who knows? Maybe if we figure that out, it’ll also help us figure out how to deal with Infinite’s powers.”

There was silence for a few moments and then they heard Pinkie talking outside, “So, you’re telling me that the slogan for this candy is basically saying this is what a rainbow tastes like?”

They heard Hip reply, "Yeah, pretty much."

Pinkie's voice was getting closer as she said back, "Well, it's a good thing I tried it before I knew that because I wouldn't have then, because this is not what a rainbow tastes like! This candy is sweet, and the one time I tried a rainbow, it was really spicy! What were they thinking with that misleading tagline?!"

Hip replied, "Hey, I didn't work for them. I don't know how much thought went into it."

The workshop door slid open as Pinkie said, "I'm going to write them a letter when we get home and send a jar of rainbows with it! And I'll attach a note to it that says…" She stopped when she noticed everyone in the workshop. "Hey! What's going on in here, everybody? Are we having a party?" she asked as she bounced inside.

Silver replied, "No, not exactly, Pinkie."

Rainbow said, “Twilight is getting stronger and walking farther, though. That’s something worth being happy about.”

Pinkie rushed over to the alicorn and gave her a big hug, “I knew you could do it, Twilight!”

Hip chuckled as he walked in, popping a few colorful candies in his mouth. "Yeah, you bounce back quick, huh?" he remarked. He stopped behind Sonic when he noticed the notebook on the table and set his red pouch down before reaching for it. He opened it to the page the pencil was sticking out from and looked over it. "Hmm. These your handmade music sheets, Sonic?" he asked.

Sonic glanced back at him, "Yeah."

Hip nodded, "I dig it. I like the rough look; it adds to it. And I wouldn't mind hearing how this will sound when it’s done."

Silver asked, "Why are you writing music, Sonic?"

Sonic explained, "I wasn't always let out of my cell, so I had to do something to pass the time. I used what I had to indulge in an old hobby. Tapping didn't offer much variety, but I could hear what I was going for in my head. Now that I got a minute, I thought I'd try getting the notes down on paper."

Grubber asked, "What about, like, words?"

Tempest added, "Can't say I really see the need to write anything music-related down. Seems like everyone I meet has the ability to burst into song on the spot."

Sonic shrugged, "Yeah, well, singing was definitely forbidden on the Death Egg. Couldn't even whistle without one of Eggman's robots being a harsh critic."

Pinkie popped up next to him with an angry expression. "Ugh, what a party pooper that Baldy McNosehair is! We should finish one of your songs and play it so he can totally hear it! That'll show him what we think of what he thinks about music!" she said, looking and sounding completely serious.

Rainbow rubbed the back of her head with a hoof, “Uh, yeah… You know I’m all for messing with Egghead any way we can, Pinkie, but that’s gonna take some work to make happen. And instruments. Should we really be spending time on that?”

Pinkie turned to her, still looking serious, “Absolutely, Dashie!”

Hip spoke up, “We could make it happen. I used to know a place where they sold instruments before the war started. It’s not that far; if we get a chance, we could go see if there’s anything still there.”

Pinkie turned to him with a cheerful look, “Why wait? Let’s go look now!” She bit down on the back of Hip’s shirt and pulled him with her as she trotted towards the door.

Knuckles stepped into her path, causing her to come to a stop and look at him curiously. "Hold on, Pinkie. You can't just go skipping out there. We're in a war, remember? Just because we drove Eggman's robots out of the city earlier doesn't mean it's safe to go wandering the streets. And you can't just do what you like; you need to clear it with me first," he said.

Pinkie released Hip's shirt and whined, "Aw, but we're not doing anything, Knuckles! There are no assignments, nothing fun going on. It's getting boring sitting around here waiting!"

Knuckles started, "I understand that, Pinkie, but…" His Miles Mobile suddenly began to ring, cutting him off. He pulled it out and saw it was Rouge, so he answered it. "Rouge, what is it?" he asked.


UNCERTAIN SITUATION


On the screen, he could see that the bat was flying while she was calling as the night sky behind her appeared to be moving. "Hey, Knucky. I'm calling to let you know I've picked up an alert from the Mystic Jungle. The sensors near the edge of the base camp went off."

Knuckles asked, "The sensors? So, there's been a breach?"

Rouge responded, "No. Looks like the two signals came close enough to set them off before moving away into the jungle."

Silver leaned over and asked, "Are they robots? Eggman's sent to secure the lab?"

Rouge answered, "They're definitely alive, so not robots. Although it looks like the sensors produced some unusual readings when they went off."

Twilight wondered, "Unusual readings? I wonder if they're anything like the readings my machine gave when Infinite came through."

Knuckles asked, "Rouge, can you go investigate?"

Rouge replied, "Sorry, no can do, Commander. I'm working on a lead from one of our spies, and I’m heading into Eggman territory now. Gotta go." With that, she hung up.

Knuckles started at his Mobile's screen for a few moments before remarking, "She's as dodgy as ever."

Silver looked at Twilight and asked, "So, you saw weird readings when Infinite arrived in Equestria, Twilight?"

She replied, “I’m sure that’s what happened now. My equipment was working fine until Starlight said she was getting some strange readings and then everything just went haywire. And after that is when I found the scratch marks outside the library and went back to my room to find someone had been in there.” She bowed her head a bit, “I still can’t believe I had enough information in there for him to be able to locate Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis as well as convince them to join him in such a short amount of time, though.”

Silver looked at Knuckles and asked, “Do you think one of them could be Infinite?”

He replied, “I don’t know, but we can’t just ignore it.”

Tempest stated, "So, someone needs to go investigate."

Rainbow shot up, flapping her wings as she said, "I'll go! You can send me, Commander! I'll get there in no time!"

Knuckles looked at her, then noticed Pinkie off to his left and turned to look. She was leaning forward with a big grin on her muzzle, as if she was volunteering too. Behind her, Hip was looking at her with concern and a raised eyebrow. Knuckles was able to remain calm as he spoke, "We're still going to have a little talk, Pinkie." The pink pony kept smiling as he looked up at Rainbow and said, "And I like the spirit, Rainbow, but I think it'll be easier to have someone at the base camp go investigate. Besides, you're still a little beat up from that fight with Infinite the other day."

Rainbow exclaimed, "What?! No, I'm not!" She then winced as her wings flapped furiously and she felt a sudden jolt of pain from her left wing. "Okay, maybe I do have a few sprains to work out," she admitted.

As Knuckles turned to leave, Silver commented, "I just hope it's not too big a task for whoever gets sent."









The Rookie came to a stop near the edge of one of the cliffs near the base camp and looked around, Spike trudging to a stop next to him a moment later. It was almost time for their watch to end, the light from the setting Sun shining through the openings in the canopy. While the Rookie was doing his best to remain alert in spite of the calmness in the area, Spike couldn't wait for their shift to be over. Not because he was tired, though that and the boredom were part of it, but mainly because he was hoping to get reassigned to Resistance HQ and get back to Twilight.

The Rookie had determined from the start that Spike was carrying a lot of emotional baggage, but he also noticed that he didn't want to talk about it, which had become more apparent due to how little he'd spoken to anyone since they arrived a few hours ago. He'd tried a few things to get the dragon to open up, taking him to nice spots around the camp and trying to let him know he was there for him, but nothing seemed to have any effect. It looked like they were in for a long, silent patrol together. So he was quite surprised when Spike suddenly spoke, "You know, there's some great views here and all, but I'd much rather be back at the base with Twilight and helping her than walking around in circles and having to be with people who don't understand that." He realized what he blurted a moment later and turned to the shocked Rookie and quickly said, "Uh, not that I'm implying you're like that or anything." The wolf held up his hand, indicating he had no hard feelings.

He then walked over to a nearby rock and sat down on it, setting his Red Wispon on the ground next to him. Spike walked over and stood in front of him, saying, “I guess I really haven’t gotten to know anyone in the Resistance since I was so insistent on staying with Twilight until she woke up. I definitely haven’t taken the time to talk to you. Where do you come from? I don’t know if I’ve heard anyone say your name yet. What’s on your mind?”

The Rookie opened his mouth, but before any sound could leave it, they both heard a beeping. He paused for a moment before reaching for his Miles Mobile. He saw it was Knuckles, so he immediately answered it. The echidna asked, “Rookie, are you there? Is Spike still with you?”

Hearing his name, the baby dragon flapped his wings and flew over to the Rookie, placing a claw on his shoulder as he looked at the screen and said, “Yeah, I’m here too. What’s going on?”

Knuckles answered, “We just got a report that the sensors near the base camp have gone off. Two lifeforms have been detected, and they seem to be heading deeper into the jungle. We think they may be heading for Eggman’s lab; I want you two to head over there and investigate and figure out who they are.”

Spike asked, “What should we do when we find them?”

Knuckles replied, “Until we know who it is, we’re not going to have any idea of what to expect. But we’ll rally a garrison and send them to catch up with you so in case you need reinforcements, they won’t be far behind. Now get moving!” With that, he ended the call.

Spike and the Rookie glanced at each other, the former suggesting, “I guess we could talk on the way?” The wolf nodded and grabbed his Wispon before standing up, Spike flying after him as he led the way out of the base camp. They ran down a tunnel soon after leaving the camp and, after a minute, they came across a long open log that looked to curve somewhat near the opposite end. Thinking it would be better than trying to go down to the forest floor below, Spike held onto the Rookie as he used his grappling hook to pull himself over to it, both of them following it to go deeper into the jungle area.


CASINO RUINS


Elsewhere in the forest, Tails and the other Sonic had already reached the jungle area and noticed some lights off in the distance. Suspecting it could be from Eggman's lab, they headed towards it, only to discover some old ruins and structures that were decorated with neon lights. "This must be the Mystic Jungle. Eggman's done up everything to look like a casino," Tails commented. He looked at Sonic, "I hope the Resistance is still in the area. We'd better start looking." The light blue hedgehog nodded in reply.

Heading into the ruins, they found the casino look was more than an attempt by Eggman to make the ruins brighter; it was more like he had either copied or taken out part of the Casino Night on Westside Island and merged it with the ruins. The end result was an eye-catching area that made it harder to see the pitfalls and traps that were already present. They figured that out when, less than a minute in, a slab of stone fell away when they placed just a little weight on it, causing it to fall into the water below. Sonic and Tails looked at each other, both of them realizing this might be a little trickier than they'd thought.

They found the best way to move through the ruins, for Sonic at least, was to make use of the additions Eggman had made to them. Using the bumpers allowed him to stay off the ground and avoid triggering traps while also not tiring Tails out, allowing the fox to move more carefully and identify where the traps were. The flippers that had been added made it easy to reach higher parts of the ruins where they were less likely to find traps. They tried to stick to the higher areas as much as they could, but the layout of the ruins occasionally forced them to have to go down in order to continue.

A little while later, after making it through a section that had been lined with flame traps, Sonic was taking a moment to brush his quills and fur to get out any dark patches while Tails set his toolbox down and checked his Miles Electric. “I’m picking up some odd readings here. We must be getting close to the lab,” he said a few moments later. He looked at Sonic, “I can’t imagine what kind of experiments Eggman might be doing out here. Are you ready?” The hedgehog nodded and got into a running stance before taking off, going through a loop that went over and down. Tails stared for a moment before he grabbed his toolbox and spun his tails around, flying after him.


ROBOTS, WATER SLIDES, AND DISCOVERIES


Not too far away, the Rookie and Spike used their grappling hook and Enerbeams respectively to pull themselves out of a water flume with a strong current and back onto dry land. They encountered two squads of Egg Pawns and several Nebulas shortly afterwards, the Rookie dealing with the Egg Pawns with his Wispon while Spike used his Enerbeams like the wolf used his grappling hook to pull himself towards the Nebula to deal with them, though he made use of the spikes on his head to smash through them. It wasn’t too hard to deal with them, but when they got on top of the plateau past them, they found more Egg Pawns and a lot more Nebulas hovering overhead. There were so many of the latter that properly engaging them carried considerable risk for them, so they both agreed to get through the enemy as fast as possible, using their grappling devices to use the Egg Pawns to move forward while launching fire at the other robots.

When they reached the other end of the plateau, they looked down and saw another water flume flowing below. “Oh boy, this again,” Spike remarked. The Rookie didn’t say anything; he simply leapt from the edge and let himself get carried away by the water when he landed in it. Spike flew down to catch up with him before dropping into the water himself. “You know, you look like you’re enjoying this a lot!” he called to the wolf. They managed to stay together when the flume split off and swung on the glowing pillars past where the slide ended to get back to solid ground.

Their path landed them almost directly in front of the entrance to Eggman’s lab. They walked towards it slowly, both keeping an eye out for any potential threats. “This is where those two life thingies were heading, right? Where are they?” Spike wondered. The Rookie was looking around, but he couldn’t see anyone or anything either. When they were a short distance from the watertight door, he suddenly stopped. For a moment, something had flashed across the display on his glasses. It looked like some sort of energy reading, but before he could get a good look at it, it disappeared almost as suddenly as it appeared.

Spike noticed the wolf had stopped after a few seconds and turned to look back at him. He was still looking around, but now he was tapping the side of his glasses for some reason. “What’s the matter?” he asked. The Rookie didn’t answer him as he was focused on trying to figure out where the mystery signal disappeared to. While he was doing so, his sensitive nose picked up on the scents in the area. His and Spike’s scents were naturally the most prominent, but he could also smell several scents that were more diluted. He soon recognized traces of Sonic, Silver, Rainbow, and Tempest’s scents, but there was another that he had no recollection of. He could make out hints of what it smelled like, though. There were traces of sterile and wild smells, as well as what the Chemical Plant smelled like and the smell of plants.

As he was identifying the different bits of the scent, his glasses picked up the reading again, the heads-up appearing slightly longer and briefly identifying its location; it was coming from the left. He turned and started walking slowly in that direction, his nose still picking up the faint, unknown scent. Spike followed him, confused by his strange behavior. He walked for several seconds before stopping in front of some foliage, the alert appearing again and pointing to the plants, where the scent trail seemed to end. The Rookie turned to the foliage and knelt down on one knee, bringing his hands forward to part the leaves. With the plants out of the way, he saw something that caused him to give a curious “Hmm?” and he reached for it with his right hand.

When he leaned back a second later, Spike saw he was holding the magenta icosahedron gem Infinite had dropped the day before in his hand. “Whoa, is that a gem? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like that,” he said as he ran over to get a closer look. As they were looking at it, the gem lit up brightly for a second before it dimmed, both of them a bit startled by this. A closer look at the gem’s surface revealed that it seemed to contain something as there were some small spots drifting underneath. “It can’t be one of the Chaos Emeralds, but it must hold some kind of power in it. Is that how you knew it was there?” Spike asked. The Rookie looked at him, not quite sure how to explain what led him to the gem.

Spike looked down a moment later and noticed something coming towards them from the jungle. He ran around the Rookie to get a better look at it, causing the wolf to look as well. It was coming towards them quickly, but Spike was able to make it out. “Sonic? What’s he doing here?” Spike wondered as the Rookie stood up. As the hedgehog got closer, Spike noticed that he was both familiar yet not the same as the Sonic he mainly knew. It took him a few seconds to figure out why that was, but when he had it, his eyes widened a bit. “Wait, you’re Old-Timey Sonic! What are you doing here?” he asked as he pointed up at the hedgehog that came to a stop in front of him. The other Sonic tilted his head to the side as he looked down at the baby dragon, confused.

“Spike?” a familiar voice asked from above, the other Sonic turning his head up to the side and smiling as he waved at the owner. Spike followed his gaze and saw Tails descending, his toolbox in his right hand and his Miles Electric in his left.

“Tails!” Spike exclaimed, spreading his wings and shooting straight up at the fox, wrapping his arms around him as much as he could. “You’re okay!” he said as he hugged the fox tightly.

Tails was surprised both by the hug and Spike being able to fly so it took him a moment to bring his right arm around and rest it on the dragon’s back. “Uh, hey. You… have wings now?” he awkwardly asked as he continued to lower himself down. He landed next to the other Sonic a second later and looked up at the Rookie. “You seem familiar. Have we met before?” he asked.

Spike brought his head back a bit to look up at Tails’ face and spoke first, “Never mind that right now! You’ve been missing for so long! Where have you been? Why haven’t you tried to contact the Resistance?”

Tails looked down at him and said, “I’m not entirely sure what happened, but I have a long stretch of hazy memories. Somehow during that time, I forgot where the Resistance base was and lost a lot of my programs so I couldn’t raise anyone. But since you apparently know about the Resistance, maybe you could lead the way?”










REUNITED AT LAST


Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Silver, the Chaotix, Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Tempest, and Grubber were all together in the meeting room when the door at the back slid open, catching their attention. "Sonic!" Tails exclaimed, almost teary eyed as he flew straight for the dark blue hedgehog.

"Tails!" Sonic said as he stepped forward and got wrapped up in the flying hug. "I'm so glad you made it back, bud!"

Tails hugged him tighter as he replied, "I'm so glad you're all right! I was worried what Eggman might have done to you!"

Sonic pulled back a bit to look at him and softly said, "Hey, it's okay now, bro. The Resistance found and rescued me, you found your way back… It's all good now."

Pinkie popped up next to them with a big smile, "It's even better than good! Now our reunion is complete! Another reason to celebrate once this icky war is over!" Sonic and Tails gave her a look and a smile in reply.


BACK ON TRACK


As Tails was lowering himself to the floor, Sonic looked at him and asked, "So, what happened, Tails? It's not like you to just drop off the map."

Tails held his right hand to the side of his head, "Like I told Spike, I'm not entirely sure. The last thing I remember clearly before everything got hazy is running into that guy."

Sonic's expression darkened at that. "Infinite," he growled.

Tails looked at him, "Is that his name?"

Tempest took a step forward as she said, "Yes. And it sounds like he used his power to perform one of his mind tricks on you." When Tails looked at her, she added, "I've had some experience with them myself."

Grubber also stepped forward to say, "Yeah, she did. Luckily, it didn't last long, but I've never seen her like that before."

Tails murmured, "That's right. He does like doing that."

Spike had walked into the room while everyone was talking, standing near the door while he listened. When the talking stopped, he spoke, "Well, there is one good thing about it. Look who he found." He then held his arms out towards the door in a presenting fashion as the other Sonic walked in, Aventura, Salten, and Techni staring at him in surprise from the adjacent room.

Most of the occupants in the room were similarly surprised by the presence of another Sonic, but Sonic and six of the ponies were only mildly surprised by comparison. "Whoa, Old-Timey Sonic? No way!" Rainbow said.

“Incredible,” Fluttershy murmured.

“So, their tales were true,” Espio remarked under his breath.

Sonic looked at his counterpart and said, “Man, talk about a timeless encounter. How have you been?” Although he was still a bit confused about some of the things everyone was saying, the shorter hedgehog smiled and gave the taller hedgehog a thumbs up.

Applejack looked at Tails and asked, “How did ya find him, Tails?”

The fox replied, “I didn’t. He just dropped out of some strange portal that appeared near me in the city. Somehow, when he appeared, the haziness in my head just completely vanished.”

Tempest tilted her head, “Really? Interesting.”

Tails said, “That reminds me… I was working on Omega when Chaos and Sonic appeared. He seemed to be relatively undamaged, but I couldn’t get him to reactivate.”

Silver commented, “Sounds like the problem Techni is having with Gemerl.”

Amy turned to the laptop and started typing on it as she said, “I’ll see if we can get everything necessary to perform a heavy lift. As long as you can point us to his location, Tails, we’ll bring him back somehow. We can’t just leave him out there.”

Knuckles turned back to Tails and asked, “Anything else?”

Tails answered, “Actually, yeah. We encountered Eggman when we were in Green Hill. That’s how we learned about the lab in the Mystic Jungle.”

Rarity said, “I hope you two gave him a good what-for for all of us.”

Tails replied, “Well, we kind of did. He was being protected by a pink alicorn using some kind of dark magic.”

Twilight shifted on the crate she was sitting on as she said, “That would be Cozy Glow. It seems Infinite not only managed to free her and Tirek from Tartarus, but also somehow infused her with King Sombra’s magic.”

Tails continued, “I thought it seemed familiar. Anyway, before they both disappeared, Eggman said that he’s planning something big. He didn’t say what it was exactly, but he mentioned it would wipe out the Resistance and that it’ll be ready in three days.”

Vector remarked, “Well, that sure sounds ominous. And a lot like old Egghead.”

Sonic asked, “Three days, huh? Well, a lot can happen in three days.”

While they were talking, the Rookie was standing outside the room with Salten, Techni, and Aventura. He was listening to what everyone was talking about as well, but he was also looking at the strange gem he found in the Mystic Jungle. Finding out what Eggman was planning and stopping it was likely going to be what a lot of the Resistance’s efforts were going to go to, but at the moment, he was more preoccupied with the gem. What was it? Why did it glow before? And why did he feel like he’d seen one like it somewhere before?










A FLICKER IN THE DARKNESS


Shadow’s eyes stared intently at the computer screen in front of him, watching the progress bar it was displaying. When it finished filling up, he raised his right hand and pulled out a dark blue flash drive he’d connected to it. Holding it up, he turned it over, looking at the pink heart emblazoned on the back. He frowned for a moment before he clicked the drive closed and turned to look at the security monitors. He focused on a screen showing one of the hangers, which had a transport sitting in it. And it appeared to be loading up with Egg Pawns, likely heading back to Earth...
> Sanctuary Defense, Pt. I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CAPPER'S SEARCH


Capper was glancing around as he walked through Ponyville, looking as if he didn't have a care in the world. It was a cover, naturally, the oldest in the book to mask how he was actually feeling. He'd arrived in the small town the day before and had been planning to go straight to Twilight's castle since Tempest had implied her mystery assailant was targeting her next and figured she would know where the unicorn and Grubber were. That plan had been derailed when he saw Sandbar leaving the castle looking disappointed and overheard him and his friends discussing how they hadn't been able to get in the castle for days and the mysterious absence of Rarity and her friends. That made him reconsider his actions.

He walked into the town marketplace and started looking around more actively, scanning everyone walking around. He was looking for the students. They didn’t seem like they were suspicious enough that they would readily hear what he had to say, but he wanted to get their attention and confide in them as much as he could before they went to whatever this announcement at Twilight’s castle turned out to be. As he was walking and looking around, he spotted Big Macintosh and stopped in his tracks as they made eye contact, the red earth pony once again alone with the cart carrying the farm’s products. Big Mac’s expression was knowing yet filled with uncertainty, reflecting the slightly frazzled appearance of his mane and tail and the sleeplessness in his eyes, and Capper responded with a slight tilt of his hat and a reassuring nod. It seemed to calm the stallion somewhat since he nodded back and returned to attending his cart while Capper resumed walking through the marketplace.

While most of the ponies he'd asked yesterday about Tempest and Grubber either said they'd only heard they had been in town or had briefly seen them when Tempest came rushing past them, Big Mac had had quite a bit more to say. Capper figured the stallion to be the strong silent type when he first saw him; his other sister, Apple Bloom, had been with him when the feline stopped by the farm and the shocked look on her face when he started running his mouth reinforced that. He told him how Tempest was sweating like she'd just been through several rodeos in a row, that she was clearly anxious about something, and she slowed down just long enough to yell at his sister and her friends before taking off again. He then said that the girls almost immediately hurried after her after Pinkie’s Pinkie Sense went off, which was worrying enough, but Applejack told him she’d be back before long, so it was even more worrying when she never came home and nopony else saw her after she went inside Twilight’s castle. According to him, she always let her family know when she had to go somewhere or something was up. He'd had more to say, mostly a lot of little things, but Capper cut him off before he could really start babbling and told him he would find out what really happened. It had taken him making a Pinkie Promise to get the earth pony to calm down, but the former rogue didn’t mind; one way or another, he knew he was going to get to the bottom of this mystery.

As he neared the edge of the marketplace, he caught sight of the group, seeing Yona first before he noticed everyone else with her. They appeared to be walking away from a small cafe, so he guessed they had just gotten something to eat. They were walking past the market, so Capper glanced ahead of them at the row of houses for a moment before moving towards them.

The six kids didn't notice the feline exiting the space between two of the houses and nonchalantly leaning against the house to their left as they were too busy talking. “Those were some good daffodil and daisy sandwiches, huh?” Sandbar was asking.

“Yeah! They were really fresh, and the bread was so soft!” Silverstream replied.

Gallus rolled his eyes, “If you two say so. They need to get a better chef or something; that stuff rarely ever looks good enough to eat.”

They were walking past Capper as Silverstream said, "You should know that looks don't always mean everything, Gallus."

The griffon replied, "Yeah, well I don't exactly go for that stuff anyway."

Smolder said, "I do think we should try to find some new places to eat. Hay fries fully toasted are good, but they don't make much of a meal."

Capper took the opportunity to interject, "Well, that simply won't do at all." Smolder came to a stop and turned to look at him, the rest of her friends doing the same a moment later.

Gallus took one look at him and angrily asked, "What's it to you, pal?! And why are you listening to us?!"

Capper stood up straight and stepped away from the house as he said, "Take it easy, cat-bird. No need to get all worked up." He took a few steps towards the group, "I was just relaxing, trying to enjoy this nice day, so it's only natural that I would overhear what others are saying." He stopped a few feet away and glanced around as he added, "I certainly wasn't doing what some of these ponies are doing right now." The group looked around and noticed that some of the ponies that were out had stopped and turned to look at them due to Gallus' yelling.

Capper turned his attention back to Smolder and raised an eyebrow. "Hm, what's this?" he asked, leaning forward a little and raising his left hand towards her right fin.

Smolder quickly noticed and asked, "Hey, what are you doing?" Capper didn't answer, instead reaching forward faster and placing his fingers behind her fin before she could move.

When he pulled his hand back, he was holding a small topaz in his fingers. "Well, would you look at that? What a nice shiny surprise," he remarked, holding it up so the kids could see.

"How you do that?" Yona asked.

“It was a magic trick, wasn’t it? I like seeing magic tricks like that!” Silverstream exclaimed.

Capper flicked his fingers, making the topaz flip back and forth over his middle digit as he said, “I do know a few good tricks. Here’s one I think you’ll like, dragon girl.” He caught the gem between his index finger and thumb and folded his fingers together into a fist for a moment. When he unfolded them, he was holding a second topaz between his index and middle fingers; a third folding and he was holding a third. He then tossed them towards Smolder, who managed to catch them a bit awkwardly. “You can have those. A little chaser for your meal,” he stated.

While Smolder was staring at the gems in her hands, Gallus looked back at Capper and asked, “So, uh, who are you again?”

Yona spoke up, “Yona remember now. Miss Rarity talk about him. His name… Dapper? Cappy?”

Capper pointed at her, “It’s Capper, actually, but a point to the yak all the same. And I wouldn’t mind hearing what Miss Rarity has said about me at some point.”

Sandbar asked, "What are you doing here in Ponyville?"

Capper replied, "Following up on what a friend asked me to do." At the kids' curious looks, he explained, "You kids have probably heard of Tempest Shadow. Well, she was attacked a couple of days ago in Klugetown by a mystery attacker. Completely destroyed the building she and Grubber were in before he took off."

Ocellus gasped, "Oh no!"

Capper said, "Yes. She took off after him, but as she was leaving, she told me to come looking for her if she didn't come back in a few days." He glanced around, "She indicated he was coming here."

Ocellus murmured, "Here? In Ponyville?"

Sandbar said, "I did see them briefly when they showed up a few days ago, and nopony's seen them since."

Smolder spoke, "Would you two relax? I'm sure it's fine." She slurped up one of the topazes before continuing, "This isn't another situation like there was with Cozy Glow. Everything's been quiet the last few days, and Princess Twilight is going to give her big speech today."

Silverstream blurted out, “Yeah, did you hear? There’s a rumor going around that Princess Twilight is going to take over for Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! They’re saying that’s why she’s been cooped up in her castle the last few days, that she’s been getting everything ready and she’s going to tell everyone-” She was cut off when Smolder reached over with her open claw and clamped her fingers over the hippogriff’s beak, raising an eyebrow when she looked over at her.

Gallus said, “And I think that’s enough. We should get going and see if any of the good spots are taken yet. So anyway, that’s awesome you’re worried about your friend and all, but I think everything’s fine.” He started to walk past Capper, “Hope to see you at Princess Twilight’s speech. Maybe Tempest will make a surprise appearance there.”

As the others started to follow him, Smolder told the cat, “We’ll keep an eye out, though. At least, some of us will try to.” She held up the topazes, “Thanks for the gems. They’re pretty tasty.”

Capper replied, “You’re welcome. You kids take care now.”

Sandbar called back, “You too. Nice meeting you.” Ocellus, Silverstream, and Yona all echoed his sentiment.

As he watched them walk away, Capper thought, “Nice kids. I can tell they’ve learned a lot under Princess Twilight and her friends, but they’re still kids. They probably don’t know yet that quiet doesn’t always mean everything’s all good. I should listen in on this speech from afar to make sure nothing’s amiss.” He turned to look at the café the kids came from and started to walk towards it a moment later, “I probably have a little time. I think I’ll get a latte before I make my way over to the castle.”









TAILS UPDATE


Tails was quietly eating an instant beef stew as he sat on a stool that he had pulled into the workshop mulling over a couple of things. In front of him were documents and blueprints for Wispons, the Miles Mobile, pieces of spy tech, and other new gear and upgrades the Resistance had made in his absence. To his left was his new Miles Mobile, which was currently in the middle of transferring information from his old prototype, which was sitting next to it. And off in the corner was Omega, sitting next to Gemerl hooked up to the same laptop. It was morning and now that they were one day closer to the end of Eggman's countdown, he needed to get up to speed fast.

The workshop door slid open and Tails looked up while stirring his stew. Both Sonics, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow, and Vector stepped inside and made their way over to his table. O-T Sonic and Spike moved to his side, F-T Sonic, Twilight, and Rainbow stood across from him, and Vector stood at the end of the table between the two sides. F-T Sonic was the first to speak, “Hey, Tails. You feeling all right today?”

The fox nodded, “Yeah. I think I’m better after that brush with Infinite’s power, but I thought I should try eating something mild just in case.”

Vector remarked, “Well, you made a good choice, then. That stew’s at least got some taste to it, but not much else.”

Spike hopped up on the table and walked a little closer. He looked down at the documents for a moment before looking up at Tails and asking, “What are you doing?”

Tails replied, “I’m just looking over some of the things that have happened while I was gone. Techni’s really made some progress in that time. These new Wispon designs look promising too. Yellow, Green, Violet… they all look like they could be quite useful.” He pointed at one of the stacks of papers with his left hand, “These early results for a Jade Wispon are concerning, though. It still has a lot of potential, but these injury reports…” He shook his head, “I’m thinking it might be better to just scrap it now before anyone else gets hurt.”

Rainbow shrugged, “Well, that’s what you think. I sure don’t know what’s been going on with that since we don’t really use the Wispons.” She then raised an eyebrow, “So yesterday, you said you and Old-Timey Sonic ended up in the Mystic Jungle because of what Eggman said, right? Did he tell you anything about what he’s planning?”

Tails replied, “No. Aside from the time limit, all he said was that whatever he’s planning might be as bad or worse than the anticipation leading up to it.”

Vector sighed and said, “Gotta give old Egghead some credit, I guess. For all his talking and eccentricities, he can be serious and shut his mouth when it counts.”

Twilight looked over at Omega, seeing the cables that connected him to the laptop. "How's Omega doing, Tails?" she asked.

The fox replied, "I still can't reactivate him. There's no physical damage on the inside, so it has to be something in his systems. I think Techni was right; I looked over the logs and saw that Gemerl appears to be in a similar state."

Rainbow asked, "So, how do we fix that?"

Tails said, "I don't know yet. My best guess at the moment is that Infinite used his power on them and they've been affected like I and some others have been."

Twilight asked, "Is there something we could do to get to the bottom of it? Some kind of program or something to gather information?"

Tails looked at her for a moment before saying, "That has potential. We'd probably have to make it ourselves, but it might be worth it."

Vector crossed his arms, "You know, come to think of it, I have noticed something about that guy. Nearly every time he uses his power, that weird gem on his chest starts to glow."

Rainbow asked, "Sooo… we should try to take it away from him?"

Vector raised an eyebrow at her, "What? No! Not yet, anyway. I was thinking we should try to find out what it is if we can. Then we would know whether it would even be safe to try to take it from him."

Rainbow huffed, “Oh.”

Spike turned to Tails and asked, "What about that other gem? You know, the one our wolf buddy found?"

The fox replied, "I'm not sure. I asked him to come by later so we can properly examine it." He looked down at his plastic bowl, "Hopefully, it'll answer some questions."

Rainbow looked over at O-T Sonic after a moment with a raised eyebrow. “Speaking of which, how’d he get here? I get that that Infinite creep was able to cross over into Equestria, but he’s not pulling another Time Eater, is he?”

Tails said, “I don’t think it was him. Not… directly, anyway.” He gestured to O-T Sonic, “He told me he was chasing after a similar gem when he ended up here. He has a feeling that that gem might be here somewhere as well. If so, we’ll need to find it when this is all over so we can send him home. As for…” He was cut off when an alarm started blaring through the base, causing everyone to look up in surprise.


ANOTHER ATTACK


The door to the workshop slid open after a couple of seconds and Espio stuck his head in, the chameleon holding his Miles Mobile in his right hand as he called, “Everyone, come to the meeting room! We have a situation!” before leaving. Everyone looked at where he had been for a moment before they began scrambling out, Rainbow grabbing and draping Twilight’s left foreleg over her shoulders to support her as she flew for both of them and Tails quickly slurped up as much of the liquid left in the bowl as he could before leaving it behind, wiping his lips dry as he grabbed his gear and hurried after the others.

They soon arrived at the meeting room and found Espio, Knuckles, Charmy, Tempest, Grubber, Silver, Amy, the Rookie, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, Techni, Matka, Trish, and Aventura in the room, some already there and some arriving at about the same time. As they all gathered around the table, Tails asked over the alarm, "What's going on?!"

Amy silenced the alarm a moment later before looking up at everyone and saying, "We just received a red alert from our crews stationed in the Sky Sanctuary! They've spotted the Battle Bird Armada!"

Knuckles asked, "What?! Do we have any visuals?!"

Amy returned her attention to the laptop on the table, typing on the keyboard as she said, "Hang on! I'm bringing it up now!" Everyone looked towards the main monitor; after a couple seconds, six video windows opened one after the other, each flashing a message that it was retrieving the feed.

As soon as one of the feeds finished syncing, Amy clicked on it and made the window bigger. It showed the floating buildings, stone paths, and glass walkways of the Sky Sanctuary, but everyone could see something else off in the distance. They could only partly make it out because the camera was on an angle, but it looked like a large gray battleship. As more camera feeds synched up and revealed more views and angles of it, they were able to make out more details. The bottom appeared to be rounded, but the top was flat aside from the wings on the sides and a few structures sticking out on the deck. It was also flanked by a multitude of smaller aircraft.

Tails was the first to speak up, "That looks like the Armada, all right. And they're close enough that there's no way they couldn't have spotted the Sky Sanctuary."

Tempest asked, "That's where our warships are hidden away, correct?"

Trish nodded, "Correct. And even if they've already started prepping them, the Armada will reach the Sanctuary before our forces can engage them."

Twilight asked, "What are we going to do?"

Knuckles answered, "We have to send them some support. The defenses installed in the Sky Sanctuary aren't going to be enough, and I'm not losing any more of the Sanctuary or risking those birds blabbing to Eggman."

Rainbow flew up behind him and spoke, "Great! So, what's the plan?"

Knuckles had turned to look up at her while she was talking and after she finished, he said, "I'm gonna need two teams on this one. One to engage their aerial forces, and the other to infiltrate their battleship and take it out."

Sonic smiled, "I'm all for being part of that team!"

Tempest nodded, "Second."

Tails looked at Trish and said, "We can be part of the aerial defense." The bird nodded in agreement.

Rainbow looked back at them and told them, "So can I!"

Trish looked at the pegasus with a raised eyebrow, "What are you talking about? You don't have flight training; you haven't even looked at the simulators yet."

Rainbow gave her an annoyed look as she turned around fully and landed, extending her wings to their full length as she went, "Uhh…?"

Trish blinked, "Oh, right. Well, you're still not the only one with wings around here, and none of them would use them for an assignment like this. That's really dangerous, so…"

Knuckles interjected, "I've seen Rainbow in action before. She doesn't need a fighter or Wispons to make it rain." The pegasus closed her wings as he placed his right hand on her back, "You have my approval." Rainbow shot Trish a smug look at that and the bird rolled her eyes in response.

Espio remarked, "Well, our two teams are already coming together nicely."

Knuckles said, "Yeah, it's a start. We need more, but we can get moving now." He looked at Amy, "Get in touch with other members of the Resistance. Tell them what's going on and where we need them." She nodded and got to work while he turned to the others and continued, "Tails, Trish, get down to the hanger and get your fighters ready. Techni, take Sonic and Tempest down to storage and pick out some Warp Rings. We'll need them." Each of them stood at attention as he addressed them and everyone split off after he was done talking.

Sonic and Tempest followed Techni down to the armory as did Grubber, Spike, Twilight, and Rarity, the unicorn offering the alicorn support as they made their way down the passageways, weaving around other Resistance members as they went. Twilight, Spike, and Rarity were able to catch up while they were waiting for the armory door to slide open so Twilight, as she shifted away from Rarity to lean against the wall next to her, asked, "You guys have more Warp Rings?"

Techni looked over at her and answered, "Yeah, but not like the one you guys found. They're smaller, single-use. They're still hard to find, but yours was much rarer." The door finished opening and she immediately made a beeline for the wall across from the door while everyone else moved to the middle of the room. She grabbed her Miles Mobile and held it up so its screen was in front of a keypad-sized scanner on the wall. The scanner flashed green and beeped a confirming tone after a few seconds and a hidden door in the wall opened, revealing a plain room with shelves along the walls and a few tables in the middle on the other side.

Techni disappeared through the doorway and Sonic, Tempest, and Grubber walked over, stepping inside. They ignored the shelves for the moment, instead focusing on Techni as she grabbed a moderately-sized silver-gray metal box on the shelf to the left near the other end of the room, the cat grunting a bit as she picked it up off the shelf at her level and turned around to set it on the nearby table. They walked over and she turned it to face them, Twilight, Rarity, and Spike stepping into the room as they did so. There was a small light gray button on the front below the lid, so Sonic pressed it with his right index finger to release the lock and lifted the lid with his left hand. The two ponies and dragon peered into it when they reached the table: the box was about half-full with gold rings, all of them indeed much smaller than Twilight’s Warp Ring. This was all the more apparent when Sonic reached in with his left hand and grabbed one, easily holding it between his thumb and index finger as he held it up.

"Ooh! It's so shiny!" Grubber squeaked, looking up at the ring with sparkly eyes.

"Be careful with those. We don't have that many, so we need to make every one we use count," Techni stated, the cat currently looking for something on the shelves. She turned back after several moments holding two small brown drawstring pouches, both having a long black leather strap. She held them out to Sonic, "Here. Put a couple of rings in these and then we’ll head down to the hangers." He took them and handed one to Grubber, the smaller hedgehog holding it open while the blue hedgehog reached into the box and started picking out rings.

While they were doing this, Tails and Trish reached the end of one of the train tunnels with Rainbow Dash hovering close behind them. Tails held the screen of his Miles Mobile to a scanner in the wall and it beeped and glowed green after a few moments, the metal doors next to it sliding open. As they stepped into the room, lights on the ceiling switched on, illuminating it. They stood on a metal catwalk above the floor, which was connected to a staircase to their right. On the floor below were the Resistance fighter craft, all futuristic-looking white fighter planes with four half blue, half white wings, each one sitting on a metal elevator platform with a pair of large doors above them.

“So, these are the Resistance’s fighters, huh? They look pretty cool,” Rainbow commented.

“Yep. They haven’t seen a lot of use since we haven’t had the numbers to risk taking on Eggman’s capital ships from the air, but this is an urgent situation,” Trish said.

Rainbow placed a hoof on the bird’s shoulder, “Well, after this, maybe we can take to the sky more often!”

Tails’ Miles Mobile rang a second later and he, upon seeing it was Amy, answered it. “We have some more pilots to fly alongside you and Trish, Tails! They’re on their way!”

Tails nodded, “Got it, Amy!” He hung up and looked at Trish, “Well, let’s get ready.” She nodded and they made their way down the stairs, Rainbow following them.









THE BATTLE BEGINS


On the bridge of the large battleship, the leader of the Battle Bird Armada stood with his arms behind his back as he looked at a holographic screen through his small circular glasses. It was displaying live video of the skirmish going on outside, the view shifting every couple of seconds. The Armada's aircrafts had begun flying around and through the floating buildings, trying to avoid being shot by the defenses installed in them as they swarmed towards the Resistance's battleships. Their ships were swift enough to evade the defenses as long as the pilots reacted quickly, and even if they didn't, Dr. Eggman had blessed the Armada's ships with upgrades recently, giving them a canopy so the pilots weren’t exposed as well as better armor and weaponry. The defenses in the Sky Sanctuary were outdated by comparison and thus could not do a lot of damage and were easy to destroy.

He grinned as he watched the fighting play out on the screens. "Resistance fools. You thought these broken ruins would keep you safe, didn't you? That you were somehow safe in the skies. Just like the Babylon Rogues. Well, now you're going to learn that there's no hiding from the masters of the skies. Your lack of preparation for a siege will be your downfall, which should give us an opportunity," he thought.

He heard footsteps coming up from behind him, but he didn't pay them much mind until he heard, "Battle Lord Kukku, sir!" He turned slightly to his left and looked down to see a green bird wearing a red scarf and a white flight suit with red stripes, the smaller bird placing his right fist on his chest in a salute. He then said, "We're receiving reports of a Warp Ring outside the Sky Sanctuary! It may be the Resistance!"

The Battle Lord faced forward as he replied, "Really? Show me." The bridge crew responded by frantically typing at their stations, soon calling up a new screen showing the sky beyond the battle zone. In the distance, there did appear to be an open Warp Ring floating in the sky, though it was too far away to see where it went. "Zoom in!" the Battle Lord ordered. It changed as he ordered after a second, though it zoomed in a bit too much since it was close enough for them to get a closeup of the faces of the Resistance pilots, making the Battle Lord and the bird behind him squawk in surprise. Before it zoomed out, however, they did see Tails' face as he was the last one to come through the portal with Sonic, Rarity, and Knuckles on the wings of his plane.

"Father! It's him!" the green bird exclaimed.

The Battle Lord brought his hand up under his chin as he said, "Yes, I saw him too, Speedy." He thought for a moment before turning and pointing at the smaller bird, "Go out there and personally exact our revenge on that fox, my son! We'll begin restoring our former glory by destroying him followed by the rest of our enemies!" The green bird saluted and turned to run down to the hangers while the Battle Lord turned back to the screens.









After coming through the Warp Ring, the Resistance pilots maintained a close formation as they approached the Sky Sanctuary. The Battle Bird Armada's aircraft were swarming around it like a hive of bees, using their smaller, weaker craft to make quick runs on the Resistance battleships. One of the ships had managed to get airborne, but it was still under heavy fire and the rest of the ships were not faring any better. It looked like a dire situation, but Knuckles was still sure they could turn it around.

"Change of plans! We have to help our ships! All flyers, drive off those birds! Our ground teams will get to the landing areas and provide damage control!" Knuckles ordered over the headset he was wearing.

Rainbow flew up next to Tails' ship and looked over at it as she said into her communicator, "You got it, Commander! All you guys, just watch out for me! I'll be looking out for you!" She then faced forward and shot ahead, her hooves extended ready to beat down on the exposed heads of the Armada.

"Rainbow?! Stay with the rest of us!" Twilight called out, receiving no response over the comms. Her flying was a bit shaky, but she stayed back behind the fighter craft and Fluttershy and Spike flew close by, keeping an eye on her.

"Rainbow!" Applejack yelled. After a second, she sighed and said, "She ain't listenin'. Y'all should do what she said and keep an eye out for her." She wasn’t wearing her Stetson for this fight; instead, she had on a pair of goggles over her eyes as she was riding on the wing of Trish’s ship along with the Rookie and Tempest.

Knuckles looked at one of the nearby floating stone towers for a moment before looking over at Sonic and saying, "This is where I get off!"

As he turned away, Sonic called, "All right, good luck!" The echidna then leapt from the plane, gliding towards the tower. Sonic then looked towards one of the structures housing one of the battleships that was being attacked up ahead and said, "We'll take that one, Tails! Just give me a smooth landing here; we'll go the rest of the way!"

Tails nodded, "Got it!" and tilted to the right, moving closer to one of the stone pathways.

As they got closer, they heard Tempest say over the radio, "Fine. We'll help the ship over there, then. Trish, if you wouldn't mind?"

They heard the swallow say, "Right. Hang on!"

Sonic adjusted the strap of his bag with his left hand as he looked at Rarity and asked, "You ready for this, Rare?" The unicorn quickly shook her head, looking terrified. "Cool. Just leave it to me!" he said.

Rarity started, "Is that supposed to make me feel better?! Because I-" She was cut off when Sonic turned to her and used his arms to lift her up, holding her close. She yelped as he did this and then let out a terrified scream as he leapt off the plane towards the stone pathway. She thought they would either hit the side or land wrong with how fast they were going, but aside from Sonic making a few hops to slow down a bit and adjust his balance, they landed without any problems. Rarity slowly started to relax while Sonic headed for the battleship and Tails pulled up to join the air battle.

It didn't take Sonic long to reach the battleship's 'hanger' inside the building and both he and Rarity took the sight in. Fire and smoke were rising from the top of the ship and they could see eight Resistance members scattered around the room. Sonic set Rarity down and then said, "Okay, let's start by getting everyone out of the way. How about you start helping these guys while I check the other side?"

Rarity nodded after a moment, "Okay. That sounds like a plan." She turned and ran over to the nearest Resistance member, a brown dog who was lying on his front, while Sonic ran towards the ship, making his way around to the port side.

After a little over a minute, they had rounded up a total of twelve Resistance members and lined them up along a wall away from the battleship. A few of them had fared pretty well, only being dazed or having suffered minor injuries, but most of them were going to need medical attention. As they were making sure they all had their backs up against the wall, one of them, a coyote, told Sonic, “There were others. They should still be inside the ship.”

Sonic looked towards the battleship for a moment before looking back at the coyote and saying, “Okay, we’ll get them out. Just hang on; we’ll be back soon.” He stood up and looked at Rarity, “Let’s go, Rarity!” The unicorn nodded and stood up and followed him towards the ship.

The battleship hadn't gotten off the ground when it had been attacked, so they were able to climb the stairs up of the small dock to the ship's entrance. The door was stuck about a quarter of the way up, though, so Sonic and Rarity grabbed the bottom of it and tried to force it up. It didn't budge much, but they were able to get it up enough so that Sonic, while Rarity was using her magic, was able to get underneath it and Spin Dash to open it almost completely, though the metallic grinding and crunching that accompanied it indicated it would need to be fixed.

The sudden opening jerked Rarity back due to how much she'd been trying to lift the door, but she managed to stop herself from backing off the edge. She shook her head and steadied her balance before remarking, "Well, I wasn't expecting that. That was a bit brash, wasn't it, Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog turned to look at her as she walked over to him and said, "He said there were people onboard, Rarity, people who could be trapped. We can always put in another door." He turned to look inside and saw the red light from the alarm going off as well as sparks shooting out of a nearby panel. He looked back at Rarity, "Let's get to work." She nodded and they hurried inside to begin searching.

While they were searching, Tempest and Applejack were already in the process of rescuing. The battleship they were dropped off at had been in the middle of takeoff since it wasn't in its dock, so the two ponies had needed some help from the Rookie to get onboard. Once they got inside, they found that the crash done a number on the interior as not only were there electronics shorting out, but there were also fires in parts of the ship, making navigating the corridors difficult.

It hadn't been impossible, though, as Tempest had a pig, a robin, and a possum draped over her back as she galloped down a corridor towards the ship's bridge. She reached it after a minute and found the Rookie there helping a fox alongside an eagle who was helping a dog. Applejack joined them a minute or two later, a cat, a squirrel, and a rabbit on her back. Tempest turned to her when she arrived and asked, “Is that everyone?”

Applejack replied, “Ah think so. Ah couldn’t find anyone else.”

The eagle said, “I’m not so sure, but for now, we should get everyone we have out of here. The sooner we get them medical attention, the better.” The Rookie nodded and reached into the pouch he was given, pulling out one of the Warp Rings.

As he was doing this, Tempest turned to Applejack and asked, “Do you know how these things work?”

The earth pony shrugged slightly, “Ah think it’s just ya picture where you want it ta go before you toss it.” They looked back and saw that the Rookie had opened a portal to the space outside the Resistance base. They quickly carried their injured through, Matka already waiting for them to carry them to the infirmary for Terv and Windra.

During all of this, Tails, Trish, and the rest of the Resistance's air force were dealing with the Armada's aircraft. While they had the numbers and the upgraded aircraft, the Resistance’s aircraft were more versatile and required the birds to get the drop on them by hiding behind the buildings. Although they were able to get behind several fighters and pursue them, Tails, Trish, and Rainbow were quick to respond before their fighters could suffer serious damage and force the birds to retreat. The tide was soon turning in the Resistance's favor.

As he reached the top of one of the taller buildings, Knuckles kept his left fist in the wall and turned to look out over the Sky Sanctuary. The Armada's aircraft were thinning, but their main battleship was still holding position away from the fighting. He grabbed his Miles Mobile with his free hand and spoke to everyone over the radio, "The sky is starting to look pretty clear now. It's time to attack the Armada's battleship!"

Tails responded, "Right. If we can force their battleship to retreat, their aircraft should do the same."

Rainbow spoke, "Then what are we waiting for? Come on, let's knock that big ball out of the sky!" She changed course, flying towards the battleship.

As she turned her plane to do the same, Trish said, "Hey, don't hog all the fun, Rainbow!" She flew after the pegasus and Tails did the same, several other Resistance fighters forming up behind him. Despite this, none of the Armada's aircraft moved to intercept them.

On the bridge of the battleship, one of the bridge crew called, "Battle Lord! We have incoming Resistance fighters!"

The Battle Lord grinned, "Yes, I see. Let them come; they'll get a perfect view of the surprise we have for them!"

From where he was, Knuckles could see the group heading for the battleship and was confused by the fact that neither it nor the aircraft were trying to stop them. It was enough to give him a bad feeling, so, with a raised voice, he said over the radio, "Stop the attack! Everyone, break off!"

Rainbow was confused by this and glanced up at her left ear as she yelled, "What?!" Before anything else could happen, she suddenly crashed into something solid, her body splaying out against it. It took her a few seconds to recover from the impact and when she did, she realized it was some sort of green slightly transparent wall. She pulled her head off of it and saw that it surrounded the Armada's battleship like a forcefield.

Trish, who had still been trying to catch up with Rainbow Dash at the time, let out a cry when she saw the barrier appear and jammed her yoke to the right while trying to slow down. Luckily, she hadn't been right behind Rainbow so she had enough space to avoid crashing into her, but the split-second maneuver wasn't enough to avoid scraping the shield with the underside of her plane. She dragged along it for a few seconds before finally managing to pull away, the controls beeping and flashing lights as she sat rigidly.

Tails and the fighters flanking him were back far enough to break off without crashing and as they did so, Tails called over the radio, "Rainbow, Trish! Are you two alright?!"

Trish answered first, "Just a bit grazed. I think I'm okay."

Rainbow flapped her wings and pushed off the field before responding, "Yeah, I'm okay." She looked back at it, "Think this is the first time I’ve ever crashed into a forcefield."

Knuckles said, "I was afraid they had a shield when their fighters didn't move to intercept you! This is going to make things more difficult!"


DESPERATE SITUATION


The Battle Lord's voice was suddenly heard over a loudspeaker, "Ha, ha, ha! Did you fools really think it would be so easy? The Battle Bird Armada will not be defeated by you worms! These skies belong to us; it's time for you to leave or be destroyed!" After he finished speaking, ports on the sides of the ship opened and they all fired missiles a second later. Rainbow noticed them firing and, noticing their trajectory, flew to get away from them, letting out a yelp at how quickly they came through the shield.

The missiles flew towards the Sky Sanctuary, many of them hitting the buildings and creating either sizable cracks or holes. Some came close to hitting Resistance members that were on foot while others targeted the Resistance fighters. One was persistent in chasing one of the fighters; it followed it around the towers and stayed close behind. “This missile’s on me tight! I can’t shake it!” the pilot yelled over the radio.

“Eject! Get out of there!” Knuckles ordered. The missile caught up with the plane a few seconds later and it exploded on contact. With the resulting smoke, no one was able to tell if the pilot was able to get out in time.

“Oh no! What are we going to do?” Fluttershy asked, her voice barely audible over the radio.

Espio’s voice was heard next, “The Sky Sanctuary has already taken considerable damage from their fighter craft! The battleship’s heavy weapons could easily destroy it!”

Vector ordered, “Get all the wounded outta here! Any battleships that can still fly, get ‘em airborne! We need everything we got to get through that shield and take that ship down!”

While helping a feline get back to the Resistance base, Tempest asked, "Couldn't we use one of these rings to just teleport on of it?"

Applejack, while helping a young wolf, said, "That sounds like a good idea."

Knuckles responded, "It is, but we don't have many Warp Rings left, and we don't know if they're prepared for that possibility."

Suddenly, they all heard Twilight say, "Wait!" The alicorn was currently on top of one of the stone towers, along with Spike and Fluttershy, looking through a pair of binoculars. She observed the battleship firing its next round of missiles before continuing, "It looks like they have to create an opening in the forcefield in order to fire on us!" She lowered her binoculars, "If one of our ships could reach one of the openings…"

Sonic finished, "It could slip in and take it down from the inside!"

Knuckles said, "That could work, but we'll need more than one ship to take down a battleship that big."

Rainbow asked, "What about the original plan? We just need to get our infiltration team inside that forcefield!”

Tails responded, "I can handle that!"

Gen spoke up, "Count me in back in! Let me grab some explosives!"

Terv said, "I'm coming too! Fluttershy! Get to a Warp Ring and come back to base and help Windra take care of the injured for me!"

Fluttershy stammered, "Oh, um, okay. Wh-Where's the closest ring?"

Soon…

Tails' plane was flying towards the barrier with Rainbow flying closely next to it, the pegasus keeping an eye on the passengers he’d picked up. F-T Sonic, Twilight, Spike, Terv, Applejack, and the Rookie were riding on the left wing and O-T Sonic, Tempest, Gen, Fuchsia, Corvin, and Pinkie were riding on the right wing. It looked like the plane was being pulled down a bit from all the weight on its wings, but Tails was managing to keep it up and pointed straight ahead.

"Does everyone have a firm grip?" Tails asked, receiving overlapping answers in response. "Okay, hang on tight! I’m going in close!" he said.

Gen looked next to him at Terv and asked, "You sure you wanna do this, doc? This doesn't seem like the kind of thing you specialize in."

Terv, in an irritated tone, answered, "Yes, I'm sure! I can fight too, you know!"

Gen shrugged, "So can others. Someone else could've come and you could keep treating the injured."

Terv nearly yelled, "I'm coming with! I can help! I brought supplies in case anyone gets hurt! I have to…"

He was cut off by Rainbow, who shouted, "Tails, look out!" The sound of gunfire filled the air, shots raining down from above at the back of Tails' plane. Rainbow rolled over to get away, but Tails wasn't able to evade so the shots hit close to the plane's engine. It shook and sputtered, shaking everyone on the wings. Tails’ control panel started flashing warnings, but a quick look at it while he righted his craft showed the fox that he hadn't suffered any critical damage yet.

He then looked up and turned his head around to try to get a look at his attacker, which he was able to catch sight as it flew past him and started to turn around. Unlike the rest of the Armada's pod-like fighter craft, this ship appeared to be more like the Resistance's jet but with a bigger width, which gave it more of a diamond shape. It was metallic gray with green on the insides of its wings, which further gave Tails the impression that it was built for a specific pilot.

And his assumption was correct, for it was being piloted by none other than the Battle Lord’s son. As the ship was starting to fly back towards him, Tails received a transmission. "So, we meet again, fox. I've been waiting a long time for this day," Speedy’s voice said.

Tails raised an eyebrow, thinking for a moment. “Is this… Speedy?” he asked.

Speedy let out a huff before saying, "Good. You remember. So, I'm sure you also remember ruining everything for us at Cocoa Island, then. It's because of you that we have to be part of that fat oaf's army. We would've tracked you down a lot earlier if we hadn't needed help rebuilding the Armada after you ruined everything for us."

Tails retorted, "Yeah? Well, the Armada didn't need to drop napalm on Poloy Forest as part of the invasion. I for one did not enjoy waking up to find the forest on fire around me."

Speedy replied as he flew over Tails' plane and flew a short distance before starting to turn around, "You should've been smart and left while you had the chance. No one else was on the island; you had no reason to be a hero." He started flying towards Tails again, "Now we're all here and the Battle Bird Armada will have its revenge. And once you and your pathetic little Resistance friends are no more, that fat oaf and his- AWK!" His speech was interrupted by something hitting the underside of his plane's right wing, causing the craft to shake. It took a moment for him to right it; he then looked out to see Rainbow come up from under the tip of the wing and land on it. "What the…?" Speedy uttered.

Rainbow glared at the green bird as she yelled, "Back off, creep! You leave my friends alone!"

Speedy couldn't hear what she said due to her not saying it over the radio, but he quickly got past his surprise and returned the glare, saying, "So, there's another freak who thinks they belong in the sky, eh? Well, you should've stayed hidden wherever you were hiding. You have even less protection than that fox, so you shouldn't- Gah!" He was once again cut off as his craft shook again, this time from gunfire. One of the Resistance's fighters flew over him a moment later, Rainbow leaping off and taking flight afterwards.

A new line opened on Speedy's radio and he heard Tina's voice over it, "Hold it, you little vulture! You don't have the right to take on Tails! You want him, you gotta go through Rainbow and me first!" She turned to look at Tails' plane and switched lines to talk to him, saying, "Tails, go!"

The fox blinked and looked to his sides to make sure everyone was still holding on before facing forward and steeling himself as he said, "Hang on, everyone!" He then opened the thrusters, his plane shooting forward at full speed. The sudden acceleration surprised everyone on the wings, but they all held on as best they could.

Speedy stared as Tails shot away from him. “H-Hey, you get back here!” he yelled, adjusting his plane to pursue him.

He was cut off once again by Tina shooting at him, angering him and throwing him off. “What did I just tell you?!” she asked as she flew past him from behind, Speedy changing course to chase her in order to get retribution for this insult, not noticing Rainbow following him.

Tails, meanwhile, continued to fly straight towards the battleship. As he thought, a hole in the upper hemisphere of the shield opened to let a missile out and he doubled his efforts to reach it in time. It only took a second or two for the missile to fly through the hole, which was likely going to seal up at any second. "Hang on!" he called to the others, everyone holding on tighter as the green shield filled their vision. It seemed like it was going to be close, but they were on the other side of the barrier and a short distance away from the hole by the time it closed.

"We made it through!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Way to go, Tails!" F-T Sonic said.

On the bridge of the battleship, a crew member spotted the plane and reported, "Battle Lord! A Resistance fighter has gotten through our shield!"

The Battle Lord, irritation clear in his voice, said, "Yes, I saw. Now shoot it down and end their little incursion!" He looked around the rest of the bridge, “Keep the shield closed! Do not give that ship anywhere to run! The Resistance will either be shot out of our skies or they will die by our hands!”

Tails' plane was flying above the battleship, so it was in the perfect spot for the majority of the battleship's turrets to turn and target it. Warnings showed up on his control panel to alert him to them locking on to him and he, after a moment of thinking, knew there was only one place for them to go. "We're going to land on the battleship! Keep your heads down!" he called before shooting forward again a second later.

The turrets started firing a moment later. Tails kept pushing forward knowing his maneuvering options were limited. He felt the plane shaking a bit, but he ignored it, knowing it was normal. A bigger than normal shake caught his attention and he saw a damage alert and noticed it started shaking more than usual.

Tempest noticed this too and asked, “Tails, what’s with all the shaking?!”

The fox answered, “A shot must’ve scraped by underneath! Get ready to jump off; it’s going to be a rough landing!”

F-T Sonic watched the deck of the battleship get closer and closer with every passing moment. When they were still a fair distance away, he called to the others, "Jump, now!" At the speed Tails' plane was going, by the time Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Tempest, the Rookie, Corvin, Fuchsia, Gen, and Terv jumped, the distance had greatly shortened and they all slid or rolled across the deck as they landed. Both Sonics remained on the wings, neither one jumping off the sliding plane until Tails had unbuckled himself, opened the canopy, and flew out. They both managed to slide to a stop near the edge after landing while the damaged plane went over, falling and exploding when it hit the shield.


WELCOME PARTY


The birds that had gathered on the deck to 'greet' them had been forced to scatter due to the crashing plane. It only disrupted them for a minute, but it did give everyone a chance to get up from the rough landing. Twilight and Spike were still in the air, having used their wings to slow down, and flew overhead firing magic bolts and breathing fire to draw the birds' attention away from the others. Both Sonics as well as Tails quickly moved to join in after getting off the plane. It didn't take long for them to take care of the welcome party, the Rookie using his grappling hook to tie the birds up.

A pair of metal doors at the back of the deck slid open shortly afterwards, a garrison of birds stepping out. They all stood in front of the doors and raised their weapons, but before they could fire, a large explosion erupted behind them, all of them being blown off their feet onto their fronts. Both Sonics shot forward, grabbing their weapons and standing on top of the pile. They both looked down as Espio appeared in front of the pile, F-T Sonic saying, "Nice one, Espio!"

The others made their way over. When Applejack was closer to Espio, she asked, "Wait, you were on that plane too?"

The chameleon looked at her with a small smirk, "Of course. Didn't you see me by the stabilizer?" She raised an eyebrow at that.

They all heard a noise and looked past the pile of birds to see the doors starting to slide back into place. "No!" Twilight exclaimed, her horn lighting up as she spread her wings and shot forward. A magenta field formed around the end of the doors, their sliding slowing slightly. Twilight landed on her hooves with a wince and slid to a stop a short distance from the doors, closing her eyes and grunting slightly as she focused on keeping them open.

"Twilight!" Spike and Applejack both said as they ran over to her.

While still focusing, Twilight was able to peek her right eye open to look in their direction and say, "Th… They must really be trying to force these doors closed. Hurry! Get inside!"

O-T Sonic was quick to jump down and run inside. Everyone else moved to do the same, but after Applejack, Pinkie, Gen, Terv, and Fuchsia made it through, they all heard a voice say, "And where do you little rats think you're going?" Everyone outside turned to look and saw the Battle Lord rising up on a circular lift in the center of the deck, his hands together behind his back.

"The Battle Lord, I presume," Espio stated.

As he stepped forward, the Battle Lord replied, "I daresay it's hardly fitting for you to not address me by my full title. I am the Battle Lord Kukku XV, and you plebeians would do well to remember it."

Sonic said, "Ooh, he's busting out the smart words, guys. He must be one angry bird."

The Battle Lord's teeth peeked out of the side of his beak in a slight grin at those words. "Oh, I'm more than mad. I'm quite beside myself, both in anger and joy." He pointed at Tails, "I've waited a long time to see that little furball again. I worried we would never meet again due to his lifestyle, but our waiting and having to show submission to that fat man have paid off. Today is the day we exact our revenge."

Tails looked a little nervous at that, but F-T Sonic stepped in front of him and said, "Yeah, well, you're going to have to keep waiting." The Battle Lord scowled, so he added, "You're getting in the way of us getting to Eggman, so if you want Tails, you're gonna have to go through me!"

Tails started, "Sonic…"

Twilight spoke up, "I'm losing my grip…!"

Sonic looked back at Tails, "Get inside with the others and finish the job. Find me a way inside when you get the chance; I'll keep Big Bird's crazy cousin busy."

Espio looked at him and said, "Be careful, Sonic." He looked at the others, "Inside, now!" The Rookie, Corvin, Tempest, and, after a moment, Tails turned to run inside.

When Tails turned, the Battle Lord growled and ran towards him. Sonic turned back to him and shot forward, intercepting and stopping him. They locked hands and pushed against each other, grunting while Tails and Espio grabbed Twilight and helped her through before the doors shut, Spike hurrying in beside them.

After several moments of grappling, the Battle Lord brought up his right knee, aiming for Sonic's stomach. The hedgehog noticed it due to his vantage point, though, and he swung his left leg back, balancing on his right leg to maneuver around it. The miss threw the Battle Lord off balance and Sonic charged him, pushing him backwards for a few seconds before shoving him away. The bird stumbled for a couple of steps before firmly planting his feet under him and regaining his balance.

He then reached into his coat and pulled out a small metal rod; he pressed a button on the side and it extended, becoming a staff. Sonic ran and leapt towards him, trying to kick him. The Battle Lord used his staff to block his kick and held tightly onto it when the hedgehog wrapped his fingers around the middle of it. They wrestled for it for several seconds before the Battle Lord jerked it up suddenly. Sonic was lifted up and, before he could react, punched in the face. He fell to the deck, but he recovered before the bird could bring the staff down on him, rolling over to the side. He tried to kick at his legs from his position, but the bird leapt back to evade it.

Sonic jumped back as well and they locked eyes again. “Well, I guess the tales about you are at least somewhat true,” the Battle Lord remarked.

Sonic smirked, “Oh yeah? Well, I’d be more than happy to give you more proof, Coocoo!”

The Battle Lord smirked back, “You’d better be able to live up to it, because you’re about to be in a very difficult position!” He turned to the tied-up birds, whom he’d landed near, and brought his head forward, opening his beak and biting down on the rope, breaking it. The birds were quick to start getting up, and behind him, Sonic noticed the pile of birds was starting to disentangle as well. They didn’t have their weapons anymore, but they were still eager to show their loyalty and deal with this threat to the Armada.

Sonic looked around as the birds moved to surround him near the edges of the circular deck and grinned, “All right, it’s a party now! Let’s get it started!”

Meanwhile…


INVADING THE FORTRESS


Three bird troopers readied their weapons when they saw the door leading up to the deck opening. As it was sliding up, they could hear a noise over the sound of the door opening, and before it finished going up, O-T Sonic shot underneath it in a Spin Dash straight towards them. The birds thought better of trying to shoot the blue ball coming towards them and instead tried to get out of his way, just barely avoiding a direct hit. He slowed to a stop and uncurled a little further down the corridor, but before the birds could try to attack, Gen, Terv, Fuchsia, and Corvin were upon them, all pointing their sidearm Wispons down at them. Seeing they were in an unfavorable spot, the birds let go of their rifle-like blasters and held up their hands in surrender.

While the four of them tied up the birds and helped themselves to the blasters, Tails, Espio, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Spike, the Rookie, and Tempest stood near the blast door as they worked out a plan. "The shield out there has to have some sort of generator here on the battleship, so we need to locate it and shut it down so we can leave. Our best bet to bring down this ship would be to sabotage the engine room. Gen's explosives should be very useful for both," Tails explained.

"It can't be that easy, can it? Considerin' this entire ship is gonna be lookin' for us," Applejack remarked.

"No. I'm sure we'll have to take control of their security systems. …I'm not volunteering for that duty; it's not my specialty," Espio said.

Pinkie spoke up, "What about Jet and his friends? Their ship was shot down! The Birdy Armada must have captured them!"

Tails said, "Well, first things first, we need to get into their security so we can start opening up some doors in here." He looked at the Rookie, "Do you think you can help me with that?" The wolf nodded in reply, so Tails continued, "Then you and Sonic will be with me. We'll find an access point and see how good their security is."

Corvin, Fuchsia, Gen, and Terv had made their way back over to the others, catching the end of what Tails was saying. "So, what are the rest of us supposed to do? Just sit here and wait while this ship continues to attack the Sky Sanctuary and the birds around here find and swoop at us like a bunch of vultures?" Corvin asked.

Tails replied, "No, of course not. We're just going to have to split up. I suggest you take a team and try to get to the lower levels as best you can do that you can be ready to plant the charges."

Pinkie piped up, "Ooh! How about I take a party and try to find the Babylon Meanies?"

Tails said, "It's Babylon Rogues, Pinkie, but yes, I was going to suggest that next."

Tempest spoke, "I'll go with her. Twilight, Spike, and Applejack can come as well."

Twilight moved her legs a little to loosen them a little before saying, "Okay. That sounds like a plan."

Applejack asked, "Speakin' o' plans, how are we gonna get outta this tub when we're done?"

Tails answered, "Once we’ve done all we can, we’ll meet up in the ship’s hanger. From there, we can either get a pick up or find something we can take. How does that sound?" Everyone agreed with the plan, so he said, "Then let's go!" He, O-T Sonic, and the Rookie headed to the right while Espio followed Gen, Fuchsia, Corvin, and Terv past the still tied up guards, Tempest, Pinkie, Twilight, Spike, and Applejack splitting off from them when they came across another corridor.

O-T Sonic took the lead for Tails' group while they searched for a place to patch in to the battleship's security, making use of his speed, especially his Spin Dash, to disorient the few patrols they came across. It took about a minute, but with some the Rookie making a few calibrations to his glasses and some vague signs on the walls, they were able to find a server room that they were able to get inside of after Tails hacked the electronic lock on the door with his Miles Mobile. There were only a couple of unarmed birds inside and they were quickly kicked out, Tails locking the door behind them.

They soon heard the birds banging on the door while they worked, but Tails and the Rookie kept working while Sonic kept an eye on the door. The Rookie worked on the keyboard for the computer console while Tails used his Mobile in tandem to crack the security locking him out and lay the groundwork for taking control of it. They couldn't do anything about the ship-wide alert, but with the connection to the computer systems, they could open, shut, and lock or unlock the ship's doors from the room. Tails switched over to the communications and contacted everyone else on board, " Can you hear me? I'm unlocking the ship's doors!" He switched back and started tapping on the screen.

When the call came through, F-T Sonic was still fighting. All the other birds lay scattered across the deck, but the Battle Lord was far from finished. He shifted his staff in his left hand a little as he stared down the hedgehog, his frustration more visible than it was before.

Sonic shot towards him, making small jumps over the bodies of the downed birds in his path before making a big jump towards the big bird, his right foot extended forward. The Battle Lord blocked the kick by holding up his staff in both hands. Sonic pushed against it for a moment before he began to lose his momentum, his knee bending a little. At this, the Battle Lord suddenly punched him in the stomach with his right hand. He fell on his back and the Battle Lord stepped forward and raised his right foot. Sonic was able to flip himself backwards before the foot came down and he landed in a crouched stance; he then shot forward before the bird could react, headbutting him in the stomach and knocking him off his feet. He landed on his rear, clutching his stomach as he grimaced.

Sonic climbed to his feet and leapt back while the Battle Lord was recovering. He then looked back at the doors and saw they were nearly finished sliding open. He turned back to the bird and grinned, "Well, this was fun, Coocoo, but I got places to be!" He then turned and shot around the splayed-out birds towards the doors. A few tried to reach out for him, but they couldn't stop him from reaching the opening. He slid to a stop right inside and turned to look. The Battle Lord had gotten up and was running towards him. "Shut the doors, Tails; I'm in!" he said to his Mobile before turning and running inside.

The Battle Lord ran as fast as he could, but he was unable to follow the hedgehog, the doors shutting completely as he reached them. He growled, "That little…" He turned to the birds on the deck, who were beginning to recover and get up, and yelled at them, "Contact the bridge! Lock down the ship, get them out of the system, and get that lift moving!"

Below deck, Sonic came to a stop in the doorway and spoke over the radio, "Tails, everything okay?"

The fox replied, "We're okay for now, but it sounds like more guys are gathering outside the room. I can keep them out for now, but I think they'll get in sooner or later."

Sonic said, "Okay, I'll help you out first. Unless anyone else has something urgent?"

Tempest answered, "We're fine. Tails sent us all a map while you were messing around. We're close to the brig."

Espio spoke next, "We have a… slight complication. We can't reach the shield generator, Tails. It's sealed off by a reinforced door. Can you get it open?"

Tails replied, "Hang on." A few moments passed before he said, "No, it looks like I don't have any control over that. I can open the engine room doors, though, so move on to that while I figure out how to shut down the shield."

Espio replied, "Roger."

Tails and the Rookie both looked up, hearing more banging at the door. It began to slide open a second later and O-T Sonic stood ready to attack. Tails frantically tapped on the screen of his Mobile and it started to close again a moment later, albeit slower than it had been opening. It didn't help that several hands grabbed onto the edge and we're trying to force it open. "I think they're catching on and trying to block out the override!" he exclaimed.

Sonic had been looking over the map while everyone was talking to figure out where they were, the map itself displaying three dots to indicate their location, so he knew where to go. "Hang tight, I'm on my way!" he said before putting his Mobile away and shooting down the hall.


ROGUE RESCUE


Tempest and her group, meanwhile, were a short corridor away from the brig, their progress halted by several guards in front of the door at the end that were shooting at them. Twilight and Tempest were having trouble hitting them as there was nothing they could use as cover in the corridor and shooting around a corner wasn't easy. Pinkie had had enough after a minute and, when there was a lull in the shooting, she grabbed Twilight and leapt out into the open, using her left foreleg to aim her head while rotating her tail with the right. Twilight responded with a barrage of magic shots which quickly overwhelmed the birds, leaving them knocked out on the floor.

Their access hadn't been cut off yet, so they were able to pass through the door without any trouble. Past it, they walked straight for a couple of feet before they reached a sizable opening in the wall to their right. Peering around the corner, they saw a bird larger than any of the ones they'd encountered so far with his back turned to them. "Still assigned to guard duty to these three… What's the point? There's a battle going on outside! I should be out there!" they could hear him grumbling. Tempest looked at him for a moment more before looking down at Twilight, giving the alicorn a knowing look.

The guard heard a noise behind him and turned to look. Twilight was standing outside the entryway, looking towards the end of the passage with a confused expression. "Hey! Who are you?!" he demanded.

Twilight's head swung to look at him. "Oh, sorry. I thought this was the bridge. The signs here are a little hard to understand. My bad," she said. She had been backing up a little while talking and turned to run as soon as she finished, stumbling a little as she ran.

"Stop! Get back here!" the guard yelled before running after her. He hadn't quite reached the entryway when Spike stepped around the corner and, a moment later, unleashed a plume of green fire up at him. The guard planted his boots on the floor, narrowly stopping before his face got roasted.

As soon as Spike's flames stopped, Pinkie leapt out behind him, standing on her hind legs and bringing her hooves up to the pocket on the front of her apron. "Pocket confetti!" she exclaimed, suddenly throwing a thick wad of confetti that was hidden in the pocket at the guard's face. It burst upon impact, some of the confetti sticking to his face and making him take a few steps back as he tried to wipe it off. While he was disoriented, Tempest came around and knocked his right leg out from under him before forcing him to the floor on his back.

Before he could get back up, he felt his arms and legs being manipulated and then quickly tied up. He managed to shake enough of the confetti off to look up and see that it had been done by Applejack, who grinned down at him, "There ya go. All trussed up like a varmint." The guard struggled against the ropes and yelled, but Spike and the girls ignored him as they started searching for the Babylon Rogues.

Unsurprisingly, they found them at the end of the line of cells, in the last one on the left. The commotion from the entrance likely caught their attention as they were standing at the cell bars, Jet and Wave's hands on them. They saw Spike and the ponies approaching and Jet said, "Oh. So, you guys are the rescue crew?"

Applejack replied, "You could say that. Pinkie here was insistent we find y'all right away." They stopped in front of the cell, "Is there a problem with that?"

Storm spoke, "I don't have a problem, as long as we're getting out. I'm sick of being in here!" Both Jet and Wave gave him a look, letting their annoyance at being cooped up with him known.

Tempest noticed and said, "I imagine you would've escaped already if you'd had the chance."

Wave gave a slight nod and motioned towards the still yelling guard, "None of the guards have the code, especially not that Storm wannabe over there, and one of their idiots broke my PC when they took it from me." She brought her left hand up to her neck, drawing their attention to the fact that her red pendant was gone.

Applejack looked at the keypad next to the door, "We ain’t got time ta figure out who has the code! There’s a battle goin’ on outside!" She looked at Twilight, “Twilight, can ya use your magic to melt the bars or somethin’?”

Wave spoke up, "I wouldn't try that. These bars are reinforced, big-time. Probably one of Eggman's upgrades for the Armada. You'd be better off trying something else."

Twilight replied, "Okay, let's try something else, then." She turned and walked over to the keypad. She looked at it for a moment before saying, “I need this part off for this.”

Pinkie popped up next to her and said, “I’ll do the honors, Twilight!” The alicorn was almost not surprised by this and stepped aside. Pinkie took her helmet off with her right hoof and, with one swift downward swing, struck the keypad, knocking it almost clean off the wall.

“What’d you do that for?! You can’t get the door open without that!” Jet yelled. Twilight ignored him; she simply stepped up to where the pad had been, eyeing the circuitry it had been covering. A small point of light appeared at the end of her horn and she looked back at Spike as the baby dragon eagerly climbed up onto her back, knowing what she was planning to do. He climbed on top of her head as she brought it closer to the circuitry. As they began to work together, Jet began talking, “What are you two doing? Girlie, you could barely ride an Extreme Gear last time we saw you; now you know how to hot wire things? It’s not as easy as the movies make it look, you know! And with Eggman upgrading everything, there’s no way you’re going to-” He was cut off when the panel let out a confirming beep followed by the lock on the cell door disengaging.

Tempest stepped forward followed by Applejack, both of them placing their hooves on the door and starting to slide it open. It was a bit stuck and they were having a little trouble getting it to move. Wave noticed this and looked back at Storm and said, “Storm, don’t just stand there! Help them!” The albatross quickly rushed forward and grabbed the bars, the door sliding open relatively quickly with the three of them pushing. As she stepped out, Wave looked at Twilight and asked, “Where’d you learn how to do that?”

Twilight simply replied, “I have a friend who’s good with wiring. She showed me.”

Wave gave her a dubious look, “Uh-huh…”

Jet stepped next to her and said, “Just drop it, Wave!” He looked at Twilight, “All right, I’m impressed, but what’s your plan for getting out of here?”

Tempest spoke, “We’re meeting in the hangers. If we can’t get one of our own ships to pick us up, we should be able to find something we can take.”

Jet said, “Well, let’s get going, then!” They started to leave, but after they passed the still-bound guard, Twilight and Applejack stopped and looked back at him. They glanced at each other for a moment before Applejack walked over and, amidst his struggling and yelling, pulled one of the ends of the rope to loosen it a little. They both then hurried after the others. As they left the brig and ran down the hall, Jet asked, “Why’d you do that?”

Applejack answered, “So he has a chance ta get free and escape.”

Jet said, “You didn’t have to.”

Applejack shrugged, “Agree to disagree.”

Spike remarked, “I hope there aren’t a lot of other big tough birds like him around here.”

Wave said, “I know there’s one other. He’s a bit of a nasty piece of work. Sure hope we don’t run into him.”
> Sanctuary Defense, Pt. II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


ENGINE ROOM


At this point, Espio's team had arrived at the engine room, him, Terv, Gen, Corvin, and Fuchsia stepping through the doorway onto a walkway overlooking the room. Fuchsia looked around for a moment before pointing around and saying, "Those giant machines are providing the fuel for the ship's engines, and those lines of smaller machines connected to it must be processing it along the way. It's like an assembly line, just for fuel."

Terv noted, "Considering how reinforced the metal on those back machines appears to be, I would say you are correct."

Gen looked down at the bag of explosives at his side, "I don't know if I packed enough explosives in here to take those things out."

Espio said, "That won't be necessary, Gen. Breaking the lines leading to them should be enough. And destroying those large machines might cause a large enough explosion to destroy the entire ship. We don’t want that.”

Gen grunted, "I know. I have no intention of convincing myself I’m some sort of hero like you lot, and I am definitely not going to die for this cause."

While he opened the bag's zipper and began digging through it, Corvin said to him, "You really ought to be ready to do that, you know. None of us wants to die either, but in a war, we need to be ready to."

Gen ignored him and pulled out a packet of explosives a little bigger than a cereal box. "I've got eight of these in here, so depending on how we want to split this up, someone might not get any charges," he said. Espio walked over to him and reached into the bag with his right hand, digging deep. "Hey, what are you doing?" Gen asked.

Espio pulled his hand out a few moments later, his fingers curled around a small silver cylinder that had a red button on top. "I will be the odd one out. You're all better trained with these explosives than I, so you'll place them. Set the timers for five minutes. If need be, we'll use this detonator to set them off," he explained.

"And what are you gonna do?" Gen demanded.

Espio gave him a small smile as he brought his hands together in front of his chest, his index and middle fingers sticking up. "I'll make sure no uninvited guests get in," he said before he began to camouflage himself, becoming a silhouette right in front of them. He moved to stand by the doorway, so Gen gave Terv, Fuchsia, and Corvin each two charges, keeping two in the bag for himself. When they split, Terv and Corvin went left and Fuchsia and Gen went right.

Although there were signs that the engine room was normally occupied and there were doors in the side walls, the Resistance members didn't encounter anyone as they moved around the room. They could sort of hear grunts and groans mixed in with the sounds of blows hitting from the entrance as Espio dealt with birds trying to get in, but there were no surprises waiting for them. This allowed them to take their time deciding where to place the explosives, picking places where they would be harder to spot.

After planting their charges, Corvin, Terv, and Fuchsia met up with Gen near the center of the engine room as he was placing his second charge on a long machine in a slightly less cramped area. He heard them approaching him, but his suit's display had already identified them as allies so he didn't look up, instead focusing on applying the final touches. He leaned his head back when the digital display read '5:00' and said, "Final charge is set. I'm starting the countdown." Before anyone could say anything, he pressed one of the buttons on the front of the charge and it started counting down.

Corvin shook his head and reached for his Mobile. He radioed Espio and spoke, "Espio, sir. The explosives are set. We're coming back up." As they turned to make their way back to the entrance, they all noticed when Espio didn't respond. Corvin raised his Mobile again and asked, "Espio? Are you there?" There was still no response from the other end, but after a moment, they could faintly hear the sound of fighting coming from the direction of the entrance. They began to run, but they had only taken a couple of steps when they heard yelling that was getting louder followed by something hitting the ground. They ran towards the sound and found Espio lying on his front, looking beat up.

They all ran towards him, Fuchsia, Corvin, and Terv gathering around him while Gen stood a little further back. Corvin shook the chameleon while Fuchsia spoke, "Espio? Espio, get up! What happened?"

Espio grunted and raised his head up a little after a moment, his eyes darting up to look at them. "We have to leave…!" he managed to say before a cough interrupted him.

"What? What happened?" Corvin asked. Before Espio could say any more, they all heard a sharp laugh followed by the sound of something heavy landing behind them. They all turned to look, Terv's blood suddenly going cold at what he saw.


BLAST FROM THE PAST


The bird that had landed behind them wore the same standard blue uniform and mask as the other members of the Armada, but he was noticeably taller and more burly-looking than anyone the group had seen thus far. The arms of his uniform were open on the sides, allowing his light-blue feathers to stick out, and he clutched the remote detonator in his left hand. “You pipsqueaks think you’re going somewhere?” he asked.

A flash of anger crossed Terv’s face, his hands shaking as he tightly balled his fingers into fists, the rest of his body beginning to heat up as well. “Ben!” he growled, Gen, Corvin, and Fuchsia glancing over at him in surprise.

The bird turned to look at Terv, staring at him for a moment before his slight smirk grew into a grin. “Terv?” he asked, his voice smooth. He held up the detonator, “I figured the Resistance was made up of fools, but you? You think you can stop the Armada?” And with a sudden tightening of his fingers, he crushed the detonator, the pieces falling to the floor.

"No!" Terv, Corvin, and Fuchsia cried as he dropped what was left in his hand and crushed the remaining bits underneath his boot.

He then looked up at the Resistance members and smirked, "Oops. That wasn't important, was it?" After a moment, Terv raised his White Wispon to shoot at him, but before he could pull the trigger, Ben suddenly shot forward in a glide that was faster than one might expect for someone with his build and seized him by the neck. One brief squeeze was enough to get the smaller bird to drop his Wispon and he turned and threw him at the wall.

"Terv!" Fuchsia and Corvin exclaimed as he dropped to the floor, his Blue Wispon popping out of his belt when the tip of its handle pressed against the floor and landed nearby.

Fortunately, he was not knocked out, but it did take him a moment to lift his head up and when he did, he saw Ben landing in front of him. "So nice to see you one last time, little brother," he remarked.

Corvin raised his White Wispon and yelled, "Take him down!" Fuchsia and Gen raised their Wispons as well, opening fire moments after he did. Their shots hit him in the back, but there wasn’t any noticeable reaction from Ben. The shots didn’t even seem to do anything to his uniform.

Ben glanced back at them and grinned, "What are you shooting, ping-pong balls? My suit's got some additional armor in it; you'll have to do better than that! Here, fight something that maybe your girly weapons will have an effect on." At his words, the door near him and the one on the opposite side of the room slid open and Armada members started pouring into the room. In total, a dozen birds came in to provide reinforcements.

Espio, who had gotten up by this point, called, "Scatter! Find cover!" While speaking, he held up a throwing star in each hand and threw them to the sides as he finished, the stars exploding when they hit the walls. While the birds were disoriented, Espio, Gen, Corvin, and Fuchsia ran to find a place to hide.

Terv would've gotten up and run too, but Ben pressed his boot against his chest as he was trying to, the larger bird kneeling down to keep him pressed against the floor. He looked at the birds near him and ordered, "Find them, deal with them! This one is mine!" They moved past him to find the others while he returned his attention to Terv. The smaller bird was able to reach out with his hands and grab at his feathers, plucking them. Ben gave him a bored look and brought his right hand down after a moment, grabbing him by his neck and stepping off of him as he brought him up to his face. "Really, little brother? Plucking feathers is the best you can do after all these years?" he asked. He raised him up a little higher, "Here's what you should be doing!" He then slammed him down against the floor, knocking the wind out of him. "There, you see? Do you see the difference between you and me? Do you see what you should've been doing all this time?" he asked as he let him go. He heard Terv muttering, so he brought his head down closer, "What was that?"

Terv's eyes were fixed on his Blue Wispon on the floor next to him. "I said you're right, Ben," he muttered. Knowing it was now or never, he reached for it with his right hand and activated it. He felt Ben's hand on his back, but he managed to reach around and hit him in the side of the face. It was enough to stagger him and he let go of Terv. He stood up and turned to face Ben with both hands clutching the handle, "I need to step up my game with you!" He ran at Ben and dealt a more solid blow across his face, knocking him onto his back.

Ben leapt to his feet after a moment and grinned, "Well, it's about time you learned to grow a spine. Come at me, bro!" Terv growled and charged at him again, though this time Ben blocked his strike with his arm, his suit reducing the impact. They continued their fight while Espio and the other Resistance members worried about the Armada birds searching for them.

While they were trying to get their situation under control, Tails, F-T Sonic, and the Rookie arrived at the ship's bridge. It took a little work from Tails, but they were able to get through the door without much difficulty. They stepped inside and stopped when all the birds on the bridge turned and looked up at them from their stations. Sonic held his hands up and spoke, "At ease, everyone. There's been a change in management on this ship, and our first act is to make break time mandatory. Like, permanent break time. So, you can all just go down to the hangers, grab a ship, and leave. You guys all deserve a break."

There was a bit of shuffling off to the left after he finished talking. He looked and saw a shorter bird seemed to have wanted to heed his words, but the bird in the next seat over was forcing him to sit back down. All the birds save for that one then stood up, all of them picking up their blasters and pointing them specifically at him. He shrugged, “Eh, worth a try. Don’t say I didn’t try to be nice.” In the blink of an eye, he shot forward, going towards the right side of the room and slamming his elbow into the first bird in his path. The sudden movement threw them all off, giving Tails and the Rookie time to go to the left and deal with the birds on that side while they were, for the moment, focused on Sonic. Tails noticed the one bird who tried to leave getting down to hide under his workstation as he ran past, the fear on his face evident under his mask.

With the exception of that one bird, it wasn't long before everyone on the bridge had been knocked around, birds splayed out on consoles and groaning as they lay on the floor. Tails walked over to the center of the bridge where there was a raised circle with a pair of monitors on both sides. He looked them over, fiddling with the keyboards as Sonic and the Rookie came up behind him. "This must be the Battle Lord's station. I think I can shut down the shield from here. I just need a minute or two," he said after a moment.

"All right, do your thing, Tails. We'll watch your back," Sonic replied. He then turned his head to the left, "Hey, where's that one bird who wanted to leave?" He turned around to look, but he hadn't taken more than three steps when the door to the bridge slid open and the Battle Lord stepped in flanked by more than a dozen bird guards. Sonic briefly paused in mid-step, but he resumed walking with a smile, "Hey, Coocoo. Found a way back inside the birdcage, huh?"


LOSING GROUND


The Battle Lord was clearly not in the mood for his witty remarks, a deep scowl on his face as he marched directly towards the hedgehog. "You disgusting rat!" he snarled, closing the distance between them and grabbing Sonic by his neck, surprising him. He lifted him up over his head, "You vandals have sullied my ship enough! Relinquish it at once!"

Sonic found it difficult to speak with the hand around his throat, but he managed to say, "Don't listen, Tails! Keep working!" He tried kicking his legs, but he couldn't reach the Battle Lord's face.

"You're persistent, but your unruly, primitive efforts will not save you!" he said. He began to tighten his grip on Sonic's neck, causing him to gag a little. A blaster shot rang out suddenly and the Battle Lord let out a shout at the sudden feeling of heat on his back, Sonic falling from his grip. He turned to his left and saw the lone bird standing, pointing his blaster at him with shaky hands. The Battle Lord's glare deepened, "You… traitor! Seize him!"

While his attention was turned, the Rookie fired his grappling hook, the tip hitting the floor next to Sonic. The hedgehog grabbed the rope and the wolf pulled it, sliding him backwards. By the time the Battle Lord turned back after two of his guards had grabbed the bird and dragged him over, the Rookie had pulled Sonic back all the way and the hedgehog was sitting on the floor next to him. “You got some really nice floors here,” he remarked. He then leapt to his feet and placed his left hand on the Rookie’s shoulder, both of them beginning to back slowly towards Tails.

The Battle Lord only looked at them with a steel gaze. “Take aim,” he commanded his guards. Sonic and the Rookie moved back a little quicker at that, the Rookie readying his grappling hook while Tails’ typing became a little more frantic.

Back in the engine room, the situation was not looking any better. The troops that had come in with Ben had been efficient, honing in on Espio and the others and forcing them out into the open. The Resistance members had been trying to avoid giving away the location of their explosives and so had tried to not stay in one place for very long, but they realized too late they had been herded like cattle into the middle of the room, where there was no cover. Terv, meanwhile, had been fighting Ben, the Blue Wispon allowing him to stand up to him, but once word came that the others were cornered, Ben went full-on offensive and quickly overwhelmed him. He then carried the smaller bird over and threw him over the heads of his troops to Espio and the others while holding onto his Wispon.

Espio and Fuchsia helped Terv get up, the bird still dazed from being beaten down against the floor. As he was getting up, Ben laughed, "Ha! Did you really think you could come in our nest and drive us out? Weaklings like you don't belong in the skies! Too bad you won't get to share this with anyone else!" He raised the Wispon over his head, "Troops, raise your weapons!" The bird troopers raised their blasters, the Resistance members looking around at all the birds surrounding them. "Take aim! And- Gah!" He was cut off when something struck him on top of the head, his hand releasing the Wispon as he dropped to one knee.

Espio and the others saw a light blue ball bounce up, a hand reaching out to grab the Wispon as it dropped down. As soon as it hit the floor, it shot forward, knocking all the troopers in its path off of their feet. As it reached the end of the troopers and they saw it again, the ball uncurled to reveal O-T Sonic, who swung the Wispon down on the ground as he slid to come to a stop and turn himself around, creating a blue shockwave that made everyone shake. “Old-Timey Sonic!” Espio said as he kept himself balanced. He looked up to his right and saw that a few of the troops on top of the machine Gen had planted the last charge on had fallen off due to the shockwave and the ones that were still on it were off balance. He ran and jumped towards it, climbing the short remaining distance to get on top of it. The troops tried to shoot him, but he was faster than they were and he kicked their legs out from under them. He then turned and called to the others, “Up here, everyone!”

Terv took his Wispon back from Sonic before moving to join Corvin in helping Gen up onto the machine. Fuchsia used her claws to climb up the same way Espio did, Sonic waiting to see if she needed any help getting up before making his way over, but before he could follow her up, a blaster shot hit the floor next to his foot. He looked to his left and saw that it came from one of the troopers. He’d already regained his balance and the others and Ben were not far behind him. Ben glared at the hedgehog, “You’re gonna pay dearly for that.” He ordered his troops, “He dies first!” As they began to take aim again, Sonic looked to his right and spotted the explosive on the machine. He quickly ran over and yanked it off, turning and holding it out towards the birds, who immediately held up their blasters, hesitating. “What are you all doing?! Shoot him!” Ben yelled.

"He has a bomb, sir!" one of the troopers exclaimed.

"Then make him put it down!" Ben yelled before reaching forward and grabbing him. He then shifted the bird around until he was holding him like a spear. Sonic flinched a bit, realizing he was actually going to throw him.

"Sonic, come on!" Corvin called and the blue hedgehog glanced up to see Espio was lowering a rope for him. He grabbed the end with his right hand and ran up the side a little, avoiding the trooper that Ben threw at him. Espio gave the rope a sharp yank to give him the boost he needed. He let go of the rope and placed both of his arms on top, Corvin and Fuchsia helping him get on top.

They looked back down at Ben when he spoke, “So what if you’re high up. This doesn’t change anything! None of you are leaving!” Sonic pointed the explosive down at them again as he continued, “Get them already! And don’t fear that tiny hedgehog; fear what the Battle Lord will do to you if you don’t do your job! The only thing to be afraid of…”

He was interrupted again, this time by a mechanical voice that sounded like it was speaking over a loudspeaker, “ALERT! Loss of power to the ship’s shields. Shield levels at eighty percent and dropping rapidly.”

Looking down, Espio noticed Ben and the troopers were still distracted by the sudden announcement. Even if it was only for a moment, it gave them an opening, an opening they had to take advantage of. Hearing a groan from below, he remembered the troops he'd knocked down and looked down to see them trying to get up. "Quick, push them over!" he said as he crouched down behind the closest one. Sonic set the explosive down before doing the same as Espio, Corvin, Gen, Terv, and Fuchsia, each throwing a bird off the machine to the flock below. It threw off the birds save for Ben, but there were other birds that were on their level. Fortunately, Espio knew what to do. "Now, down here!" he ordered, jumping down on the other side of the machine. The others followed him, Sonic grabbing the loose explosive as he leapt down.

On the bridge, the Battle Lord glared up at Sonic, Tails, and the Rookie as they hung from the ceiling, the Rookie having used his grappling hook to pull them up out of harm's way. The consoles that Tails had been working sparked and fizzled below, the troopers having shot them instead of the trio. It didn't matter, though; Tails had managed to get far enough that he was able to finish shutting down the ship’s shields. His screen was currently showing the shield's power alongside a display of it around the battleship. The shield was currently at seventy percent and still dropping, the shield on the display appearing as open at the top and moving downward.

His attention was redirected when the Battle Lord spoke, "Clever maneuver, but luck is the only thing that saved you. And luck and primitive gadgets will not continue to spare you from our wrath!" The birds once again took aim, Sonic, Tails, and the Rookie tensing up in response.

Outside, Rainbow and Trish were still locked in their aerial duel with Speedy. Rainbow had had a few close calls so far, but her maneuverability was undeniably the reason he hadn't managed to hit her yet. Trish wasn’t quite as lucky; the side of her plane had six spots marking where his shots hit and the end of her right back wing had been taken off, making it more difficult to remain stable. Even if it suffered no further damage, it was safe to say the plane was not going to hold together much longer.

As she was flying, Rainbow looked to her right and saw the shield around the battleship changing, shifting from dark green and heavily opaque to a lighter green that was more transparent. "Hey, what's happening to that thing?" she asked.

"The energy readings on the shield are changing. They're going down! The Sonics and the others must have shut it down!" Amy responded over the radio.

"Great! Now- Agh!" Trish was cut off as a mini explosion came from one of her engines. She glared back at Speedy's plane behind her. She'd landed some shots on him, sure, but his plane was nowhere near as damaged as hers. He had some flight skills that made it hard to really get a good shot on him, but she had a feeling there was something special about his plane as well.

Rainbow saw the explosion from Trish’s plane and knew she was done. Looking back towards the battleship, she saw that the shield had almost finished powering down, the green surrounding it barely perceptible at this point and it gave her an idea. "Get outta here, Trish, before you take any more damage! I'm gonna give that jerk a big surprise!" she said. Although she was confused and concerned about leaving the pegasus on her own, Trish turned her plane back towards the Sky Sanctuary.

“Go on, run away! It doesn’t matter; the Armada will hunt you down and destroy you!” Speedy laughed as he watched her fly away. He then returned his attention to his controls, “Now, where’s the freak?” Rainbow shot up past him on an angle a second later, causing him to jerk the stick to the side and briefly lose control. He then turned his head to figure out what she was doing and saw her still flying upwards, soon disappearing from his sight. “Trying to see how high you can fly? Well, you can die of oxygen starvation or have your wings burn up like Icarus. I don’t care; I don’t need to get every kill,” he shrugged. He turned to look towards the Sky Sanctuary, adjusting his flight path towards it as well. “Although it certainly doesn’t hurt to, especially since we’ve given these Resistance fools a chance to regroup. I should be able to find some prey while avoiding the battleships that are in the air, maybe even cause some damage to them as well. This stalemate is coming to an end soon, and…” He was cut off by the sound of a double boom behind him followed by him being literally knocked for a loop.


RAINBOW RAINBOOM


His plane began spinning end over end in the direction it had been going, Speedy’s entire upper body plastered to the back of the seat as he was forced to watch the world outside spin uncontrollably. Amidst his screaming, he was able to make out a rainbow-colored shockwave outside, which his plane was being pushed along, and very briefly he saw Rainbow Dash turning up from flying downwards to fly back up, a rainbow trail following behind her. She had unleashed a Sonic Rainboom, the source of the double boom he heard, and he was temporarily unable to move because of it, unable to try to get his plane back under control. He wasn’t the only one affected; the shockwave reached to the Armada’s battleship, the ship tilting slightly when the shockwave hit it.

Although it didn’t look like it had much effect, the effect on the inside was more pronounced as the tilt was noticed by everyone on board and a number of electronics went haywire, panels shooting off sparks and lights flickering. In a hallway near the hangers, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Pinkie, Tempest, and the Babylon Rogues nearly lost their balance from the shaking caused by the shockwave and had to grab onto anything on the walls they could get a grip on. "What was that?!" Jet exclaimed as he held onto a metal bar.

Wave, who was holding onto a different bar, looked at the flickering lights and wondered, "An EMP? Some kind of shockwave?"

While she and Applejack held onto a red box and Spike held onto her, Twilight realized what must have happened. "This has to be Rainbow's doing. She must've unleashed a Sonic Rainboom. I didn’t know something like this could happen," she said.

"It's not much farther to the hangers. We still have time to get off this ship," Tempest told the others while leaning against the wall to her right.

Pinkie let go of the bar she and Storm were clinging to and sat down, saying, "Whee! Let's slide the rest of the way!" She began sliding down the middle of the hall in the direction they were going, happily exclaiming as she held her forelegs out. The others looked at each other for a moment before following her lead, though they remained standing and close to the walls.

On the bridge, Sonic, Tails, and the Rookie were still hanging from the ceiling when the tilt occurred, so they didn't feel it quite as much as the Battle Lord and his troops. Many birds, including the ones that had been knocked out earlier, lost the balance they had and went sliding towards the front of the bridge while the Battle Lord and some of the troops with him managed to remain mostly in place. The Battle Lord looked at the birds that ended up at the front and yelled, "What are you all doing?! We are far from defeated! Get up and right the ship! Now!"

While he was yelling, Tails looked up at Sonic and the Rookie and said, "I think it's time to leave." They both nodded in reply.

As Tails started spinning his tails and the Rookie let go of Sonic so he could cut himself loose, Sonic looked down and saw the renegade bird below, still being held by a pair of birds who were still behind the Battle Lord, though they were struggling to stay there. He pointed to him and looked up at Tails, saying, "Let's give him a hand." Although Tails wasn't sure if this was a good idea, he nodded since they had to go that way. He descended a little bit before swinging Sonic forward a little bit and letting him go, giving him a little momentum. Sonic curled up and started spinning as he went down, launching forward when he hit the floor. He knocked the Battle Lord's left leg out from under him and bowled over the guard behind him, which threw the other one off and sent him sliding into the Battle Lord's back. The renegade started sliding too, but Tails quickly swooped down and grabbed him by the shoulders before flying up after Sonic as he cleared the way. The Rookie used his grappling hook to follow them, the bridge door sliding shut behind him.

Outside, Tails continued to hover while Sonic and the Rookie pressed back against the wall next to the door due to the tilt. He looked down at the bird he was carrying and asked, "Are you okay?"

He quietly replied, "Y-Yes. Thank you for… for not leaving without me…" He reached over with his right hand and pulled the hood over his head off, revealing he was a light gray owl with yellow eyes.

Sonic said, "Well, we're all about helping people who don't like being oppressed. What's your name, pal?"

They suddenly heard the Battle Lord's yelling from the other side of the door. Tails looked down at the owl, "Is it all right if we continue this conversation later?" He received a nod in reply, so he started flying down the hall while holding onto him, Sonic taking the Rookie's hand and following him.

In the engine room, Espio, Sonic, and the others were able to grab onto the side of the machine next to them when the tilt happened and avoid sliding much. The birds on the other side weren't quite as fortunate, judging from the shouts, grunts, and groans they heard, but they had other things to worry about at the moment. "What just happened?!" Corvin exclaimed.

"That doesn't matter right now. We need to get out of here before the explosives go off," Espio said. He looked up, focusing on the walkway railing. “We just have to reach the stairs.” He looked back at the others, saying, “Corvin, Terv, go high and cover us! Sonic, Gen, Fuchsia, follow me!” He faced forward and ran a short distance before jumping, grabbing onto the edge of the top of the machine and using his momentum to help him on top of it. Sonic, Fuchsia, and Gen followed his lead and Terv and Corvin flapped their wings to take flight. Gen was having a little trouble getting up due to his suit, prompting Sonic to plant the explosive on top of the machine before he helped Fuchsia get him up. The two birds fired their White Wispons at the birds below to scatter the ones that had gotten up while Espio led everyone across the machine tops towards the stairs. Even as the battleship began to tilt back to normal, things were going well.

After less than a minute, they reached the stairs and ran up them. Seeing this, Corvin turned to Terv and said, “Come on, Terv, let’s go!” The blue bird nodded, both of them putting their Wispons away and flying after the others.

They were almost to the walkway when there was a shout from below. When they looked down, Ben shooting up towards them, targeting Terv. He wasn’t able to react fast enough and received an uppercut under his chin. He started to fall, but Ben gave one strong flap of his wings and launched into him before he could fall past, slamming into the wall. As they reached the floor, the bigger bird spoke, “You think you can escape from me, brother? It’s not going to happen!” He pinned him against the wall, but Corvin flew up behind him and grabbed him with Espio joining him after a moment. They weren’t able to pull him much until Sonic ran over and jumped up, hitting him on the head and dazing him again. As he was released, Terv grabbed his Blue Wispon and activated it before swinging it diagonally upwards, both Corvin and Espio falling to the floor while Ben was knocked back to the railing, crashing through it and falling.

Terv dropped to the floor to catch his breath before saying, “I’m okay! Let’s go!” Fuchsia and Sonic helped Espio and Corvin get up before they and Gen ran out the door. Terv followed them, but before he exited the room, he heard the sound of wings flapping and stopped. Turning to look towards the railing, he saw Ben fly up into view. He glared, “You always had to be the only one who gets the easy way out, Ben.”

The larger bird grinned, “Nothing’s changed, Terv. If you, Mom, and Dad had been smarter, we could’ve all been living the best life together, but no. I’m the only one who knows how to seize an opportunity and get things done. I never thought I’d see you again, but it is the last time we’ll ever see each other. It’s like I said: you’re not going to escape from me.”

Terv turned and walked towards him as he said, “I’m going to have to disagree AND agree with you, brother.” He stopped as he reached the railing and drew his White Wispon, “This is the day both you and the Armada fall.”

As he looked at the Wispon pointed at him, Ben laughed and said, “You can’t beat me! You may have a fancy hammer, but all it’s done is made it take longer for me to pound your beak into the floor! As for the Armada, well, that’s not happening either! Your detonator’s broken and we’ll locate the bombs before they explode! No matter what, you’ve lost!”

While he was talking, Terv looked around, trying to find something to help him. When he looked down towards the machinery, his eyes fell on the explosive Sonic had planted. He looked up at Ben and gave him a smirk. “You think so? Well, I’m going to do something you couldn’t be bothered to think of, brother.” He turned and pointed his Wispon towards the explosive, “I’m taking a third option!” Ben realized what he was doing far too late and his smile fell and his eyes started to widen as the shot he fired sailed through the air and hit the box.









DANGER ZONE
 

Rainbow had flown back up after unleashing the Sonic Rainboom and was flapping her wings to stay in place, watching Speedy try to fly away from the Resistance battleships when she heard a massive explosion behind her. She whirled around and saw a large burst of flames coming out near the battleship’s engines, rocking it but not destroying it. As she was wondering what happened, she heard an engine behind her and looked back to see Speedy’s plane flying in her direction, but he wasn’t looking to engage her again. His plane was now badly damaged, much like Trish’s, and it was shaking as it flew. It was clear he was heading back to the battleship.









"-erv! Terv, wake up! Come on!" Terv could hear and distinguish the words he was hearing, but it was all happening slowly. All of his senses were out of tune, the information trickling in slowly. He had no idea how long it took, but he finally managed to open his eyes. He opened them only a little bit before squeezing them shut and shaking his head due to everything looking very blurry. When he opened them again, his vision was considerably clearer and he could make out Corvin and O-T Sonic in front of him. "Terv, you in there?" Corvin asked.

A groan escaped Terv's beak before he uttered, "Somewhat." He was able to discern that he had his back against the wall and he moved to climb to his feet, only to immediately stop and let out a pained groan as he felt a surge of pain starting at his back and moving to his left arm. Looking down confirmed what he already knew; his wing was a mess.

He looked up at Corvin when the other bird said, "Yeah, it looks like you hit the wall pretty hard. You didn't break your arm, but your wing's in pretty bad shape." He turned to look towards the engine room, "You're really lucky if that's the worst of it. You're crazy, you know. What made you think this was a good idea, especially while you were in the room?" Terv followed his gaze and saw that the engine room had basically been turned into an inferno. The fact that they were having this conversation meant that the engines were still running, but there was no doubt in Terv's mind that they were crippled and that could get worse at any minute.

"It was a… spur of the moment thing," he said, grunting as he shifted his legs, trying to get up. Sonic grabbed his right arm to help him and he was soon standing, though he bent forward and placed his hands on his knees afterwards, panting. He looked himself over and saw the front of his suit was burnt and ripped in several places, and his Blue Wispon was still attached to his hip. His holster was empty; no doubt he’d dropped his White Wispon at some point during the explosion and the chain reaction that followed. He tilted his head up to look at Sonic and, seeing the concerned look on his face, stated, "I'm all right. I just need a second."

Corvin said, “Well, shake it off quick! We gotta get outta here!” Terv stood up straight a second later and swung his arms a little bit to get the blood circulating through them, checking his wing again as he did so. He looked off to the right and noticed a large lump near where the stairs had been, which he guessed was Ben. He was lying on his side turned away and his uniform seemed to have been entirely burnt away, leaving him with burnt patches of feathers. He looked back at Corvin when the bird spoke, “Come on! Let’s get to the hangers!” He ran for the door, not bothering to wait. Sonic followed him, but turned back to check on Terv before he left. The blue bird took a few unsteady steps forward before taking a few steps in place to make sure he was good before nodding to the hedgehog. He then started to follow him as he left the room as well.

Once again, though, before he could leave, he came to a stop, this time when he heard a loud shout come from Ben. He turned to see he had rolled onto his front and was struggling to push himself up. In spite of everything, Terv felt a bit of sympathy at seeing him in such a state and turned fully towards him. He’d taken a few steps towards him when Ben suddenly turned his head to glare at him, anger and hatred burning in his eyes. “You…!” he growled. That seemed to give him strength as he suddenly quickly climbed to his feet and began to stagger towards Terv, limping. “You little…! I’m going to kill you! You think you can make a fool of me?!” Terv stepped back a little. Ben sounded unhinged, his words coming out in a snarl. It almost sounded like he was becoming savage.

Terv reached for his Wispon, clutching it tightly as Ben came closer. The larger bird pounced at him and he quickly backed away to avoid it. He landed face first on the floor and looked up to snarl at Terv, who struck him in the side of the face with his Wispon, rolling him onto his back. While Ben was reeling from the hit, Terv took a few steps towards his legs, still holding the Wispon at his side. “I’m sorry, brother… but this is the end,” he said, not turning to face Ben.

The larger bird was still winded from the strike and couldn’t get up quite yet, but his head was clear enough for him to raise his head and look at Terv. “You think you’re the one who’s going to get away? Think again! Even if you do manage to escape, so will I! I don’t need a ship; I can fly out of here myself! I WILL walk away from this!” he boasted.

Terv turned towards Ben’s legs while his eyes moved to look at his face. He had a dark look on his face that Ben didn’t seem to notice. “No, you won’t,” he stated in an emotionless tone. “I can see your wings. Any feathers I didn’t pluck off earlier got burned in that explosion, so you’re not flying anywhere.” He then shifted his eyes to look down at Ben’s legs, “And as for walking…” He took the Wispon in both hands, “We’ll see how well you walk,” he activated it and raised it above his head, “with a LIMP!”

Over the sounds of the flames and the alarms ringing, a piercing, bloodcurdling scream rang out in the engine room.









In one of the battleship’s hangers, Twilight and Spike were looking over a control panel on a raised walkway off to the right side of the room, trying to figure out the best and quickest solution to their problem. The hanger had plenty of single-seat fighters along the sides of the hanger, but it was clear most of the space in the large room was reserved for a large, dome-shaped aircraft on a large square platform in the center of the room. It had a long wing on each side as well as two engines and a rudder between them in the back, and it was gray and black in color. Everyone agreed that it was the best option for getting everyone off the battleship, but there was one problem: the platform had four locks on it that kept it from moving. Releasing the locks would be the easiest way to commandeer the ship and fly it out, but the panel was asking for a passcode and they didn’t know what it was.

The rest of the group was looking up in their direction from the hanger’s ground floor, waiting for them to release the ship. Jet called up to them, “Get a move on, you two! We don’t have a lot of time to be standing around here!” Before anyone could say anything to him, Tempest and Wave noticed F-T Sonic, the Rookie, and Tails still carrying the owl enter the hanger, the others noticing as well as they approached. “Sonic!” Jet said.

They came to a stop by the group, Tails setting the owl down while Sonic replied, “Hey, Jet. Good to see you. Guess we picked the right hanger.”

Tempest remarked, “I take it you saw the mess we made trying to get inside before the emergency unlocked the doors.”

Sonic nodded, “Pretty much.” He glanced around, “So, what are we doing here?”

Wave answered, “This ship should be big enough for all of us.” She pointed up at Twilight and Spike, “Your friends up there just need to release it.”

The owl spoke up, “That ship belongs to the Battle Lord. He won’t like that…”

Jet noticed him as well as the Rookie and raised an eyebrow, “Who are these guys?” Before he could get an answer, the owl spread his wings and started flying up towards Twilight and Spike. “Hey, what’s he doing?” Jet asked as everyone watched him.

The owl reached the walkway after about ten seconds, flying up over the railing and landing a short distance behind Twilight and Spike. Spike noticed him first, his startled shake and cry causing Twilight to notice him too. At this, the owl held up his hands and cried, “Wait, calm down! I don’t want to be part of the Armada anymore! I’m here to help!”

Twilight relaxed a little and said, "I don't know the passcode for the release, and I don't think anyone else has it either."

The owl replied, "Here, let me see it." Twilight and Spike moved to the side to make room for him and he stepped to the panel. He saw it was an eight-character code and the panel had a number pad below the screen. He put his index fingers on the sides of his forehead and murmured, "Okay, I just need to think. There were a lot of these…" He blinked a few seconds later as a code popped into his head and he moved his hands down to the number pad, typing '04281995'. The panel processed the numbers and a few seconds later, the screen turned green and displayed the words 'ACCESS GRANTED -LOCKS RELEASING-'.

Everyone heard a loud clicking sound when the locking mechanisms deactivated a second later, the platform the ship was on beginning to lower down afterwards. Spike looked at the owl and asked, "How do you know the code?"

The owl gave him a shy smile, "Keeping track of day-to-day operations and internal information like that is, or I suppose was, my job. For once, I can say I'm glad it's what I was forced to do."

Down on the ground, everyone else watched the platform come down, noticing a set of stairs in the left side leading up to the top of it. "Come on, get a move on! We want to leave already!" Storm yelled up at the platform.


HANGER STANDOFF


"I'm afraid that's out of the question!" Everyone turned around at that to see the Battle Lord walking towards them, alone and pointing a blaster at them. "I must thank you plebeians for getting my ship ready for me, but there's no room for any of you!" he said. He pointed his blaster at the Babylon Rogues. "Except perhaps you three, if you've achieved enlightenment!" he added.

"Please! Give it up already! We knew you were crazy the first time you came to 'offer us a glorious new purpose'! We didn't want any part of the Armada then, and we definitely don't want it now that Eggman's telling you what to do! You don't have anything we want; that's why you can't buy us out like Eggman bought you!" Jet retorted. He let out a pained shout a moment later as he fell back, his right hand clutching his left side where the blaster shot hit him.

"JET!" Wave, Storm, Sonic, Tails, Applejack, and Pinkie all exclaimed, all of them gathering around him as he grimaced and propped himself up on his left elbow.

"I warned you I would not let your slights stand for much longer, Babylonian," the Battle Lord said as he held up the blaster. "I gave you so many chances to mature, yet you still refute me. A shame, because that was your last chance. Now your final moments- Ack!" He was cut off when a magenta beam hit his side, throwing him off balance. He turned to look up at Twilight; when he pointed the blaster up at her, the Rookie fired his grappling hook at it and it flew out of his hand and slid across the floor while he let out a shout.

Wave helped Jet to his feet, his left arm draped over her shoulders as he got to his feet. When he was mostly steady, he glared at the Battle Lord and said, "You shouldn't have come without your army! The tables are turned now and you're the one who's going to learn a lesson!" Storm thumped his fists together at that, the albatross looking forward to flattening more than the Battle Lord's beak.

"Cut it out, you two! We don't have time for that!" Wave chided, even though she wanted to make him pay too.

Tails looked up at the platform, "The platform's almost fully down! We need to…" He paused mid-sentence as his hearing picked up the roaring of a jet engine, which sounded like it was getting closer.

Everyone else heard it as well; even the Battle Lord turned his head curiously as the sound got louder. "What's that?" Tempest asked as she turned around to look towards the open hanger doors, moving around the platform to look. Sonic, Storm, and Pinkie did the same, all of them peering around the platform, which was now almost on the floor, to look outside. They could see the Sky Sanctuary, which was dropping out of sight due to the battleship losing altitude, but they could also a fighter plane coming towards the hanger at full speed.

"Look out!" Sonic exclaimed as he suddenly turned to Storm and spun him around before pushing him back behind the platform, Tempest and Pinkie running/pulling back behind it as well. Sonic kept pushing Storm into Tails, Applejack, the Rookie, Jet, and Wave, pushing them all up towards the wall. They ended up staying there as seconds later, Speedy's plane entered the hanger, hitting the floor and bouncing up, the tip of its right wing hitting one of the docked fighters and breaking off part of the wing as it was going up. The fighter was knocked loose and it hit another fighter, setting off a chain of explosions while Speedy's plane spun clockwise as it kept going forward. It bumped the left side and wing of the Battle Lord's ship, which got turned around partway from the impact while Speedy's plane lost the rest of its right wing and part of the left before it finally, noisily, came to a stop past the platform.

The Battle Lord had dived to the side when the plane started crashing, but as he looked up at the wrecked remains of Speedy's plane, all thoughts that had been going through his head at the time vanished. "SPEEDY!" he screeched as he shakily got up and ran towards it. The plane had ended up on its side and the cockpit canopy popped open as he got closer. Speedy rolled over a few moments later and fell out, the Battle Lord too far to catch him. Before he hit the floor, a magenta-colored bubble appeared under him, breaking his fall. Everyone else looked up to their right to see Twilight, Spike, and the owl flapping their wings as they descended, Twilight's horn still glowing with magic.

As the Battle Lord reached Speedy and scooped him up off of the bubble, Espio, Fuchsia, and Gen entered the hanger. They stared at the flaming wreckage for a moment before Espio noticed the others off to the side and ran over to them, Gen and Fuchsia following. He came to a stop in front of the group and asked, “What happened?!”

Before anyone could answer, Rainbow flew into the hanger and flew up to the ceiling, looking around quickly for someone she recognized. She spotted everyone after a few seconds and flew straight down to them, saying as she came to a stop near them, “Are you guys okay?! The Resistance ships messed up that plane and I followed him here!”

Twilight answered, “We’re fine, Rainbow. We were very lucky.” She looked over and saw the Battle Lord setting Speedy down on his feet, the smaller bird looking a bit shaky even as he stood up straight. “And it looks like Speedy is okay after that crash.”

Jet spoke, “So what are we still wasting time here for?!” He pointed up at the ship, “Someone get this ship started so we can leave!” Tails and Twilight glanced at each other for a moment before they flew up to the top of the platform, the owl flying up behind them and Spike hurriedly flying up after Twilight. Fortunately, the ship’s entrance was already open, so they entered and started searching.

Espio looked over at the Battle Lord and Speedy, the former looking up now and glaring daggers at them. He walked over to them, the rest of the group following him. When they were standing a short distance from them, Espio said, “If you agree to surrender, we’ll let you leave with us.”

The Battle Lord was silent for a moment; there was no change in his expression. Then he simply said, “Never.” He let go of Speedy and stood up straight, “I will concede this time, but I refuse to accept defeat. Next time we meet, you will all pay for this humiliation with your lives.” He turned to look at Speedy, “Come, my son. There are still ships that will fly. As long as we live, so too does the Armada.”

Speedy quietly replied, “Yes, Father.” He fell into step behind the Battle Lord, staggering a bit and holding his right arm.

As they were walking away, Jet grunted, “He really thinks he can rebuild after losing everything and ditching his followers? I doubt it.”


TIME TO EVACUATE


On the ship, Tails, Twilight, Spike, and the owl stepped through a pair of sliding doors onto the bridge, which was a circular room that had the controls directly in front of the doors with a pair of seats on both sides as well as a computer console with six screens in the wall off to each side. There was also a central seat in front of the controls set down in the floor like a bowl, a small set of stairs on each side leading down to it. And in front of it all was a large window for seeing outside.

The owl pointed to the two seats, “This is where the pilots sit. The chair in front is for the, ah… captain.”

Tails moved to the seat on the left, saying, “Okay, uh… I just need to figure out the controls and then I’ll get it started.” He sat down and eyed the panel in front of him. In addition to the buttons and lights, there was a ‘W’ shaped yoke in the center on both sides. He began pressing buttons and the panel lit up as did the lights in other rooms on the ship. He heard tapping sounds to his right after a few seconds and looked up to see Twilight had taken the other seat and was pressing buttons as well. “Do you know how to fly an aircraft, Twilight?” he asked.

Twilight looked up at him and replied, “Yes. I was given some lessons recently. Lessons I had to make good use of, actually.” She looked back at her panel, “This panel is a little more complicated than the one in the plane I flew, but if you can sort of help me with this part, I can be your co-pilot.”

Tails turned back to the controls and said, “Okay. Well, we’re pressed for time, so we’ll skip the pre-flight check. Now… huh?” He looked up hearing a noise coming from outside as did Twilight, Spike, and the owl. They saw two of the Armada’s fighter craft pulling out from the wall to their left and turning to fly out of the hanger.

Outside, Jet, Wave, Storm, Applejack, Pinkie, and the Rookie ran up the stairs to get to the ship, ignoring the ships exiting as they boarded. Gen and Fuchsia were about to do the same when they all heard something behind them and turned to see a large number of birds enter the hanger. It didn’t take them long to look at the situation and determine that the Battle Lord and Speedy were both alive and had abandoned ship. The ones already in the hanger went into a panic and all the ones that came in after them did the same, all of them scrambling to get to a working ship and do the same. Sonic, Espio, Rainbow, Tempest, Gen, and Fuchsia waited at the bottom of the ramp, watching them. By the time the ship’s engines began to roar to life, all the remaining fighter craft had a pilot, leaving over a dozen without a way to leave.

As they were staring up at the evacuating ships with dread, Gen and Fuchsia came up behind them and pointed their White Wispons at them, the birds turning at the sound of them warming up. There was a tense moment as the two Resistance members stared them down before Espio stepped between them and addressed the birds, “Perhaps you’ll be more amicable than your leader was. We can take you with us if you agree to come without a fight.” It only took a few seconds before the birds were down on their knees in front of them, begging them to save them. Espio glanced between Gen and Fuchsia as he quietly said, “Find a room on the ship for them and keep an eye on them. We’ll determine their motives once we get back to base.” They both nodded and gestured to the birds to follow them to the ship, which they were all too happy to do.

Fuchsia and Gen led the birds up the stairs with Espio and Tempest bringing up the rear. As they were following them up, Sonic and Rainbow looked back at the entrance, both wondering where O-T Sonic, Terv, and Corvin were. The younger blue hedgehog came running in after a couple of seconds with Corvin coming in a second later. The former ran straight over to F-T Sonic and Rainbow while the latter stopped to watch everyone going up the stairs before running over and asking “What’s going on?! Those guys running for the hanger slowed us down! What are they doing with them?!”

Rainbow answered, “They surrendered. There are no more ships for them to take, so Espio offered them a room on that ship we’re taking if they agreed to give up.”

Corvin calmed down a little as he said, “Okay, I guess that makes sense.”

F-T Sonic looked around and asked, “Where’s Terv?!”

Corvin simply replied, “He should be here in a second. Broke his wing in that explosion, so maybe that slowed him down a little. I’m getting onboard!” He ran up the stairs, boarding the ship behind Tempest and Espio. True to his word, Terv ran into the hanger a couple moments later, stopping in the doorway as if he was hesitating. He was still holding his Blue Wispon in his hand, holding it close to his chest.

“I’ll get him. We gotta go!” F-T Sonic said, O-T Sonic turning to run up the stairs at that. He looked at Rainbow, “You might as well fly out of here on your own, Rainbow. We’ll be right behind you.” She nodded and watched him run over to Terv, grabbing him and turning to run back to the stairs. Rainbow turned to leave at that, but as she was turning, she noticed out of the corner of her eye the haunted expression on Terv’s face and the fact that he had his left palm placed tightly on top of the head of the Blue Wispon, causing her to wonder what happened as she flew out of the hanger. Sonic ran into the ship and noticed a few buttons next to the door. He reached over and pressed one to close the door before calling out, “We’re all here! Let’s go!”

Up on the bridge, the owl was sitting at the computer console to the right of Twilight and Tails, the screens displaying footage from the ship’s security cameras. He saw on one of the monitors that Sonic had shut the doors followed by him disappearing off the screen and reappearing with Terv on the monitor displaying the meeting room that the Babylon Rogues and most of the others were in. He saw all the birds that had been brought on board were still in an empty room with Gen and Fuchsia standing guard at the door, so he turned and said, “Ready for takeoff!”

Tails said, “Okay!” He turned back to his controls and he and Twilight began to pull back on their yokes to take off. As they lifted up a little and began to turn the ship back around towards the hanger opening, though, explosions began to erupt across the battleship, causing it to shake heavily. They caught sight of the sky outside and realized the battleship was plummeting even faster now. “This is bad! I don’t know if we can get out now without hitting something on the way out!” Tails exclaimed.

Twilight nervously looked around for a moment before she looked up at her horn and she got an idea. She placed her hooves on the control panel for support and said, “Pull up the landing gear, Tails, and get ready to fly!” Tails looked over at her and saw her close her eyes, her horn beginning to glow brightly with magic. Heeding her words, he pulled back more and flicked the switch to retract the landing gear. Twilight’s horn continued to glow brighter as the explosions became louder and got closer and the battleship fell faster and faster.









Rainbow had stopped flying away from the battleship when she heard the explosions and turned to see them erupting from inside. It made her worried, especially since it started falling faster and she couldn’t see the ship. Her worry continued to grow until a massive explosion blew the battleship apart. “No…” she uttered when she looked back and saw the debris plummeting. Suddenly, a bright magenta flash made her look away again and when she looked back, the ship had appeared out of thin air and was flying forward. She breathed a sigh of relief and flew towards it. She flew in front of the bridge window and looked inside, seeing Tails and Twilight, who looked slightly dazed, at the controls, the owl still sitting at the computer console, and Spike waving to her from the captain’s chair. “Way to go, Twilight,” she breathed, giving a hoof pump.

Soon…


A CALM AFTERMATH


“I don’t know. Just fix that wing a little, buff out that dent, and it should be good as new. You can probably handle that yourself, Shorty,” Wave was saying as she and Tails walked out from underneath the stolen ship, now sitting in one of the available buildings in the Sky Sanctuary.

“Could probably stand to have a new paint job too,” Tails remarked.

“Yeah, it is kind of boring right now,” Wave agreed. They continued walking over to where Storm and Jet were. Storm was standing and Jet was sitting on a small crate while Fluttershy tended to his blaster wound. His arms were crossed in front of his chest and he had a bored expression on his face.

Jet tilted his head to the side to look and saw Fluttershy had put a patch on his side and was almost finished wrapping bandages around his torso to hold it in place. Once she had finished, he held his arms out and said, “All right, we’re done here!” He stood up and took a few steps to make sure he got his point across.

“But Jet…” Fluttershy started.

Jet turned around to look at her and said, “Look, you’re finished! You cleaned it, you treated it, you bandaged it. What else is there to do?” By this time, Tails and Wave had finished walking over and were standing nearby.

F-T Sonic, Knuckles, Rarity, and the owl came over from the other direction, also stopping near the little gathering. “Heh, guess prison time doesn’t change guys like us, huh Jet?” Sonic remarked, the hawk sharing a look with him.

“So, you’re sure about this?” Knuckles asked.

Jet nodded, “Yeah. We don’t like Eggman either, but I stand by what I told the Battle Lord: we’re not gonna be bought or forced into joining something. We either join on our own or we’re not doing it at all.”

Wave said, “Besides, we have to get back to our airship and see what we can salvage. Hopefully, our Extreme Gear wasn’t too badly damaged. We’re going to need them to get around and get the parts we need to repair the airship.”

Storm added, “Yeah! And when we find out where that Battle Lord went, we’re gonna make him pay for this!”

Knuckles nodded, “I understand. That’s why I already called in a transport to take you guys to Adabat. They’ll take you right to your airship.” He turned to Rarity, “Rarity, can you show them to their ship?”

The unicorn nodded, “Of course. I’d be happy to help send them on their way.” She turned around, “Right this way, please.” Jet, Wave, and Storm started to walk after her.

Wave stopped before completely walking past Knuckles and turned to him, asking, “What are you going to do with those Armada birds?”

Knuckles answered, “Rainbow, Tempest, Espio, and Amy are spreading them out and putting them on other transports. We’re gonna see if we can convince a few of them to join the Resistance.” Wave turned to continue walking, seemingly satisfied with this answer. Jet had stopped to wait for her and after she caught up with him, he shared a look with Sonic for a moment before he turned and resumed walking as well.

“I hope I put enough bandages on Jet. He didn’t let me check to make sure,” Fluttershy said after a moment.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Fluttershy. Terv and Windra have told me you’ve been doing good work in the infirmary, so I don’t doubt your abilities,” Knuckles replied.

“I wonder where Terv went. He left the ship as soon as we docked and then disappeared,” Tails remarked.

“I think I heard Rainbow and Twilight talking about him earlier. They’ll probably go looking for him,” Sonic shrugged.

Knuckles nodded and then turned to the owl, saying, “That was a very brave decision you made, deciding to leave the Armada on your own. What’s your name?”

The owl turned his gaze downward, “I don’t have one…”

Tails asked, “You don’t?”

The owl explained, “I was taken in and trained by the Armada when I was very young. I don’t remember my parents or what name they gave me. I was never given any sort of identifier by the Armada. I was just another head behind a computer to them.”

Fluttershy gazed at him sadly, “My goodness, that’s horrible.”

Knuckles said, “Well, at least you managed to keep your head straight under all that. They didn’t mess up the way you saw things.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. So, let’s fix that.” He turned to the side and closed his eyes, thinking. He opened them after a few seconds and asked, “How about ‘Harvey’? You seem like a Harvey to me. Can we call you Harvey?”

The owl said, “Harvey.” His face began to light up and his voice started to sound more ecstatic, “Yeah. Yeah, I like that name.”

Knuckles replied, “Well, I don’t see any reason to argue with it.” He held out his right hand, “Nice to meet you, Harvey.” Harvey took his hand after a moment and shook it warmly.


TERV'S PAST


Not too far away, in another building where one of the Resistance battleships that had survived the attack was sitting, Terv was sitting on the ground on the starboard side near the front of the ship. He sat hunched over, his knees pulled up a little. He seemed to be staring straight ahead at nothing, his left arm bandaged up and his expression troubled. He stayed like this for several moments before turning to his right to look down at his Blue Wispon. More specifically, he was looking at the head, the end of which was marked by an uneven red streak and several splotches. He stared intently at the marks, as if he was still trying to process them.

He was jarred out of his thoughts suddenly when he heard, "Terv!" He sat up suddenly and looked straight ahead, seeing Twilight turning towards him and fluttering down to land about half a dozen feet away from him.

"Oh, hello, Princess Twilight," he stammered. He eyed her legs, noticing she appeared to be standing fine, though upon closer inspection, he saw they were still a bit shaky. "It would appear that battle has helped get you back on your hooves, huh?" he asked, trying to steer the conversation away from himself.

Twilight took a few steps towards him as she said, "That's not important right now." She gave him a concerned look, "What are you doing here by yourself, Terv? There are a lot of injured who still need help; why aren't you helping?"

Terv looked to his left and sighed, "I'm… really not in a proper state of mind to help right now. Those patients deserve a real doctor."

Twilight replied, "Fluttershy's not a certified doctor and she takes care of all sorts of animals. And what do you mean by 'real doctor '?" Terv didn't answer, so after a couple of seconds of silence, she said, "Okay, I get it. You, uh… You'd rather not… I'll leave you alone." She turned to leave.

"Wait!" Terv suddenly exclaimed, Twilight stopping a couple of steps away from where she'd been standing. She looked back and saw him lowering his right hand and moving it the side of his head. "Come back," he said, sounding like he said it with a great degree of effort. She walked back over and stood in front of him. After a moment, Terv asked, "Did anyone tell you what happened on the battleship?"

Twilight sat down as she answered, "I heard something about you knowing someone in the Armada."

Terv said, "Ben. He's… He was…" He sighed, "That's my brother's name."

Twilight blinked, "Your brother is in the Battle Bird Armada? …Did you know he was with them?"

Terv answered, "I had a feeling he was. I wasn't entirely sure, but my thoughts were supported by information the Resistance received from spies watching the Armada. I can easily imagine him getting involved with them; it's the kind of thing he'd do. I know that all too well."

Twilight tilted her head, "So, he's done things like this before?"

Terv's head fell, preferring to look at his knees rather than Twilight. "I used to live with my family in a village on West Side Island. This was long before Eggman came to the island. It wasn't too glamorous, but we were happy. Everyone in the village was. I never thought anything was amiss, that anyone was unhappy."

Twilight asked, “So, what happened?”

Terv said, “One day, Ben disappeared for nearly a whole day before coming back with a lot of money. When we asked him, he said he was doing contract work outside the village so that he could make life better for our family. Mom and Dad were proud that he was willing to take on extra responsibilities, but they didn’t really hear any of his talk on moving out of the village to somewhere with a lot more potential. I found out after the fact that he’d actually been spending all his time away from the village at the Casino Night, gambling and later stealing and making enemies, which is why it happened.”

Twilight questioned, “‘It’?”

Terv took a few deep breaths before starting, “It started out a normal day. Ben had left for ‘work’ and I was at home with Mom and Dad. We’d tried to talk him into staying for family time, but he insisted he had to go into work that day. We were just sitting around the house when the door suddenly burst open and Ben ran in, slamming it shut behind him. He looked like he’d been running for a long time. When we asked him what was wrong, he said everything was fine and we should keep doing what we were doing. He started to head to the back of the house when we started hearing a commotion outside.”

He paused, closing his eyes and pressing his right hand against them before sliding it up to wipe off his forehead. “It was a raid, basically. I still don’t know what exactly he did, but he made a lot of people angry and they were looking for him. They broke into homes, knocked down anyone in their path, and set fire to everything. I remember running through the house looking for Ben while Mom and Dad tried to keep them out. The ceiling came down not long after.” He clenched his eyes shut, “I had some injuries from being buried, but Mom and Dad were…” He trailed off, tears beginning to leak from his eyes.

Twilight stared at him, “Sweet Celestia… And… Ben?”

Terv managed to say, “I saw him off in the distance through an opening in the rubble before I lost consciousness, running away, never even glancing back. The last thing I remember is reaching out for him, begging and pleading for him to come back, to help us…” He began to sob, the memories overwhelming him and making him unable to continue.

Unsure of what else to do, Twilight moved closer and sat next to him, wrapping her right wing around him, letting him cry into her side. After several minutes, he seemed to calm down a little, so she softly ventured, “So… you survived that.”

Terv nodded, "Yeah… I did. After I got out of the hospital, I was sent to the orphanage along with other kids who had lost their families."

Twilight started, "Did Ben ever…?"

Terv shook his head, "No. He never came back. Until today, that was the last time I saw him. I eventually just got used to living in the orphanage." He paused for a moment before continuing, "The time in the hospital was often on my mind those days. Eventually, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. I didn't want to be like my brother; I wanted to be someone that people could count on to be there to help. I studied as hard as I could, I volunteered when I was able to, and with more of our kind beginning to get out in and be accepted by the world, I applied to Spagonia University and was accepted. I didn't know how I was going to pay for it, but I was determined to continue my education. I was all set to leave when Dr. Eggman's takeover started and the war broke out."

Twilight asked, "So, you… you never got to go to medical school?"

Terv answered, "No. I only have past experiences to rely on. I've been lucky that I haven't had to deal with any really complicated cases yet."

Twilight said, "I’m guessing it was a shock then when you ran into Ben." After a couple of seconds without an answer, she leaned forward to look at Terv and asked, "Terv?"


REGRET


He turned his head to the right to look away. "Twilight," he started in a low voice. "Am I a terrible person?"

Twilight blinked, entirely unprepared for that question. "Wh-What do you mean?" she questioned.

Terv looked at the Blue Wispon, his voice sounding numb when he spoke, "I don't know what came over me. He was still coming in spite of everything, but why did I do it?" He grabbed the handle and picked it up. He held it in front of him, which allowed Twilight to see the red on the head. "I didn't kill him, but I might as well have. He'd lost a lot of feathers, so he couldn't fly on his own, but then I… I left him unable to walk. And I panicked and ran, leaving him like that… It's highly unlikely that he managed to escape, and it's because of me…" He hung his head, the Wispon falling from his grasp, "I always said I wouldn't turn out like him, yet I did that… I intentionally injured and left my brother to die… How can I possibly say that I'll uphold the Hippocratic Oath after doing that…?"

Twilight was at a loss for words. Between what he said and the evidence on the Wispon, she was pretty sure she knew what he had done. She didn’t know what to say; she’d done a lot of things since she moved to Ponyville, but not something like that. Even if she had, was there really anything that she could say to make Terv feel better? It was clear he was deeply ashamed and regretted what he’d done. Shame, regret… she was familiar with those feelings, especially having to live with them. It was a long shot, but it was the only thing she could think of.

She started, "Terv, I…" She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "I'm not going to say that I know what you're going through simply because I haven't done anything like that… yet. But in the short time since I've regained consciousness, I've seen what you usually do and how you seem to act towards others, so I feel like I have an understanding of who you are."

Terv murmured, "An understanding? Doesn't sound like you really know me, then…"

Twilight said, "No, but we did just meet the other day. Not that length of time necessarily equals a fuller understanding. I've known my best friends for a long time and I'm still learning things about them that I had no idea about. What I mean to say is, you're not like your brother. The fact that we're talking about this is proof of that."

Terv turned to look at her, "What does one have to do with the other?"

Twilight answered, "You're upset. You can't believe you did what you did. You're regretful over what happened. Based on what you've told me about Ben, what happened years ago doesn't bother him. He wanted to kill you, right?"

Terv nodded, "Yeah…"

Twilight said, "Well, it's a terrible thing to say, but I don't think your brother really wanted to make amends. As for what happened… well, that's not something with an easy answer. You got caught up in doing one thing and now you regret it, something I know very well. As I said, I haven't done that, but I have done some terrible things. Brainwashing an entire town over something that was ultimately trivial, trying to steal something valuable to another nation and potentially damaging relations, getting angry at my niece… I know I haven't been as good a princess or a pony as I wish I was and I regret losing control like that, but I think having regrets is important. I realize my mistakes and try to learn from them to be a better pony. You can do the same, Terv. You are a good person; don't throw who you are and the good you've done so far over this. Learn from it." Terv didn’t say anything or move for a moment, but then he suddenly turned and wrapped his arms around her in a hug, his face pressed into her shoulder as he sobbed. Twilight returned the hug, rubbing his back with her hoof. Of course it was going to take time before he might be able to say he was ready to move on, but she could only hope this was a step in that direction.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Gen was sitting around the corner against the front of the battleship, the burnt hedgehog having caught most of their talk. He’d just been curious what it was they were talking about, but to say he was surprised by Terv’s backstory and what he’d done was a bit of an understatement. “Well, Doctor, it seems we have a little more in common than I thought,” he whispered to himself.









MINOR SETBACK
 

Cozy Glow floated down to Eggman in her cloud form, her muzzle materializing when she was behind him to his side and moving as though she were saying something, though it came out as a series of growls and snarls. While she was communicating with him, Infinite entered the control room and spoke without waiting to be addressed, “Doctor, it would appear the Battle Bird Armada finally did something useful, only to prove their worthlessness against the Resistance.”

Both Eggman and Cozy Glow turned to look at him, the former saying, “Yes, I’ve just learned this. It doesn’t matter.” He turned back to his computer, “The Resistance saved me the trouble of having to remind their cluck of a leader who’s really in charge. No treachery is occurring under my watch, and even if he came crawling all the way here, I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of allowing to serve the Eggman Empire again. Their time will come along with the Resistance’s.”

Infinite asked, “So, this development means nothing to you?”

As Cozy Glow floated back up, Eggman replied, “Quite the contrary; this is a very intriguing development. It’s unfortunate that the Armada failed to defeat the Resistance despite taking them by surprise, but it’s not a complete loss. I know where their battleship was when it was destroyed, so we know where exactly the Resistance’s battleships are hidden. This attack has also left the Resistance weakened, vulnerable, so we can make up for the loss of the Armada with a spot of revenge.”

Infinite asked, “By launching another attack on the Sky Sanctuary?”

Eggman answered, “Why go to the trouble of invading their space when we can bring them into ours? It will be so easy to do with the right manipulations.” He turned to look back at Infinite, “And I believe said manipulations will greatly appeal to you and your preferences as well.”
> Shadow Knows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CASCADE OF EVENTS


A light-gray dog dressed in Resistance colors was using a pair of binoculars to survey one of Eggman's industrial areas in Green Hill from a lookout spot on one of the hills that offered some cover. In addition to the factories he'd built, there were also smaller areas amongst the hills and pathways occupied by his robots that were covered in metal and filled with supplies, building them up into outposts for maintaining a stronghold in the area. He lowered his binoculars after several minutes of examining the area, an undaunted look on his face as he turned and walked over to a large brown rock behind him. He reached down and pressed a hidden button on the side, which caused the top of the rock to open like a hatch door. He climbed into the opening it had been hiding, grabbing the hatch to pull it closed as he went down. 

After a short climb down a ladder, he was in a small outpost hidden in the hill. There wasn’t much to it; it was just a small room with some crates and boxes filled with supplies along with a laptop sitting on top of one of the crates that was plugged into a small portable generator. He made his way over to the laptop and opened it. He spent several minutes typing out what he had observed and ways to attack Eggman’s forces before an explosion from outside caught his attention. He quickly ran over to the ladder and climbed up, carefully pushing the hatch open to peek out. He couldn’t see any robots outside, so he opened it a little more to check for Buzzbombers. There weren’t any, so he pushed it open all the way and looked around for the source of the explosion. He heard another one behind him after a few moments and turned to peer around the hatch. A piece of flaming debris had hit the side of the hill and broken apart upon impact, most of it falling off. He quickly climbed out and ran over to make sure there were no bits on the grass that were still on fire. He then looked up.

High up in the sky, a ship surrounded by flames was falling towards Green Hill. The dog brought up his binoculars to look and was able to make out that it was one of Eggman’s transport ships. More pieces of it broke off as it fell, though thankfully none came as close as the last two had. It went past him as it continued falling from the sky, touching down after a minute. Despite his shock, the dog remembered to shut the hatch before he started running towards where the ship had landed to investigate.







Tails stood at the back of the workshop looking intently at the laptop in front of him while Twilight slowly paced back and forth next to him. The laptop had cables connected to it that ran behind it over to a small cylindrical device that currently contained the strange gemstone the Rookie had found. A graph was on the laptop's screen, but it was currently not displaying any lines or data points.

Tails frequently glanced between the screen and at Twilight as she paced in front of the container, the alicorn occasionally making a feint at the device or rearing up on her hind legs and thrusting her forelegs towards it. This continued for about a minute before he sighed and said, "I think you can stop, Twilight. Nothing's happening." The alicorn slumped with a sigh of her own and used her magic to pull a stool over to her. She sat down on it to rest her slightly aching legs.

Rainbow, Tempest, Spike, F-T Sonic, and the Rookie were standing near the wall by the workshop entrance, having watched the two experiment for several minutes. After Twilight sat down, Rainbow flew over and hovered over them as she asked, "What do you mean nothing's happening, Tails? I thought this whole thing was meant to give us some answers about this thing."

Tails replied, "I know, Rainbow. That was the plan, but there's not much we can gleam right now." He looked over at the machine, "We haven't picked up any energy spikes, no reactions, there was no sign of any glowing… Whatever this stone is, it's inert right now."

Spike had run to the back of the workshop while Tails had been talking, going underneath the tables, and came to a stop between him and Twilight. “But it glowed when he picked it up earlier! We both saw it!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, Spike, you told us before. And we believe you, both of you,” Twilight reassured him. She looked over at the machine, “It’s just that, whatever caused it to glow at the time, we can’t seem to make it happen again. There must be something else to it that we haven’t replicated.” Tails nodded in agreement.

He then walked over to the machine and opened the locks on the lid, opening it with his left hand. He grabbed the gem with his right hand and lifted it out before shutting the lid again; he then walked over to the Rookie and held it out to him, “Sorry for dragging you down here and not getting anything conclusive, buddy. Here, hang onto this for the time being. Keep an eye on it; if you come up with any ideas about what activated it before, let us know, okay?” The wolf waved to let him know it was okay before taking the gem and putting it back in the pouch on his right hip as he turned to leave the room.

After he left, Tempest remarked, "A bit disappointing. I thought perhaps our Silent Omega had made a breakthrough that could turn things in our favor."

Tails shrugged, "It could still turn out to be one. Hopefully, we'll find out sooner rather than later."

Rainbow flew over to Tails and asked, "So, what now?"

Tails replied, "Well, we can go back to working on getting Omega and Gemerl back online. Twilight's idea has some merit." He started to walk back over to the workbench, "If we could hone in on the source of the problem, we should be able to identify it and eliminate it, and then we should be able to reactivate their systems." He unplugged the machine from the laptop and started reattaching the cables connected to the two robots.

While he was doing this, Twilight scooted closer to him. "Can I help? Sunset Shimmer showed me once how she makes her own apps and programs," she said.

Tails looked at her, "Sure! I wouldn't mind having some help if you're familiar with this kind of work. Might be able to make it more effective."

Tempest turned to leave, "I'll leave this to you two. I'm going to check in with Commander Knuckles." Sonic's eyes followed her as she left, but he stayed against the wall with his hands behind his head.

Spike flew up behind Twilight and asked, "Can I help, Twilight?"

She looked back at him, "I don't think so, Spike. We need to start putting the program together first."

Spike looked worried, "But… So, there's nothing I can do?"

Rainbow flew over and wrapped her right foreleg around him, "This is egghead stuff, Spike. A little different, but it's about the same. You don't always help Twilight when she's doing that kind of stuff, right?"

Spike looked down, "Well, no."

Rainbow replied, "Then don't make work where you don't have to! Hey, I figured out how to get games off the Resistance network and play them on my Mobile. Want me to show you how?"

While typing and clicking, Tails said, "Please turn the volume down and go stand over by Sonic if you're going to hang out in here and play games. And keep your voices down; this is delicate work."

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Okay, geez. Be Mister Bossy, why don't you." She and Spike went over by Sonic anyway, the hedgehog glancing over at them for a moment before shutting his eyes again. For several minutes, he heard low talking from both ends of the workshop along with the sounds of typing, clicking, and tapping.

He didn't know how much time had actually passed, but it seemed like it hadn't been long when Tails spoke, "Okay, that looks good. I think we're ready."

Twilight said, "It does seem like a pretty simple program, now that I see it. Will it be enough?"

Tails replied, "It should be, but we won't know until we tell it to start." He turned back to the laptop and started clicking again, "Just to be safe, let's disconnect this laptop from the Resistance network. That way, if anything goes wrong, it'll remain isolated."

While he was clicking, Sonic’s Mobile started ringing. He pulled it out with his right hand and saw it was Amy calling him. He answered it and, when Amy’s face appeared on the screen, said, “Hey, Amy. What’s up?”

The pink hedgehog’s face moved closer on his screen, “Sonic! Are you in the middle of something?!”

Sonic raised an eyebrow, “Uh, no…”

Amy said, “Good! We just got word: Shadow’s been spotted!”

Sonic blinked, “Shadow?” He pushed away from the wall and held his Mobile closer, “Where?!” Rainbow, Spike, Tails, and Twilight all turned to look at him, also interested.

“Speck, one of our lookouts in Green Hill, just contacted us! He saw one of Eggman’s transports come crashing down and saw Shadow leaving the wreckage when he went to investigate! He said he’s heading this way! I’ve already sent a message to our lookouts up top to keep watch for him!” Amy said.

“Good. Let ‘em know I’m on my way. If he’s looking for a fight, I’ll give him one. And then he’s gonna give us some answers!” Sonic replied. He hung up and turned to leave the room.

He hadn’t gotten far down the hall when Rainbow flew out of the workshop and landed directly in front of him. “Whoa, whoa, hold on! You’re gonna take on Shadow? I’m coming with you!” she said.

“Rainbow… You sure you want to do that? When he fought the bug horse queen, I thought you said you were happy to stay out of it,” Sonic said.

“Yeah, but that’s because I realized trying to fight alongside him might end with me getting hurt. Fighting against him, though? That’s a different story,” Rainbow replied. She looked past Sonic a moment later, “Looks like I’m not the only one.” He looked back to see Twilight with Spike on her back and Tails a moment later step out of the workshop, Tails wearing a tan messenger bag containing his Miles Electric over his left shoulder.

“What about the program you guys cooked up?” he asked.

Tails answered, “I know we disconnected, but I don’t feel comfortable letting it run without being able to keep an eye on it. It won’t take long to run. We should have plenty of time to do that.”

Twilight added, “You’re right about getting some answers out of him, Sonic, and the sooner we get them, the better. Like why he’s working for Eggman now, or what Eggman’s big plan is… We can help you get those answers faster.” Spike nodded in agreement.

Sonic looked at them for a moment before looking back at Rainbow. He saw she was still determined, so he shrugged, “Well, I guess I don’t really have a good argument against yours.”

Rainbow grinned, “So, we’re good?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. Let’s do it to it.” Rainbow pumped her hoof and she, Tails, and Twilight hurried after him when he started running through the base towards the tunnels.

As they were leaving, Grubber, Cream, and Cheese appeared around the corner at the other end of the hall. "You were right. There is something going on if they're leaving all together like that," Grubber commented as they walked.

"I wonder what it could be. It must be important if Sonic, Tails, Princess Twilight, Miss Dash, and Mister Spike are all going," Cream said. Cheese nodded in agreement. They came to a stop near the workshop door, which slid open due to sensing their presence.

Grubber decided to look inside. "Hey, there's something on that screen in the back," he remarked. He ran inside and Cheese flew after him while Cream watched them from the doorway. Grubber reached the workbench and jumped up, grabbing the edge of it. After a little struggling and a push from Cheese, he pulled himself up and looked to see it was a piece of paper taped to the top of the screen. "'DO NOT TOUCH. -TWILIGHT AND TAILS-'," Grubber read aloud. After a moment, he commented, "Okay. That's good advice, too."

Cream giggled and said, "Let's go look for Mama. Maybe we can help her, and then can play some more until they get back." Cheese let out a happy "Chao!" at that.

"Okay," Grubber agreed, letting go of the table as Cheese flew back and dropping down to the floor. They hurried back over to Cream. As they reached her, a shadow fell over her and she turned to her right to look up in surprise. Grubber and Cheese looked up and saw a pig in a Resistance uniform standing a short distance from her. "Oh, hello, uh, Oscar, sir," Grubber awkwardly said.

The pig smiled softly, "Hello. I'm sorry if I startled any of you. I guess it is possible to walk silently while wearing these boots."

Cream smiled back, "That's okay, sir."

Oscar asked, "Are you all going somewhere?"

Cream answered, "Yes, sir. We're going to go find Mama!"

Oscar tilted his head, "Oh? I believe I saw Miss Vanilla in the barracks a few minutes ago. She should still be there."

Cream said, "Thank you, sir!"

Oscar replied, "No problem." He turned around to watch as Cream ran down the hall with Cheese and Grubber following her. After they disappeared around the corner, the smile on his face dropped and a faint pink glow appeared over the pupils of his eyes. He turned to look inside the workshop and noticed the paper on the screen. He walked over to it and, after reading it, lifted it up to look at the screen, seeing a command prompt in the middle of the screen asking to confirm if the user wanted to run the program. With a smirk, he pressed the 'Enter' key to confirm and let the paper drop back down as he turned to leave.








DARK PLANS


-Dear Princess Celestia,
 
  I am pleased to report that Twilight and Spike are both doing much better, so there will be no need to postpone the coronation. As I write, they are getting ready to make the trip to Canterlot. Twilight is going to address the ponies of Ponyville before leaving so they know what’s going on and they don’t need to put everything on hold to travel to Canterlot. I’ll make sure she keeps her speech short and isn’t late. The rest of the girls and I look forward to being in the audience. We’ll see you soon!
 

Yours truly,


Starlight Glimmer-


Starlight put her quill down and held up the parchment in her magic, looking over what she had written before nodding and sending it to Princess Celestia. Trixie stepped into the sitting room a moment later and Starlight asked, “Is everything ready, Trixie?”

The light blue unicorn replied with a flick of her head, “Of course! The podium is set up, the mic has been checked, and the fireworks are all in place. And, naturally, nopony has any idea what they’re really coming here for.” She looked at Starlight, “I take it you sent the princess the letter?”

Starlight nodded, “Yep. They shouldn’t feel any need to come down here if they think Twilight is on her way. They’re so naïve and trusting; they have no idea what’s really going on down here, and that works to our advantage.”

Trixie replied, “Excellent. I’ll be ready.” As she turned to leave, she added, “You should get going too, Starlight.”

Starlight stood up and checked her mane with a hoof, “Yes, I do have a role I need to play as well. It’s time to address the public.” She made her way out of the sitting room, pulling the doors closed behind her as she left.








SHADOW HUNTING


In the bedroom of a mostly-destroyed home, a section of the wooden floor in the corner began to shift. It was a slight movement at first, but it was followed by a more noticeable one. The section then lifted up, revealing a square-shaped hole in the floor. Underneath, Sonic and Rainbow peered out into the room for several seconds, checking to see if the coast was clear. They then nodded to each other and set the section of floor they were holding off to the side. Rainbow then flew up out of the hole and landed on the floor, moving to check outside the bedroom while Sonic pulled himself up and turned around so he could sit on the edge. Tails and Spike flew out next and landed nearby while he reached down to grab Twilight’s forelegs and pull her out.

Once she was out and the section of floor was covering up the hole again, they moved to join Rainbow, who had moved out of the bedroom and was pressed up next to where a large chunk of the outside wall had collapsed, giving them a good view of the street outside. She looked at them as they approached her and said, “I didn’t see anyone outside. I think it’s safe.”

They exited the house and made their way up to a nearby rooftop, where Vector and a monkey soldier were both looking out across the city with binoculars. The crocodile lowered his binoculars and turned around a moment later to see the group arriving on the opposite side of the roof. "You guys sure got up here quick. We finally found something that got you all motivated, huh?" he remarked.

"Yeah, something like that," Sonic shrugged.

"So, where's Shadow?" Rainbow asked.

"Not here yet. Espio and the recon team he's with in Green Hill haven't called in. Speck said he was headed for the Lost Valley zone, so once they see him there, it won't take him long to reach the outskirts," Vector replied.

Twilight looked down, "I don't understand. Why is Shadow helping Eggman now? It seemed like he wanted him stopped when he had the Time Eater."

Tails suggested, "Maybe it has something to do with the power Infinite has? We don't know what happened prior to him appearing with Infinite, Metal, Zavok, and Chaos."

Vector replied, "Well, he'll be answering those questions and so many more. He's coming here, so he's gotta know he's in for a fight. And if we want to stay ahead of Eggman, we've…" He was suddenly cut off by an explosion near the edge of the city, but not from where they were expecting Shadow to enter from.

"What's that?!" Spike cried as he clutched the back of Twilight's neck.

Vector looked through his binoculars as he brought his Mobile up to the side of his head and yelled, “Charmy, come in! Can you see Shadow?!”

The bee responded after a few moments, “No, I don’t see him, Vector! A bunch of Eggman’s robots just appeared out of nowhere! Like, out of thin air!”

Vector grunted, “So you weren’t paying attention and they got the drop on you.”

Charmy replied, “No, I did see them! They totally put themselves together before they started attacking! There was red light and then… Wait, is that…? Hey, I see Shadooooo…”

Vector asked, “Charmy? Come in! What happened?” He winced and lowered his binoculars a few moments later as a crackling sound came from his Mobile. He looked at it and said, “He must’ve dropped it.”

Rainbow asked, “Did he mention Shadow?” Almost as soon as she finished saying that, the black hedgehog appeared in front of them in a flash of blue, hovering a short distance in front of the rooftop as he looked at them with cold, lifeless eyes. Rainbow glared, “Get him!” She spread her wings and shot between Vector and the monkey with her right hoof extended. Shadow vanished in a flash of blue before she could reach him. Rainbow held her wings out to her sides to slow down and looked around for him. She saw him reappear from another blue flash higher up in the sky after several seconds and flew after him as he began to fly away.

“Rainbow!” Twilight called, but the pegasus was too far away to hear her.

Vector turned to her and said, “Hey, focus, Princess! Shadow’s not our only problem right now; Charmy said there were robots coming into the city and they’re gonna star tearing this place up!”

Sonic replied, “No problem, Vector!” He looked at Twilight, “Twilight, you go help Rainbow. She might need an extra set of wings or two to take on Shadow, even in the sky.” He turned to Tails, “We’ll start thinning out those robots in the meantime.” The fox nodded with a determined expression and Twilight and Spike nodded as well after a moment. The two of them spread their wings and flew up after Rainbow while Tails took Sonic’s hand and flew towards the explosions.

Rainbow, meanwhile, flew high above the city, stopping and hovering after a minute as she looked around for Shadow. "Where'd he go?" she asked as she looked and turned around. She suddenly became aware of someone behind her and whirled to see him there, a faint red distortion fading around him. Before she could react, he grabbed her right foreleg with his right hand and spun around, throwing her away from him in one fast motion as she let out a yell. She was able to right herself and spread her wings out to stop herself after a second; she then glared at him and shot forward.

Below them, Twilight and Spike stopped flying up, both flapping their wings to remain in place as they watched. Rainbow flew at Shadow as fast as she could, occasionally twisting around or flying above him to mix up her charges. It didn't seem to help much; Shadow would simply move aside or disappear whenever she came close. Twilight couldn't help but be bothered by this. He looked and seemed to act like Shadow, but she wasn't seeing any of the fierceness he displayed when he beat down Chrysalis or threatened Shining. The other two versions of him she and Spike had met had shown it to differing degrees as well, so she couldn't understand why he now seemed to prefer messing with Rainbow over fighting her.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Spike let out a loud gasp. She looked up and saw Shadow throw Rainbow again, but this time, he shot after her and, after she stopped herself, punched her several times in the stomach before giving her a hard punch to the side of her muzzle. She recovered and flew at him again, only for him to catch her left hoof in his hand and slam his right elbow against the side of her head. He then threw her up and shot up after her. He delivered a sideways kick while she was reeling, knocking her away and making her drop down.

Twilight had had enough and charged up a moderately-sized beam of magic in her horn, firing it and hitting Shadow as he was about to pursue Rainbow further. It hit him in the side and sent him rolling to the side, but only for a moment. He quickly recovered and stopped himself before turning his head to glare down at Twilight, causing her eyes to widen a bit as he turned fully to focus on her. She tried creating a magic shield in between them to stop his rush, but he simply disappeared and reappeared on the other side of it. She had no time to recast the spell, so she tried to flap backwards and dodge his punches, but she was only barely able to dodge the first one; the rest came too fast for her. Spike let out a yell as he flew at Shadow, but was swiftly stopped when the hedgehog kicked him away.

He then turned back to the still-dazed Twilight and wrapped his hands around her neck. He then spun her around twice before letting go, the alicorn still spinning a bit as she fell. Spike recovered from the kick and noticed her in trouble, so he flew after her, using his Enerbeams to pull himself towards her faster. Rainbow had recovered at this point and felt relieved when she saw Spike going to help Twilight, so she turned her attention back to Shadow, only to see him disappear in a flash of blue again. She quickly looked around for him again.


SUNSET HEIGHTS


Down below, Sonic and Tails were still dealing with the Egg Pawns and Buzzbombers that were moving through the city. Sonic had to follow a swarm of Buzzbombers that flew down into a hole, dealing with the robots before they could start attacking the city's infrastructure. He then exited the hole via an opening that the Resistance had made, winding around and coming out in another abandoned building. He leapt out onto the street and took off down it, and he was soon reunited with Tails when he flew down.

"Are you okay?" Tails asked as he flew beside Sonic.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just ducked down into the sewer to deal with some Badniks. Might need a bath or a shower after this," the hedgehog replied.

Tails snickered and said, "I don't think you have to worry. The Resistance regularly use the tunnels; there shouldn't be too much…" He trailed off as he faced forward again. "Sonic, look out!" he exclaimed. The hedgehog had already turned his eyes back to the road when the fox had cut himself off and so he saw it too: Shadow was flying right at them.

Sonic and Tails eased a little to the right and left respectively, Sonic turning his head and briefly locking eyes with Shadow before he shot past. After a few seconds, Shadow came to a stop, turned, and shot after them. Sonic faced forward and saw the street made a sharp turn to the right ahead. He looked over at Tails and said, "Split up!" The fox nodded and turned to fly up over the line of buildings to the left while Sonic placed his right hand against the ground and dropped down to slide. He got up and shot down the street when he reached the turn, looking back to see Shadow disappear in a flash of blue before he crashed.

Tails also noticed him disappear and looked around for him. Shadow suddenly appeared next to him after a few moments and swung his fist at him. Tails swerved to avoid the punch, rolling over and hitting him with both feet in the process. The move put a little distance between him and the hedgehog, but he had to quickly move to the side a second later to avoid a direct charge. Seeing that he wasn’t backing off, Tails steeled himself and flew after him.

While this was going on, Vector was still using his binoculars to observe the situation while the monkey soldier was using a large White Wispon to shoot at Badniks off in the distance. In the middle of his spotting, he briefly saw Sonic when the hedgehog used some debris that was pushed together to make a bridge to get over the water below, and shortly after, he spotted a squadron of Balkiries swooping down in his direction. He raised his Mobile to the side of his muzzle and said, “Sonic, you got incoming from behind! Keep running!”

Sonic glanced back and saw the bird-like Badniks flying towards him, each one strafing him with bombs as they went by. The explosions were not very large, thankfully, so he was able to avoid them by stepping to the side out of their path. After several runs that failed to land a hit, he heard Shadow’s voice, which sounded a bit distorted, as he evaded two more Balkiries, “Is this all you’ve got? Out of my way!” He stepped to the side to avoid a charge from the black hedgehog, who kept going instead of disappearing again.

Sonic followed him, but as he finished rounding the corner, his eyes widened as he saw a yellow light shooting towards him. Realizing it was a Chaos Spear, he stepped to the side, narrowly missing it, and saw Shadow hovering above the ground a short distance ahead of him a moment later. The black hedgehog floated backwards as he continued summoning and firing Chaos Spears at Sonic, who continued to quickly step out of their path as he waited for an opportunity. It came a couple seconds later when he closed the gap between them and nailed Shadow with a Homing Attack as he was preparing another Chaos Spear, the black hedgehog disappearing a moment later while Sonic landed and resumed running down the road.

Suddenly, he heard Tails' voice come from his Mobile, "Sonic, Shadow's behind you!" He looked back and saw Shadow running towards him, though not as fast as he'd been going up to this point.

"Get ready; we're coming to help!" Rainbow added. Sonic didn't know what sort of plan they had, but he wasn’t going to wait to find out. After a few seconds, he planted his feet down and turned to face Shadow. The black hedgehog did not change his pace, so Sonic readied a Spin Dash and shot into him when he was a little closer, knocking him off of his feet backwards.

While he was up, Tails swooped down and grabbed Shadow from behind by his upper arms. "Wasn't expecting that, but it sure…" He was cut short when Shadow began struggling. Tails quickly lost hold of him and he turned around to attack him. Tails avoided his punch and turned to fly up and away from him.

Shadow quickly followed after him and it seemed like he would soon catch up, but suddenly, Spike appeared in a burst of magenta ahead of him, his cheeks already puffed out. He spewed green flames a moment later and Shadow held his arms up in front of his face as the flames engulfed him while Spike held his wings out to drop down a moment later. Shadow emerged on the other side of the flames a moment later relatively unscathed, but as he lowered his arms, he realized there was a wall of magenta magic directly in his path. He wasn’t able to stop himself before he crashed into it, his arms and legs splayed out across it. Twilight flew up behind it and unleashed a fairly sizable beam of magic from her horn, breaking the wall and blasting Shadow away. Rainbow flew down and grabbed him while he was falling and started rolling to try to keep him disoriented as she flew down towards the ground. She stopped spinning when she was a little more than a dozen feet above the ground and stopped and let Shadow go a moment later, letting him crash and slide back a bit when he hit. She landed and glared at him as he lay on the ground, her wings still spread. Sonic slid to a stop to her right after a moment and Tails, Twilight, and Spike flew down and landed behind them afterwards.

Shadow began to sit up a few seconds later. As he raised his head to look at the group, Sonic spoke, "All right, Shadow! You wanna tell us what's going on?" The expression on Shadow's face didn't change; he simply resumed sitting up, moving his right hand behind him as he did.

"Hey! Stop moving!" Rainbow ordered, but he didn't heed. He was sitting up a moment later and his right hand looked like it was holding something.

"Look out!" Tails exclaimed, suspecting he was up to something. Sure enough, he brought his right hand forward, revealing a handgun. Before he could pull the trigger, something hit the ground next to him and exploded, blowing him off the ground and into a collapsed home to his left.


OUT OF THE SHADOWS


Everyone stared in surprise for a moment before turning to look down the street to the left. Further down, they saw a familiar black and red hedgehog drop down onto a piece of rubble and stand straight up, turning his shiny, vibrant eyes to look at them while their eyes widened. "Another Shadow?!" Spike exclaimed.

Charmy flew up next to him a moment later and said, "Whoa, Shadow, that was so cool!" The black hedgehog glanced over at him with an irritated expression, but soon turned his attention back to the other Shadow. Everyone else turned to look at him as he robotically climbed to his feet, gun still in hand. The new arrival narrowed his eyes and leapt down from the rubble. The gun went off nearly a dozen times as he ran towards the shooter, but he sidestepped them all and curled into a ball when he was close enough. He knocked him back into the standing wall behind, but he wasn't done yet. Upon landing, he curled up into a Spin Dash and shot forward, both crashing through the wall and falling to the street below. The shooter landed hard on his front and dropped his gun, which broke into red particles, while the new arrival uncurled and used his air shoes to land gently in front of him.

As the two resumed their tussle, Sonic, Rainbow, Twilight, Spike, Tails, and Charmy came over to the hole in the wall and peered down at the fight. Tails looked over at Charmy, who was buzzing excitedly and pumping his fists as he watched, and asked, "Uh, Charmy? What happened earlier?"

The bee stopped and stared at him blankly. "Huh?" he uttered.

"Why did Vector lose contact with you? What happened when you saw Shadow?" Tails clarified.

Charmy's eyes lit up, "Oh, right! Well, that other Shadow, the mean one, bumped into me and knocked me down and I got dizzy when I landed! When the world stopped spinning, I saw Shadow standing over me, but as a detective, I could tell something was different about him: he was cool! And I was right because, while I was following him, he was destroying Eggman's robots!"

Tails looked forward as he mused, "So, the Shadow we've been dealing with might be a Shadow Android enhanced by Infinite's power. Does that mean 'cool' Shadow is the real Shadow?"

Sonic remarked, "Well, 'cool' Shadow seems to be the winner, so…" Tails and Charmy looked and saw one Shadow leap back from the wall he'd embedded the other one in, glaring at him. He fell forward a second later; for a moment, he seemed like he was attempting to get up, but he soon gave up, his eyes closing as he dropped to the ground.

Sonic and Tails looked at each other and a few moments later, Tails was carrying Sonic as he lowered down to the street below. Rainbow, Twilight, Spike, and Charmy flew down after them, everyone keeping an eye on both Shadows. As they watched, the fallen one began to break down, turning into red static and cubes. He faded away completely after they landed.

"That one just disappeared!" Spike exclaimed, voicing his and Twilight's surprise.

"Just like the Deadly Six on the Death Egg," Sonic said.

"And Tirek!" Rainbow added.

"Did I see something like that when Chaos fell…?" Tails wondered.

At last, Shadow spoke. "Fakers," he began. He raised his head, "Copies." He looked back over his shoulder at the group, "Phantoms."

Twilight blinked, “Phantoms?” Shadow turned around so they could see his right side. He held up his right hand, a dark blue flash drive between the ends of his index finger and thumb. “What’s that?” Twilight asked.

“This has all the files I was able to pull from the databanks aboard the Death Egg about the Doctor’s plans,” Shadow answered. He tossed it to Tails, who caught it with both hands. “Unfortunately, they’re incomplete. The originals weren’t there.” He noticed that Tails was looking at the heart on the back, so he added, “It won’t mess with your machine, Tails.” Satisfied, Tails pulled out his Miles Electric and extended the plug, inserting it into the port on his device.







O-T Sonic walked into the meeting room. He was looking for his counterpart and Tails to ask them a question, but he still hadn't found them. Knuckles was talking to Tempest and Applejack off to the side, Rarity and Amy were standing around the computer terminal, Silver and Pinkie were looking up at the main screen, and the Rookie, Fuchsia, Corvin, Trish, Aventura, Matka, Techni, Salten, and Sona were there too. He looked around, not sure who the best individual to ask would be.

Amy was the first to notice him and waved, catching everyone else’s attention. “Oh, hi, Sonic! I mean, the other Sonic. Younger Sonic,” she said a bit awkwardly. She smiled nervously, “I’m not sure how you’d prefer to be addressed…”

Pinkie popped up between her and Rarity suddenly, Silver turning to look in surprise at where she’d been a moment ago as she said, “Just call him Old-Timey Sonic, Amy! That’s what we called him before!”

Knuckles looked back at Sonic and noticed he was giving Pinkie an odd look, as if he wanted to ask her something. “Is something wrong, Sonic?” Before the lighter blue hedgehog could open his mouth, the lights suddenly flickered for a moment and the main screen went to black for a second before going back to blue. “What was that?” Knuckles asked as everyone looked around.

“Could be something with the generator. We might have to take a look at it if it happens again,” Techni said after a moment.

Amy and Rarity turned to look at the computer terminal a few seconds later when a beeping sound came from it. “Looks like we’re receiving a call,” Rarity said.

“Well, see who it is. Maybe Sonic and the others have taken down Shadow,” Knuckles replied. As Amy was reaching for the keyboard, O-T Sonic looked behind him and noticed Oscar was standing in the doorway behind him along with several other Resistance members. He was sure they weren’t standing there before the sudden hiccup, though. He looked towards the other door and saw a few other Resistance soldiers standing there as well.







The group had moved into a nearby home that was still standing and wasn't too badly damaged, allowing them to get out of the open. Vector and Espio had joined them, Espio leaning against the wall next to Tails as he sat on a small stool he'd found while he looked at his Miles Electric and Vector standing with Sonic and Rainbow, all of them looking at Shadow. Twilight and Spike were sitting on an ottoman nearby while Charmy flew up by the ceiling.

"Infinite has the power to create replicas, copies that can be made to look and behave like the originals," Shadow was saying.

"How does he do it, though? Pinkie found a pool once that was able to make magic copies of anything that stepped in it, but his seem way different," Rainbow said.

Shadow regarded her for a moment before saying, "All of his power comes from that gem on his chest. The Doctor calls it the Phantom Ruby." He glanced down, "If he hadn't distracted me back when I was sent to destroy the base, I could've destroyed all of his research."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"

Tails spoke, "There are a lot of files in here. Most of them date back longer than six months ago. Initial Findings, Phantom Ruby Capabilities, Creation Refinements, Prototype Logs…" He looked up and off to the side, "Prototype… Could that be…?"

Sonic looked back at Shadow, "So, aside from maybe Metal, since he exploded when we beat him, all the heavy hitters on Eggman's side, including the bad guys from Equestria…"

The black hedgehog nodded, "Correct. Copies. They have mass and form, but they don't possess any heart or soul."

Twilight looked down, "That's my fault… Infinite went through my notes… That's how he was able to make Tirek and Cozy Glow…"

Tails spoke up, "Um, I'm not so sure about that, Twilight."

Shadow said, "He's right. I've seen the profiles in the database. He may have learned of their existence because of what you wrote, but did your notes describe every power they possess, every single detail about their appearance, everything about who they are?"

Twilight tilted her head to the side, "Well, no."

Shadow replied, “Then it wasn’t you. I went through each one; the ones for the moon mare, the chimera, the bug, and the dark unicorn are all full of information, no doubt because the Doctor researched them while he was hiding out. The ones for the centaur and the other one pale in comparison. The only thing they contain is observations. There’s not enough information in them for him to be able to create his copies; Infinite must’ve located the originals and taken notes.”

Spike spoke, “Well… that’s not exactly comforting. I mean, Tirek and Cozy Glow were both locked away in Tartarus! Doesn’t that mean he went there? Or… that they escaped…?”

Vector walked up behind the two and placed a hand on Spike’s back, causing him to look up. “Hey, let’s not jump to conclusions here. I know not knowing what exactly else he was doing in Equestria is worrying, but we can only deal with what’s going on in one world right now, and if we don’t stop Infinite and Eggman here, they’ll be impossible to stop in Equestria.” He looked over at Tails and Espio, “Does that thing have anything that could help us counter this Phantom Ruby thing?”

Tails replied, “Uh, not really. From what I’ve looked at so far, Shadow was right. These are definitely Eggman’s files, but bits and pieces are redacted, blacked out, or otherwise cut off.”

Espio added, “Mainly the information we could use, anyway. Were you able to learn anything new, Shadow?”

Shadow said, "As far as I can tell, there's no limit on what Infinite can do with his replicas. He can potentially create an unlimited number of any of them."

Sonic put his hand on his chin, "Unlimited copies? So, for example, even though we defeated his Tirek illusion, he could not only bring it back, he could create an army of Tireks if he felt like it?" Rainbow, Twilight, and Spike looked from him to Shadow in dread at that.

"Exactly. As it stands, it's an uphill battle as long as Infinite has the Phantom Ruby's power," Shadow answered.

Sonic smiled, "Well, just for the time being, anyway."

Twilight asked, "What do you mean, 'just for the time being'?"

Spike added, "Yeah, why'd you say that like it's gonna change? This guy can create armies out of nothing; we can't beat that!"

Sonic said, “Yeah, but there’s still Eggman. He might’ve been careful with this, but he’s bound to overlook something important that’ll come back to bite him in his wide behind sooner or later. He’s done it before.”

Charmy giggled, “He sure has! He’s gotten bad luck even when everything goes right!”

Shadow spoke, “Admittedly, that’s what I’m hoping for as well. Before I started downloading data, I found a list of his outposts and bases in the region and asked Rouge to investigate, to see if the files were sent to any of them or if there are any clues that could help.”

Rainbow remarked, “So that’s what she was talking about the other night.”

Tails said, “I hope she does manage to find the unaltered files. This looks like it might be a diagram for the Phantom Ruby, but it’s almost completely whited out.”

Espio remarked, “Must’ve been a in a hurry to cover it up. Just covering something with digital paint doesn’t seem like something he would do.”

Vector nodded, “Yeah, Egghead would probably put his face on it too to really mess with anyone who found it.”

Sonic reached into his quills and pulled out his Mobile while saying, “Amy wanted me to check in with her and Knuckles once the situation was under control. I’m gonna get ‘em up to speed on everything you told us.” He glanced up at Shadow to see if he had any objections; the black hedgehog hardly moved in response, so he figured it was okay. He started tapping on the screen, but after a minute, he raised an eyebrow. “What?” he uttered as he tapped the screen again. He then started tapping his thumb against it more rapidly.

“What’s wrong?” Espio asked.

“I’m getting some kind of error here when I try to place a call. Not just to the base; to Knuckles, Amy, Tempest… everybody!” Sonic answered while tapping the screen with his index finger.

Charmy flew down and looked at the screen. “Ooh, kind of looks like what happens at the Detective Agency when the cable goes out, except it’s red! What’s going on?” he asked.


PHANTOM IN THE NETWORK


While Twilight, Rainbow, and Vector pulled out their Mobiles to see if they would get the same error, Tails said, “My Miles Electric was set up to be able to troubleshoot the network that the Resistance is using. Maybe I can find out what’s wrong from here.” He navigated through several screens before his eyes widened. “I don’t believe it!”

Espio leaned over to take a look and saw red flickering lines spreading out from a single point on a map. “What’s that?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s inside our network and is spreading like a virus! Just looking at it, I’d say it’s blocking out any communications, at least from the outside!” Tails answered.

Twilight looked up from her Mobile as her mind suddenly made a connection. “Wait a minute. Red…” She turned to Spike, “Spike… Didn’t Starlight say the screen on our machine turned red and started displaying weird things before the Warp Ring went haywire?”

Spike blinked and said, “Yeah, she did! And that had to be when Infinite crossed over to Equestria because we found the claw marks afterwards, and then in your bedroom…! Wait, so does that mean…?”

Twilight nodded slowly, “I think it does. Infinite has to be the one hacking into our network! He must be using the Phantom Ruby to do it!”

Rainbow said, “And we can’t contact anyone… We gotta get back to base and warn them!”

Twilight put her Mobile back in its clip and placed both hooves on the ottoman. “Everyone, get close! I’ll teleport us!” Everyone, including Shadow, gathered around her. A magenta aura surrounded her horn and with a bright flash of light, they all vanished.







Fluttershy stepped out of the infirmary and let out a soft but weary breath. Tina had requested help getting Gen's tub cleaned and refilled since Terv had claimed he needed to step away briefly for mental reasons after returning from the Sky Sanctuary. It wasn't a hard task; she was used to cleaning spaces for her animal friends, even the larger ones. Gen also hadn't been as irritable as he usually was, so she hadn't had to test out The Stare on him. What had drained her a bit was seeing him outside of his suit with all of his burns and scars. She would never dare ask, but she did wonder what happened to him.

She decided to go find the rest of her friends and see if they could help take her mind off of it. As she was walking, she crossed paths with Cream, Cheese, and Grubber and they decided to accompany her. Their talking helped ease the pegasus’ mind, but as they caught sight of the door to the meeting room, they were able to see a red light flashing repeatedly through the doorway. Fluttershy, Cream, and Grubber looked at each other for a moment before running to investigate.

When they were closer, they could hear a strange pulsing sound and saw Oscar standing in the doorway, shaking like he couldn’t stay still. It was difficult to see into the room, both because he was in the way and because of the flashing light, but they could see O-T Sonic, Knuckles, Applejack, Rarity, Amy, Silver, Tempest and the Rookie all shaking like Oscar, only they were shaking more erratically and looking like they were in pain. After several seconds, the light suddenly became blinding, causing them to shut their eyes and look away. When it died down and they looked again, they all stared in shock and horror: there was no one in the room.