> Friendship, Disharmony & Sonic > by natedeanmaan > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was another casual day for Sonic, he was having one of his runs, not worried about Eggman considering the last time he saw his mortal enemy, he was launched into outer space after he destroyed his Nega-Wisp Armor robot-mech. Despite enjoying his run, his best friend Tails bumped into him and invited him to go to the park. Unknown to Sonic, Tails and the rest of the gang had prepared a surprise birthday party for him. After arriving at the park, and the party starting upon his arrival, Sonic had gotten a specially made chili dog as his birthday gift, which he loved after taking his first bite into it. While everyone was enjoying the party, a sudden dark pulse exploded out of nowhere and abruptly ended the party. The force from the blast of air sent all of the party supplies flying in the air, including Sonic's chili dog, surprising the hedgehog after seeing it was no longer in his hand and he frantically looked for the missing chili dog. Unknown to Sonic, a dark creature had come out of a mysterious portal. Its glowing blue sinister face consists of a pair of narrow blue eyes and a mouth with sharp teeth. The creature also appeared to have two make-shift horns on its head, a smog body with a wide chest, and two arms with two five-fingered hands with sharp claws and mysterious clock gears on its back. The arrival of this mysterious creature caused a commotion among the partygoers as they questioned what it was. The creature, later known as Time Eater, opened multiple small portals and started sucking all of Sonic's friends into them one by one, enraging the hedgehog as he charged at the unknown creature without a second thought. In a futile attempt, Sonic tries to attack the dark creature with a homing attack to try and save his friends, but the creature swatted Sonic away like a bug, making him hit the ground hard and knocking him out in the process. As Sonic slips into unconsciousness, the last thing he heard was Tails pleading for him to save him and the rest of their friends as he is the last one to get sucked into the portals. After regaining consciousness, Sonic found himself in white space, but here, he sees and travels through familiar areas that gave him déjà vu. He ran through the familiar pastures of Green Hill, got past the pink waters of the Chemical Plant, and ran through the sky platforms of Sky Sanctuary. Going through these areas, he rescued Tails, Amy Rose, and Knuckles the Echidna respectively. He bumped into his past self as they were both ready to face off against their arch nemesis Dr. Eggman in the Death Egg, but only he, the younger version of himself, was able to go through the doorway to face off against the Death Egg Robot. After defeating Eggman in a hard-fought battle, Classic Sonic thought he'd help his nemesis out of the remains of the destroyed robot, but like on his run in Green Hill, he saw Time Eater come through a portal and he kidnaps Eggman in a purple sphere of aura. After pleading for Sonic to save him, the two disappeared through another portal, making Classic Sonic realize that this is a potential threat that is a lot bigger than Eggman himself. As he returned to White Space, Classic Sonic and Classic Tails deduced that because they were dealing with the same creature, and its influence, his younger counterpart was also doing the same thing he was doing with rescuing all his friends and restoring these specific areas that Time Eater must have ripped out of time and into this mysterious white void. They joined forces as they continued this adventure, and three more areas in Sonic's time appeared after the Death Egg Robot’s defeat. The two started running through the chaotic roads of Speed Highway and evaded the deadly G.U.N. Military Truck in City Escape, and the beaches of Seaside Hill. They also rescued Cream the Rabbit, along with her Chao friend Cheese, Rouge the Bat, and Espio the Chameleon going through these areas. The two Sonics realized that not only Eggman was their problem, but they also had to deal with rivals in their past. Classic Sonic dealt with Metal Sonic and easily defeated his robot doppelganger and Sonic also dealt with Shadow the Hedgehog, the dubbed 'Ultimate Lifeform', on the remains of the Eclipse Cannon hovering over the Earth. As soon as Sonic was done with Shadow, he faced off against Perfect Chaos in the ruins of the flooded Station Square, but instead of needing the Chaos Emeralds as he did in the past, Sonic was able to handle the liquid being and takes him down in no time in his base form, showing that he has gotten a lot stronger since their last encounter. After defeating Perfect Chaos, three more areas appeared, along with one of the Chaos Emeralds floating above the final area. Time Eater charges from a portal and attempts to steal the emerald, but even in the colorless state that it was in, the Chaos Emerald's power activates and repels the dark being, forcing it to retreat into another portal. Starting this set of areas, one of the cities was a blur to Sonic in the Crisis City. Still, despite the forgotten area, those constant flames in this city were something Sonic could never truly forget, especially after facing off against another rival in Silver the Hedgehog. This one hedgehog was capable of using psychokinesis, something he was able to achieve from the distant future from Sonic’s current timeline. After defeating Silver, Sonic navigates through the many roofs on the Rooftop Run. Finally, rounding out the adventure, Sonic returns to Planet Wisp to save the Wisps that Eggman had recently captured. Along the way, Sonic saves Blaze the Cat, Vector the Crocodile, and Charmy Bee from each of these areas. After restoring Planet Wisp, and rescuing the last of his friends, the Chaos Emerald regains its color, leading both Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic to have a fun run to get the emerald, something Modern Sonic was able to win after showing Classic Sonic the Boost and impressing him with this ability that he will learn one day. With the sixth emerald in his possession, Sonic goes toe to toe with Eggman piloting an upgraded version of the Egg Dragoon from a previous attempt to create Eggmanland. Even with some unique abilities and upgrades this mech possessed, Sonic manages to defeat the doctor again, laughing at the angry egg-shaped man who strongly believed he was supposed to defeat Sonic. Seeing their arch-nemeses before them, Tails questions Classic Sonic as he recalled that he told them that Eggman was captured by Time Eater before but grew more confused as they see Eggman getting captured by Time Eater as it suddenly shows up and disappears in a flash. It took time, something that they had plenty of in White Space, but Sonic and Classic Sonic rescued all of his friends, went through his past, and successfully restored the areas that the dark creature had torn from reality and they were able to collect all seven of the Chaos Emeralds from each rival and battle they had; and on top of all that, they managed to foil all of Eggman's past plans once again along the way as a bonus. It all led up to the final battle with the dark creature, something that couldn't have been done without collecting the seven Chaos Emeralds. After using the Chaos Emeralds to restore the destroyed clock gears and opening the gateway, Classic Sonic, Modern Sonic, Classic Tails, and Modern Tails arrive at the Center of Time. What they saw was Time Eater but compared to their last encounter with the dark creature, it had changed its form. It had four arms instead of two, two pairs of makeshift wings with multiple clock gears and its energy, the gears from its back were now part of its arms, giving it some armor along its more defined features, and there were two purple orbs on top of Time Eater's head and a giant-sized orb holding the second set of arms and wings together. "Okay, whatever you are," Sonic declared to the dark creature. "If you want to avoid an embarrassing beat down, you better give up now!" He concludes with confidence. The first orb on Time Eater's head opened, revealing a familiar egg-shaped person to everyone. "You're not in a position to demand anything, you nasty little pincushion!" Eggman shouted in annoyance. "Eggman! But, how?" Tails questioned. Sonic slapped his forehead and shook his head as if to say, "Why am I not surprised?" The second orb opened, revealing another person. "He had a little help," said the second person. "Dr. Robotnik!" Classic Tails said and pointed at the lower orb in surprise. Classic Sonic put a hand over his eyes to view the second orb correctly and was shocked to see that it was Robotnik. "Nobody calls me that anymore," he states. "If you would be so kind as to explain, gentleman genius Dr. Eggman from The Future," the classic Eggman says. "It will be my pleasure, most excellent and efficacious Dr. Eggman of The Past," says the modern Eggman. Modern Eggman then starts going down memory lane and explains what has happened from the events of his last failed scheme. "After my most recent setback, I stumbled upon the primordial form of this unique creation. Which I discovered had amazing abilities even I have never been able to master. It could erase time and space! I then had the brilliant idea to use my discovery to undo my previous defeats! In order to perfect it, I needed the help of somebody as smart as I am. The only person that smart… is me!" Modern Eggman concludes and gestures towards Classic Eggman. Classic Eggman was flattered by the compliment. "Oh, you are too kind, my dear future self! And I was happy to help!" he finishes happily. "I captured your friends, flinging them through time to bait my traps," Modern Eggman continues to explain his plan. "But the more your monster tears through time, the more damage you do to the world!" Tails chimed with the side effects of Eggman's plan. Sonic looked to Tails as he says this and nodded in agreement to what he was saying and glared back at Eggman. "The world? I'm going to own the world when I'm finished with Sonic! HOO HOO HOO HOO HOO HOO HOO HOO HOO HOO!" Modern Eggman coughed and continued his laughter, while Classic Eggman scratched his head, looking at his future self, and says in disbelief, "Wow. Will I really get that crazy?" Modern Eggman looked over his ship and talked to his past self, "Hehe! We'll see who's crazy after I destroy both Sonics… forever!" "You mean after we destroy them," Classic Eggman corrected his older self. "Less arguing. More destroying," Modern Eggman declared, and pulled himself back from his chair in his ship, focusing his attention back on Sonic and Tails. Sonic retorted with cockiness, "Destroy me? You and what mustache? I beat you all the time by myself, and now there's two of me!" Sonic said while gesturing to his younger self, who did a backflip in excitement. "Then I'll have twice as much fun defeating you!" Modern Eggman declared and sat down in his ship. The two orbs closed, and Time Eater started its assault on both Sonics. Both Modern and Classic Sonic sprang into action running towards Time Eater. They came to a halt once Time Eater started firing purple orbs at them. Modern and Classic Sonic split up, avoiding the attack, however, Time Eater continued firing the orbs at them, which they easily avoided thanks to their gifted speed. "Keep moving!" Modern Sonic shouts to his younger self. Classic Sonic looked over at Modern Sonic and nodded, continuing to avoid each of the purple orbs. "Move all you want! I'm still going to stomp you into a blue jelly," said Modern Eggman. Modern Eggman then pressed a button, causing one of Time Eater's arms to go into a time hole. After seeing that Time Eater stopped firing the purple orbs, both Modern and Classic Sonic regrouped and jumped toward Time Eater in an attempt to attack it, upon seeing the two hedgehogs in mid-air, Time Eater swatted them with a swing of its arm, sending them flying backward and skidding on the ground. Both Sonic and Classic Sonic were trying to shake off the pain from the hit and tried to get back on their feet. Modern Eggman laughed to himself in satisfaction, knowing he had them right where he wanted them. The arm sent through the time hole earlier suddenly appears behind them as they got back up. They turned around and saw the arm but didn't have enough time to react to the sudden attack, leaving both Sonics squashed by the hand. Both Modern and Classic Sonic were knocked out after the arm raised itself from the ground and went back into the time portal it came out of. "That was just to soften you up. Now it's time to meet your doom," Modern Eggman says. Time Eater's arm returned to the body and was ready to continue its attack on both Classic and Modern Sonic when suddenly… "You can do it Sonic!" shouted Amy "Come on Sonic. Smack him!" shouted Knuckles. "Ugh, not you!" Modern Eggman yells in displeasure. "You've got this Sonic!" Shadow assures. "You can win Sonic!" Rouge says. "Who are they?" questioned Classic Eggman. "They are insignificant!" responded Modern Eggman in annoyance. "You've got the power Sonic!" yelled Vector. "Focus your spirit!" calmly says Espio. "We're with you guys!" yelled Charmy in excitement. "I believe in you, Sonic!" Cream yelled pleadingly, while her Chao friend, Cheese, nodded in agreement. "Don't give in, Sonic!" yelled Blaze. "I know you can do this, Sonic!" says Silver in assurance. "You can win, Sonic!" yelled Classic Tails. "You always do!" Modern Tails assures. The Chaos Emeralds then appeared, circled both Sonics, and raised their unconscious bodies off the ground. Modern Sonic's hands twitched and clenched into fists, regaining consciousness as the power of the Chaos Emeralds surged through him. Classic Sonic also opened his eyes, feeling the power of the Chaos Emeralds as well. Modern Sonic opened his eyes and pointed at Time Eater. "Time to scramble some Eggmen, SUPER SONIC STYLE!" Modern Sonic yells, ready to fight. Classic Sonic punched his right fist into his left hand and in a flash, both Modern and Classic Sonic transformed into their super forms, both hedgehog’s fur changing from blue to gold in that instant, with a golden aura enveloping them. They both flew up in the air and charged toward Time Eater to begin the final battle. The battle between the two Sonics and the new and improved Time Eater was intense. Each Eggman added more power to Time Eater than the Sonics had thought. The Eggmen had used the Warping Arm Attack to start the fight. The Sonics saw it coming and avoided the attack easily by splitting up, making the arm miss them. Time Eater then used its Homing Shot, firing one after the other. The gang feared what they were seeing with the Homing Shot, hoping both Sonics would be safe. Thanks to the floating debris from the areas that Time Eater tore through, the Homing Shots had hit them instead of the Sonics. After avoiding the Homing Shots, both Sonics charged at the core of the Time Eater. Time Eater tried to squish the Sonics with two of its four hands when they got close, but they dodged the attack and continued their assault on the core. Time Eater groaned in pain after the core was damaged with minor cracks on it, and it got ready for the next attack. Time Eater used both of its arms for a Warping Arm Attack to try to hit both Sonics, but once again, they were easily avoided. After getting its arms back, Time Eater then shot its purple orbs at the Sonics. The orbs had temporarily slowed the Sonics down as they made contact. Seeing how defenseless they looked, Time Eater fired another round of Homing Shots at the Sonics. Classic Sonic tried to pull himself and Modern Sonic out of the wormhole, but he found that he couldn't. "Just follow my lead," Modern Sonic told his younger self, who obliged. They dodged the Homing Shots with ease and Modern Sonic came up with a plan to strike Time Eater's core again. Modern Sonic used Chaos Control to slow time down and he and Classic Sonic easily charged at the orb again, causing Time Eater more damage. Time Eater loses the bottom pair of wings and set of arms from the damage the core took, making the cracks more visible. Out of fear, both Modern and Classic Eggman had distanced themselves from both Sonics and fired a barrage of Homing Shots at them. Trying to keep a brave face, both Eggmen yells, “It’ll take more than that, to defeat us!” Out of defense, Classic Sonic pulled himself and Modern Sonic out of the wormhole and avoided the onslaught of Homing Shots. Time Eater charged up a lot of energy and before both Sonics could respond, it unleashed the energy and slowed time down. This caused both Sonics to be stuck outside of the wormhole in slow motion, while Time Eater was unaffected by its attack and it charged up more energy to unleash a powerful laser shot. Once time had been restored, Time Eater also steps out of the wormhole and fired the laser at the Sonics. At the last second, Modern Sonic pulled himself and Classic Sonic back into the wormhole, avoiding the attack altogether. They then charged at Time Eater once it came back into the wormhole and damaged the core even further, causing the trio great frustration as the core now has a giant crack on it, close to its breaking point. Sonic's friends started cheering in excitement, seeing that both Classic and Modern Sonic are easily handling the threat of the universe and they weren't even breaking a sweat at all. In one final attempt, both Classic and Modern Eggman triggered what they believed to be Time Eater's strongest attack. "WE'LL END IT! BURN, BURN TO ASHES!" the Eggmen yelled. Time Eater charged up a giant fireball and fired it at the Sonics. It was so big that they both knew it was unavoidable. Even if they wanted to dodge the attack, they didn't want to chance this attack hitting their friends, so instead, the two hedgehogs charged at the fireball without any concerns for themselves. Seeing this, some of Sonic's friends covered their eyes, not wanting to see what could happen to them, but the ones who didn't close their eyes were hopeful to see them come out on top. As they charged at the fireball, both Sonic and Classic Sonic looked at each other with confidence and grabbed each other's hands. They spun into the fireball with great speed and power, cutting through the attack. The group sees the fireball dissipate from both Sonics ripping right through it and as they tore through the fireball, they saw that they had aimed their sights on the core itself. "NOW GO FOR IT!" Everyone shouted, seeing that the Sonics had the battle wrapped up. With their combined powers, the Sonics sustained no damage from the fireball, and they crashed through the core at full force, shattering it into pieces. Time Eater exploded once the Sonics destroyed the core, and nothing was heard from the Eggmen with the battle reaching its conclusion. Once the explosion subsided, Sonic found himself back at the park. He saw his chili dog that was blown away earlier, falling from the sky. He caught it in midair and started eating it again. "Still warm. Heheheh. Time Travel," he said to himself in satisfaction. Sonic then saw his younger self run up to the picnic table, a little confused about why he was there, but he didn't complain as they both saw all their friends appear in front of them. Everyone cheered for joy, seeing that Sonic once again saved the day. Amy stared dreamily at him with her hands clasped. "I'll admit, you weren't half bad, Sonic," said Knuckles. "Half bad? Are you kidding?" Amy shouts and pushes Knuckles into a nearby tree. "He was all great!" Amy concludes and goes back to admiring Sonic after pushing Knuckles into the tree. Knuckles slid to the ground after hitting the tree hard. Classic Sonic looked at his future self in amazement from the scene, seeing that he has someone in the future admiring him. Modern Sonic scratched the left side of his head and looked away with a slight blush. Classic and Modern Sonic turned over to see Classic and Modern Tails talking to each other. "He collects how many? Wow! Where does somebody put all those gold rings?" questioned Classic Tails. "You know what? I don't know, I keep forgetting to ask," Modern Tails responded. Everyone continued celebrating at the party, they enjoyed themselves with short conversations and ate more cake and chili dogs, all except for Classic and Modern Sonic, who were talking with each other. "It was great teaming up with you. Hope you learned a few tricks that'll help you out in the future," Sonic said with a smile. "I mean the past. You know what I mean!" Sonic concluded in annoyance from the whole "Time Paradox" thing. Classic Sonic nodded in understanding and pointed his two thumbs at himself, saying "I got this." He then ran and jumped in the air and attempted to do the boost but couldn't get it down right away. He tried to keep himself from falling by trying to grab the air, but he fell and hit head-first on the ground. Modern Sonic then clapped his hands and cheered his younger self up. "Dude, sweet! And you're only going to get better," said Sonic in excitement, knowing he'll get it down someday. Classic Sonic scratched the right side of his head with his facial expression reading, "You think so?" Classic and Modern Tails ran up to the Sonics. "There's our ride," said Classic Tails while pointing at a nearby portal. The portal that was seen, led to the Green Hill area. Classic Sonic looked at Classic Tails and nodded in agreement silently saying, "Let's move out." Modern Sonic gave his younger self a high five, while Classic Tails gave his older self a double high five. They both went to the portal to leave. "Hey, Sonic! Enjoy your future. It's going to be great!" yelled Sonic. Classic Sonic looked back with a grin and gave a thumbs up with his facial expression saying, "You know it!" Both Classic Sonic and Classic Tails went through the portal, and it disappeared before Modern Sonic and the gang. Everyone waved goodbye and Sonic stood there with a smile, knowing his younger self will live a great life leading up to how he is today. Unbeknownst to everyone, Time Eater had survived the explosion and was slowly regaining its strength. "I'll get you Sonic! I SWEAR IT!" Chapter End > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a nice and peaceful day in Equestria. Cheerilee had taken her class to the Canterlot Sculpture Garden for a field trip. She showed her class all the known statues in the garden and told them what they each represented. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, which consisted of a yellow earth pony with a red mane and tail and a big red ribbon in her mane, in Apple Bloom, a white unicorn with a purple and pink mane and tail, in Sweetie Belle, and a light orange pegasus with a reddish-pink mane and tail, in Scootaloo, had gotten into a couple of arguments with each other after they had seen a few of the statues and wondered how cool it would be to have one of them as a cutie mark, something they were each lacking. Seeing that they were distracted, Cheerilee called them over to view another statue in the garden. The statue that she wanted them to see was said to be a draconequus. The creature’s head was horse-like, he had a deer antler on the right side of his head, and a goat horn on the left side of his head. He also had one long fang, a snake tongue, and a goat beard. His body had a lion’s right arm, an eagle’s claw for his left arm, a lizard's right leg, and a goat's left leg. The creature had mixed wings, the right wing was a bat, while the left wing was a pegasus, with a snake's tail to accompany his serpent/dragon-like body. Cheerilee asks the class what the statue represents, with Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom each giving their answers of confusion, evil, and chaos, respectively. They immediately fought with each other after giving their different interpretations of what the statue represented. While they were fighting over who was right, the statue had a faint purple glow on its chest, something none of the present ponies noticed. Cheerilee broke up the fight after telling the Cutie Mark Crusaders that they were each right with what they were arguing over. As she summed it up, the creature was known as Discord, he was a spirit of Chaos, Disharmony, and everything related to negative feelings of harmony. Cheerilee assigned each of the CMCs a task of detailing how they knew what disharmony was since they displayed it so well. It was something none of them were too thrilled about and it earned a laugh from the rest of their class at their misfortune. While Cheerilee was taking the class of fillies to another part of the garden. The Cutie Mark Crusaders trailed behind and continued to argue with each other about what Discord represents. Unbeknownst to them, the Discord statue started cracking, and an evil chuckle followed afterward. Everything seemed normal around the town of Ponyville; Rainbow Dash had been clearing the sky flying around and making sure that everything was clear. While she was flying, a pink cloud zoomed past her, making her spin, and become dizzy in the process. After regaining her composure, Rainbow Dash chased down the pink cloud, and caught it, however, she got stuck in it and was left confused by what type of cloud could be sticky. She tasted it and it tasted like cotton candy, leaving her more confused than before. Multiple cotton candy clouds started flying past her in different directions. One cloud hung over her head and started downpouring chocolate milk on her, causing Rainbow Dash great frustration at the unscheduled rain. The clouds started spreading through the town and were moving to Sweet Apple Acres, home to the Apple family. Seeing this weird weather, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were concerned since the pegasi had control over the weather, and rain was not a part of it for the day. Rainbow Dash left and attempted to stop the strange weather herself, the chocolate rain, however, started having its effect on the food. All the corn was beginning to pop and became popcorn, which the pink earth pony Pinkie Pie was swimming through. Pinkie was enjoying herself with what was going on and drank the chocolate rain while it was downpouring. Arriving in her rainy weather outfit, the white unicorn Rarity, attempted to calm Applejack down and offered to help in any way possible, unfortunately, due to what was going on, her idea of helping was to not get herself dirty. The apples suddenly grew immensely and bent the apple trees they were on. The squirrels were seen eating the super-sized apples, something that Applejack was not fond of, and she yells for Fluttershy to get the animals under control. Fluttershy’s rabbit Angel also joined the squirrels and was eating the apples. The yellow pegasus Fluttershy tried to convince Angel to stop eating the apple, but in that instant, Angel’s legs grew to the size of a deer. Other rabbits were seen having the same transformation after they ate the apples, and they started running through the fields in their newly stilted states. Twilight Sparkle, a lavender-colored unicorn, and her assistant Spike, a purple baby dragon with green scales, arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, hoping that they could fix the problem. Twilight skimmed through a page in a book she brought with her and found a spell she believed was going to fix everything. She charged up her horn and fired a stream of magic across Sweet Apple Acres, enveloping everything in its bright purple light. After the flash subsided, Twilight was shocked to see that her fail-safe spell had failed. Spike thought they should give up after Twilight’s spell did not work, Twilight glared at him in annoyance, not wanting to quit so easily. Rarity gave Twilight her umbrella and encouraged her to think of another plan to stop the madness at Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight thought for a moment and instantly produced a new plan. Twilight had Rainbow Dash collect all the cotton candy clouds and placed them together in one area. She then instructed Applejack to use her lasso to tie up the clouds and keep them grounded as a singular cotton candy cloud. After Rainbow Dash corralled the clouds into one area, Applejack lassoed the clouds into one cotton candy cloud and brought it down to the ground, leaving Pinkie Pie upset over the chocolate rain stoppage she was enjoying. After collecting all the clouds, Twilight instructs Fluttershy to bait the animals from eating the giant apples and have them devour the cotton candy clouds instead. Satisfied with her plan working, Twilight informs Spike, “As long as you work together with friends, giving up should never be an option.” Spike took the statement to heart, but before saying anything, he burps up his green fire, revealing a scroll from Princess Celestia. Twilight read the scroll and she was shocked to see it was an urgent message requesting Twilight and her friends to come to Canterlot. Princess Celestia paced back and forth in her palace, waiting as patiently as she could for Twilight and her friends to arrive. Upon their arrival, Celestia started explaining what was going on in Equestria while walking through the castle, painting a picture of past events to the Mane Six with stained glass windows. Celestia had said that the reason for the animals' misbehavior, the chocolate rain, and Twilight’s magic not working were all from an old foe she had believed she defeated years ago, Discord. Discord, as Celestia described him, was a mischievous spirit of Disharmony. Before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna’s time, Discord had ruled Equestria with unrest and unhappiness. With all the chaos Discord had, he made life miserable for earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi alike. Not wanting to stand by any further with Discord’s torture, both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna discovered the Elements of Harmony and used their combined power to seal Discord in his stony imprisonment as seen in the Canterlot Gardens. Unfortunately, after the events of Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon, they lost their connection to the Elements of Harmony when Celestia used them to seal Nightmare Moon into the moon itself for one thousand years. After the events of Nightmare Moon had passed, the spell placed on Discord was now broken, and he was set free from his imprisonment. Celestia led Twilight and her friends to Canterlot Tower, in it lay the Elements of Harmony that were last used on Nightmare Moon. Due to Twilight and her friends using the Elements of Harmony to their full potential, Celestia and Luna can no longer use them as they formerly had and because of this, Celestia wanted them to wield the elements once again to put a stop to Discord before his chaos spreads through Equestria and to prevent his chaotic rein over the ponies once again. Twilight and her friends accepted the task at hand, Pinkie, however, wanted to overlook the eternal chaos in favor of the chocolate rain, something Twilight was quick to dismiss to Celestia. Celestia put her horn into the lock of the chamber, she then used her magic to unlock and open the door. She pulled out a case that contained the elements and opened it to the ponies. Upon opening it, however, everyone was shocked to see that the elements were not inside. Celestia was left wondering what had happened to the elements, claiming that because of the powerful spell protecting the door, she was the only one that could open it. After a few moments, laughter was heard in the castle, Celestia stopped in her tracks and looked around the castle in anger, knowing who the laughter belonged to. Discord taunted Celestia and the Mane Six, echoing his voice throughout the castle. He then revealed himself on one of the stained-glass windows that he was on, and animated himself going from one stained-glass window to another. Celestia questioned Discord about what he did with the Elements of Harmony; he responded by saying he is “borrowing” them for the time being and made the Elements of Harmony disappear on the stained-glass window he was on. “You’ll never get away with this Discord!” Celestia declares in anger. “Oh, I’ve forgotten how grim you can be, Celestia. It’s really quite boring,” Discord nonchalantly states, earning glares from everypony. “Hey! Nopony insults the princess!” yelled Rainbow Dash. She flies at the stained-glass window that Discord was on. However, he disappeared before she got to the window, having her crash face-first into nothing. Discord then reappeared on the same stained-glass window, bigger than he was a while ago. “Oh, you must be Rainbow Dash, famed for her loyalty, the element of harmony you represent.” Discord stated. “That’s right! I’ll always be loyal to the princess!” declared Rainbow Dash. Discord disappeared from the stained-glass window he was on in a flash. “We’ll see about that,” he said in a challenging tone. “I can’t believe you're wasting our time talking to a tacky window,” said Rarity in disbelief at what she was seeing. Discord reappeared on the stained-glass window behind her and said, “The beautiful Rarity, representing the element of generosity, if I’m not mistaken.” Applejack walks up to the window Discord was currently on. “So, you know who we are, big deal,” Applejack concluded unimpressed. Discord grew taller on the window and continued his knowledge of the ponies and said, “Oh, I know much more than that, honest Applejack.” “You seem to know our strengths too,” stated Twilight. Discord teleported and reappeared on a different window that had the mane six on it. He had shrunk himself to fit on the window. “Yes, Twilight Sparkle, and yours is the most powerful and the most elusive element, magic. Fluttershy’s is kindness and Pinkie Pie’s is a personal favorite of mine, laughter.” Pinkie snickered after Discord’s statement, causing Twilight to turn her head in Pinkie’s direction after hearing her. “Pinkie!” she shouted in annoyance. “Ha-ha-ha! He’s standing on your head!” Discord, as said, was on Twilight’s head on the stained-glass window and was dancing in place on it, making Pinkie laugh even more. Getting tired of Discord’s antics, Celestia got back on topic with Discord taking the Elements of Harmony. “Stop stalling Discord! What have you done with the elements of harmony!?” she demanded. Discord stopped his dancing and was un-amused by her behavior. “Oh, so boring Celestia, really. Fine, I’ll tell you, but I’ll only tell you my way,” he said before disappearing from the stained-glass window and reappearing again in the other windows. “To retrieve your missing elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the elements back where you began,” he concluded his riddle with a chuckle, leaving the ponies alone to try and solve the riddle. “Can we go home now?” asked the worried Fluttershy once she and Applejack walked up to Twilight. “What do you reckon he meant?” questioned Applejack, “Twists and turns and then back where we started?” Twilight walked to the window thinking about what Discord’s riddle meant. “Twists and turns. Twists and turns,” she said to herself in deep thought focusing on that part alone. After arriving at one of the windows, she looked out and an idea hit Twilight at that very moment. “Twists and turns! That’s it! I bet Discord hid the elements in the palace labyrinth!” she said in excitement. Princess Celestia nodded in agreement to Twilight’s answer, thankful that the knowledge of the element’s whereabouts had been found. “Good luck my little ponies! The fate of Equestria is in your hooves,” said Celestia. “Thanks, princess, we won't let you down,” Twilight said with confidence, and with that, the mane six rushed out of the palace and headed to the labyrinth. They arrived at the labyrinth and were about to enter, but Fluttershy started feeling scared of the idea of entering the labyrinth. Rainbow Dash assured her and the rest of the ponies that she will do a quick fly over the labyrinth to get the elements, when suddenly, her wings vanished, and she fell to the ground. Rainbow Dash was shocked to see that her wings disappeared. Shortly after, the same thing happened to Fluttershy’s wings, equally shocking her. Both Twilight’s and Rarity’s horns vanished afterward. “Your horn! My Horn! Aggghhh!!!” they said in unison. A bright ball of light appeared before the ponies, and in a flash, Discord revealed himself laughing at the pony’s misfortunes. “You should see the looks on your faces! Priceless,” he said in amusement. “Give us our wings and horns back!” demanded Twilight. “You’ll get them back in good time,” he said before teleporting to Applejack. “I simply took them to ensure there’s no cheating. You see this is the first rule of our game: No flying, and no magic,” he finished after running his lion finger down Twilight’s chin, causing her great discomfort. “The first rule?” asked Rainbow Dash. “The second rule is: Everypony has to play, or the game is over, and I win. Good luck everypony!” He concluded in laughter and suddenly disappeared, leaving the ponies scared. “Never fear girls! We have each other.” Twilight assured her friends. After calming down herself, Rainbow Dash helped her and said, “Yeah, like Twilight said. There’s nothing we can’t overcome if we all stick together.” “All right, girls let's do this!” Twilight chimed. “Together!” they said in unison after taking their first step into the maze. Suddenly, multiple hedges sprouted out of the ground and separated the ponies from one another, causing them to panic from the separation. Twilight yells over the hedges, “Stay calm girls! Everypony head to the middle as fast as you can, and we’ll regroup there!” After everyone’s approval, they started running through the maze to meet up in the middle as Twilight instructed. The challenge proved to be tough for the ponies. One by one, Discord worked his magic on the ponies, using each of their cutie mark symbols to lure them into his traps designed with intention. He started with Applejack, puppeteering three piles of apples, claiming that they can show her the future, which would be nothing but the truth. Upon seeing the vision in a puddle, it revealed the future of her friendship with the rest of the group ending because of this mission. After seeing the “vision” of the Mane Six’s friendship ending, Applejack was tricked into believing that lies are easier to take than the truth, and with this belief set in her mind, her coat and mane fade into light grayish color. Shortly after Discord’s trickery, Twilight happily finds Applejack, thrilled to find one of her friends in the maze. Before finding her, she says that she thought she heard Applejack talking to somepony, but upon asking her this, Twilight takes notice of Applejack lying to her about talking to no one. Twilight was confused by this, but she ultimately dismisses the thought, knowing that Applejack was no liar. Pinkie Pie was the next victim to encounter Discord’s tricks. Pinkie saw a balloon party and was instantly happy. Seeing all the different balloons with faces, she appreciated a fun party, until one of the balloon strings wrapped around one of her legs and made her trip and fall into a puddle of mud. After being put through this embarrassing moment, she was laughed at by the balloons and she questioned why it was so funny. Discord revealed himself to Pinkie and questioned why she wasn’t enjoying the laughter, to which she says that being laughed at and having a good laugh are two different things. He says, “It’s hardly different.” He merged his head with a balloon and continued saying, “Your friends laugh at you all the time.” Pinkie was quick to dismiss this thought and says, “My friends laugh with me, not at me.” He tauntingly says, “Oh really?” He started circling the pony as a balloon, laughing at her, making her question her friend’s intentions of laughter and pleading for the laughing to stop. He then changed the nearby balloons with drawn faces and turned them into her friends' faces. These newly replaced faces started laughing at Pinkie, making her feel more disheartened from being laughed at. Like Applejack, she also had a grayish color to her coat and lost her personality, no longer finding happiness through laughter. Both Twilight and Applejack find Pinkie after the balloons popped, including the ones covering the entrance. Like with Applejack, Twilight was happy to see Pinkie yet, she quickly took notice of her upset behavior as she gave Twilight a snide remark about needing a good laugh. Growing more concerned for her friends, she tells herself that she needs to pick up the pace at finding her friends, believing that the stress of the situation is getting to them, but unknown to her, it was Discord who was solely responsible for their changes. He was ready to mess with his next target. Rarity was next in line for Discord to toy with. After making her complaint about wanting an audience with Princess Celestia instead of doing the “outdoor sport” involving the maze, Rarity bumped into a rock wall that had three diamonds embedded in it, making Rarity swoon over their beautiful glow. Within the diamonds in the wall, Discord works his persuasion on Rarity, knowing full well that she values gems, including ones that shine bright enough to keep her attention due to their beautiful perfection. She tried her best to resist the gems, but greed got the best of her, and she started digging them out of the rock wall with her bare hooves, turning her white coat and purple mane into a grayish color as well. After digging the wall out, the three gems ended up being a giant diamond that she admired upon seeing it and wanted to take it home with her; but unknown to her, the diamond in question was a giant boulder instead. The wall that held onto this “diamond” collapsed and Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie were on the other side. Twilight was happy to see Rarity, but she was confused seeing her carry the boulder on her back. She questioned Rarity about it, but she proclaimed that it was a giant diamond, and she threatened her friends to not come near it, declaring that it was her since she found it. Twilight was at a loss for words seeing three of her friends acting very weird, but she pressed on, hoping to find Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash soon. Fluttershy was next and the poor pegasus was not only lost but scared as well. She was seen hiding in the hedges, trying to navigate the maze, yet due to the separation from her friends, she felt alone and anxious. She attempted to talk herself into moving forward but was startled by three butterflies and she instinctively jumped back into the hedges to hide. She instantly calmed down as she realized that it was only butterflies and she chased after them, hoping that they could help her get out of the maze. After getting to a specific spot in the maze, the three butterflies appeared and started talking to her, but unbeknownst to Fluttershy, Discord disguised himself as the three butterflies and was attempting to make Fluttershy angry. Each one of his attempts was him telling her that she was intentionally left behind by her friends, he also tells her that they see her as a weak and helpless pony, and he also tells her that they always point out her flaws, and that deep down, she must be bothered by it. Fluttershy, the ever-kind-hearted pony she is, didn’t fall for any of the tricks at all, rebuking his claims with no malice towards her friends, accepting the flaws that she has, and being very thankful that her friends accept her for who she is. This caused Discord great frustration over the fact that he wasn’t breaking Fluttershy, and he decided to corrupt her himself. After ditching the butterfly disguise, he forced her to become a cold-hearted pony with a simple touch from his eagle claw on her head, making her coat and mane fade into a grayish color and he disappeared in a frustrated flash. One of the wall hedges collapsed and revealed Twilight and the others on the other side. She was instantly happy seeing Fluttershy and ran to meet her, feeling that with Fluttershy found, things would feel a little bit normal after the others started behaving differently. “Aw, boo, hoo, hoo!” Fluttershy cold-heartedly said to Twilight, catching her off guard from this instantly. “Why don’t you wave your magic little horn and make everything all right?!” Twilight was at a loss for words from the cold question, but before she could say anything, Fluttershy continued and said, “Oh that’s right, you can’t! You don’t have one.” Fluttershy ended her sassy remark with the tip of her tail snapping in front of Twilight’s face. Twilight was not only hurt by this, but she started questioning what was going on with her fading friends as things were starting to get out of hand. Rainbow Dash was the last pony that Discord would mess with. He lured her into his trap with a cloud emitting rainbow lightning. Rainbow Dash chased the cloud down and spotted Discord resting on a cloud-like hammock between two apple trees. After seeing him, Rainbow Dash took a fighting stance, challenging him, and was ready for a fight, but Discord had other plans for Rainbow Dash, giving her a “message” regarding her home, Cloudsdale. He says to her, “A weighty choice is yours to make: the right selection or a big mistake. If a wrong choice you choose to pursue, the foundations of home will crumble without you.” This riddle catches her attention as he mentioned her home to her. He then snapped his fingers, and pulled up the cloud Rainbow Dash was chasing earlier, it spun in place revealing a vision that Cloudsdale would crumble without her presence, causing great shock to the pegasus. Discord next presents a gift box to Rainbow Dash; he tells her that her wings are in it and leaves her with two choices: She could either take the wings and leave the game or she could continue to wander aimlessly in the maze. Back to Twilight and the others, she was seen carrying the boulder by herself helping Rarity, despite the selfish nature Rarity has taken. The treachery in the maze was becoming a bother to her, but she still held onto hope. She felt that once they found Rainbow Dash, things would be better, believing she would not let them down. After declaring the power of friendship, Applejack said that Rainbow Dash was flying away and chose to abandon them. Twilight, not believing her statement, until she glimpses into the sky and sees her flying away herself, and she also sees Rainbow Dash had turned grey like the others. When Rainbow Dash was out of sight, storm clouds gathered over the maze, and it suddenly disappeared causing a dust storm. It was at this exact moment Discord revealed himself after the dust settled from the maze’s disappearance. “Well, well, well. Somepony broke the “no wings, no magic” rule.” Discord said in a fake upset tone. He then snapped his finger and restored the horns and wings for Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy, respectively. “Game’s over my little ponies. You didn’t find your precious elements,” he simply stated. He then pulled out an umbrella and opened it in an inverted fashion while stating, “Looks like we might be due for a big old storm of chaos.” Discord laughs in victory while leaving Twilight in shock from the turn of events. > Chapter 2.5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discord continued his laughter at the mischief he had caused. He laughed so hard he went from laughing on his feet to laughing on his back. Twilight was left scared and speechless over the idea of failing to stop Discord from spreading his chaos. Feeling as if she was being laughed at, Pinkie asks, “And what are you laughing at?!” After the outburst, Discord settled down from his laughter and wiped a tear from his mismatched eyes. “Ho, you ponies are just the most fun I’ve had in EONS,” he said in amusement while rubbing his eagle claw over his lion paw. After hearing his statement, Pinkie got in his face, surprising him in the process, and yelled, “Well, quit it! You’d better think before you laugh at the Pink…ie Pie!” After she finished yelling at Discord, she glared at him, while he smiled back at her, trying not to laugh. Taking Pinkie’s words as a challenge, Fluttershy simply said, “Oh yeah? Well ha, ha.” After hearing her fake laugh, Pinkie’s attention was shifted from Discord to Fluttershy and she yelled, “Quit it!” Not taking her seriously, Fluttershy said, “No. Ha, ha.” Pinkie, wanting the mocking laughter to stop, yelled, “QUIT IT!!” Fluttershy continued teasing Pinkie and said, “No. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.” Applejack approached Rarity and tried to trick her into giving up part of her “diamond.” She responded to her request with a karate kick to Applejack’s face. Rarity lunged at her, continuing her assault, while Applejack backed away from her, avoiding her kicks. Shocked from seeing how her friends were acting, Twilight tried to talk some sense into them and said, “Girls, why are you all acting like this? We need to stick together.” Her plea fell on deaf ears after seeing that they continued their fights and weren’t paying attention to her words. She heard laughter and turned to see that it was from Discord. He was sitting on a three-seat cushion with popcorn at his side. “It’s just too entertaining,” he said, enjoying the scene before him as if it were a movie, nonchalantly eating the popcorn. Twilight walked up to the draconequus and said, “Stop it Discord! You’re not playing fair!” A bit surprised by what he heard, Discord said, “I’m not playing fair? Perhaps we haven’t met. I’m Discord. Spirit of chaos and disharmony. Hello-o-o-o.” Feeling as though his actions were still not necessary, Twilight demanded an answer and said, “How are we supposed to find the Elements of Harmony, when you took away the labyrinth before we could get to the end?” Discord looked at her with surprise after her accusation of taking the labyrinth away and said, “Oh, wait. Did you-? Ha-ha! How funny! You thought the elements were in the labyrinth?” He then used his powers to take both himself and Twilight to the recent event in the castle, replaying the last part of the riddle for her to hear a second time. Meanwhile, at the Center of Time, Time Eater sensed that someone had traveled through time. “What is this I sense?” it asked itself and saw the events that Discord teleported to. “Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the elements back where you began,” he said in the past, confusing the mare, while he had a sinister grin on his face. Time Eater, still weak from its fight with Sonic, chose not to interfere with what was going on. Out of curiosity, it opened a portal of its own and witnessed everything that had happened in Ponyville. From Cheerilee’s field trip to Discord’s escape from his stony prison, it led up to what he could do with his powers. “Hmm, I’d better keep my eyes on this draconequus for a while,” it said while thinking of a plan. Discord teleported himself and Twilight back to the present, and said to the still-confused pony, “I never said they were in the labyrinth.” Out of shock, all Twilight could say was, “But, but…” He walked away from her and said in a taunting tone, “Keep trying Twilight Sparkle…Maybe the magic of friendship can help you.” He rapidly changed his tone and jadedly finished his conversation by saying, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some chaos to wreak.” And with a snap Discord of his fingers, he teleported himself out of sight. After seeing a flash of lightning and hearing thunder over her head, Twilight saw the cotton candy clouds gather over the area the labyrinth once stood, and it started downpouring chocolate rain over the area. “Chocolate milk? I hate chocolate milk!” said an angry Pinkie Pie. Upset with Pinkie’s behavior, Twilight ignored her and said to herself, “Ugh! Think Twilight, think. Find the elements back where you began. Back where you began.” She was now thinking about the riddle on this note and tried her hardest to figure it out. While she was thinking, Rarity was carrying her “diamond” on her back and was attempting to take it away, but Applejack jumped on it, causing her to yell, “Don’t touch my gem!” Fluttershy then flew up to them, put her hoof on the rock, and said, “I’m touching your gem, Rarity. Ha, ha,” earning a glare from Rarity in the process. Hearing laughter again, Pinkie accusingly pointed her hoof at Fluttershy and yelled, “What ‘chu laughin’ at?!” Losing her patience with her friends, Twilight said, “Ugh, I just want to go home.” At that moment, realization struck her, and she said, “Wait a minute. Home! ‘Back where you began.’ The Elements must be in…Ponyville!” With the answer clear to her, she and the remaining ponies returned to Ponyville, however, the small town wasn’t the same. The cotton candy clouds made their way to Ponyville, and along with Discord’s chaotic influence, they were taking effect on the town. Mixed tiles were seen covering the grass around Ponyville, the river was contaminated with a mysterious pink substance and some of the homes and random trees were floating off the ground. Town Hall was also seen floating off the ground but was turned upside down, it was a weird sight to behold. Twilight started walking down the pathway to Ponyville, feeling confident and happy to have solved the riddle. While walking, Angel and the rest of the bunnies with long dear-like legs had trampled her in their path, earning praise from Fluttershy for this misbehavior. The sun immediately set on the ponies and the moon was raised in its place, giving the ponies a hard time seeing the path in front of them. After getting back on her hooves, Applejack said in sarcasm, “Wow, I can see so much better now!” She started walking on the pathway, but she started slipping and crashed into Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, stopping short of Twilight, who was trying to get back up. Applejack embarrassedly said, “I meant to do that.” After getting back on her hooves, Twilight tried to walk on the pathway but ended up slipping and falling instead. The sun suddenly rose, giving everypony a better chance to see the pathway which had been changed from a dirt path to a soap path. Discord skated on the soap with a grin and said, “Beautiful, isn’t it? This is the new and improved Ponyville, and these are only my first changes.” Pinkie started skating on the soap and said, “This may look like fun, but it's not.” Twilight groaned in frustration at Pinkie’s attitude. Discord then put his lion paw around Twilight and appeared by her side. He grew taller, lifted her, and said, “Picture it: The chaos capital of the world.” He then held her out, so she could get a “better view” of the new Ponyville, but the sun suddenly set once again, and she said, “I can’t picture anything. It’s too dark.” After hearing her remark, Discord dropped Twilight onto the soap path. “Well, wait a few minutes, and you’ll see it in the beautiful light of day… or not,” he said before disappearing from Twilight’s sight again. It took the ponies time, but they finally reached Twilight’s library home, as the sun rose once again. Twilight’s patience with Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity was wearing thin, their attitudes along the way had gotten worse by the time they arrived at her home. She was visibly tired as she pleaded with them to enter her home and hopefully find the Elements. Upon entering her home one by one, the gray hue their coats carried, had darkened on each of them. Rarity was the last one to enter, refusing to go inside without her ‘diamond’, Tom, thinking that Twilight and Spike would steal him without her knowing. Seeing that she wasn’t going to go in without Tom, Twilight begrudgingly carried the boulder on her back and led Rarity into her home. Spike had fallen asleep on the floor after he finished mopping, with the mop still in hand. Fluttershy grabbed the bucket with used mop water and dumped it on him. He woke up with a fright, shook the water off, and questioned Fluttershy on why she did such a thing after seeing the bucket still in her hooves. She simply responded, saying, “Because you looked so peaceful,” leaving the baby dragon confused by her response. Twilight entered the library by crashing Tom through the wall, to which Rarity tends to, worrying about her “diamond” getting scuffed up. Spike approached her and said, “Twilight, what’s going on? Why’s everybody look so gray?” Not wanting to answer his questions, she said, “Don’t ask. I need you to help me find something.” Still holding the bucket that still had water in it, Fluttershy asked, “Hey, Twilight, what’s soaking wet and clueless?” Not wanting to deal with her, Twilight said, “Fluttershy, I’ve had just about enough…” But before she could finish, she had water dumped on her. Fluttershy flew down to Twilight, and said, “Your face!” After finishing her derisive jest, she slammed the bucket on Twilight’s head. Feeling completely confused, Spike asked, “What’s happened to everypony?” Applejack walked past him and said, “I guess you just bring out the worst in us Spike.” Twilight walked up to one of the bookshelves and said, “Ugh, no time to explain. We’ve got to find the reference guide to the Elements of Harmony before somepony does something she’ll regret.” None of the ponies looked threatened or cared if Twilight was mad at them as she says this. Spike said, “The Elements of Harmony? Oh, I know exactly where that book is!” And with that, he dashed to one of the bookshelves and grabbed a brown book. After pulling the book from the shelf, he said, “Found it.” After his declaration, he was hit in the face by a scroll, and he lost his grip on the book. Fluttershy grabbed it, making Twilight angrier with her than she already was, demanding that she give her the book. Fluttershy then yelled, “Keep away,” and tossed the book to Applejack. Twilight got to her, but she tossed the book to Pinkie Pie, and she bounced it back to Fluttershy before Twilight got to her. Twilight tried to jump and snatch the book from Fluttershy, but she pulled the book away from her, and she tossed it back to Applejack, starting the pattern again. Twilight insists they stop, but they persist in ignoring her, bouncing the book to each other and away from Twilight. Before the pattern could go a third time, Spike tackled Fluttershy, making the book fall to the floor. Twilight was going to get the book, but before she could, Rarity stole it with her magic and ran off with it, yelling, “Mine!” Twilight then said, “Hey! Do you even know what you just stole?” She started to chase after Rarity to get the book back. Rarity yelled back, “No, but if you want it, I want it.” Twilight tried to tackle Rarity but ended up hitting the floor face-first instead. She gritted her teeth in frustration and yelled, “GIVE ME THAT BOOK!!!!” Rarity jumped on a round table, and kicked the wooden horse’s head off it, hoping to slow Twilight down, but she jumped over it and continued to chase her, determined to get the book back. Twilight was close to reaching Rarity, but before she could catch her, Fluttershy lifted Rarity off the floor, and Twilight ended up crashing into the boulder instead. Twilight shook off the pain and said, “Where is she? Where’s Rarity?” Applejack simply said, “Beats me.” This caused Twilight to go over the edge, and she yelled, “Lies!” She lunged at Applejack and Pinkie Pie and got into a fight with them. Rarity and Fluttershy were also caught up in the fight as the four ponies ganged up on Twilight, getting their hits in, and biting her, but she also managed to fight back and land hits on them too. Finally, Twilight jumped out of the fight, successfully recovering the book. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity tried to get to Twilight, wanting to steal the book again. Seeing them advancing toward her, Twilight held the book tightly, not wanting to lose it again, yelling, “Get back! All of you! This is my book, and I’m GONNA READ IT!” As she warned them to stay away, Spike joined her side and stood between them, holding one of the scrolls up to them like it was a weapon, standing guard for Twilight now that she has a chance to look into the book. Twilight opened the book, flipping through the pages with her magic and she found all six elements in the middle of the book. Overwhelmed with joy, she told the ponies about the elements, but none of them cared about what she had to say about the elements, friendship, or teamwork. Feeling sad after witnessing their rampant negatively, Twilight said, “I never thought it would happen. My friends… have turned into complete JERKS!” She takes the elements out of the book and puts them on the others one by one, saying, “Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! Necklace! And big crown thingy! Come on everypony, let’s go!” Twilight was practically stomping to the exit; her friends’ attitudes have gotten to her. Spike ran up to her side and said, “But Twilight, aren’t you missing somepony?” Still mad, she said, “Nope. We've got the liar, the grump, the hoarder, and the brute. That just about covers it.” Seeing that a pony was missing, Spike asked, “But what about Rainbow Dash?” After dealing with Discord and everyone’s bad behavior, Rainbow Dash had slipped Twilight’s mind. After thinking over the situation, she thought of a half-baked plan and said, “Congratulations Spike, you're the new Rainbow Dash. Now let's go!” She puts Rainbow Dash’s necklace on Spike and doesn’t want to deal with anything else at that moment as she dashes for the exit. Feeling worried about the situation he was put in, Spike frantically said, “Me?! But-but-but what if she finds out I’ve been impersonating her?” After saying this, he felt complete terror over the thought and said, “Oh, that won’t end well.” Not caring, Twilight said, “Too bad, you’re Rainbow Dash! Now let’s go defeat Discord, so we don’t ever have to talk to each other again!” After hearing this, the ponies charged out of the library with glee with the idea of no longer speaking to each other once Discord is defeated. Rarity tried to push Tom out but was still having trouble pushing it. Twilight came back and yelled, “MOVE!” She used her magic and threw Tom out of the library, creating another hole for the tree and nearly crushing Pinkie Pie with it. Discord arrived shortly after the incident and said, “Well, well, well, I see you’ve found the Elements of Harmony. How terrifying.” After seeing him, Twilight said, “Discord, I’ve figured out your lame riddle. You’re in for it now!” Discord landed on the ground and continued talking in a fake defeated tone, saying, “I certainly am. You’ve clearly outdueled me, and now it’s time to meet my fate.” Discord made a pair of sunglasses appear and he placed them on, ready for the eventual attack from the Elements of Harmony. He continued and said, “I’m prepared to be defeated now ladies, fire when ready.” He waved his eagle claw over his chest and a target appeared in the area. Not wanting to waste any time, Twilight yelled, “Formation, NOW!” The other ponies, unenthusiastically, walked up to her. Spike was hiding behind the boulder until Twilight called him over. She activated her tiara and started floating off the ground with the others, and for a moment, Discord was concerned that the attack was going to go through, but they fell to the ground, not being able to use the elements without Rainbow Dash. Twilight was confused by this, not realizing that not only were they missing Rainbow Dash, but the other ponies weren’t connected to their respective element in their corrupted state. Spike took off Rainbow Dash’s element and was going to go back to the library, but he was tripped by Fluttershy’s tail and was called Rainbow Dash’s trademark mockery nickname, “Rainbow Crash” by Fluttershy herself. Discord continued to mock the ponies after their failed attempt to stop him, declaring that harmony in Equestria is dead, and was seen skating off on the soap road, laughing at his victory. After the failed attempt, everypony went their separate ways, sick of being around each other, leaving Twilight alone as she says, “FINE! Leave! See if I care! I don’t need you guys either! With friends like you, who needs…enemies…?” After losing what was left of her hope and after losing her confidence, Twilight’s color drained and she was now gray like the others. After her coat changes to gray, she sheds a tear, and it splats into a broken heart on the tiled ground. Twilight walked through Ponyville with a cotton candy cloud following her and it rained down chocolate milk drenching her in its substance, matching her mood. Ponyville had fallen into more chaos with Discord free and unstoppable. He appeared next to Twilight and laughed in amusement at the chaos he was continuing to spread in Ponyville, enjoying every minute of it. He tries to get her attention, pointing to Berry Punch, who had a giant pepper shaker over her. It shook pepper on her, and she sneezed from it, in turn, the sneeze made the houses and trees around her fall flat on the ground, like cardboard. Discord thought the prank was priceless and kept laughing until he noticed Twilight’s mopey mood. Discord pulled a cotton candy cone and said, “Come now Twilight Sparkle. You’ve got to get into the spirit of things.” After taking the cotton candy cloud, he licked the treat and continued, “After all, this is your new home.” She looked at Ponyville, not satisfied with the condition it was in, and said, “Not anymore.” And with that, she walked back to the library. Seeing that he broke Twilight’s spirit, Discord yells, “YES!!” and laughed to himself, his victory complete. Time Eater watched everything Discord had done to the ponies and the chaos in Ponyville. Time Eater enjoyed everything that Discord was able to do and said, “Discord has some interesting abilities. Buffalo’s dancing in tutus, pie falling up to the sky, buildings turned upside down, I even liked how he can easily manipulate those ponies without even trying. Even if he’s just toying with them, I know this isn’t the full extent of what he can do.” Seeing what Discord is capable of, Time Eater started forming his plan for revenge. The sun had set once again as Twilight made her way back to the library. After entering, she started getting her things packed so she and Spike could move out of Ponyville. Spike groaned in pain after she told him to start packing. She didn’t know where she wanted to go, but the only thing that she knew was that she needed to get away from Ponyville. As she packed one of her bags, she took her tiara off and dropped it into the trash can. Still in pain, Spike said, “Can’t… move. The Princess… has been sending these… since I came back upstairs.” Spike burped up another scroll to go with the many others before Twilight’s arrival, and pleaded, “Make it stop.” After looking over one of the scrolls, Twilight noticed that they were the letters she had sent to Celestia ever since she started living in Ponyville. She questioned why she was sending the letters back to her but instead of discarding them, she started reading them one by one. After reading each of the many scrolls that she wrote to Celestia, Twilight rediscovered the meaning of friendship and regained her colors. From here, Twilight realized Discord’s full plan, despite what he says, Twilight now knows that Discord fears the friendship that she has with her friends and this scheme was doing just one thing, distracting them long enough to make it seem worthless. With a new sense of confidence, she left the library and searched for her friends, knowing what was needed to get her friends back on the side of harmony once again. One by one, Twilight got her friends back by using a memory spell to push all the past adventures they had been through back into their memories. Each of their colors had returned, and so had their personalities. Applejack apologized for lying after fearing the visions of their friendships ending, Fluttershy believed that all the things that had happened to her were part of a bad dream, Rarity took the boulder out of her boutique and said, “We must never speak of this again,” finding this embarrassing. Pinkie Pie laughed at the whole thing, seeing that her turning gray was one of the funniest things she ever heard or had happened to her. The ponies went to Rainbow’s cloud house to look for her, but after Fluttershy looked in the house, she declared that Rainbow Dash wasn’t there, thankfully she was spotted on a nearby cloud by Pinkie Pie. Twilight tried to convince her to join them to put a stop to Discord’s chaos, but Rainbow Dash declined and said that she will stay in Cloudsdale instead, which was only the small tuft of cloud she was on, not the big cloud city that they all knew. Seeing that she wasn’t going to listen to reason, Twilight came up with plan B. With the help of the hot air balloon, the new plan was to take her by force. Originally, Twilight was supposed to cast a simple memory spell, while Fluttershy held down a slumbering Rainbow Dash, unfortunately, Fluttershy’s good nature had her wake Rainbow Dash up and ask for permission to do so, something Twilight and the others were not very fond of; Pinkie looked on in confusion, Rarity rolled her eyes at Fluttershy’s action and Twilight had a facehoof moment with Fluttershy for this, wishing for her to be more aggressive at a time like this. This quickly turned from holding Rainbow Dash down and using the spell, to chasing her down as she flew away from them as fast as she could. With Fluttershy being the only pegasus among them, she needed to fly the balloon to catch up to her. Rainbow Dash attempted to make it harder for them as she flew in patterns to throw the girls off, but despite how fast she was, Applejack was able to lasso her, making it all the easier for them. Rarity and Pinkie Pie, unfortunately, ended up also getting lassoed, due to Pinkie not securing the ropes, but even in the situation they were put in, it still managed to slow Rainbow Dash down as it pulled her off the cloud she was on. Rarity yells at Fluttershy to fly faster in hopes of not falling to her doom, not too sure if the rope holding her and Pinkie Pie was going to last any longer. Fluttershy cries from knowing that she’s a weak flier and believes that she couldn’t go any faster, but with Twilight motivating her, Fluttershy flies faster and she catches up to Rainbow Dash in a short amount of time. With how close they had gotten, Twilight gave Applejack a second lasso and she managed to get it on Rainbow Das as well, stopping her in her tracks. With the second lasso secured, Twilight and her friends finally stopped Rainbow Dash from flying any further and brought the reluctant pegasus down to the ground. To keep her from flying, she was tied down by Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie, making it easier for Twilight to use the memory spell on her, despite her attempts to break free from the ropes. After casting the spell on her, Rainbow Dash’s colors returned, and she was left confused after she was back to normal. Worry suddenly struck her and she asked, “How’s Ponyville? Where are the Elements? Did we stop Discord?” The ponies shared a group hug, happy to see that Rainbow Dash was back on the side of harmony once again, however they stopped celebrating after they saw a few buffalo dance in tutus, realizing that this wasn’t a good time for a group hug just yet. Back in Ponyville, Discord had made himself a throne on top of a tiled hill, enjoying the moment of his reign over the new Ponyville. Some of the homes were replaced with a giant house of cards, the rabbits ran through the area once again, and the pies that floated earlier started falling from the sky. He made a glass appear in his Eagle claw and filled it with chocolate milk and happily said, “Chaos is a wonderful, wonderful thing.” He was about to drink his chocolate milk, when a familiar voice said, “Not as wonderful as... friendship!” The voice caught him by surprise, and he saw Twilight and her friends wearing the elements, and they were prepared for another attempt to stop Discord. “Oh, this again,” he flatly said, not taking them seriously. He drank the glass, tossed the chocolate milk over his shoulder, and it exploded on whatever it hit. “That’s right. You couldn’t break apart our friendship for long,” said Applejack. Discord raised his lion paw and used his magic to pull Applejack toward him and said, “Oh, Applejack. Don’t lie to me. I’m the one who made you a liar.” He then raised his eagle claw and started pulling the rest of the element bearers one by one with his magic. They tried to break free from his magic but struggled in the process. “Will you ever learn?” he questioned. Not wanting him to harm her friends, or corrupt them a second time, Twilight teleported herself to the ponies and used her magic to create a magical barrier around them. She brought them back to the ground, while Discord was left surprised by the move. The barrier covered part of the tile ground and destroyed part of it, revealing grass underneath it once again. After the barrier disappeared, and her friends were free from his magic, Twilight said, “I’ll tell you what we learned Discord. We’ve learned that friendship isn’t always easy. But there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for.” As she said this, her friends stood their ground and displayed the same confidence Twilight had. Finding this too cheesy for his liking, Discord said, “Ugh, gag! Fine go ahead and try to use your elements, frenemies, just make it quick.” He teleports back to his throne and says, “I’m missing some excellent chaos here.” Feeling confident, Twilight said, “All right, ladies, let's show him what friendship can do!” The moment was however ruined when Pinkie said, “Wait-wait-wait!” She was seen under one of the cotton candy clouds, drinking the chocolate rain one last time. After she finished drinking the chocolate rain, she joined her friends and was ready to use the Elements of Harmony with them. After all the ponies were present, Twilight activated her tiara, and a glow surrounded the element bearers. Discord yawned, unamused with the ponies, believing that they would fail once again. Each of the elements lit up and fired their energies at him, and caught his attention as he said in confusion, “What’s this?” Seeing the energies himself, Discord grew concerned and said in disbelief, “No.” Twilight re-opened her eyes, and they glowed like before but this time, along with her friends’ eyes glowing, the elements released a powerful rainbow energy at Discord. The rainbow hit him on target, and he yells, “NOOO!!!” His body started turning back into stone from the tip of his tail to the top of his horns. He desperately tries to move during this moment, but he was unable to do anything to stop this as he was now fully encased in stone once again. The rainbow then covered Ponyville, and encased it in a magical dome, restoring the town to the way it was before Discord’s influence. Twilight and her friends went back to Canterlot for a special ceremony that Princess Celestia arranged for Discord’s defeat, inviting everypony in Canterlot and Ponyville to the event. She announced to everypony, “We are gathered here today, to once again honor the heroism of these six friends who stood up to the villain Discord and saved Equestria from eternal chaos!” All the ponies in the castle cheered for Twilight and her friends as Celestia unveiled a new stained-glass window, showing the mane six defeating Discord, emitting more cheers in celebration of this great victory. 6 months later After Discord’s defeat, peace was maintained in Ponyville, and everypony in Equestria couldn’t have been any happier. Under Princess Celestia’s orders, Discord’s statue was returned to the Statue Garden in Canterlot, and the Royal Guards heavily guarded it, making sure he won’t be able to break out again. But the moment they left the area to switch out guards, a portal opened, revealing a dark figure. The figure approached the statue and covered it with a dark sphere. The dark figure pulled the orb away from the statue, leaving it intact, and another portal opened. The figure enters the portal with the orb and disappeared, leaving no trace of suspicion after the guard’s shift change. The portal was sent to the Center of Time, revealing the figure to be…Time Eater. Discord felt lost after the dark sphere disintegrated around him. He first stretched himself, finding the position he was trapped in very uncomfortable, earning some pops as he loosened up. “How long was I stuck like that?” he asked aloud. “Six months,” said an unknown voice. Not expecting someone to respond, Discord opened his eyes and realized that he was no longer in Ponyville. He frantically looked at his surroundings and said, “Who? What? Where?” Wanting to get to the point, and to have Discord stop his babbling, Time Eater got his attention by yelling “Enough!” Discord stopped looking around after being yelled at in his head. He felt a presence behind him, and he turned to look at the dark figure in question. “Who, or what are you?” he asked. Feeling satisfied with getting his attention, the creature introduces himself by saying, “I am Time Eater. What you see with me is a being that can control time and space.” It then opened a portal and showed Discord the events that happened between him and the ponies. “I can even bend reality, like busting you out of your stony prison without destroying the statue.” Discord looked himself over and was satisfied to see that none of his mismatched limbs were missing. He says to the creature, “Normally, no one wants me for anything unless they want me to do something for them. So, what is it that you want from me?” Time Eater then proposed its request and said,“I want your assistance for revenge on a blue hedgehog that I need to settle a score with.” It then clutched its hands into fists in anger remembering the events it was put through by Sonic. Discord looked unamused by the request and simply said, “Not interested.” He finished his statement while waving his eagle claw at Time Eater and started walking away. Time Eater continued explaining its plan of revenge and said, “My revenge also has those ponies you got your butt handed to in it as well.” Discord stopped in his tracks at the mention of “ponies” and was now interested in the plan. He scratched his chin in curiosity and said, “Keep talking.” Time Eater opened a portal that revealed seven gems, adding more interest to Discord. It then said, “These seven gems, are known as the Chaos Emeralds. They contain a massive amount of power.” Discord then asked, “How much power?” “So much power, not even you could comprehend it,” Was all Time Eater had to say. Discord stared at the flashback in awe. Time Eater continued explaining the emeralds' use and said,“These emeralds can increase the user’s strength, speed, and every known ability ten-fold. Any one of the seven chaos emeralds possesses great power on its own, but if you get all seven of them, you will be unstoppable. Not even the Elements of Harmony can touch you.” Discord laughed evilly after hearing the lore. “Time Eater, you got yourself a partner,” he said excitedly and extended his lion paw. Time Eater grabs the paw, shakes it, and says, “In a way, I knew I could trust you.” Wanting to waste no time, Discord asked, “So, where are these Chaos Emeralds supposed to be exactly?” Time Eater tore open another portal, and it revealed Sonic and said, “This is the hedgehog I mentioned earlier.His name is Sonic. He has been known to have the Chaos Emeralds when they are needed the most. I need you to catch him and bring me those emeralds!” Discord in complete disbelief said, “Him?” He then started laughing at what he saw, thinking that it was a joke. After settling down from his laughter, he asked, “You’re kidding right?” Time Eater yelled, “This is not a joke!” After being yelled at, Discord’s smile was wiped from his face and he listened to what Time Eater had to say. “That hedgehog is a lot stronger than he looks. Underestimate him, and it will be costly.” Discord, still not sold on what it said about the hedgehog, nonchalantly said, “Whatever you say, I’ll get your hedgehog for you.” And with that, Discord jumped into the portal, on his way to get Sonic. Sonic was running along a beach, with no plans for him to go. He was just enjoying his freedom and his much-needed vacation time away from Dr. Eggman’s plans of world domination. Discord came out of the portal and spotted Sonic running. “This is Sonic? Wow, with how fast he’s running, I’d say he’s about as fast as Rainbow Dash,” he thought to himself after seeing the hedgehog running. After thinking for a few moments, Discord came up with a plan and had a sly grin on his face. While Sonic was running, he felt a raindrop hit his nose. After feeling it, he immediately stopped in his tracks and looked up to the sky to see that the clouds were pink. Questioning what he saw, Sonic turned his head to the side and saw that it was still too early for sunset. “Ok… what’s going on here?” he asked aloud and shrugged. Another drop fell, and it hit his open hand. Sonic looked at it and saw that the raindrop was brown. He was confused by it and inspected it. After tasting it, he was shocked at what he tasted. “Chocolate milk? This is just getting stranger by the minute,” he said. Sonic was about to start running again, but he slipped and fell flat on his face. To his surprise, the sand on the beach had turned into ice. He then heard hysterical laughter and saw a mismatched creature on its back laughing at him. Sonic got annoyed with the mysterious creature’s laughter and said, “Okay pal, what’s so funny?!” Discord wiped his misshapen eyes after settling down from his laughter and said, “Just seeing the look on anyone’s face after I surprise them is always funny to me. As for who I am, I’m Discord. I’m the spirit of chaos and disharmony. I tend to have a lot of fun with my abilities to mess with reality.” Sonic wobbly got back on his feet and said, “So, I’m guessing that you’re the one who turned the sand on this beach into ice.” “Well, someone’s a fast learner,” he said with a smirk. Wanting to get right to the point, Discord said, “I’m mainly here for the Chaos Emeralds. So, if you don’t mind, I’ll be taking them.” Sonic almost slipped in surprise after hearing what he said. “Okay, how does this Discord guy know about the emeralds?” Sonic thought to himself. “How do you know about the Chaos Emeralds?” he asked. “I was released from my stone imprisonment and was told that you know the emeralds, one would say that you might have them on you,” he simply stated. Sonic had a feeling that a certain ‘Baldy McNosehair’ was behind this. He did his best from chuckling at the nickname and asked, “Was it a fat, bald, egg-shaped guy with a big mustache that released you?” Discord looked at him with a puzzled look on his face and said, “Egg-shaped guy? Very weird, but I have no idea who you’re referring to.” After hearing Discord’s response, Sonic started feeling very uneasy and thought to himself, “Okay, Eggface is off the list.” Sonic rubbed his nose with his index finger and said, “It’s too bad you weren’t here a few months ago when I had them.” Discord had a feeling Sonic wasn’t telling him something and decided to keep an eye on him. Despite the cocky grin he held to his response, Sonic felt worried about the situation, but one thing was for sure, he did not want Discord to get the Chaos Emeralds. “I gotta get to Knuckles and have him scatter the emeralds before Discord gets his hands on them,” Sonic thought to himself. He was going to start his run to Angel Island, but he ended up slipping and falling on the ice again, making Discord laugh at his misfortune. He glared at the laughing creature and started walking off the ice as slowly as he could handle. After he got back on solid ground, he took off to Angel Island with a boost. Discord stopped his laughter after he heard the sonic boom, and saw that Sonic was no longer in sight. “Scratch that, he’s a LOT faster than Rainbow Dash,” he said to himself. After getting over his shock over Sonic’s speed, Discord snapped his finger and disappeared. The chase for Sonic begins. > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sonic ran through the forest dodging the trees and jumping over some boulders with ease, running in Angel Island’s direction. Discord reappeared a few feet behind him and continued his chase, managing to keep up. After noticing the flash of light, Sonic turned his head around and saw Discord. He then started running backward and wondered to himself, “How did he catch up so fast?” Discord was surprised to see the hedgehog was still able to run at a fast pace, even though he was running backward. Sonic then sidestepped to his left, catching Discord by surprise as he crashed into a tree, not having enough time to react to Sonic’s action. Sonic grinned to himself after he saw this. He then turned around and continued his run at a faster pace. After shaking off the pain he sustained from the crash, Discord teleported himself a good distance ahead of Sonic. In a very Discord manner, he tried to block Sonic’s path with a blockade, having a wall that was as tall as he was, and ‘Dead End’ signs and ‘Do Not Enter’ signs scattered along the path, while he donned a police officer outfit and was “directing traffic” from the area. Seeing this, Sonic didn’t slow down, and once he was close enough, he jumped onto Discord’s head and easily jumped over both him and the wall with ease. “Jeez, somebody’s persistent,” Sonic thought to himself with a grin. Once he was back on solid ground, he continued his run, leaving an upset Discord behind. The draconequus then tried slowing him down by having the path torn up with floating pieces here and there, with some fallen trees and flying boulders coming towards Sonic. He dodged each obstacle Discord threw at him, by demonstrating his quick reflexes, not fazed by the change of scenery, causing the draconequus more frustration with each foiled attempt. The sun had started setting once Sonic arrived at Tails’ workshop. Inside the workshop, we see Tails working on one of his projects peacefully, nothing distracting him in the slightest. His concentration was interrupted when he heard someone open the door and suddenly barged into the workshop. The intruder asked, “Hey Tails, you got a minute?” After hearing that it was Sonic, he chose to stop working on his project and wanted to hear what he had to say. “I got some spare time, what do you need Sonic?” asked Tails. “I need some help getting to Angel Island,” he simply said. Tails looked at Sonic questioningly and he was about to ask what the trip was for, but Sonic interrupted and continued telling him what had been happening. “There’s some new guy that calls himself Discord. He’s some kind of a mismatched creature, and he has powers to manipulate anything he desires.” Skeptical about what Sonic was talking about, he says, “Manipulate things? Do you mean magic? That’s just absurd.” Sonic responded and said, “I know what I saw Tails, he turned the sand on the beach into ice. But that’s not the weird part, I also have a feeling he was responsible for the chocolate rain from earlier,” he said. “Chocolate rain? Now I know this is just crazy, even for you,” said Tails, not believing what he was hearing. Sonic feels Tails’ disbelief and breathes a sigh of frustration. He said, “Look, I know this might sound weird, but even this part is something that I know you’d believe. Somehow, Discord knows about the Chaos Emeralds.” Hearing this, Tails dropped his wrench in shock and yelled, “WHAT?!” Seeing that he now had his attention, Sonic continued saying, “Discord revealed that he was trapped in stone, and was freed. I asked him if Eggman was the one who released him, but he said that he didn’t know who that was.” Still reeling from the Chaos Emerald news, Tails said, “Wait, Eggman’s not behind this?” Sonic shook his head and said, “Apparently not. I don’t know who released him, but I do know we need to get to Angel Island to have Knuckles scatter the emeralds before Discord gets his hands on them. Can you help me do that?” After letting all of this sink in, Tails nodded in agreement and got up. Tails ran to the Tornado and got it started; Sonic jumped onto the wings after hearing its startup and was ready for takeoff. The doorway then opened up and with that, he and Tails took the flight to Angel Island. Discord had just arrived at Tails’ workshop, exhausted from chasing Sonic. He leaned on the door and started catching his breath. “I never thought it would be this hard to catch one hedgehog,” he thought to himself. He then heard a loud humming noise from inside the workshop and saw an airplane come out and fly off, with Sonic on the wings. “Seriously!? He has an airplane too?! Why would a hedgehog need that?!” Shouted Discord. After the plane takes flight, he followed the direction it was flying toward and noticed an island was floating above the ocean. “A floating island? This just got more interesting…” he said with a smile on his face. He then snapped his fingers and appeared behind Sonic and Tails, causing one of them to notice the flash. Tails turned his head around and sees the mismatched creature Sonic described to him earlier. “Hey Sonic, I think we have company,” he worriedly said. Sonic turned around to see Discord on their tail. He gritted his teeth in frustration and yelled, “Can this thing fly any faster?!” Tails nodded to Sonic’s question and accelerates the plane’s speed. With the added speed, it gave the duo plenty of distance from Discord. “You're not getting away from me that easily Sonic,” Discord said to himself after seeing the plane zoom away. He then snapped his fingers, and the cotton candy clouds suddenly appeared in front of the Tornado. While flying through them, some of the cotton candy clouds got sucked into the engine. The Tornado sputtered, and it started losing both its speed and power. With the Tornado slowly fading, it started going into a nosedive. Sonic said through gritted teeth, “Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on!” Despite the engine loss, it was still able to make its trip to Angel Island. After the plane crash-landed, Sonic immediately jumped off of the plane and sprinted to Knuckles as fast as he could. After seeing the plane crash, Discord saw the hedgehog jump off the plane and run straight to a worn-down shrine. What he saw was a giant emerald as well as seven smaller emeralds, believing that they are the Chaos Emeralds, leaving the draconequus with a big grin after seeing them. He snapped his fingers and disappeared. Once he was close enough to the shrine, Sonic yelled, “KNUCKLES, SCATTER THE CHAOS EMERALDS NOW!!!!” Surprised by the sudden outburst, Knuckles turned to Sonic and said, “What are you talking about Sonic?” But before Sonic could say anything, Discord reappeared before the echidna, surprising him with a sudden flash of light. After seeing Discord, Sonic broke the sound barrier and ran at top speed. Seeing the intruder, Knuckles said in confusion, “What the?” The draconequus casually said, “I’ll be taking those if you don’t mind.” He lifted his lion paw and was about to lift the Chaos Emeralds with his magic, but before he had the chance to do so, Sonic crashed into Discord with great force and pushed him as far away from the emeralds as possible. After getting a good hold of him, Sonic yelled, “DO IT NOW!! NO TIME TO EXPLAIN!! SCATTER THE EMERALDS!!!” After seeing the draconequus, Knuckles didn’t question Sonic this time and went over to the Master Emerald as fast as he could. He channeled his energy with the giant emerald, and the Chaos Emeralds started lifting off from their respective pillars. Discord seeing this tried to fight back with Sonic to break free, but Sonic’s determination kept him in check. “Now I know what Time Eater meant when it said Sonic was a lot stronger than he looked,” Discord thought to himself bitterly. After a few moments, the emeralds shot up into the sky. As the Chaos Emeralds floated into the sky, a portal suddenly opened up, revealing Time Eater, attempting to steal the emeralds. Sonic felt the wind blowing and looked up. He was shocked to see Time Eater was there again. “No way! How did you survive?!” he questioned in disbelief. While in shock, Sonic lost his grip on Discord. He broke free and laughed evilly as if he and Time Eater had won, but just as before in white space, the red Chaos Emerald’s power activated and Time Eater lost its grip on the emeralds and they scattered in different directions. In Ponyville, everything was calm and quiet, the moon had risen, bringing nighttime to the small town. Everypony was sound asleep, letting another day of work go by. None of the lights were on in any of the homes, except for one single tree. In her library home, Twilight Sparkle was on one of her nights where she was doing some stargazing and late-night studying, and with the night sky clear, she wasn’t going to pass this night up. While she was looking at the stars, she took notice of a purple light flying over the town at a fast pace. Unknown to the pony, the purple light was the purple emerald that had been sent away from Angel Island. Twilight was going to get a better look at the purple light when she heard a gentle knock on her door. She went downstairs and opened the door to reveal Fluttershy standing on the other side shaking in fear. Concerned for her friend, Twilight let her into her home and asked, “Fluttershy, what’s wrong? You look as if you saw a ghost.” Still shaking, Fluttershy said, “Actually, I had a very bad dream.” She was on the verge of tears over being reminded of the nightmare she had gone through. In an attempt to calm her down, Twilight wrapped Fluttershy in a hug and rubbed her back with her hoof. After calming down, Twilight asked, “Would you mind telling me about it?” Hesitant at first, Fluttershy nodded and was going to tell her, but before she could, another knock on the door was heard. Twilight answered it and saw Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash standing outside Twilight’s home. After letting them in, Twilight had seen that each of her friends was about as scared as Fluttershy. Rainbow tried her best to hide her fear, but it was still noticeable that she was also bothered by something. Once they were comfortable, Twilight asked, “What’s everypony doing here?” Applejack spoke up for everypony and said, “Uh, Twi. We need to talk…” And with that, each of the ponies explained to Twilight that they had a nightmare. Fluttershy said that she saw an incredibly large dark creature, with evil blue eyes and a sinister blue mouth. It also had clock gears in its miasma-looking form. After seeing the creature, she couldn’t help but get an evil vibe from it. She also said that it destroyed the Everfree Forest, causing all the creatures to run away from the forest. Fluttershy’s dream ended once the creature was about to attack her, not before hearing a familiar laugh in the background when the creature attacked. Pinkie said that she also saw the same creature Fluttershy described. In the dream, it had opened up many portals and was sucking up every pony in Ponyville. She tried to save the other ponies with her friends, but they also got sucked into the portal. She said that she saw herself floating in space after she was sucked into the portal. She saw each of the ponies that were sucked into the portals, and she felt helpless once she saw them disappear. Pinkie woke up once she saw red misshapen eyes staring back at her. Applejack saw the dark creature that the others described. She saw the creature ripping out all the apple trees with its large hands, and opening portals, sucking up Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, and the rest of the Apple Family. She tried to stop the creature, but it shot some purple orbs at her and after it hit her, it stopped her in her tracks, leaving her helpless to do anything. She heard a snap of a finger, and the ground she was standing on had been destroyed, allowing her to fall into an empty void. Applejack woke up once she had fallen in her dream. Rarity saw the dark creature as well. She saw that it could freeze time and use some sort of beams that tracked where she was running. She was able to dodge the shots, but the dark creature was able to freeze time again and fired three shots at her. Rarity was going to use her magic to have something block the shots, but she heard a snap of a finger, and her horn was missing. She woke up after the shots made contact. Rainbow Dash saw the dark creature in Cloudsdale, but she also sees another figure with it. The dark creature had used a powerful laser and it destroyed Cloudsdale with one single blast. She flew and tried to attack the creature, but her wings were taken away from her and she crashed onto one of the clouds. The dark creature charged up another laser and blasted her with it. Before it made contact, Rainbow had woken up from the shock in her dream. After hearing about the last dream, Twilight was surprised to hear that the ponies had seen the same dark creature in their nightmares. With what each of them had explained, the creature can manipulate time and space, and it has unique abilities of its own that she never thought were possible. The other thing that got to her was a second creature with this dark one, but with what was described, she had a bad feeling regarding the identity of the second being. Twilight pushed those thoughts out of her head, thinking it was just a bad dream her friends had and thought nothing of it. She allowed them to stay for the night, seeing how scared they were. While the ponies were getting ready for sleep, a yellow light flew through the sky. Mordecai and Rigby were finishing up some late work, after the hologram incident. They had walked back to their home in the park and were very tired from cleaning up Skips’ garage. After organizing Pops’ stuff, Mordecai and Rigby took them to his room. Pops thanked them for getting his things from the garage, not wanting to add more work on them, he said that he would put his things away himself. After going to their room, Mordecai decided to sit outside on the roof to get some air and some quiet time. Rigby joined Mordecai a few moments later after he found him outside. He said, “Hey Mordecai, what are you doing out here?” Mordecai said, “Just trying to relax man, and I was just thinking to myself,” he said the last part under his breath. Rigby however, caught his mumble and asked, “I’m sorry, what was that?” Mordecai waved off his question and said, “It’s nothing dude, don’t worry about it.” A few moments later, Mordecai saw a light blue light flying through the sky and yelled, “Dude, shooting star!” Rigby took notice of the star after he pointed it out. He was going to ask him what he would wish for, but Mordecai said, “I wish I could ask Margaret out.” In a snarky attitude, Rigby said, “Pfft. You know that’s not how wishes work on a shooting star.” Mordecai rolled his eyes at him and said, “Pfft, whatever.” Rigby continued, “Come on man, even I know that saying a wish on a wishing star out loud wouldn’t make it come true.” Even if what Rigby said were true, Mordecai was too tired to argue about it as he lays on the roof, looking up at the night sky. Mordecai said in a serious tone, “But seriously, I do want to ask her out, without feeling all of this pressure.” Rigby shrugged at his response and said, “If you say so. But, if it doesn’t work out with her, and I’m not saying it won’t, someone better should come along for you man.” Mordecai gave him a questioning look, but shrugged it off, knowing that that was as nice as Rigby was going to be concerning the whole “Margaret” situation. The blue jay and raccoon went back inside after a few moments of relaxing. Finn and Jake were exhausted from another long day of adventures. They saved another princess that had been captured by the Ice King. He tried to put up a fight, but they defeated him with ease. Jake hung out with his girlfriend Lady Rainicorn, while Finn helped Princess Bubblegum with an experiment she was working on. After finishing up their tasks for the day, the duo went back home and prepared to go to sleep. Jake climbed into the open cabinet drawer in the room, while Finn changed into his pajamas, got into his sleeping bag, and lay on his bed. The duo fell asleep almost instantly after they got into their beds. They were woken up when a bright red light was seen through the Tree Fort’s window. Finn got out of bed and saw the bright red light fly over the Tree Fort and it crash-landed near the Fire Kingdom. Finn said, “Dude, did you see that?” Jake tiredly said, “Yes, I saw it, Finn.” Feeling excited, Finn said, “We gotta check it out.” He was about to jump down the stairs, but Jake extended his arm, grabbed his leg, and said, “Not now man! I’m too tired to travel. Can’t we just do it tomorrow? When we feel better about this, I know you’re tired too Finn.” Finn was about to protest and just go check it out, but his body was showing signs of being tired. Finn slumped in Jake’s hand and reluctantly says, “All right, we’ll rest up right now, and we’ll check it out once it’s morning.” Feeling relieved, Jake said, “Thank you,” and he went back to sleep instantly, snoring loudly in the process. Finn stayed up a little longer than he should have as he looked out the window. All he could think about was the red light. He wondered what the light was, and he wanted to check it out so badly. After a while, Finn finally relaxed, and he fell asleep in his sleeping bag. The cul-de-sac kids accepted Ed, Edd, and Eddy, something they had worked hard for the longest time, and after that adventure of looking for Eddy’s brother, despite some unwanted abuse being shown, the other kids stood up for the Eds and now call them their friends. Since then, their lives couldn’t have been any better. The Eds have been invited to join the other kids with their activities and hung out at their houses and the Kanker Sisters haven’t bothered them in a while. They still pull some scams here and there, but all in all, they are more appreciated than before. The Urban Rangers decided to go on a camping trip and chose to invite the Eds so they could enjoy themselves for the night, and for once, Eddy had nothing bad to say about them. The Eds were resting on a log outside their tent and were just looking at the stars. Double D being Double D, was talking nonstop and was pointing out all of the different constellations he could see in the night sky. Eddy was bored out of his mind hearing Double D talking away, he was also getting more aggravated with him by the second, while Ed wasn’t paying attention to the conversation at all, just tuning everything out. Unaware of Eddy’s anger, Double D continued pointing out each constellation he knew and talked about what they represented. He said, “And that constellation there is Ursa Major. Don’t you see the patterns that look-” Eddy interrupted his babble and yelled, “SHUT UP DOUBLE D!!! I just want to relax out here, not hear you babble on and on about the star constipations.” Double D corrected Eddy and said, “It’s ‘Constellations’ Eddy.” After hearing the correction, Eddy glared at Double D. The duo got into an argument, one arguing over learning star formations, while the other did not care and just wanted to relax. Ed had blocked out the argument and was absentmindedly looking at the stars, when suddenly, he said, “Ooh, ooh, look guys! Shooting Star!” Both Eddy and Double D stopped their quarrel and saw what Ed pointed out to them. They saw a dark blue light shoot through the sky with great speed. They made their wishes to it quietly, but unaware of the trio, it flew over the trees and crash-landed nearby. Excited about the “star,” Ed said, “What did you guys wish for? I wished for a big tub of gravy.” Double D looked at him questioningly and asked, “Ed, don’t you already have a tub of gravy?” He retorted by saying, “Yeah, but not a big tub.” Not surprised by his wish, Eddy interrupted and said, “Of course lumpy would want a big tub of gravy. I wished for something simpler, like, a jawbreaker.” Double D said, “Everyone has their own choices of a wish, Eddy.” Eddy then asked, “So what did you wish for smart guy?” He simply said, “I didn’t wish for anything. I don’t believe a star can have any ability whatsoever to grant a wish.” He says this, but deep down, he made a personal wish, and he heard all of the stories about this subject and knew better than to say the wish out loud, for it may not come true if he did. Annoyed with his answer, Eddy said, “Always the killjoy, aren’t ya Double D?” Ashamed, Double D said, “It’s a curse I’m afraid. Besides, what makes you say that you will get a jawbreaker?” Eddy then pulled out three quarters from his pocket and said, “Our last scam got us some good cash. That’s how.” Ed yelled in joy, “Jawbreaker for Ed tomorrow!” Feeling happy as well, Eddy said, “That’s right Ed, now let’s get some shuteye.” The Eds went to their tent and fell asleep in their respective sleeping bags, getting ready for a trip to the candy store tomorrow for jawbreakers. Danny Fenton, transformed as his ghost alter ego Danny Phantom, his girlfriend Sam Manson, and his best friend Tucker Foley, were chasing down Skulker. He was on another one of his hunting sprees, trying to capture Danny, but his plans got foiled. His battlesuit was destroyed in the process, and he is now on the run. Danny pulls out the Fenton Thermos and catches the little blob. “Way to go guys!” Danny said while tossing the thermos in his hand. “Yeah, and with Skulker down, the rest of the ghosts will be easier to catch,” Tucker said. Wanting to finish ghost hunting, Sam said, “Come on guys, the sooner we catch the ghosts, the sooner we can get some sleep.” Danny nodded and said, “You’re right, we can catch the remaining ghosts at this rate if we keep a sharp eye out.” Tucker pointed towards the sky and said, “Like that one up there?” Danny turned around and saw a green light flying through the sky with great speed. He rolled his eyes and said, “I’ll get it.” He then flew to the sky and chased down the green light. He didn’t hesitate with the light; he pulled out his thermos and caught it, unknown to him, it was the green Chaos Emerald. After Danny caught the green light, the Box Ghost flew by and tried to sound like a threat to Danny and his friends and yelled, “I am the Box Ghost! Beware!” Danny shook his head in boredom and annoyance after seeing the Box Ghost. “I so don’t have time for this,” he said flatly. He then opened the thermos, pointed it at the Box Ghost, and captured him. “And with that, we can call it a night,” said Danny after turning back into his human self. “Hey guys, we got a shooting star,” said Tucker. Danny and Sam looked up and saw a white light flying through the sky. Sam quickly checked to see if Desire was around. With no signs of her around, on account that Danny’s ghost sense wasn’t going off, everyone smiled and made a wish for themselves. After they made their wishes, everyone got on their electric scooters and went their separate ways home. Discord and Time Eater disappeared through the portal after the Chaos Emeralds vanished from their sight. “What the? Where did they go?” Sonic asked. “How should I know?!” Knuckles snapped. “Time Eater had them, and once that red emerald made contact, they flew off in different directions,” he said. Seeing Time Eater again made Sonic feel uneasy, something Knuckles took notice of. Knuckles put his hand on Sonic’s shoulder and said, “Are you all right Sonic?” Shaken from his thoughts, Sonic said, “Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s meet up with Tails, I’ll fill you in on what’s going on.” The duo left the shrine and started walking over to the Tornado. As they walked, Sonic told Knuckles everything about his encounter with Discord, what powers he had seen and what he could do with them. “I still can’t believe Time Eater was the one that let Discord out, I mean, it only makes sense if Eggman isn’t involved,” Sonic said in disbelief. “Yeah, I thought you destroyed him when Eggman and his younger self tried to use it as a personal fighting machine,” questioned Knuckles. Sonic shrugged in response to this and said, “I was sure I did. I destroyed that core and we all saw Time Eater explode, that should have been it.” Before the duo could continue their conversation, they had reached the edge of Angel Island where the Tornado had crash-landed, and Tails had gotten the last of the cotton candy clouds out. “Hey Tails, finished with the repairs?” Sonic questioned. “Yeah, I just finished,” he responded while wiping the sweat from his forehead. “So, what were you guys talking about with Time Eater?” he questioned. “Time Eater survived the fight, and it was the one who got Discord out of that stony prison of his,” he said. “Seriously?!” Tails questioned in shock. “Dead serious,” he said. The idea of Discord and Time Eater worried the fox, and realization struck him. “What happened to the emeralds? Did they get them?” he asked in horror. “Don’t worry about the emeralds, I was able to scatter them before Discord could get his hands on them,” said Knuckles in an attempt to calm Tails down. “And Time Eater?” questioned Tails. “Time Eater tried to get them, but the red emerald activated and they ended up scattering in different directions far away from here,” said Sonic. “As long as they don’t have them, I think we’re good,” said Tails, starting to feel better about the situation. Wanting to change the subject, Sonic looked at the Tornado and asked, “So, any damages to the engine?” Tails looked at the plane and said, “No, it was just clogged, thankfully.” Knuckles asked, “What clogged it?” Tails said, “The stuff that clogged the engine was cotton candy,” showing the substance to the duo. “Cotton Candy?” asked a confused Knuckles. “Yeah, I was surprised too, that stuff was everywhere in the engine. Everything is working fine now, we can go back to my workshop and get my radar to help look for the emeralds,” he said. Tails jumped into the plane and it started up instantly. After hearing the engines go, Sonic jumped on the wings of the Tornado. Before they could leave, Knuckles decided to join them. The flight back to Tails’ workshop didn’t take long. Once the plane landed, Sonic jumped off the Tornado and decided to look for one of the emeralds while Tails and Knuckles looked for the radar. “Sonic, we need that radar first,” said Tails. Sonic turned and said, “I saw where one of the emeralds went, I can go get that emerald and you guys can meet me there.” Before they could talk him out of it, Sonic took off in the direction of the closest emerald. “I know that radar would be helpful, but we can’t afford to waste any time. We’re not just dealing with Discord, but Time Eater is also back, and I won’t let either of them get the emerald first.” Sonic thought to himself determined to get the first Chaos Emerald. Chapter End > Chapter 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sonic ran as fast as he could through the forest, following the direction he saw one of the emeralds go as they scattered from Angel Island. He knew that if he went ahead of Tails and Knuckles, it would give him a chance to get the first emerald and would make the rest of the journey a lot easier. With his gifted speed, Sonic can beat Discord to the emerald, rather than let him get a head start. While running through the forest, he noticed that it started to change as he ran deeper into the woods. After noticing the change, Sonic started slowing down and looked around the new area. The sun started to rise after he walked around for a while. "Where am I?" he asked himself. He looked at the trees and said, "These trees look too different from the ones from earlier." Realization struck him after he got a better look at the trees. He then said, "Hold on, are these…apple trees?" Sonic walked up to one of the trees and saw apples on them. He then ran up the top of the hill the apple trees were on and saw a barn, a town, a castle on the side of a mountain far away from the town, a forest to the right of the town, and a cloud sanctuary not too far from the castle. Sonic questioned the place he was at and ran past the apple farm. The sun had completely risen once he arrived in the town. He looked around the place to see if anything was out of the ordinary, especially since he believed that one of the emeralds had been sent to this area. As he looked around the town, Sonic was surprised to see the inhabitants in the town. "Ok, either I'm very tired, or I'm seeing nothing but ponies here," he concluded to himself in disbelief. As pointed out, the town he was in had nothing but ponies walking around. Some of the ponies he saw were regular ponies, while some had wings and some had a single horn on their foreheads. He was getting a couple of strange looks from some of these ponies, but he paid no attention to them as he walks through the town. Sonic sees a pink pony skipping along with glee, and he decided to talk to this pony since she was the only one not giving him a weird look. He catches her attention and says, "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?" Upon seeing him, the pink pony's response was a prolonged gasp and she ran away, leaving a confused Sonic behind. He shrugged off the odd behavior and started looking for another pony to see if they could be more useful in giving him answers. While Sonic was walking through the town, he felt that the place gave off a very peaceful feel to it. He was never one known for walking, but with the peaceful feeling he was getting from the town, he couldn't help but walk around, smiling to himself. Sonic eventually found himself in a park, and he spotted a lavender pony with a single horn on her head laying on a bench reading a book. Seeing that he was still getting strange looks from the other ponies, he was hoping that this pony would be more helpful than the last pony he spoke to. Sonic walked up to her and said, "Hello there." The pony paid no attention to him and says, “Hello.” She wasn’t being intentional with this behavior; Twilight Sparkle is known for being very engrossed in her readings to the point that she loses herself whenever she does them. Noticing this and not wanting to waste any time, Sonic tapped on the page she was reading and she instantly snaps out of her concentration seeing the gloved finger. She looks up and sees Sonic, she was a little surprised after she saw him, not familiar with an anthropomorphic hedgehog. He introduced himself to her, his hand already extended out to her, and said, "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. What's your name?" The pony put her hoof in his hand and says, "I'm Twilight Sparkle. It's nice to meet you Sonic." Sonic says to the purple pony, "I’m sorry if that was rude, but I’m kind of in a hurry. Can you tell me where I am? I'm trying to look for something that belongs to me. Can you also tell me about the ponies here? I've never seen any with wings or horns before." After hearing the questions, Twilight said, "Sure, I don't mind. This place is Ponyville. As you can see, a lot of ponies of different races live here. We have earth ponies, the ponies with wings are known as Pegasus or pegasi for more than one, and the ponies with horns are known as Unicorns, myself included," she finished while pointing to herself. Sonic nodded in understanding, knowing the town he is in and the different kinds of ponies. "And the farm I ran through as well as that castle?" he asked. She said, "The farm you passed by is known as Sweet Apple Acres, a friend of mine works and lives there. As for the castle, that is my actual home Canterlot. My mentor Princess Celestia had assigned me to live here not too long ago. She and her sister Princess Luna live in that castle and rule all over the land of Equestria." "Equestria? Wow, I didn't think it went that far…" Sonic thought to himself in surprise. Noticing the clouds, he asked, "Are those clouds a sanctuary of some kind, or is it a big cloud formation?" After looking at where he was pointing, Twilight said, "It's a place. The place you're talking about is Cloudsdale. Other pegasi live there, and only the pegasi can live on the clouds. Two of my friends lived there before coming to Ponyville." An idea suddenly struck her, and she said, "Speaking of my friends, would you like to meet them?" Not wanting to be rude to her, Sonic said, "Sure, I don't mind." And with that, they left the park with Twilight leading the way. After leaving the park, Sonic asked, "Hey Twilight, I bumped into a pink pony when I got here, and she gave me the weirdest response I'll ever get. Do you know her by chance?" Twilight playfully rolled her eyes and said, "Oh that was Pinkie Pie. Was her response a gasp of surprise?" He thought about it and said, "I think so. She just ran away from me after that." Twilight said, "Yeah, she gave me that kind of response when I first got here myself." An idea popped into Twilight's head as she knew what her pink friend had in store for the new guest. With a knowing smile, Twilight said, "Let's go to Sugarcube Corner and check on her, we're already close by." And with that, they were on their way to Sugarcube Corner. With what Twilight told Sonic, Sugarcube Corner is a bakery where the ponies get their treats. She also told him that Pinkie lives there along with the owners of the place, Mr. and Mrs. Cake. They arrived at Sugarcube Corner in no time and upon arrival, to Sonic's surprise, Sugarcube Corner looked like a giant gingerbread house. He shrugged it off and went inside with Twilight. It was dark inside and by the time the lights were turned on, everypony jumped out and yelled, "SURPRISE!" Sonic, to say the least, was surprised by this. After settling down from the shock, he asked, "What's the occasion?" The same pink pony from before suddenly approached him and said, "It's for you, Mr. Blue Spiky person! I figured with a new person in town, you deserve a nice welcome party." Sonic looked around Sugarcube Corner and had seen streamers, balloons, and a lot of party decorations scattered throughout the room. He scratched his head in amazement at the sight and asked, "How did you do this so fast?" Pinkie said, "I'm the world's best party planner! I know everypony in Ponyville, and I also work here. So, inviting everypony and getting the cakes ready were already easy peasy. Oh, wait right here, I'm going to get my friends here." Before Sonic could get a word in, Pinkie hopped along, going to get her friends over, leaving a stunned Sonic behind. He turned to Twilight and asked, "Is she like this all the time, or for parties?" She said with a smile, "A little of both. She's a very nice pony don't worry about that. Also, the ponies she will be bringing over are my friends." Pinkie later returned to Sonic and Twilight with four other ponies and from there, each of the ponies introduced themselves. Pinkie introduced herself first and said, "As Twilight told you I'm Pinkie Pie. I enjoy throwing parties for anypony that's new here." Sonic nodded in response. The next pony that introduced herself was a white unicorn with a purple mane and tail. She said, "I'm Rarity; I live in Carousel Boutique, designing clothes for my friends and anypony that requests a new dress or outfit for a formal event. I've made dresses for my friends for the Grand Galloping Gala very recently. I take great pride in my work, and any pony who has requested something from me has never been dissatisfied with my designs." Impressed by what he heard, Sonic said, "That sounds cool." She then said, "I'd like to make you a formal outfit later on darling. Just looking at you, I had a sudden inspiration to make something 'dashing' for you." Sonic felt a little uneasy about her request. He was never one to wear clothes, but if she is as good as she says, he couldn't deny her the chance for the outfit. He said, "I'll…consider it. Just no pants" The next pony to introduce herself was a cyan pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane and tail. She said, "I'm Rainbow Dash. I'm the fastest flyer to ever come out of Cloudsdale. I've pulled off a Sonic Rainboom a couple of times. The other pegasi and I, handle the weather here in Ponyville." Sonic nodded at what she told him. He then said, "Fastest flyer huh? I've been told that I'm the fastest thing alive." Feeling challenged, Rainbow Dash glares at him suspiciously from his claims and says, "And who says that?" Sonic simply says, "Anyone who knows me, so other than myself, the whole world." Rainbow Dash was fuming at Sonic's cocky behavior, something he didn't pay much attention to. Sonic says, "Tell you what, I'm looking for something that belongs to me. When I'm done with it, I wouldn't mind a race with you to prove it." Rainbow Dash pressed her muzzle to his nose, her magenta eyes glaring into his emerald green eyes. She says, "It's on! Err…" Sonic says with a smile, "Sonic." She repeated herself and said, "It's on Sonic!" Sonic lightly chuckles at this, seeing that he's already ruffled her feathers with him being himself. The next pony to introduce herself was an orange earth pony wearing a cowboy hat, with a yellow mane and tail. She approached him and said, "I'm Applejack. I work on Sweet Apple Acres not too far from here." Remembering the farm, Sonic said, "I ran through that area when I arrived. I'm sorry for trespassing." She then said, "Ah it's nothin' to worry about, as long as you didn't take any of my apples." Breathing a sigh of relief, he said, "No worries there, I didn't take any of them." After that, Sonic noticed a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and tail, was hiding behind the other ponies. He walked over to the scared pony with caution. Once he was close enough, he said, "And who might you be?" The pony didn't look him in the eye while he was trying to talk to her. She weakly said, "I'm Fluttershy." He heard her speak, but he didn't catch her name. He put a hand next to his ear and said, "What was that? I didn't catch it." The pony said, "I'm Fluttershy," in the same weak tone from before. He was starting to feel impatient, but after catching part of the mare's name, he had a feeling he should keep his cool with her. He then said, "Ok, that time, I heard "shy". Could you please tell me one more time? I won't hurt you; I promise." After hearing him say this, she looked him in the eye and said with a smile, "I'm Fluttershy." He smiled at her after hearing her speak to him without feeling scared. She continued by saying, "I-I take care of the animals at my cottage. It's close to the Everfree Forest." After meeting everypony, Sonic said with a smile, "It was nice meeting all of you." Wanting to know who he was, Fluttershy timidly asked, "So, who are you, if you don't mind me asking?" After hearing her, he said, "I don't mind." He then flashed a thumb up and said, "My name is Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm the fastest thing alive, I have saved the planet from destruction on more than one occasion, and I'm a real laid-back kind of person, despite what I go through." Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes at the "fastest thing alive" line, seeing that he takes pride in that title. She thinks to herself, "We'll see how fast your claim really is." Fluttershy then asked, "Are you alone, or do you have any friends from where you're from?" He said, "I have friends back home. They should be joining me soon for what I'm looking for." Realization hit Twilight once he mentioned he was looking for something. She decided it was time to see what Sonic was looking for and asked, "Speaking of which, what are you looking for?" Sonic said, "I'm looking for a very special gem called a Chaos Emerald. I've seen one of them fly somewhere in this direction." Rarity asked, "What's a Chaos Emerald, and how many are there?" He replied, "The Chaos Emerald is a stone that holds a great amount of power, and there are seven of them." Confused about his actions, Applejack asked, "With somethin' that holds so much power in these Chaos Emeralds, why did you let one of them fly here?" Sonic said, "I didn't plan on them scattering across the world, I had a little mishap back where I'm from." All of the ponies looked at him questioningly while he continued to explain the situation to them. "There was this dark creature that I thought I had defeated a while ago. It showed itself when I told my friend Knuckles to scatter the emeralds," he said. Everypony stared at Sonic in shock when he mentioned a dark creature. He felt a little lost seeing that they had gotten scared already. Rarity was the first to break the silence and asked, "Was this dark creature a giant by any chance?" He looked at the ponies confused to see that they knew the creature already. He slowly answered, "Yes, it was big." Pinkie then asked, "Did it come out of a portal?" After hearing them guess a second time about Time Eater, he then said, "Ok, this is getting a little strange. Do you ponies know something I don't know about the creature?" Twilight spoke up, and said, "My friends here had nightmares last night. They each told me that they saw a dark creature. Its appearance was smog-like, with clock gears seen behind its arms, as well as its back, and it had blue eyes and a blue mouth that glowed. It had abilities like manipulating time and space, tracker shot beams, lasers, immobilizing spheres, and it can open portals and suck anypony into them." Sonic stared at them in shock. He was told that dreams usually had a connection to the real world, but this took him by complete surprise. He decided to tell them about Time Eater since each pony has some knowledge of it. He said, "The thing that each of you saw, is known as Time Eater. The abilities that each of you saw, were only the tip of the iceberg. I've witnessed each of those abilities and more myself. I had to team up with my past self to defeat it. All I can say was that that was some birthday bash I had nine months ago. I also have a question for you ponies as well." Twilight said, "Go ahead and ask." Sonic said, "Do you know a creature by the name of Discord?" The ponies gasped in shock, just hearing the name, "Discord". They all pulled Sonic outside Sugarcube Corner, just so they can talk to him privately and not disturb the party. They said in unison, "What about Discord?" He then said, "I bumped into him while I was on one of my runs. He made it rain chocolate milk on me and he turned the sandy beach I was running on into ice." Before the ponies could question him any further, Time Eater came out of a portal, causing fear to go through them. Sonic got in front of the ponies, saying he was going to defend them. Time Eater started to tear the houses apart, causing the ponies in the homes to start running from the creature. It opened up a portal and attempted to suck the ponies in. Sonic ran over to the ponies and stood his ground. Time Eater opened a portal in front of Sonic and tried to suck him in, but instead of getting sucked into the portal, he was still standing his ground, not moving an inch. Sonic saw a glowing light on his left wrist. He looked under his glove and saw Chip's necklace glowing, and saw a barrier surrounding him and the ponies he was protecting. "Thank you, Chip," Sonic thought to himself with a smile. Time Eater tried to attack the barrier, but it repelled its attack, leaving the dark creature frustrated. Time Eater opened another portal and left the area. Twilight and the rest of the ponies came next to Sonic, amazed at what they had seen from him. Before any celebrations could be done, Sonic said, "I think Time Eater is also trying to get the Chaos Emerald here as well." Twilight said, "I think Princess Celestia might have it. We need to go to Canterlot right away." The ponies went to the train station, got on a train, and headed to Canterlot. Sonic chose to run up there instead. After seeing him run next to the train, the ponies were amazed to see how fast Sonic was going, before he broke the sound barrier to get to the train station, leaving the train behind as he waits for them in Canterlot. Sonic saw that Time Eater was not having it easy looking for the emerald as it continued looking in other areas. "I hope that train gets here soon," he thought to himself impatiently. After a few moments, the train arrived and the ponies rushed out to get to the castle, Sonic joining them behind. After arriving at the castle, the ponies and Sonic entered to see a worried Princess Celestia pacing herself in the castle. Twilight said, "Princess Celestia, we have a problem over in Ponyville." Celestia then said, "I know Twilight, I've seen the creature not too long ago. Do any of you know what that is and what it might be looking for?" Twilight points her hoof at Sonic and says, "According to Sonic here, the creature is known as Time Eater." He interrupts her and says, "And I believe that Time Eater is here to look for something that belongs to me called a Chaos Emerald, your majesty," he finishes while bowing to Celestia in respect. She waves off his notion and says, "There is no need to bow Sonic, but I think I might know what you are looking for. A purple object flew into the Canterlot Garden last night. I've had my guards get it and I have it locked away. I mentioned this to Twilight earlier, and if it is what that thing is looking for, then I’m glad that we retrieved it for you Sonic." Sonic was relieved to hear the news that the emerald was safe. He then asks, "May I take the emerald back with me? I'll need it to get rid of Time Eater." She nods to him with a smile and says, "Of course, follow me." Celestia led Sonic and the six ponies down the hallway to a chamber that the ponies remembered from Discord's release. The ponies grew worried, thinking that he might have taken it as he did with the Elements of Harmony from the last time. Celestia opened the chamber with her magic, and with a sigh of relief, the purple Chaos Emerald was still there. Sonic grabbed the emerald and was glad to have it in his possession. Applejack said, "Whew, I thought that it was going to be taken or something." Celestia looked at them in confusion and asked, "Why would you think that?" Sonic said, "I was telling the ponies here that I bumped into Discord the other day before Time Eater showed itself in Ponyville." Surprised by this, Celestia said, "Discord?! But these ponies defeated him six months ago." Wondering how it happened, Sonic asked, "How did they defeat him?" Before the other ponies could say anything, Pinkie said, "We used the Elements of Harmony on him last time. He was turned to stone, just like out there." She pointed her hoof outside to Discord's statue in the Canterlot Garden. It was still in one piece, leaving Celestia confused about how he managed to escape if the statue wasn't destroyed like last time. She then asked, "Sonic, would there be any other things that Time Eater does that we should be worried about?" He then said, "It can bend reality, I guess that it might have done that to get Discord out of the statue that you are telling me about." A voice suddenly says in excitement, "Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! Give the hedgehog a prize." Everyone started looking around to try and find Discord, but his voice was echoing in the castle just like last time. He then appeared in front of everyone. Sonic gripped the purple emerald and was ready to fight him if he tried something. Discord saw the emerald in his hand and said, "I'm here for that Chaos Emerald." Sonic said, "You're not getting this from me without a fight Discord!" He shook his head and ask in annoyance, "Ugh! Why does everyone always want to do things the hard way?" Sonic whispered to the ponies and said, "Everypony listen, if those Elements of Harmony you were talking about earlier stopped him last time, I'd say go get them." Also whispering, Twilight said, "But we don't want you to be stuck with him on your own. We'll stay and help you." He then said, "As much as I appreciate it, I can handle him on my own, I don't want anything to happen to either of you if you stay. Plus, I have one of the Chaos Emeralds, I should be able to hold my own." Twilight and her friends nodded in understanding and left the castle. Discord was about to use his magic to stop them, but Sonic stepped in front of him and kept him from using his magic. He glares at him; Discord sees the fire in Sonic’s eyes as he was showing him that he wasn’t going to back down, or let anyone get hurt on his watch. He rolled his eyes and said, "Fine, you'll do for now hedgehog." Discord then snapped his fingers and teleported him and Sonic outside the castle. The fight between them started, Discord started by trying to blast Sonic with purple spheres. He dodged them with ease and had a grin on his face afterward. He then said, "Time Eater has taught you some tricks I'm guessing." Discord said with a smug look on his face, "You could say that." Sonic then pulled out the purple emerald and fired powerful chaos energy at Discord. He dodged it, but Sonic ran with great speed and punched him in the face, sending him flying backward. Discord rubbed the hit off with his eagle claw. Sonic stood his ground and was charging up powerful chaos energy with the purple emerald. Discord, seeing this, was about to attack again, but Time Eater showed up and grabbed him, pulling him into the portal and out of the fight. Sonic saw Time Eater and fired a Chaos Spear from the emerald, but Time Eater disappeared into the portal before it made contact. Celestia asked in surprise, "The fight's already over?" Sonic said, "No, they’re going to try and get the other Chaos Emeralds. There are six other emeralds out there." She said, "I see. Would you mind if I assigned Twilight and her friends to accompany you to get the remaining emeralds?" He said, "No, I don't mind at all. Thank you, princess," finishing with another bow. Celestia said, "Thank you Sonic, and good luck. The fate of the world rests in your hands as well as the ponies' hooves." Discord and Time Eater arrived back in the Center of Time. Discord was furious with Time Eater for stopping the fight, but before he could say anything, Time Eater yelled, "I told you Sonic was a lot stronger than he looked! He even had one of the Chaos Emeralds and you still try and fight him!" Discord retorted by saying, "I had the plan to fight back!" Time Eater sternly said, "You listen here! I need your chaos powers around to help me defeat Sonic! If you are killed before I get my revenge, it won't do me any favors!" Discord sighed in defeat and said, "Fine, so what do we do now?" Time Eater said, "We must get the other emeralds to help us out. There are six more out there, all we have to do is find them before Sonic and the ponies do." The ponies arrived at Twilight's home and got the Elements of Harmony out of the book from last time. They were about to leave until Spike burped up a scroll from Princess Celestia. He opened the letter and read it to everypony. It read: Dear Twilight, I have assigned you and your friends each an important task. I am assigning you all to accompany Sonic on his mission to collect the remaining Chaos Emeralds that he needs to look for across the world. I also advise you to take the Elements of Harmony with you so you can use them on Discord once again. Don't worry if Sonic chooses to not have you join him on his quest, he has already agreed to this and is looking forward to you all joining him. The fate of Equestria, as well as the rest of the world, rests in your hooves. Signed, Princess Celestia After Spike finished reading the letter to the ponies, Sonic had already arrived outside the library and said, "I see you got the message from the princess." The ponies turned to see him standing there. Fluttershy said, "Yes, we have." He then said, "Ok, let's move out everypony." Before he could leave, Sonic noticed a purple dragon and asked, "Who's the dragon?" Twilight realized this and said, "Oh, right, you haven't met him yet. This is Spike, he is a baby dragon, and more importantly, he’s my number one assistant. Spike this is Sonic the Hedgehog. Spike put his hand out and said, "Nice to meet you Sonic." Sonic grabbed his claw and said, "Same here little guy." After the quick introduction, Sonic asked, "Is everypony ready to go on an adventure?" The ponies all nodded, saying they were ready to go get the remaining Chaos Emeralds. Everyone stepped outside and they were about to head out, when they heard a few voices yelling, "Sonic!" He knew who the voices belonged to and smiled. Everyone waited and a few minutes later, Tails and Knuckles arrived in Ponyville. Sonic said, "Everypony, these are a few of my friends here. The one with two tails is Miles Prower, but my friends and I call him Tails, and this is the red echidna I mentioned before, his name is Knuckles. Guys, these ponies are Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy." After everyone exchanged their hellos, Sonic was caught in a hug. His suspicions of who was hugging him were confirmed after he heard the voice say, "Sonic! I knew I'd find you!" He said, "Amy? How did you get here?" Amy simply said, "Tails told me where you were, and I followed his directions after he told me." Sonic rolled his eyes at her response but smiled to himself. Starting to feel embarrassed, Sonic said, "Do you mind letting me go? I and some friends of mine need to save the world again." After letting him go, Amy asked, "Can I join you?" He was going to say no, but he knew she was going to join him even if he did. He then said, "Sure, with what we are dealing with, we need all the help we can get." Amy then introduced herself to each of the ponies and with that, Sonic and the gang were ready to leave Ponyville. Tails' radar a nearby emerald from where they are. Sonic said, "Everyone gather around me, I don't want anyone getting left behind." After everyone was close to him, he raised the purple emerald and used Chaos Control to teleport everyone to the next emerald's spot. One emerald down, six to go! > Chapter 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a nice sunny day at the park. Mordecai and Rigby were on clean-up duty due to another mishap that occurred that they were involved in. There was garbage, debris from the grass getting torn up, the fountain was destroyed again and some ripped trees scattered throughout the park. Rigby was trying to pass the time by telling Mordecai some jokes, all relating to the incident, but the blue jay was feeling down and angry. He did not respond to any of the jokes Rigby told him, something that he took notice of. Rigby said, “Dude, what’s with you? You haven’t been yourself since you got back from the Coffee Shop.” Mordecai responded with a grunt, remembering what had happened at the coffee shop moments before the incident had occurred. **FLASHBACK** He and Rigby were on their lunch break and had gone to the coffee shop as per usual. Mordecai had planned on asking Margaret out almost every time he and Rigby go there, unfortunately, with how shy he is around her, and with Rigby’s teasing, it just made it a lot harder for him to do so. To build his self-confidence, Mordecai kept telling himself that this day was going to be the day he will ask her out. To assure himself, he said aloud, “I’m gonna do it, Rigby. I’m going to ask Margaret out.” Rigby rolled his eyes and said, “Pfft. Yeah, right dude.” Mordecai pointed at him in anger and said, “Just watch.” He walked over to Margaret, but instead of asking her out, he instead asked for the usual that he and Rigby would get at the Coffee Shop, which would be their coffee and some sandwiches. Once he got back to the table, Rigby said with a smug look on his face, “Hmm-hmm, I told you.” Mordecai snapped at him and said, “Dude shut up! I’ll eat first, and then I’ll ask her out.” Rigby scoffed at the excuse and said, “You’ve been trying that strategy for a long time, and it hasn’t worked yet.” Mordecai glares at Rigby for the comment, but instead of getting into a fight, he just sat and waited for his meal. They finished their meal in silence, Mordecai did everything he could to motivate himself while he and Rigby ate their sandwiches. He told Rigby to go back to the park while he paid for their meal, thinking that if Rigby wasn’t around, he’d feel less pressure to ask the robin out. After making the payment, Mordecai decided it was time to make his move. Margaret snapped him out of his thoughts and said, “Here’s your change Mordecai.” He said with a smile, “Thanks, Margaret. Uh, hey Margaret, can I ask you something?” She said with a smile, “Sure, what is it, Mordecai?” Mordecai started to get nervous, but he continued anyway and said, “Uh, I was wondering, uh, if it’s not too much trouble…would you like to uh… go out with me this Saturday?” Mordecai thought to himself, “All right, I finally did it. Now just gotta wait for her answer.” Unfortunately for him, Margaret was feeling uncomfortable with the question. She wasn’t expecting him to ask her on a date, and it just put her in an awkward position. She said with a sad smile, “Oh, I’m flattered, Mordecai, really, I am. But I have to say no.” Mordecai looked confused and heartbroken after hearing her answer. She continued by saying, “It’s nothing against you Mordecai, I think you're a great guy, but I only see you as a friend.” Mordecai felt even worse after hearing this. “Great, the friend zone. I’m stuck in the friend zone with her.” Mordecai thought to himself bitterly. He then put on a fake smile of his own, trying to hide his emotions as best as he could. He apologized for his question, thanked her for the meal, and left the coffee shop before things could get any worse for him. Rigby caught sight of him once he came back to the park and asked, “So, how did it go?” Mordecai didn’t respond to his question, the look of anger, sadness, hurt, and total rejection were visible on his face. Rigby didn’t push the subject with Margaret any further, he thought he might ask him more about it later. **END FLASHBACK** Mordecai finished up the job that was assigned to him and Rigby. Benson was a little surprised to see that he had finished his job. He then assigned him to do another job at the park, and Mordecai got to it, without any arguments, leaving Benson a little confused about his behavior. He turned to Rigby and asked, “Did something happen to Mordecai?” Rigby shrugged, not knowing the full extent of what happened, but he had a feeling that things didn’t go so well between Mordecai and Margaret. Mordecai was assigned to help Skips clean one of the carts and fix the breaks as well as other problems the other carts had. He had started scrubbing the cart with a wet towel, but his mind was still set on the events back at the Coffee Shop. “Friendzone? Friendzone? Why am I stuck in the freakin’ friend zone?! Am I just not good enough?” Mordecai thought to himself in frustration. He wasn’t trying to focus his anger on Margaret, he was angrier with himself for not making a move sooner. He was thinking about the multiple times he could have said something, or done something, but he never felt the time was ever right, especially when Margaret had a new boyfriend almost every other week. Despite this fact, he was still kicking himself for not doing anything sooner and he was on the verge of crying angry tears with the position he put himself in. He took the risk and put his feelings on the line, but in the end, he was rejected, and now things can never be the same between him and Margaret ever again. He rubbed his eyes and takes some deep breaths to try and calm down, not wanting to have an emotional breakdown while he was on shift. After finishing his job, Rigby caught up and helped him with the cart. Skips went inside to get his tools so they could fix the breaks on it. While they were cleaning the cart, a bright light flashed behind them, they turned and saw ten figures from the light. After seeing the figures, they hid behind the cart, thinking the figures might start some trouble with them. Rigby asked, “Who are they?” Mordecai said, “How should I know?” Back to Sonic and his friends, after teleporting with Chaos Control, they each got a good look around their surroundings in the new area. They saw trees scattered around the area, park benches, the destroyed water fountain, a snack bar, and a playground. They figured that they were in a park. Sonic turned to Tails and asked, “You sure the radar says the emerald is here?” He simply said, “Yeah, it’s here all right. I think we should split up and look for it.” And with that, Sonic and the group split up and went in different directions to search for the Chaos Emerald. Mordecai and Rigby looked over from the cart and saw that the visitors weren’t around. Not wanting to deal with what had shown up, the duo got back to work. Sonic had no luck finding the emerald after searching for the last half hour. He felt a little tired and stopped at the snack bar. He gave it some thought and decided to grab a couple of chili dogs for a quick break. Sonic walked over to the snack bar counter and saw a green obese man with brown hair, along with a ghost with a hand on its head running the snack bar. Seeing that the duo didn’t pay attention to their customer, Sonic pounded on the counter, getting their attention, and said, “Two chili dogs to go Slow-Mo, on the double.” Muscle Man turned to him and said, “Who’re you calling ‘Slow-Mo’ bro?” Sonic pointed at him and said, “You, that’s who. Now move it! I got things to take care of.” Muscle Man then said, “Well, well, well, looks like someone’s impatient when it comes to a good wiener. Do you know who else is impatient when it comes to a good wiener? MY MOM!” Sonic gave the green man a questioning look while he and the ghost gave each other a high five and said, “Okay…” Sonic thought to himself, “I’m not sure if I’m supposed to laugh, or feel disgusted by that.” After a few minutes, Muscle Man said, “Here are your chili dogs bro.” Sonic paid for the chilidogs and left the snack bar. Meanwhile, Twilight wasn’t doing much better with finding the emerald herself. She came across a garage and saw a couple of workers. She decided to ask one of them for help since she didn’t know a thing about the park. She walked over to Skips’ garage and sees the blue jay by himself while he was working. She goes to him and said, “Excuse me can you help me with something?” Mordecai heard the voice and turned to see who it belonged to. He didn’t see anyone until he looked down, and he was a little shocked to see a lavender unicorn standing before him. He was still bothered from his last experience with a group of unicorns, so for him to see another one would understandably leave him on the defensive side. Twilight simply smiles at the blue jay as he sees her for the first time. Seeing her smile and looking into her purple eyes, Mordecai didn’t feel threatened by her and he started to calm down. The unicorn said, “I’m Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name?” Mordecai had a light blush on his face after hearing her talk, as well as hearing her name. “Twilight Sparkle,” the name just fits this pony perfectly. A light breeze blew by, adding the effect of her mane blowing in the wind, making his heart race even faster. He thought to himself, “Holy crap.” He turned around, trying to hide his blush from Twilight, he started feeling more nervous than he could recall at this moment. He realized what he was doing and thought, “Don’t come off as weird, just talk to her.” He takes a deep breath and turned back around after getting out of his current mindset. He said, “Uh…I’m M-m-morde…Morde.” He started stammering, making Twilight tilt her head to him. He coughed in an attempt to stop his stammering and continued to say, “Mordecai. I’m Mordecai.” Twilight giggled at his actions and said, “It’s nice to meet you, Mordecai.” Hearing her giggle caused him to blush lightly, he smiles as he found it adorable. After regaining his composure, Mordecai asked, “So, you said you needed help with something?” She said, “Oh, yes, I needed some help. There’s something a friend of mine lost and we think it’s here. I’ll take you to him and he can tell you more about it.” Mordecai nodded to her answer, and to be nice, he chose to go with her. Before he left, he said, “Hey Skips, I’m gonna go for a walk. I’ll be right back.” Skips, still looking for his tools, said, “All right, see you, Mordecai.” And with that, Mordecai left the garage with Twilight to look for her friend. While they were walking through the park, Sonic had just run past some trees and he sees Twilight with the blue jay. He was going to approach them, but he saw the way the blue jay was looking at Twilight. From what he could see, from the light blush and how careful he was as he looks at Twilight, Sonic sees that this blue jay is a shy guy. Sonic was a little puzzled by what he was seeing, so he kept a good distance from them and wanted to see how they would act with each other, sensing no hostility between them as he started eating one of the chili dogs. He was surprised by the taste of the chili dog and thought, “This is really good, must be a special hot dog.” Mordecai was looking her over, from her mane to her eyes, to her smile. He just felt a lot happier than he did before, he wasn’t too sure what it was, but he liked it. To pass the time while they were looking for this friend of Twilight’s, he decided to get to know her better and started a conversation with her. Mordecai said, “So…I’m guessing you aren’t from around here.” Twilight said, “No, me and five of my other friends are from Ponyville. Do you live around here?” He said, “Yeah, I live in that blue house over there with my friend Rigby and the owner of this park’s son, Pops.” He pointed to a two-story house that was in the park. She said, “Looks like a nice little home, and very convenient too.” He said, “It’s cool, I never had a job that gave me a place to live.” She said with a smile, “I know what you mean. My assistant Spike and I live in a library. Well, it’s a giant tree with a library in it, but still a library.” Mordecai saw this as a chance to make a joke and said, “At least there’s no excuse for being late for work.” Mordecai and Twilight shared a good laugh about their living arrangements and the little quip Mordecai made. She added, “Not unless you sleep in.” Mordecai said, “Yeah, I suppose that’s true.” It might have been small, but Sonic saw a real connection between them. “As much as I don’t want to interrupt them, we got an emerald to look for,” Sonic thought to himself with a smile. He finished eating one of his chili dogs and ran up to the pair. After arriving, he said, “Hey Twilight, I see you’ve made a new friend.” She said, “Hey Sonic, this is Mordecai. He’s one of the park workers here. Mordecai, this is Sonic. He’s the friend I was telling you about earlier.” The blue jay looked at him in question and said, “Sonic? I think I’ve heard that name somewhere before.” Sonic then asked, “Do you remember hearing about a Space Colony that had fallen to Earth?” Mordecai said, “Yeah, I’ve heard of that.” He slapped his forehead in realization and said, “Oh, wait. Sonic the Hedgehog? Now I remember! Dude! It’s great meeting you in person!” Sonic grinned and shook Mordecai’s extended hand. Twilight was a little shocked to hear that he had to deal with a space colony falling to Earth and asked in surprise, “A space colony?” After seeing her expression, he asked, “Remember when I said that I saved the world on more than one occasion?” She nodded and said, “Yes, I remember.” He said, “The space colony falling was one of those things. It was known as Space Colony ARK, and it was on a collision course with Earth after my arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman had placed all seven of the Chaos Emeralds in the ARK. That was one of my adventures that involved saving Earth, but I couldn’t have done it without my friends.” Twilight nodded in understanding and amazement. Mordecai gave him a questioning look and asked, “What are the Chaos Emeralds?” Sonic pulled the purple emerald out, showed it to Mordecai, and said, “This little gem is a Chaos Emerald. And like I said, there are seven of them in total. I had a little mishap back on Angel Island involving Time Eater, and Discord.” Mordecai looked a little confused after hearing the names. Sonic continued to explain and said, “I took care of Time Eater on my birthday, Twilight and her friends dealt with Discord not too long ago. Time Eater tried to steal them, but the red emerald released its power, and the emeralds scattered in different directions after it lost its grip on them. I found this one back in Ponyville. A radar that my pal Tails made, read that another one was here at the park.” Getting a better understanding of the situation, Mordecai nodded his head and said, “Hmm-hmm.” Sonic then asked him, “So, can you help us look for the emerald that’s here?” He said, “Sure, I can help out.” And with that, Mordecai joined Sonic and Twilight and started looking for the emerald. Mordecai decided to start his search for the emerald with Sonic. After agreeing, Twilight left the duo and went to search for the emerald in a nearby place. Sonic wanted to know a little about the park and the two workers at the snack bar before he continued looking for the emerald. He asked, “Hey Mordecai, can I ask you-?” But before he could finish his question, Mordecai got ahead of himself and said, “Twilight is just a friend!” Sonic looked at him in confusion and said, “I wasn’t going to ask about you and Twilight.” Mordecai felt embarrassed for his sudden outburst with Sonic. He scratched the back of his head and said, “Oh. What were you going to say?” Sonic said, “I was going to ask if you knew some green guy and a ghost that was working at the snack bar.” He said, “Oh, them. The green guy is Muscle Man, and the ghost is his friend High Five Ghost. Why, did Muscle Man give you one of his lame “My Mom” jokes?” Sonic stared at him in confusion and said, “Yeah. I’m going to take a guess and say that he uses that joke a lot.” Mordecai said, “You got that right, he uses that joke with everyone. It’s his way of trying to be funny. He’s more annoying than my friend Rigby, but I can still put up with him to an extent. I don’t have a lot to say on High Five Ghost, but he’s good to hang around now and then.” Sonic nodded in understanding after hearing his answer. After searching around some small parts of the park, Sonic felt a little curious about Mordecai’s feelings for Twilight. He figured since she was searching in a different part of the park, he could ask him about it. He said with a grin, “Since you brought it up, what is going on with you and Twilight?” Mordecai blushed at this and said, “Oh, n-n-nothing. J-just showing her around the park trying to look for you.” Still wearing his grin, he said, “You sure? ‘Cause to me, it looked like she wasn’t the only one doing some “sightseeing” around here.” Mordecai turned to him and said, “You saw?” Sonic said, “Yeah, but don’t sweat it. If you like her, I got nothing against it,” he finished with a chuckle and began to eat the second chili dog. Mordecai blushed hard after Sonic pointed this out to him and yelled in embarrassment, “Dude!” He shrugged at this and nonchalantly said, “What? I call them as I see them.” That exchange alone was different for Mordecai, he’s usually used to getting teased relentlessly by Rigby over any crush he had, but seeing that Sonic was being so cool with it, he started to calm down. Feeling a little more confident, he said, “Well…since we’re on this subject, do you know anything about her? Like maybe if she has a boyfriend back in Ponyville?” “I knew Twilight was cute, but he’s smitten already.” Sonic thought to himself with a smile. He put a hand on his chin and said, “Dude, I’ve only known her for a day, but as far as I know, she doesn’t. When I met her, she was reading a book on a bench in the park. If she were seeing someone, I would assume that he would’ve been with her on the bench or even talked with her.” Mordecai breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Good. Uh, I mean, uh, thanks.” “As I said, if you like her, I got nothing against it,” said Sonic. Mordecai blushed after hearing his statement again. Mordecai was a little hesitant to think that what he was feeling was anything more than a crush. He was still hung up on what happened with Margaret, so he had no intention of just blindly diving into this. Sonic sees Mordecai’s blush fade and he could see a hurt expression on his face. It wasn’t obvious, but he was able to feel his mood change. He wasn’t going to push this any further, he figured that if something is on Mordecai’s mind, then he should let him sort that out for himself. He said, “Right now, we have to worry about finding the emerald here before Discord or Time Eater do.” Mordecai said, “Hmm, hmm good point.” Sonic finished eating the chili dog and took off in a different direction, leaving Mordecai to his thoughts. He started his search in the bushes. Mordecai said to himself, “She reads books, she lives in a library, and she’s an all-around friendly pony. All I can do is if I do get the chance, hopefully, I can do better with her.” After searching around the park for a while, Mordecai came across the playground and started looking in the area. He sees the playground and notices that the sand in the sandbox looked like something crashed into it. He gets closer to the spot and sees something sparkle under the sand. Mordecai then grabbed a plastic sand shovel some kid left behind and started digging up the spot. After digging enough sand, Mordecai found the cyan Chaos Emerald. He takes it out of the sand, held the emerald in his hand, and felt proud of himself for finding it. He couldn’t contain his excitement and yelled, “OOOOHHH!” After hearing him shout, Sonic and Twilight turned to see Mordecai holding the emerald in his hand. They both rushed to him, both very happy to see that it wasn’t stolen. Mordecai said with a smile, “Here it is guys!” Twilight said, “Thank you, thank you, Mordecai!” He said, “No problem, Twi-.” But before he could finish his sentence, Twilight hugged him in excitement, and it left him with a heavy blush on his face. Sonic gave him a pat on the back for finding the emerald and said, “Yeah, thanks a lot Mordo!” Before he could take the emerald back, the trio heard a radio go off. The voice belonged to Skips and he said, “Mordecai, come in Mordecai! Mordecai! Can you hear me?” Mordecai grabbed his radio and responded to the call and said, “I hear you, what’s going on Skips?” He responded by saying, “We need you back at the house. We’ve got a problem.” Mordecai looked a little worried over Skips’ response. The rest of the ponies and Sonic’s friends regrouped at the sandbox after they saw the trio. After getting a good look at the others, Mordecai remembered seeing each of them when they appeared earlier. Knuckles looked at the blue jay and asked, “Who’s this guy?” Sonic said, “We can save the introductions for later. We’ve got to go to the house that’s here at the park.” Rainbow Dash said, “What for? I can see we have the emerald.” Twilight said, “Because, he helped us out, and the radio transition sounded urgent. The least we can do is see if we can help.” Everyone agreed to this and left with Mordecai to go back to the house. As the group saw the house, they also saw Discord standing before the other park workers, Sonic dashed at top speed after seeing him. Once he was close enough, he jumped in the air and was ready to kick him in the head. Discord sensing his presence snapped his finger at the last second and disappeared. Sonic skids on the ground after his attack missed him. He growled in frustration and Discord reappeared with a grin. Mordecai and the rest of the group showed up before Discord and Sonic could continue their fight. After seeing the intruder, Mordecai asked, “Who the heck is this guy?!” Twilight said, “That’s Discord.” After hearing the name, Mordecai remembered his conversation with them about Discord and Time Eater. Rigby snapped him out of his thoughts by saying, “I’m glad someone told us who this guy was!” Everyone turned to Rigby after his little outburst after the identity of Discord was revealed to him. He continued by saying, “This guy said something about wanting to face Sonic, Twilight, and some other names I couldn’t catch and something about an emerald, but I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about.” Discord said with a smirk, “That’s right. I’m here for the Chaos Emerald. I was going to mess this lousy park up while I was going to search for it.” Mordecai still had the cyan emerald in his hands. He lifted the emerald in the air and said, “Hmm-hmm sounds like you have bad timing!” Shocked by what he was doing, Rigby said, “Dude, what are you doing?!” Ignoring him, Mordecai said, “We found it before you even got here, and there is NO WAY you’re getting your hands on this.” Discord shook his head and said, “Always the hard way, I’ll never understand these guys. Very well then, I’ll have more fun taking it from you instead. But I’m going to get some help of my own.” He then snapped his finger, and a bright light appeared before everyone. Mordecai thought that Discord was getting Time Eater, but once the light faded, it revealed the Moon Monster instead. Benson came out of the house, oblivious to what was going on outside, and said, “Mordecai! Rigby! I thought I told you two to…” But before he could finish his sentence, he noticed a big shadow and saw the Moon Monster. He said in confusion, “What the…?!” He looked at Mordecai and Rigby, believing they had something to do with it, but Mordecai was quick to defend them and said, “I swear, we had nothing to do with this one!!” Rigby added, “Yeah. It was that Discord guy over there.” He finished by pointing accusingly at him. Discord was upset for being singled out and says with a pout, “Tattletale.” Benson turned to see where he was pointing and saw the mismatched creature. Discord waved at Benson with a mischievous smirk and disappeared, leaving everyone to deal with the Moon Monster. The Moon Monster, in no time, threw the first punch at everyone. The park workers, the ponies, and Sonic and co. split up, before the monster’s fist hit the ground. The park workers got into a nearby cart and drove off. The monster saw Rigby on the front porch and swung its fist at him. Rigby jumped off the porch, and the monster ended up punching a hole in the house instead. While he was running, Applejack caught up to him and asked, “What in the hay is that thing?” He said, “I accidentally made that thing a while ago with a magic keyboard. After I made it, it tried to attack me, so I sent it to the moon, and it has been there ever since.” She then said, “My only question is how did Discord get THAT thing from the moon to here like nothing?” Sonic and Rainbow Dash approached Rigby and Applejack and heard her question. Rainbow Dash said, “Maybe Discord has gotten stronger in his abilities.” “For everyone’s sake, I hope it’s just his abilities,” Sonic thought to himself in concern, having a feeling that another factor is involved. The monster had thrown a tree at the rest of the park workers. They swerved the cart and the tree barely missed them. The tree hurtled towards Knuckles and Tails, and out of instinct, Knuckles punched the tree and split it down the middle. Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie joined Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rigby. Everyone stopped running after they regrouped. Sonic asked, “So, what’s the plan?” Twilight said, “I think the Elements of Harmony can work on that thing.” Confused, Rigby asked, “Elements of What?” Ignoring him, Twilight said, “We need someone to distract the monster to make it work.” Everyone heard a scream by the house. Sonic saw the monster had Amy in its hand and said, “Leave it to me.” And with that, he dashed off to save Amy. She tried to break free by using her hammer on the monster’s hand, but it wasn’t doing much effect on it. Knuckles tried punching the monster’s foot, hoping it would affect it, but his attacks were also left in vain. The monster tried to step on him, but Tails saved Knuckles in time by grabbing him, but couldn’t carry him far. Sonic arrived and spotted Mordecai driving the cart. He yelled, “Hey Mordecai! I need that emerald!” He saw him waving his hands and said, “All right! Here you go, dude!” He threw the cyan emerald to Sonic, which he easily caught in his free hand. Feeling both of the powers of the emeralds, he turned himself into a ball and launched himself in a spin-dash attack. Sonic made contact with the monster’s stomach and bounced off it. He was still in his spin-dash attack, ready to strike it again. The mane six arrived shortly after Sonic landed the first attack, and just like the park workers, they were surprised to see how much power he got from the two emeralds alone. Sonic kept his attack going and the monster let Amy go from its grasp. Seeing her fall, Mordecai ran as fast as he could and caught Amy in his arms. Mordecai gets them away from the Moon Monster before it could harm them. Twilight and her friends charged up their elements and were ready to unleash the power on the monster. Seeing this, Skips yelled, “Hey Sonic! You better get out of there!” After hitting the monster in the back of the head, Sonic saw what one of the voices had said. The ponies were off the ground and they were ready to use the Elements of Harmony. He returned to the ground and the ponies launched a rainbow from their elements. It hit the monster, causing it to roar in pain as the rainbow engulfed its entire body. Everyone shielded their eyes from the bright light the elements made. Once the light subsided, they saw that the monster was no longer there, leaving everyone speechless. Rigby suddenly said, “I’m glad to see Beef Burrito is back!” He ran over and grabbed the doll, leaving everyone confused, surprised, and dumbfounded over the monster’s real identity. Sonic scratched his head and asked, “It was just a doll the whole time?” Pinkie said, “Looks like it.” Mordecai shook his head at Rigby. Benson said, “Thank you all for helping us with that monster.” Sonic said, “No sweat.” Benson then said, “I’m guessing you’re Sonic.” He gave him a thumbs up and said, “The one and only.” The gumball machine said, “I’m Benson; I’m the manager of this park. This is Skips, he’s the one that warned you about that attack.” Sonic said, “Thanks for the heads up back there.” Skips just said, “Anytime.” A lollipop man said, “I’m Pops.” Benson interrupted and said, “He is Mr. Maellard’s son, he is the owner of the park, and you have already met Mordecai, this other slacker is Rigby.” The raccoon said, “Hey!” Everyone got a laugh out of Benson’s statement. After everyone was introduced, Benson wanted to know what was going on with Discord. Sonic pulled out the cyan emerald and said, “Discord wanted to get his hands on this.” Pops said, “It’s just a gem.” Mordecai said, “No Pops, it’s not an ordinary gem. Sonic told me it is a Chaos Emerald. As we saw what happened, it can give anyone a serious power boost.” Rarity said, “There are also seven of them that need to be collected.” Pinkie then said, “We need to get them before Discord and Time Eater can get their hands on them.” Confused, Skips asked, “You’ve crossed paths with Time Eater?” Not expecting to hear someone know about Time Eater, Sonic asked, “You know who I’m talking about?” Skips said, “Time Eater is a being that can rip time and space into pieces. I’ve heard a lot of rumors about what it’s capable of doing, and none of it is good.” Sonic nodded and said, “And just imagine a being with that kind of power teaming up with Discord and the thought of these getting in their possession.” He showed the two emeralds to them. Benson asked, “How many of those are there again?” Knuckles said, “There are seven Chaos Emeralds.” Benson said with an understanding nod, “So, you have two of them so far, just five more to go?” Tails said, “That’s right. And my radar says the next one is not too far from here.” Sonic turned to Mordecai and asked, “Hey Mordecai, want to help save the world?” Mordecai felt very honored with the idea of teaming up with Sonic. He was going to answer, until Benson cut into the conversation and said, “I’m sorry Sonic, Mordecai has a lot of work to do because of that Moon Monster. Besides, he wouldn’t be able to help you in any way.” He then said, “I wouldn’t have found the emerald here if it wasn’t for him.” Mordecai just said, “Hmm-hmm.” Not wanting to feel left out, Rigby jumped into the conversation and said, “If Mordecai is going, so am I!” Sonic said, “I like your enthusiasm, Rigby. With how things are going, we’ll need all the help we can get.” Benson shook his head and said, “Fine. You guys can go, but I want you guys back as soon as you’re done because if you’re late even one minute on the seventh day, you’re both fired. Got it!” Everyone saw Benson turn red as he yelled the last part and they see both Mordecai and Rigby flinch from the yelling. They nodded in understanding and intimidation. Skips and Pops wished Mordecai and Rigby as well as everyone else to do their best on their quest to save the world from Discord and Time Eater and went back to work. Sonic told everyone to gather around and he used Chaos Control again, to go to the next emerald. First MordeTwi moment in the story. I’ve never written a fluff moment in my life. I hope I did well on it. What does Sonic have to worry about Discord? Only time will tell for the chapter. With Mordecai and Rigby joining the group, things should get more interesting. All Sonic and the rest of the gang can say is, “Two emeralds down, five more to go.” > Chapter 6 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time Eater opened up a portal and watched the battle Sonic, his friends and the ponies had with the Moon Monster. The monster had thrown a punch at Rigby, but he dodged the punch and it punched a giant hole in the house instead. The rest of the park workers had used the cart to try and avoid the monster’s attacks. Discord reappeared in the Center of Time and asked, “So, what did I miss?” Time Eater said, “That Moon Monster had destroyed part of the house; it has thrown some punches and trees at the rest of the park workers and the rest of Sonic’s friends. Right now, it has Amy Rose in its hand.” Discord laughed in amusement at what he had caused for everyone at the park. His laughter was soon stopped after he heard what Sonic said in the portal. He said, “Hey Mordecai! I need that emerald!” Mordecai yelled, “All right! Here you go, dude!” He then threw the cyan emerald to Sonic, which he easily caught. Sonic then turned himself into a ball and launched himself in a spin-dash attack. He made contact with the monster’s stomach, bounced off it, and was ready to strike it again. Feeling nervous, Discord said, “That can’t be good.” Time Eater pointed at the portal and said, “And it doesn’t get any better.” Discord looked at the portal and saw the mane six arrive in front of the Moon Monster. Sonic continued his assault on the monster with the two emeralds he had. The monster desperately tried to swat him away, but he was too fast for it to follow. The monster eventually lost its grip on Amy, and she started falling to the ground. Mordecai caught her in time, and they joined the rest of the group, away from the Moon Monster. The ponies were off the ground and they were ready to use the Elements of Harmony. Sonic hit the Moon Monster one final time on the back of its head, and after the last hit, he distanced himself from it when the ponies fired the rainbow at it with their elements. Discord said, “I thought that monster could have handled them with ease.” Time Eater said, “It just shows you how powerful two emeralds can be!” He then said, “Don’t forget, one emerald was enough to get that thing from the moon to the park easily.” After saying this, Discord pulled out the yellow emerald and grinned from ear to ear. Time Eater said, “Your lucky you found that emerald or you could have been the one facing the Elements of Harmony instead of that Moon Monster.” **FLASHBACK** After the brief fight Discord had with Sonic, Time Eater pulled them back to the Center of Time, it was giving the draconequus a lecture and said, “You listen here! I need your chaos powers around to help me defeat Sonic! If you are killed before I get my revenge, it won't do me any favors!” Discord sighed in defeat and said, “Fine, so what do we do now?” Time Eater said, “We must get the other emeralds to help us out. There are six more out there, all we have to do is find them before Sonic and the ponies do.” Rolling his eyes at the obvious, Discord looked into the portal. A sudden sparkle caught his eye and he said, “Is that what I think it is,” while pointing at the portal. Time Eater looked at the portal and saw a yellow sparkle by Discord’s statue. It said, “Yes, I believe THAT is what we are looking for.” Not believing this, Discord said, “Are you serious? That’s one of the emeralds? How has that been overlooked?” Time Eater just said, “I don’t know, but it’s a lucky break for us. Now go get that emerald, before Sonic or anyone near that spot gets it.” Discord went back into the portal and arrived at the Canterlot Gardens near his statue. He looked around the spot and didn’t see Sonic or any of the guards around. He saw the emerald behind the statue, facing away from the castle. “Well, that could explain one reason it hasn’t been seen,” Discord thought to himself. He grabbed the emerald with his lion paw, and he immediately felt the power the yellow emerald was giving off. “Wow! Time Eater wasn’t kidding about the power this thing has, and it’s only one emerald,” Discord thought to himself with a wicked grin. He then saw Sonic leave the castle and run back to Ponyville with great speed. He also saw Princess Celestia write a letter and, in an instant, she sent it out of the castle. After seeing the letter fly off, he said, “This should be interesting.” Discord went back into the portal and returned to the Center of Time with the yellow emerald. After seeing Time Eater, he said, “You weren’t kidding about one emerald being very powerful.” It then said, “Now imagine that power times seven.” Discord then said, “I don’t want to imagine it, I want that to be a reality.” He laughed maniacally after the thought of the power all seven Chaos Emeralds could give him. Time Eater looked back at the portal and saw Tails, Knuckles, and Amy joined Sonic and the ponies. It also saw something in the fox’s hands. “That doesn’t look good,” Time Eater thought to himself. Everyone gathered around Sonic, and in an instant, he teleported the ponies and the rest of his friends out of Ponyville. Discord’s laughter stopped when he saw it himself. The trick confused him and he asked, “What was that?” Time Eater said, “That was Chaos Control. This ability allows the user to slow down time, or teleport themselves to another spot. I’ve seen Sonic use it during our fight. He, as well as Shadow, and Silver, are the only ones that can use this technique. It also looks like Tails has a radar to help them track the emeralds.” Discord said in anger, “Oh, that’s just great! How do we face them while trying to get the remaining emeralds, if they have a radar of their own?” Time Eater opened up a few portals and showed him what it had planned. Discord saw one portal had a monster on the moon. It then said, “I’d say let’s use that monster for the next emerald.” **END FLASHBACK** After the power from the elements faded, they saw that the Moon Monster was no longer there at the park. Before any questions were asked between them, they heard Rigby through the portal, saying, “I’m glad to see Beef Burrito is back!” To their surprise, the Moon Monster had been turned into a toy. After seeing this, Discord looked on in disbelief and said, “You’ve got to be kidding. That monster, the whole time was a toy?! How is something like that even possible? I’m the only one that can do something like that!” Time Eater opened up a portal and watched an incident with the Moon Monster. What it saw was Mordecai and Rigby in the events leading up to the Moon Monster’s creation. After seeing what happened, Time Eater then said, “It looks like the raccoon stole a keyboard from a wizard, and used it to create the Moon Monster. It doesn’t matter though. The keyboard was destroyed after they left the moon.” Discord said, “That’s good to hear.” He looked at the portal and saw something that caught his eye, leaving him with a sinister smirk. Time Eater looked at the portal, and an idea had clicked in its head. It then asked, “Discord, can you be a good distraction to Sonic and his friends?” He looked at it and said, “Easily. Why? Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Time Eater said, “I think I am thinking what you’re thinking, and it’s time we played a little game called “divide and conquer” with these creatures, while we get the next emerald.” Discord chuckled at the thought of the plan working and he teleported himself out of the Center of Time. Sonic and the group had left the park and followed the next emerald that Tails’ radar had read. Unfortunately, the emerald on the radar disappeared once they arrived at the spot. The radar picked up another emerald that was one hundred miles from where they were. Sonic used Chaos Control again to teleport the group to the new area, but once again, the emerald disappeared on the radar. The pattern was done two more times, leaving an exhausted Sonic in the process. He fell on one knee after the fifth Chaos Control was done. The group was concerned for him after seeing him on his knee. Fluttershy asked in a worried tone, “Are you all right Sonic?” He took a couple of deep breaths, got back on his feet, and said, “I’m just a little tired. I’ll be fine, just give me a minute everyone.” While Sonic continued catching his breath, the rest of the group started getting to know each other better. Amy asked Twilight, “So, what do you guys do?” Twilight answered with a smile, “I work in a library back in Ponyville. I also enjoy helping my friends out whenever they need my help. My friends and I do friendship reports to Princess Celestia after we learn something about friendship.” Curious, Knuckles asked, “So, I’m guessing you might write a letter once this is all over.” Twilight then said, “We’ll see.” Wanting to get into the conversation, Applejack said, “My family and I work on an apple farm in Ponyville. As y’all can guess, we harvest the apples in Ponyville.” Surprised by this, Tails asked, “All the apples? That must be a lot of work.” She said, “It is, trust me. But it’s all worth it in the end.” After Applejack was done, Pinkie Pie said, “I work at Sugarcube Corner and help make all of the baked goods in Ponyville.” Rigby asked, “Does that include chocolate cake?” Mordecai looked over in excitement after hearing chocolate cake. She then said with a smile, “You bet it does!” Mordecai asked, “Do you think we can have chocolate cake when this is all done?” Pinkie said, “I don’t see why not.” Mordecai and Rigby yelled in unison, “OOOOHHH,” leaving the group to share a good laugh from their excitement over chocolate cake. After calming down from their laughter, Rarity said, “I design the dresses at Carousel Boutique in Ponyville.” Hearing this, Amy suddenly said, “Ooh, ooh! Would it be too much trouble if I asked you if you could make a dress for me?” Sonic shook his head at her after she asked her question. Rarity said, “No, it wouldn’t be too much trouble at all darling. I’ve offered to make a nice suit for Sonic later, just to try something new, and I can already see a dress perfect for you.” After Rarity was done, Rainbow Dash said, “Me, and the rest of the pegasi, manage the weather in Ponyville.” Rigby said, “That sounds cool. I bet you slack off every now and then.” She rubbed the back of her head and said, “Just when it’s too slow, I’d never leave Ponyville hanging. I also try to learn some new moves so I can try to impress the Wonderbolts, the greatest flyers in all of Equestria.” Impressed by this, Mordecai said, “Hmm-hmm, that sounds interesting.” Fluttershy felt embarrassed to talk to everyone, but she went against her shy attitude and said, “I take care of the animals at my cottage. I also train my own choir of birds.” Sonic looked at her in curiosity and said, “That sounds cool. I never heard of a choir of birds before. Are the birds easy to train?” She said, “Not always, some of them sing off-key. I also look after my friend’s pets when they need it, like Rarity’s cat Opal.” Everyone felt awkward after hearing the cat’s name. Mordecai then said, “That’s a very…unique name for a cat. It was great knowing the six of you. How about you guys? I’m sure you guys also have something interesting to talk about since you tag along with Sonic and all.” Tails said, “There is a lot to tell, but I think we should get going. I think Sonic should be good to go right now.” Sonic stood up and felt good again, but he still felt a little weak. However, he ignored it and wanted to look for that emerald. He said, “Yeah, I’m good to go. Let’s get going everyone.” The radar picked up the emerald and it read that it was 500 miles away from where they were. Everyone gathered around Sonic once again, and in an instant, everyone disappeared, going to the Chaos Emerald. The radar once again lost the emerald once the group arrived at the area the radar read. The emerald appeared again one thousand miles away. Everyone was becoming frustrated with the radar, thinking it might have a loose wire or some other malfunction to it. Sonic used Chaos Control once again, but he was still a little tired from the last set of Chaos Controls he used. He was able to get the group to the spot the radar last read the emerald’s location, but it disappeared once again. Tails this time, stopped him from using another Chaos Control and decided to inspect the radar himself. Out of frustration, Rigby asked, “Are you sure that radar is reading the emeralds, right?” Tails snapped at him and said, “I made the radar, so I’m sure it's working just fine Rigby.” Mordecai got between them before a fight broke and said, “Sorry Tails, but it’s been two hours already. We should have been able to find that emerald by now.” He rolled his eyes at Mordecai’s response. Catching his breath, Sonic said, “Not to go against you little bro, but we have had some problems with an invention of yours before.” Curious about the experience, Applejack asked, “Mind telling us that last experience?” Sonic felt a little uneasy about telling everyone about the Wisps and what he and Tails went through to save them. So, he figured it would be best to tell them about it another time and said, “It’s a long story, we’ll tell all of you about it later.” After hearing this, the group nodded in understanding. Tails started working on the radar once Sonic started talking to everyone. Sonic then said, “But we can still tell you about ourselves and how we met. All I can say is that I met Tails, Amy, and Knuckles from three instances of Dr. Eggman’s attempts to rule the world.” Rigby asked, “Who’s Eggman?” Before he could tell him, Twilight said, “He is an archenemy of Sonic’s.” Mordecai jumped in and said, “He was telling me and Twilight about that time he stopped that space colony that fell to Earth a while ago when we were looking for the emerald back at the park.” Remembering the incident, Rigby said, “The falling space colony… Wait, that was you?” Sonic nodded to his question. He then said, “Dude, that was awesome! Who was the other hedgehog that was with you?” Knuckles said, “That was Shadow.” Pinkie asked, “Is he a friend of yours?” Sonic said with a shrug, “Sort of, he’s more of my rival than anything.” Getting back to the topic he was going to tell them, he said, “Anyway, I met Tails and saved him after Eggman had kidnapped him for some sort of ransom. I still don’t know what the ransom was for. But regardless, he has been helping me stop Eggman ever since. I saved Amy from Metal Sonic, a robot that Eggman had made to match my speed and strength in hopes of it defeating me. It might have looked like me, but it was no match for my speed.” Amy clasped her hands together and remembered the day as if it were yesterday. From meeting Sonic in person for the first time after Little Planet arrived, to the kidnapping by Metal Sonic, to him saving her in the very end. He continued by saying, “I met Knuckles on Angel Island. Unfortunately for me, Eggman found him first and he told him I was there to steal the Master Emerald.” Confused by what she heard, Twilight asked, “The Master Emerald?” Knuckles then said, “It’s a giant emerald that has control over all of the Chaos Emeralds. It also keeps Angel Island floating in the sky.” Curious by this, Applejack asked, “Don’t you worry about leaving that emerald alone on the island?” He simply said, “I have some concerns, but stopping Discord and Time Eater is something a little bigger than the Master Emerald. Besides, no one can get on the island unless they can fly on there.” Sonic continued the story and said, “Later on, after I kicked Knuckles’ butt, he finally figured out that I was on his side after Eggman tried to steal the Master Emerald.” Angered by this, Knuckles said, “THAT WAS A LUCKY SHOT AND YOU KNOW IT!!” Sonic then said with a cocky smile, “If you call a punch to your chin a “lucky shot,” and you get knocked out from it, then yes that was a lucky shot.” Knuckles glared at him in annoyance, while everyone got a good laugh at the story. Tails was still working on the radar, but he was still able to listen to the conversation and had a laugh after remembering seeing the fight himself. Sonic looked over at Mordecai and Rigby and asked, “You guys know about us now. So, what do you guys do?” Mordecai answered by saying, “As you know, we work at the park. But there are days when it gets very boring. So, we usually do our things to keep ourselves entertained while we’re there.” He raised his eyebrow and asked, “Like, slacking off?” Mordecai tried to catch that by saying, “Dude, I uh, I wouldn’t say-” Sonic assured him by raising his hand and said, “There’s nothing wrong with taking a break here and there, but you also got to know when to get your jobs done.” Mordecai then said with a smile, “Trust me, I know that. It’s Rigby you should be telling that to.” Feeling insulted by the statement, Rigby said, “Hey! I know when to not slack off!” Mordecai looked at him and said, “No you don’t. There was that one time you kept complaining every five minutes about setting up the chairs for that kid's birthday.” He retorted by saying, “That job was boring, and you know it!” Mordecai said, “Maybe, but at least I knew the job needed to be done!” Rigby yelled, “SHUT UP!” Sonic looked at the duo in disbelief and said, “Seriously Mordecai? He complained about setting up chairs for a birthday?” Mordecai said, “Yeah, but that’s nothing compared to him paying someone to do his job so he could slack off.” Everyone looked at Rigby in disbelief from that revelation, even Tails stopped working on the radar as he heard this. He said, “You can’t be serious with that one Mordecai.” Mordecai said, “Trust me Tails, I wish that was a joke, but it’s not, and the guy he hired was a doppelganger.” Rainbow Dash said, “A doppelganger? As in, someone who looked just like Rigby?” Mordecai said, “Not exactly, he transformed himself into looking exactly like Rigby and tried to take over his life.” The ponies were surprised to hear this, they didn’t know that shapeshifting would be outside the realms of what the Changelings could do. Knuckles said, “Was it hard to figure out the real Rigby from the doppelganger?” Mordecai shrugged, “No, not really. If you’ve known Rigby for as long as I have, you can figure him out easily, and for me, I knew it was him because he’s the biggest whiner I know.” Everyone busted out laughing at that statement. Rigby was getting more annoyed at becoming the “butt of the joke” to everyone. He thought of a moment to tell everyone and got a grin on his face after thinking it over. He then said, “I got a story to tell as well. Mordecai once got some cologne to try to impress this one girl back at the park, but instead, he attracted these-OW!” Mordecai had punched Rigby as hard as he could in the back of the head, knowing full well of what he was going to tell everyone. He put on a fake smile and said, “Could you guys give us a minute?” He then dragged Rigby away as quickly as he could so he could talk to him in private. Twilight was left a little curious as to what Rigby was trying to tell everyone, she thought she might ask Mordecai when he gets back. Once they were out of sight and were sure no one could hear them, Mordecai said in anger, “Dude, what’s with you?!” Rigby said, “Why are you ruining my life with those stories?” Frustrated with him, Mordecai said, “UGH! Quit being such a baby! I’m trying to share a laugh with everyone, not try to scare them away!” Rigby said in dissatisfaction, “Scare who? You mean Twilight?” Saying the last part with great emphasis. Even in the short amount of time with Sonic and company, Rigby could pick up Mordecai giving special attention to Twilight and he already figured him out. Mordecai glared at him, becoming embarrassed and angry at his accusation. He then grabbed Rigby by the shoulders and lifted him, giving him a serious death stare when he was at his eye level, and said, “You listen here, if you breathe a word of that story to Twilight or anyone here, I swear we’ll leave you behind at the next stop from the Chaos Control!” Seeing the seriousness in his eyes, Rigby felt scared from the threat, took it to heart, and said, “Okay, okay! Jeez! I’m sorry, I just don’t like being made fun of.” After calming down, and thinking it over, he felt bad for telling those events. Mordecai said, “Come on man. Sonic told us that Knuckles got his butt kicked a while back. Do you think he wants to kill him right here, right now because of that? It was all in good fun going down memory lane.” Rigby got a chuckle after remembering the little spat between Sonic and Knuckles after he told everyone how they met, and what eventually happened later. He then said, “Yeah, that was funny.” Mordecai said, “See, I told you. I wasn’t trying to embarrass you, I just thought they were funny after going through them. Just be glad I didn’t say anything about you changing your name to ‘Trash Boat’.” Sonic was finishing up telling them about the space colony before the duo came back to the group. After arriving, Mordecai said, “Hey everyone.” After seeing him, Twilight said, “Hey Mordecai. Do you mind if I ask you something?” Mordecai simply said, “No, I don’t mind. What is it?” She then asked, “What did you attract with that cologne, and who were you trying to impress?” He stammered and said, “Uh, well…I, uh.” Fortunately for him, before anything was explained, Tails finished repairing the radar, and it picked up another emerald reading. After hearing the radar, he breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I’ll probably tell you another time. It sounds like we got an emerald to find.” Sonic was well-rested and was ready to use Chaos Control again. The radar was reading that it was at least five hundred miles from where they were at. Everyone gathered around, and in an instant, the group was gone. > Chapter 7 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a slow day at the Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.) Fortress. The fortress was not visible on the land, it was located underground. Every G.U.N. agent was monitoring all the activities across the world, and no sign of any disturbances was picked up on their computers. Above the underground base on each level, we see a great number of G.U.N. troops and mechs marching on the surface, ready for any possible threat that plans to attack the base. On top of the platform above the surface of the fortress, Shadow the Hedgehog was standing with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. With nothing going on at the base, he was bored with the lack of activity. He opened his eyes and turned around as he heard that he had company. Rouge the Bat joined him after an hour had passed when he went above ground. She approached him and said, “You know Shadow, staying up here isn’t doing the base any favors.” He closed his eyes and said, “I thought I sensed something a while ago.” Curious, she asked, “What was it you sensed?” He opened his eyes, looked at her, and said, “I thought I sensed the Chaos Emeralds.” Surprised by this, Rouge said, “That can’t be right. One of the computers should have picked something up if the emeralds are being used again.” Shadow corrected her and said, “If Eggman were using them, then yes one of the computers would have picked it up. I was sensing that one of them had been hopping around randomly.” Not believing what he just told her, she said, “That’s unusual.” Before they could talk about the subject any further, the alarm in the base started going off. They got off of the platform and ran back inside. Deep inside the base, Discord was seen toying with the F-6 Big Foot mechs, as well as the F-6r Big Foot mechs, and the R-1/A Flying Dog mechs. He challenged the agents and said, “Is this all you humans have to offer me?” Each of the mechs fired their missiles at him, but before they could make an impact, Discord snapped his eagle claws, changing the missiles into pillows. The missile-turned-pillows made contact with Discord, and he laughed at the G.U.N. agent's attempts to harm him. He then snapped his fingers on the lion paw and the pillows turned into boulders. Discord lifted the boulders with his magic and threw them at the mechs. The agents working their respective mechs got out before the boulders could hit them. More of the G.U.N. agents surrounded the creature and started firing their guns at him. Discord shook his head and said, “I swear this is no fun at all.” Discord snapped his finger again and stopped the bullets from hitting him. He then turned the bullets to the G.U.N. agents with his magic and fired the bullets back at them. The G.U.N. agents disappeared before each of the bullets could hit them, leaving him confused about what had happened. A voice suddenly said, “Who are you supposed to be you jumbled-up mess?” Discord turned to see where the voice was coming from, and saw a black hedgehog with red stripes and white chest fur, along with a white bat with all of the G.U.N. agents on a platform above him. The black hedgehog jumped off the platform, landed on the ground, and glared at him after he stood up on his feet. “Oh great, another hedgehog,” Discord thought to himself in annoyance. He nonchalantly said, “Who am I you ask? I’m Discord. Who, or what are you supposed to be?” The black hedgehog took a fighting stance and said, “I’m the Ultimate Lifeform Shadow the Hedgehog!” The hedgehog then snapped his fingers, and a blast of Chaos Energy came out of nowhere. The energy hit Discord in the chest and knocked him backward. Shadow dashed towards the surprised Discord and started throwing punches and kicks at him. After taking a few shots, Discord grabbed Shadow’s fist and threw him to the roof. Discord charged up a purple energy ball in his lion paw and was ready to fire it at the defenseless hedgehog. He fired the blast at him, but before it made contact, Shadow had disappeared from his sight. Discord was concerned after seeing this. He tried his best to look around the area to see where Shadow would show up. Before Discord could react, he reappeared in front of him and punched him under his chin. Discord stumbled backward from the hit. He rubbed his chin after he regained his balance from the punch. Shadow disappeared again before Discord could attack him again. He then felt an unusual reaction from the yellow emerald once Shadow disappeared again. Discord felt every movement Shadow made after his disappearance. He took in his surroundings and spotted the hedgehog’s exact movements. Shadow was going to attack Discord from behind this time, but he opened a portal and Shadow slipped through it. Instead of landing another attack on Discord, Shadow reappeared in front of him, and he was left confused by what happened. Discord charged up some energy into his eagle claws and struck Shadow in the back of his head. He landed hard on the ground after the attack made contact. “Damn it,” he grumbled to himself before losing consciousness. Discord towered over the unconscious hedgehog and said, “For the “Ultimate Lifeform,” you didn’t put up much of a fight.” He started charging up energy into his lion paw. He raised it and was ready to deliver the final blow to Shadow. “Say goodbye Shadow!” yelled Discord. After tweaking the radar, and using Chaos Control, Sonic and the gang arrived at the G.U.N. Fortress. After a quick look around, Sonic asked, “The radar says the emerald is here?” After looking over the radar, they see that the emerald was right where they were, Tails said in excitement, “Yes, it's here!” Glad to hear this, Mordecai said, “Ah, yeaa-uhh! Way to work that brain little man.” He and Tails exchanged high-fives. Tails said with a grin, “Thanks, Mordecai.” Applejack asked, “So where exactly is that emerald at Tails?” Rainbow Dash added, “And why is that alarm going off?” After hearing the alarm, Knuckles said, “I hope it’s not going off because of us.” Amy said, “It’s been going off since we got here. So, something is here causing trouble.” While the others were too busy quarreling over the alarm, Pinkie heard a familiar voice say, “Say goodbye Shadow!” After hearing this, she got their attention by saying, “Hey guys, it sounds like that Shadow guy is in trouble.” Sonic said, “Let’s move it, everyone!” And with that, everyone rushed into the Fortress, ready to help Shadow. Discord swung his lion paw at Shadow, and an explosion was made after the sphere of energy made contact. Discord smirked, believing he had defeated Shadow. After the smoke settled, Shadow was not seen where the blast mark was made. He looked around and saw the white bat from earlier. She was flapping her wings away from the spot and she had Shadow in her arms. The hedgehog said in a weak tone, “Thanks Rouge.” Discord started firing more dark energy balls at her, but she was able to dodge each one of them with ease. He became frustrated and fired a bigger energy ball at Rouge and it hit one of her wings, causing her to scream in pain. She and Shadow fell to the ground and hit hard, but before they hit, Shadow positioned himself to hit the ground to cushion the blow for Rouge. Shadow did his best to get back on his feet, but he was still too weak from the last hit he took from Discord to get them away from him. The only thing Shadow could do was keep Rouge safe as he held her tightly in his arms, ready to take the brunt of the upcoming attack. Discord charged up another energy ball in his lion paw and was ready to finish them off. “There is no escape this time!” he said with a wicked grin. Discord was about to throw the energy ball at them, but he got a double kick to the face and was sent flying backward from the impact. Both Shadow and Rouge looked up to see that Sonic was standing in front of them staring Discord down. He shook the hit off and was surprised to see that Sonic and the rest of the group had finally caught up with him. Grateful about this, Rouge said, “Thanks for the save Big Blue.” Shadow responded with a simple “Hmph” for Sonic’s rescue. He gave them a thumbs up and took his battle stance, getting ready to fight Discord. Twilight used her magic and lifted the two out of the way, so they wouldn’t be attacked by Discord, leaving them confused about what had happened. Discord snapped his fingers and teleported himself closer to Sonic. Discord charged up his energy into his eagle claws and he charged at Sonic. He slashed at Sonic with the claws, but he managed to dodge the attack with ease. Discord continued his assault and to tried to slash Sonic with the eagle claws, but Sonic kept dodging the attack. After he dodged the last slash from him, Discord tried to punch Sonic with his lion paw. Sonic saw this and stopped the attack with his left hand and held the lion’s paw very tight. He tried to punch Discord with his free hand, but Discord stopped his punch as well. The two stared each other down, not letting go of their grips on each other’s fists. Discord head-butted Sonic, and he lost his grip on Discord’s lion paw. Discord charged up an energy ball in his lion paw and was going to blast him with it, but before he could attack him, Sonic threw a kick to Discord’s face and he lost his grip on his fist, sending him flying in the process. The blast was sent flying to the ceiling after the kick, the G.U.N. agents covered themselves from the debris the explosion caused. Sonic raced to Discord and was ready to knock him out. He jumped up and was going to slam him with a punch, but Discord snapped his fingers and teleported out of the G.U.N. Fortress, having Sonic slam his fist into the metal floor instead. “Got away again,” he said under his breath while rubbing his hand, thankful that it was only numb and not broken. Sonic turned to everyone, and it looked like Shadow and Rouge had finished introducing themselves to the ponies, Mordecai and Rigby. He walked over to them and said, “I see that everyone has introduced themselves to Shadow and Rouge. Hey Tails, where did you say the emerald was at again?” Tails looked at the radar, and said, “It’s gone again.” Frustrated by this, Mordecai and Rigby said, “UGH!!” Upset over the situation, Rainbow Dash said, “I thought you said you fixed it.” Tails said, “Trust me, it was here when we got here.” The group started getting themselves into a quarrel over Tails’ radar screwing up again. Twilight, however, was thinking over the situation instead of arguing. She thought everything over before and after their arrival. “Tails worked hard on the radar before the last Chaos Control and it did say the emerald was here at the G.U.N. Fortress, we all saw it on the radar, but then it just disappeared after...” Her thoughts were interrupted once Mordecai said in a concerned tone, “Twilight, are you ok?” After coming to her senses, she said, “Huh? What?” He said, “You kinda zoned out there. Are you ok?” Twilight said with a smile, “Yes, I’m fine.” Rainbow Dash said, “Well if the emerald isn’t here, we should find the next one before Discord or Time Eater does.” Confused by this, Rouge said, “Time Eater? I thought Sonic defeated it.” Rarity said, “It somehow survived, according to what Sonic has told us.” Tails looked over the radar and said, “The radar has found two emeralds, about three hundred miles from here.” Knuckles said, “All right, let’s go!” Sonic and the group gathered around and were ready to leave, but Shadow got back on his feet and chose to join. Surprised by this, Sonic said, “Hold up, you want to join me on this quest?” Shadow said, “I got a score to settle with that mismatched moron, and I have nothing better to do around here anyway.” Rouge said, “Same here, I’m kind of glad something came up.” Sonic shrugged at them and was going to use Chaos Control, but Shadow interrupted him by saying, “Just leave it to me, faker.” Sonic rolled his eyes at his comment. Shadow used Chaos Control and teleported the group to the new area that has one of the Chaos Emeralds. The sun was shining over the Land of Ooo, not a sign of trouble was going on. Finn and Jake were still asleep from their previous adventures in their Tree Fort. The sun’s rays shined through the window and hit Jake’s face, waking him up in the process. Seeing that the sun was up, Jake got out of his drawer and went over to wake Finn up. After he passed the window, the sun suddenly set, and the moon had risen. Jake was oblivious to this change as he approached Finn, he said, “Finn. Finn! It’s time to get up bro.” Finn got out of his sleeping bag and rubbed his eyes, trying to wake himself up. He looked out the window and had seen that it was still nighttime outside. He was upset with this and said, “What the flop, Jake?! It’s still dark outside.” Confused about what Finn had said, he looked out the window himself and to his surprise, it was nighttime outside again. He then said, “I swear Finn, the sun was up.” Finn said, “Next time you want to pull a prank on me, can you at least wait until it’s daytime?” He crawled back into his bed with a frustrated grunt, wanting to go back to sleep. Jake went back to his drawer and decided to go back to sleep as well. But before the duo could fully go back to sleep, a bright light flashed through the window and into the room. 5 minutes earlier Sonic and the gang arrived in a forest. The sun was shining and gave the group a good view of where they were going in the forest. Sonic asked, “Hey Tails, does the radar say that the emeralds are here?” But before Tails could look the radar over, the sun had suddenly set on them. Surprised by this, Mordecai asked, “What just happened?” Rouge said, “Yeah, why did the sun just suddenly set?” Twilight said with a sheepish grin, “Sorry, I forgot to mention that Discord can change the sun’s rising and setting.” Shadow said, “So he can just make it morning or night whenever he wants?” She simply said, “Yes.” Tails looked at his radar, and was glad to see that the radar and said, “Hey everyone! The radar has found an emerald!” Knuckles said in surprise, “What?! Where is it?” Everyone gathered around him, and they were excited to hear that the emerald was found. Tails pointed in a general direction and said, “It’s just past that hill over there. It also looks like there’s an emerald back in Ponyville too.” Sonic asked, “It’s back there? How did we miss it when we were there the last time?” Tails said, “I don’t think the radar was accurate before we left. We just found the emerald at the park, and we just went from there.” Shadow asked, “So how do we get that emerald?” Sonic pondered this and said, “I think it would be best if I get the emerald here, while you take part of the group back to Ponyville and get the one over there.” Shadow asked in surprise, “What?! Why do I have to go there?” Sonic simply said, “I’ve already been there.” Shadow flatly said, “What’s your point?” Sonic rolled his eyes at this and said, “My point is, I have enough energy to use one more Chaos Control for today, and I think that if some of the group goes there, while the rest stay here…” Picking up on this, Twilight said, “Then we can get the two emeralds easily. I like the idea.” Amy said, “I like it too.” Sonic nodded in agreement with a smile and said, “So who wants to go to Ponyville?” Tails said, “I think I should go; they need my radar to track the emerald there.” Rouge shrugged and said, “I don’t mind going to Ponyville.” Amy said, “I’d like to pay the town a visit.” Mordecai said, “Same here.” Rigby said, “I just want to go for the chocolate cake.” Pinkie said, “If he wants chocolate cake, I think I should go back myself.” Fluttershy weakly said, “I need to check on the animals back at my cottage anyway.” Twilight said, “I don’t mind getting the emerald back in Ponyville.” And with that Rouge, Tails, Amy, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Mordecai and Rigby gathered around Shadow, ready to go to Ponyville. Sonic tossed him the cyan emerald and he used Chaos Control to teleport them to Ponyville. Shadow and the gang arrived in Ponyville in no time. It was nighttime in Ponyville as well. However, it didn’t last, as the sun had risen shortly after the group arrived in the town. Once the sun had risen, everyone, excluding the ponies, looked around the town and they were in awe of what they had seen. For a town inhabited by ponies, it looked amazing. Among the group, Rigby spotted the gingerbread house in the town and ran toward it. Mordecai shook his head and said, “I’m guessing Rigby found Sugarcube Corner.” Rouge said, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t eat the shop out,” and left the group. After looking at the town, Amy said, “This place is beautiful!” Pinkie said, “We could take all of you around the town, I know everypony and every place there is to know around here.” Shadow interrupted and said, “I’m sure we all want to, but there will be more time to do some sightseeing when we’re done with Time Eater and Discord.” Twilight said, “Shadow’s got a point, we can give you guys the tour when all of this is done. Tails, where does that radar say the emerald is at exactly?” Tails looked over the radar and found out exactly where the emerald was. He said, “According to the radar, it says that it is in that mountain over there.” Everyone turned to where Tails was pointing. Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie recognized the area is the same spot where they had to convince a sleeping dragon that lived in it to leave. Twilight said, “It shouldn’t be hard to go up that mountain again. I’m going to go get some things ready for the trip.” And with that, she left the group and went back to her home. Feeling scared at the idea of going to the mountain, Fluttershy said, “I’m going to go feed the animals back at my cottage. I don’t mind any help if anyone is interested.” Amy said, “I’d like to help you with the animals.” Tails said, “If Twilight says she’s got the mountain thing down, I can help out with the animals as well.” He then gave Mordecai the radar and left with Amy and Fluttershy to go help her with the animals. Pinkie turned to Shadow and said, “Hey Shadow, wanna help me with Rigby? Just in case he is trying to eat Sugarcube Corner’s entire inventory.” Shadow said, “Shouldn’t you be asking Mordecai about that? He is Rigby’s friend after all.” She then said, “I know, but with what Mordecai has been telling us is that Rigby doesn’t always listen to him. No offense, but you don’t give off that intimidating feel Mordecai.” Mordecai simply said, “It’s cool Pinkie.” She continued by saying, “Shadow, you come off as a very super ultra-intimidating person, and can keep him in check.” Getting angry at the situation he’s being put in, Shadow yelled, “I didn’t come here to babysit some idiot!” In an attempt to calm him down, Pinkie said, “I know, I know. But if you help out, I can straighten things out with Mr. and Mrs. Cake and you can help yourself to any of the sweets we have in Sugarcube Corner.” He sighed in frustration and asked, “What would be there exactly?” She said, “We have cakes, cupcakes, pies, cookies, pastries…” Shadow crossed his arms and said, “Just the regulars for a bakery.” She said, “We also make Swiss Rolls too.” He raised an eyebrow and asks, “Swiss Rolls you say?” “Looks like I found his sweet tooth,” Pinkie thought to herself with a smile. She continued and said, “Yup, Swiss Rolls.” Wanting to get the sweet treat, Shadow said, “Lead the way, Pinkie.” She hopped past him leading the way to Sugarcube Corner. Shadow started following her, but he just remembered something before leaving. He said, “Hey Mordecai, you and Twilight can meet us at Sugarcube Corner when you get the emerald. I’ll meet you two at the mountain in about an hour and help with the emerald if you haven’t arrived by then. I’ll tell the others where to meet us.” Mordecai nodded in understanding and said, “All right, we’ll see you guys there. Oh, hey Shadow, if Rigby does act rude to any of the ponies, or in general, you, Rouge, or anyone, have the right to punch him for me.” Shadow gave him a thumbs up and an evil grin, happy to know he gets to punch the idiot. After they left, Mordecai went in Twilight’s direction to meet up with her. Finn got out of his pajamas and got dressed in his usual outfit, which was his bear hat, which he calls his “awesome” hat, a light blue T-shirt, denim shorts, rolled-down white socks, and black shoes. Finn grabbed his backpack, unsheathed his dad’s Demon Sword, and was ready to attack the possible threat outside the Tree Fort. He and Jake ran out the front door and took in their surroundings. It was still dark outside, but after a few seconds of looking around, the sun rose unexpectedly. Confused by this, Jake asked, “Dude, did you see that? The sun just rose just now.” Finn said, “Yeah, I saw it.” Before they could question the sun’s sudden rising any further, the duo heard rustling nearby and saw Billy walk out of the bushes. He appeared to be very injured, seeing that he was keeping his balance on his sword “Nothung”. After taking a few more steps, Billy collapsed on the ground, leaving the duo shocked in the process. They screamed in unison, “BILLY!!!” They rushed to the fallen warrior as quickly as they could. Jake said, “Billy! Say something!!” The injured warrior coughed and opened his eyes. He then said in wonder, “Finn? Jake? Is it you guys?” Relieved to see that he was ok, Finn said, “Yes, it’s us. What happened to you, Billy?” Billy got himself in a sitting position and said, “I was involved in a fight with a new threat to Ooo.” Surprised by what he said, Finn asked, “A new threat? But how could you lose to this threat? You’re the greatest hero in all of Ooo!” Billy then said, “Yes, a new threat is here. The threat was a blue hedgehog, and he was threatening to destroy the Candy Kingdom. I thought I could take him, but he overpowered me with speed I never thought existed. He also has some hidden abilities that I didn’t think a hedgehog could possess.” Jake asked, “What was this hedgehog’s name, and what abilities did he have?” Worried for the candy people, and for Princess Bubblegum, Finn asked, “Is everyone in the Candy Kingdom safe?” Billy coughed again and said, “The hedgehog said his name is Sonic. After our fight, he left the Candy Kingdom out of boredom in a blinding light. Finn, Jake, if you see that hedgehog, don’t go easy on him. He will kill the two of you if you show any signs of weakness to him.” Finn felt complete anger after hearing what Billy told him and Jake about Sonic. He then vowed, “We will put a stop to Sonic Billy, I swear this on my hero’s name!” Billy smiled and said, “Thank you, Finn and Jake. You two truly are my heroes.” The duo wanted to help Billy, but he declined their offer and told them he was going to go treat his wounds at his home. Finn and Jake felt uneasy about it, but he assured them that he had the strength to get back home. They let Billy go and they left the Tree Fort to look for Sonic. After they were out of his sight, a bright light covered Billy and the light revealed Discord. He laughed and said, “This is just too easy!” He then snapped his fingers and disappeared; his laughter can still be heard. > Chapter 8 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discord returned to the Center of Time laughing at what he had set Sonic up for with Finn and Jake. Time Eater applauded him when he returned and said, “That was a nice performance you put on out there Discord.” Discord took a bow and said, “Thank you, thank you, I try. I wouldn’t have pulled off my best disguise without you.” It then said, “I told you Billy was going to work perfectly for you in Ooo.” After it was brought up, Discord couldn’t help but ask, “Yeah, about that. How did you know about Billy?” It answered him by saying “Earlier while you were keeping Sonic and the rest of the group busy, I checked everything and found out where the remaining emeralds are. One of them is in the Land of Ooo.” Discord then asked, “And the others?” Time Eater simply answered, “We’ll get them after we destroy the bond between Sonic and these new friends of his. Finn should be Sonic’s equal; I’ll destroy the land and take the emerald there. You, however, can destroy the bond between Mordecai and Twilight Sparkle.” Confused by this, he asked, “Why them?” Time Eater said, “Again, while you were distracting everyone, I have checked everything. That includes when they were fixing the radar and bonding. Look through the portal and see for yourself.” Discord looked into the portal in curiosity. He sees the growing bond between the two and checks on Mordecai’s past and after seeing what he needed to see, he had his plans to ruin their friendship figured out. He snapped his fingers and disappeared from the Center of Time once again. Time Eater tore open a portal and also left the Center of Time. Shortly after leaving the group, Rouge arrived at Sugarcube Corner. She saw that Rigby was standing in line, and he looked very impatient while waiting. She then asked, “You know this line isn’t that long, right?” He rudely responded by saying, “I don’t care! I want my chocolate cake!” After a few minutes of waiting, Shadow and Pinkie Pie arrived at Sugarcube Corner. Rigby didn’t notice them until Shadow joined them in line. Pinkie left the trio so she could talk with Mr. and Mrs. Cake. After seeing Rigby’s frustrated expression, Shadow asked, “Waiting paid off yet?” He simply said, “It’s been way too long for me. This grey pony is the only one standing between me and that chocolate cake!” “Chocolate cake is good, but it’s not worth getting this impatient over,” Shadow thought to himself while shaking his head. After a few minutes of waiting, Pinkie came out with a smile on her face and said, “Good news you guys. Mr. and Mrs. Cake agreed to let you have any sweets at a good discount.” Rouge said with a smile, “Thanks a lot Pinkie.” Shadow said, also smiling, “Yeah, thanks.” After Pinkie’s announcement, the grey mare grabbed her bag with her mouth. The smell of fresh muffins was coming from the bag. The mare turned around, and her wall-eyed expression greeted them. She walked past them in a hurry and went towards the exit. Rigby was the only one who had any reaction to seeing the pony. He rudely said, “Eh, what’s wrong with her eyes?” In an instant, Shadow punched him on the back of his head as hard as he could. This caused the raccoon to moan in pain and say, “OWWWW! What was that for?!” Shadow said with a smirk, “For being an idiot, and Mordecai said I could punch you if you act rude to any of the ponies.” Rigby rubbed his head and mumbled to himself in annoyance. Shadow laughed and thought to himself, “I’m gonna enjoy knocking this idiot around.” Back in the library, Twilight gathered a few of her books for the long trip and found the map of the mountain from before. After gathering the food she needed, she placed all of her items into each side of her saddlebags. She heard a knock on her door before she got the rest of her supplies. Twilight opened the door to reveal Mordecai standing on the other side. She said with a smile, “Oh. Hi, Mordecai.” He said, “Hey Twilight. Need any help for the trip to that mountain?” She said, “I’m almost done, but I wouldn’t mind some help.” Mordecai stepped into the library and looked around the place. It was no surprise to him with the number of books in the place, but he was left with some questions about how she lives in the library, seeing nothing but bookshelves throughout the room. He saw the staircase and figured that’s where she might go to get away from work. She snapped him out of his thoughts by saying, “So what do you think of my home?” He said, “It looks like a nice little home, I wouldn’t mind looking around.” Twilight giggled and said, “Thanks, maybe I’ll give you the tour later.” Before the two would continue their talk, Spike walked into the room and sees Mordecai. He asked, “Is this a new friend of yours Twilight?” The new voice caught Mordecai off guard. He quickly turned around and saw a little light purple dragon with green scales. After seeing the dragon, he asked, “Is this the assistant you said lives with you?” Twilight said, “Yes, this is Spike, and yes Spike, this is a new friend of mine. His name is Mordecai.” After seeing the blue jay, Spike said, “It’s nice to meet you, Mordecai.” He then extended his hand out to him. Mordecai took his hand, shook it, and said, “Same here Spike.” While Twilight was getting more supplies for the trip, Mordecai and Spike did a little bit of small talk, asking about things they liked, Mordecai told him about the video games he played and Spike showed him one of the comic books that he’s been reading. Twilight couldn’t help but smile after seeing Mordecai and Spike getting along with each other so easily. After they finished with their introductions and small talk, Mordecai helped her pack what she needed for their journey. After using her magic to place her saddlebags on her back, Twilight was ready. She realized that the rest of the group wasn’t around and asked, “Where are the others?” Mordecai said, “Tails and Amy went to help Fluttershy with her animals back at her cottage. Shadow, Rouge, and Rigby are with Pinkie at Sugarcube Corner.” Twilight thought it over and asked, “Do you think they will join us to go to the mountain?” Mordecai shrugged and said, “I don’t think so. Shadow said that we can meet everyone at Sugarcube Corner when we get the emerald.” Confused by this, Spike asked, “Wait a minute, there’s an emerald here?” She turned to him and said, “Yes, it’s in the mountain where my friends and I went the last time.” Mordecai asked, “When you say, “last time,” what do you mean by that? Was there something that was done there before?” She said, “Yes, but I can tell you about that later.” He felt uneasy about the last situation, but said, “Okay.” Twilight showed him the map of the mountain, while Mordecai pulled out the radar. The radar showed that the emerald was at the top of the mountain. Once the emerald’s location was found, Twilight pointed out a fast route for them to go on to get to the top of the mountain. After they finished looking over the map, she placed it into one of the bags; and with that, they were ready to go to the mountain. Mordecai said in excitement, “All right, this shouldn’t take long at all!” Once he opened the door, the sun immediately set, bringing nighttime to Ponyville once again. After the sunset, Twilight grabbed a flashlight and gave it to Mordecai. After they were set, they left the library and were ready to get the emerald. Back in the land of Ooo, Sonic, Knuckles, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were running through the jungle, attempting to get out of it. Unfortunately, with Tails taking the radar to Ponyville, the group was having a hard time trying to find their way out because of the sun’s sudden setting once again. Sonic said in frustration, “The sun just had to set again. I wish we had some light; it feels like we’ve been going in circles.” Knuckles said in a matter-of-fact tone, “Sonic, you know I can sense where the emeralds are, right?” Sonic smacked his forehead after remembering that Knuckles had that ability and said, “How could I have forgotten that? Mind pointing the way to the emerald?” Unknown to the group, they were being spied on by Finn and Jake. Before Knuckles could attempt to locate the emerald, the group heard rustling in a nearby bush. Rainbow Dash went over and inspected it. After checking the bush, Finn jumped out of it and glared at the group. After looking at the group with what little light he had from the moon, Finn spotted a blue figure. The only thing that came to his mind, was “Sonic”. After seeing him, his breathing became heavier and full of rage, he unsheathed his sword and yelled, “YYYYAAAAAH!!” Finn swung his sword at Sonic, surprising everyone with the sudden turn of events. Surprised by the sudden attack, he dodged it by bending backward, barely missing the swing of the sword. He then kicked Finn in the stomach. Sonic said in shock, “What was that for?!” The sun rose again, giving everyone better lighting in the area. Sonic saw that the attacker was a boy, wearing a light blue shirt, blue denim shorts, a white bear hat, white socks, and black shoes. What caught him by surprise was the boy was wielding a red sword, and his face showed complete anger and hatred toward him. Confused by this, he asked, “Did I do something wrong?” The human pointed his sword at him and said, “Don’t act innocent Sonic! You know what you did!” Sonic was left confused after hearing the boy call him out by name. He looked back at the group; they were just as confused as he was after hearing the boy call him out. Rainbow Dash asked, “Are you sure you didn’t do something to make this kid this mad?” Surprised by the question, he said, “I swear, I never met him before.” Finn charged at Sonic again and was going to slash him with his sword, but he took a quick step back, causing Finn to miss again. Sonic then started running into the jungle, attempting to give himself distance from Finn. The boy then said, “Let’s roll Jake!” A dog then jumped out of the bushes where he and Finn were hiding. Finn got on Jake’s back, and the dog grew in size and height, causing the group to be surprised by Jake’s sudden change. Applejack said in surprise, “What in the hay?!” After becoming a giant-sized dog, Jake started running in the jungle, chasing after Sonic. Everyone was left in a state of shock from this. Rarity asked, “Knuckles, have either you or Sonic dealt with giant dogs before?" Knuckles shook his head and said, “No. We’ve dealt with giant robots, and different giant creatures, but a giant dog is new.” Rainbow Dash asked, “So, what now?” The group thought over what they were up against. After a few moments of thinking, Applejack said, “I got an idea; but first, let’s go catch up to Sonic, the boy, and Jake.” And with that, the group ran into the jungle in hopes of catching up to them. With the sun rising again, Mordecai put the flashlight away. The pathway to getting to the top of the mountain was a lot easier for him and Twilight to see. After looking over the mountain, he became concerned about climbing it and asked, “Do you have any mountain climbing tools in your saddlebags?” She said, “No, I don’t have any, but it’s a lot easier to climb than you’d think. Just follow me.” Twilight then started walking along the mountainside with ease. Mordecai was a little skeptical, but followed after her, grabbing the edges of the mountain and he was starting to climb up. After climbing 15 feet, he crawled over the edge of the mountain and found himself on a pathway. He spotted Twilight waiting patiently for him while he climbed up. She said, “I told you it was easy.” He said, “You weren’t kidding, so nothing but walking from here?” She nodded and said, “Yes, nothing but walking from here. It’s gonna be a while before we get to the top.” The two had been walking for a while, and Twilight was still interested in hearing some of the things Mordecai and Rigby go through while they work at the park. She asked, “Would you like to tell me some of the adventures you were talking about before we went to that G.U.N. fortress.” Mordecai started thinking about some of the stuff he and Rigby went through and said, “Maybe later, I gotta think of something, me and Rigby have been through a lot.” He turned to her and saw a design of stars on her flank. He then said, “But I have been wondering about something though. What are those marks on your flank?” He blushed after he realized what he had said and quickly added, “Ugh…n-n-not that I was looking there, it’s just something that stands out from you, your friends, and the other ponies here, and I couldn’t help but notice.” He laughed nervously as he finished. Confused by what he said, and not catching Mordecai’s nervous stutter, Twilight said, “Mark? Oh, you mean my cutie mark? Everypony gets their cutie mark after they have discovered the talent that makes them special.” Mordecai said with a smile, “A special talent? Hmm-hmm that does sound pretty cool. Mind telling me how you got yours?” Excited about her talent, she said, “No, not at all! It all started when I was a filly and I wanted to attend the Summer Sun Celebration back in Canterlot.” After giving himself some distance from Finn, Sonic slowed down from his running and said, “Whew, gave him the slip.” Before he could completely relax, he heard giant footsteps coming his way. To his surprise, he saw the boy riding on top of a giant dog. Finn said, “You’re a lot faster than I would have thought Sonic, I’ll give you that, but I’m still taking you down!” He said, “You’re gonna have to catch me first, before trying anything kid.” And with that, Sonic ran under the giant dog at top speed, catching the duo off guard. Jake turned around through shape-shifting and chased him back into the jungle. Sonic continued to run through the jungle, but with Jake as a giant dog, they weren’t easy for him to lose. He eventually turned around in the jungle and ran in the other direction. Finn and Jake saw the change of direction and continued to chase after him. Finn yelled, “You can’t run forever Sonic!” “This kid will be in for a surprise then,” Sonic thought to himself in annoyance. While he continued avoiding Finn and Jake as best as he possibly could, Rainbow Dash flew next to him. He turned to her and asked, “What are you doing here Dash?” She said, “AJ told me that she had a plan on slowing down Jake.” He asked, “The kid?” She shook her head and said, “No, the dog.” He still felt lost over the situation, but said, “Okay…what’s the plan?” She said, “First you need to turn around and circle three tree rows to your left and run back towards the clearing of this jungle. Trust me, we got something planned.” He said, “Okay, see you guys there.” And with that, Rainbow Dash flew over the trees and flew back towards the group. Sonic made a sharp turn and circled the three tree rows that she told him to circle and he dashed toward where he was told the group was. Finn and Jake saw his sharp turn, and they made a turn of their own and continued to chase him. Jake then said, “You can’t outrun me Sonic!” Sonic said with a smile, “I was wondering if you could talk. Let’s just see you try and keep up with me!” Sonic then let out a small burst of speed, taunting Jake on trying to keep up. He took the bait and sped up his pace. After a minute of running, Sonic saw the clearing and a set of vines around the area. He ran through the area, turned around, and waited for Finn and Jake. Once the duo caught up, they saw Sonic standing in the open, leaving them curious. Finn then asked, “You’re done running now?” Sonic said while taking a fighting stance, “You have a point kid I can’t run forever. Let’s just get this over with.” Jake took a step into the vines, unknowingly falling for a trap. Applejack suddenly yelled, “Now!” Back on the ground, both she and Knuckles pulled their respective vines as hard as they could, the vines suddenly pulled upward and Jake tripped over the vines, losing his balance in the process. Rainbow Dash flew in with another set of vines and wrapped them around Jake’s legs. After the vines were set, Knuckles pulled on the vines and they were pulled tightly around Jake’s legs and he toppled over. Seeing Jake fall, Finn decided to go after Sonic before dealing with the ponies and the echidna. Finn said, “I’ll be back Jake.” Jake said, “You go take care of him, buddy.” Finn then jumped off of Jake’s head and was ready to strike Sonic with his sword. After Jake was hogtied, Applejack started rubbing his stomach, causing him to shrink in size. He moaned and barked in satisfaction from the belly rub he was getting. She said, “He’s such a cute little dog!” Jake snapped out of his trance after hearing Applejack’s statement and said, “Hey! I’m not cute! I’m HOT!” Blushing from how he was acting, Rarity said, “Aw, isn’t that adorable! He’s mad now, even cuter!” Furious from the situation he’s been put in, Jake said, “AAAGH! What are you guys doing helping Sonic anyway?!” Knuckles said, “He’s our friend! What are you and that kid doing attacking him?!” Jake said, “He attacked our hero and tried to destroy the Candy Kingdom!” Knuckles and the ponies looked at each other in confusion at Jake’s accusation. They turned back to him and decided to ask him a few questions. Rainbow Dash asked, “Okay, what in the hay are you talking about?” Jake said, “Mine and Finn’s hero, Billy. He told us that Sonic had attempted to attack the Candy Kingdom, but he attacked Billy instead. After the fight, Sonic left Billy and the Candy Kingdom out of boredom.” Out of anger, Knuckles grabbed him by his shoulders and lifted him to eye level. Unknown to the group, the cotton candy clouds hovered over the area. Knuckles yelled, “Listen, dog! Whatever you heard is a lie! Sonic has been-.” But before he could go any further with his defense, he was hit on the nose by a raindrop. He looked up to the sky and saw the pink clouds covering the sky. He then said in worry, “Ugh, guys. Wasn’t it sunny and cloudless earlier?” The ponies looked up to the sky and were shocked to see the familiar clouds. Jake curiously looked up to the sky after seeing the ponies’ shocked expressions. After looking up, it started downpouring on everyone. Curious about the sudden downpour, Jake asked, “What’s this supposed to be?” Rainbow Dash simply said, “Chocolate Rain.” He then said, “Chocolate rain? Really?” He was going to try and drink the chocolate rain, but Knuckles shook him before he could and said, “Hey! None of that right now!” Applejack added, “Yeah, we don’t need another Pinkie Pie moment.” Confused by this, Jake asked, “A what?” Knuckles said, “We’ll explain everything later; right now we have a big problem. We gotta stop Finn from trying to hack Sonic to pieces.” Realizing the situation, Jake said, “Oh gob! Finn stop attacking! FINN!!!!” Once Finn landed on the ground, he dashed toward Sonic, while he stood there in his fighting stance, waiting for his attack. Finn swung his sword at him, but he dodged the attack with ease. He continued swinging his sword at Sonic, but each of his attacks was in vain as Sonic dodged each of them with ease thanks to his speed. Finn’s anger was growing the more Sonic dodged his attacks, but what topped it for Finn was the cocky grin Sonic had while he was dodging. He then threw a punch at him, but he caught the attack and said with a cocky attitude, “You’re gonna have to do better than that kid.” Finn growled in frustration and tried to swing his sword at Sonic again, but he stopped the attack with his left hand. Finn tried to break free, but Sonic had a good grip on his hands and kept him from attacking. Unknown to them, the clouds had gathered and it started downpouring chocolate rain on them. Sonic realized the change in the weather and grew worried over the chocolate rain and thought Discord was not far away from them. He then said, “Uh oh. Kid, we have a prob-.” Before Sonic could give him the news, he was head-butted by Finn in that moment of distraction. He lost his grip on Finn’s hands and was sent backward, tumbling to the ground. He skidded to a halt about five feet from Finn and was in front of their Tree Fort. Finn saw this as his opportunity to finish Sonic off. He ran towards Sonic and had his sword raised. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Knuckles, and Jake saw this and were going to try and stop the fight. Jake yelled, “FINN!!!!!” But he was too late to stop Finn, as his sword came down and was ready to strike Sonic. > Chapter 8.5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The walk up the mountain was silent between Mordecai and Twilight for a good while. “What’s wrong with Twilight? She wanted to talk earlier,” he thought to himself in worry. Mordecai started thinking over their conversation from earlier. **FLASHBACK** Twilight had just finished telling him about her mishaps when she forgot to write a friendship report for Princess Celestia. He ended up laughing at the situation and said, “Y-you really got that stressed over one lousy letter?” Twilight lowered her ears and her head in embarrassment and quickened her pace from Mordecai. His laughter settled after he noticed that she had distanced herself away from him. He then asked, “Twilight, are you ok? Twilight?” He got no response from her, and he decided to quicken his pace to catch up to her. **END FLASHBACK** Mordecai smacked his forehead after remembering his antics and instantly regretted it. “UGH! Smooth move you idiot! She’s not gonna like you for that,” he sternly thought to himself. Once he finally caught up to her, he tried to get her attention and said, “Twilight?” He didn’t get a response from her; all she did was continued her walk and checked the map in silence. “The silent treatment. Yeah, she hates you now Mordecai,” he thought sadly. He looked at the ground, feeling completely guilty and sad for laughing at her. “There’s only one thing you can do at this point,” Mordecai thought to himself. Mordecai wanted to apologize to her and said, “Twilight, umm about earlier. I know you were trying to pass the time by telling stories, and I ended up laughing at one of your mishaps. I just want to say I’m-.” But before he could finish, Twilight interrupted him by saying, “Shhh!” He gave her a questioning look and saw why she had shushed him. What he saw was the aftermath of an avalanche. The dirt and rocks had built a giant hill blocking their path. With no other way around this area, they had no choice but to work with what was still considered the fastest way to reach the top of the mountain and get the emerald. They remained quiet as they climbed the dirt hill, in hopes of preventing a second avalanche. Mordecai had slipped a couple of times, but he was able to get a grip on the buried rocks that stuck out to keep him from sliding to the bottom. They were both exhausted after they reached the top of the dirt hill. Going downhill was a lot easier for them, but they watched their steps and did their best from sliding down the hill. They reached the bottom of the hill with sore feet and hooves. They decided to take a short break after they gave themselves a good distance from the avalanche area. Mordecai said, “That was rough. How did that avalanche happen?” Twilight said, “It was an accident. Remember when I said that my friends and I came here before?” He simply said, “Yeah, I remember.” She continued the conversation and said, “Well, that journey was to try and convince a sleeping dragon that lived in the cave to leave.” He interrupted her and asked, “It was that bad?” She nodded and said, “Yes, it would have been very bad. He blew smoke while he was snoring, and Ponyville was going to end up being covered in it for a hundred years if we didn’t do anything.” Mordecai nodded in understanding and said, “I know I wouldn’t want to live in an area that would be covered in smoke.” Twilight said with a chuckle, “I don’t think anyone would.” He looked back at the avalanche and asked, “So how did this avalanche happen anyway?” She said, “Before we talked the dragon into leaving, Fluttershy overreacted and accidentally caused the avalanche. It’s kind of funny looking at it now. I still remember that after we arrived at the cave, Fluttershy told us that she was scared of dragons.” Confused by this, Mordecai asked, “Wait, isn’t she and the rest of your friends…friends with Spike?” Twilight said, “Yeah, she can handle Spike because he’s a baby dragon, but a fully-grown dragon is another story.” Mordecai said with a nod, “Okay, that makes sense.” Twilight said, “After she got upset from the dragon attacking us, Fluttershy put her hoof down and was able to convince that dragon to leave.” Concerned about the incident, he asked, “You weren’t hurt too bad by the dragon, were you? I assumed that it would have breathed fire or something.” She said, “No, we weren’t hurt too bad. I’m just grateful he didn’t blow fire at us.” After they were well-rested, they got back on their hooves and feet and continued their journey to the cave. After walking a short distance, Twilight remembered the conversation they had before climbing up the dirt hill. She said, “Oh, uh Mordecai. Were you trying to apologize before we got through the avalanche area?” They both stopped walking after she asked her question. He scratched the back of his head and said, “Yeah, I was. I didn’t mean to upset you in any way when you told me about that whole crazy scene you had over a letter you didn’t send to Celestia. I should have known that you’d take your work very seriously. I’m sorry about that.” Twilight looked at him and said, “It’s okay Mordecai, it was embarrassing now that I look back at it. As much as I like getting things organized and finishing all of my tasks on time, I shouldn’t have freaked out the way I did and tried to create a problem.” Mordecai stays quiet to let her talk more. She continues and says, “Princess Celestia ended up telling me that she didn’t need a report every week and my friends also came to my rescue when they thought that scenario I mentioned before was going to actually happen, after that, Celestia tasked my friends to do the letters when they learn something.” Mordecai said, “That was good of her to do, taking some stress off of you.” Twilight smiled at him as he says this, and he thought at the same time, “Celestia really has a weird obsession for letters.” They continued their walk as Twilight says, “It’s funny that I also ended up getting a visit from my future self for being too organized. Too bad I didn’t finish telling myself that message and I panicked for the whole week over some disaster that didn’t even happen.” Mordecai lightly chuckled at this and thought to himself, “Why does that sound familiar?” He then said, “At least that was one week. I ended up getting a visit from myself ten years from now.” Twilight was surprised by that revelation and says, “Ten years? What was so important that you got a visit from yourself that far from the future?” Mordecai says, “Rigby and I wanted to learn how to play our instruments for a contest in a single day. I was playing the guitar; he was playing the bass.” Surprised by this, Twilight said, “I didn’t know you could play an instrument. What was the contest for?” Realizing what he had said, and not wanting to talk about his old crush, he decided to change the subject and said, “It’s not important, besides, while we were performing, we learned that our future selves were lip-synchers.” Twilight says, “Lip-synchers? As in…, they were frauds?” Mordecai hears the disapproval in her tone and says, “Yeah, and apparently they were very famous because of it. We ended up dropping out of the contest on the spot, because we didn’t like it, nor would we accept doing something as lame as lip-synching.” Twilight smiles at this revelation and says, “At least you have your morals in the right place.” Mordecai smiles bashfully at this. Unknown to the two, while they were walking, they were getting closer together and they didn’t take notice until they bumped into each other. They looked at each other in surprise and they instantly looked away from each other at the same time, both trying to hide their blushing faces from each other. Twilight says, “Sorry about that.” Trying to not sound nervous, Mordecai quickly says, “It-it’s cool.” As Finn’s sword came down, he was certain that he had won the fight against Sonic. Unfortunately for him, his sword suddenly stopped with a clang, and he saw that Sonic was wielding the Root Sword. Finn had unknowingly left it outside of the Tree Fort and Sonic spotted it at the last second, he picked it up and stopped his sword with it. Sonic then kicked Finn in the stomach and he jumped up to his feet. Finn held his stomach with his left hand and coughed, showing the impact Sonic’s kick had on him. He then glared up at him and growled in frustration. Sonic tried to reason with him and said, “Look, Finn. We need to end this fight right now; we have a bigger problem right now.” Listening to only half of what he said, Finn said, “Your right on one thing Sonic, this fight needs to end right now. And it’ll end with me killing you right where you stand!” Sonic rolled his eyes at Finn’s response and took his stance while wielding the Root Sword. “Okay, he wants to learn the hard way,” he thought to himself. Knuckles, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Jake arrived in time to see Sonic and Finn staring each other down. Curious after seeing his actions, Knuckles asked, “Sonic, what are you-?” Sonic interrupted him and yelled, “Stay back guys!” Finn also yelled, saying, “Yeah, stay back Jake!” Jake tried to reason with him and said, “But-” Finn interrupted him and said, “Butts are for pooping! I got this!” The group, excluding Jake, was left confused by Finn’s outburst. Rainbow Dash said, “Okay… C’mon Sonic, we want to help!” Sonic said, “Just leave it to me! The last thing I want is for any of you to get hurt on my watch. This fight shouldn’t take long anyway.” Rainbow Dash crossed her forehooves and pouted saying, “Fine.” After everyone understood that the fight was going to be between Sonic and Finn only, they gave themselves distance from them to avoid any distractions for the two. The two then dashed toward each other with their respective swords in their hands. They swung their weapons at each other and made contact with their swords. The two glared at each other, pressing their swords with all of their might. Finn pushed Sonic off with all of his strength. He then lunged forward and swung his sword at him; Sonic, however, dodged the attack effortlessly. Finn continued swinging his sword at Sonic, but because of his speed, Finn couldn’t touch him. After another missed attack from Finn, Sonic was seen in the distance and had a cocky grin on his face. He then said, “Hehe, you’re not bad Finn.” After making his comment, Sonic raised his sword and dashed toward Finn. He also started running towards him and had his sword ready. In an instant, both Finn and Sonic had swung their swords and were facing away from each other. Because of the speed of the attacks, the group wasn’t able to see what had happened between them. Sonic winced and grabbed his left shoulder; it had a small gash on it. Finn turned around and grinned after seeing Sonic on his knees from his attack. Finn suddenly got a scratch on his right cheek and part of his hat was also cut from the attack. Sonic got back on his feet and turned around to face Finn. Finn charged at Sonic and continued his attack on him. While the two continued their sword fight, Knuckles, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Jake were talking with each other to pass the time. The group questioned Jake’s ability to stretch himself, and how he was able to get his powers. His response to them was that he was a magical dog and that he doesn’t remember how he got his powers. After their conversation lasted a while, they ended up on the subject of Finn and Sonic. Rainbow Dash asked him, “How do you know Finn by the way?” Jake said, “He’s my brother. My parents took him in when he was a baby, and raised him like he was their own.” Sonic launched himself in a homing attack while spinning the Root Blade in a buzz saw-like attack. Finn was left breathing heavily after blocking the attack. After the attack, Sonic was on his knees, attempting to catch his breath. Finn didn’t want to admit it, but Sonic was a lot stronger than he looked. Sonic had similar thoughts about Finn and was amazed at the knowledge he had of sword fighting, despite how young he appeared to him. He slowly got back on his feet, trying his best to shake off his weariness. Finn thrust his sword at Sonic, but he caught the blade with his sword and stopped the attack. Finn grinned after seeing this and started swinging his sword around in a circular motion. Sonic tried to hold onto the sword, but after the third circle move, the Root Blade was sent flying out of his hands, leaving him defenseless. Sonic was in a state of shock to see that his sword was thrown to the side and was stabbed into the ground a few feet away from them. Finn started swinging his sword at him, but he dodged each of the attacks with his swift moves. Finn swung his sword in a large, horizontal arc, but Sonic escaped the attack at the last second. Sonic then bounced off of his right hand and flipped backward toward his sword. Finn saw this and chased after him. He then jumped in the air and readied his attack to finish off the defenseless hedgehog. Sonic, however, got to the Root Blade, turned around quickly, and readied his counterattack on Finn. The group covered their eyes from what was going to happen next, but instead of hearing any contact being made, there was silence between Sonic and Finn. What everyone saw next really surprised them. They saw that Finn was levitating in the air, in a cyan aura coating, not moving a muscle. Sonic was also pinned with the same cyan aura, not moving from the position he was in. “What the what?” he asked in confusion. Finn tried to move, hoping to break free, but it was no use. A voice suddenly shouted, “That’s enough from you two!” Sonic recognized the voice and said, “Huh? What the? Silver? What are you doing here?” A white-grey hedgehog was then seen floating toward the two. Finn then said, “And why did you stop us? I was going to kill him!” Silver simply said, “I’d take a better look if I were you.” Finn was confused about Silver’s explanation and looked down. He saw that he had his sword positioned to strike Sonic in his throat. “What does Silver mean,” Finn thought to himself in confusion. After getting a better look at where he was floating, he was shocked to see that Sonic had the Root Blade positioned at his chest where his heart was. The realization of the situation hit him, seeing that if the attack wasn’t stopped, both he and Sonic would have stabbed each other. Finn then yelled in shock, “WHOA!!!” “Now you see what I mean?” asked the hedgehog. Finn nodded in response. Silver then moved Finn a few feet away from Sonic and released them from his powers. Both Sonic and Finn thrust their swords in a delayed response before Silver came and stopped them. Sonic got back on his feet and said, “Thanks Silver. What brings you here? And how did you get here?” The ponies, Knuckles, Finn, and Jake gathered themselves and were ready to listen to what Silver had to say. He said, “I’ll start with how I got here. Both Blaze and I came back to this time with the help of a pony that has some blue phone booth box that can travel through time.” Curious about this, Rainbow Dash asked, “What blue box, and who was the pony?” Silver said, “It started with a “T”; I forgot what he called it. As for the pony, all he told me was that he was “The Doctor” and that he was going to meet someone in Ponyville. Blaze went with him to Ponyville to take care of what we needed to be taken care of over there.” Applejack asked, “And what would that be exactly?” He said, “To change the future and prevent a disaster.” After hearing this, Knuckles asked, “What happened exactly?” Silver said, “Both Time Eater and Discord have taken over the planet.” Everyone had a shocked/surprised look on their faces after hearing the news from Silver. Finn and Jake looked at each other in confusion, not knowing who they were. Jake then spoke up and asked, “Who’s this Time Eater and Discord guy you're talking about?” Silver said, “Me, Sonic, Knuckles, and some of our friends dealt with Time Eater during Sonic’s birthday. It is a giant smog-like monster that can erase time and space. As for Discord, he is known as a draconequus.” Finn asked, “A what?” Rarity answered his question and said, “He is a creature that has the head of a pony and the body of different animals. He’s also known as the spirit of chaos and disharmony.” Silver said, “Thank you Rarity. These two have abilities of their own to mess with reality, but when you put them together, they REALLY can cause more problems than they ever could alone.” After they were told of who Discord and Time Eater were, Finn and Jake nodded in understanding. Finn thought over the situation and asked, “If they are as dangerous as you say, how come no one has stopped them in your time?” Silver had a forlorn look on his face and said, “Sonic is the only one that had defeated Time Eater the last time we had met, and in that one time, he had help with his younger self. But something happened that caused him to die in my time.” Surprised by this, Sonic said in confusion, “WHAT?!?!” Knowing that there wasn’t enough time to tell them the story, Silver said, “I’m not sure what it was, but I guess that it was your fight with Finn. As for Discord, he managed to get his hands on all of the Chaos Emeralds, and his powers threatened anyone that challenged him.” Rainbow Dash asked in a worried tone, “What happened with the Elements of Harmony? Those should have stopped him easily.” Silver shook his head and said, “I’m not sure, but I think when he got all seven emeralds, he was too strong for the elements to handle. He even created his own island, and in there, he has corrupted everyone’s minds and they have become his mindless slaves.” Finn asked, “Everyone?” Silver said, “Yes, everyone, and anyone that he could capture and control easily. With that, he has an army of his own.” Finn wasn’t sure how strong these emeralds were, but he still needed to know. He turned to the group and asked, “Are the Chaos Emeralds really that powerful?” Sonic answered him and said, “Knuckles and I have seen them work for other things before, so yeah, they are VERY powerful. Also, with what Silver just said, I was already afraid of what Discord could do with them when he mentioned that he knew about the emeralds when I first bumped into him, but him having the ability to control anyone, that makes it even worse.” Knuckles said, “Our friend’s radar had picked up a signal that read that one of the emeralds is here.” Both Finn and Jake started thinking about the events from the previous day. They remembered something falling toward the Fire Kingdom. Finn then said, “Jake and I saw something red fall in that direction last night. Could that be what you guys are looking for?” Everyone turned in the direction Finn pointed at. Sonic asked, “Where is that spot exactly?” He said, “It’s the Fire Kingdom, I’m not sure what it was, but Jake and I saw something red crash in that area.” Knuckles said, “One of the emeralds is red, so that has to be it.” Sonic said in enthusiasm, “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get going!!” But before they could leave in the direction Finn told them, everyone heard a small cough that sounded close to them. Jake then went over to a nearby rock and lifted it to reveal a small fire underneath it. The group grew concerned after seeing the fire, believing that it would cause a forest fire. Knuckles spoke up and said, “Aren’t you guys going to put it out?” A mysterious voice suddenly said, “That won't be necessary knucklehead.” Everyone, excluding Finn and Jake, became surprised by the sudden outburst. Sonic, however, started laughing at Knuckles from being called a “knucklehead”. Before Knuckles could punch him, the group got a better look at the small fire as it came out from under the rock. The small flame then revealed a small face on a small body with stubby arms and legs and a small tail. Finn introduced the fireball to everyone and said, “Oh, right. Everyone, this little fireball is Flambo. Flambo, these guys are here to get something that had fallen in the Fire Kingdom.” Flambo waved his arms and said, “Actually kid, I wouldn’t bet on going there if I were you. I got a tip from a reliable source that a familiar goblin had gone there and taken something from the kingdom. I wouldn’t know if it was in the Fire Kingdom or not. My sources also told me that the goblin was heading to the Goblin Kingdom to try and is attempting a takeover.” Finn thought over who the mysterious goblin was and said, “Hmm, that sounds like Xergiok.” Rainbow Dash asked, “Who in the hay is Xergiok?” Jake said, “Xergiok was a tyrant king in the Goblin Kingdom.” After hearing this, Rarity said, “Was? What happened to him?” Finn simply said, “Jake and I kicked his butt and dethroned him.” Sonic said, “Just like that? He sounds like a pushover.” Finn said, “He uses magic wands to fight, of course, he is,” as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He continued and said, “If he actually did find the Chaos Emerald, who knows how much stronger he is after what you’ve told us.” Jake then grew in size and got Finn, Sonic, Applejack, Rarity, and Knuckles on his back and started running in the direction of the Goblin Kingdom; Rainbow Dash chose to follow everyone by flying. Sonic wanted to run, but considering what they were put through, Finn thought it would be better for Sonic to rest while Jake carried them to the Goblin Kingdom. Finn noticed the angry expression Sonic had; along with his arms being crossed and that his right foot was doing a tapping motion, easily showing his frustration. He turned to Knuckles and asked, “What’s up with Sonic?” He said, “Sonic is easily impatient. Try to talk to him about something to take his mind off of the travel.” Finn said, “Like what? I don’t know him that well.” Applejack said, “Just ask him anything.” Finn thought for a second and said, “So Sonic, how many emeralds do you guys have so far?” Sonic started calming down from his boredom. He turned to Finn and said, “So far, we’ve got two. The rest of the group went to Ponyville to get the one over there.” Confused by this, Finn asked, “Ponyville? How far is it from here?” Sonic said, “Quite a ways away, I’m not entirely sure myself.” Curious about Sonic’s lifestyle, Finn asked, “Do you have any adventures on your travels?” Sonic said with a grin, “Yeah, plenty of adventures! I live for them! I’ve been through a lot. There was this one time I had to fix the planet when it broke into pieces before.” Shocked by this, Finn said, “What?! When did this happen?” Before he could explain his adventure, they slowly arrived at the Goblin Kingdom. The group saw smoke coming from the kingdom and assumed something was going down. Sonic then said, “I’ll tell you later.” Once the group got closer to the Goblin Kingdom, they spotted Xergiok wreaking havoc within the kingdom with a new magic wand, but what surprised everyone the most was the power source on top of the wooden wand. Sonic said, “Looks like your pal Flambo wasn’t lying.” Applejack said, “But it looks like he forgot to tell us about them.” The group turned around and saw that Xergiok had brought an army of earclopses and cyclopses to the Goblin Kingdom. Finn yelled, “FOR THE LOVE OF GLOB, FLAMBO!!!” After seeing what they were up against, Knuckles said, “I see the cyclopses, but what are those other things?” Finn said, “Those are earclopses, but I wouldn’t worry about them.” Curious about this, Rainbow Dash asked, “And why is that?” He replied with a grin and said, “Because Xergiok forgot to get earplugs for them again.” Rarity said, “Earplugs, for those things?” Jake nodded and said, “Yup, with ears that big, they can’t handle a simple shout without passing out.” After hearing what they needed to hear on taking down the earclops’ army, Jake, Knuckles, Silver, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Applejack went ahead and started their attacks on the army Xergiok brought with him. Before Sonic could join the others to take on the army, both he, and Finn heard a couple of goblins yelling in pain, followed by laughter not too far from them. Sonic asked, “What’s going on?” Finn said, “Must be Xergiok spanking some of the goblins.” Sonic said in disbelief, “Spanking? Are you serious Finn?” He said, “Yes, that’s what he did to the goblins before we dethroned him.” Sonic smacked his forehead and muttered, “Oh boy,” under his breath. The duo then went to the place where the yelling came from and saw Xergiok spanking three goblins mercifully. Without thinking of a plan, Sonic jumped right in and was prepared to fight the spank-happy goblin. He lifted his sword to him and said, “That’ll be the last butt you spank ugly!” Xergiok stopped spanking the helpless goblin and turned to face the intruder. He saw the blue hedgehog standing before him, wielding his sword, prepared for a fight. After he turned around, Sonic thought to himself in surprise, “Man, did I call that one.” The goblin then declared, “And who is the fool that thinks he can challenge the mighty Xergiok?!” Sonic did his best from chuckling at the title and said, “Mighty Xergiok? From what I’ve heard, you’re a complete pushover.” Angered by this, Xergiok yelled, “Pushover?! Tell me blue one, can a mere pushover do this!!” In an instant, a powerful energy of chaos was fired from Xergiok’s wand. Sonic dodged the blast with ease, but Xergiok fired multiple blasts at him while he was still airborne. Sonic saw this and swatted as many blasts as he could with his sword. After he deflected each of the blasts, one more blast was heading for him. He wasn’t ready to deflect the attack and was prepared for the impact the blast was going to have on him. Fortunately for him, Finn had jumped in and deflected the blast at the last second. After the blast was deflected, Xergiok looked on in displeasure to see the familiar boy once again and said, “Oh, it’s you.” Finn said, “Yeah, it’s me. Muffintop!” Xergiok got angry after hearing what Finn had called him. Sonic, however, was trying his best at keeping himself from laughing at Xergiok from Finn’s outburst. Out of rage, Xergiok started firing multiple energy balls at both Finn and Sonic. Sonic dodged the attacks with his speed, while Finn deflected each of the energy balls with his sword. Xergiok then brought out multiple energy balls and randomly fired them at the duo. The attack didn’t faze them; they simply deflected each of the attacks without flinching. After deflecting the last of the energy balls, it ended up hitting Xergiok in the face. The impact caused him to drop his wand. With that Finn, picked up the wand, took the emerald off it, and once again, destroyed it. He put the red emerald in his pack and both he and Sonic pointed their swords at Xergiok, seeing that he had no outs to this, he admitted defeat, and he fled the Goblin Kingdom once again. Both Finn and Sonic turned to see that the earclopses and the cyclopses were defeated. Sonic, in response, gave everyone a thumbs up for their accomplishment. But before everyone could celebrate their victory, Time Eater suddenly appeared, spreading fear to everyone in the Goblin Kingdom. It opened up multiple portals and started sucking all of the goblins in. Jake saw this and wrapped everyone up tightly while securing himself by holding onto two nearby trees. Time Eater then opened another portal and attempted to try and suck Finn into the portal. He felt the force the portal had and became worried about where the portal would suck him to if he didn’t think of anything. Finn attempted to keep himself from flying into the portal by stabbing his sword into the ground, but before he could do this, Time Eater fired its immobilizing sphere at Finn and prevented him from stabbing his sword into the ground. After Sonic saw what Time Eater had done, he came by Finn and used Chip’s necklace to protect them from the portal. Time Eater was enraged from seeing the barrier Sonic generated again. It closed the portal, knowing there was no point against the barrier. Billy then appeared wielding his sword and starred down Time Eater. Finn saw this, and once he was able to move again, he ran out of the shield, wanting to join Billy in the fight. Sonic saw this and dropped the shield, confused by this new person joining them, not realizing that dropping the shield had now left him defenseless. Time Eater saw this opportunity and swatted Sonic with all of its might. The hit caused Sonic to drop the purple emerald, while he crashed through the Goblin Kingdom’s walls and skidded to a stop on the ground face first just outside the kingdom. After seeing him get hit, Finn yelled, “Sonic!!!” He runs to Sonic as he lies unconscious on the ground. Time Eater, being much bigger than Finn gets to him first and attacks the defenseless hedgehog, he fires orbs at him and they make contact, covering him in smoke. Seeing this, Finn fears the worst and yells, “NOOOO!!!!” The dust started to clear, Finn stands in shock, thinking that he failed in protecting Sonic, and he started blaming himself for putting him in this situation. He heard flickers and he looks up to see that Sonic was protected by the green force field from earlier, something Time Eater roars in frustration over, catching everyone’s attention in the Land of Ooo. Finn breathed a sigh of relief after seeing he was okay. Time Eater takes a look around and sees the purple Chaos Emerald laying not too far from Finn. Finn sees where Time Eater was looking and sees the emerald. Time Eater flies towards the emerald in an attempt to steal it. Seeing this, Finn started running in an attempt to try and get to it before Time Eater could, not knowing that the emerald can affect the dark being, but before either of them could reach it, the emerald was picked up by Billy, giving Finn great relief. He then said, “Billy! Thank Glob you got to it first! I need that emerald for my friend.” Billy went to Time Eater, making Finn believe that he was going to fight the creature by himself. He turned to Finn and clutched the emerald in his right hand and had a wicked grin appearing on his face. He lifted his head and looked at Finn with a crazy look in his eyes and said, “Thank you, Finn.” He was then engulfed in a bright light, causing Finn to shield his eyes from the brightness. After the light subsided, it revealed Discord standing before him with a grin on his face. Finn then gasped and stared in shock at what had just happened. Discord then said, “Thank you for being such a fool!” He laughed at the dumbfounded human standing before him. Finn became enraged after realizing the trickery he had been put through. He unsheathed his sword and charged at Discord with a yell. He tried to attack him with a swing of his sword, Discord, however, snapped his fingers and teleported before Finn could make contact. Time Eater tore open a portal and disappeared in it, satisfied that the plan nabbed them a second emerald. After they disappeared, everyone went over to Sonic and saw that he still had his face planted in the ground. He didn’t make any movements, and they grew concerned for his well-being. Finn told everyone that he has something that can help him, but he left it back at the Tree Fort. In an instant, the group pulled Sonic out of the ground and put him on Jake’s back. He once again grew in size and carried everyone to the Tree Fort as fast as he could. Jake asked, “How’s he holding up back there?” Silver checked for Sonic’s pulse on his neck and said, “He is doing okay, but we need to hurry up.” Sonic remained unconscious while his friends carried him to safety, but his mind was elsewhere while he was in this state. He remembered the surprise birthday party he had with his friends not too long ago. He sees everyone enjoying themselves with the food and being with each other, not having to deal with Eggman or any of his schemes, no natural disaster to worry about, just him and his friends spending a long-awaited day of rest and relaxation with one another at his party. That was until Time Eater tore open a portal into reality and ruined it. “You couldn’t stop me before hedgehog.” Sonic was confused by the voice he just heard. The party went from peaceful to chaotic in a second from an unknown blast and he remembers how powerless he felt as he watched his friends get sucked into the multiple portals Time Eater summoned back then; he felt even worse when he sees himself try to stop Time Eater from kidnapping his friends as they plead for his help, but failing to save them as Time Eater swatted him away like a bug. “What makes you think you can stop me now?” Sonic turns around and sees Time Eater along with Twilight and the rest of her friends in front of him. Time Eater raised his hands and engulfed them into six purple energy spheres. Shocked by this, Sonic runs towards them as fast as he could, but before he could reach them, Time Eater made the spheres disappear in an instant, not a single trace of the ponies was left in sight. Sonic looked on in despair, hand extended as he tried to save them, but to no avail. “You’ll fail once again Sonic, but this time, the stakes will be much higher. You’ll be letting down many more of these creatures and this time, you won’t have your younger self to back you up.” Time Eater disappears, laughing at Sonic as he falls to his knees in defeat, knowing that he failed to save them. Finn squirted a bottle of cyclops tears onto Sonic’s face, and he woke up in an instant. He was breathing heavily and had a look of terror on his face as if he had just come out of a nightmare. Still in shock, he said, “Dude!! What the heck was that for?!” After saying this, he desperately tried to shake off the water, leaving everyone, but Knuckles, curious about his actions. Finn said, “It was just Cyclops' tears. You were pretty beat up from that hit Time Eater gave you.” Sonic rubbed his head, remembering the incident. He got a better look at his left shoulder and saw that the wound had disappeared. Realization suddenly hit him, and he searched himself in a panic. He said, “Where’s the emerald? I know I had it!!” Finn said in depression, “Sorry Sonic, they took it.” In an instant, Sonic grabbed Finn by his shirt and said, “YOU BETTER BE KIDDING WITH ME RIGHT NOW FINN!!!!” He said, “I wish I was, but that’s what happened after Time Eater smacked you. You dropped the emerald and Discord took it.” Sonic loosened his grip on him and said, “What about the other emerald?” Finn reached into his pack, pulled out the red emerald, and said, “I put it away as soon as we kicked Xergiok’s butt, remember?” Sonic took the emerald and was relieved that they still had one emerald with them. He turned to Finn and said, “At least something good came out of this. Let’s get back to Ponyville guys, I’m sure the others got the emerald there by now.” Everyone nodded and they were ready to go. After everyone gathered around him, Sonic raise the emerald and said, “Chaos-” But before he activated the emerald’s energy, Finn yelled, “Wait!” Sonic said, “What’s up Finn?” He asked, “Can Jake and I join you guys?” Sonic gave Finn a questioning look. Finn then said, “Discord was the one that tricked me into fighting you, and he took that emerald from me. I’m not gonna let that son of a toot get away with that!” Sonic chuckled at this insult and said, “You’re a good fighter Finn; the two of you are more than welcome to join us. How about you Silver?” Silver said, “Blaze and I are here until Time Eater and Discord are stopped.” Sonic said, “All right to Ponyville we go.” Sonic then said, “Chaos Control,” and with that, everyone was engulfed in a bright light and disappeared from the Tree Fort. Earlier in Ponyville “Anyway, all I can say is, you’re lucky to have me as a friend. I can teach you how to balance work and taking breaks at the same time,” says Mordecai after finishing a previous conversation between the two. Twilight playfully rolled her eyes at this and said, “The life of a slacker? I don’t know.” He said, “Hey, I said I might slack off, but I still know when to get back to work.” She said, “Yeah, that’s true.” He continued and said, “Besides, if you learned from Rigby, then that’d be a REAL problem.” The two shared a laugh as they were near the top of the mountain. While they continued their walk, Twilight ended up thinking about how Mordecai was able to play the guitar and what got him into playing it. She remembered that he was dismissive about why they did that contest, but before she could ask, Mordecai had suddenly stopped walking. He said in relief, “Ugh, finally! I thought we’d never get here.” After coming out of her thoughts, Twilight looked over and saw that they had finally reached the top of the mountain, with the cave in sight. He said, “All right, this was a lot easier than I thought!” Twilight couldn’t help but smile at Mordecai’s excitement. She then said, “Besides climbing up here?” He said, “Well, yeah, besides that. No one ever said anything in life is easy.” She said, “That’s true. Let’s get that emerald and meet everyone at Sugarcube Corner.” Mordecai asked, “And get that chocolate cake for celebration?” Twilight said with a smile, “Sure.” He said, “Then what are we waiting for?!” They walked into the cave and were ready to get the emerald. They walked towards a spot in the cave where a little bit of sunlight was shown through a hole in the ceiling of the cave. Mordecai then pulled out the radar and checked the cave for the emerald’s location. But before they could look over the radar, a sparkle of light twinkled in the dark part of the cave. After seeing it, Mordecai asked, “Did you see that?” Twilight said, “Yes, I saw that.” He asked, “Could that be the emerald?” She said, “It might be, let’s check it out.” As soon as they approached the dark part of the cave, Mordecai pulled out the flashlight and switched it on. Twilight used her horn and illuminated the cave with a light raspberry glow, helping Mordecai with the lighting in the cave. He turned to her and said, “That’s helpful.” She smiled shyly at him and said, “Thanks.” With the cave being fully lit up, they didn’t see anything in it that could cause some sort of trouble for them. With nothing to worry about, they walked over to a pedestal and grabbed the yellow emerald. After getting the emerald, both Mordecai and Twilight felt uneasy about the whole thing. Mordecai said, “That was just too easy.” Twilight asked, “You also have that feeling that something’s up?” He said, “Yeah… I’ve played video games and watched plenty of movies, and nothing is supposed to be that easy.” She said, “I’ve read these kinds of things in my books. Trust me, I know what you mean.” They left the area, still feeling cautious over the emerald’s location. Mordecai looked at the yellow emerald, and couldn’t shake the feeling that something didn’t feel right. As they left the dark part of the cave, a sudden flash appeared behind them. They immediately turned around and saw Discord standing before them. Twilight said, “What do you want Discord?” He simply said, “I’m here to take what’s mine.” Mordecai said, “Hmm-hmm. You mean this?” He held up the emerald for Discord to see. His response was laughter, causing Mordecai and Twilight to look at each other in confusion. Mordecai then said, “What’s so funny? This just says that we have three emeralds to the zero you have.” Discord settled from his laughter and decided to take his plan into action. After calming down, Discord said, “And what exactly are you going to do with a piece of stalactite?” Confused by this, Mordecai said, “Huh?” After looking at it again, the emerald changed into a piece of stalactite, as Discord stated. He dropped it and said, “What the -? Where’s the emerald?” After Mordecai turned his back to him, Discord snapped his fingers and teleported Mordecai back into the dark part of the cave and put up a force field, keeping him inside. Mordecai punched the force field, but it did him no good. Twilight then stomps her hoof into the ground, showing that she was readying herself to charge at Discord. Seeing this, he raised his hands in defense and said, “Before you do any sudden attacks, I think you should know something about your friend over there.” Twilight said, “I know enough. Whatever you have to say about him in another one of your lies, it's not going to work on me.” He then said in a know-it-all tone, “That’s the thing you don’t know, I know something that’s actually truthful.” She laughed at this and says, “Yeah right. What makes you think this will be any different from the rest of the “truths” you’ve told?” He said, “Simple my dear. Your friend over there has been hiding something from you this whole time.” Mordecai raised an eyebrow in curiosity and was wondering where he was going with the conversation. Discord then looked up at him, with an expression that says, “I know your secret.” Realization suddenly struck him and he said to himself, “Oh no…” He desperately started hitting the barrier and yelled, “Twilight, don’t listen to him!!!” Unknown to Mordecai, the barrier was not only strong but soundproof as well, his pleas fell on deaf ears by the time he tried to warn her. Discord had already snapped his fingers and opened up a portal, revealing to her, what Mordecai didn’t want her to find out, his mishaps with the unicorns back at the park. Although what Discord was showing Twilight was the truth, he exaggerated the details so that the unicorns that Mordecai killed weren’t the ones that he encountered, but they instead looked like the ones from Equestria. After seeing this, Mordecai desperately rammed his shoulder into the force field in an attempt to try to knock it down, wanting to tell Twilight what she was seeing was a lie. After showing Twilight the incident, and seeing his attempts, Discord let the force field fade, causing Mordecai to fall to the ground after he tried ramming it again. Mordecai looks up, and he sees the look of terror on Twilight’s face as she looks at him. He reached out his hand to her and said, “Twilight, please let me explain.” But instead of listening to him, Twilight backed away from his reach, fear overtakes her after what she saw. He desperately tried to reach his hand out to her again, but she ran out of the cave on the verge of crying. He yelled, “TWILIGHT!!” His hand still out, he felt hurt after seeing the scared look on her face, now believing that everything was ruined between them. Discord chuckled at this and said, “Now THIS is what I call ‘entertainment’. The drama, the suspense, a potential ship getting sunk. I’m now wondering how this will play out.” He held the yellow emerald in his lion paw, while he ate popcorn with his eagle claw, chuckling to himself as he enjoyed the show before him. Mordecai’s once open hand had clenched into a fist in anger. He glared at him and said, “This isn’t over Discord!” Discord looked at him with a smug look on his face and said, “Is that so? And what is it that you are going to do about it, Mordecai? Are you going to challenge me and try to take this, or are you going to go after the girl?” Discord held the yellow emerald in front of Mordecai as he asked him these questions, practically daring him to try and take it. As much as Mordecai wanted to punch him for what he did, he chose to try and fix the problem Discord created between him and Twilight instead and ran out of the cave to try and catch up to her. After Mordecai was out of sight, Discord snapped his fingers and teleported out of the cave. Mordecai ran as fast as he could in hopes of trying to catch up to Twilight. He heard her crying and he sees her hooves covering her face as she sits near the cave entrance. She feels like she’s been lied to with this knowledge of Mordecai killing unicorns, the trust she had in him was out the window after learning this. Mordecai slowly approached her and says, “Twilight.” She immediately lifts her head and sees him, but instead of hearing him out, her fear gets the better of her as she yells, “No! Stay away!” She backs away from him, but he wasn’t going to give up so easily. “Twilight, please listen to me,” he pleads to her, but she wasn’t going to listen to him. He sees her activate her horn and she disappears before him. Mordecai fell to his knees, feeling completely broken by everything that had happened. He said in a sad tone, “Twilight… no.” Before he could grieve over this, a bright light appeared and revealed Shadow. After Shadow saw him, he noticed Twilight wasn’t around and asked, “Mordecai, where’s Twilight?” They looked down the mountain and saw a magenta flash appear at the bottom of the mountain. Still feeling dejected, Mordecai said, “It looks like she’s down there, why?” Shadow said, “I’ll explain later, right now, we have a problem that needs to be fixed.” Before Mordecai could ask him what he was talking about, Shadow grabbed him and used Chaos Control. Sonic and the group arrived in Ponyville. Sonic turned to the three new travelers and said, “Silver, Finn, and Jake, welcome to Ponyville.” Not believing what he was seeing, Finn said in amazement, “Holy shmow” Jake nodded and said, “Yeah, this is some nice little place.” Before Sonic showed everyone around, they saw a magenta flash, revealing Twilight running through it, Sonic noticed the tears running down her face while she ran. Shortly after the first light, another bright light flashed revealing Shadow and Mordecai, without hesitation, the blue jay started running after Twilight upon arriving. Sonic ran after them, wondering what happened. After easily catching up to Mordecai he asked, “Hey Mordo, what’s going on?” Mordecai said, “Discord came and messed with Twilight’s head.” Sonic asked, “Need some help?” Mordecai simply said, “Please.” Twilight ran into her home and as soon as she entered, she activated her magic and created a force field around her home. Seeing this, Sonic grabbed Mordecai’s hand and boosted up to top speed, and got them to Twilight’s house before the force field could close them out. After seeing the force field, everyone from the group gathered around the barrier, concerned for their friend. Mordecai catches his breath from the superspeed he was put through, and he sees how close they were to being closed off from Twilight. Still reeling from this fact, Mordecai said, “That was way too close.” He said, “Thanks, what did Discord do exactly?” Mordecai was reluctant on telling Sonic what had happened, but sighed in defeat, knowing there was no way around this, and said, “He showed her about my mishap with some unicorns I had to deal with at the park.” Wanting him to continue, Sonic said, “And?” Begrudgingly, Mordecai continued by saying, “And I ended up helping Benson and Skips kill them.” Sonic jumped a little in surprise and said, “Dude!” Mordecai waved his hands and quickly said, “I swear the unicorns weren’t from around here! That’s what Discord showed her, and she’s terrified of me right now.” Sonic pointed to the tree and said, “Well you got to tell her the truth!” Mordecai retorted and said, “I’ve been trying to avoid telling her that story this whole time!” Sonic said, “Well you have no choice now do ya?!” Mordecai knew Sonic was right; he looked at Twilight’s home and walked over to the door, hoping that he can fix the mess Discord created for him. Once he reached the door, he knocked on it. Knowing who was knocking, Twilight yelled, “GO AWAY MORDECAI!” Mordecai said in a pleading tone, “Twilight, can you at least let me explain my side of the story?” Twilight said, “What’s there to explain? You killed unicorns! That’s about as straightforward as you can get!” Mordecai flinched from Twilight’s yelling, while Sonic covered his ears. Everyone from the group that was gathered near the barrier, gasped in shock, while Rarity did an overdramatic faint from hearing what Twilight had yelled. Mordecai had seen everyone’s faces from the outburst and knew there was no hiding the incident now. After seeing what could have happened had he revealed this to them, Rigby sees the sad look on Mordecai’s face and felt bad for him. He went to the others and said, “Just give him a chance to explain.” The group nodded to him and he gave Mordecai the thumbs up to say they will listen. After feeling comfortable from the news, he turned back to the closed door and said, “Okay, it’s true, they were unicorns, but they weren’t like the unicorns from around here, they were thugs.” After hearing no response from Twilight, Mordecai took it as a sign that instead of being berated by her, she was going to listen to his side of the story. He took a deep breath and said, “Okay, there was this one time that I bought some cologne so I could get someone’s attention. At first, I thought it would attract some women, but after spraying more than I should have, it ended up attracting a group of unicorns instead. They seemed cool at first, telling me that since I let them borrow the spray, they would help me get with the ladies as their way of saying thank you, and I was desperate enough to believe them.” Hearing his story so far, Twilight felt bothered by it. She didn’t know what she was feeling, but for some reason, the thought of Mordecai getting with someone didn’t feel right to her. He continued and said, “Instead of helping me with that, they ended up pranking me and embarrassing me throughout the day, and eventually, they talked themselves into throwing a party at the park house.” Confused, Pinkie Pie asked, “What’s wrong with a party?” Sonic turned to her and said, “They’re not like your parties Pinkie. It’s a different kind of a party, where they intentionally trash the place and destroy everything in the house.” Mordecai nodded to this and said, “Yeah, what he said Pinkie.” Pinkie had a disappointed look on her face hearing this and she said, “Well, that’s very mean of them.” Mordecai continued and said, “Eventually, after they vandalized the park, trashed our home, and had Benson tied up and gagged, both me and Rigby went to Skips and asked for his help because he’s the one that knows how to fix our problems. He told us that there was only one thing that unicorns like them could never say no to, and that was drag racing. We set their racecar up with explosives and talked them into using it, while Rigby and I used the golf cart. We baited them with intimidation and after the race started, they ended up flying in the car off a ramp and while they were still in the sky, Benson blew up their car when they were far away from us.” Mordecai let the story sink in for everyone after explaining it. All he could hope for was Twilight to be the one to have heard it. Mordecai was on his knees and leaning against the door, hoping she was still listening. He then said, “Twilight, I know I didn’t kill those unicorns with my own hands, but I still took part in that plan. They were the kinds of unicorns that wouldn’t listen to reason, but even then, I can’t justify whether what we did was right or wrong. All I want you to know is that I would never hurt you, Rarity, or any of the other ponies here in Equestria.” Mordecai placed a hand on the door, even if he couldn’t look at her or hold her, he was hoping that she could feel him. He was on the verge of crying, but he pressed on and said, “The only thing I can ask from you now is for your forgiveness, but if you hate me enough not to…I’ll understand.” Unknown to Mordecai, Twilight had placed her hoof on the door where his hand was and after hearing him say this, she could feel the guilt he had from the experience. As Mordecai said the last part, he shed a tear and it hit the stone pavement on Twilight’s doorstep. He heard no response from her and thought that she made her decision. He got on his feet and was about to leave, but Twilight opened the door and brought the barrier down. As he looked at her, he noticed that Twilight’s coat and mane took on a grayish tone. She looked him in the eye, dried tears were present, and she asked, “So they weren’t from Equestria?” He said, “No, they weren’t. I swear.” After seeing the look in his eyes, she saw that he was telling the truth. She broke eye contact with him, lowering her head in the process, feeling guilty for what has happened, and said, “I’m sorry I jumped to that conclusion without hearing your side. Can you forgive me for that?” Mordecai places his index finger under her chin, lifts her head to him, and said, “As long as you forgive me.” After hearing his proposal, Twilight gave him a sweet smile, and a nod and hugged him. Mordecai blushed from the sudden contact, but he returned the hug and smiled, knowing that she didn’t hate him and had forgiven him. He also noticed her coat and mane getting their regular colors back while they were hugging. Sonic said, “All right! Glad to see these two made up.” After hearing him, Mordecai became curious about how things went for him and the others and asked, “Oh Sonic, did you get the emerald at that place we were at.” Finn interrupted the conversation and said, “It’s called the Land of Ooo, and yeah, they got the emerald there, but he lost the other emerald that they already had.” Shocked by this, Mordecai said, “What? How did you -?” Finn answered flatly, “Discord.” Twilight asked, “He was there too?” Sonic said, “Yeah, he was. We could explain the rest, but after what we’ve all been through, I think we should get some rest.” Disappointed at hearing this, Finn said, “What?! C’mon Sonic, you got me super pumped for this adventure! Why should we stop right now?” Sonic turned to him and said, “Because that last Chaos Control I did, really took a lot out of me.” Finn scratched the back of his head, still not sure about resting, and said, “Well…” Jake interrupted his thinking and said, “I think that would be the best, I’m sure that fight you and Finn had, must have drained him as well.” Sonic turned to the others and asked, “Does anyone else want to rest for now?” Everyone looked at one another and decided that resting for the day would be the best. They all nodded at Sonic in agreement. He said, “Looks like we’re all taking the rest of today off.” After agreeing with Sonic, the ponies decided to offer a place to stay for everyone for the night. Twilight turned to Mordecai and asked, “Mordecai, would you and Rigby like to stay here for tonight?” Rigby looked into the still-open door and said, “What? I don’t want to spend a night in a boring old-.” Mordecai interrupted his complaint and punched him in the shoulder hard. He rubbed his shoulder and said, “Owww!” This earned a chuckle from Shadow. Mordecai said with a smile, “We’d love to Twilight, thanks.” Applejack asked, “Finn, Jake, you two wouldn’t mind being on an apple farm for tonight, would ya?” Finn said, “Not at all, thanks AJ.” Pinkie asked, “Shadow, Rouge party at Sugarcube Corner?” Shadow rolled his eyes at her request. Rouge held back a chuckle and said, “I don’t know about a party, but we’d like to spend the night.” Rarity asked, “Silver, Blaze, would the two of you like to stay at my boutique?” Silver gave Blaze a questioning look. She turned to Rarity and said, “That would be nice, thank you.” Rainbow Dash asked, “Hey Knuckles, you don’t mind staying in my home, do you?” Knuckles turned to her and asked, “Where is that exactly?” She said, “It’s not too far from here, but it shouldn’t be hard to miss since it’s a cloud home.” He was left confused by what she just said, but before he could ask her what she was talking about, Twilight casts a spell on him. She turned to Rainbow Dash and said, “You can’t expect him to just walk on clouds, do you?” Knuckles asked, “Wait, I can walk on clouds now?” She said, “Just for tonight.” Fluttershy walked up to Sonic and said, “Um, Sonic. You, Tails, and Amy are welcome to stay at my cottage if that’s okay with you that is.” He said, “I’d like that, thanks.” Sonic then turned to everyone and asked, “Ok, meet you all back at the library in the morning?” Everyone gave their responses, saying they will meet up at the library, and with that, everyone went their separate ways with the ponies. When they were alone, Sonic turned to Fluttershy and asked, “Hey Fluttershy, can you take Tails and Amy to your cottage without me? I have a few things to take care of, it shouldn’t take long.” She said, “Okay. My cottage isn’t too far from here. It’s the tree before going into the Everfree Forest.” He said with a grin, “I’ll remember that, see ya.” He waved goodbye and took off in an instant. As Mordecai and Rigby entered Twilight’s house, she showed them the guest room, but the only thing that was in the room was one bed. Leaving the two to argue over who gets the bed for the night. Mordecai said, “Dude, I’m not sharing the bed.” Rigby said, “Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who gets the bed.” They both closed their hands into fists and shook them three times, after the third time, Mordecai used scissors, while Rigby used rock, revealing that he won. Rigby had a smug look on his face and said, “Hmm-hmm-hmm!” Mordecai said in defeat, “Ugh, fine! Take the bed!” Rigby walked into the guest room, still holding his cocky grin, and closed the door on him. Mordecai walked upstairs to talk to Twilight about the sleeping arrangements. After he got to the room, he said, “Hey Twilight, are there any other rooms in here? Rigby took the guest room.” She said, “Sorry Mordecai, that was the only guest room.” She then turned to him and asked, “Can I ask you something?” Mordecai shrugged at this and said, “Sure, go ahead.” She felt embarrassed for asking this, but she pushed forward and said, “Is it all right if you keep me company tonight? After what we’ve been through, I don’t want to sleep by myself tonight.” Shocked by this, Mordecai said, “WHAT?!” Twilight said, “Please…just for tonight?” Still feeling uncomfortable from the request, Mordecai said, “I don’t know, maybe I should just…” He was going to say no, but after seeing her put on her puppy dog eyes, he couldn’t help but feel bad about the incident with Discord and just couldn’t say no to her. He was reluctant but said, “All right, just for tonight.” All of her worries left in that instant, and she hugged Mordecai as a thank you. After the hug, Mordecai pulled up the two sheets for the bed and crawled under them, while Twilight pulled the top sheet and crawled under it. With how small the bed was, she rested her head on his chest, leaving him with a blush in the process. After calming down, Mordecai gently rubbed Twilight’s head with his left hand. While he was rubbing her head, he heard light snores from her and realized that she had already fallen asleep. He smiled to himself, glad to see that she still trusts him despite how the day went. He released a yawn and drifted off to sleep. After seeing Mordecai and Twilight getting settled, Sonic smiled to himself, glad to see that nothing bad had happened to them with their encounter with Discord. After relaxing on the tree branch, Sonic started thinking about what could have happened because of Discord. Both he and Finn could have killed each other, and Twilight would have been too depressed to try and help stop him. After jumping off of the tree branch, Sonic remembered his last trip to Canterlot and said to himself, “The Elements of Harmony. I’ve already seen what they can do.” He looks in the direction of Canterlot, determined to get some answers about the Elements of Harmony. “I hope Celestia can tell me more about them.” After making his decision, Sonic ran to Canterlot at top speed. He followed the train tracks like he did the last time, and got to Canterlot in no time. After arriving, and getting past the guards, he entered the castle and started looking for Celestia. Once he arrived in the throne room, instead of seeing Celestia, he saw that there was a different pony. The pony’s coat was dark sapphire blue, while her mane was a cobalt blue color. He said, “Hello there.” The sudden outburst startled the lunar princess. She turned to see who stood before her in the throne room and said, “Who are you, how did you get in here?” He said, “I’m Sonic the Hedgehog. As for how I got in, I just told the guards outside that I knew Twilight Sparkle, and they let me in.” The pony calmed down after hearing he was a friend of Twilight’s and said, “It is nice to meet you Sonic, I’m Princess Luna, Celestia’s younger sister.” Sonic bows to her and says, “Nice to meet you too Luna, and speaking of Celestia, is she around? I needed to ask her something.” She says, “No, my sister is sleeping right now. But I’m sure whatever you needed to ask her; I should be able to help out the best I can.” He shrugged and said, “Okay, I wanted to ask her what she knew about the Elements of Harmony.” > Chapter 9 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over at The Candy Store, we find the Eds leaving the store with big satisfied grins plastered on their faces. What’s the reason behind this? Each of the Eds was holding a jawbreaker the size of a basketball in their respective hands. “Ok boys, last time we had these, it was season four, but we FINALLY got our jawbreakers!!” shouted Eddy with joy. “Eddy, didn’t we get jawbreakers after we returned to the Cul-de-Sac after that adventure you put us through?” questioned Double D. “Well, yeah. But if I remember right, it wasn’t on screen, and if it’s not on screen, it doesn’t count,” Eddy simply said. Without another word, the Eds closed their eyes and readied themselves to eat their long-awaited jawbreakers. But before the trio could get the chance to, the cotton candy clouds had suddenly appeared above the Candy Store and had spread throughout the Cul-de-Sac. Unknown to the trio, a downpour of chocolate rain poured onto the Eds. When Eddy was about to put the jawbreaker in his mouth, he smelled something funny. He opened his eyes and was shocked at what he saw in his hands. “WHAT THE-?!?” questioned Eddy in complete shock. The once jawbreaker that was in his hands was now replaced by a meatball, the same size as the jawbreaker. Double D heard Eddy’s outburst and opened his eyes to see what was wrong, only to see that his jawbreaker was also replaced by a giant meatball. His reaction was no different from Eddy’s from what he saw. “GOOD LORD!!!” he yelled, also in shock. After hearing both of his friends react to something, Ed opened his eyes and saw that his jawbreaker had also been turned into a meatball. He looked at it for a few seconds in confusion, but instead of being shocked like his friends, he just shrugged it off and took a bite of the meatball. In a fit of rage, Eddy threw the meatball on the sidewalk, turned back to the Candy Store, and stomped to the door, ready to demand a refund. But before he could go in, the door slammed in his face and the closed sign was present on the glass door. This didn’t stop him, as he started banging on the door with his fists. “You backstabbing jerks ripped me off! I paid for a jawbreaker, not a meatball! I want my money back!” shouted Eddy as he continued pounding on the door in anger. After seeing that his fist banging wasn’t doing anything, Eddy started ramming his shoulder into the door, attempting to knock it down. Double D covered his face with his right hand and shook his head in dissatisfaction with what Eddy was trying to do. He turned to Ed, who was still eating his meatball, and asked, “Ed, could you please stop Eddy before he hurts himself?” After hearing his friend’s question, Ed gave him the “ok” sign with his free hand and said with a mouthful, “Okey-dokey Double D!” After he ate what was left of his meatball, he grabbed Eddy by his shirt and the trio left the Candy Store with Eddy in tow. He desperately tried to get out of Ed’s grip, but couldn’t because of the good hold Ed had on him. After a few minutes of blowing off steam, Eddy finally calmed down and walked with Ed and Double D. He sulked in silent defeat, wondering how the jawbreakers were still taken away from them even though they had them in the palm of their hands. After the sun’s rising without Discord’s influence, and after waking herself up, Fluttershy got up from the chair she slept on and did her routine of feeding her animals in her cottage. After her animals were fed, Fluttershy went and checked on her guests. She found Tails sleeping in the kitchen with the radar at the kitchen table; he looked like he finished the kinks to it. She then went to her room and found Amy sleeping in her bed. She quietly left her bedroom and started looking for Sonic. She looked everywhere inside the cottage and became worried after she saw that he wasn’t around. Meanwhile outside of Fluttershy’s cottage, Sonic was relaxing on top of the roof, with his arms behind his head, relaxing and remembering his talk with Luna. Sonic says, “I’ve seen what Discord can do, but I also saw that Twilight looked grayish just moments ago. Can you tell me what that is all about?” Luna says, “I see you aren’t familiar with that ability of his to force a pony into their opposite behaviors. He can corrupt the ponies into the opposite representation of their elements. Fluttershy from kindness to anger, Applejack from honest to a liar, Rarity from generous to greedy, Rainbow Dash from loyal to unfaithful, and Pinkie Pie from laughter to despair.” Sonic thinks this over and says, “So where does that leave Twilight?” Luna says, “Hers is the most powerful among them, magic, and one thing you should know Sonic, is that friendship is magic.” Hearing this, Sonic turns to her and says in confusion, “Friendship is magic?” Luna gives him a simple nod to his question. As he thinks that over, he remembered seeing Twilight in that state after she opened her door and she regained her colors after she and Mordecai made up. Sonic said, “Hmm…I wonder.” His thoughts were interrupted once he heard the door open. He looked down from the roof and saw Fluttershy standing outside. He saw the pegasus frantically looking for something and appeared to be worried. Unknown to the hedgehog, she was looking for him. “Sonic? Sonic, where are you?” asked Fluttershy, hoping that he would hear her. “I’m up here,” said Sonic, startling her in the process. Fluttershy jumped into the air after hearing the voice, she flapped her wings to keep herself airborne. She turned around and saw him casually waving at her, while he was laying on the roof. She breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that the voice belonged to Sonic and that he was okay. She flew towards him and said, “You know you could have slept inside.” “I know, but I’m a little more comfortable sleeping outside sometimes. Plus, you didn’t have another room or spot for me to sleep on,” he simply said, still relaxed on her roof. “Well…whatever makes you comfortable. What did you do after everyone split up last night?” asked Fluttershy. Sonic sat up and said, “I talked with Luna last night.” Fluttershy looked at him questioningly and said, “Oh, what did you talk with her about?” He said, “I’ll tell ya when we get to Twilight’s.” Before she could question him any further, his stomach rumbled, causing Sonic to grab it in embarrassment. He looked at her and asked with a sheepish grin, “Mind if we have breakfast first?” She responded with a smile, “Sure. I could make something for all of us.” He then jumped off the roof and they went inside her cottage. Back at Golden Oaks Library, Mordecai had woken up after hearing a loud noise coming from downstairs. He was a little upset from being woken up by the noise, but after seeing Twilight’s sleeping face, he wasn’t as upset as before. He tried to get up but realized he couldn’t after seeing that Twilight was still laying on top of him. He carefully got her off and placed her head on her pillow. He quietly got out of bed in an attempt to not wake her and he went downstairs to see what was making the noise. Once he was downstairs, he saw that Spike was in the kitchen and he was picking up the pans that had fallen. Mordecai said, “Hey Spike. What are you doing?” Spike said, “I was just going to make breakfast for you, Rigby and Twilight. Sorry if I woke you up.” Mordecai said, “It’s cool, what were you going to make?” Spike thought for a moment and said, “How does blueberry pancakes sound for breakfast?” Mordecai said with a smile, “That sounds good to me.” Sometime after he left, Twilight started tossing and turning in her bed. The scared look on her face signaled that she was having a nightmare. Twilight had seen Time Eater and Discord in an unfamiliar area, staring her and all of her friends down. Time Eater shot a barrage of spheres at the group, the only ones that didn’t get hit, other than herself, were Sonic and Mordecai. She looked at everyone and saw that the spheres had immobilized them. Sonic, however, appeared gold instead of blue and was floating off the ground. He flew at them, but with Discord’s enhanced powers, he stopped Sonic where he was with a snap of his talons. Sonic tried his best to break free from this, but he found that he couldn’t make any movements whatsoever. Once he approached Sonic, Discord raised his lion paw and blasted him with a powerful dark blast. After the attack had made contact, Sonic screamed in agony. Once the smoke had cleared, Sonic turned back to his natural blue color and he started to fall. While he was falling, he looked at Mordecai and Twilight with an apologetic look in his eyes and lost consciousness as he fell into the abyss. Time Eater focused its attention on Twilight and fired a dark sphere at her. She was going to use her magic to deflect the attack, but Discord snapped his fingers and her horn was gone. She panicked at this and wasn’t able to move away from the attack in time, but before the attack would make contact, Mordecai stepped in front of her and took the hit. After the smoke had cleared, Mordecai had fallen over from the attack. Mordecai clutched his stomach in pain. He coughed and groaned from the pain he was experiencing. Worried for him, Twilight rushed to his side and turned him over so he could face her. Once he was facing her, she started crying after seeing the condition he was in. He breathed heavily and said in a weak tone, “Twilight…Twilight.” In the real world, Mordecai had already woken Rigby up for breakfast and was currently on his way to wake Twilight up. While he was going up the stairs, he was humming a random tune to himself, just enjoying the good morning he was having. When he entered Twilight’s room, he heard a faint whimper. Feeling worried, he rushed to her bed as quickly as he could, and what he saw just broke his heart from what he was seeing. He saw that Twilight was clutching her blanket, shaking in fear, and crying in her sleep. He lightly shook her and said, “Twilight! Twilight!” Her eyes shot open after hearing his voice. She sat up and started breathing heavily from the dream she had. Twilight turned to see Mordecai looking at her with a concerned look on his face. Mordecai asked, “Are you okay Twilight?” After seeing him, Twilight immediately hugged him, glad to see that he was okay, leaving Mordecai taken back by this. He eventually hugged her back and was going to ask her what was wrong, but she had beaten him to the question and said, “I’m sorry Mordecai. I-I had a bad dream.” After pulling away from the hug, he stroked her cheek, wiping her tears away, and said, “Hey, don’t worry about it. Whatever it was, it was just a dream.” She still felt unsure about it as she remembered her friends having similar nightmares leading up to Discord and Time Eater being present. Once the thought crossed her mind, she thought about telling him about the nightmares her friends had, but her stomach rumbled, causing her to blush and laugh in embarrassment. Mordecai smiled at this and said, “Talk about good timing, I came up here to tell you that Spike just finished making breakfast.” Twilight asked, “What did he make?” He simply said, “Blueberry pancakes.” She quickly got out of bed, and they left her bedroom. Back in the Center of Time, Discord had returned after a day of spreading his chaos throughout the planet. After seeing him, Time Eater asked, “Enjoy yourself out there?” Discord crossed his arms and said, “Not really.” Time Eater then asked, “What? Didn’t spread enough chaos out there?” Discord turned and said, “Trust me, I’ve spread a lot, just had some problems in one area though.” Wanting to change the subject, Discord asked with a smirk, “What did I miss from yesterday’s divide and conquer?” Time Eater said, “Remember when I mentioned Silver?” Confused by this, Discord said, “Yeah, I remember…why?” Time Eater continued and said, “Both he and Blaze had traveled in time and had a helping hand with everyone.” Discord asked, “So, we’re back on square one then?” Time Eater tore open a portal on the ground and said, “Not quite. I already have a plan for what lies here” Discord looked at the portal and was surprised at what he saw. He said, “Tartarus? What do we need from there?” Time Eater said, “I’ve checked what is there, and I believe that one creature in there should be of good use to us for the next emerald.” A silhouette was shown to Discord on the portal. Time Eater then said, “I want you to bring this creature here and we’ll work on the next emerald after that.” Discord shrugged at this, plugged his nose, jumped, and did a cannonball motion into the portal. After exiting the portal, Discord arrived at the entrance of Tartarus and started walking toward it. Before he could go any further, a giant black dog with three heads, known as Cerberus, had jumped out in front of him, blocking his path, and started barking at him in an attempt to scare him off. After he stopped barking, Cerberus growled at Discord after seeing the draconequus hadn’t flinched after seeing him and was ready to pounce him. Discord snapped his fingers and a big piece of steak appeared. He then used his magic and lifted the piece of meat in front of the dog, catching the attention of all three of the dog’s heads. After distracting the heads in amusement, he threw the steak away from the entrance and Cerberus chased after the meat. After catching the piece of meat, Cerberus attempted to eat the steak, but the other heads fought over it with each other, wanting to eat the meat as well. With the perfect distraction completed, Discord turned to the giant dog, and said with a smirk, “Good boy.” As Cerberus continued to fight over the steak, Discord went into Tartarus and began his search for what Time Eater had told him to bust out. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Fluttershy were walking towards the library, and the rest of the group had crossed paths, they waved to each other and said their good mornings. Sonic turned to Finn and Jake and asked, “So what do you guys think of Ponyville?” Finn scratched the back of his head and asked, “Are all of the ponies around here obsessed with humans?” Sonic looked at him confusingly and asked, “What do ya mean?” Finn said, “Last night, when Jake and I went with AJ, some aquamarine unicorn with a mint mane and tail greeted me, she said her name was Lyra. She looked at me as if I came out of a storybook or something. She asked me a bunch of weird questions, one of them was about the family sword,” he finished while pointing at the long red sword. Finn continued his story and said, “I was going to show her my sword-handling skills, but she grabbed my hands and admired them as if they were lost treasure or something. I was going to ask her what she was doing, but she took off my hat, ran one of her hooves in my hair and she ended up wearing my hat.” Applejack chuckled and said, “We haven’t had humans in Equestria in a long time, I guess what Bon Bon has been telling me about Lyra was true.” Jake turned to her and asked, “And what did she tell you?” Applejack said, “She has an obsession with humans.” Finn looked at her and said, “Bon Bon? You mean the cream color pony with the blue and pink mane and tail?” Interested in the story, and wanting Finn to continue, Sonic asked, “What happened next?” Finn said, “Bon Bon took my hat off of Lyra, gave it back to me, and apologized for her friend’s odd behavior. She dragged Lyra and they left. I think they were arguing about something, but the only thing I heard while they were leaving was, ‘I told you they were real!’” After he finished telling the story, everyone had a good laugh from it. Sonic then pointed at Finn’s backpack that was holding both the Family Sword and the Root Sword and asked, “Do you use that sword very often?” Finn said, “I’m good at hand-to-hand combat as well, but yeah, the sword is one thing I use to defend myself with.” Shadow asked, “Defend yourself from what exactly?” Finn said, “From a lot of monsters that are in Ooo, I even use my sword to deflect any magic that is used against me.” Fluttershy said, “I didn’t know there was magic outside of Equestria.” Finn turned to her and said, “Yeah, there’s magic in Ooo, but unfortunately for me and Jake, out of all the magic users there are, we have to put up with the Ice King the most.” Knuckles said, “Who’s the Ice King.” Jake couldn’t pass this opportunity up, so he said, “A big nerd,” earning a good laugh from everyone. After everyone settled down, Finn said, “He’s this guy that has a magical crown, and it gives him the power to use ice and snow. He usually kidnaps princesses so he can marry one of them.” Everyone looked at each other in confusion after hearing this. Finn then said, “It’s sad really.” Sonic said, “The guys seriously screwed in the head by the sounds of it.” Finn and Jake both thought to themselves, “You don’t know half of it.” Sonic said, “I just hope he doesn’t hear about this place.” Finn turned to him and said, “Why’s that?” He said, “Because there’s a couple of princesses here.” Before he could ask any further, they had arrived at Twilight’s home. As they approached her home, the door opened, revealing Mordecai, Rigby, and Twilight about to exit the tree home. After seeing everyone, Twilight said with a smile, “Good morning everyone.” After everyone exchanged their good mornings, they entered the library. After everyone got comfortable in the library, Twilight noticed Silver and Blaze. She turned to Sonic and asked, “Uh Sonic, who are your friends?” Sonic looked in that direction and realized that Silver and Blaze haven’t been introduced. Before he could tell her, Silver interrupted and said, “Sorry for the lack of introductions. I’m Silver.” Blaze simply said, “And I’m Blaze.” Silver then added, “We came here from the future to try and change it.” Skeptical by this, Twilight said, “The future? I’m sorry, but unless you know any spells to do any time travel, that can’t be possible.” Sonic said, “He said that someone had helped him with a time-traveling device.” Hearing this, Mordecai asked, “Like from Back to the Future?” Not wanting to make the story long, Silver scratched the back of his head and said, “Yeah, something like that.” Mordecai and Rigby said in unison, “So cool.” Silver continued to explain the reason why he and Blaze were in the present and said, “We came here because the world has been conquered in our time.” Fluttershy asked, “Conquered? How?” Blaze said, “Discord, that’s how.” The group that didn’t go to the Land of Ooo gasped at this. Silver said, “In the future, Discord had managed to get all of the Chaos Emeralds, and prevented the Elements of Harmony from working against him.” Worried over this news, Amy asked, “And what exactly happened that caused that future?” Blaze said, “After coming back to this time, and with what Silver has told me, we finally figured out how he did it. He tricked Finn into killing Sonic and told Twilight about Mordecai’s past experiences to keep her from using her element.” Amy fainted after hearing the news. Rarity went over to the unconscious hedgehog and started fanning her with her hoof in an attempt to wake her up again. Not believing what he said, Rigby said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. How could he have taken over? We have more emeralds than Discord does.” He looked at Mordecai and asked, “Don’t we?” Mordecai said, “Well, Discord has the yellow emerald.” Sonic added, “As well as the purple emerald we had.” Rigby then asked, “So…we only have one emerald then?” Sonic pulled out the red emerald and said, “Actually, we have two.” Pinkie asked, “How’d you get that one?” Sonic said, “This one was from the Land of Ooo. We got it after we dealt with Xergiok and his army of cyclopses and earclopses.” The group that didn’t stay in Ooo looked at him in confusion. Twilight spoke up and asked, “An army of what?” Finn turned to her and asked, “You know what a cyclops is right?” She said, “Yes.” Finn continued and said, “Earclopses are the same, except it has a giant ear for a head.” After bringing up the earclops, Sonic turned to Knuckles and asked, “Speaking of which, how did you guys take the two armies down?” Everyone focused their attention on Knuckles, Jake, Silver, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. Knuckles said, “Remember when Finn said that the earclops have very sensitive hearing?” Sonic nodded to his question. Knuckles said, “That wasn’t the case with these.” Finn asked, “What do you mean?” Jake said, “He means, that Xergiok was ready this time and had cast a spell to protect their hearing.” Knuckles continued the story and said, “They were tough, but we were able to handle them, that is until a giant cyclops came out of nowhere.” The others stared at them in shock, as he continued the story. “That cyclops was at least two times bigger than the army Xergiok brought. It swung its giant club at us, but I was able to stop it with my hands.” Silver shook his head in disapproval and said, “If we weren’t there, you would have been squashed like a bug.” Knuckles glared at him as he continued telling what had happened in the fight and said, “It’s true that he stopped the club, but we still had an army that surrounded us. I was able to stop a good amount of them with my psychokinesis.” Rigby looked at him confusedly and said, “You’re what?” Silver then raised his right hand and a cyan aura suddenly surrounded Rigby. He lifted him off the ground with it, and put him back down, shocking everyone that hadn’t seen the technique before. Silver then said, “I used that on at least ten of them, and threw them at the other cyclopses and earclopses.” Rainbow Dash continued the story and said, “After seeing what Silver could do, we focused on taking the giant cyclops down. I flew at it, and I bucked it in the gut, as hard as I could.” Rarity added, “I bucked the cyclops in the shin, and it lost its balance from it. Knuckles ended up tossing it on its back after that.” Applejack said, “It tried to get back up again, but I asked Jake if he could stretch his arm into a lasso, he said he could, and formed it easily. I grabbed his arm, swung it over the cyclops, and tied it up before it could attack again.” Everyone looked at Jake in confusion after hearing what Applejack had just said. He said, “She means this,” and showed everyone that he could stretch his body. He then said, “After tying that cyclops up, Knuckles grabbed my arm and swung it around with great force. He was able to knock some of them out with it, while the others tried running away. We let it go at the rest of the cyclopses and earclopses and it rolled them over.” After finishing their story, Sonic turned to Shadow and asked, “How about you Shadow? How was it like being here for a day?” Instead of saying anything, all Shadow did was glare at Rigby, who in turn, glared back at him. Rouge answered for him and said, “These two didn’t get along here yesterday.” Sonic asked in confusion, “Why’s that?” Rigby pointed accusingly at Shadow and yelled, “It’s because this turd ruined my chocolate cake!” Amy slowly regained consciousness after hearing the sudden outburst. Fluttershy gasped at what Rigby just said and she said in a disapproving tone, “Such language!” Shadow retorted in an equally angered tone and said, “Only after you ruined my swiss rolls, Rig-bonehead!” Rigby clutched his fists in anger and yelled, “WHAT?!” Mordecai lightly chuckled at this and thought, ‘I gotta remember that one.’ Rigby then lunged at Shadow, while he raised a fist and was ready to fight, but they were both stopped by Silver’s psychokinesis. Blaze said, “By the time I entered the store, these two were about to kill each other. I didn’t know why at the time.” Shadow said, “It started when stupid here was being rude to one of the ponies that had crossed eyes. Mordecai told me that I was allowed to punch him if he acted up, so I did.” Blaze then said, “With how things went, I’m glad I told them about our little problem, or it could have gotten ugly yesterday.” Rigby continued his struggle in the cyan aura in an attempt to break free and said, “Let me go, so I can kick that hedgehog’s butt!” Shadow scoffed at this and said, “You couldn’t beat an egg with how hard you hit.” Silver said, “Look, guys, you two might not like each other, but save it until after Time Eater and Discord are taken care of. There was enough drama as it was yesterday.” They rolled their eyes at this and said in unison, “Fine.” Silver released them from his grip after they had finally calmed down. Jake spoke up and said, “How exactly are we gonna stop them? Time Eater nearly sucked us into that portal back in Ooo, although, I can’t say the same for the goblins. And other than changing forms, what else can Discord do?” Twilight said, “Discord’s got a lot of powers of his own, but the best way I can say this is that he can literally turn the world upside down with a snap of his fingers.” Jake then asked, “Is there anything that can stop something like that?” Sonic said with a smirk, “There is actually.” Jake looked at him in confusion. The ponies then pulled out their necklaces and tiara, showing him what he was talking about. Still confused, Jake asked, “And what are these supposed to be?” Twilight answered him and said, “These are the Elements of Harmony. These elements are each known as, Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic, and they have stopped Discord before.” Jake was going to question the elements, but Mordecai interrupted his train of thought and said, “Trust me, we’ve seen them work before. They turned a Moon Monster into a toy.” Rigby then said, “I keep telling you, it’s Beef Burrito.” Mordecai turned to him and said, “Dude, I keep telling you, it’s not Beef Burrito, we put it in the closet a long time ago.” Not wanting to admit he was wrong, Rigby offered a bet and said, “Ten bucks says your wrong.” Mordecai shook Rigby’s hand and said, “I’ll take that bet.” Sonic said, “Anyway, as Twilight was saying, the Elements of Harmony can stop Discord.” Finn spoke up and asked, “If the Elements of Harmony stopped him before, how did he still manage to escape?” Sonic scratched the back of his head and said, “Time Eater was the one that helped him escape this time. But don’t worry about that, I paid a visit to Canterlot, talked with Princess Luna about this, and I learned something new about the elements.” Everyone looked at him in confusion. Tails asked, “When did you go to Canterlot?” Twilight added, “And when did you meet Luna?” Sonic said, “Last night, just before I fell asleep myself. I was going to talk to Celestia about the elements, but I’m glad that her sister knew about them as well. She told me that she and Celestia had done some research on the elements sometime after you used them on Discord.” The ponies leaned in and said in unison, “Yes?” Sonic smiled at this, continued his explanation, and said, “They found something out about them.” They leaned a little closer, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Mordecai, and Shadow also leaning in, and said in unison, “Yes?” He then said, “It’s the best thing I’ve heard that they can do.” After saying this, everyone leaned in with interest and said, “Yes?” Sonic concluded by saying, “They can steal Discord’s chaotic powers.” Everyone gasped in surprise at the news. Sonic then said, “I know I was surprised too. Luna told me that, since sealing him in stone a second time didn’t work, we can try to seal him and have his powers taken away.” Finn asked, “Okay, so how do we track him?” Tails said, “I’ve been fixing our radar last night, and I think I got all the bugs figured out. This was how we were able to find the emerald back in Ooo. With this fixed up, we can try to catch him where the next emerald will be at.” Tails then turned the radar on, and after a few minutes, the radar picked up the next emerald’s location. The group exited the library and traced the emerald that was one hundred miles from Equestria. They gathered around Sonic; he used Chaos Control and they teleported to the new location. Ed was sitting in his basement and was reading one of his comic books on his bed, completely lost in the story he was reading. The comic was called, “The Revenge of Evil Tim”. He continued reading from page to page until he heard a knock on his window. After getting off his bed, Ed opened the window and discovered that Eddy and Double D were the ones that were knocking on his window. He got out of his room by crawling out of his window. He greeted his friends and showed them his new comic, neither of them was impressed with it, especially with the last comic Ed used to summon a bunch of ravens. Ed noticed the sad look on Eddy’s face and wanted to cheer him up. He was going to hug him, but Eddy grabbed one of his arms and slammed him into the ground. Ed groaned at this and asked in confusion, “What did I do?” Double D attempted to pull him back up from the ground, displeased with Eddy’s actions. He strained himself, but he eventually got him off the ground and said, “It’s not you Eddy’s mad at Ed, he’s still peeved from yesterday.” They approached Eddy and attempted to calm him down. After successfully calming him down, the trio then left Ed’s backyard and began walking in no particular direction. The walk eventually led the Eds to walk down the Lane, and go to their hangout. Shortly after they walked down the Lane, a bright light flashed in the playground, revealing Sonic and co.; after arriving, everyone did a quick look around. Pinkie asked, “We’re back at the park?” Mordecai said, “No, the park is a lot bigger than this.” Sonic turned to Tails and asked, “So the emerald is here?” Tails looked over the monitor and said, “Not right here, right here, but it is nearby.” Tails tried to determine the emerald’s location, but the radar started acting up again. Knuckles shook his head at this and said, “Better find it, before someone else does.” Twilight said, “Ok, it doesn’t look like this place isn’t that big, so I think we can split up into teams to cover more ground.” Everyone agreed to Twilight’s proposal and she assigned Sonic, Tails, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Knuckles, and Silver to team one. Team two had Amy, Rouge, Rarity, Blaze, and herself. Team three had Applejack, Finn, Jake, Shadow, Pinkie Pie, Mordecai, and Rigby. The three teams split up and looked around the closest areas to the playground. Team one went to the houses. After talking with the ponies, Tails gave the radar to Rigby, so team three can try to look for the emerald in the woods, while Rarity’s gem-finding spell can help team two in the construction zone. Once Sonic and his team arrived at the houses, he suggested that they check the roofs of the homes, just in case the emerald was up there. Tails, Silver, and Rainbow flew up to the roofs, while Sonic, Fluttershy, and Knuckles checked the ground. Sonic turned and noticed Fluttershy was still on the ground and asked, “Fluttershy, what are you doing on the ground? Shouldn’t you be up there with the others?” She said, “I thought it would be easier if we had three of each on the ground and the roofs.” She mumbled something else, but he didn’t notice it. Without pursuing the issue any further, Sonic shrugged it off and started their search for the emerald around the houses. While on the ground, Fluttershy had seen a house nearby and spotted a pig and a goat. After seeing them, she immediately thought about asking them for help. Sonic noticed her walking towards the house and followed her. As they entered the backyard, the pig, known as Wilfred, and the goat, known as Victor, had stopped eating and saw the duo. Before Victor got defensive with the intruders, Fluttershy noticed the change in his behavior and said, “It’s okay, it’s okay. We’re not here to cause either of you any trouble.” Both Wilfred and Victor looked at each other in confusion after the pegasus had spoken to them, while Sonic looked at her in shock thinking to himself, “Did she just speak to actual farm animals?” After getting their attention, she said, “Hello there, my name’s Fluttershy, and this is Sonic.” After being introduced, Sonic waved awkwardly to Victor and Wilfred. Fluttershy continued talking to them and said, “We’re here to try and find something that belongs to him that might have come here. Did either of you see anything by chance?” While they were talking to Fluttershy, Knuckles entered the yard and spotted Sonic. Once he approached him, he said, “We haven’t found anything around the houses, why’s Fluttershy-?” Sonic stopped him from talking by raising a finger to silence him and said, “She’s asking them if they saw the emerald.” Surprised by this, Knuckles said, “She can talk to these animals?” Sonic nodded and said, “And I think she can understand them as well.” After she finished talking to Wilfred and Victor, Fluttershy turned to Sonic and said, “They said they saw something fall in that direction a couple of nights ago.” She pointed a hoof past the houses. Still trying to take in the fact that she spoke to animals, Sonic regained his composure and said, “Well…that’s very helpful of them.” The trio waved at Victor and Wilfred and left the yard. Team two arrived at the construction zone and decided to split into two groups. Twilight and Blaze searched one side of the construction zone, while Rarity, Rouge, and Amy searched the other. Curious about the ability, Rouge turned to her and asked, “So you use that spell to find gems?” Rarity said, “Yes, why do you ask?” Rouge said, “I never knew a pony could do any treasure hunting.” Rarity quickly said, “Oh no-no-no-no-no, I don’t do anything like that. I just look for the gems I would need to make my dresses.” Rouge looked at her in surprise and said, “You use the gems to help make your dresses? I gotta give some of them a look later.” Amy shook her head at this and thought to herself, “I hope she doesn’t get robbed.” Amy went over to Twilight and Blaze to see if she could help them. By the time she approached them, Blaze walked up to her and said, “Amy, could you see if you can help Twilight with her problem?” Before she could ask what the problem was, Blaze had already left and was walking towards Rouge and Rarity. Still confused, Amy walked over to Twilight, who was lifting some of the construction equipment with her magic. After setting them down, Amy said, “Blaze said you needed help with something. Do you mind telling me what kind of help you need?” Twilight felt nervous about what she wanted to ask. She tried to change the subject and said, “Uh, it’s nothing. I think some of my books back home might help me with this problem I’m going through.” Amy saw the nervous smile Twilight had and wasn’t going to let the subject go so easily. Twilight lifted a cement mixer with her magic and tried to see if the emerald was under it. Amy then said, “You like someone, don’t ya?” After hearing the question, Twilight lost her focus on the cement mixer and dropped it in surprise. She turned to Amy and said, “Wh-what? What makes you say that?” Amy said, “It’s a sixth sense for me, plus you're not exactly hiding it with that blush on your face.” As stated, Twilight had a light blush on her face, but it only grew darker after it was pointed out. After proving her point, Amy said with a smirk, “So…who’s the lucky guy you’ve got a crush on?” Unsure about what she was feeling, Twilight said, “Even if what I’m feeling is a crush, how can you tell?” Feeling content with the question, Amy said, “In my personal experience, just thinking about that special someone alone, makes every little moment in your life huge!” After hearing this, Twilight started thinking about her possible crush again. Her blush returned after thinking it over with a smile, but it quickly disappeared as another thought had come to her mind. She turned to Amy, who was lost in her thoughts and said, “I still have one more thing to bring up. My crush isn’t exactly a pony, it’s Mordecai.” Amy snapped back to reality after hearing this. Feeling discomfort overtake her, Twilight said, “Wouldn’t it be weird if someone had feelings for someone that wasn’t the same species as them?” Amy said, “That shouldn’t matter at all! I mean, my friend Cream, her mom Vanilla the Rabbit, has feelings for Vector the Crocodile, and it doesn’t bother her that he’s different. Rouge teases Knuckles almost all the time, and she is very close to Shadow. I don’t think it matters to her either.” Twilight stared at her in shock after hearing these examples. Wanting to get to the point, Amy took Twilight’s hooves into her hands and said, “What I’m trying to say is that, if you do have feelings for Mordecai, don’t let any differences you have with him stop you from being happy.” Twilight smiled after hearing what Amy had to say. She then said, “Thank you, Amy, it means a lot to get some help on this.” Amy smiled, hugged her, and said, “What are friends for?” After they finished hugging, Rarity said to them, “Girls! I think I found where the emerald is!” Team three had arrived in the forest, however, Rigby was seen trying to work the radar. Seeing him struggle, Shadow said, “Did you break it already?!” Rigby said, “No! The screen’s just black.” Rigby then handed the radar to Mordecai so he can continue his argument with Shadow. While they were bickering, Mordecai looked over the radar and saw what the problem was. Shadow had Rigby in a headlock and was about to punch him, until Mordecai said, “Dudes, it’s cool. It was only turned off.” Still, in the headlock, Rigby crossed his arms with pride and said, “Hmm, hmm, hmm.” Shadow still punched Rigby in the face after he gloated. After taking the radar back, Shadow said, “Me, Finn, and Jake will look over the trees to see where the radar will point to.” Mordecai said, “That’s cool, we’ll look down here on the ground just in case.” Shadow walked over to Finn and Jake and asked if they could have a better look over the trees, the duo nodded in agreement. Applejack also asked if she could join them, and the duo gave her a nod as well. After Finn told Shadow and Applejack to get on Jake’s back, Jake stretched his legs and lifted them over the trees. Mordecai was looking past the trees, looking towards the construction zone. Pinkie noticed this and said, “Hey Mordecai, what are you looking at?” He snapped out of his thoughts and quickly said, “Huh? Oh, uh. Nothing. It’s nothing.” Rigby scoffed at his response and said, “Yeah right, he’s just thinking about Twi-.” Before he could finish his sentence, Mordecai punched him in the shoulder, he groaned and rubbed his shoulder after the hit he received. Pinkie bounced around them and said in excitement, “Ooh, if you’re thinking about somepony, then it must mean you like them. Is it somepony I know? Is it? Is it? Huh huh huh?” Mordecai thought about not telling her, but he didn’t feel like keeping this a secret anymore. He turned to her and said, “I’ll tell ya, only if you keep it between us.” Pinkie nodded to this and said, “Sure thing! I’ll give you my Pinkie Promise to prove it.” Before she could do the motions to her Pinkie Promise, Rigby had extended his pinky finger to her. She looked at him in confusion and said, “Um, Rigby, what are you doing?” He said, “A pinky promise, what does it look like?” Mordecai slapped Rigby on the back of his head and said, “Dude! Does it look like there’s a pinky on that hoof?” Rigby looked at the hoof, put his hand down slowly after realization had hit him, and said, “Oh, right. Sorry.” Pinkie giggled at this and said, “It’s all right.” She said while doing her motions, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Mordecai thought it was odd, but he felt that she could keep his secret. He motioned her to come closer so he could tell her. Once she was close enough, he said with a light blush present on his face, “I… I have a crush on Twilight.” Pinkie gasped in surprise at the news. She looked at him, still in shock, and said, “Really?” He responded to her question with a shy smile and a nod. After getting over her shock over the news, Pinkie said with a smile, “Don’t worry about it. Your secret’s safe with me.” Relieved by this, Mordecai said, “Thanks, Pinkie.” Back with Shadow, Applejack, Finn, and Jake, Finn was trying to get to know Shadow better. He said, “Anything on the radar yet?” Not much of a conversation type of person, Shadow said, “Not yet.” Finn nodded at this and thought over a few things to talk about. After coming up with something, he said, “Why are swiss rolls your favorite treat?” Shadow said, “Because they’re good. Is that a problem?” Finn quickly said, “No, no problem. It’s just that, I like apple pie.” After hearing this, Applejack said, “Really? Who makes them?” Jake chimed in and said, “Our friend Tree Trunks makes the best apple pies back in Ooo.” Applejack said with a smile, “I’d like to meet her sometime, but I can tell you two right now that I can make a good apple pie myself.” Finn said, “Really?” Applejack chuckled at his surprise and said, “Sugarcube, I live on an apple farm. I and the rest of my family make a lot of good apple products.” Before she could tell them what they make, Finn said, “We’ll start with the apple pie when we get back to Equestria, if that’s ok.” Applejack said, “That’d be fine.” After the radar had picked up something, Shadow yelled to the others and said, “Hey guys! I finally found the emerald!” The teams met up again at the entrance of the Lane and they each had news of the emerald. Fluttershy spoke first and said, “I talked with a couple of the farm animals and they told me that they saw something go in that direction.” She pointed in the direction of the Lane. Knuckles said, “I don’t know how that works, but I do sense something over there.” Twilight said, “Rarity said she picked something up with her magic over there as well.” Mordecai said, “That’s cool, the radar picked something up over there, but from where we were on Jake’s back, it looked like a junkyard.” Rarity said in disgust, “A junkyard? Really?” Sonic said, “Wherever the emerald is, we’re going.” And with that, the group walked into the Lane, towards the Junkyard. In the Junkyard, the Eds were in their purple retro van, with flames painted on the sides. Eddy was in the driver’s seat, Ed was in the passenger seat with his head sticking out the window, and Double D was resting on the waterbed behind them. They had been running potential scams with each other after arriving. Double D said while going through his notepad, “How about we try the Pesky Problem Fixers again?” Eddy said, “The only call we ever got on that was from some dumb broke kid, I’m not gonna go through with that again.” Double D flipped a page and said, “Go-kart racing?” Eddy thought this over and said, “Maybe, but I don’t feel like doing the go-kart racing idea right now.” Ed got back in the van and said, “How about a pool party?” Eddy turned to him and said, “Who does a pool party in spring?” After seeing how down he looked, Double D asked, “What’s wrong Eddy?” Eddy said, “Nothing. Just going through another scam block is all. I think we just need a break from all of this.” Double D said, “With the kids being sick, I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” After a few minutes of relaxing, Ed looked out the passenger window and noticed something. Feeling excited about what he saw, he said, “Is that a mutant horse?” Thinking their friend was being random again, both Eddy and Double D ignored him. Ed then said while pointing, “Honest and for truly guys, I think I see a mutant horse over there!” Eddy shook his head at this, while Double D checked out the drop-shaped window, still in doubt about what Ed was saying. After looking out the window, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He was seeing a white unicorn in the Junkyard. He immediately pulled out his notepad and started taking notes from what he was seeing. Shortly after seeing the white unicorn, he saw a second unicorn, this one, however, was lavender-colored. They both had picked up some of the garbage with their magic, however, the white unicorn looked disgusted after grabbing the pile. Double D then said in excitement, “Eddy! Ed wasn’t lying! I see two unicorns!” After they had set the garbage down, Eddy turned to see them. Eddy being himself, said, “Guys, we pulled a unicorn stunt ourselves. Those could be kids in costumes themselves.” Double D rolled his eyes at this and thought, “Honestly Eddy, what kid could be shorter than you?” Once the unicorns had left, Double D decided to leave the van and wanted to do personal research on them. Noticing this, Eddy said, “Where ya goin’?” He soon after left the van, with Ed following behind, tripping while he exited the van. Eddy and Double D climbed over some of the garbage and began observing them. After a short while, four other ponies arrived, two of them, adding to Double D’s surprise were pegasi, while the other two were regular ponies, but the thing that surprised him the most was that each of the other equines had a different Technicolor coat. As they continued to watch, a six-foot blue jay and a raccoon suddenly appeared. The lavender unicorn turned to the blue jay and said, “Did you find anything Mordecai?” Mordecai shook his head at this. After hearing the unicorn speak, Eddy said in shock, “THEY CAN TA-!” Before he could finish his sentence, Double D covered Eddy’s mouth as quickly as he could. After hearing the random outburst, Rigby asked, “Did anyone else hear that?” Double D then said in a hushed tone, “Ssh Eddy! We don’t want to scare them off.” Ed approached the duo and said, “Scare who off?” They then pulled him down and ducked in an attempt to hide and not be seen by them. The junk they were on, however, had started to rumble, and Jake had stretched out from under them. He said, “Couldn’t find it underground from where I dug.” He then noticed the garbage on his head and brushed it off. After the swipe, he felt a few things grabbing his hand. He checked his hand and saw three kids hanging onto his hand for dear life. He gave them an apologetic look and said, “Oops, sorry.” He then shrunk down in size and set them on the ground. After they let him go, they were left in a state of shock from what they had seen within the last few minutes. Finn approached the group and said, “I found nothing on my end.” He sees the Eds shaking and said, “Hey, what’s, whoa. What’s got you three scared?” After hearing the new voice, Double D and Eddy stopped shaking and turned to Finn. Eddy said, “Who are you supposed to be?” Finn said, “I’m Finn, and the dog you see is Jake.” Ed continued shaking, but instead of it being out of fear, it was out of excitement. He then grabbed the ponies, Mordecai, Rigby, and Jake into a big hug. Still excited, Ed said, “Look at all these new furry friends’ guys!” They all struggled to get free, not because of the stronghold he had on them, but because of the bad stench coming from him. Double D seeing this, said, “Ed, let them go!” After doing what he was told, Ed instantly let everyone go. Once they were released, they all took deep breaths, recovering from what they experienced with him. After hearing the shout, Sonic and the others came around a corner and approached the group. Sonic said, “What’s going on guys?” Tails said, “We heard shouting, is everything all right?” Ed seeing the new animals, as well as recognizing them, just stared at them in shock. Still trying to catch his breath, Mordecai said, “We’re fine, just don’t let that kid hug you. It smells like a skunk died on him or something.” Remembering an encounter she had with a skunk family, Twilight shivered at this and said, “Ugh, please don’t remind me.” Mordecai noticed the glare he was getting from Eddy, he looked behind him and saw that there was no one behind him. He gave him a friendly wave and said, “Um…hello.” Eddy said, “Are you some kind of bird or something?” Feeling confused, Mordecai said, “Uh, yeah. I’m not sure what gave it away, the feathers, or the beak. Why?” Eddy just said, “I hate birds.” Feeling defensive from this, Mordecai said, “Whoa, whoa. Dude, not cool! I don’t even know you, and you’re already like this? And I thought Rigby had problems.” After hearing this, Rigby said, “Hey!” Before anything could escalate between Eddy and Mordecai, Double D said, “Eddy that was very rude.” He then turned to Mordecai and said, “I’m sorry for Eddy’s bad behavior, it’s just been a bad day for him.” Mordecai said, “Yeah, I guess.” Realization suddenly hit him, and he said, “Where are my manners? My name is Eddward, but my friends here call me Double D, and as you know, this is Eddy, and the tall one that hugged you is Ed.” After hearing this, Mordecai couldn’t help but laugh. He then said, “Wait, Ed, Edd, and Eddy? What are the chances of meeting three kids with the same name?” Hearing this, Rigby said, “Are you serious?” After calming down from his laughter, Mordecai said, “My name is Mordecai, and this is Rigby.” Double D then approached the duo and said, “How is it that you are a blue jay? I’ve never seen one as tall as a person before.” As he was talking to them, he was writing notes down on his notepad. He turned to Rigby and said, “And I’ve never seen a raccoon as big as you. A normal one isn’t that tall; you also look a little bigger than twenty pounds.” Getting annoyed with Double D, Rigby said, “STOP TALKING!” Eddy lightly scoffed at this and said to himself, “If only.” After feeling his hostility, Double D slowly backed away from Rigby and focused his attention on the ponies. After turning back a couple of pages, Twilight spoke up and said, “Sorry about Rigby’s short fuse.” Double D waived it off and said, “It’s no trouble, I have to deal with Eddy’s temper myself.” Twilight then said, “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. We’re from a town called Ponyville.” As he was writing everything down, he suppressed the urge to laugh at the name of where the ponies had come from. After their introduction, he said, “I’ve never seen any equine like you six before. Two unicorns and two pegasi are one thing, but all of you have very unique and wonderful Technicolor coats.” The ponies smiled at his comment, while Rarity blushed at this and said, “I’m glad someone has a good eye for noticing personal care.” After he finished talking to the ponies, Double D and Eddy turned to see Ed still staring at Sonic and co. Sonic looked at them and gave them a confused look to see why he was like this. Eddy went to Ed’s side and said, “Hey lumpy, snap out of it!” Ed finally came out of his trance after hearing the sudden outburst and said, “Guys, don’t you recognize who’s here? It’s Sonic and his friends.” Sonic looked at him and said, “You’ve heard about us?” Ed turned back to them and said in excitement, “Who can forget a demonic alien invasion?” Shadow cringed at the mention of the incident with Black Doom, while the others looked on in shock. Twilight said, “An alien invasion?” Amy waved off the question and said, “It’s a long story.” Shadow added, “A VERY long story.” Ed said, “What brings you to these parts?” Eddy chimed in and said, “And what’s with the traveling petting zoo you got going?” Sonic pulled out the red emerald and said, “We’re here to try and look for one of these.” Ed looked at it admiringly and said, “Cool.” Double D saw the gem and said, “What’s that supposed to be?” Before Sonic could say anything, a familiar voice interrupted him and said, “That would be a Chaos Emerald.” Everyone looked up to see Discord floating above them with a smug look on his face. After seeing the draconequus, Eddy said, “Whoa! Serious freak show!” Discord snapped his talons and a cotton candy appeared next to him. He then made a glass appear in his talon and placed it under the cloud while it rained chocolate milk into the glass. After getting his glass filled, Discord said, “You haven’t seen anything yet short stack.” Paying no attention to Eddy’s anger, Discord drank his milk as if nothing was wrong. Double D turned to Twilight and was going to ask who the mysterious creature was, but she beat him to the question and said, “That’s Discord, we’re trying to get the emeralds before he does.” Discord appeared between Twilight and Double D and said, “And you will fail on this one just as you did the last. How you may ask? I brought a friend from Tartarus that would just love to meet you.” This knowledge shocked Twilight to no end. Discord snapped his talons and disappeared in an instant. After he disappeared, Eddy said, “What a load of bunk. We can find that emerald before he can. We know this junkyard like the back of our hands.” He started walking away, but the walk was short-lived as he reached the edge of the spot they were on and almost fell off the edge. Rainbow Dash grabbed him by the shirt just in time and pulled him back. Eddy said, “Thanks Rainbow Dash.” Confused by this, Sonic said, “What happened?” He went to the edge and saw that the entire junkyard was ripped from the ground and was floating in the air. Before any questions could be asked, Pinkie Pie’s tail started twitching and she said, “My Pinkie Sense! Twitch-a-twitch! Twitch-a-twitch!” Double D looked at her in confusion and said, “Pinkie what?” In an attempt to save him from what she had been through, Twilight said, “You don’t want to go there. Trust me.” After hearing the outburst, Eddy said, “Pinkie Sense? Who writes this stuff?” Pinkie looked at him and casually says, “Writers have nothing to do with it. I named it myself.” Catching how Pinkie said it, Eddy goes to her and asks, “Especially this writer?” Pinkie replies, “Especially this writer.” Before anyone could question anything, they heard flapping in the air. After a few moments, a giant blue demon fell from the sky and landed in front of the group emitting a growl after it landed. The demon’s appearance was a shock to see as it towered over everyone in size. It had two pairs of wings on its back, with another set of wings on its head as makeshift ears, sharp teeth, three fingers and toes, a red spike on its knees and elbows, green blood-shot eyes, and two horns on its head. Trying to keep a brave face, Mordecai leaned over to Twilight and said, “Twi, please tell me you know what that thing is.” Twilight said, “The demon is known as Zodick. He has been known for trying to take Equestria with his ability to summon an army of monsters at his disposal. He nearly succeeded, until Princess Celestia and Princess Luna put an end to his attack and eventually sealed him in Tartarus. It has been said that the monsters he summoned disappeared after he was sealed away, but some of them have managed to escape into the Everfree Forest for survival.” After looking it over, Eddy said, “It kinda looks like you Sonic.” Feeling angered by this, Sonic turned to him, pointed at the demon, and said, “That thing looks NOTHING like me!” Zodick laughed at Sonic as he raised his right hand. In an instant, the demon summoned a monster that the Eds recognized. He summoned Edzilla, however, instead of its appearance looking like an assembled mess as Eddy and Double D remembered it, Edzilla had an appearance of a real monster. It still retained its grey color, but instead of it looking leathery, it looked scaly, the two hands that it had were real mouths instead of the makeshift mouths they made, and the suction cups they put on the costume now resembled the suction cups resembling what an octopus would have, a few more tentacles were visible on its upper body, the horns on its head and the spikes on its back appeared sharp. Sonic leaned towards Eddy and said, “Any idea what that thing is?” Eddy slowly nodded his head and said, “That was supposed to be a costume we tried to have Ed wear for an old scam of ours. We never named it ourselves, but we have called it Edzilla, because of how much destruction he can cause.” Zodick then raised his arm and summoned a traffic cone that had a drawn face on it, an egg that had a drawing on it, and the Piggy Bank Belly Pumper. Once they were out, Zodick used his powers to transform the objects into his army. The traffic cone, which the Eds know as Bob, came to life and took on a monstrous look of its own, the egg that Ed remembered as Double G, had split into twenty-four eggs, each of the eggs grew arms and also had a monstrous appearance, and the Piggy Bank Belly Pumper came to life. After seeing what they were going to deal with, Eddy yelled, “Quick, scatter!” Everyone then splits up to avoid the army Zodick summoned, while Sonic stood his ground, glaring at the demon. While leaving everyone with Zodick, Discord started looking around the now-empty junkyard for the emerald, but upon looking through the area, he didn’t see it anywhere. He was going to stop his search until he noticed something on the ground. Once he got a better look at it, he said, “Is that the emerald’s imprint?” As stated, the spot he was looking at was the exact shape of the emerald. He pulled out his emerald and placed it in the imprint, confirming his suspicions. Discord groaned in frustration as realization struck him. He then said, “It just had to be in the ground of the junkyard.” He flew towards the floating land, in hopes of getting to the emerald before Sonic and the others find it before him. After splitting up, Mordecai realized that he had nothing to use to defend himself against the army that had been summoned. He grabbed a rusted pipe and tried to use it against the traffic cone monster, but it grabbed the pipe and easily tossed it out of Mordecai’s hands. After getting distance from the traffic cone, he hid behind a pile of trash and avoided confrontation with the monster. Shortly after, Finn arrived with his family sword unsheathed as he had stabbed one of the egg monsters with it. He then noticed that Finn still had a second sword still sheathed in his backpack. He said, “Hey Finn, is it cool if I borrow your second sword?” Finn looked at him in confusion and realized he still had the Root Sword with him and said, “Oh, I forgot I still had this. Sure, go ahead.” Mordecai then pulled the sword out of the pack and felt more confident in himself for the fight. After getting the Root Sword, Rigby was screaming as he ran past Mordecai and Finn, with the traffic cone monster not too far behind him. Mordecai chased after them, ready to help Rigby. Rigby ran as much as he could to avoid being captured, but he was cornered at a dead end and the traffic cone slowly approached him, taunting him with every step. Rigby shielded his eyes and screamed, believing that it was the end for him. As the traffic cone got closer, Mordecai stabbed the monster from behind, ending its existence and the drawn face was the only feature present on it. After pulling the sword out of the traffic cone, Mordecai said, “You all right dude?” Rigby was still in shock from his encounter, but he was able to reply and said, “I’m fine, thanks.” Mordecai gave him a thumbs up and the duo left the spot to see if they can help the others. Unknown to them, the traffic cone had started fixing itself and came back to life. With everyone split up, they had avoided the monsters Zodick summoned as best as they could. Amy put up a fight with her Piko Piko Hammer, but one of the eggs had wrapped its arms around her and the Piggy Bank Belly Pumper machine sucked her up. Everyone tried to put up a fight, but each of them didn’t last long because of the teamwork the Double G monster eggs put for them, and each of them was sucked into the piggy bank machine, trapping them inside. Back with Sonic, both he and Zodick stared each other down as they prepared themselves in a fighting stance, both of them waiting for the other to make the first move. Zodick clenched his fist and at that moment, Sonic disappeared from Zodick’s sight using Chaos Control. He reappeared in front of him as he threw the first punch. Zodick didn’t feel anything from the hit and attempted to hit Sonic, but because of his speed, he dodged the attack with ease. Zodick curled himself into a ball and launched himself toward Sonic in a spin-dash attack. Sonic dodged the attack at the last minute and said, “Using my moves won’t do you any good in this fight.” He then swung his right arm, while turning his hand into a fist and he yelled, “Sonic Wind!” In an instant, Zodick was engulfed in a cyclone of sky-blue winds. Sonic thought to himself that the attack would put Zodick in his place, however, since Zodick was still curled into a ball, he bounced around in the Sonic Wind, using the attack to his advantage and he launched himself towards Sonic with great speed. Once Zodick was close enough, he grabbed Sonic and slammed him into the ground. Edzilla gave chase to the ponies and was close to catching them, but before he could get either of them, they split into six different directions. He looked in each direction and decided to go after what he thought was the slowest one in Twilight. Once he went in her direction, he eventually caught up to her in no time. Mordecai continued his run after he defeated the traffic cone monster and spotted Twilight running, he also saw Edzilla chase after her and without a second thought, he followed them. Twilight tried to use her magic on Edzilla but found that her magic did not affect the monster. She tried to run, but Edzilla grabbed one of her back hooves with one of his tentacles and prevented her from running any further. He lifted her and was about to eat her, until they heard a voice saying, “YOU PUT HER DOWN RIGHT NOW!!” Before Edzilla could react, Mordecai had leaped into the air and sliced off the tentacle holding Twilight, Edzilla screeched in pain, and Twilight started falling to the ground. Twilight had her eyes covered while she was falling, Mordecai caught her in his arms before she could hit the ground. She uncovered her eyes and saw that she was in Mordecai’s arms. He looked at her in concern and said, “Are you okay?” Twilight blushed as she looked at him and nodded in response to his question. Before either of them could enjoy the moment, Edzilla grabbed them with one of his tentacles, catching them by surprise. As they were lifted, Mordecai realized that his arms were still free from Edzilla’s grip. He repositioned his sword and stabbed the mouth of the tentacle they were wrapped in. Edzilla screeched in pain once again and threw them out of his grip. While in the air, Twilight was thrown out of Mordecai’s grip because of the monster, and once they started to fall, Twilight draped her hooves on Mordecai’s shoulders. After feeling her hooves around him, Mordecai thought fast and stabbed the Root Sword into the side of the floating junkyard and prevented them from falling any further. Edzilla eventually got over the pain that was inflicted on him, and he started searching for Mordecai and Twilight. He craned his head over the edge of the land and tried to see if they were there. After seeing that they were directly under the monster, both Mordecai and Twilight held their breaths, trying not to make a sound, hoping that Edzilla won’t spot them and will leave them alone. Rainbow Dash saw Mordecai and Twilight get thrown over the edge and sees Edzilla looking for them. Not wanting to have either of them in any more danger, she flew to the monster as fast as she could. Edzilla heard the sounds of wings flapping, taking his focus from looking for Mordecai and Twilight, and was now focused on the pegasus. She flew around him in circles, confusing him with her blinding speed. With the monster in a daze, Rainbow Dash bucked Edzilla in the back of the head. Edzilla rubbed the spot and lightly said, “Ouch.” After getting over his brief moment of pain, he was enraged with Rainbow Dash and started chasing after her. Thankful to see the monster leave, both Mordecai and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Rainbow Dash helped them when they needed it. Mordecai turned to Twilight and said, “Want to get back up there?” Before she could answer, they heard something skidding on the ground, and saw a torn-up glove hanging over the edge. After realizing who it was, Twilight said, “Are you all right Sonic?” As the Eds ran away from Zodick’s army, they bumped into the Piggy Bank Belly Pumper machine. The trio turned around and split themselves to avoid the machine as best as they could, Ed dug into the trash and buried himself in it, Eddy hid in one of the abandoned cars in the junkyard, while Double D was still being chased, trying his best to hide from the machine. He was unfortunately not able to find a hiding spot, as the piggy bank cornered him and it had raised its snout. Before anything could be done, the piggy bank was covered in a cyan aura, and it was thrown out of Double D’s way. Double D looked up to see that Silver was the one that had thrown the machine. He turned to Double D and said, “Get out of here now!” After Double D left, the egg henchmen ambushed Silver. He tried his best to fight them off, but unknown to him, Bob had positioned himself on top of the junk pile behind him and had one of the eggs with it. Bob then picked up the egg and threw it with all of its strength at the back of Silver’s head. Once contact was made, Silver was knocked out from the hit. He fell to the ground and was left defenseless from the army. The piggy bank returned and had seen Silver was unconscious. It opened its snout, and sucked him up, trapping him with the others inside. As Sonic lay on the ground, he spotted something glimmering on the edge of the floating ground. He got himself closer to it, and he saw that it was the blue Chaos Emerald. He reached out and attempted to grab it. Once his hand was on the emerald, he saw the lion paw was on it as well. He looked over the edge to see Discord trying to take it away from him, but the emerald was wedged into the ground and the two of them couldn’t pull the emerald out. As the two glared at each other, Discord yelled, “Finders, keepers!” Sonic glares at him and said, “Loser’s weepers!” The two continued their struggle with claiming the emerald, but as they fought over it, they didn’t notice Zodick approaching them. It pulled its fist back and was ready to strike Sonic from behind. Sonic sensed the attack coming and he dodged the attack at the last second, unfortunately for Sonic, he was forced to let go of the emerald. With Sonic dodging the attack, Zodick ended up punching Discord in the face instead. Unlike Sonic, Discord still held onto the emerald and with the strength behind Zodick’s punch, he was able to dislodge the emerald from the ground. Discord fell from the floating land with the emerald in his possession, despite getting punched by the monster he broke out of Tartarus, he said with a smirk, “Worth it.” He then snapped his fingers and fell through the portal, returning to the Center of Time. Sonic rolled away from the punch, but Zodick was relentless as it focused its attention on him and attempted to stomp on the still-rolling hedgehog. Sonic screamed in anguish after he was cornered from his rolling and got stomped on by Zodick, one of its claws stabbed through Sonic’s shoulder. The demon laughed at Sonic’s pain and didn’t hesitate to continue its onslaught. After taking its foot off Sonic, it started punching him into the ground, causing Sonic to continue screaming in anguish as he now realized how strong this monster was. Meanwhile, with Edzilla, he stopped his assault after hearing the screams and getting a hold of the five remaining ponies wrapped in his tentacles. As they witnessed Zodick’s assault, the ponies couldn’t bear to see Sonic going through such a beating. Fluttershy covered her mouth with both of her hooves, as she looked on with tears in her eyes. While Edzilla was distracted, Finn charged from behind and stabbed his tail. Edzilla screeched once again and let the ponies go. Finn pulled his sword out and said, “I’m the only one you’ll be facing, dish rag!!” Ed got on top of the piggy bank and once again had torn the machine on its side, freeing everyone that it had captured. Once they were free, Shadow and Silver exited the destroyed machine and rushed to Sonic to help him. Zodick grabbed Sonic’s legs and lifted him to his eye level. He was about to deliver the finishing blow, until Shadow yelled, “Chaos Spear!” A lightning bolt made out of chaos energy fired out of his hand and was shot at the demon. The attack made contact, causing Zodick to focus his attention on Shadow. Zodick tried to attack him with his free hand, but Shadow dodged it and tapped into the cyan emerald’s power, and launched himself toward the demon in a spin-dash attack. After bouncing off the demon, Silver grabbed Shadow with his psychokinesis and threw Shadow at Zodick. They continued this pattern until Zodick threw Sonic toward Silver. He dodged the throw, causing Sonic to fly through some of the garbage. He skidded to a stop and was close to the edge of the junkyard. As Sonic was catching his breath, he heard a voice from over the edge say, “Are you all right Sonic?” Recognizing the voice belonging to Twilight, he said, “I’ve seen better days. How do we stop this thing?” Mordecai said, “Twi said that the army Zodick summoned will disappear if we send him back to Tartarus.” Sonic then said, “Do you know a spell for that?” Twilight said, “Yes, I know the spell for it, but you’re gonna have to knock him off the edge for it to work.” Sonic smiled at this and said, “Consider it done,” he coughed after his declaration. He got back on his feet but found it hard to stand after the beating he had taken. He felt pain in his left arm and immediately clutched it. He felt the blood coming from there, and he found it hard to move with how much pain he was feeling, but despite the position he was in, he was still determined to knock the demon off the junkyard. Ed approached him and said, “Need help Sonic?” He said, “I need to attack Zodick and get him off this piece of land. Can you throw me at him?” Ed saluted to this, in his crossed eyes expression. He then grabbed one of the arms on his jacket and said, “Your wish is my lunch.” Before Sonic could question him, Ed skillfully pulled his jacket off and it wrapped around his waist. Sonic then pulled out the red emerald and was ready for his attack. Ed started spinning around slowly and started gaining momentum. After his third spin, he threw Sonic with all his might toward Zodick. Once he was airborne, he focused on the red emerald and turned into a ball, launching himself in a spin-dash attack. While Silver and Shadow had distracted him, Zodick didn’t see Sonic coming his way as he hit him square in the head, knocking him backward in the process. Seeing that Sonic wasn’t able to continue the spin dash attack, Silver grabbed him with his psychokinesis and threw him at Zodick. Zodick tried to regain his composure, but thanks to Silver, Sonic had hit him once again in the head. After making contact again, he bounced and went into the air. He could have gone further, that is until Knuckles took off into the sky and grabbed Sonic with both hands. Once he gained control, he threw Sonic with all his might at the demon and hit him in the head for the third time. The strength of Knuckles’ throw and Sonic’s spin-dash attack was enough to send Zodick off the floating land. Seeing Zodick fall from the land, Twilight activated her horn, the light raspberry aura covering it, and she opened a portal. It sucked the demon right in and sent it back to Tartarus. After the demon had fallen through the portal, Twilight activated her horn again and teleported both her and Mordecai back onto the land. They reappeared on the land, Mordecai felt dizzy from the spell and said, “Now that is a spell.” The duo saw Edzilla, the Double G eggs, and Bob transform back to their original forms, leaving everyone cheering, glad to see that they had won the fight. The celebration was short-lived after they saw Sonic land from the last attack and fall to the ground. Sonic was left breathing heavily because of the beating he took from the demon and from the amount of blood he lost, he clutched his shoulder, still in pain from the claw piercing through it. Everyone gasped at this and cried, “Sonic!” He rolled onto his stomach and tried to get back up, but because of the pain in his left shoulder, he couldn’t hold himself up and he fell to the ground again. Before anyone could go near him, the land started to fall from the sky, causing everyone to panic. Silver acted quickly and placed his hand on the ground. He took a deep breath and, in an instant, the whole junkyard was enveloped in a cyan aura, stopping the fall. Silver kept his focus and he slowly descended the land back to the ground. With the junkyard back in its place, the others approached the injured hedgehog, hoping he was all right. Fluttershy was the first to arrive next to him. After setting herself on her haunches, she gently turned him onto his back and rested his head on her legs. In the state he was in, everyone thought the worst has happened. Amy came over, worried about this herself. She puts her hand against his chest and felt his chest rise. She said, “He’s breathing, he’ll be okay.” Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Thank goodness.” Jake said, “With how jacked up he is? I don’t think so.” He turned to Finn and said, “Do you still have that bottle of Cyclops tears with ya?” While Finn and Jake were talking to themselves, Fluttershy felt Sonic tense up after they mentioned the cyclops’ tears. She looked at Amy in confusion, hoping she can answer a question for her. She went over to her and whispered, “Sonic’s afraid of water.” Surprised from hearing this, Fluttershy gave her a look that said, “Really?” Amy nodded at this, while Finn pulled out the bottle from his pack. Before Finn could spray Sonic with the bottle, Fluttershy raised a hoof to stop him and said, “Wait.” Finn looked at her questioningly and was going to ask what the problem was, but she said, “I just need a minute with him.” Finn nodded to this and let her talk with Sonic. Sonic was still shaking, but he calmed down a little after he felt a hoof on his forehead. He opened his eyes to see Fluttershy gazing at him with kindness and felt transfixed just looking into her eyes. She then said in a soothing tone, “Shhh, it’ll be okay, Finn just wants to help you, that’s all.” He wanted to protest, but just hearing how assuring she sounded, Sonic closed his eyes and braced himself, as if to say, “Let’s get this over with.” Fluttershy then nodded to Finn, and he splashed him with the cyclops tear, healing Sonic of all his wounds. Double D was speechless after seeing what had happened, while Ed and Eddy were amazed by it and said in unison, “Cool!” Sonic got back on his feet and said, “Thanks for bringing that bottle, Finn.” Finn shrugged at this and said, “No probs, I kinda had a feeling we were gonna need it.” Eddy released a fake cough to catch Sonic’s attention. After Eddy turned to him, Eddy said, “So, what the heck was up with that Discord guy?” Sonic turned to the ponies and said, “The ponies are more familiar with him, than I am. They’ll tell you everything about him.” The Eds focused their attention on the ponies, and Twilight said, “Discord is a draconequus that I and my friends had stopped a while ago back in Ponyville.” Double D said, “Draconequus huh? I’ve always heard of animals with multiple animal limbs being called chimeras, this is interesting.” Wanting to get to the point, Eddy said, “So what exactly did Discord do?” Applejack was going to say what she wanted to say about what he could do, but Pinkie interrupted Applejack and said, “Discord has the powers to manipulate reality, cause the animals to misbehave, spread chocolate rain everywhere, and can affect everything that it touches.” Ed said, “And by “effect” do you mean?” Applejack cut him off and said, “By “effect,” she means that I had my corn turned into popcorn, my apples grew at least five times their actual size, and some of the animals had a slight mutation.” After hearing this, Eddy thought it over and remembered something before seeing that their precious jawbreakers turned into meatballs. Once it was all put together, the identity of their jawbreaker-turned-meatball mystery had been solved. He said, “So that…that…that…” Shadow said, “Jigsaw reject.” Eddy said, “No, not that.” Finn asked, “Well what then?” Eddy was tempted to say what he wanted to say, but he said, “I’d say it, but standards won’t let me.” Everyone, but Ed and Double D, gave him a strange look. He then said, “Anyway, he was responsible for the chocolate rain we had the other day?” The ponies nodded to this. Eddy turned to Double D and Ed and the trio huddled up. He then said, “I had a feeling I smelled chocolate milk that day. Okay boys, now that that mystery has been solved, are you guys good to catch Discord and get some well-deserved payback?” Double D said, “I don’t know, this seems crazier than searching for your brother.” Ed said, “But we’ll have Sonic and the others to help.” The rest of the group looked at each other in confusion, wondering what the Eds were doing. After a moment, the Eds turned around to face everyone. Eddy said, “Can we join you guys on this journey?” Sonic said, “Any reason for this? I don’t mind the company, I just wanna know.” Eddy said, “Let’s just say, we got a bone to pick with Discord.” Sonic turned to everyone and said, “Anyone mind if these three join us?” Everyone shook their heads at this and with that, Ed, Edd, and Eddy joined the group to get the Chaos Emeralds. Tails looked over the radar and found one emerald three hundred miles away from where they were in the east. Sonic raised his hand, holding the red emerald, and used chaos control, teleporting everyone out of the Cul-de-Sac and they left for the next emerald’s location. > Chapter 10 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the Guys in White decided to buy Fenton Works so they could destroy the Ghost Zone, we witness a number of the Operatives quitting the group after their missile attack literally and figuratively blows up in their faces. Upon reaching their headquarters, lead Operatives K and O told their boss everything that had happened. Agent Alpha, their boss, was unhappy with the results and was on the verge of terminating them. Not wanting to lose their jobs, they begged for another chance, and after a frustrated sigh, the boss caved in and gave them one final chance. Both operatives had left Amity Park hoping to find something to defeat Danny Phantom once and for all. Four months have passed since the Disasteroid incident, and we see both operatives were now walking in an unfamiliar area. The two operatives entered what appeared to be an abandoned launch base, but despite that fact, they were not deterred. Upon entering the base, they were shocked at what they had found. The base was full of robots and high-tech machinery, even the lowest forms of the present machinery would put their tech to shame. Operative K approached one of the giant mechs in the base, after finding an opening, he walked in and started inspecting the machine. Upon finding the control room, he pressed a button and the machine started. Operative O looks at the screen and sees the potential the mech had with a wicked grin on his face. He then said, "K, I think we have found what we are looking for." Back in Amity Park, we see Danny and his friends trying to clear up a mysterious storm of cotton candy clouds by using the Specter Speeder to clear the sky. Some of the clouds were vaporized with the Ecto Gun, but some of the clouds had split in half to add more to the craziness that has been brought to the city. After attempting to clear the sky for so long, Tucker landed the Specter Speeder after hearing the engine sputtering. After checking the engine, Tucker turned to Danny and said, “Dude, what’s with these clouds?” Danny said in an annoyed tone, “We had a visitor last night.” He then transformed into his ghost alter ego and flew up to the sky. While he was flying and made an attempt to clear the clouds, Sam said through the Fenton Phones, “A visitor that can bring clouds that rain chocolate milk?” While she asked him this, Danny fired his Ghost Ray at one of the clouds. It looked like it was going to explode, but instead, a torrent of chocolate milk shot out of the hole at Danny, covering him head to toe with its substance. Danny was annoyed with the clouds and said, “Yeah, and you wouldn’t believe me if I told you what it was.” **FLASHBACK** The night before, Danny was patrolling the city on his electric scooter without Sam and Tucker. He already had told them that he could do it on his own after seeing nothing eventful happening while they were on patrol earlier in the night. After searching the city, and seeing that there weren’t any ghosts around, that’s when he decided to call it a night. As he was heading home, he felt a raindrop hit him on the back. He sped through the city and contemplated going into his ghost form to try and avoid the rain, but before he could, the few raindrops became a downpour within a minute. As he was going through the rain, he noticed a familiar scent the rain had and realized that the rain wasn’t ordinary rain. “Why do I smell chocolate milk?” Danny said to himself. He got off his scooter and started looking for whatever was causing the strange weather. “Odd weather we’re having, huh?” said an unfamiliar voice, startling Danny in the process. Danny instantly turned around to see a pair of misshaped red eyes staring back at him, causing him to stumble and fall backward in shock, while the mysterious creature laughs at his shocked expression. After settling down, the mysterious creature said with a grin, “That look you just had, is priceless. I’ve seen a lot of you humans with that same expression, and it’s never gotten old yet.” Danny got back on his feet, clenched his fists, and said, “Well, I’m betting that neither human you’ve come across has done this either.” The mysterious creature looked on in confusion, wondering what that statement meant. Danny then said, “I’m going ghost!” Discord turned away from the boy, yawning after hearing the battle cry. He stopped in mid-yawn after he noticed a bright light. He turned around and saw the boy have two blue-white rings around his midsection. The rings then moved in opposite directions, changing the boy’s appearance. The once casual outfit of a white t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, was replaced with a black jumpsuit, white gloves, boots, and a belt. The boy’s eye color changed from blue to green, his skin was slightly darker than before and his hair also changed from black to white. After the transformation, Discord looked on, surprised by what he just saw. “Huh. You don’t see that every day,” he said. “So, are you still the same kid, or a different person?” Discord asked the ghost boy. “More the same, this is just my ghost form. I’m known as Danny Phantom in this form.” Danny said with a grin. Discord took a good look at the jumpsuit and noticed the white D logo with a black P inside it on his chest. “Oh, I see. Very clever,” said Discord while pointing at the logo. Danny chuckled and said, “Thanks.” Getting back to the seriousness of the matter at hand with the mysterious creature, Danny glared at him and said, “So, what are you supposed to be? Some sort of mutant goat or something?” Discord was baffled by Danny’s question. “Mutant goat?!” he asked, sounding offended by the comment. Danny said, “Yeah, you got the one goat horn, a goat leg, you even have the goatee,” saying the last part while motioning a curved beard under his chin. Feeling angered by Danny’s remarks, he said, “For your information, my name is Discord. I’m the spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.” Danny looked on in suspicion. He said, “For a spirit of ‘chaos and disharmony’ you’re not doing a whole lot of that.” Discord gave him a deadpan look and pointed to the sky, suggesting that he is causing the chocolate rain. Danny shook his head and descended to the ground, saying, “Yeah, chocolate milk doesn’t cut being, whoa!” Before he could finish his sentence, he slipped. He floated off the ground and saw that the ground had been deformed. Danny looked back at Discord in surprise, while Discord gave him a sly grin in return. “Chocolate rain, it has its effects.” He said as the street was now being affected by the rain. Cars started sliding down the road and with the sidewalk dissolved, the cars were rolling toward Danny. He avoided the cars with ease, but he didn’t have time to avoid an oncoming bus. After the bus made its impact, Discord simply shrugged at the scene, believing Danny was crushed. He made a glass appear in his talon, filled it with chocolate milk, and said, “Oh well, at least he didn’t miss the 10 o’clock bus.” He then started drinking the content, pleased with what he was doing. “You know, that line would have been funny if it worked,” said the ghost boy. Discord choked on his drink and spat it out in shock. He turned around to see where the ghost boy was, but before he could spot him, he was blasted in the back by Danny’s Ghost Ray. The blast sent the draconequus flying. Danny flew after him, ready to strike him again, but before he could, Discord fired a dark sphere of his own and hit Danny in the back as well, he released a scream of pain after the attack made contact. Danny then turned around to see Discord floating a few feet behind him. Confused by this, Danny turned his head in the opposite direction to see Discord on the other side as well. Danny turned back to the Discord behind him and said, “What the?” He turned to the other Discord and said, “How the?” He turned back to the Discord behind him, who was trying to not laugh at Danny. He said, “But…” Danny then turned back to the other Discord, who was waving at him once he saw him. Not wanting to continue the pattern anymore, he then said in frustration, “This doesn’t make any sense!” Both of the Discords burst out in laughter and said in unison, “Oh, what’s the fun in making sense?” Both of the Discords charged a dark blast of their own and fired them right at Danny. Before either of the attacks made contact, Danny created a Ghost Shield and protected himself from the attacks. Both the Discords flew off before the attack made contact, and both determined to spread more chaos throughout the city. After the smoke cleared, Danny activated his powers and duplicated himself into two selves. They flew off in different directions to chase down their Discord. The Danny that flew off to the left had caught up to Discord with ease and grabbed his tail once he was close enough. Discord felt the grab and instantly powered up another dark sphere. He fired it at Danny, but Danny manipulated his form and the sphere went right through his head. Before Discord could have a chance to strike again, Danny used his strength to his advantage and threw Discord to the ground, slamming him in the process. Danny flew towards Discord, but before he got close enough, Discord snapped his fingers, and a bolt of powerful lightning struck Danny. He screamed in pain and lost consciousness. As the lightning subsided, Danny disappeared in an instant. Discord shook his head and said, “A duplicate, that’s just great.” He then flew off and was now searching for the REAL Danny Phantom. As Danny flew through the city, he hadn’t seen Discord anywhere. As he flew through the park, he heard a voice say, “I wonder how that hedgehog did that trick.” Danny went to the source of the voice and found Discord hiding behind a big cotton candy cloud. After seeing him, he said, “And what trick would that be?” Discord then tightened his grip on the yellow Chaos Emerald and said, “This. CHAOS SPEAR!” As soon as he said that, a barrage of chaos energy in the shape of lightning appeared and was fired at Danny. He managed to dodge the attack and was ready to strike back. He was going to do an ectoblast of his own, but because of the timing, he was hit with the recoil of his blast connecting with one of the Chaos Spears, and sending him hurtling backward. He regained his composure and saw that Discord had summoned an army of himself. All the Discords had appeared and surrounded Danny. One of the Discord’s then said, “What are you going to do now ghost child? You can’t possibly hope to stop all of us.” All of the Discord’s started to laugh as they started to unleash their chaos powers on the town. With a snap of the fingers, the talons, and even the snap from the tails, each of the Discord’s had either made a building float from the ground or changed the surface on the ground into something random. Seeing this, Danny crossed his arms and focused on all of his ghost energy. After a few moments, he engulfed himself in a sphere of ecto energy, charging it to its full power. Danny self-detonated the ecto sphere, and the blast expanded, hitting all of the Discords at once, causing them to disappear. After seeing what Danny had done, he felt the fight with the ghost boy was a lost cause. He said, “He’s a lot stronger than I thought. I’d better get out of here while I still have a chance.” Discord opened a portal and was ready to leave Amity Park. Seeing this, Danny fired a Ghost Ray from his eyes and hit Discord in the back, sending him through the portal. As soon as Discord went through the portal, most of the cotton candy clouds disappeared, all the buildings returned to the ground and most of the ground around the town was restored to what it was. After seeing this, Danny started breathing heavily from the fight, showing his exhaustion from his one fight with this new threat. He said, “I know the phrase for Spring Break is supposed to be wild, not chaotic.” He flew off to find his electric scooter and as soon as he got it, he went home. **END FLASHBACK** Danny tried to move some of the clouds, but couldn’t because of how sticky they were. After using his ghost ray on the clouds covering his hands, the cotton candy clouds scattered throughout the city. Some of the clouds were visible, while the others had disappeared. As he looked around, he spotted some clouds near the park and flew in that direction. Once he was close enough, he was going to freeze the clouds, but before he could attempt to blast a different cotton candy cloud with his ice powers, he noticed a flash of light appear on the ground not too far from him. Once the light had settled, he saw numerous figures standing before him. He decided to go intangible so he wouldn’t be spotted by the possible threats. Everyone looked to the sky, taking in their surroundings, and they were fixated on the clouds above them. Danny took a good look at the blue figure and said to himself, “That can’t be…” Hearing this, Sam said, “What? Is there something wrong?” Danny said, “No, it’s nothing like that. I think I see Sonic.” Surprised by the news, Tucker said, “Sonic? As in “Sonic the Hedgehog,” Sonic?” Danny responded, “Unless we know another guy named Sonic, then yeah, it’s Sonic the Hedgehog.” Back to Sonic and the others, they had taken in their surroundings and saw they were in a park. As they looked, they also spotted the all-to-familiar cotton candy clouds above them. Sonic said, “Looks like Discord was here.” Finn added, “Yeah, but it doesn’t look like he jacked this place up that much.” Rigby turned to Rainbow Dash and asked, “Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?” Rainbow simply said, “I’d say it’s a good thing.” Knuckles said, “Are you sure the emerald is here Tails?” Tails said, “Yeah, it’s not too far from here. Ready to go Sonic?” Sonic gave him a thumbs up and said, “You know I am buddy.” By the time everyone was ready to go in the direction the emerald was in, the ghost boy appeared before them, startling them in the process. The ghost boy said in excitement, “Dude, it is you! Unbelievable!” Tucker said through the Fenton Phones, “It IS him?!” Danny said, “Yeah, it is! You guys gotta get over here, quick!” Tucker said in excitement, “We’re almost done, we’ll be there in a bit.” Everyone looked at him oddly, Danny simply said, “Sorry, I was just talking to my friends through my Fenton Phones, they should be here soon.” He took the green device out of his ear and showed everyone. Impressed by this, Tails went up to him, saw the devices, and said, “That’s very impressive work you got there.” Danny put the Fenton Phone back in his ear and said, “Coming from you Tails, it means a lot. I’ll be sure to tell my parents what you said.” Confused by this, Sonic asked, “You know him too?” The boy said, “Yeah, I’ve heard a lot about you guys. Like the time that robot went Godzilla on you guys, or in this case, Mecha Godzilla; I also heard about that Space Colony that fell, and I even heard about Station Square getting flooded out by a liquid monster. How could no one NOT know who you guys are?” The ponies gave Sonic and his friends a shocked look, Sonic turned to them and said, “They’re long stories, I’ll tell you those and any other adventure we have been on later.” They gave him a nod in understanding. Sonic turned back to the ghost boy and said, “You look familiar yourself. I know I’ve seen you at least once.” Danny looked at him oddly and realized what he meant. He then said, “Maybe this will refresh your memory.” Before Sonic could question him, Danny raised his right hand above his head and took a simple pose, looking as if he was holding something in his hand. Realization suddenly hit Sonic as he remembered. He said, “Dude, no way! Danny Phantom? As in THE Danny Phantom?” Finn asked, “You know him?” Sonic turned to him and said, “Not personally, I’ve seen his statue from when he saved the world from that Disasteroid with all those ghosts.” Eddy asked, “Where at?” Sonic said, “His statues are in the major cities across the planet.” Finn looked at him in confusion. Sonic said, “I’ve had my trips around the world, especially when the planet was broken that one time.” Everyone, excluding Sonic’s friends, stared at him in shock after hearing this. Before any questions could be asked, Danny said, “Just as fast as I’ve heard, that’s awesome!” Getting back on topic, he asked, “So what brings you guys to Amity Park?” Sonic pulled out the red Chaos Emerald and said, “Tails’ radar says that one of the Chaos Emeralds was somewhere around here.” Tails showed Danny the radar, and he saw the radar reading the emeralds in the park, and another one in a nearby place. As he was looking at the radar, the Specter Speeder had arrived and it landed next to them. The side doors opened and two figures stepped out of the vehicle. One of them was a girl, she had violet eyes, wore purple lipstick, and her short black hair was done in a small ponytail with a green hair tie. She wore a black choker around her neck, a short black tank top with a purple oval in the center, a black skirt with a green crosshatch design, purple stockings, and black combat boots. The other was a boy, he wore glasses with a red beret, and he appeared to be wearing a black jacket over a yellow shirt, with green cargo pants and brown boots. Danny introduced his friends and said, “Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to my girlfriend Sam and my best friend Tucker. Tucker, Sam, this is everyone.” After they each introduced themselves, most of the group started talking to each other. Sam felt uncomfortable being around the ponies, thinking they were too girly for her to be around, Danny reassured her by saying that, since they are with Sonic, they shouldn’t be too bad to be around. Tucker turned to Tails and said, “So what is that thing you are carrying?” Tails said, “Oh, this? This is my device that has been helping us track the emeralds around the planet. I call it the Miles Electric.” Tucker’s PDA made a beep sound once he was close to the Miles Electric. After looking at the screen, it read, “Wireless Synchronization ON”. He turned to him and asked, “Mind if I download that?” Tails said, “Go ahead.” Tucker then pressed a button on his PDA and a beam shot out of it and towards a small lens on the top part of the device, instantly downloading the program. After the download was complete, the PDA screen showed two blinking dots. Curious about this, Tucker asked, “And these dots are where we are at?” Tails looked at the screen and said, “From the two emeralds we have, yes that’s where we are at.” Double D came up to Tucker and said, “May I see your PDA?” He said, “Sure.” Double D looked at the screen and then zoomed out of the area they were at and saw another blinking dot that didn’t look too far from where they were at. He thought over an idea and started pressing a couple of buttons, he got himself to the home screen and found the maps app. After he pressed it, he was looking at the map of Amity Park. He then walked over to Tails and looked at the screen on the Miles Electric, noticing the distance they were at and the emerald’s location. Tucker tapped Double D on the shoulder and said, “Mind if I have my PDA back?” Double D gave it back to him and said, “Oh, sure. Sorry for spacing out there, I just remembered something like this after looking at Tails’ radar.” After getting his PDA back, Tucker was curious about what he had said and looked at the radar and his PDA. Figuring out what Double D had said, he pulled out his stylus and started fixing his screen. He said, “I think I know what you’re talking about. What made you think about it?” Double D said, “Let’s just say that we were led on a crazy goose chase by Eddy’s brother from his treasure map.” Eddy cringed after hearing what Double D had said. Tucker smiled and said, “Hopefully we won’t have any bad experiences ourselves.” After a few minutes, Tucker had merged the map and the radar settings, and a clear location for the next emerald was set before them. Sonic asked, “So, where are we headed for the emerald?” Tucker said, “Looks like the emerald is at Lake Eerie.” Sonic gave him a thumbs up and said, “Cool.” He turned to Tails and said, “Mind if I take the radar buddy? I’d like to stretch my legs for this one.” Tails said, “Sure, we’ll be on the Specter Speeder if you need us.” Rainbow Dash then said, “A little flying doesn’t sound bad right now. Mind if I join ya? We can make this a quick little race.” Sonic grinned at this and was going to answer her, but Danny chimed in and said, “Dude, helping you with this emerald is awesome in itself. I wouldn’t mind racing with you myself.” Sonic said, “You two are going to get left behind.” Rainbow Dash said, “We’ll see about that.” Sonic simply shrugged and readied himself for a quick race to Lake Eerie. Once Danny and Rainbow Dash got into their stances, she said at a fast pace, “1, 2, 3, GO!” and took off before Sonic and Danny. After realizing that Rainbow had already taken off, both Sonic and Danny chased after her, leaving the rest of the group behind. Back with the others, they were going to get going, until Finn said, “Hold up. How’s that thing going to fit for all of us?” Twilight said, “I have to agree with Finn. That looks like it’s good to hold a party of at least ten.” Sam turned to them and said, “Give us a minute with that.” As she and Tucker stepped into the Specter Speeder, they went to the control panel and pressed an emergency button. After pressing it, the Specter Speeder expanded in size to look like a jet plane. Sam came back out and said with a sly smile, “Big enough for you guys?” Finn said in shock, “Holy shram!” Ed said in excitement, “Oh, wow, way cool!” After getting over their shock, everyone entered the Specter Speeder. Once everyone was onboard, Tucker inputted the directions to Lake Eerie, activated the autopilot, and they were on their way. Jake went to one of the chairs and sat in it. Once he was comfortable, he said, “Now this is a way to travel.” Rigby also went to a chair and followed suit. He said with a smile, “Yeah it is.” Mordecai shook his head at this. He turned to Tucker and Sam and said, “So this thing can catch up to Sonic, Rainbow, and Danny?” Sam said, “It can easily catch up with Danny, but if Sonic is as fast as he claims he is, it won’t be able to keep up with him.” Pinkie said, “Or Dashie, don’t forget her.” Eddy asked, “How fast can she go?” Pinkie simply said, “Fast enough to do a Sonic Rainboom.” Everyone that didn’t know Rainbow Dash well enough turned to each other in confusion. Double D spoke up for everyone and said, “I’m sorry, a Sonic what now?” Pinkie then said, “It’s a legendary move back where we’re from. When a Pegasus like Rainbow Dash goes sooo fast…” She paused for dramatic effect. She then surprised everyone by loudly saying, “BOOM! A sonic boom and a rainbow happen all at once!” Mordecai turned to Twilight for clarification, and she said, “We’ve seen her do it a few times, so what Pinkie’s saying is true.” Wanting to see if what he heard was accurate, Double D said, “So, it’s a sonic boom, with a rainbow effect added to it.” Pinkie said, “That’s about right.” Mordecai said, “So Rainbow can go fast enough to break the sound barrier.” Amy said, “And we know Sonic’s fast enough to break the sound barrier in just seconds.” An idea suddenly hit Eddy after hearing how fast Sonic and Rainbow Dash are. He interrupted her and said, “Oh man, if she’s as fast as you are saying, then I just thought of a scam that can end all scams and it can seriously rake in some serious dough!” Before he could explain his scam, the plane slowed down. They looked out the window and saw that they had arrived just outside of Lake Eerie. They saw Sonic and Rainbow Dash arguing near the sign. Sam and Tucker equipped themselves each with the Fenton Wrist Rays and the Fenton bazooka. Once they were equipped, they exited the Specter Speeder and heard their bickering. As they approached them, Rainbow Dash said, “You have a Chaos Emerald, how do I know you didn’t cheat?” Before Sonic could answer her, they heard someone laughing. It was revealed that Danny was the one laughing as he made himself visible laying on her back. As he repositioned himself to a sitting position, he said, “That’s funny coming from you with that quick countdown back at the park.” Surprised by his sudden appearance, she said, “Where did you come from?” Danny said, “When you slowed down back there, I thought I’d catch a ride.” Sonic couldn’t help but laugh at the situation. He said in between laughs, “Trust me Dash, there’s a lot of things I am, but when it comes to racing, cheating is NEVER a thing I do.” Before the fight could escalate between them, Twilight separated them using her magic. She then said, “All right you two, whatever happened in this race doesn’t matter right now. We have more important things to do, like finding the emerald here before Discord does.” Hearing the name, Danny looked at them in confusion and asked, “You guys know the Dork of Chaos?” After saying this, he earned a good laugh from most of the group, those that weren’t laughing, were trying their best to not chuckle. Rainbow Dash laughed at the nickname and said, “Good one Danny.” Sonic said, “I’m guessing you bumped into Discord.” Danny said with confidence, “Bumped into him? Heh, I singlehandedly kicked his butt out of town last night.” Amazed by this, Sonic said, “All by yourself? If that’s the case, then I’m VERY glad you’re helping us with this!” Danny smiled in gratitude as Sonic pulled out the radar and gave it a look. He then said, “All right guys, this one looks like it’s close, I just hope it’s not in the lake,” saying the last part to himself. After entering Lake Eerie, and looking the radar over, Sonic was disgruntled to see that the emerald was in fact, in the lake. He smacked his head on the radar in frustration and thought, “Why did I have to say that?” Finn turned to him and asked, “You okay man?” With his head still on the radar, Sonic said, “Not really.” Finn then said, “Why, what’s up?” Sonic lifted his head off of the Radar and said, “The radar says the emerald is in the lake.” Danny scoffed at this and said, “Is that all? The Specter Speeder can go in the lake easily.” Sonic glared at him for the late news and said, “If it can do that, why didn’t you say something before?!” Feeling embarrassed, Danny sheepishly said, “It slipped my mind.” Sonic felt his eye twitch in frustration, and he clenched his free hand into a fist. Danny raised his hands in defense and said, “Look, don’t sweat it. I’ll go get it, and we’ll go after the emerald when I get back.” He was ready to go get the Specter Speeder, but before he could go, the group heard a rumbling sound coming from the lake. The rumbling suddenly stopped, confusing everyone in the process. Shortly after, the white Chaos Emerald popped out of the water and was sitting above the surface of the lake. Rainbow Dash said with a smirk, “It looks like we don’t need the thing after all. I’ll go over and get it right now.” She was about to fly off to get the emerald, but was grabbed by the tail and was stopped in her tracks. She looked over and saw that Jake had stretched his hand out and grabbed her tail. She said, “What are you doing? Let me go!” Finn said, “Dash, don’t you find it just a little strange that the emerald is just sitting there on the lake?” Jake added, “Yeah, it’s got banay-nays written all over it.” Finn grabbed a rock and tossed it toward the emerald. Once the rock made contact with the emerald, a giant robotic hand came above the water and grabbed the emerald. Surprised to see this, Mordecai said, “What the?” With the emerald’s sudden disappearance, Tails took back his radar and looked it over. Feeling scared to see where the emerald might be, Sonic tries to look over the radar and asked, “Is it at the bottom again?” Once he looked at the radar, Tails said, “It’s moving right now.” Surprised to hear this, he turned and saw that the emerald was moving, just as Tails had said. Tucker also looked over his PDA and saw where the emerald was going. He then said, “It looks like the emerald is going to the mountains.” Jake said, “Say no more, I’m on it.” He stretched his arms and grabbed the group. He then stretched himself into a giant-sized dog, placed everyone on his back, and started walking towards the mountains. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were shocked by this and tried to gather the words for what just happened. To save them the trouble, Finn said, “He’s a magic dog.” Still at a loss for words, the trio nodded their heads in understanding. The group was close to the mountains the PDA said it was going to, and in that instant, a familiar egg-shaped mech, along with the mechanical arms and spiked helmet came out of the water. Recognizing it, Sonic shook his head at this and said, “Oh great, Egghead is here. I knew him being trapped was too good to be true.” After saying this, an Egg Mobile appeared behind Big Arm. Knuckles spoke up and said, “If that mech is supposed to be Eggman, then who is that?” Danny said, “That’s a good question. Let’s follow them.” Shocked to hear this, Twilight said, “Are you crazy?” Danny said, “Just hold onto me, and I’ll do the rest.” Everyone huddled close to Danny and held onto him, while he put his hands on Jake’s back. He then closed his eyes and made everyone intangible. Seeing what happened, and looking at his now invisible hands, Ed said, “Cool.” A door to the side of the mountain then opened up, giving Danny an idea. He said, “Okay Jake, all you have to do is follow them through the door, and try not to have them notice us.” Staying on the land, Jake walked everyone toward the entrance to the mountain. Sonic said, “We’re taking the front door? Wouldn’t we be able to go through the wall like this?” Danny said, “Normally, yes. But I haven’t done this many in a group in a while.” Understanding limits, Sonic simply shrugged at this and said, “Fair enough.” As the group got close, they saw the Egg Mobile go through the door first, and they made it just in time as the Big Arm mech went through the door. As they went through the door, they heard an alarm go off. Fluttershy nearly shrieked from the sudden noise, but Amy covered her mouth in time. A man in a white radiation suit pulled out an ecto gun and said, “We have picked up a huge spike in ecto-energy.” The group was in shock to hear this, thinking that they were already caught. Before anyone was ready to take action, they heard someone in the mech say, “It’s fine, I just detained our usual pest with this mech.” He then pulled a special kind of rope from inside the mech and revealed the “pest” that was caught. Trying to sound threatening, the ghost raised his arms and yelled, “I am the Box Ghost!” Not believing what they were seeing, everyone turned to Danny, Sam, and Tucker and gave them a look that said, “Are you serious?” To keep quiet, the trio gave them a nod. The goon then said, “How is it that this ghost keeps escaping? This is the fourth time this week we’ve captured him.” The visor on the Big Arm mech was opening up, revealing a man in a white suit inside the mech. He jumped out of the mech and said, “Who knows? And it’s the fifth time counting today.” Instantly recognizing the suit, Danny said in a hushed tone, “Oh no.” Applejack asked, “Do you know him?” Danny said, “Unfortunately, yes. They’re the Guys in White.” Ed then said, “That sounds resembling.” This caught everyone’s attention, and they all looked at him. He continued what he was saying and said, “It sounds like-uh-.” Double D chimed in and said, “It’s not important right now Ed.” The man in the Egg Mobile in question said, “I know you’re here Ghost Boy.” Everyone was shocked after hearing this. The man then pressed a button and activated a teleport beam. Once the sight became clear, half of the group was all that remained inside the base. The group, which consisted of Shadow, Ed, Edd, Eddy, Rouge, Silver, Blaze, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Mordecai, and Rigby, looked around and saw that the ones closest to Danny were teleported out of the base. The man then said, “Operatives, I got the Ghost Boy, the rest of you in here deal with these intruders!” The operatives saluted and said in unison, “Yes sir, Alpha!” As Silver got everyone back on the ground using his psychokinesis, Alpha and one of the Operatives piloting the Big Arm mech, flew out of the base, ready to combat Danny and the others outside. Once he was out, all the Operatives pulled out their weapons and pointed them at the group. All the Operatives fired their weapons at the group, but thanks to Twilight’s quick thinking, she created a barrier around the group. As the others got ready for combat, Shadow turned to the Eds and Rigby and said, “You four stay here.” Rigby said, “What? Why?” Shadow said to him, “Because I know you’ll just get in the way.” Rigby growled at his comment. Shadow turned to the Eds and said, “And as for you three, I don’t see you guys as fighters. So, it would be best to just sit this one out.” Mordecai face-palmed at Shadow’s blunt behavior. He said, “What he’s trying to say is, since there aren’t a lot of these guys, we can handle them ourselves.” Twilight turned to him and said, “What do you mean “we”?” He said, “I mean, me, Shadow, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze. I think I’ve gotten used to this sword, so why not help out?” He then swung the sword around a few times to prove his point. Rigby rolled his eyes at this and said to himself, “Show off.” And with that, Shadow, Rouge, Silver, Blaze, and Mordecai got out of the barrier and started their assault on the Guys in White. Once they were out of earshot, Twilight said in a hushed tone, “Be careful Mordecai.” Shadow dodged each shot that was fired at him with ease. Once he was close enough to one of the operatives, he threw a single punch and knocked him out. A couple of the operatives fired at Mordecai, but fortunately for him, he deflected the blasts with the Root Sword, he then sliced the ends of their weapons off, rendering them useless. Rouge and Blaze helped Mordecai and they both gave a strong kick to the powerless operatives. Silver put his hands on the ground and used his psychokinesis to trap a number of the operatives with the tiled floor around them. Seeing this, Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I guess he was right, there was no need for us to help them.” After saying this, one of the operatives said in his wrist communicator, “We need backup, ASAP!” In an instant, a new group of operatives and goons filled up the room, surrounding the five. Back with the others still behind Twilight’s force field, Eddy groaned at what just happened and said, “Twi, the last thing you should EVER do in times like these is jinx a good thing and turn it into a bad thing.” Twilight laughed in embarrassment after hearing what Eddy had to say. Eddy then said, “Well, it looks like we gotta bail these guys out. Coming Double D?” Before Double D could talk to Ed, he saw that Pinkie Pie was whispering something in Ed’s ear. After she finished whispering to him, Double D saw Ed chuckle. Eddy then yelled, “Forget Ed, I’ll take care of these guys.” Before anyone could question him, Eddy reached into his pockets and pulled out an all too familiar balloon that was filled with a mysterious liquid substance. Shocked from seeing this, Double D said, “Anything but that Eddy!” Without taking Double D’s plea, Eddy ran out of the barrier in haste. Confused by this, Pinkie said, “What’s the big deal? It looks like a regular water balloon.” Ignoring the statement, Double D turned to Twilight and said, “Twilight, does this barrier block out smells?” Confused by the question, Twilight said, “Yes, why do you ask?” Double D then said, “I think it would be best if we stay within the barrier. Because that balloon Eddy had isn’t a water balloon.” Silver continued to fight the goons with ease, not needing his powers to take down a bunch of the simpletons. While he was fighting, he suddenly felt frozen and was unable to move. He felt his body turn, and once he had stopped, he saw one of the operatives with a strange glow coming from his gloves. The operative had snuck up on the hedgehog and captured him, realization suddenly hit Silver and he was shocked to see that the operative was using a tractor beam with his gloves. He then said, “What the? How did?” The operative interrupted him and simply said, “We work for the government, we have all the time in the world to develop this kind of tech.” Seeing that Silver was in trouble, Eddy got his balloon ready and yelled, “Silver, take a deep breath!” Silver did as he was instructed and took a deep breath, while the operative was confused from the sudden outburst, and before he could react, Eddy had thrown the balloon at them. After it popped, a very heinous smell suddenly erupted, causing the operative to cough in disgust and lose his hold on Silver. Silver then used his psychokinesis on the operative’s gloves and instantly destroyed them. As Eddy approached Silver, the hedgehog got a whiff of what the balloon left behind and instantly covered his mouth and nose. He turned to Eddy and said, “What the hell is that smell?!” Eddy said, “That my friend, was a mini version of what I call ‘The El Mongo Stink Bomb!’” Silver almost gagged from the terrible smell and said, “I hope I forget this smell soon.” The operative collapsed on the floor and continued to cough from the effects of the stink bomb. He then ran away in an attempt to get away from the smell. Eddy yelled at the retreating operative, “There’s more where that came from pal!” Silver slowly backed away from Eddy after hearing this. The rest of the group looked on and saw that Shadow was handling the operatives with ease. After he took down what appeared to be his tenth operative, he took his weapon and started firing ecto beams at them. Rigby groaned and said, “I’m sick of sitting on the sidelines, I want to help.” Pinkie suddenly pulled a cannon out of nowhere, confusing Rigby in the process. Pinkie then said, “You want help, I got your help.” Still left in confusion, Rigby said nothing. Pinkie simply shrugged and said, “I never leave home without my party cannon.” Trying to make sense of this, Rigby said, “But Ponyville is- and we’re in…How did... just how?” Ed said, “Do not question the pink pony,” as if he knew firsthand of these types of antics. Without another word, and not wanting to know what Ed was talking about, Rigby got into the cannon and waited for Pinkie to launch him at one of the operatives. He saw one of them attempting a sneak attack on Shadow and thought, “Looks like I’m saving his sorry a-.” Before he could finish his train of thought, Pinkie fired the party cannon and launched Rigby in Shadow’s direction. While Shadow continued his assault, he didn’t notice an operative behind him. A voice suddenly yelled, “In your face!” He then saw that Rigby had tackled one of the operatives in the face, forcing him to focus on Rigby and the operative was trying to get him off. While he was distracted, Mordecai had just arrived and punched the operative in the face as soon as Rigby got off of him. Shocked from being saved by Rigby, he saw the raccoon give him a smug look. Rigby then said, “So, who was going to get in the way again? Oh, that’s right! It’s the guy who just saved your butt! OOOOOOOOHHH!!!” While he was gloating, he didn’t see one of the goons approach him and was ready to blast him with his weapon. Shadow quickly changed the setting to the gun that he got and shot ectoplasm at the goon and stopped him in his tracks. As Rigby saw this, Shadow said, “You’re welcome,” and left without another word. As the fight continued, some of the fighters, mainly Mordecai, Rigby, and Eddy, started feeling fatigued. As one of the goons was about to fire his weapon at Mordecai, a sudden flash of magenta went past him and trapped the goon in a magenta-colored force field. Surprised by this, Mordecai turned and had seen Twilight being held in Ed’s arms as if she was a weapon. Ed yelled, “Tally-ho!” and started spinning her tail in a motion that imitated a machine gun. She fired more magenta beams at the goons and operatives, capturing each of them in the same barrier from before. As Ed set Twilight back to the ground, Mordecai was speechless from what had happened. Ed walked past him and said with a smile, “Pinkie said something about a wedding when she did that.” Mordecai turned back to Twilight and said, “That didn’t hurt, did it?” Twilight said, “No, not really.” As the group approached one of the trapped operatives, he said to them, “You guys are a lot tougher than I would have hoped.” Mordecai and Rigby said in response, “Hmm! Hmm!” The operative then said, “But I bet none of you saw this coming!” A remote appeared from under his sleeve and he instantly pressed the button. All the hatches in the room suddenly opened and revealed an army of robots. Twilight lost her focus on the operatives after seeing all the robots in the room and accidentally released them again. As the Badniks surrounded the group, they stood their ground and readied themselves for another fight. Silver, Blaze, Rouge, Rigby, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie took fighting stances of their own, Mordecai got his sword ready, and Twilight’s horn was glowing magenta, ready to use a spell. Shadow was getting ready to take off one of his inhibitor rings, and Eddy and Double D stood behind Ed to get ready for a plan of their own. Before anyone could react, all of the Badniks had suddenly self-destructed, and released all the critters inside of them. Everyone, including the operatives, was left confused by the sudden turn of events. A voice suddenly broke the silence and said, “Operatives, retreat!” Confused by the order, Operative N said, “Retreat? But sir-.” Alpha snapped back in his radio and said, “I didn’t freakin’ stutter, that’s a direct order! Everyone, fall back!” Without another word, all of the operatives in the room ran out of the base’s entrance, leaving everyone confused in the process. Everyone was snapped out of their shock after all the critters approached the group. At a loss for words, Applejack said, “How did-? Where did-? What the-?” Twilight said, “I think what Applejack is trying to say is, where did these critters come from?” Blaze was hesitant just as Rouge, Shadow, and Silver were, but she pushed on and said, “Twilight, there’s no easy way to put this, but the person that made all the robots you guys saw, well, he uses these critters as a power source for his robot army.” With realization hitting her, Twilight had a look of terror on her face as she said, “Oh, no.” Outside the base, Sonic, Danny, Fluttershy, Amy, Knuckles, Sam, Tucker, Rarity, Tails, Rainbow Dash, Finn, and Jake were confused about what had just happened. Rainbow Dash turned to Sonic and asked, “Did you do that Chaos Control thing or something?” Angered by her accusation, Sonic said, “Why would I want to teleport us out of a base?” As they glared at each other, both Danny and Fluttershy got in between them in an attempt to keep them from fighting with each other. As they separated them, Danny said to Rainbow Dash, “Look Dashie, Sonic is the last person you want to accuse of this. I’ve dealt with the Guys in White, I KNOW what they’re capable of.” Wanting to clarify, Rainbow Dash said, “So, you don’t think he did this?” Danny said, “With the little bit of time you’ve known him, do you think he’d turn his back on everyone?” Rainbow Dash thought it over and said, “Well, no, but you gotta admit that he knows Chaos Control.” Danny flatly said, “You REALLY need to get over that loss.” Embarrassed by his remark, she said, “Hey!” After telling Sonic to take some deep breaths, and telling him about a similar experience Twilight had with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy was able to calm him down. His calmness, however, was short-lived, as Alpha had arrived where the group was and said, “So how’s the blue rat and his friends doing?” Sonic instantly clenched his hands into fists after hearing this. He turned to him and said, “You know, you’re not the first idiot to call me that.” Alpha said with a confident attitude, “And I’ll make sure to be the last.” Confused by his statement, Tails said, “What did we do to you guys? We never messed with any government called the Guys in White, let alone heard of you guys.” Alpha said, “Any friend of the ghost boy, is an enemy of mine.” He then snapped his fingers and, in an instant, the Big Arm mech had appeared. In an attempt to avoid the fight, Fluttershy instantly ran towards the nearby forest after she saw the mech. Sonic walked past the group, pointed at Agent Alpha, and said with a cocky attitude, “If you think using that rust bucket is going to intimidate us, you’re sadly mistaken. Taking that thing will be a walk in the park for me and my friends.” Agent Alpha said with a smirk, “I’m glad you said that.” He sat back in the Egg Mobile and pressed a button. In that instant, the whole area was swarmed with Buzz Bombers, Moto Bugs, Caterkillers, Slicers, RhinoBots, Snail Blasters, Newtrons, and E-1001 Egg Pawns. Tucker glared at him and said, “Dude, was saying that really necessary?” Sonic shrugged at this and said, “I’ve faced bigger armies than this.” And with that, he charged at the robot army without a second thought. Tails and Knuckles joined him Finn unsheathed his sword from his backpack and said, “I’m not gonna let him have all the fun. YAAAAAAH!!!” As some of the group followed, Rarity looked around and said, “Anyone seen Fluttershy?” Disgruntled from hearing this, Rainbow Dash said, “Ugh, that scaredy-pony. Why am I not surprised?” Hearing this, Sam gave her a skeptical look and said in disbelief, “Scaredy-pony? Did you REALLY just say that?” Rainbow Dash said, “If you’ve known her for as long as I have, you’d know it’s true.” Before Sam could say anything, she saw a couple of laser beams that came from the sky. She dodged the lasers in time and saw three Buzz Bombers flying away from the area. Not wanting to let them get away, Rainbow Dash flew toward them and immediately destroyed them with a few punches from her front hooves. A few of the scattered Buzz Bombers started flying away from the area after seeing her. She flew towards them with great speed and said, “Who said you can go anywhere?!” Unknown to her, a few of the Buzz Bombers were flying right behind her and were prepared to fire their lasers at her, but before they could, Sam fired her bazooka at them, destroying them instantly. Shortly after destroying a few of the Buzz Bombers, Tucker joined her, and he appeared to be breathing heavily. She said, “How are you holding up?” He said, “The Moto Bugs and the RhinoBots I can put up with, but the Newtrons are another story.” Wanting to make sure she remembered Tails’ briefing, she said, “The chameleon robots, right?” He said, “Yeah, those are the ones. I gotta say, I never thought I’d see the day that a non-ghost uses any form of camouflage technology.” In that instant, they heard a familiar scream not too far from where they were. They saw him go limp after they saw the Big Arm mech had finished its electrocution and said in unison, “Danny!” Not wanting to waste any time, Danny flew straight for the Big Arm mech in an attempt to end the fight as soon as possible. Seeing the ghost boy going towards the mech, Alpha pressed a button in the Egg Mobile and said, “You got this Y?” Operative Y said in confidence, “With the upgrades, we gave this thing, this should be a cinch.” He then swung the arms around and made spikes appear on them and he fired the spikes at Danny. Seeing this, Danny went intangible, letting the spikes fly through him without a scathe. Danny said in confidence, “This is just too easy.” The mech flew towards him and reached both its arms at him. He was still intangible, not thinking about what the mech was capable of until he felt one of the mechanical hands get a hold of him. Startled by this, he said, “What the?” Operative Y said through the speakers, “When we bought the Fenton Works a while back, we got a hold of some blueprints your father left behind, like the Ghost Gloves for instance.” He then pressed a button and electrocuted Danny in his grip, causing him to scream in agony. Once he was done, Operative Y flew the mech towards the ground and had Danny positioned so he could be slammed into the ground. Danny said in worry, “Oh crud.” He closed his eyes and braced for the impact, but before the mech could make contact with the ground, a powerful force hit the mech on the side, causing him to lose his grip on Danny. He still hit the ground, but not as hard as he would have thought. Curious to see what happened, Danny opened his eyes and saw Knuckles standing in front of him. Danny questioned him and said, “Knuckles?” Knuckles pointed his thumb to the side and said, “Your friends were worried about you.” Danny turned to the direction Knuckles was pointing to and saw both Sam and Tucker breathe a sigh of relief. Wondering why Danny was having trouble with the mech, Knuckles said, “Why didn’t you phase through the hands?” Danny said, “They stole blueprints to my dad’s Ghost Gloves, and they allow the user to literally get their hands on a ghost.” Knuckles said, “You’re lucky I got here just in time, you don’t want to get slammed into the ground by that thing.” Danny said, “Trust me, I’ll keep that in mind.” As the Big Arm mech was ready to attack the duo, Sonic just arrived and delivered a kick to the side of the mech. Sonic asked, “Need some help?” Danny said with a grin, “Three’s better than two.” Knuckles asked, “How are the others holding up?” Sonic said, “Jake had a little trouble with the Caterkillers, but I think he’s got it down. Tails and Amy are helping him out with the Moto Bugs and the RhinoBots.” The Big Arm mech got back up as he finished talking and was ready to take on the trio. It launched both arms at them, but they were able to easily dodge them. However, with some tweaking, after the mech had swung its arms at them, it released a powerful force that bounced the trio backward. The arms then reattached themselves to the mech and then the mech released spikes on the arms, giving it a more threatening appearance, and a more difficult task for them to hit the cockpit. Danny said, “Oh great, and just when I thought this would be easy.” The mech charged at them, with all the spikes, intending to impale the trio. Sonic and Knuckles took off on each side, while Danny phased through the ground and dodged from underneath the mech. It crashed through the trees and unknowingly destroyed the remaining Newtrons in the trees. As the trio chased after the mech, Danny thought up a plan and said, “Hey guys, I think I got an idea, follow my lead.” Once he was close enough, his eyes started glowing blue, and in an instant, he fired a blue beam from his eyes. The beam made contact with one of the arms, and in that instant, the arm was covered in ice. Seeing this, Sonic said, “Talk about giving the cold shoulder.” Knuckles then punched the frozen arm and it shattered into pieces, and with a good opening, Sonic hit the cockpit with a homing attack, giving the operative a reason to be worried. Fearing that he would be defeated, he tried to run away from them. Seeing this, Sonic said, “That’s not gonna happen!” He took off and charged into the mech through a boost, and a blue aura appeared in front of him, and he rammed into the mech, causing it more damage. Amazed by the move, Danny said, “Holy cow that’s cool!” Feeling proud of himself, Sonic said, “You’re one to talk with that ice beam you shot at him.” Danny then said, “Or when Knuckles destroyed that arm with a single punch! I’ve heard a lot, but man, it’s better to see it in person!” As the fight with the Big Arm mech was pretty much at its end, the trio heard someone yell at the top of his voice, “THESE SLICERS ARE FLIPPING ANNOYING!” Sonic said, “Sounds like someone’s having some trouble with the Slicers.” Knuckles said, “I don’t blame him.” Sonic said, “You can handle things from here?” Knuckles chuckled at his response and said, “Easy. Go ahead and help Finn out.” Sonic grinned and said, “Will do,” and with that, Sonic left Danny and Knuckles to help Finn. As Finn continued fighting, for the most part, and with a quick brief from Tails, he had to deal with the Slicers; the mantis-type Badniks were giving him some trouble. Despite it being a small group, they each threw their blades at him, either both of their claws were fired at him, or one at a time, they still posed as a nuisance to him. He was able to dodge and deflect the blades, with ease. But with the little knowledge, he had of these Badniks, the blades that he was able to dodge came back at him in a boomerang-like motion and cut his legs, and arms and scratched his face. In a fit of rage, he sliced/punched the defenseless robots before they each had a chance to grow a new set of blades. After slicing one of their heads off, and seeing more of the Slicers coming his way, he yelled in frustration, “THESE SLICERS ARE FLIPPING ANNOYING!” Once the Badniks were close, they launched their blades at an exhausted Finn. Before the blades could reach him, they were each engulfed in a light blue aura and were hurled back to the Slicers, cutting every one of them with precision. Surprised by this, Finn turned and saw Rarity standing next to him, and he noticed her horn emitting the same aura color that engulfed the blades starting to fade away. Thankful for this, Finn said, “Thanks Rare.” She said with a wink, “Anytime Finn.” Sonic joined them shortly after and said, “Need some help with those…” Before he could finish his sentence, he looked around and saw nothing around them. He still managed to finish his sentence and said, “…Slicers?” Finn said, “Thanks, but Rarity helped me finish them off.” She blushed from this, while Sonic said, “Cool. Oh Rarity, have you seen Fluttershy lately? Everyone’s been helping with the Badniks, but I haven’t seen her around.” Rarity said, “Fluttershy isn’t much of a fighter, she always tries her best to avoid confrontation. If anything, she might be in the woods somewhere.” Sonic looked towards the forest and noticed the pink hair, with the yellow fur. Fluttershy came out of the bushes once the trio was close to the forest. Fluttershy felt embarrassed and said, “Sorry I wasn’t any use to you guys.” Finn said, “It’s no problem, these guys weren’t that tough.” Unknown to her, one of the Slicers was in the forest as well. After the Slicer saw her, it instantly launched both of its blades at her. Sonic, Finn, and Rarity said in unison, “Look out!” She didn’t have time to dodge the attack, but fortunately for her, Finn got in front of her in time and deflected the blades with his sword. Shortly after, Sonic jumped over the two and delivered a Flying Kick to the Slicer. The badnik was sent flying into a tree and was instantly destroyed. Fluttershy said, “Thank you both so much for saving me.” Finn simply said, “No probs,” while Sonic gave her a thumbs-up and a wink. This caused her to smile bashfully at his response. Once Finn and Sonic left to fight the other Badniks, Fluttershy noticed something unusual. She was shocked to see that a little animal, a gray rabbit, was in the debris of the destroyed machine. Finn and Rarity left to fight the remaining Moto Bugs, while Knuckles and Danny brought the operative to Sonic. He walked over to them and said, “I guess what has been said is true. The good guys do dress in black. But all joking aside, what else did you goons find?” Operative Y chuckled and said, “Enough to wipe out every ghost that stands in our way.” As Sonic was talking to Operative Y, Fluttershy picked up the rabbit and saw the look of terror it had. She was enraged from seeing how hurt and scared the critter looked. Not wanting to give up, Alpha arrived and said, “You better not give up on me operative!” She turned to the Egg Mobile-H after hearing his voice and yelled, “HOW DARE YOU!!!” She then charged at the mech with great speed, shocking everyone in the process. The Egg Mobile spun and crashed to the ground. Operative Y yelled, “Alpha!” while Sonic yelled, “Fluttershy!” Once the dust was settled, they saw that Fluttershy had pinned Agent Alpha on his back and glared at him. His sunglasses had fallen off after they crashed into the ground. After destroying another Moto Bug, Rarity saw Fluttershy giving Alpha a look that instantly made her scared. She then said, “Oh my, she’s giving him the Stare.” Confused from hearing this, Sonic turned to Rarity and said, “The what?” She then said, “Let’s just say, I’m glad I’m not him right now.” Sonic looked back at them and took a better look at what he is seeing. He noticed Alpha had covered his eyes with his arms in an attempt to shield himself from looking at Fluttershy. He then looked at her and saw the intensity of the glare; known as the Stare, she was giving him. He couldn’t explain it, but at that moment, he felt a shiver run down his spine. Still angered by the revelation of the Badnik’s power source, Fluttershy said, “How could you be so cruel to use these poor defenseless critters for your robot army?!” Still scared, and trying his best not to look at her, Alpha said, “I swear, I didn’t know there were animals in the robots.” He shakily grabbed a control within the Egg Mobile and said in an almost pleading tone, “I’ll release all the animals and we’ll leave, just please stop giving me that look!” Fluttershy got off of Alpha and said, “Thank you.” Once she was back on the ground, Alpha kept his word and pressed the button on the controller. All of the Badniks self-destructed and released all of the animals in the process. Alpha then turned his radio on and said, “All operatives, retreat.” Confused from hearing this, an Operative said, “Retreat? But sir-.” Alpha snapped on his radio and said, “I didn’t freakin’ stutter, that’s a direct order! Everyone fall back!” None of the Operatives questioned him any further and retreated, leaving everyone shocked and confused about what just happened. Once the Guys in White had left, Fluttershy turned back to the group, gave them a sweet smile, and giggled. Still in shock, Sonic leaned over to Rarity and said, “Remind me to always stay on her good side.” She simply says, “Will do, darling.” The remaining group hurried out of the base and saw that everyone was as shocked by what had transpired as they were. Realization hit Mordecai and he said, “Wait, if everyone from the Guys in White just left, then didn’t they take the emerald with them?” Sonic put both of his hands over his face and said, “Oh jeez!” Tucker checked his PDA and said, “Actually, my PDA says that the emerald is still here. It’s somewhere in the base.” A voice suddenly said, “Just what I needed to hear.” Everyone looked above and saw Discord. He then said, “You guys just make this too easy sometimes. I’ll just get my emerald and be on my way.” Danny then grabbed the fur on his neck, looked him dead in the eye, and said, “Over my dead body you’re getting that emerald.” Discord smiled at his threat and said, “That’s cute, you’re trying to be threatening.” Danny then blasted him with his ghost ray, sending him back a few feet. He said, “I’ve dealt with a fruit loop in the past, I can handle a cocoa puff like you too!” Discord said, “Ok, the goat comment was one thing; that comment just hurts. I was going to get the emerald and leave, but now I guess we’ll just have to do this again.” Both Danny and Rainbow Dash said in unison, “Bring it, Dip-cord!” They both looked at each other in surprise and confusion after they said the same thing at the same time. They looked back in Discord’s direction still confused, and in an instant, they got serious again. He opened a portal and was planning to escape rather than chance dealing with the ponies since they had their elements. He then said, “Next time we meet, I swear there will be-OOF!” Before he could finish his sentence, a ghost ray fired at him from between Danny and Rainbow. The blast sent him into the portal, and it closed behind him in that instant. A voice suddenly yelled, “The next one won’t miss, Welp!” This caused everyone to turn in the direction the voice was coming from, and they were shocked after they saw the new intruder, Mordecai yelled, “Holy crap! What the heck is that?!” > Chapter 11 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Mordecai’s outburst, everyone turned around and saw a single ghost floating in the air, but what caught everyone’s eye was the green emerald in the ghost’s chest plate. The emerald was then replaced by a second face on the chest plate, causing Danny, Sam, and Tucker to relive an event with an encounter with the familiar foe. Before anyone could question it, the face spoke and said, "There wouldn't be a “next one” if you had better aim!" The head then spoke and said, "Well excuse me for enjoying a good hunt." The face snapped back at him and said, "And excuse me for being the one that enjoys results!" While the ghosts were bickering with one another, both Rainbow Dash and Danny lowered themselves to the ground, both with the same shocked expression as the rest of the group. Sam shook her head in disbelief. Tucker said, "This can't be…" Hearing this, Double D turned to them and asked, "Do you by chance know who this is?" Danny said, "Unfortunately. This shouldn't be happening." Getting impatient with the situation, Rainbow Dash said, “Mind telling those that don’t know who the heck that is?” After getting over his shock, Danny said, “That is Skulktech, a combination of two other ghosts named Skulker and Technus. Skulker is the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter, he uses a battle tech armor to do all of his hunting, and Technus can manipulate technology to his liking.” Rigby caught on to this and said, “So with those two combined, they pretty much are an unstoppable ghost?” Tucker said, “Yes, but I have the upper hand on those two.” He pulled out his PDA and saw that he can control the tech ghost. He was about to mess with Skulktech’s system, but the ghost caught sight of the PDA, and fired a crossbow at the device’s screen, knocking the device out of his hands and instantly destroying it in the process. Everyone was shocked to see the device destroyed. Angered by this, Tucker yelled, “Hey! I just paid that off!” Mordecai said, “Do you have another one of those by chance?” Tucker said with a smirk, “Yeah. I never go anywhere without a backup PDA. It’s back on the Specter Speeder.” Sonic said, “There’s no time to waste, let’s go get it now!” Sonic ran in the direction of the Specter Speeder, but before he could go too far, a green dome blocked his path, causing him to skid to an abrupt halt. Sonic said in confusion, “What the?” Skulker said, “Looks like Fright Knight isn’t the only one who can do the Ghost Dome Generation.” Technus said, “This emerald is a lot more powerful than I thought.” The ghosts laughed maniacally and the destroyed technology within the dome was enveloped in a green aura. As soon as the eyes glowed red, Eddy turned to the group and asked, “Uh… what was that thing you said about one of those ghosts using technology?” As he asked this, each of the destroyed Badnik’s came back to life, and in one piece, each taking a green and black color scheme to their armors. Finn growled in frustration and said, “Not the Slicers again!!” Danny said, “I got your back this time.” Sonic said, “While you guys deal with these guys, I’m going to get the emerald from the base.” Tails said, “Don’t think you're going in alone. I think it would be best to destroy the base and keep any more of Eggman’s technology out of the Guys in White’s hands.” Sonic nodded to this and said, “Good point. Tucker, Double D, you don’t mind joining us in there, do ya?” Both Tucker and Double D looked on in confusion. Tails said, “What better way to destroy a base, than with three tech geniuses?” Before either of them could say anything, Eddy chimed in and said, “Double D ain’t going anywhere without me or Ed.” Jake turned to Finn and asked, “You got these Slicers? ‘Cause I was thinking about helping them with the base” Finn said, “Yeah, I got them, go ahead and help them with that.” As the seven left for the base, Silver said, “I don’t feel comfortable having the Eds go in the base.” Blaze turned to him and said, “Worried about them?” Silver said, “Yeah, I have a bad feeling that destroying the base won’t be as easy as it sounds.” As if understanding what he was saying, Blaze nodded in understanding, and with that, the duo soon left and followed the others into the base. Seeing the group split up, Skulktech attempts to attack them. Danny quickly got in their way and blasts them with his ghost ray. He says with a smirk, “I thought you wanted to fight me. Don’t tell me you’re both too scared to face me” Taking his comment as a challenge, Skulktech charged up a Ghost Ray and said, “Have it your way welp!” The two ghosts charged toward each other, and each charged up a Ghost Ray. As Sonic and the group entered the base, they were stopped by a giant robot. It was a red drab-gray bipedal mech that contained two bouncy Bobbins on the arms, along with spikes on its feet. Trying to intimidate the group, the Operative said, “Anyone that assists the Ghost Boy, is an enemy of the government!” Recognizing the mech, Sonic simply shook his head at it and gave an exasperated look. The operative piloting the mech saw this and said, “What?” Sonic said, “Out of all the mechs Eggface has, you chose to use that?” The Operative said, “What? It looked good.” Tucker turned to Sonic and said, “He must be new if he says something like that.” Sonic said, “I got no time for this.” He and the rest of the group were about to circle the operative, but a hidden group of Mole Cannons had suddenly sprung from the ground, aiming at the group. Silver rolled his eyes at this and used his psychokinesis to build a wall between the group and the Mole Cannons. He said, “The rest of you go on ahead. I got this.” Without a second thought, Sonic led Tails, the Eds, Tucker, Blaze, and Jake out of the room. Seeing this, the operative said, “Oh no, you don’t!” The Mole Cannons fired their ammo at the group, but they were protected thanks to Silver’s barrier. In an attempt to stop them, the operative raised one of the mech’s legs and was going to stomp on them, but Silver used his psychokinesis and prevented him from harming them. Seeing this, everyone ran past the mech as quickly as they could. Blaze stayed back from the group and asked, “Are you sure you can handle this one on your own?” Feeling confident in himself, Silver said, “Yeah, I got this. I’ll meet you in the next area in no time.” Blaze then nodded in understanding and left the room. As soon as Blaze left, Amy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie arrived. They saw that Silver was confronting a mech, and as they were getting ready to help him, Silver effortlessly tossed the mech from the bottom and into a nearby wall. The mech skidded on the ground and destroyed the Mole Cannons, damaging the mech further as it crashed into the wall. Seeing this, Rainbow Dash said, “That’s it?” Seeing that the mech had a hard time getting back up, Silver nodded in response and said, “That’s it.” Making sure that it was over, Amy pulled out her Piko Piko Hammer and bashed the underside of the mech as hard as she could, destroying the leg section in the process. As they were leaving the room to catch up with the others, Amy said, “Yeah, that mech wasn’t hard at all. Sonic made it look easy the first time himself.” Alone in the room, the Operative said to himself, “I knew I should have used the Egg Walker.” Back outside the base, the newly possessed Badniks were proving to be more troublesome than they were the first time. The Motobugs had their claws sharpened and became faster, the RhinoBots had their horns sharpened and gained a boost of speed as well, the Caterkillers’ teeth have sharpened and they have adopted a snake-like attack style at trying to bite the group, as well as burrowing underground for sneak attacks, and the Slicers were able to regenerate their claws at a quicker pace after firing them at their intended targets. Seeing the Badnik’s giving the group a hard time, Danny flew towards Skulktech, while Sam got her Ecto-blaster ready. The two knew that to end this, they needed to send Skulktech back to the Ghost Zone. Seeing Danny flying towards them, Skulktech raised a palm and fired a blast at Danny. The blast made contact, and for a split second, he transformed into his human self. Shocked by this, and in hopes to keep himself from falling, Danny transformed back into his ghost self. Skulktech grinned at what they were able to do. Technus’ face then popped up on the chest plate and said, “That worked better than I would have hoped.” Skulker added, “Just imagine if it were at full power.” Technus continued, “Yeah, the ability to take away one’s powers for an hour.” Observing the battle, and hearing what was just said, Discord said in shock, “Wait! WHAT?!” Fearing the worst, he immediately snapped his talons, but saw that what Skulktech has said was true; his powers have been taken away. He continued snapping his talons at a rapid pace in hopes to activate something but to no avail. He kept snapping in disbelief and yelled, “THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!!” Back to the fight at hand, Technus argued, “Which is why I said to work on your aim! Had we hit you, this would have been over a long time ago!” Danny thought, “That emerald is as strong as I’ve heard it was. I gotta get it out of their grasp.” Remembering his encounter with Skulktech he remembered something important, and an idea popped into his head. He then said with a smirk, “It’s funny that you mentioned Fright Knight. Because if I remember right, wasn’t he able to leave the dome?” Taken aback by the question, and feeling embarrassed, Skulker said, “Um…well. You see…” Technus’ face appeared again and said, “So much for getting EVERY calculation.” Skulker growled in frustration at Technus’ comment. Danny smirked at the reaction and knew what he needed to do to defeat them. Sonic and the group continued running through the base and were confronted with a giant robot coming out of the ground. Sonic knew what it was, the Death Egg Robot. As soon as it came out of the ground, the Death Egg Robot immediately flew to the ceiling. With the ceiling’s dim lighting, the group couldn’t see where it was. Back with Silver, Amy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, they were nearing the rest of the group, and Pinkie’s tail started twitching. Pinkie then said, “Uh-oh.” Remembering the last time her tail twitched, Amy said, “Wasn’t the last time that happened when-” Before she could finish her question, the small group heard a loud crash. They rushed into the room and saw the Death Egg Robot, and saw that it landed on something with all its force. Seeing this, they feared the worst. The pilot of the mech then said, “That’s it? I was expecting a challenge.” The four were shocked by what was said, Amy was close to bursting into tears fearing the worst. At that moment, the foot started to rise on its own, surprising the Operative. Jake had expanded himself in size and was slowly lifting the mech’s foot off the ground. Once big enough, he threw the mech off of him with all of his might. Keeping himself from being toppled over from the throw, the Operator activated the mech’s jetpack and regained his composure, landing himself away from Jake. With the mech off of him, Jake stood up and grew himself to match the mech’s height. As he stretched in size, he uncovered the group in a makeshift dome that he made to protect them from the mech’s fall. Sonic said, “That was WAY too close.” Amy released a sigh of relief, seeing that Sonic, as well as the rest of the group, were okay. She, Silver Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie joined the group soon after. After stretching himself to match the mech’s height, Jake said, “Dude, seriously?” With the Operator distracted and seeing that the exit to the room was unguarded, Sonic said, “Let’s go!” Seeing this, the Operator launched one of the arms in an attempt to strike the group. Reacting to the attack, Jack stretched his hand over the group and blocked the spiked hand. He winced in pain from how sharp the spikes felt, but he kept a brave face and shoots the arm back at the Death Egg Robot, knocking it on its back. He said in confidence, “That’s what you get for letting your guard down!” Sonic gave Jake a thumbs-up and said, “Thanks, Jake!” Jake responded by shapeshifting his tail into a hand and giving the group a thumbs-up. And with that, Sonic and the group left the room. The Operator gets back up and focused on Jake. He sees the spike imprints were left on Jake’s hand, but soon vanished thanks to his stretching ability, leaving the Operator curious about what he was seeing. The Operator said through the intercom, “You’re CLEARLY no ghost, but something is very off about you mutt.” After leaving the room, the group was stopped by a group of gold-covered robots. Recognizing them, Amy said, “These guys?” Sonic said, “Gotta give these guys credit for getting Eggman’s tougher robots.” The bots lifted their right arms and fired a powerful beam from their canons. Before their attacks made any contact, Silver created a barrier with his Psychokinesis, protecting the group from the blasts. He struggled from the multiple blasts, and said in surprise, “You weren’t kidding when you said they were tough.” Sonic said, “E-2000Rs, what else can I say? Too bad Knuckles is outside, he has enough muscle to stun these bots. Oh well, we can still take them.” Hearing this, Eddy said, “You want muscle? You got it!” As soon as the blasts and Silver’s barrier subsided, Eddy gave Ed a push, and he wound his arms in a circular motion. He took off at a very fast pace, causing Eddy to grab the lower part of Ed’s jacket. Seeing this, Double D grabbed Eddy’s legs and the trio shot past the group and charged in full force at the bots, with Ed leading the way as the battering ram. Some were destroyed by Ed’s full-force impact, while some of the other bots attempted to protect themselves with their shields. This, however, didn’t stop Ed from destroying the shields, stunning the bots in the process. Everyone was left stunned by what they just witnessed. Seeing their expressions, Pinkie simply said, “Best not to question this.” She then pulled out her party canon and went into the battlefield. Still at a loss for words, the group turned to each other and simply shrugged at one another. They followed suit and started destroying the remaining E-2000R bots. Back with Jake, he questioned the Operative’s statement asking, “What’s that supposed to mean?” The Operative said, “It doesn’t matter, we don’t have the kind of tech for that. I’ll be sure to send you to the other guys after I put you down.” He pressed the button and fired the arm at Jake. Jake dodged the arm, and mimicked the attack, shooting his fist at the mech. He punched it right in the face, knocking the mech off its feet. Jake said to himself “This won’t take long at all.” With the bots destroyed, the group pressed onward and entered a training area of the base. As they ran through the area, a giant drill was fired at the group. Hearing the launch, Sonic turned and saw the drill coming their way. He said, “Look out!” No one had the time to react to the sudden attack, but thanks to Silver using his psychokinesis, he was able to deflect the drill and it missed the group. The mech flew in and faced the group. They noticed the missing limb on the mech’s left arm, but it instantly regenerated a new drill on the arm. Sonic grinned and said, “This one?” He turned to the group and said, “You guys go ahead, I can handle this!” Silver gave Sonic a nod as the group went their separate ways. Seeing this, the mech fired a laser at the retreating group, but thanks to Silver’s barrier, he protected them from the mech’s laser with ease. Seeing this, Sonic charged at the mech at full speed with his boost and hit it as hard as he could in the midsection. Getting the Operative piloting the mech’s attention, Silver led the group out of the area and into the main area of the base. As they left, Sonic yelled, “Don’t get too distracted, or this will be over before you know it!” The covers on the mech’s head and legs revealed Operative K and Operative O. Operative K said, “You’ll be a good enough test subject for this mech!” After this declaration, Operative O activated the ice shots from the mech’s feet and tried to freeze Sonic on the ground he was running on. Sonic dodged this and said to himself, “Once was enough.” Recognizing what the mech was trying to do, Sonic ran up the wall to get the high ground. The Operatives activated the multiple laser shots to surround Sonic as best as they could, but Sonic was able to reach a spot to avoid the attack; he found the weak spot to the attack and launched himself at it with a homing attack. Entering the main area, the group looked around the room for the main computer. While they were looking, Rainbow Dash saw some large-sized tubes. She gets a better look at them, and she noticed something in one of them. She asked, “Is that Metal Sonic?” The question caught everyone’s attention as Amy prepared her Piko Piko Hammer and Tails got into a fighting stance. Some, like Double D, were confused upon hearing this. He asked, “Who’s Metal Sonic?” Amy said, “It’s a robot that’s supposed to look like Sonic.” Hearing this, Ed ran over to Rainbow Dash and looked into the tube. He said, “A robot?! Way cool!” Tails walked past him and said, “It would be ‘cool’ if it wasn’t programmed to kill Sonic.” This bit of news instantly took the excitement out of Ed, as he stepped away from the tube. Tails left the duo and continued searching for the main computer. Ed and Rainbow Dash also noticed two other tubes containing two other robots that looked like Sonic. Ed then asked, “What about the other two?” The question caught Tails off guard and stopped him in his tracks. He went over to them and asked, “What do you mean ‘other two’?” Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof and said, “He means those two.” As stated, there were two other tubes, both of which had something in them, and they were also recognizable. Tails said, “Silver Sonic and Mecha Sonic? I didn’t think Eggman still had them.” Tucker shouted, “I found the computer!” Tails and Double D went over to him and saw the oversized computer. Tails went through the data and he was surprised to see that the Guys in White had a lot of data on Eggman, his machines, and future blueprints. Tails said, “This base has to go. They have FAR too much knowledge on Eggman’s tech, it won’t be good if they continue using it to their advantage.” Tucker grabbed the Miles Electric and saw more advanced features on it. He said, “I’ll send a virus to their mainframe with your device, and it’ll start erasing all known data on Eggman’s tech.” Double D then got on the computer and activated the self-destruct function to the base. As Double D was working on imploding the base, Tails found a wrench and was planning on destroying Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic, and Silver Sonic. As he was about to destroy them, a portal suddenly opened up, revealing Time Eater. His sudden appearance caught everyone off guard. He then took the three tubes and vanished in an instant. Still in shock, Tails said, “That’s not good.” With another hit to the cockpit of the Egg Dragoon, Sonic continues chasing the operatives, getting ready to finish off the mech. Desperation takes over the operatives as they see that they were about to be defeated. Operative O said, “We won’t allow you to stop us from achieving our goal of ridding the world of the Ghost Zone!” The mech turned around and in an instant, the drill slashed in the air and ripped open a green portal. The mech flew in with Sonic trailing it and in that instant; they were in the Ghost Zone. Taking in his new surroundings, Sonic was confused about what he was seeing. He saw a lot of floating land pieces, doors, and ghosts all around him. Sonic noticed a green reflection circling him, looking all around himself; he sees that he was in a green orb. He looked at this wrist, noticing the same green glow was coming from it. Sonic smiles at this and says to himself, “Thanks Chip.” Sonic then spots the Egg Dragoon and sees it firing missiles at the floating lands. He took a running stance and ran towards the Egg Dragoon. Back outside, Skulktech was trying his best to defeat Danny, but he was proving to be a tougher challenge for them, especially with him causing Skulker and Technus to bicker with each other. Seeing them distracted, Danny blasted them with a Ghost Ray, sending them crashing to the ground. Seeing where they were going, Danny yelled, “Twilight! Rarity! Heads up!” Getting their attention, Twilight and Rarity looked up and saw the falling ghost. They got out of the way, causing the ghost to crash land on the Badniks Twilight and Rarity were fending off. Skulktech got up, attempting to shake off the blow Danny delivered. As he gained his senses again, he then saw both Twilight and Rarity, causing Skulker to back away from them in terror. He put up a hand to protect himself and yelled in terror, “STAY AWAY FROM ME!!” Both unicorns looked on in confusion, wondering what caused that reaction. Danny saw the reaction and was trying his best to not laugh, remembering Skulker’s fear of unicorns. Feeling embarrassed by this, Technus said, “Ok, that’s it!” All the Badniks then shut down and swirled behind Skulktech, forming a single giant robot. With the separation, everyone noticed the dome surrounding the area had started to collapse. Once formed, the robot then created a face of its own. Skulker recognized the face, only to have his suspicions confirmed by the robot’s scolding voice. The robot said, “That pathetic display is enough to end this partnership! I’ll be taking that emerald now!” Before the argument could escalate any further, Shadow saw this as his chance to take the emerald away from them. With the gun he still had from the base earlier, Shadow fired ectoplasm at Skulker, trapping him with the substance. He ran towards the trapped ghost and punched his fist into the ghost’s chest plate and ripped the emerald out of him. The speed Shadow displayed left both of the ghosts stunned. Skulker then felt a finger tap his shoulder. He turned his head around enough to see Danny wave at him. He said with a smirk, “See ya.” He opened the Fenton Thermos he had in hand and captured Skulker with ease. Once captured, Danny closes the thermos with a smirk still on his face. Shocked from the sudden intrusion, as well as figuring out Danny’s plan, Technus backed away from him, only to feel a ghost ray from the Fenton Bazooka shoot through his chest, coming from Sam. She pulled out a Fenton Thermos of her own, opening and capturing the ghost. Desperate from not wanting to be captured, Technus tried to keep a stronghold on the robot he created, yelling “NOOOO!!!!!” His plea and effort were in vain, as he too was sucked into the Thermos in seconds. The robot collapsed into a huge pile of the destroyed Badniks in Technus’ absence. Seeing the results, everyone cheered for the victory. Finn, Rigby, and Mordecai collapsed on the ground, thankful that the fight is over. Before anyone could enjoy the moment, a ghost portal opened up in the sky. Danny flew up to the portal and saw a mech fly past the portal. This caught Danny by surprise and with no hesitation, he flew into the portal. After entering the portal, he sees the Egg Dragoon firing random missiles, attempting to hit some of the ghosts. He also saw a green orb chasing after the Guys in White. Wanting to put an end to this, Danny flew toward the mech and the orb. Once close enough, Danny sees that Operative O and Operative K are the ones piloting the mech, and the green orb was Sonic. Noticing the glow coming from his wrist, he assumed that whatever was there, was the reason for Sonic being in the orb. Noticing his presence, Sonic said, “Hey Danny.” Seeing him, the operatives launched a drill at Danny, but with Sonic’s speed, he got in front of the drill, rendering it useless to the orb’s defense. Danny grabbed the orb, putting some ecto energy onto it, and threw it as hard as he could at the Egg Dragoon. Sonic then spun in a ball, propelling the orb to hit the mech with his speed. He made contact and the mech split into two, ending the fight with the Guys in White. Another portal opened up under the mech and it fell through, not wanting to lose it, Sonic and Danny chased after it through the portal. Once through the portal, they see that they had returned to the base. Excited about their victory, Sonic and Danny gave each other a high-five and said in unison, “YEAH!” The defeated Operatives crawled out of the destroyed mech, shaken from another defeat from Danny Phantom. Sonic and Danny looked down at the sullen Operatives. Sonic said with a cocky attitude, “Was that really the best you two could do?” The Operatives refused to look at them, letting their silence be their answer. Backing up Sonic’s comment, Danny said, “Better luck next time.” Operative K checked his watch and noticed bizarre activity. Not wanting to deal with it, he turned to Operative O and whispered, “I think we should get out of here.” Operative O nodded in response. Both Operatives stood up, alerting Danny and Sonic. The two were ready for an attack, but it never came. Operative O said, “You and your friends have bested us Ghost Boy, but know this.” The two Operatives activated their jetpacks with a push of a button. Operative O continued and said, “We’ll never stop until we rid the world of you and all ghosts!” They then flew off, phasing through the ceiling. The sudden departure left Sonic and Danny confused. The alarms suddenly went off, reminding Sonic of the original plan for the base. Sonic turned to Danny and said, “Follow me!” The two left the area, heading towards the main area of the base. Thanks to Tails, Double D, and Tucker, they were able to trigger the self-destruct for the base. Once it was activated, the white Chaos Emerald was released from the storage the computer was holding it in. Tails took the emerald and the alarms started going off, triggering a lockdown. Shortly after the alarms were going off, Sonic and Danny entered the room. Seeing Sonic, Ed said, “You won’t believe what just happened.” Sonic interrupted him and said, “Tell me later, we gotta get out of here!” The group then gathered around Sonic, ready for him to use Chaos Control. Sonic pulled out his emerald and activated Chaos Control. Back with Jake and the Death Egg Robot, Jake had just finished off the mech when the alarms started going off. He shrank back to his original size, confused about what was going on. The Operative took this as his chance to escape. He ejected out of the Death Egg Robot and used his jetpack to fly out of the base. Shortly after the Operative escaped, Sonic and the group appeared before Jake. Danny yelled, “Let’s get out of here!” Jake hastily joined the group, no questions asked. Once joined, Sonic used Chaos Control again and warped everyone out of the base. The group outside was concerned from hearing the alarm going off, hoping the others were okay. The group appeared from Sonic’s Chaos Control and they started running from the base as fast as they could. Tails yelled, “I’d start running if I were you guys!” The group then followed the others to the Specter Speeder. Once they were close enough, Danny opened the Specter Speeder for the group. As they got in, many areas of the base began to explode. Tucker tried to start the Specter Speeder in hopes of avoiding the explosion, but he couldn’t start the engine. Danny looked at Tucker and said in a worried tone, “Tuck, we need to get out of here. What’s taking so long?” Before he could respond, Tucker was able to get the Specter Speeder started. He started flying the Specter Speeder as fast as he could, with the last part of the base exploding and the wall of destruction trailing the group. In an attempt to protect everyone, Twilight, Silver, and Danny each put up their barriers to keep everyone safe from the explosion. The wave from the explosion trailed them, but thanks to the barriers, the shockwaves barely fazed the Specter Speeder. After a few minutes of flying from the base’s destruction, Twilight, Silver, and Danny lowered their respective barriers. Looking out the window, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Ed wiped his forehead and said, “That was close.” Remembering that Ed had something to tell him, Sonic turned to him and asked, “What were you going to tell me back in the base?” Ed spaced out after hearing Sonic ask his question. After a few seconds, he remembered what he wanted to tell Sonic. He said, “Oh, yeah. We saw three robots that looked like you back there.” Sonic raised an eyebrow at what Ed said. Before he could ask about what he was talking about, Tails chimed in and said, “He’s talking about Mecha Sonic, Silver Sonic, and Metal Sonic. But they weren’t the only things we saw.” This bit of info had gotten Sonic’s attention. He had a feeling Metal Sonic would still be around but didn’t think Mecha Sonic or Silver Sonic was still around. Rainbow Dash added, “Time Eater showed up and took them.” Shocked by this revelation, Sonic said, “That’s not good.” > Chapter 12 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- After escaping the destruction of the Guys in White's secret base, the group was currently flying in no general direction. Tails was seen helping Tucker with trying to track down the remaining Chaos Emeralds, and with it, tracking down Discord as well. Tails looked over his scanner for any lead but to no avail. Sonic turned to Tails and asked, "Any luck buddy?" Tails shook his head in response. Feeling that this may take a while, Sonic decides to pass the time by talking with the group. As he looked at the ponies, a thought crosses his mind. He asks Twilight, "I just realized that you and your friends have been wearing your Elements of Harmony this whole time. Might as well put them away for now. It's gonna be a while until we find Discord." Twilight answers, "We don't have anything to put them away in." Hearing this, Ed says, "Oh! I can carry them for you!" He then pulls his jacket and reveals a fridge door on the inside of his jacket, startling the group, excluding Double D and Eddy, in the process. Noticing the fridge door, Ed says, "Whoops, hold on." He then closes his jacket and re-opens it, revealing that the door is gone. Curiosity getting the best of her, Pinkie goes up to Ed and puts her head in the inside pocket. Her head then came out of the other inside pocket of Ed's jacket and she says with a smile, "There's plenty of room for the Elements in here!" Seeing this left everyone, excluding the Eds and the ponies, speechless. Noticing the nonchalant behavior, Danny turned to them and said, "I'm gonna take it that you seven are used to stuff like this with them." Rainbow Dash shrugs at the comment and says, "More or less." Pinkie's head lowered and came out of the inside pocket she had stuck her head in, but she had some mysterious food substance covered in lint in her mane. Ed plucked it and tucked it back in this jacket. Feeling uncomfortable with the thought, Rarity said, "I think I'll just put my element in Finn's pack if he doesn't mind, that is." Finn said, "Nah, I don't mind. I can even hold the Chaos Emeralds for you guys too." He takes his pack off, opens it, and the ponies placed their elements in it. Finn then gestured for the others to put the emeralds in the pack, but they declined. As Twilight was putting her element away, she turned to Danny and asked, "Hey Danny, what was up with that Skulktech? I remember before they separated and were captured, he acted very strange after he crash-landed." Danny did his best to not laugh and thought, "I know he doesn't want anyone to know this, but he brought this on himself for his reaction." Knowing who he was talking to, Danny was hoping this wouldn't hurt their feelings. He turned to them and said, "Try not to take this the wrong way, but Skulker is afraid of unicorns." With this bit of information, the ponies looked on in confusion, but not as confused as Twilight and Rarity. Among the group, most of them tried not to laugh at this information, Shadow, Rigby, and Eddy, on the other hand, weren't as considerate and laughed hard at the revelation. After letting it sink in, and with the laughter settled down, Twilight asked, "Why would he be afraid of unicorns?" Danny said, "Just a bad experience in the Ghost Zone. While I was looking for Pandora a while ago, I saw him getting chased by three monstrous-looking unicorns. He even went on saying, ‘I never understood why people think those things are cute.’" Twilight and Rarity had sullen looks on their faces, something Danny took notice of. He immediately said, “But those were from Pandora’s Box, you two are cute in your rights compared to what I saw.” They both gave Danny a half-smile from this but still felt down from this. Mordecai thought about changing the subject and asked, "So about Skulktech? You said that he was a future ghost, right?" Hearing this, Danny turned to him and said, "Yes, Skulktech is a future ghost, that’s a partnership that isn't supposed to exist for a while." Hearing this, Shadow said, "What I want to know is how did they get their hands on this?" He held up the green Chaos Emerald. The group started thinking over how they got the emerald to begin with. Knuckles said, "I scattered those emeralds when Discord showed himself the first time, then Time Eater showed up and they got scattered worldwide. I wouldn't know how a ghost was able to get their hands on one of them." Remembering a few days ago, Danny remembered the green glow that shot through Amity Park. He said with a sheepish grin, "Oh, um…I think I might know how that happened. I remember Sam, Tucker, and I saw a green light flying through the sky. I thought it was a rouge ghost and I ended up catching it in the thermos. I had already captured Skulker in the thermos, to begin with. I'm guessing he talked with Technus after I sent him back into the Ghost Zone with the emerald." Shadow rolled his eyes, while Sam said, "That explains that at least." Danny said with a smile, "Who would have thought a little mistake like that would give us a chance to team up with Sonic? I'm not complaining about that at all." After saying this, Sam couldn't help but smile at Danny's excitement. Shadow says, "At least the three of you have been of good use. I still question the three stooges here," saying the last part as he gestures to the Eds. Feeling insulted, Eddy says, "Oh, come on! Don't pretend that we don't pull our weight with this group! Don't forget who saved you back in the base. And Ed here went full Rambo on those guys using Twilight." Hearing how it was phrased, Mordecai and the others, excluding the ponies, looked on in confusion. Ed then said, "Yeah, that wedding thing Pinkie told me was no lie." Confused by this, Mordecai asks, "What wedding was that?" Twilight simply responds, "My brother's wedding." Hearing this, Mordecai instantly pales after hearing that she had a brother. Twilight continues talking about her brother, the wedding, how close she and Shining Armor are, her now sister-in-law who foalsat her when she was a filly, and what had happened on the wedding day. Mordecai wasn't paying attention to the conversation; fear has overtaken his mindset at the possibility of one-day meeting Twilight’s brother. He snaps out of it when he hears Sonic say, "Big Brother Best Friend Forever." Twilight says in excitement, "Yes! Thank you! I was worried no one wasn't going to get it." Sonic shrugs and says, "I've used acronyms before, it wasn't that hard to figure out." Noticing the look on Mordecai's face, Sonic continued the conversation and asked, "So Twi, how did you guys defeat the Changelings?" Twilight answered, "Actually, we didn't defeat them. Shining Armor and Cadence did." The group looked on in confusion, leading Twilight to continue the story. She said, "Cadence first broke Shining Armor out of Queen Chrysalis' grip, and with how drained he was from Chrysalis' mind control, she helped him with her magic. She touched her horn with his, ultimately creating a powerful enough spell that sent Chrysalis and the other changelings out of Canterlot and back to where they came from." After hearing this, most of the group thought, "So cheesy." The only one who enjoyed it, other than the ponies, was Amy as she says with her hands clasped, "That's the power of love for you." The group continued having a peaceful conversation amongst themselves, all but Mordecai who was still getting his bearings away from the group. While everyone was distracted from Danny's story, Sonic went over to Mordecai to talk to him privately. He leaned over to Mordecai and whispered, "You're a dead duck dude." Mordecai facepalmed at what Sonic said and replied, "Not helping dude." Sonic shrugs and says, "What? I'm not the one freaking out about my crush having a brother." Mordecai blushed at this as he released a frustrated sigh and says, "It's not just that. From what Twilight said, she and Shining Armor are very close, and by the sounds of it, he's the older brother. So, I'm pretty sure he's going to be the overprotective type." Sonic then says, "As any good brother looking out for their sister should. From what Twilight was saying about him, Shining Armor sounds pretty cool. The two of you could end up getting along, and that can be a good thing in Twilight's eyes if you did." Mordecai looked at him in confusion and asked, “You think so? You don't think he'd kill me if I tried to date his sister?” Sonic grinned at this and said, "Date Twilight? Sounds like you’ve been thinking about this.” Mordecai says with a blush, “After what happened with Discord, I don’t want to lose her.” Sonic chuckles and says, “He might, but it's up to you to make it work. Better to know now, rather than on the first date when she says that she has a brother." Mordecai still seemed unsure of the given information, but Sonic pressed on and said, "Look Mordo, no one said it would be easy. When it comes to these kinds of things, you're not only building a relationship with Twilight, you're building it with her friends and you’ll eventually do the same with her family too, don't forget that you'll one day meet her parents too. You wouldn't want to tear Twi away from her friends or family, would you?" Shocked by the question, Mordecai says, "No way! I wouldn't dream of doing anything like that." Mordecai looks back at the group and sees that they were laughing at something together. Seeing the happiness on her face, Mordecai couldn’t help but smile. He continues and says, "I can see that her friends mean a lot to her, and I know that I can get along with them." Sonic said, "The same thing has to be done with her family too, you and I both know that. If you can get along with her friends, then you can get along with her parents and her brother just as easily. Only a jerk would want to tear someone away from their family and friends for their selfish wants, and I know you aren't like that." After saying this, Mordecai let what Sonic said sink in. He knows that this is a standard for anyone. He never had that chance when he tried to get with Margaret, so naturally, he was afraid of the circumstances. With the feeling of support on this, Mordecai felt motivated that he could befriend Twilight's parents and her brother. Mordecai said, "Hmm-hmm. Thanks, Sonic." Sonic gives him a thumbs up and begins walking toward the group, until Mordecai asked, "Is this how it is with you and Amy?" The question froze Sonic on the spot. The group didn't seem to hear Mordecai's question, Sonic being thankful for that. Before Mordecai could push the subject any further, Tails said, "I got a lock on the last of the Chaos Emeralds!" With that, Sonic ran up to Tails, as the rest of the group was now focused on what he had said. Sonic asked, "How far is he?" Tails said, "Not too far." Double D said, "This seems easy." Tucker added, "Too easy if you ask me." Tails said, "You have that feeling that he's trying to set us up too?" Being on the same page as Tails, the duo nodded to his question. Sonic said, "Set up or not, he still has three of the Chaos Emeralds, and we can't let him keep them." Knowing that Sonic had a point, Tails input the coordinates to the location, and the Specter Speeder was set to find the last of the Chaos Emeralds. After flying for half an hour, the Specter Speeder reached its destination. Sonic recognized the land as the same area Eggman tried to build Eggmanland on when the world was broken. After landing the Specter Speeder, the group exited and began their search for Discord. The group looked around the place as best as they could but to no avail. They split up into a group of three in an attempt to find Discord a lot quicker. The group was led by Danny, Sam, and Tucker thanks to them having the Fenton Phones to keep everyone in the groups updated. They searched each end of the island, but they still couldn't find any trace of him. As the group split up, Sonic had a nagging thought pop up in the back of his head. The conversation Time Eater had with him has been bothering him in that moment of unconsciousness in the Land of Ooo, and has continued to do so ever since. “You’ll fail again, Sonic, but this time, the stakes will be much higher. You’ll be letting down many more of these creatures and this time, you won’t have your younger self to back you up.” These words ring through his head and he’s starting to doubt himself at keeping everyone safe. He knew that this was almost over, but as he looked at his group, seeing Mordecai talking with Twilight, and saw how they are interacting with each other, enjoying being with one another. He's also seeing the Eds acting like regular kids, goofing around, not taking this very seriously or thinking about a potential no-win scenario for them, and seeing Danny having the time of his life based on the fact that he’s excited just working with him. As much as he's enjoyed what has been going on with this unique group, deep down, he didn't want to put their lives at risk. Noticing the sullen look on his face, Amy slowed her pace down and asked, "Is everything okay Sonic?" Snapping out of his thoughts, Sonic turned to Amy and said, "It's nothing, I'm fine." He wore a fake smile, trying to cover up his thoughts, but Amy saw right through it. Shadow overheard the conversation and noticed Sonic's expression. He fell back to Sonic and Amy and said, "You have that feeling too, don't you?" Caught off guard by Shadow's question, Sonic asked, "What?" Shadow then said, "Don't play dumb, I know you don't want these guys getting hurt." Sonic then said, "What am I supposed to do?" Shadow said, "You invited them, it's your call." He didn’t like that answer, but Sonic knew Shadow was right about that. As they keep looking for Discord, Sonic started weighing the possibility of winning. After searching for what felt like an hour, Danny started feeling as though this were a wild goose chase, He was about to phone it in on the Fenton Phones, but to his surprise, he saw something that stopped him in his tracks. He said on the Fenton Phones, "Guys, I think I found something." It took a while for the groups to meet up at the location, but once gathered together, they see what Danny had found. It was a portal in the middle of the forest. It didn't look like a ghost portal, but it felt odd seeing a portal of any kind just sitting out in the open. Sam broke the silence and asked, "Do you think this might be it?" Danny said, "It has to be." Feeling as though this adventure was coming to an end, Sonic got in front of the group and said, "Thank you guys for your help, we can handle the rest of this from here." Confused by the sudden declaration, Danny asked, "What do you mean by that Sonic?" Sonic then said, "If this portal is leading to Discord, then it would be best to assume that he and Time Eater are waiting on the other side, and we don't want them to get their hands on the remaining Chaos Emeralds with all of you there." Sonic then pulled out the cyan emerald. He continued and said, "You all helped enough, we have gathered four of the emeralds throughout this journey thanks to all of you, but I don't want any of you getting hurt from here on out." Confused by this, Twilight asked, "What about the Elements of Harmony? These are supposed to help stop Discord for good." Sonic didn't know how to answer that, he knew deep down that the Elements of Harmony were to help stop Discord, but he didn't want the ponies to get hurt, especially knowing that Time Eater was with Discord and three of the Chaos Emeralds on their side. Shadow said, "To put it simply, you all will get in the way and will be nothing but a distraction. We've faced Time Eater before, and with you guys here, it would make it harder to fight them. If we can take down Time Eater, Discord should face the same fate Eggman did when Time Eater was beaten the last time. Plus, Time Eater should be a lot weaker from the last fight, he hasn't shown himself throughout this whole ordeal." After Shadow's explanation, everyone felt insulted by how it was phrased, Eddy said, "Why you dirty-!" Danny interrupted what Eddy had to say, and said, "Look, I didn't come all this way just to be told to go home. We've faced worse than what Discord has brought, we can handle Time Eater too." Sonic said, "I'm sorry, but this is for the best. We'll celebrate when it's all over." Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze walked into the portal without another word being said. Feeling upset with the sudden turn of events, the remaining group members didn't know what to do. Eddy said, "This stinks! Should we just go home?" Angered by the question, Mordecai said, "NO! Why would you think about going home at a time like this?! Time is literally against us and you just want to quit?! I don't care how bad things look, I'm not gonna give up, and I know deep down, none of you want to either! No matter what happens, I want to see this through to the end!" The group focused on Mordecai's speech, feeling doubt fading away and slowly becoming inspired. Twilight was going to say something first, but she didn’t expect Mordecai to take charge of the situation and couldn't help but blush at how inspiring he sounded. Mordecai continued and said, "Yes, Discord is a problem we all know this, we’ve each seen what he can do, especially with the Chaos Emeralds in his possession; and even if Time Eater hasn’t done too much, he’s still a threat that we shouldn’t overlook. Even with all that we’ve seen, and all that we’ve been through, I believe in all of us. I believe that this team can stand up to any threat that comes our way. We're all here not just because of personal reasons, but we’re here because we wanted to help Sonic and his friends, and he believed that we were right for the job.” The group listened intently to Mordecai’s words, feeling like they could do anything together. “We all know how serious this is and I know that no matter how hard things will get, we can protect each other. So, no matter what happens in there, I know that we’re more than capable of helping and we’re each going to give it our all. Who's with me?!" It didn't take long for a response, as Rigby, Finn, and Jake yelled, "YEAH!" Still feeling pumped from the speech, Mordecai yelled, "Who's with me?!" Danny, Sam, Tucker, Ed, Edd, and Eddy yelled, "YEAH!" Wanting to hear everyone, Mordecai said one more time, "Who's with me?!" Twilight, Rarity, Pinky Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy yelled, "YEAH!" Seeing that everyone was on board, Mordecai unsheathed the Root Sword, pointed it at the portal, and yelled, "Whatever it takes to bring them down, LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN! CHARGE!" And with that, the remaining group charged into the portal, ready to help Sonic and his friends defeat Discord and Time Eater once and for all. > Chapter 13 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sonic and the gang exit the portal, and they see that they are in the same place where they fought Time Eater the last time in. After getting familiar with the area, they see Discord sitting on a throne filing his nails on his lion paw. As he examined his nails, he didn’t pay attention to the guests that had arrived. Seeing them, Sonic let out a fake cough to bring awareness to the group’s presence. Hearing the cough, Discord turned his head and saw the group. A stampede of cows had run between Discord and the group, confusing Sonic and his friends. Discord chuckles and smugly says, “Look at that, the cows have come home.” Sonic was shocked by the joke as he caught on and says through gritted teeth, “Did you seriously just go there?” After milking a cow for chocolate milk, Discord turns to Sonic and says with a smirk, “Yes, I most certainly did go there.” Sonic retorted, “I’d rather run late, than hide like a coward.” Discord was drinking his chocolate milk as Sonic says this, and he choked on the accusation of being called a coward and spits the drink out. Getting defensive from this, Discord said, “Hey! I was having trouble with my magic. But-” he then snapped his fingers and revealed the three containers stolen from the Guys in White’s base. Discord says with a smirk, “The magic’s back!” Discord takes notice of the group and sees that it was just Sonic and his friends. He didn’t see the ponies or the others in the group. He asks, “Wait. It’s just you? Where’s the rest of the tagalongs?” Sonic didn’t like that phrase and glared at Discord. Ignoring the look he was receiving, Discord continued his ramble and said, “Eh, it doesn’t matter, it’ll end the same way regardless.” He snapped his fingers, engulfing the area with his magic, and changed the area before them. He was now much farther away from the group and had expanded the floor of the area, wanting to make it hard for the group to reach him. With the new expansion, he summoned an army of Badniks, changelings, and various Dark creatures that haven’t been seen since the day Eggman broke apart the Earth and unleased Dark Gaia; each of them ranged from the Rex variant, Nightmare variant, Fright variant, Killer Bee variant, Bat variant, Master variant, and Titan variant. Discord then placed the three Chaos Emeralds he had into the containers and in an instant, the containers exploded, revealing, as well as awakening Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic, and Silver Sonic. Seeing what they’re dealing with, Sonic and the gang took their respective fighting stances, and prepared their weapons, ready to take this army head-on. Before they could start the fight, they heard the battle cry come from behind them. They saw that the ponies, Mordecai, Rigby, the Eds, Finn, Jake, Danny, Sam, and Tucker come through the portal. To say that Sonic and the gang were shocked and confused by seeing them would be an understatement. As the others joined them, Sonic said, “What are you guys doing here? I thought I told you that we can handle this.” Mordecai says, “We weren’t going to leave you behind dude.” Twilight says, “That’s right. If this is the final confrontation, then we’re going to make sure that we do this right with the Elements of Harmony.” Sonic couldn’t help but smile at this. Eddy chimes in and said, “And, I don’t think you would have handled this by yourselves.” Shadow rolls his eyes at the comment, while Sonic lightly chuckled at it. Sonic turned to everyone and said, “Look, guys, I know I said that I didn’t want you here, because I didn’t want any of you getting hurt, but seeing that you have chosen to be here, says that the bonds we have formed is very strong, and I couldn’t be happier to have you guys here by my side for this.” Before Sonic could continue, Pinkie Pie was the first one to hug him, catching him off guard in the process. The next thing Sonic knew, Amy wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, and soon after, the rest of the group joined in and started hugging him too, forming the biggest group hug he’s been a part of. Jake was the last to take part in the group hug, as he wrapped everyone in his overstretched arms to complete the hug among this unique group of friends. Sonic was uncomfortable at first, but once everyone took part in this hug, he closed his eyes and happily accepted the hug from everyone with a smile. A glow started emitting from Finn’s pack, alerting everyone to the sudden bright light. Twilight asked aloud, “The Elements? What’s going on?” Trying to stay focused on the task at hand, Twilight and her friends put on their respective Element of Harmony. Wondering why the army was stalling, Discord asked, “Why hasn’t anyone done anything yet?” Seeing the “tagalongs”, Discord claps in excitement and says, “Oh goody! The cavalry has arrived! All right minions, attack!” The changelings changed their forms to look like the ponies, some of them have even successfully changed themselves to look like Sonic and his gang. After the transformations, Metal Sonic and Silver Sonic flew past them to lead the charge. Rainbow Dash flew to face Metal Sonic, Finn wanting to get in on the action turns to Jake and says, “You ready bro?” Jake says, “I was born ready.” Finn then jumps in the air, while Jake opened his mouth and swallows Finn whole. Everyone was shocked by this, until they see Jake formed into a muscular body, with Finn’s face coming out of the mouth. Still in a state of shock, Sonic asks, “You guys could do that the whole time?” Finn shrugs and says, “This wasn’t needed before.” Getting over his shock, Sonic says, “All right everyone! It’s time to finish this!” With that being said, the group charges at the army of past enemies. Finn charged at full force in the Jake suit, not fearing the army that stood in his way. He effortlessly destroys the Badniks with his combat abilities and the added stretch powers Jake has. Seeing what they were dealing with, the Dark Gaia minions attacked Finn, but he proved that he was still too much for even them. He would grab the Killer Bees and Bat variants and slam them into the Rex and Nightmare variants with everything he had. With the brute force he possessed in the Jake suit, Finn appeared to have an upper hand against the army. Seeing the strength this child possessed, the Titan variant stood in his way and prepared to strike him with the clubs they created. The Titan variant may be slow, but they packed more of a punch compared to their smaller counterparts. With a mighty swing, the Titan hit Finn as hard as he could and slammed him into the ground with ease, seemingly defeating the child. To the Titan’s surprise, the club started rising from the ground, and from the spot he stood in, Finn easily lifted the club off of him. He said with a cocky smirk, “Is that all you got?” He then lifts the club upward, which also lifted the Titan upward. Finn slams the Titan into the ground with all of his might. The force alone rendered the Titan vulnerable as he let go of his club. Finn grabbed the handle of the club and smacked the Titan with it as hard as he could, turning him into a dark mist in the process. Finn then said to the defeated enemy, “You’re pathetic!” A buzzsaw noise was present after this declaration, causing Finn to look around for the source of the noise. A robotic voice then said, “How about I face you?” Finn turned to see Silver Sonic and smirked at this robot. He then said, “I don’t know, are you even a challenge?” The robot had his quills activated, emitting the buzzsaw noise from before, and then charged at Finn in a spin dash of his own, revealing the sharp metallic quills it possesses. The robot charged at great speed, but Finn was able to dodge the attack easily. As Silver Sonic was getting ready to launch another attack, Finn hits the robot in the face, causing the robot some damage. Silver Sonic then charges another spin dash and launches toward Finn. Instead of dodging, Finn grabs the robot on the sides, keeping it from pushing him. He shows the robot his brute strength and slams him into the ground, knocking him out of the spin dash attack. Regaining himself, Silver Sonic prepared a dash attack with the jet shoes and launched himself at Finn. Eddy gave Ed a strong push and like before, he started winding up his arms in a fast-circular motion and began charging into the battlefield. Seeing this, Double D grabbed Eddy’s legs as Ed’s speed picked up and the trio started destroying the Badniks with ease. Seeing this, Sonic pushed on Ed’s back and said, “Let’s see if you can keep up with this.” He launched the trio in a boost, going faster and easily destroying all of the Badniks with great ease. With the destruction from Sonic and the Eds, they managed to create a gap for the group to charge through. The ponies charged toward the changelings, familiar with their last encounter with them, they knew what to expect in this fight. The only different thing is that the changelings can now change their appearance to look like Sonic and his friends. Sonic and his friends sped past the changelings, focusing their sights on Discord. The ponies kept up with them, knowing that the Elements of Harmony were the only things that could stop Discord. Try as they might, the ponies weren’t able to keep up with Sonic and some of his friends, seeing this, the changelings focused their attention on them. Twilight and Rarity used their magic on the changelings, blasting them each one by one. Metal Sonic saw the problem this army had against Sonic and this new group of friends. He took it upon himself to attack the group while they were distracted. He flew at the group, ready to strike, but he was cut off from the attack with Rainbow Dash charging into the robot with great speed. Metal Sonic recovered from the blindsided hit and saw the rainbow-maned pegasus giving him a cocky smirk. Metal pointed at her and said, “Stay out of my way equine, or you’ll face the same fate as Sonic and the rest of his friends!” Rainbow Dash taking a fighting stance says, “I can take you!” Metal Sonic’s eyes started glowing red and the humming sound of a jet engine could be heard. Metal Sonic then said, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” The jet engine released its power and Metal Sonic charged at Rainbow Dash with great speed. Out of everyone that came out of the portal, the only one that stayed behind from the fight was Fluttershy. She knows deep down that she isn’t a fighter, and she didn’t want to be a burden on anyone and get in the way. She had stayed behind near the portal, hoping that she wouldn’t be noticed. From where she was, she could see the fight that unraveled before her. She saw Finn fighting Silver Sonic with great ease, she saw Rainbow Dash fighting Metal Sonic, while the rest of the group charged through the Badniks and the dark creatures, trying to get to Discord. She couldn’t help but worry about Rainbow Dash, seeing that Metal Sonic was able to keep up with her. Fluttershy remembered when Sonic talked about his robot duplicate and said that the robot could keep up with him, which made her worry even more. Some of her worries lessened when she saw Rainbow Dash dodge Metal Sonic’s attacks and gave him a strong buck to the face, sending the robot flying. After sitting for what felt like a long time, Fluttershy noticed a few of her friends approaching her, and she felt relieved not feeling so alone anymore. She saw Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack approaching her. Looking back at the fight the others were in, she noticed a beam of blue magic that belonged to Rarity. This sent her into a panic, as she realized that the three ponies approaching her were not her friends, but the changelings instead. Fluttershy didn’t know what to do, she was too scared to think of a proper way to handle this, so she shielded herself with her forelegs. Before the changelings could do anything to her, one of them got punched in the back of the head, alerting them of a new presence among them. The voice then says, “You stay away from her!” Recognizing the voice, Fluttershy looked up and saw that it was Mordecai. She couldn’t have been happier to see a familiar face here to help her. The changelings focused their attention on Mordecai and lunged at him, but he had proven to be a problem to them, easily knocking them out one by one, not letting the forms they were in fool him. That is until one of them had taken the form of Twilight Sparkle, causing him to hesitate on attacking the changeling. Seeing this moment of weakness, the other changelings also transformed into Twilight, making the situation harder for him to do anything against them. The changelings circled them and were prepared to strike. “HEADS UP!” yelled a voice from above. Fluttershy and Mordecai looked up to see that Danny had arrived and fired an ice blast from his eyes, forming a small ice barrier around Mordecai and Fluttershy, keeping the changelings away from them. After landing inside the frozen area, Danny formed an ice dome around him, Mordecai, and Fluttershy, keeping the changelings away from them for the time being. After creating the ice dome, Danny turned to Mordecai and says, “What was that?” Trying to play dumb, Mordecai says, “What was what?” Danny rolled his eyes at Mordecai’s response and says, “Don’t play stupid with me! You were easily handling those things until…” It was then that Danny took notice of the form the changelings were in. They each took the appearance of Twilight Sparkle and he noticed some of them were teasing Mordecai with flirtatious looks, making the blue jay blush as he tries to not look at any of them. Seeing Mordecai’s reaction, it didn’t take long for Danny to figure out what the problem was. He noticed Mordecai wasn’t looking at him either as he was trying his hardest to hide his blush, but this only further confirmed his suspicions. Danny then asks, “Dude, do you have a crush on Twilight?” The question caused Fluttershy to gasp and cover her mouth in surprise, while it made Mordecai blush harder and he attempted to cover his face. Seeing his reaction, Fluttershy couldn’t help but hug Mordecai with the revelation. She says, “I’m so happy for you Mordecai!” Mordecai noticed Danny didn’t say anything and asked, “This doesn’t bother you, does it?” Danny says, “I’m surprised, but I’m not bothered by it. If she makes you happy, then dude, you deserve to be happy.” Mordecai breathes a sigh in relief, thankful for another understanding friend from this group. Danny continues and says, “Besides, this is nothing compared to the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady getting married and having a kid. THAT was gross.” Danny shudders in disgust as he remembers that confrontation. Mordecai didn’t know what he was talking about but figured that it must have been something that Danny went through personally, so he decided to not push the topic. Danny says, “Anyway, even with the crush, you should know that Twilight’s with Sonic and the others, getting ready to take down Discord. She wouldn’t be here unless it meant getting Fluttershy to join her and the others.” Mordecai focused his attention back on Fluttershy as Danny brought her up. She didn’t look at either of them, knowing that her actions were selfish. Mordecai says, “That’s right, what are you doing here Fluttershy? Shouldn’t you be with the rest of your friends getting ready to defeat Discord?” Still avoiding eye contact with them, Fluttershy looked down and said, “I-I know, I’m sorry about that. It’s just that…I’m not a fighter, I never have been, and seeing this large army just scared me.” The duo looked on, but didn’t say anything, they felt that she had more to say. Fluttershy then says, “I’m not brave like Rainbow Dash, I’m not strong like Applejack and I’m nowhere near as strategic as Twilight. I’m a timid, weak pony that would just get in the way and make things harder for everyone. I’m not important, I’m just a burden.” As she said this, Fluttershy felt tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to come pouring down. Mordecai and Danny felt bad for her as she said all of this. They might not have known her for long, but there was one thing they knew for sure; they didn’t like seeing her cry. Danny spoke up first and said, “Look Fluttershy, I know you’re not a fighter, it’s not like I didn’t notice back at the Guys in White’s base, but despite that, you were the reason for driving out the entire base by yourself. You might not be able to fight, but you have a lot of courage underneath all of that fear.” Mordecai turned to him and asked, “She was the reason for that?” Danny said, “Yeah. She just pinned the leader down and just glared at him. I couldn’t hear what she had said to him, but I have never seen anyone so scared before in my life, and in all honesty, when I saw the look on her face, I was a little scared myself. And this is coming from someone who fights ghosts on a regular basis.” Fluttershy tries to downplay this and says, “That wasn’t courage, I was just upset after seeing those poor innocent critters inside those robots.” Mordecai turns back to her and says, “Fluttershy, courage isn’t about having no fear, it’s about being able to face those fears head-on, despite being afraid. You stared down a leader of an organization because he was using something that was hurting something you cared about. We all have fear, believe it or not. I’m borrowing Finn’s sword to help out as best as I can in all of this because I have someone to fight for.” Hearing this, Fluttershy says with a knowing smile, “Someone, or somepony?” Mordecai blushed at the question, knowing who she was referring to. Danny snickered at the ‘somepony’ line, finding it humorous that it was a thing, and he also knew who Fluttershy was talking about. Mordecai then says, “Yes, somepony, but it’s not just for her, it’s also for you, the rest of your friends, Sonic and his friends, Danny, everybody. Sometimes, I feel like I’m not the biggest contributor here, but I still press on and help in any way I can, because I have a part in this as much as the rest of the group, and yes, that includes you too. Because this right here-” he taps her element and continues, “says that you are very important in all of this.” Fluttershy started feeling better about herself after talking with Danny and Mordecai. They were very encouraging to her, and she felt a new sense in herself to help out. She gave Mordecai and Danny each a hug and said, “Thank you.” As they hugged, the changelings started blasting the ice with their magic and easily disposed of the wall surrounding the ice dome. Seeing this, Danny said, “Oh great.” He was ready to fight off the changelings that were present, and they were charging their magic, ready to destroy the ice dome; but before anything could happen, a bright light entered the dome. The light blinded the changelings, preventing them from attacking, as Danny, Mordecai, and Fluttershy covered their eyes. Once the light subsided, the trio sees that it was Sonic. He turned to them and said, “Glad to see you guys are okay.” Danny said with a grin, “Glad you could make it.” Sonic asks, “What are you guys doing back here?” Mordecai said, “Fluttershy needed a little…pep talk. She’s ready to help stop Discord.” Fluttershy nods in agreement, showing a new sense of purpose to help. Sonic said, “Then there’s no time to lose. Hold tight.” The changelings recovered from their temporary blindness and were prepared to destroy the ice dome. They used their magic and blasted it, but with Mordecai, Danny and Fluttershy huddled with Sonic, he used Chaos Control and teleported them out of the area before that could happen. Rainbow Dash did her best to evade Metal Sonic’s speed, surprised by how fast this robot was. Metal Sonic charges up power into his right arm and yells, “Chaos Spear!” Metal launches a barrage of lightning bolts at Rainbow Dash, similar to Shadow’s technique. Seeing the attack, Rainbow Dash dodges the bolts as best as she could. Seeing how distracted she was, Metal Sonic charges up his V. Maximum Overdrive Attack, surrounding himself in a highly powerful energy field. Once fully charged, he launches himself at Rainbow Dash at full speed. Rainbow Dash barely sees him coming and tries to dodge the attack, but because of the distraction the Chaos Spears had on her, she couldn’t react in time. Metal Sonic was able to singe her wing, causing her to yell in pain and she was forced to land on the ground. Rainbow Dash tries to open her wing but immediately feels a painful jolt from the attack. She winces in pain and instantly closes her wing again, her ability to fly has been hampered, taking away her greatest strength. Still airborne, Metal Sonic saw this as an advantage and prepared another attack that can finish off the injured pegasus. He clamps his hands together and begins to spin in place. He then launches himself at his target, breaking the sound barrier, and unleashing the Sonic Boom. With the built-up speed, he unleashed his spinning movements had picked up making it similar to a drill attack and was aimed to finish off Rainbow Dash. Before she could react, Sonic came at the right time and gave his robot copy a double kick to the face, derailing the attack. Metal Sonic made contact with the ground and thanks to the speed he had built before, his hands were now stuck in the ground, preventing the robot from attacking. Rainbow Dash didn’t hesitate after seeing the state Metal Sonic was in. She ran as fast as she could towards him and gave the robot a double kick to the face as hard as she could. The attack launched Metal Sonic, and thanks to his arms being firmly stuck in the ground, they ultimately were ripped off his torso from the force Rainbow Dash delivered. With his arms now removed, Metal Sonic was now left defenseless. Sonic ran towards him at full speed and delivered a strong punch to the robot. Metal Sonic began to short-circuit and exploded after the punch, leaving behind the blue chaos emerald. Rainbow Dash sat on her haunches, exhausted from the fight and her wing was still in pain. A voice asked, “Are you okay Rainbow Dash?” Sonic turned to see that Fluttershy had a concerned look on her face, as she was worried about Rainbow Dash’s injury. She said, “My wing’s a little sore, but I’ll be all right.” Sonic asked, “Can you still fight?” Rainbow Dash said, “I can last. Hopefully, Finn still has that bottle to heal me.” While they were distracted, Discord appeared before them and took the blue chaos emerald back. Sonic saw this and tried to take the emerald away from Discord, but he reacted quicker and snapped his talons, teleporting himself away from him. Sonic growled and pounded his fist into the ground in frustration. Danny spoke up and said, “Let’s go check on Finn, and maybe get your wing healed up.” With that being said, the group left the area and went to Finn and Jake. The fight between Finn and Silver Sonic was winding down, the robot was heavily damaged and was starting to short-circuit. Desperate to continue, Silver Sonic attempted another spin dash attack and launched spikes as it jumped in the air. Finn took the spikes with ease, but Jake winced in pain from how sharp the spikes were as they pierced through his skin. As Silver Sonic got out of the spin dash attack, Finn delivers one final punch to the robot, causing it to explode and leaving behind the purple chaos emerald. Seeing it, Finn was going to grab it, until Mecha Sonic swooped in and claimed the emerald for himself. Seeing this, Finn yells, “Shoot!” Before Finn had the chance to take the emerald away, Mecha Sonic was gone in an instant. As soon as Mecha Sonic was gone, Sonic, Fluttershy, Mordecai, Danny, and Rainbow Dash approached Finn. They see Silver Sonic laying in defeat, Sonic looks to Finn and asks, “Where’s the emerald?” Finn says, “That other Sonic-bot took it the moment I finished this chump off!” Danny asked, “Any idea where he went?” Finn says, “No clue.” After saying this, Finn turns to the group and noticed Rainbow Dash’s wing. He says, “Whoa, Dash! How’d your wing get so jacked up?” Rainbow Dash says, “Just took down Metal Sonic, he wasn’t as easy as I thought he would be.” Without even being asked, Finn had the bottle of cyclops tears presented out of Jake’s hand. Danny grabbed the bottle and looked at it questioningly. He asked, “This is supposed to help?” Finn said, “Just splash some on her wing, trust me.” Danny did as he was instructed and poured a decent amount on Rainbow Dash’s injured wing. After the liquid made contact, her wing had instantly changed from a charred and damaged mess and returned to its natural, undamaged cerulean color. Seeing the results, Danny says, “What the -?!” He looks at the bottle, then Rainbow Dash’s wing, then turned his attention to Finn and asks, “What the heck is in this?” Mecha Sonic reappears in front of Discord, knowing the seriousness of the fight at hand with both Silver Sonic and Metal Sonic’s defeat. Mecha Sonic takes the emerald out and says, “If we’re going to beat Sonic and his friends, I’m going to need more power than this.” Discord looked on in confusion and asks, “I thought you three needed the emeralds to be powered up?” Mecha Sonic says, “No, we don’t need them for our existence.” He then tosses the emerald to Discord. Mecha Sonic continues and says, “I need to go to Angel Island.” Discord asks, “Why do you want to go there?” Mecha Sonic responds, “Do you want to win this or not?” Discord grew annoyed with Mecha Sonic’s attitude but is in no mood for an argument, he says, “Fine.” He snaps his fingers and opens a portal to Angel Island. Discord says, “I don’t know what you would want over there, but make it quick.” Finn and Jake left Sonic and the others to look for the rest of the group. He found the Eds, Sam, and Tucker and told them to meet up with Sonic. He then found Silver, Blaze, Rouge, and Shadow taking down one of the Titans. Shadow tried to use his gun, but the Titan was quick with his swing and destroyed it with his club. Before it could strike the group, Finn threw a punch at the Titan right in the face with Jake’s overstretched arm, knocking the monster on its back. Shadow then used a chaos spear and destroyed the Titan with a single blast. Shadow turned to Finn and gave him a thumbs up. Finn took it as a sign of “thanks” and says, “No probs. Sonic said to meet up with him and the others, Discord’s getting his butt kicked.” Shadow, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze left in search of Sonic. As they ran off, Finn yelled, “If you see the others, can you tell them to meet Sonic?” Blaze says, “We can do that!” Before Finn could leave, Mecha Sonic appeared before him. Finn grins at the robot and says, “I was wondering where you went.” Finn pounded his fist into his hand, ready to destroy the robot. Mecha Sonic, however, made a backward dash away from him. Finn chased after the robot and yelled, “Face me you coward!” The robot then jumped and landed on something. Whatever it landed on, it started glowing at a crazy rapid pace. After a few seconds, Mecha Sonic jumped into the air and his blue-plated armor turned into gold. Seeing this, Finn asks aloud, “What just happened?” Mecha Sonic says, “Your defeat!” Mecha Sonic charged at Finn with great speed, grabbed him, and kneed him in the stomach. With the force he put behind his attack, he easily bulldozed him into the ground with his newfound strength. After burying Finn in the ground, Mecha Sonic flew back into the air, getting ready for the next attack. Finn was left stunned by the speed and power Mecha Sonic just displayed, even though he was still wearing the Jake suit, he still felt the pain from Mecha Sonic’s attack. He shakily got out of the ground and coughed, winded from the previous attack. He turned his right hand into a fist and readied to attack. Finn spots Mecha Sonic hovering in the air and feels as if the robot was mocking him just by floating there. Finn threw the punch at Mecha Sonic as hard as he could and made contact, but the attack didn’t faze the robot in the slightest. Mecha Sonic says, “Is that your best? How pathetic.” Mecha Sonic charges up an energy ball and yells, “I’ll crush you!” He then blasts the energy ball at Finn. With the injuries sustained, Finn couldn’t react in time and ended up taking the blast head-on. After the blast subsided, Finn collapsed onto the ground and Jake ended up puking him out. Shaking off the hit, and desperate to finish the fight, Finn opens Jake’s mouth and says, “No! No! Jake come on! I can finish this!” Jake weakly says, “No, too injured.” Seeing the vulnerable state they were in, Mecha Sonic says, “Taste my power!” He blasts another energy ball at the duo and believes that he has won. At the last minute, a voice says, “LOOK OUT!” Finn and Jake were grabbed and safely taken out of the range of the blast. Finn looks up to see that it was Knuckles who saved them. Finn says, “Thanks Knux.” Knuckles says, “Don’t thank me just yet. He’s still in his super form.” Mecha Sonic says, “Very observant echidna. I should thank that draconequus for these.” He then pulls out the three chaos emeralds that Discord had. Knuckles gets into a fighting stance and says, “I’ll be taking those back.” Mecha Sonic laughs at Knuckles’ threat and says, “With no emeralds of your own? I’d like to see you try.” Unknown to Mecha Sonic, Knuckles has gained a new ability since the last time they faced each other. Mecha Sonic charges at Knuckles, ready to strike him, but Knuckles dodged the attack and ran toward the Master Emerald. Mecha Sonic didn’t know what Knuckles had planned, but he didn’t want to find out. He blasted the energy shots at him, but Knuckles was able to dodge them with ease. Mecha Sonic shot another blast at Knuckles, but instead of trying to hit him, he instead shot the blast in Knuckles’ path. The blast made a big explosion once it hit the ground and it sent Knuckles flying. Knuckles crash lands next to the Master Emerald, but he ended up getting a sprained ankle from landing wrong and he hits the ground. Mecha Sonic hovers behind him and says, “I don’t know what your plan is, but if this was a means of distraction, you failed miserably.” Mecha Sonic then points his finger behind him and fires an energy beam. We see Finn healing himself and was beginning to heal Jake, but a sudden beam had made contact with the bottle and instantly destroys it. Finn and Jake stared on in shock from the attack. Mecha Sonic says, “There’ll be no more of that, the boy won’t be fighting with that dog anytime soon, and you are all out of options.” Mecha Sonic readied another energy blast and said, “Any last words?” While Mecha Sonic was focused on Finn and Jake, Knuckles had gotten back on his feet and had a hand on the Master Emerald. The energy from the emerald surrounds Knuckles as he touched it. He turned to the robot with an intense glare and said, “Yeah. Don’t you EVER touch my Master Emerald again!” Knuckles throws a very strong punch and sends the robot flying. The punch was so strong it made Mecha Sonic drop the three chaos emeralds and he was knocked out of his super form. Seeing this, Knuckles charged toward Mecha Sonic, ready to end the fight once and for all thanks to the energy he still had from the Master Emerald. As Knuckles got closer to Mecha Sonic, he threw another punch, crushing the robot into the ground and causing a shockwave in the process. The attack instantly destroys the robot, ending the fight with the last of the Sonic doppelgangers. Rarity was walking by herself; Shadow and Rouge had just told the group that they were needed. She fell behind because of the changelings getting in her way. As she walked to where she was needed, she saw the fight Knuckles was in. She was ready to help in any way she could, but she saw that she wasn’t needed as Knuckles had delivered a powerful punch to Mecha Sonic and sent the robot flying. The robot had a gold color appearance but had just changed to blue after the punch. She saw Knuckles charge at the defenseless robot and deliver another punch, destroying the robot. Rarity looked from the area Knuckles ran from and noticed a giant green emerald in the back. She approached Knuckles and says, “Is that the Master Emerald you mentioned before?” Knuckles was exhausted from the fight and was hunched over trying to catch his breath, but he gave Rarity a nod in response. She looked back at the Master Emerald and was entranced just by looking at it. She said in amazement, “Oh my, it’s very beautiful.” Knuckles doesn’t respond, he was more focused on retrieving the Master Emerald. Although he sprained his ankle, Knuckles limped his way toward the Master Emerald, but before he could get to it, a sudden flash appeared next to it, as the light faded, it was revealed to be Discord. He grabs the Master Emerald and leered at it, clearly impressed with what Mecha Sonic was able to accomplish with it alone. Not wanting Discord to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, Rarity uses her magic to levitate the three emeralds and pulled them toward her. Discord glares at the group, but instead of fighting them, he chose to teleport away from them with the Master Emerald in his possession. Knuckles falls to his knees, shocked from losing the Master Emerald to Discord. Rarity walked next to him and said, “It’s okay darling, we’ll get it back. Right now, we have all seven Chaos Emeralds with us.” As Rarity said this, Knuckles couldn’t help feeling uneasy about this. He felt that Discord let them get the emeralds back. Sonic, Mordecai, Fluttershy, Danny, and Rainbow Dash continued to fight off the army and were trying to regroup with the others. They fought their way and reached Twilight, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, who were fighting off the changelings. Sonic asks, “Where’s Discord?” Applejack says, “It was a changeling.” Rainbow Dash asks in anger, “Seriously?!” Mordecai says, “At least we’ll be ready when we do find Discord.” He was referring to Fluttershy, something Twilight took notice of after finishing the last of the changeling group they were fighting. Twilight asks, “Where were you Fluttershy? I thought something bad had happened to you.” Mordecai says, “Thankfully that wasn’t the case, I was able to get to her before the changelings could try anything.” Twilight turns to Mordecai and gives him a thankful smile, causing him to blush in the process. Twilight focuses her attention back on Fluttershy and says, “Fluttershy, please don’t ever do that again, I couldn’t live with myself if something bad had happened to you and I wasn’t there to help.” Fluttershy saw the hurt and worry in Twilight’s eyes and felt bad for putting her through this. She said, “I’m sorry about that, but don’t you worry Twilight, I’m here with everyone to the very end.” Twilight smiled at Fluttershy and hugged her, which she gladly returned. As Twilight and Fluttershy were hugging, Knuckles, Finn, Jake, and Rarity arrived. Finn asks, “Did we miss anything?” Sonic says, “Not really, this army keeps coming back no matter what we’ve been able to do to them.” After saying that, the group sees that the army has surrounded them in a circle formation, ready to capture them and claim victory. Keeping his attention on their enemies, Tails said, “What now Sonic?” Sonic says, “We’ll keep fighting, no matter what.” Shadow made a motion to take off his inhibitor rings but was stopped as Danny raised an arm and spoke up. He said, “Leave it to me guys.” Shadow says, “You think you can handle them on your own?” Danny says, “I can. I’ve been saving this attack as a last resort, and this is as good a time as any to use it.” Sonic looks at him curiously and asked, “Last resort?” Danny nodded and said, “Everyone, just stay behind me and cover your ears.” After saying this, Danny stepped in front of the group, ready to finish the fight with the army on his own. They were confused by the instruction that he left for them, but they weren’t going to argue with what Danny told them and they covered their ears. Once Danny was in front of them, he takes a deep breath and yells at the top of his lungs, releasing his most powerful attack, the Ghostly Wail. The attack released a shockwave of ecto-energy, and it easily wiped out the enemies that were in its path. Even with their ears covered, the group faintly heard a haunting moaning sound coming from the attack. The army was dumbfounded from seeing what this attack could do, but before any of them could respond, Danny had moved and released another Ghostly Wail on the army. He continued this until he had circled the group and essentially wiped out the army that had once surrounded them. With the army defeated, and not hearing any more ghostly moans, everyone uncovers their ears and takes a good look around the area. They were amazed at what Danny had done on his own, all of the Changelings, the Dark Gaia creatures, and the Badniks were defeated. Danny was left hunched over, breathing heavily after releasing the Ghostly Wail multiple times, but instead of transforming into his human self as he did in the past when he used the attack, he was now able to maintain his ghost form and he proudly stood tall in his victory. The group cheered, thankful that the army was no more and that they can now focus their attention on Discord. Discord remained in hiding after he took the Master Emerald, he didn’t know anything about it, but thanks to Mecha Sonic’s persuasion, it made him curious about what made this emerald so special. Time Eater showed Discord two big events the Master Emerald was involved in, and Discord had seen that this emerald had the power to control the Chaos Emeralds themselves. Discord says in amazement, “If this thing can control the Chaos Emeralds, why didn’t we take this in the first place?” Time Eater says, “The emeralds were already scattered, did you really believe this could get them back?” Discord says, “Fair point. They took our emeralds, but it doesn’t matter, we now have this.” Discord teleports away from the area and was prepared for the final battle with Sonic and his friends. > Chapter 14 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The group continued cheering and thanked Danny for what he was able to do against the army, but the celebration was short-lived. Discord had arrived during the celebration, catching everyone off guard. He gave them condescending applause, a slow clap, practically mocking their celebration with a cocky smirk on his face. He then says, “Oh yes, congratulation Ghost Boy.” Danny turned to him as his hands glowed, ready to blast him with an ecto ray. “You managed to stop an army, but none of you have been able to stop me yet.” Discord had a wicked grin on his face as he snapped his talons, making the Master Emerald appear in his lion paw. Everyone was caught off guard, except for Rarity and Knuckles as they glared at Discord. Knuckles growls at Discord, angered from seeing him with the Master Emerald. Discord felt a great surge of energy, he was engulfed in the Master Emerald’s power as he held it. He then snapped his talons and the seven Chaos Emeralds the group had were seen floating above them. Everyone was left confused by the sudden action and became worried as they see what happened with the emeralds surrounding Discord. The respective colors from each of the Chaos Emeralds floated out of the gems and flew toward Discord. He absorbed the energy, causing panic among the group, as they see the seven Chaos Emeralds clear and were now rendered useless. Discord laughs maniacally after absorbing the energy of the Chaos Emeralds, and he started to grow in size, taking on a more dragon-like appearance. The group felt like hope had slipped from their grasp seeing the Chaos Emeralds become dull and useless, while Discord gets the benefits of their power. Discord imprisons the Master Emerald in a cage made of dark energy on a separate piece of ground in the air and he pushed it to the side, making sure that it was out of everyone’s reach. After seeing everyone’s shocked expressions, Discord gloated at his accomplishment and said, “No Chaos Emeralds, no Master Emerald, I am now more powerful than the Elements of Harmony. How does it feel knowing that defeat is upon you?” Sonic grins at what Discord said and responds, “If I had a dollar for every time someone thought they had beaten me, I’d own my very own chilidog factory.” Twilight says in a worried tone, “Sonic, I don’t think it’s wise to provoke him at a time like this.” Remembering a similar situation, Danny had Sonic’s attitude figured out and said, “Don’t sweat it Twi, I bet I know why he’s so calm right now.” Sonic turns and gives him a knowing smile. Danny continues and says, “He only took the negative energy of the emeralds, didn’t he?” Tails nodded in agreement, while everyone who was not familiar with the Chaos Emeralds, was left dumbfounded by this bit of information. The emeralds were gathered and given to Sonic as Tails says, “Negative energy isn’t the only thing that can give the emeralds their power, our positive feelings can work wonders. As Sonic said before, the bonds we share are great, and together, we can give the emeralds more than enough power to work again!” As this was said, everyone felt nothing but doubt inside of them, but when they looked at Sonic and they saw that there was no fear in his eyes, they felt right then and there that there was no way he could lose. With that realization hitting them, they closed their eyes and focused on their positive feelings toward him and each other. They put their trust and belief in Sonic, and at that very moment, the Chaos Emeralds started to activate, blinding the area with its light. As the light subsided, the group opened their eyes and they see Sonic, but instead of his usual blue look, he now took on a gold look and his eyes were red instead of green, he was now Super Sonic. Sonic then looked to Shadow and Silver and motioned for them to come to him. Once they were close enough, Sonic raised both of his hands to them and they, in turn, raised their hands to him and toward each other. The golden aura that surrounded Sonic glowed brighter and engulfed both Shadow and Silver in it. While the light grew brighter, both Shadow and Silver were transformed into their super forms. Super Shadow having changed from his black fur to a very bright yellow fur with his chest fur having a brighter white tone, the red tips on his quills were unchanged, but his red eyes took on a darker tone in this transformation. Super Silver also took a golden yellow with dark yellow chest fur, and just like Sonic and Shadow, the golden eye color had changed to red as well. Seeing these three hedgehogs go through this transformation surprised everyone, Discord, however, showed no fear to the hedgehog trio and says, “You fools don’t stand a chance against me.” Sonic says with his cocky smirk, “We’ll see about that!” The three hedgehogs flew toward Discord with great speed, ready for the final confrontation. Danny was very excited to see the transformation in person and said, “There’s no way I’m going to pass up a chance to fight alongside Sonic in his Super form!” Without another word, Danny flew in Sonic, Shadow, and Silver’s direction, clearly excited about this opportunity. Twilight smiled at Danny’s enthusiasm and had a plan ready for the fight. She said to her friends, “All right everypony, with the Elements of Harmony, we should be able to undo Discord’s use of the Chaos Emeralds powers.” Rainbow Dash turned to her and says, “Didn’t he say that he was stronger than the Elements of Harmony though?” Twilight says, “I know he said that but I have a feeling that he’s bluffing to scare us, but I know we can stop him with Sonic’s help.” Twilight and her friends walked in front of the group and readied themselves into their formation to use the Elements of Harmony. Twilight was prepared to activate her element, until she hears Pinkie release a shriek of terror, catching her and her friends off guard. As the group looks on, they saw that Pinkie Pie was captured in a sphere of purple aura. One by one, each of the other ponies screamed in terror as they too were captured in the same sphered aura, Twilight was the only one among them who hasn’t been captured. She tries to free her friends by blasting the spheres with her magic, but unfortunately for her, the spell that she cast did not affect them. Twilight shakes her head in disbelief and says to herself, “No, no, no, no!” She continues to cast spells out of desperation to free her friends, but each spell was rendered useless, causing her to cry tears of frustration and worry. After one more failed attempt, Twilight sits in defeat, not knowing what to do to save her friends. She feels defeated as she sees her friends in the spheres and says, “I’m so sorry.” She watched helplessly as the spheres were then lifted into the air and out of her reach, causing her to go from feeling despair, to worry once again. Shortly after, Time Eater reveals himself to Twilight, causing her to back away in a panic. She turned to see if the others were seeing this, but instead, she sees the group had been stuck in a frozen state, not moving or reacting to what was currently going on. Through this, Twilight now understands the full extent of what Time Eater could do. Time Eater says to Twilight, “Poor little pony. You didn’t think you were going to win that easily, did you?” Twilight sweats nervously and says, “For a moment there, yeah, I thought I did.” She blasts a strong beam of magic at Time Eater, but he blocks the spell with one hand and wasn’t fazed by her effort. He then captures Twilight in the sphere of purple aura as his hold on time had ceased. The group looks on in confusion and upon seeing Twilight getting captured, they realize that Time Eater has captured all of the ponies. Seeing the turn of events, Mordecai was angry after seeing Time Eater capture Twilight in the sphere of purple aura. He unsheathes his sword and charges at Time Eater without thinking. Hearing Mordecai’s scream, Time Eater opened a portal, causing Mordecai to run through it. He reappeared facing away from Time Eater and in front of the group, leaving him confused about what happened. Mordecai was going to charge again but was stopped by Rigby, Sam, and Tucker. The trio struggled but managed to keep Mordecai in place. Tucker says, “Mordecai, you need to chill!” Sam said, “Yeah! You don’t know if that thing will do something worse.” Mordecai says, “I don’t care! He has Twilight…and her friends! We need those Elements to stop Discord!” Rigby says, “Even so, we don’t want anything bad happening to you just because you’re trying to save your girlfriend!” Hearing this Mordecai stopped struggling out of the shock of the revelation Rigby just blurted. Realizing that he had said too much, Rigby covered his mouth and says, “Oh, crap.” Sam and Tucker were stunned by this and said in unison, “Wait…girlfriend?” Mordecai blushed hard from this and tries to cover his face, feeling completely embarrassed by this, and then says, “Remind me to kill you when this is all over Rigby.” After hitting Discord hard, Sonic noticed Time Eater and sees six purple energy spheres. His fear overtakes him as he realized that the ponies were captured. Discord saw that Sonic was distracted and he blasts him with a dark purple energy blast from behind. Shadow shoots his Chaos Spear at Discord before he could strike Sonic again. Time Eater opens up six portals and sends each of the spheres into them. Sonic shakes off the attack and sees the orbs going into the portals, he was going to go rescue them, but a second explosion catches his attention as Discord hits Shadow with a dark energy blast. He turns back to the group and sees that Time Eater was gone, and he noticed the dejected look on Mordecai’s face from what happened. He sees Amy console him as they look at the portals. Sonic says, “I’m counting on you to save them, Amy.” He turns back in Discord’s direction and he flies off. After separating the ponies, Time Eater disappears from the group’s sight but had managed to leave behind more dark creatures for the group to fight. These dark creatures, however, had taken the resemblance of the remaining members of the group but had a dark grey tone to their skin/fur colors. The leaders among these dark counterparts were the ones that looked like Sam and Tucker. The Sam and Tucker counterparts took on the resemblance of the duo when they were influenced by the ghosts in the ghost zone. The Tucker doppelganger took on the form of Tucker Phantom in his true form, a muscular goblin-looking monster, dressed as King Tuck, while the Sam doppelganger took on the form of the plant queen when she was controlled by Undergrowth. Her appearance was more for combat in a green dress that resembled the grass, along with green gloves. Mordecai says to the group, “What are we gonna do guys?” Eddy says, “How about some of you go save some of the ponies, we’ll keep these guys distracted.” Mordecai asks, “Are you sure you can handle them?” Ed says, “Distraction’s my middle name! No wait, it’s Horace.” Mordecai was left confused by that, but he felt that he could trust them. Eddy whispers, “Follow my lead boys.” Eddy clears his throat catching the attention of Dark Sam and King Tuck and says, “So, are you guys supposed to be a clone of each of us?” King Tuck says, “What’s it to you shrimp?” Eddy grinds his teeth at the insult, but Double D placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down and take the next step of distracting them. Double D says, “Usually, doppelgangers are supposed to look similar to the original, yet the two of you look way too different to be Sam and Tucker’s doppelgangers.” Dark Sam says, “We’re more than just their doppelgangers, we’re their dark sides when ghosts influenced them.” She clutched her hand into a fist and vines wrapped around Sam. Dark Sam continued and said, “I was supposed to rule the world as the dark queen of the plants.” King Tuck says, “And I was supposed to be two parts of Tucker here. He wanted to be like his pal Danny and wished for ghost powers of his own, but he got selfish and ultimately created me.” Ed absentmindedly asks, “And the dress you got on?” King Tuck took offense to that and yells, “It’s a toga!” While the trio kept the two’s attention, Mordecai, Rigby, and Amy snuck off to the nearest portals. Eddy says, “Toga, dress, it doesn’t explain why you’re wearing it.” King Tuck says, “That’s the other thing with Tucker. He didn’t feel respected in school for some pointless election, so he became King Tuck, which is what I am. A better version of what he could NEVER be.” Tucker was offended by his doppelganger’s remarks. Hearing this, Eddy says, “King Tuck? Is that supposed to be short for King Tuckyershirtin? We came up with that first!” Both Dark Sam and King Tuck looked at each other in confusion. King Tuck says, “King Tuckyer-?” The realization hits him as he caught the pun, King Tuck glares at them and says, “Are you serious?” Sam shakes her head at the pun after catching the joke herself, while Tucker couldn’t help but laugh at the joke. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver flew to Discord, they continued their barrage of attacks on him with their unique attack styles. Sonic would charge at Discord like a homing missile and hit him multiple times repeatedly. Shadow would fire his Chaos Spears at Discord, causing serious damage to the draconequus. In an attempt to retaliate, Discord would snap his talons and would gather the destroyed lands and other hazards in the center of time. He would throw these at the trio in an attempt to slow them down, however, with Silver in his super form, his psychokinesis is far more powerful than it was before. He managed to catch all of the debris Discord threw at them, and he throws it back at him. Discord would get hurt from this, especially when a Ghost Ray blasts him in the face. The hedgehog trio turns around and sees Danny floating there in front of them. Shadow says, “What do you think you’re doing here Ghost Boy?” Danny says, “How often am I going to fight alongside Sonic while he’s in his super form? Besides, Discord is nothing more than a bigger target for us to hit.” The hedgehogs smiled at Danny’s confidence and they continued their attack on Discord. Mordecai, Rigby, and Amy were able to sneak out of their sight and breathed a sigh of relief. Mordecai says, “I can’t believe it was that easy.” As the trio neared the portals, they see their doppelgangers standing in front of the pathway to the portals. Rigby glares at Mordecai for jinxing the situation. The dark Mordecai said, “Trust me, Rigby, this is in no way a jinx moment.” Rigby says, “Then…wait, how did you-?” The dark Rigby cut him off and says, “We’re a part of you guys stupid! We KNOW everything you think before you get the chance to do it.” Amy said, “It doesn’t matter to us who you are, get out of our way or this will get ugly!” The dark Amy smirked at Amy’s threat and says, “Go ahead and try, and when you fail, I bet Sonic would love to have me around more than you.” Amy was very upset by the comment and both Mordecai and Rigby see her Piko Piko hammer grow in size, scaring them in the process. Getting over their fear, Mordecai and Rigby get ready for the fight. Amy and Rigby charged at them, and their doppelgangers did the same. Dark Amy swung her hammer to try and hit Rigby, but he jumped onto the hammer and was more winded than hurt from the swing. She tries to shake him off, but to no avail as he held onto the hammer and was very stubborn with his grip. Seeing that he wasn’t going to let go, Dark Amy pressed a button on her hammer and it activated the spikes on the end Rigby was holding onto, catching him by surprise. She slammed Rigby into the ground hard and he let go, groaning in pain from how hard she slammed him into the ground. Rigby weakly says, “How can anyone be that strong?” Dark Amy says, “Boxercise, Amy knows that all too well.” Dark Amy was ready to finish off the defenseless Rigby, but before she could, Mordecai swings his sword at her and made her jump back from his attack. Dark Rigby was caught off guard by how fast Amy could swing her hammer and he ended up getting crushed into mist by her swing. Dark Mordecai swings his sword at Amy, but she managed to dodge it. Mordecai protects Rigby and continued his attack on Dark Amy. He slashed at her hammer and managed to slice the head of her hammer off, leaving her powerless. Mordecai slashed her with his sword and she vaporized into a dark mist. Rigby was still sore from Dark Amy’s attack, but Mordecai helps him back up. They see Amy fending off Dark Mordecai as best as she could, but his attacks were starting to go faster as he tries to slash her hammer as Mordecai did to her dark counterpart. With his focus, Dark Mordecai didn’t see Rigby as he tackles him in the face, distracting him as he tries to get him off. This moment gave Amy an opening to strike back, she hits him hard in the stomach and he loses his grip on his sword. Mordecai grabbed the discarded sword and stabbed his counterpart in the chest with it, ending the fight as he pins him to the ground. With their dark counterparts defeated, Mordecai, Rigby, and Amy were ready to get three of the ponies. Dark Mordecai catches their attention as he laughs weakly. He said, “You’ll never win, as far as you know, it’s too late to save,” Amy interrupts Dark Mordecai with her hammer, slamming it on his face and turning him into a dark mist. She turns to Mordecai and knows what his dark counterpart was going to say to him. She reassuringly says, “There’s always a chance to save her Mordecai.” Mordecai looks at her and nods in agreement as he turns to the portals. She then says “I’m gonna get Fluttershy, Rigby, you get Rainbow Dash, and Mordecai, you get Twilight.” Mordecai and Rigby nod to Amy’s plan and they each go into the portals that had the respective pony’s cutie mark. Twilight woke up and was in a daze from what happened. She finds herself in a park, and after looking around the place, she recognized that it was the park where Mordecai and Rigby work at. She shakes her head as she doesn’t remember being at the park last and she tries to remember how she got there as she gets her bearings back. As she tries to think back, she suddenly gets a bad headache and starts rubbing her head. “Twilight!” She hears her name being called and turns around. She sees Mordecai come to her and she couldn’t help but smile after seeing him. She runs to him and hugs him and says, “Mordecai, I’m so glad to see a familiar face right now.” As she hugs him, she noticed that the park’s trees and other equipment had suddenly turned to dust. She grew concerned from the sudden action and keeps looking around. She then sees a group of unicorns walking in her direction, she’s puzzled by their appearance as they wore strange clothing and she hears them chanting, “Bros, bros, bros.” She turned to Mordecai but was greeted by one of the unicorns instead, causing her to shriek in terror and back away from him in an instant. She says in shock, “Who the heck are you?” The unicorn stands on his hind legs and walks to her. She tries to use her magic to escape, but she found herself in trouble as she couldn’t use her magic. He chuckles and says, “Mordecai? Seriously? Do you actually like that goob? A pony as pretty as you deserves someone WAY better. Besides, he killed me and my bros. You’re a unicorn too after all, what makes you think he wouldn’t kill you too?” Unknown to her, the other unicorns had surrounded her as she backed away from the leader as he walked toward her. Twilight does what she could to stay away from the unicorn and says, “Killed you? I’m assuming that you and your friends are the ones he told me about. Mordecai wouldn’t hurt me; he’s been helping me and kept me safe when I needed it most. He’s important to me.” She stopped as she bumped into one of the other unicorns and realized that she was surrounded by them. The unicorn brushed his hoof under her chin and says, “Face it cutie, he doesn’t care about you, no matter how much you want him to, but me and the bros do, and we’ll treat you good.” Something about that line made her feel very uncomfortable and disgusted at the same time as she tries to back away from his hoof. Before she could process what was happening next, the unicorn leans in and goes for a kiss, but he was stopped as a sword pierced through his chest. He groans in pain and was surprised by being impaled. Twilight sees him impaled and instantly recognized the blade as he explodes into goo. After the unicorn exploded, she sees the real Mordecai taking the place of the leader and he was mad. The other unicorns glared at him as they see their leader die before them and he glares back at them after seeing the scared look in Twilight’s eyes. He pointed the sword at them and says, “None of you jerks are worthy of her. Either back off, or you’ll be joining your tool bag of a leader.” The unicorns take offense to the comment of their fallen leader and all yell in unison at the blue jay. While the unicorns were chewing him out, Mordecai motioned for Twilight to get away from them, and seeing how enraged they were with him, they lost their focus on her and she took that chance to slip away. With how hostile they became, Twilight sees that instead of backing off and taking his warning seriously, these unicorns were ready to fight Mordecai, and they had no intention of letting him walk away alive. They charged at him and tried to attack him with kicks and punches and they tried to impale him with their horns. He managed to dodge the attacks, and the ones who tried to impale him, he managed to slash their horns off. Despite having the upper hand on them, the unicorns managed to get some slashes on Mordecai thanks to the coordinated efforts of two and three unicorns attacking him at once. This only fueled Mordecai’s anger even further as he yells, scaring these unicorns as he was now in survival mode. He shows them no mercy as he counters their attacks, stabbing and decapitating each of the unicorns, making them explode into goo one by one. There was one final unicorn as he tries to attack Mordecai, but he punches him hard, knocking him to the ground and he gets on top of him, keeping him pinned to the ground. He grabbed his horn and pulls him up. He says, “If you see any more of your lame unicorn friends, tell them Twilight Sparkle is off-limits.” After saying this, he decapitates the last unicorn and he explodes into goo. Mordecai started to calm down from his rage after finishing the fight. He turns to Twilight and says, “Are you all right Twilight?” She cries tears of relief and wrapped her forelegs around his neck and hugged him. “Thank you, Mordecai. I was so scared back there. I couldn’t use my magic, and they tried to…” She couldn’t finish her sentence as she continued crying into his chest. Mordecai wraps his arms around her and started rubbing her back, calming her down in the process. He says, “It’s all right Twilight. I’m here now. They won’t be bothering you ever again.” She feels him rubbing her back, something she appreciated at that moment, and feels at peace in his arms as he held her. As Twilight calmed down, both she and Mordecai noticed the place started to dissolve into nothing. As the ground shakes, Mordecai said, “We gotta get out of here.” Twilight says, “How? My magic isn’t working, I can’t teleport us out of here.” Mordecai quickly looks around and finds the Golf Cart nearby. He says, “Follow me.” She follows him as he gets in the Golf Cart and she joins him. He started driving them down the pathway as fast as he could. While he was driving, Twilight sees the pathway behind them starting to fall apart and grew concerned as the dissolved road was right behind them. She says, “Mordecai, can this go any faster?” He says, “Yes, hold on!” Mordecai pushes the pedal to the floor of the cart and it drives faster, giving them some distance from the dissolving pathway. Mordecai sees a light and drives the cart to it. As they were getting closer, they see the light starting to shrink and he says in a panic, “Come on. Come on. Come on!” As they get closer, everything had deteriorated, including the cart, but Mordecai was able to catch Twilight and got them through the portal before it could close on them. After crossing through the portal, Amy arrived in Tartarus. She had her Piko Piko hammer ready, not knowing what to expect in this area. She wanders into a cave entrance, feeling like there was a chance that Fluttershy was in there. From her understanding of Tartarus, Amy knows that this place housed the deadliest and most dangerous creatures known in the world, and she knew that she didn’t want to waste her time fighting any of them with the situation with Discord at hand. She figured now was a perfect time to use her unique power, one that not many knew she had. Amy closed her eyes and focused on her energy as she clutched her hammer and, in an instant, she turns invisible. She walks into the cave, keeping her focus on staying invisible to avoid any unwanted attention, but she can hear the various monsters growling at her, picking up her scent, but unable to see where she was. Amy does her best to not lose her composure from all of the monsters growling at her, knowing that if she loses focus, she will be discovered. After getting passed the monsters, she hides in a safe spot and became visible again. She breathes heavily, not knowing that she held her breath for so long as she snuck into the heart of Tartarus. She looks up and spotted Fluttershy not too far from her. She was by herself and from behind her, Cerberus lands behind her, catching her attention as she faced the three-headed dog. Feeling that Fluttershy was in danger, Amy readies her hammer and charges as fast as she could to save her. She says, “Watch out Fluttershy, you got a…” Before she could finish her sentence, she stopped in her tracks as she sees Fluttershy rub Cerberus’ stomach. She says, “Did you miss me my big little puppy? I missed you too.” Cerberus barks happily at her, practically saying that they did miss her. Surprised by this, Amy says, “What am I seeing here?” The question catches their attention as they looked at Amy. Fluttershy smiles and flies to her, hugging her. She says, “Amy, I’m so glad you’re here! Come on, I want you to meet someone special.” Before Fluttershy could introduce her, Cerberus stands his ground in defense, ready to pounce on the intruder. Fluttershy stands between them and sternly says, “Cerberus, be nice. This is Amy Rose. She’s a friend of mine.” Hearing Fluttershy say this, and feeling a little scared by her stern look, Cerberus calms down and sniffs Amy. Fluttershy takes Amy’s free hand and guided it to Cerberus’ nose. On instinct, Amy started rubbing his nose and he pants happily from her doing this and they licked her. Amy giggles at this and says, “I heard a lot about Cerberus, but being nice and friendly wasn’t one of them.” Fluttershy smiles and says, “He isn’t bad, he’s just a big puppy once you get to know him. Aren’t you boy?” Amy wipes the saliva off and says, “As much as I’d like to get to know him better, we gotta get you back. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver are fighting Discord and we need you Fluttershy.” Fluttershy was concerned about the fight and says, “Are they doing okay out there?” Amy says, “They’re handling him, but we need you and the other ponies to put an end to him before things get worse.” Fluttershy nodded to this and says, “All right, let’s get going.” She turns to Cerberus and asked, “Cerberus, can you take us to the portal?” He lays on his stomach, gesturing for them to climb on his back. After getting on, Cerberus stands up and runs through the cave, getting past the monsters and to the portal. He let them off and Fluttershy rubbed his head. She says, “Thank you for your help Cerberus, I promise I’ll come to visit you soon.” After saying their goodbyes, Amy and Fluttershy walks into the portal and disappeared. Back in the Center of Time, The Eds had continued distracting King Tuck and Dark Sam, and their nerves were wearing thin. The two grabbed the Eds by the collars of their shirts and lifted them off the ground, surprising the trio in the process. King Tuck says, “You three stooges have stalled long enough. Since you managed to get three of your friends into the portals, how about we “help” you three with that as well?” King Tuck and Dark Sam turned and threw the Eds into the three remaining portals. Dark Sam says, “Whatever those ponies are going through, you three will be facing their fates as well.” Ed was thrown into the portal that held Pinkie Pie, Double D was thrown into the portal that held Rarity, and Eddy was thrown into the portal that had Applejack. The trio disappeared as they made contact with the portals, causing the group to gasp in shock, worried about their safety. Tucker and Sam readied their weapons as their doppelgangers focused on them and the remaining group. Rainbow Dash finds herself in a blizzard wasteland. She shivers from how cold it was and looks around. She sees that she was the only one there and was ready to fly off, but her wings remained closed, refusing to open from how cold she felt. “Can’t handle being at the top? I figured you wouldn’t mind, since you think so highly of yourself.” She heard a voice and looks around to see where it was coming from. “You’re all alone, then again, it’s not surprising from the sheer arrogance you have. Must be lonely to be up here while you look down on your friends.” Still not seeing Time Eater, Rainbow Dash says, “Hey! Just because I think highly of myself, doesn’t mean that I don’t think of my friends in the same regard.” Time Eater appears in front of her and she falls on her back in shock from his sudden appearance. “That’s where you’re wrong Rainbow Dash. You can claim you see them as your equals all you want, but we both know that you undervalue them greatly.” As Time Eater says this, he shows her the past events in his eyes, making her see the times she didn’t value her friends, from the many times she got frustrated with Fluttershy and her scared nature, to criticizing Twilight about reading and repeatedly calling her an Egghead whenever she got the chance to, to cheating against Applejack when they competed against each other, the dress situation with Rarity still bothered her, and how she ignored Pinkie Pie when Gilda visited Ponyville and she mistreated not only Pinkie but the rest of her friends behind her back. What drove it for her was how she was during the time with Mare Do Well when she let heroism inflate her ego to where she not only treated her friends badly but the other ponies in Ponyville as well. Rigby arrived in the Ice Cap Zone, freezing already from the blizzard. He sees Rainbow Dash sitting in the snow, Time Eater had already left, leaving the mare to sit in deep thought over her past actions. “Am I really that bad of a friend?” She asked herself, not knowing that Rigby was behind her. Rigby wasn’t expecting to hear her say that, nor did he think she was asking him the question. He was shivering from the cold and asked, “W-what makes you s-s-say that?” Rainbow Dash was startled by hearing him and turned around. She says, “Rigby? What are you doing here?” He says, “I-I’m here to g-g-get you b-b-back to the f-f-fight.” He sneezed after saying this, he knew he was going to run a fever at this rate. He rubs his hand in an attempt to warm himself up, but with how hard it was snowing, he couldn’t do it and he collapsed into the snowy ground. Seeing Rigby hunched over and freezing, Rainbow Dash picked him up and was able to wrap her wings around him. He wasn’t expecting her to do this, and he sees her blushing while she was doing this simple action. She said, “It might be too cold for me to fly, but I’d rather keep you warm than try.” He felt himself getting warm already, enjoying her soft feathers around him. He looks at her and says, “What made you ask that you were a bad friend?” Rainbow Dash lowered her ears, still shaken from the conversation with Time Eater. She says, “I was confronted about myself, and I saw some of my past actions towards my friends, and, it made me think that maybe I’m not the best kind of friend they would want.” Rigby sees the sad look on her face as she says this and he rubbed her wing. He said, “Hey, Rainbow Dash if it makes you feel any better, I’m not exactly a great friend either. Between you and me…I did something very bad to Mordecai.” Rainbow Dash felt concerned from hearing this and asked, “How bad are we talking?” Rigby said, “Kept him from going to college bad.” Rainbow Dash was shocked to hear this, and nearly unwrapped her wings, but Rigby held onto them and looked her in the eyes. He said, “Before you judge me, can I at least explain myself?” She was tempted to say no but seeing the look he was giving her, she couldn’t just ignore him, he had enough courage to tell her about this, so she figured that she could hear him out. She nodded and he takes a deep breath. He said, “When we were back in high school, we were getting ready to graduate and we were both planning on going to college together. We waited for weeks to get our results and before our school year was over, we got them. He got accepted, but I was rejected. While we were waiting for those results, everyone freaked me out about the idea that if we were separated, then we would lose touch with being friends with each other. I found out about his results before he could see for himself and I forged a rejection letter to make him believe that he didn’t get in, and at the same time, I destroyed his acceptance letter to cover my tracks. He’s the only friend I have, and if I lost him, especially when I learned about our results, then I would have had no one.” She looks at him and was ready to scold him, but after hearing his reasonings, she felt bad for him. She said, “First off, what you did was not cool.” He flinched at that, knowing that she wouldn’t like what he did, but what caught him off guard was that she continued by saying, “Second, that’s just ridiculous. I get that some people lose touch with their friends when they’re doing something in their own lives, but if Mordecai means that much to you, then he would have still been your best friend, regardless if you got into college or not.” She started reflecting on herself as she adds to this, saying, “You can come off as being selfish, rude, uncaring, and you can get on other people’s nerves, but the ones who know you better than anyone else, they understand you, they have patience with you, they can accept your flaws, and you should never think any less of them, because they’re as loyal to you, just as much as you are loyal to them.” A portal opened up in front of them as she says this. She unwrapped her wings from Rigby and they were both ready to go through it. Before they go through the portal, Rainbow Dash turns to Rigby and says, “Don’t tell anyone that I was vulnerable with you, because, I’m gonna deny it.” Rigby looks at her in confusion, but he noticed her blushing face as she says this to him. He might not have known her for too long, but he knows that this was just for him, and he had no intention of embarrassing her. He bumps his fist against her wing, catching her attention and he says with a knowing smile, “I wouldn’t want it any other way, I’d say the same thing if you were vulnerable with me.” She smiles at him as he says this and the two go through the portal. Pinkie Pie finds herself in the middle of a circus ring and sees a crowd of unhappy people looking at her. She opens her mouth to try and talk but found it confusing that she couldn’t make a sound. She closed her mouth and tries to talk to herself, but she finds herself unable to talk, freaking her out even more. “Not so easy to make people laugh if you’re unable to say anything. I took away your greatest strength in your props and your silly voice. Let’s see if you can make people laugh, while you are a mime.” She was confused by the voice she heard and she sees herself dressed up like a mime, causing her to scream in silence. She turns back to the crowd and tries to use her natural props to make them laugh, but with no sound to go with them, she couldn’t make anyone laugh. The crowd yawned at her attempts, and some fell asleep in the stands. “Is this the right show?” asked one of them. “I don’t know, we were supposed to have a clown, but we got a mime instead,” said another person. “They’ll make anything lousy an entertainment these days,” another person says. “She’s fading out there,” said another disgruntled person in the crowd. After another botched attempt, the crowd started laughing at Pinkie, something she never liked as she started getting teary-eyed and her once poofy mane and tail were now flat and deflated. Ed had arrived not too long ago, and he sees everyone laughing at Pinkie Pie. He was confused seeing her dressed as a mime but started understanding as she tries to do a forced performance with no sound to her antics. She keeps trying but to no avail and he sees her crying in the ring. Not liking to see her being put through this, he looks around and spots a piano. He grabbed a random person from the crowd and made them play the piano. Hearing the music catches Pinkie’s attention and she sees Ed waving at her. She smiles and started finding her groove as a mime thanks to the music, her deflated mane and tail get their poof back now that she’s no longer sad. From the side, Ed was helping her with her performance, tossing props her way so she could perform to the music, ranging from balancing multiple items to juggling. The crowd’s laughter stops and they watched as Pinkie slowly started winning them over. She put on a small mustache and started performing her best Charlie Chaplin routine. Recognizing what she was doing, Ed joins her on center stage and the duo did a skit together. They did one reminiscent of the Lion Cage, but with no lion to use, they dug into her prop bag and find Gummy, Pinkie’s pet alligator, and used him instead. Still a mime, Pinkie created an invisible box big enough for Ed and Gummy to fit in, and in classic Ed fashion, he pretends that he was trapped in the box, while Gummy stares blankly at the audience. Ed, whether he was intentional or not, was acting scared the whole time, being put in the cage with the alligator, but his acting got some laughs from the crowd as he tries to escape. Pinkie started her part and pretends to be shocked to see Ed trapped and she fainted out of concern for his safety as she sees Gummy. Ed tries to get out, but crashed into the invisible bars, making the mysterious food substance fall out of his jacket and it landed on Pinkie’s tail. Gummy sees the food as Pinkie gets back up and he instinctively jumps and chomped on the food, making Pinkie react in surprise from him biting her tail with his toothless mouth. Breaking the skit, Ed yells, “Share it with me gator!” Ed effortlessly runs through the invisible bars and started chasing Pinkie and Gummy. This made the crowd laugh from Pinkie overreacting to Gummy biting her tail and Ed’s antics of chasing her and Gummy. It wasn’t supposed to go like this, but Pinkie was happy that she got the crowd laughing and from there, she giggled and takes a bow. She gasped in surprise after hearing herself laugh and she says, “Thank you, everyone!” She continued and says, “A special thanks goes to my pet alligator Gummy and my best friend, Ed!” Ed waves at the crowd and a portal opened up behind them. Pinkie takes Gummy off her tail and the two go through the portal. Rarity found herself on an island of some sort, not knowing that it was the shrine to the Master Emerald. She looks around the area and spots the giant emerald and like the last time she saw it, she was instantly transfixed by its beautiful glow. “It’s quite a sight, isn’t it?” She heard the voice say, but she didn’t pay much attention to it and lovingly says, “Yes, it’s very beautiful. It puts all the jewels I’ve seen to shame.” “Then go ahead and take it, no one’s around to stop you.” After hearing this, Rarity goes up the stairs of the shrine and makes her way to the Master Emerald. Double D exits the portal and lands face-first into the grass. He looks around and sees Rarity approach the Master Emerald and she was ready to take it. He races up the stairs and yells, “Miss Rarity! Stop!” She stops as she heard a voice and turned to see Double D breathing heavily after running up the stairs to the shrine. Seeing him, Rarity says, “What is it Eddward? I’m trying to claim what’s mine.” After catching his breath, he says, “What’s yours? But Rarity, that emerald belongs to Knuckles and you know it.” Rarity stops and felt hesitant after hearing Double D say this. “Knuckles isn’t here, what he won’t know, won’t hurt him.” Still listening to the mysterious voice, Rarity says, “Yes, but Eddward, with this emerald alone, I can create the greatest of dress designs that would make even a queen envious!” She tries to reach for it again, but Double D stops her and says, “Even so, you should know that the Master Emerald isn’t here, it’s sealed away because of Discord.” She started struggling with wanting to take the Master Emerald and remembering that it was sealed away. “Are you going to keep listening to him? You know you won’t get a chance like this again.” Rarity was very hesitant with her choice until an orange ball of light appears between her and Time Eater. “Begone dark creature!” The three of them were surprised to hear the voice, and it grew brighter, forcing Time Eater to retreat. Rarity faints after Time Eater’s grip was gone, but Double D catches her before she could fall onto the ground. Rarity opens her eyes and rubbed her head. She sees Double D and asked, “Eddward? What happened? Where are we?” Before he could respond, the orange ball of light floats in front of them and started to materialize into an orange female echidna. “You were almost tricked into being trapped here,” says the female echidna. “Tricked?” says a confused Rarity. “Trapped?!” Double D shouts in shock. The female echidna nods and says, “Yes, if you’ve visited Angel Island, then you should know that this is the shrine for the Master Emerald. As your friend stated, this isn’t the real Master Emerald. Had you taken it, you two would have been trapped on an island that would fall in a never-ending loop.” Shocked by this revelation, Rarity turned to Double D and says, “I’m very thankful that you were here to stop me from making a BIG mistake. I did remember that Discord sealed the Master Emerald away, but I guess I still have a greedy side that needs to be worked on.” The orange echidna sees how sad Rarity looked as she said this and she replies, “Don’t beat yourself up over this Rarity, you have a good friend to help keep you from making that mistake. I know some people who don’t have what you have to not try and steal the Master Emerald.” Realizing that she never introduced herself to this echidna, Rarity says, “Wait, how do you know my name?” The echidna says with a smile, “I’m sorry, my name is Tikal, I know your name because you talked with Knuckles regarding how beautiful the Master Emerald was.” Rarity was surprised to hear this from her. Double D confused by this says, “But I don’t recall you joining us on this adventure.” Tikal turns to Double D and says, “My soul has been locked away in the Master Emerald for a very long time, and even back then, we knew the Master Emerald has power over the Chaos Emeralds. Throughout the years, I have been able to listen in on what’s going on in the world with the Master Emerald’s connection to the Chaos Emeralds. I have heard of the plans that are going on, and I have seen the struggle all of you have gone through, but it doesn’t compare to what I know is coming. I know that Time Eater has planned something major that will tip everything in his favor. Rarity, Double D, you must go back and stop Time Eater before it’s too late. Defeat Discord and everything will be over.” Rarity gives Tikal a nod as she and Double D see a portal behind them. Tikal turns back into a ball of light and she goes through the portal first. Rarity turns to Double D and says, “Eddward, thank you again for your help.” Double D smiles at this and says, “It wasn’t any trouble Rarity, and you can call me Double D, I don’t mind it.” Rarity says, “Even so, a proper lady always gives a gentleman like yourself the appropriate acknowledgment you deserve.” Before anything else was said, she kisses him on the cheek as a way of saying thank you. Double D blushed from the kiss, not expecting to get one, but he was thankful this was one of the few kisses he’s ever gotten that he actually enjoyed. The two walked through the portal, ready for the final leg of the battle. Applejack finds herself in an unknown city and she was running a stand. She however sees that she was dealing with two very familiar unicorns, known as the Flim Flam brothers and upon arriving, they were selling their apple products with ease to a large crowd of ponies. “Not easy selling in an unknown place, is it?” Applejack rolls her eyes at this and says, “I can outsell those two in no time.” “How can you when the others have accepted a lie?” Confused by this, Applejack was wondering what the mysterious voice was talking about, until she sees that the Flim Flam brothers were selling, making her jaw drop in shock. Flim says, “Step right up! Step right up mares and gentlecolts! Today we’re selling a personal favorite creation with our Zap Apple Jams!” The crowd was excited hearing about the Zap Apple Jams and were cheering for their product, knowing that the Zap Apple Jams are very delicious. Eddy arrived in this city and sees a group of ponies surround a stand. He heard the outburst from the Flim Flam brothers and sees Applejack looking on in a state of shock. He goes to her stand and asks, “Hey AJ, what’s going on here?” She turns to him as she heard his voice and says, “Eddy? What are you doing here?” Eddy says, “I got thrown into a portal, and ended up here. Now focus, who are those guys?” Applejack turns her attention to the crowd and says, “Those unicorns are the Flim Flam brothers. I had to deal with them a while ago when they tried to take my apple farm.” Eddy was surprised to hear this and says, “Take the apple farm? These guys are scam artists?” Applejack says, “Yeah, and they’re pulling one right now that only the apple family knows how to make.” He turns to see the ponies eating something and asks, “Jam?” Applejack says, “Not just any jam, they’re claiming to sell Zap Apple Jam.” She pulled out a jar that has the real Zap Apple Jam and it surprised Eddy to see the rainbow-colored jar. She grabbed a toast from her basket and put some jam on it. She presents it to Eddy and says, “Go ahead and try it.” He was confused by her request, but he takes the toast and takes a bite. Tasting the Zap Apple Jam for the first time blew Eddy’s mind and he says in shock, “This is delicious.” He eats the rest of his toast, savoring the delicious jam down to the last crumb. He smiles as he enjoys the treat and says, “And your family are the only ponies that can make this?” Applejack nodded her head and he gets a better look at the jams the other ponies are eating. He turns to Applejack and says, “I’ll be right back.” She was confused by his comment and sees Eddy walking to the Flim Flam brothers. They see Eddy and held a smile each. Flim said, “Oh lookie here brother of mine, we have a new customer.” Flam said, “One that is just under, but beggars can’t be choosers.” Eddy was upset as Flam says this and measures his height for the other ponies to laugh at. Eddy focused on the “Zap Apple Jams” that were on the table and says, “So, what’s this supposed to be?” Flim says, “A delectable treat, one that you would enjoy.” Flam says, “Zap Apple Jams, try some little boy.” He gives Eddy some toast with jam on it and he takes a bite of it. It was good but not as good as what Applejack gave him. Eddy says, “It’s just apple jam.” This comment caught every pony’s attention and made the Flim Flam brothers sweat on the spot. They try to keep a straight face, Flim spoke first and said, “Well, yeah, it is called Zap Apple Jam after all.” Flam chimes in and said, “We’re the apple experts here, what makes you think differently Mr. Know-It-All?” Eddy thinks to himself, knowing full well that these two are pulling a scam. He thinks to himself, “How does shovel chin usually ruin my scams?” After thinking it over, Eddy thought of something and said, “Simple, I have seen what the Zap Apple Jams look like, and they look nothing like this.” The ponies look at Eddy in confusion, wondering where he was going with this. Eddy placed the toast on Flim and Flam’s table and walks to Applejack’s table, the Zap Apple Jam was still present. He picks the jar up and says, “This pony right here is the true creator of this jam, and trust me when I say that it’s nothing you’ve ever tried before.” Flim and Flam see Applejack and they were shocked to see her, not expecting to see her again after the apple cider incident. Eddy pulls out a toast and spreads the Zap Apple Jam on it. He looks to the crowd and says, “Who wants to enjoy what a Zap Apple Jam REALLY tastes like? Only twenty-five cents.” Applejack pulls Eddy to her and whispers, “Actually, it’s bits Eddy, and don’t you think that’s kinda pricey?” Eddy looks at her in confusion and says, “Bits? And with how good this stuff is, they’re lucky I’m going for that amount.” One of the ponies pays the twenty-five bits and takes the toast. He takes a bite of it and he instantly likes the taste. He says to the crowd, “The boy isn’t lying, this is amazing!” The other ponies paid the bits and in no time, the Zap Apple Jam was gone because of the satisfied customers, Eddy had a jar in hand, and in the end, it was full of bits, amazing him with how much these ponies valued the jam as he joyously stares at his earnings. Applejack says, “Thank you for your support, see y’all next year!” Eddy was in a state of satisfaction but was broken out of it as he heard what Applejack said. He turns to her and said, “Next year? Don’t you have more of these?” Applejack shakes her head and says, “Nope, these jams are made during a special time and the Zap Apples disappear right away if we don’t pick them all.” Eddy grumbles to himself and said, “I knew I should have gone for one hundred!” Hearing this, Applejack wasn’t fond of hearing this from Eddy and says, “Look, I appreciate what you did to convince the ponies that the jam they were eating wasn’t the real thing by those two.” Unknown to the duo, Flim and Flam had fled as the ponies ate the real Zap Apple Jam and they were not going to face the wrath of a city that never had the Zap Apple Jam until today. Eddy confused by their disappearance says, “Where’d they go?” Applejack breathed a sigh in frustration but focused her attention back on Eddy. She continues and says, “The point is that you have a real knack for being a salesperson. You exposed a scam and brought profit to someone who worked hard for this.” She grabbed the jar and shows him how full it was thanks to him. Applejack says, “This is what earning money looks like, and with you caring so much about what my family makes every year, this means a lot to me. Don’t change who you are, because, at that moment when you said that you should have charged more, you sounded like the Flim Flam brothers.” Hearing this, Eddy felt bad for that, and for once, he saw how a scam looked like when it is exposed. He thought it over and looks at Applejack with a newfound look on making money. He says, “AJ when the Zap Apples come back, can me and the boys help you and your family make the jam?” Applejack nodded to him with a smile and says, “Yes you can, and you have chosen the right thing to do. An honest living is as noble as one can live for.” After saying this, a portal opens up, catching their attention. Eddy and Applejack walked together through the portal and it closed on them as they go back to the Center of Time. Back in the Center of Time, Sonic, Shadow, Silver, and Danny had beaten Discord, he lies on the ground in defeat as the four land in front of him. Danny pulls out his Fenton Thermos, ready to use it on Discord. Sonic stops him and said, “I don’t think that’s gonna work on him.” Discord coughs, regaining consciousness, and looks at the four. Sonic walks up to the fallen draconequus and held a smug look on his face. Discord lowers his head and says, “You’ve beaten me Sonic. Would you spare someone if they were to turn over a new leaf?” Seeing the look in Discord’s eye, Shadow yells, “Sonic! Remember, he can’t be trusted!” Sonic turns to Shadow and says, “I know that Shadow, Eggman tried this line on me too.” As he says this, Discord slashed Sonic with his shadow claw and sent him flying into the air. Amy, Mordecai, Rigby, and the Eds came out of the portals with the ponies and they see Sonic flying in the air. He changed from his super form and was now in his regular form. He looks at everyone with a sad smile before losing consciousness as he falls into the abyss. Remembering that she saw this, and fearing the worst, Twilight yells, “Sonic!” Discord laughs at this and says in a sing-song voice, “Down goes the hero!” He focused on the ponies and says, “The rest of you will be easy to take down from here!” Amy was crying tears of anger and her Piko Piko hammer grows in size, wanting to take Discord down for harming Sonic. Twilight and the ponies walked in front of her and the others. Twilight fights back the urge to cry and says, “We’ll handle this, our elements are the only thing that can stop him, remember? I don’t want anyone else getting hurt while I’m here.” Amy nodded to her and the ponies got into formation. Twilight activates her tiara and they started floating off the ground. Discord sees this and does a mock scare, believing he was stronger than the Elements of Harmony. Twilight and the ponies opened their eyes and fired a rainbow blast from their elements and launched it at Discord. Before the blast could reach Discord, Time Eater appears in front of him and opened a single portal. The rainbow blast goes into it and Time Eater takes this as the opportunity to fire the blast at the ponies, and more specifically, at Twilight with her element being the most powerful one among them. With the blast coming at the ponies, Twilight was ready to protect her friends had the blast gotten closer, but Discord saw this coming and snapped his talons, making her horn disappear and causing her to panic as she was now left defenseless. Seeing this, Mordecai was quick on the defense, not wanting her or the rest of the ponies to be harmed and he got in front of the blast. He used the Root Sword to deflect the attack, but it proved to be a lot stronger than he had thought as it pushed him back. He fought back and held his ground, determined to keep Twilight and her friends safe as he pushed on the blade with his free hand, but despite his efforts, the Root Sword breaks in half and he took the remnants of the rainbow blast. Twilight was shocked seeing this, it was something else that she feared was going to happen when she saw it in her dream. After getting out of the formation, Twilight runs to Mordecai, who now lies unconscious on the ground. She turns him over and was worried about him, thinking the worst has happened. She says, “Mordecai? Mordecai?” After getting no response from him, tears were starting to build up as she says, “No, no, no, Mordecai! Please be okay. Mordecai! I can’t lose you too!” She frantically looks around, hoping to see if Finn was nearby, but he was nowhere to be seen as he and the remaining group were finishing their fight with the dark clones. After a few moments, Mordecai released a cough, letting her know that he was okay, but he released a grown from the impact the blast had given him. Twilight started crying tears of relief, seeing that he was okay, unknown to Twilight, her tears had healed him in more ways than one, and his choppy breaths started becoming normal once again. Mordecai opened his eyes and sees Twilight crying on his chest. He looks around and sees that her friends were looking on in surprise, except for Fluttershy, knowing the full extent of this display of emotions she giggles to herself, knowing that Twilight’s reaction was enough to confirm her thoughts about what her feelings towards Mordecai were. Mordecai looks and sees that the Root Sword was broken in half and he winced at the sight, saying, “I hope Finn won’t be mad that he lost a sword.” Hearing his voice, Twilight looks up and, sees that he is okay, smiles at him. “I’m sure Finn will understand,” says Danny. Mordecai and Twilight look up and see that Danny had created an Ecto Dome to protect the current group from Discord and Time Eater’s assault. The duo tries to destroy the dome with blasts and punches, but they were unable to thanks to Danny’s focus. Twilight was confused seeing him and asked, “What are you doing here Danny?” Danny says, “The moment Mordecai took that hit, I knew I was needed to protect you guys. Before I got here, I split myself into two so I can try and get Sonic back, but I don’t know how much longer I can take this. When I split up, my powers get weaker.” The cracks in the Ecto Dome were starting to form, Shadow and Silver brought the remaining group together using Chaos Control and they see Discord and Time Eater attacking the dome, more cracks were visible from where they were standing. The ponies see this and were concerned by this. Sonic was in the dark abyss, floating in the darkness and he was unconscious after the last attack. He had visions flashing in his mind of his friends falling one by one at Time Eater and Discord’s power, the strongest among them were turned to stone. He also sees the influence they will have on the world as everyone was enslaved to do their bidding. As he keeps seeing these visions, he feels guilt and anger building up inside of him as he sees the group. He sees Discord and Time Eater attempting to destroy the Ecto Dome, making everyone inside panic. He says, “Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop! Stop! Stop!” Danny’s clone flies over the abyss and was looking for Sonic, unknown to him, he flew over Sonic. “I said, ‘STOP’!!!” Danny heard someone yelling and sees an explosion of energy surge. The power he was emitting splits the dark abyss and Danny sees Sonic. He floats out of it and Danny was expecting Sonic to be in his golden state, but what he sees left him speechless. Sonic was now emitting a dark purple aura and his body was now black, the pupils in his eyes were not visible. Seeing this transformation in person, Danny was nearly terrified of what he was feeling and says, “What is this?” Unknown to the Ghost Boy, Sonic was now in his Dark Super Sonic form. Discord and Time Eater stopped their assault as they heard Sonic yell and everyone was surprised by the sudden burst of energy. In an instant, Dark Super Sonic had vanished from Danny’s sight and he re-appears between Discord and Time Eater. Neither of them expected this blinding speed Sonic displayed and with their guards down, Dark Super Sonic punches Discord in the face hard and sends the giant beast flying. Discord lands face-first on the ground, Shadow and the others joined the group and saw Discord hit the ground hard, Danny lowers the Ecto Dome and his clone reunites with him. Time Eater goes to Discord as Dark Super Sonic lowers himself back on the ground and everyone sees him in this new form, and no one knew what to feel with seeing him like this. He says to the group, “Are you all right?” No one knew what to say to him, still getting an unsettled feeling from this form, but they gave him a simple nod. Sonic takes a deep breath and changes back to his golden self, thankful that everyone was okay. As Time Eater reached Discord, he starts to get back up, and to his horror, his fang falls out of his mouth. Discord picks up the fallen tooth and looks at it in shock. He says, “He ruined my perfectly beautiful face!” He gets back up and turned to the group, Sonic had turned back to normal and pointed at the two. He says, “Neither of you will be harming any of them! Not while I’m still standing!” Time Eater was bothered by that transformation, something that he didn’t know was possible. Seeing that things are starting to shift, Time Eater decided to take his full plan into action. Discord was ready to take everyone on, but Time Eater instead grabbed him. Everyone, including Discord, was left confused by the turn of events. Discord looks at Time Eater and says, “Time Eater, what are you doing?” Time Eater says, “You’re about to lose, and since you have now outlived your usefulness, I’ll be taking matters into my own hands.” Discord was left dumbfounded by what was said. Time Eater continues and says, “Since I can’t touch the Chaos Emeralds, I needed someone to absorb their powers, and a fool like you fit the bill perfectly. So now, this partnership is over.” Time Eater then swallows Discord whole, surprising everyone as they see this. Time Eater started feeling all of Discord’s powers and the power of the Chaos Emeralds coursed through his being, his smog-like body was now becoming solid. He laughed manically as the powers infused with his and he now has become a bigger threat than before. Time Eater now took on a dragon-like appearance, a giant compared to what he was before the absorption. The nightmare doesn’t stop there, as Time Eater levitates the Master Emerald and activates its power. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver were taken out of their super forms and the energy that they had were now floating in the air. Time Eater had taken away the positive energy of the Chaos Emeralds and rendered them useless. After absorbing the positive energy of the emeralds, Time Eater roared in aggression, his blue eyes and mouth had now turned red, revealing that the emeralds’ powers had influenced the monster further than before.