Chaos and Elements

Chilled Chaos

"I hate the cold." Sonic muttered as he stared out the window, the train chugging past mound after mound of pure white snow. He looked to Twilight, the only pony that had accompanied him to the aptly-nicknamed "Frozen North."

"Why is that? I actually like winter and snow and stuff." She remarked.

"Just always preferred the beach to the slopes. Though I have no problem with snowboarding, since you're always on the move, and you can barely feel the cold."

"I've never lived near the mountains, but I've heard snowboarding's fun. But I always played with Shining Armor and made snowponies and stuff like that."

"I just can't stand being cold. It makes me feel sluggish, and I hate it. Plus, going near-mach speeds isn't a very good idea when you're running on ice, as I found out when I was twelve..." He shivered as he remembered the freezing waters of the Ice Cap Mountains on Angel Island.

"Next stop, Crystal City!" the conductor yelled out. Sonic looked to Twilight for confirmation.

"This is our stop. It's the Empire's capital."

"Good, I'm sick of trains. I'm running back."

"Not with that ankle you're not." Twilight warned him.

"It's been three days. I heal fast."

"And I'm an alicorn princess." Sonic hung his head in defeat.

A few minutes later, the train rolled into the station, Sonic jumping out and immediately recoiling due to the cold. Twilight chuckled at his actions as she floated a scarf over to him. "You should have been here a few months ago. It was the height of winter, and saying it was cold was an understatement. Plus, there was that ancient evil thing that probably had something to do with it."

"Yeah, ancient evils tend to do things like that, at least in my experiences. Ever had one destroy an entire city with a flood?"

"No, but the changelings wrecked Canterlot pretty bad. And Discord screwed up Ponyville. And Nightmare Moon... Well, she really just threatened us a lot."

"That's pretty much what Eggman does until he gets what he needs, then he actually starts being a threat."

"Twilight! Celestia said you'd be on this train!" Sonic looked to see a pink alicorn like Celestia and Luna waving at them. "And you must be Sonic." Sonic nodded and made a quick bow.

"Hi Cadence! Sonic, this is-"

"Princess Cadence? I figured."

"I wish we could visit, Cadence, but we have some important business."

"I know. One of these days I'm going to get you up here when there isn't anything happening." Cadence said with a chuckle.

Sonic suddenly felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. 'What in the world?' He felt it again, stronger this time, enough to bring him to his knees. 'What the hell? This feels like.... concentrated Chaos energy?' Through the haze of vertigo, he heard Twilight asking him if he was alright. 'I'm not. This isn't right. There's no way there's a source of Chaos energy strong enough to bring me down like this. Not here.' Then, as suddenly as it came, it wore off.

"Sonic! Are you okay? What happened!"

"I really don't know. It felt like Chaos energy, but there's no way it could have been that. I've never felt such a concentration like that. At least, not natural." There was that one time Eggman brought him to his knees with the second Big Arm.

"Well, are you okay now?" Cadence asked.

"Yeah... At least I think I am." Sonic felt a tugging in the back of his mind, similar to the one he felt in the forest. 'Is that the Emerald? Or is it... Whatever that was?' "Where is the Em-er, the 'power source' you found?"

"According to Shining, it got stronger in that direction," she said, pointing across the tracks into pure white plains, "I can't seem to pick it up, and he couldn't find it."

"Wonderful." Sonic deadpanned. "Twi, you can stay here with Cadence if you want. I can find it on my own."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'll be fine. Catch up with your friend."

"If you're cer-" Sonic was already gone, a cloud of snow following the supersonic speedster.

____________________________________________________________________

Sonic felt the Emerald getting closer and closer as he sped through the winter "wonderland." It still bugged him about whatever it was that had affected him on the train platform, but for now he decided to shrug it off and focus on the Emerald. Until he felt something that was surely a unicorn's magic wrap around his ankles. 'Suddenly, I love snow.' was the only thing that his mind was able to process before he went flying headfirst into a mound of it. Aaaand the headache was back. Again.

"I'd give that dive an 8." He heard a frustratingly familiar voice say.

"So, Wind. Resorting to dirty tricks now?" He said as he pulled his head out of the frigid mountain.

"Only because I told her to do it." A new, male voice said.

Sonic turned to face the new voice.... Only to have his jaw drop when he saw a six foot tall jet-black alicorn. And in the alicorn's bright green magical grip was a bright red Chaos Emerald. "So you're Sonic, hm? I've heard a lot about you. You've been causing my minions some trouble." Sonic Wind came up behind him on his left, while Tempest flew and landed on his right. "Therefore, you've been causing me trouble. And I don't care for troublemakers. Now. You're going to hand me that thing you got in Las Pegasus, and I'm going to go my own way. You'll go yours. Should you ever give me any more trouble, I'll kill you without hesitation. Got it?" The alicorn's almost metallic-looking red mane whipped behind him in the chill wind, almost menacingly.

"You actually think I'm going to hand you the Chaos Emeralds? You're joking, right?"

"Oh, is that what they're called? Then yes, I expect you to give me that 'Chaos Emerald' you got in Las Pegasus."

"You must be new at this."

"New at what?"

"Being an evil overlord type. You didn't even tell me your name, let alone rant about your plans."

"Oh. Well, my name is Crimson Night. And you must be stupid if you think I'll actually tell you my plan."

"Hm. Smarter than most villains I know. Still, you must be pretty dumb."

"Why is that?"

"You're holding that Emerald in plain reach. It could easily be...." Sonic charged forward, leaping at Crimson Night, "SWIPED!!!!!!!!!!" He finished, snatching his third Chaos Emerald from the alicorn. He landed, spinning around to face him.

"You're clever." Crimson Night remarked. "I'll admit, that was pretty foolish of me. But you'll not escape with my prize!" As he finished his sentence, his horn glowed green again, and Sonic felt the familiar magic wrap around his ankle. Sonic just laughed. "What's so funny?"

"You not knowing what these Emeralds can do." He said, tossing the red one he just snatched into the air. "Chaos......... CONTROL!!!!!!! And disappeared, escaping through time and space. He could only imagine the look of disbelief and anger on Crimson Night's face.