Chaos and Elements

The Everfree Equation

Sonic, Applejack, and Twilight soon reached a building that looked like a gingerbread house with a cupcake on top. The speakers were playing a cheerful tune that wouldn't sound out of place in an old video game.

"Soo..... I'm guessing that this is a bakery?" Sonic asked.

"Oooooh you would be so so sosososososo right, Mr. New Guy!!!!!  I just knew that somepony new was gonna come to town today, because I got a twitchy tail, then my hoof burned, and then my tummy was so shaken up and I just said to myself, 'Pinkie Pie, somepony new's gonna show up today', because it happened when Twilight came to town and when that meanie Gilda came to town too and after that I just knew I had to get a party together and Mr. New Guy why are you all the way over there?"

Sonic was against the wall of the nearest house , gasping for breath and staring at the pink Earth Pony like she was a demon from another dimension. 'Nothing can surprise me, hah! I actually thought that! Hah hah hah!!!!' He thought sarcastically.

"Ah, Pinkie Pie? Ah think ya broke him." Applejack remarked.

"Oooh, I'm sososososo sorry Mr. New Guy!!! I can-"

"Please!!! Just stop talking!!!!!" Sonic half-shouted.

"Oh ok, but are you sur-"

"Yes!"

The mare now known as Pinkie Pie made the motions of zipping her mouth shut and locking it.

"So. Are your other friends here yet, Twilight?" Sonic asked. Pinkie began jumping up and down with her hoof in the air like a little kid in school wanting to answer a question. "Yes, Pinkie?"

"Mr New Guy-"

"My name is Sonic. And drop the mister."

"Okay, Sonic, Fluttershy and Dashie and me and Applejack and Twilight are here but Rarity had to take care of something that happened at school with Sweetie Belle! She sounded really mad!"

"Sweetie got in trouble? Ah wonder if mah sister got in on that."

"No, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo came by here just a little bit ago and said for me to tell you that they were going to the treehouse. Oh, that reminds me Applejack! Apple Bloom and-"

"Yeah, Ah kinda got that, sugarcube."

Sonic leaned close to Twilight and whispered: "Is she always like this?"

"Yep. That's just Pinkie being Pinkie."

Sonic shuddered. besides the obvious color resemblance, he was definitely drawing some parallels to Amy... Except for the insanity.

"Another thing? Never ever break a Pinkie Promise."

"A huh?"

"You'll see. She gets really mad if you break a Pinkie Promise." Confirmed. Pony version of Amy. He looked over to where Pinkie and Applejack were talking, and wondered who Applejack's inner Mobian was. His first thought was Knuckles, but she wasn't arrogant enough.... Like he could talk. He'd have to give it a bit more thought. As they walked in, he saw a yellow pegasus with a pink mane and a cutie mark of three butterflies. sitting at one of the tables, drinking a milkshake. When she saw him, she ducked under the table. Confused, he turned to Twilight to ask if he did something wrong, but Twilight stopped him.

"That's Fluttershy. She's really shy around new ponies... err..."

"I get what you meant."

"She'll warm up to you.... eventually."

"Okay."

He walked over to  the table she was hiding under and sat down.

"h-hello..." He heard from underneath the table.

"Hi, Fluttershy. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, nice to meet you."

"Oh, you're a hedgehog?!! I've never met a hedgehog like you! Oh, I'm sorry Mister Sonic, I mean, I didn't mean you weren't supposed to be different, cause, you know, that' how you are...."

Sonic didn't know whether to laugh or be surprised at the pegasus's sudden change in demeanor. In the end, he shrugged it off, but made a mental note that he had found pony Cream. Right down to the 'Mister Sonic.'

"It's fine, Fluttershy, I knew what you meant. All my friends are like me, except they're not all hedgehogs."

"Oh really? Can we talk about it some time? If you don't mind, that is..."

Sonic laughed. "Of course. But, right now, I think I hear Rarity."

Indeed, the white unicorn walked through the door the next moment, looking very mad.

"I simply can not believe what Sweetie Belle did today!"

"What's up, Rare?" Applejack asked.

"Sweetie Belle actually attacked one of her classmates today!!"

"What, who?" Twilight looked worried.

"It was that little filly, Diamond Tiara! You know, Filthy Rich's daughter!"

"Ah wonder why she'd do that." Applejack mused sarcastically.

"Whatever do you mean by that, Applejack?"

"Ah mean, that little filly is one of the meanest foals around! Her an' that Silver Spoon, they're always bullyin' them! All because they don't have their Cutie Marks! Ah don't blame Sweetie fer puttin' that brat in her place!"

"Be that as it may, Applejack, she shouldn't have done it! Believe me, I have heard about those two, but no matter what her father seems to do, Diamond Tiara just starts it again! And Celestia only knows what Silver Spoon's parents are doing! But no matter what they said, Sweetie shouldn't have attacked her!"

"At least where nopony could see her.." Applejack muttered in response. "What'd she do, anyhow?"

"She levitated her over the bridge and dumped her in the river. I will admit, the aftermath of it was rather hilarious, but the fact remains."

"Wow, Sweetie's advancing quickly! Being able to levitate another pony is an impressive feat at her level!" Twilight said. And that was when everyone burst into laughter.

"Twilight, that was great!!!" Rainbow choked out between laughs.

"Well, I have every right to be proud of her. I'm her teacher, after all. No matter how.... questionable the achievement was."

Sonic wiped the tears from his eyes and asked, "So, what exactly's going on?"

Applejack was the first to recover from the laughing fit to respond: "Mine and Rarity's sisters, and one o' their friends from school, Scootaloo,  have this club they call the 'Cutie Mark Crusaders.' An' they go on insane adventure around Ponyville, usually messin' it up tryin' ta get their Cutie Marks, but there's these bullies at school who think they're better'n them cause they got their Cutie Marks already. Ta be honest, the reason they're friends in the first place is cause o' them."

"So, it's half-good, half-bad?"

"Yes, Sweetie is much happier now that she met Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, and Applejack's told me Apple Bloom feels the same way." Rarity answered.

"Shoot, they even got one o' mah cousins up in Manehattan to start a 'branch' o' the Crusaders up there!"

"Well, that's nice. Twilight?" Sonic looked over at her. "Don't you think we should get going? I'd rather not trudge around in this "Dangerous" forest of yours after dark."

"Yeah, we should. C'mon girls, let's go help Sonic find this emerald of his."

One hour later

They'd been traveling through this godforsaken forest for what seemed like days, although Twilight had told him it had only been an hour. He didn't believe her. So far, the only "danger" had been him almost ripping Pinkie Pie's throat out. Did she ever shut up?

"And then I was all like-"

"PINKIE!!!! Can we just have some silence, please?"

"Oh, silly Sonic! Don't ya know, I love love LOVE talking!! And-" 'You love talking? Huh, I'd never have guessed' Sonic thought "-he was all like 'Grr I'm gonna eat you, and-"

"Pinkie, please!" Sonic's headache was back with a vengeance.

"Okay, then can we sing? C'mon, everypony!" She drew a large breath, but before she could start, she found her mouth full of Applejack's hoof.

"Pinkie, Ah think we're all a bit tired of yer stories for a little bit."  Pinkie nodded, and mercifully stayed silent.

"Sonic, do you have any way to find your emerald?" Twilight asked.

"If I get close enough to it, I can sense it, but I'm nowhere near as powerful as Shadow about it."

"A friend of yours?"

"Yeah, he's really attuned to Chaos energy, to the point that he can draw power from the air around him."

"Oh, really? Sort of like our magic?"

"Yeah, it's closer than you'd think, actually. Wait-" He felt an influx of power in the air: It was undoubtedly an Emerald. He walked off in the direction he felt it coming from, and tripped. He smacked the forest floor.

Hard.

"Oooooooohhhh, my head's never gonna get better, is it?" He groaned. He rolled over to see what he had tripped over, and saw the Green Chaos Emerald laying there, shining as brilliantly as ever.

"Hey, girls, I found it!!" he called.

They were over to him in a matter of seconds, admiring the Emerald.

"It's beautiful!" said Rarity.

"Rare, fer once, Ah agree with ya." Applejack said.

"Sonic, you weren't kidding when you said that thing was powerful!" Twilight remarked. "I'd be afraid to touch it!"

"Yeah, well, before we get into details about what exactly it does, we should get out of here, it's getting dark."

"Yeah, everypony, we'll talk about it at the library." With that, they all turned to exit the forest, back to the safety of Ponyville.