"Ladies and Gentlecolts, we will be arriving at Saddle Arabia Station in 5 minutes. Please remain seated until the train comes to a complete stop, thank you and have a nice day," is what the intercom on the train said with a very calm, female robotic voice. Sonic jolted upright at hearing what the intercom had just announced and nearly hit his head on the train's ceiling when jumping for joy.

"YES, whew, it is about time too. I was starting to feel caged, and I think the food has been digested. It is going to take a whole 3 minutes to work this off. I honestly thought it was going to be my last meal since I was trapped on this train and decided to splurge a little bit. Guess I was wrong, huh?" Sonic looked over at the others who were staring at Sonic, the sleep long been rubbed out of their eyes and were on full alert; Scootaloo approached Sonic.

"Yeah you were wrong, and look," Scootaloo pointed to Sonic's stomach, "you've gotten a little pudgy." Scootaloo then proceeded to poke and jab Sonic's stomach, eliciting annoyed grunts from him and fits of giggles from the other Crusaders; Applebloom then approached Sonic.

"Yah, it's like a' jello-teen or whatevr' it's called," Applebloom said as she joined in on assaulting Sonic's stomach with jabs; Sweetie Belle now approached Sonic's stomach.

"Jellotine, and ye*squeak*ah, it kind of is like that stuff," she said as she also joined the poking crew. A cream mare with blond hair giggled as she read her newspaper, making the others look over at her. She noticed their stares and lowered her newspaper to respond to them.

"Oh, don't mind me. It's just, I absolutely love kids, as you can see by my cutie mark," she said as she pointed to the hearts and milk bottle cutie mark printed on her thigh, "whenever children are having a bit of fun I can't help but have a laugh or two myself." Everyone gazed at the mysterious mare, the Cutie Mark Crusaders still absent mindedly poking Sonic's stomach. Sonic began to notice the pain building in his abdomen and knew only one way to make it stop; Sonic looked down to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"You can stop poking me now," this got the attention of the Crusaders and they very slowly removed their hooves from his stomach and backed away sheepishly. "I hope you've had your fun because once this train stops, it's gone." The intercom *bing-bonged* to life and spoke with that same robotic female voice.

"Now arriving at Saddle Arabia Station. Please take all your belongings with you as you exit the train, thank you and enjoy your time in Saddle Arabia."

"Heh, speaking of the convenience fairy," Sonic said with smirking grin.

__________________________________________Act 1__________________________________________

"I really like that mysterious lady on the train, she was nice.," exclaimed Scootaloo, followed by the other Crusaders.

"I know," Sweetie Belle squeaked, "she was really nice, plus she gave us some candy. I hope we get to see her again," Sweetie Belle said as she put a lolli-pop in her mouth.

"Well I hope you remembered to thank her," Rarity asked her sister in a worried voice.

"Don't worry sis, we did, and she was very grateful," Sweetie Belle said as she stuck her tongue out at Rarity. Rarity just gave a grunt of annoyance and continued walking. Sonic jogged to the front of the group to look at Saddle Arabia.

"Phew," he whistled, "just looks like a big market place, and not a lot of wildlife here either, but still beautiful."

"Of course it just looks like a market Sonic," Twilight responded, "this is the Commoner's Quarters. We're going to be staying at the Golden Dragon Inn, which is in the Aristocratic Quarters. Just follow me and we'll be there in no ti-," Twilight was cut off Sonic talked over her.

"Sorry Twilight, but I'll run on ahead and find it on my own, lose these pounds I gained in the process. I'll meet you all there, you know, IF I find it."

"But Sonic, if you just stay with us you'll be able to find the," but it was all in vain as Sonic took of down the busy market streets, running along side the buildings and jumping from fruit cart awning to fruit cart awning in order to avoid the hustle and bustle of the market area. "I swear, running off without warning like that is going to get him in deep deep trouble one of these days." Twilight sighed as she looked down the market streets, nothing but confused ponies wondering what just went past them in sight. "But that's what makes Sonic, himself."

o.0.o

The group arrived at the Golden Dragon in no time at all. Everypony saw a familiar blue hedgehog tapping his foot impatiently like he always did whenever he had to wait. His arms were crossed and he looked to the sky and ground hoping that the group would come from either one of those directions, knowing little that they were approaching him now. Sonic noticed them out of the corner of his eye, his face brightening upon seeing them. He waved at them, Rainbow waving back confirming that the others see him.

Sonic ran up to them in the blink of an eye and stopped right in front of Twilight, sending a cloud of dust and sand at the group. They all started coughing and gazed angrily at him when their fits stopped, Sonic only gave an apologetic smile which, amazingly enough, they accepted.

"So," Sonic said.

"So... what?" Twilight asked.

"Didya miss me?" He asked with confidence.

"OOH, OOH, I DID, I DID," Pinkie exclaimed from the back, jumping up in the air with each word to assure Sonic saw her. Everyone stared at Pinkie as she just looked at them with her bright and happy smile plastered on. Twilight turned from looking at Twilight to look at Sonic, trying to cope with the random ball of pink that is Pinkie Pie.

"Well I knew we would see you again so, no, not really," Twilight said with a winning smile.

"Fair enough," Sonic said shrugging. Twilight's smile of victory dropped at this.

"How did you even find this place Sonic?"

"Well, it is in the aristocratic quarters, which isn't very big. Trust me, I've been over every inch of it already. Plus I have a keen sense of where certain places are. And the giant statues of golden dragons outside the main gates are a dead give away."

"Oh," Twilight blushed, "yeah."

"Well," Applejack spoke up from the group, "let's hurry up and get inside. Ah'm plum tuckered." Everyone confirmed with Applejack's decision by saying in unison "Agreed".

After checking into the hotel and getting their room key cards, they decided to call it a night. The plan for the room sharing, since there was only 3, was that the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their respective legal guardians would all share a room. The CMC's insisted, though, that they get a room to themselves. This forced Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack to share another separate room with each other. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy now had to bunk with Sonic and Twilight. The rooms were all basically the same, a spacious house area with a small kitchen and living room combo, a window sill type of look-out balcony, and two beds.

Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were obviously going to share one of them, leaving Twilight and Sonic to share one. This, however, created a problem. Sonic found it too awkward to share the bed with Twilight for some unknown reason that he would not explain, and yet he didn't expect her to sleep on the floor. While Sonic was from another world, he knew basic customs on how to treat royalty. Sonic was unsure of what to do, until he noticed the window sill. Sonic explained to Twilight that the window sill was plenty enough for him to sleep in, he rarely used blankets anyway and usually like to sleep in cramped places. Finally resolving one problem, for the time being. There was still the matter of finding the chaos emeralds, but that could wait until the morning. For now, rest was going to consume our heroes.

__________________________________________Act 2__________________________________________

Sonic awoke the next morning, or in this case afternoon, with a long yawn and back cracking stretch. Twilight could hear the vertebrae in his spine crackling, giving her an uncomfortable feeling of Sonic's well being.

"Good afternoon Sonic, sleep well?" Twilight asked, completely oblivious to the maid pony cleaning the room.

"Yeah, I did," Sonic said in the middle of a yawn, "wait, did you say it was afternoon?"

"Yes I did, 1:37 to be precise." Sonic was astonished at the news, he had never slept so long in his life before. Sonic looked around the room, but only saw Twilight and the maid pony, Pinkie and Fluttershy nowhere to be seen.

"Where are the others at?"

"Well, let me see. The fillies are in the game room using the unlimited credits are their room keys. Rarity somehow convinced Applejack to go to the spa with her. Pinkie went down to the party room, but left with Fluttershy a little while after to go see some new animals, and Rainbow Dash is probably still asleep in her room." Sonic gave Twilight a "say what?" look. "Rainbow dash likes to sleep a lot." Sonic tipped his head up in understanding.

"Twilight, it is nice that everyone is having a good time and all, but we need to find the chaos emeralds before someone else does, then were all in trouble." The maid pony perked her ears up at this revelation unfolding before her and decided to but in.

"I'm sorry to intrude, but did you say 'chaos emeralds'?" Sonic nodded his head in confirmation. "You must be Sonic the Hedgehog, ooohh I've heard so much about you. The great hero who single-hoofedely took out an entire pack of timberwolves. Ooh, you are every mare's dream, a handsome young thing like you to sweep them off their feet." The maid pony got lost in her own thoughts, leaving Sonic and Twilight to stand and soak up the awkward. Sonic finally got tired of it and cleared his throat on purpose to pull the maid pony out of her trans. She shook her head and looked to attention, a faint blush adorning her silverish gray cheeks.

"Sorry, I got lost in my own thoughts. Anyways, I have heard great things about you and one of those things is that you are looking for the special gems called the chaos emeralds. Said to have a power beyond imagination and extremely dangerous. I have heard some rumors that if you touch one, the power that courses through you will be too much to bare and you will vaporize into thin air on the spot, not a single molecule to remain. That isn't true, is it?"

"Pbbbfftt, no, of course not. I mean, I'm still standing aren't I?"

"Other ponies say that because since you are from the same world only you are able to control their power."

"Oh please, I bet that if I had a chaos emerald right now and I let you hold it, you wouldn't vaporize. It is practically just a shiny paper weight unless you are able to create chaos control."

"Hmm, very interesting, but getting back to my main point, I think I may have some information that will be useful to ya."

"What is it?" Twilight cut in.

"My cousin told me that she saw a shiny ball of light fall from the sky and land somewhere far out in the Dusty Desert."

"That is useful information," "Twilight said, "can you show us where it landed."

"Well. I can't show you exactly where it landed, but I can point you in the right direction. Come over to the window sill." They all walked over to the window sill with the maid pony where she pointed to a direction in which the chaos emerald may have landed in. "She said it was somewhere in that direction, said it was the most beautiful thing she's ever seen."

"Wow, thanks for your help miss..." Twilight paused, allowing the maid pony to say her name.

"Gray Rings, but you can just call me Gray, or G, or peasant. Whichever suits your fancy Princess Twilight."

"I'll call you Gray, thanks again for the information by the way," Twilight thanked.

"Yeah, seriously, thanks. You don't know how much this will help us," Sonic thanked as well.

"Hey, don't mention it, anything to help a great hero such as yourself. I hope you get back home safely. Oh, and be sure to stay plenty hydrated when you go out there, it's called the Dusty Desert for a reason," Gray responded.

"Thanks," Sonic replied as Gray gathered her cleaning supplies and vacated the room, leaving Sonic and Twilight alone. They both looked at each other waiting for the other to say what was on their minds.

"So," Sonic began, "I guess we know where were going pretty soon."

"Yep, I suppose we do."

o.0.o

Gray hurried around the corner of the massive hallways in the Golden Dragon until finally arriving at a supply closet. She quickly opened it and stepped inside.

"Finally... I hope nopony noticed me," she said as she locked the door behind her. She closed her eyes in concentration and she focused her magic.

"Establishing contact with the hive, come in Queen."

"This is the Queen, go ahead spy."

"I have just given Sonic directions to either a trap or a crispy death. He would sizzle and pop like summer barbecue shishkabobs."

"Excellent, spy, excellent. There will be rewards for this act of bravery. With Sonic out of the way, there will be nothing that will stand in the way of us getting those chaos emeralds, harnessing their power, and taking over all of Equestria."

"Affirmative my Queen, I will stay a bit longer to make sure Sonic goes for it. I will report back any new information discovered."

"Very good spy, I will leave you to your work."

"Yes my Queen, thank you. Over and out."

The connection to the hive slowly dissipated as Gray began to laugh lowly and evily, gradually evolving into a mildly upset chuckle. She was going to make sure that everything went according to plan.

Author's Note

Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed this new chapter as much as I did writing it. I think I finally got my motivation back because I am excited for what is to come next. What is that you might ask? Well you will have to find out next week on Sonic New World. Don't forget to like, comment, fav, and/or follow if you want to. And, as always, Stay Beautiful. :) Also, don't worry JoeCrafts, it will happen in time. Have patience young grasshopper. *claps hands together and bows*