Chapters After Discord had overthrown Princess Celestia and Luna from power there was, needless to say, chaos everywhere: the night was 4 hours long and the day was 4 hours long, and the two cycled like that. The clouds seem to never change its hideous color, as Rarity would have said, "Those shades of light blue and purple should only be used as highlights against that hideous hazy orange and chartreuse". Rainbow Dash chuckled weakly, smiling a bit remembering her old friend's dramatic antics.
She hasn't seen the Fashionista in 2 years, since Discord-, Lord Discord thought it would be impeccable to separate the Elements as far away as he could. Not too far though, for some personal, Machiavellian reason, either it was for the torturing of the Mane6's spirits; allowing them to know their friends were in danger, but close by, thus supporting the feelings of Hope... only to be crushed by the day to day mental and physical lacerations. Or just because Discords' a demented soul, bound by heinous demons to torture every content soul his discrepant body comes across… Probably both.
Rainbow Dash was the last of the Mane6 that remained in Ponyville now; she could only wonder where the other Elements are. Hopefully relatively safe... Hopefully relatively still alive.
Rainbow Dash decided it was time to get out of her uncomfortable bed loft and she did so achingly. She haven't had a solid meal in days, the hunger was starting to show on her body. Her ribs stuck out against her once beautiful coat of cyan, and her once sparkling magenta eyes are dull, from exhaustion and hopelessness.
She walked outside her hut where Sugar Sweet Corner used to be, and looked at the familiar ruins: destroyed or distorted buildings were scrambled randomly around, there were decaying, dead bodies in a single shallow grave just a few hundred meters from her towards Everfree Forest, which now fully surrounds the pitiful town. The sun never shown through the ugly clouds, it just illuminated them which casted a dull, orange glow on the town. The town was filthy from two years of toxic fumes that floated out of the clouds above; the deadened grass and vegetation couldn't replenish the air with oxygen; the winds that flow through the Everfree forest was the only savior of lungs here. Hope, forever lost upon this town of lost dreams, ponies lost in a world that was not safe, and lost friends who are in question; where were Rainbow Dash's friends?
A tear dropped from her right eye as she soaked in the sight, though clichéd, and used to her now, it still ushered out a sorrowful tear.
What they need now is a hero.
Smoke and the horrendous stench of rotting flesh and muscle filled the frightened Hedgehog's nose as he fumbled blindly around in pitch black darkness. He could even smell his own fear as it was potent enough to cut through this horrendous, stomach wrenching stench.
Where was he?
Sonic frantically ran and ran through a musky Black Forest for what seemed like hours, dodging its spiny hulls until he reached a clearing. Suddenly a large red outline formed in a circle around him. Sonic stopped running and looked around at the circle; guard up, his senses tuned to pick up the slightest challenge of danger. And he did as a sickeningly familiar smell wafted in his nose and he breathed in deeply.
Tainted Blood.
The thick, red liquid began to pour seemingly out of nowhere as objects rose from the ground on the edges of the circle at equal distances from each pedestal. On each pedestal a figure rose, covered in filth: three butterflies, then three apples, then three balloons, followed by three diamonds, a lightning bolt of three colors, and finally a big star shaped object.
A deep, sadistic spell of laughter erupted from above accompanied by a lion's paw that came down as a fist, straight towards the Blue Speedster. Sonic now paralyzed from fear tried his best to run but he couldn't, he wouldn't.
The mighty paw crushed him and Sonic was yanked out of his dream abruptly feeling a throbbing pain all over his muscles.
Sonic stared up at his slowly revolving ceiling fan for a couple of seconds as he tried to catch his breath; he panted heavily. "What was that?" He thought to himself,"Th-those Symbols, the blood..." He could still feel it's hot, stickiness on his fur and he shivered. He ran the details through his mind for some while his head started to pain him.
Sonic made his way down the white, carpeted stairs groggily to the simple, modern kitchen of his house. He rubbed his temples while groaning as he felt a hot, nice cup of Joe would wake him up. As he walked by the refrigerator towards his private espresso machine before a bright yellow sticky note caught his eye.
"There's a triple shot, black espresso mixed into large black coffee; two sugars on the coffee table in the living room, come down to basement quick."
"What would I do without you, Tails?" Sonic muttered to himself smiling and now currently making his way out of the kitchen to pick up his cup of wake up juice, then to his basement.
Upon entering he took a throat warming sip of the coffee and he could hear the sound of a welding torch going off and a sound of something being hammered into place. And he was right, his best bud, Tails, a Golden Kitsune with twin tails, was busy working on some sort of device, most likely about to blow the house apart, or split the cosmos up... Again.
There was a large rock of quartz jaggedly cut into a rough looking torus and there were multiple lines of hoses and pipes injecting some sort of gas that miraculously materialized psychedelic luminescent vapor at the center of the cut quartz. The quartz pulsed with energy, its pink champagne color oscillating as if it were alive, ushering out a steady heartbeat.
Sonic dog whistled and rocked on his toes to the back to his heels as he took on the crazy project that was in front of him. "Whatcha got here?" He asked then sipping his Joe.
Tails lifted the welder's mask from his face and half smiled at Sonic, his eyes were bloodshot and there were huge bags under his eyes. His lips were also chapped and his fur was an utter mess, but from Sonic's perspective he looks right at home. "Look at this Sonic, I've finally made a stable; hyper-quantum-physics' number-one taboo; a WORKING wormhole." He explained quickly and obviously proud of himself and rightfully so.
Creating a wormhole is one thing, creating a WORKING, STABLE wormhole is another; It's so rare that the only other being before that have accomplished this feat is Eggman and N.I.C.O.L.E'S creators (that's another story that I cannot bring myself to do)... But creating wormholes are a serious taboo, a should-be-but-is-not illegal practice that can have some devastating and cataclysmic outcomes that can lead to time warping, parallel universes entwining or fusing with other timelines and time and space as we know it could be wrenched out of the Creator's hands and tied into constrictor knot. The bottom line is. DO NOT create wormholes/time travel vehicles/devices or the sort. Besides, N.I.C.O.L.E made that very clear. (again, another story)
Sonic was clearly astounded, mouth slightly agape and eyes fixed on the wormhole device, and the quartz torus seemed to stare back at him as it "breathed". While soaking in the spectacle Sonic thought hard about going through the most acceptable, and mature way to handle this. After a few seconds he regained his composure and a serious demeanor washed over him, not wanting to put the whole world at risk, again. "Shut it down." The Blur said simply, as he took a sip of coffee.
The kitsune almost ripped in half by disbelief, "Are you kidding me?! No! - SONIC I will not do that now! I'm so close to finishing it! This could work, I know it will!" Desperation was thick in his voice as he pleaded with Sonic. "Just give me a chance! I have this under control and plus, this is a scientific feat that NO ONE, besides tubby," he said referring to Eggman, "have ever accomplished before in the whole world, in the universe even!"
Sonic face-palmed as he wanted to do the right thing, but avoid hurting his bro. He hated when he gets this way and he hated telling him to do something like this, knowing this must be a magnificent feat for him, but Physics number one rule is do NOT tamper with Time and Space. Sonic then put down his mug, empty now, and sat down in a chair nearby.
He put his un-gloved hands in his face and shook his head and sighed. "Just, just don't operate it, just not until you know FOR CERTAIN that it WILL NOT create some type of cataclysmic effect." Sonic told his friend carefully and putting emphasis on key words in attempt to grind it through his friend's stubborn mind yet genius mind, sometimes he wonder if he should even bother.
Sonic then started to walk back up stairs and Tails looked at him, silently thanking him with huge gracious, blue eyes. Sonic opened up the door to the basement and got ready to step out. "I'm going for a run, catch yah later!" And with that he was gone.
Twilight, the former princess and proud mentor of the young sorrowfully followed a squad of dusty ponies to work; she had her head low, perpetually nowadays, as she made her way to what is without a doubt the LARGEST, most cumbersome statue ever created.
Since Lord Discord came to power he ordered a colossal, no, Herculean sized masterpiece of a statue of him in his "noble" "honor". The statue is to be made with the finest quality gems and materials. Most of the unicorns of the once called nation of Equestria, now named Land Discord, tend to carving into the diamonds and rare gems via magic. Sounds easy enough until your horn is overheating and keeping up a simple laser spell is fatiguing your already frail body to its limits.
On the way to the site there was already unicorns laboring away in the dry heat being mentally tormented and whipped mercilessly by tall, conjured up evil souls that had no face; Shadow Guards. Their cold red eyes pierced the flank of Twilight's; she could bet her horn that they're just so eager to whip her, she knew it, for spiritless beings of the ground would have nothing but ignorant hatred flowing through their being.
An exhausting couple of minutes later Twilight and a platoon of worn down workers made their way about five hundred feet into the air to a scaffold right in front of the massive, and rather stupid face of the statue.
Two painful, weary hours later of constant laser cutting into the diamond to be inserted the Commanding General Military hat; it was time for her 5 minute break. He horn was sore to the point she'd thought it'll break off. She leaned against the massive stone she'd been carving in for the last two hours, fanning her sore horn in attempt to cool it. She estimated she was at least a five hundred feet in the air and she began to look down. Suddenly a thud sounded below her as a worker suddenly collapsed out of fatigue and most likely fatigue and hunger. Her body was dangerously close to the edge and Twilight felt her eyes tear up, looking closer she recognized the worker's face. She was a Blue mare, her mane was blue and blanched, her horn was now swollen red, and her cutie mark, though crossed out and scarred over, she could still see what it was. A sand timer used to blazon itself proudly on that flank.
Twilight wept softly for her lost friend, Colgate, as she laid on the edge of the scaffold. The, used-to-be Princess began to charge up magic in her horn to prevent her from falling off the scaffold but a chicken-foot like hand reached out and pinched her charging horn as if he was putting out a candle flame.
"Ah, ah, ah", the deep voice cooed "What's the fun in that?"
And before her, the body fell from the immense height of the scaffolding and blundered towards the ground on other unsuspecting ponies working.
Tails finished welding the last pipe into the Wormhole Space relativity portal into intergalactic parallel universes. (WSRP-IPU). Tails stood up wearily from his work and smiled approvingly at it as he started to take off his welders' gloves and face shield. The intelligent Kitsune then scribbled some important notes down into his custom smartphone and prepared to finally get some well-deserved sleep, being that he'd been working on this for over 30 hours straight. He tied his engineers' jump suit around his waist with now just the suspenders across his bare chest (well, besides the fur). The yellow fox yawned widely as he slithered to the comfortable black leather couch in the living room. Finally, some well-deserved sleep.
Well...
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
Tails bared his fangs and uttered a slight growl as his eyes shot open and scored the door with his sharp, highly annoyed gaze for a couple of seconds, ignoring the unknown visitors, hoping they'll leave soon, for his sake anyways.
The door was knocked a couple more times then there was a pause.
A long pause.
*RIIIINNGGG...RIIIIIINNGGG...RIIIIINNNGGG...*
The sleep deprived and irritable fox groaned angrily and turned around to face the couch he was laying on and put a pillow over his head. ALL HE WANTED WAS SOME DAMN PEACE!
The phone eventually stopped ringing and there was another long pause.
An heart dropping epiphany washed over Tails as an icy chill as he realized what was probably going to happen next.
WHERE WAS HIS CELL PHONE!?
He spotted it on the counter near the kitchen, which was also directly near the front door.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" He screamed silently, mouthing the exaggerated word as he sprang up from his resting position and bolted to the phone as if all fatigue was forgotten.
He finally reached the phone and held down the power button; a shower of relief now on his face.
"Are you sure you want to power off?" His phone asked him...Tails couldn't believe this. He tapped yes.
"Do you want to exit out of your running apps?" FOR THE LOVE OF CHAOS! *RIIING RIIING RIIING RIIING RIIING RIIING* his phone screamed as he looked at the screen. *Marine is calling you*
"TAAAAAAIIIILLSS! OPEN UP TAAAAAIIILSS!" He heard an all too familiar voice yell at him.
Tails moaned in absolute disbelief and annoyance. "dammit."
The weary Fox sat with one hand prodding his sleepy head up while he lounged on the couch while Marine and Cream sat on the opposite couch across the glass coffee table. The raccoon relentlessly jabbered about her day and her trip and whatnot as Tails practically fell asleep on her.
"Um... Ms. Marine, I think he fell asleep..." Cream the Rabbit said in a polite, soft tone, pointing at Tails sleeping facade.
"Whaa?" She looked at his face and concluded that the rabbit was right, the fox was snoring softly and Cream smiled and blushed at this. Cream always had been falling for Tails; she'd been looking out for him ever since Cosmos had died 4 years ago. She was there during the heartbreak and the healing, she helped him get back on his feet and quite frankly, you could practically she loved him.
Marine was going totally gaga over Tails right now, her big, observant eyes scanning every strand of fur on his strong chest, he certainly did mature well. Tails was turning into a hunk and she wriggled her toes in excitement.
After a few minutes of "observing" the sleeping fox the pair decided that it was time to go ahead and leave. Before the two could step outside one inquisitive raccoon saw the basement door was cracked a bit. Marine, interested as ever looked at the door in excitement. Cream noticed her friend's behavior and pleaded softly to her to not venture inside.
"Oh, please Marine, that place has all of Tails private inventions in there, it specifically says no one may enter." The conciliatory rabbit pointed out the clear-as-day warning on the door.
"Oh come on, it's only going to be a second!" She fussed back and she opened the door wider and stuck her big head in. The room was huge and dusty and was stacked to the ceiling with boxes and other mechanical parts that they could not identify. But from the sea of clutter she spotted a light pinkish color dully illuminating the back of the room. And her eyes lit up with excitement once more.
"Looook…" she said lost in awe as she points a gloved finger at the hoop of pink. Cream, clearly distressed, reluctantly followed her friend in to retrieve her as the raccoon got closer to get a better look of the contraption. When Cream reached her friend, Marine was already up close to the ring of quartz and she touched it with her finger. When she did she let out a loud yelp as the tip of her glove was burned off.
Cream eyes widened with fear and worry and pleaded with her to PLEASE exit the room.
But the raccoon didn't listen and started to mindlessly touch a few buttons on a control panel table nearby the quartz.
The rabbit eyes widen in fear and feeling of dread washed over her in a wave as a pulse of energy shot out of Wormhole and smashed into the two creatures.
Then the portal opened up.
A feeling washed over the running hedgehog's body as he was cruising at a steady one hundred fifty mph in a field about a hundred miles from home.
All of a sudden something didn't feel right... A tingly sense of dread poured into Sonic's heart and he frowned. Not a second later an alien pulse of potent energy slammed into his body, though not harming him, but confirming his notion that something is DEFINITELY not right.
Sonic then turned a sharp one-eighty degree turn and headed straight home in a breakneck emergency speed of six hundred mph.
The Blue hedgehog finally arrived at his home in about six minutes and stormed into the house immediately waking up Tails who snapped out of his slumber by the hedgehog practically breaking the door down to the house so abruptly.
"Tails! Tails! Did you turn on the machine?" Sonic asked frantically while he had one hand on the Fox's shoulder.
"Whaa? No, no I haven't Sonic, is something wr-" Tails phone immediately started to go off in a siren type of way and he fumbled around as he got it out of his jumpsuit.
He took one look at it and his Blue eyes shot open in shock. He sprang up and bolted to the basement door as fast as he could and Sonic frantically followed suit.
Once Tails opened up the sound proof door screams of pure terror and the stench of fear hit their faces as soon as they stepped into the room. The sight they saw made them paralyze in fear as they saw a body being stretched to an ungodly length, straight through the WSRP-IPU and through the artificial Event Horizon.
Heat dispelled out into the room as the body was devoured by the portal and was starting on its next victim, the hopeless rabbit that's crying her eyes out, screaming for the mercy of the strange device and hanging onto a vertical support beam. But that didn't stop the portal from consuming her as her legs started to be pulled past the quartz gate. She screamed in pure fear and screamed out to Sonic and Tails that was standing, paralyzed with fear and utter bewilderment.
Tails pulled out his smartphone and started imputing very intricate computer codes for manual shutoff and trying to disconnect the power. But no avail as his automatic generator systems kicked in and supplied the wormhole with ample energy to sustain and finish pulling in Cream, the Rabbit let out one final scream as the machine finally whirled to a stop and the Event horizon dissipated and returned to its gaseous form, pooling and defying gravity, right in the middle of the ring.
Sonic was still finding it hard to swallow what just happened in front of his eyes. And Tails was stricken with confusion. And they shared a long scared look.
Sonic stood there in complete shock before a serious composure replaced it. Sonic gritted his teeth started to bark orders to his two-ailed companion.
"Get the Sonic Team here now; I want that portal opened by the time they get here to get ready to save Cream and Marine! Get going now!", just thinking about his best friends being lost in another realm, not to mention probably hurt or scared, made him mad and anxious to the core.
Tails started too rushed out tapping his Bluetooth earpiece rapidly cycling through his contacts and calling up Knuckles, Amy, Shadow- the latter which appeared with a green flash and ping right next to Sonic with his usual scowl and arms crossed.
Sonic didn't even look up from his concentrating state, and pointed a gloved finger to the ominous portal sitting towards the corner of the room, its core swirling with the gas. Shadow took one look at the machine then immediately shot an angry glare at Tails who looked at him with sorry eyes.
"What the HELL did you do!?" The Black and red hedgehog growled at him, narrowing his eyes and advancing at him.
"I-I-I ... It wasn't my fault they got down here!"
"They?!" Shadow said in question, not knowing someone had gotten sucked into the wormhole. "WHO?!"
"M-Marine and C-Cream..."
"Sonic! Did you tell him what I said about these machines?!"
"I did but-"
"We always have to clean up after your bullsh-"
"Shadow! Calm down, we're going after them.., we just need some help. Will you help us?"
Shadow continued to stare at Tails with anger in his eyes.
"No. This is your mess, you clean it up."
And with that the Ultimate Life-form disappeared with a flash of green light.
Marine and Cream landed harshly against a pitch black, shriveled up tree that moaned and groaned as it swayed in the windless breeze.
Cream and Marine gasped for breath after their quantum leap through space and time. Marine's body convulsed and her body shook as she heaved out vomit, splashing on the ground, which the parched soil sucked up immediately.
Cream wiped the dried tears off her face and proceeded to get off the odd ground that surrounded them. Her scared eyes scanned the pitch Black Forest then up to the hideous supernatural dull orange sky. Smells of smoke and death hung thick in the air, choking her as she breathed in.
"Wh-where are we Ms. Marine?" Cream said in a scared voice.
Marine finally finished her ordeal and came to stand next to Cream. "I really don't know... But we can't stay here... I'm sure Sonic and Tails will come and help us real soon." But Marine herself didn't even believe what she was saying her own self. Surely Tails could find out where they've gone to and rescue them, could he? I mean he's like the Smartest Mobian alive; he has the technology, the smarts, the intuitiveness needed to save them. But what if cant. Now that question lingered in the young raccoon's mind as Cream and she began the terrifying trek to wherever their feet will take them.
What they needed was a Hero.
Fluttershy quickly brought a water drenched rag in her teeth to yet another terribly maimed unicorn. The unicorn screamed a bloodcurdling cry of agony as it clenched the dirty-white sheets on the bed under her with a vice like grip, again screaming to the top of her lungs. Her chest heaved deeply, and rapidly as the unicorn couldn't bare the pain anymore. Blood poured at a constant rate from her horn as it stood straight up from the unicorn's head like it should; split in three parts down the middle like it shouldn't. The unnamed unicorn started to tremble violently as loose, frothy foam that emanated from her mouth.
Fluttershy took note of her patient's escalating pain coefficient as she then began to coax her gently as she professionally and calmly clamped the horn pieces back together as carefully as she could as she looked down at the crying unicorn with caring and soothing eyes. Her beautiful eyes of teal calmed the writhing unicorn as she told her that she was going to be okay, that this little boo-boo isn't going to kill you, and that she will going to be okay, that this little wound will not be the cause of her ending. As Fluttershy used her utter kindness to beguile the discombobulated and shaky patient, the patient slowly closed her light-green eyes as her breathing slowly slowed, the foaming became less prevalent and the anxiety lessened.
Fluttershy, with care, swabbed the sensitive horn parts with the rag as gently as she could then tie the pieces of the horn together with some withy and some special magical herbs to help it heal that have not felt the toxic waste water from the industrial parts of the new world which Lord Discord happily rules. Fluttershy quickly washed her hooves then gave the whimpering, though saved, unicorn a poultice of valerian root and wild turmeric to soothe her vexing pain.
After the unicorn ate the bitter medicine Fluttershy prescribed her, the pale yellow Pegasus walked the unicorn out of the pseudo emergency room and fared the unicorn goodbye and good luck on her journey back to refuge.
Fluttershy is an underground medic, working illegally, caring for ponies of all sorts as they come from all round: the toxin victims of Ponyville and Cloudsdale, the intensive injuries of cracked/exploded/damaged horns from Canterlot and various other gem mining sites located in Fillydelphia, Appleloosa, and Manehatten and also the gruesome refuge gang wars that fought over the scarce resources of the dying world.
Fluttershy has seen it all; death, gore, mind-wrenching pain; her eyes of kindness and reassurance helped her patients to get well, coxswaining the ones that died of torturous methods procured by Discord himself upon a peaceful, happy journey to the other side. The pale Pegasus live to help those around her no matter what with unmitigated and indiscriminate kindness, - OH SHOOT! There it goes again!
Fluttershy head pangs with excruciating, throbbing pain that sends her into the floor, writhing as she held her head. Her heart thumped hard against her chest as she tried to crawl away from the pain, making her heave for breath; these bouts of heart-ripping pain getting worse ever since the elements of harmony were destroyed.
A few seconds later the pain ebbed away leaving the pale Pegasus once again laying on the dirt ground of home- not the cottage, mind you, her secluded house in a forest where all the injured ponies escape to for care, if they survive the journey in their conditions.
Fluttershy lay sprawled out on the ground, her wispy, dry mane and tail pooled round her, thinking hard about her life. Quite frankly, she didn't want to do this anymore; caring for ponies she did enjoy, but the pain she see on a daily basis not to mention the occasional pony that dies in her hooves. She won't be able to keep this up forever, she needed her friends, she needs salvation, and she needed a hero. And with that, she black out into the soft darkness that enveloped her.
In a mine under Manehatten
Coat of dirt, mane uncouth; pristine no longer, seeing Rarity like this would have been an actual rarity two years ago, but now it is a norm for her and the Discord-trodden unicorns around her.
The once elegant mare live now in the once populous city of Manehatten which once accommodated gleeful, content ponies that lived on a day to day basis in elegance and entrepreneurship emanated from the very ground. Those alias now nonexistent as she works hard diurnally for a measly bit a day In a stuffy, once closed underground Jewel mining bed beneath the city.
The radiant jewel cavern would of star-stricken the former froufrou fashionista before the Discord and the taking over and the totalitarianism impishness he sprinkles here and there just for the absolute giggles. This isn't the way of life Rarity would have thought she'd be living in at the age of twenty-two- maybe being around a mass selection of dazzling jewels, but not mining them; BLOODY HELL!
Rarity walked back to her station and began cutting into the solid minerals with a laser spell, slowly slicing out the raw minerals in neat squares, and then conjuring them into a pile only to levitate that pile onto a pallet that gets levitated onto a truck that goes all the way to Canterlot; then repeat.
"Someone need to wring Discord out like a rag then slit his ugly, ugly head off," Rarity says frustrated as she winces from the overheating of her horn, proceeding to cutely blow up at it while pouting.
"Bloody Draconequus!"
Back inside of Tails' Basement
Tails wrapped high strength steel and titanium alloy rope around the waists of his friends: Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and himself respectfully to ensure that they won't get separated accidentally during the space warp. Tails tied himself up last for he have to make sure the calibrations was impeccable; void of miscalculation; no one wanted to be lost forever in a dark, brightly illuminated, freezing hot, time and physics' paragon of paradoxes and hoo-hah I don't care to explain...Or make up.
Sonic meditated as he stood first in front of the portal. He slowed his breathing as he tried to make peace with himself to prevent himself to be freaked out by what may happen during this totally dangerous warp; besides he doesn't even know if they'll survive this!
After a couple of seconds he took a deep breath and opened his eyes; determination and courage blazed in them. "Alright Tails! Start it up!" Sonic said loudly as he finished mentally preparing for the jump to the unknown world.
"Brace yourselves everyone!" Tails shouted as he pulled the switch down to activate the WSRP-IPU wormhole technology. The gas floating in the center of the ring of quartz started to tremble then with a verbose ripping sound, followed by a deep pulse, the champagne pink portal opened up into a psychedelic, brain stagnating, whirlwind of vivid purples and lavenders, pinks and minus greens.
The wormhole started to slow the watches on the Heroes wrists and began to slowly suck them forward, pulling them into the eye candy before them. Sonic started to feel the burning sense of sphagettification as black hole before him stretched his body closer and closer past the event horizon, it began to pain him terribly and the Blue Blur shouted out in pain making Knuckles, behind him sweat as he too anticipated the same sensation Sonic is feeling, then it clawed at him. Knuckles looked for Sonic disappeared through the portal and the burning sensation engulfed him as well. The same goes for Amy, and Tails himself as he put on his knapsack full of potentially useful items.
Tails baby blue eyes stared in horror as he began to pass through the portal; stretching out his skin and fur and bones; he screams in agony, and he passes out.
Over the Everfree Forest
Rainbow Dash held her breath as she quickly pushed more toxin exuding clouds into the space above the Everfree Forest. The heavy clouds stung her eyes as she labored placing the disgusting cloud in a large area over the Everfree Forest.
Suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, a pulse smashed into her hard that obliterated the cloud which she was pushing on, disorienting her and sending her weakened body to the ground in a head spin. Rainbow dash hit the ground hard; shocks of perplexing pain shot through her spine to the rest of her body that forced her hooves to knead the dirt as she gritted her teeth. The dingy, cyan Pegasus looked around to where the pulse may have come from. Her eyes scanned the area around her to a clearing where she saw a scraggly circle-shaped tear of vivid purples and lavenders- the colors sent her head reeling; reminding her of Pinkie Pie's randomness.
Magenta eyes studied the portal for a while long, from which materialized four figures that fell out of it onto the dead ground. She wondered if she should go and investigate the occurrence herself as they just laid there for a quite a long time most likely knocked out by whatever doohickey they've just appeared from.
Within a minute of their crash landing, she could feel a massive, menacing disturbance in the air as she could feel the usual cold and disheartening vibes invade her being. Rainbow Dash hid in more vegetation as she could feel them coming nearer.
The Shadows are coming.
Outside near Fluttershy's hideout
Marine and Cream trekked cautiously through the unknown, depressing forest of trees. The black, spiny hulls made them shiver in understandable trepidation. At every snap of a twig they stopped, ears pricked for the slightest following sounds. Unbeknownst their pitiful, fearful scent was leading off a fearfully pitiful trail.
The shadows danced in the moonlight's beams, flickering quickly between the dismal trees with finesse. Their red eyes flickered with animosity as they chased the newcomers. Shadowy Sharp fangs cometh near, talons of darkness and vileness drawn; ready to slice! To slice and kill! To slice and kill and to tear! Ravenous beasts! Beware alien raccoon and rabbit! Your demise awaits you! You will be without vestige!
The pale yellow Pegasus head throbbed rhythmically with soft pain as she lifted her head off the dirt floor and looked around confused. The sound of footsteps; her ears pricked a quick fear shown in her eyes and she begins to get up to investigate the commotion outside her door which busted open along with the sounds of confusion.
"Marine! This could have been someone's home..," The terrified rabbit said as she stepped over the downed door. The dimly lit room revealed a large single room where a tree trunk grew in a twisting fashion. Rows of dingy hospital beds sat adjacent to one another with rows of bottles and medicine accompanying them. Suddenly a figure stood up from the dark floor, wings erected and body poised towards them.
"Marine!" the scared Cream yelled out as she saw the figure shoot towards them with high speed. "Get behind me!" Marine grabs a stick from the floor and swings it at the incoming attacker with gusto; only for the flying adversary to quickly barrel roll above the attack and landing behind them at the wall.
With a loud snap, and bangs of actuators activating, dozens of outside lamps and spot lights began to blaze into the night, lighting up the ground around the pseudo hospital and inside the stuffy room they were in. This opportunity also gave Marine and Cream a good glimpse at the one who just turned on the lights.
Before them, scowling, eyes narrowed with anger were a dusty, pale yellow... Pegasus? - With a light-pink mane and standing around a bit taller than them.
"WHAT, IN ALL OF TARTARUS, ARE YOU DOING?!"
Fluttershy stared down the two newcomers with a slight scowl as they stood before her, donning shocked and terrified facades. Although they rudely barged into her home and were alien- they seemed innocent; meaning of course not a creation from Discord, but they didn't seem as they belonged here either which sparked suspicion in Fluttershy's mind.
Fluttershy's teal eyes looked over the two noticing the shorter one resembled a rabbit; her long ears and petite-ness gave it off, while the older and taller one resembled much like a raccoon. Her old, resolute interest in animals of all sorts sparked liked flint inside of her mind, she suddenly had the urge to ask them all types of inquisitive questions like: are they similar to the animals they were? Were their appetites the same or different? But these questions will have to come another time.
Slowly, the brilliant lights gave Fluttershy a slight migraine as the intense light had flooded and basked everything in the house in a hard, white light, but she was sure that the shadow hounds that was most likely following the Raccoon's and Rabbit's fearful scent through the dark forest was closing in on them just before they busted down her door.
Rule One of Land Discord: show no fear, and you'll see no evil. (Besides everything and epitome of evil itself, Discord)
The shadow hounds have evil, terrifying red eyes; a simple trap for any evading pony if they were to be caught escaping in the Dark Forest from the shadow hounds. For example: the pony sees the pair of eyes following them, gets afraid, then once the doomed victim secrete those pheromones of fear, they'll hear eerie, hoarse howling from not one, but dozens of Shadow hounds chasing down their prey.
"Thank Celestia they haven't seen the eyes..." Fluttershy thought to herself, relieved.
"What are you doing here?" The pale Pegasus reiterated while taking a slightly threatening step towards them. "Who are you?" She then inquired before they could speak, her voice losing the edge it had just previously, now teeming with more of cautioned curiosity and it showed in her actions as she raised her left front hoof curiously.
"Why should we tell you who we-" Marine started boldly before Cream intervened. "My name is Cream the Rabbit" she did a polite courtesy before continuing, "And this is my good friend, Marine the Raccoon, we come from a nice world named Mobius." She pauses then looked to Marine to give her a mature "you better behave" look then back at the Pegasus before her with a kinder gaze.
"Now what's your name?" Marine asked gruffly, she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes distrusting at the unknown Pegasus.
Fluttershy continued her cautioned stare at Marine as she spoke, "My name is Fluttershy, I run this make-shift hospital," the pegasus then pointed to the rolling cots and mattresses on the floor, "I do my very best to heal the pain I see on an everyday basis from every doomed pony that staggers into here..."
Cream began to realize a few things, her eyes trail over the beds and stray mattresses, the vials of important looking substances, and tanks of blood; probably holding different blood types for those who live in this eerie world. With even more careful examination there were multiple dirtied bandages; likely blood, and whole assortment of poultices and creams conserved in glass jars on counters; one particular jar smashed to bits with a weird liquid protruding from its cracked vial. With the adrenaline calming down in both of the alien's brains they could fully evaluate the state of the room; it was filthy. Even the very musky air hung heavy with the carrion smell of death, hopelessness, and the sad truth that portended to this world.
Cream's cinnamon eyes then flickered towards the Pegasus noticing how downtrodden and emaciated she looked. Her blanched, yellow coat was dusty and lacked the healthy look she was sure it was supposed to have. Her eyes was dull; lifeless if not for the faint burning fire of faith within the teal depths, - suddenly the rabbit felt sorry for Fluttershy, feeling a wave of kindness filling her spirit and being.
Cream took a few cautious steps towards the now hesitant Pegasus, looking at her with the utmost compassion and conscientiousness. "What happened here Fluttershy?" Cream asked her voice calm and concerning. Fluttershy in turn looked at her; scared were her eyes, then for a moment then it was obvious to Cream and Marine; the latter who was starting to realize the seriousness and how important the situation was, how painful the memory of how this all happened is to the Pegasus.
Fluttershy's light cyan eyes flickered with sorrow; with pain they flashed, her pupils dilated upon seeing and reliving the vexing torment that riddled her mind since she was snatched away from her friends. Terrifying images of her companions coursed through her mind as she relived Rarity screaming as was being dragged coldly away from the group as Discord's own shadow guards that had her neck in arrest, pulling her to her permanent work station. The screams of terror; of complete and utter helplessness as Spike was torn from his loving best friend, Twilight Sparkle, who put up one hell of a good fight in attempt to get him back but ultimately was helpless to do so as Discord personally snatched him away from her and extinguishing her magic temporarily; the impossible thought of Discord gaining so much power that he could bring such torment became real.
Big tears of heartache which slowly streamed from her glistening eyes was made prevalent on Fluttershy's muzzle as she re-witnessed Rainbow Dash fighting back the shadow guards, only to be punched and punished back into the hard dirt; the absolute anguish that was in her friend's magenta eyes probably hurt her the most out of that horrifying episode, the pain and sadness she must of felt as she was powerless to help her best friends despite her higher athleticism and determination. The sounds of screaming and crying impaled the air as one by one her friends were punished into the submission. They were made a mockery to the public, they were torn from their best friends; their elements; life, and worst of all Discord was behind it all. And nopony, nopony in the whole world had the power to change that.
Fluttershy eyes stopped glinting back and forth as she relived the memories as finally shook her head then took a shuddering breath as she prepared herself to explain to them what happened.
With Rainbow Dash
Rainbow Dash could feel the shadow guards coming, their menacing presence shrouded her heart with fear, her pelt felt cold but she could feel herself start to sweat in panic. Her heartbeat beat against her ribs like a drum as she worried for her own well-being. But then she thought about how the shadow beasts, yet alone Discord would probably treat these newcomers, she knew she had to do something. If forsaken those innocent souls would fall from the power of Lord Discord. A fire burned in her heart; SHE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING! She can't just watch those people, although she doesn't know a single thing about them, to be harassed by the well-known ways of torture the Shadow Guards were infamous for.
Rainbow Dash peered through the dead looking vegetation in front of her which only allowed a partially obscured vision of the 4 figures (Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Amy) slowly getting up shaking their heads and looking around curiously, obviously oblivious to the dreadful opposition that was coming for them.
The feeling of apprehension rose higher as the Shadow Guards approached nearer. Rainbow dash cringed as she awaited the stinging whip to strike her pelt; only for them to walk over her, heading towards the clearing the little group of aliens was grouped at.
"Run!" Rainbow Dash hoarsely yelled out at them as loud as her scraggly body could muster, which instantly caught the attention of the blue one whose spiky head instantly snapped towards her direction.
"Looks like a nuke hit this place…" commented Knuckles to his friends as he scanned the dingy clouds which rebound a choking orangey color that lit the atmosphere and air around them.
Ignoring his friends' small talk about the world around, Sonics' eyes darted towards the small wall of dying bushes and vegetation along the tree line as he swore he heard something yell out at them. He then turned his head slightly to the right to get Tails in his peripheral vision. "Yo, did you hear that...?" Tails looked up from his phone that was scanning the surrounding area for vitality readings and potential dangers. Tails big ears then scanned the surroundings and then locked in the direction Sonic had his body facing.
Suddenly a cold, apprehensive cloud of frozen evil rolled over the heroes' bodies as they all began to sense something coming towards them all. A surge of uneasiness raptured through their minds as they quickly initiated their fighting stances, hardly prepared for what comes next. "What the hell?" Knuckles said as he balled his fists up tighter as he could clearly feel the surge of uneasiness roll around his body. Beside him, Amy wasn't doing any better as she held her hammer defensively in both hands, ready to bash and smash whatever that may come out of those trees; although her face contradicted her the rest of her body as anyone could tell that she was obviously scared to hell.
Out of the brushes came 6 intimidating, faceless beings of darkness that flowed like calm water through the shadows of the forest into the clearing. The beings were no taller than 6 feet; towering over the group, their bodies seemed as though it were comprised of the shadows itself. Their hands were like something off of a Tim Burton's movie; frail looking and skeletal, their heads were shrouded in the same darkness that also enveloped the rest of the body; almost like a large tar drenched burlap bag. Where their eyes were supposed to be were two crimson, ominous orbs that flashed with malevolent intent. Their stare was frightening enough that even knuckles cringed with slight fear.
The fear and ambiguity coursed strong through their veins, paralyzing them to stay still although the team managed to shuffle closer to themselves; back to back, trying to figure out what exactly to do, trying to figure out why their bodies were so stiff.
The beings started to move in a slight circle around the team and starting to dismally chant "Shadows Shroud and Darkness Devours Cloak the Intruders and make them silent". The beings then started to grow in size which made Sonic and his friends even more afraid as they instantly tried to run away.
Tails instantly referred back to his phone that gave readings on the world around him, of which the program was saying that everything is just fine around them. "I can't make heads or tails of this, they're not an organism nor do they give off any energy; just bad vibes!"
A choking sound was heard from Tails' right as he was speaking, after which his head snapped towards the sound of asphyxiation and his heart dropped when he saw Sonic down on his knees holding on to his throat. "SONIC-ACK" screamed Amy just before she suddenly lost all ability to breath; along with Knuckles. Just as Tails was gonna ask what was the matter with them he suddenly felt the cold tendrils of death enveloped him.
The Shadow Guards had now fully enveloped the heroes in a pitch black dome of torture; the air was chilled to a crisp as one by one Tails' friends started to black out by the dark, vile energy that swirled around each one of them.
Sonic turned his head with pain and trouble towards his little buddy, his eyes tinsel with emotion as he felt his conscious slipping out of his body. Sonic eyes closed for a couple of seconds before opening them back up and struggled to procure his trademark smirk and "everything's gonna be okay" thumbs up to his best friend; his brother.
Tails could have cried; he would if he could but instead he dropped to the ground from his propped up position and crawled towards his brother with excruciating results. When the Twin Tailed fox fell onto his face and chest, a round canister looking object rolled out of his bag from his back.
The golden kitsune paused in his crawl to his brother and stared at the canister and although his brain will most likely shut down in a few seconds due to lack of oxygen hundreds of solutions and ideas sprang to action as he looked at the canister.
Tails blue eyes opened wide with an epiphany as he arduously lunged for the grey canister and pulled the pin on it within a split-second. And with the ultimate congregation of the minuscule power left in his small body he tossed it up as high as he could.
Sonic, although slipping on the edge of consciousness understood what Tails just tossed in the air and dunked his head down and covered his ears as well as he could, with Tails following suit by holding his ears down on his head and curling up into a ball.
A mighty explosion accompanied by an unearthly brilliance consumed the air blasting the Shadow Guards away thus returning the precious oxygen Sonic and Tails had fought for so long. The air even returned back it its dry, warmness.
Sonic gasped in great alleviation as the quenching oxygen relieved his thirsty lungs; same for his brother beside him who started to cough uncontrollably. The blue hedgehog got up from his sprawled out position to on his hands and knees as he gasped for breath. His green eyes stared down at the hard, dry ground and started to contemplate about his and his friend's mission in this alien world.
They almost died; they would have perished if it weren't for Tails' quick thinking for using the flash grenade which he probably had forgotten that he'd packed. In other words this world is more than likely festering with more evils like this at a drop of a hat and they'll need to be careful or they may not make it out of here alive- Marine and Cream… Sonic's troubled thoughts strayed to the 'what ifs' of his mind, he shook his head to try to alleviate himself from those dangerous thoughts.
"LOOK OUT!" screeched an unknown voice from behind them and at that second they saw a single, lankier Shadow Guard standing tall over them, this time sporting long blade like fingers instead of skeletal like the ones that attacked them from before.
Instantly the two braced each other and closed their eyes. Just after Sonic or Tails could react a force accompanied with a loud boom similar to that of Sonic's sonic booms slammed into the back of the Shadow Guard obliterating it from existence.
The pair, still holding each other from bracing for the impact of danger opened their eyes and looked down at their vigilante. Before them, sprawled out on the ground and unconscious was a very pale, cerulean, malnourished and scrawny pony.
With Shadow
The cold night air ruffled the white fur on Shadow's chest as the dark hedgehog sat on a grassy cliff that overlooked a random calm town. From where he sat cross-legged had the utmost perfect view of the large full moon that glazed everything beneath its celestial body with a silver blanket.
Shadow's calculating eyes raked over the town below while he thought about Sonic and the offer he made for him to help the blue faker and Tails to help retrieve the young Miss Marine and Cream that happened to stumble into Tails' laboratory and turn on a highly unpredictable and potent machine that projected them into another world.
"They should be back by now…" Shadow thought to himself but of course he knew they weren't for he would have sensed Sonic's presence due to his chaos energy connection with the Master Emerald. Speaking of which, if Sonic had taken any emeralds at all there wouldn't be such an abundance of chaotic energy in this world. Shadow furrowed his brow as he thought about it some more. Well Blaze is in this world for sure, since Marine is here, her emeralds must be creating such an abundance in chaotic energy; just as soon as that notion surfaced in Shadow's calculating mind an intelligent voice pushed itself right over the notion; "Not possible, the Sol Emeralds are more docile than their otherworldly counterparts."
With that thought making more sense to the Ebony hedgehog he stood up from his watch over the town and teleported from the grassy cliff with a ping and green flash.
Shadow teleported to several havens and safe destinations alike including his own place and various chaos emerald hiding places Sonic and himself had procured to hide the emeralds when not need; spread apart over some distances to prevent Eggman to be able to gather them all as quickly; the antagonist mentioned was being almost completely quiet uncharacteristically.
After retrieving the cyan emerald that was hiding in an underground keep-safe, directly under Amy Rose's house, the Shadow made his way to his last destination, the bowels of Tails' basement-laboratory; the place where the last emerald, the blue one, was kept for power demands and personal defense if needed. The emerald that SHOULD had gone with Sonic. "I swear that bastard is gonna get himself killed." Shadow angrily clenched the last emerald before it disappeared in his intangible store.
Shadow activated Tails' quantum mess; the WSRP-IPU, and awaited for blast of heat to fill the room as he stood in front of the portal wrapping his long, ragged, black scarf around his nose and mouth and letting it flow adventurously behind him just as the wave of heat hit him; waving the scarfs' ragged edges behind him epically.
He furrowed his eyes as he stepped through; the last thing we see of the heroic hedgehog is the end of his scarf tail, and the black, metallic gun that sat in his waist holster. With all 7 chaos emeralds in him he began the quantum journey to mysterious world parallel.