Project ART

Once again, Sonic was floating in a void. He knew he was unconscious this time, and he was getting used to being here. He looked around calmly, finding that nopony was there. "Hello?" he called. "I know you're there. I wouldn't be here if you weren't."

"Very astute, Sonic the Hedgehog." said the familiar voice, echoing throughout the void.

"So, what is it this time?" Sonic asked.

"There are two very important topics that I must speak with you about." the voice said. "First, I wish to extend my deepest apologies."

"Apologies?" Sonic repeated. "Apologise for what?"

"Due to my haste to return your memories, I have accidentally summoned a great danger to the world you reside in." the voice said.

"Wait." Sonic said. "You're telling me you brought Metal Sonic here?"

"Unfortunately yes." the voice answered with regret. "I was not intending to target such a large threat. In truth, I was trying to target another, weaker robot; in hopes of you accelerating your progress to collect the Chaos Emeralds."

"That still doesn't excuse you for this." Sonic said, crossing his arms. "My friends and family come first; then I'll look for your Emeralds.

"Yes," the voice agreed. "I realize this. And in hopes of righting my wrong-doings, I am going to use the last of my power of the Chaos forces to return the memories you had of Metal Sonic to you; so you may have a better chance to defeat him, which is the second topic."

Sonic shook his head. "Save your energy." he said. "If I'm going to beat that 'bot, I'm gonna do it my way; not hisway. Instead, I want a favour from you."

"Although you saying that never did turn out well for the victims, I will do what you ask." the voice said.

"I want to know who you are." Sonic said. "You've been trying to push me to collect these 'Chaos Emeralds' since the Summer Sun Celebration. You obviously know what they are, and what I was; as well as everybody from my old life's world. So I wanna know how you know these things, and why you are going to so far as to bring a killer robot here to get me to collect the Emeralds."

There was a long silence, so long that Sonic half-expected to awaken from this dream realm. Finally, however; the voice sighed. "I suppose that this is a small price to pay." it said. There was a bright flash of light, and a figure appeared in front of him. It's body shape was shaped like Sonic's, but it was curvy, showing it to be a female. She had sandals with silk ankle-wraps on her feet, and a tattered green dress with diamond patterns on her lower-body. On her top was a white tank-top and a golden necklace around her neck. Matching golden bands were around her arms, near the shoulders; and had cloth gloves with a blue band on her hands. The spikes on her head were styled into dreadlocks, parted from her face by a golden headband. She opened her eyes, revealing the deep blue irises within.

"My name is Tikal." She said. "I am an Echidna, an ancient race from Mobius; your home world."

"Mobius?" Sonic asked. "You're like me! Somepony... er... body like me!"

Tikal nodded. "Indeed." she said. "My race was wiped from the planet by a powerful bring's wrath, but spared me; in a way, for protecting the item it guarded. I was granted the ability and duty to watch over space and time. You will not remember this, but I once actually helped you and your friends save Mobius from the wrath of the being that banished my people."

Sonic scratched his chin. "I... actually remember part of that." he said. "Yeah! Eggman planned to use this 'being'... Chaos I think its name was, to take over the world; but something happened and he ended up giving me the Chaos Emerald he had."

Tikal nodded. "I had forgotten about that." she said. "I watch over all of Space and Time at once, so please forgive me for any... continuity issues, for lack of a better phrase. Shall I continue?" Sonic nodded. "Very well. Not long after that event; about 8 years to be exact, I realized that points in time were being erased. Looking into this matter, I found that Dr. Robotnik was using a machine called the Time Eater to erase his past failures. I attempted to leave the pocket-dimension I resided in to assist, but Robotnik's tampering with the Space-Time continuum trapped me there. Fortunately, you put a stop to it; trapping the Doctor in the very Time-Void he had created."

"Oh, and thats' when he started the whole 'erasing me from existence' thing!" Sonic said in realization. "He must have found a way to travel back to when I was a baby and sent me to Equestria."

Tikal nodded. "I saw all of history return to my vision when you initially stopped him." she said. "But I also saw a silhouetted figure stalking around your home town on your birthday, a date I admittedly enjoy revisiting. I realized it was Eggman not long after, but it was too late." her face grew darker. "I failed my duty. The Doctor stormed into the hospital you were in, murdering both your parents and mortally wounding your uncle. He used the temporary weakened state of reality's fabric to throw you into another dimension; this dimension, and started taking over the defenseless Mobius from there. He killed the King, Queen, the version of himself from that time... and all I could do was watch! His actions stripped me of my ability to leave my dimension. I couldn't help, I couldn't do anything."

Sonic scratched his head. "I don't get it." He said. "If Egghead rewrote time, that would cause a... uh... paradox-thingie right? He killed a younger version of himself, so wouldn't that cause him to go 'poof'?"

"You have a surprisingly good understanding of Time Travel, Sonic." Tikal said with a smile. "While that would happen normally; because of the weakened state of the fabric of reality, he was rendered immune to becoming a paradox. I'm glad that that's all he did with the weakened reality."

Sonic nodded in understanding. "Well, I guess you did what I asked." he said. "I'll ask Princess Celestia about the Chaos Emeralds and see if she can be of any help in finding them. I know now that these things are the only way to stop Eggman and set things right."

Tikal looked at him with a hopeful smile. "That would be nice. Also, know that your brother will play a large part in Metal's destruction and Robotnik's downfall."

"Brother? I don't have a brother!"

"Yes, you do. You defeated Nightmare together, with the powers of your Emeralds and those Elements combined. He has powers that not even he knows of, but will soon use."

"Wait, you don't mean...."

"Correct. You and Jawsome the Hedgehog are brothers-the Two of the Prophecy of Harmony. It goes like this:

Two hedgehogs rise against all odds,

to stop a tyrant once and for all.

One of fire, one of wind, with the six of Harmony,

will restore the peace of all Mobius.

Needless to say it was quite free-verse."

"But, that sword?"

"I'm sorry, I have to return your consciousness to your body." she said, waving her arm. "I hope that you are successful in retrieving the Chaos Emeralds, they are your only hope in stopping what is to come."

Sonic awoke, lying in a hospital bed. He felt himself over. Other that the multiple bruises all over his body, and the large scar across his chest; he felt perfectly healthy again. He smiled. "Thanks Tikal." he said softly. He was annoyed at her vague explanations, but he knew more about him, and that metal menace. He looked over to his left and saw Twilight and his friends - minus Rainbow for some reason - waiting patiently outside his room. He got off the bed, stumbling a bit for being off his feet for so long; and walked towards the door.

As he opened the door, he was greeted by a mix of surprised and happy faces; and then immediately tackled by his friends into a group hug. He chuckled. "It's great to see everybody... I mean; pony to." he said. He looked around. "Where's Rainbow?"

"She said she wanted to warn your parents about Metal Sonic." Pinkie said. "She should be heading back by now."

"She told you about that, huh?" Sonic asked.

"She told us it was some type of machine with an artificial intelligence." Twilight said. "In her words, 'It beat the snot out of ya'."

Sonic chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "That it did," he agreed. "That it did." Sonic looked at Jawsome with a look of curiosity.

"Well, looks like Tikal broke it before I could come clean." He said. Everypony looked at him like he had just grown a third arm. "I didn't believe her first time either, but it makes sense when you think about it.

Sonic jumped as a hoof was suddenly placed on his shoulder. He turned to see Nurse Redheart standing there with a clipboard in hand.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, Mr. Hedgehog." she said. "We were surprised when your status suddenly went from critical to normal before you woke up, but nothing appears to be out of the ordinary; so you're free to go as soon as you sign..." she paused for a second to flip through her clipboard papers, "...here." Sonic took the clipboard and took the candle-shaped pen Pinkie suddenly acquired and wrote his name on the designated line. "Thank you, and have a wonderful day!"

With that, Sonic and his friends left the hospital. Before they could go further than a few feet, however, Sonic stopped them. "Girls, I know this is sudden; but I really, really need to speak with Princess Celestia. I will tell you everything once we're there, but you just need to trust me on this."

"I guess we could take the train to Canterlot," she said. "But I'm not guaranteeing that you'll be able to get an audience with the Princess."

Sonic nodded. "I get it, she's a princess and is busy enough with ruling the country; but what I have to talk with her about may have thousands of lives hanging in the balance!"

"What?" Twilight asked, slightly taken aback by the sudden mood change.

"Again, I'll tell you when we're speaking to Princess Celestia." Sonic said before taking off towards the train station.

Meanwhile, in Cloudsdale...

Rainbow Dash was high above the clouds, just now leaving Cloudsdale for Ponyville. She flapped here wings as she caught a sudden wind, shooting her faster than she was already going. She suddenly slowed herself down as she saw a bipedal blue figure standing on one of the clouds below. She smiled at the familiar sight of her brother. Slowly, flapping her wings as infrequently as possible, she approached him from behind. Once she got close enough, she went for the kill and attempted to tackle her brother. As she dove for him, however; he suddenly took off, sending her sprawling onto the floor.

'Wait, what?' Rainbow thought, she looked up and, indeed, there was a blue blur soaring through the sky. The blur made a 90 degree turn suddenly, and shot straight at Rainbow. "Uh oh." she said. Unfolding her wings, Rainbow took off, herself; the blur smashing straight through the clouds. "That's definitely not Sonic."

"AFFIRMATIVE." said a voice in front of her. She looked ahead, only to see two soulless red eyes staring back. She tried to turn away, but founf a cold hand around her neck before she could do anything. "SWEET DREAMS, RAINBOW DASH."

With her oxygen supply running out, she felt the world grow darker as she fell unconscious.

Canterlot Station - Canterlot City...

As Sonic and his friends arrived in the capital, their noses were instantly assaulted with the smell of expensive perfumes and exotics flowers. Sonic looked at the Castle, which was towering over everything else in the city. "Come on girls," he said, motioning for the girls to follow. "We have to speak to Princess Celestia right aw-"

He was interrupted by Applejack. "Uh, Sugarcube." she said. "Ya might want 'ta look up there." she pointed upwards with her hoof.

Sonic looked up, immediately looking at a large image of a blue-armored robot. "What is that horrid thing?" asked Rarity.

"Metal Sonic." Sonic said simply.

"THIS IS A MESSAGE FOR SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, RESIDENT OF PONYVILLE." Metal said. "YOU WILL MEET ME ATOP MOUNT CANTER IN 4 HOURS. YOU WILL GIVE ME THE CHAOS EMERALD, OR I WILL KILL YOUR SISTER. COME ALONE. IF I DETECT ANOTHER LIFE-FORM, I WILL KILL YOU, YOUR SISTER AND WHOEVER YOU BROUGHT WITH YOU. IF YOU FAIL TO MEET ME AT THE DESIGNATED TIME, I WILL KILL YOUR SISTER, THEN DESTROY THE MOUNTAINSIDE CITY BELLOW ME."

Sonic glared daggers at Metal Sonic as the image flickered out of existence. Immediately the population of Canterlot went into panic, running randomly through the streets and running over those who lost their footing. Sonic looked back at his friends. "Come on," he said to them. "It's about time you heard the full story."