Sonic Forces: The Sombra Wars

Darkness clouded Rainbow Dash's vision. She could see something faintly coming into view, or more specifically, someone. As more and more of her sight came back, the outline of the figure was now more clear than ever.

"S-Scootaloo?" she murmured, finally regaining all of her vision.

The young filly turned, getting up from her seat and running up to her idol. "Rainbow Dash! You're all right!"

"Like you thought I wouldn't be? I've been knocked unconscious before. Gonna take more than that to slow me down!" Dash boasted. Scootaloo smiled, seeing that her confidence hadn't dropped after the battle.

Just then, Tails walked into the room, head down in a strange yellow device. " Gotta connect the clotractic capacitor to the quadratic module..." He then bumped into the bed Rainbow sat in. He looked up and nervously chuckled. "Sorry. I was working on a modifier for my Miles Electric and I forgot to look in front of me. But, anyways, go to see your awake. I'm Miles "Tails" Prower, but you can just call me Tails."

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion. This thing wasn't a pony, that was for sure. But, it sure acted like one. Them, her mind finally started to process the area around her. It didn't look like the Ponyville Hospital that she normally went to. This place looked much more... advanced.

As if something clicked in her mind, all of Rainbow's memories came flooding back to her. Memories of the battle played back over and over again in her head. But, at last, one final memory drove its way to the front. Rainbow's eyes shrunk as a realization overcame her.

She violently tore off the cover to look at the hole in her side. But, to her absolute shock, instead of finding bloodied bone, in its place was a metallic grey titanium wing about the size of her organic counterpart. Each large feather was replaced with cold metal cylinders with thin, rounded tips that mimicked the other wing in shape.

".....W-What is... THIS?!" She tried to thrash about as Tails did his best to hold her down, but inevitable failing.

"Easy!" Tails and Scootaloo continued to hold her down with all of their might. "We thought you'd be happy! With this Prototype X-20 Hyperwing , you'll be back to flying in no time!"

Rainbow's expression lightened slightly, but only slightly. "Where's my REAL wing!?"

Tails' expression saddened. "The state from which you came in here, mechanical surgery seamed like the best option. Your left wing most likely couldn't be reattached even if it was here."

"You don't get it, do you? That wing was with me since the day I was born. It was my very source of pride. I may have one true wing, but it's not the same! How would you like it if I took away that extra tail of yours?!"

Scootaloo then stepped forward. "Come on Rainbow. Tails here did everything he could to give you a new wing. Please don't be mad at him. If anything, I think it makes you look even awesomer than before!"

Rainbow wiped a few tears from her face. "Y-You really think so?"

"You bet! I would NEVER lie to you!"

A smile formed from Rainbow's lips. She could tell that Scootaloo was being sincere with the compliment. Arguing anymore would only make the three of them feel worse. The guilt Rainbow had for lashing out in the first place tore away at her morale.

"Thanks, Squirt. Saying that says a lot to me-" Before the cyan mare could finish, a blinding green light filled the room. As the light faded away, Sonic, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle revealed themselves, oblivious of which room they were in.

"Oh, yeah! I love doing that!" the blue blur cheered.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle shivered, still holding onto Sonic's leg. "Never again... Never again... Never again..."

Sonic sweat dropped, turning to the earth pony attached to his other leg."It wasn't that bad, right Apple Bloom?"

"Ah'm gonna throw up..." As Apple Bloom looked up, Sonic could see her pale green face.

"Bathroom's to right across the hall." he weakly chuckled. As the young girl quickly ran off, Sweetie Belle finally looked in front of her to find a stunned Scootaloo with the widest smile she had seen in a long time.

"Sweetie Belle!"

"Scootaloo!" The two embraced in a warm hug as the others watched and smiled. "Apple Bloom and I have been looking everywhere for you!"

"I'm glad to see you, too. Trust me, once Apple Bloom finishes hurling in the bathroom, we have a lot of catching up to do."

"It's only been five hours."

"Well, those were very strange five hours." As the two fillies continued conversing, Sonic looked at Rainbow Dash.

" 'Sup?" He causally said. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, but I think you've already heard of me, considering I saved your life as well as Scootaloo's."

The cyan mare chuckled. "Nope, never heard of you, but I think YOU'VE heard of me. The name's Rainbow Dash; the fastest flier to ever come out of Cloudsdale."

Sonic smiled and lowered his brow slightly. "Nope, never heard of YOU either." By the way, mind if I look at your new wing. The pegasus nodded, extending her mechanical wing into view. Sonic's stare directed itself at Rainbow's wing, then back to Tails.

"Not bad, little bro. I gotta hand it to you, for a 12-year-old, you sure can do some awesome stuff."

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened in both shock and amazement. "A 12-YEAR-OLD OPERATED ON ME?!"

Sonic shrugged casually. "Yeah. He's the best person I know when it comes to tinkering with machines. Trust me, he never gets anything wrong when it comes to what he does! At least, I hope so." he joked, unaware of the worries that ran through the mare's mind.

WARNING! RAINBOWDASH.EXE HAS STOPPED WORKING

Rainbow's eye twitched.

After Apple Bloom finished throwing up her lunch and Rainbow go out of the sick bay, everyone sat down in the main room. As people traded their stories for a good hour, Sonic finally stood up. "Now, I know this is a bit strange meeting a totally awesome hero and his cool genius sidekick." Sonic motioned to Tails, who waved to the others. "But we've got some explaining to do.

As the group leaned in to hear what he had to say, Sonic pulled out the Chaos Emerald he got from Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Everyone stared intently into the mystical jewel. "This is a Chaos Emerald. To put it simply, these things have been life savers in the past and if we can get all seven of them, we can totally end this war without any problems."

"That's not very descriptive." Rainbow Dash deadpanned.

Sonic smirked, continuing his lecture. "Well, how about this? They allow teleportation which is how Scootaloo's friends and I got here."

"Don't remind me." Apple Bloom groaned, still remembering the nausea she suffered from her first experience.

"Along with that, we can also use these to manipulate chaos energy, obtain super forms, get free WiFi, you know, stuff like that."

"Whoa whoa whoa. Hold up a sec." Rainbow intervened. "Chaos energy?! What's that? A remnant of Discord's power?"

"I don't know who that is, but I can assure you, the energy I'm talking about hasn't had an official clear and cut backstory of where it originated since the beginning of time. At least, as far as I know." Sonic tossed the emerald up and caught it over and over again like it was a toy.

"Well, I don't get why you're acting so casually." Apple Bloom growled. "This isn't some game we're playing, you know. The Crystal War against King Sombra has been leading on for three years! "

"Well..." Sonic started, pointing a thumb to his chest. "You're looking at the guy who's survived a fall from space, defeated genies, demi-gods, massive hulking robots, survived a hyper-go-on powered black hole, and more recently, corrected the flow of time itself. Oh, and by the way, I've been doin' this for 26 years. So, you wanna keep on going, or are we good?" The blue blur flashed a wide grin and lowered his brow slightly in amusement, watching as Apple Bloom almost fell over in her seat.

"You don't look 26." Scootaloo interjected.

"You see, I'm technically only 20. Don't ask. I never understood it either." He then turned back to the others. "Any other questions?" No one spoke. "Good. Well, now that that's out of the way, Rainbow Dash, You're coming with me."

She nodded, puffing her chest out with pride. "Finally! Time to get back out there and kick some butt!"

"Wait, have you even tested your wing?" Sonic asked.

Rainbow immediately went silent. "That's what I thought. Just try and keep up!" With a flash, Sonic ran out the door, leaving behind a blue streak.

"Oh, it is on!" Rainbow narrowed her eyes and flapped her wings. In one move, she lifted her hooves off the ground and took off after Sonic. Even though she was keeping up her speed, however, she struggled to keep her balance and soon found herself face first in a pile of dirt. Luckily, Sonic had stopped a few feet ahead and darted back towards her.

After pulling the young mare out of the ground, the blue blur put a hand to the back of his head and nervously smiled. "Okay, Dashie. We've got some work to do..."

Rainbow then rose back on her hooves and shook her head. "Don't worry! I got this!" She then pulled herself off the ground and managed to keep her balance... for a hole five seconds. She then landed back on the ground, rapidly itching the fur around her metal appendage. "What? It's really itchy!"

Sonic then applied an ancient technique used since the dawn of time.

Raise hand. Extend palm. Apply to face.