Sonic Forces: Equestria Divided

"ZZZ... ZZZ..." Sonic's snores echoed throughout the entire room as a magazine with a picture of himself rested over his face. Before long, ten loud and annoying rings from a nearby alarm clock started to wake him up.

Sonic lazily raised his right hand and pulled the magazine off of his face and slowly started to open his eyes. He closed his eyes again and gave a big, long yawn, stretching all of his limbs.

"Yaaaaawwn! Boy, is it that late already? Sheesh!" He clicked his tongue a few times before storing the magazine in his head quills and jumping up onto his feet. After finally opening his eyes Sonic noticed that he was no longer in the comfy confines of his home, but instead, a dully-colored storage room with an abundance of gadgets and scrap metal lying around the room. It seemed that he had just fallen asleep at Tails' house and that his sidekick had gone off to work on new inventions. The couch he had slept on seemed different for some reason.

However, there was something missing in his mind. Something that he should've remembered, but he soon thought little of this inconvenience.

It was then that he noticed that there was a door leading to another room. The sound of a welding flame emitted from said room. Getting one last stretch in, Sonic started to make his way towards the door and eventually pushed it open.

What he found in the other room was... interesting to say the least. The room itself was nothing out of the ordinary. A chalkboard sat close to a work desk with blueprints taped to the walls and more devices and inventions sat next to the work station.

The thing sitting there, however, was a light yellow equine with a brilliant amaranth mane. Their tail had a crane-like hook attached to it and a pair of goggles covered their eyes.

"Tails? Is that you?" Sonic asked, taking another step forward.

"Huh?!" The mare working at the work station took off her goggles and snapped her head over to a tall, blue, anthropomorphic hedgehog with striped red running shoes and white gloves. "AAHHHH!" Almost immediately after taking a look, the young girl fell out of her seat from both confusion and fear.

"So... not Tails." Sonic then walked up to her and extended his hand. She was hesitant to take the gesture, scooting a few inches back."Hey, chill out, kid. I don't bite!" he joked. The engineer finally took his hand and stood up, now staring even more intently at him. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. After what seemed like an eternity of staring, the mare finally spoke up.

"Who are you? " she asked curriosly, pointing a hoof at him.

"I go by many names, but you can call me Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!" he pointed to himself with his thumb and gave a toothy smile.

"Nice name. Pleasure bein' your acquaintance. Ah'm Apple Bloom! Master engineer and Appleloosa's head inventor!" Her voice had a southern accent to it.

Sonic then placed his hands on his hips and looked around. "So, I take it this is where you do all your inventions and whatnot?"

Apple Bloom gave an affirmative nod. "Yep! Built it from the ground up into what it is today!"

"Heh. You remind me a lot of my sidekick, Tails. I bet you and him would have a field day together!" Sonic chuckled. "But anyways, why am I here? In fact, where IS here?! Last time I checked, my sofa doesn't belong in a storage room."

Apple Bloom's expression suddenly turned grim. "You're in Equestria and while 'ah do have a theory to why ya'll are here, it isn't exactly the greatest time to be here either."

"Why so?" Sonic asked.

"Ya' see, Equestria's been at a hard, long war for fifteen straight years!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.

Sonic put a hand to his chin. "So, who's it against?"

"That's just it. We're at war with each other." The mare replied.

"Wait a minute. Your at war with yourselves!?" Sonic exclaimed. Apple Bloom gave a quick nod. "Yeesh. That' sounds rough."

"You'd be right 'bout that. In fact, this ties into my theory. You see, last night, I had put the finishing touches on my interdimensional transportation device!"

"So, a teleporter?" Sonic asked.

"In essence, yes. But anyways, I thought that if I could get that thing to work, I could call for help from another universe and help end the war! Of course, it didn't work out so well. Eventually I tossed it into the storage room with all the other failed inventions."

"If it failed, then how am I here?" Sonic pointed a finger to himself.

"You must've been summoned from an interdimensional disturbance caused by the materials used in the transportation device. I did use some strange resources."

Sonic tilted his head. "Like what kind of resources?"

Apple Bloom scratched the back of her head. "Um... the main thing were these gemstones that I found at the crash site of a meteorite.

"That gemstone wouldn't happen to be multicolored and cut in the shape of a diamond, would it?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah. How'd ya' know?" Apple Bloom replied.

The blue blur smirked at the response. "Those things have been life savers in the past. Their called the Chaos Emeralds and-" He stopped, noticing the concerned look on Apple Bloom's face. "What's wrong?"

"Ya' see, chaos isn't something we look at as life saving. If anything, it made our lives worse." she stated, shivering at the horrible memories with a certain God of Chaos."

Sonic carefully thought on how to word this and soon enough, had come up with a solution."Don't worry. These things aren't actually chaos related. Well, they are, but I can activate the positive energy within them." Apple Bloom nodded, now gaining a better understanding of the jewels. "I've used these things to put a planet back together, correct the flow of time, defeat demigods, teleport, you know, that kind of stuff."

Apple Bloom took a second to process all of this information. "Wow. Just, wow! I wish I still had those things!"

Sonic's expression turned slightly worried. "What do you mean if you still had them?"

"Ya see, after I inserted it into the main modulator, it just disappeared in a green flash!" she exclaimed.

"Chaos Control."

W-What?" Apple Bloom stammered.

"If used incorrectly, you can actually send the emeralds far away by mistake if your not careful, but not before preforming Chaos Control. That most likely created that distortion thing that sent me here." As Sonic finished explaining the situation to Apple Bloom, she slumped her shoulders.

"Hey, don't worry about it. We'll them it back, no sweat!"

"Really? How? The way you put it, finding those things sound impossible to find and hold onto!" Apple Bloom stated.

Sonic quickly scratched his head. "You got something around here to track my speed?"

"Why'd ya want to go an' do somethin' like that?" the engineer asked.

"You'll see." He replied slyly.

Soon enough, Sonic was set up inside a big hamster wheel with monitors and statistic screens wired up to it. Sonic finished up his leg stretches and gave a thumbs up to Apple Bloom. He then started jogging at a slightly above average speed.

"28 miles per hour? That's it?" She asked angrily. "You had me set this all up for that?"

She then noticed a small smirk form on Sonic's face. "Wait for it." In the fraction of a second, his speed instantaneously shot up to a ridiculous rate. His arms were now thrown back as he continued accelerating. "How's that?"

Apple Bloom's eyes shrunk as she took a glance at the speedometer. "457! No way!" she exclaimed.

Sonic then came to a screeching halt and jumped out of the wheel.

"I'd go faster, but I think you get the idea." he said casually.

Apple Bloom, on the other hand, was completely astounded by the raw speed of the hedgehog. "This. Is. AMAZING! With that kind of speed, we can get those emeralds back in a day, tops!"

"Well, it's not that simple." Sonic interrupted"

"What?"

"Well, you see, I don't have a good way of tracking them down without having one. And even then, it's still pretty hard." He explained. Apple Bloom's spirit was suddenly smashed into a million pieces.

"Oh. Ok." She said solemnly.

"It's like I said before. Don't worry about it. I we'll find them eventually. In the meanwhile, I wanna see what you were working on earlier."

Sonic then happily watched as her spirits were lifted back up. "Oh, right!" She darted over to the chair placed next to the workbench. "I was just finishing my work on a prototype flamethrower. Still haven't come up with a name for it. Anyways, I need you to be quiet for a minute while I install the main igniter, ignition, and its regulator."

Sonic nodded and watched as Apple Bloom held a metal wire in her hoof and started to bend metal around to a desirable angle. Sweat trickled down her forehead as she worked with each piece. It was like watching Tails tinker with inventions all over again.

After a few minutes, she was about to finish installing the ignition when Sonic heard the faint sound of footsteps growing louder by the second.

Without further warning, an armored mare taller than Apple Bloom barged through the door. Something that caught Sonic's eye was that she was missing her right eye. "APPLE BLOOM!" she shouted. This startled both Sonic and Apple Bloom, causing them both to flinch. Her hoof jerked suddenly from the outburst and the metal wire she held cut open the igniter.

A small explosion of smoke blew up right in Apple Bloom's face as the other mare sweat dropped. It was only because of her goggles that the engineer did not get anything stuck in her eyes.

"What the heck, sis!? Did you even read the sign!?" Apple Bloom growled, pushing her goggles up on her forehead.

The older mare flinched at the tone. "Shoot, Apple Bloom, ah'm so sorry..." she replied. As Apple Bloom walked away to clean the soot off of her face, the other mare took a look at the strange contraption. "What are you workin' on, anyway?"

"Ah was installing the ignition in that prototype flamethrower. Don't touch it." Apple Bloom said.

She gave a playful scoff and shook her head. "Psh, really? Don't ya' think this is a bit of a waste of talent? Why the hay would we use flamethrowers in battle?" she then looked over to Sonic and narrowed her gaze. "But as for you. Who are you and what are ya'll doin' 'round my baby sister?"

Sonic took a slight step back and scratched the back of his head. "Whoa whoa! Slow down. Apple Bloom and I are cool, um..."

"Applejack."

"Thanks. Anyways, I woke up in her storage room and I've been hanging out with her ever since." Sonic finished. Applejack's right eye then lit up with a strange red glow. She took a second to look intently at Sonic, eyes narrowed, before her expression eased up slightly.

"Alright. I believe ya." Applejack stated.

"What was that?" Sonic asked.

"The One True Sight. Allows me to see through lies, illusions, and deceit." she explained.

"Cool. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. Fastest thing alive, righter of wrongs, eater of chili dogs!"

Applejack scoffed. "Great, just what I needed. Another Rainbow Dash..." Before she could continue, Apple Bloom returned, her face now clean from the soot.

"As for you, young lady, I want to talk to you about-"

"Spare me the speech, Applejack." Apple Bloom cut her off before she could continue. "I know why you came all the way here. Sweetie Belle came to Appleloosa to hang out with me, just like old times."

"You know her visit costed us five dead solders and fourteen crippled, right?" Applejack asked, malice in her voice.

"Yes, because that moron ignored their flag and attacked them anyway." Apple Bloom grumbled.

"It was a Whitegold Airship! What did you expect?!"

"I expected you to choose guards who think with their HEADS and not with those stupid prejudices this house was built with! Your soldier didn't give her the chance to do other than looking for me, anyway! She fled before you could reach her."

At this point, Apple Bloom might as well been radiating anger. Taking a deep breath, she continued, now in a slightly mellowed state, but not by much.

"It was for the best, though. If your soldiers had managed to find her and do... what they usually do, Whitegold would be all over us. Maybe I would be their target!"

"Whatever the reason they pick up, should they be stupid enough to come against us we will always be ready to fight!"Applejack stated in a stern tone.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Apple Bloom's shout of protest shook the very building they were in. Sonic jumped a little at the outburst.

"For the first time in this war, a small light of hope for peace occurred when you and Rainbow Dash of all ponies took a truce during the battle of Skyfall! That had to mean something!"

"What happened at Skyfall was only a matter of time." Applejack shot back. "She suffered a lot of losses and she would rather have had us as allies during that fight instead of those griffon rascals. Also, our pegasus auxiliary force is bigger. And knowing there are still those freaks who prefer anarchy over order still roaming around... I don't think we will be talking about long-term peace anytime soon."

Applejack closed her one remaining eye and took a deep sigh. "I will let this go, for the sake of your good ol' times. But next time, white flag or not, we will carry out the law!"

"What? Why?" Apple Bloom shrieked.

"No unicorn is to be trusted."

"But why? She is not a fanatic of Moon and Star! How can you be sure that she has ill intentions? How can you be sure she didn't come on her own initiative? Can you even give her the chance to be 'scanned' by that freak eye of yous like you did for Sonic?"

"..." Applejack wasn't sure how to respond to this. Sonic could see her expression lighten slightly, but only slightly.

"How can you be sure she is not as SICK of this STUPID WAR AS I AM?!" She burst through the door and started running away from the building.

"Apple Bloom, wait!" Applejack called out with Sonic following the two.

"You heard me! I'm sick of this war! I... I built things. HORRIBLE things. I made that my talent. I did it because I hoped it would eventually bring peace to this land... Even if it was a forced peace... but now..." She then turned around and pushed her mussel up against Applejack's. "I swear! You will have to find somepony else to do your weaponry, cause I QUIT!"

"Because of a unicorn?" Applejack scoffed once more.

"Because of a FRIEND. For both my old friend and my new one!"

Apple Bloom was about to turn around to walk away, but not before hearing one last thing.

"I wish you weren't my sister." That was the final nail in the coffin. It hit Apple Bloom harder than a buck to the face on apple bucking day.

"WHHHAAHHH!" Tears streamed down from her eyes as she turned around and ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

Sonic watched as the pony left a trail of tears behind as the sound of sobbing echoed through the air. It saddened him so much to see such a young spirit crushed under the horrible realization that she was one of the few sane ponies in the world, but not as much as the anger he kept bubbling inside for the way Applejack had treated her.

"My, my. You must think you're real smart doing what you just did." Sonic growled. "Trust me when I say that you just made a huge mistake." Sonic then sped off towards Apple Bloom, leaving behind a sonic boom in his wake.

Now standing all by herself. Applejack did not feel anger. Instead, it was pity. Not for Sonic. Not for Apple Bloom. But for herself, for the decision she had just made could never be erased.