Sonic Forces: Equestria Divided

Apple Bloom smiled as the sun shone over the horizon. She and her friends had spent the entire morning deciding on what they would do to try and earn their cutie marks and discover their special talents. The trio walked through the bright streets of Ponyville as they thought.

"I say we try skydiving!" the pony to her right exclaimed, buzzing her tiny wings in excitement.

"What about singing?" the unicorn to her left added.

Apple Bloom closed her eyes and dug deep into her mind, trying to think of an idea to give to her best friends. After a second or two, her eyes snapped open as she thought of something she knew both of her friends would love.

"Ah' know!" the farm pony started. "How about, Cutie Mark Crusader Milk Shake Racers!" Apple Bloom watched happily as both of her friends grew wide smiles on their faces.

"Yeah!" the two exclaimed.

"Race ya' to Sugar Cube Conner!" Apple Bloom's pegasus friend laughed as she sped off without further warning.

"No fair, come back!" The unicorn followed suit with Apple Bloom tailing behind her. The three continued laughing as the gingerbread house of sweets came into view. As she approached the door, she felt a chill go down her spine as the sky started to turn a darker shade. Turning around, the farm pony saw this as worry overtook her.

"Hey, girls! Am I seeing things, or is Princess Luna calling in an early moon raising?" Apple Bloom asked. She looked for her friends to give their input, but they had mysteriously vanished into nothingness.

"A-Alright. What's goin' on around here?!" Apple Bloom asked to nopony in particular. Taking a another look at herself, she noticed that she was back in her older and developed body. Apple Bloom started walking away from Sugar Cube Corner and noticed that all the other ponies that once populated the town had disappeared along with her friend.

"Apple Bloom..."

The young pony stopped dead in her tracks. Didn't dare to turn around and try and find the source.

"Apple Bloom..."

She now started to sprint as fast as she could. She didn't know where she wanted to go, and frankly, she no longer cared. More and more, the eerie calls of her name flooded her mind. Suddenly, after failing to notice a pothole in front of her, she tripped and landed on her stomach.

She tried to get up, but felt something hold her right hoof back. She looked over to her hind legs to find that her right one was encased in a stone prison.

"No. No, no, no!" Apple Bloom continued to struggle before noticing that the air had become cold. Then, the sound of monstrous tidal waves pounded against her ears. Behind her, an entire flood of water approached at a rapid pace, sucking up everything in its path. "Come on! Let me go!" After a few more tugs, she gave into the inebital as a large body of water engulfed both the her and the town. Now submerged in at the bottom of the newly-created ocean, Apple Bloom frantically worked towards freeing herself even harder than before.

Her cheeks were puffed up, filled with whatever air she could breath in before the splash. Her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen and her eyes became bloodshot. She knew that time was running out.

It was then that the voices started to come back.

"Apple Bloom... Apple Bloom..."

'Please! Go away! Leave me alone!' Apple Bloom wanted to scream, but she needed to hold onto whatever air she had left. After another ten seconds, her vision started to blur as she breathed in the last of her air. But before she could pass out, a frightening creature of shadow with blood red eyes came into view. Apple Bloom's eyes shot back open as it lunged straight towards her.

"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Apple Bloom flung her hooves rapidly as the covers flew off of her bed. She rolled around in her mattress before her entire body fell off the bed. Luckily, Sonic had woken up and had caught her inches from the ground.

"Whoa there, kid! Calm down!" he exclaimed in a joking, yet sincere manner. Apple Bloom opened her eyes and looked around her. She took a hefty sigh of relief as Sonic sat her on the ground.

"Thank ya' kindly, Sonic."

"Rough night?" Sonic asked, putting his hands on his hips.

Apple Bloom sadly nodded. She then went into full detail into explaining the horrific nightmare to Sonic. Apple Bloom's tone made it obvious that she was still shaken up from the experience. It wasn't until she got to the part about drowning that sweat began to fall down Sonic's forehead.

Apple Bloom noticed this and tilted her head slightly. "You alright?" She asked.

Sonic snapped out of his trance and lightly shook her head. "Sorry. I just sorta... kinda... maybe... can't swim..."

"Oh..." Apple Bloom was not prepared for this. For someone as confident and happy as Sonic was, she didn't think that he couldn't do something as simple as swimming.

"Yeah... Not my strongest point." Sonic sighed.

"Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I can't dance!" Apple Bloom laughed.

Sonic smiled and ruffled Apple Bloom's hair a bit. "That's fine, kid. Not everyone can have awesome dance moves like myself. So anyways, you know what's for breakfast?"

"Let's head to the Garden of Appleloosa. They're servin' apple cinnamon waffles!" Sonic could see a little drool fall from Apple Bloom's mouth as she lazily thought of the delicious treat.

"Apple Bloom. Yo! Earth to Apple Bloom?" Sonic joked, waving his hand in front of her eyes. Apple Bloom snapped out of her trance and looked back to the hedgehog. "You mind leading the way?"

"Huh? Oh, right." Apple Bloom blinked and flashed nervous smile, a blush slightly noticeable on her cheeks.

Apple Bloom had grabbed their breakfasts and made her way back to Sonic and their table secluded far from the others. As much as Sonic would have liked to go up and get his food for himself, Apple Bloom insisted she did it to avoid alerting anypony of his presence. Besides her, Applejack, and the disrespectful guard, no one was aware of Sonic's presence.

Apple Bloom sat down her and Sonic's breakfasts before the blue hero quickly ate away at his food. She giggled slightly and nibbled away at her food as well.

"Wow! This stuff is pretty good! Doesn't beat chili dogs, but it's still up there in my list." Sonic praised.

Apple Bloom chuckled slightly. "I thought you'd like them. Apple cinnamon waffles are my favorite!" She took a big bite our of her second waffle with a smile.

"So... you wanna tell me why this whole thing started?"" He almost immediately regretted his choice of words as Apple Bloom flinched at the question. He quickly scratched his head in embarrassment. "Okay, touchy subject. My bad."

"No, it's fine." Apple Bloom said. She cleared her throat before starting with her explanation. "It all started when Princess Celestia and Luna disappeared from Equestria without a trace. They would raise and lower the sun and moon respectively. When they continued moving on their own, everyone lost it and all Tartarus began to break loose. The Elements of Harmony tried to keep everything under control, but even they would soon succumb to the panic and chaos. They formed their own respective houses to wage war in, hoping to bring their ideal world into reality to take the place of the former one with the Two Sisters. The rest is history and that led us to the horrible state we're in now."

Sonic took a few moments to digest everything he heard. He had to choose his next words carefully. "My world isn't always sunshine and rainbows either."

"Really?" Apple Bloom skeptically asked.

"Really." Sonic chuckled slightly. "For 25 years, I've been driving off a mad doctor from enslaving the entire world for what seems like every other month. He always says he wants to build an amusement park on top of the entire world. I personally think that's a waste of time, but that's besides the point. I've kicked his sorry butt more times than I can count, but even still, I still it's not always easy. Well, I mean, a lot of it is, but not all of it."

"I'd take that world over this one any day." Apple Bloom sighed. "You're world sounds like paradise compared to current-day Equestria."

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm here to put a stop to this insanity. And when I do, this'll all be over and you guys can all have some peace again for yourselves. Now no more moping around. I don't want you to lose all of your appetite."

Apple Bloom found some comfort in what he said and looked towards her last waffle.

However, before she could consume her last piece of breakfast, tens of hundreds of flaming projectiles started to fall from the sky. Sonic was the first to see this as his ears twitched slightly.

"Look out!" Sonic then dove across the table and knocked Apple Bloom to the ground as the object smashed into the ground beside them.

Getting up from the ground, Sonic took a look at the bits of flaming projectile skewered around the area. After further inspection, it turned out to be Sonic's couch exploded into hundreds of pieces. Sonic sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Okay, I wanted to stay in bed today, but I didn't want the bed to to stay with me."

At that very moment, a ringtone went off from Apple Bloom's wrist communicator. "Hello?"

"Apple Bloom!" Applejack called out from the phone line. "We've got Moon and Star Troops surgin' into Earthbound territory. I'm sorry to say this, but they've gone and destroyed your workshop.

"WHAT?!" Apple Bloom was in complete shock and disbelief. The workshop was where she lived. It was where she pored all of her heart and soul into her inventions. It couldn't be gone, could it? "You're lying! It can't be gone! It can't be gone! They must have destroyed something else!" Tears welled up in the young mare's eyes as she struggled to not throw her wrist communicator on the ground and smashing it.

"I'm not lyin'. You're no longer safe 'round here. I'm sorry." Applejack continued, urgency present in her voice. "You need to high-tail it out of here as fast as you can. The Moon and Star troops are tearing apart all our facilities looking for you. Stay safe, little sis."

With that, her wrist communicator died out as the young mare looked up at Sonic who was staring at the explosions going off in the distance. His fist clenched at the thought of this senseless violence. He took a moment before turning to Apple Bloom. "They just made this personal." he growled.

"S-Sonic?" Apple Bloom whimpered. She had never seen Sonic lose his cool like this before. It was a scary sight to behold as the hedgehog seethed with anger.

He then took a sigh and turned back to the girl. "But, I can't just run in there and leave someone defenseless. They're gonna pay. I'll make sure of it." He then flashed a playful smile to Apple Bloom before narrowing his eyes. "But right now, we don't have time to lose. Better kick things up a notch!"

"Sonic, what are thinking?" Apple Bloom asked with a nervous tone.

"Hang on tight!" In the fraction of a second, Sonic grabbed Apple Bloom's hoof and started to run away from the town. His speed instantaneously doubled as a blue cone-shaped aura enveloped around the two as they barreled through the area at high speeds.

"Oh applesauce!" Apple Bloom screamed from the thrill and fear she gained from this experience. As they continued to run through the wasteland, a figure from above looked down upon them.

"The little blue savior. Run while you still can. You're demise shall come due time."