Equestria Girls/Sonic Boom: The Crossover Series Pre-Sequel Sequel

Chapters

Last Time On...
Between Seasons
Escalating Quickly
After School
Crystal Unclear
The Chapter With Everything Necessary to Move the Story Forward
Needlemice in a City
The Meeting
Amateur Movie Maker
City Run
A Chapter That's Totally Focused On Team Sonic
Previously On "Last Time On..."...

Last Time On...

Equestria Girls

Twilight could hardly believe how much her life had changed. Not that long ago, she’d be looking into strange phenomena that had been occurring at her old high school’s rival, Canterlot High; now, partly due to her research almost consuming her and partly due to Dean Cadance making it possible, she was a student at the school learning more from the girls who had been at the center of all the strange happenings. It all seemed so surreal to look back on.

She was certainly at the top of CHS when it came to knowledge. Not that that was a surprise; there was almost nothing in Crystal Prep’s curriculum that she hadn’t aced and she had hoped her research would launch her to much greater heights than if she continued to stay there, but she didn’t care about that anymore. The students at Crystal Prep had hardly done anything to connect with her or accept her attempts to reach out to them until everything that happened at this year’s Friendship Games. All the trouble her research caused, the madness it had spawned within her before it was pushed back…

At the time, she’d wondered if it would be better to stay at Crystal Prep and make friends with the other students, who’d all had a change of heart after their pressuring pushed her over the edge, but that idea didn’t last. She wanted to make a fresh start and develop herself with the help of those who knew a lot about being friends, and Canterlot High was the school to go to for that. Of course, not everyone agreed with her decision, but she had a feeling this was the best choice for her and for Spike.

And that’s why, on this day, they were joining their new friends out on the school’s front lawn for a picnic, right in front of the statue that had contained some of what their friends had called Equestrian magic. It was such a lovely day, the sky clear and the sun shining, and she felt like this was a really good experience for her and that nothing @(&!&@*()$^*(%^*@(&)*@(&%*

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“Oh, come on! Are you seriously going to drag this story out already?”

“Hey! What did you just do? You like glitched what I had written there!”

“You want to know what I did, huh? Well, I ain’t telling you! You need to develop better writing habits and skills!”

“First of all, what do YOU know about writing? And second, I must be doing something… decently if people want to read my stories. Whatever it is I do that they like, you should let me do that!”

“After you’ve waited how long? Isn’t there an idiot out there who doesn’t want to wait on you and decided to take continuing what you’ve done into his own hands, regardless of what you say?”

“He’s not an idiot, and what he chooses to do is not the issue. I’m pretty sure it’s well-established that I have communication issues. I hardly have any right to be questioning what anybody does.”

“That’s still what pushed you over, isn’t it? He spoke up, made you angry, and now you gotta get back in the game!”

“‘Angry’ is such a harsh word…”

“Actually, it’s ‘strong’ word.”

“How did he get here?!”

“I don’t know, but that doesn’t matter! The point is, you want to do this story and you don’t want to do all the things that have made you want to kill yourself with every other thing you’ve done!”

“You have such a way with words…”

“So get to work and get this story started! You’ve already brought up the events and characters that are important to this crazy tale you’ve cooked up! Stop dragging it along behind you like you drag everything else and get going already!”

“All right, all right! Geez, I’m trying to be good about all of this, but man…”

Between Seasons

It was another fine day in Hedgehog Village, the kind of peaceful day that the villagers enjoyed if they happened to be out and about instead of glued to their TVs. The island had seen quite a couple of days like this lately, actually; aside from the regular attacks from Dr. Eggman’s robots and his occasional attempts to con the villagers with schemes that weren’t quite as clever as usual, things had been relatively quiet. It was like they were going through an off-season so to speak, and while the villagers weren’t really bothered by it due to their simple nature, things had gotten a bit stale for Team Sonic and most of the team was wishing for something interesting to happen. Their own antics were only amusing for so long, after all.

Despite this, Amy Rose was her usual optimistic self as she made her way through the village to the Meh Burger to meet up with her friends. As she got closer to the restaurant, she spotted them sitting at their usual table, though none of them had any food in front of them. “Hey guys!” she called as she approached.

Sonic raised his left hand in a half-hearted wave, his right hand currently supporting the side of his head, as he grunted, “Hey Amy.” Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks waved to her as well, their greetings not much heartier than Sonic’s.

Amy slid into her seat, a concerned look on her face as she asked, “What’s wrong, guys? Is Dave giving lousy service again?”

Sonic replied, “Don’t know. He hasn’t come out yet. We’re still waiting on our order.”

Knuckles nodded, “Yeah… Maybe now that we’re all here, the food and the service will be better.”

Amy spoke, “Oh, come on, guys! What are you all moping about?” She held out her arms, “It’s a beautiful day, there isn’t a cloud in the sky, the village is quiet…”

Sonic interjected, “Yeah, just like yesterday, and the day before yesterday. Eggman hasn’t done anything in days, and even when he does attack, there’s nothing special about it. It’s gotten so boring around here lately.”

Sticks spoke up, “It sure has… and that means something REALLY big is going to happen soon!”

Tails sighed, “You’ve said that pretty much every day lately, Sticks. You couldn’t possibly know that for sure.”

Sticks glared at him, “Oh yeah? Do you know how the luck balance of the universe is shifted?”

Tails shook his head, “No!”

Sticks said, “I’m sure there’s been another shift… and I KNOW there’s someone new here who plans to fix it. He’d better if he knows what’s good for him.” She pointed her left index finger at her head while she was talking. Sonic and the others didn’t question her, assuming it was just Sticks being Sticks.

Dave soon came out from behind the counter with their food on a large tray. He walked over to their table and served them each their own tray, simply saying, “Hope you can enjoy your food” before he went back to his post.

Sonic watched him for a moment before he lifted the top bun of his burger to check it. “Oh, for- He gave me extra pickles on purpose! Again!” he complained.

Amy looked down at her tray and saw that she had been given the completely wrong item. “Well, I guess Dave is in a bad mood today,” she sighed, resting her arms on the table.

“I miss Ador-O-Bot 2000,” Sticks said suddenly as she looked down at her food.

Everyone looked at her in surprise. “Well, that just came out of nowhere,” Tails remarked.

Amy said, “Sticks, he’s not gone. He’s just protecting the Valley of the Cubots. He wanted a new purpose and he found it. Even if… that means he’s not entirely friendly with us now.”

Sticks replied, “And I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me until the day after! I’m the one who wanted to take him home! He lived with me and I wanted to be there when he went out into the world on his own, just like with Buster! Why didn’t anyone tell me?!”

Sonic shrugged, “Well, you were doing… whatever that day, Sticks. What were you doing, anyway? Uncovering a new conspiracy? On some dangerous adventure? Tuning your banjo?”

Sticks stared at him hard for a moment before she glanced off to the side and nonchalantly said, “I don’t remember. I’d have to ask someone else to remind me.” Sonic exhaled, letting out a cross between a sigh and a groan at the badger’s mindset.

Knuckles held a finger to his chin and looked up for a few seconds before he started, “You know what I was just wondering?”

Tails unremarkably asked, “What, if he’s still on our side or not?”

Knuckles looked down and finished, “Whatever happened to that place where we got him?”

Amy asked, “What, you mean Ragna Rock?”

Knuckles replied, “Yeah, whatever. What happened to it?”

Tails spoke, “You don’t remember? Eggman’s Ragnium mining operation was ruined. He said he had to go check his insurance policy afterwards to see what it covered.”

Knuckles asked, “Okay, but… wasn’t it ready to explode?”

Everyone thought about the echidna’s words. “Hey, that’s right. He did say that, didn’t he?” Sonic remarked after a moment.

“Yeah. The pressure was building up because we were closing all the fissures that Eggman’s mining was creating,” Amy nodded.

“Yeah, but that was when all the machinery and everything was still intact. It was all destroyed, so there’s nothing there that could cause the pressure to build up. There’s no way that an explosion happened after that,” Tails explained.

Sticks gave the fox a suspicious look. “Are you sure about that?” she questioned.

Tails gave her an irritated look, “Of course I’m sure! The only way that Eggman’s Ragnium mine could explode now is if the volcano on the island erupted, and I can safely say we stopped any chance of that happening.” Feeling he had no further need to explain, he turned back to his meal, grabbed a fry, and started eating.

He was certain what he’d said was true, but he was going off of how Ragna Rock had looked when they’d set out for home. Tails had not been back there since, nor had he been keeping an eye on the island to see what it was doing. And even if he had, he would have to have an eye on the island at that exact moment to see the long-term effects of the events that had taken place on Ragna Rock.

It hadn’t been that long ago that Team Sonic had battled D-Fekt to save Eggman and shut down his mining operation, but now the island’s volcano, which had been relatively quiet at the time, was now becoming active. It was strange that it had changed so suddenly, but perhaps due to the battle with D-Fekt and the work Eggman had done when he was mining, perhaps it was a delayed reaction-

“Sounds a lot like that terrible dinosaur movie that’s out now.”

“Hey, hey. Don’t go there.”

“Well, it does! It was convenient there and it’s convenient here, ain’t it?”

“Look, I’m trying to move away from doing this sort of thing. I would really appreciate it if you didn’t-”

“NOT ONE OF THOSE MOVIES WAS ANY GOOD!”

“…”

-that was now starting to rear its ugly head. And naturally, with the island being so far away from Bygone Island, the erupting could not be seen by anyone there. Even the plume of smoke rising up into the sky could not be readily seen.

Lava bombs came shooting out of the caldera, landing in the waters around the island while lava flowed out of the crater. With the island being so small, it naturally flowed everywhere it could reach, including into the remains of the Ragnium mine. And while the damage done to the mine might have slowed its crawl somewhat, the eruption was showing no signs of stopping anytime soon, so it wasn’t going to take long for the pressure to start building up…

Eventually, another explosion rocked the island that originated from the mine, causing another eruption of sorts. It wasn’t as powerful as the first, but it could be considered worse since it sent mostly unprocessed Ragnium into the air that, unlike the smoke, came back down. Normally, this might not turn out to be a big deal, but this was far from a normal world. Things were always skewed here; while it involved things that others might find hilarious, it was hard to find anyone who would disagree that things in this world happened without reason or without humorous effect involved.

“HEY! No editorials!”

“You started it.”

And so, it happened that some of the Ragnium ended up landing in a specific spot on the surface of the water and sinking below. For a while, nothing seemed to be off; even the fish seemed to be undisturbed by the green cloud that drifted downwards. Then, all of a sudden, the schools of fishes darted away in a panic. Something was coming up.

A large figure burst through the surface of the water, droplets being sprayed around as it held up its mechanical arms and let out a loud yell that could be heard through the glass dome around its head. The figure slumped forward slightly afterwards, though it kept hovering above the surface of the water. It seemed like that it hadn’t moved in quite a while. The armor on the upper part of its long body was more than a little rusted, likely due to being exposed to the saltwater for so long, but there was no doubt about it; it was Lyric, the last of the Ancients.

After regaining his strength, Lyric opened his eyes and raised his head, looking at a message that was being displayed on the glass in front of him. “HEALING PROCESS COMPLETE. SUSPENDED ANIMATION TERMINATED,” it read. Lyric dismissed the message after a few moments and glanced down at his right arm, which had suddenly come loose from its socket on its own. He used his left arm to pop it back in and, after a moment, he looked forward as a smile spread across his face. He began to laugh; it was a long, deep laugh that made it clear he was back and that (surely) the world was going to feel his wrath.

Escalating Quickly

Dr. Eggman, the most brilliant and handsome evil genius to ever set his sights on conquering the world, sat on his couch in his island lair, a pen held in his outstretched right hand. In his left hand was the daily newspaper, which he was holding up close to his face, a determined look on his face. An outside observer might not see it as such, but this was important work he was doing; his entire evil career was currently hanging in the balance.

“Hmm… An eight-letter word meaning ‘disaster’…” he mused as he glanced at the clue on the side. It seemed like such a simple word, so obvious an answer for his great intellect… and yet the answer wasn’t coming to him. He kept staring at the boxes, trying to mentally produce the word that was meant to fit in them.

Suddenly the door to his right slid open and Orbot and Cubot came floating in, Cubot’s arms swinging around in a panic. “Emergency!” the yellow bot cried.

“That doesn’t fit,” Eggman replied absently, not taking his eyes off the paper as his assistants came to a stop in front of his coffee table, both of them hovering in place.

“Red alert, Boss!” Orbot exclaimed.

“That’s two words!” Eggman growled, already starting to get annoyed by their intrusion.

“No, Boss! This is really important!” Orbot insisted.

Eggman finally moved the paper to the side to look at the two as he spoke, “Don’t you think I know that?! These crosswords can’t solve themselves, unfortunately! Give me some real answers if you want to help that badly!”

He started to look back at the paper when Orbot tried one more time, “Boss, we have a real situation! You have to see this!”

Eggman stopped and glared at the red-topped robot for a second before he let out an irritated sigh and set the paper and his pen down. “This had better be good!” he scowled as he stood up and made his way to the door, Orbot and Cubot following close behind.

Eggman stepped into his main control and walked over to the computer terminal, looking up at the monitors on the wall in front of it. The screens were showing surveillance footage of a familiar robot factory, which was fully operational and producing new robots. Eggman stared up at the screens for a few moments before he asked, “What is all this?”

Orbot spoke, “It’s the Ancient robot factory, Boss! The one you took over, remember?”

Eggman looked back at him with an odd expression before Orbot’s words clicked and his expression changed as he said, “Oh yes, that place! …I haven’t used that place in so long. No wonder I couldn’t place it.”

Cubot piped up, “Well, you must’ve kept everything you set up there active, Boss, because the systems picked up an intruder!”

Eggman turned back to the terminal and began typing on his keyboard as he asked, “Well, who is it? Sonic, I assume? That hedgehog always has to break and enter and touch my things, so…” He was brought to a surprising stop when the footage on the screen showed a familiar, armored snake as the perpetrator. Eggman quickly paused the footage as he exclaimed, “Lyric?!”

Cubot spoke up, “That’s the name I was trying to remember! I knew he looked familiar, but I couldn’t think of his name, we haven’t seen him in so long!”

Orbot asked, “Why is he back now, Boss? How is he back? I thought you said he was finished?”

Eggman replied, “He should’ve been! He fell out of his airship, when it was above the clouds!” He glared at the snake on the screen, “That old armor must be tougher than I thought.”

Cubot asked, “So what’s he doing in the factory?”

Eggman snorted, “Well, obviously, he doesn’t know it belongs to me now, so he’s taking it back and using it without my permission to create an army! Once he has that, well…” He paused and looked down, holding his left hand up near his mouth as he murmured, “What is the next thing he’d do? Come after me? Go after Sonic?” He thought for a few seconds before his eyes widened behind his sunglasses. “The Crystal of Power!” he exclaimed.

Orbot asked, “You mean the Meroke Crystal?”

Eggman turned his head to look at his assistants, “Not that crystal! The one Sonic and his friends were collecting the pieces of while they were following Lyric! That snake was after that crystal the entire time, and since Sonic conveniently decided to leave it behind on his airship, he’ll get it this time!”

Cubot turned to Orbot and asked, “They just left it behind?”

Orbot replied, “Apparently. Isn’t it just amazing how some people make a big deal out of leaving trash lying around and then they leave something so important behind the same way?”

Eggman didn’t hear the two, instead muttering to himself, “Lyric’s going to go after the crystal next. He had a number of plans for it in the files I recovered from the factory. If it’s as powerful as the Meroke Crystal or even stronger…”

Eggman mused quietly to himself for several moments before Cubot asked, “Uh, Boss? What are we gonna do?”

Eggman nodded a moment later, then turned to his assistants and said, “We’re going to do the unthinkable! We… are going to save the world!”

Both Orbot and Cubot looked shocked by this. “We are?” Orbot asked.

Eggman nodded, “Of course! Sonic may not have been able to know that Lyric wasn’t finished yet, but his reassembling of the Crystal of Power is going to endanger us all if Lyric gets his hands on it! Someone needs to get to that crystal before that molted old snake, and since we’re the first ones to know he’s back…”

Orbot finished, “It falls to us?” Eggman turned back to the terminal and began typing rapidly, prompting Orbot to ask, “What are you doing, Boss?”

Eggman replied without breaking his concentration, “I’m figuring out where Lyric’s airship crash-landed, getting the modified Eggmobile, and bringing back the Shark Bots. We’re going on an underwater safari!”

Cubot spoke, “Sweet! I’ll go pack the underwater safari gear!”

Later…

Sonic grunted as he struck a Destruction Trooper with a Homing Attack, the robot exploding after it fell out of the air and hit the ground while the blue hedgehog uncurled and landed on his feet. He immediately got back into an offensive stance as several ground-based troopers approached him. Behind him, Knuckles was giving his fists quite the workout taking out a group of ground-based Destruction Troopers while several closed in on Sonic, the blue hedgehog getting into an offensive stance at their approach.

After less than a minute, all the troopers were reduced to Ancient scrap metal and the two had a chance to pause and look around for more. “No more left? Well, looks like I win this round, Sonic!” Knuckles gloated after a moment.

The blue hedgehog shrugged, “Sure, you go ahead and believe that, Knuckles.” He then raised his right arm and clicked on his wrist communicator, saying after a moment, “Hey Tails, we’ve taken care of this group of robots. How are things looking now?”

At his workshop, Tails was looking at the screen of his laptop as he answered via his headset, “Uh, a little better, I guess. Amy and Sticks are busy in the middle of dealing with some of them right now, and I’m picking up signs of more across the island.”

Sonic asked, “What’s Eggman up to this time? It’s not like him to launch a robot attack without making an announcement beforehand, especially when it’s something new like this.”

Tails replied, “Well, that’s part of the reason I don’t think it’s him behind this, plus the Destruction Troopers aren’t exactly new for us.”

Sonic looked confused. “The what?” he asked.

“You know, the Ancient robots,” Tails replied. After a moment without any sort of response, he went on, “From thousands of years ago? The time of the Ancients? Their robotic soldiers?”

Sonic shrugged, “Oh. I didn’t realize they actually had a name.”

Tails continued, “We haven’t seen Ancient robots for quite a while, so this is really weird. The only place I can think that they could’ve come from is the robot factory we went through when we were trying to rescue Amy, but I could’ve sworn we shut that down. Did it get reactivated? And if it did, who’s behind it?”

Knuckles spoke up, “We could ask Eggman. There he is right now.” He pointed and Sonic followed his finger to see Eggman’s Eggmobile off in the distance. They were too far away to call out to him, but they were able to see the craft’s crane dangling underneath it with something in its grasp.

“Looks like he caught himself a prize. Some kind of big purple crystal. Kind of reminds me of the Meroke Crystal,” Sonic remarked.

While Knuckles expressed a bit of confusion about the Meroke Crystal, Tails was processing what Sonic said and was trying to put a name to it. “Big… Purple… Like the Meroke Crystal…” he murmured. His eyes widened suddenly and he exclaimed, “That must be the Lost Crystal of Power!”

Sonic looked up at Knuckles when the echidna asked, “Uh, what?”

Tails said, “The Lost Crystal of Power! You know, the one Lyric was looking for?”

Knuckles asked, “Who?”

Sonic, having recognized the name, said, “You know, Lyric! Big snake guy wearing armor?”

Tails added, “The last living Ancient?” When he didn’t hear any sound of recognition from Knuckles, he sighed and explained, “Okay, it was a while ago, but we came into conflict with Lyric after he was freed from the imprisonment his fellow Ancients had put him in thousands of years ago. He was searching for the shards of the Lost Crystal of Power and he kidnapped Amy to figure out where they were hidden. We found all the shards first and left the crystal on Lyric’s airship after he went overboard and we crashed it in the ocean.”

Knuckles’ face lit up, “Oh yeah, that’s right! I rem-” He stopped mid-sentence and his expression became blank. “…No, wait. I thought I had it.” He raised an eyebrow, “Can we start from the beginning again?”

Sonic let out a groan and spoke to Tails, “Let’s meet up with Amy and Sticks. Eggman must’ve reactivated the Ancient robots to keep us busy while he got the crystal. We’d better get it back from him.” He then switched off his communicator and started heading back towards Hedgehog Village with Knuckles in tow.

The two weren’t the only ones to spot Eggman and the crystal, however. Deep in the jungle, Lyric was overseeing an excavation several of his Destruction Troopers were conducting to find the crystal with his hands behind his back when another trooper approached him and whispered to him. Lyric turned to it afterwards and asked, “Really?” The trooper nodded, so Lyric said, “Then I suppose we need to pay this man a visit.” He turned back to the other Destruction Troopers and commanded, “That’s enough digging! The crystal’s been sighted heading for a nearby island. That is our destination now.” The troopers immediately stopped working at his words and obediently followed after him as he began to slither away, unaware of a pair of familiar red eyes watching him from afar.

Soon, at Dr. Eggman’s Lair

Dr. Eggman placed the Lost Crystal of Power standing up in one of his cages and stepped back before he used his wrist controller to activate the lasers. “There. That should keep it safe,” he said. He turned around to see Orbot and Cubot coming in with a dolly, both of them bringing it to a stop in front of him. “All right, you two, get this down to the storage room! It’ll be safe there” he ordered while pointing at the cage.

“Why can’t you do it, Boss?” Orbot asked.

“Because I’m making you two do it, that’s why! Now get to work, you lazy bolt brains!” Eggman yelled. The two robots started to move towards the cage, but they didn’t get far before an alarm started coming from one of the monitors in the living room and caught everyone’s attention. Eggman walked over to it and saw Team Sonic on the screen, the team of five making their way up to his lair from their landing point where they had left a parasail behind. They’d be at the front door soon; it was easy to guess considering how often it happened.

Eggman grimaced and looked back at his two assistants, saying, “I’ll deal with them. Get that crystal away from my coffee table!” While the two struggled to lift the cage up and put it on the dolly, Eggman exited the room and went to his main computer. He began fiddling with the controls, making the front door open for Team Sonic so they could enter and immediately locking it shut behind them. He then moved on from the door controls to continue his fiddling elsewhere.

He was just finishing adjusting the parameters programmed into his Badniks when he heard the door behind him sliding open. He stopped and turned around; Sonic and his friends were standing in the doorway, all of them glaring at him. “The jig’s up, Eggman! Give back the crystal you took!” Sonic said as they all took several steps forward.

Eggman coolly replied, “Why should I? So that you can drop it in the water again or in a hole somewhere and not even remember it the next time someone comes looking for it? This is actually a bit insulting, Sonic; I shouldn’t have to be doing your job for you!”

Sonic looked at him in confusion, “What are you talking about?”

Eggman went on, ignoring Sonic’s question, “Personally, I don’t know why you wouldn’t keep it around to use to crush your enemies like the vermin they are with it, but seriously? Just leaving it behind like that? What were you thinking?!”

Amy decided it was time for her to intervene. “Eggman, what are you trying to say?” Almost as soon as she finished speaking, the lair shook with the sound of something hitting it from outside. “What was that?!” Amy exclaimed as she and the rest of Team Sonic looked around in confusion.

Eggman turned to look at his computer screens with a grim expression. “He’s here,” he grunted.

Tails was the first to ask, “Who’s here?” He got his answer a moment later when the feed from a security camera outside the front door appeared on one of the computer screens, which showed Lyric trying to break the front door down. “Lyric?! He’s…?!” Tails exclaimed.

Eggman turned back around and finished, “Still alive? Yes. Even I thought he shouldn’t be trying to show me up anymore, but he somehow survived you dropping him out of the sky.”

Sonic stared up at the snake on the screen as he asked, “Why is he just now coming back?”

Eggman spoke, “Good question, but hardly one that matters now. Do you see why I took the crystal now? Someone had to get to it before he did, and clearly you simpletons weren’t doing anything about it! Since I was the only one who remembered the crystal, it was clearly my responsibility to make sure he couldn’t get it!”

Sticks pointed her boomerang at Eggman as she countered, “We came straight here ‘cause Sonic and Knuckles saw you taking the crystal here! Lyric probably saw you doin’ it too… by tappin’ into the government’s secret network of eyes!”

Knuckles almost immediately believed the badger’s words and he glared at Eggman as he said, “Not cool, Eggman! You made it easy for Lyric to find the crystal!”

Eggman held out his arms in exasperation, “Hey, evil robots are my thing, not saving the world! You can’t put all the blame on me!” An explosion rocked the lair before the argument could continue and they saw that Lyric had destroyed the front door and was making his way inside. “And now I can’t initiate a lockdown or use the exterior defenses. Thank you all for distracting me!” Eggman growled.

The door behind Team Sonic slid open a second later and everyone turned to see Lyric on the other side of it, a wide, toothy grin spreading across his face as he looked at everyone. “Oh, this is just too perfect,” he remarked.

“Lyric! Back for another shot at being good, or rather, bad, huh?” Sonic growled.

Lyric glared at Sonic, “You almost did manage to finish me off, Sonic. Even with landing in the water, my body and my armor were both badly damaged from that fall. I was in great pain; when I entered stasis, I wasn’t sure if it would be enough to keep me alive while I healed.” He clutched his right hand into a fist as he smirked, “Clearly I was meant to claim what’s mine, however! I was suddenly awoken to find that my injuries had healed and my suit had regained its power!” He continued to smirk as he looked at them all again, “And now that I’m back, I’ve come for what’s mine!”

Eggman spoke up, “Not anymore! The Crystal of Power is now a symbol of MY evil career! I stole it and you can’t have it~!”

Lyric’s eyes shifted to look up at the man, finally acknowledging his presence. “Ah, you. The one who thought he could take my robot factory and now my crystal from me,” he stated in a condescending tone.

Eggman yelled, “Your time is past, Lyric! You should’ve just stayed on the ocean floor and joined your fellow Ancients! My robots are far better than yours; you’ll never take the crystal from me!”

A smirk once again spread across Lyric’s face. “Oh? Then you shouldn’t have left it unattended,” he replied.

Eggman looked confused, “What? I didn’t…” A beeping from his wrist controller cut him off and he raised it and clicked it on, an irritated look on his face. “What?” he asked.

They all heard Cubot say, “Uh, Boss? We’ve kind of run into a little bit of… trouble. Uh, you see…” He suddenly let out a scream and they could hear Orbot screaming as well before the connection went dead.

“Cubot? Orbot?! Come in!” Eggman exclaimed, tapping his controller and sounding a bit frantic.

Everyone looked at Lyric when he let out a chuckle. “Do you really think I came here on my own without a plan in mind, Doctor? You have an entire network of tunnels below, tunnels you really should have thought about putting security countermeasures in. My Destruction Troopers might have had a little difficulty getting in if you had.”

Sonic growled, “You slithering creep!”

The door to the living room opened suddenly and everyone looked to see four floating Destruction Troops enter, two of them holding Orbot and Cubot by their necks and the other two holding up the cage containing the Lost Crystal of Power. Eggman looked at his two assistants before looking back at Lyric when the snake spoke, “You see, Doctor? You don’t deserve to have the crystal any more than these fools do; your failure to plan is proof of that. You can’t possibly defeat me with your inferior machines.”

An angry look crossed Eggman’s face. “Really? Well, I’ve got news for YOU, Lyric: you just made a very big mistake! This is my lair you’re invading!” As he was speaking, he brought up his wrist controller and pressed down on it as he finished. In response, laser turrets suddenly came out of the wall across from the living room and opened fire on the Destruction Troops, hitting the two holding Orbot and Cubot in the head before they could react and damaging the other two, forcing them to drop the cage before they fell on the floor.

Lyric’s eyes widened, “What?!” Eggman pressed his controller two more times, the first causing two more turrets to come out of the walls behind Lyric and open fire on him while the second caused a net that was electrified to fall from the ceiling at him. The turrets firing at him were not enough to completely distract him, however, and he was able to notice the net falling and move back before it landed on him. He then turned and fired a pair of missiles at the turrets, destroying them.

At this, Tails said, “Uh-oh! He’s going to go for the crystal now!”

Eggman began repeatedly tapping on his controller, “Not yet, he won’t!” As Lyric turned around to face everyone again, Motobugs, Bee Bots, Crab Bots, and the rest of the Badniks Eggman had available began flooding into the room. Team Sonic tensed up as the robots came in, but to their surprise, they all moved in front of them and faced Lyric. “I made some adjustments earlier,” Eggman shrugged when they looked at him.

Lyric looked at the Badniks and let out a chuckle before asking, “You really think your toys can stop me, Doctor?” He brought his right hand close to his chest and let out a hissing sound. Seconds later, a horde of Destruction Troops came up behind him, filling the hallway.

Despite the number of robots behind Lyric, Eggman gloated, “Ha! Your robots are all flash and lights! They’re nothing compared to my new, sleek designs!”

Lyric just smirked, “Come at me, then! I’ll destroy you all!”

Tails pulled out his blaster, “I’m glad I brought this with me!”

Amy brought out her hammer, “I’m going to get you for kidnapping me, Lyric!”

Sticks pointed her boomerang at the snake, “Amy’s getting those new boots this time!”

Eggman pointed and commanded, “Get that snake and his cronies, you metallic dunderheads!” Lyric pointed as well and the robots on both sides launched forward, Amy and Sticks leaping into the middle of the fracas.

Sonic didn’t immediately jump in; instead, he stopped Knuckles from joining and told him, “Knuckles, Orbot and Cubot could probably use some help with that crystal! Help them move it!”

Knuckles looked down at him in surprise. “What?! But… that’s no fun! And what about our contest?!” he asked.

Sonic answered, “Contest was over as soon as Lyric showed up! It’s time to knuckle down!” before he turned and shot forward, hitting a Destruction Troop with a Homing Attack.

Knuckles didn’t look convinced, so Tails, while shooting at Troops with his blaster, said, “Knuckles, we can’t let Lyric get his hands on that crystal! If he gets away with it, we all lose!”

Eggman added, “Help them, Knuckles! Look at me! I’m begging you! To the best of my ability!” Knuckles turned to look at him and saw that he had his hands close together and was bending forward slightly, a not-angry look on his face.

At this, Knuckles relented, “All right.” He ran over to Orbot and Cubot, who were trying to pick the cage up again, and said, “Allow me!” The two robots backed off and he squatted down, getting his hands underneath the cage and lifting it up with a little effort. He held it up in front of him as he asked, “Okay, now what?!”

Orbot replied, “This way! Follow us!” He and Cubot then began leading Knuckles to storage room, the echidna running after them to the best of his ability.

Lyric managed to force his way into the room after a minute and, after taking out the turrets on the wall, swept his eyes around, looking for the crystal. Upon not seeing it, he shot towards the door leading to the living room. Tails and Eggman turned and fired at him, their shots doing little to slow him down. “Sonic, it’s Lyric!” Tails called, the blue hedgehog stopping and taking off after the large serpent after a moment.

Lyric could see the crystal at the other end of the hall and was starting to fly after it when something suddenly hit him in the back and forced him down onto the ground. He looked up to see Sonic landing after coming out of his Homing Attack. “Where you going, Lyric? The party’s not over yet!” he said as he stood up.

Lyric raised himself up as he spoke, “Sonic the Hedgehog… I’d love to exact my revenge on you right now, but I have a crystal to reclaim. Now get out of my way!”

Sonic got into a battle stance, “Not gonna happen, snake breath!” He then shot forward and jumped, curling up to attack again. Lyric was prepared this time and maneuvered his tail around, managing to hit him with the end of it and knock him back. Sonic managed to land on his feet, but as soon as he did, Lyric brought his tail back behind him and fired his lasers, forcing Sonic to back up to avoid getting hit. They kept this up, Lyric deflecting Sonic’s attacks as best he could while the hedgehog tried to keep him from going after the crystal.

Eggman soon joined the two in his Eggmobile and their fighting ended up moving near the laboratory. They didn’t go inside, but after they moved past the door leading to it, it suddenly opened and a familiar voice caught their attention, “Lyric!” All three of them stopped fighting and they saw Shadow standing in front of the door.

“Shadow!” Lyric growled.

“Shadow?! Isn’t it too early to see you?” Sonic asked.

“Shadow! Oh, this must be my lucky day! I have to win today, or at the very least Lyric has to lose!” Eggman exclaimed.

Shadow ignored Sonic and Eggman, focusing only on Lyric. “You can’t get away from me this time!” he snarled before leaping forward, Lyric twisting his body around to avoid him. Eggman stopped fighting Lyric and started talking about how lucky he was while Sonic and Shadow fought the snake, though it was clear they weren’t working together since Shadow had no problem colliding with Sonic several times.

Soon…

Knuckles sighed as he set the cage down in Eggman’s storage room, stepping back afterwards. “There we go. It’ll be perfectly safe in here,” he remarked as he dusted his hands.

“Absolutely. There’s no safer place here than in the room containing all the things the Boss has ever used for his evil schemes,” Orbot agreed.

“Yeah, we might not even need the cage now!” Cubot added.

Knuckles flexed his arms and grinned, “All right, I got my workout in for today. Now it’s time to go smash some Lyric robots!” He turned and stepped out of the storage room, only to stop when Lyric suddenly came crashing down through the ceiling into the basement. The snake quickly looked up after landing and darted to the side to avoid Shadow smashing into him from above. “Wha? Shadow?” Knuckles asked confusedly. The black and red hedgehog ignored him, still focused on Lyric.

Sonic dropped down through the hole a few seconds later, followed closely by Eggman. “Oh Shadow, please try to be careful with your fighting! I mean, you should do whatever it takes to defeat Lyric of course, but try not to destroy my lair as well!” Eggman said, his words falling on deaf ears. Orbot and Cubot watched the fight through the storage room door, seeing Amy, Tails, and Sticks join the fray soon afterwards.

A turning point came when Amy tried to throw her hammer at Lyric, the snake dodging out of the way as it spun end over end towards the storage room door. Orbot and Cubot yelped and moved to the sides as the hammer flew into the room and ended up hitting the top of the cage, damaging it and causing the lasers to shut off. With the door wide open, Lyric was able to clearly see the crystal unprotected when he turned around. He grinned to himself, “Ah, my crystal…”

Before he could attempt to claim his prize, he heard Shadow let out a shout and whirled back around, seeing the black hedgehog roughly knock Amy to the side (though she was thankfully caught by Sonic) before he leapt up and threw a bolt of energy at the snake. Lyric once again moved to the side to avoid being hit and it ended up hitting the crystal, causing it to shatter.

Well, it mostly shattered. A little more than a quarter of the crystal held together while the rest broke off in shards that went flying around the storage room, bouncing off of anything they hit. One shard in particular ended up bouncing off the side of one of the new additions to the storage room: one of Eggman’s old Doomsday Devices.

Almost immediately after the shard hit the floor, the screen on the Doomsday Device suddenly lit up as did the rest of the machine. As everyone watched, it began to charge up a sphere full of unstable energy, the machine shaking as if it was trying to contain the sudden power surge. “No! My Doomsday Device! We have to stop it!” Eggman exclaimed.

Sonic looked back at him with an angry look, “You said it didn’t have an ‘OFF’ switch, Eggman!”

Eggman cried, “It doesn’t! Smash it or something! I’m not using it, so I don’t want it on!”

Knuckles ran forward, yelling, “My pleasure!”

Amy ran forward and grabbed her hammer as Knuckles started pummeling it with his fists, bringing it up over her head as she said, “Let me get a swing in too!” She smashed her hammer into the side of the machine as Knuckles’ fist broke the screen. For a second, it looked like the machine was starting to power down.

Then suddenly, it lit up again and without warning fired the overloaded sphere between its two prongs straight up, the energy from the sphere discharging as it broke through the floors above and doing more damage to the lair. When it finally got outside, the sphere broke and formed a vortex in the sky over the lair, although it looked different from the black hole that the two Doomsday Devices had created before.

There wasn’t much time to look, however, before the vortex began to rotate and form a vacuum. The suction from the vortex quickly became strong and started to suck up anything loose. Old machines and robots, components of old schemes, crystal shards, Badniks, Destruction Troops… It even began sucking up Sonic and the others. As soon as they felt the pull, they all tried to grab onto something, hoping it would burn itself out soon.

It was no use, however. Although it remained confined to the island, the suction began to get stronger and stronger. Eventually, Lyric was the first to lose his grip, the large snake screaming as he was pulled up towards the vortex. Shadow was the next to lose his grip, although he didn’t seem too bothered by it; after all, he was going wherever Lyric was going. Orbot and Cubot lost their grip soon after, but Eggman flew up after them and managed to grab them when they were outside the lair. He then immediately turned his Eggmobile around and set it on full power as he yelled, “Hold on!” Both Orbot and Cubot held on tightly as he tried to fly back to the lair.

After a few seconds, Orbot yelled, “Boss, we’re not moving!”

Cubot piped up, “Yeah we are! We’re moving backwards!”

Eggman growled, “Shut up, both of you! We’re going to be fine! Just let me…” He stopped short when he saw Sonic flying up towards him, the hedgehog trying to reach for him as he went past. Eggman managed to move out of his reach, letting him fly up towards the vortex, and did the same as Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks were carried up past him. Eggman breathed a sigh of relief afterwards; they were still being pulled up, but it looked like they might outlast the vortex. Unfortunately, he noticed Sticks’ boomerang coming up towards him too late, the projectile hitting him in the face and causing the Eggmobile to slow down. That ended their escape attempt, the vortex almost immediately pulling them the rest of the way afterwards. “NOOO! MY PANINI PRESS!” Eggman cried before they were pulled in completely, the vortex closing shortly afterwards.

________________________________________

It was a beautiful night in Canterlot, the sky clear of clouds and dotted with stars. It was a perfect night for stargazing and seeing how deep into the depths of space one could see. It was also late, so only a handful of souls were currently awake to see the beautiful spectacle. They were definitely lucky, but not just for that reason; they were also about to be the only ones to bear witness to a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.

All of a sudden, the quiet beauty of the night was disrupted by what appeared to be a black hole opening up and blocking out part of the sky. It wasn’t gigantic, but it was large enough that anyone who happened to be looking up at the time would’ve definitely noticed it. It wasn’t open long, maybe a couple of seconds at most, then it expanded slightly and gave one last swirl before it vanished as quickly as it appeared. Those who were watching the sky noticed a number of mysterious purple stars falling from the sky afterwards.

One such star shot down towards one of Canterlot’s residential areas, falling at an angle. It was interrupted in its flight by a set of power lines. It wasn’t going fast enough to break through them, but it did cause them to loosen and sag a bit under its weight. Suddenly the power lines began to spark, electricity coming from the ends of the cables. As the lines shook, the star was thrown off and landed on a nearby slanted roof, the star clattering as it rolled down and fell into someone’s backyard, landing next to the back of the house.

Inside the house, a dog’s barking could be heard, a purple-haired girl fumbling for her glasses in the dark as she groggily groaned, “What’s going on?”

Author's Note

"...The word is calamity in case anyone was wondering."

"Why did you tell them that?! Make them figure it out! And get back to work!"

*sigh*

After School

The bell rang, signaling the end of another school day at Canterlot High. The students all exited their classrooms and headed for their lockers to get their things, grabbing their valuable items and any school materials they would need before they headed home or to their clubs and groups. They didn’t all take off, though; many hung around their lockers, in or near the bathrooms, the halls, or in the school foyer to talk, some walking while they talked. Everything seemed to be normal as far as the student body was concerned; hardly anyone seemed to be talking about the strange event that had occurred the night before. The few who had been awake to see it hadn’t been bothered by it and those who had seen the hastily recorded videos of it wondered if it had really happened. CHS had become a pretty magical school, after all; it was hard to get something past its students anymore.

Amidst it all, one girl had been thinking about the previous night for almost the entire day, albeit for a different reason than everyone else. Twilight Sparkle headed straight for her locker after classes got out and grabbed the books she was going to need for her assignments, her dog Spike hopping out of her backpack to let her put them in. She zipped her backpack closed once she was done and slung it on her back, standing up and closing her locker door. Before she could turn away from it, she heard a familiar voice call to her, “Hey, Twilight!” She turned her head to see a girl with red and yellow hair walking towards her, the girl’s black leather jacket moving slightly with her movements over her aqua dress and blue jeans.

“Hey Sunset Shimmer!” Twilight called as she waved, Spike raising a paw to wave as well.

Sunset soon reached her friend and said, “Hey, the rest of the girls want to go hang out at the mall for a while. You wanna come?”

Twilight adjusted her glasses as she replied, “Ah, I’d like to, Sunset, but I can’t today. I have to get home.”

Sunset immediately looked concerned at this. “Why? Did something happen?” she asked.

Twilight waved her hand, “No, no, nothing happened. …Unless something happened that I don’t know about yet. But anyway, I actually have something I wanted to take a closer look at and maybe do a little experimenting on.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow at this. “What exactly did you find?” she asked slowly.

“That’s the thing; I’m not entirely sure,” Twilight admitted.

Spike spoke up, “It looks really weird, whatever it is. It almost reminds me of those gems from Camp Everfree.” Both girls turned to look down at him as he spoke.

Sunset looked back up at Twilight and asked, “You think it’s something else that’s been affected by magic?”

Twilight bent down to pick up Spike as she replied, “That’s what I intend to find out.” She stood up with Spike in her arms and looked at Sunset, “I’ll let you know what I find out later, okay?”

Sunset nodded, “Okay. You sure you’ll be all right by yourself?”

Twilight nodded back, “Yeah. I’m just going to see if I can figure out what it is that landed on my roof last night. I’ll catch up with you and the girls later, all right?” Sunset nodded and watched her walk away, wondering what she found.

After a few minutes, Sunset walked out into the school foyer and found her friends waiting for her. “Hey, Sunset! Where’s Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked when she reached them.

“She had to go home. Said she found something that she wanted to investigate,” Sunset replied.

“She didn’t tell you about it?” Applejack asked.

“She said she didn’t know what she found,” Sunset replied.

“Huh. That’s kinda odd. Wonder why she doesn’t want us ta see it,” Applejack remarked.

Fluttershy murmured, “Well, maybe it’s not something bad or it doesn’t seem bad, but maybe she wants to make sure before she puts anyone in danger with it. Like with that magic device she made…”

Rarity spoke, “I’m sure Twilight knows what she’s doing. If she thinks she can handle it herself, then we should trust that she knows what she’s doing. I can’t see her leaving us to wonder for long what she’s doing. Now, shall we be off?”

Pinkie said, “Yeah! We may be one friend short, but we can still have a lot of fun at the mall!” With that, the six girls exited the school and headed for the mall.

A little while later, Twilight and Spike got home and headed for their room, Twilight shutting the door behind her while Spike hopped onto his pillow on the chest at the foot of her bed, turning a few times before he laid down for a quick nap. Twilight smiled down at him for a moment before she walked over to her desk and sat in her chair, turning her computer on as she (quietly) unzipped her backpack and pulled one of her books out. She began working on her homework while her computer booted up, trying to work quietly so as not to disturb Spike’s nap.

By the time Spike woke up, Twilight had finished her homework, changed the bulb in the lamp on her nightstand, and had gotten herself a sandwich to eat while she browsed the Internet to see if there was any information on the supposed ‘night whirlpool’ that had appeared last night. Most of what she found were stories on questionable news sites and blogs posted on sites like MyStable by well-established alien conspiracy theorists. Looking at the comments made on videos taken of the phenomenon only led her to a whole other brand of weirdness as everyone had an opinion to voice. It was getting to be too much for her to handle.

Fortunately, she was roused from her thoughts by Spike’s barking. She swiveled around in her chair and smiled over at him, “Hey Spike. Would you like something to eat?”

The purple dog wagged his tail happily, “Yeah! Yeah!” Twilight reached down and grabbed his food bowl before standing up, leaving the room and coming back with the bowl filled. She knelt and placed it on the floor, Spike immediately leaping down and digging in. Twilight watched him for a few moments before her gaze shifted to look at her bed. She crawled over to it and reached underneath it with her left hand, searching. She felt what she was looking for after a few seconds and pulled out a black garbage bag containing a small, gray, beat up metal box. It was almost like a small toolbox. Spike looked up from his food as she pulled it out and opened the lid with her right hand.

Inside the box was what appeared to be a glowing purple crystal shard. It was certainly bigger than the magic geodes from Camp Everfree, just short of being too big for the box it was in. Twilight stared down at the glowing treasure in wonder as she thought back to last night…

Flashback

Twilight stepped out of the front door of her house, still in her pajamas and nothing covering her feet. Spike was hot on her heels, both running out onto the sidewalk after they stepped off the porch. Twilight had wanted to see what had landed on the roof, but the sound of the neighbors yelling outside had caught both her and Spike’s attention. Stopping on the sidewalk, they saw several of their neighbors out on their front lawns, and a quick look around revealed what had woken them up: the power lines not far from her house had come down, electricity coming from the ends of the cables as they lay on the sidewalk below. Some of the neighbors were yelling at anyone who tried to move closer to the downed lines while others were using their cell phones to call the city.

Seeing that there didn’t seem to be any immediate danger, Twilight turned back to her house, Spike following her as she walked along the side of it. She looked up towards her roof, noticing the way it slanted down in the back. She hadn’t been awake when the noise on the roof started, but what she had heard, it sounded like it was getting louder before stopping suddenly. Spike, who had been woken up by the noise, confirmed that it had gotten louder before it stopped. Since there was nothing in the front yard, that left the backyard as the most likely place where whatever had made the sound had landed.

As they stepped into the backyard, Spike leapt in front of Twilight and bared his teeth, growling as he looked around in case it was something dangerous. They both looked around, Twilight using her cell phone’s flashlight to give them a little extra light. They didn’t see anything until they looked towards the back of the house, where they saw a faint purple glow coming from behind some bushes. The two stared and looked at each other before they began to creep towards it.

Twilight picked up Spike when they were right beside the bushes and they both looked over the top of one. There they saw a purple crystal lying on the ground, a faint steam coming off it. Holding Spike in her left arm, Twilight brought her right hand forward to touch it as she wondered aloud, “What is this?” Almost as soon as her fingers touched it, she jerked her hand back with a sharp “Ow!” The crystal was still a bit hot from hitting the power lines, though thankfully it wasn’t carrying any electricity.

Twilight shook her hand until the hot feeling dissipated and she looked down at the crystal again. After a few moments, she spoke slowly, “Spike… keep an eye on this, whatever it is. I’m going to go get some gloves… and some garbage bags.” She walked as she spoke and she set Spike down next to the space between the house and the bushes, where the crystal’s glow could be easily seen. Spike watched her as she ran back around to the front to get back in, his eyes darting around after he lost sight of her, looking for any sign of trouble.

End flashback

Twilight shook her head and looked back down at the crystal shard for a moment before she shut the lid again. She then tucked the box under her arm, stood up, and turned to Spike saying, “Come on, Spike. Let’s go see what’s on TV.” Spike gave a nod and a yip and followed her out.

When they got to the living room, Spike immediately jumped up on the couch and sat down on the middle cushion while Twilight looked for the remote. She found it on the arm of her dad’s easy chair and turned the TV on. She began flipping through the channels, looking for the cartoons. She knew there wouldn’t be much on at this point in the day, but there would be some reruns on. That would have to tide Spike over for now.

She soon found the show she was looking for: the unexpectedly popular cartoon featuring colorful talking dogs. Twilight felt that watching it now was a bit surreal since she had a talking dog, but she still enjoyed it and she knew Spike enjoyed it too. She set the remote down next to her dog and said, “Okay Spike, I’m going to be taking a look at this in the garage. Come get me if you need anything.” Spike just nodded, already too absorbed in the TV to do much else as Twilight left the room.

The Sun had almost completed its descent past the horizon by the time Spike reached for the remote and turned off the TV. It turned out that a late afternoon marathon of reruns for the show had been scheduled that had lasted several hours. Spike had faintly registered someone coming and going through the living room as well as the feeling of being petted while he had been watching, but there hadn’t been anything that caused him to look away for long. Now that he took the time to sniff the air, he realized it hadn’t been Twilight and guessed she was still working. Hopping off the couch, he made his way to the back door and let himself out through the pet door.

Wandering over to the garage, he found that the garage’s side door wasn’t closed all the way, a small opening visible between the door and the frame. Giving it a push, it opened a little wider, revealing the interior of the garage to the dog. Twilight, now wearing her lab coat and protective gear, was messing with something on a table in her makeshift ‘lab’. When she moved away with a set of wires in her hands, he saw that it was the crystal shard, now in a new container that was cylindrical in appearance and appeared to have protective casing on the outside of the glass. One end of the wires was attached to the top of the container, Twilight carrying the other end to the workbench across from the table.

When she reached the workbench, she began to move the wires towards something on it. Her back was facing Spike when he called out, “Twilight?”

She heard him and looked back over her shoulder at him, asking, “Spike?” Her hands kept moving forward while she was turned away and, less than a second later, they reached their intended target: the terminals of a car battery. Almost immediately, Twilight was sent flying backwards through the air with a cry as the resulting connection gave her a jolt. She landed on her back near the side of the door, her hair frizzed up and her body shaking as she shuddered. Even with her protective equipment on, she’d received quite a shock.

There wasn’t time to dwell on it as her and Spike’s attentions were directed back at the battery. Less than a second after being hooked up to the crystal, the pack exploded and the wires connected to it caught fire. Twilight let out a scream at this and, fighting through her body’s jittering, grabbed the nearby fire extinguisher and shakily stood up before pulling the pin and spraying the foam at the wire fire. It went out after a few seconds and she calmed down a bit, trying to get her breathing back under control. An errant spark came out of the destroyed battery and she quickly turned and gave the handle a quick squeeze, spraying a little foam at it. She kept staring at it and gave the extinguisher handle another squeeze when another spark came out.

She set the extinguisher back down when no more sparks came out, at which point Spike looked at her and asked, “What happened, Twilight?”

Twilight let out a sigh as she stood up straight and used her right hand to wipe off the front of her goggles. “I was just doing some tests, Spike. Trying to figure out what this is.” She pulled the goggles off and adjusted her glasses before walking back over to the workbench. “I knew it contained a lot of power. I destroyed so many smaller batteries testing it out,” she explained. Spike looked down at the garage floor and saw bits of small and big batteries littering it. Twilight leaned in for a closer look at the car battery, “Obviously a car battery holds a bigger charge, but I sure didn’t expect that to happen.” She gave a shudder, still reeling a bit from the jolt.

Spike looked up and padded forward a bit, making sure to stay away from the battery casings, as he asked, “So do you know what it is?”

Twilight looked down at him and replied, “Well, I think I’m half-right. It’s clearly not something from THIS world… but I don’t think it’s magic. At least not the magic we’re used to. Beyond that, I don’t know what it is.”

Before Spike could say anything else, they both heard Twilight’s mom calling from outside, “Twilight! Dinner’s ready! Your father and I are waiting on you!”

Twilight blinked in surprise and called back, “Okay, Mom! I’m going to go wash up and then I’ll be right there!” She looked around the garage and muttered to herself, “And I guess I’m going to clean this up later.”

As she walked towards the crystal, Spike asked, “Are you going to tell Sunset and the other girls about this?”

Twilight replied while disconnecting the wires on top of the container, “Definitely, Spike. We cannot keep this to ourselves.” She then took off her lab gear and set it on the table before she picked up the container and tucked it under her arm. She then turned back to Spike and said, “I’ll text Sunset while we’re upstairs. Let her know so she can let the girls know.” She then stepped out of the garage with him and pulled the door shut before they headed back to the house.

Meanwhile…

Sunset and the girls were currently sitting around a circular table in the mall’s food court. After checking out some of the stores, doing some shopping, and having a brief homework session, they decided to go catch a showing of the new animated superhero movie and were now grabbing a post-movie meal while they talked about it.

“I must admit, that movie was quite surprising. I don’t follow it myself, but I haven’t heard many good things about the show that it’s based on,” Rarity was saying.

“Well, somebody must’ve cared enough to try ta make sure the movie was a quality product, Rarity. They had to put things that fans of the show would recognize, but also take that extra step and make it somethin’ everyone might wanna see,” Applejack said.

Pinkie spoke up, “I don’t get why so many people are so negative about the show! All the jokes they put in, the way the main characters don’t understand what it means to be superheroes, the wacky situations… I think it’s all great!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes while muttering, “You would, Pinkie.” She then said normally, “I still kind of want to see that new movie about the Creeper.”

Rarity almost immediately admonished, “Rainbow Dash, you know Fluttershy doesn’t like scary movies. That wouldn’t be fair to her, going to see a movie and making her stand around outside by herself.”

Fluttershy started to speak up, but was interrupted by Rainbow, “Hey, take it easy, Rare. I can go see it myself if no one else wants to. I’m old enough to see it on my own and it looks like there’s plenty of tickets available over here.”

Applejack asked, “Ya think that says somethin’ about what it’s like, Dash? Like, maybe it’s not very good?”

Rainbow protested, “But the Creeper is really popular!”

Sunset spoke, “Yeah, to some people. He was more popular a couple years ago. Why didn’t they pick up on that and make a movie then?”

Rarity said, “That’s why it’s a good idea to research something before you commit to it. It’s better to pursue a big project when it’s involves something that seems to be at its peak popularity or if you’ve got a good feeling it’s time for something to make a comeback.”

Sunset shrugged, “Well, you would know that better than some of us, Rarity.”

Fluttershy finally spoke up, “Um, I was happy to see that Juniper Montage seems to be doing better now.” Everyone looked over at her at that, remembering the girl that had caused them trouble several times in the past still worked at the movie theater.

“Yeah…” Sunset started to say before she was interrupted by her cellphone notifying her she had received a text message. She pulled it out and checked her messages, raising an eyebrow as she looked at the new message.

“What’s wrong, Sunset?” Applejack asked after a few moments.

Sunset replied, “It’s from Twilight. She says she wants to show us what she found at school tomorrow, probably after school lets out.” She looked up at the others, “She’s making it sound like it’s really important.”

Pinkie piped up, “Ooh! She must’ve figured out what it is, just like Fluttershy and Rarity said!”

Rarity looked concerned. “Well, it must be very important if she’s so willing to bring it to school to show us. I wonder what it could be.”

Sunset said, “I guess we’re going to have to wait until tomorrow to find out. What do you girls think?” The other girls thought for a few moments before they all agreed. Sunset then began typing a reply on her phone as she said, “Okay, I’ll let her know we’re on for tomorrow. I’ll see if she wants a ride in the morning; maybe she’ll be willing to talk about it then and not leave us wondering all day.” Twilight texted her back after a few minutes, agreeing to the ride proposal. The girls finished eating soon afterwards and hung around for a few more minutes before they left the mall and headed home, parting ways for the evening.

Author's Note

"That girl and her government spy dog have never seen Rampage before."

"...The arcade game or the movie based off of it?"

"Which do you like better?"

"Uh, the game? No contest. I mean, the movie was-"

"It's not a movie! It's a documentary! It's all real events! It's what the government doesn't want-"

"Okay, it's my turn to cut you off."

Crystal Unclear

Twilight and Spike stood on the sidewalk in front of their house, the sky overhead getting slowly brighter. Twilight kept looking around anxiously, looking for Sunset Shimmer and being wary of seeing anyone else at this hour. In addition to her backpack, she also had a brown sling bag hanging on her right shoulder that held the crystal, which was still in its container, along with a few other things she thought she was going to need. Spike kept reassuring her, but she was still worried about whether she should take the crystal to CHS or keep it at home and have her friends come over to see it.

The decision was made for her when she saw a car coming towards her. She instantly recognized it as Sunset Shimmer’s car and knew there was no going back now. Sunset smiled and waved to her as she came to a stop and Twilight waved back before opening the passenger door and adjusting her bags, setting the sling bag down so she could put her backpack on the floor before putting the sling bag back on and setting it on her lap. Spike leapt up and sat on top of the bag once Twilight had her seat belt on and she pulled the door closed. They both said good morning to Sunset and she said the same before she started driving to school.

For the first couple of minutes, the only sound coming from the car was the sound of its engine. Twilight didn’t seem like she wanted to be the one to start a conversation, her eyes instead moving in Sunset’s direction a few times to look at her from the side of her vision, noticing for the first time that she was wearing her vest set today. Spike, meanwhile, just curled up on Twilight’s lap and fell into a quick snooze. Sunset kept her eyes on the road, but she still stole a glance over at Twilight and the bag on her lap.

Finally, she couldn’t take it any longer and broke the silence. “So… how was your night, Twilight?” she asked.

Twilight replied, “Oh, it was nice, I suppose. I didn’t really get a chance to sit down until dinner and afterwards. I was pretty busy with work when I got home. H-How was the mall?”

Sunset answered, “It was fun. We did a little shopping and studying, went to see a movie… Juniper’s still doing well, by the way.” Twilight nodded silently. They soon came to a stoplight and stopped for the red. While they waited, Sunset looked over at Twilight’s bag and asked, “Is that thing you discovered in there?”

Twilight nodded while still facing forward, “Yeah.”

Sunset pressed, “Can I see it?”

Twilight quickly replied, “I don’t want your car to explode.”

Sunset gave her an odd look, “Uh, isn’t that a bit of a stretch? I mean, you’ve been sitting with it on your lap this entire ride and nothing’s happened yet.”

Twilight finally turned her head to look at Sunset, “There’s still so much about this thing I don’t know yet. I don’t want to risk bumping it against something and having it discharge.” Before either of them could say anything else, the light changed to green and the impatient driver behind them honked his horn. Both girls looked back in surprise before facing forward, Twilight having a worried look on her face while Sunset looked annoyed as she stepped on the gas pedal. The two didn’t say another word to each other for the rest of the trip.

They soon arrived at CHS and Sunset found a space for her car in the parking lot. Spike woke up as they came to a stop and hopped down onto the asphalt when Twilight opened the door. She stepped out and spent a minute adjusting her bags so they were sitting comfortably on her while Sunset climbed out and locked the doors. After closing their doors, they looked towards the front of the school and saw a number of their fellow students heading inside. “I don’t think we’ll be able to get into the chemistry lab before classes start,” Twilight remarked after a few moments.

Sunset looked at her, “That’s where you want to do it?”

Twilight looked back at her, “Well, either there or the wood shop. They both have cleaning supplies right in the room, which we’re going to need. There will be some cleanup afterwards.” After a moment of looking at each other, Twilight said, “Believe me, Sunset, I want to show you and the rest of the girls what we found, but I’d prefer to do it without a bunch of other students looking over our shoulders and asking extra questions. We all would’ve had to be here really early to do that, though.”

Sunset nodded thoughtfully at that. They pretty much would have had to be at school as soon as it opened if they wanted to avoid an audience. While she could see Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie getting up early enough to get ready and show up, Rainbow and Rarity were less likely to want to wake up earlier than usual, even for something like this. “Okay. We’ll go with the chemistry lab unless it’s unavailable. Just have to tell the girls to hold their questions until then when we see them.”

Twilight knelt down and let Spike hop into her backpack, his head poking up through the opening as she stood up. “The wait will be worth it,” she said before they both started walking towards the front of the school.

Aside from dodging questions from the other girls at every chance they got and urging them to wait until the end of school, the day was relatively uneventful. After the last bell rang, Twilight headed over to the wood shop and saw that the students there were staying after to work on their projects some more. They definitely weren’t getting in there. She turned and headed for her locker to retrieve her sling bag. She checked it after every period throughout the day to make sure it was still there, almost running late to a few classes as a result. Now it was okay to take it out.

Twilight put the sling bag over her shoulder after checking it and shut her locker door. She glanced to her right as she was resetting the lock and then did a double-take when she realized Sunset was standing right next to her. “Ah! Sunset, you startled me,” she said as she held her left hand over her chest.

Sunset smiled sympathetically, “Sorry, Twilight. I checked the lab out. There’s no one there right now. I already let the girls know we’ll meet them there.”

Twilight nodded, “That’s good. There’s no chance of us getting the wood shop to ourselves. Let’s go.” They turned and began making their way through the halls.

When they got to the lab, they found the other girls waiting for them, all of them, with the exception of Fluttershy and to a lesser extent Pinkie Pie, looking more than a little irritated with how long they had to wait to hear about Twilight’s discovery. She gave them a nervous grin and chuckle before opening the door to the lab and stepping inside, Sunset right behind her. As the other girls came in, they saw Sunset had placed her backpack on the center counter and was pulling some protective equipment like gloves and lab coats out of it, both her and Twilight suiting up. “Grab some protection, girls. You might need it,” Twilight said as she pulled a rubber glove on her right hand and Spike stretched out on the floor next to her.

Rainbow, clearly the most irritated out of the group, spoke up, “I think what we need is for you to stop dodging us and just tell us what’s going on, Twilight! You and Sunset have been waving us off all day, telling us to wait and not giving us any answers! I mean, really, what’s going on? What’s so important that you gotta do that?”

Twilight looked a bit intimidated at her friend’s words. Sunset could tell even without her magic and stepped in, “Rainbow, will you calm down? She just wants to show it to us all together, and besides, why are you assuming the worst?”

Rainbow blinked, “What? I’m not…”

Sunset cut her off, “Well, you’re sure acting like you are. We’re gonna find out now, so get dressed.” She threw a lab coat towards the sports star after she finished and she caught it. The other girls looked at each other for a moment before they moved forward to get their dressings.

Once they were all appropriately attired, Twilight and Sunset stood on one side of the counter while everyone else stood on the other side, Fluttershy holding Spike in her arms. As Twilight set her sling bag on the counter, she said, “All right, girls, here it is.” She opened the top of the bag and gripped the middle of the canister, lifting it out and setting it down on the center of the counter. The girls all stared at the container with wide eyes as she was setting it down, looking at the unusual crystal it held.

Almost immediately after Twilight pulled her hands away, Pinkie leaned in close to the container while saying, “Ooh! So shiny and pretty!” She looked up at Twilight, “Where’d you get it, Twilight?”

Twilight answered, “It landed on the roof of my house and fell in the backyard in the middle of the night. That was almost two nights ago.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, “Two… Was it when that weird sky event supposedly happened?”

Twilight shrugged, “I guess? Spike and I were both asleep. We were both woken up by the sound of it rolling down the roof.”

Sunset held a hand to her chin as she looked at the crystal. “I’ve seen a lot of people claiming that they saw falling stars afterwards that looked purple. Could this be one of those ‘stars’? …It really does look like the geodes from Camp Everfree,” she murmured. She looked at Twilight, “What is this thing?”

Spike spoke up, “She’s still not sure about that.”

The girls looked at Twilight, who nodded in reply. “Yeah, I’m really not sure what it is. All I know is, whatever’s giving it that glow, it’s not magic.”

Sunset asked, “Are you sure about that?”

Twilight nodded and said, “I can prove it to you right now.” She grabbed her sling bag and reached into a small pocket on the front of it. She pulled out a dark purple disc-shaped object. As soon as everyone saw it, their eyes widened and they all took a few steps back.

Sunset pointed at the device as she started, “Twilight… Isn’t that…?”

Twilight began, “I…” She let out a sigh and said, “Yes, it’s… my magic-absorbing device. I swear I only made sure the sensor was working, and I put a lock on it just in case.” She shifted it so she was holding it from the bottom, showing that it had a small metal chain that went around it several times, a small metal lock holding it tightly in place. “It didn’t take my magic as soon as I turned it on,” she finished as she set it down on the table next to the container.

Rarity noticed the lights on the top of the device started to flicker on and off quickly like they did when it would pick up the presence of magic. “Um, Twilight darling? How does this prove your point?” she asked carefully.

Twilight took a close look at it one more time before she said, “Okay, so it’s reacting to our magic. What we’re going to do now is move back towards the door, and I want everyone to keep an eye on the lights.” She began to move backwards towards the door and the other girls did the same. As they moved away, they gradually began to notice the change. The lights had been flashing quickly when they were standing near it. It didn’t change much since they were in the same room with it, but they did see the reaction slow down, the lights flickering less rapidly.

“You see that change?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, but… it’s still sitting next to the tube,” Rainbow began.

“Exactly. It’s not responding to the crystal despite the energy it’s giving off. If it is magic, then it can’t be the same as ours,” Twilight concluded. She then quickly walked over to the device, grabbed it, and shut it off before putting it back in her sling bag.

The other girls came back over as well and Fluttershy asked, “Um… you said it’s giving off energy, Twilight?”

Twilight nodded, “Yeah. That’s what I guessed initially. It wouldn’t have that kind of glow if it wasn’t acting as a container for something else.”

Rarity placed her head on palms of her hands and stared at the crystal dreamily, “And such an enchanting glow, too~.”

Applejack asked, “That’s what the tube is for?”

Twilight replied, “Pretty much. I just wanted to make sure it was contained in something. I didn’t really want to wake up in the morning and find out Spike and I were developing radiation poisoning or something.”

Sunset said, “That’s a good point. So, do you know what kind of energy it’s giving off?”

Twilight replied, “Well, I can give you an example.” She looked down and pulled open one of the drawers on the side of the counter, holding up a pair of tongs a second later. She looked up at them for a moment before nodding, “These should do nicely.” She then looked down at her sling bag and reached into the side pocket again with her free hand. When she pulled it back out, she was holding a light bulb. “Ordinary light bulb,” she stated.

“Yeah, we’ll take your word for it,” Rainbow smirked as she opened and closed the ends of the tongs around the bulb’s circumference.

Twilight turned while holding the tongs closed and started moving the bulb over to the container. As she moved it closer, she warned, “Get ready to duck. I already know this is going to end in pieces.” Fluttershy immediately took her warning to heart and lowered her body down until only her eyes and hair were poking up over the edge of the counter. The rest of the girls didn’t take the same precaution and looked back at the crystal, watching.

Almost as soon as she touched the bulb’s contact against one of the connectors on top of the container, it lit up, much to the girls’ amazement. Less than a second later, though, cracks quickly began to form across the bulb, the quick succession of cracking sounds catching everyone’s attention. The bulb exploded in a shower of small glass shards as they all ducked down, Rainbow grabbing the back of Pinkie’s shirt and pulling her down with her as she went.

After a few seconds, everyone opened their eyes and checked themselves for any cuts, Fluttershy spending more time looking Spike over than herself. They then stood up and looked at the counter. The bulb’s screw threads and contact had been torn apart and had a few steam plumes coming off of them as they lay next to the tongs, but they were the only parts of it that were still holding together. The wires were nowhere to be seen and the glass from the bulb was scattered across both the counter and the floor.

“Wow!” Pinkie exclaimed with a big smile.

“You said it, Pinkie! That was cool!” Rainbow said.

Rarity and Fluttershy were not enthralled. “It just exploded! Look at this mess!” Rarity exclaimed. Applejack could only stare speechlessly.

Sunset was looking at the crystal more closely, the curious glint in her eyes rekindled. “Wow. If it can do that to one light bulb, imagine what it could do as an actual power source,” she mused. She looked at Twilight, “What do you think this thing could power?”

Twilight shrugged, “I don’t know. A city on the Moon?” She then looked at the others and said, “So as we’ve noted, this thing has a lot of power inside of it, but there’s something else you should know.” She pointed to the remains of the light bulb, “That bulb was already burnt out.”

Everyone stared at her in surprise. “Wait… that was a dead bulb?” Applejack asked.

“Yes! This was the bulb I just took out of the lamp on my nightstand yesterday because it burned out. There should’ve been no way for it to light up again, yet in that VERY short time before it popped, it lit up like normal. That shouldn’t be possible, and yet we just saw it happen,” Twilight explained.

Rainbow asked, “Did you know it was gonna do that?”

Twilight nodded, “Yeah. Everything electrical I tried hooking it up to exploded, including a drained car battery.” She looked down at her right wrist as she grasped it with her left hand, “That one gave me quite a shock too.”

Sunset asked, “Does it affect anything else?”

Twilight glanced up at her, “I don’t know. I just know I didn’t want to test it out on your car this morning.” Sunset remembered her words from earlier and, based on what had just happened, realized she was actually being realistic then.

Rainbow asked, “You got anything else?”

Twilight put her hands on her hips, “Uh, not at the moment, no. That’s all I’ve learned about it, but I was planning to research it further to see if I can find out anything else about it. I mean, if that’s okay with you girls.”

Sunset put her hand on Twilight’s shoulder, “Of course it is. And if you need any help, just remember you can always ask us. Right, girls?” Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rainbow all smiled and nodded in agreement.

Fluttershy then spoke up, “I think we should clean up and go. The teacher could be back any minute now and… we really don’t want to leave a mess behind.”

Pinkie mused, “Yeah, that’s also interesting. We’ve been here a while, yet we haven’t seen the teacher at all.” The other girls agreed that it was interesting, but they didn’t dwell on it as they cleaned up and put everything away.

Meanwhile…

A police officer was walking the beat in Canterlot, his day having been relatively uneventful up to this point. As he was nearing the end of his patrol, he passed by an abandoned lot where he noticed something he hadn’t seen on his last patrol a few days ago. Near the middle of the lot, there appeared to be a man lying next to an odd-looking vehicle. Confused, the officer tried calling out to the man, but he received no response. Concerned, the officer stepped into the lot, making his way over to the man.

When he reached him, the officer saw that the man was bald and lying face down on the ground, his red shirt, black pants and boots, and white gloves looking somewhat dirty. He looked too well-kept to be a typical bum. The officer rushed over to the man and knelt down next to him, shaking him. “Sir? Sir! Are you okay?!” he asked, unaware that a black and red orb and a yellow and black cube began floating above the ground off to the side, just outside of his vison.

Author's Note

The Chapter With Everything Necessary to Move the Story Forward

Several weeks have passed since Twilight discovered one of the shards of the Lost Crystal of Power and showed it to her friends, and since then she has uncovered little else about it. Even with the help of her friends, she has been unable to find answers to important questions about it like where it came from and what its purpose was. She continued to conduct experiments on it, but much like when Sunset was attempting to better understand the Equestrian magic that had been brought to their world, her experiments were typically unsuccessful and revealed nothing new.

The last few weeks hadn’t been entirely quiet, however. News outlets and websites were reporting that other crystal shards were being found in the city and the outlying areas, most of them being found by other Canterlot residents either by accident or due to damage they caused and being reported to the police. Twilight wanted to turn her crystal over when she saw the reports on the news, but her friends convinced her not to do it, Sunset even suggesting that they might be able to learn more if they could get their hands on another crystal. To that end, she suggested building a device that could pick up the energy signatures of the crystals, much like Twilight’s old magic meter. But while the girls were caught up in the growing mystery of the crystals, there was something else that had been slowly building up over the past few weeks that was about to be established in the city.

Dr. Eggman stood proudly in front of what was no doubt the first of many ‘Robotics Manufacturing Enterprises’ buildings with Orbot and Cubot floating by his side, his two assistants waving at the photographers as they took pictures. These last few weeks of digging around, salvaging what he could find to meet demands, and putting on a constant nice act had taken quite a bit of effort even for his genius, but it was finally paying off. His first new building had been built and this was the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Eggman looked to his right over at the mayor of Canterlot, who was talking to the press and answering questions before the ceremony began. Having talked to her before, he knew her name was Marey, spelled exactly that according to the name plate in her office. It was an odd way to spell it, but he supposed it went along with all of the other horse name puns he’d encountered so far in this strange world. She was an older woman, or at least that was the image she was trying to put on with her gray hair, glasses, and purple suit with a white collar and green tie. As a master of deceit himself, Eggman was well aware that she was trying to give herself a more professional image, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what exactly she did in the morning before coming in to work.

After she was finished taking questions, Mayor Marey walked over to Eggman and told him, “I must admit, Dr. Kintobor, I was not expecting the turnout to this event to be quite this large. It’s clear to me more than ever that your robotics have been making quite an impact on our fair city.”

Eggman smiled, thinking to himself once again how brilliant his fake name was as he said, “Well, I have been fighting so hard for so long to get others to recognize what I can do and see the wonders of my inventions, Ms. Mayor. I’m very fortunate that the people here are so, er, friendly and accepting. I have them to thank for this day and this new beginning.”

Marey asked, “Beginning?”

Eggman replied, “Oh yes! This fine building is just the first step towards making my dreams become a reality! I have such big plans… for future projects. Of course, giving the people what they want is going to remain my primary goal, but I have so much more that I’d like to share with the world. I’ll be talking about that more about that in the future when I’m ready to unveil my ideas, and I think you’ll be quite impressed when I do.”

Marey smiled, “I see. Well, I’m sure I will, so long as you have the people’s best interests in mind and your robots don’t, ah…”

Eggman interjected, “Run rampant? Turn evil? Well, I can understand you having such concerns, but I assure you, there’s nothing to worry about. I am most certainly a ‘people’ person; I certainly have their best interests at heart.” He paused to glance back at Orbot and Cubot with an annoyed expression, the two robots snickering to themselves. “What are you two laughing about?! Have some respect; this is an important day!” he said. He turned back to the mayor after they straightened up and finished, “I promise you right now, Ms. Mayor, nothing I ever build… will do something that it was not meant to.” As he spoke, he held his left hand behind his back and crossed his fingers.

The way he snapped at his assistants surprised Marey a bit, but given what she’d seen of their intelligence and capacity to voice their thoughts, she supposed it wasn’t uncommon for them to anger him. She smiled, “I see. Well, I look forward to learning more about what you have planned for your business.” She then turned to the crowd and gave one last speech before taking the ceremonial scissors and cutting the ribbon, turning to Eggman afterwards and shaking hands with him.

As he shook hands with her, Eggman’s thoughts turned to his new ‘company’. The building was bigger than a typical outlet store to give the impression that the robots were being made in the back, but it was certainly nothing compared to his island lair. For the time being, though, it would do. No one but him, Orbot, and Cubot knew about the secret lab built underneath the building. This secret facility would be where his new Badnik army was going to be built up, the money he made from selling his ‘new and improved’ products going towards their production. As his business continued to thrive, he would soon be able to build more buildings with their own secret labs and really make his army grow while the people remained blissfully unaware his inevitable takeover was coming.

His thoughts also turned to how he got his start in this new dimension. It all felt like it happened yesterday.

Yesterday…

*insert argument with Sticks that I chose to move to the author’s notes below this time because I’m already sick of her butting in here*

Yesterday…

Flashback to not-yesterday

Eggman gingerly sipped the coffee from the mug he was given, partly because he was trying to keep up his act and partly because he couldn’t stand the taste of it. Orbot and Cubot sat on the chair next to him, the latter quietly tapping his fingers on his empty mug as Officer Colten attempted to look up Eggman’s personal information. The evil genius kept shooting glances over at his two robot assistants, remembering his rude awakening and how they’d told him not to disclose his real identity to the police. He tugged on the blanket over his shoulders as they all waited to hear what the officer had to say.

After a minute more, Officer Colten looked up from his computer and asked, “Hmm… Dr. Ovi Kintobor?” Eggman quickly nodded at the name he’d made up on the fly. Officer Colten looked back at his computer for a moment before saying, “I’m afraid I can’t seem to find any of your records in our database, sir.”

Eggman replied, “Well, that’s no surprise to me.” At the officer’s questioning look, he quickly added, “Er, I mean, I seem to… just have the strangest luck so often! I try to have a normal day, go about my business, and boom! Suddenly something unexpected happens to me. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Orbot jumped to his defense, “It really is just the strangest thing how it keeps happening. And this time it happened when he was just going to the store!”

Cubot nodded, “Yeah, it’s just like we told your buddies in the car.”

Officer Colten deadpanned, “It’s still not a very convincing story.”

Eggman sat up against the back of his chair and sarcastically said, “Oh sure, look at me all weird because I can’t help you write a good report, like I’m the one doing something wrong. Clearly you’ve never had anything unexplainable happen in your life.”

Officer Colten gave him a level stare as he replied, “Now sir, that is not true. I don’t think you’re guilty of something; I’m just trying to understand what happened to you so I can help the others understand. And I can safely say we’re no strangers to odd occurrences here in Canterlot. We’ve had quite a number of reports of strange occurrences here in recent times.”

Eggman spoke, “Just recently? They seem to happen all the time back home. This is hardly anything new for me. I like the island I live on, but all the strangeness does make it difficult for me to get my work done.”

Officer Colten asked, “And what sort of work do you do, Doctor?” Eggman gestured at Orbot and Cubot, prompting the officer to ask, “You build robots?”

Eggman replied, “Yes, but not just any robots. I like to think of them as… specialized robots.”

Officer Colten asked, “And what do you mean by that?”

Eggman looked down at his mug for a moment before getting an idea and saying, “Hmm… It would seem I’ve drank all the coffee you gave me, which is perfect. If you’d be so kind as to escort me and show me where to get some more, I’d be happy to give you an example that I think you and your fellow officers could relate to.” Although confused, Officer Colten stood up and moved out from behind his desk, gesturing for Eggman to stand as well.

As he did, Orbot commented, “Maybe the two of us should just stay here.”

Cubot nodded, “Yeah. This chair’s kind of comfy. I could go for a nap right now.”

Officer Colten spoke, “I’m sorry, you two, but you cannot be here unsupervised.”

Cubot whined, “Aw, why not? We’re not gonna do anything; I’m just gonna take a nap! Its been a long day for us, you know!”

Officer Colten leaned over them, “Be that as it may, we do not allow visitors to wander unsupervised or leave them to their own devices here. Therefore, you have to come.” While Orbot and Cubot continued to try to persuade him, Eggman noticed the way he was leaning just about made him unable to see him. This was his chance! He looked to the left and right a few times before his eyes settled on a nearby potted plant. He stared at it for a few moments… before flicking his left hand to his left, dumping his remaining coffee on Officer Colten’s desk.

A few minutes later…

The three officers sitting in the break room stopped what they were doing, their attention being drawn to Officer Colten when he stepped in with Eggman and his two assistants. There’d been murmurs going around the station about the strange man and his robots ever since they were brought in, but them being escorted into this private area by a fellow officer was something the three officers had not expected to see. After a minute of watching them make their way over to the coffee maker and stand around it while Eggman watched Colten refill his mug, one of the officers asked, “Colten, why did you bring that man in here?”

While refilling his mug, Colten replied, “Because he suggested that we get some more coffee. He also said he had something to share that he thought we’d all be interested in.” The other officers looked intrigued at that, looking at Eggman as he examined the coffee maker. Once Colten was done refilling his mug, he took it out from under the machine and looked at Eggman expectantly. After a few moments, he asked, “Doctor?”

Eggman looked at him, “Hmm? Oh no, I’m actually good. I mostly wanted to see what your coffee maker was like. It’s not bad, just rather unremarkable.”

One of the other officers asked, “And what is that supposed to mean… sir?”

Eggman stood up straight and said, “Well, I mean so much of it involves manual input. You have to put grounds in, you have to set it, you have to pour yourself a cup…”

Another officer asked, “What’s wrong with that?” Eggman’s only response was to gesture towards Orbot and Cubot. “What?”

Eggman said, “I have an incredible gift for creating new things and improving old things, yet no one seems to understand my genius. It’s not just limited to these two either; I look at things and try to create new ways to con- er, I mean, help people and they don’t seem to realize it. Now that I’ve finally found a place to start fresh, I was hoping others could warm up to the many ideas I have in my head.”

Officer Colten spoke, “I’m sure we and everyone else would be willing to give your ideas a chance, Doctor, but you haven’t shared anything with us. And what do your two, uh, robots have to do with our coffee maker?”

Eggman answered, “Well, let me ask you all something. Have you ever come in to get a cup of coffee, only to realize that the last person to get a cup left just an inch at the bottom of the pot so they wouldn’t have to brew more?”

Colten groaned, “Oh, I hate when that happens.” The other officers echoed his thoughts.

“Happens all the time around here.”

“It’s a simple thing that can be avoided!”

“I sometimes feel like the coffee maker needs someone to guard it.”

Eggman nodded, “Yes, I thought you’d all feel the same way I do about it. It’s annoying, it’s a waste of everyone’s time, and it creates trust issues.” He gestured at his two assistants again, “Now imagine if the coffee maker were like these two. Sentient, aware, able to act on its own… I can already picture it: a coffee maker with something like these two built into it. Why, that inch would never come up in a coffee maker like that; it would be able to sense when the coffee was low and immediately start brewing fresh coffee. Doesn’t that sound like it would be amazing?”

Officer Colten replied, “I’d want something like that for home as well.”

One of the officers said, “Yeah, good luck finding someone who could make that, Colten. Besides, you’d still have to load the grounds into it before it would make more coffee.”

Eggman spoke, “Well, I could certainly make it. I built my assistants all by myself. And you wouldn’t even need to do that. I would certainly make it so it would do everything for you, from loading the grounds all the way to pouring you your coffee. And I haven’t even begun to discuss possible custom options. Like, we all enjoy our coffee a specific way, right? What if there was a feature where you could set the machine to recognize you and give you your coffee exactly the way you like it? And that’s not all!”

All of the officers eventually had to get back to work, but while they were there, Eggman continued to give them a taste of the different ideas he had when it came to making ordinary living better. It all felt like pointless talk to him and it was a bit annoying that he had to get so chummy with the local authorities, but he kept it to himself. He was gaining their trust after all, trust that he would have so much fun damaging later.

End flashback

________________________________________

Twilight finished getting her lunch and made her way through the cafeteria to the table she and her friends usually sat at. She saw them waving to her as she approached and she set her tray down in front of the open seat next to Sunset when she reached them. “Sorry I’m a little late. That test ran a little long,” she said as she slid her backpack off and set it on the table, allowing Spike to poke his head out.

As she sat down, Applejack asked her, “You didn’t have trouble, did ya, Twilight?”

Twilight replied, “No, no. It just took a little longer to get out of class than it should have.”

Applejack shrugged, “Okay.”

Pinkie piped up, “So… how’s the shiny doing?”

Twilight spoke, “You mean the crystal? I didn’t get a chance to do anything with it last night, but I didn’t really have anything in mind for it as far as tests I could do.” She rested her head on her hands on the table, “I really think I’ve hit a dead end with how much more I can learn about it.”

Sunset put her hand on her shoulder and said, “That’s why I think we should get a hold of another one while they’re still out there. Putting two in the same place could reveal something new about them.”

Twilight raised her head up and looked at her, “I still don’t know about that. I mean, these crystals… Are they really safer with us than with the police?”

Rainbow spoke, “I think so, all things considered. You put the one you found in something to contain it and are actually trying to learn more about it. Have you checked some of the places where they found the others? A bunch of them are still out in the open with yellow tape around them and sometimes cops. Any weirdo could get over the tape when the cops aren’t there, take the crystal, and run off with it. That can’t be better, right?”

Twilight let out a sigh and said, “Still, even if they haven’t been moved yet, they’re technically under police custody. I don’t think we know enough to be able to convince the police to give them to us.”

Sunset replied, “Well, that’s fine, Twilight. Unless we find a compelling reason for the police to turn them over, they can keep them, whether that involves putting tape around them or putting them in an evidence locker or whatever. Rainbow does have a point, though; if we had a way to track these things down and find the ones the police haven’t yet, then there would be fewer crystals out there for random people to snatch up.”

Rainbow added, “Or, you know, I could just run all over the city and find them all myself. That would probably be faster.”

Rarity remarked, “Hm. It might be, Rainbow; that’s the kind of detail work you’d excel at.” As she pulled out her phone, she muttered under her breath, “At least I hope some of your test scores aren’t accurate to real life.” As she scanned her latest news articles, her eyes stopped on one and she said, “Hm. That Dr. Kintobor fellow certainly is making the news lately. The latest news is that his first building opened today.”

Rainbow asked, “Oh, you mean that guy whose been selling people robot dogs and smart ovens or whatever?”

Rarity nodded without looking up, “That’s the one.”

Spike uttered, “I’ve never been a big fan of those robot dogs, but we did run into one of the ones made by that guy and…” He shivered, “There was just something different about the way it looked at me. It was really creepy.”

While Twilight comforted him, Fluttershy spoke up, “Um… well, I haven’t seen any for myself, but I do know the animals I’m with generally don’t seem to get along with robot pets. It’s nice that Dr. Kintobor’s, um, first robots are small animals that people can buy. That’s good for people who aren’t sure about having pets or have allergies, but… I kind of hope they don’t start bringing them to the shelter or the vet.”

Rainbow asked, “Why would they, Fluttershy? They’re robots; they don’t have needs like regular pets do!”

Rarity added, “And I’m sure they don’t have the same maintenance requirements either. If they need anything or something goes wrong, they can simply take it back to the store and get it all sorted out. There’s no food bill, no vaccinations, nothing to clean up after…”

Fluttershy asked, “But aren’t those all the best things about owning a pet?”

Rarity glanced at her for a moment before replying, “Well, I don’t think so, dear. Especially that last one…”

Applejack rolled her eyes, “That is the one you’d focus on, isn’t it, Rarity?”

The girls and Spike continued to pass the rest of the lunch period with small talk, though an odd look appeared on Sunset’s face when the subject turned to Kintobor. She kept talking, but in the back of her head, she was mulling over something that had been there for a while, a mystery of her own. She was still quietly thinking about it even as lunch ended. As they all left the cafeteria, Pinkie asked if they were still on for their sleepover at her house that night. They all agreed and some of them split off as they headed to their next classes.

Later that evening, they all met up at Pinkie’s house for their sleepover. They all had fun sharing stories, eating the apple treats that Applejack had brought over, and playing games. But as the evening wore on, Sunset found herself unable to keep the question she’d been mulling over all day in the back of her mind. It was starting to bother her that she couldn’t come up with an answer to it and felt like she needed to actually address it if she was going to enjoy the rest of the sleepover.

While they were all in Pinkie’s room, Sunset excused herself and quietly grabbed a notebook and a pen from her backpack before heading downstairs. She went to the kitchen and set them both down on the counter in the middle of the room, where she opened up to a fresh page and wrote the name “Kintobor’ in the center. She then rested her elbows on the countertop and placed the bottom of her head in her hands, looking down at it.

After several minutes of her standing there staring, she was startled out of her thoughts when she heard Twilight say, “Sunset?” She looked up to see the other girl standing in the kitchen doorway.

“Oh, hey, Twilight,” she said, looking a bit nervous.

“Are you okay? You were just standing there for almost a whole minute,” Twilight noted.

“Oh… yeah, I guess I was. I’m fine, though,” Sunset replied, the irony of the situation not being lost on her.

Twilight shrugged, “Okay.” She walked over to the refrigerator and pulled the door open. She peered inside and remarked, “Wow, she still has a lot of whipped cream in here.” Sunset couldn’t help but smile at that. Twilight soon pulled her head out, now holding a small container of juice in her right hand, and turned back to Sunset. “The girls are still playing Tirek’s Revenge. Are you going to come and watch? Or play a bit?” she asked.

Sunset smiled, “Yeah, sure.” She grabbed her notebook and pen and followed Twilight back up to Pinkie’s room. There, they joined the other girls sitting on and around the bed, Twilight sitting on the bed with Fluttershy and Spike while Sunset sat on the floor next to the bed near the door. Rainbow and Applejack sat at the foot of the bed, focused on the game, while Rarity sat on the other side of the bed applying polish to her nails and Pinkie moved around the room, unable to sit still due to all the action on the TV.

Spike soon noticed the Sunset had turned her attention back to her notebook and pulled himself free of Fluttershy’s petting to pad over to her. “What are you looking at, Sunset?” he asked. His words prompted the others to look at her as well, the sounds coming from the TV abruptly stopping.

Sunset looked back, unsure what to say,” Um, I, uh…” she stammered.

Fluttershy leaned over the side of the bed and peered at the notebook. “Why do you have ‘Kintobor’ written in there, Sunset?” she asked.

Sunset sighed, “I’m sorry, girls, Spike. It’s just… there’s something about that Dr. Kintobor guy that’s been bothering me.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, “What are ya sayin’, Sunset? That the guy’s up to somethin’?”

Sunset looked over at her, “No, Applejack. At least I don’t think he is. It’s just…” She looked down at her notebook again, “I’ve never heard the name Kintobor before, but when I see his name spelled out, I always get this weird feeling, like I’ve seen it somewhere before.”

Pinkie hopped over and knelt down next to her, “Ooh! If it looks familiar to you, then that could mean one of two things: either Dr. K’s name has shown up elsewhere because he has a twin somewhere in this world… or you’re just not looking at it right! Here!” She reached over and grabbed Sunset’s notebook. She then turned it upside-down and handed it back to her, “There! How does it look now?”

Rainbow deadpanned, “Pinkie… I seriously doubt turning it over is gonna change anything.”

Sunset might have initially agreed with the rainbow-haired athlete, but at the moment, she was looking down at the name intently. It was still the same, but somehow, Pinkie’s simple solution had given her a different way to see it. She flipped the notebook back over after a few moments and looked at the name again before wondering, “What does it look like backwards…?” She grabbed her pen and wrote it out underneath Kintobor.

Twilight peered over her other shoulder at the reversed name after she was finished writing it out. “It looks like… Ro… Robotnik?” she asked.

Both Applejack and Rainbow laughed at that, the former saying, “Now that just sounds like a plumb silly name!”

Rainbow laughed, “Silly? It sounds really stupid! Who would want to be named that?”

Spike and the other girls, meanwhile, noticed that Sunset was once again looking intently down at the page, this time at the new name. “Robotnik… Robotnik…” she muttered, trying to place it. Suddenly she looked up as she had a thought and looked over at her backpack. She dropped her notebook and pen and crawled over to it, reaching into it and pulling a book out. The other girls instantly recognized it; it was the journal she used to send messages and letters to Equestria, specifically to Princess Twilight.

Sunset sat on her knees as she quickly flipped through the pages of the book, searching. She soon stopped on a page and traced her finger across it as she scanned the words Twilight had written to her. It didn’t take her long to stop and tap the page with her finger, “Yeah, that’s it! Right here!” She read aloud, “‘…Dr. Ivo Robotnik, better known as Dr. Eggman…’” She looked up, “That’s why it looked so familiar: Ovi Kintobor is Ivo Robotnik spelled backwards.”

Rainbow spoke up, “Wait, wait. Are you saying this Kintobor guy might actually be this ‘Robotnik’ guy?

Sunset looked over at her, “I don’t know. It could just be a weird coincidence, but there are some similarities between them. Dr. Kintobor is building all these new robots no one’s ever really seen before.” She gestured towards her book, “This Dr. Robotnik, or Eggman, builds armies of robots to help him take over his world.”

Twilight asked, “His world? So… he’s not from your world?”

Sunset nodded, “Right. He’s not from Equestria.”

Rarity asked, “Then how does Twilight- I mean, the OTHER Twilight, know him? And when did she tell you about this?”

Sunset stood up and walked over to the bed and sat on the side of it as she explained, “We were talking fairly recently. It was… before those crystals showed up. We were talking about that little adventure in Equestria when she mentioned an adventure to another alternate world she had before she became a princess. After his most recent defeat, Dr. Eggman came across a strange creature that he named the Time Eater for its abilities to erase time and space. He planned to use it to erase all of his previous defeats, but his first attempt at using it caused him to rip a new time-space hole to Equestria. He managed to get it under control with some help and decided to make a historically rewritten Equestria part of the new Eggman Empire he was creating.”

Fluttershy murmured, “Eggman Empire…?”

Applejack asked, “Somebody was actually willing to help him do that?”

Sunset gave her an odd look, “Wouldn’t surprise me. Equestria doesn’t exactly have a shortage of creeps.”

Rarity asked, “But, everything worked out, right? Nothing was changed, right? I mean, you’re still here in our world, Sunset.”

Pinkie chirped, “Yeah! I bet Not-Yet-Princess Twilight totally sent that time eating machine packing with the magic of friendship!”

Sunset looked down at her journal as she resumed, “Well, that’s partly right, anyway. She said after the Time Eater was destroyed, all the damage was repaired, including the hole to Equestria. But she did say that Dr. Eggman was still out there somewhere in his world.”

Spike asked, “So… is this Kintobor guy really this Eggman guy?”

Rainbow spoke up, “Why don’t we ask Princess Twilight to come pay us a visit and get a look at him? She should be able to recognize him right away if he really is the same clown.”

Sunset looked up and said, “We could, but… that might get her hopes up. She’d probably be disappointed if it turned out to not be Dr. Eggman.”

Applejack asked, “What do ya mean?”

Sunset answered, “Well, she and her friends didn’t send Eggman and his helper packing all on their own. They met new friends from that other world, friends who were the ones responsible for foiling his previous schemes and were instrumental in stopping the Time Eater.”

Twilight had an idea of what she was getting at and asked, “You think if it is him, they might be somewhere in Canterlot too?”

Sunset replied, “Well, one or more of them, anyway. If that strange vortex that was reported that night was something that Dr. Eggman had a hand in creating, I’m sure they would’ve followed him to try to stop whatever world conquering scheme he had in mind.”

Rainbow asked, “So what do you want to do? Wait and see if they show up?”

Sunset said, “Well, it shouldn’t be too hard to recognize them when they do show up. Spike can obviously hide the fact that he’s able to speak, but these guys…” She glanced down at her journal as she flipped forward to another page before finishing, “Considering how they look and what most people typically think of when it comes to their animal species, it shouldn’t take them long to show up in the news as well.” She handed the journal to Twilight, who took it in both hands and, after a moment, adjusted her glasses to make sure she was actually seeing what she was seeing as Spike climbed up onto her shoulder and the other girls gathered around to look.

At the bottom of the second page, just below where the writing ended, there was a photograph. The picture wasn’t completely clear, likely due in part to some of the clarity being lost during the sending and also partly due to the fact that it looked like it had been salvaged from a fire or explosion or both, but they could still make out what Sunset was getting at. In addition to the baby dragon, griffon, and all the ponies in the picture, including a certain lavender unicorn that surprised Twilight a little, there were a number of different animals standing around a picnic table that was clearly set up for a party, all of them looking considerably human-like.

Author's Note

"It can't be yesterday! You already established it wasn't!"

"Shh! I'm setting up a flashback."

"Yeah? Why now you gotta do it?"

"I think I'm starting to see why your show has stalled..."

"I don't have a show! What are you babbling about!"

Needlemice in a City

After their sleepover at Pinkie’s house where Sunset told her friends all she could about Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends from what Princess Twilight had shared with her, the friends all agreed that it was best not to jump to the conclusion that Dr. Kintobor was Dr. Eggman just yet. Instead, they decided the best course of action would be to observe him as best they could from afar. In the days that followed, they found that he was becoming quite a hot topic in Canterlot, interviews with him showing up on news sites and TV. They tried to keep up with them, looking for anything that might hint at his real identity.

As the days went by, Eggman’s business continued to rake in sorely needed cash for building up his army. Thanks to the machines he put in his new building, the business front basically ran itself, meaning he only needed to make an appearance whenever customers stopped in. The rest of the time, he was able to expand his resources and recover any of his displaced ‘assets’, sending his few recovered and crudely repaired Motobugs and Bee Bots out to retrieve them and search for any others that had been pulled into this world from his lair. There wasn’t much in terms of electronics, but quite a few of his Badniks and bits of prior schemes had been pulled from his lair due to the damage, all of which he was determined to reclaim before the police could get a hold of them.

Despite the reports of trucks delivering things to his building, Spike and the girls didn’t feel they knew enough about Eggman and his operations to really say they knew who he was. His Badniks usually moved out under cover of night, with ‘prototype field tests’ being announced beforehand if they had to move through the city during the day. The recounting of the Time Eater incident from Princess Twilight had only described some of the bigger threats that had been encountered during that adventure and Sunset was reluctant to get in touch with her, not sure what to ask her or how to phrase it. They noticed little things about him and what he said in some interviews, but nothing that could really shatter the Kintobor façade he had made.

Then, one day, they suddenly received a surefire confirmation courtesy of exposition on Eggman’s part.

The girls were meeting in an empty classroom in the morning before classes started, the same classroom where their friendships had first been rekindled in fact. They had all received a text from Pinkie late last night to meet her there, adding that she’d found something that they needed to see. At the moment, Twilight and Fluttershy were sitting at desks in the front of the room, the latter playing with Spike, while Sunset, Rainbow, and Applejack stood near them watching Rarity pace in circles in front of the teacher’s desk. It had been a few minutes since they had arrived and they were still waiting for Pinkie to show up.

Sunset lightly pulled at the side of her old leather jacket as she listened to Rarity mutter, “What is taking her so long? What is it she has to show us? I had to forego my usual morning routine, rush through it, in order to get here on time and she clearly hasn’t done the same! WHERE IS SHE?!” She came to a stop as she finished and, after a few moments of breathing heavily, she realized everyone was looking at her with concerned expressions.

Sunset was the first to speak up, “Rarity, just… it’s okay, all right? This isn’t how any of us were expecting to start the morning either, but we haven’t been that long. I’m sure Pinkie will be here soon.”

Twilight nodded softly, “Right. Whatever it is she said she wanted to show us is probably going to be really important too.”

Rainbow covered her mouth with a hand as she let out a yawn, saying afterwards, “I sure hope so. Don’t forget Pinkie makes a big deal over anything involving cupcakes, Twilight.” Applejack looked like she wanted to say something, but kept her mouth showed and rolled her eyes as she shook her head.

About a minute later, one of the classroom doors opened and everyone looked back to see Pinkie in the doorway with her left hand on the doorknob, her breathing a bit heavy and her pink laptop tucked under her right arm. Fluttershy quickly stood up and walked over to her, asking, “Pinkie, are you okay? What happened?”

Pinkie took her left hand off the doorknob and placed it on her laptop as she stood up straight and took a big, loud intake of air. She faced Fluttershy afterwards and spoke, “Hi, Fluttershy! Hi, girls! I know I’m a little late! I forgot to count the sprinkles last night, had to rearrange the chocolates, had to run to the store to get Maud a snack for Boulder… but that’s not important right now! I’m here, and this won’t take long!” She walked to the front of the classroom with Fluttershy following behind her and sat down in the center seat next to Twilight, setting her laptop on the desk in front of her.

As she opened it up and began to quickly type on the keyboard, Rarity came over and said, “Pinkie dear, it… it’s okay. You don’t need to rush yourself anymore this morning. I admit, I was a bit upset that you were running late, but you did have a reason.” Pinkie didn’t reply to her as she connected to the school’s internet and began looking through her browser’s history.

After a minute, she pulled up a video from one of the local news channels. She then looked up at the others and explained, “This showed up on the late, late news last night! It’s an interview with Dr. K!”

Spike and the other girls gathered around to look at the laptop’s screen. “‘Interview with Dr. Ovi Kintobor: The Hidden Kingdom’?” Twilight read the video’s title aloud. Pinkie nodded and clicked the video’s ‘PLAY’ button.

The interview started off normally enough. A reporter, a man with light and dark brown streaked hair, tan skin, and a white shirt with light blue lines and a blue tie that matched his eyes, and Eggman were sitting in the studio with the former asking the latter some fairly basic questions: how he felt about his unprecedented success, whether or not it was due to the popularity of a certain cartoon show, some idea of where his business was going to go next… About two minutes in, though, an interesting question came up.

“Doctor, I’m sure this sounds like an odd question, but how do you think you would react if one of your creations happened to get destroyed?” the reporter asked.

Eggman answered, “Oh… well, I don’t believe I need to think about it. After all, it happens a lot more often than you may think.”

The reporter asked, “It’s happened before? Has it happened recently?”

Eggman replied, “Yes, in the last few days in fact! And given the state that my, er, completely friendly babies have been found in, it’s not the work of any ordinary vandals. No, it’s them, that gang of horribly mean and close-minded teenage troublemakers who call themselves the Suppression Squad!”

The reporter tilted his head slightly, “The Suppression Squad?”

Eggman explained, “They’re a group of highly evolved and developed animals possessing unusual abilities and a knack for troublemaking, both of which they use to thwart my efforts to take ov- er, that is, do good!” Spike and the girls, with the exception of Pinkie, all looked at each other with wide eyes for a moment at this before looking back at the video. This interview was finally starting to go somewhere.

The reporter asked, almost a bit dubiously, “Highly evolved? In what way, sir?”

Eggman responded, “They stand on two legs like us! They wear clothes, real clothes! They can talk! They’ve developed a whole society and government in their little corner of the world, one that doesn’t care for the likes of us!” As he came to the end of his rant, he noticed the odd look the reporter was giving him. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m legally sane, I’ll have you know!” he snapped.

“That’s not what I’m wondering about, sir… It’s just, this ‘Suppression Squad’… Are you assuming it’s them based on past experiences, or do you have some proof to support your claims?” the reporter questioned.

Eggman replied, “Well, since you asked, I actually do! And that’s exactly why I brought these two with me!” At his words, Orbot and Cubot leapt over the back of the couch he was sitting on and hovered just above the other two cushions before opening up. Eggman looked at them expectantly, “Well, go on! Show them the image that was recovered from the Motobug!”

Orbot nodded, “Yes, Boss.” He then reached over and patted Cubot on the back. The blocky yellow robot glanced back for a moment before he faced forward, his eyes glowing brighter as he projected a holographic image in front of him. Spike and the girls leaned closer as it became clearer.

The image showed a blue hedgehog standing up straight and looking back over his right shoulder down at the camera with his green eyes. The image was a little dark and grainy, but it looked like there were buildings in the distance in the background. Judging from the outlines they could make out, it had to be Canterlot. As they looked at the picture, the girls began to get excited. “Whoa, that’s him! It’s Sonic! Just like in the other picture!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“And this picture looks like it was taken just outside the city, which means he IS here!” Twilight added.

“Is he by himself?” Fluttershy wondered.

Pinkie shushed everyone and said, “Listen to this!” They all looked back at the video.

“Not exactly your garden variety hedgehog, is he? And look at the way part of his body is hidden by shadows! He knows he did something wrong and still has the audacity to make sure I know it was him! The little attention-seeking miscreant, coming all the way from his little corner of the world because he doesn’t know how to better himself!” Eggman was saying.

The reporter asked, “Does he have a name?”

Eggman answered, “He certainly does! He calls himself, eh, Mr. Needlemouse, like he’s some kind of superhero! He used to be brown and really spiky, I’ll have you know, but then he started messing with fur dyes and managed to get his quills to fuse together! He’s always changing his image; I wouldn’t be surprised if in a week he’s green and trying to get everyone to believe he’s a king! And let’s not forget the other members of his little gang! There’s a pink hedgehog as well, Rosy the Rascal. She likes to make others believe she’s his girlfriend…”

As Eggman went on about the others and had Cubot show more images to show the viewers what Myles, Kneecaps (everyone had to struggle to not burst out laughing at that name), and Coocoo looked like, Spike and the girls became convinced that this interview was turning into less of him trying to gain everyone’s favor and more him trying to remain the center of attention for as long as possible.

“Wow. This guy is really determined to stay in the spotlight,” Sunset remarked.

“Listen ta this. Does he even hear himself?” Applejack asked.

“The sad thing is, I could almost believe he rehearsed this. And those pictures he’s showing… Even with some of the quality being lost, I’m pretty sure they’ve been edited in some way,” Sunset said, thinking of her ‘bad girl’ days.

“It’s almost a shame the guy’s evil and a wacko. He’d probably have a really successful career if he went into acting,” Rainbow commented.

Pinkie closed the Internet window and shut her laptop soon afterwards, the important part of the video over. “Well, even though he made that interview all about himself, that was informative,” Twilight remarked.

“Yeah. It’s safe to say he is Dr. Eggman, plus Sonic and his friends really are here! We just gotta meet up with them and let ‘em know we’re friends with Princess Twilight! Then they’ll know they’ve got friends here ready to back them up again!” Rainbow said.

Sunset was thinking a bit deeply about what had been shown in the video. “I don’t doubt he was making up a lot of the stuff he said, but those pictures he showed… I couldn’t tell if they were altered or not,” she muttered to herself, remembering her ‘bad girl’ days.

She looked up when Applejack spoke, “Hold yer horses, Rainbow! It is great to know that they’re here, but how are we gonna find ‘em? We ain’t seen hide nor hair of ‘em these last few days, and this is the first time anyone else has brought them up. For whatever reason, they ain’t exactly been makin’ themselves know around here.”

Twilight hummed in thought. “That’s true. Maybe they arrived later than him, woke up in a place where nobody found them like Dr. Eggman…”

Rainbow interjected, “Whatever; it doesn’t matter what took them so long. The point is, we have to find them and let them know what Eggman is trying to do!”

Fluttershy asked, “But… how?”

Rarity held her right hand against the side of her head, “That is the question, Fluttershy…”

Pinkie spoke up cheerfully, “Hey, it’s okay, guys! There’s a really easy way to find them!” Everyone looked at her, some a bit dubiously. “They’ve been smashing up Eggy’s robots, right? So, they must go after them whenever they find them! All we have to do is keep an eye on the robots he sends out into the city, and eventually, we’ll see them show up and go after the robots, and afterwards, we step in and introduce ourselves!”

Everyone looked at her blankly for a moment before Sunset said, “That… is actually a really good idea, Pinkie.”

Twilight nodded, “It’s a simple idea, but it makes a lot of sense. Pretty ingenious, Pinkie.”

Pinkie shrugged, “Hey, trying to stop bad people right away before they do bad and get nice people hurt… it’s what we would be doing if we knew there was trouble afoot, right?”

Rarity conceded, “That is also true.”

Spike spoke up, “But he’s got a lot of robots, right? And there’s no telling which ones they might attack. How are we going to keep an eye on them all?”

Rainbow said, “Well, again, I could run and fly around the city to keep an eye on them, but… yeah, that might be a bit much even for me. And if this Sonic really is as fast as me, I might just miss him.”

Sunset added, “Plus Eggman’s robots might think you ARE him and come after you. …Actually, that might be useful for herding them into one place, but I don’t know how much it would help us find him.”

Twilight suddenly had an idea and shared it with the others, “Drones!” When they looked at her, she explained, “We could use drones like mine to monitor Dr. Eggman’s robots and locate Sonic and his friends. We’ll have to make more and modify them accordingly in order to keep watch, but that way, we could keep watch from a distance.”

Rainbow nodded, “That could work.”

Sunset put a hand to her chin, “So, building and modifying, huh? I could definitely help with both of those.”

Applejack said, “Sounds like we got ourselves a plan.” The rest of the girls nodded in agreement.

“We could go to my house after school and start working on it,” Twilight said. With some idea of what their next move was going to be, the girls gathered up their belongings and headed to class. After school and club meetings were over, they met up out in front of the school and headed to Twilight’s house to pursue her idea further.

Surprisingly, it only took two days to build a dozen modified versions of Twilight’s selfie-taking drone. Twilight had some materials around her house to get them started and Applejack was able to provide some more to finish the rest. She also helped put them together along with Sunset, Rainbow, and Pinkie, and Rarity and Fluttershy made them look nicer. Sunset and Twilight were able to put together a program on a laptop to control the drones and see what they were seeing, and Sunset made an app for their phones to allow them all to see through the cameras. Once they felt they were all set, it was time for the hard part: tracking down Sonic and his friends.

Even with all the drones they had, there was only so much of the city that they could see at any one time. There was also the fact that Eggman’s Badniks weren’t always out when they were searching, and even if they were, they still had to watch the other drones’ fields of vision for any sign that Sonic or his friends were in the area, which was not easy to pick up on in Sonic’s case. It also didn’t help that Eggman’s words, as over the top as they had sounded, had evidently been taken to heart due to police showing up on the scene shortly after any of his Badniks had been attacked. A week passed with no success, but the girls weren’t about to give up. There were some similarities between all the attacks that they were picking up on, and they were starting to notice sooner when Sonic was passing the drones. It was turning into a waiting game, but they were sure they were getting close; they just had to keep at it.

A few days later after school, the girls were out surveying part of the city again. Twilight and Sunset were sitting in the bed of Applejack’s pickup truck, which was parked in an alleyway. Applejack was alternating between enjoying some apple juice and checking the surveillance footage on her phone while Twilight and Sunset looked at the footage being broadcast from the drones on the laptop. Meanwhile, Fluttershy, Spike, and Rarity were sitting at an outdoor table in a café not far away, Fluttershy checking Spike’s fur while Rarity checked her phone, Pinkie was walking around in between checking alleyways for clues, and Rainbow was, well, being as awesome as she wanted to be.

At the moment, she was grinning as she used her super speed to run down the city streets, turning the corners and watching out for cars as she ran. She glanced behind her to see a group of Motobugs following her, just as she’d thought. She ran down the sidewalk for a few more seconds before ducking down an alleyway. The Motobugs followed her blur down the alley and came to a stop and looked around in confusion when they got to the end of it. They couldn’t see Sonic anywhere; all they could see was Rainbow leaning against a nearby wall to their right, acting cool.

The Motobugs turned away from her, not knowing she was the one they had been chasing and began to scan the area for any trace of Sonic while Rainbow snickered to herself. Suddenly her cell phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket and answered it without looking at the caller ID. She had a feeling she knew who was ringing her up. “Hey, did you guys see that?” she asked.

Rarity’s voice came from the other end, sounding a bit irritated, “Yes, all of us watching saw you, Rainbow. We’ve talked about this already. When you run like that, you throw us all off.”

Rainbow shrugged, “Hey, I’m just trying to increase my odds of seeing him. What am I supposed to do, stand on the corner and hope he runs past me?”

Rarity replied while stirring her tea with a spoon, “You’d be surprised what you can see when you do that, darling. You should try it sometime.”

Rainbow replied, “You’re just saying that ‘cause you’re sitting at a café. If you actually had to stand around, you’d agree that this is better.”

While the two were talking, one of Twilight’s drones caught sight of the Badnik gathering and hovered a bit overhead, Rainbow looking up at it and waving while Twilight and Sunset shared a glance. Applejack peered out the back window and saw what they were looking at, prompting her to ask, “Rainbow showin’ off again?”

Sunset replied, “Yeah, pretty much.”

Before Twilight could add anything, her cell phone rang and, after looking at it for a moment, she answered it. “Hello?” she asked.

She had barely finished saying the word when, on the other end, Pinkie said in an excited tone, “Twilight! I just saw a blue streak go past me! Check the cameras!”

Twilight gasped and tucked her phone between her left shoulder and ear as she began typing on the keyboard while Sunset and Applejack watched. She flipped through the camera screens, nearly passing one over when she noticed a flash on it. Seeing it disappear, she flipped to the next closest drone and caught a better glimpse of it. “I see it! I mean him!” she said, both Applejack and Sunset moving closer as she tried to keep up.

Sunset pointed at the screen as Twilight checked the cameras, “There he is again! Where’s he going now?”

Twilight noted the drone in question and flipped to the next drone based on Sonic’s positioning and where he seemed to be heading. “It looks like…” She was cut off when the footage changed to static. “Oh no! The drone got destroyed!” Twilight said.

“Oh, not again,” Sunset groaned. Before any more could be said, Sunset’s cell phone rang and she pulled it out, looking at the ID to see it was Rainbow Dash. She quickly answered it, “Rainbow?”

The girl on the other end answered, “I just saw him for a moment! Not running, either, like actually stopped! He smashed the robots and started going the way I just came! I’m on him!” She then hung up and focused on running after the blue blur ahead of her, who seemed to notice he was being followed.

Sunset brought her phone down and looked at it for a moment before saying to Applejack and Twilight and saying, “Rainbow’s going after him!”

Applejack pushed the door of her truck open and swung her legs out as she said, “Then so are we!”

As she got out and Sunset stood up, Twilight held the laptop in both hands as she spoke, “Wait! What about the drones?!”

Applejack looked at her and said, “Keep watchin’ ‘em, Twilight, and let us know if you see anythin’! Might help us avoid what happened last time! Let Rarity and Fluttershy know too! Ah’ll text Pinkie!” She pulled her phone out and Sunset jumped down out of the truck bed, both of them running down the alley while Twilight grabbed her phone from where it had fallen and called Rarity’s cell phone.

While she was waiting for an answer, she returned to the drones and checked what they were seeing again. When Rarity answered, she said, “Rarity! Rainbow caught a glimpse of Sonic! She’s in pursuit now! And…” She paused for a moment as she noticed something on the screen, “There’s some robots gathering near a bus stop not far from that café! He might be heading there next!”

Rarity stood up and tucked her phone against her head as she reached for her money and replied, “Then we’ll be there too! Just tell me which stop!” She looked at Fluttershy and Spike, “Come on, this is it! We’ll definitely need your help, Fluttershy!” The pink-haired girl let out a small gasp and stood up while Spike leapt down onto the pavement. Rarity finally grabbed her money and left enough to cover their bill on the table before taking her phone in hand again, her, Fluttershy, and Spike running down the sidewalk while Twilight gave her directions.

Rainbow had a little difficulty trailing Sonic since he kept trying to throw her off, ducking down alleys and making the tight corners without slowing down while she had to. Still, it wasn’t enough for her to lose him entirely and she eventually decided to hang back a bit to see if it would get him to go wherever he was going. She and the other girls kept using their cell phones to stay in touch, all of them with the exception of Twilight moving towards the bus stop’s location.

It didn’t take long for Rainbow to reach the bus stop, but it seemed she had stayed a little too far back. As she approached, she saw that there were more broken Motobugs littering the street and people huddling back in fear, but there was no sign of Sonic. Before she could start looking or asking the people at the stop what had happened, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike came around the opposite corner and, upon seeing Rainbow, waved her over. She ran over to them, at a normal speed, and Rarity asked, “Rainbow, where is he?! Where’s Sonic?!”

Rainbow replied, “I don’t know! I just got here a few seconds ago! He must’ve gone down another alley!”

Spike pointed to the people at the stop, “Maybe they saw where he went.”

Rainbow said, “I was just about to ask ‘em! Come on!” They ran over and began questioning the people about what they had seen.

By the time Applejack, Sunset, and Pinkie arrived on the scene, they had managed to learn that Sonic had disappeared down an alley on the other side of the street. Rainbow didn’t feel very confident that this information would lead them to him, however, since it seemed like he was staying on the move and wouldn’t stop for anything. Before they could debate it further, they started to hear the wail of sirens coming towards them.

“The police are coming! The police are coming!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Their response time is getting faster and faster. Do they somehow know when Eggman’s robots get attacked?” Sunset grunted.

Applejack said, “Ah’ll bet ya if Sonic is still ‘round here, he ain’t stayin’ long now! We might wanna leave too!”

Fluttershy murmured, “Yes, we should. Please. I don’t think I could answer questions from the police.” With that, the girls split and took different directions to spread out, Spike following Applejack as she headed back to her truck. By the time the police arrived, they were gone.

Twilight looked up when she heard footsteps and saw Applejack and Spike running towards the truck. As she got closer, Applejack called, “Get in the truck, Twilight! We’re leavin’!”

Twilight stood up and asked, “Wait, where’s Sunset?!”

Applejack answered as she reached the driver’s door, “We split up ‘cause the police were comin’! We’re supposed ta text when we’re all A-Okay!” She pulled the door open and got in while Twilight got down out of the truck bed and picked up Spike before opening the passenger’s door and climbing in. Once they were all in and buckled, Applejack started the truck and pulled out of the alley.

While they were driving, Twilight said, “I lost another drone a few minutes ago. It looked like it was near the bus stop. I was trying to get in touch to let someone know, but now I guess it was too late for that.”

Applejack replied, “You know Sonic hasn’t been stickin’ around when the police show up, Twilight. He’s probably long gone by now.” They heard a series of notification sounds come from both her and Twilight’s phones a few moments later. “What’s up?” Applejack asked, keeping her eyes on the road.

Twilight pulled out her phone and checked her texts. “It’s Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow saying that they got away okay. No word from Sun- oh wait, she just texted saying she’s fine. Want me to text them back for you as well?”

Applejack nodded, “Yeah, go ahead, Twilight.” Twilight typed and sent a reply to the other girls, letting them know all three of them were fine. She then put her phone away, disappointed that they had no more luck contacting Sonic, but relieved that they were all okay.

Unbeknownst to Spike or any of the girls, Sunset was actually not far away from the bus stop at the moment, the girl pressing her back against one of the buildings in the alley she was in as she listened for anyone who might be coming. After a few moments, she let out a sigh and stood up straight, adjusting the strap on her backpack as she began to make her way down the alley. She had ducked into it when they had split up and had stopped trying to get away when she noticed there were trash cans and other junk that looked like they had been knocked around. It made her curious and she wanted to check if there were any clues that might hint at where Sonic had gone.

As she walked, she began to feel a strange and familiar sensation in her head. It started as just a tingling, but it soon began to bother her like a headache. “What is this? Is my magic acting up again?” she wondered as she held her hand to her forehead, coming to a stop. She stood in place for several moments, trying to focus and work through the voices she was hearing. She looked up when she realized something. “These voices… They’re not all coming from the people around here, they’re… There’s a source. Only one.”

She looked up towards the roof of the building to her right. They seemed to be coming from there. Moving her eyes down the side of the building, she saw it had a fire escape. At the bottom, she saw that the ladder had been lowered. Making her way over to it, she began making her way up to the roof, trying to step as quietly as possible since she had no idea what she’d find up there.

As she got closer to the top, she began to hear voices. “You keep taking bigger and bigger risks, and soon we’re all gonna be caught!” Sticks was saying.

“Hey, more and more of Eggman’s robots keep showing up around this place! What are we supposed to do, let ‘em go around like they own it?” Sonic replied. Sunset felt encouraged when she heard Eggman’s name and quickened her pace.

“I do wonder how he got the resources to start building new robots, and so quickly. We’re pretty far from home,” Tails remarked.

“We’ll worry about that later. Sticks is right, Sonic; the police force in this large, bustling community has tried to arrest us every time we go after Eggman’s robots. They’re probably willing to help since he’s just like them,” Amy said.

Sunset reached the top of the fire escape and put her hands on the edge of the roof above her, grunting a bit to pull herself up and peer over it. As she was doing this, she heard Knuckles say, “Well, even he’s gotta have friends somewhere in the world, right?” She rested her arms on the other side of the edge to support herself and looked. Past a rectangular slab made of bricks, she could see Team Sonic, standing there large as life.

“That’s a weird idea to consider, Eggman having actual friends,” Sonic remarked. Sunset struggled to pull herself up over the edge and managed it after a few seconds, rolling down onto the roof with a slight thud. She recovered and got up on her knees, moving quietly over to the brick slab and sitting with her back to it, panting a bit. Inwardly, she was excited, but she also felt a bit overwhelmed. She’d located Sonic and his friends, but now what was she supposed to do? How was she going to approach them without them running away?

She was about to find out that she didn’t even have to think about it, however. Sticks, due to standing a short distance away from her friends and simply listening as they talked, had heard the sound of Sunset hitting the roof and turned towards the slab, suspecting that someone or something was on the other side of it. Clutching her boomerang tightly, she started to quietly make her way towards it. She was sure it had to be the C.C.C.; they had tracked them down with the help of the nefarious S.O.N.I.C.X. group. Well, they weren’t going to get the drop on her.

Her movement didn’t go entirely unnoticed by her friends. While Sonic and Knuckles were debating about the finer points of publicity, Amy looked over and saw Sticks walking tensely away from the group. “Sticks? What are you doing?” she called, causing the guys to stop talking and look over at her. Sunset heard her as well and glanced up with her head turned to the right, wondering what had caught their attention.

As soon as Sticks peered around the slab and saw Sunset, she let out a primal scream, shocking the girl and causing her to scream as she whirled around to face the badger. She tried to move back away from her, but Sticks was quick to get almost on top of her, getting her feet on both sides of Sunset’s torso to keep her from going back any further. Sticks bent forward to get closer to her face and said, “Hey, you’re not a clam! At least you don’t look like one. But you’re a member of them, ain’t ya?! Well, your society friends aren’t gonna get any closer to getting us because-” Her rant was cut off when Sunset, attempting to put some distance between them, reached up and placed her left hand on the badger’s forehead, cutting her off. Almost immediately, Sunset’s mouth fell open and her eyes began to glow white.

It was pandemonium. All she could see was a void filled with Sticks. Multiple Sticks, far too many to count. And they were all behaving differently. A very small number were acting proper and civilized to their fellow Sticks while the rest were unruly and wild, and they were all speaking. Some were whispering and murmuring what sounded like doubts and second thoughts while others were yelling, no doubt the loudest voices in her head. It was one loud sea of orange and brown, and somewhere lost in it all… a speck of green?

Sticks let out a shout and placed her hands on her head as Sunset pulled her hand back, the girl’s eyes returning to normal… somewhat. She had found the source of what was making her magic act up and she did not like what she had been shown. What she had seen in the badger’s head was… kind of terrifying. Maybe it was because she didn’t know her yet, but unlike the time she had looked in Pinkie’s head and felt that she had learned a lot, she felt like she had learned nothing about Sticks. It felt more like she had peered beneath the waves of a sea of madness.

Speaking of the badger, she had started stepping back while still holding her head and bumped into Sunset’s raised leg, which caused her to fall on her back as she tried to keep stepping back. Sunset raised her head to look at the badger as she sat up, still holding her hands to her head. She soon opened her eyes and gave Sunset an accusatory look as she pointed at her and yelled, “What did you do?! I saw your eyes glowing! Did you put something in my head?! You dirty, implanting society member! You’d better get it out right now or you’re gonna regret it!”

Sonic came around behind her while she was yelling and, after glancing at Sunset, looked down at her and grabbed her under the arms. “Okay, Sticks, take it easy. The girl didn’t do anything to you. You just fell on your head. Let’s make sure you don’t have a concussion or something,” he said plainly as he started to lift her up.

Sunset raised herself up to a sitting position to get a good look at Sonic, noting his scarf, the sports tape around his wrists and legs, and, most importantly, his blue arms. After a moment, she said, “Sonic!”

Both the blue hedgehog and Sticks stopped and looked at her in surprise for a moment before the former abruptly let go of the former, causing her to hit her head again, and exclaimed, “Well, it’s about time somebody around here recognized me! How did it take that long? This has to be the longest its ever taken!”

As Sunset stood up and dusted herself off, she heard Amy chastise, “Sonic!”

She looked over to see Tails coming over, the fox stopping near Sonic as he asked, “Just you? What about the rest of us?”

Sonic started, “Well…”

Sunset cut him off, “Tails!” The fox looked over at her in surprise as she looked over at Amy and Knuckles. “And you’re Amy Rose and… Knuckles?” she finished a bit awkwardly as she looked at the echidna.

“Yeah! …What?” Knuckles asked as he noticed the bewildered look on her face.

Sunset fiddled with her hair as she uttered, “Uh, nothing. You’re, uh… you are you.” It wasn’t the best answer by any means, but Knuckles seemed to be fine with it.

Sonic spoke, “I was about to say if somebody recognized me, they’d recognize you guys too.”

Sticks stood up suddenly and said, “Oh yeah?! Well, she didn’t say my name! …Actually, that’s a good thing.”

Sunset put a hand on her hips and replied, “I don’t know who you are, Sticks, but I know your name.”

Sticks demanded, “Hey, how do you know my name?! Did you read my mind?! Is that what you did just now?!”

Sonic answered, “She knows because I said it out loud and she heard it, Sticks. See? I said it again.”

Amy and Knuckles made their way over, standing on the other side of the slab. “I think the bigger questions are, who are you and how do you know who we are when no one else does?” Amy asked, looking directly up at Sunset.

Knuckles added, “Yeah. Are you really a mind reader like Sticks said?”

Sunset thought for a moment, glancing at Sticks for a moment before looking back at the echidna. She then spoke, “I… feel like that’s both an oversimplification and not correct at the same time. I would say I’m more of an empath because, if you were to ask me right now, I would have no idea what you’re thinking.”

Knuckles looked disappointed at that. “Aw. I was hoping you could tell me what I’m thinking. Even I can’t tell what I’m thinking sometimes.”

Sticks, however, did not look convinced. “You say that like there’s a difference!” she accused.

Sunset crossed her arms and gave her an annoyed look. “There IS a difference! One knows what you’re going to say before you say it and the other is more in tune with emotions!”

Sonic shrugged, “She’s got a point there.”

Tails asked, “Are we really discussing this now?”

Sunset shook her head and said, “Right, thank you, Tails.” She then straightened up, “My name is Sunset Shimmer, and while I actually don’t know you guys, I have a friend who… kind of knows you. Now that I actually see you, I’m pretty sure you don’t know her.”

Sonic crossed his arms, “Well, if she knows us, we must’ve met her before. What’s her name?”

Sunset asked, “Twilight Sparkle?”

Sonic shrugged, “Never heard of her.”

Sunset nodded, “Didn’t think so. She’s told me about a different version of you that she knows.”

Sonic replied, “Oh, an alternate-dimension thing, huh? We’ve had experience with those before.”

Knuckles remarked, “I still kind of wish I tasted like a fortune cookie.”

Sunset gave him an odd look. Seeing this, Amy spoke, “Don’t worry about that. At any rate, it’s lucky that you were able to recognize us despite the aforementioned alternate-dimension detail.”

Sunset replied, “Well, it took Dr. Eggman a while to drop a hint that you guys were here in Canterlot, and even then, he embellished the information to keep up with appearances.”

Sonic asked, “So Eggman’s the reason why everybody around here seems to dislike us?”

Sunset nodded, “He somehow managed to get his foot in the door and win people over with his advanced robotics. He’s probably been twisting as much as he can to make himself look like the good guy; your names and motives are just the latest thing he’s messed with.”

Tails asked, “What did he call us?”

Sunset replied, “I don’t think you want to know. Anyway, we probably would’ve tried to figure out the truth from you guys sooner or later; my friend Fluttershy is a big animal lover after all. Luckily, Twilight talked about the other version of Dr. Eggman and sent me a picture of the other guys, so that pretty much took care of that.” She noticed the expectant looks everyone except Sticks gave her and said, “I do have the picture with me right now. Do you…?” She got her answer from a few head tilts, so she slid her backpack off.

As she knelt and set her backpack on the roof, she noticed Sticks still had her eyes narrowed, that suspicious look still on her face. Sunset matched her with a level, slightly irritated look of her own even as she opened her backpack and pulled her book out. She broke the gaze when she looked down to find the picture, at which point Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles all gave the badger a look to tell her to knock it off. After few seconds, Sunset found the picture and turned the book around, handing it towards Sonic while saying, “Here, it’s right here.”

Sonic took the book in both hands, the others gathering around him as they all looked down at the picture. Some of their expressions became a bit bewildered as they looked down at it. Knuckles was the first to speak up, pointing down at his alternate-dimension self as he spoke, “Is that supposed to be me? That guy’s a shrimp! He doesn’t even look like he has fingers! Does he even work out?”

Tails remarked, “Well, if he does, then it’s clear he doesn’t skip over leg day.”

Amy looked over her counterpart appraisingly. “Look at those boots she has. They’re very nice, but can she run in them? And that dress! I wonder if she keeps a crossbow with her instead of a hammer; it might be better for her.”

Sonic looked unimpressed by what the picture was showing, but his voice had a note of jealousy in it. “Look at this guy. How come he has more friends at his birthday party than I’ve ever had? He doesn’t even know how to dress properly. He has to be…” He trailed off as he noticed something in the corner of the photo. “Wait, is that Shadow? SHADOW was at his party?! How is that possible?! That can’t be Shadow. The only way it could be is if he’s a total joker in that dimension,” he argued.

Knuckles remarked a bit jokingly, “Or, maybe, he’s just as strong as our Shadow and that other Sonic is actually that much better than you.”

Sticks asked, “Why do you say that? Did you travel to that dimension and not tell us about it? Do you know him?!”

Tails started, “Uh, Sticks? Didn’t you…”

The badger cut him off, “No, I didn’t! I’ve never traveled to any other world! The two versions don’t match up! Besides, that other one is dead, so everything that happened in it is dead!”

Amy asked, “Sticks, what are you talking about?”

Sticks put her hands over her ears and turned and ran away suddenly, yelling, “THEY DON’T MATCH UP!”

Amy immediately chased after her, calling, “Sticks, wait!”

Sunset and the boys stared as the two took off across the rooftops. “Do you think we should… help her?” Sunset asked awkwardly.

“Nah. It’s never easy to calm Sticks down or talk her out of whatever conspiracies or theories she’s caught up in, and Amy’s her best friend. She’ll know what to do,” Sonic replied.

The trio turned to face Sunset. Sonic glanced down at the picture one last time before closing the book and handing it back to her. As she took it and tucked it under her right arm, she said, “Well, I think that about covers how I’ve heard of you guys. So how did you all get here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Sonic crossed his arms and turned his head to the side slightly, “Well…”

BREAKING NEWS!

Cost of writing extended flashback sequences goes up! Writers forced to make cuts in order to stay within budget! Thank you.

“…Next thing we knew, we were falling out of the sky. Luckily, our parasail got pulled up too and came out near us. We were able to use that to land safely,” Sonic finished.

“Of course, it was a long glide before we all landed, and we had no idea where we were. It took us a while before we found out Eggman was building new robots and tracked them here,” Tails added.

“Man, that was a long, extended flashback sequence just now,” Knuckles remarked.

Sunset crossed her arms, “So that’s what happened…” There was an awkward silence for several long moments.

Knuckles finally broke it by asking, “So… what now, guys?”

Sunset looked up and answered, “Well, I think getting people to realize that Eggman is lying about a number of things needs to be dealt with so you don’t have the police harassing you all the time.”

Tails spoke, “That would make things a lot easier for us. Still, how are we going to get people to listen to us? They always seem to react with fear when they see us, even when we first got here. I doubt Eggman’s slander had gone live then.”

Sunset replied, “No, he only started doing that a little over a week ago.”

Tails went on, “So we really should do something to clear this up. Still, where do we start?”

Sunset suggested, “Well, why not start by getting some help? My friends and I have been trying to get in touch with you guys to let you know that we’ll help you out here.”

Knuckles asked, “You? You want to help us?”

Sunset smiled, “Sure. You may not be the versions that Twilight knows, but I don’t see how that affects anything. You guys seem all right.”

Sonic spoke, “Just ‘all right’? That doesn’t sound very convincing to me. Besides, based on how you look, I’d say you’re about the same age as us. You some kind of rising star reporter for a major TV news station or something? ‘Cause if you’re not, I don’t see how you can help us.”

Sunset put her hands on her hips, “My friends and I have been working for a little over a week to figure out how to meet with you. We’ve had to risk questioning by the police and putting our time and effort into keeping an eye out for you guys since you’ve understandably made that difficult to do. In that time, we’ve gotten very good at knowing when you’re around and we’ve got a pretty good idea how you make your getaways. It’s only the quick response time of the police that kept everyone else from meeting you tonight, and you notice I still found you anyway. I’d say we’re doing a lot better than the police currently are.”

Tails remarked, “She’s got a point there.”

Sunset finished, “I’m certain that, between you guys and my friends and I, we can figure out a way to expose Eggman and show everyone they should trust you instead.”

Sonic crossed his arms and glanced off to the side, “I still don’t know…” Suddenly, they all began to hear a whirring sound coming from below that began to get louder. “Hey, you hear that?” Sonic asked, immediately snapping to attention.

“Motobugs!” Tails affirmed. Sonic immediately ran to the edge of the roof and leapt down onto the top of the fire escape before flipping over the railing and dropping down to the ground. Tails, meanwhile, began spinning his tails around and flew down to join him.

Sunset was pulled out of her awe at seeing Tails fly for the first time when Knuckles called, “Hey, wait for me, guys!” Sunset watched him run to the edge and, unlike Sonic, simply leapt off the edge. Sunset was immediately concerned by the fact that he jumped like he was doing a swan dive. She ran to the edge of the roof and looked down to see him falling majestically, only to keep falling when he reached the ground. It took her a moment to realize he must’ve fallen through a manhole, a fact that was confirmed when she heard his voice echo out, “I’m okay! I landed on my chest! Now I just need to figure out where everyone went…” She heard both Sonic and Tails let out a loud groan from below, making her wonder if this was typical behavior for Knuckles.

As she began making her way down from the roof, she could hear the sound of robots being destroyed, the sound being amplified due to the width of the alley. It sounded like they were fighting back the way she had come. As she got to the bottom of the fire escape, however, her walk towards the noise was interrupted when she heard Eggman say, “Dear me! Oh, you poor girl!” She spun around and looked up to see him in his Eggmobile descending into the alley. “Were you kidnapped by that HORRIBLE Needlemouse and his friends? Well, don’t worry! My robots are here to help you!” At his words, a Motobug rolled into view at the other end of the alley.

At first, Sunset was a bit intimidated by the Badnik, having never seen one so up close before and knowing that it was something made by an evil genius, but as it got closer, she pushed her fear down and stayed where she was. When it was close enough, she brought her right leg up and back and kicked it in the side of its head, knocking it to the side slightly and causing it to spin out. Eggman gasped for dramatic effect at this and asked, “What are you doing, miss?! He’s trying to help you!” He gasped again, “Don’t tell me you’ve been held captive for so long that you have Stockholm Syndrome!”

The Motobug righted itself after a few moments and tried to approach Sunset again. This time, she raised her foot and brought it down on the Badnik’s head, managing to crush it enough for it to power down. She then looked straight up at Eggman and told him, “Oh no! I don’t have anything that’s messing with my mind anymore! In fact, I’ve never really had the wool pulled over my eyes!” She pointed up at him, “I know who you really are, Dr. Eggman!”

Eggman seemed surprisingly unconcerned by what Sunset said. “Well, that’s no surprise, really. I mean, everyone around here happens to know…” Suddenly, what she said caught up with him and he leaned over his console to look down at her as he spoke, “Wait, how do you know my actual name?! I could’ve sworn I ordered the ‘Do-Gooder’ business card package, not the ‘Evil Genius’ package!”

Sunset replied, “I have friends who share certain things with me, so I kind of thought the whole ‘Kintobor’ thing was off from the start. More importantly, though, you just clarified it out loud. That means the secret’s out!”

Eggman stood up straight, returning to his usual domineering self. “Oh really? I don’t see anyone else besides you here, and you’re pulling that ‘admission’ of yours from what only you know! Do you actually think one little girl knowing my secret is actually going to be a big deal to me?”

Sonic suddenly came up behind Sunset and stopped next to her right side, Tails flying over and landing to her left as he said, “You’d better believe it’s gonna be a big deal, Egghead! Sunset here happens to be our new pal, and with her sleuthing skills and strong legs, we’re gonna show this world what a fraud you are… together!” Sunset was a bit surprised by Sonic’s words, though she smiled when she realized he’d come to a decision.

Eggman looked down at the trio for a moment before saying, “Is this the moment where I’m supposed to go on about how evil I am and you put an abrupt end to my schemes? Well, you can forget it, Sonic! I’m not that kind of villain anymore; you won’t ever catch me doing that again! And with only one supporter in a city this big, you won’t be ruining my business any time soon!” As he finished speaking, a trio of Motobugs came around the corner and shot towards the three.

When they got close enough, they each brought their legs back and kicked the Badniks as hard as they could, managing to knock them off the ground and back, all of them breaking when they landed. Afterwards, they all looked up at Eggman again and Sunset said, “I’ve got a history of finding out things and using them against people, and I’m not the only one on their side. You’re only going to lose support from here on out, Eggman, because more and more people are going to realize that you’ve been lying all this time! By the end of it, you’ll be lucky if you can even work in an alley like this to carry out your schemes!”

Sonic added, “Yeah! So you’d better start working on robots while you have the chance, Eggman! We all know how your last craft show turned out!” Tails quietly nodded in agreement.

Eggman glared down at them and growled, but glanced to the side when he heard sirens getting closer. As he started to turn away, he called down, “This isn’t over yet! I’ll build more robots! They’ll be bigger and better, and their legs will put yours to shame! And… they’ll be able to jump really high! And they’ll give you hugs!” He added under his breath as he flew away, “Eeeeeeeeevil hugs.”

A short while later, Sunset, Sonic, and Tails were sitting together on the edge of a rooftop, watching Canterlot light up as the Sun went down. “You know, this place does have a certain beauty of its own. We’d never see a view like this at night back home,” Tails remarked, Sonic nodding in response.

After a few moments, Sunset looked over at Sonic and asked, “Did you really mean what you said back there? About me being your pal?”

Sonic looked totally laidback at the moment, but he spoke sincerely, “Sure. You’re a pretty cool girl in your own way, and you were willing to stand up to Eggman. This isn’t an easy job, but I think you’ve got what it takes for it.”

Sunset mulled over his words for a moment before asking, “So, this is a job, is it? I’m sure my friends would like to have a position in it as well, and they’ll probably be wondering about it as much as I am right now. Like, what’s it like? Are there any benefits?”

Sonic replied, “Well, you’re expected to be able to foot your own expenses and be ready to drop what you’re doing whenever you’re needed, but there are plenty of benefits.” He looked over at Tails, “Show her.” The fox nodded and reached for his belt buckle with his right hand. With a quick twist, a yellow glow appeared on it that jumped to Tails’ hand. He clenched it into a fist and then flicked it forward, a glowing yellow rope seemingly made out of energy extending from it before coming back to him and disappearing.

Sunset looked amazed at this and looked at Tails, who replied, “It’s called an Enerbeam. It was originally made by a race that we call the Ancients. It’s one of the things we’ve discovered after researching them, and we make use of them from time to time.”

Sonic looked back at Sunset, “We’re kind of looking for a better place to set up shop ourselves, but once we do, we’ll get you one. We’ll get one for all your friends.” Sunset gave him a smile in reply. He might not be the Sonic that Twilight knew, but if he was anything like him, she was starting to see why she quickly became friends with him.

Meanwhile, in an alley elsewhere in the city, Amy was trying to find Sticks, having lost track of her a while ago. “Sticks! Where are you? It’s getting dark! We have to get back to the guys and find a place to spend the night!” she called. She suddenly heard a rattling nearby and looked to see Knuckles emerge from a manhole, covered in sewage and the cover balanced on his head. “Knuckles!” she said.

The cover fell off as he climbed all the way out and shook his head a bit. “Ugh. Don’t drink the water around here. It really goes through you,” he remarked.

Amy sighed and used her hammer to put the manhole cover back in place. She then put her hammer away as she said, “Come on, it’s getting dark! We’ve got to find Sticks! And find a place for you to wash up.” She then started walking down the alley again, Knuckles obediently following behind her.

As they walked out of hearing distance of it, a rattling sound came from a dumpster. Sticks poked her head out of it a second later, bits of garbage on her head. She then pulled her arms out of the trash to look at the prize she’d found: discarded copies of a videogame called ‘Pilfered by the Poltergeists’. “How could anyone throw away so many copies of something like this? How could they not see the value in an autobi… autoba… this personal experience? Well, I certainly do!” She narrowed her eyes at the cover and grinned, “Soon, I’ll know all your secrets, you pilfering geists! You, and all your ghosty friends!”

Author's Note

The Meeting

It was looking to be another typical day at school for Rainbow and her friends, and for once, even Twilight couldn’t wait for it to be over even though it hadn’t quite begun yet. Despite their disappointment, their near success at actually meeting Sonic the other day had made them confident, very sure that they would succeed this time. What they didn’t know yet was that it was already a guarantee, one that was going to require very little effort on their part.

Sunset was a little late getting to school that morning. Sonic and Tails had kept her out later than she’d expected due to them going into great detail about where and how they were going to meet up with her and her friends, with a lot of focus being given in regards to how they should expect Sticks to react when she met them. Despite being a bit tired, Sunset entered the school with high spirits and started looking for her friends.

It didn’t take her long to locate them, finding them in the empty classroom they’d been using for their meetings. They had all been talking, but they stopped when they heard the door open and turned to see Sunset stepping into the room. Rainbow was the first to speak, “You’re kinda late today, Sunset.”

Sunset shrugged as she walked over to them, “Yeah, I know.”

Pinkie suddenly popped up in front of her, bringing her to a halt as the pink girl spoke, “So? Aren’t you excited?! We’re doing the Sonic search again after school! We’re trying to decide where to start looking and everything!”

Applejack asked, “Did ya figure anything out yesterday that might help us find ‘em?”

Sunset smiled, “Yes, actually, but I had a better idea for today. Instead of going to look for them today, why don’t we just go meet them?”

Her friends gave her confused looks at this. “‘Meet them’?” Twilight asked before she and Spike shared a look.

Rainbow pointed at her, “Wait… Whoa, are you saying you…?”

Sunset nodded, “Yeah! I actually managed to pick up on their trail after we packed it in and find them!”

Rainbow asked, “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?!”

Sunset deadpanned, “Because Sonic and Tails kept me out most of the night explaining how we’re to meet up with them. That’s why I’m late.” She blinked and said, “Although I do see why it was necessary to go into so much detail. They know better than us what the best way to meet them is.”

Spike spoke up from Twilight’s lap, “Oh yeah. They’re worried about getting caught by the police, right?”

Sunset replied, “No, not really. It’s actually because of one of their friends. Her name is Sticks. She, uh…” She hesitated for a moment before finishing, “Well, you’ll see when you meet her.”

Rarity asked, “So we are going to meet them?”

Sunset nodded, “Yeah. They told me where their hideout is.” She looked over at Twilight, “And we should probably bring that crystal with us.”

Twilight asked, “Do they know what it is?”

Sunset replied, “I think so. When they were telling me how they ended up here, they mentioned something they called the Lost Crystal of Power. They said it shattered during a fight and it overloaded one of Eggman’s machines. What you found is probably one of the pieces of it, but I’m sure they’ll be able to confirm it.”

Pinkie excitedly asked, “Did they tell you a long, detailed story with lots of moving pictures?”

Sunset gave her an odd look, “Uh, yes?” Pinkie kept staring at her expectantly, causing Sunset to utter, “Uh…”

Fortunately, the awkward moment was cut off by the school bell ringing a moment later, causing everyone to look up. “Oh! First hour is going to be starting soon,” Twilight said before reaching for her backpack.

While she was putting Spike inside, Rainbow turned back to Sunset and asked, “Okay, so we’re gonna get through the day and then meet them after school, is that right? Is that what they agreed to?” Sunset nodded in reply.

Twilight put her backpack on as she stood up, adjusting the straps a bit before saying, “I’m going to have to run home before we go. I didn’t bring the crystal with me today.”

Rainbow said, “I’ll give you a lift. We’ll be at your house and back here at school in no time at all.”

Applejack remarked, “Well, Ah guess that settles that.”

Fluttershy made an almost noticeable squeal as she said, “Ooh! I can’t wait to meet them!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow at her before glancing down at her clothes and saying, “I hope we’re not meeting them in a sewer or some other unwholesome place.”

Sunset spoke, “No worries there, Rarity.” With that, the girls left the classroom and went their own ways to get to class. It seemed like it was going to be a long day due to their anticipation of what they were intending to do, but the lunch hour eventually arrived. During this time, Rainbow used her super speed to give Twilight a lift home like she said so she could get the crystal, and before they knew it, they were meeting up in front of school like they planned. It was then that Sunset revealed she’d been given a crudely drawn map to the meeting place, so they caught a ride on a bus and headed into the city.

As Sunset led the way, Spike and the girls noticed the gradual change in their surroundings. The normally clean and well-maintained exteriors of the buildings began to look more rundown, some looking dirty or having doors and windows boarded up. The sidewalks and streets looked cleaner, but there were still cracks and holes dotting both. There didn’t seem to be anyone around, oddly enough, but this observation just made some of them more nervous about being there.

Twilight shifted her backpack a bit, glancing at what was probably a pharmacy for a moment before looking ahead at Sunset and asking, “Are you sure this is the way, Sunset?”

Sunset looked back at her, “I’m pretty sure. I mean, so far, this map has been right, and the spot where we started using it is the same spot Sonic and Tails showed me.” She faced forward and glanced around as she said, “Although I did see it when it was dark, so… I guess I couldn’t see what everything really looked like. Still, this isn’t so bad.”

Rarity spoke, her voice rising a pitch as she did, “‘Not so bad’? Sunset! Do you see where we are?! You assured me we wouldn’t have to go somewhere unwholesome for this!”

Applejack looked back at her with a raised eyebrow, “Does this look like a sewer to you, Rarity?”

The fashionista replied, “No, but it’s as bad as one! Just look how dilapidated this part of Canterlot is!” She lowered her voice as she glanced around warily, “And who knows what sort of unseemly characters might live here.”

Fluttershy looked up at a rundown apartment building and murmured as they walked past, “Um, it does seem like it could use some work.”

She watched Pinkie as she skipped past without a care in the world and cheerily chimed, “Talk about your fixer-upper!”

Rainbow was getting a bit irritated by all the comments and suddenly moved up behind Twilight and Sunset, spinning around to face the others with her arms out at her sides, causing them all to stop as she spoke, "Look, that Eggman creep made sure they're gonna have a harder time getting people to stop and listen to them than if he hadn't opened his mouth. You really think they're gonna set up shop near the mall or Sugarcube Corner? The police would never leave them alone!" She held her arms up, "This is probably the best they can do this close to the city! Did you guys think of that?" Rarity looked down in shame, Fluttershy nervously rubbed her arm, and Pinkie just stared at her friend at that.

Rainbow crossed her arms and said, "If they can handle living here, then we can handle meeting them here to help them out. And the things we can do to help them out include putting an end to Eggman's lies and getting everyone to see them for who they are, right?" Spike and the other girls nodded and they resumed their search, now feeling a little more comfortable with their surroundings.

Before long, they came to a stop in front of a boarded-up building that looked like it was once a café. Sunset glanced up at it before looking back down at the map and saying a moment later, “This… appears to be where the trail ends.” She rolled the map up and started, “Now where…” She was cut off when something hard suddenly hit her left shoulder, causing her to stumble with a grunt. Twilight looked over at her, only to reel and let out a yelp a second later when her right shoulder was hit. She looked up and saw that the object was a boomerang, the projectile flying up to the roof of the café and into the waiting hand of Sticks.

Before anyone could react, she let out a loud yell and dove down from the roof, tackling both Sunset and Twilight to the ground, both of them sliding out into the street a bit and both Twilight’s glasses and Spike landing behind them. The other girls were about to move to help them, but Sticks suddenly whirled around and hissed at them like a wild animal before speaking, “Who are you?! How did you find this place?!”

Sunset recovered from the hard landing and raised her head up a bit as she remarked, “Nice to see you again too, Sticks.”

The badger whirled around again to look down at her and said, “Don’t interrupt me! I’m asking questions! Who sent you?!”

Spike came over and put Twilight’s glasses back over her eyes, causing her to relax a little, before saying in an annoyed tone, “I’m pretty sure some of your friends told us how to get here.” Sticks eyes immediately widened and she fell off of Sunset and Twilight onto her rear at his words, pointing at him and screaming several times before she grabbed her boomerang, stood up, and ran into the alley next to the café, Spike looking at her with a dumbfounded expression the entire time.

He wasn’t the only one; aside from Pinkie Pie, who simply had a blank look on her face, the other girls stared at the spot where they’d last seen Sticks with befuddled expressions. “What was that all about?” Rainbow asked after a few moments. She turned her head to look at Fluttershy, who glanced back and forth for a moment before she hesitantly shrugged her shoulders.

Twilight and Sunset sat up, the former looking at the latter and asking, “She’s… a badger…?”

Sunset shrugged with a raised eyebrow, “Apparently.”

Twilight blinked, “So she’s a talking, humanoid badger, she’s dressed like a native, she uses a boomerang… and she freaks out over Spike being able to talk?”

They all suddenly heard Sonic’s voice, “Yeah, that sounds about right.” They all looked back up at the roof and saw him step up to the edge of it while rubbing his upper right arm. He was looking back over his shoulder, but he looked down at everyone a moment later. He raised his left hand and made a slight wave, “Hey, everyone.” Before anyone could say anything, he jumped up and off the roof, curling up into a ball and spinning around as he dropped down. He bounced up a bit when he hit the ground and uncurled, landing on his feet.

Sunset gave him a small smile as he walked over. “Hi, Sonic,” she said.

Sonic held his hand out to her, “Good to see you again, Sunset.” He helped her up to her feet and then did the same for Twilight. Afterwards, over the course of a minute, everyone introduced themselves to the blue hedgehog, who then gestured to the building next to them and said, “Everyone else is inside. Right this way.”

As he turned around, Rarity spoke up, a concerned look on her face, “Wait, we’re going in there?”

Sonic glanced back at her with a raised eyebrow, “Well, yeah. Unless you really want to stand around out here where anybody could see us?” He noticed she still seemed apprehensive, so he said, “Look, it’s not as bad inside as it looks on the outside. You can thank Amy for that when you meet her. Now come on!” With Twilight carrying Spike in her backpack, the girls followed him over to the alley, where he led them to a ladder attached to the building. They followed him up and he opened up a hatch on the roof, saying, “Come on in. I’ll shut it behind us.” Sunset went down first, followed by Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity. Once they were all in, Sonic pulled the hatch down as he climbed down the ladder inside.

At the bottom of the ladder, the girls found a short walk leading to a staircase that was surprisingly lit, though the lights flickered every few seconds or so. At the bottom of the stairs, the girls went through a door into one of the café’s back rooms. It was currently filled with various electronic and mechanical bits and pieces and other knickknacks that Team Sonic had collected. While the girls were looking around, Sonic caught up and went to the door leading to the front, calling out as he stepped through it, “Hey guys! Meeting time! Sunset and her friends are here!”

The girls followed him and spread out as they looked around the room. There was still an L-shaped front counter to separate the employee-only areas like the room they just came out of from the rest of the restaurant. Along the walls opposite the counter were booths. It didn’t seem like there were any that had been removed, but they were all in differing states, some missing the table and others missing one or both seats. The open space between the booths and the counter suggested there used to be tables and chairs, but there were none now. Looking back at the counter, Sunset noticed there were two other doors behind it that were open, but she wasn’t at an angle to see what was inside them.

As she was looking, Tails stepped out of one of the rooms carrying a black laptop. It looked like an older, bulkier model, but it seemed that it had some modifications added to it since it had an antenna sticking up, some of the wiring was sticking out, and there were some small boxes attached to the casing. Tails stopped and looked at something on the screen for a moment before he looked up and saw everyone. “Hey, Sunset,” he smiled when he spotted her and she nodded. He then walked over and set his laptop on the counter where a cash register likely used to be.

The others noticed Tails’ arrival, but since the rest of Sonic’s friends hadn’t come out yet, they all kept looking around the restaurant with the exception of Twilight and Fluttershy, the latter no longer able to keep her amazement to herself as she went over to Tails first and began asking him questions and trying to touch his fur. Twilight, meanwhile, was more interested in the laptop than how good a singer Tails was, so she decided to offer him some relief. Walking over, she placed her hand on Fluttershy’s shoulder and said, “Okay, Fluttershy, I think that’s enough for now. There’ll be plenty of time for Tails to share his singing voice with you and finish answering the rest of your questions later. What about Sonic?” She glanced over and noticed the blue hedgehog had heard her and was waving his hands with an apprehensive look on his face. She raised an eyebrow, “I think he’s looking for a little attention.”

Fluttershy let out an “Ooh!” at that and quickly moved over to Sonic before he could react and began to barrage him with questions. “Sonic! What were your parents like? Are you a natural blue? Do your shoes wear out a lot? Is that why you have tape on them? Do your feet hurt when you run?” While she was talking, Sonic looked back over at Twilight and gave her a half-lidded irritated look.

Twilight gave a small smile and turned back to Tails, who said, “Thanks for that. I was having a little trouble keeping up with her words, and I can usually keep up with Sonic.”

Twilight replied, “I had a feeling you were overwhelmed, so I thought that was the least I could do.” She held her right hand out, “Hi, I’m Twilight.”

Tails took her hand and shook it, “I’m Tails.”

When their hands separated, Twilight turned her head to look at the laptop and said, “So… I couldn’t help but notice that this laptop of yours doesn’t seem like it came standard.”

Tails knew what she was getting at and replied, “Ah, you picked up on that, huh?”

Twilight looked back at him, “Well, it looks like a fairly old model, but it looks like you’ve already started putting some work into it. I am curious what exactly you’ve done, what you’re planning to do, and…” She paused and glanced around, suddenly feeling uneasy. It seemed as though Spike noticed it too since he gave her a worried look when she looked back at him. She leaned to the right a little a moment later and they both peered into the room Tails had come from. There they saw part of Sticks’ head sticking up out of an opening in the floor, a tinfoil hat shaped like a small Viking helmet on her head. She was giving them an intense stare and brought her right hand up to point two fingers at her eyes and then at them before bringing it back down.

Tails had followed Twilight and Spike’s gaze and, after Sticks made her gesture, turned back to them and remarked, “Oh. I thought I heard Sticks yelling earlier. So… she was yelling at you?”

Spike spoke first, “She attacked before anything came out of her mouth!” Tails blinked and stared at Spike in surprise at that.

Twilight added, “She started screaming a lot when Spike talked to her.”

Tails said, “Well, that’s not surprising. I hope Sunset warned you about her beforehand.”

Twilight replied, “She did mention Sticks, but she didn’t really warn us about her. She just said that we’d understand once we met her.”

Tails shrugged, “I think that’s really all the warning anyone can give about Sticks.” He looked over to his left and said, “Oh, Amy, Knuckles!” Twilight turned and saw the pink hedgehog and echidna in question coming out of the third room, which she assumed was where they kept their food since Knuckles was holding up some turkey slices in his right hand as he came out.

“Sorry about taking so long. Cleaning hot syrup off the floor took longer than I thought it would,” Amy said, glancing in Knuckles’ direction as she finished speaking. She then looked around the room and noticed everyone in the room. “Oh! I didn’t realize Sunshine and her friends were here,” she remarked.

“Sunset,” the girl corrected.

Rarity quickly made her way over to Amy and asked, “You’re Amy, correct?” At the pink hedgehog’s nod, she said, “Well, my name is Rarity, and I’ve been told you’re the one to thank for how clean it is in here. May I just say you’ve done a fabulous job, all things considered?”

Amy replied, “Well, thank you. I do tend to have a better eye for presentation and cleanliness than these guys do. I still wish they’d stop arguing and agree to take out this old furniture so we can open up some room and get some new furniture. I’m tired of using a sleeping bag.”

Rarity nodded, “Oh, that does sound dreadful. And yes, some new furniture would certainly do wonders for this place.”

Sonic, who was pleased to finally have an excuse to halt Fluttershy’s tirade of questions, came over with her behind him and said, “Amy, we’ve talked about this. If we start throwing out the old stuff, people are gonna get suspicious, and we don’t need that right now.”

Knuckles added, “Yeah, and besides, they make pretty good workout equipment.” He raised the turkey slices to his lips and licked them after he finished speaking.

Amy looked up at him with a flat expression for a moment before turning around and saying, “Okay, fine. I’ll get to decorate how I want to later, when things have quieted down some. Now let’s all be polite and professional, guys. We are in the presence of distinguished and strong ladies here, and as one myself, it’s only fitting that I should…” She trailed off when she noticed Spike poking his head out of Twilight’s backpack. She stared at him for a moment before she suddenly darted around the counter and towards him, exclaiming, “Oh my gosh, a puppy!” Before Twilight could react, Amy reached her and knocked her over as she snatched Spike out of the backpack, twirling around and holding him up.

Twilight was not feeling very happy about being bowled over onto the floor by a girl about half her size, but when she recovered from her hard landing, she realized she couldn’t see anything. “My glasses! Can anyone see my glasses?!” she cried out as she began feeling around in front of her with her hands for them. Fortunately, they didn’t fly far from her and the lenses stayed in the frame.

Sonic soon spotted them and ran over to grab them for her. Before he reached them, however, out of the corner of his vision, he saw a flash of movement and suddenly found himself pressed up against someone. He looked up to his left to see Rainbow looking down at, the cyan girl having done the same thing as he. The two stared at each other with a raised eyebrow for several moments before Rainbow suddenly broke eye contact and quickly bent down to snatch up the glasses. Standing up straight, she smirked down at him while holding up the eyewear, “Looks like I win.” Sonic glared at her back while she walked over to Twilight and crouched down, handing her the glasses while saying, “Here they are, Twilight.”

As soon as she felt them in her hand, Twilight said, “Oh, thank you, Rainbow.” She put them on and gratefully took Rainbow’s offered hand.

Once they were both standing up, they both turned to Amy, who soon stopped fawning over Spike enough to notice them and Sunset staring at her. She grinned sheepishly, “Sorry. Your doggy is really cute.” She looked at him, “What’s his name?”

Twilight answered after a moment, “Spike.”

Amy replied, “That’s a nice name.” She snuggled Spike again, making him whine but she didn’t seem to notice. “Spike. What a great doggy.”

Fluttershy came over and said, “He really is wonderful, isn’t he?”

Sticks spoke up, “I wanna kill him. I hate him.” Everyone turned their attention to the badger, who hadn’t budged an inch since Twilight noticed her.

Amy walked over to the counter to get a good look at her friend and said, “Sticks! That’s a terrible thing to say! And how could you hate Spike?” She snuggled him again despite his groaning, “He’s cute, fuzzy, and adorable.”

Sticks replied, “Exactly. He’s also an escaped government experiment.” She reached up and grabbed the bottom of the hatch to her side, “Don’t come crying to me when they come to take us all away.” With that, she disappeared down the opening, slamming the hatch closed behind her as she went.

Amy asked, “What? What would make her say that?”

Spike spoke, “Probably this.” Amy let out a yelp as she held him at arm’s length and he took the opportunity to push himself up and jump onto the counter. Twilight moved to stand next to him as he turned around.

Rainbow asked, “Okay, so do you guys need to go get the crazy train, or…?”

Sonic replied, “Nah, she can stay in the coole- I mean, freezer.” He looked at Sunset, “I think you said there was something you wanted to check with us, Sunset?” Sunset nodded and nudged Twilight with her elbow, raising her eyebrows meaningfully when she looked at her. That caused her to remember.

Twilight slid her backpack off and set it on the counter next to Spike, “Sunset said you guys might know what this thing is. It landed in my backyard the night that, I assume, you guys arrived.” She unzipped her backpack and reached into it, pulling out the container holding the crystal shard and setting it down. Sonic, Tails, and Amy’s eyes all lit up in recognition when they saw it.

“Oh, that’s one of the shards of the Lost Crystal of Power, the one Lyric is so obsessed with getting! The Ancients discovered that crystals were great for containing lots of power!” Amy blurted out before Tails could.

“‘Lyric’? ‘Ancients’?” Rainbow asked before glancing at Sunset, wondering if any of this was registering with her.

“Well, the Ancients are pretty much what you can guess based on what we call them: precursors from thousands of years ago. And Lyric is the last known living member,” Tails said while he was typing on his laptop. He turned it around after a few moments to show Spike and the girls a picture of him… which was nothing more than a crude, child-like drawing of a yellow snake with arms wearing red armor. Tails noticed their expressions after a moment and raised an eyebrow before briefly glancing over at Knuckles. He then looked at Sunset and asked, “You remember what we told you about Lyric, right Sunset?”

Sunset replied, “Mm-hmm. Like you said, last of his kind, betrayed them all for the crystal, and got put to sleep for thousands of years. Last time you guys saw him before all this, he was falling out of his airship while it was high up in the sky.”

Twilight asked, “And he survived that?”

Tails answered, “We didn’t know he did until he suddenly showed up. We know he got pulled into the portal before we were, so he has to be in this world somewhere.”

Sonic said, “That creep won’t stay quiet for long. It’s a good thing he has so far, though.”

Knuckles nodded, “Yeah. Now we’ll be able to protect you when he shows up.” He proceeded to raise his turkey slices for another lick.

By this point, Rarity was getting rather aggravated watching him do this and couldn’t keep quiet about it any longer. “Why do you keep doing that?” she asked.

Knuckles shrugged, “I’m getting a drink! We’re out of water, so I’m making do with the sweat.”

Sonic sighed and said, “You should’ve said something, Knuckles. I would’ve run over to the park to refill the bottles.” He walked over to the door that Amy and Knuckles had come out of, sliding across the counter to get to it, and went into the room. A few moments passed before they heard him call, “Hey, who messed with my comic book collection?! I just finished arranging it!”

Applejack turned back to Tails and remarked, “Kinda sounds like y’all are havin’ a little trouble livin’ under one roof.”

Tails shrugged, “Well, we don’t have a lot of resources available right now, so we have to make do for now.” He turned to Twilight, “Speaking of which, would you mind if I took that crystal shard off your hands?”

Twilight thought for a moment before saying, “I guess that’s okay. What are you going to do with it? Keep it hidden?”

Tails replied, “Well, that, and I was just thinking I could put its power to good use.” He picked up the container and held it longways between his hands, “Back home, our village uses a similar crystal, the Meroke Crystal, to power everything. I’d like to see if I can use this the same way. I managed to put together a generator for our power needs, but, ah, it’s not as reliable as I’d like it to be.” As if on cue, the lights suddenly shone brighter before shutting off, causing the room to go dark.

“AHH! I’ve gone blind again!” Knuckles cried.

“You’re not blind, Knuckles,” Amy stated matter-of-factly.

Sonic poked his head out and asked, “Did Sticks have an argument with the generator again?!”

Tails said, “It’s probably another connection problem. I’ll fix it.” He tucked the crystal under his arm and went into the room behind him after closing his laptop, He went over to the hatch in the floor and, when he tried it and it didn’t open, began knocking on it. “Sticks! Open up! I need to do some maintenance down there!” he called.

While the two started arguing back and forth through the door, Sunset quietly remarked, “I think you’re right, Applejack. They’re having some co-existence problems.”

Applejack replied, “Ah think we should take a little look ‘round the neighborhood before we head home.” The other girls agreed that that sounded like a good idea.

As she picked up her backpack, Twilight glanced into the room and noticed Tails was standing off to the side of the hatch, looking utterly annoyed. If she was to hazard a guess, he’d had no luck convincing Sticks to let him in. “Hang on a moment, girls,” she said, holding her right hand up to her geode necklace. She reached out to the hatch with her magic and began to manipulate it, causing it to shake a little. After a couple of seconds, she managed to unlock it and flip it open. Tails turned around at the sound of it opening and, although he was confused since he couldn’t see Sticks, went down into the opening after a moment.

The girls turned and started to leave as Sticks started screaming again, Twilight slinging her backpack over her shoulder and Spike hopping down from the counter. Amy and Knuckles didn’t notice them leaving due to the former trying to keep the latter calm, but Sonic did. “Hey, you guys are leaving now?” he asked.

Sunset answered, “Yeah, we all do have to get home soon, Sonic. But don’t worry; now that we know where to find you, we’ll be sure to catch up with you tomorrow.”

Rainbow flashed the peace sign with her left hand and said, “Stay cool, guys!”

Sonic replied, “Ah, that won’t be a problem at all!” Spike and the girls then headed out, all of them still feeling a bit weirded by some of the things they’d seen but still glad that Team Sonic seemed to want their help.

Later that night…

A security guard at Eggman’s new building was making his rounds when he heard a heavy crashing sound coming from back of the building. Despite the loud noise, he wasn’t too concerned. Every day was pretty much the same; the sound of things falling due to someone’s clumsiness was the most eventful thing to happen with this job. He wasn’t sure why the ‘good’ doctor needed security at all to watch over his things since there hadn’t been any sign of his enemies coming near the building since it was built, but he was about to find out.

As he approached the double doors leading to the loading dock in the back, he quickly noticed that they seemed to be dented outwards as his flashlight shined on them, which was certainly not how they normally looked. “Huh. That’s odd,” the guard remarked to himself. They weren’t too badly dented, though; with a little force, he was able to get them open and slip inside.

Inside the room, he started to see various bits and pieces littering the floor. He started looking around, trying to find the person responsible for this. “Whoever’s messing around in here, come out now! I’m not in the mood for any games tonight!” he yelled. As he walked around the side of one of the large crates in the dock, he turned and immediately came to a halt. Some big green-yellow thing was right in front of him. He slowly raised his flashlight to see what and how big it was.

He soon stopped on a snake face that was behind a glass dome. Lyric let out a loud hiss at the guard, causing him to scream at the top of his lungs. Before he could try to reach for his walkie-talkie, Lyric suddenly swung his tail around and sent the guard flying across the room right into the wall. The last thing the guard heard was another loud crashing sound and the alarm going off before he lost consciousness.

Other security guards and a few of Eggman’s robots rushed into the room minutes later, searching for the intruder. They didn’t find Lyric, but they did find the guard lying on his side on the floor against the wall with a small crater marking where he hit it, a number of crates and robotic parts missing, and one of the loading dock doors open and the other with a large hole in it.

Author's Note

i is gifin uop an dis storie. i gona do somting wit skilonders now.

Amateur Movie Maker

A couple of days have passed since Sunset and her friends made contact with Team Sonic and joined their fight against Dr. Eggman. In that time, relatively little has changed; Sonic and his friends continued their daily attacks on Eggman’s Badniks, though with the girls helping them in their own way. Since Eggman had Sunset designated as a capture target, she often allowed them to see her to draw them away to where her friends were waiting to use their magic to take care of them. Amazingly, none of the members of Team Sonic, not even Sticks, suspected them of having magic as they never seemed to see how they dealt with the Badniks.

Spike and the girls really wanted to reveal the truth about Eggman to the rest of Canterlot, but they knew that it wasn’t going to be easy due to all the attention the media was giving him and so many people believing every word he said. They were going to need solid evidence to show to the world in order to have a chance of exposing him, which seemed like it was going to be tricky since he’d been making fewer public appearances the last few days. Even his robots were making their daily patrols less frequently, which had some of the girls worried he was planning something big. Still, they never came anywhere near Canterlot High and they didn’t seem to know where Team Sonic was holed up, and they would be finding out the answer for themselves soon enough.

As per their new afterschool routine, Spike and most of the girls went to meet up with Team Sonic at what they were now terming their secret base. They were currently waiting for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to arrive. Fluttershy obviously wanted to go with her friend, whom some of the girls suspected wanted to do something fun on before coming. They couldn’t blame her, though; they were all starting to notice that, when they visited, they really didn’t do much. It made sense since Sonic and his friends needed to stay hidden, but their visits tended to be short as a result. At the moment, Tails, Twilight, and Sunset were working on the fox’s laptop at the front counter, Rarity was inspecting and cleaning all the surfaces, Sticks was doing… something that was keeping her quiet in her home away from home, and everyone else was loitering around.

The tranquility was disturbed slightly when Tails suddenly said, “Yes! All right! I’ve got the Wi-Fi up and running, guys!”

Applejack tilted her hat up, both her and Sonic looking over from where they were leaning against the other counter as she asked, “Y’all got that worked out? Sticks ain’t gonna chew on the box or nothin’?”

Sunset looked over and said, “We’re pretty sure she won’t find it, Applejack. Even if her brain is somehow wired to pick up the waves, it won’t be easy for her to find.”

Applejack shrugged, “Here’s hopin’. Don’t wanna be regularly replacin’ that.”

Twilight looked at Tails and said, “I must admit, I’m still a little surprised. Even though you guys are constantly going up against an evil genius back on your world, I wouldn’t have said an Internet equivalent was readily available on a faraway island.”

Tails replied, “Well, Eggman is a heavier user than we are. We mostly just use it to electronically communicate with others on sites such as FriendSpace.”

Pinkie spoke up from the booth she was sitting at, “FriendSpace? Ooh, I wonder if that’s anything like MyStable!”

Tails shrugged, “It could be. Similarities do exist between universes after all.”

Rarity muttered to herself as she cleaned off a nearby table, “If things are so similar, then why doesn’t he invent something that can do all this for them?”

Amy overheard her and leaned over from the booth to whisper, “Tails has done that before. It tends to not work out like he planned.” Rarity raised an eyebrow, giving her an annoyed look that Amy smiled sheepishly at. The two, along with everyone else, turned to look when they heard the back door open and saw Rainbow and Fluttershy step out. Fluttershy was shouldering her backpack and Rainbow had what appeared to be a newspaper tucked under her arm.

“What took you two so long?” Sonic asked.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to stop at home before we came,” Fluttershy apologized.

Sonic glanced at her backpack, “You didn’t bring your animal buddies, did you? We’re still cleaning up after yesterday.” He looked over at Rarity and Amy when they let out a huff almost simultaneously, raising an eyebrow at the looks they were giving him.

Rainbow spoke up for her friend, “No, no, she knows. She just had to drop them off and comfort them. That takes a while sometimes. She also wanted to pick something up.”

Fluttershy nodded, “I noticed you have a, um… working tape player. I thought maybe you all might like some music to listen to.”

Knuckles poked his head out of the backroom, “I could go for some music. It’s in here.” Fluttershy looked back at Sonic and saw him nod, so she made her way over to the echidna.

While they went into the backroom, Sunset walked over to Rainbow and asked, “Anything else happen?”

Rainbow replied, “Well, you know, I mainly wanted to see if I could mess with Egghead’s bots a bit, so of course I was gonna give Fluttershy a lift.” Sunset gave her a knowing smile at that. Rainbow then said, “I couldn’t find any, but it wasn’t a total waste of time. I think I found out why he’s been so quiet lately.” She grabbed the newspaper and held it up to Sunset, “They were just putting this out when I saw it.”

Sunset took the paper in both hands. It was from the Quotidian Tuba, one of the so-called ‘elite’ newspapers in Canterlot. While it was seen as such by much of the city’s upper class, it was considered a controversial tabloid by others for its slants and publishing false or questionable stories to sell more papers. It, like some other newspapers and television outlets, had bought into Eggman’s slander and seemed intent on furthering his smear campaign, living up to its name with new stories that tried to make Sonic and his friends look like the bad guys and Eggman look good. For once, though, it seemed the newspaper managed to publish a truthful story as the main article showed a picture of the damage Lyric had caused to Eggman’s building, the headline proclaiming ‘MUTANT ENEMIES MULTIPLY! Doctor Kintobor’s Friendly Robot Business Attacked, Suspects His Enemies Are Growing in Number!’

After reading the headline aloud so everyone could hear, Sunset looked at Rainbow and started, “Is this…?”

Rainbow replied, “Pretty sure it’s real. That’s the other reason it took a while to get here. I was seeing what everyone else was saying.” She held up her phone and gestured to it, “It didn’t take much; just one search was all it took. It’s all over the local news that Eggman’s place was attacked by a giant snake.”

Sonic grunted, “Lyric…”

Twilight asked, “Any specifics yet?”

Rainbow answered, “All they’re saying is he stole a bunch of crates full of parts and attacked a security guard.”

Rarity spoke, “Oh, how dreadful! Is the guard okay?”

Rainbow replied, “Yeah, but apparently he’s in the hospital. Guess Lyric really did a number on him.”

Tails said, “Well, that explains it. Eggman’s probably had to deal with the insurance at least over the last few days.”

Applejack looked at him, “Ya really think he gave them health insurance?”

Tails shrugged, “Well, he probably never thought they’d actually have to use it.”

Sunset held a hand to her chin, “So Lyric’s starting to reveal himself… But where could he be? I’ve been checking since we first met up; nothing on giant, otherworldly snakes. How has he managed to hide himself this well?” That was a question nobody had an answer to.

Suddenly, Knuckles came out of the backroom carrying a boombox over his head with Fluttershy following behind. “Found it! It was under the table,” he said, Sonic rolling his eyes in response.

After he set it down on the counter, Fluttershy thanked him and set her backpack down on the counter. She reached into it as she said, “I brought so many with me. I guess I’ll just put in the first one I grab.” She pulled a cassette tape out and, without looking at it, turned and slid it into the boombox.

Almost as soon as she hit the PLAY button, a riveting and atmospheric song began to come out of the speakers. While everyone else glanced over intrigued, Sonic immediately snapped to attention, his eyes wide as he heard the first notes of the song. He glanced over at the boombox as the song continued for a few seconds before suddenly zipping out of the room and into the back. He came back after a few moments carrying Tails’ blaster and immediately ran over to the boombox, turning it to face him. He then grabbed both sides of it and began shaking it vigorously, causing the music to distort a bit. “As I…” The song stopped when Sonic suddenly hit the EJECT button, causing the tape to shoot out like a clay pigeon. As it reached the height of its flight, Sonic spun around and grabbed the blaster in one hand. He then pointed it up and pulled the trigger, the shot completely destroying the tape.

There was silence for several moments before Spike looked at Sonic and asked, “Why’d you do that?”

Sonic lowered the blaster and gave a perturbed expression as he said through clenched teeth, “I hate that song.”

Amy spoke, “Even so, Sonic, that’s no reason to destroy one of Fluttershy’s tapes.”

Fluttershy stammered, “T-That wasn’t one of mine! I didn’t even know we owned a tape with that on it!”

Rainbow remarked, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not something even your brother would listen to, Fluttershy.” While she was talking, Fluttershy started looking through her backpack for another tape, this time making sure to read the labels.

While she selected a tape with some nice show tunes on it, Pinkie piped up, “That was so cool! I wish I’d had my phone out; that would’ve made a great video!”

Sonic looked at her, “‘Video’?”

Sunset spoke, “She means like something you’d post online to share with others. You saw those on sites like FriendSpace, right?”

Sonic replied, “I remember comments and pictures last time that was the subject of the day. Not really any videos from what I recall.”

Rainbow said, “Wow. I hope there are videos there. That was the kind of thing a lot of people would watch here.”

Knuckles looked at her and asked, “What, shooting a thing?”

Rainbow replied, “Well, that’d get some views by itself, but the way he did it? Lot of replay value in that.”

Applejack said, “She’s right. Y’all probably wouldn’t be surprised by what shows up on the Internet.”

Pinkie piped up, “Ooh! I know!” Everyone looked at her. “We should make a whole bunch of videos of you guys doing all kinds of things and post them online! That’ll show people there’s another side to you besides what Eggy is saying about you and make them start raising questions about him! It’ll be part of our campaign against him!”

There was silence for several moments before Sunset said, “That’s… a good idea, Pinkie.”

Twilight nodded, “Yeah. I mean, it wouldn’t be without the problems that often come with posting videos online, but it would certainly do quite a bit more than just smashing his robots and running all the time.” Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity all nodded in agreement.

Amy asked, “So, these videos… Are we supposed to make them in… here? Wouldn’t that kind of tell people where we are?”

Applejack said, “Nah, o’ course not. Not all of ‘em, anyway. There’s only so much ya could do in here; you’d run outta things ta do.”

Sonic went next, “Well, what would we do in these videos, then? I mean,” he looked over at Sunset, “do you girls make a lot of videos? What do you do?”

Sunset replied, “Well, sure. We make videos, and we post stuff online. I, for instance, have my own channel called Shimmer Code where I post my videos, particularly my video game livestreams.”

Rainbow said, “And I do a lot of music videos, both those that I’ve recorded and for the Rainbooms.”

Rarity nodded, “Those are certainly ideas. You could also come up with your own ideas, or simply imitate what’s popular if you can’t come up with anything.”

Tails asked, “Like what?”

Twilight said, “That’s a good question. Let me see the laptop for a moment.” She sat down on the edge of the counter and turned it towards her, typing on the keyboard. “Let’s just see what shows up after a quick search.” After a few moments, she spoke, “Hmm. Human suffering. That became popular with home videos and never seems to go out of style. Video game walkthroughs. That’s an alternative to livestreaming where you can record beforehand and not have to talk if you don’t want to. Do-it-yourself videos, art tutorials, reaction videos, unboxings, people really like to see others spend money, a lot of memes, and… Oh.” Her face fell slightly, “Apparently bee puns are making a comeback.” She clicked on a video link and turned the laptop to face everyone, forcing Tails to have to climb over the counter to see, the video showing a cartoon bee talking to a flower that had a sad expression on its face until the inevitable pun came.

Everyone looked at the screen while either shuddering or raising their eyebrows. “Really? That’s something someone made and put up for others to see?” Amy asked.

“Yes, and according to this, it has been trending for almost two weeks now. A video that’s less than ten seconds long made for the sake of a pun is still popular now. Let that sink in for a moment,” Twilight said.

“Well, they ain’t gonna be doin’ any puns,” Applejack remarked.

Sonic turned to the cowgirl with a cocky smirk, “Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, Applejack. I got a whole treasure trove of puns. I’ll be doing plenty of those in addition to everything else.”

Knuckles pointed at him and spoke, “Oh yeah? Well, I’m… I got even more puns than you do! Nobody’s gonna want to listen to your puns because they’ll be too busy listening to mine!”

Sonic retorted, “Gimme a break, Knuckles! You can’t do a fired pun properly!” He pointed his thumb towards the laptop, “You probably won’t even be able to do a bee pun as good as that!”

Knuckles asked, “Oh yeah? You really wanna bet you got me BEE-t?”

Sonic retorted, “I’ll tell you right now: I’m gonna out-BEE-d you!” When the echidna stared blankly at him for a few moments, he looked around and said, “See? Flew right over his head!”

Amy spoke, “All right, enough you two!” She looked around, “While some of those do sound like they would be interesting to record, others seem like they would be misrepresentative or,” she nodded in Sonic and Knuckles’ direction, “even worthy of a wince or two. Is this really the best option for us?”

Rainbow spoke, “Uh, yeah. Sure, there’ll be trolls and people like the guy in charge of this newspaper who’ll do whatever they can to give you a hard time, but the Internet basically exists for this kind of thing.”

Twilight said, “That might be debatable, but Rainbow does make a good point, Amy. You wouldn’t be the first ones to try something like this.”

Rarity added, “And there are certain other benefits involved.”

Sunset nodded, “Monetary benefits for one, if you’re willing to work hard for them.” Amy suddenly looked less apprehensive at that.

“Ah. Looks like we found the magic word,” Applejack smirked.

“We have to do something if we’re going to fix this place up and start figuring out how we’re going to get home,” Tails remarked.

Rainbow crossed her arms as she said, “And this would probably be your best way to do it right now. I seriously doubt Rarity’s gonna share her credit card information with you guys again after what Amy did.”

________________________________________

The girls were sitting around a table in the school cafeteria at lunchtime several days earlier when Rarity’s cellphone suddenly rang. She pulled it out and checked the caller ID before answering it, glancing upwards. “Hello? Yes. …Mm-hmm.” Her face creased in concern, “Really?” Her friends looked at her as she continued to respond to whoever was on the other end, watching her expression shift from concerned to shocked, then to a look of realization, and finally to anger. Her grip on her phone tightened and everyone in the cafeteria turned to look at her when she stood up and screamed at the top of her lungs, “AMY ROSE!!!”

________________________________________

“Ugh,” Rainbow uttered while rolling her eyes.

Sonic walked over to her and asked, “Oh, you get moments like that too, huh?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow down at him while Rarity did the same thing to Amy, who suddenly looked sheepish again.

Sunset spoke, “I guess it’s unanimous, then. We should probably start by setting up a video account for everyone and then we can get to work.” She and the rest of the girls all made their way over to Twilight, who was already beginning the process on Tails’ laptop.

________________________________________

Tails finished setting his materials on his makeshift worktable in the back of the hideout along with his tools before checking to make sure he had everything. Once he was done, he looked towards the camera and, realizing that it was recording, cleared his throat before speaking, “Hello viewers, and welcome to my High-Tech Handiworks Channel. My name is Tails and today, I’m going to teach you how to build one of my earliest inventions for your personal and practical uses. I call it the Reverse Polarizer. Don’t let the name befuddle you; what you see here on the table is all that’s required to build this remarkably useful device in portable form. How it works is that, through the way it generates energy, it’s capable of reversing any…”

He was cut off by Rainbow Dash saying, “I can’t take this anymore! CUT!” Tails blinked and stared at her in surprise as she stopped the recording on her phone. She then placed her hands on her hips and gave him an annoyed look, “Tails, what was that?! I’ve seen Applejack fake better than that!”

Tails looked angered at her words. “I’m not faking anything. I’m explaining,” he defended.

Rainbow replied, “Yeah, and you’re doing it poorly! You’re jumping back and forth between your explanations, and it’s just coming off as clunky. And what’s with your word choice?”

Tails asked, “What’s wrong with my words?”

Rainbow answered, “You keep using big words even though you don’t have to. This isn’t a cartoon; you don’t have to use big words to explain everything. You managed to explain the Reverse Polarizer to me easily enough. Do the same for this video. Go for a wide audience instead of just something only the techie kids at CHS would watch.”

Tails put his hands on his hips, “I think you’re making too big a deal out of this, Rainbow. It’s an instructional video and I think I should follow my own style rather than make it your way and read your script.”

Rainbow held her left hand up to her face as she sighed, “I’m not trying to tell you what to do, Tails. I’m trying to give you hints to help you focus and make the most of your time so that instead of a video that lasts half an hour, your video’s only half as long.”

They both looked towards the door when they heard Sonic’s voice outside, “I just finished another pun video! Better pick up the pace, Knuckles!”

Rainbow looked back at Tails and said, “All right, let’s take a minute and then try this again. I won’t stop recording this time, but at least think about what I said.”

________________________________________

“And we just add a few light strokes to this snowflake so that it looks different from its partner. Because like every individual, every snowflake is unique on the surface, even if they do seem to look alike. And that’s why we all deserve to have a friend,” Amy was saying as she painted a snowy landscape with a closeup of two snowflakes on an easel.

“And… that’s a wrap!” Sunset said a few seconds after Amy took her brush away. In response, Rarity stopped recording.

“It’s a very lovely painting, Amy,” Rarity commented as she saved the video on her phone.

Amy stepped back to get a better look at her work as she replied, “Yes, it is. I think this is one of my best paintings yet.”

Pinkie leapt up from her seat, “You should’ve worn the wig!”

Amy looked distastefully up at the big brown wig the pink girl was holding up as she said, “I already told you I’m not wearing that ridiculous thing.”

Rarity glanced up, “That’s a sign of good taste. I wouldn’t wear it either.” She then returned her gaze to her phone.

“It’s the principle, Amy! You’re supposed to wear the wig for this!” Pinkie argued.

“Well, I guess I’m just new wave,” Amy replied.

________________________________________

“I think you’d be a great sidekick for me,” Knuckles remarked, leaning against the front counter while holding a clipboard and pencil and talking to Sonic, who was sitting across from him on the counter with an unamused expression on his face. A wall of green behind Knuckles was the only other thing that could be seen.

“No, Knuckles. I’m looking for someone to be MY sidekick,” Sonic said, sounding as exasperated as he looked.

Knuckles seemed to be thinking while he was talking and spoke afterwards, “We’d have to change your name, though. I’m thinking… ‘Knuckles Junior’.” Sonic reached over and took the clipboard and pencil from him and started crossing something out on it.

“All right, cut!” Applejack said. Sonic and Knuckles both looked over at her while Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie began taking the green wall down.

“That was such a disappointing day. You’re not really going to show that to everyone, are you?” Knuckles asked.

“‘Course we are. Y’all got some interestin’ experiences under yer belts, and the best stuff usually comes from personal experience. These videos should draw in some viewers and give ‘em a good laugh,” Applejack replied.

“Really? Like half the time when we have adventures, we’re just sitting around not doing anything action-y or heroic. Who would want to watch us doing that?” Sonic asked.

Pinkie popped up next to the counter, startling Knuckles. “You never know until you try!” she grinned.

________________________________________

Twilight and Spike watched as Knuckles showed a deeper, more dexterous side of himself, recording him carefully assemble a birdhouse piece by piece. “This is amazing, Knuckles. I could never put anything together this well on my own, yet you make it look so easy.” She brought her phone closer, “Can you tell the viewers what you’re doing?”

Knuckles looked up at her, “Uh, what do you mean?”

Twilight clarified, “You know, explain it step by step. Tell us how you selected the materials for this birdhouse and how you’re putting it together.” She noticed how he glanced back and forth between her and the birdhouse, so she said, “You can keep working, of course, but it would be really good for the video if you could explain it as well.”

Knuckles raised an eyebrow, “I have to do more than one thing here? I’ve never had to do that before, Twilight. I don’t know if I can.”

Spike looked at Twilight, “Maybe we should just, uh…”

Twilight caught onto what he was saying and said, “Sorry, never mind my question, Knuckles. Just… keep doing it the way you always do. We can edit that in later.” Feeling relieved at that, Knuckles returned to building the birdhouse.

________________________________________

“Hey, everybody! Welcome to another episode of Dude-itude Extreme Sports and Stunts with your host, me, Sonic!” Sonic said to the camera, his face close to it. He backed away a bit, revealing he was holding a golf club in his left hand. “So previously, we’ve done the Free Fall Basket as well as the inaccurately named Mount Safety Course, and now today you’re going to see my classic Gopher Ball Trick Shot!” He leaned closer to the camera, his right arm moving to in front of his face like he was going to reveal a secret, “You might call it ‘golf’, but we call it Gopher Ball back home and it’s not the same if we don’t call it that.”

Sonic turned away, the camera following a short distance behind him as he stepped up to the tee and got into his stance. As he lined up his shot, a camera being held by a drone activated, causing a shift to a side view. It moved up as he brought his club back and then quickly followed the ball once it was up in the air. It kept moving until it had a good view of the hole up on top of a tall hill, giving a clear view when it hit the ground and rolled into it.

Micro Chips and Heath Burns were watching the video in the cafeteria and talking about it as it played and afterwards. They weren’t the only ones; a lot of Canterlot High’s student body were watching and/or talking about all the recently posted videos featuring Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks. Some were wondering how they were able to post so many videos, but most were looking at how they were acting in them and wondering if what Dr. Eggman had said about them was really true. On the side of it all, Sunset and her friends sat at their usual table, smiling as they listened in on what their fellow students were saying.

________________________________________

Eggman glared up at his large screen as he watched the video playing on it. Ever since he heard Sonic and his friends were posting videos on the Internet, he made sure to go online multiple times throughout the day to see if they’d posted any new videos. Today he’d discovered a video posted by a user whose online name seemed like it would be the actual name of a rainbow-haired girl his robots had been seeing a lot of lately. The video involved said girl and a pink-haired girl investigating a badger’s den and discovering the ‘treasures’ within. The video had reached a point where Sticks discovered the two and chased them out while the rainbow-haired girl hastily yet coolly told the viewer that that was all the time they had and they would be back for more another day.

Eggman leaned back in his chair and grumbled, “Can you believe this? Is this really what passes for entertainment in this world?”

Behind him, Orbot and Cubot were floating in front of his desk, having seen the whole video as well. “It does start off rather intriguing, Boss,” Orbot commented.

“Yeah, and that sudden shock at the end… Really makes you want to see if they’ll really go back into that badger’s home,” Cubot added. Both of them were silenced when Eggman turned his chair around and slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair.

Pulling himself up to his desk, Eggman said, “Well, I don’t care what that girl is looking for. She has a video on her account featuring one of Sonic’s friends, so it’s the same as if it was one of their videos. It almost pains me to have to get her account closed, but she’s not allowed to post that.” He began typing on his keyboard as he spoke, “Go, my Trollbots and Downbots! Post disparaging comments and give her all the thumbs down that you have! Get them to shut her account down forever!”

Cubot looked at Orbot curiously. The red robot quietly whispered to him, “I don’t think that’s all it takes to get someone’s account closed, but since he enjoys it so much, let’s just let him keep believing it.”

________________________________________

I got a team behind me that can hold me down
There isn’t anybody to fold me, pal

Please don’t act like you know me now
Ain’t nobody around that can slow me down
You dead beats are dead meat
I’m-

Lyric paused the video, glaring at Sonic on the screen as he was frozen playing a guitar while swinging on a tire swing. Thanks to this World Wide Web, he was now able to confirm that all of his enemies, more or less, had been dragged to this world with him, which suited him just fine. The bleakness of his situation would surely have destroyed anyone else, but here he was, proving he was a survivor, that he was the last Ancient for a reason.

He didn’t have access to his robots and his suit’s weapons had been damaged during the travel, but he wouldn’t let either of these things discourage him. He knew what he had to do to fix his suit, and with the parts he’d stolen from Eggman, he would be able to build a new army now that he had found a suitable hiding place. And thanks to the World Wide Web, he knew the local law enforcement was trying to collect and store the shattered pieces of the Lost Crystal of Power like they knew better than him what to do with it and all his enemies had ended up with him. It had also showed him more things than he would’ve like to have seen, things that still made him grimace as he thought about them. He wasn’t sure he’d ever look at Sonic or these strange creatures the same way again.

Lyric shook his head to get those thoughts out. Right now, he had to focus and be patient. His chance for revenge would come soon enough, but he had to be ready for it. Even if these creatures were inferior to him, he couldn’t underestimate them. He’d done that with Sonic and it had cost him. He wouldn’t make that same mistake again. He glared at the screen again; he found anger to be a good motivator.

“Enjoy yourself while you can, Sonic. I’ll be seeing you soon, and this time, you’ll be the one who makes the fatal plunge,” he growled before shutting the screen off and turning away. He had work to do.

Author's Note

Hey everybody. So I'm back now and once again in control of what goes on with this story. Terribly sorry about the note at the end of last chapter. There were some... difficulties, but they've been sorted out now. We shouldn't have any more problems like that. So...

*banging*

"YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME! I'M UNDEF... UNST... I CAN'T BE BEATEN!"

"You're a buffet for squirrels, that's what you are!"

Sorry, just have to mute that... There we go. Anyway, let's get back to a measure of normality. There's not much I want to point out.

The song at the end is a remix of "Speed Me Up" by CG5, NerdOut, and FabvL.

There was going to be an additional scene at the end that was a straightforward reference to the post-credits scene of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse", but I felt it was coming out clunky and unnecessary, so I decided to cut it.

That's really all I've got. Hope to see you guys again soon! It's good to be back.

City Run

A delivery truck from Quills and Sofas came to a stop near the corner of the rundown part of Canterlot and Hayseed Turnip Truck climbed stepped down from the driver's door, a clipboard and pen in hand. He looked down at the clipboard, reading the memo at the bottom of the order that said when to drop it off and that someone would be waiting at the drop-off site for it. He looked up and, upon seeing no one in front of him, began walking around to the back of the truck. As he came around the back, he saw Applejack standing on the sidewalk near the truck. "Hey there!" she called when he noticed her.

"Howdy, Miss," Hayseed replied. He looked back down at the clipboard, "Got an order here for some slightly used, slightly repaired furniture." He looked up, "Is this the right address?"

Applejack replied while walking over to him, "Not quite, but Ah know the fella that placed the order. He has a place nearby; Ah'll take it the rest o’ the way."

Hayseed turned the clipboard around and held it out to the farmgirl, “All right, then. I just need you to sign here please.” Applejack took it and the pen and started to sign her name. While she was signing, Hayseed asked, “So are you friends with the new owner, Miss?”

Applejack nodded without looking up, “Yup.”

Hayseed wondered, “What’s the furniture for? Some kinda clubhouse?”

Applejack finished and gave him a small smile as she handed the clipboard and pen back, “You could say that.”

Hayseed took them back and turned to go back to the cab as he said, “All right. Let me put this back and I’ll help you unload.” After a few minutes, they’d gotten the furniture, two arm chairs and a three-person couch, out of the back and Hayseed waved goodbye as he pulled away with the truck. Applejack waved back for a moment before turning her attention to the furniture, deciding what to move first. She decided on the couch after a minute and easily turned it over onto its side, setting it on the hand truck she’d brought and pulling it behind her.

As she walked down the sidewalk, she glanced around at the buildings and thought to herself, “It’s gonna take a lotta work to get this part o’ Canterlot lookin’ pretty again, but we gotta start somewhere.” She glanced back at the couch to make sure it was still on the hand truck, “Good thing those videos of Sonic and his friends have really taken off. Bein’ able to get them out of livin’ under the same roof and give each of them their own place is as good a start as any.”

She faced forward as she approached the end of the block, hearing and seeing her other friends up ahead. Sunset and Rainbow were carrying the extra boards she'd had lying around her family's barn, Rarity was going over a list with Fluttershy, and Pinkie was pulling out weeds and sweeping the street and the sidewalk. School was out for the day and they were helping Team Sonic with their new acquisitions. They looked like they were doing okay for the time being, so she waved to them as she turned at the corner and continued to the right.

As she walked, she reflected on the team’s new living arrangements. Amy had picked an art studio to live in, saying she liked having room to stretch out, which happened to be across the road from the store Sonic had chosen. The store had seemingly been an antique store or something similar, given all the old glass cases they found when they got inside. Sonic had insisted on getting them out as soon as possible, intending to make the entire store area a meeting place while he took the apartment on the second floor. Tails, meanwhile, had made a home out of an old garage closer to the old diner, where Sticks remained cooped up in the freezer, and Knuckles was looking forward to getting some new gym equipment to put into a rundown building that he said would make a good gym. All in all, things seemed to be shaping up pretty good for their guests despite Eggman still attempting to smear their names.

She saw Twilight and Spike coming out of Amy’s place and waved to them as she began to go across the road to Sonic’s place. They noticed and followed her, standing near her as she brought the handcart around and deposited the couch on the sidewalk. She turned to Twilight afterwards and spoke, “Can you let Sonic know his new furniture’s here, Twilight? Ah just gotta get the chairs; Ah’ll be right back.” Twilight nodded and she and Spike watched the farmgirl walk away for a moment before facing forward again.

Inside the old store, Sonic had a destroyed Motobug sitting on an old card table set up in the middle of the room. He placed his left hand on it and got close to its face before saying, “Hey everyone, welcome back to my livestream! Today, we’re, you guessed it, destroying robots! Step one!” He swung his right fist forward, but stopped just short of hitting the Motobug in the face. He stepped back after a moment and put a hand on his chin, a pensive expression on his face. “Hmm. Not bad. Could use a little work, but with good lines like that, I could be a movie star.” He turned away and began walking around a bit as he went on, “Heck, who am I kidding, right? I got all it takes to be a movie star! I’ve proven it back home, so I can prove it here too. ‘Welcome to the next level’; what do you think of that?”

He froze when he heard Twilight ask, “Are you… asking the opinion of the deactivated robot that can’t hear you?” He looked over his shoulder to see her and Spike standing in the doorway, both giving him a strange look.

Sonic straightened up and cleared his throat as he turned to face them. “Possibly, but that’s for me to know.” He put his hands on his hips, “But as long as we’re talking about opinions, you could see me being in a movie, right? This is the kind of face you’d see on the big screen, right?”

Twilight put a finger to her chin as she thought about his question. “Hmm, well, as long as you have a team that, overall, knows what they’re doing, sure.”

Sonic nodded, “Right. So, you two can forget what you just saw, right?”

Spike spoke up, “Not really. You’re just lucky Twilight didn’t have her phone out; that’d be an interesting video.”

Sonic made an unamused face at that, “I would totally take her phone away if she did.”

Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile. “Anyway, we were just coming to let you know that your new furniture has arrived. The couch is outside; Applejack’s going to get the chairs,” she said while gesturing outside.

“Oh, sweet. I’ll go get Knuckles to move it upstairs. It’ll be his workout for the day,” Sonic replied as he made his way to the door.

After a couple more minutes and a few accidents and losses of balance on Knuckles’ part, the couch and chairs were moved up into the apartment and Knuckles, Sonic, Applejack, Twilight, and Spike stepped out of the old store. Knuckles turned to Sonic and said, “Well, that wasn’t so bad. I only got smashed once… or twice. Let me know when you’ve got more stuff to move for your little meetup spot. Can’t wait to see what it’ll look like when it’s done.” He then turned and started walking back to his gym.

He came to a stop when he heard Twilight gasp and turned to see her checking the time. "Oh no, I lost track of time! I'm supposed to meet Principal Cadance and my brother this afternoon!" she exclaimed.

"Ya mean you forgot, Twilight?" Applejack asked.

"No, I didn't forget. It wasn't right after school, so I thought I'd come over and help out a little, but now I'm probably going to be late," she replied.

Sonic spoke, "I could give you a lift. I haven't gone on patrol yet and you'd definitely be on time."

Twilight replied, "That would be nice. But how are you going to get me downtown?"

Sonic shrugged, "Uh, by carrying you?" Twilight looked apprehensive at that, so Sonic said, "Relax. No one will see anything they shouldn't."

Twilight replied, "That's not what I'm worried about."

Spike placed his paw on the side of her leg and said, "Come on, Twilight, let's give it a try. He's offering and we won't know how bad it is unless we try." Sonic raised an eyebrow and Twilight still looked unsure, but she decided to do it because Spike said to.

Amy and the other girls turned to look when Sonic came running down the street, briefly seeing Twilight and Spike in his arms as he turned at the corner before he shot away. Sunset looked at Applejack as she came over and asked, "Where's Sonic going with Twilight?"

The farmgirl replied, "He's givin' her and Spike a lift downtown. She's seein' her brother and Principal Cadance today."

Rarity remarked, "Well, that's thoughtful of him."

Amy said, "She's in for a ride, a ride I'm sure she's not ready for."

Fluttershy turned to her, "What do you mean, Amy?"

Amy asked back, "Did I ever tell you about the time I asked him to return a book I lent him and he only had ten minutes to do it before I got slammed with late fees?”

Rainbow shrugged, “No, I don’t think we’ve gotten around to shooting that episode yet.”

While Amy filled her friends in on the details of that day, Twilight and Spike were getting a fill of their own as Sonic ran into the city with them. While Twilight was staring ahead with wide eyes and keeping her right arm wrapped around Sonic and her left hand on her glasses as she rested uncertainly on top of his arms, Spike was enjoying the experience a lot more, his tongue hanging out as the wind whistled past them and Sonic held him out in his hands. For Spike, this was better than a car window.

Twilight couldn’t say she felt the same. She already didn’t enjoy going so fast, and while she was glad Sonic was keeping a firm grip on Spike, she had to make sure she had her own grip on him since his hands being full meant he couldn’t hold onto her too and that thought didn’t put her at ease. Sonic seemed to sense this since he said, “Relax, Twilight. You’re doing great. And at the speed we’re going, we’ll be at your destination in no time. A minute, tops.”

As they passed several intersections, Twilight could hear the sound of sirens in the distance. "Do you hear that? It sounds like the police might be on their way," she told Sonic.

“How did they find out so fast?” Spike asked.

"Eh, don’t know, but it’s no biggie. I’ll drop you two off and then shake ‘em. I’ll still get you there in a minute," Sonic replied. He suddenly slid to a stop when, upon approaching another intersection, a horde of Bee Bots and Motobugs revealed themselves, blocking the road. "Okay, maybe two minutes," he remarked as he looked at the robots.

Twilight turned her head to the left when she heard the sirens getting closer and saw several police cars come around the corner several blocks away, coming towards them. "There’s the police! They were closer than I thought!" she exclaimed.

Sonic shifted Spike onto Twilight's lap and gripped her with his hands as he said, "Let's just play this one by ear." He turned and shot to the right, Eggman's robots and the police following.

At first the street was fairly open, but it didn’t take long for the traffic to become thicker, forcing most of the police cruisers to break off the pursuit and go around while the Motobugs followed Sonic between the cars and the Bee Bots flew overhead. Twilight kept looking back at their pursuers, noticing the few cruisers that were still following them soon stopped following them directly like the rest, but more importantly that the Motobugs were bumping into other cars as they rolled. Twilight looked at Sonic and said, “Sonic, they’re hitting the cars! Someone could get hurt if this keeps up!”

Sonic replied, “I know. Just need to put a little more distance between them and us or…” He looked to the left and noticed a bus slowing down on the next street over. Getting an idea, he suddenly broke to the left down a narrow alley, the Motobugs and Bee Bots taking a moment to process the information before following after. Sonic shot down the alley faster than he’d been going on the street, reaching the other end in no time flat and turning left while the Motobugs and Bee Bots took a little longer. When they got to the end of the alley and turned to the left, they didn’t see Sonic anywhere, so they began scanning around for him, not noticing the hedgehog, Spike, and Twilight sitting on top of the nearby bus as it pulled away, going in the opposite direction.

The three of them watched for a few moments before Twilight looked at Sonic and commented, “That worked surprisingly well.”

Sonic shrugged before lying back, “They think they know me so well. They don’t.”

Twilight asked, “Shouldn’t we get going?”

Sonic replied evenly, “Yeah, in a minute. We got time.” Twilight and Spike looked at each other at that.

♪My Little Puppy, My Little Puppy…♪

Sonic’s eyes shot open and he glanced up at Twilight, “What is THAT?”

Twilight was a bit flustered as she quickly set Spike down and pulled off her backpack, digging through it as she hastily replied, “Th-That’s my cellphone’s ringtone. I’ve been thinking of changing it for a while and Spike suggested the theme from his favorite show and I thought it might work and, uh…” She stopped when she noticed Sonic looking up at her with a raised eyebrow. “I’m still thinking about it,” she finished lamely, pulling her phone out. She looked at the caller ID and, upon seeing it was Cadance, answered it. “H-Hi, Principal Cadance! What, uh, what’s going on?” she asked.

On the other side of town, Principal Cadance let out a chuckle as she approached the café where they were meeting up. “Oh, not much, Twilight. I just arrived. I haven’t seen your brother yet, so I was just calling to make sure you hadn’t forgotten about our meeting,” she said.

“No, I didn’t forget. Spike and I are on our way right now,” Twilight replied.

“Where are you right now?” Cadance asked as she came to a stop in front of the café.

“Uh, just passed First and Bridleway, that’s Second and Bridleway, coming up on Third and Bridleway,” Twilight uttered. She looked back and saw several police cruisers go up First, causing her to raise an eyebrow. “It shouldn’t take longer than ten minutes,” she said.

Cadance raised an eyebrow, “What is that noise? Are those sirens?”

Twilight froze for a moment before asking, “Uh, sirens? What do you mean?”

Cadance said, “I hear something, Twilight. It sounds like police sirens.”

Twilight thought for a moment before saying, “It’s a little hard to see from where I am on the bus right now. Or hear.”

Cadance insisted, “But I can hear it, and it sounds so close.”

Twilight started, “Well, uh…” She stopped when she noticed Sonic sit up suddenly, looking to his right. Both she and Spike turned to look and saw what had caught his attention. Lyric was a few streets down from them and the police were pursuing him. If they had glanced forward, they’d see that the traffic was backed up ahead, no doubt due to the police trying to keep civilians away from the chase.

Twilight’s sudden silence did not go unnoticed by Cadance. “Twilight? What’s going on? Are you okay?” she asked, concerned.

Twilight looked back at Sonic after a moment, seeing him standing up and noticing the gridlock ahead in the process. “I have to go, Cadance. I’m… being hailed,” she said. She briefly pulled the phone away before bringing it back up to her ear and quickly saying, “I’ll see you soon.”

Cadance started, “Wait, Twilight!” She didn’t get a chance to say more due to Twilight suddenly hanging up. She held her phone out in front of her and looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight put her phone in her backpack and looked at Sonic, asking, “What are we going to do about him?”

Sonic replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him. You just keep going.” Without another word, he leapt off the bus and took off running when he hit the sidewalk.

Twilight yelled, “Sonic!” But it was too late; he was already out of earshot. Twilight sighed in irritation, “Nice. Just leave us on top of a bus.” She noticed the bus slow down and stop a second later. “And it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting past this anytime soon,” she remarked.

Spike suggested, "Hey, since the bus stopped, maybe we can just climb down." Twilight looked at him for a moment before nodding, holding her backpack open so he could climb inside. She then put it on her back and crouch-walked to the back of the bus, where she slid her legs over the edge and held onto it with her hands as she lowered herself down as far as her arms would allow before letting go. Her knees buckled when she landed, but it didn't really hurt. Standing up, she noticed the traffic starting to build up behind her before she ran to the sidewalk, going after Sonic.

The fight with Lyric had moved down about a block and a half. The police were doing their best to close off the streets and keep him from moving further, but it was clear to Twilight as she followed and got closer that they didn’t have the situation quite under control yet. Sonic was helping to turn the tide, but Lyric didn’t appear to be ready to back down.

Twilight finally managed to maneuver her way through the crowd of people running away and get close to one of the police barricades to get a better look. As Lyric turned away to deflect a Homing Attack from Sonic, Twilight and Spike were able to clearly see he was holding a couple of crystal shards in his arms, clutching them close to his body while he used his tail to fend off the hedgehog. They realized he must’ve attacked the police in order to get a hold of that many shards.

One of the police officers near the barricade saw Twilight and ran over, saying "Miss! Miss, you need to get away from here! It's not safe!"

Twilight glanced past him and her eyes widened. "Look out!" she cried while pointing and stepping back. The officer turned and saw Lyric being pushed back as Sonic spun against, the Ancient snake falling backwards when the hedgehog bounced off. All the officers scrambled to get away when he crashed through the barrier and then back to try to resolidify it. In the confusion, Twilight managed to slip past without being seen. As she was sneaking, she noticed one of the shards had slipped out of Lyric's grip and landed nearby. She glanced around and noticed Lyric seemed to be distracted, so she grabbed it and ducked down a nearby alley to take cover and watch.

Lyric used his tail to deflect Sonic away, causing him to hit the street instead. While the hedgehog shook off his disorientation, Lyric looked down at his prize and realized he was missing a crystal. “What?! Where is it?” he uttered to himself, barely noticing the gunshots that hit his armor.

“Hey, Lyric!” Sonic called, the snake turning in time to see him coming straight at him. The attack hit the mark and Lyric was pushed back into the side of a building, the crystals falling from his arms. Sonic bounced back and slid a bit when he landed before saying, “What’s wrong with your arms, Lyric? They’re looking a little shaky!” Lyric growled; he was getting really tired of Sonic’s banter and decided to focus on the fight as he moved forward to engage the hedgehog once again, neither one noticing the crystals starting to move towards the alley Twilight and Spike were in with the aid of magic.

After a minute of fighting, Lyric noticed the crystal shards were gone. Surprised, he pushed Sonic off of him with his hands and scrambled over to where he'd seen them last. "Where are they?! Where is my crystal?!" Lyric exclaimed. While he was distracted, Sonic was able to land a hit on his armor.

As the snake twisted around to glare at him, Sonic said, "It's not your crystal, Lyric! And I'm sure they're in a much better place now that you don't have them!" He ran forward and leapt at him again, only for Lyric to cleanly catch him between his hands.

"You took them, didn't you?! Tell me where they are, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Lyric demanded while managing to hold Sonic despite the shaking in his hands.

"Dude, I don't know! I'm just as surprised as you are!" Sonic said as he tried to break out.

"You had to have taken them! You're the only one here bold enough who would! The only thing these undeveloped furless monkeys can do is annoy me! They apparently can’t even think to do that!" Lyric argued.

Before Sonic could say anything back, they both heard Twilight yell, “Hey, Lyric! Are you looking for these?” Lyric turned his head and saw her standing just outside of the alley with the crystal shards in her arms. As soon as he saw her, she turned and ran back into the alley and his grip on Sonic loosened, allowing the hedgehog to spin forward and hit the side of his glass dome. Lyric shrugged the hit off and knocked Sonic away as he shot after Twilight.

The alley entrance wasn’t wide enough for Lyric to fit through with his armor, but the alley itself didn’t go far before it came to a dead end. Twilight ran all the way to the end and turned to face Lyric, clutching the crystals as close to her as she could. “Those are my crystal shards, girl. Give them to me!” Lyric demanded.

“They’re not yours! I’ve heard what happened! Your fellow Ancients went out of their way to make sure you couldn’t get the crystal! So, I’m not going to let you get it either!” Twilight said.

Lyric glared at her, “They were all short-sighted fools, ignorant to what they could do with what they had! They called me mad when I suggested we expand our knowledge, become far more than what we were!” He calmed down and softened his gaze a bit, though he brought his tail around and began to inch it into the alley as he continued, “I must apologize for my outburst; yours is clearly a more developed mind than I gave your species credit for. It’s such a shame that it’s trapped in such a limited body. But I can see it… You have the potential to be so much more. Don’t you hunger for more knowledge as well? To understand all that you see? To be more than what you are?”

Twilight eyed the tail for a moment before looking at Lyric again, “You’re not wrong. I was once confronted by something I didn’t understand, and once I took in a little bit of it, I wanted more. It was all I could think about.”

Lyric smirked as his tail almost reached her, “So you know why I must have those crystals.”

Twilight stepped to the side as his tail suddenly lunged forward to grab her. “No. I lost sight of myself for a moment and nearly caused irreparable damage as a result. Once the feeling passed, I regretted it instantly and learned from it. You’re over a thousand years old, Lyric; you should’ve learned a long time ago what you did was wrong,” she said.

Lyric scowled, “Then you have chosen death.” He swept his tail and knocked Twilight’s feet out from under her, causing her to land on her rear. He tried to grab her again, but she managed to scoot back into the corner next to her, getting behind some trash cans in the process. Lyric withdrew his tail, but only so he could raise it over his head, his hands gripping the sides of the alley entrance as he intended to grab her from above.

Before he could reach for her, he felt pressure on the back of his armor and a blue Enerbeam attached to the hand at the end of his tail. “That’s enough, Lyric! Leave the girl and her dog alone!” Sonic said as he tried to pull the tail back.

Lyric looked back at him as he sneered, “This doesn’t concern you right now, Sonic. I’ll deal with you in a minute.” He suddenly swung his tail straight up, pulling Sonic up with it. He then batted it from side to side, causing Sonic to hit the buildings at the sides of the alley.

“If you think - OOF! - you’re gonna blow me off that - UGH! – easily, you’ve got – OW! – another thing com – AH! – ing!” Sonic managed as he was slammed back and forth.

Twilight stood up and she and Spike stared as Lyric tried to shake Sonic off. They both shared a glance and then looked down at Twilight’s geode necklace. Looking back up at Lyric, Twilight narrowed her eyes and focused. Lyric let out a grunt of confusion as he suddenly began to feel resistance on his tail, a glow surrounding it as it began to slow. It took a lot of focus on Twilight’s part, but she was able to immobilize the tail and even move it some. Hoping Sonic would catch on, she made it go back a little and then made it swing forward, sending him straight down towards Lyric. In response, Sonic let go of the Enerbeam and curled up, striking Lyric directly in the back, making a hole in the armor and sending him crashing face first into the pavement.

Sonic leapt off of his back and uncurled before landing. “Come on, Twilight, let’s go!” he said, holding his hand out towards her. She started to come out, but she stopped a second later and pointed while calling his name. He turned around and saw Lyric starting to get up. Noticing his tail was still lying across his back, he grabbed the hand with his Enerbeam again before dashing up onto his back. He then spun around and, using his Enerbeam, brought his hand down hard against him, stunning him again.

Twilight and Sonic ran towards each other, the latter scooping up the former in his arms before turning and running over Lyric to get out of the alley, turning right and shooting off down the street. Lyric recovered and got up, ready to follow, but was stopped again when the police began firing at him again. Their shots hadn’t phased him before, but now that he had a hole in his armor, they were able to hit inner workings of it and he could really feel it. As he whirled around to glare at them, a message appeared on the glass in front of him warning him of critical system damage along with a schematic showing where the damage was located. A quick glance was all it took to determine that, with the damage they’d already done, his suit wouldn’t last much longer.

Growling, Lyric lowered his body and shot forward, sending the police officers flying like bowling pins as he went. The few that managed to avoid him or were far enough back ran to their cars and drove after him. Unnoticed by anyone, Shadow stood on top of one of the tall buildings, watching Lyric and the police disappear into the distance. His gaze darkened; he hadn’t been fast enough to locate Lyric and deal with him. He vanished in a flash of blue a moment later. He’d bide his time for now; next time, that snake wouldn’t get away from him.

________________________________________

Sonic ducked into an alley and made sure no one was around before releasing his grip on Twilight, allowing her to stand up. She turned to him and he asked, “This is the place, right?”

She nodded, “Yeah, just around the corner.” There was a moment of silence before she said, “Thanks again, Sonic. I appreciate the lift.”

Sonic put his hands on his hips as he replied, “Well, it wasn’t as uneventful as we thought it would be, but we still beat the bus here.” He pointed at the crystal shards, “And hey, we even got to mess with Lyric a bit.”

Twilight looked down at the crystals, “Yeah. The more of these shards we keep away from him, the better.”

Sonic asked, “So… Five stars, would you say?”

Twilight and Spike shared a look before she said, “I’ll have to think about it. At the very least, I’m going to have to remember to dress better next time.”

Sonic smirked, “Sweet! I haven’t even started the business yet and I already have a repeat customer!”

Twilight shook her head for a moment before handing him the crystals. “Here. You sure you can handle these?” she asked.

Sonic set them down as he replied, “Yeah. I’m just gonna let Tails know I’m bringing them back first. Lyric’s probably going to show up more often now, so we’re probably going to have to get to the ones that are still out there before he does. I think we all know what the next chapter is going to be about. But we’ll work on that.” He pointed up at her, “Right now, you two go, have fun. You earned it.”

Twilight wrapped her fingers around the straps on her backpack as she said, “All right. We’ll see you later then.” She then walked around him and, after poking her head out of the alley entrance to see if there was anyone who might’ve noticed them, headed to the right.

She rounded the corner and reached the front of the café after a minute. She walked over to the front window and peered in. Sure enough, Principal Cadance and Shining Armor were sitting at a table inside, talking. Cadance noticed her after a few seconds and waved to her, causing Shining to notice as well. Twilight and Spike waved back before Twilight walked into the café.

Shining stood up as she approached and hugged her, saying, “Oh Twilight, it’s so good to see you. I’ve missed you.” He stepped back and guided her so she was sitting across from him and Cadance.

“It has been some time, Twilight. I’ve only seen you a little bit since you transferred to CHS,” Cadance remarked.

“Well, we’ve certainly been kept busy since then. So much more to learn and do,” Twilight replied, sharing a look with Spike as she rested her backpack on her lap.

“I have a hard time believing that. Crystal Prep is much more prestigious than Canterlot High. There’s a lot more work involved and many more extracurricular opportunities available. How could someone like you have more work to do at a lower level?” Shining asked.

Twilight frowned, “Shining… I know you don’t like that I left Crystal Prep, but there was nothing left for me there. What I would’ve had to do just to advance further… It wasn’t worth it, and everyone I knew there thinks we all get along better this way.”

Shining argued, “But you had friends there, Twilight. Like… what about that one girl you were close to? Moon Dancer? Was that her name?”

Twilight adjusted her glasses, “Moon Dancer left Crystal Prep long before I did. She couldn’t keep up with the work and… we kind of drifted apart. We’re trying to reconnect now, but she’s really busy too.”

Cadance spoke up, “Let’s not make this all about the past, okay? Let’s talk a little bit about what’s going on now.” She leaned across the table slightly, “Twilight, can you tell me what happened earlier? You stopped talking and then you suddenly had to go.”

Twilight replied, “Oh yeah, um… We ran into some major gridlock coming down here. We had to get off the bus since we weren’t moving. Had to work our way around to get here.”

Shining raised an eyebrow, “You walked all the way here?”

Twilight shook her head, “No, no. I had a lift.”

Cadance held a finger to her chin, “Hm, I didn’t see any buses or cabs pull up.” They all heard a noise outside and looked towards the window to see the people outside looking like a gale had just swept past them, all of them looking like their hair had been ruffled and some of them bent forward or backward. “What happened out there?” Cadance wondered.

“Probably just the wind. It was blowing quite a bit for us,” Twilight said.

“I can tell. Your hair’s a bit frizzy,” Shining remarked. He suddenly became fixated on something behind Twilight and she and Spike turned to look. The TV on the wall had the CNN news on and a reporter with blonde hair wearing a collared white shirt with light blue stripes and a blue tie was talking about Lyric’s rampage. Twilight looked nervous as she listened to the report, but relaxed when the reporter said the police couldn’t deny or confirm whether Sonic had actually ‘kidnapped’ somebody.

“Goodness. No wonder you were held up, Twilight. The police must’ve been trying to keep everyone as far back as they could,” Cadance said.

Shining shook his head. “This is unbelievable. What is happening to our city? How much longer are these aliens going to harass Dr. Kintobor? The man’s done nothing but help people. Why do they have to make his life so difficult?” he wondered. Twilight and Spike looked at him at that, both realizing now might be a bad time to bring up in detail how they got downtown.

Cadance looked down at Twilight and said, “Twilight, if anything like that comes up again, be sure to get as far away as you can, okay?” Twilight nodded silently before picking up her menu, looking for something to order. After she’d decided and the waiter had taken the order, Cadance could see she had something on her mind but didn’t seem to be ready to talk about, so she decided to change the subject. “So how are you and your friends doing, Twilight?” she asked.

As they resumed talking, they were unaware of one of Eggman’s Bee Bots hovering above the café, listening in.

Author's Note

Hey. So I know it's been a while since I've updated this story, but I've been doing a little soul-searching in order to sort out my thoughts on it. Don't worry, it'll continue; I just might be moving some things I was planning to include originally. It might come across as more streamlined as a result.

"Mmph! Mmph!"

Shut up. You still need to catch the fly with the salad tongs if you want to eat. Now, let's see...

The reporter on the news is meant to be the reporter pony from Rainbow Dash's Micro-Series story in the comics. I just changed it so instead of PNN, he works for CNN (Canterlot News Network).

Originally at the end, there was going to be a scene back with Sonic and the others talking about what they were going to do next, but it didn't come across in the writing as well as it played out in my head, so I adjusted Sonic's last part to reference what would've been said.

That's about it. I'll try to be back soon. Now, back to the basement...

A Chapter That's Totally Focused On Team Sonic

Dr. Eggman’s boots thudded onto the sidewalk as he finished crossing the street, Orbot and Cubot coming to a stop close behind him as he looked forward. The public transportation in Canterlot was not very good by his standards, but he’d had no choice. In order for his masterfully formulated plan to work, he couldn’t take his Eggmobile here, and he did not like the idea of letting it sit outside in the first place, especially not here of all places.

Eggman eyed the horse statue on the front lawn for a moment before looking past it at the front of Canterlot High. He then made his way across the grass, glancing up at the horse statue one more time as he walked. Orbot and Cubot followed close behind, both of them looking up at the school as well. "This is a really nice building. Look at the big horse they have on the front," Cubot commented.

"The rest of the school seems very nice too. It's so bright it could almost be shining," Orbot added.

"Oh, would you two shut up?" Eggman asked, suddenly coming to a stop in front of the school and causing them to bump into his leg. They bounced back a bit and looked up at him as he glared down at them. "Horses, bright… Everything's either about horses or is bright in this world, and sometimes it's both! It's so sickening!" He turned around to look up at the school again, "It's time to put my plan in motion. Once I've dealt with that girl and her friends, I can focus on Sonic and either taking over this world and making it a little darker, or just getting back to our world."

Orbot and Cubot looked forward expectantly, but after a couple of seconds, they became confused as to why Eggman wasn’t moving. They looked up at him and saw him standing completely still with his fists clenched. The two robots shared a look for a moment before they looked back up at him, Cubot asking, “Uh, Boss? You all right?”

Eggman quickly snapped his head to look at the two, “Of course I’m all right! Why wouldn’t I be?”

Orbot looked at his forehead and pointed out, “Well, your skin appears to be leaking, Boss. And you have just been standing there for longer than expected.”

Eggman raised an eyebrow, though he did raise an arm to wipe the sweat droplets off as he said, “Your optics must be on the fritz. I’ll have to take you apart later and fix them. And I’m not just standing here!” He faced forward again, “I’m… listening to make sure the coast is clear and all the children are in class. As much as I’d love to give all my fans the opportunity to meet me in person, I don’t want that girl and her entourage finding out we’re here.” He remained still for a few moments in order to listen and repress his bad memories of school and girls before saying, “It’s clear. Let’s go before they have to change classes.” He walked up the steps to the front door, Orbot and Cubot sharing another look before following.

Eggman stepped into the school's empty foyer, accidentally closing the door on Orbot and Cubot and not really caring as he looked around. "What is all this empty space doing here? They don't even have a front desk? How is anyone supposed to be able to find anything in this school?" he asked while Orbot and Cubot worked together to get the door open.

The two robots managed to get inside, Orbot going first and quickly turning around to grab Cubot and pull him inside before the door shut. "Goodness, what an ordeal," Orbot commented as he released Cubot.

Cubot shook his head for a moment before asking, "You know what I was thinking?" He let the question hang in the air for a moment before saying, "We should get a front desk for the lair when we get back. We could have a directory and everything. Wouldn't that be great?"

Eggman ignored their chatter and said, "This must be one of those backwards schools where the main office is in the back somewhere. Well, it shouldn't be too hard to find. Let's go before classes let out and you two get lost." He turned and started walking down the hallway to the right. Orbot and Cubot shared a look before following him.

As it turned out, the office wasn't as easy to find as Eggman thought. There were no signs anywhere to indicate where the office was, and all the hallways looked the same. It took the entire class period to locate the office and he only found it because he and his robots ducked into the entrance to it when he heard the bell ring so none of the kids would see him. As he turned to look at the carpeting and walls that finally looked a little different, he saw the door to the principal's office and said, "Here it is, just as I thought. I told you I would find it!" He didn't notice the looks that his robots were giving him as he walked up to the door and knocked on it.

After a moment, he heard Principal Celestia call from inside, "Come in." Eggman opened the door and stepped inside and almost recoiled. Principal Celestia was sitting at her desk, looking at the inside of a folder she was holding up in front of her so he couldn't see her face yet, but he could see her hair pretty well. It wasn't the style that made him do a double-take; it was the color and how long it was. He had evidently been quiet for too long since Principal Celestia asked, "Can I help you?"

Eggman shook any questions he had regarding her hair out of his head and cleared his throat before stepping forward, once again closing the door on Orbot and Cubot as he said, "Er, yes, I believe you can, Principal."

Celestia lowered the folder and looked up at him at his words, a look of mild surprise appearing on her face as she realized who he was. "You're… Dr. Kintobor?" she asked. She closed the folder and set it face down on her desk, "What brings you to Canterlot High?"

Eggman replied, "I'd like to say it's for a good reason, but that's not the case. I'm afraid one of your students had the audacity to attack and destroy one of my robots, Principal."

Celestia raised her eyebrows, “Really?”

Eggman was a bit surprised by her reaction, but said, “Yes, really.”

Celestia asked, “How do you know it was one of my students? And what would possess someone to do a thing like that?”

Eggman became a bit nervous at that, his eyes glancing around behind his glasses. He hadn't considered the idea that she'd ask him why; he assumed she would just take his word like everyone else was doing now. "Well, uh, I'm not sure… But I know it was one of your students because that's her right there!" he said, pointing at the pictures on the wall as he finished, specifically at the picture of Sunset Shimmer the third year she was the Princess of the Fall Formal.

Celestia looked where he was pointing before looking back up at him and asking, "Do you have any proof it was her?" Eggman reached into his jacket and pulled out a small square case containing a disc. "Is that a DVD?" Celestia asked.

"Why, yes! I was able to extract the robot's final moments from its memory and copied it here. I would be happy to show it to you," he stated.

Celestia eyed the disc for a few moments before asking, "I'm sorry, but do you have any other proof with you?"

Eggman raised an eyebrow, "Eh, come again?"

Celestia pushed her chair away from her desk, grabbing the folder on it and standing up as she spoke, "I'm sorry. We've had something of a rough year financially. We've had to invest money to repair damages done to the school." She took the folder over to an open filing cabinet and put it away as she continued, "The front entrance collapsed, the statue in front was badly damaged… Not exactly cheap repairs." She stood up straight and faced Eggman, "We have a wonderful student body. They've done their best to help with fundraisers, but we can't realistically have enough bake sales and sporting events and raise enough money to make up for it, so we've had to make sacrifices elsewhere. One of those involved cutting the number of DVD players the library has to take out. There's a much longer waiting list now and it's usually full."

Eggman asked, “Well, surely you can ask someone to part with theirs for a little bit? This won’t take long.”

Celestia replied, “The library asked all the teachers not to put their names on the waiting list unless a DVD player is necessary for their lesson plan. Our faculty is dedicated to teaching the students, whether they show the same dedication to learning or not. You want those who want to learn to have every advantage they can get, don’t you, Doctor?”

Eggman slowly replied, "Well, yes… but you can take it, can't you? Look at it on your own time and get back to me?" He held the case out towards her.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Doctor. My sister and I are very busy. If you give that to me now, I'm bound to misplace it," Celestia said.

It took a tremendous amount of self-control on Eggman's part to not lose his temper and start screaming right there. "Perhaps you'd like it given to you some other way, then?" he asked.

"I must see proof before I can pursue any disciplinary action," Celestia stated, making it clear he wasn't going to convince her otherwise.

"Very well, then. Orbot, Cubot, one of you show her!" Eggman ordered. A moment of awkward silence passed before he looked back, expecting to see them there, “Did you two hear me?!” When he didn’t see them, he glanced around and asked, “Where are they?”

The office door started to open a moment later and Eggman and Celestia looked to see Vice Principal Luna with her left hand on the knob while she held a box full of files with her right arm. Orbot and Cubot floated into the office ahead of her, the former saying, “Thank you so much, miss.”

Luna seemed like she was a little confused, but she still smiled as she followed them in, “You’re welcome.”

Celestia smiled as well; she was very thankful for Luna’s timing. “Luna! Let me help you with that,” she said, walking over to her.

Luna looked up at her and started, “It’s no trouble. These two… fellows were in front of the door and I had to reach a little farther to…” She stopped when she noticed Eggman out of the corner of her vision and turned her head to look at him. “Oh. A visitor?” she asked.

As she took the box in both hands, Celestia replied, “Yes, a rather important one.” She turned back to Eggman, “Dr. Kintobor, I’d like you to meet my sister, Vice Principal Luna. I can’t imagine keeping this school going without all of her help.”

Eggman’s confusion over how two people with such clearly different skin tones could be related was forgotten about as he listened to Celestia’s words. He brought his hand up to his chin after a few seconds and murmured, “So that’s what kind of school this is.”

Luna raised an eyebrow, having heard him talking but not catching the actual words. “I beg your pardon, Doctor?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Eggman quickly said. He looked back at Celestia, “So, since I can’t show you my proof and you can’t simply share the student’s name with me…”

Celestia raised an eyebrow, “No. That would be a very serious offense.”

Eggman finished, “Then I will simply have to come back when I have more proof that doesn’t conflict with your money woes. Good day to you, ladies.” He looked at Orbot and Cubot, “Come on, you two, let’s go.” As he walked out of the office, he muttered under his breath, “Nepotist.”

Luna looked down at Orbot and Cubot and said, “Well, it was very nice to meet you two. It’s a shame you have to go already.”

The two robots nodded, Orbot saying, “Indeed. You and your sister seem very professional but nice, Vice Principal. I bet all your students like you both very much.” He didn’t get a chance to say anything more due to Eggman calling for him and Cubot, which sounded more like his usual yelling rather than how he tried to maintain his guise in public.

"We'll, that was a relatively short visit," Luna commented as she closed the office door. She looked at Celestia, "What were they here for?"

Celestia replied, "I know what he said he was here for, Luna." She turned and started walking towards her desk, "I'm not entirely certain what he was ACTUALLY planning to do."

Luna raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

Celestia stopped and looked at the photos on her wall, "From what I was able to gather, Sunset Shimmer destroyed one of his robots." She continued walking to her desk and set the box down on it, "He was telling me what happened and pointed at her picture. I couldn't tell if he knew her name or not."

Luna walked over as she asked, "Why would Sunset Shimmer do something like that?"

Celestia looked at her, "He said he didn't know when I asked, but he also got a bit nervous, like he actually did know. I just had a feeling, you know, Luna? I decided I should trust it."

Luna replied, "That's understandable. But what did he mean by that last remark?"

Celestia smiled, "I may have… embellished the school's financial situation to try to get more information out of him. It wasn't successful, but I think my feeling about him has been reinforced by how he responded."

Luna asked, "You really think he's up to something?"

Celestia sat down in her chair as she replied, "I understand the man is a little eccentric, but putting this much effort into finding someone over what could have been an accident? And after all this time, I'm going to put my trust in Sunset Shimmer. If it was an accident, I'm sure she'd try to make it right before he tried to find out about her, which makes me think that if she did do it, she did it for a reason. I'm not sure what that reason might be, but I’m choosing to believe that there is one.”

Luna smiled, “She really has changed, hasn’t she?”

Celestia replied, “It’s not just about following the rules and standards. She’s a good girl who was willing to change despite all the difficulties that came with it when someone showed her another way. She’s done a lot in a short time and I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

Luna asked, “Do you think we should warn her about him?”

Celestia thought for a moment before saying, “Perhaps. Even if he doesn’t know her name, he clearly knows that Sunset Shimmer attends school here. I’m just not sure going up to her and telling her is such a good idea, especially since we don’t know what that man is up to.”

Luna sat on the edge of the desk as she said, “I see. A bit of a tricky situation. Still, we should probably tell her somehow. If what you say is true, then he surely hasn’t been thrown off the trail. Not for long, anyway.”

________________________________________

“Foolish principal. She must think she’s thrown me off the trail. Well, that’s where she’s wrong! An evil genius like me won’t be easily exposed or fall for her little lies!” Eggman said aloud as he walked through the school’s hallways.

Orbot and Cubot floated obediently behind him, the latter asking, “You think she was lying about how bad the school’s budget is, Boss?”

Eggman glanced back as he replied, “Well, she might not have been lying about that, and that’s her problem anyway, but I’m certain she was feigning ignorance with me! She knows who this Sunset is, and if she won’t tell me herself, then I’ll just find out more about her myself!”

Orbot asked, “And how will you do that, Boss?”

Eggman faced forward, “Even if she hadn’t mentioned it, every school is supposed to have a library. There’s sure to be more information on this school there, even if it’s not up to date, and I can make use of their resources and make them have to spend more money to maintain the school. I just have to find it.”

Cubot stopped a moment later and turned to his left, pointing as he asked, “Do think maybe there’s someone in this big room with all the books that could tell you where the library is?”

Eggman walked back and peered through the double doors. “That IS the library, you simpleton!” As he strolled inside, he said, “I knew it was here. I was just… testing you two to make sure you were paying attention.” Although he shook his head, Orbot patted Cubot on the back before they both followed him in.

Later…

“Wow, y’all were pretty busy today, huh?” Applejack asked, tipping her hat back as she eyed the collection of crystal shards sitting on top of the card table.

“Yeah. I think we’ve managed to track down most of the crystals that are still out in the open. I don’t know what we’re going to do about the ones that have already been locked up,” Tails replied.

“We probably should just leave them be for now. Wait until we’ve convinced more people Eggman’s lying and then try to talk to the police. They’ll probably have no problem helping out once they realize the truth,” Rainbow shrugged.

Rarity nodded, “That’s a good point, Rainbow.”

Sunset leaned against the table, looking at her phone in her left hand as she said, “I’m worried about this text that Principal Celestia sent me.” Everyone looked at her at that. “She said Eggman was skulking around our school today. And apparently he was asking about me.”

Fluttershy came over and asked, “Do you think she told him anything?”

Sunset looked at her and replied, “No, I don’t think so. I doubt she’d let him intimidate her into doing something like that.” She looked back down at her phone, “I’m glad I didn’t bump into him, though. I don’t want to know what he would’ve done if I did. We might have to be careful.”

Knuckles said, “Hey, don’t worry. We’ll keep you safe from Eggman. You’ve got nothing to worry about!”

Twilight looked back at Tails’ laptop, checking the information on the screen again before speaking, “I’ve been looking over these readings and I think it might be possible to make something that can track the energy of the crystals.”

Rainbow asked, “Why would we need that, Twilight? Seems like we’re doing pretty good tracking them down by ourselves.”

Twilight looked up, “Well, to make it a little easier to find them and hopefully get to them before Lyric or Eggman do. It’s not just that there might be some in the city we don’t know about. It’s possible, but I think it’s unlikely that all the shards ended up in Canterlot.”

Pinkie leaned on the table next to her seat and spoke, “That’s a good point, Twilight! Hey, do you think some of them might have ended up in Camp Everfree?”

While everyone else kept talking, Sonic sulked in a corner, his arms crossed as he leaned back against the wall. Amy noticed and came over, asking, “What’s the matter, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog didn’t look at her as he uttered, “Is this all we’re getting?”

Amy asked, “What do you mean? We collected a bunch of crystal shards, learned Eggman is planning something, and Twilight has an idea to help make our search easier! I think we’re getting a lot for one day!”

Sonic looked at her as he spoke, “No, I mean, this one scene? Is this all we get? We should’ve had a lot more time on us this chapter! I predicted we would! So why didn’t we?”

Before Amy could reply, Sticks poked her head out of the door leading to the staircase up to the apartment and said, “It’s because of him.” Both hedgehogs looked over at her as she pointed and pressed her left finger up against the side of her head, seemingly to herself, “I know you did this. This was your plan, wasn’t it? Have us think one thing when you really had another thing in mind? Well, you’re gonna pay for this! As soon as I get out of your basement, I’M GONNA GET YA FOR THIS!”

Spike tore his eyes away from the badger after a few moments and looked at the others, who were still looking over at her, and asked, “Who’s she yelling at?” It was a question that no one seemed to have the answer to.

The next day…

Abacus Cinch stood on the sidewalk, glancing around wearily with a stern expression and her arms crossed, wondering if she was wasting her time. She turned to her left when she heard footsteps and saw Dr. Eggman approaching. She uncrossed her arms and turned to face him completely, though she kept her stern expression. “Ah, Ms. Cinch. Thank you for coming on such short notice. You’re a bit difficult to contact, you know?” Eggman remarked.

Cinch had to admit that she was a bit infatuated with the doctor after watching his ads despite his bald head, but she knew better than to let her emotions get the better of her. “Listen, Dr. Kintobor, I have no idea what you called me here for, but I am a busy woman. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t waste my time,” she said.

“Of course. I understand. I’ll get right to the point, then. I believe there’s something we both want and we can both get it if we work together,” Eggman replied.

Cinch raised an eyebrow, “And what, pray tell, might that be?”

Eggman’s glasses glinted and the faintest hint of a grin appeared at the corner of his mouth, “Payback.”

Author's Note

...for a minute! XD

Previously On "Last Time On..."...

Sonic Boom

The purple lights on one of the machines aboard Lyric’s airship flickered for a second before they went off, the green armor-wearing snake using the hands on his suit to drag himself towards the machine as it died. He groaned and muttered, “I’m glad reptiles can regenerate their parts” as he continued his crawl. Behind him stood Sonic and his friends, the blue hedgehog having managed to hold the mad snake off long enough to set his friends free, at which point they all finished dishing out a beatdown.

Seeing Lyric seemingly defeated, they all relaxed and Sonic looked around at everyone as he said, “Great work, guys! We beat him!”

Knuckles flexed his muscles and pointed to himself with his left thumb as he remarked, “Yes! Yes, I did!”

Their reverie was cut short when Lyric spoke up, “FOOLS!” Facing forward, they realized he had raised himself up, the full length of his body outside of his armor laid out across the floor to his right. “I haven’t survived all the eons to be defeated by inferiors like you!” As he was speaking, he revealed a small red button in his left hand and pressed it with his right center finger. Immediately, a two-armed cannon rose up from the floor behind him, Sonic and his friends tensing up as both guns opened up and pointed at them, their ‘fingers’ spinning. Lyric gestured at it and said, “After this weapon turns you meddlers into abstract art, I’ll gather the crystal fragments and build my empire!”

The cannon suddenly shook and everyone heard a familiar voice say, “Lyric!” The snake looked up and saw Shadow standing on top of the cannon with a set of wires in the palm of his left hand. With a grunt and a little bit of effort, he ripped them from the weapon and it immediately powered down, its arms falling at its sides. “I said I’d find you,” Shadow said before dropping the wires and jumping towards Lyric, flipping over before he reached him and kicked him in the face (or rather the glass dome protecting his face).

The kick sent Lyric flying and Sonic turned and ran over to a hatch behind him, stopping next to a lever and casually pulling it back. The hatch opened, revealing the clouds below. Lyric looked back at the hatch and realized where this was going. “Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! Noooooooooo!!” he yelled as he fell through the opening and disappeared beneath the clouds.

Amy rolled her eyes and said, “Man, I wanted to do that.”

Sonic shrugged, “Does it matter who did it as long as it’s done?”

Sticks put a hand on her friend’s shoulder, “We all couldn’t kick him off the airship, Amy. And you know why?”

Amy sighed and asked, “No. Why?”

Sticks stepped forward and stood in the center of everyone, moving around as she exclaimed, “Because we’re a team! We got beaten to the punch, or in this case, the kick as a team. We can raise our heads proudly, knowing that we traveled all this way just to watch somebody else finish the job. When we walk down the streets and people whisper ‘Those are the ones who couldn’t quite save the day, almost, but not quite,’ we’ll smile together because we didn’t do it as a team! I finally understand teamwork… and it’s beautiful.”

Shadow crossed his arms and rolled his eyes with a huff. “That was pathetic,” he stated.

Sonic remarked, “Sticks may have taken the long way to get to the point, but she’s right. We beat Lyric together. As a team!”

Shadow simply huffed in reply, “And I’m leaving ALONE. As your superior.” With that, he turned and walked away.

Sonic looked down and shook his head slightly. “Too bad that guy’s such a hardcase. He’d be a great addition to Team Sonic.”

As he started to walk away, Knuckles fell into stride beside him and spoke, “You mean Team Knuckles.”

Sonic corrected him, “Team SONIC.”

Knuckles insisted, “Team KNUCKLES.”

Tails, following behind the two, started, “Uh… guys?”

Amy and Sticks started to follow the boys as Sonic coughed and quickly said, “Team Sonic.”

Half an hour later…

The members of Team Sonic looked relieved as their home island got closer and closer with every moment, Sonic especially. They were all currently standing on top of the Ancient plane they’d found in the volcano to escape and continue pursuing Lyric. The crash landing had rendered it unable to fly, but it was in good enough shape to float, so they decided to use it as a boat to get home, using metal beams taken from Lyric’s airship, which they’d crashed out in the ocean with the Crystal of Power, as paddles.

“We’re almost home. Can’t wait to stretch my legs,” Sonic commented.

“I can’t wait to get this thing back to my workshop. Once I get it fixed, it’ll be great for traveling and fighting off Eggman. I’m gonna have this plane for a long time, I just know it,” Tails said.

Amy spoke, “Come on, guys, we’re just getting home and already you want to take off? I mean, we only just defeated the last living Ancient and kept him from getting his cold hands on the crystal. We should go to my house and celebrate first.”

Knuckles asked, “You really think it was a good idea to leave that crystal on that ship?”

Amy replied, “I wouldn’t worry about it. Considering how high up we were, I’m sure he didn’t have a soft landing. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about him coming back for it.”

Sticks looked at her friend and sincerely said, “I’m sorry we didn’t get you those snakeskin boots you wanted, Amy.”

Amy smiled back at her, “Oh well. Maybe we’ll have another chance some other time, Sticks. I’m just happy you understand teamwork… a little better after all this. Do you think you’d be interested in having more adventures like this?” Sticks stopped paddling, a perturbed look appearing on her face as she seriously considered what Amy was suggesting.

Meanwhile, in the robot factory below the Ancient Ruins…

Dr. Eggman stepped through the factory entrance and looked up and around at all of the machinery as he walked. The factory was still producing Ancient robots, which came off the line in an inactive state. “I must admit, those Ancients really were advanced for their time. To think that they built such a large robot factory… and now it belongs to me!”

A red-and-black orb and a yellow-and-black cube bounced up behind him and opened up to reveal Orbot and Cubot. “Yours? How exactly does it belong to you now?” Orbot asked.

“Yeah, don’t you need to have one of those fancy signed papers that says you own it?” Cubot added.

Eggman kept walking as he glanced back at his robotic underlings and said in an annoyed tone, “I don’t need to go through all that legal mumbo-jumbo! This factory has been abandoned for thousands of years! It was free for the taking for whoever managed to find it first, and now that that fossilized snake is out of the way, it’s back to being that way!”

Orbot asked, “Out of the way? You mean…” Before he could finish, they all heard the sound of metallic footsteps behind them and came to a stop. Looking back, they saw Metal Sonic walking towards them, his red-purple eyes glowing brightly. “Ah! Metal Sonic!” he said.

Eggman nodded, “Exactly! I saw Sonic and his friends running around looking for that snake Lyric and sent Metal Sonic to ensure things would be in my favor when they stumbled across this factory!”

Cubot asked, “How?”

Eggman replied, “Simple! Metal Sonic lured them away from the factory and into a volcano to keep them from destroying the factory, and once they were away, things could only work out in my favor. Either they wouldn’t make it out of the volcano… or they’d keep going and defeat Lyric for me! And judging from that airship that crashed in the ocean, I’d say the second option occurred, as I was hoping it would!”

Orbot commended, “A truly ingenious plan, sir!”

Cubot added, “Yeah, you’re all kinds of super smart!”

Eggman snorted, “What, are you two trying to earn my favor, get yourselves a little promotion? When I want my feet licked, I’ll let you know!” Orbot and Cubot looked at each other with disturbed expressions, neither one liking the… sound of that statement. By this time, Metal Sonic had reached them and walked alongside Eggman as he started walking again, Orbot and Cubot hovering after them after a few moments.

Eggman soon reached one of the factory’s computer terminals and began typing on its keyboard, using the access code he’d used to get into the factory’s systems earlier. It took the code and brought up a menu with options to give the robots various commands and what looked like files containing Lyric’s plans. “Interesting. It would seem Lyric kept all sorts of information stored down here when he took control of the factory,” he commented after a few moments.

“Perhaps it contains information on what he planned to do,” Orbot suggested.

Eggman shrugged, “Yes, I suppose it would be interesting to find that out, but more importantly, I now have control of the factory! I can keep producing his robots or use the parts in here and the factory to increase the production of my own!” He grinned wickedly, “With this sort of setup… I can REALLY cheat on my taxes now!”

________________________________________

Equestria Girls

Adagio, Aria, and Sonata finally came to a stop, all three girls leaning forward as they tried to catch their breath. After their humiliating attempt to sway the Canterlot High student body away from the Rainbooms and back to them had been answered with boos and thrown food, self-preservation had taken over and they’d fled the stage as quickly as they could, leaving behind the shattered pieces of their pendants. While their victorious foes contemplated about the pendants and where their band was going to go, the Dazzlings now had to face a new low point in their time banished from Equestria.

“What… What happened back there? What happened to our voices?” Sonata gasped, still trying to get her breath back.

Aria’s breathing returned to normal after a moment and she stood up straight, putting her hands on her hips as she looked at Sonata and spoke, “Isn’t it obvious?! The Rainbooms ruined everything for us!” She looked at Adagio, “I thought we took all the magic they had, Adagio!”

Adagio, her curly hair now a bit frizzy at the ends, wobbled a bit as she straightened up. “I never said we did! That’s obviously why I thought we stopped feeding off of them while they were under the stage, but it wasn’t the only one! Even if we didn’t get all their magic, there’s no way they should’ve had enough to be able to do… that!” she exclaimed.

Aria pointed at Adagio and yelled, “This is all your fault, Adagio! As soon as we got a little bit of Equestrian magic back, you had to get all high and mighty and go straight to the place where it came from, and now look! Not only did we actually lose at what we’re the best at, but we lost our pendants too! We’re worse off than we were when we first got here!”

Adagio shot back, “Hey, you’re the one who complained about not getting enough to eat! I was trying to fix that, and we didn’t go straight to the high school! I made sure we worked our way there so we would be strong enough when we found the source of the magic!”

Aria said, “For all the good that did us! We should’ve just filled up and moved on like we used to, but nooooo! You had to dig in and try to suck every little bit of magic you could get from that school! So much for you being smart!”

Adagio growled, “Well, if it was such a DUMB idea, why did either of you agree to it?! Oh, I’m sorry; for a moment, I forgot I was in the company of IDIOTS!”

Aria walked over and got right up in Adagio’s face, “You’d better watch what you say! I don’t know why I’m telling you that; clearly, you can’t make a single decent decision anymore!”

Adagio snarled, “And how many decisions have you made that ever contributed to our success?!”

Sonata looked back and forth between the two arguing sirens-turned-humans nervously. They’d argued plenty in the past, but it had never gotten this bad. She finally steeled herself and walked up to them, trying to push them apart as she exclaimed, “Adagio, Aria, stop it!” She managed to push them a few feet away from each other, but they immediately turned their glares on her. She shrunk a bit, but said, “For realsies, this is not a good time for this! W-We gotta figure out what we’re going to do now! We gotta eat and stuff!” She clutched her stomach, “I’m getting hungry just thinking about all this…”

Aria snorted, “That sounds about right. You’re always hungry, Sonata.”

Adagio muttered, “I think you mean yourself, Aria.” The other girl turned and glared at her, but she didn’t look away. “At least she has a point once in a while,” she shrugged. She then faced forward and said, “I suppose we should figure out where we are. We can figure out what our next move is afterwards.” She started forward, walking towards the other end of the alley. Sonata looked at Aria, the other girl glaring daggers at Adagio’s back even as she begrudgingly followed after her a moment later. Sonata followed after them carefully, feeling uncharacteristically worried about what the future held for them now.