They all stood frozen in fear at the thing that was hovering above them, slowly descending from the sky. It looked like a silver and gold oval pod. Its main body was all silver with what appeared to be blackened windows on the front. The bottom portion had gold-plated boosters, which emitted small jets of flame from them, allowing it to slowly descend to the ground. There were small doors coming from the sides of the machine, many of them too small to allow a person in or out.

The five of them stared as the machine slowly made its way to meet their gaze. When it was at a reasonable eye level, they saw that the machine was almost as big as they were; it wasn’t all that big in height, but it made up for it in length. Behind the machine were also gold-plated boosters; no doubt used to allow it to move forward.

Soon, the machine began to circle around them. As it did, the nose of the pod opened and a small beam of blue light shot out at them. When the light hit them, they all couldn’t help but flinch at it, thinking that something was going to happen. However, the only thing that happened was that the blue light widened its beam so that it was horizontal. Then, it began moving up and down, all the while, the main pod hovering in circles around them.

“What...” Kim managed to whisper to the others, “What is that thing?”

“I don’t know,” said Sonic as he shifted his eyes to look at it, “But I have feeling its scanning us.”

“Why?” asked Twilight, “What does it want with us?”

“That thing I saw must have sent it here,” whispered Sailor Moon, trying her best not to cry uncontrollably.

Before any of them could say anything more, the machine made its way to the front of them again. When it did, the blue beam retracted back into its nose and closed it up. Then, its bottom boosters blew jets of fire a little faster and moved them towards the five of them, allowing the machine to hover backwards away from them.

When it was a good 6 feet away from them, it eased its boosters to allow it to hover in front of them again. Then, it just stood there, watching them like a hawk.

“What is it doing now?” asked Kim.

“How am I supposed to know what it’s doing?” asked Sonic, a hint of irritation in his voice, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“What do suppose we do?” asked Twilight, “It obviously wants nothing to do with us.”

“How can you be so sure if that?” asked Sonic.

“Because if it wanted to do something,” interjected Kim, “It would have done it already.”

“What do you think we should do?” asked Sailor Moon.

“Mew,” purred Mew, tilting his head at the others with a questioning gaze.

“Well, if what you say is true, then we should just walk away,” said Sonic, “Just slowly walk away and leave it be.”

With that said, the five of them slowly began moving backwards, putting more distance between the machine and themselves. While they moved, the pod just stood there, not moving an inch closer or away from them.

“Why isn’t it doing anything?” asked Sonic as they continued to back away, “Why is it just standing there?”

“Maybe it’s here to help us,” suggested Twilight, “Maybe that thing Sailor Moon saw earlier sent it here to help us out of this place.”

Before any of them could agree or disagree, they saw the machine beginning to move, freezing them in their tracks. It shifted back and forth in small intervals, as if someone or something inside of it was moving around, causing the whole pod to shift.

“Do you think whatever is piloting that thing is coming out to help us?” asked Sailor Moon as they continued to watch it.

Then, the small doors on the sides of it opened and two long cylindrical devices came out of them. Each device looked like a solid piece of metal, but with a closer observation, they saw that it was several smaller cylinders grouped together to make one cylinder. Each small piece had a hole in the middle and the base of all them had a gold belt that fed into it. The moment their eyes saw that gold belt, their eyes widened and their hearts began racing; they knew what the two cylinders were and what came next was to be expected.

“I take that as a ‘no’,” whispered Sailor Moon as the tears she fought so hard to hold back began streaming down her cheeks.

“Move,” whispered Sonic as the two cylindrical devices began to rotate. Knowing that keeping quiet was no longer a necessity, he shouted as loud as he could, “MOVE!”

In that split second the devices began firing at them, kicking up dust as the bullets began ricocheting off the sand, heading right towards them. In a heartbeat, all five of them jumped out of the way, avoiding the bullets firing out of the chain guns attached to the side of the machine. As they began running in separate directions, the machine began moving, firing its weapons at whoever was closer to it.

“What are those things!” shouted Twilight as she ran as fast as her four legs could muster.

“Those are chain guns!” shouted Kim, “They can kill you in an instant if it hits you!”

“Wait, you’ve never seen one of those before!?” asked Sonic.

“Not exactly!” shouted the unicorn as she broke away from them to avoid the plumes of sand coming at them.

Mew flew into the air, the best place it could be to avoid the machine. However, his brief moment of relief didn’t last long when he saw small doors on the top of the machine open. However, instead of more chain guns coming out, two missiles fired out the top, heading straight for him. As fast as the pink creature could go, it flew away, heading for the ground with all his might. He managed to look behind him to see the missiles following closely behind him. So, he did the only thing he could do: he flew as close as he could to the ground, hoping that the missiles would follow suit.

Luckily for him, the missiles did just that and collided with the ground, kicking up giant clouds of dust with their explosions. When the dust cleared out, Mew turned and headed back toward the pod.

“Keep moving!” shouted Sonic as he and the others kept running clear of the bullets flying towards them.

Kim dived out of the way of a string of bullets and shouted, “We need to do something!”

“You think!?” shouted Twilight, as she teleported herself to safety.

“We have to destroy it somehow!” shouted Sailor Moon, “Twilight, do you think you can hold it like you did with Sonic earlier!?”

“I’m trying!” said the lavender unicorn, “But I can’t concentrate long enough to stop it! It’s moving too fast!”

“We can’t destroy it!” shouted Kim, as she back flipped away from more bullets.

“Why not!?” asked Sonic, as he ran to the machine, hoping he could get underneath it and away from harm’s way. However, whenever he got close to it, the machine would move away and then open fire on him.

“That thing came here, right!?” shouted Kim as she began running alongside Sonic, “That thing might be the only way we can get out of here!”

“Interesting theory!” shouted Twilight, “Any suggestions!?”

“I’m working on it!” she shouted at the unicorn.

Then, the machine opened its top hatches again, firing two more missiles from them. However, instead of following them like it did with Mew, they went straight into the air and straight back down, hitting random spots on the sand. When they collided, more giant clouds of dust was kicked up, one of which was near Sonic and Kim.

When it hit the ground, the two of them were thrown into the air from the shockwave of the missile. They collided with the ground, rolling a few times and getting hit with the cloud of dust that followed.

It wasn’t long before the dust cleared out and the machine began coming at them, its chain guns at the ready.

“We have to move,” moaned Sonic as he struggled to get to his feet.

When he looked in Kim’s direction, he saw that she wasn’t moving; no doubt the blast from the missile had knocked her out. When he saw that she wasn’t moving and the machine was getting closer to them, he ran over to her, picked her up in his arms and began to run as fast as he could go. While he ran, he heard the sound of the chain guns firing and the bullets colliding with the sand behind him. It was only now that he regretted that he was treading on sand, preventing him from running at the full speed he was capable of going. However, he didn’t let that stop him; he needed to get himself and Kim out of harm’s way, whether he was going slower than usual or not.

He looked behind him to see that the machine was only focusing on him, the bullets getting closer and closer. He swerved to one side to buy more time for himself. Then, he shouted, “Twilight! Do it now!”

Not wasting any time, the lavender equine focused her magic, causing the maroon aura to form around her horn. Shutting her eyes tightly, she focused her magic on the machine, praying that it was enough to stop it.

Sailor Moon and Mew watched as the machine was engulfed with the maroon aura, holding the device in its tracks. However, they saw that the chain guns on the machine were still firing at Sonic and Kim.

“We got to do something,” she said to the pink creature, a look of worry on her face. Then, an idea came to her mind. Immediately, she began to search herself, hoping that she had something that could stop the pod from firing at the blue hedgehog. Unfortunately, she didn’t have anything of use that she could use against it.

“What are we going to do?” she asked, as she began running her hands through her hair. It was then that her palms pressed against something on her forehead. The moment that they did, her eyes lit up and she took the object off of her forehead and looked at it: her tiara.

“That’s it!” she shouted as she began running towards the machine.

“What...are...you...doing...?” Twilight asked between strains, trying her best to hold the machine in its tracks. However, it was difficult for her because the pod was fighting against her, trying to break itself free from her magical grip.

“I’m going to save them,” she said to the equine as she got a better grip on her tiara.

“How...?” Twilight asked, “That...war machine...is too...strong...”

“Trust me,” said the blonde girl. When she was close enough to the machine, she began prep her tiara to attack the machine.

Twilight and Mew watched as the gold tiara in her hands instantly turned into an oval of nothing but a white light. Then, she shouted, “MOON TIARA MAGIC!” and threw the white light towards the machine like a Frisbee.

The three of them watched as the tiara flew towards the war machine, as Twilight called it. Then, it clipped the side of the chain gun, causing a small section of the device to chip in the process, and returned to Sailor Moon’s hand. The unicorn was about to scold her for her plan not working when she saw that the chain gun began to disintegrate into dust, falling from the side of the war machine and into the sand beneath it.

Seeing that it was losing its weapon, the war machine disengaged the gun, releasing it from its body. When Twilight saw this, she adjusted her magical grip on the pod to allow the chain gun to fall to the ground. When it hit the ground, it faded into a small pile of dust and blew away with the wind from its boosters underneath.

“Moon dusted!” she shouted as she jumped for joy, pumping a fist in the air as she did so.

When Sonic saw that one of the chain guns were gone, he turned and began to head towards the others, making sure to stay clear of the other chain gun that was still attached.

“What...about...the...other...one...?” asked Twilight.

Before Sailor Moon could say anything, Mew flew to the back of the war machine, positioning itself behind the other chain gun. When it was level with the backside of the weapon, he focused hard on it, his eyes starting to glow a shade of indigo as he did.

Twilight and Sailor Moon watched as a pink beam of energy shot out of Mew’s body and clipped the side of the war machine. Not only did it destroy the chain gun in the process, but it also damaged the side of the ship. A glowing yellow fluid began splattering out of the gaping hole that was now on its side, splashing on the sand below it.

As the yellow fluids continued to pour out of its side, the boosters underneath it began to lessen and lessen with each passing second.

“It’s losing power,” said Sailor Moon, “Mew must have hit its fuel cell or something!”

Taking the hint, Twilight released her magic, collapsing on the ground as she did. The moment it was released, the war machine began floating into the air as far as it could. It opened its nose again, but instead of a blue beam coming out, the purple and white energy from before started to shoot out of it. However, because it was losing the fuel it needed to operate, the door on the nose of it didn’t open all the way. Because of this, only a small beam of the energy shot out, not enough to cause the big swirl from before to show.

“What is that?” asked Sailor Moon, as she pointed at the purple and white swirl.

“That must be what sent it here,” said Twilight, not averting her gaze from the energy, “That’s got to be how that thing came here in the first place!”

Try as the war machine could, it just didn’t have enough fuel to open its nose anymore and with its last bit of energy, it closed the door and fell to the ground like a stone.

Sonic, with Kim still in his arms, regrouped with the others to see the war machine collide with the ground. Fortunately for them, it wasn’t high enough to cause any more damage to it. So, when it hit the ground, it kicked up some dust and made a sound that was equivalent to a machine powering down. After that, the war machine was completely motionless.

Several moments went by as the five of them stood completely motionless, staring at the machine that had tried to kill them only seconds ago. As they stood there, Kim began to move in Sonic’s arms, signifying that she was coming to.

“What...” she moaned in pain, “What happened?”

“I...I think we got it,” said Sonic, as he helped Kim to her feet, “Twilight, Sailor Moon, and Mew stopped it from getting to us.”

Kim looked Sonic in the eyes and said, “You...you saved me.”

Sonic smiled at her and chuckled. “A hero’s got to do what a hero’s got to do. Besides, it’s like I said before, we’re in this together. That means we look out for each other until we figure out what’s going on.”

“Thank you, Sonic,” she said, as she offered him a light hug, “I owe you one.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” he said, “It’s what I do.”

“No, I mean it,” she said, releasing her embrace and looking in his eyes, “I’m usually the one who saves people from harm, not the other way around.”

Then, he turned to the other three standing next to them. “Speaking of ‘looking out for each other’, thanks for saving us back there. That was some quick thinking, taking out those chain guns like that.”

“No problem,” said Sailor Moon, “You two aren’t the only ones who have the responsibility of saving people. I do the same thing back home, too.”

“Same here,” said Twilight, “Well, maybe not all the time, but most of the time.”

“Mew, Mew!” said Mew as he hovered around the others with a smile.

“Really?” asked Sonic, his eyebrows furrowing as he did, “That’s interesting.”

“What?” asked Kim and Twilight at the same time. When they did, Kim pointed back at the equine and said, “Jinx! You owe me a soda!”

Twilight just raised her eyebrow at the statement, wondering what the red-haired human was talking about.

“It seems we all have something in common,” he said to all of them, “We all appear to have the same responsibilities as heroes. I’m just wondering if that has anything to do with why we’re here in the first place.”

Before anyone could say anything, they heard the sound of splattering liquids hitting the ground. The five of them looked to see that more of the glowing yellow liquids shot out of the war machine.

Straightening her posture, Kim said, “First things first, let’s figure out what this thing is and see if we can get out of here.”

“Agreed,” said Sailor Moon, “We’ll talk about this later.”

Sonic nodded as the five of them slowly began to approach the remains of the war machine, hoping that they could figure out how to activate the energy from before and get out of the barren wastelands.

Author's Note

Well folks, here's my failed attempt at becoming more original! LOL!