(Rookie POV)

The past few hours of travel towards Syracuse had been a bit stop-and-go. We’d run...or fly, in Redbow’s case...for about half an hour. Then rest a little by walking for a bit, before we got back to running or flying. To ease the boredom of the walking moments, I decided to strike up a conversation with her, to get to know her...and not in that kind of way.

“So, Redbow, what’s your family like?” I asked her as we slowed to a walking pace.

“Well, it’s not easy to describe my family, because we’re not ‘one thing’ like most families are.” She explained. “I mean, um, you remember seeing Applejack with those ponies we left?”

I could see where she was going with this, and decided to fill in the blanks for her. “So her giant family is all about apple farming, but your family is more of a mishmash of everything, and yet nothing.” I answered, getting her jaw to hit the ground (not literally; MLP may be a ‘cartoon world’, but at least some laws of physics and science are followed).

“How in Eques did you know all of that?!” She exclaimed.

“I’ll tell you, but until this crisis is over, it stays between us. Understand?” I said, stopping to fix a serious look on her. “And to make sure you keep your promise, do a Pinkie Promise.”

She shivered and then sighed. “Okay. I promise to keep your secret a secret, until you tell me It’s okay to talk about it. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” She said, making sure to close her eye so she didn’t poke it.

“Okay. Now to start, I have two sides to my mind.” I began to explain. “One is Mobian, the other is Human.”

“Wait, human? As in those silly theories that Lyra talks about?” Redbow asked in surprise.

“Oh, that actually happens?” I asked out loud. “Huh, I’ll have to keep fan theories in mind.”

“Fan theories?” She asked in confusion.

“I’m getting there.” I said, using the ‘calm down’ gesture. “The human side of my mind has watched, or at least read, a lot on a show that features certain bits of this world. Mostly focusing on the misadventures of those six mares we left back in Ponyville. They are jokingly called ‘The Mane Six’ back on Earth.”

“So, this world is part of a show and, thanks to that, you know all about this world?” She asked, a hint of suspicion and fear in her voice.

“Only the bare minimum.” I said to her. “Remember what I told Fluttershy about the whole timespace convolution stuff, that merged two minds into one?”

“Oh, right, that.” She realized. “How did that happen anyway?”

“On the Mobian side of things, I had that Phantom Ruby Prototype-”

“Prototype? It wasn’t a real Phantom Ruby?”

“Oh, it’s real.” I said, quickly rubbing my tail, feeling a scab hidden under the fur. “Just slightly defective. Anyway, I had it too close to the Chaos Emerald you saw. But they didn’t seem to agree with each other, and I was forced here with them.”

“And the human side of things?” Redbow asked.

“Killed in a mugging.” I said, feeling the phantom pain from being stabbed. “And the kicker there, it was all for a simple wedding band I found on-” I paused when I felt something in a hidden pocket on my shirt. I found the pocket opening, and pulled out a ring. And it wasn’t a ring like a wedding band, it was a ring like from the various Sonic Games, and the recent movie about him. “Huh, will you look at that?”

“What? Is that the wedding band that was ‘stolen’ from you?” Redbow asked.

“No. This is a Power Ring.” I said, marveling at how these seem to pop up everywhere.

“What does it do?” Redbow asked.

“It has protective properties, and I’ve found it helps me keep up with one of my Hedgehog friends.” I explained. “And I think it might help us get to Syracuse faster.”

“How can it help us get to Syracuse faster?” She asked. I responded by tossing the ring to her. The suddenness of my action nearly got her to miss the catch. When she caught it, she was shocked when it vanished in a golden sparkle. She twitched slightly before looking up at me. “What just happened?”

“You ‘collected’ the ring.” I told her simply. “Where it goes is unknown, but with you ‘carrying’ that, you should be able to have the speed and stamina to fly the rest of the way to Syracuse.”

“You know I’m not the fit kind.” She complained.

“And I didn’t say you were.” I said, smiling under my mask. “Heck, Big the Cat back on Mobius is less fit than you, but with ring power, he has managed to keep up with Amy Rose.”

“You act like I should know who they are.” Redbow deadpanned.

“Fat cat twice my height and more obese than you managing to keep up with a sub-Sonic hedgehog. That’s the simple way to see it.” I said. “So with ring power on your side, you, a chubby pegasus, can lead a sub-Sonic cat to your hometown faster than what we’ve been doing.”

Redbow looked like she was about to protest, but paused, seeming to think about what I said about the fact that she would have the ring’s power on her side. She took flight into the air and then shot off into the distance, briefly surprising me before I started running after her. This new pace and, from what I could tell, her lack of exhaustion, seemed to confirm my hidden suspicion of it being able to grant Redbow stamina and speed comparable to a Mobian. The trip went rather quickly after that.

(3rd POV)

The two arrived in the town of Syracuse, only to find the place seemed abandoned. “Where is everyone?” Redbow asked out loud.

“Not just everyone, almost everything is gone.” Rookie commented, seeing almost all forms of plant matter was stripped from the ground, trees, and certain parts of buildings.

“It’s almost like how parasprites nearly ate up Ponyville after Twilight magically changed their diet.” Redbow said. “It took my boss forever to get the printing press looked over, repaired and any stray parasprites cleared out.”

“Now, I just hope no one was harmed in that incident and whatever happened here.” Rookie said as he kicked a stray basket to the side, as they walked further into town. “If I recall some details from the show concerning that incident, Twilight changed their diet to ‘not food’, causing them to eat things that weren’t food...so, were ponies eaten or no.”

“Now that I think about it, you saying that makes me think that the Ponyville residents were lucky they weren’t targeted by those pests.” She contemplated out loud. “I mean, ponies could be considered as ‘not food’.”

“So, we explore the town and hope we find someone?” Rookie asked, getting a nod from Redbow. The two began knocking on doors, hoping to find someone. However, rather than getting any answers to what happened to the town, they saw movement in the houses’ windows, indicating that people were inside and afraid. After an hour of just knocking doors and getting nothing, Rookie looked to Redbow, and voiced his opinion. “I don’t think we’re getting anywhere.”

“Yeah.” She said with a sad sigh. “I’m not sure what changed and when, but maybe if we head to my parent’s place, they might have some answers for us.” She started trotting to a building that seemed to be a business with living quarters on the second floor. She walked up the stairs on the side of the building and knocked on the door.

The door creaked open, revealing a pegasus with a turquoise coat and a thinner physique than Redbow, but sharing a similar face. “Redbow!” She exclaimed quietly, opening the door a bit wider to check the area before standing aside. “Quick, you and your...whatever your friend is, get inside before she sees you both outside.”

“Who?” Redbow asked, before the pegasus groaned and grabbed her and Rookie, then pulled them inside. After she closed the door, she hugged Redbow.

“It’s good to see you again, Redbow. I just wish it wasn’t under these circumstances.” The pegasus said.

“Cloudbow, what’s going on? What’s got the town spooked and locked indoors?” Redbow asked, carefully dislodging herself from her sister’s hug.

“Cloudbow? Who’s there with you?” A female voice was heard from a different room.

“Mom, Dad, Redbow’s visiting.” Cloudbow called out. Two more pegasi walked out from a hallway area. One of them was a brown, female pegasus with rosy red mane and tail. The other was a lighter brown, male pegasus with bright blue mane and tail. Both of them had a somewhat shocked expression that turned to happiness.

“Redbow!” the two exclaimed, rushing up and latching onto her in a hug. “What are you doing here? Didn’t you get the letter to stay away?”

“What letter?” Redbow asked, carefully pulling the two pegasi off of her. “I visited you guys yesterday, and everything seemed fine. Barely less than 24 hours later, the town is in shambles.”

“A day? It’s been a week!” Cloudbow explained in slight confusion. Redbow was about to say something, but the house shook briefly, causing the other two pegasi to lock the multitude of locks (that seemed recently added) on the door and cover all windows.

“What’s going on?” Rookie asked. The group, minus Redbow, shushed him. He carefully peeked his head through the drapes to look at what was happening.

What he saw was rather confusing, but terrifying at the same time. A bright red, almost pink, unicorn with mint-green mane and tail was accosting an earth pony that was attached to a wagon carrying what seemed to be a ridiculous amount of food. He couldn’t hear the conversation, but could generally get the idea of what was happening.

The unicorn was obviously wanting the food that was on the cart all to herself, but the cart’s owner was refusing, trying to get past her to take it to market or something. Before the earth pony could tell her off or shoo her away, the unicorn demonstrated some hidden strength by snapping the wooden pieces of his harness off with her bare hooves and then delivered a roundhouse kick that sent the earth pony flying into the exterior wall of the building, causing the building to shake again, but slightly harder than last time.

The unicorn then stood on her back legs and walked to the back of the cart. She eyed the food (heck, the whole wagon) with a hungry look, rubbing her hooves together as she did so. Her horn was enveloped in a combined green and pink aura, as if casting a spell, but then, just like that, the aura was gone. At first, nothing happened, but then the unicorn’s body began to swell. In less than a few seconds, she became a behemoth of a fat pony, reaching two stories tall. The unicorn behemoth then inhaled and all the food, barrels, bags, and wagon itself was sucked up into her mouth, all somehow managing to fit through the mouth. After she had finished chewing and swallowing the food, she seemed to have enjoyed the meal, a content look on her face. Her horn then lit back up again, and she shrunk back down to her ‘normal’ form, allowing her to trot away.

“What in the name of all that is holy and sacred did I just see?” Rookie asked, pulling his head back from the window and drapes.

“That is what has been happening here this past week.” Cloudbow said. She quickly turned to Redbow and interrupted her before she started. “And I heard what you said, but I think some sort of time magic or something has hit the town.”

“Why do you think that?” Rookie asked.

“Well to start, most food crops have begun to grow significantly faster than should be possible.” The male pegasus said. “By the way, before we get too far into this discussion, we should introduce ourselves.”

“That is better than thinking of each other with somewhat vague nouns.” The Mobian said as he stood up from the window and extended his robotic hand. “Carter ‘Rookie’ Tomcat, but Rookie is fine.”

“Calorie Crunch, Syracuse Dietician.” The male pegasus responded, shaking the offered hand with his hoof. “You probably know Redbow, might have caught Cloudbow’s name. And this pretty filly here is my wife, Primrose.” He introduced his family.

“Nice to know you all.” Rookie said, giving a light bow. “Anyway, accelerated crop growth...any further evidence of a time spell or something?”

“Well, I’ve never known Redbow to lie.” Cloudbow said. “So we can probably take her word on the timing of things. It has barely been a day for her, while a literal week passed for us.”

“Two points of evidence is better than no evidence at all.” Rookie said as he pulled out his scanner and started entering information of some kind into it. “Anything of note concerning your gluttonous unicorn ‘friend’ outside?”

“Mint Berry.” Cloudbow answered. “The ‘day’ this all started, I saw her at the edge of town, talking with some weird, serpent-like, mishmash of animals, dragon thing.”

“Discord.” Rookie grumbled.

“And it seems that Mint’s bullying ways never really changed.” Redbow muttered. “Did you hear any of the conversation?”

“No, I couldn’t, but I could tell she seemed to be in awe of something that Discord told her, and then showed her a red gem of some kind.” Cloudbow said.

“Probably the Chaos Emerald we came here for.” Rookie said, inputing a bit more info into the device. The device beeped and Rookie’s ‘invisible’ eyebrow raised as he looked at the device’s results. “And the guess of the town being under a time spell isn’t too far off. From what I can tell, the time spell, some sort of soil enrichment spell, and whatever has Mint Berry able to eat her giant meals is powered by some sort of Chaos energy.”

“So, we find the Emerald, somehow disconnect it from the spells and then take care of Mint Berry?” Redbow asked.

The Mobian nodded. “That is a good base plan to work with.” He said. “But we need to know where the Emerald is and how to fight against a kung-fu unicorn with a size ability.”

“Actually, I think Redbow and I can distract Mint while you search the town for the Emerald.” Cloudbow suggested. “After all, she has the biggest bone to pick with us for some reason.”

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s get started-” Redbow’s stomach grumbled, interrupting her and getting her to blush a bit. “-after we eat something. I don’t want her to mistake my grumbling stomach as a competitor’s claim to the area.” The whole group laughed and entered the kitchen to eat.

(One meal later, Rookie POV)

After a rather enjoyable, and somewhat overfilling meal, Cloudbow, Redbow, and I left the house and went our separate ways. They began walking down some of the street areas, while I took to the rooftops. “I gotta thank Rouge for this...if I ever get the chance to do so.” I muttered as I used my grappling hook to jump between buildings, while scanning the area for the Emerald’s Chaos energy.

The scanning, however, wasn’t going as I had hoped. The entire town seemed saturated in Chaos energy, causing my task of pinpointing the darn gem to be more difficult than it should. So, I decided to rely on my eyes and ears for locating it.

I landed on the roof of what seemed like the town hall when I started hearing a rather heated argument in front of the building. I was able to see Mint Berry being confronted by the two Bow pegasi sisters. I tuned out the conversation while I used the tall town hall to try to see if there were any visual clues as to the Emerald’s location.

Just as I was about to give up for the day, when I passed one of the hall’s windows, I saw a brief flash of red from the inside. I looked in the window properly, and I saw the Emerald sitting on a small pedestal, which was in some sort of spell circle. I carefully opened the window and went to take the Emerald. However, as soon as I touched it, I was shocked so violently that I was shot out the window and just barely past the three ponies and their argument.

I picked myself carefully from the ground and went to check on my robotic parts for damage. I heard a sniff from where the three ponies were arguing, so I paid them a quick glance. Neither of the Bow Pegasi Sisters were harmed, but I noted that Mint had teary eyes hidden in an angry glare.

“So, you guys had the nerve to try to distract me to allow that...thing to steal the Emerald from me!?” She half yelled, half cried out. “Well, I’m afraid I can’t let you take it. I spent too much of my life starving to give up actually having a full stomach!” She charged at me and I was barely able to dodge the kick she sent my way. After she flew by, I did a quick reset on my robot parts and stood up, ready to fight.

“Redbow, Cloudbow, the Emerald is on a magic pedestal on the third floor. Do what you can to grab it while I hold off Mint Berry.” I told the two pegasi. “And be careful, I think there might be a defense spell or something like that in place.”

Got it!” They both said and rushed into the building.

“So, you probably know about my powers granted by the Emerald?” Mint said to me as we circled around each other.

“I have a few ideas.” I answered. “The Emerald keeps you thin unless you want to be bigger, in which case, it keeps the deadly side effects of being that big away.”

Mint Berry suddenly lashed at me with a punch, which I was barely able to redirect with my arm into the ground, causing a shallow indent on the ground. “It also gives me a lot more strength than I should have, as a unicorn.”

“That explains the fact that you managed to indent a compacted dirt road.” I commented. “Anyway, was there anything in particular that was said in your conversation with Discord just before you started terrorizing the town?”

“He brought up memories of my youth.” She said, throwing another punch which I dodged. “From the time I was born to just before meeting Discord, I’ve never had a full belly. I pretty much starved most of my life. You could call it jealousy, but I joined with a bunch of bullies in school to pick on Redbow. They were picking on her because she was fat, as if she could completely control that. I picked on her because she pretty much had a decadent life that I never was able to have...until now.”

“And you are going to fight to try to keep it that way?” I asked, to which she nodded and sent a kick at me. I blocked the strike with my metal foot, using it’s ankle hinge to grab the attacking limb. “Are you aware that I’m pretty much a distraction while the Bow Pegasi Sisters work to claim the Emerald?” Her eyes widened slightly before she nodded and made to punch me. I caught her hoof with my hand, and locked the hand joints in a firm grip. “That punch attempt was slightly weaker than what you demonstrated.” I commented.

“I’m getting hungry.” She too quickly blurted out.

“Or maybe, it’s because you know, deep down, that this is wrong.” I said, causing her struggle a little less. “It’s one thing to be a glutton, but another thing to lose yourself to it and do who knows what to satisfy your hunger. You are disgusted by the unicorn you became in order to feel something you never felt before.” I commented, slowly releasing her legs and letting her settle down on the ground, her eyes starting to tear up.

“You’re right.” She cried as she hugged her legs and rocked back and forth. “I disgust myself, but it’s like I’m addicted. I don’t know any other way to deal with the withdrawal other than just raiding more food.”

“Well, I can at least see if I can help fix your problem, once the Chaos Emerald is no longer trapping this town in time.” I assured her, patting her back. “Heck, keeping the town’s soil’s fertility will be something I’ll try to keep in place as a means for the town to recover, as well as letting you have a decent portion of what’s left.”

Mint Berry’s eyes showed gratitude as she nearly knocked me over in a hug. As she was hugging and thanking me, I saw Redbow and Cloudbow exiting the town hall with the Chaos Emerald. When they saw Mint hugging me, they both stopped at the steps as I shushed them with my hand. I then beckoned for Emerald, which Redbow gave to me with a bit of hesitation.

Upon grabbing the gem, I carefully pried the crying and thankful unicorn off of me so I could try something. Now I both had a fair idea of what Shadow does with his power over the Chaos Emerald, and I saw him doing it. Now I just had to take what I saw, and replicate it to the best of my abilities.

I held the Emerald, thinking, for a few minutes before I held it to the sky and felt some of the Chaos Energy flowing through me. “Chaos Control!” Three beams of red light then flowed from the Emerald to its targets. The first being Mint Berry. It caused her form to shimmer like a summer heat mirage, before she swelled back up to her two story tall fat form.

The second target was the ground itself. The ground started glowing red briefly, before the grass started to grow back and the fields all around the town turned a rich brown color.

The third target seemed to be the sky, but it stopped short and seemed to cast a red dome over the town. After a few seconds, the dome came down and the sky changed from roughly noon to late afternoon. Once the fixes were done, I suddenly felt exhausted...beyond exhausted, actually. It was like I did all the missions of Sonic Forces in real life with literally no breaks between them, and was thrashed to within an inch of my life by Infinite.

I collapsed on the ground, losing my grip on the Emerald as I landed. My vision started to blur as Redbow and Cloudbow rushed to me, trying to say something to me, but their words were garbled up. I then saw black, and was out.

Author's Note

If you guys want pictures (like a picture to start each chapter), vote yes or no in the description. I'm trying to learn myself how to do pixel art that way I can save money for things I need in life (like a car).