Sonic X MLP: Harmony vs Chaos

Chapters

Chapter 1 - Interdimensional Plans
Chapter 2 - New Horizons Part 1: So This is Equestria
Chapter 3 - New Horizons Part 2: E.G.G.M.A.N.
Chapter 4 - Strange New Creatures and Town Mission
Chapter 5 - Official Introductions and Tours of Equestria
Chapter 6 - Super Sonic Racing
Chapter 7 - Rolling Around at The Speed of Sound
Chapter 8 - Cloudsdale's Cold Chaos
Chapter 9 - Clash at the Crystal Empire (Part 1)

Chapter 1 - Interdimensional Plans

It's a beautiful day on the planet Earth S. More specifically, in an area called Green Hill. It's got palm trees, variant fauna and flora, waterfalls, and luscious grassy hills. Most of those who lived on the planet were enjoying it. However, there was someone who wasn't outside enjoying the day. A mad scientist with a 300 IQ who goes by the name Dr. Eggman (though he used to be called Dr. Ivo Robotnik). He's currently in his base located far from the green hills of Mobius. Dr. Eggman has always tried to achieve his ultimate goal of expanding his Eggman Empire. He tries to do this by making badniks powered by little critters (they'll be called Flickies for the remainder of the story) and other strong robots. Despite how close he's come to achieving total victory, he's always been stopped by a group of anthropomorphic creatures, mostly a blue hedgehog named of Sonic.

Sonic holds the title of fastest thing alive. Not only can he go faster than the speed of sound, he can also run at light speed (even surpassing that on occasions). Ever since the speedy hedgehog and evil genius first met, Sonic had made it his mission to stop Eggman's evil plans. Over the years, the blue hedgehog has made many friends. He met a two tailed fox named Miles Prowler (but everyone who knows him just calls him Tails). He's pretty much Sonic's right hand man (well fox in this case). Tails also happens to have an IQ of 300 despite how young he is. There's also a red echidna named Knuckles. He's the last of his kind who guards the master emerald, a powerful gem that can control seven other gems called the Chaos Emeralds (more on all of them later in the story). The echidna was tricked by Eggman into thinking that Sonic and Tails wanted to steal the master emerald. Knuckles believed him and didn't realize that he had been tricked until the scientist had taken the powerful gem from an old echidna temple known as Hidden Palace Zone. The three of them are now allies today who all try to stop Eggman, though the blue hedgehog and red echidna still bicker from time to time. The last of his closet friends is a hedgehog like Sonic, except she's pink. Her name is Amy Rose. They first met on Little Planet, a place that only appeared once a year. She was captured by Metal Sonic, one of Sonic's robotic counterparts. Soon after Amy first met Sonic, she developed a huge crush on him. She's tried hard to win Sonic's heart, but Sonic never shared the same feelings. Amy has toned down her obsession with the blue blur over the years, per request of Sonic and their other friends, though she still has feelings for him. Despite how she tends to be around him, Sonic is glad to have Amy as one of his friends.

In Dr. Eggman's Base:
For the past few months, the evil genius had been doing research on another dimension called Equestria. He's also been gathering the seven chaos emeralds in secret so that only he and his minions are aware of his plans.

"Cubot, what's the status? Do we have all of them?" Eggman asked the yellow and black robot with a cubic face, chest, and lower body.

"All of what, exactly?" Cubot asked his master.

"Grr, the CHAOS EMERALDS! DO WE HAVE ALL OF THE CHAOS EMERALDS?" Eggman angrily answered.

"Oh those, my bad" Cubot sheepishly said. "Orbot should be back with the seventh one soon."

"How soon?" The scientist asked him.

"How about right now?" a red robot with a half spherical face and lower body said as he entered the base's computer room.

"Orbot, you're back! It was getting boring around here without you to talk to," Cubot said as he went over and hugged his robot friend.

"So did you get the chaos emerald?" Eggman asked Orbot. Orbot then opened his mouth to reveal the emerald.

"You did it, you actually did it!" Eggman said with excitement. "Hold on, didn't I send some egg pawns and other badniks with you?" The scientist then questioned.

"Um, about that, not long after we entered the area containing the emerald, Knuckles dropped down from the ceiling. All of the badniks then went into a fighting stance and starting attacking him. Knuckles then started to fight back. As you can probably tell, most of them didn't make it," Orbot sheepishly answered.

"How many of them actually survived?" Eggman asked with a stern tone.

"How many did you send again?" Orbot asked nervously.

"I sent 11 egg pawns, 3 moto bugs, and 3 blue bombers to help you," Eggman answered. "Don't tell me that you lied and all of the egg pawns and other badniks that I sent are reduced to scrap," he said with a rise of aggression in his tone.

"You can come out now X," Orbot said towards the door to the right of Eggman's computer.

"Uhh, who's X?" Cubot asked. An egg pawn then came into the computer room while walking slowly towards Eggman.

"This is X," Orbot told Cubot and his boss. "He found the chaos emerald while most of the other badniks you sent were fighting Knuckles."

"Is this true?" Eggman asked the orange robot. The egg pawn quickly nodded in response.

Cubot then noticed the letter X was written on the egg pawn. "Why is the letter X on the robot?" He asked his friend. Eggman then also noticed the letter on the lone egg pawn.

"I just happened to have a marker with me, so I decided to label him after he managed to find the last chaos emerald so I would remember which of the egg pawns found it since you make so many of them with no differences," Orbot answered his boss.

"I'm not even going to ask why you kept a marker with you," the scientist said to the red robot with a bit of concern. Orbot then handed the chaos emerald to Eggman. The scientist then opened a special briefcase with his face on it. It contained the other six chaos emeralds that he'd spent months gathering in secret.

"Finally, I've got ALL the chaos emeralds!" Eggman said with excitement. He then looked over at Orbot, Cubot, and the lone egg pawn and gave them a grin.

"I must admit, I'm impressed that neither of you managed to royally screw up this plan," he said speaking to Orbot and Cubot. The two robots gasped, not used to their master giving them a compliment or any sort of praise.

"Are you giving us praise for what we did?" Orbot asked with shock in his voice.

"Yes, I am," Eggman responded. Orbot and Cubot started cheering and dancing in excitement. "Don't get used to it you two," Eggman said interrupting the two.

"We won't, we're just happy we got it at all," Orbot said calmly in response. "So now that we have all of them, what's next in your plan?" The red robot asked.

"I'll explain that later. For now, we move on to phase 2 of the plan," Eggman replied as he put the last chaos emerald in the suitcase before closing it.

"What's this plan called anyway?" Cubot asked.

"It's simply called Interdimensional Takeover," the scientist said with an evil grin on his face. He then commanded the two minions (and X) to gather troops and head for the forest.

"Yes sir," Orbot and Cubot said while the two and the egg pawn saluted him. After the three robo minions left the computer room, Eggman grabbed a remote lying around and pushed a blue button. A closet door opened containing three robots: a grey one, a blue and light blue one, and a mostly regular blue one. All three resemble Sonic the Hedgehog, Eggman's greatest foe, to at least a small extent. The grey one is called Robo Sonic. The blue and light blue one is called Mecha Sonic. The mostly blue one goes by the name Metal Sonic, a literal metal copy of the blue blur.

"Robo, Mecha, and Metal Sonic, follow me! We're heading to Forest Hill!" Eggman commanded the three bots. After putting the remote in his suitcase with the emeralds, he closed the suitcase, and the four exited the computer room.

(End music)

On Angel Island:
Knuckles the Echidna was sitting on Angel Island guarding the Master Emerald like he usually does. While admiring the birds flying in the sky, the giant emerald starts glowing and making noises. Knuckles goes towards the emerald to see what the problem is.

"What's going on? Are the emeralds in danger?" The echidna asked. He was then showed all seven emeralds in one place heading towards the forest. Knuckles didn't think that Sonic or Tails had them. He then thought of Shadow and Eggman, but wasn't entirely sure if it was one, the other, or both. He then decided to go look for the blue hedgehog and yellow fox to see what they think. The red echidna then proceeded to glide off of the island towards his friends.

At Tails' Workshop:

Sonic was eating some toast and listening to some music with headphones on while his best friend Tails worked on upgrading one of his gadgets. While jamming out, Sonic noticed Knuckles gliding towards the garage door. The hedgehog then put his headphones down and went towards the door to greet his friends.

"Hey Knuckles. What's up?" Sonic said to the echidna.

"The Master Emerald is what's up," Knuckles said the hedgehog.

Tails stopped what he was doing and proceeded to ask "Did the Master Emerald get stolen again?"

Knuckles looked at his friends giving him annoyed looks and responded "That Master Emerald is still on Angel Island. It's what I was shown by the emerald that brought me here."

The hedgehog and fox looked at each other with a concerned look on their faces.

"So what did you see?" Sonic asked.

"I saw the seven chaos emeralds together, all in one place, heading towards Forest Hill," Knuckles had answered.

"All seven of them in one place? That means someone else has them," Tails responded.

"That's what I thought too," the echidna said. "Then I came here, I figured either Shadow or Eggman had all of them."

Almost immediately after Knuckles finished his sentence, a black and red hedgehog warped into Tails' Workshop, startling the everyone else inside.

"Speaking of Shadow," Sonic said right after the hedgehog had appeared in front of them.

Shadow, AKA the Ultimate Life Form, was a hedgehog just like Sonic. While Shadow was fast like Sonic, the two were different in nearly every other category. Ever since Maria, his best friend, was killed in an incident on a space station called Space Colony Ark, he tends to do things by himself. He has helped save the planet a few times, and he's appreciated for it. Sonic and his friends also respect Shadow's personality and don't bother him unless they need him. So while the two hedgehogs aren't enemies, they aren't necessarily friends either (friendly rivals is the accurate term).

"I just spotted something in the forest," Shadow told the group.

The group was still a bit startled by Shadow's sudden appearance, but Knuckles was still able to say "I guess you don't have the chaos emeralds after all."

"And why would I have them?" Shadow asked a bit offended.

"Don't worry about it Shadow," Tails said to the black hedgehog. "What did you did you see?"

"I saw the doctor with a briefcase, and his minions in the forest," he answered.

"How many minions did he have? Was it only a handful?" Sonic asked.

"A lot more than a single handful," Shadow answered.

"That's not a good sign," Sonic replied. "And he has a special briefcase? We need to find out what the egghead is up to."

"Agreed. I'll go after myself. You three can join me if you want to," Shadow said before dashing towards the forest.

"Let's have some gear on us. Just in case," Tails said to his friends.

"I'm with you on that buddy," Sonic responded. "Him with tough robots on his side is one thing, but that briefcase could have something in there that could spell bad news for us."

"I'll meet you guys there. I have to check something back on Angel Island," Knuckles told Sonic and Tails.

"Okay Knux, just don't take too long," Sonic told him.

"I don't plan on it," the red echidna replied before running towards his island.

Sonic and Tails then grabbed some equipment. Sonic grabbed a bracelet that would allow him to bounce with increasing heights and a gold ring with a crystal the shape of a raindrop on it but is a shade of red instead of blue. He also picked up a light blue ring, placed it in a special container, and placed that container in a bookbag. Tails opened a drawer containing what looked like mechanical boosters. It was his jet anklet, something that allowed him to fly faster than normal. Tails also grabbed a silver toolbox with his face on both sides of it.

"Hey Tails. You got everything you need?" Sonic asked while he was somewhat impatiently waiting by the garage door.

"Almost. Just need to grab a few more things before we head out," Tails told his best friend. After the fox and hedgehog grabbed everything they needed, the two sped towards Forest Hill.

Knuckles had just reached his island by the time Sonic and Tails had left. He made sure that the Master Emerald was protected just in case someone else tried to steal it and he grabbed some equipment of his own before leaping back off of the island to meet his friends and Shadow to find out what Eggman is up to.

Forest Hill was a more dense part of Green Hill. It contained beautiful floral, fauna, and plenty of trees and logs that were perfect for parkour. While Shadow was making his way through the forest to try and catch up with Eggman, he thought to himself "This reminds me a lot of Prison Island and Death Ruins." Despite the urgent matter, Shadow is still careful not to hurt any creatures living in or near Forest Hill. Not only did he have to be careful to not hurt and fauna, he also had to pay close attention to what was in front of him since there were a lot a leaves that temporarily blocked his vision.

"The doctor's got to be somewhere in this forest, I just know it," the black hedgehog said to himself. He eventually decided to pick up the pace and started to boost in order to find Eggman faster and get rid of any old logs in his path (don't worry, no creatures were harmed). After about 15 seconds of boosting and some more platforming, Shadow heard some machine like sounds and stopped in his tracks. The black hedgehog had reached his destination.

(End music)

Shadow found some bushes to hide behind to avoid being spotted. He saw Eggman, Orbot, Cubot, Metal Sonic, two other robotic Sonics, and a bunch of badniks created by Eggman. Some of them were egg pawns with rocket launchers. Despite the amount of robots with Eggman, Shadow's attention mostly focused on the robotic Sonics near Eggman.

"Wait just a minute, I thought there was only robotic version of Sonic. Why does it look like there are three of them?" Shadow asked himself. Not long after he asked, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles showed up behind him.

"Hey there," Sonic said casually while Shadow gasped in surprise.

"Oh, it's only you," Shadow said after turning around to see who had appeared. "How did you three get here so quickly?"

"I've been through Forest Hill plenty of times. I know almost every part of it like the back of my hand," Sonic said confidently. "By the way Shadow, does this place remind you of Prison Island in any way?"

"As a matter of fact, it does," Shadow answered. "Why do you ask?"

"No special reason," the blue hedgehog replied. "Anyways, what did you find out?"

"Well I found out that Eggman has three robotic copies of you," Shadow answered. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles then looked to spot the three bots Shadow was referring to.

"Oh, them," Sonic said seriously while looking at Robo, Mecha, and Metal Sonic.

"Did he make those other two copies after making Metal?" Shadow asked Sonic.

"Actually, those other copies were made after Metal," Sonic said.

"When did you meet those other two?" Shadow then asked.

"After I trashed Metal for the first time, I fought Robo Sonic on Egghead's space base," Sonic recalled.

"I assume you're referring to the one that you were kept in for 6 months," Shadow replied.

"That's the one," Sonic said confirming Shadow's guess. "After that, Tails and I fought Mecha Sonic, that blue and light blue robot that tries to look like me."

"I later fought him myself, and he used the Master Emerald to try and beat me. Of course to no avail," Knuckles had said proudly.

"Of course the doctor made multiple robotic copies of his greatest rival," Shadow had replied.

"And of course all of them failed," Sonic said with a smirk.

"I suggest we all be quiet so we can see what Eggman is up to, and it will be more difficult if we're caught," Tails told Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow in a whispering tone. All of them proceeded to cease talking while they spied on Eggman and his minions.

Eggman then opened a briefcase containing the chaos emeralds, a black sphere, and a remote. Sonic and crew looked at the scientist in shock.

"That's why the Master Emerald showed me all 7 chaos emeralds in one location moving at the same time! Eggman kept them in that suitcase!" Knuckles said quietly.

"I say we rush the doctor and take the emeralds back right now," Shadow said, knowing just much about what the emeralds are capable of as Sonic and Eggman.

"Easy there Shadow," Sonic said while trying to calm down the black hedgehog. "I'd normally do the same thing, but there are a few more things we have to factor."

"Like what?" Shadow asked.

"First off, the chaos emeralds can be unpredictable at times. They could go out of control if something goes wrong," Tails answered.

"Second, even if though we could probably take down those egg pawns and other badniks with ease, there are still the robotic copies of me that we'd have to deal with, and I doubt they'd just let us take the emeralds from Eggman," Sonic then reminded Shadow.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I think Sonic and Tails are right about this," Knuckles then said. They four then noticed Metal Sonic looking around and ducked before he could spit them.

"Fine, but just know that I'm not a fan of this," Shadow said with some annoyance in his voice.

"Wasn't expecting you to like this plan," Sonic replied.

Eggman then took out the remote and pressed a green button. That button caused the black sphere to turn into a machine that Sonic and crew had never seen. It looked like a giant black eye with a red eyeball. There were 7 holes around it, and the holes happened to be the same size and shape of the seven chaos emeralds. The heroes just watched from the bushes as Eggman was about to power his machine. Shadow didn't want to sit back any longer.

"Now do we intervene?" Shadow asked Sonic. Sonic then looked at Tails and Knuckles who both gave a smile and nod signaling that now they'd intervene and try to stop Eggman.

"Time to intervene," Sonic said with a grin on his face. The group then got out from the bushes and Sonic yelled "Hold it right there, Eggman!"

"Well, well, well. . . If it isn't Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow!" Eggman said to the anthropomorphic creatures. "What can I do for you on this fine day?"

"How about you tell us what the deal is with that machine of yours?" Shadow asked.

"That isn't your concern, my dear Shadow," Eggman replied. He then sent his minions to keep Sonic and the others busy while he placed the chaos emeralds in his special machine.

"Is it robot trashing time?" Knuckles asked enthusiastically.

"It's robot trashing time," Sonic said eagerly.

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow then started to fight some of Eggman's badniks. Robo Sonic was about to go and join in until Eggman held it back.

"No. You three stay with me for the time being. I will let you know when it's your time to strike," Eggman told the robots.

"What about us?" Orbot asked.

"Do we stay back too?" Cubot followed up.

"Yes. You're not exactly capable fighters. Although I do have Robo, Mecha, and Metal Sonic, they're not as easy to build. There's also the fact that you two can talk but those three can't," Eggman told Orbot and Cubot.

"Well, at we have some reason to stick around," Cubot said optimistically.

"With that settled, let's finish phase one of my plan," Eggman said. He then instructed the 5 bots to take out a chaos emerald and place it in one of the holes. They all took one out and placed them into one of the holes on the side of the giant eye.

With Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow

Egg pawns, moto bugs, and buzz bombers were swarming Sonic and crew. While they were easy to take down, the number of badniks kept them occupied. Some of the Egg Pawns even had lances to cause serious harm.

"We've got to get those emeralds back!" Knuckles said angrily while throwing one moto bug into an egg pawn, destroying both in the process.

"We need to clear out these badniks first. Otherwise, we won't be able to reach Eggman," Tails responded.

Sonic and Shadow were also contributing by using their homing attacks against the buzz bombers.

"Grr, how many more of these things are there?" Shadow asked.

"There can't be that many left," Sonic said in response. "At least they're easy to take out."

"True," Shadow said quietly in agreement.

"Sonic Wind!" Sonic said loudly while summoning a blue tornado.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow said while throwing three energy spears at three egg pawns. The robots surrounding them were reduced to scrap metal within seconds. There weren't that many robots left, but they were buying Dr. Eggman the time he needed.

As he put the final two emeralds into the machine, the scientist had an evil grin on his face. The chaos emeralds then lit up as a sign that the machine was ready for use.

Sonic saw that the machine was ready and yelled out "We need to finish these guys NOW!" The anthropomorphic creatures then spin dashed to destroy the remaining badniks around them. They went towards Eggman, but Robo, Mecha, and Metal Sonic stood in their path.

Eggman was about to press the button on the remote that would activate the machine, but Shadow had other plans. As the robotic Sonics came and prepared to fight, Shadow charged a chaos spear and launched it at Eggman. He tried to hit his hand to knock the remote out of it, but the black hedgehog's aim was slightly off. Instead of hitting the doctor's hand, the spear hit the button that Eggman was about to press.

"Ahh, what did you do?" Eggman yelled as he dropped the remote.

"What exactly did you do?" Sonic asked Shadow.

"I was trying to knock the remote out of the doctor's hand, and I did," Shadow replied.

"You were aiming for the remote?" Sonic asked a bit confused.

"I was actually aiming for his hand," the black hedgehog answered.

"Normally, that would be an automatic win for us, but that machine contains the 7 chaos emeralds," Tails said with worry in his voice. After Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow gave Tails a confused look, the fox pointed to the short circuiting remote.

"The remote stopped working. What's the big deal?" Sonic asked, still not knowing what the problem was. However, Knuckles figured it out almost immediately after Sonic asked his question.

"The chaos emeralds!" Knuckles said while pointing at the machine. Sonic, Tails and Shadow looked towards where Knuckles was pointing and saw the emeralds start to go out of control, which was affecting the machine as well.

"Uhh, what's happening to egghead's machine?" Sonic asked with a worried look on his face.

"When Shadow used his chaos spear, he didn't just hit the remote. He also hit the button that would have turned the machine on!" Eggman said while upset. Right after those words were said, the chaos emeralds had opened up a portal. However, due to the machine's malfunction, the portal had a strong pull that was almost impossible to resist.

"Orbot, what should we do?" Cubot asked his robot companion.

"Well I think we should all. . ." Orbot paused before yelling "RUNNNNN!" However, running was futile. The power of the emeralds made the portal super strong. Robo and Mecha Sonic were the first ones to go through. Eggman, Orbot, Cubot, and Metal Sonic tried to get away, but they were sucked into the portal as well.

While this was happening, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow were holding on to whatever they could, but their grips wouldn't last long.

"Sonic, what do we do?" Tails asked, struggling to maintain his grip on a nearby rock. Sonic wasn't to sure at first, but after seeing Eggman and his robot minions go through the portal, he had made up his mind.

"We're going through that portal!" Sonic exclaimed.

"What?! Are you crazy?" Knuckles yelled confused and thinking that this was a bad idea.

"We may not know where that portal leads, but I'm not going to let Eggman cause trouble wherever he ends up!" Sonic boldly stated. The blue hedgehog then let go of the tree he was holding on to and spin dashed towards the portal, eventually jumping in it.

"Sonic!" Tails screamed. He was about to lose his grip but Knuckles pulled his friend next to him.

"Let's go join him," Knuckles said before he grabbed the fox and ran into the portal.

Shadow simply said "Eh, why not?" He then spin dashed towards the portal and jumped in before it closed.

Author's Note

And that's chapter one of my new fan fiction. Sorry if some parts of this chapter are shorter or longer than others, but I'm not used to writing dialogue in a story. Heck, I'm not used to writing stories at all, so please cut me some slack. I do aim to improve as I write more of this crossover story.

This chapter was a simple introduction to the Sonic characters that'll be featured in this story, so I felt the need to explain some of the history between them.

In terms of Mobius, Green Hill, and Forest Hill, this was one of the hardest things to try to explain in this chapter. For this story, Green Hill and Forest Hill are both parts of Mobius, but the environments are different.

Now for some references/callbacks:
Eggman saying "Finally I've got ALL the chaos emeralds" was a reference to the game Shadow the Hedgehog, Those are the first words out of Shadow's mouth during both of the endings for the Pure Dark, Semi-Dark, Neutral, Semi-Hero, and Pure Hero stories.

Knuckles seeing something inside the Master Emerald was something that happened during his story in Sonic Adventure.

The gear that Sonic, Tails and Knuckles had were some of the upgrades that they had during Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, like the Flame Ring and Jet Anklet.

Sonic and Shadow remembering Prison Island was a callback to White Jungle and Green Forest from Sonic Adventure 2, and Death Ruins is a forest themed stage from the game Shadow the Hedgehog, hence why Shadow himself was reminded of it in Forest Hill.

Knuckles telling Shadow that Sonic and Tails were right about something was a reference to one of Knuckles' lines during Sonic Adventure.

(4:12-4:41)

One more thing: Apparently, Robo Sonic is called Mecha Sonic on the Sonic Wiki. I didn't know why especially since he's referred to as Robo Sonic in many YouTube videos and games that he's featured in, like LEGO Sonic the Hedgehog. Then one day, I found this YouTube video that showed the evolution of Mecha Sonic battles, and Robo Sonic was on the thumbnail. When I looked at the comment section, the pinned comment said that Robo Sonic is a form of Mecha Sonic, hence why he's called Mecha Sonic on the Wiki.

And that's just about it. Next time, our anthropomorphic heroes and our villains look to find out where and/or when the portal took them.

Chapter 2 - New Horizons Part 1: So This is Equestria

Dr. Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot had all landed on a dock. The question was whether or not it was in the world that Eggman had wanted to go to with his machine that recently malfunctioned.

"Ow, my head," the doctor said in pain. "Orbot, Cubot. Where are you?"

"Over here, boss," Cubot said from a distance with Orbot next to him.

"Wait, how did you two land here unscathed?" Eggman asked.

"Well, while we were falling through the portal, Orbot remembered that we could just transform into regular 3D objects," Cubot said.

"So I asked if he could shield me from the impact, and he didn't mind at all," Orbot followed up.

"Does that mean you Orbot hid inside Cubot while we were in that portal?" Eggman asked with a bit of disgust.

"Pretty much," Cubot answered. "Though that does sound kind of gross out of context."

"Alright enough about that. Where exactly did that portal take us?" the doctor asked.

"Assuming the machine didn't totally get messed up when the emeralds went out of control, we should be the place that you intended to go to in the first place," Orbot said.

"Speaking of which, you never did say exactly where you intend to go. The closest we go to a name was the files saying 'Equestria to Egg-questria,'" Cubot then said.

Before Eggman could give an answer, Metal Sonic came towards them boosting and pointing towards the opposite side of where they had landed. The group ran towards where Metal Sonic had pointed and found Robo Sonic, Mecha Sonic, and a bunch of broken up robot parts.

"Well, it seems like my egg pawns are weaker than you guys (referring to Orbot, Cubot, and the robotic Sonics)," Eggman said while looking at the pile of scattered machinery. Orbot looked at the pile and saw one of the egg pawn heads had "X" on it.

"X! No!!" The red and black robot screamed in horror.

"Oh calm down, Orbot," Eggman told to him.

"How can I calm down at a time like this?" Orbot asked with despair in his voice.

"Allow me to show you," the doctor replied. He then pressed a button on his coat that activated a magnetic field. This caused all of the egg pawns that were destroyed to be rebuilt.

After seeing X rebuilt, Orbot excitedly said "It's a miracle!" He then hugged the orange robot.

"So where exactly are we?" Cubot asked Eggman.

"Metal Sonic, please scan the area," the scientist ordered. Metal Sonic proceed to scan the area until he could figure out where they were. After a few seconds of analyzing the area around them, the robot revealed a folder in blue light from his chest. Eggman touched the folder and it showed pictures that he had been viewing over the past few months. That was when Eggman finally realized where they were.

"Orbot and Cubot, we've arrived at the place where my latest plan centers around. This is Equestria, and it will eventually become Egg-questria," the scientist had told the two minions.

"So this is Equestria?" Cubot asked.

"That is correct," Eggman replied.

"So what part of Equestria are we in?" Cubot asked.

"Based on the photos, it seems we have landed at Silver Shoals," Eggman answered.

"What's Silver Shoals?" Orbot asked.

"Also, why did you think Egg-questria was the best name for taking over?" Cubot asked.

"I wasn't thinking about names at the time okay?" Eggman responded with anger, which caused Cubot to run and hide behind Mecha Sonic. "Anyways, Silver Shoals is a coastal town that's can be like a retirement home. My research showed that Princess Celestia and Luna, the former rulers of Equestria, moved here after retiring. This place seems to have been built stilts along the hilly coastside. There also seems to be a beach, which we all happen to be standing on at this very moment."

"This is probably one of the few times that I don't mind a history lesson," Cubot said after Eggman had finished.

"So now that we've arrived in Equestria, what's the next phase of your plan?" Orbot asked.

"I'll answer that in a bit. But first, does anyone have my suitcase?" Eggman responded. Robo Sonic then showed the evil scientist the suitcase and gave it to him. Metal Sonic then gave Eggman the remote that was hit with Shadow's chaos spear back in Forest Hill.

"That remote actually works again?" Cubot asked. Metal Sonic then nodded his head in response.

"Very good work, Metal," Eggman said, giving praise to the robot. Metal Sonic simply gave a thumbs up in response.

"So what's the remote for this time?" Cubot asked.

"Watch and you'll see," Eggman simply responded. He then pressed the green button on the remote and something came out of the slot in the suitcase that was for the remote. He then placed the figure into the water and pressed the red button. Within seconds, the mini figure grew into the Egg Carrier 4X. The original Egg Carrier was a flying fortress that the evil genius first used when he awoke Chaos, an ancient water god, from his slumber. After it crashed into the ocean, he used a second one that was made for backup before it was quickly destroyed by Perfect Chaos. Eggman used a different version of the Egg Carrier when he tried to unlock the secrets of the Flames of Disaster but that was destroyed as well though he doesn't remember anything about it aside from the fact that it existed at all.

"Behold, the Egg Carrier 4X!" Eggman exclaimed.

"Whoa! Wasn't that one of your old flying fortresses?" Cubot asked while surprised.

"It looks like it, but there have been plenty of changes made to it on the inside and outside," Eggman answered.

"Have you tested it out yet, Doctor?" Orbot asked.

"Only once, but it was for only a minute,' the scientist responded. Just then, Mecha Sonic showed Eggman a cyan colored gem. It was one of the 7 chaos emeralds.

"You found a chaos emerald already?! How?" Eggman asked while shocked. The emeralds haven't been on his mind since they arrived in Equestria via the machine malfunction. Mecha Sonic then showed the memories of how he ended up finding it.

A few minutes ago:

Robo, Mecha, and Metal Sonic had landed at Silver Shoals. None of the robots knew where/when they were or what had happened to Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot. They had also noticed that all of the egg pawns had been destroyed, even the ones that weren't already reduced to scrap metal from the confrontation in Forest Hill. Robo and Metal Sonic were communicating through robot talk (don't ask how) when Mecha Sonic noticed something glowing under one of egg pawns. When he moved some of the broken parts, the chaos emerald was lying underneath. After Mecha showed the other two copies, Robo Sonic looked around and found Eggman, Orbot, and Cubot on a dock. Metal Sonic then dashed towards it to bring them over.

Back to the present:

"It seems that luck is on our side right now," Eggman said seeing what had happened. "Let's see how my flying fortress will operate with a chaos emerald." The scientist then opened a hatch and everyone hopped inside. The hatch then closed so that water didn't get inside and mess anything up.

After some walking, Eggman and his minions had made there way to the engine room. The chaos emerald was then inserted and powered up the flying fortress. The inside changed from green to cyan, matching the chaos emerald's color.

"Ooh, pretty," Cubot said, admiring the color change.

"So what's phase 2 of your plan called?" Orbot asked.

"Phase 2 of my plan is called E.G.G.M.A.N's Presence," the scientist answered. "Orbot, Cubot, Robo Sonic, Mecha Sonic, and Metal Sonic, come with me to the bridge. Everyone else, make sure this ship is well maintained." When Eggman and his main minions arrived at the bridge, he had pressed a button lifting the ship out of the water and into the air.

"We're in the air now," Cubot remarked.

"Metal Sonic, set a course for Canterlot. It's time for us to pay a visit to the current ruler of Equestria," Eggman instructed. The robotic copy of his greatest rival then set a course for the capital of Equestria and the ship started heading towards it. The ship also got a bit of a speed boost thanks to the chaos emerald.

With the anthropomorphic creatures:

The portal had transported Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow into a forest. Sonic and Shadow managed to land in a tree without being harmed. However, Tails and Knuckles weren't as lucky.

"You okay Shadow?" Sonic asked a bit shaken up from the portal.

"I'm fine. I've had worse experiences," Shadow responded. "What about you?"

"Not the first time I've been literally dropped from my own world/dimension," the blue hedgehog responded back. "Wait, where are Tails and Knuckles?"

"Over here," Knuckles yelled. Sonic and Shadow then jumped out of the tree they were in and found the fox and echidna a few feet from it.

"Are you two okay?" Sonic asked after walking over to his friends.

"We're alright Sonic," Tails had answered, still wincing in pain a little from the fall.

"You okay buddy?" Knuckles asked the fox.

"I'll be alright," Tails responded.

"Now that we're all here and accounted for, does anyone know were we are?" Shadow asked. Tails then pulled his Miles Electric out of his bag to try to get a reading of some kind. It was damaged from him crashing into the ground, but not enough to the point of it being unable to work. The fox then looked around to try and get some information about their location. The young fox was surprised with the trees he saw. More specifically, how they looked. Even he was surprised with some of the info he got about these specific trees. They could grow on their own, with little to no sunlight. Tails eventually got a reading on a location, and it confirmed his suspicions.

"Guys, I think we're in a different dimension," the fox told Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow.

"So where are we then?" Knuckles asked.

"Not sure if this is the name of the dimension we're in, but this forest that we landed in is called the Everfree Forest." Tails had answered as he showed his friends and Shadow his Miles Electric.

"That's somewhat helps us, but I'd still like to know what type of dimension we've been sent to," Shadow said.

"Maybe I can fly above those trees for a better reading," the fox suggested. However, that would end up not happening because the anthropomorphic creatures heard a strange growl in nearby.

"What was that?" Knuckles asked a bit nervously.

"I don't know Knuckles, but we'd best be careful. We don't know if anything in this Everfree Forest is friendly or not," Sonic told him. The group looked behind them but didn't see any creatures. Right after looking, they heard the growl get louder. When they turned back around, they saw 4 wolf-like creatures walking towards them. However, these wolves were made entirely of twigs, logs, and leaves instead of fur.

"Hold up. Are those. . .?" Sonic asked before Tails answered his question after getting a reading with his Miles Electric.

"They're Timberwolves!" Tails yelled. The wolves then proceeded to go after the anthropomorphic creatures. Out of instinct, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow spilt up to try to take them down individually.

One of the timberwolves was looking directly at Shadow, and the Ultimate Life Form wasn't going to back down on this challenge.

"Come at me!" He yelled. The timberwolf charged at Shadow, but Shadow was ready to take the creature down. He dodged the attack from the timberwolf, then he used a spin dash to take out one of its legs. The timberwolf tried to react, but Shadow was too fast. The black hedgehog then took out a second leg, then a third, and the beast fell and crumbled.

Tails stayed airborne so that the timberwolf's attacks couldn't reach him. He pulled out his arm cannon and fired it at the creature. While it did help, Tails quickly realized that this would take too long. Having seen Shadow take out one of the timberwolves, the fox decided to try a similar technique. He quickly swapped his arm cannon for his Rhythm Badge and managed to avoid getting bitten by the timberwolf. Tails then used his tails to perform the Rapid Tails Attack. The fox quickly destroyed the legs of the timberwolf, causing it to collapse to the ground.

"Not bad," Shadow said to Tails.

"Thanks," the fox said sheepishly, not expecting Shadow to give him a compliment.

Knuckles was dodging multiple bites from the timberwolf in front of him, and he was enjoying it. After several failed attempts, the timberwolf roared and charged towards the echidna. Knuckles then jumped over the timberwolf with little trouble.

"Time to shovel my fists where the sun can't shine," Knuckles said before yelling "Shovel Claw!" He then dug quickly before the timberwolf could attack again.

The beast then looked around and growled confused. Unbeknownst to it, Knuckles already had a plan of attack. After a few seconds of digging, the echidna then leaped from underground and drilled through the timberwolf, instantly destroying it.

"It stood no chance," Knuckles proudly said.

Meanwhile, Sonic was casually dodging the timberwolf's attacks without much care. It might've looked like he wasn't taking situation seriously, but he was. It was just Sonic being himself. Sonic then started running fast, so fast that he actually created a tornado that lifted the timberwolf into the air. When the tornado had gone away, Sonic had jumped onto a tree branch to see what would happen next. The beast crashed into the ground, but it wasn't down for the count.

"Okay then. Time to start trying for real," Sonic said with a smirk on his face. He then started to charge a spin dash and soon after the timberwolf roared, Sonic dashed into it's mouth and came out it's "other end." The timberwolf turned around and roared, but almost immediately afterwards, it fell and crumbled too.

"That was certainly a welcome committee," Shadow said sarcastically.

"Pretty sure that was the result of where in this 'Equestria' we landed," Knuckles responded.

"Maybe someone else can give us more info where we've landed," Tails said to everyone around. Right after he said that, the group heard a female voice.

"Back! Stay back you beasts! I will not be a part of any of your feasts," the voice said. The group then turned to see three more timberwolves walking towards a zebra. Out of instinct, Sonic quickly ran towards the zebra to save it.

"So I guess we'll handle those timberwolves?" Tails asked. Right after he asked that question, Sonic had already come back with the Zebra.

"I'm back!" Sonic exclaimed. Then while putting her down, he told her "Stay here, the four of us will handle those guys."

"Let's finish this battle," Knuckles said excitedly. The anthropomorphic creatures then charged towards the beasts to protect the zebra.

"These creatures like to fight, and they do so with all their might," the zebra said while watching the timberwolves get reduced to broken twigs and leaves.

"Those things shouldn't be bothering you for a while," Sonic told the zebra with confidence.

"Thanks to you four, those beasts are through, but it seems that you're not from around here, are you?" the zebra responded.

"Yep. We aren't from this dimension," Sonic told her.

"Not from this dimension you say? Come to my home so you can explain. I will show you the way," she told the group.

"She really likes to talk in rhymes," Knuckles pointed out.

"I don't know if we should just trust her," Shadow said.

"She seems nice. Plus, it sounded like she was genuinely grateful for saving her from those timberwolves," Tails said to Shadow.

"Also, we can probably take her down if she is in fact an enemy," Sonic whispered to Shadow.

"Alright then, lets follow this zebra and see if she can help us," Shadow then replied. The four then picked up any dropped belongings and followed the zebra to her home inside of a hut.

"This place isn't half bad," Sonic said about the zebra's place.

"You're not planning on attacking us, are you?" Shadow asked.

"As long as you're on my good side, there's no need to fear," she assured the black hedgehog. "Now I must ask, who are you and how did you get here?"

The anthropomorphic creatures then introduced themselves. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog." "Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails." "Call me Knuckles the Echidna." "I am Shadow, Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Strange but friendly creatures I see. Zecora is what you can call me," she responded.

"Alright Zecora. So how we got here is a bit complicated and might be hard to believe," Sonic warned Zecora.

"I'm sure that you will mean well. Now about this tale, please do tell," she replied. Sonic and Tails proceeded to summarize what led to them landing in the Everfree Forest, with Knuckles and Shadow interjecting occasionally.

"And that's the gist of it," Sonic said as he wrapped up the story.

"I have to believe that this story is true, especially since you haven't given me a reason to doubt any of you," she calmly said though a bit shocked after hearing what the anthropomorphic creatures went through.

"So now that we've told you about where we came from, do you mind telling us where we are?" Knuckles asked. "To be clear, we mean what's the name of this world that we landed in?"

"Equestria is the name of this world, a place filled with pony kind. However, there are many other creatures that you will find," Zecora told them.

"Believe it or not, this isn't the first time we've been taken to a place that's not in our own world by force," Sonic told her.

"He's not wrong," Tails backed him up. "Now we need help dealing with our enemy and getting back home."

"Hmm, I see," Zecora said to herself. After some thinking, she told the anthropomorphic creatures "If this is something you need help with, then Canterlot is the place where you should start. It's home to two creatures who both have a big heart."

"Canterlot?" Sonic asked before laughing. The name reminded him of Camelot, a place he was also dropped in. "I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm mocking the name, but it reminds me of another place I visited awhile ago."

"No offense taken, Sonic," Zecora responded.

"Wow. she didn't rhyme for once," Tails whispered to Knuckles a bit surprised.

"Well, rhyming is hard to pull off consistently. Even if you can be consistent, you won't always rhyme," Knuckles whispered back. The echidna then caught a white glow off the corner of his eye. Tails, Shadow, and Sonic eventually noticed the glow too. It looked familiar, but they weren't totally sure what was glowing.

"Excuse me Zecora, what's that white thing that's glowing over there?" Tails asked while pointing towards a shelf in the hut. Zecora then looked in the direction that Tails was pointing. She walked over to the object on a dresser and showed them.

"What this object is, I do not know. However, I was intrigued by its mysterious glow," she said while showing them the object. The 4 creatures had their jaws dropped when they realized what she was holding.

"THAT'S A CHAOS EMERALD!" Knuckles shouted.

"Chaos Emerald? That sounds bad. What can you tell me about this thing you've seen to have had?" Zecora asked

"That's a powerful gem. It's only bad if whoever's using it has evil intentions like the mad scientist who we were fighting," Sonic told the zebra.

"How did that gem end up in your hut?" Shadow asked.

"Earlier today, I saw a glow by the tree, so I walked up to see what it might be," she answered.

"The chaos emeralds must have scattered when they got here," Tails quickly deducted.

"I'm willing to bet that Eggman's here too," Knuckles said, ready to fight him again. The echidna would be proven right. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Zecora soon heard a loud roar and went outside to see what or who it was (Knuckles took the emerald before going outside). They all saw a ship, and it had a logo that most of the creatures had recognized.

"Eggman," Knuckles said angrily.

"Looks like you were, Knux," Sonic commented.

"Where exactly is he heading?" Shadow asked. Zecora quickly realized where Dr. Eggman was heading: Canterlot.

"That villain is heading for Canterlot, and he's doing so without a second thought," the zebra said with worry.

"By any chance is this Canterlot the home of the ruler of this Equestria land?" Sonic asked. The zebra then nodded her head quickly in worry.

"Figures. Eggman threatening the leader or leaders of a continent or world so he can get the info he needs for his own desires," Sonic said seriously.

"We've got to go after him," Tails said before pulling something out from his bookbag. His friends were surprised with what he pulled out of it.

"You brought the Tornado 3?" Knuckles asked.

"Yep," the fox said. He then pulled out his Miles Electric and pressed a button that grew the plane to its normal size.

"The Tornado 3? Is that what that thing may be?" Zecora asked.

"Yup, Sonic said before hopping into the plane. Before Knuckles could get in the plane, Shadow felt something.

"Ahh," the black hedgehog screamed.

"Shadow, what's wrong?" Sonic asked.

"I sense another chaos emerald. I'm not exactly sure where it is, but I know there's another one close by," Shadow answered. He then decided to take the chaos emerald and go find the other one he was sensing.

"Hey! We're on the same side here," Knuckles said, upset that the emerald was snatched from him.

"You three head to Canterlot. I'm going to look for another emerald and meet you there later," the black hedgehog told them before skating off.

"Don't worry Knuckles. Shadow can take care of himself," Sonic said to the echidna. He then turned to Zecora and told her "And in case you're wondering, this is normal for Shadow." Knuckles then hopped in the plane and Team Sonic headed towards Canterlot.

"Be careful you three. If you fail, I worry what the fate of Equestria and your world will be," Zecora said after the plane left.

To be continued. . .

Author's Note

That's chapter 2! I decided that making "New Horizons" a two part chapter fits with my story better than if it wasn't.

A few notes about this chapter:

Yes, I did include an "Ah, ah! He said it, he said it!" moment here.
I'm going to change how the dialogue is written for the rest of the story. You'll notice it starting with Chapter 3.
In case you were wondering how Shadow was able to sense one of the chaos emeralds, the reasons for that are he has chaos based powers and this emerald he finds is one he tends to have more often times than not.
The name of this chapter, New Horizons, is a reference to lyrics in the songs "I'm Here and I'm Here (Revisited)."

(1:33, 2:50, and 3:57 for both songs)

Next time, we'll finally be introduced to the Mane 6 and Spike. It'll also feature the first boss battle that I plan to have in this story.

Chapter 3 - New Horizons Part 2: E.G.G.M.A.N.

In Canterlot:

It's been exactly 1 year since Twilight Sparkle became ruler of Equestria. She was once a unicorn who cared more about her studies more than anything else. That all changed after going on a dangerous journey with 5 other ponies to retrieve the Elements of Harmony, six powerful artifacts that restored balance in Equestria when needed. She realized just how much she cared about having friends, and was sent to live in Ponyville by her mentor and former ruler, Princess Celestia, to study the magic of friendship. With the help of her friends, Twilight has overcome many challenges that she's had to face.

She became a princess after fixing an old spell that not even Starswirl the Bearded, a powerful unicorn that Twilight looked up to, could cast. She was deemed the Princess of Friendship after living up to her element of magic and sacrificing her magic to save her friends. Arguably her biggest challenges came 1 year ago. Three villains who had once been vanquished came back for vengeance against Twilight and her friends. The Elements of Harmony had been destroyed and all of pony kind had been divided. However, all the creatures that she and her friends have impacted in a positive way during her time in Ponyville came to help. The three villains were then defeated and turned to stone. Soon afterwards, Twilight was suddenly hit with the realization of leaving behind the friends she made. She thought that her friends were more concerned about her upcoming coronation, but they also felt sad about their friend leaving. The six ponies all talked it out, but that resulted in Twilight's friends running behind on preparations for the coronation, leading to it being a disaster. Despite that, her friends shared a laugh and Twilight was ready the next stage of her life, with the help of her friends of course.

In Canterlot Castle:

Currently, Twilight was getting ready for her monthly Council of Friendship meeting with her friends. It was the first decree she made as the new ruler in order to not only make sure that Equestria is kept in harmony, but to stay in touch with her friends.

Twilight Sparkle: "Spike, is everything ready for the meeting?"

Spike: "Everything is ready, Twilight."

When Twilight was hatched by Spike during her entrance exam into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, she took him in as a brother. He's been her #1 assistant for years, and is practically a member of Twilight's family, even though Spike rarely spent time with them. The dragon has struggled with what it actually means to be a dragon, but he learned that simply meant being himself and doing what he thought was right. He saved the Crystal Empire from an evil king, helped current dragon lord Ember win the Gauntlet of Fire, befriended a changeling, a creature formerly known for feeding off of love, and convinced the Crystal Empire that changelings can be good. That indirectly led to the changelings being free from the wrath of their former leader, Queen Chrysalis (one of the villains currently in stone). He's also the friendship embassador for dragons, and was given role of royal advisor by Twilight.

Twilight Sparkle: "Did you double check everything?"

Spike: "Yes, I double checked. I even triple checked."

Twilight Sparkle: "Good. Now all we have to do is wait. They shouldn't be far from here."

Suddenly, a blue object smashed through one of the windows and landed inside. It startled the alicorn and dragon, then they went to see what broke the window. It was a blue gem. Twilight used her magic to pick it up and try to figure what it was.

Spike: "Ooh, pretty gem," he said while his mouth was watering.

Twilight Sparkle: "Snap out of it, Spike," she yelled at him.

Spike then stopped drooling apologized to Twilight.

Spike: "Sorry about that. What is that gem?"

Twilight Sparkle: "Not sure. It looks like a sapphire, but I'm getting the sense that it's much more powerful than an ordinary gem."

Twilight then put down the gem for a moment, cast a spell to fix the window, and put the gem in the saddle bag she was carrying. There were ponies outside the castle who saw the mirror shatter, but after seeing the window get repaired, they simply went back to what they were doing.

With Team Sonic:

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles had been following Eggman to try and stop whatever he planned to do in Canterlot. However despite Tails' efforts, he couldn't keep up with the doctor's newest flying fortress: The Egg Carrier 4X.

Knuckles: "Come on Tails. Can't you fly this thing faster?" Knuckles asked angrily.

Tails: "I'm trying Knuckles, but something about that Eggman's flying fortress is making it faster."

Sonic: "Then let's not worry about catching up to him. Instead, let's just stay close so that we can intervene with whatever he's doing."

Tails: "Not a bad idea, Sonic."

Knuckles: "If you say so."

Tails then slowed down his plane just enough so that he could still catch up if need be while staying below the Egg Carrier 4X.

Inside the flying fortress:

Eggman: "Orbot, how much further until we reach Canterlot?"

Orbot: "One minute away, sir."

Eggman: "Excellent. Soon, this whole world is going to know who we are," the scientist said with an evil grin on his face.

Back in Canterlot Castle:

It was time for the Council of Friendship meeting. Twilight Sparkle and Spike were eager to see their friends again.

Royal Guard A: "Princess Twilight and Royal Advisor Spike: The Council of Friendship has arrived."

Royal Guard B: "Shall we let them in?"

Twilight Sparkle and Spike: "You may let them in."

The royal guards, one being a white unicorn stallion (Royal Guard A) and the other being a cyan pegasus mare (Royal Guard B), then let 5 other ponies into the throne room.

Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty. Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter. Rarity, the Element of Generosity. Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness. Applejack, the Element of Honesty. The 7 friends gathered around a table that was set for the meeting, and they were all glad to see each other again.

Pinkie Pie: "TWILIGHT! I missed you!" the Pink earth pony said excitedly while hugging the pony who represented the Element of Magic.

Twilight Sparkle: "I missed you too, Pinkie. Now could you please let me go?" she said while struggling to breathe.

Pinkie Pie: "Oops. Sorry," Pinkie said sheepishly after letting her friend go.

Rarity: "Hello, Spikey-Wikey. It's good to see you again."

Spike: "Hey Rarity. Good to see you again," he said sheepishly as the two gave each other a hug.

After the greetings, all seven of them sat down and began the meeting.

Twilight Sparkle: "So how are all of you doing?"

Rarity: "I'm doing wonderful. Since I don't have to worry about saving Equestria so much, I've been able to devote more time to my shop and spending time with Sweetie Belle. The fact that she's growing up makes me appreciate the time we get to enjoy our company more."

Pinkie Pie: "With Equestria not having any major threats since you became ruler, I can work full time at the Cakes' shop. And I can visit Maud and her boyfriend more often!"

Spike: "Maud's your older sister, right?" the dragon asked.

Pinkie Pie: "She's one of my older sisters. I have another older sister named Limestone."

Twilight Sparkle: "Limestone?"

Applejack: "Yup. She appears grumpy, but she's sweet underneath all of it."

Twilight Sparkle: "I can't wait to meet her someday."

Spike: "Also, Maud has a boyfriend?"

Pinkie Pie: "She does. He's a bit awkward, quiet, strange, and tends to take things literally."

Rainbow Dash: "That's sounds a lot like Maud."

Pinkie Pie: "I know. It took me awhile to get used to him, but I'm sure you guys could get along just fine, as long as you can handle him saying 'technically' every other sentence." Everyone in the room sand Pinkie looked at each other with a concerned look on their faces, but they quickly brushed it off.

Spike: "Well as long as your sister is happy, that's all that matters."

Pinkie Pie: "Funny, Limestone said that too."

Twilight Sparkle: "So Rainbow Dash, how's being a wonderbolt been treating you?"

Rainbow Dash: "It's been awesome! Remember those pegasai that we saw during Wonderbolt tryouts on our friendship mission?"

Twilight Sparkle: "I remember. Why do you ask?"

Rainbow Dash: "Well we've been training those that got into the Wonderbolt Academy for a few months now. Some of them even made it into the Wonderbolts reserves."

Twilight Sparkle: "Great to hear! So how's life on the farm, Applejack?"

Applejack: "Same old, same old. Though having Sugar Belle with us now definitely makes things more interesting."

Pinkie Pie: "Sugar Belle?"

Rainbow Dash: "That pink unicorn from Starlight's old village?"

Rarity: "How has she made life on the farm more interesting?"

Applejack: "She and Big Mac got married over a year ago. She moved in a few weeks after Twilight and Spike moved back to Canterlot."

Pinkie Pie: "They've been married? FOR OVER A YEAR? AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US?" Pinkie Pie yelled, shocked to just learn about this.

Applejack: "I guess I just forgot to tell you," the earth pony said nervously.

Spike: "That proposal was certainly a day to remember."

Applejack: "It certainly was." Everyone sans Applejack then looked at Spike with surprise on their faces.

Rarity: "Spike, how do you know about Big Mac and Sugar Belle's proposal?"

Spike: "I played a part in their proposal happening."

Twilight Sparkle: "I guess that would make sense since you and Big Mac hung out often while we lived in Ponyville."

Spike: "But of course, it took quite a few others, plus quite a few big mistakes for them to actually propose to each other on their own."

Fluttershy: "Who exactly was helping with their proposal that day?"

Spike: "Well first off, glad to actually hear you speak, Fluttershy," he said to the yellow pegasus which resulted in her blushing a little. "Second, the others that were helping were Mrs. Cake, the CMCs, and Discord."

Everyone except for Spike and Applejack: "DISCORD?" Most of the ponies in the room weren't expecting to hear his name of all names, even if Discord had hung out with Spike and Big Mac before. Applejack was the only one to not be shocked given that she heard this story already.

Rarity: "I didn't think that a proposal was something he'd be interested in."

Applejack: "I thought that too when he was telling parts of the story, but I found it sweet that he wanted to help."

Rainbow Dash: "I assume that Discord trying to help led to a lot of chaos."

Spike: "It did lead to chaos, but all of us contributed to the chaos of that day."

Twilight Sparkle: "Speaking of Discord, have any of you seen him lately?"

Spike: "Aside from the occasional hangouts I have with him and Big Mac, I haven't seen him that much. Of course part of it was due to my new duties here in Canterlot. Have you seen him, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy: "Discord actually sent me a letter yesterday. He said that he'd send you a gift celebrating a full year of you as ruler of Equestria by the end of today."

Pinkie Pie: "And to think, she almost wasn't crowned ruler of Equestria."

Rainbow Dash: "No thanks to Discord himself," the cyan pegasus said a bit upset. The Mane 6 and Spike then flash backed to that eventful day.

Twilight Sparkle was getting ready to crowned the new ruler of Equestria. Princesses Celestia and Luna, Twilight's former mentor and her mentor's sister, were proud of how far the purple pony had come. Unfortunately, the coronation would have to be put on hold for a while. After the Mane 6 and Spike noticed that ponies in Canterlot were on edge, they found Discord in pain from walking. He told them that he messed up. When asked what he did, he revealed to his friends that King Sombra attacking Canterlot was his fault since he brought them back. He also brought back three other villains. When Celestia and Luna heard this, they were angry at Discord. Meanwhile, his friends wanted to know why he brought those villains back. He told them that it was because he wanted to help Twilight gain the confidence she needed to be a great ruler of Equestria after seeing that she lacked confidence when first being told that she'd be put in charge with Celestia and Luna retiring. Despite the enthusiasm in his idea, and this being in character for Discord, it had horrible consequences after three of the villains betrayed him and stole his chaos magic. Discord did apologize to his friends and helped them find Twilight after being trapped in the Canterlot caves. However, ponies found out what Discord did not long after Twilight's coronation, and they weren't happy. His friends then spent a week convincing ponies to forgive Discord given that he helped solve the problem. While the ponies who were once mad at him have forgiven him, Discord wasn't happy about having to convince ponies that he's changed.

Fluttershy: "But he has shown that he's genuinely sorry," Fluttershy said after the flashback.

Spike: "Plus, he's shown that he cares about his friends in his own somewhat twisted way."

Twilight Sparkle: "I don't know how I didn't think of this until now, but I think Discord's test was actually helpful. Without his plan going horribly wrong, I wouldn't have known how much of an impact we've had on Equestria and beyond it."

Rainbow Dash: "True, but hopefully he thinks about his plans more carefully in the future."

Rarity: "I agree."

Spike: "By the way, how have you been, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy: "I've been doing well. After we calmed down the ponies who were made at Discord, the two of us had a long talk, and he promised that he'd be more careful with plans like that one."

Twilight Sparkle: "Well that's good to hear, and you'll be happy to know that Spike and I are doing well as ruler of Equestria and royal advisor."

Spike: "Of course, there's the boring side of being in charge of an entire kingdom. Meetings, decrees, decrees about the meetings, meetings about the decrees, public showings, etc." None of their friends were sure on what to say next, until Pinkie Pie raised her hoof to ask something.

Pinkie Pie: "Did anything interesting happen this week before this meeting?"

Twilight Sparkle: "Actually, yes. Something interesting did happen a few minutes ago." Twilight then pulled the blue gem out of her saddle bag and put it on the table. This resulted in "oohs" and "aahs" from the group.

Rarity: "Ooh, it's so pretty."

Pinkie Pie: "It's shiny."

Rainbow Dash: "Where did you get this gem?"

Spike: "It actually crashed through one of the castle windows and landed in the throne room about a minute before you arrived."

Applejack: "We all saw that."

Fluttershy: "What kind of gem is that, and where did it come from?"

Twilight Sparkle: "We don't know the answer to either of those questions." Before anything else could be said, the group all heard a loud laugh from outside.

Rarity: "What is that sound?"

Pinkie Pie: "I think was someone laughing."

Rainbow Dash: "Let's go to the balcony and see if we can find out who or what was laughing."

Twilight Sparkle: "Agreed." The ponies and dragon then went to the balcony to pinpoint the laughter's source. They didn't know where it was coming from until Rainbow Dash pointed out something big in the sky. It looked like a large ship, but none of them have seen anything like that since the Storm King invaded the Friendship Festival years ago.

Fluttershy: "What is that?"

Rainbow Dash: "And who or what does it belong to?" Something then came out from the ship, and it was wait heading towards the balcony.

Spike: "I think we're about to find out."

A song started to play from the ship while a vehicle of some kind was hovering towards the ponies and dragon slowly. A grey robot of some kind was riding alongside the vehicle, and it was nothing like any of them had seen before.

Spike: "What is that?"

Twilight Sparkle: "I don't know, Spike, but let's hope it doesn't mean us harm."

The story begins with who's going to win. Knowing the danger that lies within.

Most of them were confused on what was playing and why. The only one without a confused or worried face was Pinkie Pie, who was grooving to the track music that was playing.

Rarity: "Pinkie!" Rarity said firmly, wondering why the pink pony was grooving.

Pinkie Pie: "What? I can't help it if the song is catchy to me," she responded.

Aboard the Ark, a genius at heart, who wanted to unlock the mysteries of life. I am the EGGMAN! That's what I am. I am the EGGMAN! I got the master plan. I am the EGGMAN! That's what I am. I am the EGGMAN! With the master plan.

Mysterious Person: "Cubot, kill the track," the ponies heard from the round vehicle that was in front of them.

Cubot: "But the song is so catchy," the robot said whining.

Mysterious Person: "There's a time and place for everything: Kill the track for now!"

Cubot: "Yes boss," he said while sad before turning the track off.

(End song)

The vehicle opened it's hatch to reveal whoever was inside. No one could recognize what he was at first, but Twilight and Spike quickly had an idea.

Twilight Sparkle and Spike: "You're a human!"

Mysterious Person: "You two are quite smart. I'd expect nothing less from the ruler of Equestria and her royal advisor."

Rainbow Dash: "What's a human?"

Spike: "Remember Sunset Shimmer?"

Rainbow Dash: "Yeah."

Spike: "She took Twilight's Element of Harmony to a place filled with them."

Everyone sans Twilight and Spike: "Ohh."

Applejack: "So you think he comes from the world where Sunset Shimmer lives now?"

Twilight Sparkle: "Looking at him, I doubt it."

Mysterious Person: "Allow me to introduce myself. You may call me Dr. Eggman."

Rainbow Dash: "Your name is Eggman?" She asked while she and Pinkie Pie tried to hold their laughters in.

Dr. Eggman: "You know you aren't the first to make fun of me for that name, but that's not important."

Twilight Sparkle: "Well, I am Twilight Sparkle. The current ruler of Equestria a representative of the Element of Magic."

Dr. Eggman: "I already know who you are. I know who your little dragon is, and I especially know who the rest of your little pony friends are." Everyone gasped since he knew about them, but they knew absolutely nothing about him.

Twilight Sparkle: "How exactly do you know about us?"

Dr. Eggman: "That's of little concern to you right now, princess." The mad scientist then pressed a button to deploy robots onto the balcony. Orange robots with blasters and cannons, along with blue bee-like robots in the air that surrounded the group. Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were scared, Twilight kept a serious look on her face, and everyone else, including Spike, was in a fighting stance.

Twilight Sparkle: "What do you want?"

Dr. Eggman: "Where can I find the Tree of Harmony?"

Meanwhile with Team Sonic:

The Tornado 3 had caught up with Eggman, and they could see that he had already met the ruler of this 'Equestria.'

Knuckles: "It looks like he's ready and willing to fire at those, horses and that dragon?"

Tails: "Well, Zecora did say it was filled with ponies and other creatures."

Sonic: "We're not going to let Eggman harm any creatures while we're around. Tails, fly this plane slowly and quietly above Egghead's ship." Tails did just that, somehow not getting anyone elses attention.

Knuckles: "Okay, Now that we're above the ship, what's our game plan?"

Sonic: "Come closer and I'll tell both of you."

Back with Eggman and the Council of Friendship:

Twilight Sparkle: "The Tree of Harmony was destroyed. Besides, what would you want with that even if it wasn't?"

Dr. Eggman: "I know that it was destroyed. I also know that it gained a new form sometime after, and I want that power to help me take over this world, and the world where I'm from!"

Twilight Sparkle: "I don't know where you're from, but we'll never tell where the Tree is, and we'll never help you take over our home!"

Back with Team Sonic:

Tails: "Are you sure about this?"

Sonic: "I'm sure. Just park the plane after I leave, and join me on that balcony."

Knuckles: "This plan of yours better not backfire."

Sonic: "Don't worry about it." Tails then opened the hatch as Sonic prepared to launch himself towards the balcony.

Once again, back with Dr. Eggman and the Council of Friendship:

Rainbow Dash: "Yeah! You don't know who you're dealing with!"

Dr.Eggman: "Neither do you, young pegasus." The grey robot on the balcony then used his heat sensors to detect the blue gem in Twilight's saddlebag. He then extended one of his robot arms to grab it. However, both Twilight and Rarity used their magic to try and get it back.

Rarity: "Oh no you don't. You're not getting this gem." Unbeknownst to the ponies, that was no ordinary gem. The grey robot then punched Rarity in the jaw, knocking her into the throne room near the door and causing Twilight to lose her focus and launch the gem towards her throne, resulting in the gem landing in her seat.

Twilight Sparkle: "RARITY!" the princess yelled in horror.

Dr. Eggman: "I suggest you worry more about yourselves than your unicorn friend." Before anything else happened, Eggman, the Mane 6, and Spike all heard a "WOOHOO!" from somewhere. No one knew where it came from until something landed on the balcony. It was a strange creature that was mostly blue, but it also had a peach body, white gloves, and red and white shoes with something attached to them. Everyone on or near the balcony was shocked. Everyone except for Eggman.

Sonic: "Well, well, well. Figured you'd be here Eggman."

Dr. Eggman: "I should have known that you not only be alive, but in the same dimension as I am too!" The ponies and dragon then looked at each other. While most of them were confused on how the two of them knew each other, Pinkie Pie looked excited about the possibility of a new friend, and Fluttershy was excited to see that the creature could talk.

Sonic: "I've survived worse Eggman, and you know it. Let me guess: trying to convince this dimesnsion's ruler to join your plans of world domination?"

Dr. Eggman: "This time, things will turn out much differently."

Sonic: "You probably said that when you had the Phantom Ruby, and we both know how that eventually turned out."

Spike: "Phantom Ruby?"

Dr. Eggman: "I would stand down if I were you, Sonic. As far as I can tell, you're on your own, and my robot team can overwhelm you easily." However, Sonic was not alone. Right after Eggman made his statement, a deep voice said "Well good thing he's not alone!" Two new creatures came from opposite sides of Sonic. A yellow fox standing on his left, and a red echidna standing on his right.

Applejack: "There's more of them?"

Twilight Sparkle: "It would appear that way."

Tails: "Not so nice to see you again, Baldy McNoseHair." Once again, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash tried to hold back their laughter.

Dr. Eggman: "It's annoying enough when Sonic calls me that."

Sonic: "So Eggman, what was that about me being alone?" That got the scientist mad, and he decided to act on it.

Dr. Eggman: "Badniks, charge up your weapons and fire at all of them!" The ponies and dragon (sans Rarity and again Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy) got into a fighting stance. However, Sonic got into a running stance. As soon as he saw the weapons finish charging, Sonic started running, which threw off the Badniks the ponies, and Spike. The Badniks were thrown off, but quickly shook it off and prepared to fire, but no projectiles were fired. The ponies and dragon had their eyes covered so they didn't see what happened. When they were opened, they were shocked that the only robot left standing was the grey robot that punched Rarity. The rest were in the air and had fallen on to the ground in the form of broken parts. When Sonic was finished, he turned to face Eggman with a confident face. Tails and Knuckles had faces of confidence too since they knew what their friend was capable of. Everyone else on or near the balcony was shocked.

Dr. Eggman: "WHAT? How is this possible?"

Knuckles: "C'mon Eggman. We've seen what he's capable of."

Tails: "He's destroyed several of your toys with and without help."

Dr. Eggman: "But how did it happen so quickly? My minions were ready to fire!"

Sonic: "One of my nicknames is 'The Fastest Thing Alive' for a reason. You seem to be forgetting that in your old age." That comment caused Tails and Knuckles to laugh. Pinkie Pie also laughed, but Rainbow Dash wasn't in a laughing mood this time.

Rainbow Dash: "Fastest thing alive? Yeah right."

Dr. Eggman: "Grrrrr. Orbot, deploy the badniks into the city. Let's show Canterlot that I've arrived!" Orbot then pressed a button that launched hundreds of robot minions coming in all shapes and sizes into the city. All the robots that couldn't fly/hover had parachutes so they wouldn't be destroyed on impact. All the ponies in the area started screaming and running for their lives. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles looked down at the streets being flooded with badniks, but they all had a grin on their faces.

Knuckles: "Was this part of the plan?"

Sonic: "Destroying Eggman's machines usually is part of any plan against him."

Tails: "True. Are you going to join us?"

Sonic: "In a bit. There's still Robo me to take care of."

Dr. Eggman: "Robo Sonic, focus your energy on getting rid of that hedgehog!" Eggman then used his Egg Mobile to fly back into the Egg Carrier 4X. After that, Tails and Knuckles jumped down to take on the badnik army. Meanwhile, Sonic stood face to face with Robo Sonic. The ponies and dragon looked at the two, wondering who was going to strike first.

Sonic: "Hey Robo me, you see that shiny blue thing over there?" Sonic said while pointing to the blue chaos emerald on Twilight's throne. "I bet your boss would love to have that." Robo Sonic then boosted towards the emerald, ready to claim it. However, even with a head start, it was no match for Sonic as the blue hedgehog took the gem just before the robot could reach it.

Twilight Sparkle: "Whoa, he beat that machine even though it had a head start."

Spike: "He really is fast."

Rainbow Dash: "I bet he isn't faster than me," the rainbow haired pegasus mumbled to herself. Meanwhile, Rarity finally regained consciousness after being punched and saw the blue hedgehog on the throne with the blue gem.

Sonic: "Nice try, but you're too slow." The robot then tried to get Sonic, but the hedgehog moved away with ease. The robot then tried a second time, and failed once again.

Rarity: "I hope he can at least keep that gem safe." Robo Sonic was about to try a third time, but Sonic wasn't going to let that happen.

Sonic: "CHAOS CONTROL!" he yelled while holding the gem in the air. The light made the Mane 6 and Spike cover their eyes while forcing the grey robot to stop in its tracks. Sonic then went into a ball and used his spin dash to attack Robo Sonic 10 times consecutively. After the tenth time, Sonic stood there smiling, knowing what would happen next. When the robot could move again, it was knocked with so much force that it fell out of the balcony and into the streets. Sonic then put the emerald away, quickly ran towards the balcony, and jumped out of it to join his friends.

Rarity: "Did you all see what just happened?" she asked while walking over to them in pain and shock of what they all just witnessed.

Twilight Sparkle: "We can worry about that later. Right now, we need to help them."

Rainbow Dash: "But we don't even know who or what they are."

Applejack: "They did seem to genuinely dislike that mysterious human."

Rarity: "And the blue one hurt the one robot that hurt me," Rarity said while rubbing her cheek with soreness.

Spike: "Are you okay, Rarity?"

Rarity: "I'm fine, Spike, but Twilight is right. We need to help those creatures." The rest of the Mane 6, except for Rainbow Dash, and Spike nodded in agreement, then looked up at their rainbow-haired friend.

Rainbow Dash: "I guess we'll help them, but we're asking them questions as soon as we finish!"

Twilight Sparkle: "That's fine with me." The princess then teleported her friends down to the streets of Canterlot to help fight the badniks.

In the streets Canterlot, Tails and Knuckles were dealing with multiple badniks that they hadn't seen since their younger days. Buzz bombers, moto bugs, slicers, and more. These types of enemies were all too familiar for Tails and Knuckles, but very different from what Twilight and her friends have dealt with.

Knuckles: "So Eggman's decided to deploy out the older badniks," Knuckles said while punching a moto bug.

Tails: "Clearly. Not entirely sure why though," Tails responded while taking out some egg pawns. Twilight and her friends were then teleported down to the streets of Canterlot, seeing the two strange creatures, a bunch of robots, and screaming civilians.

Rarity: "I haven't seen anything like this since Queen Chrysallis and her changelings invaded."

Twilight Sparkle: "I know, but we aren't going to let this Dr. Eggman guy or his machines take over without a fight."

Everyone Else (Meaning Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike): "Right!"

Twilight Sparkle: "Applejack and Fluttershy, you two get innocent ponies away from the streets."

Applejack and Fluttershy: "Okay!"

Twilight Sparkle: "The rest of us will take down these machines."

Spike: "But what about that yellow and red guy also destroying machines?" Spike said pointing to Tails and Knuckles.

Twilight Sparkle: "Hopefully they won't mind some help." The group then split up to take care of the badniks all over the streets.

Tails: "Knuckles, are those ponies fighting the badniks?" Tails said while pointing behind them. The two were surprised that the ponies and dragon were able to handle something they had likely never seen before.

Knuckles: "Didn't think these ponies would have the fearlessness for these machines." The two were then hit by a mantis looking badnik called a slicer while their backs were turned. Meanwhile, Applejack was using her legs to kick away some of the robots while Fluttershy guided ponies to safety.

Applejack: "What are these things?"

Fluttershy: "I don't know, but we have to keep them away from the other ponies." Fluttershy then grabbed one of the ladybug type enemies and threw it at two orange robots, destroying them both instantly.

Applejack: "Nice one there, Flutters."

Fluttershy (while blushing): "Thanks."

Elsewhere, Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike were dealing with lots of orange robots with blasters, blue wasp-like robots, and crab-like robots. Twilight was using her magic to shield herself from projectiles and sometimes throw projectiles aimed at her back at the robots. Spike and Rainbow Dash were taking out the robots that could fly and making sure no one else got hurt when the broken parts fell out of the sky. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were also helping with the badniks, but it was a lot for them to deal with.

Rarity: "Why are there so many robots?"

Rainbow Dash: "That's not important. What's important is that we reduce them to piles of junk!" Just then, a crab robot grabbed Rarity's tail which caused her to scream in pain.

Rarity: "Get this thing off of me!" the unicorn screamed while trying to get the robot off her. However, the crab bot's grip was tight, and it wouldn't let go. Twilight was about to use her magic to shoot a laser at it, but someone else already did that for her. When the ponies and Spike looked to see who or what destroyed the crab, they saw a black hedgehog with red stripes on all six of his quills.

Shadow: "Hmph. Looks like the doctor has already arrived here." The hedgehog then threw another projectile at another robot that was near a group of scared ponies. When the robot was destroyed, he told Twilight, her friends, and the innocent ponies "Unless you're willing to put up a fight, I suggest you get somewhere safe and leave this to professionals." The group of scared ponies left while Twilight and her friends were confused about who they were looking at. Shadow then saw Tails and Knuckles down and went towards them.

Rarity: "Who was that?"

Pinkie Pie: "A possible new friend!" She said as she bounced towards the hedgehog and two other creatures. Applejack and Fluttershy then came to their friends after escorting ponies to safety.

Applejack: "Y'all okay?"

Twilight Sparkle: "We're okay, Applejack."

Applejack: "Um, where's Pinkie?" Twilight then pointed over to her going towards the yellow, red, and black creatures that were fighting the robots.

Fluttershy: "We should make sure she doesn't cause any trouble." The rest of the Mane 6 and Spike then ran towards Pinkie to make sure that she didn't cause more problems.

With Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow:

Tails: "You okay, Knuckles?" Tails asked while getting up from the mantis robots called slicers hitting them.

Knuckles: "Yeah, I'm okay." The two then saw egg pawns in front of them and had no problem taking them out. A buzz bomber then appeared in front of them, but was taken out by a projectile they had seen before.

Tails: "Hey, Shadow. Glad you finally showed up." Just then, an excited pink pony came up in front of them.

Pinkie Pie: "Hi there! You three seem tough and friendly. I'm Pinkie Pie! Wanna be friends?" Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow stared at her for a moment, not sure what to think of her.

Knuckles: "She might have had too much sugar in her diet," Knuckles whispered to Tails. Right after he said that, five more ponies and a dragon ran up to their pink friend.

Twilight Sparkle: "Pinkie! What did we talk about approaching strangers?"

Pinkie Pie: "Not to approach them with excitement because it might scare them off?" Twilight then nodded in agreement, approving her friend's answer. The Mane 6 and Spike then turned to the anthropomorphic creatures in front of them.

Shadow: "Looks like that zebra was right. This really is a place of ponykind and other creatures." Just then, all of them were surrounded by egg pawns, motobugs, and other badniks, which made everyone form into a circle.

Applejack: "Looks like we're surrounded."

Knuckles: "Wouldn't be the first time."

Shadow: "Can you ponies put up a fight?"

Spike: "Ponies AND dragon," Spike said, a bit annoyed that he wasn't included.

Rarity: "We most certainly can!"

Knuckles: "Good, then you can all help us finish taking out the trash."

Rainbow Dash: "That's fine by me!"

Shadow: "Where's Sonic?"

Tails: "He's fighting that grey robot we saw back home."

Twilight Sparkle (to herself): "Sonic? That must be the name of the blue creature."

Shadow: "Well he can handle himself. Right now, we need to handle these minions of Eggman."

Tails and Knuckles: "Agreed!" Everyone then charged in the direction they were facing to finish off the rest of the badniks in the streets. Knuckles saw three crab robots called Crabmeats (they are called that on the Sonic Wiki), and he was itching for action.

Knuckles: "Looks like he's using the models from when we were on the Lost Hex. Not that it matters." The echidna then noticed that these bots have a new attack: Claw Boomerangs. He saw one of them throw a claw at him, only for it to come back and almost hit him. However, that wasn't enough to phase him. When the other crabmeats launched claw boomerang themselves, Knuckles dodged them both, grabbed the claws when they came back, and returned it to sender, destroying two of them in the process. The other crabmeat then tried to attack but when it missed, Knuckles grabbed and destroyed it by throwing it into other badniks. He then saw two ponies huddling together scared. When they looked to see it was safe, Knuckles was standing right there. He told them to not worry and get somewhere safe. The two ponies did that and Knuckles went on to trash more badniks.

Rainbow Dash: "These things are a real annoyance."

Spike: "I agree. Hopefully, there aren't that many left," Spike said while helping Rainbow Dash clear out the buzz bombers.

Rainbow Dash: "I think those new creatures know something about these machines."

Spike: "We can ask them after we take care of our current situation." Down in the streets, the rest of the Mane 6 (sans Fluttershy) were taking care of the robots on the ground. Three orange robots had blasters of their own, and they were firing at Twilight. Thankfully, her magic was able to protect her. As she prepared to fire back, someone else did that for her.

Shadow: "Chaos Spear!" he yelled as he fired his own projectiles at the robots. After they were destroyed, he saw that the weapons were still there, which made him say "Haven't used these in a while." Shadow then put the blasters together to make one blaster with plenty of ammo. He then skated off to where other of Eggman's minions were before Twilight could ask him anything. The ponies then noticed another one of those creatures using his tails to destroy multiple robots in succession. They were impressed by that, but they were even more impressed when he pulled out a cannon type of device and used it to take down four of the buzz bombers.

Tails: "Pardon me ladies," the creature said as he passed by them. To say they were impressed was putting it somewhat lightly.

Spike: "Those new guys have skills."

Applejack: "You can say that again."

Twilight Sparkle: "Come on, let's help take care of the rest."

With Sonic:

Sonic was fighting Robo Sonic, the second robotic version of Sonic that Dr. Eggman had made. The grey robot was throwing multiple punches, but they either missed the hedgehog entirely or were blocked.

Sonic: "You seem a bit tougher than when we first met." Robo Sonic then charged towards his opponent, hoping to land a punch this time. Unfortunately for the robot, not only did Sonic dodge this punch, he wound up one of his own and landed a hit of his own. "That doesn't mean you'll beat me this time," Sonic said with a smirk on his face. Since there were other badniks around him, he was going to fight them and Robo Sonic, and the blue hedgehog was ready for it. Robo Sonic tried to attack the real Sonic, but the Blue Blur was too fast for it. Meanwhile, Sonic was having fun dodging punches and destroying moto bugs and egg pawns. While doing this, Sonic said to himself "I hope Eggman has a larger variety with these machines." Sonic and Robo Sonic then both used a spin dash against each other, resulting in the attacks canceling each other out. After both got out of the spin dash, Sonic saw his friends, Shadow, and the ponies and dragon that were on the balcony earlier. He also saw ten moto bugs aligned similar to pins in a game of bowling. An idea then popped into his head, but it wouldn't be easy. "Come at me, Robo Sonic!" The Blue hedgehog told his robot counterpart. Robo Sonic then spin dashed towards Sonic, aiming to land a blow. However, the real Sonic was able to grab and hold the robot before the attack could land. Sonic then tightened his grip to have some control over the robot, picked it up, and threw it at the group of moto bugs. Not only did it destroy them, but it also left Robo Sonic stunned for a little bit. Sonic also saw his friends, so he decided to run towards them.

Knuckles: "What was that?" Knuckles asked while he and Tails were surprised after seeing something knock down all the ladybug like badniks.

Tails: "I think that was Robo Sonic." Just then, the real Sonic came up to them.

Sonic: "Hey guys," he said, startling his friends.

Tails: "So how's fighting Robo Sonic again?"

Sonic: "I'm having fun fighting him, but he definitely is tougher than our first encounter. So what's the status on taking out Eggman's minions?"

Knuckles: "The only ones left are having their robotic butts kicked by Shadow," Knuckles answered while pointing at the black hedgehog.

Sonic: "Good. While Shadow finishes them off, I'll finish off the tin head version of me." The trio then noticed Robo Sonic start to get up, and Sonic was about to end this fight. Using the upgrades on his shoes, Sonic spined really fast until he felt charged up enough. He then started running super fast around the robot. In fact, Sonic ran so fast that he created a tornado that his robot counterpart couldn't escape. He then rode the tornado up until he was above. After making sure Robo Sonic was inside the tornado, Sonic yelled "Ready? GO!" The blue hedgehog then attacked the grey robot at light speed and with incredible strength, destroying the robot in the process. After destroying Robo Sonic and the tornado died down, Sonic said "Too easy. Piece of cake!"

(End music)

Tails: "Alright Sonic!" Tails said to his best friend while giving him a high five.

Knuckles: "That was impressive, Sonic." Shadow then appeared in front of them using one of his own powers.

Sonic: "And I trust that you found what you were looking for, Shadow." The black hedgehog then pulled out the green chaos emerald before putting it away. The group then saw Eggman escape in his flying fortress.

Shadow: "So shall we chase after Dr. Eggman?" Shadow asked his friendly rival.

Sonic: "Normally, I'd say yes immediately. However, we should probably help clean up this mess of robot parts before we go after for Eggman." The group of anthropomorphic creatures then heard an "ahem" from behind them. They all turned to see the 6 ponies and the dragon that Eggman had threatened on the balcony.

Tails: "We should also probably clear up any confusion with them," he said, referring to Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

Author's Note

Chapter 3 is done! This thankfully took less time than the previous chapter. By the way, Robo Sonic was the first boss fight if you didn't pick up on it already.

What do y'all think of the writing format? What do you think of the chapter in general? Any and all feedback is appreciated (as long as you're respectful about it).

Next time, we'll find out where exactly Shadow found the green chaos emerald.

Chapter 4 - Strange New Creatures and Town Mission

In the streets of Canterlot, there was one of three things: broken up badniks parts, the Council of Friendship, and 4 anthropomorphic creatures. While Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow needed to make sure the residents of this new world didn't see them as a threat before going after Eggman, the Mane 6 and Spike still wanted answers on who this Dr. Eggman and the other creatures were even though they were grateful that they helped with the robot attack.

Sonic: "This is a little awkward," Sonic said while staring at the ponies and dragon who were standing a short distance from them.

Knuckles: "That might be a small understatement."

Shadow: "Why are we still here? The doctor is still on the loose, and who knows where he's going to strike next?" Shadow said, a bit annoyed.

Sonic: "Easy there, Shadow. I wanna stop Egghead's plans as much as you do, but we need to make sure that we aren't seen as a threat by those who live here."

Shadow: "We did just save the capital of Equestria. They should be thankful that we helped get rid of the doctor's machines."

Sonic: "I agree that they should be thankful, but judging by the looks of most of these ponies, they seem to have not so great memories of other creatures coming to Equestria, so we should make sure that we don't leave a bad impression on them," he said while they all looked around to see nervousness on the faces of some of the ponies that came out from hiding.

Tails: "To add on to what Sonic said, if they did see us as some threat for whatever reason, it would making stopping Eggman more difficult because we'd have to worry about one group wanting us probably dead and the other wanting us probably captured."

Knuckles: "They do make very good points." Shadow was about to say something to try and counter what Sonic and Tails had said, but he quickly realized that they were right.

Shadow: "Fine, but let's at least try to make this go by quickly."

Knuckles: "Didn't something like this back at Forest Hill, with Shadow wanting to do something, but you and Tails talked him out of it?" He whispered to Sonic.

Sonic: "Oh yeah. I guess we're two for two on that." Sonic responded. The group then looked at the ponies and dragon, who were almost certainly talking about what just happened.

Rainbow Dash: "Alright, now that these tin cans have been trashed, it's time we get some answers out of these new guys."

Pinkie: "Ooh, maybe I can throw them a 'Welcome to Equestria' party!"

Rarity: "Pinkie, now's not the time for a party."

Rainbow Dash: "Yeah. We need to find out who these guys are and what they're doing in Canterlot."

Applejack: "And their intentions," Applejack added.

Pinkie: "Aww, I wanted to make our guests feel welcome," the Pinkie Pie said, a little sad.

Spike: "Don't worry Pinkie. We'll throw a party after this mess with this Eggman guy is taken care of. Okay?"

Pinkie: "Okey dokey, lokey."

Fluttershy: "Those new creatures don't seem like they're evil. They did just help us with those robots."

Rainbow Dash: "True, but they could still have some alterior motive."

Twilight: "Well before we ask them questions, we still have some cleaning up to do." Twilight then used her magic to gather up all of the broken up badnik parts and cast a spell that evaporated them all on the spot.

Sonic: "That was impressive," a voice claimed from behind the ponies and dragon, which startled them. When they turned around, it was revealed to be the blue hedgehog who first confronted Eggman on the balcony. "It was clear you ponies had some kind of magic when you were fighting the badniks, but what you just did to get rid of them was even cooler."

Twilight: "Thanks for the compliment," Twilight said while blushing. Said blush was short lived because Rainbow Dash quickly dashed towards the blue hedgehog, ready to ask questions.

Rainbow Dash: "Alright, enough with the compliments. We've got questions for you and your friends. First off, who are you? Second, what even are you?"

Sonic: "Well there Ms. Winged Pony, I'm a hedgehog. My yellow and red friends over here are are a fox and echidna respectively," the blue hedgehog answered while pointing at Tails and Knuckles who were standing right behind him. "This one is also a hedgehog, like me," he added while pointing at Shadow, who was also right behind Sonic."

Rainbow Dash: "A hedgehog? I haven't seen a hedgehog that looks like you before."

Sonic: "That's probably because we aren't from around here." Before Rainbow Dash could say more, Twilight stepped in to have a say.

Twilight: "Thanks, Rainbow. I'll take it from here." Rainbow Dash then slowed her decent until she was on the ground, not happy that she didn't get all the answers she wanted. Twilight then addressed the ponies who that were hiding, still unsure about the new creatures. "It's okay everypony. Don't worry about our new 'guests.' We'll make sure that no harm comes to you." That calmed down the nervous ponies and they all went back doing what they had been doing before the robot invasion. She then turned her attention towards theirs new "guests." "We're thankful that you helped us with this unexpected invasion. But in addition to what Rainbow Dash asked, how did you four get here?" Before Sonic could respond, a lilac colored unicorn with a purple and teal mane and tail teleported in front of them.

Starlight Glimmer: "Twilight, you and the others have to come to Ponyville! It's an emergency!" She then turned to Sonic and his friends and asked the ruler of Equestria "Um, who are these guys?"

Twilight: "They're new around here," the alicorn responded a bit nervously. "But we'll worry about them in a bit. What's happening in Ponyville?"

Shadow: "And here I thought I was the only one who could use some form of teleportation. These ponies are more impressive than I thought," Shadow said to himself.

Starlight Glimmer: "There was some kind of ship, and machines coming out of it. They started attacking Ponyville while a voice from the ship said 'Find that emerald! No matter what it takes.'"

Twilight: "Machines and a ship?"

Rainbow Dash: "Didn't that just happen in Canterlot?"

Starlight Glimmer: "That happened here?"

Twilight: "That's not important right now. We need to go defend Ponyville." But before they could leave, Pinkie Pie noticed that Shadow had a weird look on his face.

Pinkie: "Um, Mr. Black Hedgehog, are you okay?" Everyone around then turned their heads to see the hedgehog thinking about something.

What was Shadow doing while Team Sonic went after Dr. Eggman?

While Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were in the Tornado 3, Shadow took the white emerald that Zecora found in the Everfree Forest and looked for a chaos emerald that he sensed was near. After some time, he stumbled upon a town and a sign that read "Welcome to Ponyville."

Shadow: "Of course 'Ponyville' is the name of a town when there's a world filled with them, he said while rolling his eyes. He then looked at the chaos emerald and it had sensed that one of the seven gems was in this town. "Looks like one of the chaos emeralds landed here." Shadow then used Chaos Snap to teleport to the center of Ponyville to begin his search. While walking, he had the emerald out as a detector. He also quickly noticed all the stares and whispers from other ponies, but the black hedgehog ignored them. After a few minutes of searching, Shadow eventually found himself in front of an interesting building. It was mostly cynical with decorative pillars, pony sculptures, and a color scheme of pink, purple, orange, and light blue. "Interesting design." Shadow then looked inside the building and spotted a green upside down gem on the windowsill. He also noticed that one of the windows was broken, and he quickly figured out why. He then used Chaos Snap to warp into the store and grab the emerald. After leaving through the front door, he quickly saw the Egg Carrier 4X in the air and quickly hid behind the building.

In the Egg Carrier 4X:

While the ship was flying towards Canterlot, one of his minions had noticed something on the radar.

Orbot: "Sir, I think there's a chaos emerald below us."

Eggman: "We already have one, Orbot. Besides, we can always come back for it later."

Orbot: "If you say so, boss." The ship then continued on towards its destination without worrying about emerald.

Back with Shadow:

After seeing Eggman leaves, Shadow came out from behind the building with both emeralds in hand.

Shadow: "The doctor must be heading towards this 'Canterlot' that the zebra told us about. I've got to get there fast. He then put both chaos emeralds away and quickly sped towards Eggman's new ship.

Back in the present:

Shadow: "I think I've been to this 'Ponyville' before."

Mane 6 and Spike: "You have?" They all said in surprise.

Sonic: "Was this 'Ponyville' where you found the emerald?"

Shadow: "It is where I found it."

Tails: "That's why Eggman is there, he must be looking for the emerald that you found."

Knuckles: "We already established that they all scattered when we arrived in Equestria. The place where Shadow found the green emerald could have another one."

Sonic: "That or there was only one and Eggman missed out on it," Sonic said a bit jokingly.

Tails: "Even so, we can't take that chance."

Sonic: "Agreed."

Spike: "Excuse me, but what's so special about these emeralds that you're talking about?" Spike asked.

Sonic: "We'll explain later. Right now, we need to get to this Ponyville place. You think your unicorn friend could teleport all twelve of us there?"

Starlight Glimmer: "I hope you don't mind my asking, but why do you care so much about Ponyville? You just heard about it."

Sonic: "We may not know much about this world we're in, but we do know that Eggman is capable of dangerous things."

Starlight Glimmer: "Eggman? That's a weird name."

Sonic: "That's also not important at this moment," Sonic stated while speaking in a more serious tone. "What he did to Canterlot is nothing compared to what he can do if he has his way," he continued while Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow nodded in agreement. Twilight thought about it for a moment. She knew very little about these creatures, meaning they could be secretly plotting to take over Equestria like many does from outside of it have tried to. However, the ponies and Spike were dealing with someone they knew nothing about, and these new creatures do and clearly want to help. She then stepped up and spoke to Sonic, his friends, and friendly rival.

Twilight: "Alright, you can come to Ponyville with us and help deal with this 'Dr. Eggman' guy. However, we've got questions that need answering afterwards.

Sonic: "Fine with me," Sonic nodded while Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow did the same. Starlight then used her magic to teleport all of them to the entrance to Ponyville. In front of the town, all of them could see robots and hear the sounds of some explosions and ponies screaming. Above them, they saw Eggman's newest flying fortress.

Eggman: "Look for the chaos emerald, any chaos emerald for that matter!" the mad scientist said from above them.

Knuckles: "Looks like you were right Tails. Eggman is looking for another one."

Sonic: "Well we're not going to let him destroy this town just for one emerald," Sonic said before turning to the ponies and dragon and asking "Y'all up for round two against these robots?"

Rainbow Dash: "You bet we are!"

Sonic: "I like her style," Sonic said to Twilight before dashing towards Ponyville with everyone else soon following behind.

Most of the badniks in Ponyville were different from the ones seen in Canterlot. Right now, everyone in Ponyville could see bat-based robots, monkey robots, slow turtle robots, and some of the ones seen in Canterlot. Majority of the ponies were terrified. The few who weren't either helped get ponies to safety or prepared to do some fighting. But before any pony could do that, a blue ball started destroying some of those robots. That ball revealed itself first in front of two female ponies. One had a pink coat and a purple and white tail and mane; the other had a grey coat and a lighter grey tail and mane.

Sonic: "You two girls okay?" Sonic asked while having one knee down, addressing the two in a calm manner.

Diamond Tiara: "We're okay, but who are you?" The pink pony asked.

Sonic: "Name's Sonic. What are your names?"

Diamond Tiara: "I'm Diamond Tiara. This here is my friend, Silver Spoon."

Sliver Spoon: "Hello there," the grey pony said nervously.

Sonic: "Well, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, you two should get somewhere safe until this robotic rampage is taken care of."

Diamond Tiara: "Will do." Both ponies then fled to a safer place. Half of Eggman's minions were actively going after the ponies while half were looking for another chaos emerald. The mayor of Ponyville, named Mayor Mare, was trying to get the ponies of the town to calm down (unintentional rhyme), but that was easier said than done.

Mayor Mare: "Calm down everypony. We just need to get somewhere safe," she said to the ponies that were running and/or screaming. No matter how much she tried, no one seemed to listen to her. She seemed to be so focused on helping other ponies that she didn't notice an aerial robot launch a missile at her until it was close to impact. Luckily for the mayor, another projectile hit the missile, preventing it from hitting the pony. A fox came up to her to make sure she was okay.

Tails: "You okay, miss?"

Mayor Mare: "I'm fine. Was that you just launched that projectile at me?"

Tails: "That wasn't me. The missile aimed at you was launched by. . ." Tails answered before being interrupted by the sound of a robot crashing into the ground. ". . . That robot currently on the ground," he finished.

Sonic: "That robot won't be bothering you anymore," Sonic casually said to the earth pony.

Mayor Mare: "Thanks for saving me from whatever that thing was."

Sonic: "No problem. It's kind of what we do," Sonic said casually again before switching to a serious tone by saying to the mayor "Now something you need to do is get somewhere safe until these machines are destroyed."

Mayor Mare: "But I'm the mayor of this town, and these ponies are all in danger. I can't just leave them."

Sonic: "Don't worry, Mayor. We'll make sure that no one here gets hurt."

Tails: "Plus, you need to worry about yourself too. The residents of this town would have likely freaked out if you got hurt from that missile."

Mayor Mare: "I suppose you two make a good point, but are you sure that the two of you can do this on your own?"

Sonic: "We don't have to because we aren't on our own," he answered before pointing towards the six ponies and the dragon he had recently met.

Mayor Mare: "Alright, I trust that you two," she said before running towards Twilight and her friends.

Sonic: "C'mon buddy. We've got more of Eggman's toys to play with," Sonic said confidently before he and Tails went off to look for more badniks to smash.

Mayor Mare: "Princess Twilight!" The Mayor said after running to the Mane 6, Spike, and Starlight. "Where did all these robots come from?"

Twilight: "We'll explain everything after we take care of these machines, Mayor. We still don't 100% know what's going on ourselves."

Spike: "But don't worry, we'll help around here!"

Mayor Mare: "One other thing: do you know who those creatures are?" The mayor asked, while pointing at Sonic and Tails.

Applejack: "That's something we haven't figured out yet ourselves, but they're here to help," Applejack responded. She then turned to her left, pointed at Knuckles who was near the Ponyville Schoolhouse and added "That red fellow is also here to help." The mayor wasn't expecting there to be more of these strange new creatures (insert roll credits joke here).

Mayor Mare: "There are three of them?" Before anyone could respond, a projectile went over their heads and shot down a robot that looked almost identical to the one that launched a missile at the mayor. A black hedgehog also then skated by.

Pinkie Pie: "Four of them, actually."

Rainbow Dash: "Like Twilight said, we still haven't figured out everything regarding this situation."

Twilight: "But you need to get somewhere safe."

Mayor Mare: "Alright, Princess," the mayor said in response before heading to Town Hall. Other ponies saw the mayor and followed her inside also. Some of Eggman's minions then noticed and tried to get inside, only to be blocked by Twilight and company.

Rarity: "If you want to get in here, you'll have to get through all of us first." The robots were getting ready to do that until someone else spoke up.

Shadow: "Hey worthless piles of junk!" Shadow yelled at the robots, resulting in them turning around. "Come at me." The robots then charged towards the black hedgehog, ready to fight. However, Shadow wasn't going to give them many chances to attack. Before they could reach him, Shadow warped right behind the robots. The ponies behind him were surprised at what the black hedgehog just did.

Starlight Glimmer: "Did he just teleport?"

Twilight: "How could he do that without magic?"

Rainbow Dash: "Something about these guys feel different from most creatures." Shadow ignored the comments from behind him and began to attack. He launched a chaos spear at one robot, then he used a spin dash followed by several homing attacks on more of them. He then turned around to see one aerial robot get ready to launch something at him.

Shadow: "Go ahead and try," he said confidently. The ponies and dragon near him gasped at what he said, not sure what he was planning. The flapper then launched a missile at Shadow, but he teleported behind the machine before it could land. He then launched another chaos spear to take out the robot and skated off towards more of the badniks. The ponies and dragon were both surprised and impressed at the same time.

Rainbow Dash: "We need to finish these guys off quick so we can start asking questions."

Applejack: "I'm with Dash here."

Pinkie Pie: "I found that to be impressive." The pink pony's comment resulted in some stares from her friends. "What? You didn't think that was cool? Her friends were actually impressed, but they weren't focused on that at the moment. The friends then went to fight more of Eggman's badniks. Unbeknownst to the Mane 6, Spike, Starlight, and the anthropomorphic creatures, there were seven bat like, orb shaped robots were approaching a castle. Said robots were intent on searching it for a chaos emerald. But before they could enter, a blue female unicorn with a light blue mane and tail came out of the castle. She went by the name Trixie Lulamoon.

Trixie: "GOOD MORNING PONYVILLE!" The unicorn shouted before her sight was on the robots above and in front of her. "Umm, what are you?" she asked but received no answer. This started to get her upset. "You think you can ignore the Great and Powerful Trixie?" This time, she'd get a response, but not a good one. The badniks had started to charge an electric field around them, which started to frighten the unicorn. "Um, what's going on?" One of the bots then fired an electric orb at her that almost hit Trixie. She then started to run away, screaming with the bots chasing her. Her screams were fortunately loud enough for her friends to hear.

Starlight Glimmer: "Trixie?" The unicorn asked.

Trixie: "SOMEPONY HELP ME!" The frightened unicorn shouted.

Starlight Glimmer: "Trixie's being chased by robots!" Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles immediately recognized the robots chasing the blue unicorn.

Knuckles: "Are those Electro Spinners?"

Tails: "Sure looks like it, but I'm pretty sure he calls them Thunder Spinners now."

Pinkie Pie: "What are Electro/Thunder Spinners?"

Tails: "Bat shaped badniks that can deliver lots of electricity to you."

Shadow: "So the doctor's used these before?"

Tails: "Yep. Though it's been a while since we've seen him use them."

Trixie: "Get away from me! Trixie does not want to be fried today or any day!"

Sonic: "Princess, you and your friends go help that unicorn. The rest of us will finish off Eggman's minions."

Twilight: "Okay. C'mon girls, let's go help Trixie."

Rainbow Dash: "We're really taking orders from creatures we don't know?"

Spike: "They do seem to have experience with these robots."

Rainbow Dash: "You make a good point." The Mane 6, Spike, and Starlight then went over to help the pony. Meanwhile, Mecha Sonic managed to scan the castle for a possible chaos emerald, but he finds none. However, he does decide to take some of the crystals from the castle before sneaking off back to the Egg Carrier 4X undetected.

Trixie: "Step back, you robotic beasts! Trixie will fight to defend herself if she has to," Trixie said with a bit of uncertainty in her voice. Just then, one of the robots was destroyed by an unsuspecting laser.

Starlight Glimmer: "Get away from my friend!"

Boss 2/Mini boss 1: Thunder Spinner Squad

The Thunder Spinners turned around when they heard the voice and saw Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Spike, and Starlight standing in front of them, ready to fight. Two of the badniks fired a charged electric orb at the ponies, but they both barely miss. Twilight and Starlight teleport behind the spinners and shot a laser at two of them, sending them to the ground inactive. While Twilight continued to help the rest of her friends battle the group of bat like badniks, Starlight checked on her best friend.

Starlight Glimmer: "Are you okay Trixie?"

Trixie: "Trixie is is fine thanks to you and your friends."

Starlight Glimmer: "Glad to hear. Now let's finish off these machines!"

Trixie: "The Great and Powerful Trixie is ready to fight now that you, Twilight, and the rest of her friends are here," Trixie said more confidently. The ponies and Spike battled the electric powered badniks. One by one, the robots eventually fell. With a few close calls, the group eventually got it done.

(End music)

Rarity: "Is that the last of those electric machines?" Rarity asked, a little exhausted from doing more fighting than she's used to.

Applejack: "Looks like it to me."

Spike: "We should also make sure that the rest of those evil machines in Ponyville are taken care of."

Sonic: "No need," Sonic said which got the attention of the dragon and his friends. "The four of us (referring to himself, his friends, and Shadow) wrapped up the rest of Eggman's minions a few minutes ago."

Spike: "So then what were you doing in the meantime?"

Knuckles: "Standing back and watching you ponies and that dragon handle some of Eggman's stronger minions on your own."

Shadow: "I have to admit, that was impressive."

Eggman: "Don't think that you've won, Sonic! My plan is just getting started!" Eggman shouted from in his flying fortress.

Sonic: "We'll be ready for you, Eggman!" Sonic shouted back before the Egg Carrier 4X blasted away quickly. Ponies them came from hiding and started cheering the heroes who helped save the town. Not only the ponies and Spike, but the new anthropomorphic creatures as well.

Pinkie Pie: "Don't you just love it when we're cheered for doing our job?" Pinkie Pie asked while hugging Fluttershy.

Fluttershy: "It is rather nice," the pegasus responded.

Mayor Mare: "Thanks again for helping our town, Princess Twilight."

Twilight: "Oh, it was nothing."

Mayor Mare: "And thank you for helping out as well," she said to Sonic.

Sonic: "No problem, Mayor. It's what we do."

Twilight: "Alright everypony. As nice as it is to be back here, me and my friends have important things to discuss with our 'guests,' so we'll need some privacy," Twilight said to the ponies of the town. She then cast the same spell she cast in Canterlot to dispose of the broken robot parts. She then turned to Sonic and said "Now let's have a discussion on my old castle."

Sonic: "You mean that purple and blue one that the robots almost attacked?"

Twilight: "That's the one."

Sonic: "Cool." The blue hedgehog responded. "Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, let's have a discussion with these ponies and dragon. I think explanations and introductions are definitely owed from both parties." During the walk to the castle, they noticed the remains of the Thunder Spinners that were destroyed.

Twilight: "Almost forgot about these." The princess was about to cast the spell again before being stopped by Sonic.

Sonic: "Hold up there, princess. Tails, you think this stuff could be useful?"

Tails: "I only need two of them," the fox happily responded. He then picked out two from the seven that were fought.

Sonic: "Hold up, do you have your toolkit or did you leave it back in Canterlot?"

Tails: "The toolkit's in my backpack, which I've been carrying this entire time," he answered while showing his best friend his yellow bag.

Sonic: "Don't know how I missed that. Alright, princess. You can get rid of these five." Twilight then cast the same spell a third time and got rid of 5 of the 7 busted up thunder spinners.

Rainbow Dash: "Why would you need busted up robot parts?"

Tails: "I'll show you later if I get the chance." But before they walked inside the castle, Twilight realized she needed someone to watch over Canterlot.

Twilight: "Wait!" She yelled, startling everyone. "Spike can you write a letter to Celestia and Luna telling them that I need them to look after Canterlot while we're in Ponyville for important business?"

Spike: "Sure thing, Twilight." It didn't take that long for Spike to write and send the letter using his dragon fire, which definitely confused Sonic and the others.

Sonic: "That's definitely something you'll have to explain." Everyone then finally walked inside the castle so that everything could be cleared up on who each other was and any other questions that needed to be answered.

Author's Note

Chapter 4 is complete! It actually took less time to finish than I thought it would. A few things I want to address.

There will be more mini boss fights in this story.
I noticed that every chapter so far has had a flashback of some kind. That wasn't the intention when I started this story.
It'll be a few chapters before we find out what the next phase of Dr. Eggman's is.

Also, not related to the story, but as of the time of this chapter's upload, I haven't seen the Sonic 3 Movie yet. So do me and everyone else who hasn't seen the movie yet a favor and DO NOT SPOIL ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS IN IT!
THAT RUINS THE FIRST TIME EXPERIENCE FOR THOSE WHO ARE YET SEE THE MOVIE FOR THEMSELVES! :twilightangry2:

I will post a blog with my thoughts on the movie after I've seen it. Thanks, have a happy holidays and a happier new year! 😁

Also also, it says that this chapter was published on 12/27/2024 but it's actually the day after Christmas 2024 when this chapter is being published.

Chapter 5 - Official Introductions and Tours of Equestria

Inside Twilight's former friendship castle:

With things calm around Ponyville and Canterlot being watched by the former rulers of Equestria, it was now time for the Mane 6, Spike, Starlight, Trixie, and the anthropomorphic creatures to learn some things about each other.

Twilight: "Now then, I think it's time we finally introduce ourselves."

Sonic: "Agreed."

Rainbow Dash: "I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest pegasus in Equestria, and one of the most loyal ponies you'll meet."

Rarity: "I'm Rarity, a generous unicorn who loves fashion."

Pinkie: "HI, I'M PINKIE PIE! I CAN BRING LAUGHTER WHEREVER I GO, AND I LOVE TO THROW PARTIES AND MAKE OTHERS SMILE! WANT ME TO THROW YOU A PARTY?" The Pinkie pony said quickly without taking a breath. This caused a nervous reaction to be on the faces of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. "Wait, you're not afraid of me, are you?" Pinkie asked with a bit of sadness in her voice. Sonic hesitated to give an answer, which started to cause the pony's mane and tail to deflate. Sonic then took a deep breath before answering her question.

Sonic: "We're not afraid of you, Pinkie. It's just that your hyper energy reminds us of a friend back home. She had old habits that made her terrifying at points. Can you just tone down your energy a smidge?"

Pinkie: Oh, okay then," Pinkie responded as her mane and tail poofed back to normal.

Twilight: "Don't mind her, this high level of energy is normal for her."

Tails: "Noted."

Fluttershy: "Hello. My name is Fluttershy. One of the kindest ponies you'll see."

Applejack: "Ma name is Applejack, a farm pony and an honest gal."

Twilight: "And I'm Twilight Sparkle, the princess of Equestria though I preferred to just be called Twilight. And this is my royal advisor, Spike."

Spike: "Hey there."

Trixie: "Ahem," the blue unicorn coughed.

Twilight: "Oh, and I'd also like for you to meet Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon. They're the headmare and guidance counselor for the School of Friendship."

Starlight: "Hello, there."

Trixie: "The great and powerful Trixie is intrigued by these new creatures."

Knuckles: "Lemme guess: you like to address yourself in the third person almost all the time."

Trixie: "Is it that obvious?" Trixie responded nervously while Pinkie and Rainbow Dash snickered at a volume no one else could here.

Sonic: "Don't worry about it too much," Sonic responded.

Pinkie: "So what are your names?"

Sonic: "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. Fastest thing alive and a guy who loves adventure!" Sonic said with confidence.

Rainbow Dash: "Fastest thing alive? Yeah right," Rainbow Dash said under her breath, feeling offended that someone else claimed to be faster than her.

Tails: "My name's Miles Prower, but everyone calls me Tails."

Pinkie: "Is it because of those two tails?"

Tails: "Correct." Tails then jumped and spun his two tails in the air, resulting in a surprised look on the faces of Twilight and her friends, except for Fluttershy who had a smile on her face.

Fluttershy: "Oh, my gosh!" The shy pegasus said excitedly, which was rare.

Tails: "Fun fact: It was Sonic who gave me the nickname 'Tails,' and I've just stuck with it since," the fox said before landing back on the castle floor.

Sonic: "It's true," Sonic said, supporting his friend.

Knuckles: "I go by the name Knuckles. I usually like to punch first and ask questions afterwards."

Tails: "Sometimes to our detriment," Tails said quietly, but not quiet enough for no one else to hear.

Knuckles: "That's not important right now Tails," Knuckles responded, resulting on some snickers from the ponies and Spike.

Starlight: "So who's your other friend?" Starlight asked while pointing at black hedgehog.

Shadow: "My name is Shadow, I'm the ultimate life form."

Sonic: "And 'friend' is not the word I'd use to describe him."

Fluttershy: "You two look quite similar."

Sonic and Shadow: "So we've been told."

Starlight: "So how would describe the relationship between the two of you?"

Sonic: "I think friendly rivals is the best way to describe it."

Shadow: "Agreed."

Fluttershy: "I've never seen a hedgehog or fox that looks like you guys before. I also haven't seen an echidna before today either."

Tails: "Well we haven't ponies before today."

Sonic: "And this ain't the first dimension me or Tails have been sent to."

Spike: "It's not?"

Sonic and Tails: "Nope," Sonic and Tails responded at the same time.

Tails: "Another friend of ours lives in an entirely different dimension, and she's a princess there."

Sonic: "We were kind of sent there to help her with something."

Twilight: "You know a princess from another dimension?"

Sonic: "Yep. And like you, she's not super fond by being referred to as 'princess' unless it's absolutely necessary.'

Spike: "Reminds me of some other friends of ours from another dimension," Spike whispered to Twilight.

Sonic: "Also, this isn't the first 'magical' dimension I've been in. I've also been a world filled with genies and a world of knights." Everypony in the castle (and Spike) had their jaws dropped not from what Sonic was saying, but also the tone he was saying it in.

Applejack: "Pardon me, Sonic, but how can you say all that nonchalantly?"

Sonic: "When you've been on the types of adventures that we've been on for long enough, you become used to it. However, I will say this is one of the nicer dimensions I've been sent to."

Pinkie: "Thanks. I bet your world is pretty nice too," Pinkie responded.

Tails: "Well it's nice when Eggman isn't trying to take over the world."

Twilight: "This 'Eggman' guy, did he send you to those dimensions with genies and knights?"

Sonic: "Nope. I was brought there cause someone in those dimensions needed my help. The world of knights was more fun, but it did have a consequence I didn't see coming."

Twilight: "What was it?"

Sonic: "So after Merlina, this wizard who summoned me there in the first place, used a spell to send me back to my world, and I thought everything was good. However, I eventually saw a friend of mine who wasn't happy with me."

Rarity: "Who was that friend?"

Sonic: "Another hedgehog named Amy Rose. During a prior adventure, I agreed to go on a date with her."

Rarity: "Ooh, how romantic."

Pinkie: "Are you two like a couple?"

Tails: "Don't get ahead of yourselves. They aren't."

Pinkie: "But Sonic just said he agreed to go on a date with her."

Sonic: "I did. However, I was pulled into the world of knights around the time that the date was supposed to happen. By the time I got back, she was there waiting and thought I had forgotten about the date."

Rainbow Dash: "So what did she do?"

Tails: "She came at Sonic with her Piko Piko hammer." The ponies and Spike then gasped at that.

Applejack: "She has a hammer?"

Sonic: "She does, and she's good at using it too."

Rainbow Dash: "I hate to interrupt this story, but how does your two tailed friend know about this?"

Tails: "I was the first one he told about his adventure, and Amy's anger when he got back."

Fluttershy: "Did you make it up to her?"

Sonic: "I eventually did, but I had to wait a few days for her to calm down."

Fluttershy: "How'd you make it up to her?"

Sonic: "I took her out to see a movie, and I let her pick the movie to make up for missing out the first time due to my summons."

Twilight: "You said you got summoned into a world of knights. What was it called?"

Sonic: "The place was called Camelot."

Mane 6, Spike, Starlight, and Trixie: "Camelot?" The equestrian group asked.

Twilight: "That sound a lot like Canterlot."

Sonic: "I know. I laughed when I first heard that name."

Rainbow Dash: "What's so funny about the name? Camelot isn't exactly much better," Rainbow Dash responded, a bit offended.

Twilight: "Rainbow Dash!" Twilight said to the pegasus. "Sorry about that response," she then said to Sonic.

Sonic: "No worries."

Shadow: "This Camelot sounds interesting."

Sonic: "Well there is a knight version of you there. You two would get along well."

Shadow: "If you're trying to make a joke, then stop trying right now."

Sonic: "I'm not joking, Shadow."

Tails: "There was also a knight version of Knuckles."

Knuckles: "I'd probably give him a good fight," Knuckles said confidently while cracking his namesakes.

Tails: "The swords might make it a challenge."

Sonic: "It's almost like they're the same echidna."

Pinkie: "So what was the movie about?"

Sonic: "I think it was about someone who had a strong dislike for the holiday season and was confronted by his past, present, and future." This made Starlight a bit nervous. Thankfully, this didn't go unnoticed.

Trixie: "Starlight, are you okay?" She whispered to her friend.

Starlight: "I'm fine. It's just that the movie Sonic described reminds me of an experience I had while I was Twilight's student. Not a bad one, but it did bring up memories," Starlight responded.

Trixie: "Well as long as you're okay, then so is Trixie."

Pinkie: "Future," Pinkie then said while doing a sit-up on the floor. "What? Sonic mentioned the future," she then asked while everyone was staring at her.

Tails: "Is this type of behavior also normal by her standards?"

Applejack: "Yup."

Sonic: "We'll keep that in mind while we're stuck here."

Twilight: "Speaking of that, how exactly did you, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow get end up in Canterlot in the first place?"

Sonic: "That's quite the long story, and we've already told it to someone else, so we'll try to keep it short and sweet," Sonic replied before Pinkie jumped in.

Pinkie: "You were battling this 'Eggman' guy who was trying to power a machine to other worlds, but the machine malfunctioned and sent all of you here?" Pinkie said quickly, leaving Sonic and crew a bit stunned.

Sonic: "I'm not even going to ask how you guessed that."

Pinkie Pie: "Lucky guess, I guess."

Rainbow Dash: "Eggman? What kind of name is that? Sounds ridiculous."

Sonic: "His real name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik, I just started calling him Dr. Eggman to mock him."

Tails: "Eventually, he just changed his name to Dr. Eggman."

Rainbow Dash: "Interesting."

Twilight: "How exactly did Eggman's machine malfunction to the point of sending you all to Equestria?"

Sonic: "It might have something to do with this," Sonic answered while pulling out a blue gem.

Spike: "I remember that gem," Spike said after he and the other ponies gasped.

Twilight: "That gem fell into the Canterlot Castle earlier today."

Rainbow Dash: "What are you doing with that? You probably don't even know what that is," Rainbow Dash said accusily.

Sonic: "That's where you'd be wrong, Rainbow Dash. The four of us know what this is, and it's no ordinary gem."

Spike: "So what is it?"

Sonic: "This is a chaos emerald." Right after Sonic said that, a mysterious voice was heard inside the friendship castle.

???: "Chaos emerald? You have me intrigued, blue hedgehog." While the voice was foreign to Sonic, his friends, and friendly rival, it was very familiar Twilight and the others.

Shadow: "Who's there? We know that someone's here, so show yourself," Shadow demanded whoever was talking.

???: "I heard the word 'chaos,' which automatically means that I should be involved in it." The one behind the mysterious voice then appeared out of a puff of smoke. It was a creature that looked to be made up of a little bit of multiple other creatures. It was Discord, the Lord of Chaos and disharmony.

Spike: "Wasn't expecting to see him this way."

Discord: "What do we have here?" Discord said before snatching the chaos emerald out of Sonic's hands. "This is an intriguing gem."

Shadow: "I suggest you give that back," Shadow said in a threatening tone.

Discord: "You think you can take this gem from me, strange hedgehog?"

Shadow: "I know I can." Twilight and the others then gasped, concerned for Shadow. They saw some of what Sonic and company were capable of against Eggman's minions, but the ponies and Spike knew how powerful Discord was.

Discord: "It'll be entertaining to see you try," Discord responded, eager to see what would happen. Shadow then warped from where he was standing to in the air in front of Discord and used his fists to hit the draconequus on top of his head. He then warped behind Discord and kicked the emerald out of his claw. Sonic then quickly grabbed the emerald before it hit the floor and Shadow warped back to where he was before.

Shadow: "That was too easy."

Discord: "Let me make it challenging for you then." Discord then launched a laser at both hedgehogs, but nothing was there except for the marks left by the attacks. "Now that was easy."

Sonic: "You're right, it was easy, easy to dodge your attack," Sonic said from behind them, with Shadow standing next to him.

Discord: "How did you dodge so easily?"

Tails: "One has super speed."

Knuckles: "The other can warp from wherever he wants."

Discord: "You shouldn't underestimate me," Discord said, which started to worry Fluttershy and the others.

Sonic: "And you shouldn't underestimate us," Sonic responded confidently. Discord then charged up another attack, but was interrupted by friends of his.

Twilight: "DISCORD DON'T!" Twilight said to him.

Fluttershy: "They aren't hostile," Fluttershy said, trying to stop the draconequus from attacking further.

Discord: "You've met these guys before?"

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow: "You know who this creature is?"

Twilight: "Yes to both questions. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow, meet Discord, the spirit of chaos and disharmony. Discord, meet Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow."

Sonic: "Discord? A fitting name for someone with your appearance."

Spike: "He's also a reformed villain."

Tails: "Reformed villain?"

Discord: "The dragon speaks the truth. Twice had I taken control of this town and made it into the chaos capital. That was until I was thwarted both times by the current Council of Friendship and the old rulers of Equestria."

Knuckles: "Chaos capital?"

Discord: "Yup. With my chaos magic, I can do plenty of things. However, I later learned that what's the fun in having power if you have no friends to enjoy it with?" Discord said, looking at Fluttershy after saying the last part.

Shadow: "So you're a creature of chaos who can do nearly anything he so chooses?"

Discord: "You are correct."

Sonic: "Interesting. Not mind blowing or anything, but interesting."

Discord: "What do you mean by not mind blowing?"

Sonic: "I mean is that me, my friends, and friendly rival next to me have dealt with crazy things in our life time, so someone like you isn't that much different than what we're used to." Discord was going to get mad, but he instead cooled down before responding.

Discord: "I think we'll get along just fine as long as you don't get me mad."

Shadow: "I think we can say the same about you."

Discord: "Well before I go, I have a gift for the princess of Equestria and her friends." Discord then gave Twilight a card before teleporting away. The princess of Equestria them opened the card and confetti blew in her face.

Twilight: "Dear Twilight Sparkle, congrats on 1 full year of taking care of Equestria. I'd be surprised if you haven't freaked out since you became ruler. Regardless, I'm seriously impressed by you and your friends, Discord. P.S. it was Pinkie's idea for the confetti," Twilight read the letter.

Pinkie: "He seems to have been taking notes."

Fluttershy: "Having him as a friend definitely makes our lives more interesting."

Rainbow Dash: "Sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse."

Shadow: "You're actually friends with that thing?"

Sonic: "To be fair Shadow, one of your friends/comrades is a robot made by Eggman."

Shadow: "Touche."

Twilight: "By the way, you said that you, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow have dealt with crazy things in the past. Were they the result of Dr. Eggman?"

Sonic: "Most of the time they were, and believe me: he's done crazy things to try and get what he wants," Sonic said while he and Shadow walked back towards Tails and Knuckles.

Rarity: "And what are these crazy things that he's done in the past?"

Shadow: "He almost took over our entire world using a gemstone and a mercenary."

Tails: "He drained the energy of an alien race to power a machine in order to control our world."

Knuckles: "He woke up and angered an ancient water god to try and build this 'Eggmanland' on top of a town."

Sonic: "He eventually did build Eggmanland by draining the chaos emeralds to power a massive cannon, which broke apart a planet into several pieces and woke up a gargantuan creature before it was supposed to be woken up to then harness energy from said creature." The Mane 6, Spike, Starlight, and Trixie unsurprisingly had their mouths wide open since what Sonic, his friends, and his friendly rival described were night and day compared to their own experiences.

Starlight: "You guys had to deal with all those things?"

Trixie: "Trixie is at a loss for words."

Twilight: "That makes two of us," Twilight responded.

Spike: "You mentioned chaos emeralds. Is that what Discord has in his claw?"

Sonic: "That was in fact one of the chaos emeralds," Sonic answered before showing the emerald he still had in his hand."

Rarity: "And you said 'emeralds.' Does that mean there are more of them?"

Shadow: "As a matter of fact, there are more," Shadow answered before pulling out two more chaos emeralds. Oohs and aahs came from the ponies and dragon.

Rarity: "My my. Those are fine looking gems."

Twilight: "What are chaos emeralds?"

Sonic: "The chaos emeralds are very powerful gems. They can allow you to perform all types of amazing feats."

Tails: "Having just one of them can give you loads of power, but having all of them can give unimaginable power."

Spike: "How many of these chaos emeralds are there?"

Knuckles: "There are seven in total, and there's another gem that can control all of them at once: the master emerald."

Applejack: "Master Emerald?"

Knuckles: "That gem can control all of the chaos emeralds, and I'm it's guardian."

Applejack: "You think it's in Equestria?"

Knuckles: "It can't be cause I left back home."

Twilight: "Interesting. What are some of these things that the emeralds can do?"

Sonic: "With just one emerald, you can slow down time, stop time entirely, or manipulate space."

Rainbow Dash: "Manipulate space?"

Shadow: "It allows you to teleport yourself to other locations. Warping time and space is better known as chaos control."

Twilight: "Is that what you were using to reach Discord when he was here?"

Shadow: "Not exactly. That was chaos snap. It's like chaos control, but it only allows me to travel short distances."

Starlight: "Can the others use it?"

Shadow: "Only I can use it because chaos energy actually flows through my veins."

Twilight: "How is that possible?"

Sonic: "You can thank Eggman's grandfather for that."

Mane 6, Spike, Starlight, and Trixie: "Grandfather?"

Sonic: "Yup. His name was Gerald Robotnik. Unlike his grandson, he wasn't really a villain."

Shadow: "Why exactly are you the one talking about my backstory?"

Sonic: "Because it's been brought up before. If you want to tell the story, then be my guest."

Starlight: "It's easy to tell that they aren't necessarily friends," Starlight whispered to Trixie.

Trixie: "Kind of like me and Twilight," Trixie whispered back.

Shadow: "Professor Gerald Robotnik created me with the intent of curing Maria, his and Eggman's granddaughter."

Fluttershy: "What was wrong with her?"

Shadow: "She had a condition that made it impossible for her to live on our planet, so she was taken to a space station called Space Colony Ark to try and develop a cure."

Rarity: "Was she ever cured?"

Shadow: "The cure was never finished," Shadow said, starting to sound a bit sad, which Sonic and the others noticed.

Rarity: "How come it wasn't finished?"

Shadow: "A military group known as the Guardian Units of Nations saw what Professor Gerald was doing as a threat to our own planet, so they raided the Ark and shut it down."

Sonic: "They wanted to make sure that no trace of Project Shadow was left," Sonic said, sounding serious. It was something that the ponies and Spike noticed too.

Spike: "Project Shadow?"

Shadow: "That's what Professor Gerald called it."

Spike: "How did you escape that space station?"

Shadow: "A old friend put me in an escape pod and sent me to the planet called Earth so I wouldn't get captured by G.U.N."

Rainbow Dash: "The abbreviation is called G.U.N.?" Rainbow Dash asked before being kicked in one of her legs by Applejack.

Sonic: "Yeah, not the most creative acronym of all time."

Twilight: "What happened to your friend and Professor Gerald?"

Shadow: "My friend didn't survive the raid and she. . ." Shadow paused before finishing ". . . died on the Ark that day."

Pinkie: "That's so sad."

Starlight: "We're sorry that happened to you, Shadow."

Shadow: "Thanks, but it's not that big a deal anymore. I've put my last behind me long ago."

Sonic: "As for Eggman's grandfather, he was taken to a place called Prison Island where he was later executed. And if you're wondering what happened to Shadow after escaping the Space Colony Ark via the escape pod, he was captured and sent to Prison Island where he'd be put into suspended animation for 50 years."

Twilight: "50 years? That's a long time."

Spike: "How did you get out?"

Sonic: "Eggman released him with the intention of world domination."

Tails: "And to think that the worst that Eggman used to do was simply capture flickies and use them to power up his badniks."

Fluttershy: "He did what?" Fluttershy asked, with tears starting to form in her eyes.

Sonic: "It's true. He used to capture little animals just to make them work against their will."

Tails: "Then he stopped doing that decided to do it again, then not do it anymore."

Fluttershy: "What kind of monster would do such a thing?"

Sonic: "The same one who threatened you guys earlier today and threatened our planet with a cannon."

Spike: "Whoa."

Twilight: "And how long have you four have been fighting him for?"

Sonic: "Well it's mostly been me, Tails and Knuckles who fight him. Shadow tends to do his own thing."

Twilight: "Well we want to help you stop this Dr. Eggman guy."

Spike: "Yeah!"

Knuckles: "You sure?"

Applejack: "Absolutely! Equestria is our home, and we aren't going to let some power hungry villain take over without a fight!"

Twilight: "Not only that, but we've saved our world plenty of times before, and as it's current ruler, I absolutely have to at least try to stop this threat."

Sonic: "Well, if you're willing to put help us fight Eggman, then we're willing to accept it."

Shadow: "But you've also got to help us get home."

Twilight: "How can we help with that?"

Sonic: "The chaos emeralds. One of the things they can do is create a portal between worlds and dimensions. If we find them all, we can make not only stop Eggman, but also make a portal that'll take us back home."

Starlight: "Those gems can perform that kind of magic? Impressive."

Tails: "While it is impressive, it's not magic."

Twilight: "Well while you're staying here, can we at least offer you a tour of Ponyville and Canterlot?"

Sonic: "I'm up for a tour."

Tails: "I'm also up for a tour."

Knuckles: "It'll be nice to see what these places look like without robots or robot parts everywhere."

Shadow: "Sure. Why not?" The ponies and Spike then cheered in response.

Sonic: "It's tour time," Sonic said while he and Shadow put the emeralds away.

Trixie: "Um, where exactly did you put those chaos emeralds?"

Sonic: "Hammerspace, don't worry about it." Everyone then went outside to start the tour.

Twilight took charge of the tour, showing the guests some noteworthy locations in Ponyville.

Twilight: "This is Sugar Cube Corner," Twilight said as she showed Sonic and the other guests the bakery.

Pinkie: "It's a bakery and a confectionery, though I don't know what that second one means."

Twilight: "A confectionery is. . ." Twilight started before someone else joined her.

Twilight and Tails: "A place that sells candy." The ponies and Spike then looked at Tails, wondering how he knew that.

Tails: "I know a thing or two about shops like these."

Rainbow Dash: "We might have two nerds in Ponyville now," Rainbow Dash said quietly, but not enough to go unheard.

Tails: "I guess I am a bit of a nerd, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash: "You heard me?"

Tails: "Yes I did. Don't worry, no offense is taken."

Rainbow Dash: "Cool, sorry anyways."

Pinkie: "I also live and work here!" Pinkie Pie said excitedly.

Knuckles: "She both lives and works in a place filled with sweets?"

Sonic: "This might contribute to her energy levels being high so much."

Pinkie: "You're not wrong, it does contribute." Everyone then went inside the bakery and saw two ponies at the counter. One was a yellow pony with orange hair, an orange tail, and cakes on his flank. The other one was a light blue pony with pink swirly hair, a pink swirly tail, and cupcakes on her flanks.

Mrs. Came: "Hello everypony. Good to see you here," she greeted everyone.

Pinkie: "Hi Mr. and Mrs. Cake! It's good to see you again," Pinkie said back while giving Mrs. Cake a hug.

Mr. Cake: "Princess Twilight! What a nice surprise to see you back here. Both you and Spike."

Twilight: "It's good to be back in Ponyville. We also have some visitors." Twilight then showed the Cakes Sonic and the others.

Mrs. Cake: "You're the ones who helped these ponies saved Ponyville from that robot attack earlier?"

Knuckles: "That was us alright."

Sonic: "Correction: We helped those ponies and Spike the Dragon save Ponyville from that robot attack."

Spike: "Thanks for the mention." Sonic simply replied with a thumbs up.

Mr. Cake: "So what can we do you for?"

Pinkie Pie: "One cupcake for everypony and non pony here, please."

Mrs. Cake: "Coming right up." Mrs. Cake then looked at Sonic and asked him and the others "For the four of you, does it matter what flavor you get?"

Sonic: "Surprise us," Sonic replied.

Mrs. Cake: "Alright then, just give us a two minutes max, and we'll have them ready."

(1:52-1:54)

Mr. Cake: "Okay, the cupcakes are ready."

Mrs. Cake: "They're also on the house."

Twilight: "Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Cake." The bigger box was for Twilight and her friends while the smaller box was for Sonic and the others.

Mrs. Cake: "I hope you don't mind my asking but what are your names?"

Sonic: "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog."

Tails: "You can call me Tails."

Knuckles: "The name's Knuckles."

Shadow: "I'm Shadow the Hedgehog."

Mrs. Cake: "Well then, Sonic has the chocolate cupcake, Tails have the strawberry cupcake, Knuckles has the lemon cupcake, and Shadow has the cinnamon roll cupcake."

Pinkie: "So how are the Cake twins doing?" Pinkie asked.

Mr. Cake: "They're doing well, and it's nice that you can babysit more often," Mr. Cake answered.

Mrs. Cake: "So how do all of you like the cupcakes?"

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie: "Delicious!"

Applejack: "Amazing!"

Fluttershy: "Delightful for my taste buds."

Starlight: "They taste great!"

Trixie: "The great and powerful Trixie agrees with Starlight and everyone else."

Spike: "I definitely missed these."

Twilight: "They taste like I remembered them."

Mr. Cake: "What about you gentlemen?"

Sonic: "This cupcake is amazing!"

Knuckles: "It's really good!"

Shadow: "I like what I'm eating."

Tails: "It's superb!"

Pinkie: "I think for Tails, it's exstraw-diberry!" Pinkie said while she somehow had a drum set with her.

Sonic: "Oh I get it! Because Tails had a strawberry cupcake, and it's a play on extraordinary" Sonic said while laughing at the joke.

Pinkie: "I'm glad someone got the joke."

Twilight: "Okay, let's move on to a different location." The group then went to a farm called Sweet Apple Acres.

Applejack: "This is is mah farm and mah home: Sweet Apple Acres."

Tails: "An apple farm? That's something we haven't seen."

Spike: "You've been on crazy adventures, but you've never seen an apple farm before?"

Sonic: "Just because we've to many locations, it doesn't mean we've been to the common ones."

Spike: "Fair point, Sonic." They all then entered the farm and saw three fillies approaching them. One was a yellow earth pony, one was an orange pegasus with small wings, and one was a white unicorn.

Applejack: "Well hey there, sister. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, this here is my younger sister Apple Bloom. These two other fillies are her best friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle."

Apple Bloom: "Howdy y'all. Um, what exactly are y'all supposed to be?"

Tails: "I'm a fox."

Knuckles: "I'm an echidna."

Sonic and Shadow: "I'm a hedgehog."

Apple Bloom: "Y'all look very different from creatures we've seen before, and we've seen plenty."

Applejack: "That's because our guests come from a different world entirely."

Scootaloo: "An different world? No way."

Sonic: "It's true. You're Scootaloo, right?"

Scootaloo: "That's right. #1 fan of Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash: "That's right."

Sonic: "Interesting. Well Scootaloo, I may not know much about ponies, but I don't think ones who can fly are supposed to have wings that small for someone of your age. No offense."

Scootaloo: "None taken, Sonic. I've had these small wings my whole life, but I learned to not let that get me down."

Sonic: "That's something I like to hear, you not letting a disability of yours stop you from doing things."

Scootaloo: "Thanks, Sonic."

Sweetie Belle: "Question: has anyone ever thought that you and Shadow look like the same creature?"

Shadow: "Not this again."

Scootaloo: "What's his deal?"

Sonic: "We actually have been thought to be the same hedgehog before, but that was long time ago. I'm glad there's no more confusion on which hedgehog is which."

Apple Bloom: "Well it's nice to meet you, Sonic. Hey Big Mac, Granny Smith, we have some guests on the farm," she called to her family.

Granny Smith: "Now what did you have me get up from my nap for?"

Apple Bloom: "We have some visitors."

Granny Smith: "Who/what are they supposed to be?

Apple Bloom: "They're Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow. They aren't from around here," she answered while Sonic and the others waved.

Granny Smith: "Well as long as you aren't causing problems, it's fine by me." The elderly pony then walked back to the rocking chair she was sleeping on to continue her nap.

Tails: "That's your grandma I assume?"

Twilight: "Around here, we say grandmare."

Knuckles: "So who's this red stallion and the pink unicorn right next to him?"

Applejack: "This red stallion is my older brother, Big MacIntosh, and that unicorn is his wife Sugar Belle. Big Mac and Sugar Belle, say hello to our guests."

Sugar Belle: "Hi. It's nice to meet you."

Big Mac: "Howdy."

Sonic: "Your brother isn't one who talks much, is he Applejack?"

Applejack: "How can you tell?"

Sonic: "The way he said howdy."

Shadow: "I might actually like him. Unlike you, he doesn't say much."

Sonic: "Very funny," Sonic said sarcastically.

Sugar Belle: "Hi Starlight!" Starlight then noticed the unicorn from her old village and smiled.

Starlight: "Hey Sugar Belle!" I haven't seen you since you invited me to the Sunset Festival. Since when do you live here?"

Sugar Belle: "Since I started doing baking lessons with Mrs. Cake and since I married Big Mac."

Pinkie: "So that's why I see you at Sugar Cube Corner sometimes."

Spike: "And to think I just made that up in an attempt to cheer up Big Mac."

Tails: "You're going to have to tell us that story."

Sonic: "Agreed."

Spike: "If I get the chance, I will."

Twilight: "Well this has been enjoyable, but we should probably continue the tour." Everyone then waved goodbye and walked back to the main part of Ponyville. The group walked towards a carousel looking building called the Carousel Boutique, and one unicorn was ready to talk plenty about it.

Rarity: "Welcome to the Carousel Boutique. It's not only my home, but also my place of work."

Pinkie: "Like me with Sugar Cube Corner."

Knuckles: "A boutique?"

Applejack: "Yeah, it's where she makes and sells clothes to those who want/need it."

Tails: "Amy would probably be in a place like this for a good while," Tails whispered to Sonic.

Sonic: "I know she would. The girl once dragged me to a mall in Central City. She said that she wanted me to try on a suit. I only went with her because she would have kept begging me to go if I said no."

Fluttershy: "Um Rarity, has that window always been broken?" Everyone then noticed that one of the windows was partially broken.

Rarity: "AHHH! What happened to my glorious window?" She screamed, making everyone cover their ears.

Sonic: "Does she always scream loudly when something bad happens?"

Rainbow Dash: "Not always. Usually, she just faints on something, usually a couch."

Twilight: "How did that window break?"

Shadow: "I can answer that," Shadow spoke up, making everyone turn towards him. "One of the chaos emeralds smashed through that window and landed in your shop. Nothing else looked damaged."

Twilight: "Well at least it was just the window, and it can be fixed easily."

Rarity: "True."

Sonic: "I assume that one of you has a spell to fix the window."

Rarity: "I certainly do. Allow me to show you." Rarity then cast the spell and made the window look good as new.

Sonic: "Nicely done," Sonic said with a thumbs up.

Rarity: "Why thank you, Sonic," Rarity replied while also bowing.

Tails: "Speaking of the emeralds, do you think we could also get a tour of Canterlot?"

Spike: "I don't see why not."

Twilight: "Neither do I. Starlight, Trixie, you coming with us?"

Starlight: "I think we'll sit this one out. Somepony has to watch your old castle."

Trixie: "And we happen to be those ponies."

Twilight: "Well okay then. As for everypony else/every other creature, let's go to Canterlot." Twilight then teleported herself, the rest of the Mane 6, Spike, Sonic, and the others back to her hometown while Starlight and Trixie headed back to Twilight's old friendship castle.

When they all arrived in Canterlot, the place had been cleaned up. Not just ten streets, but some of the buildings and shops as well.

Tails: "Whoa!"

Sonic: "This place looks much better than when we first arrived."

Twilight: "Well having a cleaning crew certainly helps with that. Spike, remind me to thank them first chance we get."

Spike: "Noted." Two voices were then heard from the Canterlot Castle balcony. When everyone looked to see where it was coming from, they saw two ponies with wings and a horn, just like Princess Twilight."

Twilight: "Celestia and Luna!" She said while she and Spike went over and hugged them.

Celestia: "It's good to see you again, Twilight. You too, Spike."

Luna: "So how's ruling Equestria going?"

Spike: "It's going well, but you know how you told us to expect the unexpected?"

Celestia: "Yes. Why?" They both then pointed to the anthropomorphic creatures that came to Canterlot with them.

Luna: "Who exactly are these creatures?"

Twilight: "Celestia and Luna, meet Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails the Fox, Knuckles the Echidna, and Shadow the Hedgehog."

Spike: "Sonic and other guests, this is Celestia and Luna, the former rulers of Equestria."

Luna: "This was the important business that Spike spoke of in the letter?"

Spike: "That's right."

Twilight: "They helped us when this mad scientist invaded Canterlot and Ponyville, so we decided to give them a tour of both place minus the robots."

Celestia: "Well it's nice to meet all of you," Celestia greeted with a bow.

Luna: "We thank you for helping the princess and her friends," Luna added while also bowing.

Sonic: "No prob, it's kind of our job."

Pinkie: "Ooh, that rhymed."

Sonic: "So I'm guessing that Celestia was in charge of the sun and other day stuff."

Tails: "And I'm guessing that Luna was literally a night pony."

Celestia: "Why yes. How did you two figure that out so quickly?"

Sonic: "One of you is a white pony with a picture of the sun on her butt, and the other is a dark blue pony with a picture of the moon on hers."

Tails: "By the way, what you call a pony with wings and one with wings and a horn?"

Knuckles: "And pony with neither? I know it might seem obvious, but I still want to know."

Celestia: "Me, my sister, and Princess Twilight are alicorns."

Luna: "A pony with just wings in called a pegasus."

Rainbow Dash: "Pegasai is the plural version."

Applejack: "And by the way Knuckles, ponies without wings or a horn are just called Earth ponies."

Shadow: "Alicorns? Interesting."

Sonic: "Well thanks for letting us know.

Luna: "Twilight, would you and Spike mind if we joined you on this tour?"

Twilight: "I don't mind if you join us."

Spike: "I'm okay with it." Everyone then walked over to start the tour in Canterlot. They visited the School for Gifted Unicorns, where Twilight explained that this school is the main reason she has a love for learning. Next, they visited the Canterlot Art Gallery. While inside, everyone took notice of some of the creations in said gallery. One of them was a painting of The Mane 6 and Spike.

Sonic: "Hey everyone, come look at this," Sonic called to the group.

Rainbow Dash: "Check it out, it's us."

Rarity: "Twilight, is this painting new?"

Twilight: "Yes it is new."

Spike: "Someone wanted to make a painting of us as a thank you for saving Equestria so many times."

Applejack: "It's incredible."

Knuckles: "If you ever come back with Rouge, you need to keep her far away from this place," Knuckles whispered to Shadow.

Shadow: "I normally don't like those not in charge of me telling me what to do, but you actually have a point. I don't need to be dealing with law enforcement again like when I first met Sonic," Shadow whispered back. Twilight planned to take them to the Canterlot Library of Magic, but Sonic tried to change her mind when he first saw where they were heading.

Sonic: "Twilight, I'm sure you love books, but I don't think everyone else here has that same passion." Twilight then thought of a different and more interesting place to go and teleported the whole group there. Everyone was now at the Sculpture Garden and Hedge Maze.

Applejack: "Well we haven't been here in a while."

Knuckles: "By any chance does that Discord creature have something to do with when you were first here?"

Fluttershy: "How'd you know that?"

Knuckles: "Just a lucky guess."

Sonic: "Knuckles using his brain power. It may not be rare, but it's still a surprise when it happens," Sonic said to Tails.

Knuckles: "I heard that," the echidna said in response.

Shadow: "Discord brought up that he was thwarted twice before. How did that happen?"

Celestia: "We used powerful artifacts called the Elements of Harmony."

Luna: "My sister and I used them to defeat Discord the first time by sealing him in stone. However, we had to keep them in a tree in a place called the Everfree Forest."

Tails: "The Everfree Forest?"

Knuckles: "I think that's where we ended up when we first arrived in Equestria."

Twilight: "You landed in the Everfree Forest?"

Sonic: "That's right."

Rarity: "How ever did you escape and find your way to Canterlot?"

Sonic: "While in that forest, we saved a Zebra named Zecora and she told us about it. We also saw Eggman's ship heading in that direction."

Shadow: "So how did Discord escape the first time?"

Twilight: "That we still don't know. But we do know that me and my friends eventually sealed him in stone again after he escaped."

Knuckles: "So what led to him being freed again?"

Celestia: "That was my idea. Back when me and my younger sister were ruling, I figured that Discord could use his chaos magic for good instead of evil."

Twilight: "He did eventually reform completely and is now a friend of ours."

Sonic: "And I assume that you used these Elements of Harmony to unseal him."

Twilight: "That's right."

Tails: "So how did you convince to give up his evil ways?"

Spike: "You can thank Fluttershy for that."

Fluttershy: "It's true. After I showed him kindness and friendship, he realized it was something he didn't want to lose. Now we're really close friends."

Sonic: "So you killed evil with kindness."

Fluttershy: "I guess so." The group them continued the tour around the garden. After some time had passed, Tails noticed that one statue looked very different from the rest.

Tails: "Umm, Twilight? This statue looks like three creatures are trapped in there."

Twilight: "The reason for that is three creatures actually are trapped in this one statue."

Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow: "Say what now?"

Celestia: "She's right. That's Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow. They tried to take over all of Equestria and they divided the three tribes of ponykind."

Luna: "They would have succeeded if not for the power of friendship that spread across Equestria and beyond."

Knuckles: "I have a feeling that 'my friends are my power' is used a lot here."

Spike: "Yeah, it is."

Pinkie: "But It's used a lot for a reason: it's super effective!"

Sonic: "Why does one of them looked like a filly pegasus?"

Twilight: "That's because one of them is. Cozy Glow manipulated everyone at our School of Friendship and almost drained magic from all of Equestria. When she came back, she came back stronger."

Celestia: "It was decided that turning all three of them into stone was the only way to ensure they didn't cause anymore trouble for the time being." Sonic then put on a noticably more serious face than what he's had the entire time since he's arrived in Equestria.

Spike: "What's wrong, Sonic?"

Sonic: "I understand that she was trouble, but turning a child into stone seems excessive. Did you even give her a chance to change her ways like with Discord?"

Twilight: "She seemed too evil to have any shot at being reformed."

Sonic: "Even so, that seems like a fate as bad, if not worse than death."

Pinkie: "Weird, I think some fans have said that too." Most of the group looked at her weird but ignored her comment. However, Shadow and Sonic looked at the frozen pegasus for a it longer before another comment was made.

Shadow: "I don't care what other say, being turned to stone is not worse than death. At least you're alive," Shadow said in a tone that made it clear he was upset about something.

Fluttershy: "Shadow, are you okay?"

Shadow: "It's fine. Let's just continue the tour." The ponies and Spike were concerned about Shadow, but decided to not address it and continue the tour. Team Sonic, however, knew why Shadow said what he said.

Eventually, the tour had come to a close. Sonic and the others had been showed most of the important landmarks of Equestria's capital.

Twilight: "So what did you think of the tours?"

Shadow: "It was okay."

Knuckles: "I liked it."

Tails: "Me too."

Sonic: "Me three. Now that I have a better understanding of where we are, I can better explore this place in ten seconds."

Rainbow Dash: "Just what do you mean by that?"

Sonic: "I mean that I can run through these places really quickly."

Luna: "Pardon me, Sonic, but Canterlot and Ponyville aren't exactly small locations."

Sonic: "Maybe not, but when you're the fastest thing alive, you can travel anywhere in no time."

Rainbow Dash: "No offense Sonic, but you can't be the fastest thing alive. That title belongs to me."

Sonic: "Have you ever raced against anyone who can match your speed?"

Rainbow: "No, but that's because no one has been able to match my speed. What about you?"

Sonic: "I've had a few challengers who came close, but none of them could outpace a hedgehog who can run faster than light." Twilight and her friends gasped at what Sonic had just said while Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow were used to this.

Rainbow Dash: "If you think you're faster than me, then prove it. You and me will have a race. Whoever wins holds the title of fastest thing alive forever!"

Sonic: "Challenge accepted, Rainbow Dash."

Twilight: "Does Sonic normally act like this?" Twilight asked Tails.

Tails: "If you mean his confidence, then yes. And thankfully, it's rarely been a problem. Is Rainbow Dash always like this?"

Twilight: "She use to, but she's thankfully toned it down over the years."

Sonic: "So where will the race take place?"

Rainbow Dash: "Ponyville. Twilight and the others can help with setting up. You'll help with that, right?"

Fluttershy: "As long as Twilight and Spike are okay with it."

Twilight: "I guess we'll help set up your race."

Rainbow Dash: "Aw yeah!" Twilight then teleported herself, her friends, and the anthropomorphic creatures while Celestia and Luna stayed to keep watching over Canterlot.

Author's Note

Chapter 5: Completed!

First off, I accidentally pressed the publish button before I even finished writing the chapter, so the actual date for this chapter's release is 1/3/2025.

Second, from now on, "Sonic and the others" will refer to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow since the Mane 6, Spike, Starlight, and Trixie know who they are now. "Sonic and everyone else" includes the Mane 6 and Spike.

Third, I put a SpongeBob SquarePants reference in this chapter. See if you can find it.

Fourth, I wasn't expecting this chapter to be 7000+ words like Chapter 3, but it is.

Last, one of Shadow's line is almost exactly the same as one of his lines from another Sonic game. Can you figure the line and the game that the line came from?

See you in Chapter 6, where Sonic and Rainbow Dash will have a race for the ages!

Chapter 6 - Super Sonic Racing

After some time had passed, everything needed for the race between Sonic the Hedgehog and Rainbow Dash was ready.

In the center of Ponyville:

Mayor Mare: "Greetings to all creatures that are here. Today we've got something special for you today. It's a race between two very fast creatures. The pegasus from Cloudsdale and a member of the Wonderbolts: Rainbow Dash!

Rainbow Dash: "Aw yeah!"

Sonic: "Wonderbolts? I'll have to ask about that after this race," Sonic said to himself.

Mayor Mare: "Her opponent will be one of our new guests in Ponyville who also helped save it from a robot attack that happened earlier today: Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Sonic: "I'm always up for a challenge," Sonic said before turning to his best friend and asking him "Hey Tails. Can you take these upgrades off me?"

Tails: "Sure thing. I kinda forgot that you didn't take them off," Tails responded.

Sonic: "Don't worry about it. I want a fair race and to not be accused of cheating," Sonic told him while Tails took the upgrades off.

Tails: "Okay. Everything is off. Good luck, Sonic." Sonic simply gave Tails a thumbs up in response while Tails put the upgrades in his toolkit and went next to Twilight, Knuckles, Shadow, and the mayor.

Rainbow Dash: "You ready for this?"

Sonic: "I'm ready alright. I hope you're ready to give me a challenge."

Mayor Mare: "Are the contestants ready?"

Rainbow Dash: "I sure am, Mayor Mare."

Sonic: "I'm ready to blast through with Sonic speed."

Tails: "Hearing him say that brings back memories," Tails said to himself.

Twilight: "Each location the two of you have to reach has a sign at the entrance of said location."

Sonic and Rainbow Dash: "Thanks, Twilight!" The speedsters said at the same time.

Twilight: "If no further preparations need to be made, Pinkie Pie, will you start this race?"

Pinkie: "With pleasure," she said while Sonic and Rainbow Dash got into their running and flying stances respectfully. "On your marks, get set, RACE!" Both competitors ran quickly as the race had officially begun.

The two were off. Whitetail Woods was the first place to visit. Rainbow Dash had been in the forest before, but that didn't mean Sonic was at a huge disadvantage.

Rainbow Dash: "Not bad, but you'll have to run faster than that if you want to beat me," she said to Sonic while she was flying.

Sonic: "Actually, I've been jogging for most of this race. If you want me to actually start running, I'd be glad to."

Rainbow Dash: "What?" Rainbow Dash said, clearly surprised by his words, but she quickly shook it off and continued with the race. "Get a grip, Dash. He's only trying to get in your head," she told herself before flying ahead of Sonic.

Sonic: "Time to start trying," Sonic said before picking up speed. Unbeknownst to them, Tails had built a drone to track both of them to keep an eye on the race.

Twilight: "Both of our racers are neck and neck right now through Whitetail Woods," Twilight said.

Tails: "She has to be fast if she can keep up when he's just jogging."

Twilight: "Hold up, Sonic was jogging?"

Tails: "Sure looked like it."

Knuckles: "Doesn't surprise me. I've seen him go really fast while simply going on a jog."

Applejack: "You're saying that Sonic is fast even if he's not actually running?"

Tails: "Yup. If he goes fast enough while jogging, he can break the sound barrier the moment he starts actually running."

Fluttershy: "Oh my," Fluttershy responded, stunned by what Tails had just said.

Pinkie: "This is going to be so fun!" Pinkie said excitedly. In fact, she was so excited that she wasn't mindful of how loud she was until someone said something.

Shadow: "Would you mind not screaming into anyone's ears? I'd like to eventually leave this world with my hearing in tact."

Pinkie: "Oops. Sorry, Shadow," she said before smiling. All Shadow did was roll his eyes as he and the others continued to watch from the drone.

Back with the speedsters, Saddle Lake was the next stop. When Sonic saw the sign, he quickly was worried. Water had been his one true weakness ever since he traversed through a labyrinth that was half underwater. However, Sonic wasn't letting any water stop him from winning the race. The lake was in view. Rainbow Dash seemed more confident that she could take the lead.

Rainbow Dash: "Ha! I can fly over the water. If he goes around the lake, he'll definitely fall behind, and it's not like he can run across the water," she said to herself in confidence. However, she just made the mistake of underestimating Sonic. Before, they reached the water, Sonic started to pick up speed. Eventually, he was going so fast that a a blue semi-circle appeared in front of him. He was going as fast at the speed of sound.

Sonic: "Hey there, Dash," Sonic said to the pegasus," startling her.

Rainbow Dash: "What? How are you running across the water?"

Sonic: "It's not the first time I've done this," Sonic answered as he boosted across the water, passing Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash: "He's not going to beat me that easily," she grumbled to herself. Meanwhile, Tails' drone was watching from above both racers.

Twilight: "Sonic can run on water? How is that even possible?" Twilight asked, just as surprised as Rainbow Dash was.

Tails: "If he runs fast enough, he can actually run across water without sinking."

Rarity: "How fast is that?"

Tails: "The speed of sound." The Mane 5, Spike, and Trixie were shocked by what they at heard.

Trixie: "That blue hedgehog can run at the speed of sound?"

Knuckles: "That's just one speed he can reach."

Applejack: "Just one?"

Tails: "Yep."

Shadow: "And he's not the only one who can go that fast."

Twilight: "Can you go that fast, Shadow?"

Shadow: "Sure can. I'm one of the few who've actually been able to keep up with that hedgehog in a race."

Mayor Mare: "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but how's the race going?"

Tails: "Sonic and Rainbow Dash are currently neck and neck."

Mayor Mare: "How is your device able to keep up with them?"

Tails: "I made a drone to track Sonic's speed a while ago. It was a 'just in case' invention."

Twilight: "You've made stuff like that drone before?"

Tails: "Yup. I can tell you more about later." While the rest of the group looked at the footage from Tails' Miles Electric, Trixie wondered where her best friend was.

Trixie: "Um, does anyone know where Starlight Glimmer is?" Trixie asked.

Twilight: "She's somewhere else waiting for Rainbow Dash and Sonic."

Trixie: "So she's helping with the race?"

Twilight: "Exactly."

Trixie: "Oh. The great and powerful Trixie is satisfied with that answer," she said before continuing to watch the race from the Miles Electric.

Back with the racers, the two have approached some hilly meadows. Rainbow Dash could fly above them with no problem. Sonic had no problem going over them either, but he did it his own way. He slowed down to let Rainbow Dash pass him, which the pegasus saw as him maybe giving up. Instead, he slowed down, so he could pick up speed again to jump over all the hilly terrain. When Rainbow Dash looked behind her, she didn't see the hedgehog.

Rainbow Dash: "What happened to Sonic?" Her question was soon answered as soon as she turned around to see her competitor in the air, above the hills. She quickly flew faster to catch up to him. Soon enough, they both reached Starlight Glimmer at the edge of said meadows.

Starlight: "Hey Rainbow Dash! Hey Sonic! Just pass me and then run back the way you came," she yelled at them so they could hear. The speedsters did pass her and then started heading back. However, Sonic went so fast that her mane was all messed up and poofy like. He also slowed down after passing her so he could turn around more easily. "Well, that happened," Starlight said after seeing her mane before teleporting back to Ponyville.

Rarity: "Darling, what happened to your mane?" Rarity asked her unicorn friend.

Starlight: "Sonic was going a bit too fast and accidentally made my mane all poofy."

Twilight: "Yeah, Rainbow Dash made my hair all poofy when I visited Ponyville for the first time."

Pinkie: "I like it. Nothing is wrong with poofy hair."

Starlight: "Thanks for the compliment, Pinkie. However, I like the way my old mane looked when I became friends with you."

Knuckles: "You had a different hairstyle before you became friends with Twilight Sparkle?"

Starlight: "It's a long story."

Rarity: "I can fix your mane after the race."

Meanwhile with our racers, Sonic was tied with Rainbow Dash heading back into Whitetail Woods. Rainbow Dash was both impressed and frustrated with Sonic's speed. Impressed that someone else could keep up with her but frustrated that she could potentially lose.

Rainbow Dash: "You might be a fast creature, but that doesn't mean you're the fastest thing alive!" She said.

Sonic: "You're pretty fast yourself. However. . ." He stopped talking before Rainbow Dash turned to see him not only ahead, but running backwards faster than she was currently flying. "It seems that you have quite a ways to go before you can reach my top speed," he finished before continuing to dash ahead. Twilight and the others watching from back in Ponyville were once again shocked. Not just with Sonic's speed, but how he seems to be having fun and not taking this seriously.

Twilight: "How can Sonic just run backwards like that? Is he not taking this seriously?"

Tails: "He is taking this race seriously, but he likes to have fun with his opponents. Even Shadow can attest to that."

Shadow: "Tails is right. As annoying as it tends to be, I have to admit that Sonic has guts to try and do that against me."

Fluttershy: "Sounds like you take these races much more seriously than Sonic."

Shadow: "That's because I do. Sometimes, it seems like he doesn't take them seriously at all," Shadow said, starting to get a little upset.

Tails: "Despite how it might seem, Sonic always takes these races seriously."

Rainbow Dash: "That's it. Time for me to pull out the big guns," Rainbow Dash said before taking to the skies.

Sonic: "What's she doing?" Rainbow Dash then started to pick up speed and have a semi-circle appear around her like it did around Sonic. The pegasus thought that it would catch the blue hedgehog off guard. However, Sonic knew what was coming and already had a way to counter. "She's about to perform a sonic boom. Well then, it's time for me to start trying a little harder," he said before picking up speed again. Both speedsters were getting faster and faster until two loud BOOMS were heard from Ponyville.

Tails: "Did Rainbow Dash just perform a sonic boom?" Tails asked while looking at his Miles Electric, still startled from the loud sounds he just heard.

Fluttershy: "Actually, she performed a sonic rainboom."

Tails: "Is it just a sonic boom but there's a rainbow involved?"

Twilight: "Pretty much."

Knuckles: "I don't know about you, but I heard two loud sounds."

Twilight: "Two? How is that possible?"

Tails: "That means both of them pulled of a sonic boom."

Mane 5, Spike, Starlight, and Trixie: "WHAT?"

Tails: "Yup. And by the looks of it, he could pull off a second one," Tails continued while looking at the footage via the Miles Electric. However, while Sonic and Rainbow Dash were finishing their race, a robot had been watching part of it.

Dr. Eggman: "Mecha Sonic, return to the Egg Carrier 4X. We have plenty of data," Eggman told one of his powerful robots. Mecha Sonic then sneaked off and used the jets on his back to return to the flying fortress without being spotted.

Rainbow Dash: "Aw yeah! I've got this race in the bag," Rainbow Dash said with confidence. Unfortunately for her, that confidence wouldn't last long.

Sonic: "I'm really impressed, Dash," Sonic said from below, causing her the pegasus' jaw to drop. "Too bad for you, I'm about to end this race real soon," he finished. Rainbow Dash then noticed that Sonic's feet were now in a figure eight/infinity shape. She also noticed that there was a semi-circle around him. After 3 seconds of slowly increasing speed, he broke the sound barrier again and zoomed past Rainbow Dash. In the process, he also eclipsed lightspeed until reaching Ponyville less than two seconds afterwards. When he saw the town, he slowed down as soon as he reached the center of it so he wouldn't run into anyone. Everypony (and Spike) was stunned with what had just happened. For the ponies, their manes had been messed up because of how fast Sonic had traveled.

(End music)

Tails: "Wow, even by your usual standards, that was impressive, Sonic," Tails said to his best friend, breaking the silence.

Sonic: "Thanks buddy."

Tails: "By the way, me and Twilight were using my drone to track you and and Rainbow Dash to see how you were doing."

Sonic: "Interesting. Did pick up our speeds too?"

Tails: "The drone in fact was tracking your speeds, and here it comes now," Tails said while the drone was approaching with Rainbow Dash right behind it, a bit winded.

Mayor Mare: "Well everypony and every non-pony, the winner of the race is Sonic the Hedgehog!" The mayor announced.

Ponies were hesitant given that they barely knew the hedgehog, but they slowly but surely cheered and congratulated him (they figured it would be rude to not do so).

Sonic: "Thank you every. . . creature. I love myself a challenge," he addressed everyone before turning back to Tails. "So Tails, what were our speeds?"

Tails: "Well Rainbow Dash actually broke the sound barrier when she performed that sonic rainboom at the end of the race."

Sonic: "I knew it was a sonic boom when I saw her pick up speed. Is it a rainboom due to the rainbow?"

Tails: "From what Fluttershy told us, yes. Speaking of her, are you okay, Dash?" Dash was still a bit shocked by how the race ended, but she still managed to form actually sentences.

Rainbow Dash: "I'm okay, but I have to ask: How did Sonic beat my sonic rainboom and eventually pass me?"

Knuckles: "I might not always be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I think it's because Sonic pulled off a sonic boom of his own around the same time that Rainbow Dash did hers."

Tails: "Knuckles is right. Not only did Sonic perform a sonic boom, he performed a second one in less than 10 seconds."

Rainbow Dash: "A second one? That fast?"

Sonic: "Not the first time I've done two within a few seconds of each other."

Tails: "By the way, for most of the race, you were going between 'slightly slower than lightspeed' and 'slightly faster than lightspeed,' if you can believe it."

Sonic: "I'm a bit surprised, even by my standards."

Twilight: "Hold up, you can go at lightspeed?"

Sonic: "That's right. I've been getting faster and stronger with each adventure," Sonic told Twilight. "So how fast was I going at the end of the race?" He then asked Tails."

Tails: "Well according to my Miles Electric, you were going slightly faster than lightspeed just before the second sonic boom. After that, you were going way faster than lightspeed until you came to a screeching halt." The Mane 6, Spike, Starlight, and Trixie had their jaws dropped for what seemed like the 100th time today.

Shadow: "I must admit, Sonic: I am impressed with how you performed."

Sonic: "Shadow the Hedgehog giving me a compliment? You don't see that everyday."

Shadow: "Don't get used to it."

Sonic: "I had no plans on doing so." Sonic then looked at Rainbow Dash, who was a little bit disappointed in herself. "Hey there, Dash. Don't beat yourself up. You gave me a real challenge," he told her.

Rainbow Dash: "Really?"

Sonic: "Yeah. I don't get to have much fun with most of my races since they're usually with someone who has something against me for some reason." Shadow just rolled his eyes, knowing that Sonic was referring to him as one of those opponents.

Rainbow Dash: "You're being serious?"

Sonic: "Absolutely! You're one fast pony, Rainbow Dash, but I think you now know why I'm called the fastest thing alive."

Rainbow Dash: "Yeah, I guess so," Rainbow Dash responded before giving a hoof bump to Sonic. After seeing that, most of the ponies had left and continued on with their day.

Pinkie: "Well that was fun. Let's have a party to celebrate!"

Rarity: "Darling, the sun is setting real quickly. We should be heading to our homes soon."

Pinkie: "Oh, I guess you're right."

Fluttershy: "Hey Twilight, why don't you and Spike spend the night in Ponyville for old times sake?"

Twilight: "We'd love to, but we should probably head back to Canterlot."

Spike: "We are the ruler and royal advisor of Equestria after all."

Sonic: "Not only that, but Eggman's still around, and there's a good chance he'll attack that place again."

Starlight: "I didn't even think of that."

Applejack: "In that case, we should all go to Canterlot to help."

Twilight: "I appreciate the offer, but I think it's better all of you stay here."

Applejack: "What? Why?"

Twilight: "Dr. Eggman could very easily attack here and he'd have a head start on us. It's better for the seven of you stay here."

Starlight: "Alright Twilight, we trust you."

Rainbow Dash: "But what about you? You and Spike may not be enough to handle another invasion on own, even if Celestia and Luna help."

Sonic: "Why don't me, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow come to Canterlot with them?"

Tails: "Yeah. We need a place to stay while we're in Equestria anyways, assuming you two don't mind."

Spike: "I'm fine with them staying with us."

Twilight: "I'm fine with that too."

Knuckles: "Thanks, but no thanks. I prefer to be more out in the open than being in a stuffy castle. No offense, Twilight."

Twilight: "None taken."

Applejack: "You can stay with me an my family if you want. Our barn has plenty of room."

Knuckles: "I'm fine with staying in a barn."

Tails: "Well Knuckles, do you have your stuff?"

Knuckles: "Everything I had when we went through that portal is in the bag currently on my back," Knuckles answered showing everyone his bookbag.

Spike: "How did we not notice that until now?"

Sonic: "Probably because it's red like he is."

Twilight: "Well if every creature has everything, then it's time for me Spike, and three of our guests to head back to Canterlot." Everyone waved goodbye as she teleported herself, her royal advisor, along with Sonic, Tails, and Shadow back to Canterlot while everyone else went to their respective homes.

Later at night:

Twilight: "And that's just about everything there is in Canterlot Castle," Twilight said, finishing up a tour of the castle.

Sonic: "This place is pretty snazzy."

Shadow: "It's not bad."

Celestia: "Why thank you. Me and my sister have so many memories while we ruled."

Luna: "Both good and not so good, but the good memories outweigh the bad ones."

Tails: "What are these pictures on the stained glass windows?"

Twilight: "These show very important events throughout Equestria's history."

Celestia: "That one is me and Luna sealing Discord in stone the first time," Celestia said, pointing to a picture on the far left of the castle window.

Tails: "How long ago was this?"

Luna: "Quite a long time ago. I don't even think Twilight and Spike were born yet."

Sonic: "Wow. What's that picture on the opposite side if this hall?"

Spike: "That's me getting the crystal heart and saving the Crystal Empire from King Sombra, a once evil tyrant who ruled over it."

Shadow: "Crystal Empire? What's that?"

Twilight: "It's a place where crystal ponies live. I also have family that lives there."

Shadow: "Interesting."

Luna: "I think that's enough touring for one night. Me and my sister have to get back to Silver Shoals."

Celestia: "Agreed. Farewell Twilight and Spike. It was nice to see you two again."

Luna: "And farewell to you as well Sonic, Tails, and Shadow." Luna said before she and Celestia teleported away.

Sonic: "Is Silver Shoals like a retirement home or something?"

Spike: "It's mostly that, yes."

Twilight: "Alright, now let's have some dinner. You three must be starving after all that adventure you've had."

Sonic and Tails: "I could eat right now," Sonic and Tails said at the same time.

Spike: "Wow, you two are kind of like brothers."

Sonic: "Well the two of us are so close that we are kinda family."

Shadow: "Let's have dinner before this gets unnecessarily wholesome."

Sonic: "Alright Shadow. Chill out." After dinner, arrangements were made for Sonic and Shadow to sleep in Twilight's room while Tails roomed with Spike.

Twilight: "Are the two of you comfortable?" Twilight asked Spike and Tails.

Spike: "I'm good."

Tails: "I'm good too. Thanks for letting us stay in the castle while we're stuck in Equestria."

Twilight: "It's no problem. Good night you two."

Tails and Spike: "Good night, Twilight." Twilight then shut the door in their room. She then escorted Sonic and Shadow to her room.

Sonic: "Your room looks fancy. Being royalty has its perks."

Twilight: "I guess that's true. Are you two comfortable?"

Shadow: "I'm comfortable enough."

Sonic: "I'm plenty comfortable. Thanks for letting us sleep here, and thanks for dinner. It was great."

Twilight: "Glad you enjoyed dinner, and good night to you two," Twilight said as she went to sleep. Shadow went to sleep soon afterwards, but Sonic still had something on his mind.

Sonic: "As great as it's been with our new friends, I think I'll do some self exploring tomorrow. Nothing against them, it's just a part of me," Sonic said to himself before closing his eyes and going to sleep for the night.

Author's Note

That wraps up the sixth chapter. This is currently the shortest one I have written so far, but that could change in the future.

The only noteworthy references in this chapter are Sonic saying "blast through with Sonic speed" which came from Sonic Heroes and Sonic running backwards, which of course was first seen in the TV show Sonic X.

Also, the chapter is being published on 1/8/2025 but it says 1/9/2025. Not sure why.

Next time, we will see what Eggman has been up to since chapter 4. I figured we should see some of what the mad scientist has been planning. Also, I'll be taking a slightly longer break between this chapter and chapter 7. Instead of two days, it'll be three (this just means I'm taking a break of at least 72 Hours before I start working on the next chapter). I'll still try to work on it as fast as possible.

See you then!

Chapter 7 - Rolling Around at The Speed of Sound

Morning had arrived in Equestria. For Twilight and her friends, the previous day was an eventful one. Since the purple alicorn took over as ruler, they haven't had many compared to when Twilight was only the Princess of Friendship. Now, with the arrival of Team Sonic, Shadow, Eggman, and his crew, things are looking as eventful as they used to be. Twilight Sparkle had woken up, wondering about what the mad scientist would do next, but she knew that she needed to eat first before planning anything to stop him.

Twilight: "Sonic and Shadow must be eating at the dining table," Twilight first thought after waking up from her sleep. She then made her way to said dining table and did see two of the guests that spent the night.

Royal Guard A: "Did you sleep well, Princess?" One of the royal guards asked.

Twilight: "I slept great. You and the other guard can go have breakfast."

Royal Guard B: "If you say so, Princess," another guard said before both of them went to the kitchen to get food.

Twilight: "Good Morning, everyone!" Twilight greeted.

Tails and Spike: "Good Morning, Twilight," Tails and Spike greeted back."

Shadow: "Morning," Shadow said in a neutral tone. As Twilight looked around the table, she noticed that there was someone missing.

Twilight: "Has anyone seen Sonic? He wasn't in my room when I woke up this earlier."

Tails: "Oh that. I saw a note next to me when I woke up." Tails then handed Sonic's note to Twilight and she read it out loud.

Dear Tails, Spike, Shadow, and Twilight,

I decided to go out for a run and explore Equestria for myself. I know there's more to this world than just Canterlot, Ponyville, and the Crystal Empire. Nothing personal, this is just how I roll sometimes.

One of your newest friends, Sonic.

Shadow: "Tails showed me the letter this morning after we got breakfast. Not surprised that Sonic decided to go off on his own."

Spike: "He's done this before?"

Tails: "Going off to do his own thing? Yeah, he's done that before."

Twilight: "When do you think he'll be back?"

Tails: "Not sure. He might be the fastest thing alive, but he likes to slow down and explore sometimes."

Twilight: "I hope he's really careful out there. Some of the ponies and other creatures might not be as welcoming as we were."

Tails: "Sonic likes to go where the wind takes him. The wind could take him out of harm's way," Tails said in a calming voice to ease Twilight's worries. It thankfully did work and made her less worried about Sonic's whereabouts.

In Manehattan:

Sonic had been up since 9 AM. He arrived at a big city close to 9:30 AM because he had breakfast at Canterlot Castle and spent a good 10-15 minutes exploring more of Canterlot before leaving to explore new parts of the world he was currently in. Right now, he was in a metropolitan city northeast of Ponyville.

Sonic: "Welcome to Manehattan," Sonic read off of a sign. "Manehattan sounds like another pony pun, but I'm not here to think about that, I'm here to explore this place." After quickly making his way across the bridge, he found himself in the city of Manehattan. Many of the ponies who spotted him had looks of confusion on their faces.

Young Unicorn Colt: "Daddy, who's that?" A young blue pony asked his dad, who was a darker shade of blue.

Adult Unicorn Stallion: "I don't know, but don't interact with him/it until we know it's safe," the stallion told his son before walking off to continue their task (by the way, imagine that some of these ponies were background characters that were seen throughout the actual show with a few new ones). Sonic noticed those two unicorns and other ponies walk by and give him looks, but they didn't phase him at all.

Sonic: "I've got a feeling that I'm going to get looks from everyone wherever I go today. Oh well, that won't stop me from seeing the sights of this Manehattan place." The blue hedgehog then looked around to see where he could start his personal tour and quickly found something: a green statue of an earth pony on an island. "I feel like that exists elsewhere," Sonic said to himself.

Adult Earth Pony: "Excuse me, sir. What exactly are you?" One particular pony asked.

Sonic: "I'm a hedgehog. Name's Sonic."

Adult Earth Pony: "Well nice to meet you Sonic. I see that you're taking a look at the Mare Statue."

Sonic: "I was taking a look at it."

Adult Earth Pony: "Well, if you want to see it up close and personal, a tour of that state will begin shortly. The only thing required is that you show respect to everypony else who's touring."

Sonic: "I think I can do that." Sonic then got on a boat with a bunch of other ponies and the driver took them the island with the Mare Statue.

Tour Guide Pony: "Welcome to the Mare Statue, creatures of all shapes and sizes."

Sonic: "This pony's a tour guide? He's got a cool job in this city," Sonic said to himself while the other ponies were oohing and aahing. After Sonic thought to himself a bit more, the tour guide pony removed the red gate that was blocking the statues entrance.

Tour Guide Pony: "Let the tour of the Mare Statue begin!" The tour guide pony announced.

Sonic: "Sweet," Sonic responded before running into the statue. Everypony was stunned with how fast Sonic had moved, everypony but the children at least.

Random Filly: "That guy is really fast."

Random Colt: "He's as fast as Rainbow Dash."

Both of Them: "He might be even faster than she is," both said simultaneously after a gasp.

Tour Guide Pony: "Well someone's excited. Alright everypony. Follow me and I'll show you the beauties of this statue." After 10 minutes had passed, the group had reached the crown of the statue. When they all arrived, they saw the blue hedgehog that sped off earlier.

Sonic: "Hi there every. . . pony," Sonic said while waving to the tour group.

Tour Guide Pony: "Hello there, Sonic." The ponies were really confused on how he knew this creature's name until the tour guide said to them "In case you're wondering how I know his name, I saw him looking at the statue earlier."

Random Female Earth Pony: "Excuse me, Mr. Sonic sir, how long have you been up here?" One pony asked.

Sonic: "First off, just call me Sonic. Second, I've been here for about two minutes."

Tour Guide Pony: "Anyways, we're currently in the crown jewel of this statue: the crown. Pun fully intended." All the ponies on the tour laughed at what he said.

Random Filly: "Excuse me, tour guide pony," the filly who first commented on Sonic's speed said.

Tour Guide Pony: "Yes, young one?"

Random Filly: "What's that blue guy doing?" She asked while pointing outside the crown. All the ponies then gasped as the blue hedgehog was standing on the statue.

Tour Guide Pony: "Excuse me, Sonic. What exactly are you doing?"

Sonic: "I'm about to jump from this statue back to where the streets of Manehattan are."

Tour Guide Pony: "What?! Are you mad?" The tour guide said with worry.

Sonic: "Nope. I just like taking risks sometimes," the blue hedgehog said in confidence. He then charged up a spin dash for five seconds before speeding off of the statue and jumping off the edge like it was a ramp. The ponies inside the Mare Statue and on the Manehattan streets were shocked at what the hedgehog tried to do. They were even more shocked when he landed in front of where the boat that took him to the statue was originally. After landing, he turned around and shouted at the tour guide "Thanks for letting me see that statue! It's a nice landmark!" Sonic then sped back into the city to continue exploring.

Tour Guide Pony: "That hedgehog is fearless," the tour guide said after seeing what Sonic just did.

(End song)

Back in Canterlot, Twilight and Spike showed Tails and Shadow some of the stuff they've to do since becoming ruler and royal advisor of Equestria respectively. It was mostly boring stuff like meetings and openings. Wasn't the first time that somepony/some dragon had to walk a mile in Celestia's hooves.

Tails: "You and Spike have to go to meetings and openings?" Tails asked Twilight and Spike.

Spike: "Sometimes back to back," Spike responded.

Shadow: "I've experienced this with G.U.N. to an extent. Sometimes we have meetings followed by training sessions back to back," Shadow said to Tails.

Tails: "Seriously?"

Shadow: "Of course. Why would I kid about anything?"

Tails: "You have a point."

Twilight: "To take a break from the boring stuff we currently do, how about we show you something we used to do in Ponyville?"

Tails: "Besides just being the princess of friendship?"

Twilight: "Besides just being the princess of friendship." Twilight then teleported herself, Spike, Tails, and Shadow back to Ponyville. More specifically, in front of a building next to her old friendship castle.

Tails: "What exactly are we looking at?" Tails asked.

Spike: "This is the School of Friendship. It was created a few years ago to help teach friendship to all creatures."

Twilight: "Of course, my friends helped us run the school before we moved back to Canterlot."

Tails: "Didn't you say that Starlight runs the school now?"

Twilight: "I did in fact say that, and she is the headmare now. Follow us and we'll give you a tour of the school."

Spike: "Fair warning: you will see creatures won't just be ponies. It might weird you out a bit."

Shadow: "We've met different alien races before. I don't think whatever creatures are taught here will be that much weirder than what the two of us, that Knucklehead, and Sonic have seen."

Twilight: "Knucklehead?"

Tails: "He's talking about Knuckles."

Spike: "Noted." The four then entered the school for another tour.

Back in Manehattan, Sonic was currently on the roofs of some of the buildings to get a better view of the city, and he was enjoying himself.

Sonic: "Ah, yeah! This is happenin'!" He said. While thinking of what to do next, he heard the sound of someone screaming.

Random Pony: "Stop! Thief!" Sirens followed that scream as 6 police cars were seen chasing after a lavender colored unicorn with a purple mane and tail, a mask, and a bag. After the cars had passed, Sonic jumped down from the building he was on and turned to the pony who screamed 'thief.'

Sonic: "Excuse me, Miss. What happened?" he asked her.

Random Pony: "A unicorn came in and stole some jewelry I had in my store," she answered. Sonic then sped towards where the cops and the thief were heading.

(End song)

At some point, the unicorn had reached a dead end street. He intended on turning back and looking for another route, but was instead met by police officer ponies.

Police Officer Pony A: "You are completely surrounded. Surrender yourself," one officer commanded.

Unicorn Thief: "If I go down, I'm going down swinging!" The thief told them as he pulled a silver bat out of his bag. It was just big enough to fit inside of it. The police ponies then started pulling something out from their cars: smoke bombs to potentially block the thief's vision for long enough to catch it.

Police Officer Pony A: "Lock on everypony. Ready? Fire!" He then commanded. As they all launched their smoke bombs, the thief used his bat to swing them away. They'd either hit another officer and blind them temporarily, or they'd land close to an officer.

Unicorn Thief: "Ha ha ha. It's no use. Give up!" He probably said after avoiding getting hit by every smoke bombs thrown at him. When the officers checked for more of them, there was only one left, and it was in the car of the officer who told the thief to surrender. When it seemed like no one would be able to catch him, someone showed up to provide assistance.

Sonic: "Ah, yeah! This could be fun!" Sonic yelled after jumping on top of one of the police cars. "Now that I think about it, this feels like de ja vu," he then said to himself.

Unicorn Thief: "What exactly are you?"

Sonic: "The hedgehog who's going to help these officers bring you in!"

Unicorn Thief: "In your dreams, blue guy!" The unicorn then put down his bat and blasted a laser at the hedgehog. When he didn't see the hedgehog, he asked "Where did that blue guy go?"

Sonic: "Look behind you," Sonic answered. The thief then looked behind him and saw Sonic with the bag he was carrying. He and the officers were surprised that he was able to not only dodge his attack but also snatch the bag.

Unicorn Thief: "Give me that bag. It's mine!" The unicorn demanded.

Sonic: "This bag may or may not be yours, but what's in here definitely isn't." Sonic then quickly ran towards the unicorn and swiped the bat from the ground.

Unicorn Thief: "Hey, give that back!" The thief said angrily before charging at the hedgehog, only for him to speedily get behind him again. Meanwhile, the officers nearby saw this as a chance to grab the thief. After discussing a plan, the officer with the last smoke bombs threw it at the unicorn, stunning him.

Police Officer Pony A: "Now!" The officer commanded. Two ponies then jumped the thief and cuffed him.

Police Officer Pony B: "Hopefully you enjoyed your freedom," one of the officers said.

Police Officer Pony C: "Because now you're not going to be free for quite some time," the other officer finished. The unicorn thief was then dragged into one of the police cars and the officers who tackled and cuffed the thief drove to the police station.

Police Officer Pony A: "Thank you, kind sir," an officer said to Sonic.

Sonic: "No problem, officers. We should probably return this jewelry though," Sonic responded.

Police Officer Pony A: "Would you be okay with riding with us back to the store?"

Sonic: "I'm cool with that. However, I have to ask: are you cool with me riding on top of the car?"

Police Officer Pony A: "If you're okay with that, then so are we." The rest of the officers drove back to the store where the thief took the jewelry from with Sonic on top of one of the cars.

Sonic: "I believe this belongs to you," Sonic said to the store owner.

Store Owner: "Thank you so much, whatever/whoever you are."

Sonic: "Don't sweat it. Well it's been fun, but I've gotta run." The blue blue then ran off and left Manehattan to find somewhere else to explore.

Earlier that morning at Sweet Apple Acres:
Knuckles had spent the night with the Apples, sleeping in the same room as Big Mac.

Knuckles: "Well that was a decent sleep," Knuckles said as he woke up. After he woke up, Big Mac yawned and also woke up, but he quickly went back to sleep after falling on the floor. "You okay there, dude?" Knuckles asked.

Big Mac: "Yeeup," the red pony answered after yawning again. The echidna could tell that Big Mac was tired.

Knuckles: "What were you doing last night that has you so tired this morning? Did you stay up late last night doing extra farm work?"

Big Mac: "Yeeup."

Knuckles: "Is that actually what happened?"

Big Mac: "Yeeup."

Knuckles: "Is that all you say?"

Big Mac: "Nope." Knuckles grumbled at that response. "Look, I'm not one to do a whole lot of talking," Big Mac told Knuckles.

Knuckles: "Oh yeah, Applejack said that when she first introduced you and your wife."

Big Mac: "Yeah, it's one of the things she loves about me," Big Mac said while blushing.

Knuckles: "So what's it like being a husband? I hope that's not a sensitive topic."

Big Mac: "It's great. However, I will admit that I wasn't expecting so much more responsibility quickly after we got married." The two were able to share a laugh after that response.

Applejack: "Breakfast is ready y'all!" Applejack shouted. The two then went downstairs to eat.

Knuckles: "Morning, ponies."

Apple Bloom: "Morning Big Mac. Morning Knuckles," Apple Bloom happily greeted.

Sugar Belle: "Good Morning everypony. Well, every creature I should say," Sugar Belle said as she walked in.

Applejack: "Alright y'all, today we've got buttermilk pancakes today!"

Apple Bloom: "Awesome!"

Knuckles: "I'm into pancakes."

Granny Smith: "Hold on, there. You better not start breakfast without me," Granny Smith said as she entered the kitchen.

Applejack: "Don't worry. We weren't going to have breakfast without you," Applejack responded to her grandmare. While everyone was getting their pancakes, Knuckles spotted a particular drink near the sink.

Knuckles: "Um, what is this pear stuff?"

Apple Bloom: "That right there is pear juice."

Knuckles: "Forgive me if I sound stereotypical or rude or something like that, but it seems out of place for pear juice to be here with a bunch of apple themed foods." Thankfully, none of the Apples took offense to what he said.

Granny Smith: "No offense taken. You aren't the first to make some type of comment on that."

Knuckles: "I'm not?"

Sugar Belle: "Nope. I asked Applejack about that too when I first moved here."

Applejack: "I told her that at the time, we had recently opened our hearts to let other fruits into our lives."

Sugar Belle: "Then I tried some for myself, and it's pretty good."

Knuckles: "Applejack, the answer you gave her sounds like there's more to these 'pears' than what you told her. However, I'm not going to force anything out of you since that seems like a personal matter." There proceeded to be silence from the family for a moment until Applejack spoke up.

Applejack: "It's okay Knuckles. Actually, since you're hear, we might as well tell you about our history with pears."

Knuckles: "Are you sure, AJ? If it's difficult for you, then I understand."

Applejack: "It's okay, Knuckles. I don't mind." All the Apples (minus Sugar Belle, the honorary Apple) then told Knuckles the tale of what happened during the events of "The Perfect Pear." From meeting Grand Pear for the first time, to learning that there mother was a pear, to their grandfather leaving.

Knuckles: "Wow, that's deep."

Applejack: "Yeah, I know."

Knuckles: "Ones that were family weren't around due to pride?"

Apple Bloom: "Yep. It hurt at first, but we were all able to make peace with Grand Pear; I like to call him 'Grand Peare Pear' sometimes."

Knuckles: "Well I guess that's something else we can relate to."

Sugar Belle: "What do you mean by that?"

Knuckles: "We'll both standing up against evil and not simply let them do what they want."

Applejack: "I can agree on that, but you said 'something else' as in you experienced something similar."

Knuckles: "It's nothing major," Knuckles responded as he finished the rest of his pancakes. "If you need me, I'll be outside." The echidna then walked outside to exercise. The ponies decided not to force anything out of him for now and instead just went outside. When they got outside, they spotted the echidna doing sit-ups on one of the tree branches.

Apple Bloom: "Excuse me Knuckles, but what are you doing?"

Knuckles: "I'm doing sit-ups. Wasn't it obvious?" The ponies shook their heads, making it clear that it wasn't obvious. "Okay, maybe not so obvious," Knuckles said as he jumped back onto the ground.

Sugar Belle: "Do you always do stuff like that?"

Knuckles: "If you mean exercises, then not always. I do it most of the time to stay in shape. Now unrelated question: how do you get the apples down from these trees?"

Applejack: "A little something we like to call apple bucking."

Knuckles: "Apple bucking? What's that?"

Applejack: "I'm glad you asked. Apple Bloom and Big Mac, can you get some baskets please?"

Apple Bloom: "Sure thing, big sister."

Big Mac: "Yeeup." After the two Apple siblings got the baskets and placed them under the tree, The earth pony of honesty then walked up to it and used her legs to kick the tree, causing apples to fall and land in the baskets.

Knuckles: "Not bad. You ponies have more of those baskets?"

Sugar Belle: "They should be in the barn." Sugar Belle and Big Mac then got more baskets from the barn and placed under the rest of the trees with fully grown apples.

Knuckles: "Watch this." The echidna then charged up a punch and swing at the tree. All the apples in it landed in the nearby baskets.

Applejack: "Not bad. You might be as good as me with punches like that."

Knuckles: "Is that a challenge?"

Applejack: "Depends on the challenge."

Knuckles: "Let's see who can get more apples down from these trees."

Applejack: "Only the apples that grew fully."

Knuckles: "Fine with me."

Applejack: "Then challenge accepted!"

Granny Smith: "This should be interesting."

Big Mac: "Yeeup." After two minutes had passed, all of the grown apples had landed in all the available baskets. The two were quite tired, but still had energy left in them.

Knuckles: "So who won?" Knuckles asked. Sugar Belle and Apple Bloom then inspected all the baskets to determine a winner, but they couldn't.

Apple Bloom: "It looks like the two of you tied."

Knuckles and Applejack: " WE TIED?" Both the earth pony and echidna said in surprise.

Sugar Belle: "Yeah. All of them look to have the same amount."

Granny Smith: "So how do we settle this?" Knuckles and Applejack thought about for a moment before looking at each other and deciding.

Applejack: "I'm willing to accept a tie if you are."

Knuckles: "I'll accept a tie."

Apple Bloom: "Good. Less work for us honestly."

Big Mac: "Yeeup."

Knuckles: "There's someone special about you, Applejack."

Applejack: "Special? What do you mean?"

Knuckles: "With Sonic and Shadow (mostly Sonic), I likely wouldn't have accepted a draw immediately. But something about you makes me more willing to accept a tie."

Applejack: "Well I appreciate it, Knuckles. You're a suitable and respectable opponent," Applejack said in response.

Knuckles: "Well so are you," Knuckles said back while giving the farm pony a fist bump.

Apple Bloom: "Sonic and Shadow? You mean that blue hedgehog and the black one we met yesterday?"

Knuckles: "That's them."

Sugar Belle: "Is there something about them that makes it tough to accept a draw if they offer it?"

Knuckles: "Well first off, Shadow has never offered to call things a draw, mostly because he wins most of our matches. Second, with Sonic, he's willing to accept a draw, but it's just super difficult for me to do so."

Applejack: "Why's that, sugarcube?"

Knuckles: "Probably his habit of taunting his opponents."

Applejack: "I assume he mostly does it with that Eggman guy."

Knuckles: "Pretty much."

Applejack: "Well the way I see it, that's just Sonic having fun."

Knuckles: "It is, and I kinda respect it to a degree. But that's enough about me and Sonic for now. Thanks for the competition, AJ."

Applejack: "No problem, Knuckles."

Knuckles: "By the way, why'd you call me sugarcube?"

Applejack: "It's just a name I like to give to close ones."

Knuckles: "I'll try to remember that." Not long after that conversation, Rainbow Dash flew into Apple Acres.

Rainbow Dash: "Hey Applejack. Hey Knuckles."

Applejack: "What brings you hear?"

Rainbow Dash: "Twilight needs us at the School of Friendship now!"

Knuckles: "School of Friendship?"

Applejack: "Twilight built it a few years ago to teach friendship to every creature across Equestria. We're even teachers there."

Apple Bloom: "Oh no! Me and the other crusaders are supposed to be tutoring somepony today!" Apple said in sudden realization before sprinting towards the school.

Knuckles: "Your sister and her friends are teachers at the school too?"

Rainbow Dash: "Actually, they're just friendship tutors. Now come on. Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie are already there." The pegasus and earth pony then headed towards the school with Knuckles following them.

On the Egg Carrier 4X:
Eggman: "Orbot and Cubot, front and center!" Eggman demanded two of his robot minions.

Orbot: "Right here sir," Orbot answered.

Cubot: "What do you need from us, boss?"

Eggman: "Is every room on the ship's interior clean?"

Orbot: "Every room has been cleaned."

Cubot: "Good thing those egg pawns now have a cleaning setting installed."

Eggman: "Good. Are all the engines working properly?"

Orbot: "Engines are 100% functional."

Cubot: "Only after Metal Sonic came in while I was struggling with what to actually do," Cubot responded nervously.

Eggman: "At least the job was finished. Now what about the emerald that Mecha Sonic found at Silver Shoals and the crystal he took from Twilight's old castle?"

Orbot: "I have the emerald with me and the crystal is stored in the room you told us to put it in."

Cubot: "What's so important about that crystal, anyways?"

Eggman: "You'll find out eventually, Cubot. Now follow me to the bridge." The three of them reached the bridge and spotted Metal Sonic, Mecha Sonic, and egg pawns at the controls.

Orbot: "So boss, what's the next phase of your master plan?"

Eggman: "Phase 3 is called Sky High Trouble."

Cubot: "Does that mean we're going somewhere in the clouds?"

Eggman: "Precisely. Metal Sonic: Take this flying fortress up to the clouds. Mecha Sonic, Orbot, and Cubot: Gather the troops in the southeast room and bring them to the hangar."

Orbot and Cubot: "Yes sir," Orbot and Cubot said as they saluted and then left the engine room. Mecha Sonic also saluted before leaving the engine room as well.

Eggman: "Next stop: Cloudsdale," the mad scientist said while an evil grin was on his face.

Author's Note

Chapter 7 has been finished!

This one took me longer because the 2025 NFL Playoffs started the same day I started working on this chapter, but I didn't start actually writing it until later that night. Not only that, but I spent most of 1/12/25 watching the NFL Playoffs instead of doing some work on this (my bad 😅).

A few references I threw in:

Sonic on the roofs of some of the buildings, the police cars driving down the streets, Sonic and the police saying what they said were taken directly from the opening cutscene(s) of Sonic's story in Sonic Adventure.

(SFM version of that/those cutscene(s) btw)

Also, there being a thief that's a lavender colored pong with purple hair that stole jewelry from a store came from one of the MLP EG: Better Together shorts: "Super Squad Goals."

As you may or may not know, Manehattan is a pun on Manhattan, one of the boroughs of NYC, and the Mare Statue is the pony version of the Statue of Liberty, hence Sonic's comments on both the name of the city and the statue existing elsewhere.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for the next chapter as this battle takes our heroes to the skies!

Chapter 8 - Cloudsdale's Cold Chaos

Twilight Sparkle and Spike had just finished giving Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow a tour of the School of Friendship. During said tour, the rest of the Mane 6 and the CMCs (short for the Cutie Mark Crusaders) had entered the school because of jobs they had to do there.

Tails: "Your school is pretty nice."

Twilight: "Why thank you. I'm glad that it's been so successful."

Spike: "I'm just glad the school wasn't shut down permanently."

Knuckles: "That Chancellor Neighsay sounded like a real pain."

Spike: "He was a pain, but some of the students were able to make him see that his way of thinking was wrong after they saved magic from being drained and sealed away elsewhere."

Shadow: "What are the chances that one of those things happens to a degree one day?"

Twilight: "Hopefully, the chances of that are slim to none."

Tails: "Why does that feel like foreshadowing?" Tails whispered to Knuckles.

Knuckles: "Aside from the fact that Shadow's standing right here?" Knuckles whispered back.

Spike: "Thanks for coming, everypony. Sorry about it kind of being a last minute thing."

Rarity: "Don't worry about it, Spike. It at least gave me an excuse to show off one of my upcoming designs."

Rainbow Dash: "Thankfully, no one was weirded out by our new 'guests' (referring to the anthropomorphic creatures) receiving a tour. It's too bad Sonic wasn't here."

Sonic: "Hey everyone, I'm back," Sonic said, appearing in front of everyone literally a second after Rainbow Dash's comment.

Pinkie: "Funny, Rainbow Dash was just talking about you."

Sonic: "She was?"

Rainbow Dash: "We just gave your friends and Shadow a tour of the School of Friendship."

Sonic: "Don't worry about it, Dash."

Twilight: "So how was your exploration day?"

Applejack: "Exploration day?"

Spike: "Sonic decided to do some exploring on his own outside of Canterlot and Ponyville."

Fluttershy: "Where'd you go?"

Sonic: "I first went to a city called Manehattan."

Rarity: "You went to Manehattan?" Rarity asked with excitement in her voice. "By any chance did you see a fashion store there?"

Sonic: "As a matter of fact, I did. It was called Rarity For You." This made Rarity squeal in delight.

Tails: "Do you mind turning it down, Rarity?" Tails asked while covering his ears. The unicorn heard and complied.

Rarity: "Sorry about that, Tails. It's just I'm really happy that one of my shops is doing well."

Sonic: "So you have one in Ponyville, one in Canterlot, and one in a metropolitan city?"

Rarity: "Exactly."

Twilight: "Hold up. How do you know about Rarity's shop in Canterlot? I don't recall showing you that yesterday," Twilight asked.

Sonic: "I explored a little bit more of Canterlot before heading towards Manehattan this morning."

Shadow: "Why would you need three shops?"

Rarity: "Because I wanted to make it big in the fashion industry. Also, it's me being generous towards others by allowing ponies and non ponies across different parts of Equestria to be able to look fashionable."

Shadow: "Fashion isn't for me, but you do you, I suppose," Shadow responded in a neutral tone.

Pinkie: "So what did you do in Manehattan?"

Sonic: "Well, I saw the Mare Statue, which I'm pretty sure exists in an alternate universe. Afterwards, I jumped off of that statue back on to the streets before jumping on top of buildings."

Applejack: "Hold up: You jumped off of the Mare Statue?" Applejack asked in shock.

Rarity: "And you were on the rooftops of some of the buildings?"

Sonic: "Yes to both questions." The Mane 6 and Spike were in shock by something the hedgehog said, again.

Pinkie: "You must be fearless."

Sonic: "I am most of the time."

Fluttershy: "So what else did you do?"

Sonic: "I also stopped a thief who was stole jewelry from a shop. He wasn't able to keep up with me."

Rainbow Dash: "Show off," Rainbow Dash said to herself.

Knuckles: "So you just went to a city, explored that city, and came back to Ponyville?"

Sonic: "I went to two cities actually. The first one was Manehattan. The other city I went to was a place called Fillydelphia."

Tails: "Fillydelphia? These puns are beginning to get out of control."

Sonic: "I hear you, buddy."

Twilight: "I've heard of Fillydelphia before. It's apparently a city where both ponies and dragons live."

Sonic: "It certainly was interesting seeing dragons in a city."

Spike: "I found it weird too, but I got used to it." Everyone's attention then turned towards Spike.

Twilight: "Hold up: You've been to Fillydelphia and dealt with the dragons who live there? Why were you there?"

Spike: "Luna once asked for my assistance with recent fires in the city. It was assumed that dragons were the behind them, but it turned out to be a fire snail."

Fluttershy: "A fire snail? I've never heard of one before."

Twilight: "Well I'm glad you were able to help solve the problem."

Spike: "Well it's not the first time I've dealt dragons bigger than me."

Sonic: "That's an impressive feat, Spike."

Spike: "Thanks, Sonic," the dragon replied while giving a thumbs up.

Rarity: "So Sonic, what did you do in Fillydelphia?"

Sonic: "I mostly explored the dragon side. Most of them were fascinated by what I could do. However, there were some jealous dragons."

Spike: "Did any of them try to light you on fire?"

Sonic: "They did. Some doubted me, so I proved them wrong."

Applejack: "How exactly did you do that?"

Sonic: "They played with fire, and THEY were the ones who got burned," Sonic said confidently.

(0:07)

Tails: "Nice roast."

Sonic: "Thanks, buddy."

Rainbow Dash: "So you went on an adventure in two cities?"

Sonic: "You could say that, sure."

Rainbow Dash: "Lucky. I want more action. When are we going to fight that Dr. Eggman villain again?" Just then, a yellow pegasus with blue and yellow uniforms came flying in fast. Her name was Spitfire.

Spitfire: "Thank goodness I found you quickly, Dash. We need your help in Clousdale!"

Rainbow Dash: "What happened to Cloudsdale?"

Spitfire: "Some factory just came in and made parts of Clousdale really cold. Not only that, but robots started exiting the factory."

Rainbow Dash: "Robots?"

Sonic: "It seems to me that a certain Egghead decided to cause problems in the clouds." Spitfire then looked at the blue, yellow, red, and black creatures standing next to Rainbow Dash's friends.

Spitfire: "Um Dash, who are these guys?" She asked.

Rainbow Dash: "Spitfire: meet Sonic, Tails Knuckles, and Shadow. Sonic and others: meet Spitfire. She's a fellow pegasus friend of mine."

Sonic: "Nice to meet you, Spitfire. Liking your mane. It suits you."

Spitfire: "Wow, thanks," the pegasus replied while blushing since the compliment came as a surprise. "Also, you say a certain Egghead. Do you know who might be behind this?"

Sonic: "We have a pretty good guess."

Twilight: "You mind if all of us come to Cloudsdale to lend a hoof?" Twilight asked Spitfire.

Spitfire: "Not at all, princess." But before they left, Starlight came up to her friends.

Starlight: "Hey Twilight. Thanks again for helping us out today."

Trixie: "While the Great and Powerful Trixie normally doesn't accept help from somepony other than Starlight, it was nice to have you and your friends help, princess."

Twilight: "It was our pleasure, but now it's your turn to help us again. We need the two of you to watch over Ponyville while we're away on a trip to Cloudsdale."

Starlight: "We can handle it. Sunburst is here too, so he can help as well."

Sonic: "This Sunburst another friend of yours?"

Starlight: "Yep."

Sonic: "Cool." Twilight then teleported herself, the rest of the Mane 6, Spike, Spitfire, and Sonic and the others up to Cloudsdale to see what happened.

After teleporting to the city of clouds, everyone immediately saw Eggman's newest factory. It was a mixture of light blue, dark blue, and black with his face in the center, along with a few windows.

Twilight: "What's that?"

Spitfire: "That's what came here recently."

Sonic: "Eggman must've either made another factory here, or he literally just dropped one here."

Spitfire: "Well, it seemed to just appear out of nowhere."

Knuckles: "How it got here isn't important. What matters is that it gets shut down."

Rainbow Dash: "And that we protect the ponies of Cloudsdale!" Speaking of those ponies, screams from them were heard outside of multiple homes due to being attacked by Eggman's minions.

Twilight: "Let's split up so we can cover more ground."

The Rest of the Ponies and Spike: "Okay!"

Sonic: "Y'all go ahead. The four of us will follow from behind."

Twilight: "Alright, Sonic. We trust you and the others." After the equestrian creatures split up, Sonic had one important instruction for him and his friends.

Sonic: "Tails, Knuckles: don't forget to turn on the air settings of our shoes," he told them as he turned his shoe buckles to activate the "air setting" on them.

Knuckles: "You got it, Sonic," Knuckles said as he pressed a hidden button on his shoes to activate their air settings.

Tails: "I programmed my jet anklets to be able to walk on clouds years ago."

Shadow: "What about me?"

Sonic: "Well you have air shoes. Also, I'd just assume that someone over at G.U.N. would have done that already."

Shadow: "You're actually right on that. Someone over at G.U.N. did do that."

Sonic: "With that out of the way, let's smash some of Egghead's bots!" The group then split off to help their new allies and protect the lives of the ponies that lived in Cloudsdale.

Eggman's minions were across most of the cloud city. Most of them were aerial robots since they couldn't walk on clouds without falling through them. They ranged from flappers with different weapons (egg pawns that didn't have legs and could hover/fly), to Egg Chasers (formerly called Aero Chasers) and other flying badniks that the mad scientist has made over the years. Some of the ponies had already been guided to safety by the Mane 6, Spike, and the Wonderbolts. However, some were too scared to leave their homes due to the chaos. One family in particular was surrounded by cannon flappers and laser flappers. The mother was yellow with a reddish-pink mane and tail, a yellow necklace, and blue glasses. The father was green with a light pink mane and tail and blue sweater.

Mr. Shy: "Oh dear. I don't know what these things are, but they sure don't seem friendly."

Mrs. Shy: "I hope our daughter is okay." Just as one of the flappers launched a missile at them, it was stopped short of the pegasus couple by their son: Zephyr Breeze. He was a green pegasus with a blonde colored mane and tail. While he'd normally be scared to actually fight, the fact that his home and parents were in danger made him face those fears head on.

Zephyr Breeze: "I will not let anypony or anything hurt my parents!" He exclaimed as he threw the missile back at the robot. Unfortunately, he was hit by laser almost immediately afterwards.

Mrs. Shy: "ZEPHYR!" Mrs. Shy screamed after he got hit.

Zephyr Breeze: "I'm okay. More or less." Before the robots got ready to fire again, a voice yelled at them.

Sonic: "HEY FLAPPERS," Sonic yelled. "WHY DON'T YOU FIRE AT ME?" The flappers did just that. Problem: he was the fastest thing alive for a reason. That and the upgrades on his shoes allowed him to run on the clouds with ease. After dodging all the projectiles, he created a tornado that knocked the badniks out of the air. Tails then came in with his arm cannon and helped Sonic destroy the flappers near the ponies.

Tails: "Are you pegasai okay?" Tails asked them.

Mr. Shy: "We're okay. Thank hoofness those things are destroyed."

Mrs. Shy: "Now if you don't mind my asking, but who are you?"

Zephyr Breeze: "To add on to what my mom said, what are you?" Before anyone could answer, someone was heard yelling "MOM! DAD!" from a distance. They all recognized who it was after turning towards the voice's direction.

Mr. and Mrs. Shy: "FLUTTERSHY!" The parents said as they gave their daughter a hug.

Fluttershy: "I'm so glad you're alright."

Mr. Shy: "Same here. What about you?"

Mrs. Shy: "Those robots didn't hurt you, did they?"

Fluttershy: "No mom. I'm alright."

Zephyr Breeze: "Hey. What about your baby brother? Can't he get a hug?" Zephyr asked.

Fluttershy: "Of course you can," his sister responded. The two then hugged, but Fluttershy touched a bad spot.

Zephyr Breeze: "Ouch. Still hurts."

Fluttershy: "Zephyr, what happened to you?"

Tails: "If I were to guess, I'd say that he was hit by one of those robots we just took down."

Zephyr: "How'd you know what happened?"

Sonic: "We saw it happen, and we've dealt with these before."

Fluttershy: "By the way, I should probably introduce you to each other. Mom, dad, Zephyr Breeze: meet Sonic and Tails. Sonic and Tails, meet my family."

Rainbow Dash: "They're a hedgehog and fox respectively. We're friends with them," Rainbow Dash added, who was with Fluttershy since her friends split up to deal with the badnik problem.

Zephyr Breeze: "Rainbow Dash! It's good to see you again," he said to the mare he's had a crush on for years. "It would be better if I wasn't in pain," he then added while nervously laughing.

Rainbow Dash: "Hello to you too."

Mr. Shy: "You should have seen your brother Fluttershy, he grabbed one of those projectiles and hurled it back at one of them."

Mrs. Shy: "Too bad he was hit right afterwards."

Zephyr Breeze: "You're my family, I had to at least try to protect you since Fluttershy won't always be able to."

Fluttershy: "Aww, that's sweet." Just then, Spitfire came looking for Rainbow Dash.

Spitfire: "Dash, what's the status on these machines?"

Rainbow Dash: "Well, we've taken down at least half of them already."

Spitfire: "That's what I like to hear." There was then a sudden drop in the temperature.

Zephyr Breeze: "Um, is it just me or did it suddenly get colder in Cloudsdale?"

Sonic: "Yeah. I just got a sudden chill up my spine," Sonic supported while shivering.

Spitfire: "What's causing this?"

Tails; "I think the factory might have something to do with this."

Sonic: "Well Tails, it's up to us to shut down production for good."

Rainbow Dash: "I'm coming with you guys. Cloudsdale is my home, and I'm not letting some egghead cause it to freeze over."

Spitfire: "If she's joining you two, then so am I."

Sonic: "Sweet. The more the merrier."

Tails: "Fluttershy, can you get your family to safety and warn Twilight and her friends about the temperature?"

Fluttershy: "You can count on me," Fluttershy responded confidently before taking her family to safety.

Spitfire: "Alright, let's save Cloudsdale!"

Tails: "Right after we take care the robots guarding the entrance," Tails responded while pointing at the 4 machines at the factory's entrance.

Sonic: "Leave it to me." The blue hedgehog then sped over to the factory and destroyed the two Egg Fighters and two Thunder Spinners.

Spitfire: "Whoa, that was impressive," Spitfire commented while she, Rainbow Dash, Sonic, and Tails approached the factory.

Inside the factory:

RD: "Brr, it's colder in here than it was outside," Rainbow Dash commented inside the factory.

Sonic: "It definitely is, but that's not saying much."

RD: "What do you mean?"

Tails: "I think I can answer that. We've been to cold places on our adventures before, and the cold rarely bothered us."

Spitfire: "You guys are tougher than you look."

Sonic: "We know."

RD: "Hey guys, take a look," Rainbow Dash said, pointing at a sign. Eggman's Ice Factory, it read.

Sonic: "At least he let's those who enter know where they are," Sonic said with a deadpan expression on his face. An alarm was then heard over the speakers.

Eggman's Alarm Voice: "ALERT, ALERT! SONIC THE HEDGEHOG HAS BEEN SPOTTED! ALL ROBOTS MUST FIND AND DESTROY HIM AND ANYONE WHO ASSOCIATED WITH HIM! HE MUST NOT REACH THE CENTER!" While the alarm was sounding, several robots had come. Egg Fighters, Egg Blizzards, Egg Flame's, and more from when the mad scientist split apart Sonic's planet into several pieces.

Sonic: "This must be the welcoming committee."

Spitfire: "Welcoming committee?"

Tails: "In other words, Eggman's first line of machines sent to stop us."

RD: "You up for trashing some robots, Spitfire?"

Spitfire: "If that's what we have to do in order to help Cloudsdale, then so be it."

Sonic: "That's what I like to hear." The group then charged towards their robot foes. Most of the robots either blew fire or ice. Some of them blew wind and some had swords and/or shields. The one thing they had in common: they belonged to Eggman.

Tails: "So these were the machines you were fighting while trying to put the world back together?" Tails asked while blasting at some of the Egg Blizzards.

Sonic: "Yep. It seems like all of Eggman's toys this time around are ones he's used before although I can't blame him," Sonic answered while dashing through the robots.

Tails: "Yeah. He probably assumed that we wouldn't follow him and that these ponies would be pushovers in his eyes," the fox added.

Rainbow Dash: "Well that Eggman is going to pay for what he's done to Cloudsdale!" After about a minute had passed since the alarm went off, all the the robots had been destroyed.

Spitfire: "So Sonic: you and your buddy, I forgot his name," Spitfire said.

Tails: "My name is Tails."

Spitfire: "Is it because you have two tails?"

Sonic and Tails: "Correct."

Spitfire: "I'll remember that. So the two of you have been doing this for a while based on what I heard from you just a few seconds ago?"

Sonic: "We have. Tell you what: you can ask us more questions as we make out way through the factory."

Spitfire: "Fine with me."

Tails: "I think we should get moving. The sooner we shut down this factory, the better." The group then made their way down the hall.

A few questions later:

Spitfire: "So this Eggman guy once broke apart your world using energy from some gems just so he could build an amusement park?" Spitfire has asked while they were making their way down the hall.

Sonic: "That's right. He's gone to the extreme to try and take me out."

RD: "So what kind of locations did you visit while trying to put the pieces of your world back together?"

Sonic: "Funny enough, one of those locations was a really cold place," Sonic answered. He then asked Tails "Didn't Baldy McNoseHair once have a base in a snowy/mountain area?"

Tails: "He might have, but I honestly can't remember when he did."

RD: "You guys been on lot's of dangerous adventures."

Sonic: "We know, but from what Twilight's told me, you've been on some adventures and had some challenges yourselves. By the way, I've been thinking about this since our race: what is a wonderbolt?"

Spitfire: "I can answer that for you, hedgehog. We're a group of elite flyers that perform aerial acrobatics and stunts and stuff like that."

RD: "It was my dream to become a wonderbolt since I was a filly, and I actually did become one a few years ago."

Tails: "Sounds like it's a lot of fun."

RD: "It is, but it's also a lot of responsibility."

Spitfire: "Dash is right. We also have to keep the weather under control or Equestria could face disaster."

Tails: "Pegasai control the weather in Equestria?"

RD and Spitfire: "That's right!"

Tails: "I guess that's something else that differs between our worlds. Back home, the weather happens on it's own."

RD: "Really? That's interesting."

Sonic: "So you have a job that's fun but also a responsibility. Kind of like us when fighting Eggman or any threat to our world."

RD: "Yet the way you've been talking about your adventures, it sounds like you tend to have fun on them."

Sonic and Tails: "An adventure is no fun if it's too easy," Sonic and Tails replied at the same time.

Spitfire: "You have fun, but take these things seriously? I respect that." Just after they had finished talking for the moment, Tails spotted an Egg Blizzard that was about to attack.

Tails: "Sonic, LOOK OUT!" The fox screamed after pushing his best friend out of the way. Unfortunately, neither Rainbow Dash nor Spitfire got the memo right away.

Sonic: "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Sonic yelled. Unfortunately, he was only able to move Rainbow Dash out of harm's way since they weren't right next to each other. This resulted in Spitfire becoming a frozen pegasus statue. Tails then spin dashed the badnik and destroyed it instantly.

RD: "Spitfire!" The cyan pegasus screamed in horror. "We have to shut down this factory and get to Twilight. She might have a spell that can melt her quickly.

Sonic: "Looks like we won't have to," Sonic then said before pointing at the red badnik in front of them known as an Egg Flame.

Tails: "You can have this one, Sonic."

Sonic: "Gladly." The hedgehog then quickly knocked the badnik down without destroying it, picked it up, and placed it in front of the yellow pegasus. Within a few seconds, Spitfire was no longer frozen. After that, Sonic placed the Egg Flame down, built up speed, and boosted towards it and other robots near them, causing multiple explosions.

RD: "Spitfire, are you okay?"

Spitfire: "I am now. That was quick thinking by Sonic."

Tails: "What happened to you two?" Tails asked the pegasai. However, Sonic told them that they need to hurry up and shut the place down, so that question would have to wait until later. After more of Eggman's robots were destroyed, the group finally reached the center.

RD: "Alright. We're here, so now what?"

Spitfire: "Maybe we take care of them," Spitfire answered, pointing at more Egg Fighters. Four of them stood before the hedgehog, fox, and pegasai. Two of them had a shield and two of them had a sword. Tails then spotted something cyan colored inside of a tube behind the badniks.

Tails: "Guys, I think if we destroy that tube, then we can shut down the factory's energy source," Tails told the group.

RD: "Sure thing, just let me take care of these tin cans first." The cyan pegasus then charged towards the Egg Fighters with swords, only to be knocked back by the Egg Fighter with a spring on its shield.

Tails: "I think you failed to notice the spring on one of the shields."

RD: "Yeah. I think so too," Rainbow Dash responded while shaking her head, trying to shake off the dizziness from hitting her head on a spring and factory floor.

Sonic: "Leave this to me, Dash. I know how to handle these tin cans." Sonic then quickly ran towards the badniks and slid in between the legs of one of them. After getting behind them, he knocked the sword out of one of the hands of the robots, grabbed it out of the air, and used it to destroy all four of the Egg Fighters.

(End music)

RD: "Whoa," Rainbow Dash said. It was all she could say given how shocked she was.

Spitfire: "It's almost like you have experience with using weapons like that."

Sonic: "That's because I do have experience," Sonic said to the yellow pegasus.

Tails: "He was once in a dimension were he was a knight."

RD: "I remember you telling me and my friends that you were once sent there, but I didn't know you were that good with a sword. Heck, we don't see weapons like that often."

Sonic: "Well it does bring back some good memories using one again," Sonic said as he threw the sword on the ground further from him.

Spitfire: "So how do we destroy that particular tube now that there aren't any more robots guarding it?" Spitfire asked. After staring at the tube for a few seconds, Sonic had an idea, one that would require his best friend.

Sonic: "Hey Tails, you up for a little tag team action?" He asked his fox friend.

Tails: "If you're thinking of doing what I think you want to do, then absolutely!" Tails responded.

Spitfire: "What are you two planning?"

Sonic: "You'll see. Ready, Tails?"

Tails: "I'm so ready!" The hedgehog and fox then gave each other a high five and charged up a spin dash. However, they had both rolled up into the same ball.

RD: "Um, what are they doing?"

Spitfire: "I have no idea." After a few seconds of charging, Sonic and Tails spun into the tube and a few behind it.

Sonic: "Well, it's certainly been a while since we've done that move," the blue hedgehog said after getting out of the spin dash.

Tails: "Yeah, but I think my lack of experience hurt me," the yellow fox said after, feeling a bit dizzy.

RD: "Sonic, Tails, are you two okay?"

Sonic: "We're okay, Dash."

Spitfire: "What was that thing the two of you just did?"

Sonic: "Oh that? We call it a Tag Team Spin Dash."

Tails: "We haven't used it in a while, but it's always a rush when we do use it."

RD: "That was a sweet move though."

Sonic: "Thanks for the compliment," Sonic replied as he gave Rainbow Dash a hoof bump. A cyan glow soon caught Tails' eyes.

Tails: "Hey, look at that," the fox said to everyone, pointing at what was on the floor. Sonic recognized it instantly.

Sonic: "It's another chaos emerald!"

Spitfire: "Chaos emerald?"

RD: "It's a really powerful gem. They need it to get home," Rainbow Dash explained.

Sonic: "This must've been what was powering the ice factory," Sonic said after picking up the chaos emerald. Tails then quickly came to another realization.

Tails: "That's why we couldn't catch Eggman's Egg Carrier yesterday. He probably had the chaos emerald powering his ship!"

Spitfire: "This Eggman guy has a ship?" The yellow pegasus said in shock. After getting a nod from Sonic and Tails, she said "Maybe that's what we saw outside earlier."

Tails: "Hold up, you saw Eggman's ship?"

Spitfire: "Yeah, it must've left when you, your friends, Twilight and her friends arrived." Before more could be said from any of the four, the alarm sounded again.

Eggman's Alarm Voice: "THE CHAOS EMERALD HAS BEEN TAKEN! I REPEAT, THE CHAOS EMERALD HAS BEEN TAKEN! LOCATE THE THIEF, STOP SAID THIEF, AND RETRIEVE THE EMERALD!" Robots quickly approached the area where the emerald was held.

RD: "Oh great. More of them," Rainbow Dash said in annoyance.

Spitfire: "Have you and Tails had to deal with hoarders of robots before?" Spitfire asked Sonic.

Sonic: "We have, but I don't think we'll have to do much."

Spitfire: "What do you mean by that?" She then noticed that two peach-orange colored robots with missiles aimed at her, her fellow wonderbolt, and the creatures she just met less than an hour ago. The bots took aim and then fired.

Sonic: "Jump or fly, now!" They all did what Sonic had told them to do and jumped or flued out of the line of fire. All the missiles hit the tubes behind the one holding the chaos emerald. The factory had started to shut down.

Eggman's Alarm Voice: "ALERT! ALERT! THE FACTORY IS SHUTTING DOWN! IT'S EVERY ROBOT/EVIL GENIUS FOR HIM/HERSELF!"

RD: "We've got to get out of here before this place explodes with us in it!

Sonic: "We will, but let me take care of something first." Sonic spin dashed into two of the robots, causing a chain reaction that destroyed all of the robots in the vicinity.

Spitfire: "Okay, the robots are toast, but do you mind telling how we're going to get out of here?" Spitfire asked.

Sonic: "I think it's better I show you," Sonic said before pulling out the chaos emerald. "I need all three of you to get near me," he then instructed. Tails, Rainbow Dash, and Spitfire did what he asked.

Spitfire: "What's about to happen?"

RD: "I honestly don't know."

Tails: "Don't worry. Sonic knows what he's doing." Sonic the raised the chaos emerald into the air and prepared to get him and the others out of the factory.

Sonic: "Chaos control!" He yelled as they were all teleported out of the exploding factory.

Outside the factory, Spike, the rest of the Mane 6, and the other wonderbolts worked on getting everypony away from the factory so they wouldn't be at risk of freezing to death. The wonderbolts handled the robots while the others kept the ponies safe and warm.

Applejack: "Is that all of them?" Applejack asked Fluttershy.

Fluttershy: "All of the pegasai are safe and accounted for," Fluttershy told her.

Applejack: "Well that's good to hear. What about the robots?"

Shadow: "The doctor's robots have all been wiped out. We did have some help from these other pegasai."

Knuckles: "What are they called exactly?" One black pegasus spoke up to answer.

Thunderlane: "We're the Wonderbolts!"

High Winds: "We're some of the fastest creatures in all of Equestria!" A white pegasus added. Shadow then stared at the uniforms, which gave the wonderbolts confused looks.

Thunderlane: "Excuse me, Shadow is it?"

Shadow: "That is my name."

Thunderlane: "Just making sure. So is there any reason you're staring at our uniforms?"

Shadow: "You wear blue uniforms and say that you're some of the fastest creatures in this world? Well I may know another blue creature who's faster than all of you." Before any of the pegasai could respond, the red creature near Shadow asked a question of his own.

Knuckles: "Speaking of blue, has anyone seen Sonic?"

Fleet Foot: "Who's Sonic?" A member of the wonderbolts with white hair asked. Her question was soon answered as Sonic, Tails, Rainbow Dash, and Spitfire teleported in front of the ponies and anthropomorphic creatures.

Spitfire: "We're out of the factory?"

Sonic: "That's right."

Soarin: "Rainbow Dash! It's good to see you!" A member with a blue mane and tail said as he quickly hugged his friend.

RD: "Good to see you too, Soarin," Rainbow Dash responded.

Soarin: "Good to see you to, Captain." He then said to Spitfire.

Spitfire: "Nice to see you too," she responded as they hoof bumped."

Thunderlane: "We're all glad that you're both alright, but where were you two? And who are those blue and yellow guys that were with you?"

Sonic: "I go by Sonic the Hedgehog, but you can just call me Sonic."

Tails: "My name's Tails, and it's because of my name sakes. I'm a fox."

Thunderlane: "Well nice to meet you two."

RD: "Question: what did you just do?" Rainbow Dash asked Sonic.

Shadow: "It's called chaos control. In this case, Sonic used it to warp space and teleport you guys away from wherever you were," Shadow answered.

Sonic: "More specifically, I teleported us out of Eggman's Ice Factory over there," Sonic said, pointing towards the factory. After the facility exploded, the pegasai noticed a familiar structure.

RD: "The weather factory was behind the ice factory? No wonder the temperature dropped!"

Sonic: "I'm not surprised that this place has a weather factory. I'm also not surprised that we were able to shut down Egghead's factory and retrieve the chao emerald."

Shadow: "How many is that?"

Tails: "There's the one Zecora found, the one that landed in Rarity's home, the one that was in Canterlot, and the one in the ice factory, which I'm assuming Eggman found first."

Sonic: "That's 4/7 emeralds!"

Knuckles: "Three more and then we can go home."

Tails: "After we stop Eggman."

Twilight: "Thanks for helping us and the residents of Cloudsdale."

Sonic: "No sweat, Twilight. It's what we do." The pegasai residents then started to cheer and thank the Council of Friendship, the Wonderbolts, and the anthropomorphic creatures for helping them.

Rarity: "So now what? Do we go after that horrible Eggman?"

Sonic: "As much as I want to, we don't exactly know where he is."

Spitfire: "Soarin, during the time I was away from Cloudsdale to get Rainbow Dash and her friends, did you see where the flying ship went?"

Soarin: "Sorry, boss. None of us saw where it went. We were too focused on helping everypony and stoping the robots."

Knuckles: "Great. Now what?" Knuckles asked in annoyance.

Twilight: "I think we should head back to Ponyville until we know Dr. Eggman's next move."

Sonic: "Agreed."

RD: "Hey captain, is it okay if I go with Twilight and my other friends?"

Spitfire: "It's cool, Dash. You're part of the Council of Friendship. I won't stop you from being with them. The rest of us wonderbolts can help clean things up around here."

RD: "Thanks." Twilight then teleported herself the rest of the Mane 6, and Sonic and the others back to Ponyville while the wonderbolts helped the residents of Cloudsdale clean up and get back into their homes.

Author's Note

PLEASE READ TO THE END!

Another chapter has been completed! Here are some references/key things to note:

Shadow asking about magic possibly being sealed away is referencing what happens later down the line with Twilight sealing magic away in the Unity Crystals. This was mentioned in the comics The Case of the Missing Unity Crystal and The Storm of Zephyr Heights.
The base in a snowy/mountain area that Sonic and Tails talked about was White Acropolis from Sonic 06, hence the music choice for when those two, Rainbow Dash, and Spitfire are in Eggman's Ice Factory.
The "Tag Team Spin Dash" actually came from Sonic 4: Episode 2. I just gave it my own name since I couldn't find a name for it on the Sonic Wiki.
Spike being in Fillydelphia was a callback to My Little Pony: Friends Forever #14.

Also, this is being published on 1/26/2025 even though it says 1/27/2025. This is the third time that the site got the date wrong. If you know why this happens at all, please let me know in the comment section.

Important:
By the time this chapter is published, I will likely have started my 2025 Spring Term at college, so don't be surprised if there are longer gaps between chapters like chapters 1 and 2. I will try to work on it as much as I can though. Thanks for reading this.

Chapter 9 - Clash at the Crystal Empire (Part 1)

Twilight had teleported herself, her friends, and her new allies back to Ponyville (more specifically, in front of Twilight's former Friendship Castle) to figure out what to do next after saving Cloudsdale from Eggman's Ice Factory.

Twilight: "I'm glad that we were able to stop Eggman's Cloudsdale attack," Twilight said to Sonic.

Sonic: "It's always nice putting a stop to his schemes, even if the sky is far beyond the limit for how far he'll go to get what he wants."

RD: "Speaking of which, how were you and the others able to walk on clouds without falling through them? Normally, you need a spell to be able to do that if you can't fly."

Twilight: "And I don't recall casting a spell on any of you four."

Sonic: "Well after splitting up in Cloudsdale, me, Tails and Knuckles activated a special feature on our shoes."

Tails: "These special features allow us to walk on clouds and not fall through them, or bounce on them by default though for me, it's in my jet anklets," Tails added.

Knuckles: "Tails upgraded our shoes a long time ago. While we don't use it that much, it's nice to have it."

Rarity: "Fascinating."

Twilight: "You must really be good with technology."

Tails: "You could say that," Tails said sheepishly.

Sonic: "My best friend has built plenty of gadgets over the years. It makes sense that he's smarter than Eggman despite having the same IQ as him."

Twilight: "How does that even make sense?" Twilight asked, a bit confused on Sonic's statement.

Tails: "Let me put it like this: Eggman's IQ says he's as smart as me, but his actions over the years have proven otherwise."

Applejack: "Makes sense, especially since y'all have been fighting this guy for a long time."

Shadow: "Speaking of the doctor, I hope we can find out where he is soon. The sooner we stop him, the easier it'll be to find the rest of the emeralds and get home. Of course, the doctor and his minions will be coming with us since they're our problem."

Rarity: "Well I hope we can have a bit of a break. I can't remember the last time we've had this much to do in the span of a few days."

Knuckles: "You ponies and non-ponies must not be used to constant battles as much as me, my friends, and Shadow are."

Spike: "Non-pony?"

Starlight: "Why not just call him a dragon?"

Knuckles: "Saying ponies and non-ponies rolls off the tongue better than ponies and dragon."

Trixie: "Trixie can somewhat relate to that. She's made titles for things that were a mouthful."

Knuckles: "I'll take your word for it."

Sonic: "Back to the topic of Baldy McNoseHair, I think in this case, it's better that we don't have to do much to find him."

Shadow: "Do you have to call him that name so much?" the black hedgehog asked while annoyed and leaning on Twilight's old castle.

Sonic: "I don't do it that much, Shadow."

Tails: "It's true. He does it sometimes, but not so much that it gets annoying or tiring."

Rarity: "If you don't mind my asking, why is it better that you don't have to do wait that long in order to find Eggman? That would mean you might have to go back out to find him not long after a battle."

Sonic: "Here's the thing Rarity: we're used to these things by now."

Starlight: "You're used to consecutive/continuous battles?"

Knuckles: "That's right. However, some of us are more used to it than others. When Eggman took over most of our world a few years ago, it was pretty much six straight months of fighting with very little down time in between."

Fluttershy: "He took over most of your world?"

Tails: "Yep. It was not a friendly stretch. Sonic, Shadow, a new recruit, and a much older yet younger friend were the only ones who were able to handle it so well."

Applejack: "Older yet younger friend?"

Sonic: "It's quite a long story, but not an important one at the moment."

Rarity: "Well regardless, we still need a little bit of a break after what happened in Cloudsdale." Unfortunately, that would have to wait because a message came for Twilight and her friends.

Spike: "A letter? Who's it from?" Spike asked.

Twilight: "It's from Cadence." The other ponies and Spike gasped while Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow were confused since they didn't know who this 'Cadence' was.

Spike: "Cadence messaged you? What did she say?" Twilight read the letter out loud for everyone nearby to hear.

Dear Twilight,

One of my guards found a strange gem last night. Shining Armor and I can sense powerful energy from it. Apparently, somepony else knows about it too and decided to invade the Crystal Empire. We need you and your friends to help drive this threat away. Please hurry!

Love, Cadence.

Tails: "Who's Cadence?"

Spike: "That's Twilight's sister in law."

Sonic and the others: "Ohhhh."

Sonic: "Well it seems that Eggman hasn't wasted any time finding another party to crash."

Pinkie: "Party? What kind of parties does he attend that he'd be invited to?"

Sonic: "That was a figure of speech, Pinkie." Starlight then started to think about the places that Eggman had already attacked. She didn't think it was a coincidence.

Starlight: "Why does he seem to be attacking the more well known places/important places of Equestria? Like Ponyville, Canterlot, and now the Crystal Empire?"

Twilight: "Maybe because that's where royalty lives?"

Fluttershy: "Then why would he attack Cloudsdale?"

Sonic: "Not sure. Eggman isn't the type to attack in random places," Sonic responded, pondering what Starlight said.

RD: "We can worry about that later. We need to deal with Eggman's current invasion!"

Twilight: "Rainbow Dash is right!" Before teleporting everyone to the Crystal Empire, she asked Starlight "You coming to, Starlight?"

Starlight: "You bet I am. What about you, Trixie?"

Trixie: "No thanks. Somepony has to be hear in case that rotten egg returns." Sonic and Tails couldn't help but snicker at Trixie's comment.

Tails: "Nice wordplay, Trixie."

Sonic: "I agree. It wasn't necessarily great and powerful, but that was a nice way to mock the old doctor."

Trixie: "Thank you, Sonic and Tails."

Twilight: "Alright, now let's go to the Crystal Empire." The princess of Equestria then teleported the Council of Friendship, the current headmare at the School of Friendship, along with Sonic and the others to their next battle.

The group had arrived just in time. In addition to the crystal shaped buildings, they also saw the Egg Carrier 4X dropping robots, ready to attack. Some of those robots were bigger than what the ponies and dragon had already seen the past two days.

RD: "Um, anyone noticing that some of the robots are bigger than what we've seen so far?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Twilight: "Actually yes. I wonder why." Twilight and her friends might not have known what they were, but the anthropomorphic creatures did.

Sonic and the Others: "Super badniks."

Twilight: "Super badniks?"

Sonic: "They're much stronger and much bigger than what he normally makes. While they aren't made often, they're still tough to deal with," Sonic said in a serious tone.

Fluttershy: "Bigger and stronger? Oh my."

RD: "Why doesn't he make them more often if they're so tough?"

Tails: "Time. As much as Eggman wants us gone for good, he's not going to make so many badniks like that unless he has the upper hand, which has only happened once." A laser was then shot from two of the laser flappers towards the Crystal Palace.

Twilight: "CADENCE!" Twilight screamed in worry. Badniks were now coming in fast, and Eggman had clear instructions for the machines.

Dr. Eggman: "Attention all members of the Eggman Empire: GATHER CRYSTALS! I don't care how much you get, just get some! If anyone intentionally tries to stop you, take care of them!" Eggman said from the speaker on his flying fortress.

Tails: "Why would he want crystals from here?"

Sonic: "We'll have to focus on that later buddy. Right now, we have a robot storm to deal with," Sonic said before charging towards some of the robots

Applejack: "Does Sonic always charge into situations without a plan?" Applejack asked Tails.

Tails: "Most of the time he does."

Starlight: "Well we should help him and the citizens of the Crystal Empire," Starlight said, which everyone agreed on before joining Sonic.

Sonic had used his speed to destroy a few egg pawns before they could even register him approaching. While he was having fun as usual, he also knew that he had to start taking this more seriously now that stronger badniks are being used. The screams of two ponies caught his attention and he quickly ran over to save them from harm.

Crystal Pony Resident A: "Who are you? What are you? Please don't hurt us," the female pony said, pleading with the E-2000 robot. Said robot had no intention of sparring either of them. But before the robot could fire, its head was taken off resulting in a shut down.

Sonic: "Are you two okay?" Sonic asked as he stood in front of the crystal ponies.

Crystal Filly: "Who are you?"

Sonic: "Name's Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm here to help."

Crystal Pony Resident A: "You are?"

Sonic: "That's right."

Crystal Filly: "Thank you for saving us."

Sonic: "No problem. Now you and I'm assuming your parent need to get to safety. Me and some friends of mine can deal with these tin cans."

Crystal Pony Resident A: "We will. Come on sweetie. Let's get out of here," the crystal pony told her child.

RD: "Head for the palace, you can wait in there until things clear up," Rainbow Dash had instructed the ponies.

Sonic: "Have you been here this whole time?"

RD: "I only saw you slice that robot's head off and instruct those ponies to safety."

Sonic: "Well then, care to help me do more of that?"

RD: "With pleasure." The two speedsters then started taking down more robots, using their quickness to also get ponies out of harm's way. When both heard a scream not too far from them, Sonic was first to reach the two and destroy the robot holding said pony hostage. Rainbow Dash then instructed the pony towards the Crystal Palace.

Sonic: "With Eggman's goons threatening lives for real, this situation just got more serious," Sonic said after taking down the egg pawn that was holding the crystal pony. Rainbow Dash not only heard Sonic say that, but she also noticed that he sounded more serious than he had the entire time he'd been in Equestria. Even when he and the others told her and her friends about some of the dangerous things that Eggman had done over the years. Her thoughts were then interrupted by another scream.

RD: "It's coming from over there," Rainbow Dash yelled, pointing East of where she and Sonic were. After quickly locating the source of the scream, they found themselves in the Crystal Flower Garden.

Sonic: "What is this part of the empire?" Sonic asked.

RD: "I honestly don't know." Sonic then saw a wrinkly looking unicorn shooting down some of the Egg Fighters.

Sonic: "Who's that old mare?"

RD: "That's Mistmane!" Before Sonic could ask more, they noticed a blue robot in the air with laser cannons for arms approaching from behind Mistmane. When Sonic told Dash about it, she quickly flew towards it. "Not on my watch!" she yelled. The robot tried to attack, but the pegasus was too fast and destroyed it quickly.

Mistmane: "Thank you for saving me. Um I don't think I ever got your name. You're a friend of Twilight Sparkle, right?"

RD: "That's right. Name's Rainbow Dash, the element of loyalty. My blue friend over here is Sonic the Hedgehog."

Sonic: "Nice to meet you, Mistmane."

Mistmane: "Well I've never met a hedgehog that looks like you before. Where do you hail from?" The conversation was cut short by lasers firing from blasters.

Sonic: "We'll have to put that question on hold for now," Sonic said before fighting more egg pawns. While Rainbow Dash and Mistmane helped him, they didn't see two robots escape the garden with crystals in their possession.

With Shadow:

Despite not seeing them before today, Shadow was determined to take down the Egg Fighters and the variations thrown his way. Starlight was helping Shadow fight the robots while Rarity mostly helped get Crystal ponies to safety.

Shadow: "Nice try, but not nice enough!" Shadow said as he dodged two Egg Fighters with cannons for arms before destroying them.

Starlight: "Whoa, those shields they have are strong," Starlight said while trying to blast a shield an Egg Fighter had. When Shadow saw this, he quickly knocked the shield out of the robot's hand, allowing the unicorn to blast a hole in its chest and four other robots that were conveniently in the same path as the laser.

Shadow: "You're an impressive unicorn."

Starlight: "Thanks. You aren't so bad yourself. You might be stronger than Sonic."

Shadow: "Correction: We're equal in terms of strength." More robots then came, which normally would cut the conversation short, but the hedgehog and unicorn decided to continue it while fighting.

Starlight: "I can't believe you and Sonic are friends despite having similar strength and speed, yet completely different personalities," Starlight said while creating a shield around her and Shadow, blowing up a few of the robots that got close.

Shadow: "Let me correct you on something else: me and that blue hedgehog aren't friends. He told you and your friends this when we formally introduced ourselves yesterday," Shadow replied before using his chaos spear on aerial robots.

Starlight: "Oh right, I forgot." More robots quickly approached them, and Shadow quickly got annoyed.

Shadow: "This is getting old." Shadow then pulled out the chaos emerald he found in Ponyville and used it. "CHAOS CONTROL!" He yelled. With time slowed for the robots and Starlight Glimmer, the hedgehog quickly destroyed all the enemies in front of the hedgehog and unicorn before time returned to normal.

(end music)

Starlight: "What just happened?" Starlight asked, staring at the broken robot parts on the ground.

Shadow: "I slowed down time so that taking out the doctor's minions would be easier."

Starlight: "I've manipulated time before, but not like that."

Shadow: "You have?"

Starlight: "Yeah, I once modified a spell to go back in time to stop Twilight and her friends from meeting," Starlight admitted nervously.

Shadow: "How are you friends with the ruler of Equestria after doing something like that?"

Starlight: "Long story short, she decided to take me in as her student to teach me to better control my magic."

Shadow: "Interesting. Now come on, lets go see if there are any more ponies that need help," Shadow then said.

After all of the robots (regular and super) had been destroyed, the Council of Friendship, Starlight, and Sonic and the others met up where the Crystal heart resides.

Sonic: "So Twilight, who or what are we waiting for exactly?" Sonic asked. His question was soon answered as four ponies approached them. One was a white unicorn stallion with purple and yellow armor, one was a pink alicorn with a multicolored mane and tail, one was a younger alicorn who was a lighter shade of pink, and an orange pegasus guard with yellow armor.

Twilight: "Shining Armor! Cadence!" Twilight said to her family.

Shining Armor: "Twily! You're okay," Shining Armor replied before giving her a hug.

Cadence: "It's good to see you again, Twilight," Cadence happily replied before doing a little song and dance with Twilight.

Cadence and Twilight: "Sunshine, Sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves, and do a little shake!" The two of them sang before hugging.

Twilight: "It's good to see you too. How's my niece doing?" she asked when going up to the alicorn foal.

Cadence: "She's doing very well," Cadence replied. An 'ahem' was heard soon after.

Sonic: "Hate to break up this reunion, but I think a certain princess should introduce her new friends who are new around here.

Twilight: "Oh right. Shining Armor and Cadence: This is Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow. Sonic and company: this is Shining Armor, Cadence, and Flurry Heart, my older brother, my sister in-law, and my niece."

Sonic: "Sup?'

Tails: "Nice to meet all of you."

Knuckles: "Hello there." Shadow just simply gave a two finger salute.

What I'm referring to:

(At 0:44)

Shining Armor: "Uh, what's up with the black one?" Shining Armor asked, confused on why Shadow didn't say anything.

Shadow: "No offense, but I'm not into these types of introductions."

Cadence: "None taken. Any friend of Twilight is a friend of ours too."

Sonic: "Question: who's the guy in the yellow armor?" Sonic asked after raising his hand.

Shining Armor: "This is Flash Sentry, a member of our crystal guard."

Flash Sentry: "Nice to meet you, Sir Sonic and company."

Sonic: "Just Sonic will do."

Flash: "Regardless, it's good to see the Council of Friendship here again," Flash said. "Especially the Princess of Equestria," he added in a slightly flirtatious tone. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Tails, and Knuckles snickered while Twilight could only blush in response.

Shadow: "If I may insert myself in this conversation, we were told that you found a powerful gem here."

Shining Armor: "Oh right, we did. More specifically, Flash did." But before the guard could say anything on the matter, Sonic noticed more robots coming from the flying fortress.

Pinkie Pie: "There's more?"

Sonic: "Looks like Eggman's releasing wave 2."

Shining Armor: "Eggman? That's a weird name."

Knuckles: "I know you aren't talking, Mr. Knight in Shining Armor." The stallion was going to argue, but he realized that he had a point.

Shining Armor: "Touche."

Applejack: "Anyone notice that some of Eggman's robots look tougher than the first wave?"

Tails: "Some of them he hasn't used in a while."

Cadence: "Look, some of the robots are parachuting into the stadium. There are still ponies in there!"

Shining Armor: "Guards!" Shining Armor yelled. The guards then came.

Crystal Guard A: "What are your orders, sir?" One of them asked.

Shining Armor: "Keep Flurry Heart safe in the palace."

Crystal Guard A: "Yes sir." The crystal guards then took the foal inside the Crystal Palace. Rainbow Dash then noticed one robot in particular land in the streets.

RD: "Uh, who's that robot?" she asked. After they all got a good enough look, three of them recognized the robot immediately.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles: "Mecha Sonic," the trio said seriously.

Twilight: "You know him?"

Knuckles: "Sure do. Sonic, leave Mecha to me."

Tails: "I'll help Knuckles."

Sonic: "You sure, buddy?"

Tails: "Positive."

Sonic: "Okay then. I trust. Just be careful against him. Both of you.

Tails and Knuckles: "Okay," the echidna and fox said before charging towards Mecha Sonic.

Sonic: "I'll go see if there are any more ponies that need help."

Applejack: "We'll go too."

Twilight: "I'll go help those in the stadium."

Starlight: "Me too."

Shining Armor and Cadence: "Us too."

Shadow: "Might as well. Haven't fought a super strong badnik of the doctor's in a while." After it was clear who was going where, everyone split off to battle the second wave of Eggman's attack on the empire.

One of Eggman's robotic versions of Sonic stood not too far from Tails and Knuckles. Egg Fighters with shields were provided for him as backup.

Knuckles: "Bring it on, you mechanical menace!"

Tails: "Show us what you've got, discount Metal Sonic!" The fox's words seemed to get to the robot because he went straight for him. Fortunately, Tails was able to dodge in time. When Mecha Sonic came back, Knuckles punched him in the face. While he didn't have his shovel claws, he still knew how to land hard hits. Mecha Sonic then started to go blow for blow with the echidna. Most attacks were blocked, and only two of their punches landed, one from each. After a moment of not attacking, Mecha Sonic prepared a spin dash. However, he wasn't prepared for Tails using his arm cannon on him.

Knuckles: "Nice shot, Tails," Knuckles said.

Tails: "Thanks." Mecha didn't stay down for long though. It stared at the two heroes for a little bit before commanding the robots behind them to attack. It caught them off guard, but they were able avoid getting hit.

Knuckles: "How did they surprise us and we saw them with Mecha Sonic?"

Tails: "Doesn't matter. We have to take them down." The fox was dodging the swords that some of the Egg Fighters had. Thankfully, he had been watching Sonic over the years and picked up some pointers. Tails had kicked the swords away from robots, which left them disoriented long enough for Tails to use his arm cannon to take out them out. "They must've forgotten that they had shields," he said with some confidence. But the fox was so concerned about the destroyed robots in front of him that he didn't notice one behind him. And since the Egg Fighter had a spring on its shield, Tails was launched farther then he normally would have been.

Knuckles, however, was having less trouble with the robots. Not because of experience, but because he was better built for fighting. The only issue was that some of the robots caught the echidna by surprise more, leading to him getting hit a bit more. Despite that he was still able to take out the rest of the Egg Fighters, only to be met with a punch from Mecha Sonic because he was so focused on doing so.

Knuckles: "Come on. Is that all you got?" Knuckles asked. Mecha Sonic then shot a laser towards the echidna and the fox with his new visor.

Tails: "Um, did Mecha have a visor like that when you fought him, Knuckles?" Tails asked.

Knuckles: "Um, no. He mostly just used the master emerald," the echidna hesitantly answered. Mecha then fired a laser again, forcing both of them to dodge. After dodging, they came from opposite sides looking to land a punch. The robot saw this coming and blocked both attacks at the same time. However, Tails and Knuckles used their legs to sweep kick the robot and then punch it simultaneously. Mecha then got angry and turned his arms into cannons.

Tails: "Okay, THAT is definitely new."

Knuckles: "Doesn't matter what new tricks Mecha Sonic has up his robotic sleeves, he's going down like all the other robots that have come before him and after him!" (Somewhere, a blue teenage female is feeling a disturbance in the force). The duo then started dodging the explosives coming from Mecha's arm cannons. While neither of them could match Sonic's top speed (which grows every day), both could go fast enough to avoid getting hit. When Mecha decided to stop firing, he charged towards Tails. He was able to see the punch coming and stop it from hitting his face, but wasn't able to stop a robotic leg from hitting him in the gut.

Tails: "Well, that's gonna hurt for a while," Tails said in pain. Mecha was going to deliver a punch, but Knuckles beat him to the punch (cue rimshot).

Knuckles: "No one intentionally hurts any friend of mine and gets away with it!" the echidna said in anger. Mecha turned his arms back into cannons and fired two at Knuckles. Instead of dodging them, he grabbed both explosives and returned them to sender. Mecha then charged up a spin dash and went towards Knuckles, but the echidna anticipated this and grabbed the robot as he approached. Despite his strength, it was tough for the echidna to maintain his ground against the spin dash. Though after some time had passed, he threw the robot into the ground, punched it into the air, and kicked it away from him and Tails with both of his legs.

Tails: "Nice job, Knuckles," Tails said, still in some pain.

Knuckles: "Thanks, Tails. Now let's go finish that robot." The two then went in the direction that Knuckles kicked Mecha in.

Elsewhere, Sonic was with the Mane 6 (sans Twilight), Spike, and Starlight helping take down more of Eggman's minions. Most of them were aerial based, so Rainbow Dash either took them out or led them closer to the ground so the others could take them out. While doing this, one robot in particular landed not too far from Sonic, and he recognized him quickly.

Sonic: "Well, well, well. If it isn't Mecha me. Having fun fighting my friends?" Sonic rhetorically asked the robot. When he didn't get a response, the hedgehog simply said "Didn't think so," then punched the robot's visor off of him when it got up. Sonic then quickly ran towards the visor as Mecha Sonic got up. "Oh does this belong to you?" he teased before crushing the visor in his hand. This angered the robot, causing him to charge towards his blue enemy. However, Sonic not only dodged just as the robot passed, he tripped the robot and made him fall. When it came back, Sonic stopped playing around and started to land several hits on Mecha Sonic. After landing three, he hit the mecha counterpart with a homing attack, and the robot happened to land towards his two closest friends.

Knuckles: "Hey, Sonic," the echidna said.

Sonic: "Hey there, Knuckles." Sonic then noticed his best friend hunched over a little and got concerned. "You okay there, buddy?" he asked.

Tails: "I'm fine. Mecha hit me in the gut, but I'll recover." The ponies and Spike then came over.

Applejack: "We finished taking care of the robots."

Knuckles: "That's good to hear."

Fluttershy: "Um, is Tails alright?" Fluttershy then asked.

Tails: "Don't worry, Fluttershy. I'll be okay." Just as soon as Tails finished his sentence, Mecha Sonic got back up. He wasn't going down that easily. Mecha Sonic then boosted into the air with his built in jet pack, charged another spin dash, and went downwards towards our heroes.

Sonic: "You got this one, Knux?"

Knuckles: "You bet your chilly dogs, I do!" Right as Mecha Sonic charged towards the heroes, Knuckles cracked his namesakes in preparation to finish this fight. When the robot was close enough, he grabbed him, stopped him from hitting him, and threw him into the ground. Mecha Sonic didn't even have time to plan a counter attack because of what who stood in front of him. Tails had his arm cannon. However, it was set to ice shots instead of the normal electric shots. Without hesitation, the fox fired and froze Mecha's head. One of the ponies then came with a request.

Applejack: "Y'all mind if I deal the finishing blow?" Applejack asked. At first, Team Sonic was confused on why Applejack of all ponies wanted to deal the final strike, but they chose not to say anything about it at the moment.

Sonic: "You wanna finish Mecha Sonic off? Be our guest," Sonic replied. The earth pony then stretched her legs and kicked the robot's head off of it's body. When the head landed on the ground, it shattered instantly as Mecha Sonic's body fell over and shut down.

(end music)

(0:00-0:17)

Knuckles: "That was impressive, Applejack."

Applejack: "Thanks, partner."

RD: "Uh, any particular reason you wanted to do that?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Applejack: "I just haven't been able to something like that with a lot of strength in a while."

RD: "But don't you do that on the farm?"

Applejack: "I don't need as much strength for Apple bucking."

Tails: "Well with help from all of you, that's another one of Eggman's stronger robots down."

Pinkie: "When are we going to be finished? I still have a party to throw all of you."

Sonic: "As much as I want to get this over with, battles like these can't be rushed, Pinkie."

Pinkie: "I guess that makes sense. So what do we do now?" As if someone else was listening to her (that would be me), and explosion was heard from the Crystal stadium.

Fluttershy: "Oh no! Twilight could be in trouble!" Fluttershy screamed.

Rarity: "Along the rest of her family and Starlight!" Rarity added.

Sonic: "Shadow might need some help too."

Spike: "We have to go see what's up." All of them quickly rushed to the stadium, hoping that everyone in there was okay.

To be continued. . .

Author's Note

Ninth Chapter: Completed!

Just like with New Horizons, this will be split into two parts. A few things I want to bring up in the author notes:

First, with help from the FiMfiction Discord community, I was able to find out why sometimes the publish dates for chapters weren't accurate to when I published them. Apparently, this site operates under Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which is 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (which I go by since I live in New York). So whenever I uploaded a chapter between 7 pm and 11:59 pm on one day, it would register as being uploaded the following day because of the time difference.

Second, sorry again for taking a while to upload this chapter. In addition to school, I'm working on another personal project.

Last, Mecha Sonic is the third boss in case you didn't already know.

That's it for stuff about this chapter. As for the next chapter, all I'm going to say is that the 4th boss/2nd mini boss is featured. See you then!