Lookout Landing stood near the towering Canterlot Castle.

Knuckles stood at the edge of the makeshift balcony atop the fort, his hands clenched tightly into fists as he stared at the towering Canterlot Castle in the distance. The once-majestic structure now floated eerily above the abyss, supported by a massive stone pillar, while gloom poured out from the dark pit beneath it, as though the land itself had been torn apart. The sky above it seemed darker, the air heavier with every passing day. It had been two long weeks since Sonic and Sunny had vanished, and there was still no sign of them—no clues, no trail, no hope.

He had sent patrol after patrol to search for any trace, to scout the abyss without going too close. The last group had just returned, empty-handed once again, confirming what Knuckles already feared: Sonic and Sunny had simply vanished as if they'd never existed. The echidna's heart sank deeper into his chest, the weight of failure pressing down on him like a heavy boulder. He turned to the group of soldiers standing nearby, their faces pale and exhausted, their eyes searching for some form of leadership, some glimmer of hope. But Knuckles had none left to give.

"Take a break," He said, his voice rough but steady. "You've all done enough for now. Get some rest."

The soldiers exchanged uncertain glances but nodded gratefully, murmuring their thanks before shuffling off toward their tents. They were worn thin, both physically and emotionally, after two relentless weeks of searching with no results. Knuckles knew scolding them or pushing them further wouldn't help. They needed rest. He watched them leave, feeling a pang of guilt for not being able to lead them to a solution, to something, anything that would bring Sonic and Sunny back.

His gaze drifted back to the ominous castle in the sky, his fists still clenched, though now from frustration more than anything. The silence was deafening, the absence of answers like a constant, gnawing ache in the back of his mind. The breeze carried a faint chill, making his quills bristle slightly, though it did little to cool the heat of his anger and worry.

"Still brooding, I see," Came a familiar voice from behind.

Knuckles didn't turn around. He recognized that voice anywhere. Rouge the Bat, always ready to push his buttons, always with a smirk on her lips. But today, Knuckles didn't have the strength for banter. He was too drained, too lost in his thoughts to care.

Rouge sauntered up next to him, her arms crossed over her chest as she glanced out at the same sight Knuckles had been staring at for hours. "You're going to wear yourself out if you keep this up," She said, her tone surprisingly softer than usual. She waited for the usual retort, the gruff comeback Knuckles always had ready for her teasing, but when it didn't come, she raised an eyebrow and glanced over at him.

Knuckles' eyes were fixed on the abyss, his jaw set in a tight line. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, which wouldn't have surprised Rouge. She sighed, deciding to drop the playful act for now. "Look, I know this has been rough, but we're not going to find anything if we collapse from exhaustion before we do."

Knuckles finally spoke, his voice low, almost defeated. "It's not just that, Rouge. It's… it's the waiting. Every day that passes, it feels like things are getting worse. That gloom, it's spreading, the situation in the main cities gets worse, and without Sonic and Sunny…" He trailed off, his throat tightening as he swallowed hard. "I'm worried that by the time we find them—if we even do—it'll be too late."

Rouge frowned, her usual flippant demeanor fading completely. She could hear the fear in his voice, a rare vulnerability that Knuckles rarely showed. She placed a hand on his arm, a simple gesture of reassurance. "We'll find them," She said firmly. "Even if it takes months, we're not giving up."

"That's what scares me," Knuckles replied, his voice heavy with the weight of his thoughts. "What if months pass, and we find them too late? What if the longer they're gone, the worse things get?"

He was falling from an alarmingly dangerous height.

Sonic didn't know how he managed not to cower, but he jumped. If he wanted to keep his promise to Sunny to find her, he had to return to Equestria, and this seemed to be the only way.

The wind whipped at him from all sides. His arms and legs were outstretched as he fell, calculating as best he could where he would land on the lake.

The vast kingdom of Equestria stretched out around him, and the closer he got to the ground, the clearer everything became. He spotted Lookout Landing, which seemed to be finished, and to the north of it, what seemed to be Canterlot Castle, although he wasn't so sure about that last one.

What he was sure he saw, though, was a hole in the ground, south of Lookout Landing. If he remembered correctly, that hole used to be a simple crack from which gloom emanated. Now it seemed to be a gigantic hole in the earth. Had it formed when that mummy under Canterlot Castle woke up? Had the other rifts around Equestria opened up as well?

He hoped the answer was no to both, though deep down he knew it was a wishful thinking.

Suddenly, Sonic noticed not one, but two lakes, both very close to each other. He was closer to falling into the first one, but he suddenly felt reckless, so he leaned towards the second lake out of sheer curiosity. He wanted to prove that he could move enough in the air.

The more he leaned, the closer he was to reaching the ground, so he began to silently pray to any entity that heard him that his recklessness wouldn't end up killing him.

He looked down, and realized that he had already moved away from the first lake. If he didn't lean further, or if he suddenly started falling faster, he would definitely end up dead, like a meat pie on the ground.

But that wasn't going to happen, he wouldn't allow it.

He leaned in even further, knowing that his life depended on it, that Sunny depended on it. He had to survive to find her. He failed her by not catching her under the castle, this time he wasn't going to fail her.

Fortunately, Sonic managed to lean in far enough to stand over the second lake. He smiled, even with the wind mercilessly hitting him from all sides. He knew that at least he wouldn't die, not yet. He decided to dive, as if he were the tip of an arrow, and once he was about to hit the lake, his right arm lit up in a greenish aura.

He fell into the water, wrapped in a kind of warm embrace that protected him from another certain death. Rauru's power had already protected him on two separate occasions, and now it did so a third time. He would never doubt that power again.

He swam to the surface, and once he was out of the water, he took a breath of air.

Even though the gloom had sapped his strength, that he had broken Excalibur, and that his new arm was still infected by that gloom, Sonic felt invincible again thanks to his new Zonai powers.

He swam clumsily to the edge of the lake, lying on the ground as he breathed heavily. Fortunately he hadn't swallowed too much water, although the shock had disoriented him so much that he ended up accidentally inhaling it.

He turned around on the edge of the lake, looking up at the sky. He could see the Great Sky Island, although the island was now what was distant. It didn't look like an indistinguishable speck, but he definitely couldn't reach it from here.

'Maybe I can handle Sunny's phone transport...' He thought, but immediately shook that idea out of his head. 'No, I'm not going to jump from that high without a paraglider again, there's no way I'm going to. Not unless I recover some of my strength first.'

After catching his breath, he stood up, brushing some dirt off his robe, and then set off, heading towards Lookout Landing.

He barely climbed a small hill, however, when his eyes widened.

Canterlot Castle loomed in the distance, completely torn from the earth. It seemed to float above the ground, surrounded by thick, gigantic dark tentacles as tall as the towers on the upper floors. They seemed to be coming from the fissure that had appeared beneath the castle.

'Gloom,' He knew immediately, frowning and clenching his fists. 'Shit... What the hell happened down here while I was gone?'

He knew he had to get to Lookout Landing as soon as possible. He needed to catch up, to know what was happening in the kingdom with his absence.

Returning without Sunny was foolhardy, but he had no choice.

So he started running. He ran across the vast plain that stretched out before him at a fast pace, or at least as fast as he could in his current state. He saw gloom in the distance, and assumed it was coming out of that hole he saw when he fell into the lake.

He decided to approach said place first, but then, a Bokoblin suddenly appeared. It roared furiously at the sight, and it carried a traveler's sword, but it looked rusty. Still, Sonic frowned, and equipped his shield and Amber Blade, then charged at the Bokoblin, hitting it in the hip and slashing it. The monster roared furiously and raised its sword, ready to spear Sonic, who simply performed a perfect guard.

With the Bokoblin stunned, Sonic put away the shield and charged a spinning attack, unleashing it on the Bokoblin, slicing off its head and making it fall limp to the ground.

Now that he defeated the monster, Sonic walked over to examine two things that caught his attention. The first was the horn that the monster dropped, which was long and pointed, with several sharp spikes around it. It looked identical to the horns that those Bokoblins he saw with Sunny when they went for Excalibur had, still not knowing that the voice came from the sword.

The other thing that caught his attention was the traveler's sword that the monster carried. Looking at it more closely, he realized that it wasn't rusty, but deteriorated. It had black spots all over it, and it seemed to have lost part of its edge.

'I hope this has nothing to do with the gloom, or that plague we found under the castle,' He thought irritably. There were a lot of bad things happening at once, and he didn't like it one bit.

He decided to put the Bokoblin horn aside and keep the sword. He hoped that Lookout Landing would have answers to all of his questions, or at least most of them.

He continued on his way to the center of the plain. No more monsters appeared in the process, but he knew that would change sooner or later.

Once he reached the place, he almost fell backwards at what he saw: A gigantic abyss opened in the ground, swallowing everything from the bowels of the earth and being surrounded by alarming amounts of gloom. The smell almost made Sonic vomit, but the sight made a shiver run through him from top to bottom. Two weeks ago, that was just a crack. Now it was a huge hole that was making the earth sick. At least, that's how it seemed.

Out of curiosity—or stupidity, he would choose later—he approached the edge of the abyss, and nearly gasped for air when he saw only more gloom surrounding it, as well as a seemingly endless void of darkness.

'My Chaos, this is scary,' Sonic thought in horror. What was happening to Equestria?

He decided he couldn't waste any more time. He took several quick steps back, as if he didn't want anything to do with the gloom, and suddenly collided with something.

He turned around, and his eyes widened as he saw that it was a large, oddly shaped rock. He touched it, feeling it sturdy and firm, then looked around and noticed that there were very similar rocks scattered across the plain.

'These rocks weren't here before,' He thought as he examined them. 'Could they have fallen from the sky? I don't think they just came out of the ground by magic.'

His thoughts stopped when he spotted a shrine of light not far away.

He immediately ran towards it and opened the entrance, also unlocking the transport point, but he did not enter the shrine this time. There would be time for that, now his mission was to reach Lookout Landing.

Decided, he turned around and started running in the direction of the fort.

Knuckles sat in his office at Lookout Landing, slumped back in his chair with an exhausted scowl on his face. His fingers drummed absentmindedly against the armrest, his eyes locked on the ceiling as if it held some hidden answer to the chaos unfolding around him. He had just dismissed another search party. They came back with nothing, again.

"Rest up," He'd told them, the frustration barely held back in his voice. "We'll try again tomorrow."

The look on their faces told him they were just as drained as he was, but they nodded and left without a word. Knuckles leaned forward, rubbing his temples. Two weeks. Two weeks of little to no sleep, two weeks of chasing shadows, of trying to hold Lookout Landing, and Equestria in general, together while everything around him felt like it was falling apart. He could feel it bubbling inside him, the anger, the helplessness. His fists clenched, his knuckles tightening against the edges of his desk.

He'd always been the protector, the one who stood guard while others moved ahead. It was his job to keep everything in balance, but right now, everything felt wrong. "Chaos, why don't you send me something?" He said bitterly. "A damn miracle. Something to get us out of this hole before I lose it and break everything in sight."

The night outside his window was pitch black, the moon barely visible through the heavy clouds that had hung low over Equestria for days. The torches at Lookout Landing flickered, casting dim light across his office, but he didn't care. The darkness suited him tonight. He wasn't in the mood for company or cheer. He wasn't in the mood for anything except figuring out how to fix this mess before it swallowed them whole.

He sighed heavily, sinking deeper into his chair. There was a knock on his door, but Knuckles didn't even look up.

"Come in," He muttered, expecting one of his soldiers or maybe Shadow with another report that nothing had changed.

But instead, the door flew open with a force that surprised him, slamming against the wall.

"Knuckles!" A familiar voice shouted, full of excitement and urgency.

Rouge. Of course.

Knuckles finally lifted his head, narrowing his eyes at her. She stood in the doorway, her chest heaving as if she'd sprinted across the whole outpost to get there. Her eyes were gleaming, an expression Knuckles hadn't seen in her for weeks. Hope.

"What the hell, Rouge?" He snapped, though his tone lacked its usual bite. He was too tired to argue. "What now? I thought I told you—"

"Sonic is back!" She interrupted, cutting through his words with those three simple ones.

Knuckles froze, his mind struggling to process what she had just said. His heart stuttered in his chest, disbelief crashing over him like a wave.

"What?" He breathed.

Rouge took a step closer, a wide grin spreading across her face as she nodded. "He's back, Knuckles," She repeated. "Alive. He just arrived at Lookout Landing."

For a moment, Knuckles couldn't speak. His mind raced, trying to catch up with the news. Sonic and Sunny had been missing for weeks, and they had feared the worst—he had feared the worst. He'd been preparing himself for a world without his old rival, without his cooking partner, without his friends. And now Rouge was standing here, telling him that Sonic was back? Just like that?

He shot to his feet, his chair clattering to the ground behind him as he strode toward Rouge.

"Where is he?" Knuckles demanded, his voice low but urgent. His pulse raced in his ears, that storm of frustration and anger suddenly twisting into something else. Relief? Maybe.

"He's in the courtyard," Rouge replied, her smile widening. "Come on, I'll take you to him."

Without another word, Knuckles followed her out of his office and into the night, the exhaustion that had weighed him down for so long forgotten in the face of this unexpected miracle. Sonic was back. Maybe, just maybe, things were finally starting to change.

Night had already fallen by the time he approached Lookout Landing.

About 100 meters away, Sonic stopped. He couldn't just approach, act like he hadn't been missing for two weeks. But what exactly was he going to say?

Sonic stood still, his gaze fixed on Lookout Landing looming before him. He knew everyone inside would be desperate for answers, and his two-week absence had only increased the uncertainty and fear.

The moon, high in the sky, cast a pale light on the stone path, and the cold wind stirred his robes, as if to push him forward.

But Sonic didn't move. His left hand clenched tightly at his side, a product of the uncertainty he felt at that moment. His right arm, now a mix of flesh and arcane energy, felt strange, but surprisingly strong.

How would he explain what had happened to him? How would he talk about the abyss he had fallen into, the hand that had rescued him, what he experienced on the Great Sky Island, the disappearance of Excalibur, how he literally fell from the sky? And most importantly, what would he tell them about Sunny?

A wave of exhaustion washed over him, but he knew he had no time to rest. He had to go inside, he had to talk. But each step towards the fort felt like a heavier burden than the last.

Finally, he took a deep breath and decided that he would face whatever came, as he always had. With slow but determined steps, he approached the place, ready to accept whatever came.

As he approached, he saw that Omega was standing on top of the north entrance of the fort. The robot was watching everywhere, watching for any threats nearby, when finally his gaze fell on Sonic, approaching from a distance. Of course, he didn't recognize him, so he made a titanic leap and landed in front of him, aiming his cannon at his face.

Omega's cannon hummed ominously, the energy building at its core. The towering robot loomed over Sonic, casting a long shadow in the moonlight.

"State your identity, intruder," Omega demanded, his voice as cold and mechanical as ever. He tilted his head slightly, calculating the potential threat.

Sonic froze as Omega's cannon hovered dangerously close to his face. The robot's red optic glowed with intense focus, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

"It's me, Omega," Sonic said quietly, raising his hands in a peaceful gesture. His voice was hoarse from the journey, and he wasn't sure if Omega would recognize him at all—not with how he looked now.

Omega's mechanical frame remained still, his targeting systems calculating Sonic's words. For what felt like an eternity, there was silence between them. Then, the cannon lowered.

"Identified: Sonic the Hedgehog," Omega's monotone voice stated. "You have been missing for 13 days, 4 hours, 21 minutes. Status: altered."

Sonic couldn't help but smirk, though it was a tired one. "Yeah... You could say that."

Soon, a pair of pegasi soldiers guarding the north entrance of the fort saw him and Omega. At first they didn't recognize him because of his strange clothing, as well as his right arm. However, before they could adopt defensive poses, Sonic approached the fort followed by Omega, his face illuminated by the light of the torches that illuminated the fort, and they finally knew who he was.

"Sonic?!" One of the soldiers said in disbelief.

His name was Drozer, and despite his helmet covering part of his face, Sonic recognized him by his beard and mustache, which looked unkempt. How much sleep has he gotten since he and Sunny disappeared? Has he even gotten any sleep since then?

"It's you, you're back!" Drozer said, joy and surprise mixed in his tone as he spoke. "Wh-where have you been?!"

Before he could answer, the other soldier got in front of him. "Last that anyone saw of either you or Sunny was when you went to investigate the gloom. And then the castle rose into the sky, and everyone's been so worried about what happened to you both!"

The other soldier was named Burwar. He didn't have his helmet on, but he looked even worse than Drozer. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was loose when he usually tied it up.

Sonic knows that Burwar is a sleepyhead, and seeing him like that worried him.

"You can't imagine how worried we were," He continued when Sonic didn't say anything. "Especially Knuckles. Since the castle rose, he has nearly worn himself out trying to figure out where you two went."

"Hey, guys!" Drozer suddenly turned to the center of the fort with a smile. "Sonic is back!"

Drozer's shout echoed throughout Lookout Landing, drawing the attention of several soldiers patrolling nearby. Sonic, however, couldn't look away from the faces of the two pegasi in front of him. The joy in their eyes was palpable, but so was the weariness, the weight of two weeks of uncertainty and fear.

"It's good to see you, Sonic," Burwar continued, his voice cracking a little. "We were all losing hope..."

Before Sonic could respond, more soldiers began to approach, forming a circle around him. Some looked at him in disbelief, others with relieved smiles, but all shared the same feeling of wonder and relief.

"Sonic!" Someone else shouted from a distance, and within seconds, the small group of soldiers became a crowd, all talking at the same time, asking him questions and trying to understand what had happened.

"Where have you been?"

"What happened at the castle?"

"Are you hurt?"

Sonic raised his left hand, calling for silence. He didn't have the answers they were looking for, not yet, but he needed time to gather his thoughts. The murmur of voices slowly died away, and when silence finally fell over the group, Sonic prepared to speak.

But before he could say a word, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed in the hallway behind him. The soldiers moved aside, forming a path as they made way for Knuckles, who approached Sonic with a look that showed his disbelief. Rouge followed close behind, her eyes never leaving Sonic's.

The echidna stopped a few steps away from Sonic, his eyes scanning the hedgehog from head to toe. It was clear he had been through a lot, his face showed signs of exhaustion, and that arm… Knuckles couldn't take his eyes off Sonic's right arm, which now looked more like an arcane artifact than flesh and blood.

"Damn son of a bitch, you're still alive," Knuckles said with a tiny smirk, causing Sonic to return the same gesture. "I should be mad at you for showing up out of nowhere... But something tells me you're in no shape to be told off. Damn it, Sonic, you look worse than Pipp waking up with a bad mane in the morning. And those clothes... Are you wearing a skirt?"

Sonic chuckled weakly at Knuckles' jab, feeling the tension in his body ease just a little. It was a strange comfort, hearing Knuckles' familiar brand of tough love after everything he'd been through.

"Yeah, well," Sonic quipped, glancing down at his tattered outfit. "It's more of a tactical... fashion choice." He gave a half-hearted twirl. "Functional and stylish."

Knuckles snorted, and a few soldiers in the crowd cracked smiles, but the humor did little to dull the tension still brewing between them. The echidna's eyes were full of questions, of uncertainty. Sonic knew what he was thinking: Where is Sunny? What happened? Why are you carrying an arm that isn't yours?

"I was beginning to think that you had..." Knuckles didn't even allow himself to finish that sentence on that occasion. "I'm glad to see that you've returned... You must be tired."

Sonic was about to reply, but before he did, he felt all his exhaustion hit him suddenly, and he fell to his knees on the ground. He hadn't slept at all in the last 24 hours, not since he dreamed about Pipp. Now he suffered the consequences of not having rested when he should have. Some of the soldiers approached him, afraid that Sonic would collapse.

Link ended up accepting help from a unicorn soldier he couldn't quite recognize, resting his left arm around his neck as he struggled to his feet.

"I..." Sonic looked like he was finally going to speak, but then he let out a sigh. "Yeah, I'm... really tired..."

Knuckles stepped closer, placing a hand on Sonic's shoulder, his grip firm but full of concern. "You need rest, buddy. Whatever happened to you can wait. First, you need to get back on your feet."

Sonic tried to protest, but his words were soft and almost inaudible. He knew he needed to rest, but he also knew there were things he needed to say, things everyone needed to hear. However, his body just wouldn't cooperate.

The soldiers gently guided him into Lookout Landing, while the rest of those present watched in silence, worry written on their faces. Sonic couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. Everyone was counting on him, but at that moment, he could barely stay conscious.

As they moved through the halls of the fort, the atmosphere seemed to grow heavier, almost oppressive. The wind that had previously gently pushed him along, now seemed to have stopped completely, leaving an eerie silence in its place. Sonic knew that this silence wasn't just external, but also reflected the emptiness he felt inside. Worry for Sunny was eating away at him, and the uncertainty of her whereabouts didn't allow him to find peace.

Finally, they arrived at what seemed to be the infirmary. It was a large, plain room, with beds lined along the walls, some of them occupied by wounded or exhausted soldiers. The doctors and nurses working there rushed over when they saw the group enter.

"Leave him here," One of the doctors said, pointing to one of the empty beds near the entrance. "He needs to rest."

Sonic was helped to lie down on the bed, and when his body finally hit the mattress, he felt a wave of relief, albeit momentary. He knew the rest was necessary, but his mind kept fighting the need to stay alert.

Knuckles, who had followed the soldiers to the infirmary, approached Sonic’s bedside. His expression, once stern and worried, now showed deep gratitude.

"Rest well, Hedgehog," The echidna said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We'll talk when you're ready. What matters now is that you're alive."

Sonic nodded weakly, his eyelids beginning to droop under the weight of fatigue. He wanted to say so many things, but the words wouldn't come. The last thing he felt before succumbing to sleep was Knuckles' comforting touch, and the vague hope that, when he woke up, he would have the strength to face whatever came.

A whisper in the distance woke him up.

Sonic slowly began to open his eyes, and began to examine his surroundings. He was in the Lookout Landing infirmary, where he had been brought after feeling exhausted the night before. Sunlight was streaming in through a nearby window. He assumed it was already dawn, or maybe it was late.

The whispers began to get closer. They seemed to be more of an argument.

He sat down on the bed he had been brought to. He still had his robe on, but not his sandals or his weapons. He knew they had been taken from him while he was sleeping, or maybe they had been taken from him while he was coming to the infirmary.

He was so tired last night that he might not have noticed.

What he did notice, however, was the pulse monitor next to his bed, as well as the wires attached to his chest, and the massive amount on his right arm. Noticing that the monitor was yellow, he immediately knew who was behind this. He only got his confirmation when he saw Knuckles, Amy and Tails arguing. He immediately knew they are the discussion that woke him up.

"Knuckles, we have no clue on what that arm is, it might be dangerous for him!" Tails said with a slight frown. "I still don't understand why you didn't immediately sent him to me instead of sending him to sleep."

"You were not there when he arrived, Tails," Knuckles argued back, although he didn't raised his voice, but he was frowning regardless. "The guy looked like he would faint any minute now. I have no clue where he was or where he came from, but his health is more important than anything. Also, you've been studying his arm for the past three days, and there's nothing that indicates that thing is dangerous for him!"

"Knuckles, that arm can't be a natural thing," Amy interrupted, standing in front of Tails so they wouldn't get on a more heated argument. "Didn't you see the marks on his chest? It's like it just stuck to him, without any explanation! Also, I support Tails here: even if he doesn't show any signs of being in danger, we have to make sure that thing won't hurt his body."

"That won't be necessary, Ames," Sonic spoke, cutting Knuckles off as he was about to speak and gaining the attention of the rest, who caught him removing the cables from himself.

Sonic's voice was firm, though his eyes still showed the remnants of exhaustion. He swung his legs off the bed, feeling a slight dizziness but pushing it aside as he looked at his friends.

However, before he said anything else, he was wrapped in a tight hug by Tails, who zoomed into him so fast that he could barely see it coming. The gloom under his new arm affected him much more than he thought, but at least he could still fight back a little.

"Seems like someone missed me over here," Sonic smiled, wrapping his arm normal around Tails. He suspected he wouldn't like to feel the other one, the one Rauru gave him to save his life.

"You have... no idea..." Tails whimpered, not wanting to brake the hug. He didn't even cared if he sounded like a scared child, he just didn't wanted to let go of his big brother figure and allow him to disappear again.

Sonic patted Tails on the back, gently, understanding just how much his absence had affected his friends. It had been a long time since he'd seen Tails this vulnerable, and he didn't mind being there to reassure him, especially after everything they'd been through together.

"Hey, I'm here now, aren't I?" Sonic said softly, pulling back just enough to meet Tails' eyes. "You know me, little bro—I always find my way back."

Knuckles, standing nearby, gave a small nod of approval, his gaze shifting from Sonic to Tails with a softened expression. Amy folded her arms, her face a mix of relief and worry. She, too, had been shaken by Sonic's sudden reappearance, but seeing him here, even in this strange situation with his new arm, brought some sense of peace.

And yet, she only approached once Tails broke the hug to do the one thing she silently swore to unce Sonic returned...

Despite that he expected it, he still didn't saw it coming, yet received her slap on his cheek as nothing. After all, he knows he blew it when both him and Sunny choose to go on their own beneath Canterlot Castle, and look how well that plan turned out.

"Yeah, I deserve that..." Sonic admitted, just to be punched under his chin by Amy. "That one too..." And now, she prepared to kick his crotch, and that's when he chickened out, stepping back and covering that zone. "Okay, maybe we can skip that one!"

Amy's glare could've pierced through steel, and Sonic had to admit, he wasn't entirely sure she'd relent on the next one.

"Oh no, you don't get to dodge that easily!" Amy scolded, her hands on her hips as she narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you have any idea what you put us through? We were worried sick!"

"Yeah, sorry about that…" Sonic managed, giving her a sheepish smile, though he kept his stance defensive, just in case. "I didn't mean for things to get so messy. Things just... escalated quickly..."

"You're telling me," Knuckles sighed and shook his head. "Whatever happened after you two left, made the castle rose in the air. Now, gloom comes out of everywhere in Equestria because the small rifts on the ground had become abysses. And if that isn't enough, the entire kingdom is upside down. The Upheaval has messed up the world, in a very bad way."

'Upheaval?' Sonic thought, confused. "The fuck is a Upheaval?"

"That's what we call what's happening in Equestria," Tails explained. "It seems to be the perfect term to describe what's happening."

Sonic felt his head spinning, and he sat down on the nearest bed so he wouldn't faint. He had a feeling that they had barely touched on the events that plagued Equestria with those words, and yet he felt very helpless.

Amy's glare softened slightly, but she held her ground. "If you feel better now, start explaining yourself, then. And it better be one hell of an explanation, Sonic!"

Sonic was silent for a moment as he tried to gather his thoughts. Eventually, he sighed and cleared his throat. He had a lot to tell.

By the time Sonic finished speaking, his throat was almost sore.

He talked about everything that happened from his perspective: What happened under the castle, about the Zonai ruins, about that mummy that had revived, about how he couldn't save Sunny as she disappeared from sight in a golden light, about what he experienced on the Great Sky Island, about Rauru, about how he got his new arm, about Excalibur disappearing before his eyes, about how he was still infected with the gloom under his new arm, and about what he saw on the way to Lookout Landing.

The silence that filled the room when he finished speaking didn't make him feel any better. Knuckles' eyes were wide, as if he was trying to connect the dots between what he knew and what he had just heard. Tails was frowning, deep in thought about the Zonnan ruins and the mysterious power of Link's new arm. Amy, for her part, was looking at him with a mix of sadness and determination, as if she was already planning her next steps.

Amy was the first to break the silence. "So... Sunny's still out there somewhere, and you have no idea where to start looking?"

Sonic's gaze dropped to the floor, and for once, he had nothing to say. What could he say, anyways? That he has failed to save their asses this time? That he saw Sunny in some strange illusion world where she gave him a new power before vanishing? They knew that already, there wasn't any point on repeating himself.

"Okay... let's try to summarize everything, because I feel like my head is going to explode..." Knuckles said after a long and uncomfortable moment of silence. "When you and Sunny go beneath Canterlot Castle, you discover a mysterious mummy..."

"Which suddenly reanimates," Amy continued. "Then Sunny falls into a fissure and vanishes."

"That must have been when the castle rose and the ruins fell..." Knuckles supposed.

'So they did fall from the sky,' Sonic thought, remembering the ruins he found on the way to Lookout Landing.

"Then later you wake up on a sky island, saved by the arm that was stuck to the mummy," Tails continued, rubbing his chin. "You then got Sunny's phone from an unusual creature..."

"And learn that your new arm belonged to some Rauru guy," Knuckles said, thinking. "I think I've read that name, or maybe Sunny mentioned it once. If memory serves me right, I'd say Rauru is the name of the actual founder of Equestria."

"The Excalibur Sword disappears..." Amy continued, her tone filled with uncertainty at what she just said. "And then finally, you hear Sunny's voice...and find your way here."

"But then... that implies that..." Knuckles began, then his eyes widened. "You mean to tell me you landed here from the sky?!"

Sonic looked at him in disbelief. He's faced gods, colossal robots, destroyed bases in space, and falling from the sky is where he crosses the line of possible? He has done it before, even, so many times.

Still, he nodded at Knuckles' question.

"And how did you survive a fall like that?" He questioned in disbelief. "Considering your current state, that is."

"I jumped into the lake beneath the island," Sonic replied, shrugging. "The arm seems to imbue me with a power that protects me from certain death, at least when I jump into the water from very high places. And strangely it lets me swim as well, even though I never learned."

"By Chaos…" Amy muttered in amazement.

"Sonic, what you say doesn't make any sense…" Knuckles pointed out, rubbing his temple with accumulated stress. "Yet I know you ain't lying. And if I'm sure of one thing, it's that the mummy you found underground is related to the Upheaval.”

"I'd dare say it also has some connection to the current state of the castle and the ruins falling from the sky," Tails added. "And yet, the most intriguing thing about your story is that Sunny asked you to look for her."

"And that's what I plan to do," Sonic said with a determined look. "I know I just arrived and you guys have hundreds of other questions, but that can wait. I need to find Sunny first."

"We all want to find her, Hedgehog," Knuckles said, looking at him with a mix of annoyance and compassion. "And I have no doubt that you feel more urgency than anyone to find her, maybe even more than Hitch or Izzy, but we have to make sure that you are ready for field work."

"I know I am, Knux," Sonic assured, his gaze full of determination. "And even if I am not, the Shrines of Light scattered throughout the kingdom can help me regain my strength, and ward off the remaining gloom in my body. They did just that on the Great Sky Island."

"Sonic, I know you want to go out and find Sunny, but…" Amy tried to reason with him, without success.

"I'm not going to sit back and watch Equestria panic, Amy. Sunny's out there, and she asked me to find her. That's what I'm going to do. I might as well give the others a hand with the Upheaval, as you call it. Besides, they need to know I'm alive, and Sunny is, too."

Everyone in the room knew Sonic was serious. When an idea got into his head, there was no soul that could talk him out of it. Plus, his tone sounded like he wouldn't brook any argument.

He planned to go and find Sunny, no matter what the cost.

The atmosphere in the room grew tense, everyone aware of Sonic's unwavering determination.

Knuckles, not the least bit surprised by the hedgehog's response, knew that nothing he said would stop Sonic. He'd seen that same look in his eyes before, more times than he could count, when a hero's will could make the difference between victory and defeat.

"You disappear for two weeks, and you come back just as stupid as ever," Knuckles finally said, his tone resigned as he rolled his eyes. "Fine, it will be your way. I can't stop you, and I wouldn't try. If anyone can make the impossible possible, it's you."

Sonic gave Knuckles a smirk, the kind of confident grin that had pulled them out of countless tight spots before. "Glad to see you're still in my corner, Knux," he said, and the room seemed to lighten slightly, the tension easing as the reality of Sonic’s return set in.

"Just don't push it too hard, Hedgehog," Knuckles warned, though his tone was gentler. "If you're going to help us, then it would be best if you report to Shadow. He's near the castle, west of it. I sent him to investigate as soon as the castle rose from the ground. Maybe seeing you will ease his mind a little, or maybe he will try to kill you. Whatever it is, something tells me that a part of him will be glad to see you in one piece... almost."

Sonic nodded, catching the subtle humor in Knuckles' words. "Shadow's reaction will be… interesting, to say the least. Either way, he'll get used to it."

Author's Note

WELCOME BACK, EVERYONE!!!

After a well deserved one-month break, I'm back to continuing this story with Parts II and III! Hope you guys are ready to see some more of Sonic dealing with being back to level 0.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter.