Twilight and Sonic reappeared out in the sunny meadow. Sonic looked around wildly. "Where is it?"

Twilight pointed back toward the forest. "Look, there it is!"

The brush bent aside and the dragon stared out at them. But it didn't venture into the open. Instead it turned and stalked away. The brush sprang back into place, concealing its departure.

Sonic heaved a sigh of relief. "That was a close one. Thanks, Twilight."

"You're welcome," said Twilight, staring at the forest's edge.

They'd reappeared near the hot air balloon, and Sonic jogged around it in a circle to release the tension in his legs. The other ponies had made it almost all the way back to the library, and were walking back across the meadow toward him, talking among themselves.

So there weren't just magical ponies here in Ponyland. There were freaky-deaky ghost dragons, too. What other monsters might be out there? Sonic stopped and looked toward the forest, trying to calm his jolting heart. That dragon had been on Mobius first. What if it waylaid someone else on the road? Like Sally? Or Tails? They wouldn't have the speed to outrun it and get sucked into another world. Or whatever had happened.

For a second Sonic almost remembered a vast glowing wing, sweeping pinions, a cloudy blue glow. The shape of a white hedgehog's fan-like forelock. Then the half-memories faded, leaving Sonic clenching his fists in frustration. Ever since visiting Soleanna three months ago, he'd had this problem. What had happened that he'd forgotten?

He focused on Twilight, trying to memorize the shape of her face and the cluster of stars tattooed on her rump. Whatever happened, he wouldn't forget this, and these ponies. Maybe those ghost dragons had eaten his memories.

Twilight looked over her shoulder and her ears flattened. "Sonic? Are you okay?"

"I don't know," said Sonic. He tried to grin his usual happy-go-lucky grin, but his face wouldn't quite do it. "If that dragon's from my world, it might attack my friends there. We all use that road all the time."

Twilight frowned. "We'd better go back to the library. I might have a book of dragons there." She galloped straight through the group of other ponies, who stopped and watched her go by.

"What's goin' on here, Sonic?" said the orange pony with the cowboy hat. "Did you bring that dragon with you?"

"I don't know," he said. "Twilight's checking something." He sprinted after her, leaving the other ponies staring after him.

Sonic skidded to a stop at the library door, and a blast of air hit him from behind. He glanced over his shoulder to see Rainbow Dash backwatering with her wings, trying not to hit the tree. She'd tried to race him again. Sheesh. Sonic shook his head and went inside.

Twilight had placed a fat, leather-bound book on a stand and was paging through it magically. Sonic walked up and looked at it. It was full of hand-drawn illustrations of dragons. Lizards of every shape, size and color, most with wings, some without. Some breathed fire and others shot poison, like snakes.

"I hope all those don't live around here," said Sonic.

"No, no," said Twilight. "We only have a few local varieties. Most of these are scattered all over the world. I'm not seeing any that look like the ones we saw."

Sonic glanced at Spike, who sat on Twilight's back and studied the book with his little brow wrinkled in concentration. "What kind of dragon is Spike, again?"

"Magic-breather," said Twilight, turning a page.

Sonic eyed Spike's green spikes and purple scales. "So, Spike, were your family ever ghostly ravenous beasts?"

Spike looked up at Sonic, then interlaced his claws and stared at them. "I don't know. Twilight hatched me."

Sonic shook his head and walked to a window. The other ponies stood on the path outside, talking and nodding. Then the pink one trotted up, almost completely hidden under a huge bag on her back. She squeezed through the door and dumped her bag in the center of the room. A cannon's mouth emerged from the open end, and fired.

Red and yellow streamers flew across the room, connecting themselves to bookshelves and railings. A box landed on a table and unfolded to reveal a blue cake with yellow decorations.

Pinkie dashed here and there, fixing party hats on everyone, including Sonic. A gramophone appeared and began to play dance music. Why didn't Rainbow Dash try to race Pinkie instead of him? Pinkie put him to shame.

Sonic was forced to dance with ponies, eat cake he didn't want, and generally act happier than he felt. After half an hour he escaped outdoors while everyone else was playing a game Twilight had invented, called Match the Book Title to the Genre.

It was too obvious to just run away. Sonic peered up at the tree's broad, spreading branches. A quick dash carried him up the tree trunk and onto one of the branches thirty feet from the ground. There he sat and rested his head in his hands. His heart weighed in his chest like a stone. All he wanted was to go home. That was it. He was an alien in this world, the only creature who went on two legs.

A horrible thought struck him. Sonic held up one arm and exerted pressure on his chaos field. Usually he could get his field to appear just by focusing on it. It'd show up as a bit of shiny an inch from his fur, like plastic. But now, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his field to show up.

If he wasn't on Mobius, there was no global chaos field to support his personal chaos aura. No chaos, no breaking the sound barrier. No getting home.

Sonic kept trying anyway. He was only distracted when the door opened down below, and Twilight's voice said, "No, I don't know where he went. I don't see him anywhere!"

"I'll find him!" said Rainbow Dash. She flew away into the sky like a brightly-colored comet. Sonic smirked. Nobody would ever look up in the tree.

"If the guest of honor is gone, I guess the party's over," said Pinkie, head and tail drooping. She went back inside, and there was a tremendous crashing noise. A moment later Pinkie emerged from the tree, carrying the giant bag again.

One by one the other ponies departed, promising Twilight their assistance. Sonic watched them go, unnoticed on his lofty perch. Twilight stood on her doorstep and watched them go. Once everyone was out of sight, she looked up at Sonic with a twinkle in her eyes. "You can come down now."

"How'd you know where I was?"

Twilight beamed. "I kept an eye on you, of course. I could tell you didn't want a party." She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Neither did I, to tell the truth."

Sonic ran down the tree trunk and managed to stop before he'd left the tree's shadow. He walked back to Twilight. "So now what?"

"Come inside. We're going to write to Princess Celestia."


Sonic watched Spike's fire-like breath incinerate the letter, and flopped in a chair. "And you're sure this princess will get it?"

"Positive," said Twilight. "She needs to know about your problem."

Sonic glanced pointedly at a wall clock. "And how long before we get a reply?"

"Well, give her a chance to read the letter and write back," said Twilight. "It might take a few minutes." She walked around the library, picking up stray pieces of confetti. She passed books up to Spike, who scampered along the shelves, returning each volume to its place.

Suddenly Spike burped and green fire blasted out of his mouth. It turned into a rolled-up letter and dropped to the floor. Twilight caught it with magic before it hit the ground. "Aha!" She unrolled it and opened it. Her eyes flicked back and forth, and her smile vanished. "Oh. She says for us to come to Canterlot at once."

"Joy." Sonic stood up. "How far is it?"

"About fifteen miles. We'll take the train. Come on, Spike!" Twilight trotted out of the library with the dragon on her back, and Sonic followed.

The next train for Canterlot departed in half an hour. Twilight bought tickets and showed Sonic around Ponyville a little. Sonic followed her and looked around with plausible interest, but he didn't say much. Twilight's heart sank. Was it just her imagination, or had his blue color faded a little? Color fading was never a good sign in Equestria.

In an attempt to cheer him up, she bought him an ice cream from a street vendor. "Hey, thanks!" Sonic's eyes lit up for a while as he ate his treat. When Spike gave Twilight an injured look, she bought him one, too.

A few minutes before departure, Twilight and Sonic returned to the train station, Spike riding on Twilight's back, and boarded the train. Sonic sat on a bench and gazed out the window in silence. Twilight took the seat opposite Sonic's, and Spike climbed off her back onto the seat. He licked his claws and stared at Sonic.

The train's whistle sounded and they slowly chugged out of the station. As Ponyville's buildings fell behind them, Spike said, "Twilight, what if I am really one of those ... bad dragons?"

"Oh Spike," said Twilight, "those are something completely different from you."

The baby dragon looked down. "But we don't know for sure."

Twilight hated to answer. "No."

"I don't want to grow up and be a monster, Twilight." Spike looked up at her, green eyes wide. "You saw what happened on my birthday, when I got all ... greedy."

Twilight shook her mane. "But that was dragonspell, not real growth. Dragons take a long time to grow up, and you'll be with me for a long time yet."

"But what if that happens again?" said Spike, ignoring Sonic, who was now gazing at them with ears pricked. "What if I grow up into a ghost dragon and try to eat people?"

"They did look like you," said Sonic.

Twilight shot him a look. "Thanks a lot, Sonic."

Sonic shrugged. "It's the truth. Where'd you get his egg?"

"Princess Celestia gave it to me." Twilight's voice dropped to a whisper. She lowered her head, a terrible idea taking shape in her head. What if Spike really was one of those unknown ghostly dragons, and the Princess had given him to Twilight for Twilight to study and civilize? What if Spike was some sort of complicated test? She stared at him with new eyes. No longer her friend and semi-child, Spike was now an enormous problem to be solved.

Sonic leaned back on the bench and rested his feet on the window ledge. "So ask the princess when we get there. I mean, if you send her letters all the time, surely she'll answer a couple of questions, right?"

Twilight inhaled. "Yes. Yes, I can."

Spike stared at his feet for a long time. None of them spoke. Sonic dozed, and Twilight fretted. Everything had been going just fine until Sonic showed up. Her schedule had been perfect. It was Applejack's week to write to Princess Celestia, letting Twilight off the hook for that. No stress. No worries except catching an interesting arrangement of planets over the next couple of nights with her telescope.

Then wham. In comes Sonic from another world, being chased by weird dragons nobody had ever seen, and Spike might be one of them. So much for Twilight's schedule, and her sanity, for that matter. Not to mention Sonic's disturbing color loss. He looked all right for now. Hopefully this meeting with Princess Celestia would keep him from graying too much further.


Princess Celestia and her sister Luna watched the train arrive from their palace high at the top of Canterlot. Celestia was pure white with a pastel-colored mane that flowed from her neck like a seaweed forest underwater. In contrast, her sister Luna was all black, with a star-studded indigo mane.

Celestia said, "I sincerely hope Twilight is mistaken. The world's borders have always been secure."

"Maybe that's not the case now," murmured Luna. "What with Discord's effects, and the latest problems with the Crystal Empire, perhaps the barrier is more ... porous." She looked up at her larger sister. "What of the question of the dragons?"

Celestia's mouth flattened into a line. "As I said, I hope Twilight was mistaken."

The pair watched the road that wound up to the palace. After a while, Twilight appeared with Spike on her back. But a bipedal blue hedgehog walked beside her, wearing red sneakers and grinning as he pointed at various things.

Luna's eyes narrowed, and she glanced at Celestia.

"Oh Harmony," breathed Celestia. "The borders have cracked."


Sonic admired the palace as they walked through it. Lots of golden filigree, red carpets, and stained glass windows. The windows depicted all kinds of heroic deeds, and he thought he even spotted Twilight and her friends in a few of them.

Sonic had done heroic deeds lately. But he couldn't remember them. He rubbed his temples and frowned. There was a black void somewhere in his mind. He couldn't touch it or get close to it, but it existed simply by nature of what was absent. Something had happened, something of cosmic significance, and he couldn't remember it. Maybe it was what had lured those ghost dragons to him.

Twilight led him to a pair of high doors with guards on either side. They wore helmets and body armor, and their manes and tails were cropped short. "Hey," said Sonic, "you do have guy ponies here!"

The guards stared at him.

"Come on, this way," said Twilight, hurrying through the door. "Now remember to bow and be polite."

Sonic followed Twilight down the long hall leading to the two thrones. The Princesses Celestia and Luna stood on the throne dais, waiting for them. Wow, Celestia was taller than he was. Why was she so big when everybody else was so short? A different kind of pony, maybe? At least Luna was closer to normal size. Both of them had unicorn horns as well as wings.

Twilight, Spike and Sonic reached the dias and bowed. Twilight bent her front legs and lowered her head, and Sonic bowed from the waist, not sure of what was proper here in four-legged-land.

"Welcome, Twilight, Spike and Sonic the Hedgehog," said Celestia. "I am Princess Celestia and this is my sister, Princess Luna."

Sonic nodded. "Hi."

"Thanks for seeing us so quickly," said Twilight, beaming up at the monarchs with the familiarity of an old friend. "I've been trying to figure out how to get Sonic home, but I've never even heard of cross-world spells. And there's these new kind of dragons hanging around the spot where he came through, so we can't even go back and look around."

"Describe these dragons," said Celestia, stepping down off the dais. "Were they like this?" Her horn glowed gold, and an image appeared in midair. It was a black, snaky dragon with tiny wings and big fangs.

"No," said Twilight. "It was smaller and didn't have wings."

"Like me," said Spike in a low voice. "Only bigger."

Celestia and Luna exchanged a wide-eyed glance. Sonic watched all this and waited, heart sinking into his stomach. He was the problem. He hated being the problem. They'd cross-examine him soon.

Celestia's horn lit up again, and one of the ghost dragons appeared. Like a bigger version of Spike, purple with green spines on its back, and no wings. Twilight pointed a hoof. "That's it! That's what we saw!"

When the Princesses looked inquiringly at Sonic, he nodded. "Yeah. That's them. Only they turned ghostly and vanished and reappeared and stuff."

Celestia shook her head to wave away the image. She walked out into the middle of the throne room. "Our world, Equus, is a guarded world. There are many things Outside that would love to come and devour us. Long, long ago, when I was a filly, protections were laid down to prevent contact with other worlds. Monsters rampaged across the land. The sun and moon were at odds. Ponies died by the thousands. So my predecessor, Matron Exalta, laid spells on the world borders. Spells that must never be broken, or indeed, spoken of at all."

Celestia faced Twilight, Spike and Sonic. "But Sonic, your presence here means that something has failed in the border spells. In order to send you back, we shall have to crack the borders further, possibly resulting in exposing Equus to the ravages of Outside."

There was a brief silence. Twilight's eyes widened. Sonic studied the carpet. He was worse than the problem. He was a threat. Why did this have to happen?

From his spot beside Twilight, Spike said, "What about me? Am I one of those dragons?"

Celestia turned and gazed at him, mane rippling like a living thing. "I can't be certain, Spike. Your egg was located far from here and brought here with the utmost care. But always remember: who you are is defined by your choices, not your race."

Spike wilted and leaned against Twilight's foreleg.

Celestia turned to Sonic. "And you, Sonic. You carry a burden all your own."

Sonic met her liquid violet eyes under their long lashes. Far from accusation or blame, he saw only compassion there. The knot in his chest eased a little. "Maybe. I don't remember anything weird. But-it's what I don't remember that bothers me. Something happened, I don't know what."

The ponies and dragon all frowned at him. Sonic's spines drooped and his ears flattened. "I'm not crazy, I swear."

"Twilight," said Celestia, "come with me." She turned and walked out of the throne room, Twilight and Spike hurrying to keep up with her. Sonic and Luna were left alone.

Sonic swung his arms and walked in a circle, trying to ignore the black mare's stare. Finally he turned and met her indigo eyes. "What? Don't you talk?"

Princess Luna stepped off the dais and walked up to Sonic. She stepped so close that her breath fanned his face, and stared into his eyes. Sonic leaned backward a little and met her gaze. She didn't seem threatening, only curious. Her eyes were deep, dark blue, and stars glinted in their depths. It was as if Sonic looked through a window into a galaxy inside her.

Luna gasped and backed up a step, and turned her head to break eye contact.

"What?" said Sonic.

Luna's eyes flicked to his face, then away. "Some things are best left forgotten, Sonic."

"What? Did you just read my mind?" When Luna didn't reply, Sonic stepped up to her and touched her star-studded mane. It was sleek, yet coarse horsehair.

"My power is that of the night," said Luna. "Often times I can see things lost in darkness that my sister cannot."

The void in his mind. "You saw my lost memories? So they're still there? What was it?"

Luna shot him a wary look and backed away from his hand. "Be brave, Sonic. Perhaps it is not something horrible that you were made to forget. Sometimes it is the wonderful things that torment the worst."

Luna trotted back to the dais as the doors opened, and Celestia and Twilight reappeared. Twilight was all smiles. Spike rode on her back with a small leather bag in his paws. "Remember what I told you," said Celestia. She turned to Sonic and smiled, as warm as the morning sun. "Steps are being taken to set things to rights, Sonic. You will need to lay aside your anxieties and live in the present, not the past."

"Come on," murmured Twilight, "let's go." She and Sonic bowed, and they hurried out of the throne room.

"Did you learn something?" said Sonic. He would keep Luna's words to himself. He had the feeling she wasn't supposed to speak to him as she had.

"Sort of," said Twilight. "It's more like a couple of things to try. Princess Celestia always has the best ideas! I'll tell you about them on the train."

"Eh," said Sonic, "how about once we get back to Ponyville? I'm just going to run alongside the train. All this standing around has me antsy."