ACK! I thought I put this chapter up already. So sorry :/ Anyway, enjoy!
The Master Emerald flickered, shedding a soft green light. Its Chaos Energy washed over its dutiful Guardian. The Guardian stood up. Something wasn't right – for once, the normally warm and flowing energy felt unsettling. Worried, he fanned out his dreadlock-like spines and glided over to the massive green jewel.
He frowned. Now he knew for sure that the Master Emerald was in some kind of distress. His frown deepened as he realized that the emerald was exhibiting more energy than usual – while the emeralds did have limitless power, you had to be careful in how much of that power was used, or else they could overexert themselves. And too much of that could lead to the emeralds being temporarily drained.
Cautiously, the Guardian inspected the great jewel. His stomach flipped as he suddenly remembered the last time something like this had happened.
It had been a normal day on Angel Island. The Guardian was doing his daily patrols, keeping an eye out for intruders and danger, when there was a loud boom and a tremor. The cause of it was a busted doomsday machine built by and manifested by a man who called himself "Robotnik." The land-dwellers knew this man to be an evil tyrant, but seeing as the Guardian was the last of his species living in a floating island, Chaos knew how he COULD have known about it. He remembered angrily that he had played right into Robotnik's hands – and of all the people to help him and his emerald, it was the blue hedgehog!
Chillingly, the Guardian glared out at his surroundings. He would not be fooled again. The Master Emerald was in danger, and he would not fail at his job. And…
…he blacked out.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow howled, sending a bolt of power energy at the mech. The robot exploded with an ungracious bang.
"Nice one," commented Rouge, "but I've seen you do much better."
"…hmph."
"Something is bothering you," Omega stated in a matter-of-fact tone, that tone that says the person knows everything about you. Inwardly, Shadow smirked – his teammates did indeed know him well.
"Hmph."
"Shadow, is something wrong?" Rouge asked.
"No, nothing," he replied. "I just feel more power in my attacks than usual. Wouldn't want to Chaos Blast the whole place…"
Rouge nodded understandingly. Her eyes seemed to cloud, but they were clear almost as soon as she had closed off. She smirked and looked at her imaginary watch, and said, "Huh. Almost time for the mission. We'd better rendezvous."
Omega and Shadow nodded.
"Wait, Shadow. I saw this biiiig—" Rouge stretched out her hands for effect – "pile of sugary stuff just lying there in the forest. I bet you want it, huh?"
Shadow glared at her, and then scoffed, "Get serious. Besides, that's disgusting. If it were chili dogs, I'm not sure if even the Faker would do that."
"You've got me there," Rouge reluctantly agreed, but then added, "but I bet you're just waiting to walk out on us the moment we turn our backs, just so—"
"Agent Rouge, our primary objective to find and possibly eliminate the unknown subject. Do not forget," Omega cut in. "If it is Eggman, I assure you that I will eliminate him. This wait is making me more eager, as you organics would put it. It will be disastrous if I burn down the entire forest for Eggman."
"Indeed, it would be. Omega, we'll see how things go, and then you can get your revenge on the doctor," Shadow promised, secretly grateful that the hunk of a robot had ceased Rouge's teasing. "Regardless, we're going now. Hope you can catch up with me," he added.
Shadow hopped onto his bike. Despite his speed easily being greater than that of the bike, he was required to have it by G.U.N. protocol, and besides, he decided he'd liked it. His two teammates clung to his shoulders, Rouge giving one last, uneasy glance at the sky before they took off.
The Freedom Fighters had already rendezvoused, and were now waiting for Team Dark. None of them knew what was keeping their dark allies, but Amy used the time to do a little "Q.A. session," as she'd put it. Hammer by her side, just in case her interviewee was feeling audacious, the pink hedgehog boldly backed him up against a tree.
"You and Fiona had better not do something to MY Sonic!" she growled.
"First off, I broke up with her. And I have to ask: babe, d'you do this to all your guests?"
"You'd better be careful what you say!" The girl twirled her hammer menacingly.
"Amy! Please get off him," Sally ordered, despite having her own suspicions. The pink hedgehog grunted and backed away.
"Regardless, these are pretty tight quarters." Amy gave Scourge a disparaging look. "I won't miss… and I still say we shouldn't trust him."
"Oui, I agree with Amy," spoke Antoine. "He is ze big fiend!"
"Guys, here he is trying to go good and you're backing him up against a wall – err, tree. Give him a chance," argued Sonic.
"Of course, Sonic..." Amy murmured reluctantly. Then she ran up to the blue hedgehog and hugged him. Her arms were so tightly wrapped around him that Sonic could hardly breathe.
"You gonna choke him or what?" Scourge smirked, watching the proceedings with amusement.
Just as Amy let her "boyfriend" go (with the appropriate sound effects – "Whoops! Sorry, Sonic!"), the air was sliced by a burning spear of pure energy.
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Yeah, yeah!"
A light blue pegasus struck a pose in the air, grinning widely. Most notable about her appearance, though, was her wildly colored spectrum of a mane, which thrashed and whipped in the air in a most noble way, like a – well, like a rainbow river. Her eyes gleamed magenta with ambition – one day; one day, she would be a Wonder Bolt. She knew the crowd would go wild... because they already did.
A bright streak of cold light pierced the night. The pegasus immediately turned to the defensive.
"Who's there?" she shouted, scanning the land below. "I'm telling you, come out now! Fancy light shows don't scare me!"
Upon further examination of the light, which by now almost passed its course, the pegasus' hoof smacked her face in utter disbelief. How ignorant was she, to have forgotten Twilight's lecture about the stars and other cosmic entities! Especially since that one lecture had ended up lasting an hour. Dimly, she also remembered that Twilight had invited her to see some "come what" or something that night. She did sort of regret going, though – she would totally NOT have been caught off guard, and the light did seem kind of pretty.
Then something strange happened.
"Oh my gosh! Spike! I don't think this is supposed to happen; nor is it normal!" exclaimed Twilight Sparkle. Already her mane was starting to frizz up in worry. Her eyes were wide, and she visibly shook.
"What's the big deal?" said Spike. "It's just a falling ball of ice and rock and whatever else it was. You said so yourself!"
Twilight let out a long moan of frustration. "Big deal? Big deal? Of course it's a big deal! I never read anything about this in my books! Were you even watching?"
Spike shook his head.
Twilight's hoof smacked her forehead.
"That comet just exploded into TEN pieces! And then it flashed green light! That's NOT supposed to happen! Frankly, I'm surprised you didn't see!" Twilight shrieked, and continued making a tizzy. Her voice slowly took on a note of worry as she continued, "What am I going to tell Princess Celestia? I promised her a full documentary of facts, and here I am, trying to figure out what's happened!"
"Twilight, Twilight. I'm sure she'll understand. Anyway, if something does happen, you and the other girls can totally handle it!" Spike reassured her with confidence in his voice.
The alicorn smiled faintly. "Thanks Spike. Maybe it really is nothing." She stared at the sky, her eyes drinking in its vast purple glory, searching for answers.
It all went black. Sonic forced open his eyes, struggling to overcome the black bleariness. Slowly, he remembered what had happened.
That stupid Shadow! What was that faker thinking, using Chaos Spear in such close proximities?
Sonic blinked once, and slowly the fuzzy black died from his vision. He jumped up. He was in nowhere he recognized, which was strange – there weren't many places Sonic the Hedgehog hadn't visited. Back to priorities, though (take that, Sal! I CAN prioritise!). Where were his friends?
Mobian hedgehogs generally tended to have acute hearing, and Sonic was no exception. In the distance, he could hear some sort of shouting, and picked up words like "comet" and "supernatural."
His curiousity piqued, the hedgehog started towards the sound, eventually gathering enough speed that his feet were no longer anything more than a blur. He traveled over an old dirt path to a hilly area, where two purple creatures were shouting at each other. One of them looked like a Mobini horse, except with wings, a horn, and some kind of mark on its flank. The other one looked sort of like a smaller and purple version of Vector.
Suddenly, the one with wings and a horn dropped to the ground from surprise.
Sonic slowly swept his gaze over to the second purple creature. Hoping he got the gender right, he asked the second one, "Is she alright?"
"Y… no! What ARE you?!"
"A hedgehog…?"
"You're a talking hedgehog?"
"Yeah?" Sonic shrugged. "And what are you… a talking… uh, what are YOU, anyway?"
"A dragon! How could you not know that?" the dragon seethed.
"Spike!" chastised a voice. Within moments the second purple creature got onto its hooves. "What have I told you about being rude?"
"Sor – ah! Twilight, you're awake!"
Twilight rolled her eyes and gave him a disparaging look. She quickly turned her attention to Sonic, who had crossed his arms and was tapping his feet.
"So," she started carefully, "who are you, and what are you?"
Sonic struck a heroic pose. "I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!"
"Sonic… the Hedgehog?" Twilight murmured.
"Yeah, ring any bells?" Sonic grinned.
"N… no, it's nothing. I just happen to know somepony who's pretty fast," Twilight replied.
"Pretty fast, huh? Well, they don't call me 'the Fastest Thing Alive' for no reason. By the way, your name's Twilight, right? Who's the other guy?"
"Actually, I'm Twilight Sparkle, but you can call me Twilight. He's Spike, my number one assistant," explained the alicorn. Spike modestly smiled, though Sonic could tell that he was just about bubbling with pride.
"Way past," Sonic replied. Then, he asked, "So, you guys aren't used to talking hedgehogs?"
Twilight blinked. "No. To be honest… we thought that only dragons and ponies could communicate. And I've never seen anything like you. I'm not even sure Fluttershy – my friend – knows about animals that can talk. She can communicate with them, but it's not like she uses actual words."
Sonic frowned. "You haven't even heard of me? Or Robotnik? No other talking animals?"
"Who's Robotnik?" Spike butted in. "And what makes you so special that we should've heard of you?"
"Okay, this is way past weird…" Sonic muttered. In his normal voice, he said, "Robotnik's this evil guy who's out to take over Mobius. Me an' the gang, we call ourselves Freedom Fighters. For over ten years now, we've been fighting against 'Buttnik and his mean ol' bots." He took a breath. "This is really, really weird that you guys don't know anything about him! I mean, he's not exactly the subtle type, if y'know what I mean…"
Twilight nodded. "I can imagine," she said aloud.
"No, you wouldn't." Then Sonic reconsidered. "Or maybe you would. Know any other bad guys who destroy entire cities and forests just to turn them into some polluted wasteland? And then turns all o' us Mobians into mindless robot slaves?"
Twilight squirmed uncomfortably under Sonic's suddenly heated gaze. "Well, I can't say I do."
"What the hay is Mobius?" Spike asked, scrunching up his face.
Sonic was quiet for a moment. "Okay, now I know for sure this isn't my world. I don't know if this is some other planet, or some other dimension or Zone. Mobius is my home-world or dimension or whatever you wanna call it."
"Other… dimensions?" Twilight asked curiously.
Sonic shook his head. "Okay, this is getting to be too much for one true-blue-way-past-cool hedgehog! I think I can officially say I have a mondo headache!" He laughed, and then turned somber again. "Whew. So, let me recap. My… friend… Shadow has a strong connection to Chaos energy –"
"—What's Chaos energy?" Spike interrupted.
"Ah, I'll get to that later. Anyways, Shads used this thing we call 'Chaos Spear,' and for some reason, I conked out. When I woke up—about ten minutes ago, I guess—I found myself in some town. I heard some shouting from you guys and went to investigate.
"I'm not so worried about how I got here… rather, where my friends are. The Freedom Fighters and I were going to rendezvous with Team Dark to investigate some kinda disturbance. I haven't seen them since Shadow used Chaos Spear," Sonic finished.
"Wow, that is a lot to take in," Twilight remarked. The gears in her head were already turning. "I guess we can go back to the library to see if there're any books on other worlds – but I doubt it. Well, what're you waiting for? Follow me." The alicorn had already turned to run to the library.
"Bookworm, is she?" Sonic murmured to Spike.
"The biggest," the dragon groaned.
At the Golden Oak Library, Twilight Sparkle was frantically searching the shelves for any kind of books on interdimensional or otherworldly travel. Spike was doggedly following her lead, while Sonic was on the floor perusing some novels.
"You know, you could help," Spike told Sonic pointedly.
"I am," Sonic smirked. He suddenly disappeared, and Spike felt a great rush of wind tug at him. What the hay…?
"It's juice time!" Sonic called. Within seconds every book in the library was skimmed.
"What in Equestria?" gasped Twilight, whirling around.
"No books," Sonic announced disappointedly.
"How did you do that –!?" Spike sputtered.
Sonic grinned and said in a not-so-modest voice, "Eh. It just so happens that I'm the Fastest Thing Alive!"
Twilight looked at him with wide eyes. "You ran at… from what I've seen and heard just now, barely below mach one…?"
Sonic nodded smugly, arms folded proudly.
"Wow," both Equestrians breathed. Twilight quickly went back on task, though.
"I've been thinking," she said, "that somehow, there's a connection."
"…between…"Spike asked.
"Between the comet and the 'Chaos Spear!'" Twilight shouted, as though this fact were plainly obvious. Spike rubbed his ear irritably, though it was clear that he was used to this kind of behavior from Twilight.
Sonic tilted his head. "English, please?"
Twilight smiled at him. "You remind me of somepony else I know." Then she explained, "Before you came and apparently warped to Equestria, a comet was supposed to fly over. I was writing up a documentary for Princess Celestia, but for some reason, the comet… broke into ten pieces and flashed green light."
"That sounds a lot like Chaos Control," Sonic said. "I'll explain that later, when my friends are back."
"Sounds like you guys are very close," Twilight remarked.
Sonic nodded. "We've been through a lot." He rubbed the back of his head.
Twilight decided that maybe Sonic's world and hers wasn't so different. As Sonic had explained to her on the journey back to the library, there were multiple Zonal Dimensions that were similar. She decided it wouldn't be too unlikely that Equestria and Mobius Prime were related.
"It's getting late," Twilight murmured. "You can take my bed. I've got something I need to do…" She nodded to Spike.
"Thanks anyway, but I'd rather sleep outside, where I can feel the wind," Sonic replied, grinning. "G'night, then."
…and he was out in a blur.