And here we go a new chapter for you guys. It's fucking long._. But anyways I hope you guys love it. And please review, seriously, I can't stress it enough, the more you guys review and boost this confidence I barely got on this story, it'll help me to publish more and more chapters quicker. But anyways. ON TO THE STORY! (Prepare your feels.)

Pinkamena Diane Pie, the pony of parties…her name synonymous of all things fun and comical; the pony of laughter, the epitome of happiness, randomness, a pony of whimsical vibes of driven to amuse. One of the legendary Mane Six; the vibrant pony provided everypony within her expressive vicinity with laughter and smiles; these aliases quondam as she was now hundreds of miles from any pony, mining rocks and various ores alone.

Although it wasn't always like this...

Her sisters, aside a few other strangers, were some of the ponies that used to work alongside their pink sibling... and it wasn't extremely so bad for she was reunited with family despite all of the terrible things that was going on. Sure they worked in heinous conditions, mined rocks and ore out of dangerous caves and mine shafts, but with the Pie family on the job it was a doable task. And Discord noticed that, and he slowly wanted to pauperize Pinkie's spirit and mind... and within time, the workload became bigger exponentially.

And... Sometimes the workload was too big…

Bones broke... Minds broke… as Discord wanted, her very spirits were crushed as Pinkie Pie witnessed her family, her siblings, the ponies she loved are brutally crushed as Lord Discord's insidious demands of rock and ore become too much for her family to handle. Pinkamena, too, wasn't safe from the defragmentation of body and soul. The former party pony hasn't smiled in months; her mind was in utter dissonance, her spirit barely alive like a lone flame blowing in the wind, threatening to go out any day now.

With eyes low and barely alive with color, the pale pink pony trudged laboriously along the dusty ground towing a massive load of stones of all sizes to the industrial train that would carry today's workload to Canterlot to be processed into more statues or foundations for building massive tributes or buildings, for Lord Discord sole pleasure.

After dropping the agonizingly heavy weight of the rocks in the industrial material cars, she trudged blankly back towards the fields to mine more rock to fit the insane quota issued by Lord Discord. These days it seemed as the quota gets bigger and bigger; you'd think he was building a castle with the massive rock he demanded. Pinkie often wonders can she actually live like this for any longer- this isn't living, heck, this isn't even surviving, this is a prime example of a soul misplaced in Tartarus, being punished for being alive.

Her head was kept low as she lumbered along the used path.

Thick, crimson blood oozed gradually from her sore hooves from ugly scars that marked around each of her hooves, it pained her greatly but she ignored the pain. This world is full of pain, so full of the evils; why would she let scars, blood, the death of her siblings and parents faze her.

She passed five graves; one quite recent, on her way back to the main mining field without so much as a sorrowful glance towards it. Albeit her mind betrayed her eyes as she mentally screamed and wanted to run from every day's torments to a world much safer than this. This mental cry for a better place persuaded Pinkamena's hooves to turn onto a path that she only took a few times before. The ground was less hard here as it felt like soft gravel and it rose in elevation slightly.

Why would she let scars, blood, the death of her siblings and parents faze her.

The poor, tormented pony walked silently to revelation…

Her brain pains her greatly as she thought of a way out. A way out. She can't live like this anymore. What's the point in living if the things you live for have been ripped out of your hooves to be replaced with pain, blood, and death?

Why would she let scars, blood, the death of her siblings and parents faze her.

After a long, arduous walk of about thirty minutes she came across rocky ground. The wind whipped her long, dirty mane around, the dry wind slapped against her face forcing her to squint to keep her eyes safe.

She hesitantly looked down upon revelation.

An insanely deep and dark gorge before her sent her mind reeling but she didn't care. Caring simply doesn't get you anywhere in this world anymore. Upon looking down into the abyss she emptied her mind, thinking of the people she had lost would only provoke sadness, she isn't gonna let herself go like that. So she emptied her mind and slowly inched forward until the tips of her front hooves were off the perilous edge.

In her mind she was a pretty pony again, full of laughter and full of the beautiful things in life. Radiant vibes of happiness and laughter enveloped her being, swirling around her in a magnificent whimsical light. The light engulfed her into a wispy sphere and it glowed with the utmost brilliance. The light ebbed away leaving her in a shroud of light and glorious wings on her back. I'm beautiful again. I'm happy again. I… I can smile again….

Suddenly a massively deafening blast of an otherworldly sound and force slammed into the back of her blasting her out of her day dream and making her stop her perilous abscond to oblivion. Dust and gravel kick around the startled pony swishing her dry, dull mane and tail past her.

Pinkamena looked back with wide eyes hesitantly at what had made that sound to find a psychedelic looking, swirling pool of color about fifty feet from where she was. With her wide eyes searching the portal she could discern, without a doubt, that a being stood tall from it.

Her mind reeled with questions that her frail conscious couldn't handle. She tried to turn around from the gorge to feed her curiosity and get a better look to only feel the ground beneath her start to crumble. Her eyes widen as she and the ground fell beneath her. She screamed a shriek surfeit of sorrow and fear as the darkness below claws and pulls her down into its unforgiving depths.

As she fell she swore she could see the figure before the visual high of light turn to her to just see her before she disappeared beneath the dark, unforgiving ground.

"Discord effectively eradicated our beloved Princesses with one swoop of a claw; how he managed to gain so much power is unknown to this day but before Celestia died she sent out a distress signal to me and my friends about what was going on and how. Ever since Discord took over the ground shriveled up, the trees and vegetation started dying; we're herbivores mind you so when we tried to eat the plants of the ground we started to develop very powerful migraines from lack of magnesium that we get from the chlorophyll in the plants." as if on cue Fluttershy's stomach growled verbosely as it pleaded to have something to be put into her belly right now.

Fluttershy, Cream and Marine was sitting in a small circle with the lights out, the only thing providing light was the faint moonlight that lit up the dirty clouds above. The three have been talking about how things have gotten so bad in Equestria for hours into the day and night, during this time Cream and Marine learned of this world's erratic Sun and moon cycle.

Immediately thinking of Fluttershy's wellbeing, Marine reached into her pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar that she was planning on eating soon. "Here, eat this-" she handed the chocolate bar to the famished pony who took it hesitantly.

"You should feel better right away, it has nuts in it-" Cream didn't even have the time to finish before Fluttershy smelled the food inside of the package and immediately tore the wrapper open with her teeth and started to devour the contents of the delicious smelling wrapper.

Fluttershy's eyes went back as flavor impacted her being like a sledgehammer made of the good things in life. As she chewed and as she rolled the contents of her mouth around with her tongue to savor the intense flavor she slightly lolled her head side to side in euphoria. It has been years since she had last ate something with so many flavors. Suddenly a small hole in the thick and rank clouds of darkness in her mind was made apparent as she tasted the little bit of heaven; her belly happy now.

She could taste the satisfyingly crunchy nuts and the delicious, smooth cocoa and the sweet nougat engulfing her taste buds; she unconsciously raised the wrapper back to her mouth to take another bite of the delectable snack. Sadly though she bites down onto nothing and her eyes shoot open and stare down at the empty wrapper. Marine and Cream looked at her with caring smiles and sympathetic eyes.

Fluttershy needed not to thank them for they already knew that she was absolutely grateful for the small snack. Fluttershy then looked over to them, now it was their turn to talk about themselves.

"I don't think you've told me how you both got here, do you mind letting me know?"

Cream looked at Marine with an annoyed look for a second and she looked back sheepishly since quite frankly, it was their fault that they were sent here. Cream then smiled at Fluttershy and began explaining.

An enchanting, reverbed pinging sound softly resonated out of Twilight's horn tip as she used her self-taught skill of magical sonar. The signal pings from her horn and in a 360° range and it pings to different magical users around as she uses other pony's horns as a repeater as she tries in vain to find their begotten and beloved former rulers, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

She knew it was futile… but still…

After her third try of the evening she lowers her weary head and looks down onto her hooves. Large tears starts to form from her big, tired eyes, falling down her cheeks to her dusty hooves below.

Ever since Discord wrongfully took over she had noticed a rather stranger disappearance of magical pressure from the air she knew something was wrong, following the disappearance of said power Discord had announced that he had prevailed over their rulers and that he will personally make himself King once more- this was all just over two years ago.

Since then Twilight tried in vain to find them via magical sonar to find them but somewhere in her mind she knew that she'll never see them again.

Princess Celestia… teacher…

Twilight cried silently to herself for yet another night as her mind wanders to the deep recesses of her mind to times filled with charity, sunshine, and laughter; with her friends, her way of life and her teacher all still alive and well.

Fluttershy…

Twilight smiled a small smile of nostalgia as her timid friend pranced wispily around in her mind with a crown of flowers and her woodland friends around her. Her voice carrying the most angelic of tones spreading joy and kindness to the vicinity of her being. She danced around Twilight as she imagined herself in a world with her friends again.

Rarity…

The queen of sass and benevolence dashingly strides with great importance to her friend [Twilight]. Her face shone with absolute elegance and her mane perfectly coiffed and gleaming purple like she had always remembered her. Her smile alone made her smile and the stylish pony gave her a brilliant golden crown that seemed to dwarf her previous one in importance and lavishness.

Rainbow Dash…

Her friend of speed and vigor blasted by her in a shockwave of air and color before swirling around in an aerial formation that would make the most experienced of flyers envious. Twilight looked back in awe seeing her friend perform the most glorious of moves and the most graceful of loops and rolls. The cyan speedster looked back at her friend with a large smile and blasted to the air, kicking up the wind and dust with her, rocketing towards the sky above before executing her signature Sonic Rainboom. Twilight's eyes glimmered as she looked in awe, she couldn't help but smile her heart out.

Pinkie Pie…

As Twilight watched her friend rocket off through the clouds she felt a tap on her shoulder to which she turned her head to, to only find no one there, THEN having a sensation of someone tapping her other shoulder, the purple pony turned around quickly to find the trickster to only find a balloon with a card on the end of the string that read "Look up". Twilight looked up in confusion to see her friend, the party pony herself, floating in a single swing that was being held up by dozens upon dozens of balloons of every color, their latex shining in the stellar sun.

Twilight laughed as her friend was kicking her feet and looking down at her with the biggest of smiles that only Pinkie could do, the vibes coming off of her friend emblazoned inside of Twilight's thirsty soul, a soul thirsty for happiness.

Apple jack…

The orange pony of morning and the strong cantered over to her friend and embraced Twilight in a hug that could warm and comfort any suffering soul. Twilight embraced her back with equal love and companionship. Applejack broke the hug and backed away and gave Twilight a smile and a respectful tip of her hat before walking off, disappearing into whimsical strands of her [Twilight's] subconscious.

Suddenly the scenery changed dramatically as she found herself whooshing past large cumulus clouds at an insane speed although she was standing still and felt no change of movement. The clouds began to slow around her as she landed on a soft yet firm foundation of clouds being lit by a setting sun.

Twilight looked around her in confusion as she wondered where she was. Wherever she was though… she felt at peace, mind at ease, mind impregnated with ecstasy. [The feeling, mind you, not the drug] She felt, high… high with happiness and high with the euphoria's of life and knowledge. She heard a soft beat of wings and she looked up to see somepony that she thought she would not see ever again.

Shrouded in light and engulfed in the sun she saw her Princess; Teacher; Friend, hovering down towards her former student. Twilight felt an uncontrollable welling of tears in her eyes and a surge of emotion emanating out of her heart and soul as she saw her. Twilight sobbed and sobbed as tears streamed with no ending from her eyes and she cried and screamed for her; although only silence pierced her ears.

Princess Celestia landed in front of her former student and bent to whisper something into her ear.

Twilight froze as the very words left Celestia's mouth, her mouth slowly gaped, and everything in her mind vanished in whimsical, wispy strands of imagination, all as if filmed in slow motion.

[Outside of Twilight's mind and from a perspective away from her body as if you, the Reader, was looking at her]

Twilight smiled and sobbed silently as she waved her body around in an almost drunken like state, a dirty pillow on her head as if it were a crown and a scratchy blanket on her back, the purple pony was humming and making abstract sounds with her mouth as her whole imaginative episode was taken place.

Rainbow Dash's rainbow colored mane and tail waved through the air like a limp, rainbow pendulum as she was carried to elsewhere while she was unconscious. Back and forth, back and forth her head lolled as in her mind a small flicker of light peaked through the dark and miserable clouds that had shrouded her mind for years. Her self-conscious started to awaken a bit as it stirred in her mind.

Why did you put yourself in risk like that? She seemed to ask herself referring to that almost fatal sonic boom that disintegrated the foe but not without consequence. Notice dear reader that I said sonic boom; not the Rainboom… she lost that power since she was ripped from her friends.

I… I don't know… Rainbow Dash answered as she floated in a dark expanse, her body feeling motionless. She thought hard about it, but could not come to a conclusion as she felt her unstable mind being gridlocked by pain and something else...

You do know… Wake up now, you'll figure it out soon.

A dull orange, flickering light permeated her vision as she slowly opened her eyes to see a small fire in front of her, maybe six feet away. Her eyes slowly opened wider as she started to make out figures around the fire talking amongst themselves- four of them. The invigorating yet unusual smells of food wafted around them heading towards the cyan pony on a dusty breeze making her mouth drool. Rainbow Dash fully opened her eyes to look around herself at the usual dead trees and brush around then over to what looked like a large tent and mechanical box. She lifted her throbbing head higher, thus shifting her weight and causing the cot she slept on to squeak a little.

All four of them turned their head towards her instantly making Rainbow Dash slightly nervous and apprehensive- even more so when an athletic bodied figure; she couldn't make out a single feature since he was in front of the only source of viable light, got up quickly and approached her with a hand sticking out.

"Hey, look who finally woke up from her beauty sleep." The male voice rang through her ears. He sounds trustworthy… Her skeptical eyes rose from his hand up to his face where she searched his face for malevolent intent to only being able to depict a smile and some type of spiky mane of some sort. His features alluded many questions as he didn't look like a pony.

A slow lulling headache pained her as she reached up to touch her head, in doing so she looked down to his legs and noticed that he was NOT a pony. Her eyes widen in confusion and she instantly had a ton of questions for the aliens.

"Come with me, please?" He said as she ignored his first statement. This time she eased off of the cot ignoring his hand and limping over to the fire with the other aliens, hesitating before she sat down. Sonic's friends smiled at the scrawny pegasus and Sonic looked back with an eyebrow rose at the pony and muttered "Okay, Blaze…" he chuckled at his little joke before going over to sit next to the feisty pony.

As soon as Rainbow Dash sat down the golden fox looking male was the first to talk. "You suffered a pretty bad concussion and some internal bleeding from that attack you executed on that 'Shadow Slicer' earlier. So we bandaged your head and gave you a few medications to help you with your blood pressure. You should be all fine now though." Tails spoke quickly to Rainbow Dash. "Oh, and my name is Miles Prower; you can call me Tails though.

Rainbow Dash nodded in response while she digested his words. Shadow Slicer? … He must mean the Butcher.

Next to him was a large muscled being that she could not figure out what he should be or look like. He was red and had bandages wrapped around his hands and brawny shoulders, his figure looked almost intimidating with all the muscle he possess, but upon further looking at his face he wore a trusting smile as he introduced himself next.

"My name is Knuckles, nice to meet you." He stuck his hand out to shake her hoof- which she did.

Oh, but you'll shake his hand! Sonic thought to himself as Amy smiled and began to introduce herself.

"My name is Amy Rose!" She said enthusiastically. "And I absolutely love your hair! How did you dye it? She finished, complementing her although she knew her appearance was lacking in life.

Rainbow Dash smiled, slightly embarrassed as she looked down at her mane which pooled over her shoulder and knotted up. She blushed a bit before thanking her. "Th-thanks…" she said her self-esteem rising a bit, her voice slightly cracking. "No problem!" Amy responded.

Sonic smirked then cleared his throat as it was now his turn to introduce himself-

"What is your name?" Tails asked suddenly, interested in knowing who this is and maybe she could transfer some knowledge about this place and how it get so desolate. Sonic narrowed his eyes and folded his arms as he sat and listened.

Rainbow Dash's eyes flickered to Tails, Amy, and then Knuckles before lastly landing on Sonic for a couple of seconds. "My name is Rainbow Dash," she clears her throat, it was raspy. "Water?" Knuckles offered quickly, handing her a canteen, the dull green canister felt cool to the touch in Rainbow Dash's hooves. I haven't had cold water in ages… The famished pony raised the canteen to her lips and began to chug the contents of the container, her eyes slowly closed in bliss.

After about ten seconds of chugging she have entirely emptied the canteen and after doing so she wiped her mouth and releasing a contented sigh that made Amy and Knuckles chuckle. "You must have been really thirsty!" Amy chirped stating the obvious.

"Yeah… it kind of been a while since I've had any fresh water…" she says slightly embarrassed. Suddenly her stomach made a loud growling sound making Rainbow blush before looking at the four around her nervously.

[15 minutes later after they've fed Rainbow Dash]

"Sooooo… What happened to this place?" Sonic blurted out as Rainbow Dash finished wiping her mouth. The cyan pony looked up at him with big eyes, almost forgetting he was there since he didn't speak up at all while she ate and conversed with the others.

"Sonic…" Amy started, she was gonna scold him for it was probably something personally disastrous that had happened here and their guest won't be able to say anything about it right now.

"What? It's not like y'all don't want to know too!" Sonic justified himself.

Rainbow Dash softly chuckled at their exchange, "No, i-it's okay."

Rainbow Dash thought for a second before going in into the story about how the world here has gotten so desolate. She started about talking about her friends, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, and how they were all a part of something called the elements of harmony, Magic, Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, and Kindness, respectfully, and her the element of loyalty. She talked about how they've defeated the evils of the world with the help of each other and the elements. Then she told them a brief history lesson on Discord the Draconequus up to the point to where they thought they had reformed him.

Rainbow Dash's eyes started waiver a bit as she then told them how after the battle between Lord Tirek and Twilight they thought that Discord has really change his ways, for real this time. But they were wrong…

As if the defeat of Tirek had become a catalyst for his disharmony to grow even more potent than before. It's as if he had found this new calling that chaos must rule, or something. Somehow the defeat of Tirek taught him something about gaining power.

He played along with our hearts, played with our minds and played with our very souls to get what he wanted. He firstly gained everyone's trust again, working with the 'good' deeds of his heart; which means he purposely created mishaps and predicaments that he would later "help" us in. And we all believe him.

During one Winter Solstice two years ago he took advantage to Celestia's weaker self; since she draws a lot of her energy from the sun the winter solstice seemed to be the greatest opportunity for him to strike. Within the week of the upcoming solstice Discord caused Celestia to fall ill to a rare disease where we thought she would never recover from. At that time Discord had gained enough power to cast a powerful illusionary spell on her, unbeknownst to her sister, Princess Luna.

Using the spell he caused Celestia to slowly infect everyone with the disease within the mighty castles of Canterlot, sickening the strongest of soldiers to the healthiest doctor. Slowly everyone including Celestia's own sister became sick from the horrible disease.

Discord used his chaotic powers to basically siphon all of castle's occupants of their precious magic and power since everyone was too weak to do anything about it. He did it all slowly to keep any attention and suspicion away from himself.

It didn't go completely to plan though. Discord told us, after he had succeeded in his evil plan, that he had actually underestimated Princess Celestia once again for right before he could finalize siphoning all the power he could come the princesses and everyone within the castle Celestia had fought her way through the illusionary hex and casting a remarkable spell on the elements of harmony to be hidden forever… but upon doing so, she gave her life to give her ponies hope, courage, and determination to not give up on each other and continue to live. Upon ushering the protective spell on the elements it alerted us to what was happening and we tried to warn everyone what was happening, foiling Discord's silent plan over taking the throne.

Discord was infuriated with her rebellion against his magic and forcing his hand much sooner casted an incredibly dark and powerful spell on the land. Slowly the life began to siphon out of everything his hex touched; the plants, the trees, the earth, even the very sky seemed to lose it color and life force as it succumbed to death's greedy fingers.

Rainbow Dash took a shuddering breath and reopened her eyes to look around at the four friends around her seeing her own emotions and her own pain reflected in their glistening eyes. Rainbow Dash licked her dry lips nervously before closing her eyes and continuing.

He took us, took us all, every last pony in the land and put us into hard, impossible labor that stressed our life strings, threatening to snap and for us to die. He became a puppet master, controlling everything that we did, forcing us to live in cramped and unsanitary places- we never did see this coming… within weeks following our downfall he started to separate me and my friends, taking us to different locations to work. He stated that we were finally about to be plucked from this very world. But he never said how he would do so, so each day is a living nightmare, anticipating the most.

Rainbow Dash finally opened her eyes again slowly, looking down on her dusty hooves, "I haven't seen them in over two years… if it has been that long, I can't remember. I- So many of us have died, so many ponies have died because of him… I- I don't know what I would do if one of my friends-"Rainbow Dash choked on her words, swallowing hard, her face grew hot as depressing tears began to stream from her eyes.

Amy shook herself out of her depressed mood and crawled over to Rainbow Dash, putting a comforting arm around her, bringing the devastated pony closer to her. Amy closed her eyes as Rainbow Dash softly cried into her shoulder. This has got to stop… I don't think her heart can take much more of this. Her story so far has been utterly heartbreaking, I'm surprised she can still talk about it, let alone live like this…

They all sat in silence for a few more moments until Amy looked up to look at Sonic who seemed, well for lack of a better word, pissed off.

"Sonic…"

Sonic was trembling with anger, and he punched the dead ground. His friends looked over at his in surprise but soon felt power surge off him that they've felt before, usually whenever Eggman has hurt his friends.

"A wrongly claimed ruler killing and deceiving innocent people just for the fun of it, this Discord guy of yours is a real piece of work isn't he… Yah know, I fight and defeat people who do things like that on a day to day basis. But this guy is on some other level and… He PISSES ME OFF!" Sonic's rage continue to boil, only more so when he remembered that Marine and Cream were in the same world, cold and alone, and could be the next innocent victim of Discord's sadistic claws.

"I am the protector of the weak, the innocent and the good and the conqueror and the vanquisher of evil. I AM the hero; I AM Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest thing alive! And seeing how things are here I just can't stand by and idly do anything."

Sonic bared his fangs and clenched his fists hard, looking over at Rainbow Dash who looked back at him with a slight sense of awe and inspiration. His friends looked over at him with confident smiles, ready to follow him into battle for justice and for the good whenever he so leads them.

Rainbow Dash looked at him with admiration. A hero…

Sonic looked back at them all, then his eyes set on Rainbow Dash, he smirked and gave her a reassuring wink. "We're gonna beat him, we're gonna help you and your friends and the people of this world to beat him!"

[?]

"Are you now?" A sadistic sounding voice echoed. The being opened its yellow eyes and started to grin evilly before erupting into an evil cackle before breaking off into a small bout of coughing, then back up again. The evil villain rose from his ominous looking throne that seemed to stare at whatever it was facing. He continued to laugh as he stretched out his mismatched wings before laughing out louder.

As he laughed sadistically the two shining rubies that embellished the top of the throne gleamed a bit, only adding to the silent animosity and mystery that surrounded the throne.

"Well, Sonic the hedgehog, I'm waiting…"