The chariot that contained the remaining heroes of the Harmonic Seven touched down in the center of Station Square, beside the castle as its riders hopped off. Princess Celestia gestured for the rest to follow her inside, a solemn expression on her face.

"All of you need to follow me inside, I'd like to show you all something..." The rest followed Celestia into the hallway that held their honoring glass pictures for their triumph over Discord. Celestia led them over to where Sonic's was and the sight of it made everyone gasp.

At the center showed the blue haired hero they all knew, however, on his left showed his super form, a bright shine of light in its background and to Sonic's right showed his most recent transformation, a manic grin to accompany it.

Twilight stared at the picture in shock. "W-What does this mean, Princess?" Celestia turned to her with a frown.

"Unfortunately, it appears that our hero...is walking on the thin line between light and...dark."

Sonic dashed through the dense forest via Gramps' instructions, he hopped from branch to branch with speed and haste.

"Hey, Gramps, where you leading me to exactly? What's on the other side of this Forest?" Sonic asked as he heard Gramps chuckle in his mind.

"Just an old favorite of mine." Just as he said this, Sonic burst through the trees and was greeted to a wide field of rolling, green hills, Palm trees and a clear lake on the side.

"Whoa! What is this place Gramps?" Sonic asked as he stared at the sight before him with wide eyes. Gramps grinned brightly in the mind scape.

"Welcome to Green Hill Zone, kid, my childhood home. It still looks the same after all these years. Brings back memories."

"Oh no, you're having one of those old man nostalgia trips aren't you?" Sonic questioned with a sweat drop as Gramps gained a tick mark on his head.

"Shut it, kid."

Rainbow couldn't comprehend. "You mean he's like...neutral or something? As in, he could go either way?" Rainbow tried paraphrasing what she'd just heard and received an affirmative nod from Celestia.

"He's not in the right mindset to be considered a hero, but not so psychotic that he'd be considered evil. In one word, he's unpredictable and we can't be sure which path he'll follow." Celestia grimaced when she said this and sent the group of heroes a stern but soft look. "As much as it pains me to say this...

...I need you all to...hunt him down."

Everyone in the room was left speechless at the order, the girls had horrified looks on their faces as they processed what they'd been told.

Applejack manger to find her words first. "B-but, Princess! W-we can't do that!"

Rarity spoke up next as she said. "We couldn't possibly! While it's true that Sonic's not quite himself...we can't...hurt him."

Celestia sighed as she heard the responses and said, "He didn't seem to hesitate to hurt you all." After she said this, something unexpected happened.

Tails ran up into the princess' face with tears in his eyes.

"That wasn't Sonic! I know that! Sonic would NEVER hurt us! That was that...thing!" Tails lowered his head and let his bangs shadow over his eyes. "There's no way "I won't let any of you guys hurt Sonic!" He popped out his arm cannon. "Either we come up with something else..." He aimed the cannon right between Celestia's eyes. ...or I'll fight back!"

Celestia's eyes, along with everyone else's, were as wide as dinner plates as the guards surrounded Tails and readied their spears. Even with a hundred spears pointed right at him, he stood unwavering with his aim set on the Princess.

Celestia motioned for the guards to lower their weapons and stared into Tails' eyes and when she saw the determination in them, she could've sworn she saw Sonic standing right next to him in spirit, the exact same look on his face.

"Fine. I yield, but it's necessary that he is brought back to the city as soon as possible. I'm counting on you all to go find him. You may depart when you are ready, the best of luck to you all."Celestia commanded as Tails lowered his aim and was the first to leave, instantly dashing out the door.

"You girls look out for him, I imagine this is extremely difficult for him." Celestia requested as the girls looked down.

"Not just him, it's hard for all of us." Rainbow spoke up sadly as the girls left and prepared to head out after the former hero and bring him back.

And they will succeed.

(Music Insert: Green Hill Zone-Sonic Generations Modern Remix)

Sonic dashed along the rolling fields of Green Hill Zone, hopping off the heads of badniks as he went, he sped through a short loop and slightly lost speed but curled up and regained his previous speed in a second as he activated his boost.

"Gramps, you said just follow the path and it'll take me to where I need to go right?" Sonic asked as he gave another badnik a high speed punt out of sight.

"Yeah kid, once you get past the majority of these hills and caves, you'll have made it to where you need to be." Gramps told him as Sonic nodded in understanding before speeding up in hopes of getting to the 'special spot' Gramps talked about earlier.

Sonic found himself speeding through a dark cave, bright water shining below him as he could have sworn he saw a shadow swim past, a rather large shadow at that. Boy, did he not want anything to do with whatever the hell that was! Seeing a cliff that led straight into the water, Sonic screeched to a halt.

Well, this was just wonderful...

"I can't just jump in there, I'm finished if that's the case!" Looking to his left and right, Sonic saw two adjacent walls lining the cliff, gaining a large grin on his face, Sonic stepped back before bursting to full speed at the wall, he kicked up onto it before running along it, keeping his momentum up with a quick spin dash on the wall every so often.

"Shouldn't take much longer now, just gotta-" He didn't get to finish the statement as a large mechanical fish leaped out of the water with its jaws open and ready to bite down on him, yelping in surprise Sonic leaped off the wall, over the fish and towards the opposite wall, grazing one of the fish's many metal teeth. He landed on the other and started up his momentum again with a spin dash as he saw the fish go back down into the water and swim towards the wall he was currently running on. Sonic physically tensed up as he waited for the inevitable leap, once the fish leaped up to his level he hopped onto its head, grabbing a hold of its top fin as it went back into the water, Sonic holding on for dear life as he held his breath.

While underwater, the fish thrashed wildly in an attempt to fling him off, holding on with all his strength Sonic tried to steer the fish where he wanted to go via turning the fin in the preferred direction and when he was angled with the cave's exit, he let go at the very peak of the fish's thrashing, flinging him right up and out of the cave, the fish didn't seem done with him yet as it took a mega leap up in a last attempt to chomp down on him, since he was in the air Sonic was near helpless, so the best he could was aim for the next cliff and hope the fish didn't eat him first.

Luck was in his favor.

Sonic made onto the cliff as the fish smacked into the cliff side and getting knocked back into the water, Sonic began panting and coughing up water as he sat on the ground after his encounter, noticing it had become night during that whole thing, out of breath he asked, "We there yet, Gramps?"

"Yup, check behind you." Behind him, Sonic found a small hut, it was a simple wooden hut with a straw roof. Raising an eyebrow, Sonic walked in and looked inside, pictures of a blue hedgehog and a yellow fox lining the walls and the tables. Slowly, Sonic picked one up and looked at it, "Gramps...is this you and Tails?" Sonic asked as Gramps nodded in remembrance.

"Feels like just yesterday, I found that little fox all alone and brought him back here to stay with me, well, not before insisting on helping me take down Eggman for the second...time...you okay, kid?" Gramps asked in concern as he could see Sonic gulp back a lump in his throat before shaking his head and nodding, "I'm fine. Now tell me, why are we here?" Sonic asked, Gramps decided to store checking in on the kid for later as he said, "Starting from here, I'm gonna take you through all the zones I went through on my first adventure to stop Eggman, teaching you things along the way. Are you up for it?" Sonic felt himself grin as he shouted back, "Is that some kind of trick question? Of course I am! Let's do this!" In his mind, Sonic was saying, 'I'll be become stronger, for you guys!' He clenched his fist before looking to the sky, specifically the moon.

Tails packed the last of his things as he stared up at the moon, tomorrow he was heading after Sonic and he was gonna bring him back!

"I'm coming Sonic...and we'll come back to the city with you at our side, I swear."

A tad on the short side, huh? I know. I just needed to kick start the things to come.

Anyway, I hear you asking, where has this story been for the past few months? My answer? The back of my mind, studying for exams for part of December and the majority of January will do that to you, it's been a bit stressful but it was worth it for that perfect math score!

Anyway, I won't keep you guys waiting for the next chapter for three months...hopefully...

Better news, Majora's Mask 3D dropped yesterday! Don't have it yet, but in due time! Still waiting on Xenoblade Chronicles X though...

Getting back on track, I'll see you all next time! Ja ne! (Working on my japanese, roll with it...)