About two weeks had gone by since Rage returned to Equestria. Since then He had spent most of his time helping Twilight with small things here and there with occasional run-ins with his other friends. He was fitting in well with the mane 6. He got along well with Applejack and Rainbow Dash especially. The three would always compete over things. Each of their contests would always end with close calls.

Twilight on the other hand had been as busy as ever between her friends, learning how to be a Princess and everything else. She had a lot to learn about being a Princess and with her other duties as the Ponyville Librarian it made finding time to do so difficult. She had to take what opportunities that she could with Celestia to learn. In fact her last trip had her given a special task...one she was struggling with...

She was sitting at a table looking at the old tattered book with strange runic like writing covering the pages. Her gaze was one of frustration. It made no sense. She couldn't translate it. She groaned in frustration. "This language makes zero sense…" she mutters. She knew many of the Equestrian languages but this? It was something else. Even if she didn't recognize the writing she figured she could make some rough translation with the frequency of certain symbols and length of things but she couldn't figure it out. It bothered her...a lot.

Using some magic she wadded up another piece of paper she had notes written on and tossed it aside. Right as she did Rage came out of his room and the paper landed on his horn.

"Do I even want to ask?" Rage spoke, taking the wad of paper off of his horn. Twilight looked back and blushed.

"Oops." She said, embarrassed. "Sorry."

"What's this?" He asked, walking up and looking at the book.

"I am not sure." Twilight answers. "I can't quite translate it…Celestia found it while they were doing some rearranging in the Canterlot Library and sent it to me to try and figure it out…"

Rage looked at it and tapped his chin. "Wait a minute…" he says. He recognized the runic text! "That's Ancient Echidna! That's Mobian Text!"

"What?!" Twilight looked at him skeptically yet shocked.

Rage walked up and nodded. "No doubt about it." He says. "But what is it doing here in Equestria…?"

"Can you translate it?" Twilight asks.

"Of course." Rage says reading over it. A few minutes went by before Rage shook his head, "No, no… that doesn't make sense…"

"What is it?" Twilight asks him eager to learn what it said.

"This is a journal…from an ancient Chaos Guardian…" Rage comments. "But…that isn't what's weird."

"So what is weird about it?" Twilight asks.

"It's all about Equestria…" Rage answers. "But how?"

"Care to elaborate?" Twilight asks. Rage nodded with sigh.

"I'll just read it…" he says.

'Day 5…I have been in this world nearly a week now. The Princess has been very welcoming as is her court wizard. Celestia, the princess, has had no end of questions and I don't blame her. I sort of just crashed into her castle out of the blue.

Day 8… Celestia has been trying to focus the powerful energy of Rainbow Magic… when I mentioned how we formed the Chaos Emeralds on Mobius I think it gave her some inspiration. Elements of Harmony she calls them…

"That was broken up so who knows what the context is…" Rage stated as he flips through multiple pages before reaching another section he was able to easily read…

'Day 314…Dex finally found me. I told him all that had happened and he seemed interested but he had to pull me back to Mobius. Something is going on…something big. I leave tomorrow.

War Date 3855…These will likely be the final words of Dranzer the Fox, Chaos Guardian. The Shadow War has been raging for what I can only think has been a decade now? Chaotix and Chaos have a plan to end it and a plan for the future…the catch is none of us will survive. I kept my promise to you, Celestia. I am sending my journal back to Equestria and I hope you'll find it…If you do remember me and all, just know I did it…'

Rage finished reading and sighs. "That's what I can get so far. The rest, I'll need time to translate. It looks like it's had some damage from age."

"Wow! That's amazing!" Twilight exclaims. "You think Celestia could tell us more?"

"Dranzer…" Rage said softly "You were the one huh?"

"You…knew him?" Twilight asks having heard him and he looks at her with a nod.

"He trained me…or helped at least." The crimson unicorn admits. "In fact…he told me about the Code for if we're stranded on another world…"

"He mentioned some war…what is that about?" Twilight looked at Rage who stared into the text as if he was reminiscing on something. She nudged him after a brief moment of no reply and he looked at her.

"Sorry." He sighed glumly. "The Shadow War…it was a major event back on Mobius…" he began but was interrupted with a banging on the door.

"Who could that be?" Twilight wondered as she went to the door. Standing there was a guard pony. It handed her a sealed envelope.

"For you, my Princess." The stallion said with a bow.

"Thank you." She says before the guard walks off. She looked at the letter. It had Celestia's seal.

"A letter?" Rage asks her as she opens it.

"From the Princess nonetheless." She says. Unfolding the letter. She looked it over and muttered to herself the contents. "I am needed back in Canterlot…" she says looking at Rage. "Celestia says it's urgent."

"I can hold down the fort in the meantime Twi." Rage says with a smile. "It has to be important if she had a guard deliver it."

"Normally she sends her letters through me…" Spike says with a sad, almost disappointed tone to his voice.

"Excuse me?" Rage looked confused when Spike said that.

"Normally she sends the letter and like magic I cough them up!" Spike exclaims "Even the important ones!"

"That sounds…" Rage began to speak before out of nowhere Blade materialized next to Rage.

"It sounds like a trap!" The maroon dragon exclaims.

"Blade!" Rage exclaimed.

"Monster!" Twilight shouts readying a magic spell.

"Twilight wait no-" Rage shouts trying to get her to stand down but it was too late. She fired a blast of magic at Blade that hit him. Once it did, Rage shouted out in pain.

Twilight's horn lost the magic around it when she saw him reel back. She was confused. She knew she hit the strange creature.

"Twi- it's okay…he is a friend…"he grunted. "Owe…"

"Oh my gosh Rage!" She exclaimed "I am so sorry!"

"Are you alright?" Spike asks.

"I've been hit with worse." Rage sighs looking at the red dragon with an unhappy look. "Blade…you can't just pop out like that…"

"Who…is this?" Twilight asks, raising an eye.

"Twilight, meet Bureijingukaosu or Blade…he's…well it's complicated but he's a spirit that accompanied me…and is part of me. Hurt him, it hurts me…" Rage explains.

"It's nice to meet you Princess Twilight Sparkle." The dragon bowed his head. "Sorry for the scare."

"What makes you think this isn't what it seems?" Twilight asks the dragon.

"If she uses a specific method to contact you and this is so urgent, why send a guardspony to do it?" Blade asks.

Twilight looked down in thought. She was silent for a minute before speaking, "While it is strange…I think we'd know if something happened to the Princess." Twilight concluded aloud.

"I think you're overreacting." Rage says to the dragon. "Besides, I am sure if something is wrong Twilight and her friends can handle it. In the meantime we can spend this time continuing to decipher Dranzer's journal."

"I am not so sure he'd appreciate you doing that…" Blade comments.

"Unless you think Celestia can read ancient Echidna text." Rage shrugged. The Dragon looked at Rage and sighed.

"You may uncover somethings that won't be pleasant Rage..." Blade warns. "Especially if The Shadow War is involved..."

"I am aware." Rage shrugs.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Twilight asks Rage.

"I am sure Twi." He smiled "If anything happens let me know?"

"I will." The lavender alicorn nods. "Spike, you ready?" She asks, looking at the baby dragon who nodded eagerly. With a wave she left with Spike.

Rage sat there for a moment taking in the fact he was alone. He exhaled before looking back to the book. He grabbed a pen and paper with some magic and began to continue working on the translation.

Rage wrote and translated for what seemed like hours to him. Eventually his focus was broken by a knock at the door to the Library. "Did Twilight lock it...?" Rage asked himself looking out the window to see the sun was still high in the skies. He stood up and walked over to the front door.

With a bit of fiddling with it Rage managed to get it open to see Rainbow Dash standing there looking a bit eager, or maybe nervous? He couldn't quite tell. "Oh...Rage, I wasn't expecting you!" she said, surprised to see the crimson unicorn.

"Rainbow Dash, what brings you here?" Rage asks as he lets her in.

"Twilight was holding a..." Rainbow Dash trailed off as she looked at the wall of papers. "...thing..." she looked over it in awe. "What...is this?"

Rage looked at the wall of papers that he hadn't even noticed he had constructed over his time translating the journal. "Oh!" He jumped a bit "Sorry, that's something Twilight and I are working on..." he says.

"What is it?" The sky blue pegasus asks as she walks closer to it and looks over the pages strewn about.

"Well...it's a journal from my world." Rage answers. "I am translating it..."

"Wow..." Rainbow Dash shook her head, she had to remember why she came here! "Anyway, where's Twilight?"

"Canterlot. She was summoned by Celestia early this morning for something. No idea when she'll be back." Rage answers, cleaning up the table he had been working at as much as he could.

"She didn't forget about the thing, did she...?" Rainbow asks with disappointment in her voice.

Rage walked over to another table where a wrapped rectangle object sat. It had "Rainbow Dash" written on the front. "Here." he says grabbing it with some magic and floating it over to the pegasus who grabbed it eagerly

"Aww yeah!" she cheers "Thanks!" She then bolted out of the library leaving the door wide open. Rage stood there for a second processing what had just happened before he walked to the door and closed it.

"Oh wel-'' Rage began to speak before he heard an echo in his head.

"Rage?" Twilight's voice echoed. It was like the time he had used the one spell in the Everfree Forest. The crimson Unicorn walked towards the wall of papers and closed his eyes.

His horn illuminated with a dark purple aura and he replied; "Twilight?"

"Oh good!" She sighs. "I was worried you wouldn't respond."

"Course I'd respond. Sorta hard not to when you're echoing in my head like that." Rage jokes. "What's up?"

"Look, I know this is sudden but Princess Celestia wants you in Canterlot ASAP. It's important..." She answers.

Rage sighed and looked to his wall of progress he had made on the task she had given him. "I guess?" he states, "Though I don't know how I'll make it there. Canterlot is pretty far and I don't have any money for the train..."

"You could teleport?" Twilight suggests.

"Teleport?" Rage asks with a distasteful tone. "Twilight, that sounds pretty advanced...I don't think I've even seen you do that."

Twilight hit herself mentally. "Good point..." she sighs. "Hold on..."

"Okay...?" Rage says with a hint of confusion to his voice. A brief moment went by without anything.

"Rage? Celestia suggested something to do with your Chaos Powers?" Twilight asks. "She...didn't really say much. Just something about control?"

Rage's heart skipped a beat. How would Celestia know THAT much? He looked to the ground. "That's...that's a possibility but...I am still not all that confident with using my Chaos abilities in this form..."

Twilight thought hard. Rage had a good point. The one time he did it with Sonic it backfired, and hard. "Why not change to that golden-"

"No." Rage interrupts her. "My...form from that time isn't something I use all willy nilly."

"Rage..." Twilight pleads "It's important...like...super important..."

Rage sighed and thought heavily for a moment. He could try Chaos Control, he had been to Canterlot before and he could picture the throne room of Canterlot Castle clearly in his mind. Though there was no telling what could happen if he tried it. Especially considering how he managed to burn himself when using it to return to Mobius.

"Alright." Rage sighs "I have an idea...just give me a few minutes..."

"Thank you." Twilight sighs as she turns around looking at Princess Celestia who was standing just behind her. "He's on his way Princess."

"Thank you Twilight." Celestia nodded her head in gratitude. Shortly after a flash of light blinded the two alicorns. It was a quick flash and the two looked over to see Rage on the ground with a bit of magical smoke around him. He groaned and stood up and shook himself off.

"Rage!" Twilight exclaimed running over to him.

"I made it." He says with a smile.

"Are you okay?!" Twilight exclaims worry about him.

"I am fine." He says. "I made it here after all..."

"Really?" Twilight asks, not entirely convinced by Rage's brushing it off as if he wasn't just covered in smoke.

"Yes. I am." Rage grunts "Now what was so important you had to have me come with such urgency? I was pretty deep into my translations...until Rainbow Dash showed up..."

"Oh...sorry." Twilight apologized before she realized what he had said. "Wait, Rainbow Dash was there?"

"She had already left but she stopped by for something I guess you had prepped for her." Rage answers as he walks over to Celestia and bowed his head respectfully.

"Oh...so how far are you?" Twilight asks.

"I am making way but I still have a lot of things to figure out...a lot of the journal is coded too...so I can only assume those are the more sensitive parts of the journal...Chaos knows why Dranzer is so damn protective of it..." Rage complained to Twilight. "It's not like him to have secrets...he was like the one person I knew who was upfront about almost everything about himself." When he mentioned Dranzer's name Celestia's eyes lit up.

"Dranzer?" Celestia asks, tilting her head. "You...know him?"

"Yeah, I do." Rage answers looking at her. "He helped train me...I'd ask how you know him but...well I already figured that much out."

Celestia nods. "Is he...is he alright?" she asks. "When he never returned I feared the worst...He said he'd come back after whatever it was he did...but that was...a long time ago..."

Rage looked a bit worried about how she'd take the news of what exactly happened, or if he could even explain it in a way she could understand. It wasn't a simple matter after all. The Chaos Realm, The Shadow War, all of it wasn't easy to explain...especially to Celestia. "Rage?" Celestia urged him and he sighs.

"Dranzer..." Rage paused and swallowed a lump in his throat. "Dranzer is...technically dead...but not...it's...it's complicated." he admits. He looked at Celestia who stood there silently for a minute

"Oh...I...see..." Celestia finally says in a sad tone. "I guess I should have expected something like that..."

"I'm sorry Princess." Rage sighs. "I know that's not what you wanted to hear..."

"It's alright." she says. "That's...that's not why I called you here."

"Why did you call me here then?" Rage asks, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Come with me." She says leading Rage and Twilight out of the throne room and down the hall. They came to a large banquet room where a blue hedgehog was leaning against the wall. It was Sonic. Almost immediately his ears perked up when he saw Rage and waved.

"Rage!" he chuckles.

Rage gave Sonic a glare before walking in front of Celestia "Give me a second." he grumped.

"Rage?" Twilight asked worriedly as he walked up to Sonic.

"How's it-" Sonic began to speak before Rage hopped up enough to grab Sonic's ear in his mouth.

"Come here." Rage muttered with his mouth as best he could.

"Hey, owe! Stop!" Sonic cries out as Rage drags him off away from Celestia and Twilight. Once he was sure they were out of listening distance Rage let Sonic go who rubbed his ear. "What-"

"SHH!" Rage hushed him before shouting in a hushed voice "What are you doing here?! You can't leave me alone for two weeks?!"

"What, you're not happy to see me?" Sonic scoffs.

"No." Rage grumped. "In fact, how did you get here?"

"You know that weird device Tails and I were working on?" Sonic asks nervously.

"Yeah...what-" Rage started to respond before a light bulb went off in his head and he paused. His eyes narrowed and his glare looked even more angry, "No...don't tell me. You guys managed to build a World Gate?!"

"Yeah!" Sonic chuckles. "So uh...surprise?"

"How did you calibrate the thing to get you here?" Rage asks him.

"Well..." Sonic rubs the back of his neck.

"You didn't just use it willy nilly until you arrived here did you?" Rage asks with a frown.

"Well...I mean..." Sonic replied nervously and Rage's look went to one of just disbelief.

"By the gods you did, didn't you?" Rage gasps. Sonic nods. "Do you have ANY IDEA what repercussions your actions could have?!" Rage shouts.

"S-sort of?" Sonic asks before shaking his head. "But listen, Rage! It's important! I am not here for some leisure thing!"

"Like what?" Rage asks "Give me one good reason to not send you screaming back to Mobius!"

"Christain." Was the only word that came out of Sonic's mouth.

"What?" Rage asks, not quite sure he had heard Sonic right.

"You heard me." Sonic says "Christain, he's back!"

"That's impossible." Rage scoffs. "I made sure he-"

"I am not making this up Rage!" Sonic shouts. "He came back, he nearly offed your brothers and said something about this new tie within the worlds!"

"You're saying..." Rage started to see what Sonic was getting at.

"Christain has to be here!" Sonic exclaims. "There's no other explanation!"

"No, no no..." Rage shook his head. "That...that can't be..." he turns and walks back unaware Twilight and Celestia had been able to hear their entire argument.

"Who's Christain?" Celestia asks with an upset glare.

Rage turned to her and sighed. "He's...a Dark Being...one I dealt with a long time ago...one I thought was in the past."

"Does he post a threat?" Celestia asks.

"He's my responsibility." Rage says walking past her and Twilight. "Don't worry. I'll handle him."

"Rage..." Twilight looked at him as he walked off.

"Don't let it get to you..." Sonic says walking up to her. "He refuses help on things like this because he doesn't think others should be dragged into what he sees as his problems."

"But...we're friends." Twilight objects.

"Believe me...I know." Sonic sighs. "I've tried to knock it into his head that sometimes a little help isn't bad but...he's stubborn."

As for Rage he continued to walk the halls just trying to put distance between him and the others. As he walked, Blade appeared and floated next to him. "You're going to believe Sonic and take him at his word without any other proof that Christain is back?" the dragon spirit asks.

"You and Tikal warned me as well...plus I doubt Tails would have fired that thing up if there wasn't a good reason...there's no way Sonic couldn't have figured the thing out either." Rage answers. "Even so I haven't felt anything that would have hinted at Christain being here..."

"What are you going to do?" He asks.

"Right now..." Rage stopped walking and gave it some thought before he sat. A heavy sigh escaped him as he answered the spirit's question; "I am not really sure what I can do..."

"You know you're not alone in this." Twilight's voice caught him off guard and he spun around quickly to see the lavender alicorn and Sonic.

"We're with you the whole way." Sonic chuckles.

"I appreciate your concern but-" Rage tried to object but Twilight interrupted him.

"No buts." She says "We're friends Rage, that means we share our problems." Twilight says sternly.

"Twilight it's more than just him being my responsibility...Christain...he isn't like anypony you've faced...he can do things to you...things that I can't allow to happen..." Rage objected.

"Things like what?" Twilight scoffs not believing him.

"He can corrupt you...with Darkness...make you his pawn...turn you against your friends. I can't allow that to happen." Rage explains looking to the ground. "It's why I have to find and face him alone."

"Rage..." Twilight says, taking his chin in her hoof and making him look at her. "That won't happen." she says with a smile.

"You haven't-" Rage starts to object.

"It won't happen because I know you won't let it happen." Twilight says. "You're not alone. We're all in this together."

Rage looked at her and didn't say anything. His emerald eyes looked into her violet eyes with a deep, almost sad look. After a moment of silence a small smile came to his face. "Alright." He says with a sigh. "But...what about Sonic?"

"What do you mean?" Sonic asks, crossing his arms.

"I mean...look at you." Rage scoffs. "You stick out like a sore thumb and it takes quite a bit from Twilight to keep you disguised with magic."

"If Christain is already around it may be best we let Sonic be himself. The last thing we want is all of Equestria getting a bad impression because of Christain. That could lead to unnecessary tension in the future." Celestia says as she manages to catch up with the group.

"What do you mean by that, Princess?" Twilight asks the white Alicorn who sighed.

"I am sure Rage can feel it too...something ever since Dranzer left...the barrier between Equestria and Mobius has been fading...He put it up to protect us...from Mobius and Dark Mobius but...nothing lasts forever." Celestia explains.

Twilight and Sonic looked at Rage who had a startled look on his face now. "Yeah...I had my suspicions." Rage sighs "But I was hoping that wasn't what I had been feeling...Even if the barrier vanishes it's not an easy task to travel between worlds..."

"No but it does open the door for Dark Mob-" Sonic starts to chime in but Rage silences him.

"We don't know if that's the case or not." Rage stated. "Besides, Dark Mobius isn't that much of a threat...we sorta...took care of that a long time ago..."

"If you say so. "Sonic sighs. "So...what's the plan?"

"I don't know." Rage sighs. "I...need time to gather my thoughts."

"Take your time." Twilight says. "We'll be here. Remember...you're not alone."

"I know." Rage sighs as he nods. "I am going back to Ponyville...I need to rest...this is...a lot to take in..." he said as he turned back around and walked to the exit of Canterlot Castle.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Sonic sighs as Rage turned the corner and went out of their view.

"As do I..." Celestia agrees, her gaze fixated on the same corner. Twilight looked at her. If even Celestia was concerned, it had to be something big...Twilight sighed. Celestia clearly knew more about what Rage had been talking about than she had let on. The question that bothered Twilight was exactly HOW much?

She shook her head. Now wasn't the time though. She sighed "I should probably go too...I can't let Rage go out on his own now."

"Be careful." Celestia says "Both of you."

"We will." Sonic chuckles as he and Twilight walk off.

Celestia watched the two leave the castle as well before she turned. Celestia returned to her chambers and walked to the balcony she had that gave her a good overlook of the kingdom. "I fear what is to come...is only the first of many hardships sister..." she muttered to herself looking across to the tower across from hers where Luna lay in her own chambers fast asleep. "I can only hope we have the willpower to endure them..."