After that crushing defeat, Sonic and company regrouped back in the Crystal Castle to discuss how to possibly recover the emeralds.
"So, we know that one of your enemies has 4 chaos emeralds, and they are teaming up with Eggmen. The only thing we don't understand is, why?" Sonic said witting at a large round table.
The rest sat around the table with Shadow crossing his arms, "Well, shouldn't it be obvious? They found the emeralds, and he wants them. So, what do you do? Kill 2 birds with one stone."
"Meaning?" Cadence asked confused.
"If the chaos emeralds are here, he might be trying to find a way to get the emeralds back to our dimension while stranding us here." Shadow responded.
"Or worse, if you have common enemies. He could use that to conquer a new dimension." Sonic said leaning back in his seat propping his feet on the table.
Shining Armor looked at Twilight with concern, "Don't you have a few enemies yourself?" He asked her only for her eyes to go wide.
"Well…yes, but they were all turned to stone." She said a little worried.
"Turned to stone?" Shadow asked looking at her.
"Yes, we turned her, Chrysalis, and Lord Tirek all to stone. I don't remember hearing about them getting out." She said.
"Sonic looked at Shadow, "You don't suppose…"
"I wouldn't put it past the doctor. If he found out how strong they could be, who's to say?" Shadow responded shaking his head.
"Do these emeralds have the power to restore things?" Asked Cadence.
Before Sonic or Shadow could answer, Trixie spoke up, "Yes, but it all depends on the user. We saw Shadic destroy and restore a boulder in the span of seconds."
Sonic and Shadow's eyes went wide when she said that.
"Are there enemies you have? Ones that would go great lengths to get revenge on you and us by extension?" Sonic asked.
They looked amongst themselves and nodded, "Well we have Lord Tirek. He is a centaur who gets stronger by absorbing the magic out of anypony he touches. Though I suppose if he has a chaos emerald…there would be no need to absorb magic." Twilight said.
"How did you beat him?" Sonic asked almost in suspense.
"Well, it wasn't easy. He absorbed all of my magic and theirs as well." She said looking at her friends, "Though we had help from Discord to unlock the Tree of Harmony and get our magic back."
"Tree of Harmony? Sounds almost like the Master Emerald Shrine." Sonic said.
"Well, after we beat him, he came back and imprisoned us afterward after obtaining power from the bewitching bell. It literally took all of us to stand together and beat him. Afterward, he, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow were all turned to stone." She informed them.
"Cozy Glow? Who is that?" Shadow asked his arms still folded.
"One of my ex-students…I taught a school on friendship and she is a master manipulator for her age." Twilight said seeming a little ashamed. "She tried to pin my class against one another and then tried to claim the magic from the Tree of Harmony for herself. Thankfully, the Tree rejected her power and left her powerless. We then imprisoned her with Tirek. She had then returned with Chrysalis and Tirek as a full Alicorn."
"Alicorn? The hell is that?" Shadow asked seemingly irritated.
"It's what I am." Said Cadence showing her horn and wings, "It's a pony with a unicorn horn and pegasus wings. Extremely powerful, and equipped with very dangerous magical abilities." She also commented with a bit of concern.
"Afterward, she attempted to betray both Tirek and Chrysalis only to assist them in losing. She was turned into stone with both of them. Twilight said.
"Anyone else?" Shadow said closing his eyes and attempting to draw a mental picture.
"There is, King Sombra. The former tyrant of the Crystal Empire. He wants that much of a threat in my opinion." Rainbow Dash explained. "H tried taking over the Crystal Empire once but thanks to the love between Cadence and Shining Armor, he was easily defeated."
"Did he come back?" Shadow asked opening his eyes and glaring at her.
"Yes, but we used the elements of harmony and vaporized him like wishoo wham!"
"Hmph." Shadow grunted seemingly unimpressed
"Alright, next up, we have Chrysalis. We are gonna need more info on her and her changeling buddies." Sonic said.
Cadence and Shining Armor spoke up, "She crashed our wedding in an attempt to take over the Crystal Empire."
Cadence sighed, "She disguised herself to enter the Empire then imprisoned me below the castle. She then put Shining Armor under a spell and almost married him. Then Twilight arrived."
Twilight nodded, "I had my suspicions about her from the beginning, but I let my guard down and was sent under the castle as well. After some teamwork, we broke out and exposed here for who she is. However, we were too late as she had been feeding off the love Shining Armor had for Cadence, making her stronger than princess Celestia. She had then launched an invasion on The Crystal Empire forcing us to use the Elements of Harmony."
"Elements of Harmony?" Sonic asked hearing that phrase a second time, "Sound's like chaos emeralds…except, you know…less opportunity to use it for destruction."
"They are the magic of our bonds given form. It's our sign that we as friends always have each other's backs. 6 of them, one for each of us." Fluttershy said.
Shadow rolled his eyes while Sonic sat up, "Alright, well where are they? Surely we can use them in an effort to get the remaining chaos emeralds."
They looked at each other then Twilight sighed as she levitated over the broken remnants of the elements of harmony, "I was hoping Shadic could try to restore them with chaos energy, or at least try to. Seeing how he de-fused, it probably work."
"Well in any case, I could try." Shadow said, "But I'm only doing this so we can get the emeralds back." He grabbed the blue chaos emerald and took off his inhibitor rings. "Chaos control!" He yelled as the emerald flashed and started to levitate the emeralds in the air.
Shadow struggled to stay focused and Twilight used her magic to try to help keep him from straining. "Don't worry, you're not alone." She said to him as her eyes went fully white allowing her wings to extend out fully.
The shattered elements started to revolve around the emerald slow at first, but started to speed up as Shadow flashed yellow for a second and Twilight golden.
Sonic and the others watched in shock as a bright flash emitted from the emerald as the elements were restored.
"It worked!" Yelled Rainbow Dash seeing each element of harmony restored to its pure state.
Shadow and Twilight were panting and looked at the elements.
Sonic counted them, "Uh guys? Either I'm not good at math or there are 7 of them." He said pointed.
"Impossible." Twilight said as she gave each of her friends their elements, "Honesty, Loyalty, Kindess, Laughter, Generosity, and Magic."
"Then what's this one?" Sonic said holding up one that looked to be a symbol of a green gem.
"I have never seen that one before." Twilight said coming close and inspecting it. "Hm…well, I still its best to hold onto it."
"Right." Sonic said slipping it on and smirking, "Hey, Shadow, check it out."
Shadow rolled his eyes, "Idiot." He commented. "Anymore enemies?"
"Well, yes and no." Twilight said. "They reason they all came back was because our friend, Discord brought them together as a challenge and test of our friendship. I don't think he would team up with them, but just to make sure…" She looked at Fluttershy who nodded and whispered.
"um…Discord? Can you come here please?" There was a poof before a being appeared before them.
Shadow and Sonic quickly were on their feet ready for a battle only for Twilight to settle them down. "No! He is our friend!"
They settled down a bit and sat down allowing Fluttershy and Discord to talk.
Discord had made a can of soda appear in his hand, "Fluttershy! It's been a while. How is my favorite friend in all of Equestria?" He asked taking a sip of his soda.
"I am alright." She responded with a shy smile, "Um can I ask you a question?"
"Of course. I'm all ears." He said as multiple ears appeared around his body.
"Do you remember when you gave that test to Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.
"Of course and she passed with flying colors!" He said excitedly throwing an assortment of colors from his hands.
"Well they are back." Twilight said causing Discord to spit out the soda.
"What." He asked, "Come again.
"King Sombra, Chrysalis, Lord Tirek, and Cozy Glow have all returned. We are sure all of them are, though we have only see Chrysalis." Fluttershy informed him.
"Hm, could it have something to do with this?" Discord asked pulling a yellow gemstone.
Sonic and Shadow's jaws dropped as everyone else gasp.
"A chaos emerald!" Everyone said.
"Hm? Oh, is that what this little trinket is called? I called it a fun stone. I like chaos emerald better, it sounds more…me." The emerald flashed and he created clones of himself, "Never have I had so much fun talking and having debates with myself." He said excitedly and each clone agreed before disappearing.
"Discord here is the spirit of chaos and disharmony. I guess it isn't out of the realm of possibility that he can naturally use the power of the chaos emeralds." Fluttershy said.
"Anyway…so if you aren't behind this Discord…then who is?" Twilight asked him only for him to shrug then notice the blue chaos emerald.
"Eggman." Shadow said with Sonic smirking.
"Eggman?" Cadence asked.
"Oh yeah, this seems like something old egg head would be up to. He is my arch nemesis." Sonic said leaning back in his chair.
"What is this, Eggman capable of?" AppleJack asked.
"Hm…a lot of things actually. He mostly tries to use the power of the emeralds to rule the world. He once took the emeralds and my super form and drained us of our power then used the resulting energy to break open the earth and harness a god of darkness's power to rule the world." Sonic responded.
"He also created Metal Sonic." Shadow said pointing to the remains of Metal.
"Oh! Then he used the emeralds to rip all of time and space apart to rewrite all of his loses only to add another loss to that. Though I would say the only thing he has done that has since been permanent is using the emeralds and blew off part of the moon as a threat." Sonic said.
"Don't forget about trying to use Solaris. You did end up having to save a princess, get thrown into the future, and die because of that." Shadow said looking at Sonic.
"True but technically the whole thing with Mephiles wasn't Eggman's doing. Plus, he did help from what Tails told me." Sonic responded.
"Wait. You died?!" Trixie asked shocked.
"Yep! Totally flatlined. But we used the emeralds to grant the ultimate miracle, bring me back to life." Sonic said.
"These things are that powerful?" Discord asked holding up the yellow and blue chaos emerald and looking at Sonic and Shadow. "Oh, where are my manners?" He sat down the emeralds. "Discord, the one and only spirit of chaos." He held out his hands.
Sonic shook his hand before waving his index finger and crossing his arms, "The name's Sonic, Sonic the hedgehog! And I'm the fastest thing alive!" Sonic announced proudly prompting Rainbow Dash to glance at him.
Discord then looked at Shadow and frowned, "Hm? What's wrong friend?" He said getting close with a smile.
Shadow glared and walked away then looked at the chaos emeralds, "At least we have 2 emeralds. That is at least better than nothing."
There was a knock at the door prompting everyone to look and see a guard with a look of terror on his face.
"What's wrong?" Shining Armor asked.
"Flurry Heart…" The guard responded before everyone rushed outside to see Chrysalis and King Sombra standing with Flurry Heart in a bubble of magic.
"King Sombra! Chrysalis!" Cadence said as she saw her daughter.
King Sombra smirked looking at Chrysalis then to the royal family, "How sweet, a family reunion."
"Yes, so sweet it makes me want to vomit!" Chrysalis said as she and King Sombra started laughing.
"Give us our daughter!" Shining armor said as his horn started to glow.
"Or you'll what? Attack us? You wish you could." Chrysalis said mocking Shining Armor at his attempt to threaten them.
"Make one wrong move, any of you, and what will happen next to your little brat will be excruciatingly painful." King Sombra said pulling out the cyan emerald forcing Shining Armor to stop.
"What do you want? The Crystal Empire?" Cadence asked.
"No, well, not yet at least. You know what we want. Hand over your remaining chaos emerald, and we can assure her safety." King Sombra responded.
Everyone looked amongst each other before there was a voice from behind them, "Here!"
Everyone's eyes went wide, Shadic walked past holding the blue emerald and handed over the emerald causing King Sombra and Chrysalis to gasp surprised.
As promised, once the emerald was handed over, King Sombra levitated the bubble over to the royal family before launching it high into the air.
Everyone looked up, "Bastard!" Shadic yelled before teleporting and grabbing it and landing on the ground perfectly.
When everyone looked around, the King and Chrysalis were gone.
The bubble popped and Flurry was there in Shadic's arms looking at him.
"Thank you." She said in an adorable voice making Shadic blush and look away.
He then handed Flurry Heart to Cadence and Shining Armor who were still shocked that Shadic arrived in the nick of time.
Sonic came running out with Discord and smirked, "Nice going Shadow. You sure fooled them."
Shadic's blue color changed back to pitch black as it was revealed to be Shadow, "You're lucky I went along with the idea."
"Well if they think Shadic is back, then this might make them panic." Sonic said grinning big.
"So, that was Shadow?" Cadence asked smiling at Shadow who just looked away.
"Yep, and the chaos emerald we gave them, was just a random jewel that broke off of the castle." Sonic said showing that he still had the yellow and blue emeralds.
They smiled at them and Sonic pat Shadow on the back who walked away looking at the damage from the invasion, "This proves that no one should have the emeralds."
Everyone looked at Shadow who then turned and looked at Flurry Heart.
Shadow to protect the world for my sake and give everyone a chance to be happy. Bring hope to humanity.
Shadow blushed and walked over to Flurry Heart and pet her on the head, "Give everyone a chance…to be happy." He said in a slight whisper
Flurry Heart hugged his hand with a big smile causing Sonic and Cadence both to watch.
"Is he normally like this?" She whispered to him.
"Not normally. This is a first for me too." Sonic whispered back.
Shadow pulled his hand away and smiled walking away and looking at the sun.
"What's up Shadow?" Sonic asked walking up next to him causing the smile to disappear from Shadow's face.
"We have to find those emeralds quick. Imagine if Eggman sends any of his machines through besides Metal Sonic, or worse. This place wouldn't stand a chance." He said.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. But haven't we been able to always pull through? Look what happened with Infinite and Eggman's army then." Sonic commented with a grin.
"Infinite was nothing but a mercenary with an inferiority complex over an insult. He wasn't a threat…he was a joke." Shadow said looking away.
"True, but still, he did do a lot. Not to mention, it the entire resistance to stand against him." Sonic responded sitting down.
"Shadow was it?" Cadence asked walking over.
"Hm? What is it?" Shadow responded looking back at her.
"Are you ok? You didn't seem like yourself a second ago." She asked him.
Sonic watched then raced away to give them some privacy.
"I'm fine. You can leave me alone now." He responded turning away.
"You sure? Because from what I saw…a little filly just broke through that tough guy attitude of yours." She said accusingly.
"Tough guy attitude? Yeah, right. If you came over here just to bother me…you can go away now. I'm not in the mood to talk about your kid. I just rescued her and that's it. Nothing more, nothing less." Shadow said slightly raising his voice.
"Then what was with that look?" She asked prompting him to go silent.
"What look?" He questioned her.
"Your blush and that protective look. That's the look Shining Armor gave when she was born. He wants to protect her. You gave that same look." Cadence told Shadow.
"Hmph…" Shadow grunted not sure how to answer.
"Tell me, Shadow, why do you want to protect Flurry Heart?" She asked the stubborn hedgehog.
"She reminds me of someone. Someone pure, innocent, and I don't want to make the same mistake twice." He responded.
"Were you close to this someone?" Cadence said walking alongside him.
"Yeah, and she died trying to protect me." Shadow said recalling the memories aboard the Space Colony Ark. "Her and I were very close, until the military saw her trying to help me escape. She gave her life to save mine and sent me away to safety. Her last words stay with me always." Shadow said as he glanced at Cadence.
"What were her last words?" She asked.
"To protect the world…for her sake and give everyone a chance to be happy. To bring hope to the world." Shadow said closing his eyes.
"Shadow…I'm sorry." Cadence said looking at him then to Flurry Heart. "If my little girl makes you happy…then I hope she can help you. Like your friend said, 'give everyone a chance to be happy', that means you too. You deserve to be happy." Cadence walked away leaving Shadow there to ponder his thoughts.
Maria…I wish you could be here with me. You would like it here. So joyful and colorful.
Cadence walked over and saw Flurry Heart fly over to Shadow and land in front of him.
At first he ignored her but she hugged his leg and he looked down at her.
She gave him a big smile and was soon picked up by Shadow who began tossing her and playing with her.
Sonic came back and rejoined Twilight and her friends, "Well, at least this day has a victory."
Elsewhere
"It's been days since Sonic and Shadow went to Eggman's base. Where are they?" Asked a red echidna.
"I don't know. I was in communication with Sonic once he entered Eggman's base. However, when he got it, something started jamming our comms and I couldn't reach him." Said a yellow fox.
"Well we have to do something. Just because Eggman went silent, doesn't mean we can rest now. Who knows what he could be planning? Not to mention, the chaos emeralds went missing soon after they did." Said a pink hedgehog.
"Well that's the crazy thing," said the yellow fox, "the emerald radar has been going crazy around the phantom ruby. Take a look." They brought a device over to a glowing ruby and held it up to it.
When the device was placed against the ruby, there were 7 emerald icons showing up and once he brought the device away, the emerald icons disappeared.
"What does this all mean Tails?" said the red echidna looking at the device then the yellow fox, "And when did you build a chaos emerald radar?"
Tails looked at the red echidna and smiled, "I built it after the emeralds went missing. Well the phantom ruby is known to be able to reach other dimension, right? That's how other Sonic got here during the Infinite accident."
The echidna nodded, "Yeah? So what?"
"Well…don't you find it odd that the emerald radar only picks up feint traces of chaos energy when against the phantom ruby?" Tails asked.
"I don't see where you're getting at." The echidna said.
The pink hedgehog groaned, "Knuckles, you bonehead. It means that the chaos emeralds must be in a different dimension. That's why when Tails put the radar next to it, it was able to pick up their energy signal. Right, Tails?" the pink hedgehog then looked at Tails who nodded.
"That's exactly right, Amy. And I'm willing that wherever the emeralds are, that's where we will find Sonic and Shadow. I'm sure of it." Tails said grabbing his tools looking at Amy and Knuckles, "I'm going to make some modifications to the Tornado then I'm going to go find them."
They nodded and went to tell the rest of the news to the Freedom Fighters, "Alright, we will go tell everyone."
Tails took a deep breath and walked over to a large sheet of tarp and pulled it off to reveal a blue large biplane. "It's been a long time since I've flown this thing." Tails said to himself remembering the times he's flown the Tornado 2 with Sonic riding on the wing.
"Good times?" Said Amy from behind.
"Yeah." Tails said looking behind himself at her, "Some things you can never forget. I'm just happy that those times were good times."
"I know what you mean. All the memories I have of Sonic were good ones." She said watching Tails work on the plane, "I never get the chance to tell Sonic because I just get too excited and it comes off as creepy, but I really do appreciate him and everything he's done for everyone including me. I remember the first time he ever saved my life."
"On Little Planet, right?" Tails asked sliding under the plane and starting to rework the wiring.
"Yep! Metal Sonic took me into the future and Sonic rescued me…I was so scared that I forgot to thank him." Amy said, "I feel so bad about it now."
Tails had a puff of black smoke hit his face and he started coughing. "Hey, Amy, can you give me a hand here?"
"Sure thing. What do you need me to do?" She asked coming over to him.
He handed her a large pair of tongs, "I need you to grab the phantom ruby and put it in the glass orb on my desk."
Amy took the tongs then went to the phantom ruby. Picking it up carefully, she then brought it over and dropped it in the orb and locked it. "Here you go!" She handed the orb to Tails who slid out from under the plane and grabbed it.
"Thanks, Amy! I definitely owe you one." Tails said as he placed the orb into a slot on the cockpit of his plane.
Next, Tails took the chaos emerald radar and started to install it into the Tornado, "There, now I can see where the emeralds are. Amy, call a meeting so I can inform everyone where I will be."
Amy nodded to Tails and began to gather the Freedom Fighters for a quick mission briefing.
Tails waited for everyone to come into the lab as he readied the Tornado for takeoff.
Once the tornado was ready, he looked at everyone, "Thank you all for seeing me off. I found where Sonic and Shadow are located. They are in a different dimension with the chaos emeralds."
"How long do you think it will take?" Asked a small rabbit.
"Honestly, Cream, I'm not sure. From how it looks from the radar, wherever the emeralds are, there have been massive spikes in chaos energy. I can only assume Sonic, Shadow, or both have something to do with this." Tails responded as he heard thunder.
"You better hurry Tails, this may be your closest chance." Amy said clasping her hands together. "But before you go, take this." She handed his a slightly heavy sack.
Tails took it and looked inside, "Amy? Where did you find all of these?" He asked seemingly surprised.
"Well some were mine, but most came from the other freedom fighters around here. They look up to Sonic, and if you can give them hope that you can bring him home, then they will help out anyway they can." She said with a soft smile.
Tails smiled back and got in his plane, "Thanks for the help guys! I promise I will get Sonic and Shadow home safely!"
The lab opened and Tails started the plane, "Steer clear of the runway!' He instructed as he started to pull off.
The plane lifted off the ground and went soaring high into the clouds before diving toward the ground, "Activating phantom drive now!" Tails said as he started to press some buttons on his control unit.
Just before the plane hit the ground, it disappeared completely and reappeared in a tunnel void.
"Here goes nothing. Computer, activate chaos emerald location." Tails said as he saw multiple realities appear before him.
"This is what sonic saw when he was put the phantom ruby's void by infinite. To think he had the chance to lay eyes on all of these…whoa." Tails glanced at the radar as it started to beep, "Hm? Oh, I got a reading."
He went through one dimensional rift and lost the emerald readings, "Hm…wrong dimension." He opened another rift and went through only to get a stronger reading than before.
"There it is!" Tails said as he flew threw only to lose the readings again. "What's going on? Why do I keep missing the dimension? It's almost like its moving…" Tails said as he started to fly back into the rift and back into the void. "I better hurry, my plane can only take but so much dimensional jumping before it gives out."
He had received the emerald readings and watched how they were traveling. "I see, there they are again. Hmm…at the rate it's traveling…" He punched in some coordinates and started flying faster near lightspeed and out flew the dimensional rift.
In Equestria
He slowed down and was swallowed by the rift causing his plane systems to malfunction. "Oh no! My plane!"
The Tornado started to spiral out of control and started going down toward a large kingdom.
"No! Come on pull up! Pull Up!" Tails yelled as he pulled back on the yoke too late as he had a head on collision into the side of a large structure.
His body went limp from the resulting crash and onlookers nearby saw him and went to his aid.