So, let me give you a run down on the stuff you need to know. Luna's gone back to Equestria (yes, Luna x Cobalt fans, that was never meant to be), Rainbow Dash and Cobalt Spikes now hate each other (or do they?), and it is affecting all the others. I wonder how this Sonic Adventure adaptation will affect that?

I'm sorry that I couldn't post this earlier (stupid error 503!), but I hope the general awesomeness will make up for that.

PART 1

Chris opened the door to the room where the ponies slept and carefully poked Cobalt. He had to be cautious, since Cobalt had been extremely on edge since the Christmas party. But this was something that couldn't wait.

"Cobalt." He whispered.

"Ngg." The dark blue pegasus twitched and grunted, obviously having another terrible nightmare, like he always had frequently. His green eyes snapped open and immediately narrowed in anger. "What?"

"Uhh, I just wanted to let you know that there's a monster terrorizing downtown." Chris informed him.

"Okay. I'm on it." he growled, throwing off his covers.

Rainbow Dash, who had never really fallen asleep, raised her head. "I'll help."

Cobalt shot her a killer glare. "No thank you, I'll do it myself." He said coldly and shot out the window.

Rainbow's eyes watered with tears, and she started sobbing into her pillow. "W-why can't he j-just understand that I-I just want to apologize a-and be f-friends again?" she choked, a fresh wave of tears spilling out.

This was how many of their conversations went these days. Ever since she'd punched Cobalt, he'd been treating her with this cold politeness, nothing to trigger her anger, but enough to hurt her emotionally, making her feel that he didn't care for her at all anymore. She wished he'd at least give her something. She wished he'd scream at her, or deliver a blow back, or anything but this unfeeling, monotonous politeness.

She broke off with anything she was going to say, crying.

Chris felt a pang of sorrow for her. All she wanted to do after her worst mistake ever was to reconcile, and the hostility between her and Cobalt was preventing that from ever happening.

MEANWHILE

Cobalt flew above the city of Station Square, looking for the commotion. Due to his tendency to fly at night, he'd gained the nickname of Nightwing from the civilians.

As he thought about stuff, resentment for Rainbow Dash bubbled up inside of him. "Stupid filly." He muttered. "Why can't she just leave me alone?"

Finally he located the source of the attack. Police surrounded a blue thing on all sides. He rolled his eyes. "Blue, of course." He growled sarcastically and dove down to attack it.

Landing hard in front of the beast, he waved off the police, his anger built enough to take this thing on his own. Using momentum gained from his wings, he threw a punch at the thing (it sort of resembled a blue praying mantis) that would've knocked anything else out cold. Instead, he phased right through the thing like it was… made of water.

Of course.

Water was his only fear, given the fact that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't swim. If this thing was actually water, he stood no chance unless he could find some way to actually land a blow on it.

What is this thing? He thought, flying straight through it once more.

Chaos.

The name flashed through his head like wildfire. Now he was really in deep. If he was getting memory back then this was uber-important.

"All right, thing, let's rumble." He growled, but never even got the chance, since the monster dissolved into a sewer drain.

"Wha?" was all he could manage.

But just a few seconds later, a tinkling sound was heard and the element of kindness dropped out of the sky onto the drain. "How?" Cobalt asked.

"That would be me!" Eggman said, hovering down on his Eggmobile. Chaos popped out of the drain and absorbed the element, and grew a robotic arm to go with is visible brain. "Aw man." Cobalt muttered.

"You see, my dear pegasus, Chaos is invincible. When you feed it a chaos emerald or one of your silly elements of harmony, it grows in power!"

Shoot. Cobalt thought, flying over to the creature and trying to punch it. Chaos whacked him away like a paper wad. He skidded on the street, cutting a few gashes in his sides. "So now you're solid." He groaned, getting onto his hooves once more. He didn't realize Chaos was nearly on top of him. "Whoa, back off dude."

"Sorry, Cobalt." Eggman gloated. "Chaos only takes orders from me." As he spoke, Chaos leveled his robotic arm at Cobalt, preparing to blast him into oblivion.

"Cobalt!" he heard a familiar voice scream, a rainbow colored blur shooting past him and yanking him out of the way of the high-pressure stream of water.

He glanced at Rainbow Dash, who of course was the blur, in annoyance. "I don't need your help." He grumbled. "I can do this myself."

"Way to say thanks to all your friends for coming to save your sorry flank." She said, her red tinted magenta eyes narrowing. "You'd be dead right now. Now if you'd please, stay out of the way before your stupid rash actions get yourself killed!" she hissed.

"Bite me." He growled back.

"I don't know why I ever thought I should help you. Only friends would help each other." She spat, dropping him on the ground. His form made a dull thump as he smacked against solid concrete.

She turned and turned back toward the battle, where her friends were keeping Chaos busy. As she watched, Applejack started bucking Chaos, while Rarity and Twilight used some sort of spell to keep its motions slow. Pinkie provided an impossible target, and Fluttershy started beating her wings in Eggman's face to keep him distracted. All five had angry expressions ranging from agitated to just plain enraged.

Rainbow put on a burst of speed and smashed right though Chaos' middle, shattering its form.

"Argh!" Eggman angrily thrust Fluttershy out of his face and tossed something towards Chaos. Rainbow caught a small glimpse of it as it tumbled through the air and Chaos absorbed it. "The element of loyalty!"

Chaos gained a more powerful looking form right before their eyes and either punched or kicked the ponies away. It glared at Rainbow, the only one unscathed, and shot a bolt of chaos energy at her. Her eyes widened and she only had time to cringe before… the shot struck Cobalt. As he plummeted to the ground in front of her, she realized what must've happened; Cobalt had taken the shot for her.

But… why? She thought, confused. We're supposed to hate each other.

She swooped down next to him, noting the huge scorch mark on his stomach. "W-why did you do that?"

He grimaced. "I didn't do it to save you." He said with distaste. "I was trying to help Applejack."

"I-I can't believe you!" she growled, kicking him hard with a forehoof. "I hate you!"

He glanced away uncomfortably for a moment, but then resumed glaring. "Do you want to fight right now, 'cause I'll take you anytime!"

"I can't think of any better time." Rainbow snarled, hoisting him back onto his hooves only to knock him back down by bucking him in his face. He collapsed with his nose bleeding, completely unconscious.

I don't feel any better. She thought miserably. This isn't how it should be. She wiped at tears that she didn't even realize were flowing until they dripped onto the ground. She just couldn't keep on her hooves anymore and collapsed with emotion. She sobbed into the concrete.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Applejack were combining magic and strength to deal with Chaos. Eventually, after one really hard buck combined with a freezing spell, Chaos shattered into a million little pieces and retreated down the sewer drain.

"Curse you ponies!" Eggman shouted. "If you think I'm defeated, then you've got another thing coming!" he retreated into the sky on his Eggmobile.

"Umm, dear," Rarity asked Twilight. "Shouldn't we go after him?"

"No." Twilight said. "This isn't the right time. Besides," she glanced at Rainbow, who was still crying over what she'd done. "I think we're all a bit too high-strung to work coherently."

"That's true." Fluttershy whispered.

PART 2

Cobalt's eyes fluttered open in a black void, prompting him to stand up. "Wow, well that figures. Anything else to show me, subconscious?"

"Not thy subconscious, Cobalt Spikes, but we are a messenger to thee." A familiar voice said from behind him.

He whipped around once again to face Princess Luna. "Seriously, can't you appear in front of me for once?" he asked exasperatedly, feigning irritation to hide the fact that he was somewhat relieved.

"Maybe we can, maybe we cannot." Luna gave him a wry smile. "But this is not what we are here about."

"Mind telling me why you are then?"

"We saw how Rainbow Dash reacted to thee osculating thy friend Fluttershy." Luna, of course, had to use the most old-timey and embarrassing term.

Cobalt flushed, gave a sheepish grin, and glanced away. "Not exactly my choice there, ma'am."

"We understand that, yet thou seem to be pushing her away since. Why?"

"It wasn't really me, though. I tried to talk to her, and she hurt me both emotionally and physically." He rubbed the place where he'd been hit. "I guess I haven't been exactly fair and given her a second chance, and now that I reflect, she's been trying to reconcile…" he gritted his teeth. "Shoot. That's what's wrong. I've been making it worse."

"We see that we were needed only to push thy mind in the right direction." Luna glanced up into the sky like she was calculating something. "And now we owe our sister twenty bits, but that is not the point. We came bearing a message. Thy memory troubles may have an answer."

Cobalt's eyes widened. "Seriously?!"

"Verily. When thou get back, visit Canterlot and we may be able to help thee."

"Awesome. Yet, I still have two huge questions."

"And these are?"

"One: why do I always dream my way into here unless I'm just having a normal dream?" He gestured around to the void. "It's mega-freaky."

"This is, to the extent of our knowledge, your pipeline to all your forgotten memories." Luna nodded to a thunderstorm forming in the distance. "That one looks chaotic."

Seeing how his expression immediately changed from guarded curiosity to amazed wonder, and realizing how her advice might prompt him to explore deeper into these chasms, Luna quickly added, "But we would not advise thee to journey too far into thy subconscious, because ponies of past with your… conditions have been known to go to sleep and never wake up."

Cobalt drew back and sniffed. "What do ya mean by conditions?"

"Amnesia and slight insanity."

He chuckled. "Well, you're right with the partially insane stuff there, I'm on the edge of the deep end. I do think I'm getting better though."

Luna's expression warmed, a small amount of her old feelings resurfacing at his antics. "Indeed. What is thy second question?"

"Did you ever have… how do I say it…" Cobalt tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Oh yeah, that's it. A crush on me?"

Luna blushed furiously, astounded he'd been able to put a hoof on it so easily. "How did thou figure this?!"

He shrugged. "I can read faces pretty well. And judging by your expression I'm right?"

"Y-yes. At one point we did feel for thou as more than one of our subjects, but we have let those feelings go. It is not our way to love, as we live forever and others do not." Luna admitted.

"Well that's good, 'cause I was gonna tell you that I don't feel anything like that toward you." He quickly covered up what could have been mistaken as disrespect or an insult with, "N-no offense meant there though, um, your majesty."

Luna wasn't angry whatsoever, though. "Respect does not come naturally to thee, dost it?"

"Not really, ma'am."

"We understand completely." Luna nodded, giving him another wry grin. "We as well can read faces." An earthquake shook the ground, causing the void to crack like glass and several pieces to drop to the metaphorical floor. "This dream is beginning to shatter. Somepony is infringing on thy consciousness."

"That's weird. I don't think anypony would want to wake me up after the way I acted…" Cobalt started to feel miserable again.

"Do not dwell on past mistakes, Cobalt Spikes. All is able to be reconciled, and what to be focused on is the present." Luna's piercing light blue eyes were the last things he saw as his dream was destroyed.

Cobalt woke up to a pair of red tinted magenta eyes staring angrily at him.

"Wake up. Wake up already!" a female voice ordered. His vision focused on the eyes instinctively, and he reared back, his wings extending and his head banging against a wire frame. "Yaah! Ow!"

As his vision slowly de-blurred, he rubbed his head in pain. Rainbow Dash was sitting in front of him, literally on top of the bed he was lying on. "Whoa, jeez Dashie, lay off a little!"

"Don't call me that." She said automatically, the way she would to a stranger. "Tell me why you've been so mean lately."

"Quick question first. Why am I here, where is here, and why are you here."

"That's three questions, you had a mild head injury," Cobalt felt a sudden sharp pain near the back of his skull when she said that. "This is Station Square's hospital, and I want information."

Cobalt chewed his tongue nervously. "I guess that all makes sense, but as for your question, I don't know what you're asking."

In response, she curled one of her wings down and began sweeping the feathers slowly up and down his exposed stomach. "Tell me. I know you have an answer."

His eyes widened and his sides shook with barely suppressed laughter. "Dash, stop. You know I can't take this." Yep, that was one thing he was certainly sure of. In the way of being tickled, he caved at square one. Seeing as she only started to move her wing faster, he desperately tried to cover up his belly, but was shocked to find that his hooves, all four of them, were roped to the sides of this metal framed cot. "Hey! P-please make it stop!"

"Not until you give me an answer." She replied, an evil-looking smile forcing its way onto her lips. "Maybe I won't stop at all. It's fun watching you squirm."

At this point Cobalt was twitching spasmodically, pained laughter spilling from him like a waterfall. "Rainbow I can't HAHA! I can't take this WAHAHA! MAKE IT STOPAHAHAHAHAHA! IT'S BECAUSE YOU HIT ME! NOW STOP ALREADYAHAHA!"

Now it was Rainbow's turn to be shocked, freezing up entirely, startled just enough for Cobalt to delicately use his wing to get hers off him.

"I'd never thought of it that way since you started being so mean. And the only reason I even did that is because I saw you, well (gulp) kissing Fluttershy. But I'm sure you're very happy with her." Rainbow's voice cracked.

Cobalt raised an eyebrow and gulped, causing her to be suspicious, but then he quickly covered that up with the most heartfelt laugh she'd ever heard. "Wait, you think Fluttershy and I are dating? Hah, that's really funny!"

"Wait, y-you're not?" her utter joy at that realization flowed forth in her speech.

"Uh, no. Nopony is any more special to me than you, Dashie." He wrapped a foreleg around her neck and stared into her eyes, all their disagreements forgotten. They were lost in their own world for a few seconds until a nurse walked in and gave Rainbow her five minute limit warning.

Face burning, Cobalt pushed her away. "Um, that doesn't mean… uh y'know… that we're…"

"Right." She agreed, smiling. "But that doesn't mean I can't do this as a friend." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. "And by the way, with your injuries, you're out of our battle with Chaos."

Another bit of pain wracked his skull, but that didn't stop him from protesting. "Wait a second, you're trying to keep me out of this? No way, nuh-uh. I'm in this to the end."

"I'm sorry man, but even when I tried to tell the others that, they still told me that you'd have to sit this one out." He sighed as she started untying his bonds. "Sorry about these, but I knew you'd try to run and needed some assurance you wouldn't."

"It's okay." He said, knowing he'd be there to show up when the time was needed. "One question left though. Why are you here in the first place?"

Rainbow Dash blushed. "I-I just couldn't leave you alone really."

SEVEN HOURS AGO

"I don't get it. Shouldn't we be going after Eggman instead of taking a coffee break?" Rainbow asked the rest who had congregated in Chris' room.

"Can I have coffee?" Pinkie asked.

"NO!" everyone/pony chorused, not wanting to see the energetic pink mare on coffee.

"I think Chaos just needs some compassion to feel better." Fluttershy suggested kindly, as was her element.

"That ain't gonna work and we all know it." Applejack corrected.

"We have to think." Twilight said. "Any ideas?"

"We could get coffee!" Pinkie proposed.

"No!" Chris shut her idea down once more.

"I'm out of here! I think best in the air." Rainbow said angrily, impulsively flying off. I can't bear to think of Cobalt coming to alone in some room.

BACK TO THE PRESENT

"So that's why." Cobalt realized. "Haha! You really do care, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do." Rainbow smiled. "Now rest up, I've got to find Twilight and the others so we can work on finding the elements. We've almost got a location."

"Yup." He grinned, reclining. "I'm gonna enjoy a little peace and quiet."

SOME TIME LATER… IN A RANDOM PLACE THAT I'M TO LAZY TO FIND THE NAME OF

Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle stood in the middle of a field with strange rock structures, Twilight's inner sense reacting to a strong magnetic pull on her subconscious. After a few steps with her eyes being closed, they suddenly snapped open. "It's here." She was standing on top of a bare patch of ground in comparison to the grassy plain. "Now how are we going to get there?"

Rainbow looked delighted to answer. "Oh yes! I've been working on a drill move!" she flew high into the air and started doing a perfect corkscrew downward, her body eventually blurring into a rainbow colored tornado. The bottom of the tornado slammed into the dirt below and tore away massive amounts of stone and earth from the ground. Eventually she reappeared, with the element of magic in tow. "Got it!"

"That's amazing, Rainbow!" Twilight congratulated her. A maniacal laugh sounded from behind them and a robotic claw snatched the element right out of Rainbow's hoof. "I'll take that!"

"Eggman!" Twilight whirled around and accused the obvious perpetrator who was hovering in his Eggmobile.

"That's right, my little pony, and now Chaos 2 will become Chaos 3! Ahahaha!" Eggman used the claw to toss the element over to a pool of… was that water?

The 'water' absorbed the emerald and decided to form into a bigger water monster than they had seen before, the latter apparently being Chaos 2.

"Behold, Chaos 3!" Eggman cackled.

"We get it already!" Rainbow snapped. "And for my next trick, I will smash your water beast!" she rammed into Chaos, inadvertently getting stuck inside. "Mmph!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight yelled in concern, casting a tractor beam-like spell to try to pull her friend out of the water monster. Rainbow was now trying to use her wings to claw at her throat, her expression utterly screaming that she needed air. Right. Then. At. That. Very. Freaking. Moment.

The second she was out of Chaos, she was swatted out of the air by Eggman's claw, several cuts appeared on her back as she was slammed into the ground. Twilight gritted her teeth and cast another freezing spell, instantly causing Chaos to be shatter-able.

Twilight reared around and smashed her hind hooves into Chaos over and over, still unable to make even a dent in the pure chaos entity. All of a sudden a dark blue streak smashed into Chaos and broke it into a million pieces. A dark blue pegasus flew an upper corkscrew and pumped a forehoof into the air. "Yes! Score one for the ponies!"

The pegasus, obviously Cobalt, flew into the distance, presumably to return to his hospital room before he was missed.

Rainbow spat out bloody water. "Oh man, déjà-vu to the maximum." She choked out, remembering the time she'd been choking on blood/water. "Thank you Twilight and Cobalt!"

"But the element is gone!" Twilight realized. "And Eggman's still here!"

"You think you've beaten me, but this is just getting started!" Eggman roared, pressing a button on his control panel and making the robot turn into something very resembling Big Arm.

Rainbow and Twilight got into battle stances. "Bring it ON!"

As you can tell, next chapter will include a battle scene, and another, and probably another. What fun!

I know Cobalt's appearance was a bit of a deus ex machina, but he made a decision and you know his character, he's gonna keep to it. Sorry if this plot (not that kind of plot) seemed a little rushed, but I'm trying to squeeze a boatload of episodes into two chapters. On the bright side it makes for much longer chapters than my status quo.

I'll see ya next week, guys!