HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Hello! This is the last chapter in this, and boy am I glad to say I've finished something. My dad has really been getting on my case about finishing a project, and here it is!
werewolf lover 99: Each to his own, I guess.
RandomPerson65: That's in this chapter!
Prison Island. The place for the baddest of the bad, the worst of the worst. Impenetrable, inescapable. And currently home to two miserable pegasi.
The head of security let out a slightly insane laugh, slamming a fist down on the coffee table during a meeting. "Cobalt Spikes and Rainbow Dash had better get comfortable, because there's no way out! We've got round the clock guards, state of the art monitoring gear, and they're all wrapped around one perfectly designed cell! Hah!"
One of the officers stared at his captain like he was insane, which he might have been. I know Cobalt and Rainbow Dash are innocent, but I can't prove it! I hope they're okay…
INSIDE THE CELL
Cobalt sat sprawled out on the floor, relaxing as much as he could when he had hydrophobia and was surrounded by water. Rainbow sat next to him, staring ahead blankly, already getting restless even though she'd only been confined for an hour. She struggled against the extra strength harness, but no matter how hard she tried it wouldn't budge.
It's probably for the best. She thought miserably. The second I get it off, they'll put a new one on.
They were miserable, yet it was the best they could hope for until rescue, and so they could only wait, with nothing to do but talk and try not to focus on the cameras filming them from every angle.
ONE TITLE SEQUENCE LATER
Cobalt gradually became aware of tears trickling down Rainbow's face, only halting slightly as they passed over the healing scars Gilda had left on her face. "Why the sad face, Dashie?"
"It's nothing." Rainbow replied dismissively, yet this didn't really do anything since there were still tears spilling out of her eyes.
"Right; now the real reason?" Cobalt pressed.
"I hate failing." She replied matter of factly, right before her stomach gave a heave, like she was sick. "I just feel so guilty, like this was all my fault, and guilt really sucks to carry around. It makes me feel queasy and depressed." She pointed at her heart, underneath the tight harness. "It hurts in here."
"It's not your fault, why would you think that?" Cobalt asked, wondering how anypony could make an assumption that hurt them so much, until he remembered how he'd done something like that himself not too long ago, when he'd banished himself from Ponyville. "Dash, please stop beating yourself up about this." He begged her, remembering how terrible he'd felt when he'd done that to himself.
"But I–" she protested.
"Got beaten by Gilda, yeah, wasn't fast enough to run away from the police, yes again." He agreed with a nod. "And trust me, I don't like this situation any more than you do, but blaming yourself doesn't help any. I know."
"I– I…" she knew he was right, but she still felt bad.
"Okay, if it takes this for you to feel better, then so be it." Cobalt gave her a tight hug. "Are you okay now?"
She gave a sad smile. "As good as I'll be until we're out of here."
Cobalt narrowed his green eyes. "Speaking of… where are they anyway?"
WHERE THEY ARE
"We cannot go any further in the helicopter plane, master Chris." Mister Tanaka explained. "That is why I have prepared a special vessel that will get us in under radar."
Twilight Sparkle, who was captaining the helicopter form of her helicopter plane, hit a button and a robotic claw lowered a peculiar looking boat into the waters below.
"It's a rubber duck." Chris said, giving Mister Tanaka a weird look.
"It is a rubber duck shaped paddle boat, master Chris." Mister Tanaka corrected as they lowered themselves into the odd boat.
"Good luck guys!" Applejack called. "Have fun!"
"Bring back coffee!" Pinkie Pie added.
MEANWHILE, IN EGGMAN'S NEW, UNDESTROYED DESERT BASE
Eggman blew on a party… thingy (what are those things called?), making a sound like a dying duck. "We've won!" he addressed one black and red alicorn and one griffon. "Thanks to you, Shadow and Gilda, we've managed to get those two wretched pegasi locked up forever!"
"I wouldn't get too excited, doctor." Shadow said darkly. "There is still the prospect of their friends freeing them."
"And you still haven't started your Eclipse Cannon thingy." Gilda added, able to spot all the flaws in Eggman's plan just as well as Shadow.
"Pish-posh!" Eggman was still ecstatic.
"How is your memory, master?" a robot servant monotoned.
Eggman gritted his teeth, holding the side of his head. "Better than the last time you asked. More is coming back to me, but I still can't remember everything."
"Message for you, doctor!" Bokkun (aforementioned in chapter 6) hovered down, holding up a tiny yellow television.
A display of the least likely person… or pony to be exact… that would ever wish to leave a message for Eggman popped onto the screen of the yellow television. Rarity Amiz La'coutre looked at the recording television like she was unsure of something. "Is this thing on?" she asked. After a brief pause, she continued with, "Um, hello Doctor Eggman. I wish to inform you that I am right outside of your new base, and I would like to join you. I've brought a peace offering." She held up two of the elements, honesty and loyalty. "If you'd let me in, that would be nice."
The television then exploded in Eggman's face, leading to suppressed laughter from Gilda and an exasperated sigh from Shadow.
Eggman pressed the button to open his front door and after a few seconds, Rarity dropped in from the ceiling, landing with a thump. "Well, that was a bit unsettling."
"Hello Rarity." Eggman addressed the newcomer. "If you'd hand over the elements, I have a job for you and my other recruits over at Prison Island."
"Lame." Gilda face…clawed.
AT A CLIFF ON PRISON ISLAND
"Master Chris, I will need you to stay with the boat." Mister Tanaka informed Chris. "This is far too dangerous."
"But Mister Tanaka," Chris began.
"No, master Chris." Mister Tanaka said with no room for argument. "When your parents entrusted me with your care, I made an oath not to put you in harm's way. You must sit this one out."
"Fine." Chris grumbled, slouching unhappily.
IN THE SKIES ABOVE
Twilight expertly aimed the gatling gun to blow up the sentry turrets that were firing at them from Prison Island. Fluttershy cowered in fear; this violence was too much for her. Meanwhile, Angel Bunny snuggled deep in her mane; the sounds of gunfire and nearing death were just perfect for this satanic rabbit's midday nap.
Pretty soon, the helicopter landed and its passengers disembarked to see a figure that looked much like Cobalt standing in front of the impenetrable gates with his back to them. Pinkie ran up and gave the unsuspecting figure a hug. "Cobalt! I'm so happy to see you! When you were gone it was really sad and–" she broke off as the figure gave her a look, making her un-hug him and step back a bit. "I-I'm so sorry, I thought you were somepony else…"
"I don't have time for this." The figure scoffed, holding up the red chaos emerald and shouting, "CHAOS BLAST!" the gates exploded in a red blast. He turned and gave them one last look. "I would leave if I were you. In just a few minutes this place is detonating."
He whirled around and disappeared, but not before Twilight got a good look at his face. "Shadow?"
ABOUT A MINUTE LATER
The ponies had successfully penetrated the base's security, making it to the exterior of the pegasi's cell.
Unbeknownst to them, Shadow, Gilda, and reluctantly Rarity had placed mass explosives on the island, all wired for ten minutes. The clock was ticking.
Pinkie pressed a button as the rest of the ponies stood guard, and a bridge extended into the water that surrounded the spherical cell, and then flushed out the water, making a perfectly dry pathway from the exterior to the interior of the cage.
She bounced happily to the bars and started banging on them. "Wakey wakey sleepy heads!"
Cobalt yawned and stood up. "What is it, Dash? I was dreaming about pie." He looked ahead, then rubbed his eyes like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "And now I think I know why."
"Wake up Dashie!" Pinkie said, giving a huge smile. Rainbow got up after a few seconds and tried to stretch like she usually did when waking up, before realizing the harness wouldn't let her do that. She settled for doing a stretch kind of like a dog, giving a huge yawn. "Took ya long enough, guys. Do you know how humiliating it is to be monitored 24/7?"
"Nope!" Pinkie couldn't say she did. "Hurry up, guys! We ran into Shadow and this whole island is going to go boom in a few minutes!"
"What the buck?" Cobalt didn't even halt to think of the kind of language he was using. "Shadow's here?"
"Yep!"
"Man, that can't be good." He sighed, ramming into the cell door and using his padded harness to sort of absorb the shock. The door busted open and the three ran away.
Meanwhile, Mister Tanaka had given up when he couldn't get past phase one of the defense, and returned to the boat only to find that Chris had gone. He would have gone after him, but a giant wave carried him far away from the cliff face.
SEVEN MINUTES LATER
By the time the group saw daylight again, most of their time had elapsed, and when they met up with the other group that came from Equestria, they couldn't say they weren't mad.
"Rarity?!" Applejack exclaimed angrily. "Now when y'all said you had somethin' else to do, Ah never thought in a million years you'd turn traitor!"
"Of course I wouldn't, Applejack." Rarity scoffed, striding over back to her friends' side. "It was my orders from the government to find out information from Eggman by acting as if I was on his side, and it worked. But now I am through with these G.U.N hooligans!" she tore a tiny microphone out of her ear and stomped on it, saying, "Through! With! Them!"
"Okay then." Applejack seemed slightly rattled by her friend's brief moment of insanity. "Now as for you jerks!" she growled at Shadow and Gilda.
The alicorn and griffon glanced at each other and charged. Gilda homed in on Rainbow Dash, slashing out to try to cut yet another three gashes across her former friend. Rainbow countered this by flopping onto her back and letting Gilda instead rip open the harness, freeing her wings. "Thank you!"
Twilight countered Shadow's attacks with her magic, and was surprised to find that he was as good as she was. "Where'd you learn such fancy magic, Shadow?" she grunted as she flung away clumps of stone directed at her friends, currently trying to free Cobalt from his harness.
"I could ask the same of you." He growled, pressing his attacks forward into melee blows. For one awkward moment, they were nose to nose, and Twilight could've sworn she saw a blush on his face, but she was knocked aside a second later and didn't know for sure.
Finally Cobalt was freed, and tackled Shadow to the ground. "Stupid jerk!" he punched Shadow across the face. "Framing me and hurting my friends!"
Shadow grinned, narrowing his eyes. A red glint told the others he'd pulled out a chaos emerald, and they all piled on top of him as he said the trigger words. Chris just managed to make contact right before the group disappeared, and the island blew.
ON THE SPACE COLONY ARK
A pile of ponies, one griffon, and one human appeared at the feet of Doctor Eggman. They quickly separated into their different sides.
"Ah, friends. So glad you could join us!" Eggman said with a big, evil smile.
"What's your plan, Eggman?!" Cobalt asked, way past ticked off at his archenemy.
"So quick to anger, are we?" Eggman kept his polite guise. "I will tell you, just as soon as you give me that element you have with you."
Cobalt pulled the element of generosity out of his mane. "You mean this one? Not a chance."
Eggman's response was to snap his fingers; cuing Plan B. Shadow launched himself forward and grabbed Rainbow, dragging her forcefully over toward Eggman, who lowered a gun at her head. "No funny moves Cobalt. Hand over the element and I'll let her go."
A collective gasp went up from the rest of the elements, Cobalt, and Chris. "You wouldn't." Cobalt tried to call Eggman's bluff, but the mad scientist wasn't playing a trick this time, obvious since he cocked the gun.
Rainbow flashed Cobalt a pleading glance, slowly shaking her head no.
"I suppose I should explain myself first." Eggman went on. "See, I have nearly all the emeralds and elements needed to power this planet's denizen's finest weapon: the Eclipse Cannon! First I would threaten to destroy the earth with this masterful weapon of destruction, then the humans would offer their freedom in exchange for not being destroyed! I would be their merciful overlord! But I need your last element." He went on to explain about himself. "You're probably wondering how I attained Metal Sonic's emerald. Well the truth is… I am Metal Sonic!"
Cobalt's jaw dropped open. "Wait…"
"In reality, this form is a well working machine." Eggman gestured down at himself. "Metal Sonic built the first base and myself based on his memory records, and then used the small sliver of my recorded consciousness to bring my personality back! Then my wonderful creation uploaded the memory I recorded into him back into this form's hard drive. I don't have all the memories yet, but I know who you were before you got your memory wiped! But since I'm so evil, I won't tell you!" he finished this shell shocking speech by jabbing the barrel viciously into the side of Rainbow Dash's head. "The element. Now."
"Don't do it." Rainbow protested.
"Sorry, Dash." Cobalt sighed, stepping forward with the element. The second Eggman took it, the evil genius pressed a button, cuing a cylindrical pod to encase Cobalt, who glared at the maniacal scientist, his words muffled by the glass. "Okay Eggman, I figured you'd trick me, so I want a chance to say goodbye before you do whatever."
"Of course, Cobalt. After all, last requests are customary for the condemned." Eggman said with an evil grin.
Cobalt turned toward Chris. "Chris Thorndyke, thank you for all you've done for us since we got here. I don't know how we would've survived without your help. You're a good boy, and I know you'll grow up to be a great man. I don't think I'm gonna see you again, so I guess this is goodbye for good. And as for the rest of you, I assume Eggman won't let you go free, so I'll see you on the flip side." He smirked and gave a wink, like he had a plan.
Eggman pressed the button for the pod's release, dropping the blue pegasus through the floor and into earth's atmosphere. "Too long." He then lowered the gun. "Lock them up." He ordered his robots and agents. "And send the boy back to earth."
Despite Chris and the elements' protests and slight resistance, Chris was crammed into a safe, non-deadly escape pod that would deposit him gently back at his home, and the elements were thrown into cells in the prison section of the Ark.
ABOUT AN HOUR LATER
Eggman was just about to press his button to ready the Eclipse Cannon when a blue blur slammed into his side, causing him to lose his grip on the trigger panel.
"Sorry, Eggface, but I don't think that fried earth is on the menu today." Cobalt said, standing triumphantly next to the control panel and ripping out both elements and emeralds. "See, you forgot two crucial things: one, I can fly and knock open doors, and two, you may have had all the emeralds you needed, but you were still missing one of the three emeralds!" He held up the green emerald. "I simply busted out before I crashed, and got the green emerald. I can use Chaos Control too, you know! And if you'd excuse me, I'll be busting my friends out of your little cells."
He flew as fast as he could to the cell area of the Ark, calling out to his friends like the Marco-Polo game.
"Hey! Guys!" He greeted his friends who were sitting behind steel bars, which he kicked out easily. He was tackle-hugged by Rainbow, who'd been sitting and crying at the thought that he was dead. She squeezed him to the point that he thought she might break his bones. "Whoa, take it easy Dashie."
"I-I missed you, Spikes." She sobbed into his shoulder. "I thought you might never come back."
"Well, guess what I got?" he broke away from the hug and dumped the gems of power on the floor to a chorus of "right on" and "good going". "We've gotta do this portal thing quick, so let's get to it!"
"Yay! Portal fun!" Pinkie cheered.
Each of the bearers put on their respective elements and began the portal just as Eggman rounded the corner holding his pistol, causing them to panic and nearly lose their concentration. Cobalt initiated Chaos Control right before Eggman got to them and stumbled into the portal, followed unknowingly by Shadow and Gilda, and finally the elements and Cobalt, who brought the emeralds along with him.
The portal shut and the door to Equestria closed.
The two parties have left earth for good, but what new scenarios await them on the other side of the portal?
END X FILES: TO BE CONTINUED IN ORIGINAL