Silver and Shadow, sit in the steam bath of a spa in Ponyville, with towels around their waists, they loll their heads back, Silver groans, "I feel a year of stress leaving my body, oh my god." Shadow has a towel covering his eyes, "This was not what I was expecting to do today." hiding the fact that his muscles haven't been relaxed in years, Silver yells out, "Ma'am, could we get some more steam in here."

The pony attendant smiles and pours more water over the rocks. "Thank you. That is spectacular."

Silver looks at Shadow, "You getting the full thing Shadow? It was Rarity's treat."

"I'll pass on the full experience today; I think the steam was all I needed." Shadow remarks

"I don't know about you, but I need to try that seaweed wrap and the mud bath, my fur and skin really needs the minerals." Shadow lifts up his head and lifts up the towel on his face, "Are spas not in the future?"

"No. No they are not. And I wouldn't have the money to pay for it. My job is purely volunteer work."

"I worked for G.U.N. for a while, I was on salary. I actually earned a decent amount back on Mobius." Shadow says.

"How much did you make with G.U.N.? Were you on contract?"

"I signed on for basic mercenary work, I received 60k a year, if I remember correctly. I'm still on that same contract, now that I'm thinking about it."

"Wow. I didn't know that you had a real, uh, job. You ever stop to think about how absurd that is? Like that the 'Ultimate Lifeform' is employed."

"I didn't necessarily care about the money, but I wasn't going to do it for free."

"Do you also pay taxes?"

"I work for a government agency in the United Federation, yes I pay taxes."

"Shadow, from the outside looking in, you have to see how funny that is."

"The humor is not lost on me."

Silver then stands up, "Well, guess it's time for me to enjoy the rest of this spa trip, what are you gonna do?"

Shadow thinks for a moment, "I guess I'll get dressed and go take a walk."

"Alright, Shadow, I'll see you later." Silver with a towel tightly around his waist, goes and catches up with the ponies, "Hey, girls I'm steamed up and ready to destress."

Shadow puts on his gloves, and shoes, drops the towel in a towel hamper and walks outside. He walks through the town and tries to find a hill to be alone on.

Silver wrapped in seaweed, sits in the mud with his eyes partially glazed over from comfort. The ponies are talking loudly as they also enjoy a mud bath. Then Silver refocuses and listens, he hears Rarity, "This is just an awful turn of events, my best fabric supplier from Canterlot, hasn't shown up. I do hope that our battle didn't deter her from making that delivery."

Twilight then says, "I can't say I blame her; she probably just feels a little unsafe right now, what with Cloudsdale being destroyed and a massive hole in Canterlot Mountain, I probably wouldn't leave home either."

Applejack chimes in, "Well that Lix fella, blew up hundreds of bits worth of apple trees, Sweet Apple Acres can't handle any more big ol' craters. We're losing a lot of money over there."

Fluttershy looks over at Silver, "Where did Shadow go, Silver? Did he not want to do the mud bath?"

"No, Shadow probably just wanted to be by himself for a while. He's not upset or anything, he's just been around people and ponies for like three days straight and it's probably a lot for him."

Applejack looks over at Twilight, "Well ain't that somethin', you were just like that when you came to town, huh Twilight."

Twilight looks over, "I think his situation might be a different story, I was just a recluse and was obsessed with my studies but Shadow, doesn't seem opposed to making friends and meeting people."

Silver nods, "Oh yeah, he was real close with this girl named Maria when they were both kids, she kinda… died. There's no real good way to say it. I wasn't there mind you. In fact I don't remember ever being told about this. That's weird."

Twilight thinks for a moment, "Wait. Didn't you two fuse?"

Silver snaps his finger, "That would explain it."

Applejack tilts her head, "So, Silver what do you do on Mobius?"

"Oh I'm a time traveler, I travel through time." Silver says plainly.

He looks to everyone's shocked faces, and says, "Sorry I haven't told you guys, this is the only natural way to bring it up and it hasn't been relevant."

"Prove it. How're you from the future?" Applejack presses.

"Well, firstly, I'm not from Equestria's future I'm from Mobius' future, secondly, I literally couldn't prove it to you if I tried, my Chronos Control won't work so I'm temporally stranded, thirdly, when is the full body massage, I have knots like you wouldn't believe."

"Okay well, why do you time travel?" Applejack keeps pressing.

"It was to stop things that could ruin the future… but multiverse theory is unkind, so now I just don't want Mobius to end up like it does in my time. Empty." Silver says with a bit of sadness, then he perks up, "but I don't feel too alone anymore now that I'm stuck here."

"Silver, darling, the full body massage is right after this." Rarity says with a smile.

They then transition to the massage table, and Silver is face down as the masseuse beats the knots out of his back, and he melts, the pony giving the massage says to herself, "Sweet Celestia this guy is full of knots."

"That's my build-up of combat stress, ma'am. You gotta earn that." Silver says with a vibrating voice.

After the full spa, Silver steps into the sunlight and breathes in deep, "Ahh, I feel like a new hedgehog."

"I'm glad you enjoyed It, darling, I didn't expect you to take to it this much." Rarity says in surprise.

"I was just telling Shadow that there aren't spas in the future." Silver says, still smiling.

"What. No spas in the future. What a ghastly nightmare!" Rarity says in overdramatic horror.

"Hey, its fine Rarity! Again it's in my future, Equestria is a whole different ballgame, I'm sure spas will be around." Silver tries to reassure her, and Rarity regains her composure, then says, "I suppose, you're right, I would not want to build up a future where ponies cant indulge in keeping themselves beautiful."

Applejack rolls her eyes, then looks at Twilight, as she says, "Onto somethin' more important, we catch up with Shadow see if we can't talk about getting our friends back home."

The ponies nod as the approach a hill where Shadow is sitting, but around him are three little fillies, continuously asking him questions, "What's it like being a hedgehog? Can you lay your head on pillows without ruining him?" Apple Bloom says, "Can you roll in a ball like one?" Asks Sweetie Belle, "How fast are you?" Scootaloo asks.

Shadow has his eyes half open resting his head on his hand, and asks, "Didn't your parents teach you not to talk to strangers."

"Please Mr. Shadow, you're such a cool hero, we wanna know everything about you." Apple Bloom pleads as Scootaloo leans over, "Where'd you learn his name, Apple Bloom?"

"Applejack told me."

"Rarity never told me his name!" Sweetie Belle whines

Shadow warps away to a rooftop when they're not looking and looks down at them, "What? Where'd he go!" Scootaloo yells out. Shadow sits down, "Finally some peace and quiet."

"Hey Shadow."

Shadow's eyes shatter open, and he looks at Silver floating in front of him, glistening in the sunlight, "Could I have-!" he yells then Shadow looks at Silver's fur and complexion. "How do you look that clean?"

"Because of the spa, dude, Aloe, and Lotus Blossom really know their stuff! Anyway we're gonna brainstorm ways to get home."

Shadow leans back and closes his eyes, "If Twilight had a spell that could do that, don't you think she would have sent us home a while ago?"

"Maybe but she could have something up her sleeves… hooves… whatever the terminology is." Silver says.

Shadow gets up, jumps off the roof and lands on the ground. Shadow meets up with the Mane 6

As they are walking Fluttershy trots up to Shadow, "Excuse me, Mr. Shadow?"

"Just Shadow, Fluttershy."

"R-Right. Um, if it isn't too much to ask, could you teach me more about how to fight?"

Shadow looks down at her, "You want more training?"

Fluttershy nods, "Yes. I want to help everypony fight, I don't think I could handle it if my friends got hurt and I couldn't stop it."

Shadow continues looking at her and sees conviction in her eyes, "Alright then, but I'll warn you I am not an easy teacher. Is that acceptable?"

Fluttershy smiles, "Absolutely!" then her voice retreats, "If it isn't a bother to you of course…"

"In the morning we can spar so I can get a baseline of your skill, and we'll work from there. Depending on how much time we're still on Equestria; I'll make a monster out of you." Shadow says with a smile.

They all pile into the treehouse as Twilight makes some tea and passes a cup to everyone. Shadow takes a sip, then says, "So Twilight, any ideas?"

"I did have one," A book already on the table opens magically, revealing an image of a magic mirror, "I was doing some research, and there is a mirror in the Crystal Kingdom, where my older brother and his wife Princess Cadance live. I think if I have some time, I could reverse engineer the enchantment on the mirror and use that to make a more consistent portal for you two."

"If you think that will work, I'll trust your knowledge." Shadow nods then follows up, "How much time do you think this is going to take?"

"Two or three days."

"Sounds fine to me." Shadow then finishes his tea.

-Meanwhile in an unknown facility-

King Sombra reels from his defeat. He then realizes that he is alive, not destroyed. He grins as he looks at his hooves, and a wave of black energy travels up his curved horn. But he looks around himself and sees that he is in a metal facility with no lights. He looks forward to seeing the empty and pervasive darkness expanding in front of him, he looks behind and sees the same. "Why am I unable to see? This darkness should be as visible as daylight."

Sombra walks forward, more irritated than before, he sees the walls of this facility are covered in some dripping black ooze that irradiates negative energy, "…Dark magic?" he asks himself as he passes. As he walks, he gets to an open antechamber, that has a few blinking lights on the walls, multiple workbenches with scattered parts and 3-D printers with half-finished automatons, and containers containing dull black diamonds.

Then he hears groaning to his right and as Sombras eyes scale up he sees a human man with his arms and legs melded into the wall, his body has pitch black spikes made of gemstone piercing through his strangely rotund robotic body full of metal pipes and wires. This man only has half of his face, one half is a long mustache, with a glowing red eye, the other half is a metal skull. In a semi-robotic voice Doctor Ivo Robotnik whispers, "You. Unicorn. This place is Hell. Kill me and end my suffering before that… thing comes back." Sombra stiffens as he feels something appear behind him. For the first time Sombra felt true fear, he didn't feel this much dread when he was trapped in ice, nor did he when he was defeated by the ponies and their dragon. He has never felt this much murderous intent since he was born. Sombra turns to see glowing red eyes full of stretching black veins leading to slit-shaped, bright emerald-green pupils. It looms over him, but Sombra leaps back, and he charges a spell. He lands a few feet away and tries to get a better view of his foe, but can't the blackness is too dense. "What are you, creature!"

He speaks without blinking, "I'm a simple hedgehog, King Sombra." Its eyes trail up to Robotnik, then its pupils compress to a thin line, as the spikes in Robotnik's body twist, Robotnik screams and tries to pull his torso from the wall, but to no avail. "Do you like my art piece? I was inspired by you. Your dark chaos crystals are a wonderful implement. I copied it. Came quite easy to me."

His eyes move to Sombra again, who is still charging magic, Sombra feels a cold hand touch his soul as he hears an airy "Cease." From the blackened figure and he feels his dark magic dissipate. Sombra takes another step back, as these eyes in the blackness close in on him.

"What do you want from me? Where am I?" Sombra says while bearing his teeth.

"Welcome to the Chaos Void, King Sombra. I dragged you here from perdition on Equestria. This is a place of freedom for people like us. Though this facility was made by this," it looks at Robotnik, "symbol of oppression. To exploit and manipulate the power I was born from."

"What do you want from me?"

"Magic. Your Magic. I am going to use that man's blueprints for one last creation. A pony that will break the ones down there. I will be down there with this new being, and it will enforce my rule of Equestria. The Equestrian people will die in the cold, and I want to watch their hope die as every light in the sky is extinguished. Mobius will be shattered to pieces with both Master Emeralds, and both sets of Chaos Emeralds on it."

Not understanding what he's talking about, Sombra attempts to back up, but feels his body stiffen again, as an aura of black encircles him, he then looks up to see these eyes staring a foot away from his face, Sombra feels a clawed hand touch the side of his head. "Where exactly is it you think you're going? We must begin the extraction immediately."