A light gold earth pony wearing a brown hat and a brown vest with a red apple for a cutie mark and a female buffalo with a purple and white headband with a pair of feathers on it slowly walked across a ravaged, blackened landscape, both of them looking around nervously. The desolate landscape in front of them seemed to stretch on for miles, and the sky above them was full of smoke, completely blocking out the sky. Both of them were utterly baffled and more than a little scared of their surroundings.

The buffalo soon broke the silence, asking, "Braeburn, do you have any idea how we got here?"

The earth pony replied, "Ah wish Ah knew, Little Strongheart. This place, wherever it is, gives me the creeps. It ain't nothin' like good ol'…" Despite his nervousness, Braeburn couldn't help but stop and rear up on his hind legs, saying, "APPLELOOSA!"

Little Strongheart stopped as well and said, "It certainly isn't. And judging by the land around here, we aren't even near the desert anymore." Looking around, she asked, "What is this place?"

Braeburn replied, "It's a mess is what it is. How could any part o' Equestria end up like this?" He looked up at the sky and said, "Even the sky is a mess. Where did all that smoke come from?"

He looked at Little Strongheart when she suddenly spoke, "Braeburn, look! Something's coming this way!" The earth pony followed her gaze and saw something running straight towards them.

The thing in question was a silver hedgehog with a white tuft of fur on its chest and yellow eyes. It was wearing boots that were aqua, navy, white, and gold in color, white gloves that had gold cuffs and circular aqua symbols, and it had two long quills that stuck out of the back of its head and a collection of quills on its forehead that formed a leaf shape. Perhaps what startled the buffalo and earth pony most was that it was about their size and it was standing on two legs. Even though it was running on two legs, it was still running faster than they would have guessed it was able to run.

The hedgehog in question looked up and noticed Braeburn and Little Strongheart as it got closer to them, planting its feet and hands against the ground and sliding to a stop in front of them. Both parties looked at each other in silence for a moment, but the hedgehog soon broke the silence, "What are a pony and a buffalo doing here?"

Braeburn replied, "Ah reckon we could ask the same o' you, critter."

The hedgehog replied, "I'm a hedgehog. And you both should get out of here. I don't know how you got here, but you shouldn't stay here." He walked past the two of them, about to start running again.

Before he could, however, Little Strongheart said, "Wait!"

The hedgehog turned around and looked at her, "What?"

Little Strongheart asked, "What's your name?"

Braeburn nodded, "That would be mighty helpful to know, partner."

The hedgehog looked at them for a moment before looking to the side and replying, "…Silver."

Little Strongheart smiled, "That's a nice name! My name is Little Strongheart!"

Braeburn tipped his hat, "And Ah'm Braeburn! A pleasure ta meet ya, Silver!"

Silver looked back at them and replied, "Yeah… nice to meet you too."

Braeburn asked, "So what were you runnin' from, Silver?"

Silver's eyes widened, "Oh, that's right! I was…"

He was cut off when a voice behind Braeburn and Little Strongheart boomed, "WE'VE GOT YOU NOW!" The two whirled around to see three dragons, one red, one brown and heavyset, and one purple with his eyes hidden behind his hair, flapping their wings and hovering in place above them, all looking very angry.

"Aw, hayseeds. Now that's somethin' worth running away from," Braeburn muttered.

As the dragons descended, the brown dragon looked at the red dragon and asked, "What should we do about the pony and… the other one?"

The red dragon, Garble, answered, "Forget about them. We're only after that white guy."

Little Strongheart spoke up, "Excuse me, I'm a buffalo! And what's this all about?"

Landing on the ground, Garble replied, "Well, honey, we asked whitey over there if he would part with that gem he found, and he got all defensive about it!"

Silver yelled, "That's a lie! I barely picked it up before you tried to snatch it out of my hands! And I've already told you that this isn't an ordinary gemstone! It's not something you can eat just because you're hungry!"

Garble mimicked a mouth with his claws before saying, "Whatever, pal. All gems are the same. Now hand it over!"

Braeburn spoke up, "Now listen, fella. Ah usually don't like to get involved in this kind o' thing, but if Silver said 'no' the first time, yer attitude sure ain't gonna change his mind."

The teenage dragons laughed at him for a few moments, causing Silver's brow to furrow in anger. After the laughter died down, Garble asked, "What's it to you, pony? Are you his friend or something?"

Before Braeburn could respond, Silver spoke, "That's right. Braeburn and Little Strongheart here are my new friends, and that means I'm not going to stand by and let you do anything to them."

While the earth pony and buffalo looked surprised by what Silver said, Garble challenged, "Oh yeah? What are you going to do if we DO decide to do something to them?"

A green aura surrounded Silver's hands, a similar-colored aura surrounding Braeburn and Little Strongheart. "Why, I'm going to protect them, of course!" he answered, the green aura surrounding him as well. A second later, he, Braeburn, and Little Strongheart floated off the ground and Silver turned around, shooting through the air in a straight line with Braeburn and Little Strongheart being carried along behind him. Angrily, the teenage dragons flapped their wings and flew off after them.

As he flew through the air, Silver glanced back when he heard Braeburn's voice, "Hey, uh, Silver? Ah don't mean ta distract ya or nothin', but they're gainin' on us!" Silver looked over his shoulder to see that the dragons were indeed catching up.

Facing forward again, Silver noticed some rocky outcroppings in the distance. Nodding, he flew towards them, still carrying Braeburn and Little Strongheart. The dragons continued after them, closing the gap. Before they could reach Braeburn or Little Strongheart, however, Silver suddenly whirled around and swung his right arm, emitting a bright flash from his right hand that blinded the dragons! They were forced to stop and cover their eyes, but when they looked again, Silver, Little Strongheart, and Braeburn were gone!

"Hey, where'd they go?!" the purple dragon asked.

Garble eyed the outcroppings and said, "They must be hiding behind the rocks! Find them!"

While the dragons started searching the area around them, they had no idea that Silver had teleported himself, Braeburn, and Little Strongheart during the flash, the three of them nowhere near where they had just been. They reappeared near the entrance to a cave with rocky walls on both sides, near the point where the walls sank back into the ground. Braeburn exclaimed, "Hoo-wee! What was that?"

Silver replied, "I teleported us away from those dragons. It should be a while before they figure out we're long gone."

Little Strongheart said, "That's amazing! I didn't know you knew how to use magic, Silver!"

The silver hedgehog looked at her oddly, "Magic? That wasn't magic. That was one of my psychokinetic powers."

Braeburn raised an eyebrow, "Yer what now?"

Silver explained, "Psychokinesis. I'm able to manipulate the environment around me with my mind alone."

Braeburn said, "That sounds an awful lot like unicorn magic, partner. Unicorns do that kind of thing too."

Silver replied, "It's not magic! At least I don't think it is. I mean, I've never been able to make stuff appear randomly out of nowhere."

Little Strongheart spoke, "Well, that's all right, then. So why were those dragons chasing you again?"

Silver reached his right hand back into his quills while saying, "Because of this." He brought it back out, a brilliant white gemstone resting in his palm.

Both Braeburn and Little Strongheart were impressed by the sight of it. Braeburn whistled, "What a beaut!"

Little Strongheart nodded, "I can see why those dragons wanted it."

Silver said, "But they wanted to eat it! This gem contains a great power inside of it! Who knows what eating something like that would do!"

Braeburn looked up at Silver and replied, "Well, Ah don't really see how it could have a great power within it, but Ah guess Ah know what ya mean. Those dragons didn't seem like the friendly type anyway."

Little Strongheart said, "I can see why they'd like to be in a place like this, but I'm not really sure why Braeburn and I are here."

Silver slid the gem back into his quills, "Me neither. All I can remember is seeing a white light and then finding myself in this… wasteland. This is really strange." Braeburn and Little Strongheart nodded, all of them looking around.

Little Strongheart soon looked back at Silver and asked, "Silver, did you mean what you said back there? About us being your new friends?"

Braeburn nodded, "Ah was wonderin' about that mahself."

Silver scratched the side of his head for a moment before replying, "I suppose that was a spur of the moment kind of thing. But… I think I really did mean it."

Little Strongheart smiled, "That was really nice of you, saying that and living up to your word." Braeburn nodded in agreement and they all smiled at each other.

Suddenly, Silver's ears perked up and he turned around, looking into the mouth of the cave. "What's the matter, Silver?" Braeburn asked.

Silver replied, "I thought I heard something. I'll be right back." He started walking towards the cave, stepping through the opening and into the darkness.

Braeburn and Little Strongheart watched with a touch of worry as he disappeared into the cave. As they watched, they could swear they heard a voice coming from the cave, whispering, "Chicken, flower, egg, seed…"

---

"Ya ain't just jokin' now, are ya, Rainbow? Y'all went up to that there ARK?" Applejack asked. Following a quick stop at Sugarcube Corner to drop off Gummy, the group, along with the princesses, set out for the next portal, which Tails' radar indicated was located within the Everfree Forest, the forest itself having recently reappeared. They were all currently following the main path in the now-completely white forest, Tails keeping an eye on his radar as they walked.

"I'm totally serious, Applejack. And we weren't just on the inside, oh no. We actually went outside of the ARK, out into SPACE, to deal with that big ugly lizard," Rainbow replied proudly.

"How did you do that? I mean, with the vacuum of space and all," Twilight said.

Rainbow shrugged, "Sonic said there was an artificial atmosphere around the ARK. Sure seemed like the case; there was oxygen and I could breathe it just fine."

Spike asked, "What was it like? The ARK, I mean."

Rainbow replied, "It was pretty awesome. I mean, we didn't see every area inside the colony, and the walls and the floor were all pretty much gray, but everything else was cool. There were walls with these big screens like the ones on Tails' radar, a research lab, machines that were floating in the air, and all those walkways underneath the ARK… I bet if you looked up from those platforms, the lights on the ARK would look pretty amazing."

Twilight groaned, "Aw… I don't regret helping Tails one bit, but I wish I could've seen the ARK! Just hearing about it is incredible!"

Rainbow smirked, "I knew you'd say something like that, Twilight."

Tails glanced up and said, "Well, if we somehow get a little ahead, maybe we could go back to that hill and check it out. According to my radar, that portal is still open. Whether or not the door at the end of the hall is open is another..."

Twilight suddenly noticed a patch of flowers in front of Sonic and quickly got up alongside him, pressing her head against his chest and saying, "Wait!"

Sonic, at this sudden action, slowed down along with the others, coming to a stop about a foot away from the flower patch. Looking over at Twilight as she straightened up, he asked, "What's wrong, Twilight?"

The lavender unicorn explained, "Since nothing in the Everfree Forest has color right now, we should probably avoid every patch of flowers we see. It wouldn't be good if we happened to walk through a patch of poison joke, now would it?"

Applejack nodded, "Good point, Twi'."

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "Poison joke? What's that?"

Rainbow asked, "You've never heard of poison joke, Sonic?"

Sonic shook his head, "Can't say I have."

Tails spoke up, "I'm familiar with poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, but poison joke? That's a new one on me."

Spike laughed, "Man, you guys are missing out, then! They all looked so funny after they stepped in those flowers! Oh man, I was laughing so hard that day!"

Noticing the annoyed looks on Twilight and her friends' faces, Tails asked, "Uh, why is touching a flower that's referred to as being poisonous funny, Spike?"

Celestia spoke, "Oh, the poison joke isn't actually poisonous, Tails. I am familiar with that particular flower myself, as is Luna. It actually plays practical jokes on whoever touches it, which manifest as physical afflictions. These afflictions are not meant to actually be harmful, but they're not very pleasant either."

Sonic placed his hands on his hips and spoke, "Flowers that play jokes, huh? Well, at least they don't do something like make you all itchy and puff up like a balloon."

Twilight said, "Actually, they probably could do one or the other if that was the joke."

Rarity huffed, "I don't think their jokes are very funny. My hair was a tangled, overgrown mess that day thanks to those flowers!"

Pinkie Pie piped up, "And they made my tongue all swelly! It was dripping with drool and I was all AWWW! It was so horrible! I couldn't talk, I couldn't tell jokes, and I couldn't sing! That was the worst part! I'm so glad Fluttershy was there to help me with my Zecora song. Wait, did I ever apologize to her for coming up with that song? Ooh, I know! I'll throw her a party the next time I see her! That way if I didn't, she'll know I'm sorry! I can even…"

Sonic interrupted her, "Pinkie!"

Pinkie Pie stopped her rant and looked at him, "Yes, Sonic?" She smiled sweetly at him.

The blue hedgehog crossed his arms and said, "I may be wrong, but I THINK we get the idea."

Pinkie smiled, "Okie-dokie-lokie!"

Tails asked, "Pinkie, did you even take a breath while you were talking?"

The pink pony looked at him and giggled, "Nope, I don't think so. Why?"

Tails stared at her with a dumbfounded expression on his face for a second before saying, "…Just checking."

Sonic said, "Yeah… What do you say we get going?" Everybody nodded in agreement and they continued deeper into the Everfree Forest, now being careful not to walk near any flower patches along the way.

After a short while of walking, Tails said, "Okay, the next portal should be in that clearing up ahead. Inside a building, if I'm not mistaken."

Fluttershy quietly spoke up, "Um, I think that building is Zecora's hut, Tails. The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is much deeper in the Everfree Forest." She looked over at Twilight and asked, "I-Isn't it, Twilight?" The lavender unicorn nodded quietly in response.

Luna spoke up, "I wondered where Lady Zecora lived after I met her at Nightmare Night. So she lives here in the Everfree Forest?"

Applejack nodded, "That's right, princess. Ah still think this is an odd place to live, but considerin' what she does, it kinda suits her."

Sonic pointed forward a minute later, asking, "Hey is that it?" Everybody looked where he was pointing. In the clearing up ahead was the tree Zecora made her home in, the tree itself, the masks that were laid out, and the bottles hanging from the branches all completely white.

Rainbow nodded, "Yep, that's it, all right!"

Tails closed his radar, slipping it back into his tail as he said, "And that's where the signal is strongest. We just have to find the portal now."

The group walked up to the front door and Twilight used her magic to push it open. They went in one at a time, the princesses entering last once they were sure everyone was spaced out properly before squeezing their larger forms inside. "My, Zecora certainly has brought much of her homeland along with her," Celestia noted as she looked around after a moment.

Sonic nodded, "Yeah, look at this stuff. Reminds me of Mazuri."

Before the ponies could ask what he meant, Tails called, "Hey! Over here!" Everyone turned to see him, Fluttershy, and Twilight standing around Zecora's cauldron, which, interestingly, was still colored. They walked over and Sonic and Celestia looked inside. There, right on the bottom of the cauldron was the portal they were looking for. On its surface, they could see what appeared to be an erupting volcano.

Sonic and Tails shared a look before Sonic bent his knees, preparing to jump inside the cauldron. Pinkie, however, suddenly rushed up in front of him and put a hoof on his chest, exclaiming, "Wait, Sonic! You don't want to become a big tasty stew, do you?"

Sonic looked at her funny, "What are you talking about, Pinkie? There's nothing in that pot except the portal. There isn't even a fire underneath it."

Twilight spoke, "It's just that song she mentioned. Don't worry about it."

Sonic shrugged and jumped into the cauldron, saying, "Do-do-do!" before he disappeared through the portal.

Tails went in after him, followed by Twilight (with Spike on her back), Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy (with some words of encouragement from the princesses). Pinkie stood up on her hind legs and grinned, "It's stew time! Cannonball!" She then jumped into the cauldron, flank first.

Luna looked at Celestia and said, "After you, sister." Celestia looked at the cauldron at that. It looked as though Luna could fit with little difficulty, but… "What's the matter? Aren't you going?" Luna asked, shaking her sister out of her thoughts.

Celestia shook her head and said, "I-I'm going, Luna. I just needed a moment." She spread her wings and flew up above the cauldron. She then lowered herself down, slipping her hind legs in first and then squeezing the rest of her body in, clearly trying not to act in an embarrassing way in front of her sister. After she went in completely, Luna shook her head at her sister's actions and walked over to the cauldron, placing her forehooves on top of it and catapulting herself into it.

A second later, Luna's forehooves touched solid ground and she brought her hind legs down, pulling off an acceptable landing. Looking up, she immediately noticed the different surroundings. Except for two openings, the area was completely encircled by rocky walls. The ground beneath her was barren and cracked, and there were dead trees and bushes near the rocky walls, all of them leafless and gray, looking as though Discord had done something to them. Above them, thick clouds obscured any possible view of the sky, making it impossible to determine whether it was day or night.

Looking over her companions, the Lunar Princess saw that they were all looking around in confusion and worry. As Luna trotted over to her sister, Twilight spoke up, "Well, this is… this is a bit different."

Rainbow glanced over at her and asked, "Yeah, you think? What's up with this place?"

Spike walked over to Sonic and poked him in the leg, asking, "Hey Sonic, where are we?"

Sonic didn't reply right away, making the others think he either didn't hear the baby dragon or was ignoring him. Spike was about to poke him again when the hedgehog said, "I don't know."

Applejack nearly fell over at that. Getting her composure back, she asked, "Ya don't know? How can ya not know, Sugar-hog? Ain't this one of the place you've been ta before?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "I'm not sure…"

Rainbow asked, "So have you been here before or not?"

Sonic looked at her and replied, "That's the weird thing. I DON'T remember coming to a place like this, yet it FEELS like I've been here before."

Tails looked over at him and said, "So it's not just me."

Celestia tilted her head to the side as she asked, "So you both feel as though this is familiar, yet you're not sure why that is?"

Tails nodded, "Yeah, pretty much."

Sonic raised an eyebrow as he added, "I also feel some serious backlash for some reason."

Applejack looked at Twilight and asked, "Hey Twi'?" When the lavender unicorn looked at her, she went on, "Ain't there somethin' you can do ta help them remember? Like that spell ya used on us when Discord was loose?"

Rarity nodded, "That's right, the memory spell. You should be able to help them remember, Twilight!"

Twilight shrugged, "Uh, I guess it could work if it seems familiar to them." She turned and walked over to Sonic, standing a short distance in front of him.

Before she could direct her magic into her horn, however, Sonic said, "Whoa, hey, hold on. Why don't we just look around instead? Maybe it'll come to us. You should save your spell as a last resort, Twilight."

Tails nodded, "Yeah, Sonic's right. It'd be kind of a waste of your magic if a familiar landmark or something is all we need to remember this place."

Twilight replied, "Oh… yeah, that makes sense. Sure, let's do that then." Although a few members of the group were surprised by how easily Twilight was persuaded, they shrugged it off and walked towards the nearby opening in the rock, heading for whatever lay beyond it and unaware that they were being watched…

As they followed the path in front of them, everybody noticed that their surroundings didn't change much. Same desolate landscape, same dark skies, same sense that it felt like the world was dying… It was like something out of a bad dream, or… "This place is really scary," Fluttershy murmured, looking around fearfully.

"Do not fear, dear Fluttershy. This is indeed a very unnerving location, but we are all together," Luna said.

"Yeah, Lunie's right, Fluttershy! We'll be fine as long as we stick super close together!" Pinkie cheered.

"Well, we all know that, Pinkie. That doesn't change the fact that this place is undeniably creepy, though," Rainbow said. She looked over at Sonic and Tails and asked, "Sonic, Tails, you guys remember anything yet?"

Sonic replied, "Nope, nothing yet. Then again, we haven't seen a whole lot yet." He glanced over at Tails, noticing that the fox and Twilight were looking at the radar and Twilight's horn was surrounded by her magenta aura as they walked. He asked, "What are you guys doing?"

Twilight, while still looking at the radar, answered, "We're trying to determine where we are."

Rarity asked, "Is there a way to do that?"

Tails spoke, "Well, it's just a theory, but if we take the data in the radar, cross-reference it with Twilight's locator spell, and then compare that to the map of our world, we might be able to get a close guess as to where we are since I'm pretty sure we're in our world. We could be somewhere in Equestria, but the fact that it seems familiar to Sonic and me makes that seem unlikely."

Celestia said, "Ah yes, the spell for sensing a planet's ley lines. A simple but effective spell indeed."

Luna nodded, "A good opportunity to test Star Swirl the Bearded's theory of Extra-Equestrial ley lines."

Sonic asked, "Star Swirl the Bearded? Who's that?"

Tails spoke, "Twilight told me about him earlier, Sonic. She said, um… he's the most important conjurer of Equestria's pre-classical era and that he's the father of the amniomorphic spell."

Sonic replied, "Ah, okay. So he's a really important pony in Equestrian history, especially when it comes to magic."

Twilight glanced to the side and murmured, "Thank you. Even if he doesn't know anything about Star Swirl the Bearded, he at least knows to respect him."

Suddenly, Applejack said, "Hey y'all, look at that!" Everybody looked at her and followed her gaze forward. In the distance, they could see a volcano erupting, lava trails running down the front of it and lava shooting out of the top of it.

Everyone ran to get a closer look, stopping when they reached the edge of a cliff. "Wow! Talk about a mountain view!" Sonic commented.

"Check out all that lava! Where's it coming from?" Spike wondered.

"The crust here must be really unstable…" Twilight murmured.

While the lavender unicorn turned back to Tails, Applejack looked over at Sonic and asked, "Is that ringin' any bells, Sugar-hog?"

Sonic put a hand under his chin as he answered, "This view definitely looks familiar. But I'm still not sure where we are."

Rainbow groaned and looked over at Twilight and Tails, saying, "Twilight, get your memory spell over here and put an end to this game! …Twilight?"

The lavender unicorn looked up at that, asking, "Huh? Oh, sorry Rainbow Dash, did you say something? Tails and I just finished comparing notes."

Sonic asked, "And what do your notes say?"

Tails spoke, "Well, as we already guessed, we're not anywhere in Equestria. The ley lines are there, but they don't match up with the ones in Equestria. They do match up with ours, but that's where things get strange."

Celestia tilted her head, "How so, Tails?"

The fox replied, "If I remember correctly, the city of Soleanna is within Sonic travel distance. But even as far out as we are, the area is not supposed to look like this. I wasn't even aware there was a volcano out here." After slipping his radar back into his left tail, he held a hand to his chin and wondered, "Could we somehow be in the future?"

Rarity asked, "The future? Why do you think that, darling?"

Tails looked at her and said, "Well, I don't think that… yet. But given the way things look around here, it could be a possibility, right?"

Applejack nodded, "Ya might be right, Tails. This could be like that time that doctor fella went up to that Little Planet y'all were talkin' about, right Sonic?"

Sonic replied, "It could be. Except this time, the volcano is active."

Luna asked, "What is this 'Little Planet' you refer to, Applejack?"

Before anyone could respond, a fireball suddenly struck the side of the cliff they were on, startling everybody. "Whoa! Did that come from the volcano?!" Rainbow exclaimed.

Pinkie Pie pointed, "Look! It's a fireworks show!"

Everybody looked to see that the volcano was shooting out more fireballs, some of them coming close to the cliff they were standing on. "I think these 'fireworks' are landing a little closer than I'm comfortable with, Pinkie," Tails said.

"Can we please discuss this somewhere else?" Twilight asked. Nobody wanted to argue that and they all took off running across the cliff, Twilight dragging Pinkie along with her magic and Sonic, Tails, and Spike covering their heads as they ran.

After a few minutes of running, the group managed to find a spot to hide under to get away from the falling fireballs. As they followed the path that went under the overhang, the ponies filled the princesses in on a few of the things the group had talked about, passing a few lava falls pouring into a pool of magma as they walked. They didn't have time to mention everything to the princesses, though, mostly due to Pinkie Pie piping up with various questions whenever somepony said something new.

Shortly afterwards, they came across a plateau that seemed to be a dead end. The ground was relatively flat, save for a couple of spots where it stuck up for some reason. As she and the others looked around, Twilight walked near one of these spots as she asked, "Where do we go now?" She came to a stop next to it and looked around. Suddenly, something burst out of the spot, right beside her!

Sonic and the others looked at her when she yelped, seeing flames shooting up out of the spot on the ground and Twilight on the ground on her left side with a layer of black ashes on her. Rainbow flew over after the flames died down and asked, "Are you okay, Twilight?"

The lavender unicorn climbed to her hooves and said, "Yeah, I think so, Rainbow" Looking at the spot on the ground next to her while using her magic to shake off the ashes, she commented, "Wow, the ground here is even more unstable than I thought."

Luna nodded, "Indeed. I believe it would be best if we, as they say, watch our step around here."

Before anyone could say anything, lizard-like lava monsters suddenly leapt out of the ground, followed by large worms that appeared to be the same bursting out of the ground and fiery birds flying down from above. "Whoa!" Tails exclaimed at the sight of them.

"What are they? What do they want?" Luna wondered.

"I don't think they're here to say 'hi'," Sonic commented.

Fluttershy leapt back when one of the lizard-like creatures breathed fire from its mouth and (quietly) cried, "Oh dear! They can breathe fire! Just like dragons!"

Rainbow said, "Well, that's not a nice welcome!"

Applejack asked, "Can we even attack these things?"

Tails pointed at one of the worms and said, "They look like they're a mix of lava and rock! They might be hot, but it should be okay to touch them!"

Rainbow thumped her forehooves together, "Good! Then let's do this!" With that, she spread her wings and flew towards the nearest monster, which happened to be a lizard, and flew headfirst into it, sending it flying into a wall, where it burst into flames. The cyan mare then found herself having to quickly jump to the side to avoid a lava ball spewed by one of the worms. Sonic and Tails quickly leapt to her aid, both of them attacking hard and causing the worm to burst into flames. The monsters started growling at these actions, prompting the others to move from where they were standing. They all then started fighting as well… except for Fluttershy, who was looking around nervously and awkwardly as the fight began to unfold.

Spike managed to grab onto one of the flying creatures, both claws wrapped around the end of its tail as it flew. It tried to make him let go by dropping fireballs on him, but Spike, due to how dragons were, was able to catch the fireballs and used them to provide aerial support, managing to distract a lizard so Applejack could buck it, shoot down another flying creature, and catch a worm's attention before it could attack Fluttershy, giving Rainbow Dash enough time to stop it herself.

The creature he was holding onto then wised up and tried to shake him off, not paying attention to where it was going. Spike managed to hold on and, when he saw the creature approaching a wall, let go, landing on his feet while the creature crashed and burst into flames. Spike grinned, "Heh, what a birdbrain!" Suddenly, two more lizards burst out of the ground in front of him, startling him. The closer one tried to swipe at him with its claws, but Spike leapt back just out of the way. The other one then opened its mouth and breathed fire at him. Spike wasn't prepared for the fire and ended up getting burnt, a flame remaining on his clawed feet after the stream died down. Spike grabbed his left foot in his claws and started hopping on his right foot, crying, "MY TOES, MY TOES!"

Almost immediately after he said that, a magenta-colored beam shot over the hopping dragon's head, missing his scales and sending one of the creatures flying. Rarity then dashed past Spike and reared back on her hind legs, punching the other lizard across its face and dazing it. She then quickly followed this up by kicking it right in the face, knocking it up off the ground. It then burst into flames as it hit the ground on its back.

Rarity then turned and ran over to Spike, Twilight already at his side and looking him over carefully. The baby dragon didn't even seem to notice the lavender unicorn, though; watching Rarity fight for him seemed to put him under a trance, as his eyes now sported hearts on their sclera instead of his normal green eyes. "Spike, darling, are you okay?" the white unicorn asked worriedly.

"Of course I am, Rarity. Anything for you," Spike muttered in a daze.

Rarity raised an eyebrow at Spike's answer while Twilight rolled her eyes. Twilight then looked at Rarity and said, "He's okay, Rarity. The fire's out, his scales seem to have protected him from any burns, and that thing didn't slash him. I think he'll be fine." Rarity looked more reassured at what Twilight said. The two of them looked over the rest of the field and realized that everyone else had just about finished up with the rest of the monsters.

After the last monster burst into flames, almost immediately, a large golem appeared near part of the rocky wall that looked different from the rest of it. It thumped its fists together and then summoned a large lava ball in its left hand. Before it could throw it, both Celestia and Luna charged up their magic and fired magic beams at its head, where it had exposed what appeared to be its core. Their combined attacks not only stunned the beast, but also pushed it backwards, the creature falling back against the wall before bursting into flames.

A second after the creature burst into flames, the part of the wall that it hit suddenly slid down like a hidden door, revealing a passageway behind it. Applejack looked over at Twilight and said, "Hey Twi', seems pretty quiet right now. Maybe ya better use that memory spell o' yers on Sonic before anythin' else happens."

Suddenly, a familiar voice asked, "Applejack?" The orange earth pony turned to see Braeburn and Little Strongheart standing in the passageway, just past where the wall slid down.

"Braeburn?! Little Strongheart?!" Applejack asked before running over to them along with Rainbow Dash, the others following them over.

Braeburn smiled, "Ah wondered if y'all had somethin' ta do with the noises we were hearin'." He then noticed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, saying, "Oh!" He quickly dropped into a bow and said, "Yer highnesses."

Celestia smiled, "That's quite all right. So you're Braeburn, Applejack's cousin."

Braeburn stood up straight, "That's right!"

Celestia looked over at Little Strongheart and asked, "And you're Little Strongheart, are you? It's a pleasure to meet you."

The buffalo nodded, "Likewise, princess."

Rainbow asked, "What are you guys doing here?"

Little Strongheart sighed, "That's what we'd like to know."

Braeburn nodded, "All Ah can remember is some white light shootin' across the desert. It was headin' straight towards…" He reared back and finished, "APPLELOOSA!" He then set himself down and said, "The next thing Ah knew, Ah was standin' in the middle of some wasteland in this creepy place."

Little Strongheart nodded, "I saw the light too, while I was with my herd out in the desert. I hope my father and the rest of the herd are okay…" She then noticed Sonic, Tails, and Twilight standing near the back of the group, Twilight touching her glowing horn to Sonic's forehead as the hedgehog knelt on his knee. "Excuse me for asking, but what is Twilight doing?" Little Strongheart asked.

Rarity replied, "Oh, she's just using a spell that will hopefully tell us where we are, since our new friends Sonic and Tails seem to remember this place, yet they are not sure why."

Little Strongheart said, "I see."

Braeburn perked up, "Hey, that fella is a hedgehog too!"

Applejack raised an eyebrow, "Yeah? There somethin' strange about that, Braeburn?"

The light gold earth pony replied, "Naw, o' course not, Applejack. We just happened to meet a hedgehog fella earlier, that's all."

Rainbow asked, "You did?"

Little Strongheart nodded, "Yes, and he seemed like a really nice guy too."

Fluttershy asked, "Um, where is he?"

Braeburn replied, "Left a short while ago, sayin' he found what he was lookin' for. Ah'm sure we'll catch up with him, though. His name is…"

He was cut off before he could finish when Twilight screamed, "GAAAHHHH!" Everypony whirled around to see the lavender unicorn flying through the air, her horn letting off some kind of purple energy. Twilight landed on her back and skidded to a stop next to the nearby cliff, not moving.

"Twilight!" Sonic exclaimed, rising to his feet and dashing towards her, Tails following even as his radar, the Warp Ring, and the green Chaos Emerald fell out and landed on the ground behind him. They came to a stop at her sides, kneeling down next to her as the unicorn began to move.

"What happened?!" Spike yelled as everybody began to move in their direction.

"I don't know!" Sonic called back before turning his attention back to Twilight. "What did she see?" he wondered. Twilight soon opened her eyes, causing Sonic to ask, "Are you all right?"

Twilight groaned, but started, "Yeah, I…"

Before she could finish, two crescent-shaped waves of energy suddenly shot past Sonic and Tails' backsides, stopping the advance of the others and causing the trio to look in their direction. "What was that?!" Tails asked.

Sonic turned his head to look in the direction of the cliff. Noticing something shining just above his field of vision, he looked up only to be greeted by a familiar sight. "Silver?!" he exclaimed, Tails and Twilight turning their heads at that.

The silver hedgehog hovered a short distance above and away from the cliff, surrounded by a green aura from his psychic powers. Something seemed to be off about him, but Sonic didn't get a chance to think about it before Silver said, "Iblis Trigger! Welcome… to die!" After saying that, his green aura surrounded the part of the cliff that Sonic, Tails, and Twilight were on, the rock suddenly breaking into pieces and falling, taking them with it!

While the others started moving again, Tails immediately began spinning his namesakes and grabbed Twilight's hooves, lifting them both off the falling piece of the cliff but following it down. "Sonic, hurry!" he called. The blue hedgehog leapt from the piece he was on to the one above him, moving up and jumping from the last piece and holding out his hand as Twilight held out her left hoof for him to grab and Tails wrapped both hands around her right hoof.

Before he was close enough, however, Silver suddenly slammed into Sonic from the side, pressing a hand against his face and pushing him down as he flew downwards. Tails and Twilight could only watch as Silver restrained Sonic, both of them going through a portal further down below.

Seeing the portal beginning to close up, Tails tightened his grip on Twilight's right hoof and swung her back, saying, "Quick, Twilight! I'll be right behind you!" He then swung her forward, letting go of her hoof. Twilight yelped as she began falling, flailing her forelegs in the air as she tried to aim herself towards the portal. Tails' aim had been true, though, and she managed to slip through the portal, hind legs first. As Tails thought, that slowed the portal's closing and he flew down after Twilight, flying as fast as he could go. The others made it to the edge of the cliff in time to see Tails' shoes disappear through the closing portal.

---

"Oof!" Twilight grunted as her backside suddenly came into contact with the ground. She certainly hadn't been preparing for that to happen. One moment she was falling into a portal, and the next gravity was pulling her down in an entirely different way. It was like gravity itself had flipped ninety degrees on her when she exited the portal. Raising herself into a sitting position, she rubbed her head and muttered, "Can't say that's ever happened before…"

She heard something spinning behind her and turned to see Tails hovering in place, the portal closing up behind him. Even though he'd been in the air, it looked like the fox needed to adjust to the sudden change in orientation as well. He then noticed Twilight and asked, "Uh, are you okay, Twilight?"

The lavender unicorn stood up and gave him a slightly hard look as she replied, "Yes, I'm fine. Next time, though, could you give me a little warning BEFORE you do something like that?"

Tails giggled nervously as he scratched the side of his head, saying, "Well, it didn't look like there was much time before that portal closed up, so… You know I would've made sure to catch you if I missed, right?"

Twilight's expression softened as she replied, "Yeah, I do…"

Tails continued to scratch his head nervously, but his eyes soon fell on the white buildings nearby. Landing on the ground, he asked, "Where are we?"

Twilight looked around as well, taking note of how the buildings looked. After a moment, she said, "This looks like… I think we're in Appleloosa. Braeburn mentioned it."

Tails nodded, "Oh. Cool." He looked around for a moment, wondering where Sonic and Silver were before a noise coming from nearby caught his attention. It sounded like some kind of crash. Twilight's expression indicated she had heard it too, and it sounded like it came from the open area in Appleloosa, near the town's clock. Tails looked over at Twilight and said, "We'd better see what's going on!" Twilight nodded and they ran towards where the sound had come from.

As they neared the area, part of one of the old barricades from the buffalo dispute flew towards them, forcing them to jump out of the way. Looking forward again, they realized more stuff was flying their way. An empty apple bucket, a barrel, an easel… They managed to get to the red building that held up the town clock and hid behind it. Peering out, they noticed a horse-drawn carriage floating through the air, surrounded by a green aura. They soon saw it floating above Silver, the hedgehog holding it with his psychic powers while Sonic stood across from him, waiting to see what he was going to do.

"That hedgehog is carrying a carriage!" Twilight exclaimed.

Tails looked at her before looking back to the scene before them and saying, "That's Silver, Twilight. He's psychokinetic… and he comes from the future."

Twilight looked at the fox in surprise, asking, "He's from the future?! Are you sure?!"

Tails nodded, "That's what he's told us, and several of our friends have heard the same thing." He looked carefully at Silver, saying, "But there's something wrong. He… doesn't look very silver at the moment."

Twilight looked back at the fight, seeing Silver throw the carriage at Sonic as the blue hedgehog dashed out of the way and asked, "Why are he and Sonic fighting?"

Tails replied, "I don't know. I know they have a slight rivalry even though they're friends, kind of like Applejack and Rainbow Dash, but… Let's stay back here for now, see if we can find out what's going on." Twilight nodded and turned to watch.

Silver growled as Sonic dodged a barrel thrown at him and suddenly teleported a short distance away from the blue hedgehog, startling him. He then moved straight towards Sonic, swinging his arm back and trying to punch him in the face. Sonic moved back, but Silver kept going, unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks. Sonic retaliated, punching and kicking to block Silver's attacks while trying to dodge. He still had no idea what prompted Silver to start this fight with him, or why his color seemed off.

Quickly realizing he was getting nowhere like this, Silver began to add a little more style to his attacks, combining hand-to-hand combat with his psychic powers. He started hovering above the ground as he dealt out punches and kicks, almost looking like he was trying to dance in the air. This made it harder for Sonic to dodge his attacks, but the blue hedgehog soon began to put his break dancing moves to good use; if it weren't for the fact they were trying to hit each other, they would have looked like they were having a dance off.

Getting tired of this exchange, Sonic soon caught one of Silver's kicks with hands and pushed down, throwing the silver hedgehog off-balance for a second before leaping over him. Landing on the ground, Sonic turned around and said, "Enough already, Silver! What are you-?!" Before he could finish, Silver suddenly flew up to him and began trying to punch him in any way, flipping over and over in the air as he threw punches and kicks at Sonic, who did his best to weave around the attacks. "What does he think is, a ninja or something?" Sonic wondered.

After a minute of more dodging, Sonic moved forward and butted heads with Silver, catching the hedgehog by surprise and causing him to pause in midair for a second. While he was still, Sonic hit him with a Homing Attack, doing it just hard enough to push Silver away without seriously hurting him. Silver stopped himself a second later and landed, saying, "Not bad, Iblis Trigger."

Sonic asked, "Why do you keep calling me that, Silver?! What's an 'Iblis Trigger'?!"

Silver snorted, "Of course you wouldn't know what it is. You probably don't even know what will happen because of your actions." He shifted his arms, making a wave-like motion with his left hand as a cyan knife-like wave began to form in front of him. He then swung his left arm, releasing the blade in a horizontal orientation and saying, "I will end this here!"

Sonic crouched down and leapt up, jumping over the blade. Silver saw this and leapt up after him, curling up into a ball for a Homing Attack. Sonic saw him coming and went into a Homing Attack of his own, both of them pushing against each other for a moment before they were both repelled. Sonic landed on a nearby roof while Silver used his psychokinesis to hold himself up. He then went after Sonic, who ran along the roof as Silver launched more blades of psychic energy at him, both vertically and horizontally. As he followed, Silver yelled, "You can't escape me, Iblis Trigger!"

Sonic glanced back and called, "Yeah, so what?" He then suddenly came to a stop and rolled to his right, dodging a vertical blade of psychic energy. Spinning around so he was looking in Silver's direction, he looked at Silver and said, "I wasn't trying to anyway!" He then jumped up and launched into a Homing Attack, intercepting Silver along his flight path. The silver hedgehog grunted as he lost his concentration and fell towards the ground, bouncing along the (white) dirt several times as he landed.

Sonic leapt down from the roof, landing a short distance away from Silver. He walked over to the silver hedgehog and stood over him. "Hey…" he started before Silver suddenly caught him in a field of psychic energy, stood up, and threw him back towards the building! Sonic, however, managed to flip over as he was being thrown, his feet coming into contact with the side of the building instead of his backside. The blue hedgehog then pushed off of it, leaping towards Silver and tackling him before the hedgehog could stop him. Tails and Twilight watched as the two hedgehogs fought with each other on the ground.

Sonic soon managed to get Silver in a headlock, his left arm wrapped around the hedgehog's throat while his right hand gripped the quills on top of his forehead. Silver struggled against the hold, both hands on Sonic's arm as he flailed his feet. Sonic could easily see his arms, so Silver knew trying to punch in this situation would do no good. "But maybe…" he thought.

Sonic spoke, "I know we usually have fun when we do this kind of thing, but this has gone too far! Seriously Silver, what's your problem, man?! What did I do to you?!"

Silver growled, "It's not what you've done, but what you're going to do! You are the Iblis Trigger; your actions will lead to the world's destruction and the ruination of my future!"

Silver's statement confused Sonic, Tails, and Twilight. Sonic was so baffled by what Silver had said that he leaned back and asked, "What?!" Silver saw his opening and took it. He brought his right arm forward and swung it behind him, his fist cleanly connecting with Sonic's face. The hit caused Sonic to loosen his grip and Silver grabbed his arm, throwing him. Sonic grunted as his back hit the ground and then, while still on the ground, spun around, trying to kick Silver's legs out from under him. Silver used his psychic powers to teleport before Sonic's legs could hit him, however.

Leaping back up onto his feet, Sonic started looking around, trying to find Silver. He soon saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Silver flying towards him, carrying behind him a wagon, two barrels, and all the parts of an old barricade. As he flew towards Sonic, he threw all of these things at him, Sonic jumping, ducking, and doing everything he could to avoid getting hit. He managed to avoid the objects, but Silver suddenly wrapped him in a psychic field and slammed into him, pushing him backwards. Silver soon stopped, Sonic's momentum carrying him into the flagpole, which broke off from its base as Sonic hit it, both the pole and the blue hedgehog landing on the ground.

Sonic managed to roll over onto his front, but before he could push himself up, Silver suddenly appeared in front of him. The silver hedgehog spoke, "This is the end, Iblis Trigger." He then held up his right fist, prepared to bring it down on Sonic's head.

Suddenly, Tails screamed, "SILVER!" The silver hedgehog froze for a second before turning his head to the side, seeing Tails running from his hiding place with Twilight right behind him. Before Silver could react, Tails tackled him, both of them landing on the ground to the side while Twilight stopped by Sonic's side. While she tended to him, Tails tried to pin Silver down, saying, "Stop it already, Silver! What do you think you're doing?!"

Silver grunted before he managed to get an arm free, holding up his hand and surrounding Tails in a psychic field, lifting him off. Climbing to his feet, Silver replied, "Just stand back. You'll thank me later." While carrying the struggling Tails behind him, Silver walked towards Sonic, who was just starting to get up. Twilight saw him coming and ran around Sonic, standing between him and Silver. The silver hedgehog said, "Get out of my way!"

Twilight shook her head, "No! Not until you explain why you and Sonic are fighting!"

Silver glared at her for a minute before relenting. He pointed at Sonic and explained, "He is the Iblis Trigger! You saw it, didn't you? That ruined world full of flames and fire monsters? That's all because Iblis' flames were released into the world, and he's responsible for releasing Iblis! He caused the destruction of my world!"

Tails struggled anew at that, yelling, "That's a lie!" Silver turned and restricted the fox's movements, holding him in place. Tails said, "Espio told us, Silver! He told us why you came back to our time that second time: to prevent the Ifrit from resurrecting itself and escaping from its dimension! He said that you said it was responsible for ruining the future, not this Iblis thing!"

Silver gave him a confused look, "What? No, the Iblis, the Flames of Disaster, is responsible for destroying the world! If I don't destroy the Iblis Trigger, then what you've seen WILL happen!" He then turned to Twilight and said, "Now get out of my way!"

Twilight once again refused, "Absolutely not! If what you're saying is true, if you knew why the world was ruined in your time, then why didn't you stop this 'Iblis Trigger' either of the first two times you traveled to the past, especially if you were already there to stop one creature from ruining the world?"

Silver looked at her, unable to give her an answer. As he tried to compose a suitable response, his agitation started to rise, gritting his teeth as he realized he couldn't find a suitable answer. Suddenly, he glared at Twilight and used his free hand to wrap her in a psychic field, the unicorn giving a surprised shout as she was lifted off the ground. Silver then moved her back beside Tails, glaring at them as he said, "Both of you are getting in my way! Don't make me have to destroy you too!"

Sonic suddenly charged forward, yelling, "Don't you dare!" Silver turned around in just enough time to see the blue hedgehog coming at him in a Spin Dash before the blue hedgehog collided into him, sending him sliding through the dirt. The attack also broke his concentration, causing Tails and Twilight to drop to the ground. Sonic ran over to them and asked, "Are you guys okay?"

Twilight nodded, "I think so." She looked over at where Silver had stopped before looking back at Sonic and asking, "Why is Silver acting this way?"

Sonic replied, "That's what I'm going to find out. Something is seriously wrong with him. I'd hate to do it, but if I have to knock him out and tie him up to get the answers out of him, then so be it!"

Tails spoke up, "Sonic, look!" Both Sonic and Twilight looked at him and then looked in the direction he was looking.

Silver was hovering above the ground, having apparently recovered, and was now gathering carriages, carts, easels… anything reasonably-sized that he could grab with his psychic grip. As the mass above his head started to get bigger, Silver said, "This will end it!"

Sonic noticed that the mass above Silver was starting to look huge. If he threw it hard enough, he could probably cause some serious damage to Appleloosa! He immediately took off towards Silver, going as fast as he could to reach Silver in time. Just as Silver held his arms back, apparently ready to throw everything at him, Sonic leapt up and launched into a Homing Attack, striking Silver right in the chest.

The force of the attack knocked Silver backwards and caused him to bounce across the dirt ground for a second. He also lost his concentration, so everything that had been floating above him started falling down! Sonic started running as soon as his feet touched the ground, weaving around the falling objects. He dove forward, narrowly missing getting crushed by a falling horse-drawn carriage and rolled on the ground, coming to a stop across from Silver, who glared at him. While Twilight and Tails started hurrying towards the wall of objects that had formed, Sonic stood up and said, "Holding all that stuff up requires a lot of concentration. You couldn't have grabbed me if you wanted to."

Silver climbed to his knees and replied, "Then I need more power!" He reached his right hand into his quills and pulled out the white Chaos Emerald. Standing up, he held it above his head and let out a shout as he charged towards Sonic. Sonic stepped around him and, while they were at each other's sides, reached into his quills with his right hand, grabbing the blue Chaos Emerald. Both hedgehogs then held their right hands up, both hands coming into contact with each other.

"Chaos…"

"Chaos…"

"…Control!"

Tails and Twilight climbed on top of the side of the carriage in time to see a white light forming just above the Chaos Emeralds. The double Chaos Control was creating a time-space rift, but it was also having a nearly unnoticeable effect on Silver. As he stood there, the silver hedgehog stared blankly ahead, his mouth slightly open as he seemed to be staring at something far off in the distance. It was as though something was happening inside of him… A second later, there was a flash of light right between Sonic and Silver. Whatever it was, both of them were suddenly thrown away from each other, Sonic landing face first on the ground and Silver falling behind a cart, losing his grip on his Chaos Emerald. As they hit the ground, Tails and Twilight saw a familiar white light beginning to spread out from where they had been standing, the color beginning to come back to Appleloosa.

As Twilight and Tails jumped down from the carriage, the time-space rift finished forming, and a few seconds later, Spike, Braeburn, Little Strongheart, and everypony else appeared through it, landing on the ground. Rarity was the first to speak, looking around as she asked, "Goodness, what happened?"

Braeburn quickly recognized his surroundings and grinned, "Why, we're back in good ol'…" he reared up on his hind legs, "APPLELOOSA!"

Pinkie Pie soon noticed Tails and Twilight and said, "Ooh, lookie! Twilight and Tails are here!"

Rainbow looked over to the side and noticed Sonic had just gotten back up and was now walking over, having tucked the Chaos Emerald back inside of his quills. "And there's Sonic! I told you we'd catch up with them!" she told Applejack smugly, holding Tails' radar in one hoof. The orange earth pony just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Everyone gathered around as the time-space rift closed up, Celestia levitating the Warp Ring and green Chaos Emerald next to her as Luna asked, "Twilight, Sonic, Tails, are you all okay?"

Sonic grinned as he rubbed the back of his head, "Well, I know Tails and Twilight are fine, Luna. After all, they weren't the ones who had to fight."

Celestia noted, "You don't appear to be badly hurt yourself, Sonic. I for one am glad to see that." She then levitated the green Chaos Emerald and Warp Ring over to Tails, who took them and slid them into his tails.

Rainbow then held out his radar to him, and while he put it away, she asked, "So where is that weird guy? I'm ready to give him a piece of my mind for attacking you guys!"

Before anyone could say anything, they all heard a groan coming from nearby. Sonic quickly ran over to where it was coming from with Tails following behind him. Spike, Little Strongheart, and the ponies all followed too, all of them stopping when Sonic and Tails came to a stop near a cart. A second later, Silver stood up, his left hand pressed against his forehead while he used his right hand to support himself on the cart. It may have been Appleloosa's returning colors, but Sonic and Tails could swear he looked… more like himself.

"What happened…?" Silver groaned as he rubbed his forehead. Looking up a second later, he quickly noticed the large group looking back at him, particularly the two at the front of the group. "Sonic, Tails! What are you guys doing here?" Silver asked. He then glanced around and asked, "Where are we, anyway?"

Rainbow growled, "Don't try to fake your way out of this! I'm gonna…!" She flapped her wings and started flying towards Silver, only for something to grab her tail and pull back on it. She looked back to see Twilight's magic aura surrounding her tail, keeping her from flying forward.

"Twi', what are ya doin'?" Applejack asked.

As she let go of Rainbow Dash, Twilight explained, "Silver referred to Sonic by name. Up until now, he didn't do that. Something's different now."

Silver looked surprised at Twilight's use of magic, but he did hear what she said. "What are you talking about? What…" Silver pressed his right hand against his forehead and closed his eyes, saying, "Wait, I remember what happened now!" He opened his eyes and noticed the white Chaos Emerald sitting inside of the cart he had been leaning against. He reached down with his right hand and grabbed it; he held it up as he walked around the cart. He slipped it back into his quills as he looked back at the group and said, "Sonic, I'm sorry about what happened just now. Seriously, you snapped me out of whatever happened to me. Do you think you can forgive me?"

Sonic replied, "Well, sure Silver. But seriously… what happened, dude?"

Before Silver could answer, Braeburn piped up, "Now hold on here! Before y'all start explainin' everythin', ya gotta see the town first! Bet ya never woulda guessed us settler ponies built all this in less than a year!" Before anyone could reply, Braeburn suddenly moved forward and butted into Tails, Sonic, and Silver with his head, all of them grunting as he herded them along.

"Ah!"

"Whoa!"

"Oof!"

Both Applejack and Little Strongheart called, "Braeburn, wait!" But it was too late. The light gold earth pony was already leading the trio on his personal tour of Appleloosa and he was not about to be deterred.

Applejack sighed and glanced back, noticing all the stuff Silver had dropped. She looked at Twilight and asked, "Twilight, do ya think y'all can start cleanin' this mess up while Ah reel in mah cousin?"

Twilight nodded, "Sure thing, Applejack." The orange earth pony nodded in reply and started after Braeburn along with Little Strongheart while Twilight and the others started cleaning up the mess from the fight. As they set everything back in place, made repairs where necessary, and ponies started coming outside, Twilight thought back to what she saw earlier. "Sonic and that princess… I think her name was Elise? They completely reset time by blowing out that flame, but it seems Sonic at least has a slight recollection of everything that happened. Tails too, probably, considering that place looked familiar to him too. I could give them both their memories back, but would they want to remember… THAT?" She rubbed her horn with a hoof at that, practically feeling what Sonic felt in that short amount of time.

Soon, at the Salt Block

The owner of Appleloosa's local watering hole trotted towards the table in the corner, balancing on his head a tray with several glasses of water and a salt block. He looked over the occupants of the table as he got closer, particularly the two hedgehogs, the two-tailed fox, and the baby dragon. He was a bit wary about letting those particular customers, especially the baby dragon, come into his establishment, but between Braeburn, Little Strongheart, and the princesses of Equestria, he wasn't really able to say no.

The owner expertly transferred the tray from his head to the table, the glasses barely even shaking as the tray was set down. He then straightened up and said, "There you go, folks. You sure I can't interest you boys in a little salt?"

He was answered with a unanimous "no thanks" from Sonic, Silver, Tails, and Spike. The owner eyed them for a moment before adjusting his monocle and walking away. As he left to make sure none of the other customers were licking too much salt, he passed one of the horse-drawn carriage drawers, who had seen the group enter the Salt Block and wanted to sketch them, hopefully without them finding out.

Back at the table, after Celestia and Luna turned down the offer, Braeburn took the first lick of the salt block. After savoring the flavor for a moment, he looked over at Sonic, Silver, Tails, and Spike, each one having a glass of water in front of them, and asked, "Ya sure y'all don't want any salt? It's REAL fine salt, ya know!"

Tails grinned weakly, "Yeah, uh… Believe me, Braeburn, we can tell just by looking at it. But I think we'll just stick with the water."

Braeburn shrugged, "If ya say so, Tails." He took another lick of the salt block.

Fluttershy looked across the table at Silver and asked, "So, um, Silver? Can you tell us what happened to you? I-If you don't mind, that is…"

Silver replied, "Yeah, I'll tell you all what happened, Fluttershy. Though I'm not entirely sure how this all started in the first place."

Sonic asked, "You didn't have an accident while you were trying to time travel, were you?"

Silver answered, "No, although I do have the means to time travel on me at the moment. What happened was, while I was in my proper time, I saw some kind of white light in the distance and went to investigate. Before I could even get close to where it was coming from, it suddenly spread out and I had to shield my eyes. The next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of a ruined wasteland. Since I didn't know what else to do, I started searching for a sign, any sign of life. While I was searching, I found one of the Chaos Emeralds, and shortly afterwards, I was attacked by… dragons, I think. All I know is that they said they wanted the Chaos Emerald for a snack."

Celestia provided, "Gems are a delicacy among dragons, Silver."

Silver replied, "Well, I guess I kind of figured that… But eating something like a Chaos Emerald? Who knows what that would do?" He reached over and grabbed his glass of water with his right hand, taking a quick drink.

Luna asked, "So what did you do?"

Setting his glass down, Silver answered, "I told them I wasn't going to give it to them. But they wouldn't back off, so, instead of making things worse, I decided to leave before they decided to start a fight or something. While they were chasing me, I happened to come across Braeburn and Little Strongheart. Seeing as I'd unwittingly gotten them involved in my mess, I helped them get away from those dragons."

Little Strongheart smiled, "It was very brave and nice of you, Silver. You helped us even though we had only just met."

Braeburn added, "Way nicer than those dragon fellers were turnin' out ta be. They were rude, not like Spike here." The baby dragon remained silent at that.

Silver nodded, "Yeah. But just after we got away, I heard a voice calling to me from a cave. When I went to investigate, I met this hedgehog who looked like a hedgehog named Shadow."

Twilight interjected, "We met Shadow earlier. When you say he looked like him, what do you mean?"

Silver explained, "Physically, he looked no different from Shadow. But where Shadow's fur is red, this guy's fur was a pale blue, and his eyes were a pale green. Actually, pale just about sums him up. He looked really pale all over! It was creepy. But I didn't want to turn him away based on looks alone, so I tried talking to him. And at some point while I was talking to him, I started feeling really strange. I suddenly felt… angry… vengeful… way different than I normally feel. I was also fixated on something called the 'Iblis Trigger'."

Tails said, "You said Sonic was the Iblis Trigger, Silver."

Twilight added, "You said he was responsible for ruining the world."

Silver placed his left hand on his head, angling his head down as he replied, "I know, Twilight, and I know that's not true. Tails was right; the Ifrit was responsible for destroying my world, not this 'Iblis' thing. And thanks to everybody efforts, the Ifrit never escaped its dimension, so I returned to my time after it was defeated to find that the future had indeed changed. If there was still a threat to the future out there, I shouldn't have seen what I saw when I returned. That's why I don't understand where all this 'Iblis Trigger' nonsense came from, except that I didn't start thinking of it until after I talked to that hedgehog."

Applejack said, "So all we got ta go on is that there's a hedgehog that looks like Shadow out there who messed with yer head. Is that what you're sayin', Silver?"

Little Strongheart spoke up, "Actually, there is one other thing." Everybody looked at her as she explained, "Braeburn and I got worried after Silver went into the cave, so we followed him in. When we were outside the room where Silver was, we saw a shadow being cast on the wall outside of it."

Rainbow asked, "A shadow? Oh, you mean like Silver's shadow or that other hedgehog's shadow, right?"

Little Strongheart said, "Well, maybe, Rainbow Dash. I mean, I've never met this Shadow hedgehog, but what we saw extended over Silver's shadow and it did not look like him at all."

Braeburn nodded, "That's fer sure. Ah wouldn't even know how to describe it, other than it looked plain weird. Whatever was castin' that shadow looked all mismatched, like somethin' straight out of a storybook or somethin'. Ah don't know how else ta describe it."

Silver rubbed his chin with his left hand as he said, "That's strange. I never noticed that guy's shadow. I'm not sure he even had one when I saw him."

Pinkie chirped, "Ooh, a mystery! I love mysteries, especially solving them!"

Silver crossed his arms and placed his head on top of them on the table, saying, "Well, this is a mystery I'd sure like to solve…"

There was silence after that, nobody quite sure what to say. Twilight, hoping to relieve some of the tension in the air, soon asked, "So… can you tell us, Silver? What the future is like, I mean?"

Pinkie Pie grinned, "Ooh, yeah! What's it like in your time, Silver?! Is it super duper fun?!"

Silver sat up straight at that, a smile on his face, apparently glad for the change of subject. "Oh yeah, it's a great place. The sky is blue, the seasons change, everybody has a smile, and everybody can live the life they want to live."

Spike deadpanned, "That sounds like the world now."

Silver nodded, "Exactly."

Sonic grinned, "Hey, I hear you. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?"

Silver looked at him and nodded, "Yeah!"

Rarity asked, "But if the future is beautiful, then what was that… horrifying place we were just at?"

Tails spoke, "It could have been part of an alternate timeline, Rarity. Not quite an alternate dimension like what the Ifrit was sealed in, but a different end result of what things might've been if they had been different, in this case if this Iblis creature existed. Considering what we've experienced so far, it's not out of the question that the monster responsible for all of this is causing us to see not just what we know has happened, but also things that aren't or shouldn't be set in stone."

Rainbow looked at Twilight, remembering something at Tails' words, and asked, "Hey Twilight, did you give Sonic his memories back? Can he, or you at least, tell us what that place was?"

Pinkie nudged the cyan pegasus with a hoof and, when she turned to look at her, giggled, "Oh Dashie, you're so silly! We're already getting one lampshade; do you want me to get you one too?"

While Rainbow just stared at Pinkie strangely, Braeburn looked at Sonic and Tails and asked, "What's this monster thing y'all are talkin' about?"

Silver nodded, "I was wondering that myself."

Tails explained, "It's some kind of creature that's managed to rip a hole between our universes and is messing with time itself. You've seen the effects of its actions on Appleloosa; the whole town was completely white until just a little while ago, but the sky still hasn't returned to normal yet. And especially important is the fact that it still has some of our friends!"

Silver asked, "Who? Who does it have?"

Sonic said, "Well, we've rescued most of them so far, but it still has a few. Like Blaze, for instance."

Silver's eyes widened at that, "What?!" He stood up quickly and thumped the palms of his hands down on the table, shaking it as he exclaimed, "You're saying Blaze is in trouble?!"

Sonic replied, "Look Silver, relax. I'm sure Blaze is fine; if anything, she's probably unable to move right now, just like everybody else we've rescued has been."

Tails spoke up, "I can vouch for that. That thing did the same thing to me, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. We were all turned, basically, to stone by that monster and separated from our bodies, but once we were brought back to the white space Ponyville now inhabits, we turned back to normal. Sonic's right; the same thing has probably happened to Blaze. As long as we go back to that place and find her, she'll be fine."

Silver stopped leaning on the table and sat down, saying, "All right then… So you're saying that we have to go back to that place, find Blaze, take her back to this… white world, and she'll return to normal?"

Sonic shrugged, "Exactly."

Silver nodded, "All right. Then I'm definitely going with you. Not just because Blaze could be there, but also because my psychokinesis should come in handy in a place like that."

Braeburn asked, "Are y'all sure ya wanna go back ta that place? You could stick around for a while here in… APPLELOOSA!"

Applejack looked at him and said, "Braeburn, as nice as that'd be, and while I'd love to see how things have changed since we were last here, we really don't have time. That monster's messed things up at least as far as Appleloosa here and Ah don't really want to know what'll happen if we don't fix things soon. Besides, Apple Bloom was somehow affected by that thing too, and it still has Big Macintosh!"

Braeburn's eyes widened, "Big Mac's in trouble too?! Well, that's just one more reason to stick with y'all then!"

Silver looked at him and asked, "What are you talking about, Braeburn?"

Braeburn looked at him and grinned, "You said it yourself, Silver. Don't ya remember what ya said?"

Silver looked confused at that, so Little Strongheart said, "You called us your friends, Silver. And you didn't leave us to the mercy of those dragons. It wouldn't be right to not return the favor and help you now."

Silver gave a sheepish look as he replied, "Oh… Yeah, I guess you got me there." He then looked at Sonic and asked, "But how are we supposed to get back? The portal and the space-time rift both closed up, remember?"

Tails said, "No problem. The barrier between locations is so weak right now that we can use our Warp Ring to warp right back there." He reached into his tails and brought out the Warp Ring, holding it up so Silver could see it.

Silver held a hand to his chin as he mused, "A Warp Ring, huh? That's pretty handy." He then asked, "Can we use it now?"

Braeburn spoke up, "W-Wait, hold on now." He bent over and gave another lick to the salt block on the table before looking up and saying, "Ah don't wanna let this salt go ta waste. Can ya give me a minute or two to finish it?"

While standing up, Applejack said, "Sure, Braeburn. While you're doin' that, Ah'm gonna go out to the orchard and see how Bloomberg is doin'. Ah'll meet y'all back here in a few minutes." She then bowed to the princesses and left the Salt Block, Rainbow following her after doing the same.

Sonic looked back at Braeburn and then, after seeing how much salt the earth pony had left, looked down at his glass of water. Noticing that it was a little more than half full, he moved it over towards Braeburn, saying, "Here, you can have this, Braeburn."

---

The Warp Ring deposited everybody back on the plateau they had been on when the group ran into Braeburn and Little Strongheart shortly before Silver attacked. Now that they were back in the ruined world, they could get back to searching for their missing friends. The only question now was where to look for them.

"Pray tell, dost anypony have any suggestions or clues as to where we should start searching?" Luna asked.

Pinkie Pie started hopping up and down, waving a hoof as she said, "Ooh! Ooh! Pick me, pick me!"

Celestia turned and smiled at her, "All right, Pinkie Pie, where do you suggest we go?"

Pinkie pointed her hoof straight ahead, saying, "Why don't we look in there!"

Everybody followed where her hoof was pointing… and many of them immediately started wondering what the pink pony was thinking. "T-t-t-the v-v-volcano?" Fluttershy meekly stuttered.

Tails said, "Not exactly my first choice, but…" He looked at Pinkie Pie and asked, "You really think so, Pinkie?" Pinkie rapidly nodded her head.

Before anyone else could say anything, Sonic spoke, "Now hold on, guys. Pinkie may be onto something here."

Twilight looked at him and asked, "What makes you say that, Sonic?"

Sonic looked at her and said, "Well, like you noted earlier, Twilight, the ground around here isn't exactly stable. Even when we're not close to lava, it somehow manages to find a way to shoot up out of the ground." As if on cue, a nearby patch on the ground suddenly lit up and shot flames out of the ground, everybody turning to watch until the geyser died down. After it did, Sonic turned towards the cliff, saying, "And Silver, Braeburn, and Little Strongheart were out there in that wasteland. That might be a good place to look, but who knows how long it goes on… or how long it'll take before everything starts to look alike. We should probably exhaust all of our options around here before going out there."

Silver said, "Good point."

Braeburn nodded, "Yep, Ah'm convinced." Looking back at the volcano, he asked, "But how are we gonna get in there? Look at all the lava pourin' outta that thing!"

Applejack agreed, "Yup. Ain't gonna be easy findin' a way in on those slopes."

Rainbow suggested, "In that case, why don't we go in the easy way? You know, down through the top?"

Tails asked, "Into the mouth of the volcano?" Rainbow nodded; Tails placed a hand on the side of his face as he considered, "Hm… If the eruptions let off a little, it would be possible to get inside without getting cooked. If there's still lava coming out, on the other hand…"

Rarity looked at Twilight and asked, "Twilight, darling, you know that spell for creating force fields. How strong can you make them?"

Silver looked at her and asked, "You can create force fields?"

Twilight looked at him and nodded, "Yes. I could either create them from a single burst of magic, or I can keep channeling magic energy into it. The first method would require less work if the force field were to hold on its own; if I had to recast the spell, it would be more tiring. The second method would mean I'd be connected to the force field at all times, but there would be less chance that the force field would break under stress."

Everyone thought about her words for a moment, considering their options. They were interrupted, however, when a familiar voice shouted, "THERE YOU ARE!" Silver immediately whirled around and looked up, seeing three very familiar, very angry dragons hovering a considerable distance above the plateau near the cliff edge.

"Oh, for the love of… Will you leave me alone?!" Silver yelled.

Sonic looked at Silver and asked, "Are those the dragons you mentioned earlier?"

Silver nodded, "Unfortunately."

Fluttershy squeaked in fear and ran over to Rainbow Dash, shivering as she hid behind her. The cyan pegasus looked over at Spike and asked, "Hey Spike, aren't they the same…?"

The baby dragon nodded, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure they are."

The purple dragon soon noticed Spike and said, "Hey look, it's Spike!"

The brown dragon added, "And those ponies he's friends with, plus some more!"

Garble smirked, "Well, isn't this a cozy little gathering?"

Tails asked, "What are they going to do?"

Sonic said, "Something tells me they're not here for a meet and greet."

Silver replied, "Nope. They're here for a swipe and eat!"

Princess Luna looked at her sister and spoke, "Perhaps they will see reason if we talk to them, sister."

She felt a tugging on one of her legs and looked down to see Spike. "I don't think they will, Princess Luna. I mean, they called, uh, your sister a namby pamby pony princess. I heard them," he said. Luna had to try her hardest to stifle a giggle; although she loved her older sister dearly, what Spike was saying that these dragons had said about Celestia sounded hilarious!

Twilight spoke, "They're coming closer! What should we do?!"

Silver looked over his shoulder and said, "It'll be fine. Just stay back!" He then looked at Sonic and whispered, "Sonic, have everyone link together. We need to be ready to move all at once!" Although confused, Sonic nodded and moved back towards the others while Silver turned around to face the teenage dragons, which were still hovering but were closer to the ground now. "I don't suppose you guys have been looking for me to say that you're sorry?" Silver questioned sarcastically.

"Dream on, whitey! We're here for that gem of yours! Now hand it over!" Garble said, holding out a claw expectantly.

Silver looked up at the dragons for a moment before saying, "You know what? …I really don't have time for this! If you're just going to look at the Chaos Emerald as something to eat, then there's no point in arguing about it with you anymore!" He then turned around and started walking away.

Garble shouted, "Don't turn your back on us! You think you're so hot; let's see how tough you are in a minute!" Silver looked back over his shoulder to see the dragons flying down towards him!

The silver hedgehog ran towards the others, Little Strongheart and the ponies all biting down on each other's tails. Applejack's right forehoof was in Tails' left hand while the fox's right hand gripped Sonic's left hand, all of them in a straight line pointing towards the volcano. Celestia was at the end of the line and Sonic was the front of it. Silver ran to the front of the line, stopping a short distance in front of Sonic. Rainbow called through her mouthful of Twilight's tail, "Hey Silver? You mind telling us why we're standing here like this when there are dragons dive bombing us?!"

Silver held his left hand back out towards Sonic. "Sonic, grab my hand!" he said. Sonic complied, grabbing Silver's left hand with his right hand.

Garble and his gang were about to collide with the group when suddenly, they all seemingly disappeared, leaving the teenage dragons to crash into the ground! Looking up a moment later, Garble's eyes widened. "What the -?!" he exclaimed, seeing a green arch of psychic energy moving towards the volcano in the distance, Silver, Sonic, Tails, Spike, Little Strongheart, and the ponies making it seem like the green was outlining a rainbow.

"IT'S NO UUUUUUSE!" Silver cried as he flew straight towards the volcano, carrying everybody behind him. Little Strongheart and the ponies bit down as hard as they could onto the tail of whoever was in front of them, Spike clinging onto Twilight's back for dear life while Tails and Sonic held on tightly with their hands and Applejack and Braeburn used one hoof to hold down their hats.

Some of the ponies were panicking about this 'shortcut' they were taking, but Pinkie Pie wasn't among them. The pink pony was totally ecstatic about what they were doing, having somehow managed to climb onto Fluttershy's back while Braeburn bit down on her cotton candy tail. "Whee! Ha ha ha! This is fun! Go faster!" she called.

Silver briefly glanced back with his eyes before facing forward again as he thought, "Is she really enjoying this?"

Spike soon called, "Look! Fire is raining down out of the volcano!"

Silver called back, "I see it! Problem is I don't think I can do much about it right now!" He then winced before adding, "And I don't know how much longer I can keep this up!"

Sonic called to him, "Just hang on as long as you can, Silver! We'll make up the difference somehow!" As he was speaking, they flew under the rain of fire, flaming rocks falling around them. Silver continued flying, managing to get mostly to the top of the volcano, though they were still a short ways away from it. Unfortunately, his psychokinesis began to waver, as the green glow surrounding everyone began to flicker like a dying light bulb. Seeing this, Sonic looked back and called, "Hey Twilight!"

Having also noticed the flickering, Twilight knew what Sonic was calling her for. She closed her eyes as her horn flared to life, letting go of Applejack's tail and held her legs out. Before everypony hanging on behind her could say anything, a large force field formed around the whole group, Twilight's magic making them all float. Silver was so surprised he cut off his psychokinesis, surprised to find that he and everyone else was still floating without it.

Celestia noticed they were coming to a stop in midair and turned to her sister, saying, "Luna!" The Lunar Princess nodded and a moment later, both of their horns lit up, surrounding Twilight's force field. As everybody except Twilight watched, the force field began to move forward, heading up towards the volcano. Once at the top, it began to descend into the volcano's crater, Celestia and Luna catching any of the flaming rocks being launched up with their magic.

After about a minute, the force field touched solid ground and popped like a bubble, everybody landing on their feet/hooves. Luna turned to Twilight a moment later and said, "Very impressive spell work, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight blushed, "Thank you, Luna, but I had some help from you and Princess Celestia. You two deserve the credit too."

Celestia smiled, "Nonsense, Twilight. The force field you created ensured safe passage into the volcano."

Twilight glanced at the ground as she murmured, "Well…"

Rainbow soon spoke up, "Hey guys, we should probably keep moving. Those dragons can fly and they like hot places like this!"

Silver groaned, "And they still want my Chaos Emerald. No doubt they're going to come here."

Applejack looked around, eyeing the various rock formations sticking out of the lava as well as the multiple pathways leading to other parts of the volcano. "Well, which way should we go, y'all?" she asked.

Rainbow said, "Let's just pick one and go! Like… how about that way?" She pointed a hoof over at a passage that was on the same rock formation they were on. Everybody shrugged and started moving towards it.

They soon stopped when Tails spoke, "Wait! Where's Rarity? Wasn't she in the force field with us?"

Twilight glanced around and soon said, "Spike's missing, too!"

Pinkie Pie called out, everybody looking across the chamber at the pink pony that had somehow crossed the stone bridge leading to one of the passageways in the blink of an eye, "They're in here! Come on!" She pointed to the passageway entrance she was standing in front of and then hopped through it.

Twilight asked, "What are they doing in there? They don't know where that leads!"

Sonic looked at her and shrugged, "Hey, neither do we, right?"

Twilight conceded, "…Yeah." Everyone hurried after Pinkie Pie, Tails, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and the princesses flying over while everybody else hurried across the stone bridge, which collapsed shortly after they left the chamber.

Shortly after entering the passage, the group saw Pinkie standing further up the path, seemingly looking at something. Coming up alongside her, they quickly saw what had caught her attention. Ahead of them they saw Rarity and Spike, Spike using his tail to jackhammer into the rocky ground. Silver pointed, "Uh, what is Spike doing?"

Twilight said, "Rarity's taken him on her gem hunts before. She must've found some and he's digging them up for her."

A minute later, Spike's head popped out of the hole he dug, his arms filled with gems. "I got 'em, Rarity!" he grinned up at her.

"Wonderful, Spike!" the fashionista exclaimed. She used her magic to help him out of the hole and then took one of the gems in his arms, holding it up to examine it. "Ah, these are simply beautiful! They will look just smashing on my next line of dresses!" Rarity smiled.

Back with the rest of the group, Rainbow asked, "How is she finding gems in a volcano?"

Tails shrugged, "Well, this place is pretty hot. And with all this lava, there's probably a lot of pressure too. Depending on how long this volcano's been around, I suppose she could find gems buried in the rock here."

At that moment, Rarity looked up and noticed the rest of the group. She waved, "Oh, hello, your highnesses! And darlings too."

Celestia spoke, "I am glad you are well, Rarity, but why did you go off on your own with Spike like that?"

Rarity blushed, "I'm terribly sorry, Princess Celestia. My gem-finding spell went off after we landed and I simply had to see what was causing it. And since Spike followed me and was being such a darling, I allowed him to help me with the gems. Isn't that right, Spike?" The baby dragon nodded vigorously.

Silver spoke, "Are you sure this is a good time to be doing that, Rarity? I don't mean any disrespect or anything, but these aren't exactly ideal conditions. And as Rainbow Dash pointed out earlier…"

Silver was cut off when Rarity's horn was suddenly surrounded by her blue aura. "Ooh! Hold that thought, Silver. It seems there are more gems nearby!" She then trotted off down the path with Spike following close behind, still carrying the gems in his arms.

Pinkie giggled before turning to Silver and saying, "Sorry, Silver! Looks like you've been put on Rarity's ever-growing wait list!"

Rainbow groaned, "How can she be thinking of gems at a time like this? We gotta keep moving before those dragons catch up to us!"

Tails pointed out, "Well, it looks like this way might go on for a bit, seeing as Rarity's already gone further ahead and it doesn't sound like she's coming back. Maybe it would be okay if Rarity kept looking for gems. I mean, we are kind of randomly guessing at this point, right?"

Rainbow shrugged, "Well, I guess you have a point there, Tails."

Sonic said, "Okay, we'll let Rarity do her thing for a while, as long as we keep moving and she knows when enough is enough."

Applejack snickered, "Ah think Tom might have somethin' to say about that, Sugar-hog."

Silver looked at her in confusion, "What's a 'Tom'?"

Twilight deadpanned, "A boulder Rarity was tricked into thinking was a giant diamond."

Sonic looked at her oddly for a second before asking, "Discord?"

Twilight nodded, "Yep."

Before anyone else could say anything, Rainbow said, "Come on, you guys! Let's catch up with Rarity and Spike!" She then flew off after the duo, Sonic running after her with everyone else following behind.

Well, everyone except Twilight, Silver, and the princesses. Twilight started walking after the others ran on ahead, Silver and the princesses following behind. As he followed after Twilight, Silver asked, "Hey, what did Sonic mean? Who or what is Discord? Why did Rarity think a boulder was a diamond?"

Behind him, Celestia spoke, "Discord is a draconequus, Silver, and the former ruler of Equestria, That was in the days before Luna and I discovered the Elements of Harmony and turned him to stone."

Silver looked back over his shoulder and asked, "Turned him to stone? Why?"

Luna replied, "Discord's reign had to end. When we found the Elements of Harmony, we had faith that they would stop him and his chaotic magic. Turning to stone may not be the fate we had in mind for him, but something had to be done to put an end to his chaotic magic and the suffering he was putting the ponies of Equestria through."

Silver tilted his head, "Chaotic magic?"

He faced forward when Twilight spoke, "My friends and me got to experience his chaos for ourselves when Discord broke free. He covered the roads in soap suds, made it rain chocolate milk from cotton candy clouds, made the Sun and Moon rise and set irregularly, and… well, let's just say he made things happen that normally wouldn't happen for his own amusement."

Silver frowned, "That's terrible!"

Twilight nodded, "And we were affected by his magic like a lot of other ponies in Equestria were. We all acted the opposite of how we normally do, and some of us even saw things that weren't actually real. That's why Rarity thought a boulder was a giant diamond."

Silver replied, "Oh, well then…" Somewhere in the back of his head, that sounded familiar. Maybe the hedgehog he met earlier pulled a similar trick on him, to make him fight Sonic? He could have; Silver didn't even know where he went. He just started feeling strange and then the hedgehog was gone. After that, he kept it in check around Braeburn and Little Strongheart, but he felt exactly the way he described to Sonic and the others. Clearing his throat, Silver looked at Twilight and said, "So, Twilight, about that magic of yours…"

Twilight glanced back at him and asked, "Yes?"

Silver replied, "That was really cool, that spell you used to make that force field. How did you do that?"

Twilight smiled, "Well…"

As they continued walking, Twilight, Silver, Celestia, and Luna soon caught up with the rest of the group, who had stopped because Rarity was lamenting that there were gems buried in the wall where Spike couldn't easily get them out. Sonic's Spin Dash helped unbury them before Rarity could have a drama queen moment and they continued onwards, guided by Rarity's gem-finding spell. As they went on, they occasionally encountered more of the lava monsters, Braeburn getting a chance to show off his apple bucking skills and Little Strongheart showing that her buffalo agility wasn't just for show. Silver and Twilight also compared notes on psychokinesis and magic and Rarity, with the aid of Spike and Sonic, continued gathering gems, Twilight agreeing to help her carry them.

Eventually, the path led them to a room that was very dark. Everyone found this odd, seeing as there was lava in this room and it hadn't been this dark earlier. "Wh-what is this place…?" Fluttershy whispered fearfully, hiding behind her mane.

"Somethin' ain't right about it. Is there somethin' in here?" Braeburn wondered.

Silver held up his right hand, letting his psychic energy flow out of his palm. After a minute, he said, "I don't think there's anything hiding in here, but there's something in here that appears to be a heat source. And it's not the lava…"

Celestia nodded, "I can feel it too. It feels very similar to the Sun somehow… I'll see if I can draw it closer." She closed her eyes and channeled her magic into her horn, her yellow aura surrounding it and lighting up the area around the group a little. A few seconds later, a purple light appeared further back in the room, beginning to move towards the group. As it got closer, they saw Celestia's magic aura surrounding a purple orb that appeared to be surrounded by a purple flame, the same color as the crystals Sonic told Rarity to leave alone.

"Is that it, Princess Celestia?" Tails asked.

"It seems so warm," Little Strongheart commented as it came to a stop in front of the group.

Celestia nodded, "Yes… It feels like I'm holding part of the Sun right in front of me."

Sonic pointed up ahead, "Look, there's another one!"

Silver held his right hand out, "I'll get it." His green aura soon surrounded the orb, causing it to light up like the one Celestia was holding.

Little Strongheart pointed, "Look! There appears to be a way through this room!" Indeed, thanks to the new light source, they could see that there was a path in front of them cutting through the lava that appeared to lead up.

Rainbow turned to Silver and asked, "Hey Silver, can you hold that thing up next to me while I see if there's a way out of here?"

The hedgehog nodded, "Sure."

As Rainbow took flight, Silver used his psychokinesis to move the orb in his grip along beside her, lighting her way. When she got near the back of the room, she yelled, "There's another passage up here! And it looks like that path leads up here!"

Twilight called, "Stay there, Rainbow Dash! We'll be there in a minute!"

Luna turned to Celestia and said, "You take the lead, sister." The Solar Princess nodded and started walking, Luna turning to the others and saying, "Stay close to Celestia, everypony." They all nodded and fell in step, Rarity resisting the urge to probe around with her gem-finding spell. They soon reunited with Rainbow Dash and moved on, leaving the orbs behind because it got brighter the second they stepped out of the room.

After following the passage they entered for a short while, the group entered a considerably larger chamber filled with lava. High above them, large rock stalagmites hung from the ceiling with smaller stalagmites filling in the space between them. But nobody was focusing on the ceiling at the moment; they were all looking straight ahead, as they found exactly what (or rather who) they had been looking for.

"Blaze!" Silver exclaimed, immediately walking towards her.

"And Zecora too!" Twilight said, the magic she was using to hold up Rarity's gems disappearing in her excitement, causing them to fall on top of Spike.

"Twilight!" Rarity admonished, looking at her unicorn friend.

"Heh heh… Oops… Sorry Rarity, sorry Spike…" Twilight grinned weakly.

Suddenly, Spike poked his head out of the top of the pile of gems, bits of gemstones poking out of his mouth. "Mmm! What are you sorry for? This is delicious!" he smiled as he swallowed the gems in his mouth.

"Spike!" both Twilight and Rarity said, though Twilight said it in more of a hushed tone while Rarity more openly said it.

Braeburn and Little Strongheart, meanwhile, trotted over to Silver and Blaze, coming to a stop behind and beside Silver. "So this here's yer friend, huh Silver?" Braeburn asked.

Silver looked at him and nodded, "Yeah. I just hope she's okay…" He turned to look at Sonic, who was coming over with Tails and Twilight while Rarity picked up the gems she had found, and asked, "You said she'll be fine once we get her back to this Ponyville place?"

Sonic nodded, "You got it, Silver."

The psychokinetic hedgehog asked, "Can we go there now?"

Sonic replied, "Sure. I don't think need to stick around here any longer." He turned to Tails and said, "Tails!"

The fox nodded, "Right!" He reached into his tails and pulled out the Warp Ring. Holding it up as the others came over, he said, "Zecora's hut, here we come!"

Before he could toss it, however, a loud roar suddenly echoed through the room, Tails flinching at the sound and Rarity almost dropping her gems. Everyone looked around, Silver wondering, "Whoa, what was that?!"

Sonic said, "It sounded big, whatever it was."

Twilight looked at Zecora and Blaze, saying, "Maybe we should go before it shows up, whatever it is. It could be dangerous for them and us."

Tails said, "Can't argue with that. Okay, let's…"

A familiar voice behind the group stopped Tails in mid-sentence, "AH-HA!" Everybody turned around; there, standing at the entrance to the room, were the teenage dragons. "See, I told you they wouldn't be able to find a way out of this volcano!" Garble grinned.

Rainbow angrily nudged Rarity and said, "Dang it, Rarity, why'd you have to spend so much time looking at your gems?! I kept saying you'd have time to do that once we got back to Ponyville!"

Rarity protested, "But they were so dazzling to look at! They're all so perfect; they deserve to be looked at and adored!"

The brown dragon noticed the gems floating next to Rarity and pointed, "Hey look! That white pony's found a whole bunch of gems!"

Garble smirked, "Perfect! Getting that gem from that white guy just might be worth something after all!"

Rarity glared, "Oh no, you are NOT taking all of these gems! I already have ideas in mind to make these gems into beautiful creations to share with my friends and you are NOT going to ruin them now!"

Silver said, "Look guys, I've already made it clear that I'm not giving you the Chaos Emerald, and you're totally outnumbered! If you agree to back off, we'll give you some of these gems to make up for all of this!" He then noticed Rarity glaring at him and shrunk away, weakly adding, "Or we'll help you find some. That works too."

Garble growled, "Sorry whitey, that's not gonna cut it anymore. Not after all the effort we put in tracking you down, especially when you're with Spike and the ponies who made fools out of us last time! So you can take your offer and…"

He was cut off when the roar from earlier suddenly rung through the room again, startling everyone. Applejack glanced behind her, noticing the lava below them was beginning to churn and bubble. "Hey hey, Ah don't like the look o' this!" she exclaimed.

The purple dragon looked around and asked, "What's going on?!"

Another roar sounded through the room, this one louder than the first two. The force of it actually blew past everyone, pushing them backwards. As it ended, lava suddenly splashed up from below, everyone moving away from the edge and Silver and Twilight grabbing Blaze and Zecora to move them away. The room then became quiet again. "I-is it over?" Fluttershy squeaked out, huddled on the floor behind Rarity and Applejack with her hooves over her head.

Suddenly, Pinkie's tail sprung to life. "Ooh! Twitchy tail!" she exclaimed. She glanced up and then quickly bumped into Sonic and Tails, who were both standing next to her, pushing them to the side. A second later, a moderate-sized stalagmite fell in front of where the three of them had been standing, getting stuck in the ground.

Sonic looked at Pinkie and asked, "Did you know that was gonna fall?"

Pinkie looked back at him and smiled, "Yep! When my tail starts a-twitching, that means stuff's gonna fall! That's one of the things my Pinkie Sense predicts!"

Tails asked, "Pinkie Sense?" Pinkie just nodded while grinning.

Suddenly, the party pony's neck cricked, her left rear hoof tapped the ground, her right foreleg pinched, and her tail pointed straight out before snapping back to its cotton candy shape. "What does THAT mean?" Sonic asked.

"It means we're about to see something big and scary!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Suddenly, what appeared to be a gigantic version of the lava worms the group had been seeing burst out of the lava, letting out the roar they had been hearing all this time. It sailed through the air for a few seconds before disappearing back beneath the lava's surface. Sonic raised an eyebrow, "Uh, yeah, that sounds about right."

The creature leapt out of the lava again, this time splashing down near the ledge the group was on, spraying some lava. Everybody scampered away from the edge in case any lava came up that far, Silver and Twilight grabbing Blaze and Zecora with their psychokinesis and magic respectively, bringing them with them once again. The group came to a stop near the teenage dragons and turned to look towards the lava again, Garble exclaiming as the creature leapt out again, "What is that thing?!"

Tails noted, "It looks like a bigger version of those worm creatures we've been seeing!"

Twilight nervously said, "Then that must be Iblis…!"

Silver stared in disbelief as Iblis resurfaced, its head pointing straight up at the ceiling as it thrashed in the lava. "That's Iblis?! How can something so much like the Ifrit even exist?!" he exclaimed.

As massive stalagmites fell down into the lava due to Iblis' thrashing, Sonic looked over at Silver and said, "Relax, Silver! We're probably seeing it because time is so messed up right now! Once we get out of here and fix the damage, everything should be fine!"

Applejack yelled, "Well, then let's get ta gettin' and get back ta Ponyville!"

Tails held up the Warp Ring in his hand. Just as he was about to throw it, however, Garble yelled, "Give me that!" He then lunged towards Tails, tackling him just as he was starting to turn around, pinning him to the ground on his front and causing him to lose his grip on the ring, which began rolling towards the lava.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Sonic yelled as he dashed towards Garble, going into a Spin Dash and crashing into the red dragon, sending him flying.

While Garble recovered from the hit and started flapping his wings, the other two dragons came after Sonic, looking to pile on top of him. They were both stopped by Applejack and Little Strongheart, however, Applejack intercepting the brown dragon with the flying kick that she learned from Rarity while Little Strongheart leapt towards the purple dragon and rammed into his side headfirst. During all this, Rainbow made a dash for the Warp Ring, quickly flying over Sonic as he helped Tails up and grabbing it in her hooves before it could roll off the ledge. She then landed and held it up triumphantly, saying, "I got it!"

Almost immediately afterwards, Fluttershy's eyes widened and, at a volume that was very unusual for her, yelled, "Rainbow Dash, look out!" The pegasus lowered her hoof and looked back over her shoulder. And her eyes widened as she saw flaming rocks flying at her!

Silver set Blaze down and ran towards Rainbow Dash, leaping over her and surrounding himself with his green psychic aura as he said, "I'll take care of this!" He flew towards the rocks that were flying towards the ledge, holding his arms out as they got closer. His psychokinesis caught all of the rocks in midair and he flew a bit further while carrying them before stopping. He then held up his arms and swung them forward, sending the rocks flying back at Iblis!

The rocks hit Iblis along its body, but it just roared and suddenly disappeared beneath the lava again. Back on the ledge, Rainbow grinned, "Yeah, Silver hit it!"

Twilight pointed out, "It didn't look like it did much, though."

Sonic held a hand to his chin and said, "Maybe he needs to throw something bigger at it." He suddenly remembered something and put his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Silver, look out! It's gonna jump at you!"

A second later, Iblis burst out of the lava, soaring through the air towards Silver with its mouth pointing directly at the silver hedgehog! As soon as he saw it coming towards him, Silver spun around and flew away, narrowly missing getting caught underneath Iblis and being pushed under the lava with it.

As Silver flew back towards the ledge, Garble suddenly flew up in front of him and intercepted Silver, the hedgehog crashing into his torso head first. Although he was briefly stunned by the impact, Garble's scales shielded him from some of the hit and he quickly wrapped his arms around Silver, pinning the hedgehog's arms to his sides. "Ha, gotcha!" the red dragon grinned.

Silver struggled in his grip, yelling, "Hey! Let me go!"

On the ledge, Tails saw this and began spinning his namesakes around as he exclaimed, "Silver!" He quickly took off and flew towards Garble, who was trying to keep Silver from breaking out of his grip.

Unnoticed by Tails, the other two dragons recovered from Applejack and Little Strongheart's attacks and were flying after him! Luna spread her wings and tried to go to Tails' aid, but Celestia stopped her, Luna looking at her oddly. "Luna, we must remain impartial," Celestia insisted.

"Impartial? They have mistreated our friends and are not listening to reason! They do not deserve impartiality now, sister!" Luna argued.

While Celestia calmly disagreed with her little sister, Sonic, Rainbow, and Braeburn all saw the other two dragons looking ready to breathe fire in Tails' direction. The three of them shouted, "TAILS, BEHIND YOU!" The fox heard them and looked back just in time to see the dragons beginning to unleash their flames at him. Tails let out a surprised shout and managed to barrel roll out of the way, the dragons' flames hitting Garble in the back just above his wings instead.

Garble grunted in surprise as the flames hit him, his distraction allowing Silver to get his right arm free and punch the dragon in the face. Garble recovered quickly and growled down at him, swinging his head and connecting cleanly with Silver's forehead, dazing the hedgehog. Garble then turned and around and yelled at the two dragons, "What do you two think you're doing?!"

The brown dragon said, "We were trying to stop that fox, but he got out of the way!"

Garble raised an eyebrow, "Fox?"

From below him, Tails called, "He's talking about me!" Garble looked down, only to get an uppercut right in the face as Tails flew up right underneath him with his left fist pointing up, his fist connecting cleanly with the dragon's jaw. The hit knocked Garble back and caused him to finally release Silver, the still-dazed hedgehog falling towards the lava. Tails quickly spun around and flew down, managing to grab Silver's hands before he fell too far. While hovering in place, Tails said, "I've got you, Silver!"

Silver shook his head and then looked up at the fox, saying, "Ugh… Thanks, Tails… Whoa, look out!" Tails looked up to see more stalagmites falling from the ceiling, a few of them falling very close to where they were! Tails quickly backed up, the stalagmites falling past him, Silver, and the other two teenage dragons and landing in the lava with the rest of the stalagmites. Looking back at Iblis, Tails saw that it was summoning more flaming rocks! Tails flew as fast as he could, trying to avoid getting hit by the barrage of rocks while Silver held on tightly, still needing a chance to recover from the blow to his head. As for the teenage dragons, Garble was low enough that the rocks flew over him, despite him being daze. The other two weren't so lucky; they got nicked by the rocks and ended up falling into the lava!

Back on the ledge, everyone saw that the rocks were coming straight towards them! "They're coming too fast! What should we do?!" Rarity cried.

Sonic looked back at Twilight and said, "Twilight, your spell!" The unicorn nodded and quickly cast her force field spell, a magenta bubble forming around the group while leaving part of the ledge exposed. The flaming rocks rained down on both the force field and the ledge, exploding against both. Because of her hasty spell casting, Twilight's force field was not at full power and it began to crack under the assault. It also became apparent that the ledge they were standing on was not as sturdy as they once thought, as it too began to crack as the rocks hit the side of it, the cracks spreading underneath the force field.

As the barrage of rocks began to die down, two things happened almost simultaneously. First, a stray rock hit the top of Twilight's force field, where a large crack had already formed and exploded against it, causing the force field to shatter. Second, the last rock struck the ledge close to where the group was standing, hitting the crack that had been developing there. And just like that, the ledge began to crumble under their feet/hooves. Celestia and Luna noticed it in time and spread their wings, flapping them and getting above the ground and using their magic to pick up Blaze and Zecora. Everyone else noticed it too late and the ground collapsed underneath them, all of them falling down towards the lava!

Thankfully, luck still seemed to be on their side, as instead of landing in the lava, everyone landed in a heap on top of one of the stalagmites, all of them lying on their fronts. Celestia and Luna flew down after everyone. They landed next to the pile of sprawled out bodies and Celestia set down Zecora while Luna set Blaze down. Celestia then asked, "Is everypony okay?"

Rainbow groaned, "Yeah, I think we're fine, princess." As everyone began to recover from the sudden fall, Rainbow's right forehoof closed around thin air. Her eyes widened a bit at this and she looked at her hoof, realizing something was missing. "Hey, where's the Warp Ring?!" she exclaimed a second later.

Upon hearing that, everyone looked around for the missing ring (except for Rarity, who had noticed all of her gems had been scattered). As they all looked around their immediate area, Spike noticed something out of the corner of his eyes and looked to see something rolling further away. "There it is!" he said, quickly climbing to his feet and running after it.

As Rarity began scrambling around to gather up her gems, Twilight's eyes widened as she looked forward and noticed that Iblis appeared to be eying Spike's movements. "Iblis…!" she murmured. She looked in Spike's direction and called, "Spike, wait!" It seemed as though Spike didn't hear her, considering he didn't even flinch as he kept running after the Warp Ring.

Seeing this, Sonic quickly climbed to his feet. "Go after him! I'll keep that thing busy!" he said before dashing across the stalagmites in Iblis' direction. Twilight nodded a moment later and turned, galloping after Spike as Luna decided to stop being neutral and flapped her wings, flying after Sonic despite her sister's protests.

While Sonic and Luna went after Iblis and Tails and Silver evaded Garble, Spike continued scampering after the Warp Ring, catching up to it as Twilight ran after him. Just as it was about to roll over the edge of a stalagmite, Spike leapt at it, managing to catch it between his claws before it fell off. Spike breathed a sigh of relief as he lay on his stomach and held the ring in his claws, his arms still outstretched. "I got it…" he sighed.

His relief turned to shock a second later as Garble's cohorts suddenly burst out of the lava below, both of them looking no worse for the wear. Spike gulped as they flapped their wings and hovered in the air above him, looking down at him. "Hey Spike. Coming back to the dragon side of things?" the purple dragon smirked.

"How about a nice lava bath for old times' sake?" the brown dragon asked. Spike managed to climb to his feet, leaping back as they landed on the edge of the stalagmite. He started backing away slowly as they began to approach him.

Suddenly, a magenta-colored beam struck the brown dragon in the face, knocking him onto his back! Both Spike and the purple dragon looked at him before looking to see Twilight standing a stalagmite away, her horn surrounded by her magenta aura. Not giving the purple dragon a chance to react, Twilight fired another magenta beam from her horn at him. The dragon sidestepped around the beam, but wasn't prepared for the second one, which hit him in the chest and knocked him over.

As the dragon fell, Spike dashed over to Twilight's stalagmite, holding the Warp Ring under his arm. "Perfect timing, Twilight!" he said as she neared her, Twilight turning so that her side faced Spike. The baby dragon quickly jumped up onto her back and placed his free hand on her neck.

Before Twilight could run back to the others, both she and Spike heard a roar and turned to look. Iblis was flying backwards through the air, landing on its back in the lava. They also saw Sonic on Luna's back, flying in their direction. They could also see Tails and Silver flying around Garble, the teenage dragon looking incredibly steamed. Luna called to all of them, using the Royal Canterlot Voice so she could be heard, "WE MUST REGROUP! FALL BACK!" Not needing to be told twice, Twilight started galloping across the stalagmites back towards the others. Silver and Tails soon followed after Tails flew in a circle around Garble to confuse him, at which point Silver used his psychokinesis to daze the teenage dragon.

Twilight, Spike, Luna, and Sonic soon reached the others, Sonic sliding off of Luna's back and Spike jumping off of Twilight's back a moment later. A moment later, both Tails and Silver flew over, landing near the others. Celestia looked everyone over before saying, "I am glad to see none of you are hurt. However, I believe we should leave this… unsettling situation at once."

Rarity nodded, "Oh, I agree completely, Princess Celestia! And not just because of all the gems Spike and I gathered!" She took a moment to stroke the pile of gems next to her before continuing, "This situation is too dangerous for all of us, especially poor Zecora and, er… Blaze! We should most definitely return to Ponyville at once!"

Spike held up the Warp Ring and said, "I've got the Warp Ring right here!"

Before anyone else could say anything, Iblis suddenly burst out of the lava far away from the group, letting out a roar that caused everybody to look in its direction. After the roar died down, Silver looked at the others and spoke, "Look, if any of you don't want to stay here, you can leave. But I'm not leaving until I've taken care of Iblis."

Celestia asked, "And why is that, Silver?"

The hedgehog replied, "Even though Iblis is not supposed to exist, it exists right now due to that monster messing with time. If we leave Iblis alone, it could find a way to escape from this time, either into another time or a different universe. And if its behavior is anything like the Ifrit's, it'll keep coming back no matter what. And I'm not going to let that happen."

Sonic shrugged, "Not a bad point, Silver. That would kind of make all of your hard work trying to keep the Ifrit from escaping from its dimension kind of pointless, wouldn't it?" Silver nodded.

Applejack looked at Tails and Twilight and asked, "Twi', Tails, do y'all suppose there's any truth to that? That Iblis could escape from this world?"

Fluttershy added, "W-would the Iblis really continue to exist if it made it to… *gulp* Ponyville?"

Tails held a hand to his chin as he looked down at the ground. He thought about what they were asking before replying, "That's kind of hard to say for sure. I mean, this is the first time we've had a time crisis this bad, so there's no guarantees." He then looked up and said, "But there is one thing I am sure about. I'd rather not find out if there's any truth to Silver's theory."

Applejack and Fluttershy looked at Twilight. The unicorn soon spoke, "I think Tails makes a good point. If Iblis does manage to escape from here, it's sure to be disastrous, no matter where it ends up. I guess it's known as the Flames of Disaster for a reason."

Rainbow said, "Well, there's no way I'm walking out on a friend under my own power. You wanna stick around and take this thing down, Silver? You can count me in!"

Rarity spoke up, "Even with finding all of these gems, I have not enjoyed this particular venture. However, a lady always gives as generously as she receives, and you've helped us before, Silver. I should at least try to return the favor."

One by one, the others all voiced their agreement to help stop Iblis. At the end, Luna looked at Celestia and asked, "Well, sister?"

Celestia looked at Silver, "I don't suppose you can be convinced otherwise, Silver?"

Silver replied, "Everything we've seen here? It reminds me all too well what the world in my time used to be like, before I went back to stop the Ifrit. No matter what, Princess Celestia, I won't allow the Iblis to do the same to any other world."

Celestia smiled, "I understand. And that is all I needed to hear. Stop Iblis, Silver; we will all be there to support you." Everyone nodded in agreement.

Silver grunted; he then said, "Thanks, you guys…"

The moment was ruined when Garble yelled, "Hey, heads up, you losers!" Everyone looked up in his direction, only to see him rearing back in midair. He then thrust forward, spewing fire from his mouth! Fluttershy, Rainbow, Celestia, and Luna immediately flapped their wings and flew up to the ledge above (the princesses grabbing Blaze and Zecora in the process) while everyone else ducked down, the flames passing over their heads.

The heat from the flames overhead soon passed. Silver, his gaze still partly directed towards the ground, looked around and noticed that nobody seemed to have moved from their spots. He stood up and pointed at Garble, saying, "Ha! You missed!"

His triumphant feeling was cut short when he heard a scream from Applejack. He looked back to see the orange earth pony scrambling off to the side on her hind legs, exclaiming, "MAH HAT'S ON FIRE! HELP!"

While Rainbow, Twilight, Tails, Silver, Braeburn, and Little Strongheart moved to help her, Sonic stood up and dashed towards Garble, yelling, "Hey! Not cool!" Before the red dragon could react, Sonic leapt up towards him and delivered a Homing Attack to his chest, pushing him backwards for a few seconds before bouncing off of him, sending the dragon crashing down to the ground, ending up on top of the other two dragons who were still recovering from Twilight's earlier magic attacks.

While Garble and the other two dragons lay on the ground, Sonic looked back after landing to check on the others. Rainbow Dash, Braeburn, and Little Strongheart had managed to restrain Applejack, allowing Twilight to use her magic to yank the hat off the cowpony's head and send it into the awaiting arms of Silver, who instantly began patting it down with his hand to try to snuff the flame out while Tails began spinning his tails around from one side and Twilight began blowing on it from the opposite side to put the flame out.

Rainbow, Braeburn, and Little Strongheart let Applejack go once she calmed down a little and walked with her over to Silver, Tails, and Twilight, who were no longer working to put the flame out. Once they were close enough, Applejack asked, "Is it…?"

Silver looked at her and carefully said, "Sorry, Applejack. We put it out, but…" He looked down at the hat and then held it out towards her. Applejack immediately saw why he stopped talking. On one side of the hat, there was a noticeable hole, the material around the hole burnt black.

Spike, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie came over as Applejack took the hat in her forehooves, still looking down at the hole. She clutched it to her chest, sighing, "Aw… dang it…"

Pinkie bounced over to Applejack and nuzzled her, saying, "Don't cry, Applejack. It'll be okay. Hey, maybe you can get a brand new hat! One that's even better than this one!"

Applejack turned to her and gave her a flat look as she said, "Pinkie, this hat means a lot ta me. Ah can't just replace this, and Ah certainly can't fix this mahself."

Pinkie shrank back a bit at that, "Oh…" She then perked up, "Well, maybe you can cover it up! It doesn't look that bad!"

Sonic started walking over and Fluttershy, Celestia, and Luna flew down from the ledge (Celestia and Luna setting Blaze and Zecora down near Rarity's gem pile) and began walking over as well as Rarity spoke, "It certainly doesn't, Pinkie. In fact, I think I can fix it!"

Applejack looked at her funny, "Y'all can do that, Rarity?"

Rarity simply smirked, "Remember the dresses I made for the Grand Galloping Gala? I designed EVERYTHING about them, including the accessories. It should be relatively easy to fix your dear hat once we get back to Ponyville."

Applejack stood up and put her hat back on her head. She then said, "Fine. But Ah want it back the way Ah've always had it." She pointed a hoof directly at the fashionista as she went on, "Don't you go applyin' any o' yer fancy designs ta it! This here's an Apple family hat and it's gonna stay that way!"

Before Rarity could respond, Iblis suddenly let out a deafening roar, causing Sonic, Fluttershy, Luna, and Celestia to stop as everyone covered their ears. A second after it died down and everyone took their hands/hooves off their ears, Pinkie's tail went wild. "Ooh! Twitchy tail!" the pink pony exclaimed. Everyone began looking up and around at that, knowing that meant something was going to fall.

Suddenly, the purple dragon yelled, "Hey, watch out!" Sonic looked to see the dragons scrambling off of each other and quickly spreading their wings and taking flight. Looking up, he saw why they were doing that: a stalagmite bigger than any of the ones on top of the lava had just broken off from the ceiling!

"Heads up, guys!" he yelled as he turned and started running towards them, not wanting to be near the stalagmite when it struck the lava. Everyone's eyes widened when they saw the stalagmite coming down, but Silver, Twilight, and Celestia quickly straightened up and, as the stalagmite fell, Silver held his hands up, channeling his psychic energy into them while both Twilight and Celestia's horns lit up with their magic, all three of them focusing on it.

The stalagmite was soon surrounded by an aura composed of green, magenta, and yellow, its descent beginning to slow as Twilight, Silver, and Celestia poured their energy into their auras. Before the stalagmite's tip could touch one of the other stalagmites or the lava, it stopped in midair and was turned on its side. It then floated over towards the group, stopping a short distance above and in front of everyone, still floating as Celestia, Twilight, and Silver seemed to be debating what to do with it.

Sonic and the others looked up at it, Tails saying, "Whoa, that thing's huge! And yet you guys are holding it up like it's nothing!"

Twilight cracked her eyes open and said, "Well, it's not as hard since we're all working to hold it up. But what should we do with it?"

Pinkie Pie suggested, "It looks like a big dart! Maybe you could throw it at Iblis and hit it on the bull's-eye!"

Silver asked, "You think we should throw something like this at Iblis, Pinkie Pie?"

Twilight said, "Well, Sonic suggested that maybe you should throw something bigger at Iblis to defeat it, or at least damage it."

Silver asked, "Something bigger? That's…" He looked up at the stalagmite for a moment before looking in Iblis' direction and back up at the stalagmite. "That's not a bad idea, actually," he concluded.

Tails asked, "Um, even with the three of you, isn't it going to be kind of hard to throw something that shape that's that big?"

Braeburn said, "Yeah, Ah was wonderin' 'bout that mahself."

Celestia mused, "I suppose it could, especially if we don't all release it at the same time."

Silver grunted, "Guess we'll have to make it smaller then." A roar from Iblis caught his attention, causing him to raise a hand to his chin in thought, "Maybe…"

Sonic said, "Looks like you'll need time to do that, Silver. I can keep Iblis busy while you do that."

Luna spoke, "I would also like to help."

Silver looked at them and said, "If you both could, that would be great. Actually, Luna, if you could catch any rocks that Iblis throws and bring them here, it would help with this idea I just had." Although they wondered what idea Silver had, both Sonic and Luna nodded.

Fluttershy squeaked, causing everyone to look back at her. She pointed, "Those dragons… They're coming back…" Everyone looked and saw that she was right; it seemed as though the teenage dragons had decided nothing else was going to fall and were now moving back towards the group. And they didn't look too happy…

Twilight grunted in annoyance, "Ah, right. We can't forget about them either."

Rainbow spoke, "You guys do whatever you have to do! Tails and I can keep those jerks busy!" While he was surprised about being volunteered so suddenly, Tails nodded in agreement.

Silver nodded, "Great!" He looked at Celestia and asked, "Excuse me for asking, Princess Celestia, but is it possible for you to hold this stalagmite up yourself?"

Rarity was about to scold Silver for asking the princess such a thing, but Celestia calmly responded, "It is no trouble, Silver. I assume you're going to need your hands to make this stalagmite smaller?"

Silver nodded, "Unfortunately. I can't hold something up with my psychokinesis and use Psychic Knives at the same time."

Celestia said, "Then I will hold it up for as long as it takes to shrink it to an appropriate size."

Applejack asked, "What should the rest o' us do?"

Sonic answered for Silver, "Why don't the rest of you stay back and guard Blaze and Zecora? It wouldn't be good if they got hit by a stray attack after all, and someone's gonna have to be ready to carry them once we've taken care of Iblis."

Little Strongheart nodded, "Good point. Just be careful, all of you."

Everyone nodded, Silver saying, "You guys too."

Sonic said, "All right, let's do this!" With that, he and Luna turned and headed towards Iblis while Tails and Rainbow Dash flew up towards the teenage dragons, trying to draw their attention away from Sonic and Luna.

While the two groups went about keeping their targets distracted, Twilight and Silver released their holds on the stalagmite, allowing Celestia to take it for herself. As Silver began using Psychic Knives to chip away at the rock and Twilight started channeling her magic into her horn, she glanced over at Silver and asked, "What exactly do you have in mind for those rocks Iblis is throwing, Silver?"

Silver swept another Psychic Knife at the stalagmite and Twilight fired a trio of smaller beams like the ones her brother used against King Sombra at it before the hedgehog replied, "I'm gonna throw them back at it again, but this time, they're gonna combine with this stalagmite to make a much stronger attack. Considering Sonic and Luna have already hurt Iblis and will probably hurt it some more, this'll probably be enough to take it out!"

Twilight nodded, "I see. So we just need to convert this stalagmite into a more compact form that's better for throwing."

Silver replied, "That's right. We're gonna make our own Tom!"

Rarity's eyes widened for a moment at that name before they narrowed and she nearly shrieked, "Excuse me?!" Silver and Twilight stayed focused on the stalagmite so they wouldn't have to see the look Rarity was giving them. Applejack, meanwhile, had fallen over and was laughing her flank off.

Soon…

Spike looked over the situation as he, Applejack, Braeburn, Little Strongheart, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie stayed close together. Sonic and Luna had done a great job keeping Iblis preoccupied, Sonic doing most of the distracting himself while Luna caught Iblis' rocks with her magic and took them to Twilight, who held onto them with her own magic. Tails and Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, were still managing to keep the teenage dragons busy, but they were both beginning to tire out and they had already experienced a few close calls. "Come on, Twilight, Silver! Hurry up, you guys!" Spike internally cried.

After dodging another round of rocks from Iblis, Sonic watched as Luna dashed away with them in her magic grip. He then looked up at Rainbow Dash and Tails, his eyes widening as Tails narrowly missed getting roasted by the purple dragon. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called, "Tails, Rainbow Dash! Come down and take a break, guys! I won't be able to catch you if you fall in the lava!" The two heard him and took the hint, evading the dragons one last time as they flew towards the others, Sonic following after them once they flew over his head. The dragons took a moment to land and catch their breaths before going after them.

Once the three of them got back to the others, they saw Twilight and Silver's… mental work. They had chipped the stalagmite down considerably, giving it a more rounded shape like a boulder. It looked to be quite a bit bigger than the original Tom. As Tails and Rainbow Dash stood with their knees bent and panted, Sonic looked at Twilight and Silver and asked, "Is it ready?"

Twilight replied, "Almost. We just have to add the flaming rocks." She moved said rocks forward at that.

Silver took the rocks from Twilight and surrounded the new Tom with them, taking the whole thing from Celestia's magic grip, the Solar Princess seeming a bit relieved at no longer needing to hold it up anymore. After looking it over for a moment, Silver said, "Yeah, we're ready. I just need a good shot at Iblis now." He looked at Sonic and asked, "Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog grinned, "Leave it to me!" He turned and dashed in Iblis' direction, plowing right through the teenage dragons as he went (Tails could swear he heard the sound of bowling pins being struck when Sonic crashed into them). He ran as far as he could go and cupped his hands around his mouth, yelling, "Yo, flame breath! Your mom was a salamander, and your dad solidified after you were born!" Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack snickered at that.

Iblis looked in his direction and growled loudly. Sonic waited until it was done growling before going on, "Yeah, I'm talking to you! I know baby dragons that can make better flames than you!" He paused for a second, lowering his hands before shrugging, "Well, one anyway." Spike seemed to puff up in pride upon hearing that last bit.

Iblis roared angrily and then disappeared beneath the surface of the lava. A second later, it burst out of the lava, soaring through the air directly towards Sonic! The blue hedgehog leapt backwards before Iblis landed, the huge lava worm crashing head first into the stalagmite the hedgehog had been on and getting its pincers caught around the stalagmite's midsection.

Iblis growled at Sonic as he stood (basically) across from it. The hedgehog waved his hand in front of his nose, saying, "Whoa, your breath stinks! How would you like a psychic breath mint?" With that, he jumped and delivered a quick Homing Attack to its forehead, hitting it right in its third eye. As Sonic rebounded back off towards the others and Iblis was sent flying, Sonic called, "Now, guys!"

Twilight said, "Here comes Tom 2!"

Ignoring Rarity's high-pitched squeal at that name and a round of laughter from Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Silver quickly levitated the new Tom (with the rocks still surrounding it) up and sent it flying in a straight line towards Iblis, yelling, "Meteor Smash!" It flew over Sonic's head (the hedgehog rolling on the ground after landing on one of the stalagmites) and struck Iblis right in the forehead before it could disappear back below the lava. It hit so hard that Iblis was knocked back into the wall, where Tom 2 gave off a fiery explosion, forcing everyone to shield their eyes.

When they looked again, they saw Iblis' tail sinking into the lava, following the rest of Iblis. Just as its tail was about to disappear from view, a ring of flames suddenly burst from it, spreading out like a wave! It swept past the stalagmites, but it didn't go on top of them and the flames disappeared as soon as they hit the rocky wall. Before anyone could relax, however, the ground (if you could call it that) started shaking beneath them!

"What's happenin'?!" Braeburn exclaimed as he tried to keep his balance.

"Is this that demon's doing?!" Luna wondered.

Tails looked at the lava, noticing the way it was moving. It almost looked like… "Iblis must have triggered something within the volcano! Like another eruption!" he exclaimed.

Sonic started running towards the others, calling, "It's trying to take us down with it! It's time to bail!"

Twilight looked at Spike and said, "Spike, the ring!"

The baby dragon straightened up at that, "Oh, right!" He moved the ring out from under his arm and took it in both of his claws, bringing it up over his head and throwing it forward. It flew straight for a second before it stopped and expanded with a *PHVWOW*.

Sonic ran up alongside the ring and placed his left hand on its side, the shimmering surface inside the ring faintly showing the clearing in front of Zecora's hut. Rainbow flew straight towards the ring, leaving a rainbow trail behind her as she flew up to the ring and hovered above it. "Come on, you guys! Let's go!" she called.

Silver could see that the shaking was still keeping all the non-flyers from finding a stable footing. Eying the trail Dash left, he focused his psychokinesis on it before it could disappear completely and began to manipulate it, lowering it down so it didn't exactly touch the shaking stalagmites, but also led straight to the Warp Ring. He looked at the others, saying, "Here, use this!"

Twilight, while carrying Spike on her back and Blaze and Zecora with her magic, managed to get on top of the rainbow trail and found it to be solid thanks to Silver's psychokinesis. "Thanks, Silver!" she said before running across it, the others quickly following. Applejack went through after Twilight, followed by Rarity (carrying her gem pile), Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Little Strongheart, Braeburn, Tails, and the princesses.

As he released his psychic grip on the rainbow trail (causing it to disappear), Silver looked down at the lava and saw that, in addition to its more liquid-like movements, it was beginning to rise. He then looked over at Sonic and Rainbow, "That just leaves us now!"

Sonic gestured to the ring and said, "After you guys!"

Rainbow nodded, "See you on the other side!"

The teenage dragons, in all the confusion, had finally managed to recover from being bowled over and were now noticing all the activity around them. "Hey, I don't like the look of all this!" the brown dragon said.

The purple dragon looked over and saw Rainbow Dash flutter down from where she was hovering above the Warp Ring and fly through it. "Hey, looks like they're using that ring thing to get out of here!" he pointed out.

Silver ran over and jumped through the ring as Garble said, "Wherever they're going is good enough for us right now!" Sonic looked over as the dragons started moving in his direction. He looked at them for a moment before gripping the side of the Warp Ring with his left hand and swinging himself around, going through it on the side opposite the teenage dragons. As the ring began to shrink, the teenage dragons managed to slip through it just seconds before a sudden lava wave fell over the spot where the ring had been.

---

The teenage dragons grunted as they hit the ground face first. They quickly recovered from the sudden landing, at which point they realized something was different. Looking down at the ground, they realized that it was completely white and felt like dirt and grass. "What's going on? Where are we?" the purple dragon asked.

Before Garble could answer, they heard voices behind them and turned to see Sonic, Silver, and Rainbow Dash standing a short distance away. Silver was speaking, "Those were some pretty cool maneuvers back there, Rainbow Dash. I was focusing on getting that stalagmite chipped down to size, but I did get a good look at some of them."

Rainbow rubbed a hoof over her chest as she smugly replied, "Well, of course! I'm always working on my moves! The Dash does everything with a little bit of awesomeness!"

Sonic and Silver couldn't help but smile at attitude. Silver then looked at Sonic and said, "And Sonic, you did a good job back there too. Just what I'd expect from the real deal."

Sonic grinned as he shrugged, "Well, I try."

Silver reached back into his quills with his right hand and pulled out the silver Chaos Emerald. He looked at it for a moment before looking at Sonic and holding out to him, saying, "Here, you can have this, Sonic. You guys are collecting them, right?"

Sonic looked at the Chaos Emerald as he replied, "Well, yeah. No doubt they're going to come in handy fixing this mess." He then looked up at Silver and asked, "But are you sure that's okay? You're not going to need it later?"

Silver nodded, "I'm sure. I wasn't really planning on using it for anything. Besides, you proved yourself back there. You deserve it."

Sonic said, "All right, if you say so, dude!" He held out his right hand and closed it around the top of the Chaos Emerald, taking it from Silver's hand.

Garble finally chose this moment to speak up, yelling, "Hey, hold on a minute!" The trio turned to look at him and the other dragons, noticing them for the first time. Garble went on, "You hand over that gem right now! If you think we're going to give it up now, you're dead wrong!"

Before he could continue, Applejack called, "C'mon over here, y'all! The color's comin' back!" Sonic, Rainbow, and Silver turned to look at the rest of their friends, who were standing in front of Zecora's hut with Blaze and Zecora in front of them, and ran over to join them, the teenage dragons forgotten. As they joined the group of friends, they saw that Applejack was right. The grass in the clearing had already regained its color, and Zecora's hut and the surrounding plant life was beginning to regain its color as well. Within a minute, the color had completely come back to the clearing.

Looking to Blaze and Zecora, they saw that they were beginning to regain their color as well. Blaze was the first to recover, and to Spike and the ponies' surprise, she, after blinking several times, leapt up, turning around in midair and landing on top of the nearby tree branch coming from Zecora's hut. She then quickly jumped again, landing on top of the hut directly beneath the canopy covering with her arms crossed.

Zecora, meanwhile, finished regaining her color. After blinking twice, the zebra examined her body, smiling when she was sure she was back. She then looked at the group and spoke, "I was afraid when the creature grabbed me, but now I am pleased. You came to rescue me, so my worries are eased."

Blaze, having noticed Sonic, Tails, and Silver among the group of unfamiliar faces and deeming it safe, leapt down from the top of Zecora's hut, landing next to the zebra. She stood up straight and said, "I must extend my thanks to you all as well. Although I do dislike relying on others, I am grateful for your aid. The creature was… too much for me to handle alone." She held her arms out in front of her and clenched her fists as she finished speaking, seeming to be slightly upset that she could not do more. Silver, Sonic, and Tails nodded at her, Silver holding up his left hand and clenching his fingers into a fist while looking down.

Before anyone else could say anything, Garble angrily yelled, "HEY!" Everyone turned to look at the teenage dragons, each of them raising an eyebrow in confusion. "You don't get to turn your backs on us! We want all of those gems you idiots have, and we want them now!" he stated.

Sonic tsked, wagging a finger as he said, "Are you guys still going on about that? Why don't you give it up already?" He lowered his hand and smirked, "Being over persistent won't win you any popularity contests, you know!"

Blaze and Zecora stepped forward, joining the others. Blaze looked at Silver and asked, "Who are these three?"

While glaring at the dragons, Silver replied, "They're a bunch of thugs, Blaze. Thugs that don't know when to back off when someone says 'no'."

The purple dragons growled, "You trying to be smart, white guy?"

Spike said, "Hey, Silver's only telling her the truth! There's nothing wrong with that!"

Celestia spoke, "You three have caused quite enough trouble for one day. As co-ruler of Equestria, I order you to cease your efforts at once."

Zecora said, "With Princess Celestia, I most certainly agree. Leave here now or in more trouble you will be."

Garble smirked, "Oh yeah, like I'm afraid of you. What are you going to do, rhyme me to death? Let's see how you like this!" He then reared back and thrust forward, unleashing a plume of flames from his mouth!

Spike, Tails, Zecora, and the ponies all took a step back at that, Tails saying, "Oh no! That's sure to spread to the rest of the Everfree Forest!"

Sonic and Silver looked at Blaze, Sonic asking, "You got this, Blaze?"

Raising her left hand up, Blaze replied, "Of course I do, Sonic." She then snapped her fingers; as soon as she did, something started to happen to the flames. They were going in a straight line before, but now they were starting to angle down towards the ground, striking the ground right in front of Blaze. Instead of spreading out like everyone expected, they instead stayed there for a moment before what looked like a snake's head made of flames stretched up out of the flames, stopping when it was eye level with Blaze. Spike, Zecora, and the ponies looked on in awe; despite the fact that it was made of flames, it looked like a real, coiled up snake that was extending its head up.

Even the dragons were shocked by what they were seeing. "Wh-what the-?!" Garble exclaimed.

While stroking the fire snake's head with her right hand, Blaze said, "My soul is alit with flames. I can control them, create them…" she raised her hand and snapped her fingers, the fire snake immediately disappearing; she then gave the dragons a piercing stare as she finished, "and end them."

Spike muttered, "Whoa…"

Garble grunted, "Huh. Never would have expected a kitty cat to be able to do that."

A vein grew on Blaze's forehead when she heard that. "What did you just say?" she asked with a noticeable sharpness in her voice.

Sonic crossed his arms and whistled while rolling his eyes, "Oh boy, he did not just call the princess of another dimension and the guardian of the Sol Emeralds a kitty." The expression on Silver's face indicated he also knew what was about to happen.

Garble smirked, "Oh, so she's a namby pamby princess too? Well, isn't that-?" He didn't get a chance to finish; in the blink of an eye, Blaze dashed from the spot where she was standing and right up to Garble with her right fist in front of her, slamming it right into the dragon's stomach as the trail of flames left in her wake started to shrink. Removing her fist from his stomach, Blaze stepped back as Garble fell to his knees. "Guh…! You… Ugh! How…?" he groaned as he tried to recover from that sudden strike. Blaze's only response was to strike again, this time kicking him in the face with her high-heeled shoes and sending him flying onto his back.

Once again, Spike, Zecora, and the ponies were in awe at Blaze's display while the dragons just looked shocked. Silver, meanwhile, grinned, "Looks like they just found out you've got claws, huh Blaze?"

Blaze nodded, "A smart falcon hides its claws from view. So, am I still 'namby pamby'?"

The brown dragon stuttered, "Er, no, sir, ma'am! You're tougher than that!" He and the purple dragon quickly moved back, reaching down and grabbing Garble by his arms to pull him up.

As they finally managed to get him on his feet, Garble glared at the brown dragon and growled, "Are you kidding me?! You're just going to give up because she's 'tougher than that'?! Well, I'm not! She's going to pay for this!" Before either dragon could reply, Garble broke free and ran towards Blaze, who lowered herself into a fighting stance.

As they started fighting, Luna looked at Sonic and asked, "Should we help?"

Sonic looked over at Blaze and Garble, noticing the way Blaze was nimbly dodging Garble's attacks (moving to the side when he punched, leaping up when he tried to use his tail to knock her feet out from under her, and ducking under his wings) before he replied, "You can, if you want. But I don't think it's Blaze who needs the help."

Blaze continued to dodge Garble's anger-induced attacks for about a minute before finally catching his fist in both hands. She then gave him a hard push backwards, throwing him off balance for a few moments. She then dashed up to him and jumped on him, placing her hands on his shoulders. She then jerked back, falling to the ground and bringing the dragon with her! As soon as her back touched the ground, she brought her right foot up and planted it against his stomach, mentally engaging her fire abilities as she did. As she pushed up with her foot, a burst of flames suddenly blasted out of her shoe, sending Garble flying. He landed on his back near the other two dragons, groaning. Sitting up, Blaze looked back at them and said, "I've had enough of this." She looked at Silver and asked, "Silver, do you mind taking care of them?"

The hedgehog replied, "Gladly!" He ran towards the dragons as the brown and purple dragons were helping Garble get back on his feet again. Just as he finished getting up and finding his balance, Silver grabbed them with his psychokinesis, his green aura surrounding the dragons and his left hand. He glared at them for a moment before saying, "Take THIS!" As he spoke, he swung his arms outward, blasting them with his psychic force and sending them flying straight through the canopy of the Everfree Forest!

Soon…

Following the 'departure' of the teenage dragons, introductions had been made for both Blaze and Zecora. Afterwards, Zecora went to check that everything in her hut was present while Twilight's friends began to crowd around Blaze, keeping Twilight, Spike, Celestia, and Luna from getting a chance to talk to her. While Applejack and Rainbow Dash cheered her for her display and Fluttershy was her usual shy self around her, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were a bit more intrusive. Rarity appraised her clothing like the fashionista she was, and Pinkie Pie was her usual bubbly self, being cheerful and jumping from one topic to the next, unknowingly making Blaze feel very uncomfortable. Sonic and Silver eventually had to step in and convince them to give Blaze her space.

It was at this moment that Zecora came out of her hut wearing a concerned look on her face. Tails noticed her coming and asked, "Is everything okay in there, Miss Zecora?"

Zecora smiled, "Please, young Tails, there is no need to use 'miss'. Saying my name itself is fine and would not be amiss." Her smile then eased off as she said, "As for your question, it's not all okay, that's for sure. Several potions and my saddlebags are unaccounted for."

Little Strongheart asked, "You mean they've been stolen?"

Zecora replied, "That is the only thing I can guess at this time. But it begs the question: who would commit such a crime?"

Braeburn looked at Applejack and said, "Cousin Applejack, you know Ponyville better than Ah do. Is there anypony in town who'd wanna do such a thing? Ah don't mean to speak badly about anypony, but stealin' from a zebra? T'ain't right."

Applejack replied, "Nopony in Ponyville's ever had anythin' against Zecora since we found out the truth 'bout her. And Ah doubt the Changeling Queen or Gilda woulda taken her potions or bag for any reason." She looked at Rainbow Dash and asked, "Gilda didn't do anythin' funny durin' yer race with her, did she, Rainbow?"

Rainbow replied, "Other than try to cheat by dropping Scootaloo off the clouds, no. I tried to keep an eye on her throughout the race, and she didn't go off the course or anything like that. Besides, what would Gilda do with potions anyway?"

Applejack grunted, "Ah don't know! That's why Ah'm askin'! You know that griffin better than any o' us!"

Tails said, "Well, that crosses both the Changeling Queen and Gilda off the list."

Silver asked, "So where does that leave us?"

Blaze said, "It sounds like it leaves us no closer to the answer."

Sonic crossed his arms, "Yeah, we've got nothing right now. No suspects, no evidence…" He looked over at Zecora and asked, "Did you see anything out of place in your hut that looked like it could be a clue, Zecora?" The zebra shook her head. Sonic then looked at the others and finished, "Then all we're doing right now is going around in circles, asking questions that we don't have any answers to."

Celestia nodded, "I agree with Sonic. There is nothing more we can do here right now. For now, we should head back to Ponyville. Perhaps some of the citizens noticed something or somepony unusual enter or exit the forest."

Pinkie Pie popped up in front of Zecora and said, "Don't you worry your stripy head, Zecora! We'll track down that mystery thief and make them give back everything they stole from you! Just like when we solved the mystery of who ate the Cakes' MMMM! Did I ever tell you about that time? Oh, it's a really good story! You see…"

Pinkie was silenced (somewhat) when Rarity came up behind her and slapped a hoof over her mouth, causing Zecora to raise an eyebrow at her while Pinkie talked into her hoof. Rarity laughed nervously, "Well, those details aside, Pinkie is right, Zecora. We will most certainly help you in any way we can." She then backed away nervously while dragging Pinkie, Zecora still looking at her oddly.

Sonic looked over at Tails and asked, "Hey, Tails, is your radar picking anything up?"

The fox reached into his tail and pulled out his radar, flipping it open and examining it for a few moments. He soon looked up and said, "Uh, no. I'm not getting any new signals right now. But it'll let me know right away if it picks anything up."

Blaze asked, "What kind of radar is it, Tails?"

After putting the radar away, Tails answered, "Well, since time is all messed up right now and portals to various locations and time periods are showing up all over Ponyville, I made this radar out of the spare parts from Eggman's old Badniks to detect the signals of new portals when they appear. Makes finding them easier for us, you know?"

Silver asked, "And you made that out of old Badnik parts?" Tails nodded.

Blaze smiled, "You mechanical prowess continues to amaze me, Tails." Tails blushed and giggled a bit at that.

Sonic spoke, "Well, since nothing's showing up on the radar right now, we should have time to check around Ponyville like Princess Celestia said."

Applejack took off her hat and said, "Yeah, and maybe Ah could get this fixed while we're at it. Ah don't particularly like havin' a flame hole in mah hat."

Rarity finally took her hoof off of Pinkie's mouth, the party pony saying, "And then I said, 'Oatmeal?! Are you crazy?!' I mean, I've…"

As Pinkie continued to ramble about how some things shouldn't go together (before switching to another subject), Rarity shook her hoof, making sure Pinkie hadn't gotten any spittle on it before turning to Applejack and using her magic to take her hat from her hoof. "I will take care of it as soon as we get back to Ponyville, Applejack darling. I need to take all of these gems back to the Carousel Boutique anyway," she said.

Sonic looked over at Zecora and asked, "Hey Zecora, you want to come with us? I'm sure you're used to the Everfree Forest and all, but right now, it might not be a bad idea to hang around Ponyville."

Zecora nodded, "After seeing that creature, I would have to agree. I wonder now if it has before been in the Everfree."

Celestia said, "Then let us go now. There is no time to waste." With that, she turned and started walking in the direction of Ponyville. Luna soon turned and followed after her and so did everyone else after Spike climbed onto Twilight's back.

As they walked through the Everfree Forest, Twilight noticed Blaze was talking to Silver. For a moment, she considered waiting until they got to Ponyville to try to talk to her, but then decided that now would probably be the best time. Quickening her pace slightly, she walked until she was walking alongside Blaze, though still letting her have her space. When there was a break in Blaze and Silver's conversation, Twilight spoke, "Uh, excuse me… Princess Blaze?"

Blaze looked over at her and said, "Please don't address me by my title. It means nothing here in Equestria, and I don't like it when my guards address me by it."

Twilight looked nervous at that, saying, "Sorry…"

Blaze waved a hand and then asked, "So did you have something you wanted to say to me, Miss…?"

Twilight perked up a bit at that and said, "Oh, right! You might not have heard earlier because Pinkie Pie and Rarity were talking to you, but my name is Twilight Sparkle. And this is Spike, my friend and number one assistant." She gestured to the baby dragon sitting on her back as she said that last part.

Spike, for his part, waved while saying, "Hi!"

Blaze looked at Spike, "Oh, um, hello. I can't say I've ever had the privilege of meeting a baby dragon before…" Spike seemed satisfied to hear that. Blaze then looked at Twilight and asked, "So is there something you wanted, Miss Sparkle?"

Twilight replied, "Uh, well, earlier I was talking with Sonic and Tails about some of the things my friends and I have gone through since Spike and I moved to Ponyville. And during a few of those conversations, Sonic mentioned you."

Blaze raised an eyebrow, "He did?"

Twilight nodded, "Yeah. He told me a bit about you and said some nice things about you. Things that made me want to meet you."

Blaze's expression returned to normal at that. "Oh. What did he say, exactly?" she asked.

Twilight replied, "Well, he told me that, until you traveled to his world and met Cream and Cheese, you were kind of a loner, preferring to do things by yourself. Is that true?" Blaze nodded in confirmation, so Twilight went on, "That's kind of like how I used to be before Princess Celestia sent me to Ponyville. Except for my brother and Spike, I didn't really have any friends. I was too focused on my studies and thought the idea of having friends was… silly."

Blaze asked, "But you learned otherwise?"

Silver nodded, "You sure don't seem like that now, Twilight."

Spike giggled, "Yeah, but other than that, she hasn't changed that much!"

Twilight glared back at him for a moment before turning back to Blaze and Silver and saying, "Yes, I did learn that there's nothing wrong with having friends; in fact, they're great things to have. I realized this when they insisted on helping me after I read about a thousand year old prophecy and wanted to stop it. They helped me every step of the way, and we succeeded in preventing the night from becoming eternal and saving Princess Luna. After that, I wanted to stay in Ponyville with my new friends, and Princess Celestia allowed me and Spike to."

Blaze nodded, "I see. That reminds me of what happened when I first met Cream, Sonic, and their friends for the first time. The Sol Emeralds that keep my world alive had been taken by Dr. Eggman, and as I followed him, I was sent to Sonic's world, where I set about trying to retrieve them from him. Shortly after I set out, I met Cream and her Chao friend Cheese, who insisted on coming with and helping me. I was initially confused by her actions, and did not agree with her and her other friends when they said I should seek out Sonic. We eventually fought, which is when I realized that I was wrong for thinking I could save my world by myself, and after I saved Cream from Dr. Eggman, Sonic and I set everything right and I departed for my world."

Twilight smiled, "Well, it seems like you've become good friends with Sonic, just like I've become good friends with Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity."

Blaze nodded, "I have. I've reflected on everything that Cream, Sonic, and their friends have taught me, and I see the wisdom in them. While I am still wary around others and still try to handle things by myself, I am more open to… social events and spending time with friends. Honestly, at times, I feel foolish for being alone for as long as I was."

Silver patted her on the shoulder while saying, "Don't worry about it, Blaze. That kind of thing happens to all of us. Besides, you admit that you've changed; that's a good sign if I ever saw one. Despite what Spike says, I'm sure Twilight's changed a lot too."

Zecora stepped up alongside Twilight and spoke, "She has indeed, Silver, and as she learns, she changes still. Since her arrival, she has done much and become a part of Ponyville."

As their conversation continued, Sonic and Tails, who were walking a little further ahead, listened in as they walked. Tails soon smiled at Sonic, "You were right, Sonic. They're getting along great."

Sonic nodded, "I had a feeling they would. It never hurts to know someone you can relate to."

As they continued walking, a thought began to work its way up into Twilight's brain. When they were near the edge of the Everfree Forest, Twilight looked at Silver and asked, "Hey Silver, what did you call that crescent-shaped blade of energy you made before?"

Silver thought about her questions for a moment before the answer hit him. "Oh, you mean the Psychic Knife?" he asked.

Twilight nodded, "Yeah, that. How do you do that? Is it something you've mastered?"

Silver replied, "Uh, sort of. I came up with it and perfected it after hours of training my psychokinetic powers. Why, why do you ask?"

Twilight looked down at the ground as she started, "Well, this might sound a bit silly, but…" She looked up at Silver and asked, "I was wondering if you'd be willing to teach me how to do it?"

---

First of all, I want to apologize for how late this chapter is. Oh sure, I said I had a busy October, but still, it's really late. Part of the reason for that is since it was already going to be late, I wanted to make it as good as possible to make up for the lateness. And of course that usually means making it longer, which takes even MORE time. Kind of a reverse Sonic '06 if you think about it. I stuck a bunch of stuff in here, so I hope it was worth the wait.

I'd also like to point out this comic made by SonicGuy15 on DeviantArt:

sonicguy15. deviantart. com gallery/#/d5gpzex

While this scene did not make it into the story, Blaze's fight with Garble at the end of the chapter was inspired by it. Had I not decided to have Braeburn, Little Strongheart, and Silver appear in this chapter, and have Blaze do something, Shadow and Gilda would have definitely appeared in this chapter. It would have made the chapter a lot shorter, but that's beside the point.

Now, before the chapter notes, I'd like a little input from all the patient readers who I've left hanging for so long. I'm trying to decide (and this is not related to how late this chapter is) what level to use for "Sonic Unleashed". I've narrowed it down to two choices: Dragon Road or Skyscraper Scamper. So what do you guys think? Should the ponies get a taste of the Far East on their adventure (I could totally see there being a place called "Hoofkaido" somewhere outside of Equestria)? Should they visit Sonic's world's equivalent of Manehattan? Or maybe a little of both?

Oh, and there's another thing I wanted to ask. Has anyone ever used a song in their story? I'm planning to have some of the characters sing a song in the next chapter and, aside from one story, I've never really done that in a story before. I could use some pointers.

Now then...

Sonic's mention of flowers that make someone itchy and puff up like a balloon is a reference to the poison flowers from the "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" episode, "Pseudo Sonic".

Sonic's mention of Mazuri from "Sonic Unleashed" is a reference to the people living there and the fact that zebras can be seen there.

When Sonic jumps into Zecora's cauldron, the sound he makes is supposed to be the Warp Pipe sound effect from "Super Mario Bros.".

Sonic's referencing the critical response to Sonic '06 came from this video: watch?v=JL6ok_DHl2k

Twilight and Tails' talk of Extra-Equestrial ley lines was an idea I originally saw in the fanfic "Halo: On the Wings of Angels" by Gyvon. I mean no disrespect or anything to him, because his story is awesome! I just like the idea he came up with and thought it would be something good for the two, as Dash might say, eggheads to talk about.

When Sonic and Applejack are talking about the Little Planet, they're referencing the fact that Tidal Tempest took place inside of a volcano.

Spike's exclamation "MY TOES, MY TOES!" is a reference to "TMNT: Turtles in Time".

And Silver is Magneto when he first appears.

Sonic wondering if Silver thinks he's a ninja is a reference to Silver's current English voice actor, Quinton Flynn, who also does the voice of Raiden in the "Metal Gear" series.

Both Tails and Silver reference the events of "Sonic Rivals 2" when they're talking about the Ifrit. Tails mentions that Espio told the others what happened sometime after the events of the game because Espio was Silver's partner in that game and he helped Silver stop the Ifrit. This is because, as axeseeker pointed out, Takashi Iizuka confirmed that Eggman Nega is Eggman's descendent and Tails somehow knew this in the 3DS version of "Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games". Probably the only way he could've known this would be if Espio told him.

Silver's talk of the future is based on what he says about it in the DS version of "Sonic Colo(u)rs".

Pinkie's talk of lampshades is referencing the fact that, after Appleloosa, pretty much no one talks about Flame Core again (Lampshade Hanging).

Rainbow adventure time!

As I mentioned before, Blaze's fight with the teenage dragons was inspired by the comic made by SonicGuy15.

Okay, I think that's it. See you all later!

Music:

World of Darkness - www. youtube. com watch?v=jtubc5s2mJo

Dragon Encounter - www. youtube. com watch?v=QIO_pStY2pA

In the Everfree Forest - www. youtube. com watch?v=gGwc9A61GDU

Zecora's Hut - www. youtube watch?v=fuvrCYidrtM

A Mysterious and Ruined World - www. youtube. com watch?v=xyAp8JhtNCI

A World in Flames - www. youtube. com watch?v=2ur5UlKZP3E

Silver Appears - www. youtube. com watch?v=IWUd_yfiJsE

Following Sonic and Silver - www. youtube. com watch?v=HldIbw96C2w

Appleloosa - www. youtube. com watch?v=DlMGdW87Wuo

Sonic vs. Silver - www. youtube. com watch?v=aYof04i2Lpc

The Final Attack and Restoration - www. youtube. com watch?v=i_egWdoNVR8

Silver's Story - www. youtube. com watch?v=3zvjYLAzJb8

Next Course of Action - www. youtube. com watch?v=H0mE0PLqUCw

Reunion - www. youtube. com watch?v=JI-bAF2MidM

Inside the Volcano - www. youtube. com watch?v=UA6HHGw4Ynw

Moving Through the Volcano - www. youtube. com watch?v=1OAFidRWLtw

Iblis Appears - www. youtube. com watch?v=0ZuffYCPcLE

Silver's Determination - www. youtube. com watch?v=B2Y5RkJ6JkA

No Rest for the Weary - www. youtube. com watch?v=d6sP9vXW9Og

Ending the Battle with a Bang - www. youtube. com watch?v=3pD8Q3gy_y8

Now You Can See, Back in the Everfree - www. youtube. com watch?v=giUV7E31laY

Blaze vs. the Teenage Dragons - www. youtube. com watch?v=0pRmZInUsKA

A New Mystery - www. youtube. com watch?v=UBMn_BFC0Zo

A Talk in the Forest - www. youtube. com watch?v=D2NmqDyAioc