Following the scene at the hospital, the group once again headed for Sugarcube Corner to regroup, thankfully not having to deal with any curious foals on the way there this time. When they got there, they found Mayor Mare and the Cakes on the front step, the tan earth pony evidently having been looking for the group. Mr. and Mrs. Cake ushered everyone inside, both of them and Pinkie Pie going into the kitchen afterwards and Shining Armor and the princesses taking Mayor Mare into the back where they were earlier to talk while the rest of them spread out around the shop, Soarin quickly trotting over to one of the display cases to get a good look at the pies and the Cutie Mark Crusaders moving off to the side near it so Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo could talk to Babs.

Currently, Tails, Blaze, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike were clustered around the Main Six's favorite table. Atop it, in the center, sat the six Elements of Harmony and the six Chaos Emeralds that had been recovered so far. Tails was checking something on his radar while both Rarity and Spike eyed the Chaos Emeralds for their own reasons. The ponies in the back looked over as Twilight said, "So, with the Element of Magic restored, we've fully reunited the Elements of Harmony once again."

Without looking up from his radar, Tails nodded, "Yep. And according to my analysis, it doesn't look like either the Element of Magic or the red Chaos Emerald suffered any negative effects due to being turned to stone. I think I can safely say that, barring any outside influences, the Elements of Harmony will work perfectly when they're needed."

Spike began to discreetly reach for the Chaos Emeralds as Rainbow Dash asked, "What do you mean by 'outside influences', Tails? We've got the Elements of Harmony, and we're all together. Why wouldn't they work?"

Tails looked up and said, "I'm not saying they won't, Rainbow. I'm just being open-minded here." Rainbow raised an eyebrow at him in confusion.

Blaze spoke, "Don't get upset by what Tails is saying, Rainbow Dash. It never hurts to think about a situation realistically. He's just saying there's a chance that," she stopped short upon noticing Spike reaching for the green Chaos Emerald and the look on his face and used her left hand to push the gems away before finishing, "something could come up that you're not expecting." She then glanced at Spike out of the corner of her eyes, the baby dragon giving her a sheepish look.

Rainbow said, "Okay, I'll agree with that. But still, we've got all the Elements of Harmony! We can take down that thing that messed with our worlds now!"

Rarity looked up at her, "That's true, Rainbow Dash, but I can't help but feel we're not quite prepared yet."

Marine piped up from behind Blaze, "Oy, she's right, mate! You're a doubloon short of a treasure!"

Tails nodded, "Right. We're still missing a Chaos Emerald. We should be fully prepared before we try to find that creature."

Twilight looked at him and asked, "How long will it take to locate the last Chaos Emerald?"

Tails looked down at his radar and started moving things around on the touch screen while saying, "The Chaos Emeralds are like magnets; they have the power to attract each other. I'm trying to use the energy signatures of the ones we have to hone in on the last one. It shouldn't take too long to find it."

Derpy flew over and asked, "You're looking for something? Anything I can do to help?"

Rainbow Dash quickly turned to her and said, "No, that's fine, Derpy! We can handle it!" She wrapped her right foreleg around Derpy and grabbed a stool with her left hoof, flying over to the other side of the shop with both in tow. She stopped in front of the window, across from Silver, Espio, Vector, Spitfire, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders and next to Charmy and Sonic (who was leaning against the wall) and let go of the stool and Derpy. "Tails knows what to do for this kind of thing, so you just sit over here and let him work, okay?" the rainbow-maned pegasus asked. Derpy nodded after a moment and plopped down on the stool while Rainbow flew back over to the table.

Shortly after she sat down, however, Derpy's stool suddenly leaned back towards the window and the gray mare fell backwards! As she fell, she reached her forelegs out and wrapped them around Charmy's waist, the bumblebee grabbing Sonic's right arm with his left hand as he was pulled along with her. "Whoa!" Sonic exclaimed as Derpy pushed the window open and they all fell out, raising a cloud of dust as they all landed.

"Oops! My bad!" Derpy said.

Silver ran over to the window and looked out, "Uh, are you guys all right?"

Sonic sat up a moment later and said, "Yeah, we're fine." He then looked over at Charmy and Derpy before adding, "Well, most of us are."

Before Silver could ask, Charmy sat up, his helmet having somehow being twisted around when he fell to cover his eyes, and asked, "Duh, who put the lights out?" Sonic reached over and placed a hand on the bee's helmet, turning it around to its right position. "Oh, thanks! I can see just perfectly now!" he said happily. Sonic resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Silver looked back at the blue hedgehog and asked, "What about Derpy?" They both looked over at the gray pegasus, but she simply sat up and smiled, her eyes still going in different directions. The two hedgehogs looked at each other and shrugged before Sonic stood up and climbed through the window, Charmy and Derpy following behind him.

After Silver closed the window, Pinkie came bouncing out of the kitchen with a tray balanced on top of her head. She came to a stop near the front counter and spoke, "Hey guys, Mr. and Mrs. Cake just whipped up a fresh batch of muffins! Anypony want some?"

Derpy's eyes focused for a second as she smiled, "Muffins?" She spread her wings and flew over to Pinkie, her eyes returning to Derpy normal as she did.

Sonic walked over to the table while Pinkie began bouncing around the shop, Derpy desperately reaching to grab one of the muffins as she moved. The Mayor came down from the back and walked over to Sonic, saying, "Oh, that Derpy and her love of muffins."

Sonic commented, "Seems like she makes things interesting around here."

While watching Derpy successfully get her hooves on the muffin tray and Pinkie congratulate her, Mayor Mare nodded, "Yes, whether it's coming here to Sugarcube Corner to sample a new treat or doing her job, she certainly keeps Ponyville lively." She then turned to Sonic and said, "The princesses and Prince Shining Armor just explained things to me. Are you, Twilight, and the others going to set things right now, Sonic?"

Sonic turned to the tan mare and replied, "Not just yet. I'm not saying anything about the power of the Elements of Harmony since I've never seen them in action before, but it can't hurt to be fully prepared before we go after that creature. But I promise you, Mayor, it won't be long before Ponyville's back to normal."

Mayor Mare sighed, "All right, I understand. Just please try to hurry if you can. Ever since that… monster appeared over Ponyville, everypony has been quite worried about it coming back, especially now when the repairs from the changeling attack are almost complete."

Espio spoke up from the other side of the room, "I can understand their worry. With that creature appearing near the hospital, there's no telling what it will do next." He looked up at Vector and asked, "Any thoughts, Vector?"

The crocodile replied, "Your guess is as good as mine, Espio. To be honest, I'm wondering what happened to that Jet punk and his crew. We haven't seen them since we got back! They'd better not be up to something!"

Sonic shrugged, "Anything world domination-related and beyond never seemed like Jet's cup of tea, Vector… but you're right. Even with Wave being angry, it is kind of weird that the Babylon Rogues took off on us like that."

Spitfire spoke, "I don't like it either. Those birds may have been willing to work with us earlier, but now we don't even know where they are. Their leader especially seems like the kind to do something for his own gain. Those birds don't belong in the sky; their kind messes it up for the rest of us fliers."

Rainbow Dash nodded at her, "No argument there, Spitfire ma'am! Those guys definitely seemed like the crooked type! You think we should worry about finding them?"

Spitfire replied, "I would like to know what they're planning, but all of us looking for them isn't a good use of anypony's time. You guys should focus on finding this missing Chaos Emerald and stopping that monster."

Soarin looked up from the display case and asked, "So… does that mean the two of us are going to be keeping an eye out for them, Spitfire?"

The captain turned to him and said, "I was thinking of something along those lines, Soarin, yes. Why? Are you craving another pie?"

Soarin smiled at her, but replied, "No, I think I'm good, Spitfire… for now, anyway. I'm ready to get back to work." Spitfire nodded at that.

A moment later, a beeping sound came from the table and everyone turned to look; the Cakes even poked their heads out from the kitchen. "I'm getting a signal! It's coming from the Chaos Emerald!" Tails said.

Pinkie suddenly popped up on his left side between the table and the display case and smiled, "Ooh, already? That was super quick!" Despite being surprised by the pink pony's sudden appearance, Tails began sliding his fingers around on the touch screen of his radar, trying to get a fix on the signal's location as the Cakes returned to the kitchen, now knowing that there was nothing wrong.

Twilight asked him after a moment, "Where's it coming from?" Tails took his fingers off the radar a second later and turned it towards her to let her see, Rarity, Spike, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie leaning over to look as well.

While they were looking, Applejack walked over to the table and spoke up, getting everyone's attention, "Just a sec', y'all. Ah know we gotta get movin' and all, but before we go rushin' off, Ah'd like ta take Apple Bloom and her friends back ta Sweet Apple Acres. Big Macintosh and Braeburn should have noticed they're not in their clubhouse or on the farm by now. They're probably worried sick!"

Fluttershy walked up beside her and meekly said, "Um, I can do that for you, Applejack. In fact, you girls, Spike, Sonic, and Tails can go ahead without me!"

Sonic asked, "Why would we do that?"

Fluttershy replied, "W-Well, we have to get moving, right? Like Applejack said? S-So…"

Tails said, "But we can't go without Applejack or you, Fluttershy. This isn't like when each of us had something to take care of. We're getting close to fixing all this; it wouldn't feel right going without either of you."

Applejack smiled at him while Fluttershy stuttered, "O-Oh, w-well…"

Pinkie Pie suddenly wrapped her hooves around him, saying, "Aw, that's so SWEET of you, Tails!" She then remembered what Applejack said and asked, "But what about the girls? Applejack wants to take them back to Sweet Apple Acres; who's going to do that?"

Blaze spoke, "If I may be allowed to do so, I will. We are starting to get a bit too crowded to be able to move very fast, and I would rather not slow anyone down if possible. I am also concerned about that creature. It could appear again at any time."

Across from her, Silver said, "That's true, especially after it tried to grab the Chaos Emerald and the Element of Magic earlier. No telling where it'll appear next."

Blaze nodded, "Exactly. Therefore, I believe I will stay behind to make sure the girls get back to Sweet Apple Acres safely as well as keep an eye on Ponyville."

Vector spoke up, "Well, if that thing does show up again, you can count on the Chaotix Detective Agency to come rolling in to help!"

Espio glanced at him, "I hope you're not thinking you can grease the wheels and get a little something extra for our services, Vector."

Charmy giggled as he flew up alongside him, "Protecting towns from big scary monsters isn't detective work, silly!"

While Vector began to rage at Charmy, Silver turned to Blaze and said, "Well, that aside, I'll stay behind too. Shadow and his team are great, but they also can't be everywhere at once. We managed to repel that thing once; if we have to, I'm sure we can do it again." Blaze nodded in agreement.

Mayor Mare spoke, "I thank you all for volunteering to help protect Ponyville while the rest of you resolve this mess. You all truly do right by our fair city."

Marine almost immediately piped up, "Fair dinkum! Sonic and Tails always try to do right! And Blaze too! She is a princess, after all! She won't let you down, and I won't either!"

Babs, who had been listening along with her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders, spoke up at this, "Whoa, wait a minute! She's a princess?" She looked at Apple Bloom and asked, "Why didn't you tell me, Apple Bloom?"

The olive filly nervously rubbed the side of her head with a hoof as she replied, "Well, Blaze doesn't really like bein' called a princess, Babs. Ah guess Ah thought she'd get mad if we mentioned it…"

Sweetie Belle asked, "Is there a problem, Babs?"

The orange-brown filly looked off to the side nervously, "I don't know. Should we really be troublin' somepony so important with somethin' like keepin' an eye on us?"

Scootaloo smiled, "It's not like that, Babs. Blaze let us hang around earlier and even told us a little bit about her. She seemed like she was cool with us." Babs' gaze shifted to the ground, still looking doubtful.

Blaze walked over and knelt next to Babs, the filly looking up at her as she said, "If it makes you feel better, Miss Seed, your cousin Apple Bloom is right; I do not prefer being referred to as royalty. My title does not mean much outside of my home dimension as it is, and I do not enjoy the thought of it making others think they have to act a certain way."

Babs glanced to the side, "But they still do once they know you're a princess, right?"

Blaze replied, "Not always. I'll have you know that, when I was younger, I occasionally found myself the subject of teasing."

Babs looked up at her with wide eyes, "You were?"

Blaze nodded, "Indeed. I'd hardly say that, deep down, I'm really all that different from any of my people."

While they continued conversing, Fluttershy looked at Sonic and asked, "Why would anypony want to tease Blaze? She's so nice… How could they be so mean?"

Sonic scratched his head for a moment before shrugging, "Well, I wasn't there, and I'm not going to pry into her personal business without her permission, so I wouldn't know." He then looked over at Twilight and asked, "So what are we doing, Twilight?"

The lavender unicorn looked back at him and replied, "We're going mountain climbing."

Soon, at the path leading out of Ponyville

Sonic, Tails, Spike, Shining Armor, the Main Six, and the princesses looked at the path in front of them. At the end of the path, beyond the farm fields along the sides, was their next destination: the mountain containing the cave where the girls had met their first full-grown dragon. "So that's the spot, huh?" Sonic asked.

Tails glanced down at his radar for a moment before looking back up and saying, "Yeah, definitely." He looked at Twilight and asked, "Any ideas where we should look, Twilight?"

The lavender unicorn replied, "Well, there's a cave at the top where a dragon was going to be taking a one hundred year nap. That's about all any of us saw in the two times we were all up there."

Sonic raised a hand to his chin, "Huh. So that's how long a dragon sleeps." He looked down at Spike and asked, "You don't have any bad habits like that yet, do you, Spike?"

Spike looked up at him, "No way! I was trained to be an assistant! I always get up early!" He then blushed, remembering a few times in the past, and glanced down at the ground before adding, "W-Well, usually, anyway."

Rainbow Dash snickered at his embarrassment while Rarity said, "Oh, I'm sure he never will, Sonic. Spike is a very punctual and hard-working dragon, after all! It wouldn't be like our little Spikey-Wikey to suddenly do such a thing." Spike smiled happily at that.

Rainbow Dash spoke up, "Yeah, okay, that's great and all, but we've got to get going! The sooner we get that last Chaos Emerald, the sooner we can defeat that monster!"

Everybody nodded except for Fluttershy, the pink-maned pegasus looking a bit nervous at the idea of going back to that mountain again. Applejack noticed and walked over to her, placing a hoof reassuringly on her side as she said, "Now don't you worry about a thing, Sugarcube. We ain't seen that dragon since he agreed to find another place ta sleep, and we already dealt with all them loose rocks last time. This time we oughta be able to climb up without any troubles."

Princess Luna nodded, "I agree with Applejack, Fluttershy. And remember, should we encounter any dangers, we are all together; we can defend each other."

Although she was still a bit nervous, Fluttershy stood up straight and nodded, "O-Okay, Applejack and Princess Luna. I… I'll try to be brave." With that, the group started down the path, leaving the colored area of Ponyville and walking back into more whiteness.

As they were walking along the (somewhat) outlined path, Tails raised the question, "Uh, Applejack? You said something about loose rocks; is there any chance we'll see any on the way up?"

The orange earth pony looked over at him and replied, "Ah doubt it, 'less we all start yellin' 'bout somethin'. Other than that, Ah'm sure we won't have ta deal with nothin' like the last time we went up this mountain."

Princess Celestia spoke, "Ah yes, I remember receiving the friendship report for that one. That lesson on understanding one another's problems and working to sort them out while working through the situation at hand was a very fine one indeed. And I know the pony farmers and the rest of Ponyville must've been relieved that they don't have to worry about any more rocks suddenly coming loose on top of them."

Rainbow Dash nodded, "Yeah, especially since none of the farmers who live around here saw it coming. They usually try to send word about that kind of thing; guess even they weren't expecting those rockslides to happen."

Tails scratched the side of his head, "So… you're saying that a bunch of rocks on the mountain just suddenly came loose and started coming down?"

Rainbow waved a wing dismissively, "Yeah, that's all it was. No biggie."

Shining Armor looked over at a farm field as they walked by and commented, "Well, it looks like those rocks are being put to good use."

Sonic looked at another field and nodded, "Yeah. If I didn't know any better, I might've guessed the ponies out here farmed rocks instead of, well, crops."

Pinkie suddenly popped up next to him and said, "My Mama and Papa own a rock farm! I used to work with them and my sisters when I was an itty bitty little Pinkie, especially before I got my cutie mark! I was surprised when I heard that Papa let Trixie work on the farm before she came back to Ponyville! She was lucky he let her; Papa used to be so strict about who he let work on the farm! He could be real strict sometimes, especially…"

While Pinkie went on, Sonic glanced at the others and asked, "A rock farm? How does that work?"

Rainbow quickly said, "Don't ask her. Trust me, that's a bad idea; I should know." She shook her head, remembering the costumes Pinkie magically had on hand when the girls went to the Changeling Kingdom so that they could avoid mixing each other up. She was grateful that Pinkie had seemingly forgotten about them this time around.

Sonic shrugged, "Uh… okay, then." He glanced over at Twilight and noticed she was looking at the mountain intently for some reason. Facing forward again and noticing they were getting close to the base of it, he wondered if Twilight was thinking the same thing he guessed Tails was: that something about the rocks on the mountain coming loose suddenly and without the ponies who lived near the mountain seeing any signs that something like that was about to happen seemed unusual to say the least.

It wasn't long before the group had reached the base of the mountain, all of them looking up at the steep cliff in front of them. Shining Armor broke the brief silence, "Uh, Twilight? Is there a path leading up around the side of the mountain or something like that?"

His sister answered after a moment, "Uh, yes there is, Shining. We can go around the mountain to go up, or we could go straight up the side of this cliff."

Rainbow piped up, "Let's do that. That's the fast way. And since there's no dragon this time around, Fluttershy's wings should work."

The shy pegasus looked back at her still-folded wings at that, slightly moving them but not extending them. "O-Oh, um, I-I don't know, Rainbow…" she murmured. Rainbow (barely) repressed the urge to let out a groan of exasperation at this.

Tails stepped up next to her and offered, "I could be your flying buddy, Fluttershy. You know, to make sure your wings don't suddenly lock up before we get up to that ledge."

Cadance nodded, "That's very nice of you to offer, Tails. And if neither of you mind, I'll fly with you both!"

Fluttershy smiled, "O-Okay. That sounds like a wonderful idea." Tails nodded in agreement.

Rainbow said, "Well, come on, then! Let's get up this mountain already!" She flew up the side of the mountain, landing on the closest ledge above and looking down at the rest of the group.

Applejack shook her head, "Typical Rainbow." The other four silently agreed with her, though they were all glad the pegasus didn't try to fly straight up to the top like the time with the dragon, and, after Twilight had Spike climb up on her back, they started up after her. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Twilight, and Shining started walking up the side of the mountain while Tails, Fluttershy, Cadance, Luna, and Celestia flew up just above them. It took them all about a minute to get up to Rainbow, the rainbow-maned mare doing her best to remain patient.

Once they were all up, Rainbow looked around and asked, "Hey, where's Sonic?" She was answered not a second later with a quick gust of wind at her side and she turned to see the blue hedgehog standing there with his arms crossed.

"You rang?" he smirked.

"How did you get up here?" Shining asked.

Sonic shrugged, "I took the long way around. Seemed like the better choice." Shining shook his head, but smiled all the same.

Rainbow smiled as well, "Well, all right! Let's get moving, then!" With that, everyone started up the trail leading to the top of the mountain.

As they walked, Tails kept looking up curiously, eying the side of the mountain next to him. Luna noticed and, as they hugged the wall to their left, walked alongside him and asked, "Do you have something on your mind, Tails?"

The fox looked up at her and replied, "Uh, sort of, Princess Luna. I'm looking for the spots where the rocks came down. After seeing all those rocks down there, I'm curious how severe the rockslides were."

Applejack looked back at him, "We should be comin' up on the spot soon, Sugarcube. Ya can get a look-see real quick."

From up ahead, Sonic called back, "You'd better look down and watch your step before you do that, Tails. It's kind of steep here." Tails looked forward and saw Sonic leap over to Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Rarity, and Shining Armor following him. As he got a little closer and saw Pinkie Pie jump and Fluttershy and Cadance fly over to the others, he saw that there was a break in the path with nothing but air bridging it. He, Celestia, and Luna came to a stop near the break while Applejack jumped over to the others.

After she landed, Applejack turned to look at Tails and, while pointing upwards with her right hoof, said, "Up there, Tails! That's the spot!"

Celestia, Luna, and Tails all looked up to where she was pointing, Sonic, Spike, and some of the ponies looking up as well. Despite the complete whiteness of the mountain, they could see some small ledges further up along the steep cliff face. After a moment, Tails asked, "You mean the rocks fell from those ledges up there?"

Rainbow called, "No, they slid down the mountain! You know, from up near the top!"

Tails squinted as he looked further up, looking for some sort of sign to confirm what Rainbow Dash had said. "Are you sure? I don't see any ledges that high up," he said a few seconds later.

"I do not see anything either," Luna commented.

Pinkie piped up, "Ooh, ooh! I remember now! This IS the spot where the rocks were coming down! We couldn't go all the way up because rocks were rolling down across the path, but we found a hole in the mountain up on those ledges, and inside were all these cracks running up and down the inside! We used some of the rocks and Twilight's magic to seal them, and then the rocks stopped coming down!" She looked at her lavender friend and asked, "Right, Twilight?"

Twilight glanced at her for a moment before saying, "Yeah, that's right. The shaking stopped soon afterwards and the rocks stopped falling. That… fixed the problem."

Celestia looked down at Tails and asked, "Does that satisfy your curiosity, Tails?"

The fox scratched the back of his head with his right hand as he replied, "I guess so." Celestia nodded and then spread her wings, leaping over to the other side with the others. Tails and Luna shared a look before they followed her over. As they continued on, Tails took one last look up at the cliff face and thought, "That's weird… If there really were rockslides up there, it should be pretty easy to see the collapse. But that cliff face looks intact…" Shaking his head, he turned and ran to catch up with the others.

Not long afterwards, the group began to see dirt along the side of the path. "Pray tell, could somepony tell me why this dirt appears to be misplaced?" Luna asked as they walked.

"Uh, that would probably be because of the avalanche that happened the first time we came up here, Princess Luna. Ended up knockin' some rocks and dirt loose up ahead. Ah'm guessin' some dirt fell back here too," Applejack explained.

"Ooh, I certainly remember that avalanche, and having to climb over that big pile of dirt afterwards," Rarity shuddered.

Rainbow looked at her, "What's the big deal, Rarity? It wasn't hard to climb over."

Rarity glanced at her sharply, "You say that because you flew over it, Rainbow. The rest of us had to walk over it."

Before Rainbow could respond, Pinkie piped up, "Ooh, lookie!" Rarity and Rainbow looked where she was pointing and saw that, around the bend… the path was clear.

As the group stopped where the path curved, Applejack asked, "What the hay? There used ta be a huge pile o' dirt blockin' the way! We didn't clear it when we came down; what happened ta it?"

Spike shrugged, "Maybe it fell down during the rockslides? The whole mountain could've been shaking during all that."

Shining rubbed his chin with a hoof, "That is possible, Spike."

Rainbow said, "Yeah, that's gotta be what happened. I mean, what else could've caused a dirt pile to disappear?" She noticed Pinkie taking a deep breath and turned to her, saying, "I wasn't looking for an answer, Pinkie!"

While they started talking, Sonic noticed Twilight was eying the bend ahead with an unsettled look on her face. Curious, he looked as well, but couldn't see anything unusual from where he was standing. Without warning, he suddenly dashed down the path, going around the curve and heading for the bend. "Hey, where are you going, Sonic?" Tails called in surprise.

The blue hedgehog came to a stop at the bend and turned to look at the wall, at which point he saw something unusual. He looked towards the others and called, "Hey guys, come look at this!" Everyone hurried over to him, spreading out so they could all stand on the mountain path and get a good look. They saw what had caught his attention.

In the side of the mountain wall was what appeared to be a large indentation, the inside of which seemed to curve, almost like the inside of a bowl. It did not look as smooth, however; near the bottom of the inside were what appeared to be two rows of jagged rocks, and near the top was a pair of rocks that stuck out from the rest of the indentation.

"What is it?" Cadance asked.

Sonic shrugged, "Beats me. But it sticks out like a… well, a hole in the wall."

Celestia looked at Twilight and asked, "Do you have any idea what created this, Twilight?" The lavender unicorn shook her head.

Fluttershy squeaked, "Um… maybe it was always here? I mean, maybe it wasn't, but we wouldn't have known the first time we came up here…"

Rainbow nudged her, "Yeah, you're right, Fluttershy. It's probably been here this whole time and was buried under the dirt when that avalanche came down!"

She looked at Tails when the fox spoke up, "I don't know about that, Rainbow." He had his radar out and was pointing it at the indentation. "I'm getting some odd readings here. They're faint, but they look familiar somehow…" he mused.

Applejack asked, "What do ya mean, Sugarcube?"

Luna added, "Are you suggesting this is somehow… recent?"

Tails looked up, his arms dropping to his sides as he said, "I don't know… I don't think this could have happened in the last day or two, but with everything the way it is right now, I can't even begin to guess how old the rock is when it all looks the same."

Spike hopped off Twilight's back and asked, "But it could just be nothing, right?"

Tails looked down at him and replied, "Well, I hope it's nothing, Spike." Looking up at the indentation again, he added, "But if it is, it's a very odd nothing."

Pinkie giggled, "I know, right?! It almost looks like a face! Ooh, Mr. Scary Rocky Face is gonna get us!"

Ignoring the party pony's fake terror, Sonic looked back at the indentation for a moment before turning to Twilight, who was also looking at it, and asking, "How close are we to that dragon's former home?"

Twilight absently replied, "We're just about there." She continued to look up at the indentation for a few seconds, remembering when she first found following the Main Six's rockslide-halting venture. The readings Tails said his radar had picked up on had brought some of her worries about what it could be back, but she still wasn't sure what it actually was. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she turned and continued on down the path, Sonic and the others doing the same.

Not long afterwards, the group climbed up the natural steps at the end of the path and found themselves in front of the cave. Rarity looked at Tails and asked, "Tails, darling?"

The fox nodded as he looked down at his radar, "Yeah. The signal's almost topped out." He looked up, "It's gotta be in that cave."

Fluttershy whimpered, "D-Do you think it's safe in there?"

Princess Cadance said, "It doesn't sound like there's anything living in there, Fluttershy. I'm sure it's fine." Applejack nodded in agreement.

Pinkie smiled, "And if it isn't…" She zipped off to the side and came back happily waving a rubber chicken in her mouth.

Sonic and a few others raised their eyebrows at her. Sonic turned away a few seconds later and muttered, "I'm not even going to ask…" He then walked towards the cave opening, Tails, Spike, Shining, the Main Six, and the princesses following him in.

Inside, they found that the cave was completely empty save for the natural rock formations. The dragon had evidently returned to the mountain after he found a new place to sleep and taken his horde with him, as not a trace of it remained, not even one little coin. "Oh… I was hoping that beautiful diamond was still here!" Rarity pouted.

The others looked around near where the horde had been, searching for any sign of the Chaos Emerald. "Anything, Tails?" Sonic asked after a moment.

The fox consulted his radar again. "I don't understand. The signal's completely topped out. We should be right on top of it," he said after a moment. Before anyone could say anything, the dual screens on Tails' radar started acting up. "What the…?" he asked.

"What is it?" asked Luna.

"Something's happening… I'm picking up an energy fluctuation…" Tails said.

"What does that mean?" Rainbow asked. Tails didn't get a chance to answer her because something suddenly slammed against the side of the mountain, shaking the cave. Everyone turned to look towards the cave opening and saw, instead of white, the creature looking in at them! It placed its left hand on the side of the mountain as they stared, shaking the cave again.

Fluttershy yelped and dove behind Applejack, "I-It's back!" Applejack stood protectively in front of her as the yellow pegasus covered her head with her hooves.

"What's it doing up here?!" Spike exclaimed.

"It matters not. We're not waiting any longer; the time has come to put a stop to this madness," Celestia said. She looked at Twilight and spoke, in her calm voice, "Twilight Sparkle, the Elements of Harmony, if you please." The unicorn quickly nodded and used her magic to open her saddlebags, reaching for the necklaces and tiara.

Before she could pull any of them out, Sonic suddenly yelled, "Whoa!" Everyone turned to look at the back of the cave, where Sonic had been standing, and saw one of the purple portals open behind him, lifting him off his feet and pulling him towards it!

"SONIC!" the others exclaimed; a second later, he was pulled into the portal! The group looked back at the creature and saw that it was floating away from the mountain; it soon opened a purple void behind itself and floated backwards, disappearing through it. Seeing that they missed their chance, Tails turned and dashed towards the portal, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Spike, and Applejack hot on his heels, the others right behind them. They disappeared through the portal and, upon finding themselves in the odd hallway again, hurried towards the open door at the other end of the room, running into the light inside.

---

Tails and the others grunted as they came into contact with the ground, all of them taking a moment to make sure of their balance before looking around. They were standing on a plateau that had grass on it as well as some small green plants, crates marked with stars, and tree roots extending out of the wall where the portal was. Off to the side, they could see what appeared to be a statue with a bird on top of it; beyond that, they could see a large stone structure. The sky above was overcast, filled with gray clouds that hid the sun from view, but didn't completely block out its light.

Rainbow cupped her hooves around her mouth and called, "Sonic?! Sonic, where are you?!"

Pinkie did the same, adding, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

Luna looked around before saying, "I do not see him. Did that creature even bring him here?"

Applejack asked, "Fer that matter, where IS here?"

Tails walked over to the statue and placed his right hand on its side. He then looked up at the bird on top, examining it before saying, "An eagle statue…" Looking off to the side, he noticed that the plateau they were standing on was situated over a large valley; he could barely see the ground at the bottom. He looked back at the others and said, "I think we're in Kingdom Valley."

Twilight tilted her head, "Kingdom Valley?" She raised a hoof to the side of her head, rubbing it as she thought she remembered hearing that name when she had probed Sonic's unconscious memory earlier. It then clicked and she asked, "That's near Soleanna, right?"

Tails nodded, "Yeah. This is where the old Soleanna castle used to be."

Celestia cocked her head slightly, "Used to be?"

Luna asked, "Do you mean it has been abandoned?"

Tails replied, "Um, yes. You see, there was a big experiment involving some sort of prototype engine in a laboratory underneath this valley that the Duke of Soleanna was involved in. Something went wrong during the experiment and a huge accident occurred. The castle and the lab were both abandoned afterwards." He winced for a second and then held his hand to the side of his head, uttering, "Wait… did that happen, or was it…?"

Rainbow spoke, bringing the fox out of his thoughts, "Hey, uh, guys?! Enough with the history lesson already! We gotta find Sonic!"

Rarity spoke, "I agree that we must find him, Rainbow, but where are we supposed to start looking? This valley is rather large, you know." Before Rainbow could respond, a shadow suddenly draped over everyone, making everything seem darker.

"Ooh… spooky!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"Eep! What's happening?" Fluttershy squeaked as she looked around nervously.

"Good question, Fluttershy. Why'd it get dark all of a sudden?" Applejack asked.

Spike turned around and his eyes widened as he noticed something coming towards them. He pointed up at it and said, "Uh… I think THAT might have something to do with it!" Everybody turned and looked up where he was pointing… and their eyes widened as well.

Above them, not too high above the top of the valley, was a large, mostly red flying ship, the sun casting its shadow on the ground below. The front of it jutted out, giving it a long, pointy bow, it had what appeared to be some kind of cannon mounted on its underside, and it had several engines mounted on the back of it, all of them emitting bright blue flames as it flew in their direction.

"What in Equestria is that?!" Cadance exclaimed.

"It looks like one of Eggman's battleships, the Egg Carrier! But… it looks smaller and sleeker!" Tails said. As it got closer, almost flying overhead, what appeared to be a large, mostly silver mechanical dragon with black wings and parts of it red and yellow suddenly flew into view from around the other side of it, flapping its wings to stay in the air!

As they watched, they began to hear a voice that they all recognized, " I am the enemy, I will succeed, my mission, yeah, I must complete~ "

Tails gaze hardened as he looked up at the dragon, "That voice…! It's Eggman!"

Spike gasped, "What?! You mean that dragon's under his control?!"

Twilight spoke as she continued to look up at the mechanical creation, "That's not a real dragon, Spike! It's one of his machines!"

Tails' gaze turned back to the Egg Carrier as it began to pass the group, flying further into the valley. "That's it! Sonic's got to be up there, on the Egg Carrier!" he said.

Applejack looked at him, "How can ya tell?"

Tails replied, "Eggman wouldn't be flying around in something like that if he didn't have something to use it on! Why would he go joyriding in one of his machines when he's got a big battleship like that to terrorize people with?"

Shining glanced at him, "Good point."

Rainbow said, "Well, now that we know that, let's get up there and take that thing down!" She started to trot forward, "I'll go on ahead! Twilight can help the rest of you get up there!"

She was stopped when Luna extended a wing in front of her. Rainbow Dash looked up at the Lunar Princess as she spoke, "Wait… Something is happening." Looking back up at the Egg Carrier, the cyan mare saw what she was talking about.

Eggman's robot dragon was hovering near the back of the Egg Carrier, flapping its wings to stay close. On the underside of the battleship, almost out of the group's sight, a large hatch slid back, revealing an opening underneath the ship. As they watched, a large number of robots, varying in color and/or appearance, dropped out of the Egg Carrier, some of them flying off into the valley and some of them staying where they were but beginning to move towards the group, their sights locked on them.

"How many robots does Dr. Eggman have on that thing?" Twilight wondered aloud. She was both fascinated and worried, fascinated at getting a chance to see more of Eggman's tech, but worried about what it was going to do.

"What are they doing?" Rarity asked.

Tails said, "I think they're acting like anti-air defenses. I can't tell what kind of weapons they have or how fast they are, but with that many robots, it wouldn't matter because it's unlikely anything that can fly would reach the Egg Carrier unscathed."

Shining nodded, "You're right; they're acting like an airborne squad. Even if they can't stop the princesses and our pegasus friends, they're sure to do some damage on the way up. It's a typical force concentration strategy. We might be better off searching for a place where it'll be easier to punch through."

Applejack asked, "But how are some o' us gonna get through this here valley?" She looked over the side of the plateau the group was on, "Ah see nothin' but a lotta thin air between us and the ground."

Tails looked around for a second before his eyes fell on the eagle statue. "I know!" he said as he ran over to it. The others watched as he jumped up as he reached the statue and struck a strange green glowing orb attached to it with his tails. Almost as soon as he did, a strange path appeared next to the statue out of thin air, floating above the ground. Tails turned back to the others and pointed at the path, "These statues create wind paths! We can use them to move through the valley! Come on!" He then jumped up onto the path and, to everyone's surprise, began to grind along it.

"Whoa, cool!" Pinkie grinned.

Spike also looked excited by it. He looked up at Twilight, who was still staring at the wind path, and nudged her, saying, "Come on, Twilight! If Tails can do it, so can we!"

Twilight looked down at him and said, "You're right, Spike. We'd better hurry!" She lifted him up onto her back and ran towards the statue, the others quickly following suit. As she neared the statue, Twilight used a quick flash of magic to whack the orb again, hoping it would keep the path from disappearing for a little longer. She, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Shining then jumped up onto the path, Twilight, Shining, Applejack, and Rarity grinding down it on all fours while Pinkie did it on two legs. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and the princesses used their wings to take to the air instead, though they stayed close to the path and the ponies on it.

Up ahead, Tails brought out his radio and clicked it on. He then spoke, "Sonic, can you hear me? We're following Eggman's Egg Carrier through Kingdom Valley! Are you up there?"

Meanwhile, on board the Egg Carrier

Sonic jumped, landing on a flat spot of the ship behind the bridge and looking for the Egg Wyvern. He didn't see it hovering near the engines, so he reached his right hand into his quills, pulling out his radio. Clicking it on, he said, "Yeah, I'm here, Tails. I don't know what that thing did, but it dropped me off here. Uh, look, I can't talk right now."

Tails asked, "Why? Is Eggman attacking you?"

Before Sonic could respond, he winced as Eggman sang, " I'd love to destroy the blue one you know, he's an obstacle that always gets in my way~ "

Sonic grimaced as he answered, "Worse. He's singing."

Tails responded, "Oh. Yeah, we heard him too. All right, but before you go, we're traveling through the valley on foot right now. Eggman's deployed his robots, probably to keep us from flying up to the Egg Carrier. We're going to see if we can find a spot where they're less densely packed and we'll link up with you to take him down, okay?"

Sonic replied, "Okay, but you'd better hurry. This battleship… I've got a bad feeling about it."

Suddenly, the Egg Wyvern flew up behind Sonic, the hedgehog's head turning to look behind him as Eggman exclaimed, "AH-HA! Thought you could hide from me, eh? OPEN FIRE!" Sonic barely had time to leap over to the flat spot across from him before a barrage of lasers was fired from the sides of the Egg Wyvern's mouth at the spot where he had been standing, causing a large explosion. Looking back, Sonic saw that that part of the ship was a bit damaged from the attack, but otherwise it seemed okay.

Holding his radio back up to his face, the hedgehog said, "Okay, NOW he's attacking me. Catch you later, Tails." He then turned his radio off and slid it back into his quills, turning and running towards the front of the Egg Carrier; the Egg Wyvern flew around the back of the ship and then flew after him.

Eggman laughed, "Ho ho ho ho! Go ahead, Sonic; you can run, but you can't hide!" He pressed the buttons on the side of his seat as he pursued Sonic, priming another weapon. "Why did I ever design this thing this way?" he thought to himself for a moment before shaking his head. As he flew, red lasers suddenly shot out of the Egg Wyvern's wings, flying straight up into the sky before changing directions and coming back down, heading straight for the Egg Carrier!

The blue hedgehog noticed them turning around when he glanced up and changed course, managing to make a left turn by drifting along the battleship's deck. As he ran towards the port side, the first laser hit the ship where he would've been had he kept going. He leapt over the middle of the ship, narrowly avoiding another laser as it exploded behind him. He stumbled a bit when he landed, the tailwind from the front pushing him backwards. He managed to recover and leapt back towards the other side as two more lasers hit the deck near where he'd been. Each laser's impact blew a hole in the Egg Carrier's deck.

As Sonic landed back on the starboard side and started running forward again, Eggman yelled, "How dare you dodge them all, Sonic! You made me hit my own ship!"

Sonic called back, "That's your fault, Eggman! You should have put some more thought into what you armed that thing with!"

Eggman grinned, "My Egg Wyvern is full of surprises, hedgehog! Let's see you dodge this!" He pressed another button on the side of his seat and a missile launcher on the Egg Wyvern's underside opened up. It then fired a barrage of missiles that locked onto Sonic as he ran towards the front of the Egg Carrier while the Egg Wyvern flew underneath the ship.

Due to the narrow space between the middle of the ship and the open air, Sonic didn't have a lot of room to maneuver or sidestep as the missiles began to rain down on him. He sped up as they got closer, trying to reach the front of the ship as fast as he could without flying off, but they still managed to catch up to him. A few struck behind him without throwing him off, but he had to jump over most of the rest of them to avoid being hit.

As the last three closed in on him, Sonic planted his feet and his left hand against the ground, sliding as he reached the front of the Egg Carrier. He managed to turn and pick himself up before he could slide off onto the nose, running around to the port side of the ship while the remaining missiles lost their lock-on and hit the Egg Carrier's nose instead.

But Eggman was determined to not give him any room to breathe, for just as Sonic began to run towards the back of the ship, Eggman flew up from underneath the ship in front of him, the cannons on the sides of the Egg Wyvern's mouth glowing at their ends. "Gotcha!" Eggman exclaimed as they fired white lasers directly at Sonic.

Just as they were about to hit him, Sonic leapt over them, one of them just passing underneath him as he soared over the lasers. Sonic curled up into a ball as they exploded against the Egg Carrier and launched into a Homing Attack at the Egg Wyvern. Eggman quickly responded by dropping the machine's canopy over him to protect himself, causing Sonic to instead grab the horn on top of it. The Egg Wyvern flew up above the stern as it began swinging its head around, trying to shake the hedgehog off. Sonic held on tight, knowing it would likely throw him over the side if he let go.

As he held on, Sonic noticed where the connectors for the canopy were located, just behind the machine's head. He grunted to himself; as long as that canopy was on, Eggman would be able to keep him from attacking the cockpit. After hanging on for a few more seconds, he let go as the Egg Wyvern swung its head up, the hedgehog flying up for a moment before he looked down at the connectors and performed another Homing Attack, striking the connectors and weakening them.

The Egg Wyvern swung its head back violently at this attack, hitting Sonic and sending him flying towards the bridge. The hedgehog hit the ground hard at the spot below the bridge while Eggman turned his Egg Wyvern around and landed at the middle of the stern. The mad genius then yelled, "Watch what you're doing! I worked really hard on this masterpiece!"

Standing up, Sonic turned to him while rubbing his head and grinned, "Really? You sure it's not something you scrapped before you used it?"

Eggman replied, "Of course not! It's a brand new machine!" Shaking his head to chase away some stray thoughts about the Egg Wyvern, he said, "See if you can make it through this, Sonic!" With that, he detached the arms connected to the Egg Wyvern's mouth, both of them flying towards Sonic as the 'fingers' began to rotate in a circle. Sonic took off running as they began to fire rounds at him like a pair of miniguns.

The arms continued to aim at him as they fired, forcing the hedgehog to sidestep and jump to the sides as he ran towards the Egg Wyvern. As he began to get closer, he called, "Hey Eggman! How much is it costing you for these things to fire this long? Four hundred thousand rings?"

Eggman yelled, "Joke all you want, Sonic! It won't help you get up here!" Unfortunately, the fat man had a point; with the Egg Wyvern standing at its full height, it wouldn't be easy to reach the cockpit. Sonic eyed the arms as he ran and dodged, both of them now moving alongside him as they fired. He remembered something; it gave him an idea.

He was almost to the stern section when the two arms got in front of him, firing downward and beginning to point upwards, their bullets moving in a straight line to intercept Sonic. Just as they were about to, however, he jumped up, the guns immediately moving and swerving upwards to follow him. Once he was high enough, Sonic used a Homing Attack on the arm to his right, hitting and bouncing off of it as the other arm floated up in response. Sonic quickly changed directions and attacked it with another Homing Attack; the other arm repeated what the other had done, still trying to hit him.

This went on for a few more seconds until Sonic was high enough to aim for the horn on the Egg Wyvern's canopy. Before Eggman could stop him, Sonic launched towards the horn from the machine's left side, holding out his left hand as he neared the horn. He grabbed onto the horn and swung around it like it was a pole, swinging for a second before letting go, aiming for the canopy's connectors. He hit it with a Homing Attack and, when he bounced up, followed it up with a stomp attack. And that did it; the connectors couldn't hold the canopy down anymore and it broke off of the Egg Wyvern, flying over Sonic's head as he landed before getting left behind as it fell off the Egg Carrier.

Sonic leapt off the Egg Wyvern down onto the battleship's stern while Eggman retrieved his arms and flew to the back of the ship, landing on top of the bridge and turning to look down at Sonic. "Argh…! Now look what you've done, you spine ball!" he yelled.

Sonic stood up and turned around, grinning up at him. "Looks like I cracked this egg wide open! Too bad it's not much prettier on the inside!"

Eggman growled, "You think you're funny, don't you? Well, I've got a good one for you! This beauty of mine is powered by a Chaos Emerald! I hope you hate camping, Sonic, because you're going to be roasting on an open fire when THIS dragon is through with you!" With that, the Egg Wyvern stood up straight, its missile launcher coming out of its underside as it began to charge its lasers up. After a moment, Eggman pressed a button on the side of his seat as he yelled, "Take THIS!" Almost immediately afterwards, the arms fired their lasers at Sonic while the missiles began to light up.

Sonic quickly ran towards the back of the ship, jumping up as he reached the end of the raised section of the battleship, the Egg Wyvern's lasers flying around him. They hit the ground immediately afterwards, creating an explosion that sent Sonic flying towards the ship's bridge.

While he was in the air, the systems in the missiles came on and they were all fired at Sonic, all of them heading straight for him! Narrowing his eyes at this, Sonic righted himself and got ready. As the first missile approached, he brought his legs up and pushed his feet down on top of it. Not wasting any time, he jumped towards the next missile, and then the one behind that one, and then another, making his way towards Eggman. Just as Eggman realized what Sonic was doing and was about to fly up again, the hedgehog curled up into a ball and launched a Homing Attack at him, hitting Eggman's cockpit directly and sending the Egg Wyvern tumbling off the back of the Egg Carrier.

Sonic was a bit luckier, managing to land on one of the wings on the back of the Egg Carrier, just above the engines. He crouched down for a moment after he landed and then looked up, seeing the Egg Wyvern spinning as it fell through the air before Eggman evidently began to get it back under control. Figuring that it wasn't finished yet, he stood up and ran down the wing, getting back down on the battleship and beginning to move towards the front again. His suspicions were proven correct a second later as the Egg Wyvern flew up behind the bridge a second later. "Come on, step it up, Eggman! You're too slow!" he cheekily called back over his shoulder.

Eggman growled, "Grr…! I'll get you, Sonic!"

Soon, at the lake down in Kingdom Valley

Tails and Shining Armor led the group across a stone bridge, some of them still a bit wet after having to swim through a tunnel to reach a spot where they could get up to the bridge. They'd been fighting their way through the robots that had dispersed into the valley itself, as well as some of the anti-air robots that saw them and flew down. At this point, the sky was starting to look pretty clear.

"It looks like we've taken care of most of the robots, Tails! Do you think it's safe to get up to the Egg Carrier now?" Twilight called.

"It should be! As long as one of us is fast enough, it should be no problem getting onto Eggman's battleship now!" Tails called back.

Reaching the end of the bridge, everyone came to a stop on the grass covering on top of the column they were standing on. As everyone caught their breath, Shining spoke, "All right… then here's the plan. Rainbow Dash is obviously the fastest flyer among us, so she'll fly on ahead and land on the Egg Carrier."

Rainbow looked at him and asked, "What, just me?"

Shining replied, "No. I know a spell that will allow me to track you once it's been cast. It will give me your exact position; once we know your general location, we can teleport up there without worrying about over or undershooting it. And once we're all on board…" Before he could finish, something crashed into the lake below, raising a column of water that splashed all over everybody.

"Aw, what in tarnation was that?!" Applejack exclaimed as she made sure her Stetson was still on her head.

While Rarity looked over her wet hair, Rainbow trotted over to the edge of the column where the water had sprayed up and looked down. "Great! It's not bad enough Eggman sent his robots after us, now he's dropping stuff on us!" she said, still looking down as the Egg Carrier passed overhead.

Tails and Twilight walked over to her, standing at her sides as they looked down as well. The object was floating in the water below, and they both noticed that it was on fire (though that was quickly being put out) and it looked familiar. "Um, I think that's part of the Egg Carrier actually, Rainbow!" Twilight spoke after a moment.

Tails and Rainbow both looked up at the Egg Carrier, the former realizing that one of the attachments on the starboard side was missing. He realized that was what landed in the lake. "I think you're right, Twilight! Something's wrong!" he said.

Everybody looked up at the Egg Carrier and saw that explosions and fires were starting to break out across it, causing more pieces of it to break and fall off. But above all, there was something missing from the back of the battleship. "Wh-What happened to those blue flames that were behind it?" Fluttershy asked.

"Ooh, I know! The engines aren't working!" Pinkie said.

Twilight looked at her worriedly, "Not working…? Just like…?"

Rainbow asked, "How's it staying up, then?"

Applejack looked at Tails, "Sugarcube?"

The fox said, "I'm afraid Pinkie's right. Something's definitely wrong with the engines; they're malfunctioning or something and, unless they're fixed soon, they won't be coming back on. The Egg Carrier's still got its momentum, but that won't keep it up forever. Without the engines…"

Luna asked, "It will crash…?"

Tails nodded; he then said, "We got to move." He spun his tails around and lifted off the ground, flying a little bit over the side of the column. He then turned back and held out his hands, saying, "Twilight, Applejack, grab on! I'll give you a lift!" The two hesitated only a moment before taking him up on his offer, Applejack jumping first and Tails grabbing her hooves. Twilight came next, wrapping her hooves around Applejack's hind legs. Flipping himself around so that he was holding Applejack right, Tails then began flying in the direction of the Egg Carrier while Spike climbed on Cadance's back, Rainbow and Fluttershy moved to help Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and Celestia and Luna grabbed Shining Armor with their magic.

As they flew, Applejack asked, "What are we doin', Tails?"

The fox replied, "We've got to get some idea of where that thing's gonna crash. That should allow us to predict where Eggman's machine might end up after it abandons ship."

Cadance flew up alongside Tails and asked, "What about Sonic?"

Spike nodded, "Yeah, he's up there too, man! We've still got to help him, don't we?"

Tails glanced at them as he replied, "Sonic's fallen out of the sky more times than I can recall right now, and he's always managed to land in one piece. He's done it before, he can do it again." He then faced forward, "I'm more worried about Eggman's dragon. If that thing's still working when they get off that battleship, Sonic's going to need some help to take it down!"

Meanwhile, aboard the Egg Carrier

Sonic stood off to the side underneath the bridge, observing the fires and explosions occurring on the battleship's deck. "Whoa. Looks like this party's over," he muttered.

He looked over to his right, seeing the Egg Wyvern flying alongside the battleship. The robotic dragon was heavily damaged from their fight, but it still seemed like it was able to hold together thanks to the Chaos Emerald that was powering it. "Argh… My beautiful Egg Carrier, destroyed… again?" Eggman groaned.

Sonic called, "Hey, you'd better pack it in, Eggman! The Chaos Emerald is the only thing that's keeping that thing going now! Why don't you just hand it over and we can fight some more another day?"

Eggman grinned, "Not a chance, hedgehog! I may be beat, but I'm the only one who's flying now! You, on the other hand, are all alone and on a crash course to disaster! Farewell, Sonic the Hedgehog; happy landings!" With that, he turned and flew towards the front of the Egg Carrier just as its nose broke off.

Sonic leapt down from where he was standing and ran towards the front of the ship, stopping on top of what remained of the stern. "Darn! What am I going to do now? There's got to be a way out of this!" he muttered. Looking off to the side, he noticed more pieces of the Egg Carrier were breaking off, some of them flying past it. Spotting a particularly big piece, he grinned to himself, "Perfect!"

He got down in a runner's stance as the battleship's nose exploded, readying himself before dashing forward, jumping when he was at the very end of the stern. He soared through the air past some of the debris for a few seconds before bringing his legs up in front of him as he approached a metal panel. As soon as his feet came into contact with it, he pushed off, jumping to another piece of debris. Working his way around it, he jumped onto what remained of one of the wings, the wing pointing directly at the Egg Wyvern up ahead.

Eggman spotted Sonic as he ran towards the other end of the wing and jumped off of it, heading for more of the Egg Carrier's debris. Growling, he set the Egg Wyvern to go up, sure that Sonic was determined to hit him with one last attack. As he leapt across the debris, Sonic noticed the Egg Wyvern ascending and smiled to himself, "I knew I could count on you, Eggman! Almost there…"

As the hedgehog got within attacking range, Eggman yelled, "Go away! You're not getting up here!" But Sonic kept coming, and as he reached the last piece of debris, he jumped towards the Egg Wyvern's chest, curling up into a ball as he got close. He struck it directly, pushing against the metal for a second…

And then he punched through, going right through the robot! When he emerged from the other side, he held up the cyan Chaos Emerald in his left hand as he soared through the air and grinned, "Yeah!"

Eggman's eyes widened when he saw the gem in Sonic's hand, his Egg Wyvern already starting to sputter without its power source. "NO! Put that back!" he yelled. But was Sonic really going to listen to him?

Of course he wasn't. As he held the Chaos Emerald above his head, Sonic tightened his grip around it, tapping into its power. He let out a shout as he felt the energy flowing through him, merging with the power of the other three Chaos Emeralds in his spines. He then repositioned himself and shot towards the Egg Wyvern, easily tearing through it and ripping it another new hole.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Eggman screamed. That was the last thing he managed to do before Sonic started shooting all around in midair, tearing his Egg Wyvern to shreds. The legs came off, one of the wings separated from the body, part of the tail ripped off… The final touch came when Sonic buzzed right through the neck, separating the damaged cockpit from the rest of the machine. An ejector in Eggman's chair shot the evil genius up out of the cockpit. Unfortunately for him, it didn't have a parachute installed on it…

Sonic, meanwhile, came out of his spin and grabbed an appropriately-sized piece of the Egg Wyvern with his right hand, putting it under his feet and standing on it like a snowboard. He kept his feet firmly planted to it as gravity began to pull him down, the remains of the Egg Wyvern beginning to spiral down behind him.

As he fell, Sonic saw he was approaching a large, circular building down below, multiple columns sticking out of the inside due to its missing roof. Part of the old Soleanna castle? He shook his head; he needed to focus if he was going to make a good landing. "Can't just fall straight down like I did before; that path is straight! Gotta hit the ground at just the right angle…" he thought to himself as he eyed the stone path leading to the ruined structure. Sonic focused on the path, the wind rushing past him as he angled his makeshift board slightly towards the ground. It was rushing up to meet him…

And then he hit it, his board evening out as it hit the ground and retaining most of the speed from the flight down and sending him towards the building. "Yes! I've still got it!" Sonic grinned as he pumped his right fist up in the air. He then brought it back down as he looked at the building, noticing a shadow pass over him as he slid. Looking up, he saw it was the remains of the Egg Wyvern, and it was heading straight for the building!

Sonic steeled himself; the machine crashed into the building just as he reached the entrance, knocking part of the circular wall and the columns behind it down as it crashed into the building. Stone began raining down as Sonic approached the circular interior, leaping off his board as he got inside and running to avoid being crushed by the broken stone and a falling column before he slid to a stop across from the crashed Egg Wyvern. He glanced up with a raised eyebrow, seeing the Egg Carrier fly over the building. A few seconds later, he heard an explosion as the battleship crashed; Sonic just calmly smiled as he dusted his right leg off.

A second later, he heard a grunt and turned to see Eggman had landed on his back next to the Egg Wyvern, his arms and legs splaying out on the ground a moment later. Sonic smirked and tossed the cyan Chaos Emerald up, catching it in his right hand. He then heard Tails call, "Sonic!" He looked up to see his fox buddy flying down over the remains of the broken wall, still carrying Applejack and Twilight. Above him, he saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy carrying Rarity, Pinkie descending thanks to a bunch of balloons tied around her that she had gotten from… somewhere, Cadance flapping her wings to slow her descent while Spike held onto her, and Celestia and Luna coming down gently with Shining Armor wrapped in their magic.

Twilight let go as Tails neared the ground as did Applejack, both of them landing on their hooves while Tails landed next to Applejack. Rainbow and Fluttershy set Rarity down in kind of a cross between quickly and gently as they landed, Rainbow looking relieved at finally setting her down while Fluttershy smiled at the white unicorn as she made sure she still looked flashy. Pinkie Pie hovered next to them, her balloons keeping her from touching the ground, and the princesses landed gracefully, Luna and Celestia letting Shining go, allowing him to drop down onto his hooves.

"Hey guys! Glad to see you managed to follow me this far!" Sonic said.

Twilight smiled wanly, "Well, it took a bit of work. Good thing that battleship was so big."

Rainbow grinned at him, "Man, we didn't see a lot of that battle, but that ending was so cool!"

As he slid off of Cadance's back, Spike said, "I can't believe you made such a good landing after falling that far." Sonic just smirked and tucked the cyan Chaos Emerald inside of his quills.

Tails smiled at Spike and Cadance, "I told you he'd land okay!"

Cadance smiled back at him, "You certainly did, Tails."

Pinkie was about to say something about having a party when everybody heard a growl and turned to look at Dr. Eggman, who had raised himself into a sitting position. "Oooooh… I can't believe this! I was supposed to win this time!" he complained, crossing his arms and pouting like a little kid.

Sonic just smiled, "Aw, I'm sorry! I didn't get that memo. You always lose, Eggman!" He looked at the others as he said, "It's true, you know. We're always beating this guy. It's like our job or something!" Rainbow, Applejack, Spike, and Pinkie all cracked up at that. Twilight and Tails, though, looked a bit… confused.

Tails spoke after a moment, "Well, yeah, but… what's Eggman even doing here? Was he actually waiting for us, or did he get grabbed by that monster?" Sonic shrugged, not entirely sure what the fat man was doing himself.

Rainbow shrugged, "Who cares? He's beaten; now we can lock him up for good!"

Applejack looked at her, "Lock him up?"

Rainbow nodded, "Yeah, make him pay for all the stuff he's done! Put him on trial and all that!"

Cadance spoke, "Forgive me for asking, but is that really necessary? Yes, he was using those poor Wisps as energy for his mind control scheme, and he had a giant robot dragon that he used against Sonic just now, but do we really need to put him on trial or lock him up for life?"

The Main Six and Spike all turned to look at her, Rainbow saying, "No offense, Princess Cadance, but it's totally necessary! It's like Sonic just said; this guy's constantly planning something, always causing problems! All so he can take over Sonic and Tails' world!"

Twilight nodded, "His factories and bases are pumping pollution into the environment!"

Spike said, "He summons ancient creatures to help him take over the world!"

Fluttershy squeaked, "He imprisons poor little animals and uses them to power his machines!"

Applejack said, "He blew up half o' their Moon!"

Rarity spoke, "He only thinks of himself!"

Pinkie said, "He's a bad, bad, BAD guy!" The princesses and Shining Armor could only stare at them at their accusations, unable to say anything… except for Luna.

When Applejack mentioned what Dr. Eggman had done to the Moon in Sonic's world, the Lunar Princess' face contorted into an expression of pure rage. The Element of Honesty was obviously not good at telling lies, so if she said that this human had destroyed what was likely this universe's version of her Moon, probably the most important part about her night… She turned to Shining Armor and, using the Royal Canterlot Voice in all of its booming glory, said, "CAPTAIN! ARREST THAT HUMAN IMMEDIATELY!" Shining reeled from the force of her words, Eggman looking on seemingly nervously. Celestia was about to calm Luna down when her little sister repeated herself, "ARREST HIM!"

Before anyone could do anything, the ground beneath them started to rumble, managing to shake Luna out of her rage for the moment. Turning to look over at the Egg Wyvern, everybody saw a familiar purple void forming above it. The creature soon emerged from it, flying over the group as it snatched up Eggman, who let out a surprised shout as he was lifted off the ground. Everybody crouched down when the creature flew over them; they looked up as it flew towards the building's standing wall, opening another void and disappearing through it with Eggman.

Spike stood next to Twilight as he asked, "Whoa… what was that all about?"

Twilight said, "Well, if Dr. Eggman wasn't taken before, he is now." She then deadpanned, "Not that that makes anything clearer."

Pinkie piped up, "Sure it does, Twilight! It means… wait, what were we talking about again?" The others sighed and looked up at where the creature had been, all of them feeling understandably confused.

---

Big Macintosh, Blaze, Zecora, Silver, and Trixie stood at the path leading out of Ponyville, all of them looking at the mountain. It and the surrounding area had regained color just a few minutes ago, which meant that their friends would be back soon. And sure enough, it wasn't long before they saw the group coming up the path. They looked a bit surprised at the committee waiting for them, Sonic asking, "What's up, guys? Did something happen?"

Blaze answered, "Not quite, Sonic. Not yet, at least."

Big Macintosh said, "Y'all need ta see this." Without another word, he turned and started walking back into town, Blaze, Silver, Trixie, and Zecora doing the same. The group members looked at each other in confusion for a moment before following them.

As they walked, Pinkie bounced up beside Zecora and asked, "Are we going to a party? Is there a pre-victory party going on that I didn't know about?!"

The zebra replied, "You are ever curious, my friend of pink, but what has happened is not close to what you hope and think. We'll be there soon and then you'll see, so calm yourself for now and let your questions be."

Twilight looked over at Trixie as they walked, the showmare noticing and managing to make a small smile. She had her hat and cape on, and her mane looked like it had its normal appearance… she must've had a good nap. Twilight didn't get a chance to ask, though, as the group reached the town square and saw the crowd there. Braeburn, Granny Smith, Mayor Mare, Little Strongheart, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the Chaotix, Derpy, Cream and Cheese, Marine, Knuckles, Amy, Big… they were all there.

As they joined the crowd, Tails asked, "What's everybody gathered here for?"

Silver looked back at him while pointing upwards, "Because of that." They looked up where he was pointing, Spike and the ponies immediately recognizing what it was.

In the distance, exactly where it was supposed to be, was the city of Canterlot, mountain and all. What caught everybody's attention was the fact that both the mountain and the city were both in color, which was odd considering that, up to this point, the city had been absent. "Is that…?" Sonic asked.

"That's Canterlot!" Twilight said. She looked at Blaze and Zecora and asked, "But when did it…?"

Blaze answered, "It was right about the time the mountain you were on regained its color. That city and its mountain just appeared out of thin air." Zecora nodded.

The Chaotix came over, Espio saying, "That's not all that's reappeared."

Vector nodded, "The train station that's over by the library is back too, but from the looks of it, the only place the tracks lead is Canterlot."

Applejack asked, "What do ya mean?"

Vector answered, "We checked the map of all the available destinations and looked for them, but they were gone! It's like those tracks don't exist."

Charmy piped up, "Yeah, like POOF! Gone into thin air! Lose the train tracks in exchange for the mountain!"

Looking back at the group, Espio said, "Speaking of that mountain, both it and Canterlot were colored when they reappeared. That's different from everything else we've seen so far here in Ponyville. We had to go around and get every inch of color back to this town; now that city appears and it's seemingly fine? Seems suspicious, doesn't it?"

Celestia nodded, "Indeed." She glanced back at Luna as she started walking forward, "Come with me, Luna."

The younger sister looked surprised as she followed Celestia through the crowd. "Where are we going, sister?" she asked.

Stopping once she was through the crowd, Celestia replied, "We're going to Canterlot. It would not have reappeared without a reason; we must notify the Royal Guard of the situation and give them their orders. They can assess the situation in the city and castle for us."

Shining Armor stepped forward, "Princess, what do you want us to do?"

Celestia looked back at him and said, "You, your sister, and her friends are coming to Canterlot as well, Shining Armor, but not with us. Take the train; by the time it arrives, the Royal Guard should be done making sure the citizens are well and have located anything unusual. It will be a much more efficient use of our time, don't you agree?"

Shining replied, "I guess so…"

Celestia nodded, "Of course it is. So Luna and I will fly ahead to Canterlot. All of you get over to the train station and find a ride. We'll meet you there!" With that, she spread her wings and took to the air, Luna hesitating a moment before doing the same, both princesses flying off towards Canterlot.

Knuckles grunted, "That was quick."

Amy agreed, "She didn't even ask Sonic or anyone else what they thought."

Silver shrugged, "Well… at least she's determined to do what has to be done."

Blaze nodded, "Indeed."

Tails looked at the group and said, "I guess we'd better get over to the train station then, huh?"

Rainbow nodded, "Yeah. Come on, it's this way!" She led the way, Spike and the other ponies following her, Sonic and Tails following behind them.

Before they could get too far, an elderly voice called, "Hold on a second there, young'uns."

The group came to a stop at that and turned around to see Granny Smith walking over, Big Macintosh and Braeburn flanking her. As she came over, Tails asked, "Oh, you're Granny Smith, right?"

The lime mare replied, "Mm-hmm." Once she was standing in front of Sonic and Tails, she said, more than asked, "You boys are the critters helpin' mah granddaughter and her friends out."

Sonic and Tails looked at each other for a moment before they looked back at her and the latter said, "Yes, yes we are."

Granny Smith asked, "You friends with 'em?"

Sonic nodded, "Yeah."

The elderly earth pony asked, "You gonna keep standin' by 'em?"

Sonic replied, "Of course!"

Granny Smith nodded, "Good." Her tone then turned serious, "If you don't, especially with mah granddaughter, y'all gonna have ta answer ta me. Ya understand?"

Sonic looked at her for a moment before saying, "Yeah, we understand." He then looked at Applejack and said, "You have quite the family, AJ, you know that?"

Applejack smiled proudly, "Ah got the best family." Sonic and the others smiled at that. Seeing that the family matriarch was satisfied, the group turned and headed for the train station.

When they arrived at the station, they found a train all set to go waiting at the platform, devoid of passengers. It took a bit of convincing and needing to pay for tickets, but the conductor agreed to let them use the train. Pinkie and Tails went to the front of the train, the pink pony having pulled out her pilot outfit (complete with the hat and neckerchief) and brought the fox with her to show him how to work the train while everyone else got settled.

"Okay, okay, I'll ride IN the train instead of ON it, okay?" Sonic was saying to Twilight and Rarity as he took his seat and crossed his arms, the girls sitting across from him while Spike sat next to him and Shining Armor and Cadance sat across the aisle from them.

"I just want us to sit together for now," Twilight said.

"Why would you want to sit on top of the train, anyway? That just sounds so… odd," Rarity commented.

"Maybe to you, but I enjoy it," Sonic replied. He looked out the window as he said, "I love that feeling of the wind rushing against my face. Plus, in this case, it brings back memories of wing riding on the Tornado and running on top of another train."

Rainbow, who was hovering over Applejack and Fluttershy, who were sitting across from Shining Armor and Cadance, smiled, "Yeah, that sounds awesome! I remember when we were going to Appleloosa the first time and I followed Little Strongheart on top of the cars. Looking back at it now, that was pretty cool!"

Twilight looked at Sonic and said, "Well, okay, I guess I can understand that, Sonic. But all the same, just ride in here with us for now, okay?"

The blue hedgehog uncrossed his arms and replied, "All right. But just so we're clear, depending on how long this ride takes, I'm probably going to step out and jump up on top of the train for a bit anyway, just to get some fresh air." Twilight nodded in agreement, causing Sonic to say, "Okay, so we're cool on that detail. Now then," he reached his right hand into his quills and pulled out his cell phone, "time for a little train music." He slid his right thumb around on the screen for a few seconds before making his selection and hitting the 'PLAY' button.

Up in the front of the train, Tails had finished getting the basics of the train down and got it ready for departure, telling Pinkie Pie she was free to leave. The pink pony blew the whistle and called, "Toot, toot! Next stop: Canterlot!" A few seconds later, the train came to life, pumping steam out of its stack as the wheels began to turn. It started to speed up as it pulled out of the train station, getting up to a steady speed, everyone on the train getting comfortable.

It was going to be a long ride.

---

Hi, guys! Well, I said I'd get this one out soon, and I intend to be a man of my word, so here you go! I lost an entire morning of studying for midterms and was late for a lunch date today just so I could finish up and proofread this chapter so I could post it. That's how much I care about you, dear readers!

All the same, though, I hope this chapter was exciting and interesting enough. Maybe it's just because it's WAY shorter than the chapters I've been posting recently, but I kind of feel like I missed something... something important. Am I just paranoid? You can tell me if I am.

Sorry if this wasn't your top choice for the Modern Era boss, but I really wanted to do something with this particular boss. If your top choice was the Egg Nega Wisp, don't worry; I'm planning to work something related to that particular final boss battle into this story's final boss battle. That's part of the reason I didn't want to use the Egg Nega Wisp; I've been planning this for the final boss battle for so long, it'd be all too similar if I had the Egg Nega Wisp appear in this story. So don't worry; you'll, at the very least, get a reference to that particular final battle soon.

Now, for anyone wondering about the Egg Wyvern's redesign, it's heavily based off the unfinished Sky Chase Act 1 dragon from "Sonic Adventure", at least in terms of coloring. I kind of wanted to use that exact dragon here and also have Orbot and Cubot appear, controlling its other heads, but then I realized it wouldn't be much of a wyvern anymore. So I went with the basic look of the Egg Wyvern, blended it with the "Sonic Adventure" dragon, and came up with some moves for it. I hope that doesn't sound lazy to you. Oh, and it's very likely that Orbot and Cubot will appear in the next chapter.

Now then...

Blaze telling Babs that she used to be teased is a reference to some of the backstory for her presented in one of the games' manuals. I'm not sure which one; it was either "Sonic Rush" or "Sonic '06", but either way I remember it mentioning that she used to be teased when she was little.

As mentioned numerous times in this chapter, the mountain the group climbs up is the same one from "Dragonshy". And like I promised way back in the first chapter, the incident that Twilight and Spike were talking about is finally mentioned again.

Tails knowing about Kingdom Valley is a reference to the "Team Attack Amigo" DLC for "Sonic '06", which has you play through most of the levels from the game and the Egg Genesis boss with Tails, Blaze, and Omega. One of the levels Tails goes through is Kingdom Valley.

Egg Carrier and battleship are interchangeable here, since the in-game text for "Sonic '06" called the ship the Egg Carrier while all the characters simply called it "Eggman's battleship".

Sonic running across the Egg Carrier is a reference to Sky Chase levels/games in "Sonic Adventure". When Sonic wonders if the Egg Wyvern is one of Eggman's scrapped creations, he's referencing the fact that the Sky Chase Act 1 dragon can still appear in the game despite not being finished.

I don't think Sasha will be happy when she finds out Eggman tried to recreate her...

When Sonic runs across the Egg Carrier's wreckage to get to the Egg Wyvern, he runs across it the same way he escaped with Elise across it.

The place where the Egg Wyvern crashes is the same building where Eggman attacks Shadow and Rouge and Mephiles is resurrected in "Sonic '06". I think it's part of the old Soleanna castle, but I'm not entirely sure of that.

Sonic's mention of running across a train is an obvious reference to Sunset Park Act 3 from "Sonic Triple Trouble". And Rainbow Dash obviously makes a reference to part of "Over a Barrel".

Well, that's all I've got. There's going to be a lot going on in the next chapter, so it's definitely going to be a long one. I also can't shake this feeling I have about it... it's definitely going to be busy. Since I can't say anything that would reveal anything, I'll just say this:

Truths will be revealed, lies will be ripped out, and two worlds' fates and a friendship will hang in the balance.

So keep an eye out for it! It all comes to a head in the next chapter!

Music:

Regroup at Sugarcube Corner - www. youtube .com watch?v=eIK_jrx_JVY

Time to Get Moving - www. youtube .com watch?v=lKQE1NBzqco

Quest's End - www. youtube .com watch?v=zxr76RX0z7g

Trouble Mysteries - www. youtube .com watch?v=lnPb6hhk4gI

(Former) Dragon's Den - www. youtube .com watch?v=aZyNREICJjo

Monster Attack! - www. youtube .com watch?v=HhDYkh_kcI4

It's a Trap! - www. youtube .com watch?v=CdNCrwwXfVI

A Familiar Location? - www. youtube .com watch?v=aNtWrtDfz70

Eggman Appears! - www. youtube .com watch?v=_TeqxScgIJE

Sonic vs. the Egg Wyvern - www. youtube .com watch?v=JQMmzWDKIJc

In Pursuit - www. youtube .com watch?v=CPgESa5ChL0

History Repeats Itself - www. youtube .com watch?v=-_5SMBiJAyA

Fire in the Sky - www. youtube .com watch?v=kBQ7PS_VD_g

Egg Wyvern Down - www. youtube .com watch?v=sEpWQXzM2aI or www. youtube .com watch?v=DFWadiZkA_8 or www. youtube .com watch?v=f3D5ohJAtiM

Eggman Defeated? - www. youtube .com watch?v=fgdZ76w00D4

Surprise Appearance - www. youtube .com watch?v=8hASaRRCwgc

Onward to Canterlot! - www. youtube .com watch?v=Ifzs9kPx6OA