"Ugh, I can't believe this! Why does Rarity have to take this long just to get all pretty?! Seriously, where does she think we're going?!" Rainbow Dash complained. It had been a short while since the fashionista in question, her younger sister, and Rouge had been restored and the group had spent almost all that time waiting for Rarity to finish with her makeover (since she had SLIGHTLY ruined her mascara and eye shadow during her drama queen moment) and rejoin them in the Boutique's showroom.

Fluttershy spoke, "Oh, I'm sure it won't be much longer, Rainbow Dash. I mean, Rarity doesn't exactly know the situation, but she knows that this is really important. She just wants to make sure she looks her best, like she always does."

They rainbow-maned pegasus sighed, "I know, Fluttershy. It's just… We also told her that we need to get going for that same reason. You'd think that kind of urgency would be enough to convince her that this isn't a good time to be taking her time."

Sweetie Belle, who was passing the time by playing with Scootaloo and Cheese, looked up and said, "Yeah, that would be nice, Rainbow, but of course Rarity would never do that. We all know how important her looks are to her."

Spike sighed to himself as he leaned back against the showroom stage, "Well, of course. Rarity isn't just nice; she's also beautiful. Why wouldn't she want to look perfect? Anything less than that would be a crime for a pony as beautiful as she is…" He evidently breathed that a little louder than he meant to because, on the other side of the stage, Applejack smirked to herself as she sat with her back up against the stage. Sonic, who was lying on his side on top of the stage and resting his head on his right hand, opened his eyes and moved them in Spike's direction, raising an eyebrow. It returned to its normal position a moment later and he smirked as well, closing his eyes again.

Twilight turned her head to look over at the two, having spent the last couple of minutes talking with Tails about where the new reading was coming from, how the radar worked, and some of the other machines the fox had worked on. She excused herself and walked over to the stage, stopping a short distance away. "Uh, Applejack, Sonic?" she asked tentatively. When Applejack pushed the brim of her hat up and Sonic cracked his eyes open, she said, "I know it's taking Rarity a long time to get done, but try not to fall asleep, okay?"

Sonic smiled, "No worries, Twilight. We're not having trouble staying awake or anything. It's just that this is more interesting than standing around doing nothing." He tilted his head towards Rainbow Dash at that, the cyan pegasus hovering over Tails' shoulder as he looked down at his radar, her forelegs crossed as she continued to wear an impatient look on her face.

Applejack nodded, "Yup. We ain't gonna fall asleep on ya, Sugarcube. There's nothin' we can do to speed things up, so we might as well keep it down. If we all start makin' noise, that fussbucket Rarity won't be able to concentrate, and then it'll just take 'er longer to get done makin' herself pretty."

The three of them looked over as Rouge let out a chuckle, the jewel thief currently examining some of Rarity's masterpieces. She turned to look at them and asked, "What's the matter, cowpony? You don't like to make yourself look good often?"

Applejack glanced away and tilted her hat back down, saying, "Not usually, no."

Rouge smirked to herself, "With a hat like that and hair done up that way, I suppose that's no surprise." She then turned back to the dress she had been looking at and returned to examining it, looking specifically at all of the gems Rarity had put on it. "My, my… What a feast for the eyes. Forget the dress; these beauties would be all I'd need," she said, her voice as smooth as silk.

Cream, who was standing a short distance away, overheard her and spoke, "Miss Rouge, I know those jewels look really pretty, but I must ask that you leave them where they are. Miss Rarity must have worked really hard to make that dress."

Rouge turned away from the dress and looked over at the rabbit, saying, "Oh, don't worry about that, Creamy. I'm not going to take anything… while there are witnesses around."

Before anything else could be said, everyone heard Rarity call, "Sorry to keep you all waiting!" They all turned to look at the stairs, hearing Rarity's hoofsteps coming down them. "I would've been done sooner, but Opalescence got a little clingy with me. By the time I managed to get her off, I had just about ruined all of my hard work, so I had to start over," the white unicorn said as she came down the stairs. She soon stepped off the bottom step and gave a regal pose, asking, "Well? How do I look?"

Sonic glanced over at Applejack with his eyes and whispered, "She doesn't look all that different to me." The orange earth pony gave a nearly imperceptible nod in agreement.

Twilight said, "You… you look very nice, Rarity. Er, actually, you look wonderful, like you always do."

Spike spoke up, "Yeah! You look absolutely gorgeous, Rarity!"

Rarity smiled, "Why, thank you, Spike, Twilight. Although I must say those are both understatements. I look FABULOUS!"

Rouge spoke, "Hm… A horse is a horse, of course, of course."

Rarity immediately glared at her, "Just what do you mean by that? And may I ask what you're doing next to my latest masterpieces?"

Rouge replied, "Oh, nothing. They look very nice, as do you. In an equine sort of way, that is."

Rarity immediately stomped over to her, asking, "Oh, really? And I suppose you fancy yourself an expert on such matters?"

Rouge answered, "I happen to be a jewel fancier, my little pony. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires… I love them all. They're bright and beautiful, like me."

Rarity held her head high as she said, "Well, I happen to enjoy fine jewelry myself. However, judging from your attitude, I'm willing to bet that you prefer to keep them to yourself. I, on the other hoof, am certainly willing to share them and any of my marvelous creations with my friends. And I believe you, while certainly being classy, are a poor judge of beauty."

Before this could go on any longer, Sonic stood up off the stage and spoke, "Hey, time-out, ladies!" When both Rarity and Rouge looked over at him, he said, "I'm sure you two can work this out some way, but this isn't the time, place, or way to do it. We're in the middle of a world-threatening situation here, so can you please save the beauty pageant for later?"

Rouge replied, "Well, you did ask nicely, so I suppose I can let this go… for now." She then glanced back at Rarity and said, "I hope you're not just another pretty face, honey. If making dresses and being a drama queen are the only noteworthy things you can do, then you won't last long against me." Before Rarity could respond, Rouge turned and headed for the front door. As she passed by Sonic and Tails, she said, "See you around, Big Blue. You too, Fox Boy."

Tails turned and asked, "Where are you going, Rouge?"

As she pushed the door open, she replied, "My wings feel a bit stiff after standing like that for so long. I'm going to go stretch them." She then walked outside, spread her wings, and took off.

Inside the Carousel Boutique, everyone just stared at where the bat had been standing just moments ago. "Well, wallop mah withers…" Applejack muttered.

"I can't believe it! How did she do that?!" Spike exclaimed incredulously.

Tails sighed, "That's Rouge for you. She, uh… let's just say she has a way with words."

Rainbow Dash blinked, "Uh, yeah. No kidding."

Twilight looked over at Sonic and asked, "Is she always like that?"

Sonic replied, "Not always. Still, I guess you could expect that from a government agent who is also a jewel thief. When she puts her obsession with gems aside, though, she does do her job well and can be at least somewhat trustworthy."

Sweetie Belle looked at her sister worriedly and asked, "Sis…?"

Rarity, while glaring angrily out the door, spoke, "The nerve of that bat! So she thinks she has more talent than me, does she?! Well, I'll show her! It is time for action, everypony! There is work to be done, so we must take care of it!" Although they were all surprised by the sudden display of command the fashionista was showing, everyone in the room quickly agreed. Rarity then seemed to come down from her 'high', as the aggressive look on her face faltered and she laughed nervously before saying, "What are we supposed to be doing anyway?"

Applejack sighed to herself as she stood up. After fixing her hat, she said, "C'mon, Rarity. We'll explain it to ya on the way." She then followed Twilight and Sonic over to the front door, where Tails and Rainbow Dash were already waiting. Everybody else hurried out after them, Rarity taking a moment to make sure the door was properly shut before catching up with the group. As they walked away, a pair of dark grayish violet eyes watched them from a nearby hiding spot, focusing for a moment on the lavender unicorn in the group. Once the group was far enough away, the owner of the eyes crept out from her hiding place and silently made her way towards the Carousel Boutique.

As they made their way towards their next destination (Tails and Twilight having determined where to go while they were waiting for Rarity, thus the fox wasn't using his radar to guide them), Applejack and Spike, along with Rainbow and Scootaloo, explained the whole situation to Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Fluttershy. The remaining members of the group, meanwhile, were engaged in a conversation of their own. Sonic and Tails would occasionally contribute to the explanation going on behind them, but for the most part, Applejack, Spike, Rainbow, and Scootaloo didn't need a lot of help, so the two of them, along with Cream and Cheese, mostly focused on talking with Twilight.

"So you don't learn about magic anymore, Miss Twilight?" Cream asked.

The lavender unicorn replied, "Oh, I still study magic, Cream. I'm just not studying all the time like I did back in Canterlot. Princess Celestia sent me here to make friends, and that's what I did during our venture into the Everfree Forest. After we returned her sister, Princess Luna, to normal, she allowed me and Spike to stay here and continue learning about friendship."

Sonic asked, "Yeah? How does she know you're learning? Does she come down from Canterlot every now and then with a test or something?"

Twilight giggled and said, "No, Sonic. Whenever I learn a lesson, or one of my friends does, whether it's through an adventure or a normal experience, Princess Celestia is notified with a friendship report." She blushed and sheepishly added, "I used to be the only one who had to do the reports, even when it was a lesson my friends learned, but now all of my friends write when they learn since… well, I kind of got the whole town caught under a spell I couldn't control when I thought I was going to be tardy on one of my reports." She shook her head, "Such an unbelievable mistake; I don't know what I was thinking."

Sonic grinned, "Hey, better to make mistakes now while you've still got potential than to make them later in life when you're starting to lose your touch and can't really recover or learn from them, right?" Twilight laughed nervously at that, thinking about the circumstances that led up to her wanting to enchant her old Smarty Pants doll with a 'want it, need it' spell. Unknown even to her, an uneasy look appeared in her eyes, which Sonic and Tails both noticed, noting that her formerly steady steps seemed to falter slightly as she thought about it.

Tails, hoping nothing was wrong, asked, "So after the report is written, you send it to Princess Celestia in the mail?"

Twilight snapped back to her regular demeanor and steady stride and replied, "No, not exactly. Spike takes care of sending the lessons, and he often writes them down because his writing looks so good."

Cream asked, "How does Mr. Spike send the letters, Miss Twilight?"

Twilight answered, "With his fire breath. While he does breathe normal fire like most other dragons, he also has magical fire that allows him to instantly send letters directly to the Princess as well as receive them."

Tails' eyes widened a bit at this. He asked, "Really? How does he do that? Can he only receive things from Princess Celestia or, as long as they know how to reach him, can anyone send letters to him?"

Twilight replied, "Well, I think it would be possible for him to receive things from others besides Princess Celestia, but I can't say for sure because I haven't done a lot of research on dragons. And even if I did have an extensive understanding of them, it would still probably be better to ask Spike about it. After all, letters have to go through him to get delivered."

Sonic asked, "Does Princess Celestia keep all of the reports she receives?"

Twilight replied, "Yes. In fact, she sent the ones I had written back to me after Discord corrupted all of my friends."

Tails asked, "Corrupted? What do you mean?"

Twilight explained, "He wanted to make sure we couldn't use the Elements of Harmony on him, so he took them and hid them, telling us where they were through a riddle. I made a mistake in interpreting it and thought he had hidden them in the Canterlot Hedge Maze. They weren't there, but he took the opportunity to make us play one of his games. He took Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's wings along with my horn and Rarity's horn. He then told us to find the Elements in the maze without using magic or wings and made sure to split us up as soon as we stepped inside the maze."

Sonic snorted, "Yeesh. What a creep."

Twilight sighed, "I know. And while we were split up and trying to get to the center of the maze, he… I guess he used his magic to mess with my friends, turning them all gray. I always seemed to arrive too late because he would purposely drop part of the maze after he was done with them. By the time I'd figured out where the Elements really were and we got them, Rainbow Dash had already abandoned us due to her corruption and, despite my best efforts, I couldn't take their negative attitudes anymore. I turned gray and was ready to give up on everything. And I remember Discord was enthusiastic to hear that."

Tails gagged, "He was actually PROUD of what he did?!"

Cream said, "Discord sounds like such a mean and terrible person!" Cream gave an angry "Chao!" in agreement.

Sonic asked, "So what happened?"

Twilight said, "Well, I went back to the library to get Spike and was about ready to leave for… somewhere when Spike told me Princess Celestia had been sending him a lot of scrolls since he got back. They were all the letters I had sent up to that point, and as I went through them, I began to get my faith back as well as my color. I then used a memory spell on each of my friends to remind them what Discord made them forget, which restored their colors as well. We then used the Elements of Harmony on him and they turned him to stone, just like they did when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used them on him."

Tails asked, "You petrified him?"

Twilight said, "We just used the Elements on him the same way we did with Princess Luna. I'm not sure why they freed Luna while they turned him to stone, but I'm sure there was a good reason for it."

Sonic faced forward and held a hand to his chin, saying, "Hmm…" Noticing the way Twilight was looking at him, he looked at her and said, "I know she sent them to you for whatever reason, maybe because she thought you needed help or something, but I wonder if Princess Celestia would let someone borrow those reports to look over if someone asked. I bet Blaze would be interested in reading them."

Tails smiled, "Hey yeah, she probably would!" He looked at Twilight and asked, "We told you about her, remember? You know, the princess that tried to do everything by herself and didn't want to make friends until she met Cream, Cheese, and the rest of us?"

Twilight smiled, "Oh yeah, I remember you telling me about her. So her name is Blaze, huh? I still would really like to meet her and get to know her." Cream and Cheese both looked happy to hear that. Twilight then looked forward and, after a moment of thought, said, "Oh look, we're almost to Sugarcube Corner!"

Cream asked, "Oh, already?"

Tails said, "That didn't take long at all."

Sonic nodded, "Yeah." He then looked back and called, "Did you all hear that? We're almost there!" Everyone perked up at that, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, and Spike looking like they needed to hear something good after explaining things and probably having to deal with Rarity's response to every little detail, and the whole group began walking faster, heading for the local bakery.

As Sugarcube Corner came into view, it didn't take long for everybody to notice something was going on. From where they were, they could see Knuckles, the Mayor, and Gilda standing in front of the bakery. They could also tell that Gilda was arguing with Knuckles and the Mayor, the two of them standing next to each other. Intrigued, the group quickened their pace, Tails, Twilight, and Cream hoping that Knuckles wasn't going to escalate the argument.

As they got closer, they heard Knuckles say, "I don't care what your story is! The Mayor has made it very clear to you, several times I might add, that Ponyville is in a lockdown situation! No one's allowed to be out on the streets unless they have a good reason, and saying that you're bored is NOT a good reason!"

Gilda sneered, "Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it, Red? Personally walk me home? I don't live in Ponyville!"

Knuckles growled, "Oh, you think you're cute, don't you?" He held up his fists, making sure Gilda could see his spiky knuckles, and asked, "How would you like to find out how it feels to be punched by one of these? I'd be happy to knock your beak off!"

Sonic and Tails quickly ran over to the three of them at that, coming to a stop next to them. "All right, Knuckles, you said your piece. Now calm down already," Sonic said.

The three of them turned to look at the duo, Knuckles and the Mayor saying, "Sonic!"

Gilda, however, looked less than happy to see them. "Oh, it's you two weirdoes again. Just what I wanted to see: a big party of weirdoes and ponies. The only thing we're missing is 'Stinky' Pie," she said as the rest of the group came over.

Sonic grunted, "Whatever, you turkey."

As Spike, Cream, Cheese, and the ponies came to a stop behind Sonic and Tails, Gilda yelled, "I'm a griffin, genius, not a turkey! Geez, what is your problem?!"

Sonic replied, "Hey, you're the one who started the name-calling game. You don't like being called names? Then you shouldn't have called Tails a freak."

Gilda said, "I don't get what you're all upset about. He barely looked like he wanted to cry after one little remark, unlike Fluttershy back there." Sonic and Tails looked back at that. It was clear that the yellow pegasus hadn't forgotten her first 'encounter' with Gilda, as she was already looking nervous and staying near the back of the group.

Twilight decided she should try to change the subject before things got out of hand, so she turned to the Mayor and asked, "Miss Mayor, did something happen here? Did Gilda do something?"

The tan mare replied, "Well… no. But for now, due to this crisis you're taking care of, nopony is allowed out of their houses without a good reason. I told Knuckles here about this when I met him a little while ago, and he offered to help keep an eye on everypony until it was deemed safe to go out again. So when we saw Gilda here walking around Ponyville, we caught up to her and I asked her to return to her house."

Gilda spoke up, "And like I already said, I don't live in Ponyville! And I'm certainly not going to sit around cooped up in some lame pony's house, especially not when these dweebs get to go wherever they want!"

Rainbow moved in front of Gilda and said, "We get to 'go wherever we want', Gilda, because we're actually working together and doing something worthwhile! I don't know when you got back from Cloudsdale, but clearly you haven't done anything besides get on everypony's nerves! The only good thing you've done so far is find my Element necklace and you had to go and waste our time by challenging me to a race we both knew from the beginning I would win instead of just giving it to me! Is it really that surprising that you're under the same restrictions as everypony else?"

Gilda looked ready to continue making a scene, but the Mayor turned away from her, looking at Twilight and saying, "By the way, Twilight, I'm glad to see that you've found Fluttershy, Rarity, and her younger sister. You and your friends seem to be doing a fine job so far with getting Ponyville back to normal. But may I ask what you're all doing here?"

Twilight nodded, "Yes you may, Miss Mayor. According to Tails' radar, there's another portal here at Sugarcube Corner. We came here to find it and see where it leads."

The Mayor replied, "Oh, of course! I should have guessed. Well, I wouldn't want to be a burden, so I will leave you and your friends to it. I wish you the best of luck." Twilight nodded and then the Mayor turned and walked away, heading for the town hall.

Gilda noticed her leaving and asked, "Hey, where is she going? I'm not done with her yet!"

Knuckles ignored her and looked at Sonic and asked, "Do you guys mind if I tag along? If I have to listen to this griffin any longer, I'm personally gonna send her to the Moon with my fists!"

Sonic regarded him for a moment and then said, "I don't have a problem with that, Knuckles." He looked around and asked, "What do you think, girls? Knuckles can come with us if he wants to, right?"

The ponies all voiced their agreement, though Rarity and Sweetie Belle understandably had to think about it for a minute. Sonic then walked up the steps and into Sugarcube Corner, Tails, Knuckles, Cream and Cheese, Spike, and everypony except Rainbow Dash following him in. Rainbow turned to Gilda and said, "Hey, as long as you're back in town, maybe you should go see if you can find something useful to do, G'. If you somehow manage to do that, maybe you'll have a shot at getting back on my good side!" With that, she turned and followed her friends into the bakery.

Gilda grunted, "Yeah, like the whole world revolves around Rainbow Dash's opinion of me! I'm bailing on this scene!" She spread her wings after saying that, taking to the air and flying away from Sugarcube Corner.

A few minutes later, while still flying and thinking about what Rainbow Dash had said, Gilda's sharp eyesight allowed her to notice something down on the ground. She came to a stop and flapped her wings to remain in place, taking a closer look. She could see Amy walking on the street below her, but what really caught her attention was who she was walking with. Looking back in the direction of Sugarcube Corner, she muttered, "But… I saw him… Didn't he…?" Looking back down, she smirked to herself, "Looks like I found something interesting to do after all. I bet this'll throw you for a loop, Rainbow Dash."

---

Fluttershy's eyes were wide and her mouth hung open as she looked around, marveling at all the green around the group. Less than a minute ago, they had leapt through a portal they had found in Pinkie Pie's room in Sugarcube Corner, and now they were walking through a jungle filled with bright green grass, ivy, and various other types of plants (one nearby looked like it was some kind of staircase or ladder). "Wow! This is… so lovely!" she breathed.

While looking off to the side, Applejack nodded, "It sure is, Fluttershy. And considerin' some o' the other places we've seen, it's nice ta have a little quiet."

Sonic, who was carrying Scootaloo's scooter (since it would have had a hard time getting through some of the undergrowth) and was walking alongside Twilight as she scanned a few pages of her 'fighting' book, said, "It is pretty nice. Too bad it's not gonna last long."

Rarity asked, "Whatever do you mean, er, Sonic? While this place isn't exactly growing on me, I don't see how things could, as you might say, turn ugly."

Sonic shrugged, "Well, you never know, Rarity. Still, this place definitely has a familiar scent of adventure, so I'm willing to bet there's some fun just waiting for us somewhere."

Sweetie Belle perked up at this, asking, "Fun? What kind of fun? Is there something really interesting in this jungle?" She turned to her fellow Crusader and said, "Hey Scootaloo, maybe we can get our cutie marks here! There must be tons of things we can try here!"

Before anypony could speak up, Scootaloo surprised them all by turning to Sweetie Belle and saying, "Sweetie Belle, this is not a good time to be thinking about your cutie mark!" The white filly looked at her incredulously and looked like she wanted to say something, but Scootaloo went on, "First of all, Apple Bloom isn't with us! We'd be excluding her if we tried to find out what our special talents are right now! And second, what's happened to Ponyville is way more important than our cutie marks!" She looked up at Rainbow Dash and asked, "Right, Rainbow Dash?" The cyan pegasus looked back over her shoulder and nodded.

Sweetie Belle stuttered, "But… Scootaloo…"

Sonic held up his free hand and said, "Hold that thought, Sweetie Belle." He then lowered his hand and asked, "Did anyone else hear that?"

Everyone stopped and listened for a moment. Tails soon pointed further ahead and said, "It's coming from that direction. It sounds metallic; probably Eggman's robots."

Knuckles cracked his… knuckles and said, "Sounds about right. I could use a little stress relief after dealing with that obnoxious Gilda."

Fluttershy meekly asked, "Oh, um… you're not going to hurt any of these… robots, are you, Knuckles?"

Rainbow turned to her and said, "Fluttershy, they're robots that work for a total jerk! If those Badniks that attacked us in that city were his…"

Sonic interjected, "Which they were."

Rainbow continued, "Then I doubt whatever's up ahead is going to be any friendlier! I mean, this guy unleashed a water creature and tried to take advantage of its anger AND he blew up half of the Moon in Sonic's world! And that's just what we've seen or heard! I'm sure he's done plenty of other stuff that's terrible!"

Twilight spoke tentatively, "Okay, Rainbow Dash, just… calm down for a second. If we keep it down, we might be able to see what these robots are without them knowing we're here."

Applejack said, "Good idea, Twilight. Maybe we can get the drop on 'em!"

Rarity asked, "We're not all going to be fighting, are we? Violence isn't exactly my thing."

Knuckles glanced back at her and said, "We won't know until we get a better look, but I doubt we're going to have to worry about a whole squad waiting for us. Now come on; follow me." He then led the way forward, Sonic and Tails right behind him and everyone else following behind them.

The group soon found a large green log in their way. Knuckles climbed up the side and, after looking for a minute, looked back and waved his hand in the air, telling the others they could look. They all moved to an open part of the log, moving up and looking over it into the clearing beyond, where they could see a bunch of red, bipedal robots. Spike was the first to ask, "What are those things?"

Tails answered, "Egg Pawns. Ever since the ARK incident, they've become Eggman's most common foot soldiers." Looking towards the back of the clearing, the fox spotted a cage behind the Egg Pawns. He pointed at it and said, "Look! I think there's a frog in that cage!"

Fluttershy gasped, "Really?! There is?!"

Rainbow Dash squinted, looking at the cage carefully before turning to look at Tails and asking, "Are you sure about that, Tails? That cage looks way too big for a frog. Spike could probably slip in and out of the holes in that thing easily."

Sonic said, "No, Tails is right, Dash. I know where we are now. This is that jungle where the giant frogs live."

Cream giggled, "Oh, I remember those frogs! They were big, but they were so cute when they got surprised! Right, Cheese?" Her Chao friend gave a happy nod in agreement.

Twilight asked, "Uh, how big are these frogs, exactly?"

Sonic replied, "About our size. I don't know what they eat, but don't worry. They didn't try to turn any of us into food last time, so I'm sure ponies and dragons aren't on the menu either."

Applejack sighed, "That's good ta hear." She then looked back at the cage and asked, "So how do we get that frog outta that there cage?"

Knuckles explained, "It was set up by Eggman's robots. It'll open once they're all destroyed." He then looked at Sonic and Tails and said, "Come on, let's do this thing!" The duo nodded and then all three leapt over the log, landing in the clearing and running towards the Egg Pawns.

One of the Egg Pawns spotted the team as they approached and called, "ENEMIES SIGHTED. GET THEM!" The rest of the Egg Pawns immediately turned their attention to the intruders and charged towards them.

Tails called, "Ready when you are, Knuckles!" The echidna nodded and, a second later, leapt up. Sonic and Tails jumped up after him, both of them going into a Spin Jump as they came up in front of Knuckles. The echidna pulled his right fist back and then brought it forward, hitting Sonic with it and sending him flying into the nearest Egg Pawn before sending Tails into the next nearest Egg Pawn with his left fist. While Sonic stayed airborne and started using Homing Attack to hit the Egg Pawns, Tails landed and put his twin fluffy appendages to good use, knocking the Egg Pawns that had shields off their feet to give Sonic and Knuckles a free shot. In under a minute, every Egg Pawn in the clearing had been reduced to scrap metal and the cage they had set up opened.

Almost immediately, Fluttershy flew out from behind the log and over to the cage. She gasped as she looked down at the green frog inside, "Oh my goodness! I've never seen such a big frog before!" As everyone else came out from behind the log, the shy pegasus lowered herself down onto the edge of the cage and spoke, "Hello there, Mr. Frog. How are you doing today?" Taking a closer look, she realized the frog seemed to be nervously looking around, as if expecting the Egg Pawns to come back, so she climbed in the cage and wrapped her forelegs around the amphibian, softly saying, "You poor baby. You must have been so scared."

Everyone stood back in silence, watching the frog sit quietly and relax as Fluttershy comforted it. "Wow… She really is good with animals," Tails commented after a minute of silence.

Rainbow Dash grinned at him, "Yeah. What'd I tell you, huh?"

Sonic looked over at his fox buddy and said, "Hey Tails, while Fluttershy does her thing, maybe you should see if there's anything worthwhile left in the remains of those Egg Pawns. I mean, considering what's going to happen and all…"

Tails blinked and then said, "Oh, that's right!" He quickly ran over to the nearest Egg Pawn and started digging through what was left of it.

Twilight looked at Sonic and asked, "Uh, Sonic? If you don't mind me asking, what's going to happen?"

The blue hedgehog replied, "You'll see. These frogs aren't just bigger than your average frog. They've got… I guess you could call it a kind of power."

Applejack asked, "And what kind o' power do they have?" Suddenly, a raindrop fell on her nose. Then another landed on the brim of her hat while another landed in Twilight's mane. A second later, it suddenly started pouring! "What in tarnation?!" Applejack exclaimed.

Rainbow asked, "Where did this rain come from?! There isn't even a cloud in the sky!"

Knuckles explained, "That's the special power the frogs in this jungle have: the ability to summon rain with their croaks."

Sweetie Belle looked back at the giant frog and asked, "So if the rain is falling, does that mean that that frog is really happy or something?"

Rarity whined, "Well, I'm not very happy! My hair is getting ruined!"

Sonic sighed and rolled his eyes. He then looked off to the side and noticed a large leaf sticking out of the ground. He walked over to it and grabbed it near its base. With a sharp tug, he broke it off and carried it back over to Rarity. He then held it over her, saying, "Here, Rarity. I know it's not an umbrella, but it's the best I can do."

Rarity looked up at the leaf for a moment and then took it in her magic, saying, "Mm. Thank you, Sonic. For one with hair so wild, you do appear to have some gentlemanly qualities about you." Spike immediately put on an angry expression at the white unicorn's words.

Sonic noticed the look the baby dragon was giving him, but decided not to comment on it. "Yeah, well, I kind of prefer my natural look," he told Rarity, running a hand back along the side of one of his quills.

As the rain began to slow down, Rarity said, "Oh, I'm sure there's another style that would suit you perfectly! Perhaps we can find it when we get back to Ponyville?"

Sonic shrugged, "Nah, that's okay. I'm better at stomping 'bots like this."

He looked back at Fluttershy and saw that she had released the giant frog from the embrace she had been giving it. It soon turned and hopped away into the jungle. As it left, Fluttershy called, "Bye, Mr. Frog! Say 'hi' to all of your friends for me!" She then turned around, brushing a bit of her wet mane aside and noticed her friends were wet as well. As she trotted over to them, she said, "Oh. I thought it had rained just now."

Twilight nodded, "Yeah. That frog must've really liked you."

Fluttershy smiled, "Oh yes, he certainly did. And he was so nice too."

Tails stood up and came over to the group, having salvaged a pair of Power Cores and a few spare parts from the Egg Pawns. Sonic looked over at him and asked, "Tails?"

The fox replied, "I managed to get a few things off the robots before it started raining. Not that that's a big deal; I don't think I could've found a use for most of the rest of their parts anyway."

Scootaloo asked, "So what are you going to do with that stuff, Tails?"

The fox shrugged, "I don't know yet, Scootaloo. I like to keep spare parts handy in case I need them, so… we'll see."

Rainbow said, "Well, if you're sure you're finished looking, maybe we should get going."

Rarity spoke, "I most certainly agree with Rainbow Dash! The sooner we're out of this jungle, the better! And hopefully, we won't see any more of those giant frogs."

Tails scratched the side of his head as he said, "I don't think that's going to be possible, Rarity. I mean, this is a big jungle. And the last time we passed through here, the frogs helped us make our way through the jungle."

Fluttershy flapped her wings and hovered above the ground, pressing her front hooves together as she said, "Ooh! So we'll be seeing more of those frogs?"

Cream nodded, "Yes, Miss Fluttershy! There are a lot more frogs that live in this jungle!"

Rarity sighed, "Oh… Then I suppose I will be keeping this leaf in order to protect my hair after all." She turned to Sonic and asked, "Sonic, would you be a dear and carry it for me?"

Sonic noticed the look on Spike's face again and said, "I don't think that's such a good idea, Rarity. I was planning on helping Knuckles and getting my hands dirty. I don't think I can guarantee that I won't accidentally get something on your leaf, so you might want to ask someone else for help." He then jerked a thumb in Spike's direction and added, "Someone like Spike, maybe?"

Spike's expression instantly brightened somewhat at that and he looked eager to take the lifeline he was being thrown. Rarity cast her eyes in the baby dragon's direction for a moment before looking back at Sonic and saying, "Very well, then. I see the logic in your statement; if the leaf were to get wet, it could drop something… rather unpleasant on me." Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack quietly snickered to each other at that, but Rarity ignored them, turning to Spike and saying, "Oh Spikey-Wikey~."

Spike immediately dashed over to her with a smile on his face. "At your service, Rarity!" he said as he came to a stop next to the white unicorn and wrapped his claws around the base of the leaf's stem, holding it over her.

Rarity released her magic hold on the leaf and looked up at it for a moment. She then looked down at Spike and said, "Thank you, Spike. However, I do not require the shading properties of the leaf at the moment." Nodding in understanding, Spike pulled the leaf away, holding it in his arms.

Everybody's attention was diverted to the side when Knuckles called, "Hey! It looks like the rain made a path grow over here. If you're all ready now, I suggest we see where it goes." Everyone agreed and followed him up onto some large plants that had seemingly grown up out of nowhere.

As the group continued through the jungle, in addition to more of Eggman's robots and the jungle itself, the members of the group found themselves having to deal with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo's arguing in the background. Sweetie Belle was still trying to convince Scootaloo that it would be okay for them to continue their usual crusading without Apple Bloom while the orange pegasus filly continued to disagree with her, not only because of Apple Bloom, but also because of the earlier agreement she made with Rainbow Dash about behaving and her newfound respect for Sonic and Tails. Eventually, Applejack couldn't take their bickering anymore and threatened to take the fillies behind the wooden shed as soon as they got back to Ponyville if they didn't stop arguing. The threat clearly did the trick, since both fillies stopped arguing after getting over the shock of the earth pony's threat.

Aside from all of this, the ponies also found out that Tails had been right. They did run into more of the giant frogs as they made their way through the jungle, and Fluttershy was more than happy to get to know each of them as they passed by. After meeting their fourth frog, as they stopped in a clearing rest for a minute, Tails looked over at Sonic and Knuckles after they finished talking with Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy about the different plants growing in the jungle and asked, "Hey, you guys remember the first time we ran into these frogs?"

Sonic grinned, "I know I do."

Knuckles nodded, "Yeah. We were following Eggman's Egg Fleet after he managed to distract us with an Eggman robot. Of course, as we later found out, we weren't chasing Eggman in the first place. We were actually chasing Metal Sonic as part of his plan to get all of our data."

Twilight asked, "Metal Sonic? Didn't Tails mention that name before, back at the Town Hall?"

Applejack nodded, "He sure did, Twilight. He didn't mention much else, though."

Rainbow spoke up, "Tails told me, Spike, and Scootaloo a little about this 'Metal Sonic' thing after I beat Gilda and got back to Ponyville with Scootaloo. He said something about how it's a robot that looks like Sonic and can imitate his moves or something like that."

Rarity asked, "A robot Sonic?"

Tails nodded, "Yeah. When it became abundantly clear that his animal-powered robots were no match for Sonic, Eggman started building robot copies of him that were powered by an actual energy source, hoping they would be more successful in stopping him."

Fluttershy nervously asked, "Did you say… animal-powered robots?"

Tails replied, "Yeah. Some of Eggman's robots, particularly his early Badniks, were powered by small animals. The animals themselves typically did very little to control the robots. For the most part, they served as, basically, organic batteries for the robots."

Twilight asked, "Organic batteries? Does that mean his robots were… feeding off of the animals?"

Tails answered, "No. At least, nothing ever appeared to be wrong with them when we freed them. Of course, we did have to be careful about attacking the robots so as not to hurt them ourselves. They just… powered the robots somehow, allowing them to move without the animals needing to do anything. Eggman did this for a long time, but after the ARK incident, he started using animals less and less, going with other power sources like the Power Cores until he stopped using animals altogether."

Cream put a hand on Fluttershy's shoulder and Cheese stroked her pink mane as she whimpered, "Oh… Those poor animals…"

Knuckles spoke, "Yeah, it's pretty terrible what he did to them. Thankfully, I don't think he did much else to them, so why don't we get back to the initial topic and not worry about that right now?"

Rainbow said, "Yeah, we are kind of getting off course, aren't we, Knuckles? I mean, this Eggman guy is making me madder and madder, obviously, but now probably isn't the time to be focusing on what he did before and instead focus on what's currently going on, right?"

Knuckles shrugged, "Yeah, sure, Rainbow."

Twilight decided to get the conversation started again by asking, "So what's so special about this Metal Sonic? Based on what Tails said, I'm going to guess Metal Sonic was just one of the robots that Dr. Eggman built."

Sonic replied, "You would be right about that, Twilight. Back when the idea was still new, Eggman experimented with several different designs while building robot versions of me. Metal Sonic is definitely the most unique robots out of all of them, in more ways than one. I mean, all of the other robots were totally faithful to Eggman; Metal Sonic is the only one that's rebelled against him… more than once, I might add!"

Rainbow Dash laughed, "Ha ha! This guy is smart enough to build all these different machines and he builds one that actually turns on him? That's pretty funny!"

Applejack chuckled, "Yeah! That's pretty sad. That'd be like Twilight totally messin' up an easy spell!"

The aforementioned unicorn giggled nervously, "Yeah… Boy, would I feel stupid…"

While Rainbow and Applejack continued to laugh, Sonic noticed that uneasy look show up again in Twilight's eyes. "What's with that look? Is there something bothering her?" he wondered.

He didn't get a chance to ponder this, though, as Fluttershy meekly asked, "Um… why would Metal Sonic turn against Eggman? Did he want to be friends with all of you instead?"

Tails said, "Unfortunately, no. That would be pretty cool, though, having a reformed Sonic robot helping us against Eggman. Anyway, what Knuckles mentioned earlier? That was what Metal Sonic did after putting Eggman somewhere where he wouldn't get in the way."

Rarity asked, "What was he trying to do again?"

Knuckles explained, "He was trying to collect all of our data. When he became Neo Metal Sonic, in addition to getting a new appearance, he gained the ability to shapeshift. He posed as Eggman, getting us all to fight him so he could copy all of our data, since he thought knowing everything about us would make him invincible so he could rule the world. We eventually fought him in his true form, after he revealed himself and used the power of Chaos to turn into a monster. As you can probably guess, he wasn't as perfect as he thought he was. Even though Metal Sonic had turned on him, Eggman still rebuilt him sometime afterward."

Spike asked, "So he managed to make him loyal again?"

Tails said, "For the most part. We've seen him turn on Eggman one other time since he was put back into action. One of Eggman's more recent schemes saw him disguising himself and setting up a World Grand Prix competition under the fake name he had taken on. One of the competitors in the competition was a robot he built capable of gathering data on the other racers. He was going to use this data to prove that he was the fastest in the world."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, "He set up a fake competition just to prove he was the faster than anybody else?"

Tails scratched his head, "Well, that's Eggman for you. He likes to stand out in any way he can. Anyway, not only did this plan fail, but it turned out Metal Sonic had been posing as the robot Eggman had built, passing on fake data to him while keeping the real data for himself. He then challenged Sonic to a race, which Sonic won. Metal Sonic ran off after he lost, but Eggman managed to get him back."

Rarity said, "Goodness, all this talk of planning, posing, revealing… It reminds me of the royal wedding in Canterlot."

Knuckles asked, "Of all the things you can think of, Rarity, you think of a wedding after hearing a story like that?"

Applejack said, "Wasn't just any weddin', Knuckles. It was the weddin' between Princess Celestia's niece, Princess Cadance, and Twilight's brother, Shining Armor."

Sonic looked at Twilight and asked, "You have a brother?"

Twilight answered, "Yes. My older brother is the Captain of the Royal Guard in Canterlot. Also, Princess Cadance was my foalsitter when I was little."

Sonic whistled, "Wow. That must've been some wedding."

Twilight replied, "It was, actually, especially since it had to be put on hold to deal with an army of changelings."

Tails asked, "What's a 'changeling'?"

Twilight said, "The best way I can describe it is as a cross between an insect, a unicorn, and a pegasus pony."

Sonic joked, "An insect 'pegacorn'? That sounds way stranger than a griffin. Why are they called changelings?"

Scootaloo piped up, "They're called that because they've got this really crazy magic that allows them to take on any pony's appearance! They can look exactly like any pony they want, right down to the cutie mark!"

Sweetie Belle added, "And that's why my sister was thinking of the wedding! Some kind of threat had been made against Canterlot, so Twilight's brother set up a shield to protect the city! But it turns out the Queen of the Changelings was already inside the city, posing as Princess Cadance! And she was nothing like the real Princess Cadance!"

Sonic shrugged, "Hm. I'm not surprised. A copy is usually inferior to the original, after all. Metal Sonic sure is!"

Twilight nodded, "Yeah." For a second, she felt was miles away again, but she shook her head to clear it and asked, "So aside from being able to think for himself and deceive others, how else was Metal Sonic, as you put it, unique?"

Sonic replied, "Most of the other robots had clunky designs and were more designed for fighting in close quarters. He tried a different approach with Metal Sonic; he wasn't strictly designed for close quarters fighting like the Mecha Sonic that we encountered in the Sky Sanctuary or the Silver Sonic that protected the original Death Egg. He could handle himself in a fight if need be, but he was built to be fast, to be able to race me. That's actually what makes him more dangerous than any of Eggman's other robot versions of me."

Spike spoke up, "I can believe that. He sure gave Tails a tough time when they were fighting on that, uh… that long road… thing."

Sonic looked over at him with a raised eyebrow, "Long road thing?"

Tails said, "I'm pretty sure the place where Spike and I fought Metal Sonic was the same place where you had your first race against him, Sonic."

Sonic's eyes brightened in understanding. "Oh! You're talking about Stardust Speedway! Okay, I know which 'long road thing' you're referring to."

Tails thought to himself, "I'm glad Spike remembered to mention that. I'd just about forgotten what I wanted to ask Sonic." Before anyone else could say anything, Tails asked, "Hey, Sonic?" When the blue hedgehog looked at him, he spoke, "While Spike and I were there, Stardust Speedway looked to be in pretty bad shape. The sky was full of red clouds and lightning, the city looked pretty desolate, and even the road seemed kind of dirty. Was that really where you raced Metal Sonic? I mean, I know you did race him, but did you race him there too? That place looked like an Eggman kind of place, and I know you were able to collect all of the Time Stones and drive Eggman completely off of the Little Planet."

As Sonic thought about this, thoughts began to arise in Spike and the ponies' heads. "Time Stones?", "Little Planet?", and "What the hay are they talking about now?" were some of the things they were thinking.

Sonic soon spoke, catching everyone's attention, "Now that I think about it, yeah. I did go up against Metal Sonic in a ruined version of Stardust Speedway, Tails. Thanks to that ugly statue of himself that he was building, Eggman managed to find the Time Stone hidden there before I could get to it, so I wasn't able to travel to the past and destroy his robot machine. To get to the doc's base, I had to follow him into the future, which looked like the ruined future you just described. I managed to get back to the present after defeating Metal Sonic and rescuing Amy and headed for Eggman's base, where I managed to recover both the Time Stone from Stardust Speedway and the one he originally found that he used to spread his influence in the past. I was more focused on making sure Eggman didn't escape with any of the Time Stones and rescuing Amy at the time, and since Eggman's base started falling apart after I beat him, I didn't have any time to go back and check on Stardust Speedway. Maybe you saw that future because of whatever means Eggman used to recover Metal Sonic on the Little Planet's return."

Tails replied, "Maybe. I mean, Metal Sonic didn't just look exactly like the original, he fought the same way, even having attacks similar to the ones he used when we fought him together."

Rainbow Dash loudly interrupted, "HEY! Whatever you guys are talking about sounds like complete gibberish to the rest of us! You mind explaining a few things to us, or at least telling us just what the hay you're going on about?!"

Tails sheepishly said, "Uh, sure, Rainbow. What do you guys want to know first?"

Twilight asked, "Well, for starters, can you tell us a little bit about this 'Little Planet' thing?"

Fluttershy softly added, "Yes, um, what is it, exactly?"

Sonic spoke, "Simply put? It's a natural satellite that orbits our planet, kind of like the Moon. But the fact that they're both satellites is where the similarity ends; the Little Planet is a lot greener, there may or may not be people living on it, and we only see it for one month every year."

Applejack asked, "Why only one month?"

Tails said, "We're not completely sure. We know now that it orbits our planet, but the only reason we learned of the Little Planet's existence in the first place was because of the legend surrounding it. The legend itself states that the Little Planet appears for one month every year over Never Lake. We think the reason we never see it for the rest of the year has something to do with the Time Stones. But we'll talk about those later."

Spike asked, "So basically what you're saying is that, for a whole month, you can actually see this planet from this 'Never Lake' place?"

Sonic nodded, "That's right, Spike. I'm sure you'd need a telescope to get a good look at it from the lake, though. Unless, of course, Eggman has plans for the Little Planet, in which case he'll drag it down into our planet's atmosphere."

Twilight asked, incredulously, "He moved a whole planet?!"

Tails said, "Well, it's not a big planet; hence the name 'Little Planet'. But yeah, Eggman's pulled it down close to the surface of our planet before."

Twilight asked, "How? And you said the Little Planet orbits your world, so it has its own gravity, right? Wouldn't bringing it down to the surface of your world throw off the natural balance and cause natural disasters?"

Sonic answered, "Eggman used a huge chain to pull it down the first time, and then did the same thing the next time it appeared while he was building his new Death Egg around it. I thought it was pretty hard to believe myself the first time he did it. And then he surprised me again when he ended up doing pretty much the same thing for a bunch of planets that were nowhere near where ours is. As for natural disasters, there are never any major weather changes that occur when it normally appears over Never Lake, and nothing unusual was reported when Eggman brought it down. Maybe our planet's used to the Little Planet's annual appearances, or maybe it's just something else about the Little Planet that we can't explain."

Rarity asked, "But why would this Dr. Eggman you've been talking about want to move the Little Planet in the first place? Was it because of these Time Stones you mentioned?"

Sonic nodded, "That's right, Rarity. The Time Stones have the power to warp through time, though this is only possible on the Little Planet. The Time Stones cannot be taken off the planet. That's why we think they're the reason why we only see the Little Planet for one month every year."

Tails added, "Having just one Time Stone would allow whoever possesses it to travel to almost any point in time. That's how Eggman was able to briefly ruin the Little Planet and how Sonic was able to prevent him from taking it over completely. Collecting all seven is rumored to grant the power to reshape time itself."

Sonic grinned sheepishly, "Yeah, I never did find out if that's true or not, seeing as I had to get Amy out before Eggman's base could collapse right on top of us."

Tails said, "Well, you stopped Eggman and saved the planet, Sonic. That's what counts. Anyway, that's why Eggman went after the Little Planet in the first place. The next time it appeared, he built his Death Egg Mk. II around it after chaining it and dragging it down again."

Applejack raised an eyebrow, "Death Egg? What's that all about?"

Sonic asked, "Remember the ARK? Remember how it was a research facility in outer space?" Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Scootaloo all nodded in confirmation, so Sonic said, "The Death Egg was similar, except this space station was made to be a fortress to help spread Eggman's tyranny over the planet. I still remember it as one of Eggman's greater weapons."

Tails said, "We dealt with the first Death Egg when Eggman and his robots raided West Side Island. That's where I was born, and it's also where I met Sonic. We had to chase Eggman across the island, but he eventually led us to that city we were at earlier. I remember now that's where we were: Eggman's Metropolis."

Rainbow growled, "So that was Eggman's city! I should've guessed based on everything else we know about that jerk!"

Tails hesitantly said, "Uh, sure Rainbow. Anyway, after we dealt with Eggman there, we followed him up to his Wing Fortress, where he used a shuttle to get to the Death Egg. Sonic managed to hitch a ride with him and got on board the Death Egg, where he battled with Silver Sonic and the Death Egg Robot. The fighting set off a chain reaction that caused an explosion within the Death Egg. We thought it had been destroyed, but we later learned it had crash-landed on Angel Island, Knuckles' home."

Twilight asked, "So is that how you guys met?"

Knuckles rubbed his head as he spoke, "Yeah, though I wouldn't exactly consider setting traps and just in general making things rough for them to be an example of a stellar first meeting, Twilight."

Applejack asked, "What are ya talkin' about, Knuckles?"

Knuckles explained, "I met Eggman shortly after the Death Egg landed on Angel Island. Because of my duty, I don't get to leave Angel Island very often; as a result, I was a bit… uh…"

Sonic grinned, "Gullible?"

Knuckles glared at him and yelled, "Hey, I'm telling it!"

Sonic held up his hands, "Hey, relax Knuckles! I'm just trying to help out!"

Knuckles growled, "Yeah, well, you can keep your colorful commentary to yourself, wise guy!"

Sonic rolled his eyes, "Fine. Don't mind me, 'Captain Trusting'."

Twilight asked, "What does that mean?"

Knuckles looked over at her sheepishly as he said, "Well, uh, you see, Twilight, back then I didn't get a lot of visitors to my island, if any at all. So when I met Eggman after his Death Egg crash-landed, I kinda, sorta believed him when he said that Sonic and Tails were the bad guys…"

Rainbow Dash immediately shouted, "You WHAT?! He ended up on your island with a huge space station thing and you actually listened to what he was saying?!"

Knuckles growled, "Hey, up until that point, I was pretty much cut off from the world outside of Angel Island! You try carrying out an important duty in complete isolation for years and see how willing YOU are to trust the first person you see!"

Rainbow retorted, "I know it wouldn't matter what anypony told me, even if I did spend a long time by myself! In that situation, I'd still regard anything I was told with suspicion!"

Applejack scoffed, "Oh please, Rainbow! We all know that if somepony claimed to know you and how 'cool' you are, ya'd instantly give 'em the benefit of the doubt! Besides, Knuckles just said he was isolated from the rest o' the world! He probably had no idea what the Death Egg was and Eggman fed him a bunch o' lies!"

Rainbow Dash looked ready to launch into one of her usual arguments with Applejack, but before she could say another word, Fluttershy suddenly flapped her wings and lifted off the ground, flying over to Knuckles and hovering just above him. She then spoke in her sweet, soft voice, "Oh, please don't be angry at Rainbow Dash, Knuckles. She didn't mean anything bad by what she said. And it's okay; I'm sure the real reason you believed Dr. Eggman is because you have a very trusting heart and you want to believe there is good in everypony. I think that's really sweet, actually."

Knuckles grunted, "Uh, I guess that's one way of looking at it, Fluttershy." He then smiled, "Who knows? Maybe that is the reason."

Sonic shrugged, "Yeah, I guess you could look it at that way, Fluttershy. And Knuckles has wised up a bit. At least as far as Eggman is concerned."

Rarity said, "Well… I suppose that's good. So everyone is okay with the fact that you all have, well, butted heads before?"

Tails giggled, "It's happened more than once, Rarity. Sonic and Knuckles are just funny when they're together."

Cream added, "And Sonic was able to destroy Dr. Eggman's Death Egg after Knuckles learned the truth about him. So they did part on friendly terms. And nowadays, Sonic and Knuckles usually only fight for fun."

Rainbow asked, "And you guys are okay with that?"

Sonic grinned, "Sure. Everybody's used to it by now. And it looks like something similar goes on between you and Applejack."

The orange earth pony chuckled, "Heh, heh, you got that right, Sugar-hog! Rainbow often wants to throw down with somethin' when she's not bein' lazy!"

The cyan mare glared at Applejack out of the corner of her eye and then loudly said, "Right, well, I think we've rested enough. Shouldn't we get going and find our friends?"

Sonic stood up before replying, "Yeah, I guess you're right, Dash." He then looked at the others and asked, "What do you guys think?" Everybody nodded in agreement and they all stood up, picking up anything they had with them.

As he was picking up her scooter, Scootaloo walked up next to Tails and asked, "What about that other time you mentioned, Tails? You know, when you said Eggman built another Death Egg around the Little Planet or something?"

The fox replied, "Oh that, yeah. Well, that happened some months after the original Death Egg's destruction, around the time of the Little Planet's annual appearance. Sonic had found out that Eggman was up to no good on the continent neighboring the one he had explored a few months back, so he came to me to ask if I'd tag along. Of course, I agreed; I didn't want to miss out on another adventure. After we arrived on the continent, we started searching the ruins of an old castle and the surrounding forest. As the sun went down, we saw that the Little Planet had already revealed itself. However, it had not only been chained down again, but Eggman was building something around it, which we later found out was the Death Egg Mk. II."

Applejack asked, "Why was he buildin' a new Death Egg around it?"

Sonic supplied the answer, "Because it was more cost-effective. He was using the Little Planet like a massive organic battery, similar to how he used small animals to power his older robots. As it turned out, the doc had been planning for this since our last showdown."

Tails explained, "Aside from Eggman, we also had to deal with Metal Sonic, whom Eggman had apparently revived when the Little Planet was approaching our world. We had to deal with both of them as we pursued them across the continent, eventually following them up to Eggman's Sky Fortress. Before it was destroyed, Eggman and Metal Sonic were able to escape to the new, though still incomplete, Death Egg. We managed to follow them into space by taking one of the escape pods left behind on the Sky Fortress."

Spike asked, "Yeah? And then what happened?"

Sonic said, "Well, we went looking for Eggman and Metal Sonic, of course. After they briefly fought us together, Metal Sonic came back to challenge me and Tails to another race. Despite the obstacle course we were racing on, we were able to beat him and he disappeared into the depths of the Death Egg after getting electrocuted."

Scootaloo asked, "So then you went after Eggman, right?"

Tails nodded, "Yeah. We followed him to the heart of the Death Egg, where he was waiting with his Egg Heart machine. It was a tough battle, but we managed to beat him. Not long after the Egg Heart was destroyed, a chain reaction spread throughout the Death Egg Mk. II, causing explosions on the inside of the station. We managed to find more escape pods and used them to escape, allowing us to return to our world while the Death Egg powered down."

Rainbow asked, "You mean you didn't destroy it?"

Sonic said, "We weren't able to at the time, Rainbow. We hadn't counted on Eggman building a new Death Egg around the Little Planet. If we had destroyed the Death Egg at that point, then the Little Planet would've been caught in the blast."

Rainbow murmured, "Oh yeah… Good point."

Tails added, "By forcing it to power down, we made sure Eggman would have to repair the Death Egg in order to use it and kept it from causing any more harm to the Little Planet."

Scootaloo asked, "But you guys did eventually free the Little Planet and destroy the Death Egg, right?"

Tails started, "Well…" Before he could get any further, a loud explosion from somewhere in the jungle startled everybody, some of them leaping up in shock.

"What was that?!" Spike exclaimed.

Suddenly, the clearing they were in seemed to get darker. "Hey, where'd the sun go?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Knuckles looked up towards the sky, only to see a long red ship with a familiar insignia on the side that looked like a shark. "Look! Isn't that one of the Egg Fleet's ships?!" he asked while pointing up at it.

Tails said, "I think you're right, Knuckles! We'd better get everyone out of here!"

Applejack looked back at him and asked, "Why?" A second later, one of the cannons on the ship fired a shell that crashed through jungle canopy and exploded somewhere nearby, going right through any plants in its way. Applejack winced and said, "Uh, never mind. There's mah sign."

Sonic called, "Come on, people, let's move it!" He then led the way deeper into the jungle, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash hot on his heels while Tails stayed close to Rarity and Fluttershy (Spike clinging onto her back and leaving behind the leaf as she ran) and Knuckles pulled Cream along as she carried Cheese, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle in her arms.

As the group members ran as fast as they could through the jungle, the ship continued to fire exploding shells down into the jungle. Most of them landed far away, due to the ship not being able to keep a solid lock on them due to the jungle canopy, but a few came worryingly close to exploding on top of them.

After one shell exploded behind the group, Rainbow Dash shouted, "Geez, how long can that thing keep this up?!"

Tails, as he ran behind her, called, "Who knows?! If the whole Egg Fleet is here, there's probably enough arsenal to burn this jungle to the ground!"

Applejack groaned, "Oh, this is bringin' up bad memories of the changeling invasion!"

As they continued running, Tails soon noticed that they were running out of room to run. Not far ahead, the path ended with a steep drop, and there was no telling how far the drop would be. But he also noticed something near the edge of the drop. Raising a finger to point, he called, "Hey, Sonic! Look at those flowers!"

Sonic looked and saw what his two-tailed friend was referring to. "All right! Good thinking, Tails!" he called back before speeding ahead of the group, the wind directly behind him beginning to pick up. As he got closer to the flowers, he planted his feet against the ground and slid past them, the wind following after him. The ponies soon caught up with him, as did Tails, Knuckles, and Cream, but before they could ask what he was doing, they noticed that the top of the flowers were beginning to spin around like Tails' tails. Soon afterwards, the flowers split from their stems, spinning and hovering in the air.

"Those flowers can fly?!" Twilight asked.

Sonic nodded, "Yep!" He then waved his arm, saying, "Let's go! We'll ride them out of here!" Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash hurried over to Sonic as he grabbed the farthest flower. He then grabbed one of Applejack's hooves while Twilight wrapped her forelegs around the earth pony's hind legs. As Rainbow followed the flower as it began flying away, Tails grabbed onto the next flower and grabbed one of Fluttershy's hooves, holding onto her while Spike held onto her back and Rarity wrapped her forelegs around her hind legs as they lifted off. Knuckles, still holding onto Cream, grabbed the last flower and followed the rest of the group deeper into the jungle just seconds before a shell exploded against the spot where they had been.

The wind blew all of the flowers in the same general direction: towards the deepest part of the jungle, where they would be able to lose the ship raining fire down on their heads. The only problem was that they weren't all being carried off in the exact same direction. As they flew, the flowers began to drift further apart from each other, heading for different landing spots. When Rainbow Dash noticed this, she was left unsure of which one to follow for a minute before finally deciding to stick with Sonic's flower, zooming after it as it disappeared into the jungle.

In one part of the jungle…

Knuckles looked around as the flower began to lose altitude, noticing that they were flying above a swampy part of the jungle. As he glanced around, Sweetie Belle spoke up, "Um, are we going to be landing soon? I'm… feeling a little nervous right now."

Cream looked down at her and said, "Don't worry, Sweetie Belle. I'm sure there's some solid ground here in the jungle. It won't be long now." Cheese chirped in agreement.

The rabbit, Chao, and Crusaders looked up as Knuckles spoke, "Hey, look! It might not be very safe, but there's a spot where we can land." They followed his gaze to see part of a green path above the swamp water. They had to agree; it was better than nothing. Knuckles looked up at the flower, saying, "I don't know if this thing is going to be able to make it over there, though." He looked down at Cream and asked, "Cream, if I let you go, do you think you can fly the rest of the way? I'd offer to let you ride on my back, but unless Cheese can carry those two, you've got your hands full."

Cream replied, "It's okay, Mr. Knuckles! You can count on me!" She then began to flap her rabbit ears, Knuckles letting go of her hand when he saw that they were flapping fast enough. The rabbit faltered for a moment after he let go, but then she wrapped her free arm around Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Cheese and headed for the patch of land. Knuckles let go of the flower soon afterwards, letting it fly off in another direction while he glided after Cream, landing soon after she did.

Cream set Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo down after Knuckles landed while Cheese flew up out of her arms and fluttered next to her. Scootaloo turned to her and Knuckles and exclaimed, "Wow, that was great! So you two can fly too?"

Knuckles scratched the side of his head as he said, "I wouldn't exactly call that flying. More like gliding on the wind currents. I can't glide upwards after all."

Cream added, "That's very nice of you, Scootaloo, but I'm not as good a flyer as Tails or Miss Rouge."

Scootaloo grinned, "I still think it's cool, Cream! And so is that gliding thing!"

Sweetie Belle looked around worriedly before asking, "Hey, where's Rarity and everypony else?"

Knuckles glanced around and said, "They must have landed somewhere else." He then rubbed his head and muttered, "Guess that means I'm stuck with babysitting duty…"

His comment went unnoticed, thankfully, as Cream walked over to Sweetie Belle and knelt down in front of her, saying, "Don't worry, Sweetie Belle. I'm sure your sister, Sonic, and the others are all looking for us right now, so we should look too. We'll be able to find them as long as we all stick together." Cheese nodded in agreement.

Scootaloo came over and said, "Sounds like a plan to me!" She then looked at Sweetie Belle and, noticing the look on her face, asked, "Are you okay, Sweetie Belle?"

The white unicorn filly looked at her friend and said, "Yeah, I-I'm fine, Scootaloo. I just want to find my sister and go back to Ponyville. I don't like being in this jungle anymore!"

Cream nodded and stood up. She then looked over at Knuckles and asked, "Is everything okay, Mr. Knuckles? We really should find our friends, but we don't have to leave right away if you're not feeling well."

Knuckles looked over at her in surprise, clearly not expecting her to say such a thing. He then looked away for a moment, sighing to himself before turning back to her and saying, "No, I'm okay. Come on, let's get going!" Cheese and the girls nodded and they all set off into the jungle, walking under some large, flat-capped mushrooms as they followed the path in front of them.

Meanwhile, with Tails' group…

"Sweetie Belle! Are you out there?! Can you hear me, Sweetie Belle?!" Rarity screamed at the top of her lungs.

Tails winced at her loud screaming. "I had no idea she could scream that loud," he thought to himself. He then looked over at Spike (who was holding a new leaf in his claws) and Fluttershy and whispered, "She must be really worried about her little sister, huh?"

Spike shrugged, "Eh, yeah. Still, she doesn't have to make this big a deal out of it."

Fluttershy said, "Oh Spike, that's just Rarity's way of showing she cares."

Before Spike could respond, Rarity came over and cried, "Sweetie Belle's not here! What should we do now?!"

Tails spoke, trying to sound reassuring, "Now don't panic, Rarity. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were with Knuckles, Cream, and Cheese last time we saw them. There's no doubt in my mind that they're safe. We just landed in a different part of the jungle than they did. We're sure to find them if we look for them."

His words seemed to do the trick, as Rarity's expression began to brighten. "You're right! I don't know about Cream and her… little friend, but you're right about Knuckles! He can surely protect Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo until we find them!" she exclaimed.

Fluttershy hesitantly murmured, "Yay?" A moment later, a frog croaking could be heard in the distance behind the shy pegasus. Fluttershy turned her head to look over her shoulder and said, excitedly but softly, "That sounded like one of the big frogs that live here in the jungle! Maybe he knows where Sweetie Belle is!"

Rarity gasped, "That's right! You can ask him, can't you, Fluttershy dear? Go on and meet him; I'm right behind you!" The pink-maned pegasus nodded and flew off in the direction of the croak, Rarity trotting after her. Tails and Spike looked at each other for a moment before running to catch up with them.

The two of them soon stepped around a red plant and found themselves in a clearing. They noticed Rarity standing a short distance away and walked over to her. When they were standing alongside her, they could see Fluttershy fluttering in front of, as she thought, one of the jungle's giant frogs. Tails gasped when he noticed the frog's black coloration and shouted, "No, Fluttershy! Don't talk to that frog!" But he was too late; the frog had already begun croaking.

Spike looked up at the fox and asked, "What's the matter? It's going to summon rain, same as all the other frogs we've seen, right?"

Tails replied, "Well, yes and no."

All of a sudden, the rain started falling and Spike held the leaf he was holding up over Rarity. "Thank you, Spike," she said nicely, but then she noticed that, unlike with the green frogs' rain, the area seemed to be a little darker while the rain fell. "That's strange… Something seems different about this rain," she noted.

Tails nodded, "Yeah…" He then looked up at the leaf and said, "Uh, Rarity? You might want to shield your hair with your hooves. Like, right now." The white unicorn looked at him quizzically and then followed his gaze up to her makeshift umbrella. She gasped as she realized it was quickly wilting and dropped to the ground, placing her hooves on top of her head as the rain drops began to pelt her. The rain persisted for another couple of seconds before clearing up.

The black frog croaked something at Fluttershy and then quickly hopped away. The yellow pegasus watched him hop away with a surprised look on her face and squeaked out, "I'm sorry, Mr. Frog. Did I say something that upset you?" But even if she shouted, the frog was already well out of hearing distance, so she got no reply back. A second later she turned around to face her friends and gasped softly when she saw all the wilted plants. She quickly flew over and landed in front of the trio, asking, "Wh-what happened to all the plants?"

Tails sighed, "Those black frogs are a little different from the green frogs we've seen so far, Fluttershy. Their rain causes plants to wither and die instead of grow."

Rarity looked at him and asked, "Rain that plants are unable to survive under? If I hadn't seen it just now, I never would've believed such a thing existed!"

Tails nodded, "Yeah. I guess it's because those black frogs are a lot like poison dart frogs. Their toxicity must somehow affect the rain they summon." He looked around a moment before saying, "We should still see some green frogs out here, but we'll have to try to watch out for those black frogs as we go, okay?" Spike, Rarity, and Fluttershy nodded in agreement. The four of them then started walking again, resuming the search for their friends.

Elsewhere…

Sonic, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash were all stopped along the side of the path they had been following through the jungle, all of them having agreed to stop and rest for a few minutes in order to get their bearings. Earlier, Rainbow Dash had tried to quickly find everybody else by searching from the air, but was unable to do so due to how dense the jungle had become.

As she leaned back against the tree she was sitting next to, Applejack sighed, "Shucks, how'd we manage to get split up like this? This ain't like when we were in the Canterlot Hedge Maze and Discord made those hedges rise up ta separate us."

Sonic glanced over at Twilight for a second from the rock he was reclining on, the lavender unicorn quietly flipping through a few more pages of her book as it lay on a dry patch of moss. He then looked over at Applejack and said, "We were pretty much at the mercy of the wind back there, Applejack. And the wind can't be controlled any more than the rain or the seasons."

Rainbow Dash looked over from the low-hanging tree branch she was resting on and asked, "What are you talking about, Sonic? Of course things like the weather and the seasons can be controlled! That's how Equestria works!"

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "Huh?"

Applejack tilted her hat up and looked at Sonic, explaining, "We got a pretty tight control on things in Equestria, Sugar-hog. Princess Celestia moves the Sun, Princess Luna moves the Moon, and we ponies pave the way for the seasons. Like with the Running of the Leaves, to get the trees to drop their leaves for autumn. And of course there's Winter Wrap-Up, where everypony in Equestria spends the last day of winter gettin' everything ready for spring."

Rainbow added, "And Cloudsdale is the home of the weather factory, which makes all of Equestria's weather and everything related to it. Snowflakes, rainbows, clouds… you name it, the weather factory makes it. We schedule all sorts of weather occurrences with the weather factory; they can even create wind!"

Sonic shrugged, "Huh. Well, things are a little different here, Rainbow. We don't have a place like the weather factory that supplies all of our needs. Besides, you might be able to create wind, but that's about all you can do. The wind is totally free; you can make it, direct it, what have you, but it'll still do what it wants to do. That's one thing you can't control."

Rainbow Dash glared at him and spread her wings, getting up off her back and flying over to the hedgehog, getting right in his face. "Is that so? Well, I happen to have a portal leading straight to Cloudsdale in my house! Why don't we go there when we get back and we'll find out from the pegasi working at the weather factory!" she yelled. Sonic said nothing in return; he simply looked back at her, his calm gaze meeting that of the cyan pegasus'.

Applejack called, "Simmer down there, Rainbow. This ain't the time or the place to be startin' up somethin'." Rainbow Dash slowly lowered herself to the ground, her eyes still holding a bit of fire in them. The orange earth pony then added, "Besides, even if it was, we got better things to do than have Twilight break up an argument between the two o' you. Ain't that right, Twilight?"

The lavender unicorn flinched, having not expected to be made a part of the conversation and being jerked out of her thoughts so suddenly. She cleared her throat and replied, "Yes, you're absolutely right, Applejack. In fact, we should probably get moving soon." She used her magic to close her book and levitated it back into its saddlebag. She then stood up and said, "Before we go, though, I'm, uh, going to go to the little fillies' room." Before anyone could say anything, she trotted over to a nearby bush and leapt over it, leaving a trail behind her with her magic as she scurried away so she could find her way back.

Applejack stared at where Twilight had gone for a moment before saying, "That was… a bit odd fer Twilight. Ah hope she doesn't have somethin' on her mind."

Rainbow Dash shrugged, "Eh, it's probably nothing, AJ. If Twilight is worrying about something, it's probably something silly and totally not worth getting worked up over."

Sonic looked at her quizzically, "And you don't think someone should talk to her when she has something on her mind, no matter how small it may be?"

Rainbow replied, "Come on, Sonic! Spike told us about how, when she ordered some cupcakes this one time, she was so intent on making sure each cupcake had EXACTLY the same amount of frosting that she tried to fix them herself and ended up leaving almost no frosting on them. Or the time she apparently woke him up in the middle of the night because she was freaking out about planning her schedule for the month or something. Can you believe that?" She started laughing at how precise her bookworm friend tried to be while Sonic just gave her an odd look.

After a moment, the hedgehog slid off of the rock and, after stretching, started walking in the general direction of the bush Twilight had leapt over. Applejack watched him curiously and asked, "What're ya doin' there, Sonic?"

Sonic stopped and looked at her and said, "I'm just gonna go stretch my legs, Applejack. I'll be back in a bit." He then walked past the bush before stepping over some foliage, soon leaving Rainbow and Applejack's sight.

The orange earth pony raised an eyebrow, "He's actin' kinda strange too."

Rainbow Dash said, "He's probably thinking about what we told him about Equestria and Cloudsdale, especially Cloudsdale. He and Tails told us a lot of cool stuff and we told him some cool stuff. We were just returning the favor."

Applejack rolled her eyes, "Right…"

Rainbow turned to her and said, "We should probably make sure we're ready to leave when they get back. Want to hoof-wrestle and stretch those muscles out?"

Applejack stood up with a grin, "You're on, Rainbow." She trotted over to the rock Sonic had been resting on and stood on the side opposite to Rainbow Dash. They then held out their hooves, loud grunts soon filling the air as the two friendly rivals tried to overpower each other.

Meanwhile…

Twilight was lying down on her stomach in front of a large tree, the same way she had just a minute ago. Her book was once again open in front of her, but she wasn't reading it. Instead, her chin rested atop its open pages and she had her hooves on the side of her head as she muttered to herself. "I've got to stop thinking about these things… Just listening to my friends talk about them is enough to bring those feelings back… No, no, it's not their fault! It's never their fault. Oh, how I wish that were always true… but no! In this case, it isn't! I'm the one who… Come on, Twilight, you've been through this before and it usually hasn't ended as well as you'd like. Keep it together for once! You can get over this."

*SNAP*

Twilight's head jerked up and she gave a light gasp at that sound. She looked back over her shoulder in the direction she had heard the twig snap and asked, "Who's there?!" Her eyes roamed around, but she didn't see anybody. Suddenly, there was a gust of wind coming from her front and she faced forward. Again, though, she saw nothing. Looking down, she gasped, "Hey, where did my book go?!" She leapt to her hooves and started frantically searching the immediate area for it. As she trotted around the side of the tree, she spotted a familiar blue figure sitting up against it, holding her book. "Sonic?!" she exclaimed.

The blue hedgehog said, "Interesting book you have here, Twilight. I don't really get a lot of the stuff I'm seeing here, but maybe that's because I'm not a magic user." He closed the book and then held it out towards the unicorn, adding, "Nice to know you're not just using it as a weapon. Personally, if I was going to use a book for that reason, I'd use a dictionary."

Twilight angrily snatched the book out of his hand, stuffing it back in her saddlebag and saying, "You know, if you wanted to look at it, you could've just asked me! You didn't have to sneak up on me like that!"

Sonic shrugged, "Yeah, I could have. But then I would've interrupted that conversation you were having with yourself."

Twilight's eyes widened at those words and she reeled back for a moment. She then bowed her head and blushed, asking, "You heard that, huh?"

Sonic replied, "Just the tail end of it. So, uh, what's up with you recently, Twilight?"

Twilight looked away and asked, "What do you mean?"

Sonic looked straight at her and said, "Come on, you know what I'm talking about. I've seen you staring off into the distance in the middle of a conversation and then acting like nothing is wrong, you acted all nervous when Applejack made that joke, and that whole thing just now with Applejack and Rainbow Dash… Something's on your mind, Twilight, and unlike Rainbow Dash, I think it's something big."

Twilight lowered her head in defeat. "Okay, you got me," she muttered.

Sonic stood up and asked, "So are you gonna tell me what it is, or…?"

Twilight looked up at him and said, "Well, we can talk. It's just, uh…" Sonic looked at her face as her eyes trailed off. He soon had an idea what her current problem was.

He pointed over his shoulder with a finger as he said, "Come on. Maybe a walk will help you get your thoughts in order." Without waiting for a reply, he turned and started walking away. Twilight watched him for a moment before quickly trotting towards him and then slowing her pace to walk alongside him.

After a few moments, Twilight hesitantly asked, "So what did Rainbow say about me?"

Sonic answered, "Basically that you're a worrywart who obsesses over even the smallest details."

Twilight looked miffed for a moment, but then she sighed, "That's… not too far from the truth, you know."

Sonic replied, "I didn't say it wasn't. But I do think she could have found a nicer way to say it."

Twilight said, "Well, that's just the way Rainbow is occasionally. That's not a bad thing, of course, but sometimes we wish she'd show a little more emotion, like earlier with Scootaloo."

Sonic nodded in understanding. Thinking for a moment, he asked, "Is that what you were thinking about? Your friends or something related to them?"

Twilight looked at him in surprise and said, "N-no! It has nothing to do with my friends! Well, maybe a little, but that's not… I just…" She growled to herself as she trailed off, silently cursing her lack of social skills.

Sonic turned his head towards the lavender unicorn and calmly spoke, "Look Twilight, if you don't want to tell me, I'll respect that decision. You should know, though, that I'm not judging you. I'm asking you to share your problems with me because you're a sensitive girl and I'm worried about you."

Twilight looked at his face, studying it for a moment. "He does look like he is genuinely concerned…" she thought. She then asked, "Are you sure about that? You're not going to look at me funny if it turns out to be a small problem that nopony else would worry about, like Rainbow Dash said?"

Sonic replied, "I might joke around a little from time to time, but deep down, I take concerns and problems of all sizes seriously. Like when those Shadowbolt guys challenged us to a race."

Twilight remembered Tails' words while they were working on the damaged saucers he had found, that Sonic was secretly taking her concerns about the race seriously. Still, she looked away and said, "Well… you still might be surprised by how I feel about failure."

Sonic shrugged, "When it comes to failure and loss, I think a loss is easier to get over than a failure. Failing at or with something seems like it would leave a bigger mark on someone than a loss would, but that's just me."

After a moment, Twilight spoke, "Well, my friends and I are often getting into mishaps and other situations, but the ones I've been at the center of lately, I'm not proud of." Sonic eyed her curiously; she explained, "Like the mistake I mentioned to you, Tails, and Cream when I was telling you about the friendship reports. When Princess Celestia gave me the assignment, she wanted to hear from me regularly. And up until that point, I had been sending her a letter on friendship every week."

Sonic guessed, "So you started to associate regularly reporting in with sending her a letter at least once a week?"

Twilight nodded, "Yes. And when I learned it had been a week since the last time I sent her a letter, I… kind of went overboard with trying to find something to report to her. Since my friends were… busy, I tried to make a friendship problem to resolve. That quickly led to me casting a 'want it, need it' spell on my old Smarty Pants doll that, like I said, just about all of Ponyville got caught under the influence of because I lost control of it. Thankfully, Spike had written to Princess Celestia beforehoof, so when she came to Ponyville and found out what was happening, she was able to remove the spell."

Sonic said, "Well, that was nice of Spike. So what happened to the doll?"

Twilight looked at him with an odd expression, finding it hard to believe that he was asking about that of all things. The look on his face told her he did want to know, though, so she answered, "I later found out that Applejack's big brother, Big Macintosh, took it after the spell was broken. I guess he really did like Smarty Pants, even without having the spell on it…"

Sonic chuckled, "Heh, that's kind of cute, actually. He must be a big softie, deep down."

Twilight asked, "Why did you ask about that, anyway? Aren't you at least a little appalled that I lost my rationality and tried to make a problem just to please my mentor?"

Sonic replied, "No. I don't mean to speak bad about her, since it sounds like you really respect her, but it seems to me she could've been a little more specific as to what 'regular' meant. You clearly didn't know, and since she didn't give you any feedback on what you were doing, it must've seemed like you were doing what she asked. Anyone could've put two and two together and come to that conclusion, not just you."

Twilight just stared at him, dumbfounded. By this time, they had circled halfway around the tree and were now walking back to where they started. Twilight soon regained her composure and said, "Well, okay. But then there was that time where I met myself."

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "Met yourself? What, like by time travel?"

Twilight nodded, "That's right, and she- I'd come to deliver a message to myself. But I was so amazed at the thought that time travel was actually possible that I didn't give myself a chance to speak, except to tell me where the time travel spells were kept. She- I ended up disappearing before I could give myself the message."

Sonic smiled, "I could see Tails having a similar reaction if he met a time-traveling version of himself. So what happened?"

Twilight explained, "When I first saw me, the time-traveling me, she was in bad shape. She was wearing a torn cat suit, her hair was a mess, and she had a bandage and eyepatch on. Since I didn't get the message, I assumed some sort of disaster must have happened by next Tuesday morning, which was when she- I time-traveled. I managed to convince everypony that there could be a disaster coming and supervised the disaster-proofing all of Ponyville, making sure the dam wouldn't break and bridges wouldn't fall and all that." Sonic nodded in understanding; Twilight then added, "Shortly after that was done, Cerberus came into town."

Sonic asked, "Cerberus? You mean that huge, three-headed dog?" At Twilight's nod, he said, "I thought he was a myth."

Twilight replied, "No, he and Tartarus are very real. He looked like he was ready to destroy Ponyville, but Fluttershy was able to calm him down in no time at all."

Sonic asked, "Fluttershy managed to tame Cerberus?" He whistled in amazement.

Twilight nodded, "Yes, and with a little help from Pinkie Pie, I was able to get him back to the gates of Tartarus before any monsters escaped. I thought the future had been changed after that, but I reconsidered that when, after I returned home, I received a scar exactly like the one on Future Twilight's face. And after that, by late Monday night, I looked exactly like Future Twilight."

Sonic asked, "So then what?"

Twilight said, "I was still sure that there was a disaster coming, so I tried to follow up on what Future Twilight had told me and tried to find a time spell in the Canterlot Archives that would stop time. Tuesday morning came before I could find any time-related spells, though, and I found out that there was no disaster. Pinkie Pie then found a spell that would allow me to travel back in time once and I decided to use it to tell my past self not to worry about a disaster that would never happen."

Sonic smiled, "Let me guess. You were unable to deliver the message because Past Twilight kept interrupting you." Twilight nodded slowly. Sonic shook his head, "That's pretty crazy. That sounds like something that should've happened to me during my time on the Little Planet. Well, at least you managed to get out of that loop, and I'll bet you learned something valuable from that whole experience."

As they returned to the front of the tree near where they started, Twilight came to a stop and Sonic did as well a second later and turned around. Looking down, the lavender unicorn said, "Well, yes, but… I still… And then there was my brother's wedding, when the Queen of the Changelings tried to replace Princess Cadance… I… I wasn't…" Sonic looked back at her for a moment before walking over and standing next to her, turning to face the same direction she was. He then placed his right hand on the back of her head. Before she could ask, he suddenly started pushing against her head while starting to run. "Sonic, what are you doing?! I'm not used to running this fast!" she exclaimed.

Sonic replied, "That's okay. Just hold your head up and run!" With that, he began to direct her with his hand, both of them circling the tree again. Having no idea what else to do in this situation, Twilight decided to listen to Sonic, raising her head high and lifting her legs as he pushed and ran alongside her. She stumbled a bit at first, but as they began to go back around to the front, her movements began to feel… right. It seemed like a strange thing to feel, but she decided to embrace it.

Sonic began to slow down as they came closer to the front of the tree, coming to a complete stop when they reached their starting point. Sonic took his hand off of Twilight's head and stepped away, turning to face her and asking, "How did that feel?"

Twilight looked at him in amazement before saying, "I… The only time I've ever run like that is when there's trouble. I've never really run like that on my own for fun before. It… feels better than I thought it would. It felt great, in fact."

Sonic nodded and then said, "Listen Twilight, I think I have a better understanding of why you've started feeling off your game, and I'd like to help you get back on it. Thing is, you haven't told me the exact reason why, but that's okay."

Twilight asked, "Really?"

Sonic nodded, "Yeah. It's obviously something deep, something that affects you on a personal level. Since you're intent on keeping it to yourself, I'd have to really go digging to get it out of you, and I don't feel like invading your personal business like that. If you can tell me honestly that talking with me helped, though, and that you'll try to remain focused, I'll back off and let you try to sort out what you need to do on your own."

Twilight looked down, her eyes running over the ground as she thought about how she felt. "It's still there, but… talking with Sonic did feel good. And that run just now actually did raise my spirits a bit." After a minute, she looked back up at him and gave him a nod.

Sonic nodded back, "Good. And if you start feeling those thoughts come back, try to think about the good things that came out of those events you mentioned. Your old doll found a new home, disaster-proofing Ponyville rooted out things that could've turned into problems later on, you ultimately saved your brother and his wife from those changeling things, and I'm sure some good came out of anything else you're thinking of. Some things do need a push or a pull to begin, like Celestia sending you to Ponyville to make friends, but nothing truly starts until you take action." Twilight nodded in understanding; Sonic then added, "If you have time to worry, then run!"

Twilight managed to crack a full-blown smile at that. "Was that supposed to be a piece of advice?" she asked.

Sonic smiled back, "You never know. Besides, I was looking to see you smile. It means something good did come out of this."

Twilight's smile, which had faltered for a moment, returned at his words. "That sounds like something Pinkie Pie would say," she commented.

Sonic said, "Then I guess the both of us like seeing other people smile." The two of them shared a friendly smile at that.

Suddenly, they both heard Applejack call, "Twilight! Sonic! Where the hay are both o' ya?!"

Twilight looked back at Sonic sheepishly, "Sounds like we've kept everybody waiting."

Sonic nodded, "Yeah. Let's get going." Twilight nodded and they both hurried back along the path Twilight had marked to go meet up with Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

Later…

"Uh… How much longer does this jungle go on?" Sweetie Belle whimpered. They had been walking for quite a while now, but so far hadn't seen any sign of Tails or Sonic's groups. And all the while Sweetie Belle was getting more and more desperate to find her older sister.

"Please don't get sad, Sweetie Belle. Everything will be all right," Cream tried to reassure her. She looked to Knuckles and asked, "Is there any way we could try to signal to the others or leave a message for them, Mr. Knuckles?"

Knuckles came to a stop, as did the rest of the group, and he scratched his head. "I can think of a few, but I don't think they'd be very effective here. We could build a fire, but the smoke might be hard to see. I could mark the trees, but they'd have to be paying attention to notice them."

Scootaloo looked at Sweetie Belle and said, "Try calling her again. Maybe she'll hear you this time."

The white unicorn sighed and yelled, "Rarity! Are you there, Rarity?! Can you hear me?!"

Silence followed for a few seconds, but then they heard an unmistakably familiar voice, "SWEETIE BELLE!"

The little filly gasped in joy and ran in the direction she had heard it from, calling, "RARITY!" The rest of the group ran after her, soon coming across her standing next to a ledge. "Rarity, I'm up here!" she called.

The group moved over to the ledge and looked down to see Tails' group (minus Fluttershy) down below. Tails and Spike waved up at Knuckles and the others while Rarity exclaimed, "Sweetie Belle! Oh, thank Celestia you're okay!"

Sweetie Belle crouched down and then leapt forward, jumping off the ledge. Before she could start falling, Knuckles moved quickly and grabbed her in his hands. Pulling her back up, he said, "Easy there, kid. I understand you're excited, but you don't want to go getting seriously hurt in front of your sister after just finding her." He then picked up Scootaloo and leapt over the ledge himself, gliding down while Cream and Cheese flew down after him.

As soon as he landed, Knuckles set down both Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, the latter immediately running to Rarity. While the two sisters rejoiced at being reunited, Tails and Spike walked over to the rest of the group. Tails spoke first, "Hey Knuckles, Scootaloo, Cream, and Cheese. I'm glad you're all okay."

Knuckles nodded, "Same to you guys. I see you managed to keep Sweetie Belle's sister from getting her makeup ruined."

Spike shrugged, "Yeah, we managed."

Scootaloo grinned, "You make it sound like it was easy, but I bet it wasn't."

Cream looked around and asked, "Hey, where's Miss Fluttershy?"

Even Rarity and Sweetie Belle looked up at that question. Tails looked around and said, "That's strange. She was right here a minute ago."

Rarity eyed a nearby tree with a hole in its front for a moment before releasing her sister and walking over to it. She tapped a hoof on the tree next to the hole several times before saying, "Please come out of there, Fluttershy darling. It's just some of our friends that we got separated from." A few seconds of silence followed before Fluttershy's blue eyes appeared in the hole. They blinked twice and then the shy pegasus pulled herself out of the tree.

While watching Rarity and Fluttershy come back over, Knuckles asked, "What's eating her?"

As the two friends came to a stop near the whole group, Tails said, "We ran into some of the black frogs that live in this part of the jungle. And, well…"

Fluttershy nodded meekly, "They were all so rude…"

Tails looked at her worriedly for a moment before turning back to Knuckles and saying, "We haven't seen Sonic or the others so far. Did you guys see them at all?"

Knuckles shook his head, "No such luck. Knowing Sonic, though, he's probably getting into trouble or something."

Tails giggled, "I wouldn't be surprised, especially since Rainbow Dash was with them."

Cream asked, "Should we look for them?"

Rarity said, "I don't think that will be necessary, dearie. Since Rainbow Dash is with them, I'm sure they'll find us."

Before anyone else could say anything, Tails spoke, "Hey, did anybody hear that?"

Spike asked, "Hear what?"

Knuckles said, "I heard it too. It sounded like it came from the swamp." Tails and Knuckles moved over to a spot where they could clearly see the water in the swamp, everybody following after them. After a couple of seconds, they could see Sonic swinging through the swamp towards them, both Applejack and Twilight hanging onto his legs and Rainbow Dash flying alongside him as he leapt from one vine to the next. But almost immediately after seeing them, they saw something chasing them! "What's that?! It's huge!" Knuckles exclaimed.

Tails quickly recognized what was behind them and yelled, "It's a giant alligator!" Spike and all the ponies began to panic at that. All except Fluttershy, who remained where she was a moderate distance behind Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and Cheese and stared at the approaching alligator while everypony else ran around frantically.

As they got closer, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, Cheese, and Fluttershy began to hear Sonic's group talking. "Rainbow, what is it with you and kickin' things ten times yer size?!" Applejack was yelling.

"Hey, he was the one who woke up and started floating towards us! I was giving him a warning not to even think about eating us!" Rainbow yelled back.

"Why did it wake up anyway? I thought for sure we could get by it quietly on our log!" Twilight moaned.

Sonic ignored the conversation, focusing on getting Twilight and Applejack to a solid footing. As he began to approach the patch of land where the others were, he noticed them and said, "Hey, there they are!" He then called down, "Twilight, Applejack! We're coming up on our friends and some land! Get ready to let go!" Both ponies tensed up as he approached the last vine, both of them letting go as he swung, Sonic and Rainbow Dash immediately following them down to the ground. As soon as they touched down, they all ran, as did Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and Cheese as the alligator began to drag itself onto land.

Fluttershy remained where she was, staring at the alligator as it pulled itself out of the water. Something began to course through her as she looked on. She'd tried to take it in stride and keep her head up like everybody else, but she had had it with this jungle. First the battleship that attacked them, then the black frogs being rude or otherwise mean, and now this alligator thinking he could eat her friends… The expression on Fluttershy's face changed, her eyes narrowing as they now sported a firm and strong gaze.

Sonic's group, along with Tails and Knuckles, were trying to get everyone else back under control and regroup when Sonic saw that Fluttershy hadn't moved at all. And that alligator's jaws weren't very far from her! He dashed towards her, trying to grab her, but before he could reach her, she suddenly flew up, towards the alligator! "Fluttershy, wait!" he called.

Fluttershy came to a stop about halfway down the alligator's snout, hovering above it as she screamed, "LISTEN!" It was such a powerful shout, such an unusual shout to hear from the yellow pegasus, that the alligator stopped trying to get out of the water and everybody else stopped what they were doing and stood where they were, watching quietly.

Fluttershy landed on the gator's snout and walked towards its eyes, yelling, "You can be big, ferocious, and snappy all you want, but you DON'T get to do whatever you want!" She stopped right in front of one of the gator's eyes, giving him the full force of 'The Stare' as she continued, "I don't take kindly to anyone who tries to hurt my friends, much less eat them! One of them may have kicked you, but that does NOT give you an excuse to go and try to eat someone much smaller than you! Now you'd better get back in that water and go back to floating like a log, or I'm going to find your mother and tell her about what you've been doing! Do you understand me?!" After a second, the alligator gave a low grunt and began to slide backwards, Fluttershy flapping her wings to remain airborne as the gator disappeared back into the water.

Her business finished, Fluttershy flew down to her friends with a smile, her happiness restored. She landed in front of everybody and looked at them. They all had varying levels of shock and amazement all over their faces, but none looked more surprised than Sonic and his friends. Knuckles' eyes were wide as he gave Fluttershy an open-mouthed stare, Tails' left eyelid twitched as he looked at her, and Sonic, Cream, and Cheese looked at her with wide eyes. Rarity was the first to speak, "Goodness! Fluttershy, you were most impressive, darling! That uncouth alligator stood no chance against 'The Stare'!"

Sonic looked at her and repeated, "'The Stare'?"

Sweetie Belle piped up, "Yeah! Fluttershy's the Stare Master! Any animal that misbehaves on her watch is gonna get a dose of 'The Stare'!"

Scootaloo added, "She scared off a cockatrice, and even changed a full-grown dragon's mind, with it!"

Cream asked, "What's a cockatrice?"

Fluttershy, reverting back to her usual timid self, meekly explained, "It, um, it's a creature that has the head of a chicken and the body of a snake. They're fearsome and dangerous, and they can turn other creatures to stone with their gaze."

Cream gasped, "Oh my." Cheese murmured a bit worriedly.

Knuckles asked, "You managed to out-stare something like that?"

Fluttershy replied, "Yes. Um, I hope I didn't overstep myself by doing that…"

Sonic held his thumb up, "I thought it was pretty epic, actually."

Knuckles grinned, "No argument here!"

Tails cheered, "Yeah! You should totally do it again sometime!" Cream, Cheese, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all joined in on the cheer.

As she observed Fluttershy's blushing face, Rarity leaned over to Twilight and Applejack and whispered, "The poor girl's probably drowning in testosterone right now." Both Twilight and Applejack smiled at her, albeit a little weirdly.

As he and Knuckles bumped fists, Sonic noticed something out of the corner of his eye behind some bushes. He couldn't see it clearly from the distance he was at, but it almost looked like a white tuft of… something. Sonic watched it for a moment when, suddenly, it disappeared behind the bushes! "Is someone back there?!" he wondered. Without warning, he suddenly shot in the direction of the bushes, startling everybody. As he neared the bushes, he leapt up, going right over them and landing on the grass behind them. He then looked up.

And found three petrified figures looking back at him. One of them he clearly recognized as Espio. The other two were earth ponies, one a mare with a cotton candy-like mane and tail and the other a young filly with a bow on her head. Everyone else came through the bushes as he stood up and quickly saw what he was looking at.

"Apple Bloom!" Applejack exclaimed as she rushed over to her little sister.

"Pinkie Pie!" Rainbow Dash said, flying over to the (at the moment) no-longer pink mare.

"And Espio too!" Knuckles added as he went to check on the chameleon.

Tails looked at Sonic and said, "You found them, Sonic!"

Twilight asked, "How did you know they were over here?"

Sonic weakly grinned back and shrugged, "Guess I got lucky." He then glanced away and thought about what he had seen. "I don't think I just imagined seeing that… But I didn't exactly get a good look at what it was either."

He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Rainbow Dash speak, "Come on, Tails, get that ring going and get us out of here!"

The fox nodded, "Right!" As he pulled out the Warp Ring, Sonic walked over to help Knuckles with Espio and Twilight and Fluttershy went over to Pinkie Pie and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo went over to Applejack and Apple Bloom. Tails tossed the ring up and it grew bigger with a familiar *PHVWOW*. Everybody then stepped through it, the ring vanishing afterwards.

---

Everybody stood in front of Sugarcube Corner, waiting for the life to come back to it and the three figures in front of them. They didn't have long to wait before a white wave crept up Sugarcube Corner, restoring its bright colors. Shortly afterwards, the wave did the same first to Apple Bloom, then Espio, and finally Pinkie Pie. As soon as Apple Bloom was back, Applejack scooped her up in a hug and exclaimed, "Apple Bloom! Are ya okay?"

The little filly, although surprised by the sudden action and returning to her body, asked, "A-Applejack? Where am Ah? What's goin' on?"

Applejack held her out and said, "It doesn't matter, sis. You're back now, so everything's okay."

Espio, due to a combination of his sudden return and the reunion in front of him, looked around in alarm before leaping up, performing a spin in midair. After spinning once, he held his left hand up in front of his face, his index and middle finger up as he looked around quickly. He soon spotted Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and Cheese below him, amongst the gathering of ponies, all looking up at him. His mind quickly made sense of the scene before him and he dropped down. He then stood up and faced everybody and said, "Thank you, my friends. But beware, for I have looked into the soul of our enemy and I saw only darkness." Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles all nodded in understanding.

Suddenly, the front door of Sugarcube Corner swung open and both Mr. and Mrs. Cake stepped out onto the top step, both looking around. Cup Cake was the first to speak, "Oh my… goodness! What is… what's happened to Ponyville?!"

Carrot Cake looked towards the group and his eyes widened at the sight of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Espio, Cream, and Cheese. "What… How…" Taking another glance around, he noticed Pinkie Pie and asked, "Pinkie Pie, did you have something to do with all this?"

Tails looked over at the pink pony when he heard her name and noticed that she hadn't moved at all. Even though she had regained her color, she still stood in the exact same position, her face still having the same expression on it as before. "Why isn't she moving?" he wondered worriedly.

Twilight turned and called, "Pinkie Pie?"

No response. So Rainbow Dash flew up and landed in front of the party pony. She then waved a hoof in front of her face, saying, "Hey, Pinkie Pie! Anypony home?" Still no response from Pinkie Pie. So Rainbow lowered her hoof and moved her head so her face was right up against Pinkie Pie's. She looked into the light blue eyes of the pink pony, narrowing her eyes.

Then she heard a snort. Rainbow Dash was so startled she leaned backwards, now noticing a grin on the pink pony's face. A second later, Pinkie Pie burst into laughter, causing Rainbow Dash to fall onto her back in surprise. She then glared up at Pinkie Pie and shouted, "Pinkie Pie!"

The pink pony continued to giggle, but through her giggles she said, "Sorry, Dashie! You just looked so weird with your face all scrunched up like that! It was SO funny to look at!" As Rainbow Dash stood up, Pinkie Pie started bouncing around the group, rambling, "Not that I haven't seen it before! I'm just more used to seeing it from Twilight when she's trying to read something or from Applejack if I try to visit her and she's collecting apples or from Rarity when she says she needs to concentrate on making a dress! I don't get it all that often from you, Dashie! Or from Fluttershy, come to think of it!"

The shy pegasus in question tried to interject, "Um, Pinkie?"

"I mean, there were a few times she did after she took that seminar, but she's never used 'The Stare' on me! Ooh, I don't know what I'd do if she did that! I bet I'd go all melty and turn into a pink puddle! Kind of like ice cream soup, only I'd be a Pinkie Pie soup! And if I had Gummy with me when that happened, he'd probably try to slurp me up!"

Applejack spoke, "Pinkie."

"Hey, I just noticed I can be heard and seen again! That means I'm back in my body and not floating around like a ghostie anymore! Whoo-hoo! Though it was kind of fun being a ghostie! Nopony could see me and I could go through walls and float around!"

Rainbow Dash loudly said, "Pinkie!"

"Ooh, but there were bad parts to it too! It was kind of lonely with nopony able to see or talk to me, and ghosties don't eat, so I couldn't eat either! Or could I? I didn't even try it! Oh well, it was fun and that's all that matters, because…"

Twilight had had enough of Pinkie's rambling and yelled, "PINKIE!"

Pinkie Pie froze in midair for a second before dropping down onto the ground between the group and Sugarcube Corner. "Yes, Twilight?" she asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes afterward. Twilight pointed her left forehoof upwards and Pinkie followed it, looking up at complete whiteness. She then looked down at Twilight with the same innocent expression, the lavender unicorn grimacing before pointing her right forehoof at Sonic and his friends. THIS got a reaction out of Pinkie Pie. Her eyes widened and she gave one of her famous floating gasps before suddenly shooting over everybody's heads. By the time everybody turned around, she had disappeared somewhere.

Sonic pointed in the direction Pinkie Pie had shot off in and asked, "Is… that normal for her?"

Twilight sighed, "For the most part? Yes."

Cup Cake spoke up, causing everyone to turn back around, "Could somepony please explain what's going on?"

Applejack spoke before Twilight could launch into lecture mode, "It's kind of a long story, Mr. and Mrs. Cake. All ya really need ta know right now is that ya should stay indoors for the time bein'. Mayor said so herself."

Carrot Cake looked confused. "Why?" he asked.

Suddenly, the ground shook and a vortex opened up above Sugarcube Corner, the creature the group was looking emerging from it and flying overhead before disappearing through another vortex. Sonic pointed up at where it had been, "Aside from the creepy white world you're in right now? That thing."

Carrot Cake stuttered, "Uh… Good enough for me!"

Cup Cake gasped, "Oh, the twins! We'd better make sure that Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake are okay!" Mr. Cake nodded and they both disappeared inside, shutting the door behind them.

Twilight called, "Don't let them go inside of Pinkie Pie's room! There's something in there they shouldn't go near!"

Rainbow looked up at where the monster had been and asked, "Man, what's up with that thing?! Why does it keep disappearing and reappearing like that?!"

Tails spoke up, "As near as I can tell, when that thing goes through time, it tears space apart, ripping holes in our universe and leaving parts of yours dead. That's where all the portals are coming from and why Ponyville and probably the surrounding areas are in this weird, white limbo."

Applejack asked, "Tearin' holes in space? Ain't that, uh, dangerous?"

Tails replied, "Well, yes, it is. Something similar happened the first time we met Blaze, when our worlds were in danger of colliding. I don't want to jump to any conclusions just yet, but something like that could happen if we don't do something about that thing."

Twilight said, "But when we go through the portals, we restore color and life to Ponyville. Maybe the portals are affected somehow too?"

Tails brought out his radar and held it up towards Sugarcube Corner. After a few moments, he lowered it and turned back around, saying, "I think you're right, Twilight. The readings seem to have stabilized, so maybe going through the portals is preventing the holes from becoming bigger. That would mean we're fixing space as we go along. That would also explain why the color is coming back to Ponyville."

Sonic spoke, "Then I guess we have to work like there's no tomorrow, or there won't be a tomorrow!" Everybody nodded in agreement before setting off to find Pinkie Pie, no one noticing a figure disappear into the shadows as they headed back into Ponyville.

---

*takes a deep breath* Okay... so I was trying to make up for how late this chapter was by making it longer than usual. As you can probably guess, I went a bit overboard. The final product looks... good, but parts of it had to be rewritten, there's a lot of talking, and I've completely broken my record for the single longest chapter in ANY story I've written. I hope this doesn't deter you guys from sticking with this story or anything.

Anyway, I went with Frog Forest partially because it was a little easier to use for this kind of a chapter, but the big reason was because it was good a place for Fluttershy to show off her skills with animals. I mean, she carried a cart full of frogs around in "Feeling Pinkie Keen", so she clearly has experience with frogs. And of course the giant alligator that Team Sonic and Team Dark were chased by was a good way to get her to use "The Stare".

For the other stages I could've used...

Casino Park/BINGO Highway: This was my original choice for the "Sonic Heroes" level, but I changed my mind when I realized it would be the kind of place that Pinkie Pie would like to go to, and I'd already planned for her to be rescued in this stage. It just didn't seem like it would be complete without her. Can't you just imagine her randomly pulling out a controller and using it to control the flippers on the pinball tables? Speaking of which, I probably would've inserted the Casino Night DLC from "Sonic Generations" during the Casino Park portion as well as another reference to "Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games" during the BINGO Highway section (I would've found a way to sneak in the Dream Sprint event like how I did with the Dream Discus event).

Hang Castle/Mystic Manor: Same deal with Casino Park/BINGO Highway, except it would be Luna in this case. It seemed like it would be perfect for her, having a Halloween/Nightmare Night kind of castle and mansion, plus a full moon during the castle portion. Although *SPOILER ALERT* Luna and her sister will be making their appearance in the next chapter, so that's something to look forward to.

Egg Fleet/Final Fortress: As far as last levels go, Egg Fleet and Final Fortress are some of my least favorites. I don't mean to sound like a hater, really, but I got really sick of dying due to cheap deaths, particularly on Final Fortress, so there's no way I was going to use these levels. Some people mentioned that they would be great levels to show off how evil Metal Sonic is... I'm afraid I don't follow. Egg Fleet and Final Fortress were Eggman's; Metal Sonic just took them after he locked Eggman up. Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem like this would be a good way of showing off anything about Metal Sonic, other than how conniving he was in that game. Plus, Final Fortress was technically featured in the 3DS version of the game, since that's where Modern Sonic fought the Egg Emperor. And I'm trying to steer away from levels that have been seen before.

Now, while these stages aren't featured in this story, there's nothing saying I won't show them, along with other levels, in a possible bonus fic after this one is finished. You'll just have to wait and see.

Now then...

Just like how Spike and the ponies learned about how evil Dr. Eggman can be in the previous chapter, Tails and Cream learn about Discord and Sonic learns the exact reason why he was such a problem.

Part of the reason I brought up the whole discussion about Metal Sonic and the Little Planet was to retcon somewhat what I'd stated back in Chapter 5. At the time of writing, the trailer for "Sonic 4: Episode 2" that revealed the bonus "Episode Metal" content hadn't been revealed yet. As a result, I thought that the Bad Future of Stardust Speedway appearing in "Sonic Generations" was only because of the Time Eater bringing together the regular timeline and the altered timelines, so the Bad Future appeared much the same way Crisis City did. I didn't realize at the time that the Bad Future was actually canon for Stardust Speedway. So I wanted to try to clear that up a little.

This version of the "Sonic CD" story is based off the idea that the Time Stones are needed to travel through time on the Little Planet, something that was featured in Fleetway's "Sonic the Comic" adaptation of the game and is mentioned in the Archie comics continuity. Basically, here the idea is that each of the levels from the game was the resting place of one of the Time Stones and Eggman found the first one (the one he's shown with in the game's bad ending) when he built Metallic Madness and used it to meddle in the past. When Sonic arrived, he beat Eggman to five of the other stones, undoing what the doctor had done in the past. Eggman was able to find the one in Stardust Speedway before Sonic thanks to the statue of him being built, so Sonic was forced to face Metal Sonic in the Bad Future (he even remembers racing Metal Sonic in the Bad Future in the Archie prologue to "Sonic 4: Episode 2"). Afterwards, he got both Time Stones back while invading Metallic Madness and used them to change the base's future. It's unknown if he was able to change Stardust Speedway's future due to having to escape with Amy. And... that's the story I've come up with for how the Little Planet is still organic even though Stardust Speedway has a Bad Future in "Episode Metal".

Twilight's wondering about if the Little Planet's appearances cause natural disasters is a reference to the G1 series of "The Transformers", particularly the three episode "The Ultimate Doom" story from the first season of the show, when Megatron was able to bring Cybertron to Earth (similar to what Sentinel Prime tried to do in "Dark of the Moon"). Also, I give a bit of a reason why I think Sonic was so surprised to hear that Eggman had moved an entire planet in "Sonic Colo(u)rs".

I mention why Sonic and Tails didn't destroy the Death Egg Mk. II because... well, I think that's the most obvious explanation for how "Episode 2" ended. I probably don't have to point that out, but there are so many people on YouTube wondering why the Death Egg wasn't destroyed that I just had to put it in here. And Tails doesn't get to say whether the Little Planet was saved or not because we won't know for sure until Sega decides to officially announce whether they're making an "Episode 3" or not.

When Sonic and Twilight are talking, you're probably going to notice that it's similar to the scene in "Sonic '06" where Sonic and Elise are in the field. I guess this was intentional. And Sonic's mention of how he should've experienced something similar to what Twilight went through in "It's About Time" is a reference to "Sonic the Comic", where, during the "Sonic CD" adaptation, Sonic experienced a Stable Time Loop event similar to Twilight's.

The area where everyone meets up again is where all the teams fight after Lost Jungle. Knuckles' group is even standing on the same ledge Team Dark was standing on during that cutscene preceding the fight with Team Sonic.

The log Twilight mentions when they're running from the giant alligator is meant to be a reference to Dinosaur Jungle from "Sonic and the Secret Rings".

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails' reaction to "The Stare" is a reference to how Sonic, Monkey Khan, and Tails reacted later after Sally punched Fiona Fox in the stomach in Sonic Universe #15.

I REALLY hope I got Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle right in this chapter.

Okay, I think that's it. If there's anything else that should be pointed out, let me know...

Music:

Waiting on Rarity - www. youtube. com watch?v=oDPevC_lPmE

Walking to Sugarcube Corner - www. youtube. com watch?v=ToP2O8Sc_qo

Reunion with Gilda - www. youtube. com watch?v=VdgX4FVfZYc

In the Jungle - www. youtube. com watch?v=ejQEhd4rNUs

Remembering Metal Sonic and the Little Planet - www. youtube. com watch?v=wP6UnjScpmE

Days of the Death Egg - www. youtube. com watch?v=GBCfa5bCuHQ

Attack from Above - www. youtube. com watch?v=7I5et_yuR6c

Deeper in the Jungle - www. youtube. com watch?v=w0EZwI3kPy0

Sonic and Twilight's Talk - www. youtube. com watch?v=YI5fD7Jbnuw

Regroup - www. youtube. com watch?v=THR3LIK9yIs

Fluttershy's Courage - www. youtube. com watch?v=fYHYDQWardM

Apple Bloom, Espio, and Pinkie Pie Restored - www. youtube. com watch?v=5IXBG3NX4C4

Analyzing the Situation - www. youtube. com watch?v=lVh3WpKlQto