Author

Let me go ahead and take this time to say that I'm really happy about the race. Everyone's reaction really caught me off guard, I didn't know it was going to be that good. To tell you the truth; I was stomped when I was thinking how it would play out. When I got to the chapter, however, I knew exactly what to do and how to do it! To be honest, though, my favorite part about was where Luna and Shadow fought. I don't know why but writing the two is fun; I might even do a special when this story is finished.

And readers…I would really hate to have another fan war. If you find something out of place, private message me.

And last of all, enjoy yourselves. I wrestled with this chapter but hopefully I've met everybody's expectations.

---

Behind the library of Ponyvill, Twilight had a rock sat in front of her with the forbidden book Celestia sent her.

"Why do we have to get up?" Spike yelled at her as she flipped the pages of the book, "It's WAY too early for me to be even thinking about getting out of my bed."

"Sorry, Spike." Twilight sighed informally, "A good student always wake up early to study."

"Why am I even up to begin with?" he grumbled, "It's four O'clock in the morning!"

"And a good student always needs good moral support." She simply answered.

He rolled his eyes and took a seat on the grass. She skimmed through the book until she found the page she desired. It was a good ways in the book, beyond some of the most basic spells as well as additional information not known for the common unicorn. She quickly scanned the contents again.

Little is known throughout civilization, is that magic manifests itself differently in every spell caster. Certain spells a unicorn cast may not discharge the same as a different unicorn. Levitation may work in the same way for some, while for others require a different method. Magic in itself cannot be define, it can only be defined if a spell user wealds it, and that magic channels differently in every individual.

Twilight skimmed down until she found the desired text.

Lethal spells, as for killing, works in the same concept but requires more focus. A desired element can be recited with a simple spell, but instead of it immediately being cast, needs to be charged and manipulated before casting. No one could really master a lethal spell; it has to be practiced and wielded; like a talent. Take your time and think of the element you wish to use, and try to wield it in your body.

Twilight then recalled Luna using a black lightning volt before she was sent to Ponyvill. Taking that as inspiration, she faced the rock in front of her and summoned a simple spark in her horn. She then closed her eyes and focused that energy in her horn. When she felt a pinch of pain from the tip, she opened her eyes and her pupils expanded of what she saw. The tip of her horn was glowing dark purple and resting on it was a small clear ball with small jolts of white lightning shooting from its core, hitting the outer layer with a soft crack. Facing the rock, she pushed the sphere out of her horn with magic. When it hit the target, it didn't explode like she expected, but instead; the outer layer of the sphere simply popped like a bubble, and when the core came in contact with the rock, the electricity inside violently flood on it. Small arks of lightning swam on its surface for several seconds before finally discharging on the ground, and even then the rock was giving off a soft blue glow.

"Wow…" Was all Twilight could say of this occurrence; then hopped for joy, "I did it!"

She expected a round of applause, but the only thing she heard was a loud snore.

"Spike!"

The next thing she heard was a grunt and a snort before turning around to see her assistant stumbling up from a peaceful nap.

"What was that?" He yawned.

"You were supposed to be giving moral support!" She yelled.

He simply lay back down on the grass, sprawling himself out like a dog before giving her a proper answer.

"…Good job."

She moaned in frustration and turned her attention back to the rock. It was really awkward for her to follow the book; learning a spell and memorizing the steps to do one was one thing, but actually performing them was another. Even after an hour of practice, she only mastered how to summon a lightning ball and a couple of tricks with her shield. She tried to skim through the book for any additional information about how to execute the spells, but holds no information on it…But what she did found was something rather surprising.

An whole chapter about pegasi.

What was a chapter about pegasi doing in the book? Was it just for unicorns? She'll have to look into that later, for Celestia's sun was rising over the horizon.

She disappointedly sighed and levitated Spike off the ground, resting him on her back. Back inside the library, she trotted to her room and sat the baby dragon on his bed, giving him a slight nudge of affection before walking back to the library…With a sly smile on her face.

---

Tails was up all night working with the scraps left by the robotic timberwolves that were levitated in yesterday by Rarity and the ever helpful Twilight. Staying up all night was nothing new to him, in fact he can almost admit to himself finding this more pleasurable than sleeping; learning hands on with sophisticated machinery was that passionate to him. He heard the basement door open behind him, emitting a small crack of yellow light, but ignored it and focused on his work. Twilight was just trotting down stair to find her dream fox standing behind a table stacked with machine parts. With a long sigh and a devious smile, she slowly walked over to him until she was standing over the table on two hooves; standing right by him.

"Watcha doin'?" She casually asked; out of her usual accent but wanted to appear casual and friendly.

His mind wasn't totally oblivious, but focused more or less.

"I'm creating multiple radio transceivers for you and your friends. We work better as a team if we can maintain communication."

She closely watched his hands separate and piece metal and mini plug-ins together; loosing herself at one point trying to figure out what each piece does as he assembled them. When he was looking around to find another piece, she carefully studied his eyes to see what he was looking for. When he laid eyes on a particular piece at the far reaches of the table, she immediately levitated it to him with her horn.

"Thanks again." He commented.

She made sure he was staring at her eyes, waiting for a response. Twilight wasn't for sure if he felt a fluttering feeling in his stomach, but she felt a swarm in hers. She paused as longest as she could to last the effect until he gave her a weird look.

"Anytime." She simply answered.

He shrugged his shoulders and went back putting last pieces together for the fourth headset. In her head, she was thinking of several conversations to try to entice him to become emotionally blue. After all, all exotic novels began a relationship with an emotional climax.

"Do you have any other creatures in your world that has such a passion for learning, technology, studying, or anything in that nature that I'm not intentionally saying to relate my own?"

He stopped for a second to think, "There are, but I haven't met anybody with my passion…None of my friends can work with equipment like I can."

He didn't notice, but a sinister grin came across her face. After several seconds, she inched her body closer to him with her mussel almost touching his side.

"You must be pretty lonely." She mumbled to him, almost whispering to his ear.

"Yea." He sighed, leaning towards sadness, "It can get lonely with no one to share your passion with."

Her grin can only become wider, inching her body very close to him. "You know…I'm like that too. I can't recall anybody ever coming to my library to pick up any books. No pony cares to take time to study about their world."

Of course, that was a big fat lie because almost every day a pony would have a fiction checked out or something to research. He stopped whatever he was doing to answer her properly eye to eye.

"Well, I could check out some of your books to learn a bit about your world. I find pleasure reading a book or two."

She didn't know how to purposely form tears in her eyes, but she sure did try as she took this as an excuse to embrace his body. When that fur hit her stomach, oh sweet Celestia; how much it excited her!

"Thank you so much, you don't know how much this means to me."
He was caught off guard by the hug, but took this formally and braced her back briefly.

"You're welcome. I'm glad I met someone who took pleasure in learning."

Tails quickly let her go, but it took several seconds for her to stand back on her four legs. Without a moment to loose, he quickly went back to his parts in front of him, wishing to get done before dawn. It was just one more headset to finish, and it would be wonderful for everyone to say in contact. Twilight stood by him for several minutes, either watching what he was doing or his body…Mostly his body.

He was just about finished with the last headset, just a couple of more things to put together before calling it done.

"Can you levitate that green wire over there for me?" He politely asked pointing his finger.

Oh, this was so romantic! Serving your crush in a deep, dark basement while trying to keep your intentions a secret. This reminded her of a novel she read about a mare and a handsome stallion being trapped in a deep dark dudgeon with nothing more than a flashlight and several months of food.

If only things can end like it did for those two.

She quickly used her horn to levitate the wire, making sure he was watching.

"That still astonishes me." Tails mumbled while grabbing the wire from Twilight's magic grasp, "Levitating objects without any assistance of physical forces."

"Oh, it nothing," She lazily sighed, "Nothing I won't do for you."

Tails took a step back at her comment.

"Uh, I mean; it's been pleasure assisting you." She corrected.

Thankfully it looked like he took the bait, "You too," He smiled.

With a couple of small white sparks and a flick of a switch, he picked the headset up and closely observed it, checking every part attached.

"I think that did it," Tails happily glee, "Now all that's left is to test it."

He detached his own headset and set the new one around his pointy ears.

"Hello?" He called out loud, "Can anybody read me."

After a period of static, he began to make out somebody's voice.

"Tails." Knuckles answered, "Is that you I'm getting?"

"Yes." Tails answered, "Can anybody else?"

"I can hear ya." Amy answered, "I see you put those wolves to good use."

"Sure did." Tails quickly commented, "Sonic, can you read me?"

He waited but heard nothing but static.

"Come in, Sonic." Tails again tried.

"SONIC!" Amy cried out on the other end, "THIS IS YOUR GIRL FRIEND CALLING! ANSWER ME!"

Everybody recoiled from that dreadful high pitched voice. Again, nothing but static.

"He always answers to that." Amy sighed.

"I'll go check up on him." Knuckles offered while the sound of falling apples echoed in the back ground, "He said he'll be hanging around the park if we need him. He's probably napping."

"Roger that." Tails confirmed, "Over and out."

Tails flipped it off and replaced it with his old head set. Twilight observed the six headsets on the table and decided to levitate one of them to her ear; a tad uncomfortable for her as the clamps pinched down on her ears, but numbed after a second.

"I'm surprised that this device can handle multiple radio waves at one time." She remarked while looking up at it, "I thought this thing can only handle one caller at a time."

"When we first set off for Eggman it was only a mono receiver." Tails answered, "But those Timberwolves we defeated had special equipment in their heads so they can communicate simultaneously. And the head set your wearing isn't really using radio waves as all; it's using a special Wi-Fi installment to communicate through a network."

Twilight remembered something about network communication while she visited a university in Canterlot with Celestia. It hasn't been really researched much because the amount of technical difficulties it seems to cause. The radio was much easier to work with; although a pony has to be wealthy to afford one.

"Wait. How come you can communicate with them if their head seats are using radios?"

Tails gave her a bit of a smile and a thumb up, "Just a little something called innovation."

She had to clamp her mouth down to contain a squeal of excitement when she beheld his charm. With another scheme in her head she approached him.

"Since your done here, should we go ahead and go back upstairs?"

"I was about to work on another energy tracker from the Timberwolf parts so we could track the Chaos Emeralds from a farther range." He informed her, "I'm going to stay down here until morning."

Well, getting him wasted with a hard shot of cider was out the window. She stomped her hoof down with frustration as he turned his attention to the strange device, but Twilight formed a quick plan before finally leaving him alone.

"Tails?" She politely asked, standing on her two back hooves, "I'm having trouble getting this thing off my ear. Can you do me a favor and take it off, please."

"Uh, sure." Tails happily obliged without a second thought.

As soon as his hand began unclamping the head set, she purposely tripped forward, immediately wrapping her two front hooves around him, as if trying to save herself from falling. The yellow fox instantly grabbed her to support her.

"You O.K?" He asked worried.

"Sorry." She whispered, feeling every bit of his neck with her cheek, "Weak ankles."

Tails was never a fox to leave any friend behind, "Do you want me to carry you?"

Her brain literary fried before being able to process the information.

"YES!" She screamed, "Uh, I mean…i-if you don't mind, I don't think I can walk."

He may not have a lot of strength in him, but she was surprisingly light as he began to place his two hands on her back, cradling her like a baby. Twilight gave out a long-dreamy sigh as she placed her two front hooves around his neck. He thought she was doing that just to support herself, so he continued to walk to the stairs. She savored this moment anyway she could, burying her head against his white, furred chest and listened to his slow, rhythmic heart beat as she let it sang to her ears. This moment was so perfect, this was what she exactly she imagined it to be; the dream of her life carrying her to her bed, ready to spend the whole night embracing him in her arms. To feel his breath warming her neck as his conscious slowly drifts off into slumber. Twilight embraced him a little closer as he began walking up the steps.

Until the basement door shot open.

"Twilight! I have a…"

Spike only had a second and a half to behold Tails carrying his beloved friend like a newlywed couple before Twilight teleported off of him, reappearing on her four hooves. She saw her assistant mouth hanged opened in complete shock with a scroll in his hand. Her face lit up like the morning sun.

"Hey, little Spike." Twilight quickly greeted, "What are you doing up?"

Spike took a second before answering to Tails, "Were you carrying her just now?"

Tails looked over to her and saw a perfectly capable mare standing on her four legs, "I thought your ankles were weak?"

"They were, but there feeling a whole lot better now." Twilight quickly answered, "How could I possibly take advantage of a new friend? Nope, not me, I would never do that."

Tails dismissed her, spotting her attitude a little awkward but didn't mind carrying her. Spike just glared at her for several seconds, he only had to put two and two together to figure out what she was doing. For her sake, he suppressed his smile and hand the scroll to her

"Anyways, Princess Celestia wrote a letter asking for Sonic."

Twilight levitated the letter from his claws and read it herself.

My dearest student Twilight Sparkle

I'm writing to you to request an audience with Sonic the hedgehog. I'm afraid my sister and I have made a grave mistake regarding the case of the missing crown, for what he claimed about a twin was truthful. Luna has spotted him during her night patrol and confronted him head on. Although my dear sister was able to out power him, he teleported before she was able to capture him, however, she did see him with two shinning emeralds; which she believes to be the Chaos Emeralds Sonic has mentioned.

I pray that you take extra precaution. According to Luna, he's much more powerful than the last time she faced him.

Hope to see you soon, my most faithful student!

Celestia

The scroll dropped to the floor with a click.

"Shadow fought the Princess of the night and lived!?" Twilight gasped in unbelief.

Tails took the scroll and skimmed through it. He wasn't as shocked as she was, but surprised more or less.

"You have to understand, Twilight. Those emeralds contain an unbelievable amount of energy, and each of those emeralds grows stronger if another one is near it."

"I don't know." Spike chipped in, "That's an awful amount of power to take on Luna and at lease escape from the fight. Have you ever heard the tale of Nightmare Moon?"

Tails shook his head no.

"I'll tell him the tale after we see Celestia." Twilight said cutting Spike off, "Tails, could you contact Knuckles through your head set and inform him?"

"Sure can." Tails answered flipping the device on, "Just give me a second to talk to him."
He wandered to the back of the basement while talking to him. Twilight took this opportunity to check out his adorable figure one last time.

"Now you know how I feel." Spike mumbled to her.

She quickly shook her head and cast a death glair at her assistant, "You are not going to tell a pony, filly, creature, or any kind of being about what you saw, or anything relating about me or him."

"Ah, don't worry about it Twilight." Spike shook off with a wave of his claws, "I have my secret and you have yours."

As if anypony doesn't already know about his crush on Rarity, but best to take this deal than no deal at all, "Sure…That reminds me."

Twilight trotted to Tails while he was waiting for Knuckles to pick up and tapped her beloved fox on the shoulder, "Tails, there's one more thing I like for you to tell him."

---

It was just a perfectly clear morning; nothing to do but simply lie back on a branch of a tall tree and watch the very few fluffy clouds gracefully pass by through the blue sky. Sonic thought relaxation was going to be a different experience in an alien world ruled by ponies and princess and whatever else the imagination of a five year old may behold, but no, nothing about napping changed a bit here either; just like he wanted. The only thing that may seem different was a cyan pegasus laying on a branch on the other side of the tree, chunking a rubber ball up in the air and catching it coming back down. Things haven't changed for the pass two hours since they've been up, and hoping this peace endures for the next five minutes for him to nap. He closed his eyes to let the gentle wind lovably him.

thud…thud. thud, thud, thud.

From the corner of his eye, Sonic cast it down to see a little red ball rolling to a halt as it brushed against the tiny blades of grass. As Rainbow snorted in frustration, Sonic grinned.

"Could you get that?" She horsed.

After staring at the ball for a moment, he stared back at the sky and closed his eyes.

"I ain't getting up."

She loudly snorted and put her hooves to the back of her head, letting her main dangle from the limb.

"Lazy."

After a couple of minutes of yawning and stretching, Sonic leaned his head back, staring at the tree bark behind him as if he was staring at her, "Where you supposed to be clearing the skies above the park today?"

"Eh." She yawned, "It's one of those good days."

He nodded, his smile growing bigger as he closed his eyes, "It sure is."

Sonic waited for several seconds for nap time to kick back in, but it seemed to have scampered from his conscious. His mind drifted to other things until he heard footsteps below him. Rainbow and Sonic looked down and saw knuckles glaring back up at them with his signature serious look.

"Hey, Sonic." He called, "The princesses are requesting you presence at the palace. Applejack and I are getting everyone together to go with you, just in case something goes wrong."

Sonic stretched his legs and rolled over to his side, making eye contact with him, "Well that's great, gather everyone together and met us back here."

Knuckles crossed his arms with one foot tapping on the ground, "We can make this go a lot faster if you and Rainbow come."

"Hey." He called down to him, rolling back over to his back and gesturing his hands over his stomach, "You see this body? It is in a state of stability."

The echidna raised an eye brow at him.

"A body in stability is the definition of an organism in perfect rest and tranquility. Now, this organism wishes to stay in stability while you, the body in motion, gather the rest of its companions."

Knuckles stood there for several seconds and realized that he's not coming down. With a snort, he began walking under Rainbow Dash towards the boutique.

"Common Rai-"

"Stability! Knuckles." She cut him off by pointing a hoof down at him

He let out a loud grow of frustration and marched off, pounding the ground with every step. Then he remembered something.

"Almost forgot." He shouted at them with anger clearly present in his voice, "Twilight told me to tell you two not to discuss the secrete thing only you two know with any pony, or with any creature, or with any be-"

"STABILITY!" Rainbow shouted.

They heard him let out a shout of anger that can be heard from miles around before disappearing out of sight. After Sonic let out a yawn and stretched his arms, popping a joint, he closed his eyes to welcome drowsiness back into his head. Rainbow rolled over to her side and closed her eyes as well, curling her body up as if she was cuddling against a plush toy.

---

It was a rare thing for the two Princesses to catch a break during a regular work day. They were sitting on their throne ready to hear their subjects, but the day was surprisingly slow; nothing has popped up for them to be involved, and any event they were supposed to be overseeing was rescheduled. Princess Luna was meditating on the night that she saw Shadow. It was complete none sense! How could Sonic be telling the truth the entire time?

When her sister sent a letter to Twilight just an hour ago, she set that question to the back of her mind to take pleasure of her break while waiting for him to arrive. Now, it's been a whole hour just her and her older sister all by themselves in the court room, not counting the countless of guards and a handful of Elites either right by them or guarding the main door or windows. No doubt since the attack, things have been a little up tight for the Royal Guards, especially for Captain Amour who has literary begged before Celestia for his finest ponies to be in her presence. She always felt uncomfortable having too many guards on duty around her, but after a couple of days, it began to grow on her. After a couple of minutes sitting on the throne, Luna creped her eye to her side and noticed two scrolls and a bottle of ink floating in front of her. This can only mean two things. Either she's writing diplomatic letters to foreign nations. Or, just maybe-

No, there was no way she would be doing that now, not in front of all these guards. Luna shook her head and continued to look ahead while her sister was answering whatever letters she was writing, waiting for the blue hedgehog to arrive. To pass the time, she set her mind to simpler things…Studying astronomy, there was a comet striking through beta 7439 two months ago.

Poof

A faded pink flash emitted beside her, a spell to send letters away, but ignored it and continued to think back.

That comet was strange; its light black tail was very peculiar, normally a shooting comet would have either a dark blue or yellowish blaze behind it, but a black tail? Her own personal library didn't hold the answer.

Poof

She theorized how this could occur. Maybe because it shot through a part of space that changed its color, or the asteroid itself wasn't rock, but some kind of mineral.

Poof

Now where did the myth of shooting stars originate? Of course, she knew that a sun couldn't move from its spot, shooting stars are asteroids. Wishing on them, though. It was a very old folk's tale she can recall as long as she could remember, even when she and her sister began to rule the myth managed to linger on.

Poof

Of course, being the princess of the night she would hear her subjects' wishes. There was one she could recall three little fillies making in a tree house, something about taming a wild bear to obtain their cu-

Poof

O.K. That did it! She has to know what the heck her sister was writing! Watching her sister's never fading smile and graceful eyes, she slowly leaned her body over, just beginning to make out the letters in the scroll she was writing right now. Of course being in a tense room, she stuck out like a sore thumb. When she leaned over just enough to see the letter her sister was responding to, she quickly skimmed it…And blushed.

"Sister!" Luna shouted, her expression going into a full blown shock.

Celestia didn't even blink, she simply made eye contact with her from one side of her mussel; her smile still present, "Yes, Luna?" She addressed her in a sweet voice.

Luna's mouth was clammed down and eyes narrowed in outrage; only have to point her hoof at the floating letter to get her point across, "…Here in the Royal Court!?"

Celestia simply shrugged her shoulders and glanced back at the letter, dipping her quill in the ink bottle and resumed writing, still smiling, "What, I can't write of how much I appreciate my royal subjects?"

"To THOSE kind of subjects!?" Luna shouted stomping her hoof on the ground.

After a quick second, Celestia let out a warm chuckle before summoning another scroll, levitating it to her little sister, "There's even one for you."

Luna let out a very long huff of sheer annoyance and cast a dark-blue aurora around the object; opening the scroll with somewhat of an interest. It was a letter from a stallion who lived in Las Pegasus. The scroll told of how much he thought about her, wishing he could one day meet her pony to pony, on a romantic dinner date under a full blissful moon. She read a little bit of his personal life until her eyes skimmed the part where he would marry her, and went into a VERY detailed description of what he would do when she carries him into her chamber.

"And I have eight different scrolls with the same signature." Celestia informed her with a hint of a grin.

Luna closed her eyes and deeply inhaled, letting out as much steam as she could before answering her in a calm but assertive voice, "That does not concern me!"

"It doesn't?" Celestia sweetly answered lifting her feathered ink pin, "Well, maybe if you don't mind if I respond to this charming stallion for you."

"No you won't!" She gasps pulling the scroll and bottle away from her with her magic.

The guards around them were stern and alert during the entire debacle. There was one thing they were taught at the academy they must always take to heart, and to never waver.

Don't ask…Don't tell.

Little did anypony know, they were faint metal clanks near the roof top, metallic creatures taking position with mouths gaped open.

Luna began to write a formal letter to the perve in question…To bad there wasn't a name or a return address, just a magic signature she doesn't recognize.

Dear Subject.

I am writing to inform you that I have received your letters. Now normally being as busy as me and my sister are, I decided to take a little time out of my busy schedule and personally write to you. Don't assume for a second this is an honor, in fact, this is a dishonorable warning! I may not know who you are, or who you think you are, but read when I write this! If I ever receive a letter from you with this kind of intention, I will personally send you to the moon with nothing but a fish bowl!

Yours truly

Princess Luna

P.S. No. Chains and whips don't excite me.

"Target initiated." One of the creatures whispered from above with a crackling high pitched voice, "Calculating projectile."

One of the robotic creature's eyes zoomed in, emitting a small laser light pointing to Celestia's neck. Another creature took position near a window and pointed a laser at Luna's neck as well.

Luna rolled up the scroll and sent it away with a burst of magic from her horn. She glanced to her side and saw her sister responding to another 'personal' letter, summoning a lipstick and coated her lips with a gloss pink cover. She quickly kissed the bottom of the letter before rolling it up and sending it away, a majestic giggle slipping from her lips while wiping the gross away with her hoof. Luna rolled her eyes and stared straight ahead again, this time not letting her eyes turn to her for another second.

BANG! BANG!

Two mythical explosions ruptured behind the two thrones. Celestia and Luna jumped and were quick to turn their head around to see a royal guard pointing his glowing horn down on a pile of sparkling metal scraps.

"We're under attack!" He yelled.

A nearby guard immediately cast a shield on the two princesses. The Royal Guards near the door were frantically checking the ceiling for any signs of invaders.

"I see one!" One guard shouted pointing a spear.

Every Guard in the room looked to his direction. A mechanical creature, almost the size of a large dog, was clanging to a decorated tile near the corner of the room. Its four stubby legs were stuck to the ceiling, but when it moved, it shifted its legs in a flawless motion. Its thick tail was longer than its head and body, metal but somehow swaying behind it like a ribbon. It opened its snake like mouth, one of its eyes expanding and emitting a small-red laser light from its tiny red pupil. Before anypony had time to react, a muffled shot rang out through the room and hit the guard who has spotted it. Without a prayer, the guard went limp and collapsed on the floor. A Royal Guard pointed his sphere at the shooter and with a burst of magic, sent it bolting towards its target. The spear skewered the metallic creature and was sent fumbling down with a crash, white sparks splashing outward when it hit the ground. In the rubble, a small green lizard crawled its way out of the machine and scurried away towards the door.

"What are those things?!" A guard shouted in a panic, franticly checking the roof and walls.

Another muffled shot rang out, this time the Royal Guard shielding the princesses collapsed without a breath. A handful of guards rushed to his aid while an Elite cast a shielding spell on the two princesses.

"We can defend ourselves." Celestia addressed him while scanning the ceiling, "You need to assist your brothers."

He nodded through his armored head and scanned the ceiling with the rest of the guards while the two Princesses cast a bright shield on themselves. They couldn't move while under their shielding, but the bubble can block out almost anything that might come against them and allow them to cast their own spells through it. A half of dozen of those robotic creatures opened fired on Celestia and Luna, but the shield proved its worth, blocking every shot and therefore keeping the Princesses safe. A handful of Royal Guards spotted the shooters near a dark corner and lunged their spears at them with a burst of magic. They made their marks, and the crawling snipers tumbled down almost at once. Again, as the robots hit the ground with a clash, small green lizards crawled their way out of the ruble, scampering to the nearest exit. The group of guards who rushed to the down solider who protected the princesses where checking over him; with one of them putting a hoof on his neck. They were surprised to see not a trace of blood anywhere on his body, and his face shown no sign of a struggle.

"He's not breathing!" He shouted.

"Leave him." An Elite affirmed him, "We'll treat the wounded afterwards."
A robotic lizard took aim on an Elite who was standing near a heavily decorated window. With its target sighted, it opened its mouth and fired. The elite heard a quite ting from its amour and spun around to see a very unfortunate robotic assassin scampering for its life. With a quick charge from his horn, he fired a quick blue laser, hitting the target as it collapsed down to the floor.

"Everybody cast a shield." He shouted, "They can't penetrate amour."

Unfortunately, half of the Royal Guards were having trouble casting the spell properly. A shield was a tricky spell cast and requires a lot of energy to keep up, even senior Royal Guards would have to go through strains to summon one, but it was proven to be almost invaluable in any combat situation. A couple of guards were shot down in the process, and successfully retaliated by nearby troops. An Elite shook his head and decided to cover a group of guards that were having trouble casting the stubborn spell with his own shield. Following that as example, the other armored ponies began casting the spell on the Royal Guards that could summon their shield. Six muffled shots rang out through the room, but all deflected and retaliated by the Royal Guards covered by the shields. Dozens of green lizards were scampering their way to an exit.

"Everypony keep this forma-."

An Elite was hushed by a soft sound of clanking metal hugging the Royal Court. All became quite in the room for several intense seconds; then suddenly the six windows that covered the room shattered open with sharp figment of glass splashing outward, covering the floor. Before every pony's eyes, an outpour of robotic lizards crawled their way through the broken windows to the ceiling, scampering and swaying with mouths open and laser lights guiding their targets. The Royal Guards inside the shields began lunging their spears at whatever metal they spotted, and if can be helped began firing whatever spells they have learn so far at the invaders. There wasn't a single second that a muffled shot couldn't be heard, every shield cast were constantly waving and reacting to the shots fired open them. With the invaders clearly in sight, Celestia and Luna began charging their horns with magic and fired their spells relentlessly at the ceiling and walls with explosions and electricity. Metal scraps were raining down, every robotic creature hitting the floor with a clash. Little by little, the swarm was dying down.

A robotic lizard took aim upon an Elite that was covering a group of Royal Guards. With its laser light taking aim, it began scanning the body amour for any weakness, until it found the thing it was looking for.

A small gaping hole near the back of the Elite guard, about the size of a pin head.

It guided its laser light until it eclipsed the tiny hole. With its projectile calculated, it fired…The pony collapsed down with a clank from his amour. With the shield down, the ponies that were protected by him collapsed almost at once.

Celestia and Luna can see the swarm of these robotic creatures were dying down; each explosion caused by Celestia's magic were catching fewer and fewer robots. Luna pointed her horn to an empty spot of the ceiling.

"Sister! Can you cast a spell that can cover our guards from lightning?"

"What are you planning?!" Celestia shouted out while summoning another flaming sphere and firing it on a large group of robots.

"I'm going to cast a spell that's going to electrify the walls!" She answered charging her horn.

"But…You have to lower your shield to cast that spell!"

"I'M NOT GOING TO SIT HERE WHILE OUR SUBJECTS SUFFER!" Luna shouted with her eyes glowing white.

Celestia stood in silence by her sister's response…Then by the nod of her head, she began charging her horn while pointing it at the guards in front of her. With one flap of her wing, Luna's shield disappeared as she took flight, firing a small lightning bolt at the ceiling. Celestia discharged her spell, and the ponies below were covered in a golden aurora. The robotic lizards took dead aim at Luna, before they had a chance to fire; a series of black arches engulfed the ceilings and walls. The invaders fell to the floor with a loud crash, small arks of dark lightning surfing through their bodies. Some exploded into a fire ball, most violently shook in place until their beaming red eyes faded. The muffling fire fight ceased at once.

A faint mist of smoke covered the room. The Elites lowered their shields, and one of them crouched down, closing his eyes while charging magic into horn. After several seconds of silence, he stood back up.

"Area is clear." He announced.

The Royal Guards rushed to their fallen comrades, stripping away their amour and any weapon that might be on them. They gently placed their hoof on their necks…No signs of life.

"They're dead." One spoke in a low tone, "…They're all dead."

The whole room fell silent, either silently grieving or respecting the dead. Celestia took in a deep, heavy sigh, letting her heart expand to take in the sadness of a fallen soldier. Luna was slowly backing away, her head turn to hide the few strain of tears in her eyes.

An Elite trotted over to one of the group of guards, staring at the corpse they gathered around.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"I didn't feel a pulse." He humbly answered, "He has to be dead."
He gently nudged the Royal Guard to move aside to inspect the body for himself. With his horn, he removed his helmet, revealing a sweat soaked yellow and white mane, dark green eyes glaring at the fallen pony before him. When he removed the amour from his front hoof, he firmly pressed it against the guard's neck, gliding his hoof from his upper neck to the chest. His eyes widen, and immediately pressed his ear against his upper stomach. He slowly lift his head, a blank expression on his face.

"He's alive." He spoke out loud, every guard and royalty staring at him, "Barely."

The rest of the guards that were hovering over a fallen body almost at once pressed their ears against their stomach. They could hear a gentle, slow heart beat; warming the sides of their heads by each passing second. Princess Celestia and Luna galloped to a nearby fallen guard and pressed their ears against his upper stomach, greeted by a soft constant heartbeat.

"He is alive." The white Alicorn spoke

"What did those things do to them?" Luna asked while glancing at the metal scraps spread out all around the room.

Celestia closely looked over his body, but didn't find a single trace of blood on him, not even a puncture wound.

"…Maybe that yellow fox knows something." She stated, "He knows more about these machines than anyone else."

---

The Mane six, Spike, as well as their other friends were walking a dirt path with Canterlot still an hour away. Sonic, with the Chaos Emerald in his hand, would normally be taking the lead, but he as well as Rainbow Dash have been dragging their feet and hooves across the ground; making sure to yawn loud enough so everyone can hear them. Twilight sighed in aggravation for the fifth time since they left.

"Make yourselves urgent!" She called to the two in bitterness, "This is Princess Celestia you're holding up!"

Rainbow grunted and picked up her pace until she was by the lavender unicorn. Sonic just simply hanged back with two hands behind his head.

"You too, Sonic!"

"I'm coming." He groaned.

Sonic picked up his pace until he was on the other side of Twilight.

"You know we could teleport there." Rainbow suggested.

"Too far away," Twilight answered, "Requires more magic the further away our destination is."

Rainbow impatiently sighed and decided to hover by her.

"So..." Sonic recalled the day when he was captured, "Since were going over there anyways, what's Celestia like?"

Twilight beamed in interest, "Well, Sonic. If you must know…"

The next twenty minutes was Twilight happily running her mouth about the princess this and the princess that; her words run-in on each other without a comma or period. Sonic caught about a quarter of her speech, enough to understand that she's a kind and wise ruler.

But for Rainbow Dash and to everything else near her, all they could hear was, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, student, blah, blah, blah, harmony, blah, blah, blah, blah, test…Etc."

The cyan mare floated to his side while Twilight was still jabbering on, getting close to his ear so no one else could here.

"You need to be careful what question you give her," Rainbow quietly spoke to her, "Especially something that relates anything to her interest."

"No kidding," He sighed.

Then he said something he would regret for the rest of the day.

"From what I've heard, she's a great ruler and everything…But she seems no different than the other princesses I've met."

He heard a voice cut off from behind, a sudden, chilling cut off. When he turned around, he found a pair of blazing lavender pupils staring right at him.

"No different...NO DIFFERENT!" She screamed.

Every creature and pony jumped.

"I have you know that princess Celestia is the wisest ruler than any other princess in the world and it is VERY disrespectable for you to call her by no different than any other princess or anything related to that matter. You should be ashamed of yourself and be regretful of what you-"

Sonic lost track of her at that point, but then he thought of something. Does he really have to suffer a lecture?

With the Chaos Emerald glowing in his hand, he glanced at their designated city. He took one last look at Twilight, a smirk on his face.

"And you should always respected the royal family no matter how rude or how unreasonable they might-"

BOOM!

A shock wave dispersed around the spot he was in. Twilight felt herself gasping for breath when she felt the force punch against her chest, her mane floating with the sudden burst of wind. There wasn't a trace of him left.

"D-did he just run!?"

"…Eeyup." Applejack chimed in perfect timing.

Twilight was stomping her hoof and cursing to the heavens above. But no one really blamed him; how often Spike has wished to simply disappear when facing her lecture.

"…That hedgehog is so lucky." Spike mumbled, who was standing next to Fluttershy.

"Um…Yes he is." She commented in her soft voice.

When Twilight was done with her rant, she turned to the nearest thing that was near her, which was Rainbow.

"Can you believe that?! That hedgehog just took off while I was informing him the importance of Celestia's rule. I don't know anything that would so rudely run while somepony is giving them a-"

BOOM!

Rainbow Dash was flying towards Canterlot as fast as her wings could carry her. It wasn't a Sonic Boom, but whatever it was it sent her out of there in a hurry. The next thing Twilight saw was a trail of Rainbow.

Every creature behind her froze, and beheld a trail of flames spurring out of her mane and tail. She turned around and cast her fiery eyes upon the meek that followed her. As soon as those flames died down, she addressed the group about the importance of listening and matters.

It was going to be a long trip.

---

Sonic braked within inches from the Canterlot gate, which somewhat intimidated him staring up at the iron bars that protected the city. There were two Royal Guards protecting the entrance, staring straight ahead with a disciplined stance. Sonic slowly began passing them, expecting to be blocked off by their wings. That was one weird thing about the Royal Guards; they don't seem to respond to anything until something is intruded upon them. Sonic has to give them credit, though; they have to be exceptionally trained to be standing in one spot all day without moving a muscle until an officer orders them. When he passed through their necks, he went ahead and passed the opened gate. What he didn't expect was somepony calling behind him.

"Hey, wait up!" He heard.

He turned his head and saw Rainbow flying rather swiftly to his direction, swiftly passing the gate without giving the guards a second thought. She braked when she was beside him.

"Decided to run?" He asked her with a sly smile.

"Heck, yea!" She shouted, "Do you know the consequences of insulting the princess around Twilight?"

"I didn't mean to offend her," He innocently stated throwing his hands up in the air, "I just gave an honest opinion. I've met other princesses back in my world, and from what I've experienced, she seemed no different from any of them; Responsible, loving, always putting others ahead of themselves."

"Well…" Rainbow sighed, "Just be careful what you say next time."

He nodded his head and continued to make their way to the palace, passing by the numerous of fancy stalls and decorated apartments. After several minutes of walking, he noticed some off about the by standing ponies around him. They didn't glare or sneer at him like in Ponyville, most of them ignored him; either with their noses stuck up in the air or just simply walking.

"Guess every pony here heard about the race as well," Sonic suddenly stated.

Rainbow glanced to her side, "What makes you say that?"
"When I walk the streets of Ponyville, everypony would either glare at me or back off with tails tucked between their legs. They don't seem to notice me here."
Rainbow huffed, "This is Canterlot you're talking about. Almost every pony here is uptight."

"Still." He persisted, "They would have at least flinched to see a potential murderer."

They paced themselves until they stood at the gate of the Royal Palace. Given the O.K. from the guards, they were escorted by a buffed stallion, armored from head to hoof. When they reached the gate of the Royal Court, they were greeted by two other armored ponies and followed them in as they approached the throne. What really caught the two off guard was scrap metal scattered all over the court's floor.

Celestia stood from her seat, and accompanied by her was Princess Luna, who looked rather sorrowful after laying eyes on the blue hedgehog.

"Rainbow Dash." Celestia called, "I see you are taking your task seriously."

"Yea." She answered with her chest puffed out, her element shinning, "Not a second I've let him out of my sight."

Sonic rolled her eyes at her boasting comment.

"Well." Celestia sighed, "I would have to ask you to pardon us for a few minutes. There is something private we need to discuss."

She nodded her head and was exported by two Royal Guards. When they disappeared out of sight, Sonic found himself standing before the two co-rulers of Equestia. An all too familiar grip rushed over him.

"Is there something you need, your highnesses?" He asked humbly.

"There…Is something we need to discuss." Luna cut in, walking towards the hedgehog, "But first."

She stood in front of him, and to Sonic and Celestia's surprised, bowed to her knees.

"We owe you our deepest apologies." She lowly said.

Celestia didn't bow but lowered her head in respect. The blue hedgehog just stood while beholding the two most powerful figures of this land bowing their heads before him.

He was speechless beyond belief.

"We falsely accused you of a crime." Luna continued with her head still low, "You were truthful before the court, and we wrongly sentence you to the Canterlot Dungeon. We are indebted to you for this discriminate act."

He slowly began backing away. He has saved civilizations from destruction from either Dr. Eggman or some kind of evil force wishing to plunge the kingdom to eternal darkness. He has kings and queens bow to him to show thanks before thousands of spectators.

But this…This was too much to handle at one time.

"I-i-i-it's nothing, Princess," He stuttered backing away from them, "This wasn't the first time this happened."

Celestia raised her head and saw the blue hedgehog in distress. She quickly nudged Luna with a hoof, and she quickly stood.

"What we mainly called you for," Princess Celestia continued, "Is information regarding Shadow. My sister has fought him and managed to overpower him."

"I never met anything so deranged in my life." Luna commented, "He kept crying out something about Canterlot being in flames and us starving our subjects. We were wondering if you know anything about him."

If there was one thing Sonic knew Shadow for was his grasp on reality. He hated to admit it to himself, but there were times he has shown more intelligence during an operation than he did.

"That's simply not like him." He said thinking back, "I've known him for years and he would never attack anybody without cause…He was always a bit of a rebel, but he would never salvage a city."

Luna glanced back at her sister in a bit of interest, "What are you suggesting?"

"I…" Sonic mumbled in deep thought, "I really wouldn't know for sure."

Luna then caught a sight of something in his hand, something that glowing and immersing with power,

"I also saw him with two shining objects." She brought up, "I believe it is what you would call the Chaos Emeralds."

Sonic perked up and stretched out his hand, opening it to show the emerald in full form, "Is this what you saw?"
She didn't even have to look twice; Luna could feel the intense energy surrounding that thing, "That's the one."

Celestia tried to cast a spell to lift it, but as soon as she charged her horn, she felt something fighting it; as if the spell is simply washing over it.

"Can this emerald be harness by anyone?" Celestia asked.

"As far as I can tell, only Shadow and I can harness the power of a Chaos Emerald."

Luna stepped closer to it, observing it with deep interest. It sure was a thing to look at, the way the light inside is barely shining outward to emphasize its red color.

"Just two of those things and he was able to take me on in a fight." She mumbled.

"And the Emeralds grow stronger if another one is near." Sonic added, "If all seven of them is present in one body, the energy inside will burst open and overcharge the user. I turn into something what my friends call Super Sonic."

Luna couldn't help but ask, "How powerful do you become?"

He glanced at her with a suspense look, "Beyond anything I could describe. Last time I saw Shadow use it, he was able to manipulate time itself and destroy a planet with one blast."

Their eyes widen in sudden terror. How could those little gems contain that much power?

"Tails is building a device right now that can pick up the emerald's energy from farther away. We did manage to find this one in the Everfree Forest."

An elite guard approached through the door suddenly; bowing before the two princesses in respect.

"Excuse me for intruding," He apologized, "But Sonic's company is waiting outside the door."

"Good." Celestia said, "Send them in."

"As you wish."

He galloped through the door and after a second, Rainbow flew in, landing right by Sonic.

Celestia gave a warm smile to her as her other friends trotted through the door. Sonic didn't have to look back to know there were eyes sneering at him.

"I'm glad to see everyone together." Celestia announced to them, "How is everyone's search for the Emeralds."

"Troublesome to say the least." Tails answered, "I'm now constructing another device that can detect the emerald's signature from further away from using the remaining, but we only managed to find one."

"And Shadow has two." Luna remarked in remorse.

"That reminds me." Celestia called a certain name and a Royal Guard came stumbling to her side, she also used her magic to levitate what looked like metal clumped together "There was an attack here just a couple of hours ago. My guard has collapsed to the floor when this thing fired something at him. Can you tell us what these things are and what they were doing."

He nodded his head and Celestia levitated the scrap to him. He held the bulky object, a couple of nuts and bolts dropping to the ground.

"This is definably one of Eggman's machines." Tails mumbled.

He politely called the guard over and after he stumbled a couple of steps, asked him if he could stand in place. Tails began digging in the pony's fur, around the neck area.

"What did you feel before you collapsed?" Tails asked him.

"I-I really don't know." He recalled, "One second we were fighting against a bunch of weird creatures, the next second I blacked out…I literary thought I was going to die."

He nodded his head and continued to dig through his fur. Just from his story, Tails already began having suspensions of what those machines were. He glide his fingers through his warm fur in search of the object he was looking for. After several seconds, he began searing the other side of his neck, hoping to have more luck of finding it. He was using his fingers to move the fur aside so he could see the skin beneath it.

Until his hand bumped into a purple hoof. He quickly spat it away with his other hand and heard a small 'eep' and resumed searching. Finally, his hand stopped on a certain location.

"Those machines weren't meant to kill." Tails said to the guard.

"What dus that mean?" Applejack asked.

Using his fingers, he plucked out an itty bitty needle from his neck, holding it in his palm so everyone can see it. It was almost like holding a tick.

"You see the little bulged at the end of it." He explained to the guard and everyone near, "That holds a special liquid that can knock anything out."

The guard stared a little closer at it, "You mean this was all it took to take me down."

"Well, yes." Tails answered informally, "I don't know what you would call it, but it's potent enough to knock anybody out if it hit in a certain spot."

Tails then walked over the metal scrap that Celestia gave him and dug through it until he found a piece of what looked like a lizard's hand.

"And if you look at the bottom of this machine's foot, you can see tiny little rings around it. It's not only made to cling into walls, but to also teleport a mammal if there's enough of these machines on it."

Rarity took a close look at it; then hissed when she found its eyes in the mist of the pile, "My word! I never have seen such a barbaric thing in my life!"

"So this wasn't an assassination," Twilight concluded, "This was an attempted kidnapping!"

"You are exactly right!" Tails glee.

Twilight felt herself blush red all around her face from his praise. Celestia approached the group, serious as she could be, "Then it seems the situation is more serious than we imagined."

"We can't sit here and risk Shadow grabbing hold on another emerald." Luna said to them, "Tails, do you still have the other device?"

"Yes, princess." He answered, "It's over at Twilight's right now."

"Then retrieve it and hand it over to us." She commanded, "You can show our guards how to operate it and we'll conduct a search throughout Equestia."

Princess Celestia was a little surprised of her sister's idea, but very quickly found herself found to it, "I agree."

Sonic then nodded and began walking towards the door, "Then common, Tails. You need to get to work on that device."

He headed out the door and the rest of his friends followed, with the mane six trailing behind.

---

Oh, it was a boring night! Floating above the clouds waiting for Shadow to return from his trip can really set your snake body to a slump. Ponyvill was below him, and had to literary resist the temptation of having fun with the poor ponies. It was so peaceful; everypony simply trotting below him enjoying the night sky as a full moon's gentle light sing the ponies indoors to a slumber…It was sickening!

Finally, he felt Shadow's presence in the Everfree Forest. With a snap of a finger, he teleported to his destination; when he appeared, he felt a very ominous vibe coming off of him as he simply walked from his direction. He didn't get a chance to see him in the morning while he was secretly checking up on Eggman to see if everything was going to plan (and much to his relief everything was). With a wise smile, he floated a little closer to him until he was about a meter from him.

"You know I was beginning to miss you." Discord admitted with a chuckle.

Shadow didn't even flinch when he heard him; he just kept walking.

"I told you I had everything planned out when we invaded the changeling's colony; you must really be something to take out the queen AND the whole colony."

He just kept walking.

Discord puzzled to himself why he was in a snobby mode, he doesn't have to be a spiritual being to know that something went wrong during his little visit. Using his chaotic powers, he did a quick scan through his mind…And really found out what was wrong.

"You know you can't win them all, Shadow." Discord explained trying to comfort him, "You may be more powerful than Queen Chrysalis, but taking a co-ruler of Equestia head on is someth-"

CLANG!

Discord floated completely still as he saw Shadow spun around, his feet shifted as is he threw something. His eyes were a blaze of anger, anger so intense that Discord felt a hint of fear slithering down his throat as he heard Shadow panting heavily. He felt something swishing by him; when he turned around he found a bright purple shard imbedded deep in the tree beside him, just inches from him.

"Let's go find those emeralds!" He hissed, "Another second I have to realize her existence is another second I have to hold my temper."

He slowly turned around and resumed walking into the thick bundle of trees. With fear still gripping his scales, Discord continued to follow him; keeping a very respectable distance from him.

---

Author's notes

I have officially beaten my own record for longest chapter…10,000 words. I never thought I'll see the day.

It feels like for me that this chapter was a bit of a letdown. Sure there were a couple of moments, but…I don't know. It was more of a filler, what do ya'll think? Because I can't answer those questions my own.

And about the dead line, I'm going to be visiting my sister and school is about to start back, so I'm have to yet again set it a little later…I'm going to say January 19.

As always, comments are welcomed, either good or bad, and don't forget to vote on my profile…I'm going to go ahead and take a breather before staring the next chapter, my brain hurts. :(