It was a nice sunny day at the park. Mordecai and Rigby were cleaning up the park from another mishap that occurred that they were involved in. There was garbage, debris from the grass, the fountain was destroyed again and a couple of ripped trees scattered throughout the park. Rigby was trying to pass the time by telling Mordecai some jokes, but the blue jay was feeling down and angry, and he did not respond to any of the jokes he told. Noticing his attitude, Rigby said, “Dude, what’s with you? You haven’t been yourself lately.”

Mordecai responded with a grunt, remembering what had happened before the incident at the park occurred.

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**FLASHBACK**

He and Rigby were on their lunch break and had gone to the coffee shop. Mordecai had planned on asking Margaret out almost every time he and Rigby go there. Unfortunately, with how shy he is around Margaret, and with Rigby’s teasing, it just made it a lot harder for him to ask her out. To build his self-confidence, Mordecai kept telling himself that this day was going to be the day he will ask her out. To assure himself, he said aloud, “I’m gonna do it Rigby. I’m going to ask Margaret out.” Rigby rolled his eyes and said, “Pfft. Yeah right dude.” Mordecai pointed at him in anger and said, “Just watch.”

He walked over to Margaret, but instead of asking her out, he instead asked for the usual that he and Rigby would get at the Coffee Shop. Mordecai got him and Rigby their coffee and also ordered some sandwiches. Once he got back to the table, Rigby said with a smug look on his face, “Hmm-hmm, I told you.” Mordecai snapped at him and said, “Dude shut up! I’ll eat first, and then I’ll ask her out.”

Rigby shrugged Mordecai’s excuse off and ate his meal. After they finished their food and coffee, Mordecai told Rigby to go back to the park, while he paid for them. After making the payment, Mordecai decided it was time to make his move. Margaret snapped him out of his thoughts and said, “Here’s your change Mordecai.” He said with a smile, “Thanks Margaret. Uh, can I ask you something?” She said with a smile, “Sure, what is it?” Mordecai started to get nervous, but he continued anyway and said, “Uh, I was wondering, uh, if it’s not too much trouble, would you like to uh… go out with me this Saturday?” Margaret felt uncomfortable with the question and said, “Oh, I’m flattered Mordecai. But, I have to say no.” Mordecai looked heartbroken after hearing her answer. She continued by saying, “It’s nothing against you Mordecai, I think your a great guy, but I only see you as a friend.”

Mordecai felt even worse just hearing the word ‘friend’. “Great, the friend zone. I’m stuck in the friend zone with her.” Mordecai thought to himself bitterly. He then put on a fake smile and apologized for his question, and left the coffee shop after that. Rigby caught sight of him once he came back to the park and asked, “So, how did it go?”

Mordecai didn’t respond to Rigby’s question, the look of anger, sadness, hurt, and total rejection clearly visible on his face. He didn’t push the subject with Margaret any further. He thought he might ask him about it later.

**END FLASHBACK**

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Mordecai finished up the job that was assigned him and Rigby. Benson was a little surprised to see that he had actually finished his job. He then assigned him another job to do at the park, and Mordecai got to it, without any arguments, leaving Benson a little confused to his behavior.

Mordecai was assigned to help Skips clean one of the carts and fix the breaks on one of the other carts. He had started scrubbing the cart with a wet towel, but his mind was still set on the events back at the Coffee Shop. “Friend zone? Friend zone? Why am I stuck in the freakin’ friend zone?!” Mordecai thought to himself angrily.

After finishing his job, Rigby caught up and helped him out with the cart. Skips went inside to get his tools so they could fix the breaks on the cart. While they were cleaning the cart, a bright light flashed behind them. They turned and saw ten figures from the light. After seeing the figures, they hid behind the cart, thinking the figures might start some trouble with them. Rigby asked, “Who are they?” Mordecai said, “How should I know?”

Back to Sonic and friends, after teleporting with Chaos Control, they each got a good look around their surroundings in the new area. They saw trees scattered around the area, park benches, the destroyed water fountain, a snack bar and a playground. They figured that they were in a park. Sonic turned to Tails and asked, “You sure the radar says the emerald is here?” He simply said, “Yeah, the emerald is here. I think we should split up and look for it.” And with that, Sonic and the group split up and went in different directions to search for the Chaos Emerald.

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Sonic had no luck finding the emerald after searching for the last half hour. He felt a little tired, and stopped at the snack bar. He gave it some thought and decided to grab a couple of chilidogs for a quick break. Sonic walked over to the snack bar counter and saw a green obese man with brown hair, along with a ghost with a hand on its head running the snack bar. He pounded on the counter and said, “Two chilidogs to go slow mo, on the double.” Muscle Man turned to him and said, “Who are you calling “slow mo” bro?” Sonic pointed at him and said, “You, that’s who. Now move it!”

Muscle Man then said, “Well, well, well, looks like someone’s impatient when it comes to food. You know who else is impatient when it comes to food? MY MOM!” Sonic gave the green man a questioning look while he and the ghost gave each other a high five and said, “Ok…” After a few minutes, Muscle Man said, “Here’s your chilidogs bro.” Sonic paid for the chilidogs and left the snack bar.

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Meanwhile, Twilight wasn’t doing much better with finding the emerald herself. She came across a garage and saw a couple of workers. She decided to ask one of them for help, since she didn’t know a thing about the park. She walked over to Skips’ garage, chose to ask the blue jay for help and said, “Excuse me can you help me?”

Mordecai heard the voice and turned to see who the voice belonged to. He was a little shocked to see a lavender unicorn standing before him. He felt a little uneasy with her because of his last experience with a group of unicorns. Twilight gave the blue jay a smile, and for some reason, it felt a little easier for him to be around her. The unicorn then said, “I’m Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name?” Mordecai had a light blush on his face after hearing her talk, as well as hearing her name. “Twilight Sparkle,” it just fit this pony perfectly. A light breeze blew by, adding the effect of her mane blowing in the wind, making hiss heart race even faster. He then said, “Uh…I’m M-m-morde…Morde.” He coughed in an attempt to stop his stammering and continued to say, “Mordecai. I’m Mordecai.”

Twilight giggled at his actions. This caused him to turn away from her in embarrassment, as well as to hide his blush from her after hearing her giggle. After regaining his composure, Mordecai decided to see what Twilight was doing at the park and asked, “So, you said you needed help with something?” She said, “Oh, yes I needed help looking for something. I’ll take you to a friend of mine so he can tell you all about it.” Mordecai nodded to her answer, and to be nice, he chose to go with her. Before he left, he said, “Hey Skips, I’m gonna go for a walk for a bit. I’ll be right back.” Skips, still looking for his tools, said, “Alright, see you Mordecai.”

And with that, Mordecai left the garage with Twilight to look for her friend. While they were walking through the park, Sonic had just ran past some trees and had seen Twilight with the blue jay. He was going to approach them, but he saw the blue jay looking at Twilight shyly. Sonic was a little puzzled with what he was seeing, so he kept a good distance from them and wanted to see how they would act with each other and started eating one of the chilidogs. Mordecai was looking her over, from her mane, to her eyes, to her smile. He just felt a lot happier then he did before, he wasn’t too sure what it was, but he still liked the feeling of it. To pass the time, he decided to get to know her better and started a conversation with her.

Mordecai said, “So…I’m guessing you aren’t from around here.” Twilight said, “No, me and five of my other friends are from Ponyville. Do you live around here?” He said, “Yeah, I live in that blue house over there with my friend Rigby and the owner of this park’s son, Pops. So, we live where we work, kind of a good thing I’d say.” She then said with a smile, “I know what you mean. Me and my assistant Spike live in a library. Well, it’s a giant tree with a library in it, but still a library. But I know what you mean by living where you work.”

Mordecai and Twilight shared a good laugh about their living arrangements. “As much as I don’t want to interrupt them, we got an emerald to look for,” Sonic thought to himself with a smile. He finished eating one of his chilidogs and ran up to the pair. After arriving, he said, “Hey Twilight, who’s your friend here?” She said, “Hey Sonic, this is Mordecai. He works here at the park. Mordecai, this is Sonic. He is the friend I was telling you about earlier.” The blue jay looked at him in question and said, “Sonic? I think I’ve heard that name somewhere before.” Sonic then asked, “Do you remember hearing about a Space Colony that had fallen to Earth?” Mordecai said, “Yeah, I’ve heard of that.” He slapped his forehead in realization and said, “Oh, Sonic the Hedgehog, now I remember! It’s great meeting you in person!”

Sonic grinned and shook Mordecai’s hand. Twilight was a little shocked to hear that he had to deal with a space colony falling to Earth and asked in surprise, “A space colony?” After seeing her expression, he asked, “Remember when I said that I saved the world on more than one occasion?” She nodded and said, “Yes, I remember.” He said, “The space colony falling was one of those things. It was known as Space Colony ARK, and it was on a collision course with Earth after my arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman had placed all seven of the Chaos Emeralds in the ARK. That was one of my adventures that involved saving Earth, but I couldn’t have done it without my friends.” Twilight nodded in understanding, and amazement. Mordecai gave him a questioning look and asked, “What are the Chaos Emeralds?”

Sonic pulled the purple emerald out, showed it to Mordecai and said, “This little gem is a Chaos Emerald. And like I said, there are seven of them in total. I had a little mishap back on Angel Island involving Time Eater, and Discord.” Mordecai looked a little confused after hearing the names. Sonic continued to explain and said, “I took care of Time Eater on my birthday, Twilight and her friends dealt with Discord a few months ago. Time Eater tried to steal them, but the red emerald released its power and the emeralds scattered in different directions after it lost its grip on them. I found this one back in Ponyville. A radar that my pal Tails made, read that another one was here at the park.”

Understanding the situation, Mordecai just said, “Hmm-hmm.” Sonic then asked him, “So, can you help us look for the emerald that’s here?” He said, “Sure, I can help out.” And with that, Mordecai joined Sonic and Twilight and started looking for the emerald.

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Mordecai decided to start his search for the emerald with Sonic. After agreeing, Twilight left the duo and went to search for the emerald in a nearby place. Sonic wanted to know a little about the park and the two workers at the snack bar before he continued looking for the emerald. He asked, “Hey Mordecai, can I ask you-?” But before he could finish his question, Mordecai got ahead of himself and said, “Twilight is just a friend!” Sonic looked at him in confusion and said, “I wasn’t going to ask about you and Twilight.”

Mordecai felt embarrassed for his sudden outburst with Sonic. He scratched the back of his head and said, “Oh. What were you going to say?” Sonic said, “I was going to ask if you knew some green guy and a ghost that were working at the snack bar.” He said, “Oh, them. The green guy is Muscle Man, and the ghost is his friend High Five Ghost. Why, did Muscle Man give you one of his “My Mom” jokes?” Sonic stared at him in confusion and said, “Yeah. I’m going to take a guess and say that he uses that joke a lot.” Mordecai said, “You got that right, he uses that joke with everyone. It’s his way to try and be funny. He’s more annoying than my friend Rigby, but I can still deal with him to an extent. I don’t have a lot to say on High Five Ghost, but he is good to hang around every now and then.” Sonic nodded in understanding after hearing his answer.

After searching around some small parts of the park, Sonic felt a little curious on Mordecai’s feelings with Twilight. He figured since she’s searching a different part of the park, he could ask him about it. He said with a grin, “Since you brought it up, what is going on with you and Twilight?” Mordecai blushed at this and said, “Oh, nothing. Just showing her around the park trying to look for you.” Still wearing his grin, he said, “You sure? ‘Cause to me, it looked like she wasn’t the only one doing some “sight seeing” around here.” Mordecai turned to him and said, “Oh, you saw?” Sonic said, “Yeah, but don’t sweat. If you like her, I got nothing against it,” he finished with a chuckle and began to eat the second chilidog.

Mordecai blushed hard after Sonic pointed out the obvious to him and yelled, “Dude!” He shrugged at this and nonchalantly said, “What? I call them as I see them.” Mordecai then said, “Well, since we’re on this subject, do you know anything about her? Like maybe if she has a boyfriend back in Ponyville?” “Wow, love at first sight, don’t see that too often.” Sonic thought to himself with a smile. He then put both of his hands behind his head and said, “Dude, I’ve only known her for a day, but as far as I know, she doesn’t. When I met her, she was reading a book, on a bench, in the park.” Mordecai breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Good. Uh, I mean, thanks.”

“Like I said, if you like her, I got nothing against it,” said Sonic. Mordecai blushed after hearing his statement again. He asked him, “You wont tell her, will you?” Sonic simply said, “No, I’ll let you do that on your own time.” Mordecai felt relieved after hearing that from him. He continued by saying, “Right now, we have to worry about finding the emerald here, before Discord or Time Eater finds it.” Mordecai said, “Hmm, hmm good point.”

Sonic finished eating the chilidog and took off in a different direction, leaving Mordecai to his thoughts. He started his search in the bushes. Mordecai said to himself, “She reads books, she lives in a library, and she’s an all around friendly pony. All I can hope for is that I can do better with her then I did with Margaret.” He finished searching the bushes and remembered his talk with Sonic.

“You wont tell her, will you,” Mordecai asked. “No, I’ll let you do that on your own time,” Sonic said. Mordecai walked to a different part in the park, with a smile on his face and said aloud, “Thanks Sonic.”

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After searching around the park for a while, Mordecai decided to search for the emerald at the playground. He noticed something sparkle under the sand once he arrived. He then grabbed a plastic sand shovel some kid left behind, and started digging up the spot. After digging enough sand, Mordecai found the cyan Chaos Emerald. He held the emerald in his hand and felt proud of himself for finding the emerald. He couldn’t contain his excitement and yelled, “OOOOHHH!”

After hearing him shout, Sonic and Twilight turned to see Mordecai holding an emerald in his hand. They both rushed to him, both very happy to see that the emerald wasn’t stolen. Mordecai said with a smile, “Here it is guys!” Twilight said, “Thank you, thank you Mordecai!” He said, “No problem Twi-.” But before he could finish his sentence, Twilight gave him a hug, leaving him with a blush clearly evident on his face. Sonic gave him a pat on the back for finding the emerald and said, “Yeah, thanks a lot Mordo!”

Before he could take the emerald back, the trio heard a radio go off. The voice belonged to Skips and he said over the radio, “Mordecai, come in Mordecai! Mordecai! Can you hear me?” Mordecai grabbed his radio and responded to the call and said, “I hear you, what’s going on Skips?” He responded by saying, “We need you back at the house. We’ve got a problem.” Mordecai looked a little worried from Skips’ response.

The rest of the ponies and Sonic’s friends regrouped at the sand box after they saw them. He remembered seeing each of them when they appeared earlier. Knuckles looked at the blue jay and asked, “Who’s this guy?” Sonic said, “We can save the introductions for later. We’ve got to go to the house that’s here at the park.” Rainbow said, “What for? I can see we have the emerald.” Twilight said, “Because, he helped us out, and the radio transition sounded urgent.”

Everyone agreed to it and left with Mordecai to go back to the house. As the group saw the house, they also saw Discord standing before the other park workers, Sonic dashed at top speed after seeing him. Once he was close enough, he jumped in the air and was ready to kick him in the head. Discord sensing his presence, snapped his finger at the last second and disappeared. Sonic slid on the ground after missing his hit on Discord. He growled in frustration after the missed attempt, Discord reappeared with a grin.

Mordecai and the rest of the group showed up before Discord and Sonic could continue their fight and asked, “Who the heck is this guy?!” Twilight said, “That’s Discord.” After hearing the name, Mordecai remembered his conversation with them about Discord and Time Eater. Rigby snapped him out of his thoughts by saying, “I’m glad someone told us who this guy was!” Everyone turned to Rigby after his little outburst after the identity of Discord was revealed to him.

He continued by saying, “This guy said something about wanting to face Sonic, Twilight and some other names I couldn’t really catch and something about an emerald, but I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about.” Discord said with a smirk, “That’s right. I’m here for the Chaos Emerald. I was going to mess this lousy park up while I was going to search for it.”

Mordecai still had the cyan emerald in his hands. He lifted the emerald in the air and said, “Hmm-hmm sounds like you have bad timing!” Shocked from what he was doing, Rigby said, “Dude, what are you doing?!” Ignoring him, Mordecai said, “We found it before you even got here, and there is NO WAY your getting your hands on this.” Discord shook his head and said, “Always the hard way, I’ll never understand these guys. Very well then, I’ll enjoy taking it from you instead. But I’m going to get some help of my own.” He then snapped his finger, and a bright light appeared before everyone. Mordecai thought that Discord was getting Time Eater, but once the light faded, it revealed the Moon Monster instead.

Benson came out of the house, oblivious to what’s going on outside and said, “Mordecai, Rigby. I need you two to go…” But before he could give them their next job to do, he noticed a big shadow and saw the Moon Monster. He said in confusion, “What the…?!” He looked at Mordecai and Rigby, believing they had something to do with it, but Mordecai said, “I swear, we had nothing to do with this one!!” Rigby added, “Yeah. It was that Discord guy over there.” He finished by pointing at him.

Benson turned to see where he was pointing and saw the mismatched creature. Discord waved at Benson with a mischievous smirk and disappeared, leaving everyone to deal with the Moon Monster. The Moon Monster, in no time, threw the first punch at everyone. The park workers, the ponies and Sonic and co. split up, before the monster’s fist hit the ground. The park workers got into a nearby cart and drove off. The monster saw Rigby on the front porch, and swung its fist at him. Rigby jumped off the porch, and the monster ended up punching a hole in the house instead.

While he was running, Applejack caught up to him and asked, “What in the hay is that thing?” He said, “I accidentally made that thing a while ago with a magic keyboard. After I made it, it tried to attack me, so I sent it to the moon with the keyboard, and it has been there ever since.” She then said, “My only question is how did Discord get THAT thing from the moon to here like nothing?” Sonic and Rainbow Dash approached Rigby and Applejack and heard her question. Rainbow said, “Maybe Discord has gotten stronger in his own abilities.” “For everyone’s sake, I hope it’s just his abilities,” Sonic thought to himself in worry.

The monster had thrown a tree at the rest of the park workers. They swerved the cart to the right, and the tree barely missed them. The tree hurtled towards Knuckles and Tails, and out of instinct, Knuckles punched the tree and broke it in two. Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie joined Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rigby. Everyone stopped running after they regrouped. Sonic asked, “So, what’s the plan?” Twilight said, “I think the Elements of Harmony can work on that thing.” Confused, Rigby asked, “Elements of Harmony?” Ignoring him, Twilight said, “We need someone to distract the monster to make it work.”

Everyone then heard a scream by the house. Sonic saw the monster had Amy in its hand and said, “Leave it to me.” And with that, he dashed off to save Amy. She tried to break free by using her hammer on the monster’s hand, but it wasn’t doing much effect to it. Knuckles tried punching the monster’s foot, hoping it would have an effect on it. The monster tried to step on him, but Tails saved Knuckles in time.

Sonic arrived and spotted Mordecai driving the cart. He yelled, “Hey Mordecai! I need that emerald!” He saw him waving his hands and said, “Alright! Here you go dude!” He threw the cyan emerald to Sonic, which he easily caught. Feeling both of the emeralds power, he turned himself into a ball, and launched himself in a spin dash attack. Sonic made contact with the monster’s stomach, and bounced off it, ready to strike it again.

The mane six arrived shortly after Sonic landed the first attack, and like the park workers, they were surprised to see how much power he got from the two emeralds alone. Sonic kept the attack going and the monster had let Amy go in its grasp. Mordecai ran over and caught the falling girl. After he caught her, he ran from the monster as fast as he could. Twilight and her friends charged up their elements and were ready to unleash the power on the monster. Seeing this, Skips yelled, “Hey Sonic! You better get out of there!”

After hitting the monster in the back of the head, Sonic saw what one of the voices had said. The ponies were off the ground and they were ready to use the Elements of Harmony. He returned to the ground and the ponies launched a rainbow from their elements and it hit the monster, causing it to roar in pain. Everyone shielded their eyes from the bright light the elements were making. Once the light subsided, they saw that the monster was no longer there, leaving everyone speechless.

Rigby suddenly said, “I’m glad to see Beef Burrito is back!” He ran over and grabbed the doll, leaving everyone confused, surprised and dumbfounded over the monster’s real identity. Sonic scratched his head and asked, “It was just a doll the whole time?” Pinkie said, “Looks like it.” Mordecai shook his head at Rigby. Benson said, “Thank you all for helping out with that monster.” Sonic said, “No sweat.” Benson then said, “I’m guessing your Sonic.” He gave him a thumbs up and said, “The one and only”

The gumball machine said, “I’m Benson; I’m the manager of this park. This is Skips, he’s the one that warned you about that last attack.” Sonic said, “Thanks for the heads up back there.” Skips just said, “Anytime.” A lollipop man said, “I’m Pops.” Benson interrupted and said, “He is Mr. Maellard’s son, he is the owner of the Park. And you have already met Mordecai, this other slacker is Rigby.” The raccoon said, “Hey!”

Everyone got a laugh out of Benson’s statement. After the park workers were introduced, everyone introduced themselves to them. After everyone was introduced, Benson wanted to know what was going on with Discord. Sonic pulled out the cyan emerald and said, “Discord wanted to get his hands on this.” Pops said, “It’s just a gem.” Mordecai said, “No Pops, it’s not an ordinary gem. Sonic told me it’s a Chaos Emerald. As we saw what happened, it can give anyone a serious power boost.” Rarity said, “There are also seven of them that need to be collected.” Pinkie then said, “We need to get them before Discord and Time Eater can get their hands on them.”

Confused, Skips asked, “Who or what is Time Eater?” Sonic said, “Time Eater is a being that can rip time and space into pieces. I’ve dealt with it before, but I didn’t think it had survived the battle we had. It released Discord back from Ponyville, and they are trying to get the emeralds to increase their powers for destruction.” Benson asked, “So, you have two of them so far, just five more to go?” Tails said, “That’s right. And my radar says the next one is just fifty miles from here.” Excited, Knuckles said, “Alright, not too far this time!”

Sonic asked Benson, “Hey Mordecai, want to help save the world?” Mordecai felt very honored to the idea of teaming up with Sonic. He was going to answer, until Benson cut into the conversation and said, “I’m sorry Sonic, Mordecai has a lot of work to do. Besides, he wouldn’t be able to help you in any way.” He then said, “I wouldn’t have found the emerald here without his help.” Mordecai just said, “Hmm-hmm.”

Not wanting to feel left out, Rigby jumped into the conversation and said, “If Mordecai is going, so am I!” Sonic said, “I like your enthusiasm Rigby. With how things are going, we’ll need all the help we can get.” Benson shook his head and said, “Fine. You guys can go, but I want you guys back by the end of the week, or your both fired. Got it!” They nodded in understanding and intimidation.

Skips and Pops wished Mordecai and Rigby as well as everyone else to do their best on their quest to save the world from Discord and Time Eater, and went back to work. Sonic told everyone to gather around and he used Chaos Control again, to go to the next emerald.