Alex Night

Alex watched on as Electrobolt was giving answers to the mangy blue feline. Although Alex was more interested in the blue unicorn that was in the cell with Bolt and the blue cat. He could swear that she looked just like Trixie. Then again, he thought that Ice Storm was Trixie when he first saw her. His attention returned to the blue cat. It seemed to Alex that it was trying to play with Bolt by lying to him and making him play its game. He scowled to the mysterious blue cat. "Why you mangy, no good lying..." Alex started off at the blue cat from his cell, shaking the bars hard with his hooves. It even had the audacity of it telling Electrobolt to name it. "I can think of a couple of names, you blue rat. There's one. I can also think of rug, hairball, dustbuster. Take your pick, whiskers." Alex said through his scowl at the blue feline. He then heard a ding on the cage bars before looking to see that Wind Dancer fell on her hooves. He moved to her side in concern. "Hey, it's gonna be okay Wind. We'll find a way out." Alex said to her reassuringly. He remembered the blue pom pom saying something about how flying won't help them, but that maybe dancing and the thought of freedom might help them. He wasn't exactly sure of what that meant, but Wind Dancer seemed to have an idea.

Alex looked over Ice Storm, his eyes catching the wound on her leg. It definitely didn't look good as it opened up again from the impact that she had just taken falling down the stairs and who knows what else got into the wound that might get it infected. Alex didn't want to be dishonest to her on how it looks from him, but he needed to keep her as calm as she can be. Finally after a few moments, she had seem to come back to the land of the living although her mouth had seem to make a wound on the inside of her mouth. "Ah geez, Ice. You should've let me take point. If I went down, then you'd be all right." Alex said to her sadly. With all his speed, he still wasn't able to save his friend from getting further injured. However, he was able to get some words spoken from Ice Storm asking him for some water if he can find any. He nodded to Ice Storm before speaking. "Okay, Ice. I'll go get some water. Just hang in there." Alex said to her gently before getting to his hooves. However the next scene that he saw with Princess Luna gave him pause. He had never seen the princess like this. He felt much sympathy for Princess Luna and Ice Storm, wondering just how deep their friendship goes. However, the next set of events that occurred left Alex speechless as he was witnessing the Princess of the Night kissing Ice Storm with a hint of tender love on the muzzle. "What in the name of Celestia?..." Alex thought to himself as he witnessed with wide eyes, wondering if what he was seeing was just an illusion. Yet somehow, the warmth building up in his cheeks were telling him otherwise and realized that he was blushing crimson. "Right, water! Need to get water!" Alex said aloud in a slightly awkward voice before turning quickly away, trying to figure out a good place to find water. Then it hit him like a stone wall. He reached into his satchel and pulled out his canteen filled with fresh water straight from the city of Cloudsdale. He moved quickly over to Ice Storm and knelt down next to her. "Ice, I got some water here. Take my canteen." Alex offered to her, holding the canteen next to her head. He made sure to keep the image of his injured friend as motivation to do better to protect her and the others. "Next time, let me take point." Alex thought to himself.

Snively started to grow tiresome and a little frustrated with the two imbeciles. "Enough, both of you." Snively said irritably to Trixie and Nack. Snively accepted the two Chaos Emeralds from Nack the Weasel. "Nack, you will be compensated as such when you..." Snively started off until his eyes reached the Crystal Heart. The fake Snively did his best to not squeal at the sight of the wretched thing. "Nack! Where did you get this... Thing? We need Chaos Emeralds, not Crystal jewels! Get this rock out of my sight; I don't care what you do with it! Also, you'll be paid your amount when you finish the job of collecting the Chaos Emeralds." Snively said angrily to Nack, pocketing the two Chaos Emeralds. His eyes met Trixie's. "As for you, Trixie. Consider this an amnesty for helping our wily friend here retrieve these two Chaos Emeralds. I suggest you leave now while you still can." Snively said grimly to the blue unicorn, subtly warning of her fate of roboticization should she continue lingering any longer. Snively started to walk away to the little area near the research laboratory where Robotnik was working in secret. Snively pulled out the two Emeralds and opened a special case with seven slots. He placed the two glittering Chaos Emeralds in different grooves before sealing the box. He made sure to set it where it will only open at either Robotnik's touch or Snively's. It was only a matter of time for their queen to exact her revenge and Robotnik was the key to it all. Him and his great castle in the sky. The Unicorn badniks were already hard at work using their abilities to help rebuild the Death Egg Mk. II. It was only a matter of time... ________________________________________________________________________ Twilight looked towards Rainbow Dash who volunteered to go with her to look for Fluttershy and Zecora. She did appreciate how they care, but she needed Rainbow Dash with the others. She was about to answer Rainbow Dash when she heard the commotion coming from Pinkie Pie who was flying all around the walls. "What in Equestria is going on in here?" Twilight asked aloud with a shocked expression before getting plowed through by Pinkie Pie. On the ground, she shook her head to try and regain her clarity. "Ooooohhhh, why doesn't anything go right?..." Twilight asked herself, now knowing that Pinkie Pie was on the loose. Rainbow Dash watched Pinkie Pie go off, wondering how she can run so fast. Dash looked back down to Twilight. "Twi, I'll help Cadence and Sally go after Pinkie." Dash said to her quickly, knowing full well of how bad a hyper active Pinkie Pie is. She didn't wait for an answer from Twilight as she flew off at Sonic Speed to go after the three mares. "Rainbow Dash!" Twilight called after her, but she was already gone. Twilight sighed to herself as she had to keep going on trying to find Fluttershy. She got back up to her hooves and looked back towards her brother. She was about to call after him until she was interrupted by Rarity. She volunteered to Twilight that she would want to go after Fluttershy as well. "I thought you never wanted to go back into the Everfree Forest because of how... Unnatural and glum it was..." Twilight said a little bewildered to Rarity. She shook her head a bit before replying to Rarity. "Okay, but be ready. Sonic and Shadow are in there somewhere fighting and I'd rather stay out of the blast radius." She said to Rarity before looking back towards Shining Armor. "Shining Armor, come on. We have to find Fluttershy quickly." Twilight said to her BBBFF before galloping off for the Everfree Forest, optting to search for Zecora's tree house first. ___________________________________________________________________ Amy listened on at Fluttershy's story about she almost became the lunch of a group of timberwolves. Luckily for her, Amy was on the scene. "Well, I'm glad you're okay. Your friends have been worried about you. Lucky for you, Amy is here to get you back to safety." Amy said cheerfully to the timid Pegasus. She wondered how Fluttershy would take Cream. She thought that they would've been the best of friends. Tails on the other hand was a different story as it involved Fluttershy fawning over a two tailed fox that could talk. Amy shook her head at the memory before looking back to Manik. "Manik, can you still move? We need to get Fluttershy out of these creepy woods..." Amy said in a leader-like voice. She knew that she had come a long way from just chasing after Sonic and her willingness to help were on par with her skills with her Piko Piko Hammer. Maybe it was because she was starting to feel independent without falling for Sonic all the time. No, it was for different reasons she thought. She stood with her hammer head in the ground and leaning on it like it was a post, waiting for an answer on Manik or for Fluttershy or her zebra friend. _________________________________________________________________ The four CMC were speeding away on Scootaloo's scooter as they were escaping from the Carousal Boutique. "Okay, I think we lost them." Scootaloo said to the back wagon fillies as they saw Pinkie Pie running off in a pink blur for an unknown destination. "Ummm, was it really a good idea to give her coffee beans?" Sweetie Belle asked a bit concerned watching Pinkie Pie go off. AppleBloom gave Sweetie a wave. "Relax, Sweetie Belle. Pinkie will be jus' fine." AppleBloom said reassuringly, although she wasn't secretly sure if she believed her own words. All of a sudden, another pink blur whizzed past the fillies to block their path on the bridge and it looked like Sonic's sister, Sonja. "Oh no, it's Sonic's little sister!" Scootaloo called out to the fillies as she tried to figure out a way around her. Her shocked expression turned to one of determination as she beat her little wings faster towards the bridge. "Scoot, are you crazy? We''ll be caught!" Babs shouted to her in her thick Manehatten accent. Scootaloo exchanged nothing back as she drew closer to the bridge, but then she veered off onto one of the edges of the bridge to fly over and away from Sonja like it was a ramp. All three wagon fillies screamed for their lives as they soared over Sonja in their attempt to get away from her. They were successful, but Scootaloo knew that she could be fast to catch up to them. _________________________________________________________________________ (Won't stop, Just Go!: Sonic Adventure 2) Sonic sped through the forest floor of the Everfree Forest, zipping through the trees in a zig-zag fashion to see if Shadow could still keep up. "Not bad for a faker." Sonic said to Shadow with a cheeky smile as he started running upwards along a dug in tree trunk of a giant tree that had to be at least a hundred and fifty kilometers wide and a hundred stories tall. He rolled into a Spinball and started 'drifting' along the winding ramp of the tree where he damns friction and slopes with his uncanny speed. Sonic looked back to ensure that Shadow was still following him. "Come on, Shadow. Let's see that Ultimate Life Form at work." Sonic said challengingly as he launched a spin maneuver technique at Shadow which was something new he picked up in his many battles after their race aboard the Black Comet when the Black Arms invaded Mobius.

Meh, I'm watching EVO 2013 off of Twitch. Also, I have noticed that people learn more from Peach as it seems like Marth is a character that helps carry the amateur players of Melee. I've always Project M to enjoy and get better with. Also, holy moley!... Still a bit more hyped about Mega Man though. Although I dread how much Mew2King will want to play as Mega Man.

Meh, Brawl was fine to me because of the fact that I can play with more characters like Pit, Snake, and Sonic. However, Brawl is just not as fun to play competitive 1v1 battles. At the same time though, Fox, Falco, Marth, and Jigglypuff are the ones that dominate the competitive scene of Melee. If anybody is interested, there is a special mod for Brawl called Project M or Project Melee as it is called. It plays with the same physics and techs as Melee such as Wavedashes, dash dancing, and L-Canceling. All characters are revamped and balanced with Melee in mind. http://projectmgame.com/en/ Also, I apologize if this has been shown here in the topic, but I was lazy to check all the replies. Anyways, be sure to check it out. It even works on Wifi as long as you and your opponents have the Wifi safe set.

Alex was able to get Key Gear off the attacking felines and put her on the ground, ready to buck some more furballs back. That was until a loud voice rang out towards them from the dark room. He stood his ground with his wings fully extended. Alex eyed each one of the felines as they stood looking at each of them like statues. For some reason, it seemed as if the room that they were blocking just got even darker, as if it were possible. Alex raised an eyebrow at the mention of birds. "Uhhh, okay. There's no bird here, hairballs. Unless you're seeing birds from all the kicks we gave you." Alex said to them with a chuckle. However, it seemed their little talk had ended with the darkness sweeping from the room and all around them. For a second, he could see Key and the others and they were gone in the next second. "What the? Key? Bolt?" Alex called out in the bleak dark, but then he felt a strange sensation that cut him off. He felt like he got hit by a cart and expected to hit the ground on his back, but the impact didn't come. Instead, he was just floating on his back without the use of his wings. After what felt like hours, his senses came around to find himself lying in some damp cobblestone dungeon that looked it was ripped straight out of a Daring Do book. "What the hay? How did I get here?" Alex asked himself as he moved to get to his hooves. He accidentally hit his head hard on something and looked to see it was a collection of iron bars all around him, like he was a caged animal. "Okay, who's the pony I gotta hit for sticking me in this thing like a housecat?" Alex asked out loud as his eyes surveyed the area. The sound of a quill scratching brought his attention to a pony that looked remarkably like Trixie with Electrobolt next to her. "What in Equestria is she doing here?..." Alex asked with a bit of resentment in his voice. Alex looked around to see that Key Gear was speaking to a cat that held the same color as her, which seemed strange to Alex.... Even though he did find himself in a strange dungeon like place when he was just at the train. Alex turned around and tried to break through the cage with his hind hooves. He bucked, but they did no good. In fact, he found his entire body was shaking with vibration from the impact before falling down to the ground on his belly. He shook his head a bit before getting back up. "I... I saw that going differently in my mind...." Alex said to himself begrudgingly before his eyes fell to Flow and Wind Dancer in the cell with him. "What the? Why is Wind here? She didn't do anything to them." Alex thought to himself as his eyes fell back to the blue coated cat. Alex narrowed his eyes at the blue cat as he just realized what the cats were talking about when they mentioned birds on the train. He felt a tinge of anger to the cat as it called them birds. "Very funny coming from an oversized carpet." Alex said to the blue cat, intentionally looking to sting the cat that seemed to capture them. However the cat just passed out of the bars and proceeded to Electrobolt. "Wait a minute... It mentioned that one cannot fly... That makes no sense... I can fly, Flow says that she is a flying teacher for young pegasi... Then that leaves..." Alex thought to himself as he looked over to the two Pegasus mares until his eyes were fixed on Wind's lying form. In all of this, he forgot to check on the two of them. Alex walked over to Flow and Wind, kneeling next to them. "Hey, Flow. Wind, are you two okay? Can you move?" Alex asked them with a hint of concern in his voice. Alex couldn't honestly think of what it's like to be a Pegasus who couldn't fly. He found the idea to be so cruel and couldn't help but sympathize with her. But for now, he needed to help them and others find a way out of this mess... Which didn't seem apparent to Alex.

Alice watched over the chain of events, wondering how the new pony would take her random act of kindness. Alice couldn't help but eye at Winter Breeze a little strangely. She had to think that this pony was hiding something from them and even so, his horn started to glow a bit in front of her. She stepped back a bit, feeling a little cautious about this certain pony. "Does he wish to mean us harm? But... I was just being nice to him..." Alice thought to herself when she just heard John Smith speak up to back her up. He spoke about how he can see right through his rouse about his identity. Come to think of it, his story was a bit off since the letter said that herself and all of the Canterlot Royalty along with all of the Royal Guards were held prisoner and she would have stated that in her letter that one of the guards had escaped. Alice frowned at the new pony, wanting to tell him just how bad it was to try and pull a trick like that to scare everypony here. However, her rant had to wait as two new ponies approached the group. Alice regained her smile and pulled out a tulip and a daisy with her magic before approaching the new ponies. "Hello there, I'm Alice Starling. These are for you. Please come join us, the more the merrier." Alice said kindly to the mare and stallion, giving the mare a daisy and the stallion a tulip before rejoining the group. Alice pondered on this as now that they had their group, she had no idea on where to go next. "So... um, I guess now we are waiting for one more to join us..." Alice stated to the group, wondering what was going on with those rolling dark clouds looming off in the distance.

Alex waited for Ice to respond to his offer on giving her a lift, but she just kept going on the injured hoof telling him that she was fine since they were close to the palace. He shook his head a bit as he saw the strange temple envelop in front of his eyes along with the group's own. It looked magnificent to be sure, but it appeared that time has done quite a bit to its constitution. "So, this is the Moon Palace..." Alex said to himself, gazing at the great old structure that had stood for quite a long time. He lost track of the fact that the group headed towards the East side of the structure as Princess Luna lead the group to the show the entrance inside of the Moon Palace. Alex flew over next to the group to try and see what was going on. Apparently the way inside was dark and they had no means of light to see inside. There were suggestions thrown around, including one where Electrobolt found an unlit torch to light their way. The problem was they didn't have any real way of lighting the torch, given the fact that Colt was out of commission at the moment. :Alex tried racking his brain in an attempt to come up with a good solution, watching Ice Storm enter inside as he did. The next thing that happened brought Alex right back to reality as he heard Ice falling and crashing down the stairs of the dark entrance. "Ice!" Alex called out to her as he ran inside of the dark entrance, intent on making sure that his friend was all right. He almost tumbled himself, but saved himself with the help of his wings as he traversed down the stairs. He reached the bottom of the stairs, straining his eyes for the outline of Ice Storm. He was able to catch the light colors of her mane and rushed over to her side. "Ice, are you alright? Can you move?" Alex asked her with concern in a kneeling position, trying in vain to see how badly she was injured.

Alex eyed the feline with suspicion as it spoke to them. "Oh great, I was hoping that it was just a black cat, not a talking creepy black cat" Alex thought to himself as he heard the cat's request to go back to the dining car. Frankly, he wasn't in the mood to be told what to do by a black talking fleabag. He then saw that Key was making a move to the cat to give it a bargain when it frankly was an ultimatum. Then all of a sudden, a bigger and perhaps more intimidating black cat came out of the door filled with darkness. He didn't have much time to contemplate this as the big black cat sent Key flying a few feet from them, followed by an entire mob of smaller black cats overwhelming Key Gear with many scratches all over her. Alex was about to step in and help Key Gear until he was shoved hard aside to the ground along with Flow. He looked up at his assailant and saw that it was Electrobolt who was rushing in to help Key Gear get the cats off of her. He had never seen Electrobolt this angry, but then again he'd probably do the same thing if she was his sister. "Sheesh, take it easy He-Pony." Alex said in a small annoyed, sarcastic manner, getting himself back up on his hooves. He was about to extend a hoof to Flow to help her up, but she was already up before him and was having a quick conversation with Wind Dancer. Alex facehoofed himself, wondering if having all of these ponies here was a good idea. He quickly disregarded it and looked to Flow who was asking for his help. He nodded to Flow, focusing his eyes on the cat pile. "Yeah... Let's kick these hairballs." Alex said to Flow. He flew quickly to Key's position and bucked a group of four black cats with his hind hoof, which screeched a loud meow as they flew for the walls. He joined in with another round of superpony punches for one of the black cats that was trying to jump Electrobolt. "How do you like me now?" Alex asked in a cheeky manner to the black cats as he tried to reach for Key's hoof in the cat pile to pull her out of the pile. He needed to keep her in the air so that the cats can't get her easily.

Amy looked around the area near the big tree. She had to think that they were nearby in the forest as she knew how much Fluttershy hated being in the Everfree Forest. "Oohhh, this is definitely no place for a delicate lady like myself." Amy said to herself, cradling her face gently. She thought back to the old days whenever she would chase Sonic in such unsafe places. She honestly did miss the fun of chasing him when... Amy eyes widened with surprise. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Amy screamed out as she swung her hammer hard to hit whatever just popped right in front of her. She sent the green creature thirty feet into a tree trunk where it slid down slowly. She opened her eyes again to see that she hit Manik. "Manik! What were you thinking?! Don't you know that you never sneak up on a lady in a creepy forest?!" Amy asked him annoyed. Amy stopped fuming right there as she turned around to see Fluttershy and a zebra. She blushed furiously, wondering if they saw her do that. She regained a sort of womanly demeanor, looking towards Fluttershy. "Oh Fluttershy, it's good to see you're okay. We were all worried about you." Amy said to her in relief. She then looked towards the zebra that introduced herself in rhymes. She bowed slightly to Zecora. "It's nice to meet you. I've never met a rhyming zebra before." Amy said to Zecora before focusing back to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, we were all so worried about you. What exactly were you doing out here?" Amy asked kindly to the shy Pegasus mare. _______________________________________________________________________ AppleBloom smiled to Pinkie Pie as she was about to take the bag from her. However, it seemed that plan was about to be dashed when Sally came over and snatched the bag from AppleBloom's hoof. "Oh no..." Scootaloo said quietly to AppleBloom's left. Babs gently nudged her. "Easy... We'll be fine..." Babs said to Scootaloo quietly, blowing away her bang to see better. However, Babs proved herself wrong when Sally confirmed the fact that it was actually Coffee beans instead of Cocoa. The words coming from Princess Cadence stung AppleBloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. However, Babs was surprised. "Wait, you three were Flower Fillies for the Princess' weddin'?" Babs asked a little shocked. The three CMCs nodded their heads to Babs. "We weren't going after Sonic..." AppleBloom said to Sally and Princess Cadence a little sadly. Little Liza Jane by Alison Kraus & Union Station However, the fillies ears perked up at the sound of Pinkie Pie chewing the Coffee Beans, wondering if she even knows that they really weren't Cocoa Beans. Then, all of a sudden Pinkie Pie started running all around the Carousal Boutique, driving the two princesses to trying to calm her down. The fillies smiled to themselves and started sneaking their way out of an open window through the bathroom. Once all four of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were out of the Boutique, they joined in for a group hi-five. "Nice plan, cuz..." Babs Seed praised her cousin. "Let's not celebrate just yet. We need to get Scootaloo's scooter an' ride on outta here." AppleBloom said matter-of-factly to Babs Seed. All of a sudden, Scootaloo came right by with the scooter and wagon. "Way ahead of you." Scootaloo said with a cheeky grin while the rest of the fillies gathered into the wagon. AppleBloom looked to the other fillies, Babs in particular. "Okay, y'all. We're gonna go on an Emerald hunt. Sonic's got one from our group that has 2 others. So, we need to look for four more Emeralds." AppleBloom said to the fillies. Scootaloo started revving her wings to get the scooter moving fast. "Do you think anybody from the boutique noticed us?" Sweetie asked, wondering if what they did was a good thing. Scootaloo voiced her opinion next as they rode down on the cobblestone street of Ponyville. "There's no way that they noticed us. Even if they did, Sonic or Rainbow Dash are the only ones that can catch us now." Scootaloo said to the fillies, bypassing a cranky donkey on the way going past Sugarcube Corner. _________________________________________________________________________ Maria could see from her mind of what was going on with Shadow and Sonic. She thought that her work is no longer needed, but she needed to not be seen by Sonic in this state. However, the more questions that the bat asked, the more she knew that she needed to be dealt with. "Why, what do you mean Rouge?" Chrysalis asked her, a glint of sickly green flashing in front of the bat for a split second. She thought that perhaps she would be useful for the doctor or for her own affairs. Maria walked innocently to Rouge, holding her hand gingerly. "I just want to do what is best for Shadow... And I'm his only friend." Maria said to her with a wicked grin, her eyes now glowing with the same sickly green she had. Her hand spread a bit of magic around Rouge, enveloping her in a licking green flame cage threatening to burn her if she tried to escape. "I think you have poisoned Shadow's mind for long enough, bat girl..." Chrysalis said to Rouge. "Now... Where's that blue machine to join the old rivals?..." Chrysalis thought to herself as she snapped her fingers to start descending the cage and Rouge into the depths, intending to trap her where nopony can hear her scream for help. ____________________________________________________________________________ Snively worked around the area after being dismissed by Doctor Eggman. He grumbled in his clipboard out of Eggman's ear range about how he wasn't treated right or even recognized for how hard he worked for him. He never even said that he was proud of him. At that moment, the changeling impersonating Snively was shocked. He was starting to share more of his memories and even started believing that he was really Snively. He had to keep his loyalty in check. He truly served Queen Chrysalis and Dr. Eggman will be none the wiser when she reveals her true plan for Equestria that should've happened one year ago in Canterlot. Snively turned his attention to two new figures that were having a 'conversation' with one of the changelings. He narrowed his eyes as the memories of Eggman and Snively recognize the weasel as Nack the Weasel. However, he did not know who was the mare that was with him. He walked over to the two newcomers, looking to resolve the situation. Particularly when the weasel had two more Chaos Emeralds to add to their collection, which only leaves four more to find. "Stand down, Nack. That will do. Doctor Eggman is in the laboratory and has ordered to not be disturbed until further notice. I'm sure that whatever matter you have can be settled with me." Snively looked towards the blue unicorn mare. "And who is this... Lady?..." Snively asked with a hint of curiosity. He wondered if she was a spy for Princess Celestia, which would only end in her becoming the Queen's enthrallment. For now, Snively needed to find answers about her and receive the Chaos Emeralds from Nack the Weasel. He however was unaware of the green-spined hedgehog stowing away underneath Nack's air bike. _________________________________________________________________________ It looked to Sonic that Shadow wasn't going to listen to him. In fact, now Shadow was taking an aggressive stance to Sonic before quickly launching a Spin Dash at him. It hit Sonic with the force of a car as he was sent flying to a tree. He was able to right himself in time for him to land his feet against the tree trunk, jumping onto the ground and landing on one knee with his right hand on the ground. The Battle only Hedgehogs know (For True Story/Vengeance is Mine Generations remix by ArcanaAaron) Sonic looked back up at Shadow with a snarky grin. "Okay... If that's how you want it, then bring it on! I'll knock the sense into you." Sonic said to Shadow before spinning into Shadow, dragging him with his spines across the forest floor. He pushed Shadow through the spine combo with a midair Spine Attack, sending the black hedgehog through a tree. Sonic landed on his feet, tossing the blue Chaos Emerald in his hand like it was a baseball. "I think you might need to check back on my limits, faker." Sonic said cheekily to Shadow, gripping the blue Chaos Emerald in his right hand. He took a breezy stance to Shadow. "If you wanna beat me, you gotta catch me!" Sonic challenged Shadow before blowing right past the black hedgehog at the speed of sound, signalling the restart of that race for the Emerald on the Space Colony ARK three years ago. ___________________________________________________________________________ Back in Castle Acorn, Elias Acorn, the son of the King Maximilian Acorn, was pacing outside of the Infirmary anxiously. "Father... Please be okay, Father..." Elias said aloud as he continued walking outside of the door to the infirmary. Sir Charles Hedgehog was waiting patiently in the hall with Elias, although the same look of worry was on his face too. "Your Highness, you must not worry yourself like this. We do not want word of the King's sudden fall to worry the kingdom. There would be panic with the knowledge that there is nobody to rule in his stead at the present moment." Sir Charles said to him. He knew full well that a king must have a queen to rule with and the fact that neither Elias nor Sally is not married doesn't help their current situation at all. "I know, Chuck. I know, but... It's my Father... The way he just..." Elias said to Sir Charles, tears trying to escape his eyes. Fortunately, one of the doctors that was directed to attend to King Maximilian stepped out of the door, holding his clipboard. Elias looked towards the doctor. "Doctor, how is he? Is he going to..." He started before the medical doctor cut him off. The medical doctor cleared his throat a bit and frowned sadly. He tried to find the words to tell him that would be able to alleviate the situation, but he could not find any. "I'm afraid that... Our Majesty has slipped into a coma with no telling of when he would be back to us... The strains on him were just... Too much for him... He already was rapidly aging thanks to his imprisonment in the Zone of Silence thanks to Dr. Robotnik; the same zone where Ixis Naugus came from. The conflicts with Robotnik and his reincarnated self Dr. Eggman along with the attempts on his life just pushed it to his limits... We might be able to use a device to bring him back to us, but... We don't have the immense amount of energy to power the device." The medical doctor said somberly to Elias who was in shock at what he was hearing. Sir Charles was also listening to what the doctor was saying. "Immense energy to power it... We might be able to do it with a Chaos Emerald. The problem is... We don't know where they have gone with Sonic and the others." Sir Charles said to them with an Epiphany only to have it chased away with their current situation of the battle of the Death Egg Mk. II. Elias sighed to himself, looking out to the hallway at nothing in particular. "Sonic... Sally... Where are you when we need you?" Elias asked sadly to himself, not knowing about what kind of trouble Sonic and his friends were into whereever they are. @,@, @, @,@,

Alex paid his full attention to Key Gear as she spoke about his question. As she went on to answer his question, he couldn't help but notice that she was trying to dodge something with his question and had a feeling that there was a story behind how she met these ponies. However, he couldn't figure out what to say to phrase a subtle plan to get Key Gear to tell him due to the fact that she might be more well versed in such a way. All of a sudden, Alex could see a commotion between Vim and Dawn. He arched an eyebrow at the two wondering if this was really necessary. When Alex turned his attention back to Key Gear, she had slunk away from the group which seemed strange to Alex. He wondered if there was something that Key wanted to get away from and thought it might be the reason why she didn't want him to ask about how she got involved with the group at the table. Alex looked back to Flow before speaking. "Hey, Flow. Come with me." Alex said to the pegasus mare, grabbing her hoof. He looked back to Wind Dancer. "Sorry that we wished that we could talk more, but there is something that we need to take care of. It was nice to meet you, Wind." Alex said to her genuinely before practically dragging Flow with him to chase Key Gear. Alex had hoped that none of the other ponies other than Wind Dancer had noticed their departure as he pulled Flow with him to the Parlor Car. He looked back to Flow with an apologetic look, but he would like to have her help. "Sorry about this. I would like you to help me help Key." Alex said to Flow in a low voice as he examined the Parlor Car. With no problem, he spotted Key Gear just standing a ways inside the Parlor car. He eyed her curiously before walking towards her. "Key, what's up? Why are you just..." Alex started off to her before what his eyes saw cut him off. "Oh... Horse apples..." Alex uttered out as he saw a black kitten just sitting in the doorway of a room 114 that looked unusually dark for this time of day. In fact, it looked eerily dark in the room. Alex sidled closer to Key Gear. "Okay, I take it I'm not the only that sees a black cat that isn't sitting very creepy at all in a dark looming doorway?" Alex asked her in a semi-sarcastically joking tone, keeping his eyes on the strange cat..

AppleBloom, Sweetie Belle, and Babs Seed held onto their respective family watching with wide eyes as Sonic sped out of the Boutique at a blazing speed. Although, Scootaloo was not as lucky as she flew into a wall with her back. She slid down slowly and blinked twice. "That... Was... Awesome! Did you see how fast that was? He literally blew us away!" Scootaloo chipped cheerfully as she sprang right back up with a quick cute flutter of her tiny wings. AppleBloom looked back at Scootaloo. She couldn't believe that Scootaloo is so cheerful after being flung to the wall. However, Babs Seed's mouth was open with surprise. "Wow... You weren't kiddin' about how fast he was..." Babs said in shock and awe. Scootaloo zipped right next to Babs. "That's not even the half of it. You should've seen him when he zipped all around Canterlot fighting Discord last year." Scootaloo continued on cheerfully. Princess Celestia was surprised at the turn of events, wondering if it would be unnecessary to tell only half of the group. "Well, I... I guess I'll have to wait for a bit... Sonic and Shadow at odds with each other is not a good idea..." Celestia told the group. She looked down at Spike. "Spike, I'm going to send a letter to you about everything that I know has happened so far. I need Twilight, Sonic, and the others back here to hear what I have to say. In the meantime, I must head back to Canterlot... I must see to my sister's safety..." Princess Celestia said to Spike before looking towards her niece. She gave her a nod with a look telling Princess Cadence to be careful. After that, Princess Celestia exited out of the Carousal Boutique to head back to Canterlot Castle on her own. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "He's not that fast..." Rainbow grumbled to herself as she listened to Twilight discuss the plan. She started to walk away from the group. Rainbow Dash exited out of the shop as well, chasing after her. "Whoa, whoa. There's no way I'm leaving you and Fluttershy hanging. Friends gotta stick together. Now, come on. Let's catch those two." Rainbow Dash said breezily to Twilight Sparkle, giving her a bit of a sharp nudge in her shoulder. Meanwhile, the CMC looked at each other. They huddled together, whispering to each other. AppleBloom looked towards Pinkie Pie with an innocent smile. "Hey, Pinkie... Do you want this bag of cocoa beans from me?" AppleBloom asked her curiously, hiding the fact that they were actually coffee beans intended to make Pinkie even more hyper-active and distracting. _______________________________________________________________________________ Sonic leapt through the branches of the Everfree Forest, occasionally landing on the ground to continue running through the forest. However, he sidestepped quickly to the right to narrowly avoid a flying Knuckles that was crashing through the various trees with no idea of when he is stopping. However there was another sight that gave Sonic pause. It was the sight of Shadow holding onto his Inhibitor Rings. Sonic narrowed his eyes at Shadow as he closed the distance on Shadow quickly. (The Retribution of the Ultimate Life: Throw it all away-Instrumental by SEGA from Sonic Adventure 2) "Shadow, have you gone nuts? Knuckles is on our side. What's gotten into you? You gotta stop getting angry at the mention of Maria." Sonic said defiantly to Shadow. There was something in the look of Shadow's eyes that seemed familiar to him. It was that same look he had three years ago when he first met Shadow on that street in Station Square. Sonic looked at Shadow's Inhibitor Rings and knew that they help keep Shadow's power in check, but he loses more energy much faster. "Whatever is going on here stops now. You gotta keep your rings on or you'll lose control." Sonic pointed out matter-of-factly to the black hedgehog. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Maria was surprised at how fast Shadow's speed was. "Ahhh, Shadow's speed is remarkable... He might be as fast as Sonic and maybe even more powerful..." Chrysalis thought wickedly to herself. However, her thoughts were interrupted by Rouge who was asking some curious questions. She had never heard of this bat before from the exploits of Sonic and Dr. Eggman from one year ago. She might be a very resourceful one... Which may prove to be a problem. "Ummm, Shadow is... Well, he's always been an enigma. This side of him was like it back on the ARK... I don't why exactly, ummmm... Rouge." Maria spoke to her in a semi-calm tone. After all, Chrysalis did want to give off the image of a woman who is trying to be calm in front of a bat that tries to act civil. However, her train of thought was broken at the sound of a familiar voice. She knew that it belonged to Sonic and now came the time for him and Shadow to relive their... Rivalry. ____________________________________________________________________________ Amy ran through the woods chasing after Sonic. However, even with all of her experience chasing after him in the past she still lost him in the woods. "Oh darn it, Sonic. You know how Shadow is about what happened with him and his past." Amy said to herself in a righteous pout. Now, she found herself deep within the Everfree Forest on her own. A Timberwolf leapt from the bush, but Amy just swung hard with her Piko Piko Hammer to send it flying in pieces. "Can't you see a girl is trying to steam in peace?!" Amy shouted to the shattered magical wolf. Now that she was done, she had to find out where Sonic was. However, she saw a big tree in the middle of the bog. It held strange tribal artifacts and wondered if this house belonged to Zecora. She then remembered hearing that Fluttershy was out here with the zebra. "Fluttershy! Fluttershy, where are you?" Amy called out to the woods, looking for the shy, timid pony. (@,@,@, )

Alex looked over to his right and he saw a mare walk up to him. She seemed to look at him with her eyes all up and down of him. From what Alex could see, she was another unicorn mare just like Lyra. This time, she had a light blue coat with various streaks of blue and light gray in her mane as well as her tail. She held a Cutie Mark in the shape of an hourglass and wondered it meant to her. Alex blinked for one second and reached out for Colgate's hoof to shake too. "Yeah, I guess you're the one that she told me about. My name is Alex. Nice to meet you, Colgate." Alex said to Colgate kindly. @,

Alex waited for a while before Twilight came back for him to tell him of his next mystery pony. "The statue of Smart Cookie, huh? Okay, I'll be there." Alex said to her, trying to sound cheerful. He hovered over to the door and opened it before he could fly out for the park. He passed by the Sugarcube Corner and the Mayor's office as he found the park at the center of the town. It was as lively as ever, seeing ponies of various ages at play with one another. He looked down and saw the bronze statue of a pony. He descended down to it and looked upon the name of it on the plaque. Sure enough, it was called by Smart Cookie. "Okay, I'm here now. Guess it's just time for me to wait for my mystery mare..." Alex said to himself as he waited expectantly around the statue for something to happen. @,

Alice watched on from an awkward position as the new mare started having her small little freak out in front of John Smith. She honestly felt a little bad for John Smith as he was sitting directly in front of the mare as it was happening. Just then, Alice jumped a bit at the sight of something emerging from the water fountain. Alice looked on towards the new unicorn with a hint of curiosity and caution on her face. Before she could react and voice her opinion to the stallion, John Smith was the first one to speak up to him. She heard John mentioned about having a normal conversation was too boring and wanted to talk about something different and exciting like the unlikely case that Princess Celestia and the other Royals were held captive against their will. She couldn't help but wonder why he would go on about it like this until the time pony winked back at Alice. "Oh, he is trying to make it sound like a joke." Alice thought to herself as she nodded to the stallion and looked towards the new one. "Oh yes, that's more exciting to talk about than just things like what ponies normally talk about." Alice said quickly to help build John Smith's case. Her smile turned to that of a frown to the new stallion. "Although I don't know how fun it is to eavesdrop on other ponies' conversations. Why were you just sitting there in the fountain and who are you?" Alice asked a bit inquisitively before putting her smile back on. She walked away from her flower wagon and pulled out a lily from her flower bunch. She trotted over to the new stallion and extended the flower to him. "My name's Alice." Alice stated friendly to the stallion, opening him up for him to tell her and the others his name. She always knew that this was a good practice to get introduced to others and make friends by a simple act of kindness and generosity. @, @,

Alex looked upon the group at the table and he felt glad that he was welcomed along with Flow, or at least Key Gear was more than welcome to have them join the table. However, she then introduced Alex and Flow to a young Pegasus mare named Wind Dancer. He couldn't help but feel as if she looked like that other blue unicorn with the exception of the horn replaced by wings. Alex gave a friendly wave to the Pegasus. "Hello there. It's nice to meet you." Alex said to Wind Dancer. He then saw Electrobolt get up from the table to go off to see two other ponies that Alex didn't recognize. He was about to ask what was wrong with him, but decided to leave him to it. He turned his attention back to the group at the table and took an empty seat next to Key Gear. "Thanks. So, it's been awhile since we last talked, Key. How are you doing since then and how did you meet the new ponies here?" Alex asked her curiously, feeling the companionship again that he had when he and Flow started to talk to Key.

The changeling stared into the red, unfeeling eyes of the carbon copy of Sonic the Hedgehog. It was able to bring a wicked smile to its face even though it was grabbed by the neck, inches from death. "It would be wise that you do not cross us and our queen, tool." The changeling simply said as its horn started to glow a sickly green. It launched a stun spell that repelled Metal Sonic off of it, knocking the metal being thirty feet away. A grin popped up on the changeling's face as it regained its freedom. "Ahhh, good. If I had not partaken in that bountiful feast at Baltimare, I would have no chance to escape." The creature thought to itself as it took the form of Sonic the Hedgehog. "Smell ya later, Chrome Dome."The fake Sonic said aloud to the carbon copy as it sped along through the trees. The changeling estimated that it would have about 3 minutes before Metal Sonic would get back up and it wanted to be as far away from it as possible. ______________________________________________________________________________ Snively watched with fearful eyes as the doctor started to tower over him. "N-no! That's n-not true!"Snively stuttered out to the doctor. In this case he was right, but somehow it had a feeling that Doctor Robotnik and his nephew had more than their fair share of being at odds with each other. Suddenly, the torment stopped when Doctor Robotnik disregarded the problem for now and headed for his field laboratory. "Y-yes sir! Thank you, sir!" Snively stammered after him, who was probably out of earshot now. Snively sighed to himself, thinking of how close his cover and possibly his life was about to end right there. Instead, Dr. Eggman's fake nephew turned to watching over the process of the reconstruction of the Death Egg Mk. II. "Great, now the only thing that could make him feel in a much better mood is if we get a Chaos Emerald." Snively said to himself, looking over a logistics clipboard. "I believe we might have what we are looking for." A voice said from behind Snively. It was a changeling that was holding a certain green Emerald. Snively's eyes widened as well as a long grin formed on his face. "Yes... This is exactly what we need." Snively said to the changeling, accepting the Emerald. Snively decided to take this opportunity to find Dr. Eggman at his laboratory. "Dr. Robotnik! We have some good news. I have something that might get you in a good mood." Snively said in a slightly wicked cheerful voice, running for Eggman's direction. _________________________________________________________________________ Princess Celestia looked into the direction of Cadence who was in the middle of introducing her to Sally Acorn. Celestia gave a small nod to Sally before looking towards Sonic. "Sonic the Hedgehog, it seems like it has been so long since you have visited our world last time. I am sorry that your return hasn't been well-received." Princess Celestia said somberly to the blue hedgehog. Sonic just shrugged at her. "Eh, it's no biggie your Majesty. It's sort of been a habit that our arrival is never just all about the party." Sonic said breezily to the regal Alicorn. Rainbow Dash gave a courteous bow to the princess out of respect and gave a sharp nudge to Sonic for not doing so. Sonic just glared half-seriously at Rainbow Dash before looking towards Princess Celestia again. The CMC looked at the event with a hint of concern and worry on their faces. AppleBloom nudged AppleJack before speaking to her. "AppleJack, what's goin' on here?" AppleBloom asked inquisitively as Sweetie Belle clung to Rarity's hoof, looking back up at her respective sister as well. "I'm sorry if I am causing everyone worry, but I'm afraid that I must say it..." Princess Celestia said to the group. Before she could go any further, Spike came in at an inopportune moment. Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Princess Celestia, and various others arched their eyebrows at the panting dragon who looked like he was finished on running a marathon. Sonic listened in with a relaxed stance as well as Amy who happened to next to Sonic. The mention of Maria's name and existence there sparked great surprise in Amy. "What?! But... But that can't be, Spike!" Amy said aloud before Sonic could voice his own opinion. In this case, Sonic knew that it couldn't be right. He remembered from his excursion on the Space Colony ARK that Shadow's close friend and Eggman's cousin, Maria Robotnik, was killed on the ARK over fifty years ago. He found out from the final logs of Professor Gerald Robotnik who at the time seemed like a sad, pained old man who lost something very precious to him and tried to destroy the world for it. He knew it was impossible, but given some of the things that he has seen over the years as a freedom fighter he knew that anything was possible. "Something's definitely not right. Time for me to juice it over there and find out what exactly is going on here." Sonic said aloud to the group before booming out of the Carousal Boutique, causing a large rush of wind to blow for a moment in the shop. Amy looked over surprised. "Sonic! Wait for me! Shadow's my friend too!" Amy called out concerned before running after the Blue Blur. Rainbow Dash winced from the force of the burst of speed caused by Sonic. "I don't get it. What's got Sonic acting all weird as well as Amy?" Rainbow Dash asked, confused. Princess Celestia couldn't help but think of how the situation is going out of control. She wondered if her sister was doing fine with overwatching the kingdom on her own. As Sonic broke through the border of the trees of the Everfree Forest, he quickly bypassed a startled Manticore which had never seen such speed. He didn't like the idea of Knuckles and Shadow at each other's throats and then there is the word of Maria being involved. He couldn't think that it would be true that she was still alive. She had to be a memory, or at least that's Sonic has learned from three years ago on the Space Colony ARK where his battle with Shadow nearly destroyed the world. ______________________________________________________________________ As Maria watched over the battle, she could sense a great energy source closing in on them. Maria/Chrysalis grinned as she saw that it was time to further the operation of Phase One: Distraction. She focused her eyes on Shadow. "Shadow... What happened to grandpa? The last that I remembered of seeing him being chased by a blue hedgehog that looked like you." Maria spoke to Shadow, continuing on warping his memories to shape her version of the truth to make him see Sonic as an enemy. Soon, Metal Sonic would come to and sense their location, giving them something to be distracted by and allow Robotnik more time to get his "Death Egg" operational again as their location is no longer secret thanks to Celestia's watchful eye on the kingdom. However, if all should go well with phase one, then Phase Two would be a cinch to ensure that Sonic and his friends would be unable to rely on one another.

Alex hovered above the bridge, watching over the ponies as they attempted to cross. The first ponies to cross were Princess Luna while she was carrying Colt. He couldn't help but shiver in the cold air as the sun started to descend upon them again. He then saw that Ice Storm was the next pony to cross after Princess Luna made it to the other side of the bridge. He was glad that they were going at it one time, but he knew that the time that they had was growing more thin by the minute. After seeing Ice cross over to the other side, Electrobolt was next carrying Dave on his back. For some reason, he saw Electrobolt stop in the middle of the bridge. Alex was about to fly down and investigate until Electrobolt started to move again, apologizing that he stopped due to hearing Iron Wing from down below in the chasm. As Alex hovered high above the bridge, his mind tried to put together a plan as to how to go and get Iron Wing back out from the chasm. He knew that the fog engulfing the chasm was going to be a problem if it was going to stay there even during the daytime tomorrow. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew him off course, knocking him out of his thoughts. He was able to right himself out of the spin after a couple of seconds, but the winds were really trying hard to push him back. He looked down, seeing that the others were already on the other side and Ice Storm was calling for him to join back with the others. He beat his wings to descend down lower as to lose the brunt of the winds that were pushing against him and threaten to separate him from the group. After a hard thirty seconds, he was back with the group, next to Ice Storm. He could see that Ice was hurting and decided to do something about it. "Climb on top of me, I can give you a lift in the air." Alex offered to Ice Storm. He was more than able to do so, it's just that he would go more slowly due to the winds that were picking up around them.