TWILIGHT AND APPLEJACK
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Once hurricane Pinkie Pie had been unleashed, there was little Applejack could do, she attempted to subdue Pinkie during her outburst, but she was never quite quick enough and all too often landed on her face. "Consarned it Pankie! What's up and gotten intah you!?" Applejack stated aloud, though was completely ignored by Pinkie as she began tearing across Ponyville, Princess' Sally and Cadence hot on her trail, along with Rainbow Dash. "Ugh, sometimes I just don't quite understand that pony.... How's about ya'll Cuite-" Applejack turned to the direction the CMC had been prior, only to find that they had left, Tails had just run out of the building, hot after something, she decided it had to be them. They, seemed to have quickly given Tails the slip, though they could've only gone to one place. "The Everfree Forest... Awww horsefeathers, I shoulda kept ah closer eye on the younguns, now they're probably gettin' into a whole heap o' mess." Applejack said to herself as she began galloping in the direction of the Everfree. Twilight was leading Shining Armor and Rarity through the Everfree Forest, toward Zecora's hut. "Thank you, you two. It means a lot knowing I can count on you for something as dangerous as this..." As Twilight finished her thought aloud, a thunderous boom could be heard from deep within the forest, indicating that Sonic had indeed found Shadow, and things hadn't turned out too well. "C'mon guys, let's get going before we get caught up in the middle too." Twilight picked up the pace as she began calling out for her friend, "Fluttershy? Where are you?"
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KNUCKLES
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Knuckles had been sailing for as long as the wind would let him, but he eventually had to land, and from there he continued his journey on foot, he eventually came upon a sort of flat area, with many mounds piled high on the ground, upon looking around, Knuckles discovered that these mounds seemed to be everywhere in the general area, with some mountain having been dug into as well, but that didn't matter to him, all that he knew was that the energy signature of one of the shards of the master emerald was emanating from here. "Humph, don't know what all these mounds are for, but whoever dug 'em up didn't find the shard, it's still underground..." Knuckles said to himself. After he finished his thought, Knuckles began digging through the ground effortlessly, but soon came upon a tunnel, that seemed to interconnect into even more tunnels. "Well, this is new... Sort of." Knuckles thought. It wasn't long however before he was descended upon by dog-like humanoid creatures that inhabited the tunnel network. "Who are you, red one?" Questioned a particularly ugly creature from the group. Knuckles shot him a crooked glare before responding, "I'm Knuckles, and something of mine is in these tunnels, I'm here to retrieve it and leave. That's all."
The dog was not too fond of Knuckles' tone, or his statement in general. "Well 'Knuckle-head', these tunnels are Diamond dogs tunnels, what's in here belongs to us!" The dog snapped, growling a bit. Knuckles shrugged and smashed his huge, hulking fists together. "Everyone must think they're sooooo clever when they call me that." Knuckles cracked his namesake as he began to limber up. "And I wasn't asking if it was okay to get what's mine back or not, I'm TAKING it back." Knuckles cocked his right fist back, getting ready to rumble with the dogs, though he would have to show some restraint, too much activity would bring the entire tunnel system down, which could endanger many lives, both above ground and below.