So, the first thing I have to say is: I AM AN IDIOT. While writing the last chapter, I worked on it over a few days, a little bit every day. So because I had to juggle what I wrote and my ideas, I accidentally made the mistake of assuming I wrote Twilight's rescuing scene, when I actually didn't. It was a bit different that the others in my mind, anyway, and so I'll address that this chapter. Be looking for it.

Otherwise…

The two pegasi were interrupted by a deadly familiar voice. "Oh, isn't that just sweet?" it said sarcastically, and the two broke apart and whipped around to see Eggman hovering a few meters above the ground in his Eggmobile, and then they were blasted with a purple beam of liquid-like energy, and then everything went black.

AN UNDEFINED AMOUNT OF TIME LATER… OR IN NORMAL TERMS, A FEW MINUTES LATER

When they next woke up, they were leaning close to each other against a wall inside the loading room for the elevator cars. They quickly stood up and did a small pushing away of each other, awkwardly brushing themselves off before beginning to glare at each other. "What the heck?!" Rainbow growled, narrowing her eyes. "I thought I told you not to ever touch me!"

"Oh, so it's my fault that you decided you wanted to lean up against me?" Cobalt snarled in response, before he realized a very key piece of information. "Uh, wait. How did we–?"

"I don't care about what you–huh?" Rainbow broke off of her prepared angry response to what Cobalt had said first, and then considered his next statement. "Th-that's a good question…"

"Ahem," said a voice that the two knew all too well. They turned to see a rather large and familiarly-shaped robot that looked almost like one of those purple wisps hovering in the air with Eggman in the pilot's seat, grinning evilly. "Hello, little love-birds. I suppose the term is even more ironic, considering that you're both winged creatures."

"L-lovebirds?!" Rainbow demanded incredulously, immediately beginning to blush. "What makes you think–"

"I guess your kind might consider it sweet, though." Eggman mused.

"Consider what sweet?" Cobalt demanded, taking a few aggressive strides forward, his eyes narrowed and his teeth bared angrily.

Eggman snorted with laughter, looking the most insane he had in a while. "You mean you actually don't remember?"

"No!" both pegasi said at once, though Cobalt's sounded a little quieter.

"Then I'll perpetuate your wondering by not telling you!" Eggman cackled evilly. "Now for the next part of my speech," he continued, pulling some flashcards out of his pocket and beginning to shuffle through them. "Now where's number one…?" he muttered to himself, however still loudly enough to be heard to the two.

"Wait, you write those in advance?" Rainbow asked, looking quizzical. "How stupid is that?"

"Look, you fool." Cobalt snarled with deadly quiet, taking several more steps toward Eggman that brought him face to face with the purple wisp/scorpion robot, and he looked as if he was about to climb up on it too. His fur had started to really look a darker shade of gray as he walked, and he'd seemed to become deadly serious, neither his tone nor his demeanor inviting any sort of nonsense in response. "I have no time for your stupid games. Now are we going to fight fairly or are you going to make me attack you, because if you make me do that, you will die."

"Tsk, isn't the murderer picky?" Eggman grinned. "Fine, I'll attack first if that's your demand." He punched a button on the control pad for the robot and the cover for the pilot shut over him. The robot hovered into the air just above the ground and the tail swung underneath, firing a laser at Cobalt.

He ducked underneath it, but he didn't miss how it nearly hit Rainbow Dash because of that. He glanced toward her, and then the open elevator car, and made a snap decision that would keep her safe, but him… well, that wasn't important. He grabbed her and, before she could protest, flew her over into the elevator car, pushing her inside.

"Hey!" Rainbow shouted, glaring at him and preparing to get back out, but before she could, Cobalt pressed the button to close the elevator, saying a hurried, "Sorry, this is something I have to do myself."

The doors to the car snapped shut and it started down the track at a quick rate, but not even a fraction of the top speed Cobalt could achieve. He needed to wait for a moment, to give it time to get back to earth before he did… what he'd decided to do. He had to stall.

That opportunity came when Yacker entered through the doors to the elevator room. Creature! I have found news that my friends are now free! I thank you on behalf of–what is this?! He laid eyes… uh, eye on the huge robot hovering in the tiny space, and then made sound that registered as a shocked gasp through the translator fluid. Eggman shot another beam of energy at the innocent alien, and Cobalt flew as fast as possible to pull him out of the way, just under the speed of a sonic darkboom, but fast enough to go at a speed that surpassed the rate of the energy beam.

He looked down at Yacker, speaking quickly as to get through what he had to say before Eggman decided to pull another laser shot or something that he couldn't avoid. "Yacker, it was great meeting you, and I hope I'm able to finish what I started here, but I need you to get out of danger. Go to your home planet. After this… I don't think there'll be anything here anymore." He eyes clouded for a moment, but then the determination returned. "Please."

Yes, creature. Thank you for all of your help. Yacker nodded and then quickly floated out of the building as quickly as if he'd had legs and been trotting.

"As for you." Cobalt turned to Eggman's robot and grinned sadistically, just barely holding in the raw fury he wanted to release on the mad scientist for what he'd done to those innocent wisps inside. "Let's dance." His eyes flashed and he launched himself at the robot.

The robot, which Cobalt had decided to call the Nega-Wisp Armor, retreated through the elevator opening, and Cobalt, deciding that it had been enough time to allow himself to follow it, shot right after it.

He flew as fast as possible, and Eggman retaliated by dropping out contact-detonated explosives from the bottom of the robot, which Cobalt escaped by finding the one little hole he'd left to possibly get through. If the evil inventor had just eliminated that hole, the speed that Cobalt had attained would've forced him to run right into one of them and die from them.

He accelerated some more and punched the pilot's glass cover, causing the whole thing to spark and begin to expel fumes of smoke.

"You little–!" Eggman shouted, and began to fire the lasers once more, forcing Cobalt to slow down some more than he had, and dove under them, flying around in a corkscrew pattern to make sure he couldn't be tracked and hit too easily. He flew in a little bit and knocked the scorpion tail aside, punching the bottom of the robot and destroying it a little more.

The fight went on like this for a while, with Cobalt playing the avoiding game and occasionally putting in small blows when possible. After a while the robot was shuddering and shaking as it flew. Cobalt was beginning to get winded, however he wasn't even halfway down the elevator yet.

Eggman slashed out with the scorpion tail and cut him on the shoulder, a consequence of him being so close. This broke his momentum and forced him to angle his flight unfavorably, sending him spiraling down into the ground.

He hit the cold metal with an 'oomph!', and skidded a few feet on the smooth, polished exterior of the elevator. He struggled to his feet and groaned, spitting out a bit of blood stuck in his mouth that would've sickened him to the point of hurling the contents of his stomach right out onto the ground. He gasped for some sort of breath, feeling the wound to see if it was deep. It wasn't, but it must've hit some sort of vessel, and what it lacked in depth it made up for in size and blood flow.

Upon seeing this, his vision went fuzzy, but he stepped forward defiantly and prepared for the last charge on Eggman, the last charge he'd ever make. He gathered up all the strength he could and launched himself right at the Nega Wisp Armor, which was currently lowering itself closer to the ground in order to finish him off.

The dark blue pegasus shot straight at the robot, but instead of breaking through it like he'd desired, he instead hit the surface of the glass with a dull thud and slid back down to the ground limply, having been knocked unconscious.

Eggman picked up his limp form with a claw and grinned inside his glass shell. "I've finally done it!" He muttered almost in disbelief, the realization seizing him and making him almost physically shake with his unbelievable triumph. "I WIN!"

Soon, however, his triumph was foiled, for as the mind control cannon he'd prepared to fire as soon as he was a safe enough distance away shot its deadly beam down at the world below, a small bit of metal that had gotten stuck in the only chink in the firing mechanism's armor caused it to twist oddly and instead backfire back on where it had gone from causing both equal and opposite forces to swirl around each other at an indefinable speed and increase in velocity by the second.

Soon enough the two had begun to resolve so fast that they formed a void of pure and compressed energy; in other words, they'd created a black hole.

"Oh… that's not good." Eggman muttered to himself, flinging Cobalt back at the steadily expanding black hole and beginning to run away toward the planet below.

Cobalt regained consciousness, opened his eyes, and glared at Eggman's retreating vehicle, feeling the suction of the void behind him and instantly realizing what must be happening. He got a running start and launched himself as fast as he could, fueled in his motions only by the raw, terrible desire for vengeance.

He landed on the glass cover of the robot and snarled down at its pilot below, "If I go out, you do too! Now DIE!" He kicked out with all his strength and forced the robot back into the black hole, letting void absorb it.

That last little scrap of determination he'd used for this final act leaving him, he once again passed through the veil of unconsciousness and let the black hole engulf him as well.

LATER, ON EQUESTRIA

Rainbow cried. She'd admit it, just not to anypony but her very best friends. Three hours had passed and Cobalt still hadn't returned.

Twilight put a hoof comfortingly on her friend's shoulder and said quietly. "Rainbow, I know he's still alive. He's just taking a while to get back. The best thing we can do is wait."

"Y-yeah, I know…" Rainbow sniffled, swiping at her eyes with a hoof. She suddenly froze and glanced over at Twilight. "Wait. I don't remember rescuing you. How did you–?"

"What, do you think I can't escape on my own?" Twilight narrowed her eyes, feeling indignant at the thought that she was somehow too weak to get out of captivity by herself.

"Do you think I even care?!" Rainbow snapped back with a fresh rush of tears. "J-just leave me alone!" she flew off in anger, leaving the rest of the group with a residual tension.

"Do you think she's going to be okay?" Fluttershy murmured uncertainly, looking concerned.

"This is normal behavior for somepony in her position." Rarity said reassuringly, causing the others to look at her in confusion. "Well, it is," the white unicorn looked defensive now. "I mean, she's jealous of you, Twilight, and conflicted with her own mistrust and affection toward Cobalt."

"Jealous of me?" Twilight asked, seeming completely in shock at this news. "Why would she be jealous of me?"

Pinkie Pie snorted with barely restrained laughter at that question. "Are you kidding? Have you seen how close you and Cobalt are?"

"Us… close?" The purple unicorn blushed, suddenly realizing how it could be seen as that, even though they had broken up. "He's just a good friend!" she argued defensively, though she knew that this argument could easily just be seen as lying to get out of an awkward situation.

"Ah, but not how she sees it." Rarity seized upon that point for her explanation. "She sees how you and he interact as a possible catalyst for a relationship between the two of you, and because she still has some amount of love for him, she can't figure out how to stop it while still keeping her distance, which she only tells herself she wants to do in the first place." The elegant unicorn finished as if she'd just completed a complicated recitation that she'd been preparing for days, or weeks, perhaps. Knowing her, she might've actually had it ready for that long.

When she put it that way, like a simple math equation… Twilight could quickly understand how the emotions worked in this situation. She realized once more with a twinge of guilt that the little thing she'd had with Cobalt seemed more like a short affair rather than an actual relationship, in the fact that only Applejack knew about it (as far as she could figure; Pinkie could know too, given her 'semi-approximate halfway ninety percent knowledge of all things (the description of which seemed to change every time she mentioned it)). It was almost shameful in a way, and made her feel bad to think about, thought not as bad as her current stallion obsession. It was almost like she'd gone straight from being a child to a teenager as soon as Cobalt had gotten here, and she wasn't sure she liked the change.

A brilliant light appeared in the sky as something penetrated the heavy cloud layer and began sinking down at a relatively quick rate towards the ground. Twilight squinted and saw that it wasn't really one whole object, but rather several joined together to make one, like a group of colonial cells.

She pointed the thing out to the others, who looked at it and seemed to be mesmerized by its aesthetics, murmuring things about how pretty it looked and so forth. Rarity immediately brought out a notepad from who knows where and began to take notes on how it looked, presumably for using later while making an article of clothing.

"Demons…" Applejack muttered almost inaudibly, looking detestfully at the thing and shaking her head in unhidden disgust.

"It looks like tinfoil!" Pinkie exclaimed, the comparison oddly fitting for a reason Twilight couldn't put her hoof on.

"Pinkie, don't be silly." Fluttershy chided in response. "This is obviously some form of bioluminescent organisms."

Twilight's jaw hung open on this one, wondering what science class Fluttershy had attended to get that little bit of description. Then she wondered how well she actually knew her friends. Both were questions worth pondering later.

The glowing mass of things floated closer toward the ground, and deposited something on the ground. One of them broke off (Twilight could now see what they were at this point; those things she'd been able to supply a translator fluid to for Cobalt and Rainbow Dash), and squeaked something toward what it had set down. Twilight automatically translated it with the little bit of translator fluid she'd taken herself. It had said: We salute you, strange, brave creature who has set us free, and will honor you in our tales for millennia to come. Farewell!

The mob of squid creatures hovered away into the sky, and disappeared through the clouds once more. Through the silence of the five mares there was a sound like a giant expulsion of gasses (a fart), and the clouds parted to reveal a gloomy sky with no trace of the planets which Eggman had chained left but a memory and a faint echo of broken wind.

After a moment of silence, Pinkie Pie shouted, "That. Was. SICK!" And once more her odd phrasing was perfectly fit to the moment.

Twilight stiffened as she realized what the squid thing had said: 'the strange creature who set us free'. There was no other possibility than Cobalt. She set off at a quick gallop over toward where the creatures had set down her friend's body, calling to the others to follow her.

The five arrived at Cobalt's fallen form and circled around him, looking down at his face in worry.

"Didn't he used to not have a black eye?" Applejack muttered, noticing the bruises and cuts that covered Cobalt's body.

Cobalt seemed to respond to her voice and blinked open his eyes, letting them focus for a minute. "Ah, waking up to a bunch of fillies looking down at me. Always refreshing." He cracked a slight smile. "If it weren't you guys, I'd be very scared right now." He yawned as he sat up and glanced around, the smile still on his face. "So, I guess I'm alive–" he froze at that and his face lit up like a Hearth Warming's Eve tree. "I'm still alive! Woo!" he cheered, seeming unable to contain his excitement about this fact. He was so happy, it seemed, at this, that he gave Pinkie a 'happy' kiss (much different than an 'I love you' kiss, according to Rarity) that made the pink mare giggle faintly and pass out from the shock of it.

"Er, sorry, Pinkie." Cobalt stopped being excited for a moment to say that down to the party pony's unconscious form.

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow in confusion. "That's different from normal how?"

"Ah, black hole, sucked in, you know, the usual." He grinned. "I guess the aliens saved me and brought me back, then?"

"Aliens?" Twilight's interest suddenly picked up. She grabbed Cobalt's shoulders and made him look directly at her eyes. "You must. Tell. Me. Everything."

"I will, but I've got somepony to go see right now." Cobalt's expression turned dark for the first time since he'd woken up. "I'll see you all later." He shot off in a blur of dark blue, heading toward where Rainbow had disappeared, as if he could tell where she'd be.

Pinkie sat up after he was gone, still looking dazed. She turned to Rarity. "Was that–?"

"No Pinkie, it wasn't one of those kisses." Rarity informed her.

The pink mare's face fell. "Darn it!"

There we go, nailed it! I believe I've finally gotten through another side story and can get back to the original, where I'll finish the Blue Flare arc and then do the Season 2 finale!

Radicool223 out!