Y/N stood up to find herself in a strange, ethereal space full of stars and nebulae.

"Hello? Anybody? Julie-Su? Lara-Le? Kneecaps??"

There so replies from anyone as she felt even more worried. Just then, a bright light appeared before it and revealed a beautiful alicorn. She has a white coat and wings, her mane & tail is striped of pink, purple, aqua blue, & green with sparkles around, her eyes are light grayish-magenta she wears a golden necklace with a purple gem on it, wears golden hoof shoes, and also has a sun mark on the side of her hip like Luna's but it's a moon.

"Hello, dear. I'm Celestia, who can control the sun, the princess and ruler of Canterlot. And I'm sure you've met my sister Luna."

"Whoa... Another beautiful creature..."

Celestia giggled, feeling flattered.

"How kind you are. Thank you. And I'm sure you've had a question. It's about the echidnas."

Y/N nodded, remembering why she's here.

"Have you seen them? Why aren't they here?"

"I had used my magic to save you before you get hurt. I tried doing the same with the rest of the echidnas, but they all are beginning to disappear one by one."

She looked down in shame.

"My magic wasn't enough to save them all... But I can only manage to save one more. Though there's a cost... That's why I brought you here. To make a choice."

She then guided to her to glass shards to show her the images, which is Julie-Su and Kneecaps. Y/N gasped in horror.

"I... have to choose?"

"I'm afraid so. Life can be unfair, but there's nothing we can do about it. We can't change it. It's your choice, Y/N. Choose wisely. I had managed to have a talk with the family as they entrust me to tell you that they trust you to take care of one of them and be there for your friend Knuckles. You wouldn't want him to be the last of kind."

Celestia nodded to Y/N as she had a long thoughtful look. If she chooses one of them, then they would be able to live like everyone else but then one will be gone with the rest of the echidnas that don't deserve that kind of punishment. This is a hard choice for her as she doesn't want to leave any of them behind. Celestia waited patiently for Y/N, knowing this will be a lot to take in. She looked back at those echidnas from the shards one last time before turning to Celestia.

"Celestia, I choose..."

Y/N then said something that truly surprised her and smiled in understanding. Then, one of the shards disappeared while one remains.

"See you later, Y/N."

Suddenly, a shifting blob of light blue energy emerges from Y/N's chest and begins to swirl around her while a pulsing white light grows from her very center. Y/N is lifted into the air, the whirls of light blue and white blanket her, and she disappears in a brilliant flash, like the supernova of a star.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile on Angel Island, Knuckles has been chasing after Thrash while fighting him as they teleport from warp ring after warp ring. They jumped out from another warp ring they went through as a pile of snow hit the grassy ground. Knuckles was about to attack Thrash when he made the warp ring fly towards him as he caught it and made it go down on the sky below. He jump off the cliff and dive towards the warp ring that was enlarged with Knuckles on his tail. Just as he was about to go through after Thrash went in first when the warp ring began to shrink back to normal size, shocking him. Knuckles quickly catch it and fly back on Angel Island and enlarged it, but all that's left is an empty warp ring with no glowy portal for him to get through again. He was completely shocked and angry that he lost Thrash.

Just then, the sound of the warp ring opened and he turned to see the Chaotix; Charmy Bee, Espio, Ray, Vector, and Mighty.

"...So I says to the guy, 'No, you're luggage!' and he was all like--" Vector stopped and smiled to see Knuckles. "Hey, Knux! Look who we found!"

He introduced him to Mighty and Ray as they look a little different as they're in their new outfit.

"H-Hey, Knuckles!" Ray waved, who's sitting on Vector's shoulder.

Mighty shook Knuckles' hands with a smile

"Good to see you again, Rad Red. How's Y/N been doing?"

Espio noticed the empty warp ring and inspected it.

"An empty warp ring? Where were you trying to go... Why is there snow?"

Charmy jumped onto the pile snow with a cheer.

"Weee! Snow!"

"Where are the girls? I missed them, too." Mighty said.

"Hey, yeah. Where...?" Charmy asked, looking around for any sign of Saffron.

Ray noticed Julie-Su's gun is on the ground.

"Um... What's this doing here?"

Vector looked at Knuckles in concern.

"Knux? What's wrong?... What happened?"

Knuckles couldn't take as he let out an angry yell and smashed the ground with his spiked fist, cracking the ground and surprising Vector. He collapsed on his knees in defeat and sorrow as his friends comes over to comfort him.

Suddenly, a bright star appears and floats down to the ground. Knuckles and the Chaotix turn their heads and watch as the light fades away and Y/N appears before them.

"Y/N! You're here!" Ray gasped and jumped over, hugging her. "We missed you! Oh, and Mighty's sister told us to tell you that she look forward to see you and she said hi to you back!"

Ray noticed that she's not replying to him nor hugging him back and had her head low with her expressions all covered in dark. He pulled away from her, looking at her in concern and worry.

"Y/N...?"

Mighty walked over to Y/N and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, you alright?"

Knuckles couldn't believe that she's here and okay. He got up and ran over and hugged her tight.

"Y/N!! I thought I lost you forever!"

Suddenly, they heard a sniff and looked to see her finally looking up at them. Tears had already flow out of her eyes as she was holding something close to her chest.

"I'm sorry, Knuckles! I-I couldn't save them all! I tried!! But... I'm sorry! I only managed to save one and I'm pretty sure you remember him."

She unwrapped something and showed them the face of the baby echidna, Kneecaps, who's wrapped in a bundle of the blanket, holding the spin rattle.

"Kneecaps!" Knuckles gasped.

"Ba!" Kneecaps said, smiling at Knuckles not knowing what's going on.

He noticed attached to the spin rattle is the golden heart locket with a green gem on it. Knuckles takes it and opens it to reveal the picture of his mom; Lara-Le. His eyes widened and his breath hitched. Y/N began to sob uncontrollably, falling on her knees while holding Kneecaps close as Knuckles quickly comforted her by hugging her, holding the necklace close to him. A tear fell down from his eye as he silently cry.

"It's okay... You did your best. All that matters is that you're okay." he croaked out.

"Y-You didn't deserve this!! It's not fair!!"

"I know..."

Everyone frown, feeling sad and sorry for their loss as they all huddle around to comfort them again while Kneecaps attempts to comfort Y/N, seeing her cry as he lightly pull down one of her quills.