Amidst all the screams as they were falling, Twilight had a thought and squeezed her eyes shut, focusing her magic into her horn. Suddenly, a magenta-pink bubble surrounded the carts and their descent slowed greatly. Everyone, even Shining and Cadance, recognized the spell Twilight was using, the unicorn trying to raise them back up onto the tracks. Despite being surrounded by darkness, they could tell they were slowly starting to move upwards.
Suddenly, the bubble popped, and after a moment of hanging weightless in the air, gravity pulled the carts down into the darkness, everyone following immediately afterwards. As nearly everyone started screaming again and Rainbow, Cadance, and Tails flew after them, Twilight put her hooves on her head as she closed her eyes again. “No, no, no! Come on, come on…!” she cried internally as she tried to focus more magic into her horn. As the flyers caught up with everyone, Twilight managed to create the bubble once again, but this time, she made it go down after the carts, knowing that would require less magic to do.
After a couple of seconds, the bottom of the bubble flattened and the whole thing popped again, but this time, everyone fell for less than a second before touching solid ground, Spike and the ponies feeling cold rock underneath them. Spike began dancing in place, not liking the cold feeling underneath his feet. He soon ran over to Twilight and leapt on her back, the lavender unicorn stumbling a bit at the unexpected action for several moments before steadying herself. She then looked back at Spike and uttered, “Careful, Spike…”
The baby dragon replied, “Oh, uh… sorry. Are you okay, Twilight?”
Rainbow flew over and asked, “What happened up there, Twi’?”
Twilight groaned as she raised her right hoof to her horn, touching it slightly as she answered, “I’m still running a little low on my magic. I didn’t have enough to get us back up, and now… you can forget it for a while. I don’t think I can do any magic right now.”
Shining said, “All right, just take it easy and stay close to us then, Twilight. Cadance and I can handle providing the light.” Both he and Cadance used their magic to generate a ball of light, lighting up the area somewhat. Nearby, they could see the carts they had been riding in lying on the ground, the back cart on its side and the front cart upside-down, gems sitting on the ground around them.
Applejack looked around as she asked, “Where are we?”
Tails replied, “I have no idea. Sonic, Marine, and I didn’t come down here. Why would we, though? We wouldn’t be able to see if there was anything down here.”
Cadance glanced up and said, “Well, there’s no telling where whoever or whatever attacked us went, but it sounded like it kept going straight. That means it’s bound to still be up there.”
Shining looked at her, “Then going back up might not be such a good idea right now. Let’s see if we can find anything down here.” Cadance nodded, as did everyone else, and they decided to go straight ahead from where the carts had landed.
Before they could start moving, Sonic had a thought and everyone watched as he began patting himself with his hands and ran them through his quills. Before anyone could ask what he was doing, he turned his head and looked back at the carts. “Oh. Shoot,” he said, looking and sounding a bit deflated by what he saw.
Shining turned to look and, with the light being produced, saw it as well: his cell phone had been crushed when the front cart landed upside-down. Part of it, while not completely intact, had managed to survive the fall somewhat, the wiring sticking out near the part that had been crushed. Various bits of its inside were scattered on the floor around it. “Ooh,” he uttered. He looked at Sonic, “Uh, sorry about your phone, Sonic.”
Sonic managed a slight shrug as he sighed, “Oh well. At least I wasn’t on a contract with it.”
Tails said, “I’ve managed to make more of my handheld for everyone, Sonic. I can give you one after we’re done.”
Sonic nodded, “Okay. I kind of like that better anyway.” He walked over to the cart and lifted it up enough to use his foot to move what was left of his phone out from under it. He picked it up and tucked it back in his quills as he said, “Guess I’ll find a place where they take this kind of thing later.” With that, everyone started walking forward into the darkness.
The group kept going forward for a short time, everyone staying close together and keeping their ears open for their mystery attacker. While they were walking, Tails thought about how they had been attacked and compared it to what he knew about other Eggman robots. “An ordinary Badnik or Eggman robot wouldn’t have been capable of all of that. I can think of one robot with that kind of speed, determination, and power, but we dealt with him earlier today. It couldn’t be him… could it?” he wondered.
He was brought out of his thoughts when Pinkie exclaimed, “Hey! I think I see a light up ahead!” Tails looked forward and saw that there did appear to be a faint light coming through an opening in the rocky wall up ahead.
“It looks like sunlight! Maybe we found a way outta here!” Applejack said. Everyone started moving faster towards the light, soon passing through the opening into another room. They could see the light more clearly now, shining in through another opening to their left that didn’t seem to be connected to the ground they were on. Despite the light coming in, the room was still dark, and it was quite sizable too, and what they wouldn’t have noticed right away was what appeared to be various lights in the ceiling above.
Tails said, “Well, there’s where the light’s coming from.” He looked around the dark chamber, “But where are we?”
Rarity shivered, “Ooh, this ground is so much colder now! And it’s wet too; why is it wet in here?”
Cadance spread her wings and flew up, condensing her light into a beam and scanning the ground as she flew towards the opening. She soon came to a stop, hovering as she shined her light down at an angle. She called back, “The ground ends here! There’s just water beyond this point!”
Sonic commented, “Huh. Guess that’s why the ground is wet in here.”
As Cadance flew back to everyone, Twilight asked, “Since this is an island, that water has to be coming in from the ocean, right?”
Tails nodded, “Right. That might account for some of the water in this cave. There could be a whole network of tunnels that runs through the cave.”
Rainbow said, “Yeah, all right, Tails. Let’s just leave it that, okay? I’d rather not know for sure.” Sonic and Rarity were quick to agree with her.
Fluttershy asked, “So I guess we’re going back now?”
Shining said, “Before we do that, let’s check around this room. There might be something in here.”
Twilight nodded, “Okay. Let’s spread out and search. Don’t go too far into the dark, just in case there is something here.” Everyone nodded and began to fan out, Cadance diffusing her beam of light to make the room brighter.
As she went to the right, away from Sonic, Fluttershy did her best to look around, but she couldn’t focus. Ever since they returned from Camelot, she had noticed all the things she said and did, causing her to wonder why she was behaving so differently. It seemed to have started after Sonic struck down Terios, followed by her sudden obsession with the scabbard, and it only started becoming more prominent afterwards. It felt like there was something in her head, a voice or presence of some sort, causing her to think differently and behave more impulsively. Now that she had some silence and solitude, she tried to focus on it, closing her eyes and lowering her head as she continued to walk forward.
Suddenly, she was jerked out of her thoughts when the top of her head bumped into something, causing her to step back with a squeak. Whatever she bumped into hadn’t been hard as rock, but it had been firm enough to push her back. It actually felt like she had bumped into someone. “Oh, I’m so sorry…” she murmured as she sat down and felt the top of her head with a hoof.
A voice that sounded familiar to the shy pegasus replied, “Oh, no trouble at all, dear girl. Did you lose something? You were walking with your head down for so long.”
Fluttershy started to open her eyes as she answered, “Um, well, actually…” She looked up and she stopped short as she saw what she bumped into. There was a pair of long, skinny legs in front of her, legs that were clad in red that became yellow and black at the feet. Looking up further, she saw that the red went up to around the figure’s torso, an open mostly black jacket around it. She looked up to the figure’s face, seeing a white mustache, blue pointed sunglasses, a pointy nose, and its white teeth on full display due to the grin it was wearing. At the sight of all this, Fluttershy leapt up with a yelp and ran away.
Near the other side of the cave, Shining and Cadance had noticed the lights on the ceiling and had alerted some of the others to them. “There must be something in here. Why would those lights be up there otherwise?” Shining was asking.
“Ya got me,” Applejack replied.
“Well, there must be something special about this room for someone to go to all that trouble. I don’t think anyone would set up all those lights and a power supply for them if they weren’t going to use them,” Cadance said.
Tails held a hand to his chin, “I wonder how they turn on. It would sure help a lot if we could get them to work.”
Applejack said, “Yeah, no doubt about- Oof!” She was suddenly cut off when she felt something crash into her backside and bounce back. She turned and saw Fluttershy sitting on the ground behind her. “Fluttershy?” she asked, confused.
Shining called, “Hey, everybody! Over here!” Everyone else heard him and started moving towards the small gathering.
As they all regrouped, Applejack knelt down in front of Fluttershy and asked, “What’s the matter, Fluttershy? Why ya lookin’ all scared?”
Fluttershy nervously pointed behind her and shakily said, “D-D-D-Doctor E-E-Eggman!”
Before anyone could say anything, the lights suddenly turned on. Everyone groaned and shielded their eyes, waiting for their pupils to adjust. As the disorientation began to wear off, they all heard the figure say, “Well, I must say I’m rather disappointed.” They were all able to start seeing again a few moments later and looked in the figure’s direction as he said, “It’s hardly flattering to be mistaken for Dr. Eggman.”
As soon as they saw him, both Sonic and Tails tensed up, the former saying, “Oh yeah, because you’re so much better to be around, Eggman Nega!”
The Equestrians all looked confused at this statement. “Huh? Eggman Nega?” Rainbow asked, looking between Sonic and the Eggman lookalike.
Twilight looked closely at the man, particularly at his face. “That mustache and those sunglasses… they’re just like Haman’s!” she realized.
Shining looked over at Tails and asked, “Tails, who is this guy?”
The two-tailed fox looked back as he answered, “Eggman Nega. He’s Eggman’s descendent, from Silver’s time!”
This shocked the Equestrians further. “Wha-?! Descendent?!” Rainbow exclaimed.
Applejack started, “How in the hay…?”
Tails explained, “The two times he traveled back to our time, Sonic and I didn’t know it was him because he disguised himself as Eggman. The second time he came back, he tried to unleash a creature called the Ifrit from its dimension to destroy our world and bring about the future Silver originated from, but he and Espio were able to stop it and Eggman Nega got trapped in the Ifrit’s dimension. Somehow, he ended up here in Blaze’s world and she’s been dealing with him ever since!” He looked towards Eggman Nega and asked, “What are you doing here, Eggman Nega? Are you after the Jeweled Scepter again?”
Eggman Nega adjusted the green goggles on his forehead as he replied, “Why is that the first thing you assume, fox? If I was after the scepter again, I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of setting all this up and waiting for your little band to show up.”
Sonic asked, “What are you talking about?”
Eggman Nega grinned, “Let’s just say I was approached with a proposition from a rather, shall we say, interesting party. If I agreed to stop you all in your tracks, I would be allowed in on their grand plan and learn more about what’s happening to our worlds right now. I might even be allowed to be the one to wield the Power of the Stars if I do well enough.”
Sonic glared, “Is it safe to say we already know who this party you’re talking about is?”
Eggman Nega replied, “Perhaps you do, perhaps you don’t. I’m not going to tell you… unless you get past him, Sonic the Hedgehog.” As he finished speaking, the sound of the engine began to fill the air. Suddenly, the group’s attacker flew in through the opening they had come through and flew up, over, and down. It landed in front of Eggman Nega, slamming its left fist into the ground and creating an indent before standing up on two legs, its right hand curled into a fist on its hip and its left fist held up in front of it.
Everyone stared at the robot. “What the…?” Shining stammered.
Spike’s eyes widened. Even though the robot was mostly black and yellow, he recognized it. “Is that Metal Sonic?” he asked.
Tails said, “That must be the one Espio told us about! Metal Sonic Version 3.0!”
Eggman Nega grinned, “Close! After recovering him from the Ifrit’s dimension, I decided to give him some upgrades! He is now Metal Sonic Version 3.0 PLUS!”
Sonic said, “If that’s how he looked before, then he still looks like a knockoff of Eggman’s Metal Sonic, Nega. What’s so different about him?”
Eggman Nega giggled, “Hee hee hee! Why don’t you find out for yourself!” His Eggmobile came down and he climbed into it, beginning to ascend as he said, “Go get them, Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus!” At those words, Metal 3.0 leaned forward slightly, his eyes scanning the group until they locked onto Sonic. He then activated his booster engine, the roaring sound returning as a flame began to come out of it.
“Get ready! Here he comes!” Sonic said as Metal Sonic 3.0 lifted up off the ground, hovering up for several seconds before stopping high above the group. Suddenly, the flame behind him became much more intense and he shot diagonally downwards at the group! Everyone managed to leap out of the way, Sonic already on the move as he figured Metal Sonic 3.0 would come after him first. And indeed, the dust hadn’t even cleared from the crater that Metal 3.0 had created before he shot out of it, his eyes locked on Sonic.
Spike had been grabbed by Tails as the fox took to the air, the baby dragon saying as they landed, “Wow! He’s just as fast as that other Metal Sonic!”
Tails nodded, “Yeah. Being fast in some way is one thing all the Sonic-based robots we’ve ever seen have in common.”
Nearby, Rainbow grunted as she watched Sonic and Metal 3.0 shooting around the room, going up the walls and colliding with each other in midair. “That futuristic piece of junk isn’t the only one who can fly around at that speed! I’ll show him!” she said as she spread her wings, wincing a bit as she felt the pain from earlier. “Hang on, Sonic! I’m coming to help!” she called.
Before she could take off, she suddenly felt a sharp pull on her tail and looked back to see Applejack with her mouth around her tail. After releasing her, the orange earth pony said, “Simmer down, Rainbow. Ah saw that just now. You ain’t messin’ your wings up anymore on mah watch!”
Cadance came over and lit up her horn, saying, “I think I can help with that. The spell I used to heal Aladdin’s leg should help here too.” Rainbow let out a groan as Cadance began running her horn across her wings.
Nearby, Rarity and Fluttershy were helping Twilight, Pinkie, and Shining up off the ground, the three having lost their balance after jumping out of the way of Metal 3.0’s initial attack. Shining looked over at Twilight as she raised a hoof to her horn, testing how much magic she had, before turning his head to observe the battle. “Sonic doesn’t seem to be running as fast now. His injuries must be catching up with him. We have to be ready to support him,” he thought.
Sonic leapt down from the wall and landed on the ground, ready to start moving again. Before he could take a step, however, his foot slid on the wet ground and he lost his balance, causing him to land on his rear. After shaking off the initial pain, he looked up to see Metal 3.0 hovering in the air above and in front of him, the robot curling up and shooting down at him in what seemed to be a Homing Attack. Sonic narrowed his eyes and flipped himself over onto his front, causing Metal 3.0 to miss him and slide forward a bit when he landed. Sonic then curled up into a Spin Dash and was able to collide with Metal 3.0 as he was turning around, sending the robot crashing into a wall. He stayed down on one knee while Metal 3.0 recovered from the crash and stepped out of the indent he made in the wall.
As Sonic stood up, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and flew up, Cadance having just finished her healing process. The pegasus then shot down towards the Sonic robot, saying, “Let me get a piece of that tin can, Sonic!” Metal 3.0 looked up at her as she flew towards him, running calculations as she flew towards him at high speed. Suddenly, he held his arms out and generated a diamond-shaped black energy field around himself! At this point, Rainbow was too close to break off and hit the field with her hooves, being thrown back from it as she cried, “YOW!” As she landed on her rear, she held up her hooves to examine them. That really hurt! She looked up as Metal 3.0 stopped producing the field and asked, “What was that?!”
Eggman Nega giggled, “Hee hee hee! Just something that was suggested to me when I was thinking of what upgrades to give Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus! Let him show you something really great about it!” Metal 3.0 fired up his engine again and started moving towards Rainbow and Sonic, but once he’d built up enough speed, he suddenly pulled his arms and legs closer to him, hovering just above the ground as he generated the field around him again, still moving towards them!
Sonic and Rainbow’s eyes widened, both of them jumping out of the way mere moments before Metal 3.0 could crash into them. Sonic rolled after jumping and looked in the robot’s direction afterwards, seeing Tails and the other also trying to get out of his way. “What the heck?! He was moving fairly fast before, but with that shield around him, it seems like he’s going even faster now!” he thought.
Rainbow danced in place when she stood up, the burning pain in her hooves starting to become too much to ignore. “Hang on just a sec! I need a moment!” she called as she took to the air, flying over to the pool of water and sticking her hooves down into it.
Metal 3.0, meanwhile, broke out of his shield before he could hit the wall, flipping his body around to press his feet against it to stop himself. After he dropped down, Shining charged his magic and yelled, “Take this!” He fired a magic shot at the robot, but he simply created his Black Shield again, the shot hitting it and bouncing back at Shining, the stallion moving out of the way with a “Whoa!” He looked at where his shot hit afterwards and stared at Metal 3.0 in shock. “It deflects magic too?!” he asked.
Eggman Nega chortled, “It is the most perfect personal defense!”
As Metal 3.0 dropped the field again, Spike asked, “How are we supposed to get through that?”
Tails set the baby dragon down as he said, “We’ll have to watch him carefully. He can’t keep it up forever. A field that strong has to require a lot of power!”
Sonic overheard him as he and the others came over, Rainbow’s hooves still dripping as he added, “And even if he could keep it going, he has to come out of it in order to move. Otherwise, he’s just gonna sit there like a statue and we’re not gonna come near him.”
Twilight nodded, “So we just have to wait for an opening…”
Cadance said, “I have an idea. We might be able to force him out of it if we work together.”
Eggman Nega called, “Struggle however you want! You’ll never defeat Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus!” They all looked and saw the robot rocketing towards them again.
Cadance used her magic to pull Shining, Twilight, and Rarity back with her while everyone else scattered. As they all set down on the ground, Shining asked, “What’s your idea, Cadance?”
The pink alicorn replied, “Well, if we could surround that field with magic and lift Metal Sonic up, we could halt his momentum and force him to come out of it in order to break free.”
Twilight asked, “Then what, Cadance?”
Cadance replied, “I wish I could tell the others as well, but…” She stopped when she looked up and saw Pinkie moving and directing Applejack, Sonic, Tails, and Rainbow Dash around the room. “…Oh. I guess Pinkie Pie might’ve figured it out… somehow,” she said.
Spike called, “Look out, here he comes!” The four looked to see Metal 3.0 flying straight at them, the shield formed around him again.
They took on an offensive stance, Shining yelling, “Surround him!” At that, Twilight, Rarity, Cadance, and Shining channeled their magic into their horns, creating a magic aura around Metal 3.0. At first, he seemed to resist it, but the poured more magic into the aura, managing to force him to stop. They then started lifting him up, which also seemed harder with the shield, and suspended him in midair. As Cadance suspected, he broke out of the shield after a few moments, flailing for a moment as they held him up.
He soon fired up his engine again, gathering as much power as he could before shooting diagonally down at them, managing to get free of their hold as they eased off on their magic. The four then scattered to avoid the attack, Cadance calling as she leapt back, “Pinkie Pie!”
As he stood up, Metal 3.0 heard Pinkie shout, “Pies away!” He turned to his left and saw the party pony shoot towards him out of her party cannon. She slammed into him headfirst before he could react, sending him flying. Pinkie, still wearing a smile as she landed on the floor, called, “Get him, Applejack!”
The orange earth pony was already ready, standing at the right angle as Metal 3.0 flew towards her. Once he was close enough, she bucked him as hard as she could towards Sonic, who performed a backflip kick to send him up towards Tails. The two-tailed fox stopped flying long enough to stop Metal 3.0’s ascent with a tail whip, the robot managing to stop himself before he went too far this time, starting to right himself as he hovered in midair.
While he was unscrambling his systems, though, Eggman Nega yelled, “Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus, look out!” With his auditory systems back online, the robot heard something flying towards him and scanned the area. He soon saw Rainbow flying towards him, but the cyan pegasus suddenly shot downwards and then came up from underneath him, pushing him up and smashing him against the ceiling before he could react. With his systems scrambled again, Rainbow grabbed his right arm and swung him down over her shoulder towards the ground, forming a crater when he crashed. Rainbow then flew straight down at high speed and smashed her hooves against his frame before leaping off of him. Looking at him, everyone saw that Metal 3.0 had gone still, his red eyes no longer visible.
“Hah! What other upgrades did you give him, Nega? Whatever you gave him, it sure didn’t help him any!” Rainbow boasted.
“Impossible! Metal Sonic Version 3.0’s capabilities were based on the original Metal Sonic’s, only superior! This can’t be!” Eggman Nega cried.
Sonic pointed up at him, “Well, you must have a pretty poor grasp of history then, Eggman Nega, otherwise you’d know I’ve been going toe to toe with Metal Sonic for a long time now! And speaking of which,” he got into a defensive stance, “how about you tell us who you made a deal with?”
Eggman Nega yelled, “You can’t be serious! You can’t expect me to sing just because Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus has stopped moving!”
Applejack argued, “You said if we got past him, you’d spill it! And he’s down fer the count, so start talkin’!”
Eggman Nega argued back, “It wasn’t a fair fight! You outnumbered him!”
Shining said, “You sure didn’t have a problem when we started supporting Sonic! From the way you were boasting, it sounded like anyone could go up against your robot and you’d be fine with it! If there was a problem, you should’ve said something!”
Pinkie added, “You had plenty of time to gloat after all, you big meanie!”
Fluttershy seemed to pay extra attention when Eggman Nega stammered, “But… but… you can’t do this!”
She looked at Sonic, unchecked anger starting to fill her eyes as he said, “Well, guess what; we just did! You want to gather him up and try to fix him for another round, be my guest! But you said you’d talk and you’re not going to slip away easily this time! So start talking or else- ugh!” He was cut off when he felt something slam into him from the side and climb on top of him when he landed face first on the floor. He turned his head around and saw Fluttershy standing on top of him, looking down at him angrily. “Fluttershy?! What-?”
The normally shy pegasus cut him off again, “No! Not again! I won’t let you force someone to agree with you again! Eggman Nega would be willing to talk if you actually gave him a chance to! There’s no need to get violent with him like this!”
Sonic just stared up at her in confusion, not sure where this anger was coming from or why Fluttershy sounded so… savage. “What??” he uttered, everyone else staring at Fluttershy in confusion as well.
After a moment, Eggman Nega, who also seemed surprised by the scene, spoke, “Well, I must say, that was unexpected of you, my dear girl. Getting up the courage to stop someone like that. It’s quite remarkable!” He then gave a sneaky grin, “I believe such behavior deserves a reward.” With that, he pressed a button on the console of his Eggmobile.
Suddenly, everyone heard a sparking noise and looked to see it was coming from Metal 3.0. Red electricity was running across him, his entire body shaking like he was being defibrillated. After several seconds, the electricity stopped and he climbed to his feet, his red eyes now visible again. As he began to climb out of the crater, Eggman Nega pressed another button, causing a purple aura to surround him. Rainbow glared, “Huh, guess he’s sturdier than we thought.”
Twilight noticed something about him as he climbed out of the crater fully. “Is he… getting taller?!” she asked, noticing he seemed bigger now.
Indeed, with the purple aura around him, Metal 3.0 continued to get bigger, soon towering over everyone. “He is, Twilight! He is getting taller!” Rarity cried.
“But how?!” Rainbow asked.
Tails thought for a moment and then his eyes widened. “You equipped him with a molecular expander?!” he exclaimed.
Eggman Nega replied, “Call it what you like, fox boy! All that matters is you’ve got a rather big problem to deal with now!” As Metal 3.0 reached his full height, about halfway to the room’s ceiling, the purple aura around him faded. “Because as you’re going to find out, bigger IS better!” At that, Metal 3.0 curled up into a Spin Dash and shot directly towards Sonic and Fluttershy!
Reacting quickly, Sonic rolled to his left, knocking Fluttershy onto her side and grabbing her with his right arm while pushing himself up with his left hand, managing to get them both out of his path after he missed Cadance and Tails. Metal 3.0 uncurled himself and held out his hands to prevent himself from crashing into the wall. He then turned and Sonic saw he was going to attack again. He let go of Fluttershy and said, “Find a safe spot, Fluttershy! We’ll take care of him!” He then took off running as Metal 3.0 came after him with another Spin Dash.
Sonic leapt out of the way of the attack at the last second, pushing Rarity to safety as he did. Metal 3.0 kept going and once again uncurled to stop himself as he went out over the water. After stopping himself from falling in and crashing he turned around and continued to hover over everyone as they regrouped (except for Fluttershy). “This is a problem. He’s just as fast as when he was our size, which is going to make avoiding him even harder than it was before!” Shining growled.
“Can’t say I’ve personally gone up against a Metal Sonic this big before, but there’s gotta be a way to take him down!” Sonic said.
Twilight spoke, “Did you notice he seems more dependent on his arms at this size? He was using them before as well, but he wasn’t overshooting as much then. He’s using them almost like…”
Rainbow caught onto what she was saying and finished, “Wings! So if we can take his arms out, maybe we can turn his size against him!”
Everyone nodded; it seemed as a good a plan as any at the moment. “Let’s disarm him!” Sonic said as they rushed towards Metal 3.0, the robot still hovering and ready to attack.
As they began fighting again, Fluttershy sat where she was, watching. She seemed to be lost in a haze, seemingly unable to process what she was seeing. She came back to reality somewhat when Eggman Nega asked, “What’s the matter with you? Where did that fire you had go all of a sudden?”
Fluttershy slowly turned to stare up at him, asking, “Why is this happening? I thought you said he was defeated…!”
Eggman Nega replied, “What, that little show earlier? Please! Did you really fall for that? I wasn’t going to pull Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus back when I haven’t even shown him off completely! I was merely noting the similarities he shares with Dr. Eggman’s Metal Sonic, who I’m fairly sure now helped that black hedgehog Shadow close the entrance to the Ifrit’s dimension back then!”
Fluttershy stammered, “But you… you were afraid Sonic was going to attack you, weren’t you?”
Eggman Nega shrugged, “Do you not know what it means to be dramatic? I should think you’d know a thing or two about that, considering what I’ve heard about some of your so-called friends, if they can be so called! After this, they may not want to be friends with you anymore!” He gave her a sinister grin, “I did mean it when I said I was going to give you a reward, and this is it! Your lack of faith in Sonic eliminated any possibility that he could stop me from powering up Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus any further. That’s why you deserve this as a reward; you deserve to have your treachery recognized.” Fluttershy’s eyes went wide at that, a moment of clarity cutting through the haze in her mind as the cruelness she’d been displaying became as clear as day to her.
Suddenly, Sonic slid to a stop next to her, the blue hedgehog having been knocked back by a punch from Metal 3.0. As he recovered from the lingering effects of the hit, he glanced over at Fluttershy and asked, “You okay, Fluttershy? …Fluttershy?” He turned his head to look at her and she did the same, her eyes still a bit wide as she stared at him. He held out a hand towards her, “Hey, what’s wrong?”
Eggman Nega laughed, causing them both to look up at him. “Don’t worry about her, Sonic the Hedgehog! She clearly needed help realizing what she’d done, so she’ll be fine when she finally admits what she did was wrong!”
Sonic glared, “Hey!”
Eggman Nega asked, “Oh my, but what’s this? Have you been ejected from the game you were playing?” He grinned, “Don’t worry! I know a fun game we can play!” He pressed a button on his Eggmobile’s console, causing what looked like a ray gun to come out from the underside of it. Eggman Nega looked down at his craft’s screen, which now displayed what the weapon was pointing at. Eggman Nega let out a chuckle and adjusted his Eggmobile so he was looking at Sonic.
The blue hedgehog began running to the left, Eggman Nega turning to follow him as his weapon finished charging. He then pressed a button on top of his control stick with his thumb, causing the weapon to shoot a charged orange energy shot at him. Sonic easily danced around it, causing Eggman Nega to grunt in annoyance. He adjusted his aim and quickly pressed the button three more times, causing three less powerful shots to fire at where Sonic was going to be. He easily leapt over the first shot and did a cartwheel to avoid the other two. As he landed back on his feet and started moving again, he called, “You can’t hit me like that, Eggman Nega!”
The madman clicked his tongue and said, “So it would seem. I do hate when things don’t go my way.” He then swung his craft around and pointed his weapon at Fluttershy, who, at the moment, was watching Sonic. She looked up at Eggman Nega when he grinned, “So I’ll try shooting something I KNOW I can hit!” Sonic came to a stop when he realized he wasn’t being fired at and looked back, his eyes widening when he saw what Eggman Nega was going to do. He quickly spun around and shot towards Fluttershy as fast as he could, noticing the energy building up at the end of the gun.
Everyone else, meanwhile, was focusing on giving Metal 3.0 a hard time, Although he had pushed them back a bit and Sonic’s ejection had thrown them off a bit, they were starting to overwhelm him. Tails flew past his face to distract him, the robot reaching for him only to receive an uppercut to the face courtesy of Rainbow Dash, the pegasus having shot at him at high speed to make sure he felt it. While he was scrambled, Twilight, Shining, and Cadance took aim, firing their magic in beams at his left arm. They hit about the same time and did the trick, as the arm separated from the rest of Metal 3.0’s body at the shoulder. The robot stopped hovering and dropped down on one knee, clutching his sparking shoulder with his right hand. As he landed, Tails looked to see why Sonic hadn’t rejoined the fight yet.
A loud explosion sounded behind everyone and they turned to look, seeing Sonic being thrown to his side and Fluttershy being blown backwards. Almost everyone immediately assumed they’d both been caught in the explosion, but in the brief moment before the explosion, Tails had seen what really happened. He’d seen Sonic leaping towards Fluttershy, managing to push her out of the way with his hands before the shot from Eggman Nega’s gun exploded underneath him, causing him to take the full force of the fully charged shot while Fluttershy was hardly caught in it, if at all. Sonic hit the ground soon after he was launched, rolling towards the others for a few seconds. He came to a stop on his front, a small bit of smoke coming off of him. “Sonic!” Tails cried as he started to run towards him, everyone else doing the same.
As Sonic began trying to push himself up off the ground, Eggman Nega yelled, “Manual control!” The sound of Metal 3.0’s engine filled the air, much louder due to his bigger size. Before anyone could react, he suddenly shot past everyone, throwing them on their sides as he flew straight towards Sonic. The blue hedgehog tried to get on his feet at this, but Metal 3.0 was upon before he knew it, the robot grabbing him with his right hand. Looking up, he disengaged his engine and tried to plant his feet on the ground, but it was too slippery and he crashed into the wall with his left side. It shook him up again, but he kept a firm grip on Sonic and soon turned to look at everyone.
Sonic groaned from how tight Metal 3.0 was squeezing him. “Hey, let me go, soup can!” he said, Metal 3.0 turning his head to look at him at that.
Tails and the others picked themselves up and started moving towards the two again until Eggman Nega yelled, “Not another step! Or the hedgehog gets it!”
Rarity shouted, “What?! I can’t believe you, Eggman Nega! You’re incorrigible!”
Eggman Nega smirked, “I try, my dear, I try.”
Twilight said, “Let him go, Eggman Nega! You can’t seriously want to do this!”
Eggman Nega asked, “And why not, little pony?”
Shining backed Twilight up, “Come on, seriously? You built and upgraded a robot for the express purpose of fighting him and you want to end it when he’s in no position to defend himself? How does it prove your model is superior to the original Metal Sonic if they don’t fight each other fairly?”
Eggman Nega glanced back at Sonic with a raised eyebrow for a moment. “Hmm… There was a time when I wanted to do whatever it took to get me out of Dr. Eggman’s shadow…” he said.
Applejack nodded, “See? Now’s yer chance ta do that! We beat him earlier and he managed to get ahead of us this time; it’s even! You’re in control o’ him, so make him put Sonic down and we’ll settle this best o’ three!”
Eggman Nega was silent at that, but Metal 3.0 began to move Sonic forward like he was going to set him down with a little distance between them. When his arm was extended as far it could go, however, he stopped. Everyone looked up at Eggman Nega at that. He was quiet for a moment before speaking, “Oh, you meant the manual control I mentioned, didn’t you?” Applejack nodded and he smirked a moment later, “Funny story about that. I did think long and hard about putting that in him… but I decided to give him something else instead. I was bluffing.”
At that, Metal 3.0 pulled his arm up suddenly and let Sonic go, the blue hedgehog letting out a gasp as he felt himself become weightless for a moment before gravity began pulling him down. As he got his feet underneath him, he realized the hole in Metal 3.0’s chest was glowing bright pink and he realized what upgrade Nega had been talking about. He didn’t get a chance to do much else as a large, pink sphere was fired at him, the sphere pushing him back all the way across the room! It exploded when both it and Sonic hit the wall, the hedgehog exhaling as he fell through the dust cloud into the water below.
“SONIC!” Tails cried as his namesakes began spinning, already propelling him towards the other side of the room. At this, Metal 3.0’s engine fired up again and he rocketed towards the fox, catching up to him in no time.
The ponies managed to avoid being caught in his tailwind this time and Shining, Twilight, Rarity, and Cadance used their magic to grab his legs, what happened to Sonic giving them a boost to stop his pursuit. Tails looked back over his shoulder and Shining shouted, “Go, Tails!” The fox nodded and faced forward again, soon making it to the edge and diving into the water after Sonic.
Metal 3.0 began to make the flame coming from his engine stronger, the magic users letting go of him when they noticed this. This caused him to shoot across the room, not prepared for the sudden release. His one arm wasn’t enough to stop him from crashing headfirst into the wall. He recovered and moved back onto the ground to face them, but this time they weren’t holding anything back. The Equestrians, including Fluttershy when she finally got out of her state of shock, began to attack Metal 3.0 hard and fast.
Eggman Nega saw that his creation was quickly being overwhelmed again and moved forward to help. Charging up his ray gun again, he took aim at Rainbow Dash as she knocked Metal 3.0’s head back with a hoof to the chin. He fired when she was center in his sight, but she moved back enough after her attack that he shot Metal 3.0 instead. Rainbow noticed he was charging up again and began to fly around the robot, causing Eggman Nega to shout, “Hey, hold still!” He kept firing at her, but he continued to hit Metal 3.0 instead. After Applejack bucked the robot’s right leg back, causing him to wobble, Rainbow flew past the top end of the leg and Eggman Nega’s shot hit it right there. This separated it from his body and he fell onto his back, the wet ground causing his remaining foot to fly out from under him. “Now look what you’ve done!” Eggman Nega yelled, only for Rainbow to fly straight up at him and uppercut his ray gun as hard as she could. This caused it to explode, Eggman Nega letting out a yell as his Eggmobile was jostled.
Rainbow then landed directly in front of the madman, part of her in his craft as she glared at him with her teeth bared and steam coming out of her nose. “Now you’ve pushed your luck, you crackpot! This time, you really don’t have a leg to stand on! You’re going down!” she angrily said.
Eggman Nega looked nervous for a moment at the rage she was displaying, but he soon regained his composure and replied, “Not yet, I don’t! I still have one last surprise for you!” He quickly reached down and pressed a big red button that had a skull design on it.
The others looked at Metal 3.0 in surprise as he began to shake violently, his red eyes disappearing as he looked straight up. “Now what’s it doin’?!” Applejack asked.
Twilight remembered what happened with the robot they had encountered on the Little Planet and called, “I think he’s going to explode!” Suddenly, Metal 3.0’s engine roared to life again and he began rocketing straight up towards the ceiling, his body still shaking and his remaining robotic limbs spread out.
Tails had finished getting Sonic out of the water and back onto dry land, the blue hedgehog not moving, when he heard the sound of the engine. He looked up as Metal 3.0 shot towards the ceiling and, a moment later, the robot was engulfed in a massive explosion as soon as he hit the ceiling! The blast caused all the light fixtures to be blown out of the ceiling and a massive cloud of smoke filled the room, limiting everyone’s visibility and making it hard to breathe.
Holding his breath, Eggman Nega raised a foot and kicked Rainbow Dash off of his Eggmobile before piloting his smoking craft towards the cave exit. As he flew, he yelled, “You may escape this, but you’ll regret it! When you see what’s waiting for you at the end of your trip, you’ll WISH you’d let me destroy you!”
Recovering from the surprise kick, Rainbow turned and shot towards the sound of Nega’s voice, soon flying over the water where the air was still somewhat clear. She flew after him as he flew out of the cave, but some rocks coming loose above the exit caused her to force herself to stop to avoid being crushed under them. Looking up at the ceiling, she realized that, between the explosion and the light fixtures being torn out so roughly, the whole thing had been greatly weakened, rumbling filling the air as bits of the ceiling began to break off. “Hey, we gotta get outta here! The ceiling’s going to collapse!” she shouted as loudly as she could.
Rarity coughed twice before crying out, “How do we get out of here?!”
Shining called, “Twilight, where are you?!”
The lavender unicorn called back from nearby, “Over here! Where’s Spike and everyone else?!”
Tails coughed several times before waving his right hand in front of him to get some of the smoke away from him, knowing they were all in danger the longer they stayed here. He reached his right hand into his tails and pulled out the Warp Ring, holding it up as he shouted as loud as he could, “Listen, everyone! I know it’s hard to hear right now, but move towards the sound of my voice! I’ve got the Warp Ring with me; get to me and you’ll be safe!”
Rainbow flew down next to him as he made the Warp Ring large and began shouting to her friends to help direct them, everyone moving towards them as best they could while trying to watch out for falling rocks and keep out as much smoke as they could. They all managed to reach the Warp Ring and jumped into it. Once the last of their friends had gone through, Tails grabbed Sonic with both hands and flew into it himself, Rainbow following closely behind as the ceiling began to give way completely.
The Warp Ring shrunk down and disappeared as large chunks of rock fell down from above, the size and number of them essentially sealing the room off completely. The room became dark and silent after the last rocks had finished falling, only the water flowing in from outside unaffected by the events that had taken place there.
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A small figure stood at the edge of a bluff, looking out at the ocean stretched out before it down below. The figure looked like a yellow mouse with red cheeks, black eyes, black tipped ears on top of its head, and a lightning bolt-shaped tail that was brown near the bottom, the same brown as the two stripes running across its back just above the tail. The small mouse looked nervous yet determined as it looked to the horizon, the setting sun bathing the sky in orange. It was a sight that normally gave the mouse peace, and it was hoping to find peace for the task that lay ahead.
The mouse heard the sound of steps and turned around to see his best friend coming up the steps that led down into the bluff. His friend resembled a bipedal jackal of sorts, his body mostly covered with blue fur as well as yellow and black fur. His reverse-jointed legs lacked fur near the knee and were completely black below the blue fur around the top part of his legs. He had a blue-furred tail and three spikes, one on the top of each paw and one sticking out of his chest over where his heart was located. His red eyes had black fur around them and over the top of his head, causing it to resemble a bandit’s mask. On the back of his head, four dreadlocks hung down, two on the left side and two on the right. A circular badge with what looked like wings on its sides was attached to the flap on the bag swung over his right shoulder, the bag resting against his left hip.
As their eyes met, the mouse asked, his voice sounding youthful, “Did you get everything you think we’ll need for this mission, Lucario?”
The blue jackal nodded, his voice sounding deep when he spoke, “Yes. I think we’ll be prepared for anything that we may come across.”
The mouse replied, “We’d better get going, then. Suicune and Lapras should be waiting for us down on the beach. We don’t want to keep them waiting.”
Lucario nodded, “Right, especially Suicune. She’s invaluable to everyone she helps, but we both know how serious she can get. She doesn’t really care for hold ups when she gets like that.” He held his right arm out slightly from his body and the mouse ran over to him on all fours, leaping up and grabbing onto his arm, pressing his right foot down on the spike before climbing up onto the jackal’s shoulder. Once the mouse was situated, Lucario turned towards the path leading away from the bluff and said, “Let’s get going, Pikachu.” With that, he held his arms out at his sides and started running down the path, heading for the town they called home and the crossroads beyond that would take them to their destination.