There were many inhospitable places in Equestria. The Everfree Forest was at the top. The Frozen North was a close second. And the Badlands came third.
Present at the South East of Equestria, behind the Macintosh Hills and surrounded by dangerous swamps and jungles, the Badlands were a vast expanse of lands devoid of plant life and full of rock formations forming many natural pillars among small mountains. It wasn't one of those deserts where it's as hot as in an oven; it was just a place where it never rained and where there was absolutely no water present, no lakes, rivers, or whatever. And yet, many predators could be found in this place, hidden in the many caves or underground, and not small ones, making it a place where if you didn't die of dehydration, you would almost certainly end up in the belly of something.
Nothing problematic for someone like Eggman. His robots could easily deal with any predators, even hidden ones, and they didn't need water to survive. As for him, his robots protected him all the time and made sure that he was never running out of water.
It was also a perfect place for his HQ. None of those ponies would dare to come here, and the mountains were a great cover. He could see Canterlot from here, but where he placed his HQ, surrounded by mountains, the ponies of Canterlot won't be able to spot it. A small observation post at the top of one of the mountains, and done! And of course, all those mountains just asked to be dug and be turned into factories and laboratories. The whole land could be turned into a stronghold, and the ponies wouldn't even see it.
After escaping Manehattan, Eggman immediately came here with Tirek. The HQ was far from being finished, but it was largely advanced enough for them. As they entered the iron fortress hidden among the mountains, countless robots were still hard at work, building the structures around a tower with Eggman's face at the top, including a giant wall to push back potential assaults and some of the predators.
Tirek was really impressed at the work done by Eggman and his robots in so little time. The underground factory in Manehattan was really just the tip of the iceberg of what the man could do.
Once they're installed, Tirek eventually asked "What now, old man?"
"Truth be told, I wasn't expecting to lose back here. You saw me. I was in control until... THIS happened! A second personality appearing out of left field! And experienced enough with the ruby to destroy my Death Egg Robot in a few seconds! If it wasn't for it, the Phantom Ruby would be in my possession, and the world would already be mine!"
"You mean 'ours'?"
"Yes, ours," corrected Eggman before sighing. "Thankfully, I am a genius, and I already remade my plans. I will turn my back to Equestria and focus elsewhere. There are many other lands easier to conquer, and more lands under my... our control means more resources, more places to build our army and our weapons, more power! And then, we will crush Equestria!"
"What about the filly with the ruby?"
"Yes. She could still cause a problem for us, especially that other personality, that Infinite." Eggman started walking in circles, deep in thought. "Magic worked well, so I suppose that magic is the best way to defeat that filly, Infinite or not."
Tirek smirked. "Then continue to give me creatures to drain from their magic, and I will gladly deal with this filly. Actually, I have an idea that will assure our victory, but it may be hard to do."
Eggman looked at the centaur. "Tell it."
He told it, and Eggman smirked. "I like it. Perfect. And I already know how I will do it. The only problem is that it will take a lot of time and resources, which brings us back to the conquering of more land. All that remains is to find a way to defend ourselves against the overwhelming power of the ruby until we can put our plan into action."
"So we should wait until we find something?"
"We better, yes. Beside, I still need to finish the Egg Fortress. I will think of something."
A few days later, they found this way.
The robots had attacked a tiny town not far from the Badlands and captured its entire population for Tirek to drain before they would be sent to work.
But just as Tirek started to drain them, however...
"You know, I should have expected that you were hiding in the Badlands," suddenly said someone behind Tirek.
Surprised, Tirek immediately turned around while the robots surrounding him pointed their weapons at the origin of this voice: the Lord of Chaos Discord.
"Discord?" asked Tirek in disbelief. "You are free?" He quickly turned to the robots. "Lower your weapons. They are no use against him."
Despite the robots being Eggman's, the doctor programmed them to also follow Tirek's orders (but Eggman's orders remained the priority), so the robots lowered their weapons.
While this happened, Discord looked around at the fortress. "You know, I really don't like what I'm seeing. It's so... bland! Bleh! But, luckily, I'm here to stop that!"
"What?!" shouted Tirek just as Discord turned into a cowboy and wrapped a lasso made of chains around him. Again, the robots pointed their weapons at him, but with just one snap of his fingers, he turned all the weapons into equivalents that fired bubbles.
Then, he said, "This statement is false!" causing all the robots to start to spasm because of the paradox before they deactivated. The captured ponies all started cheering before they were teleported away with another snap. "And Discord saves the day again!"
"What are you doing?!" shouted Tirek.
"You haven't heard? I save the day! I stop the bad guys, save everyone, and all is well that ends well! Speaking of, I must now find Mister Egg Moustache."
"Wait! You are working for the ponies?!"
"Of course!"
"Why?!"
"Because they're my friends! But, between us, I do it mostly for Fluttershy."
"You? Friend with ponies?"
"Yeah. I know. News of the millennia. Who would have thought?"
Tirek frowned. "So even you fell to that trap..."
Discord took a step. "Which trap?" he asked before falling through a trapdoor that wasn't there before.
"Really, Discord, I'm surprised," said Tirek as Discord reappeared beside him. "Aren't you the Lord of Chaos? Freedom incarnate? I am sure that the ponies aren't letting you act like you desire, so why be friend with them?"
Discord put his paw under his chin. "It's true that they don't let me work my art," he said as he started painting a chaotic picture, "but when you aren't a jerk to them, they can be good company, if a little boring and annoying."
"But don't you miss it? Being able to do what you want with no one giving you limits? You are superior to them. You don't want to follow them. They should be the ones following you." Tirek gave then a smile. "Listen. I have a plan that could make us the master of this world, and Eggman is unknowingly helping with it." He then revealed what he was planning, to Discord's surprise.
"Why reveal this to me?" asked Discord.
"Because, contrary to those ponies, I entirely trust you. Join me, and you will be able to do all the chaos you desire as long as it doesn't cause a problem to our plan. Once every single pony is drained of their magic, nothing will be able to stop you. You will be free. Truly free. Isn't it what you want, to be free?"
"And what about Eggman?"
"Once he stops being useful, we will get rid of him. And the world will be ours to do like we want. You will have all the fun you want, and nothing will stop you. And as a proof of my trust..." Using his magic, he levitated a necklace with what looked like a golden triangle missing its top, with three holes, a triangle at the center, and two oval at the sides. "I give you this necklace that my own brother gave me long ago. It's precious to me."
Discord took the necklace. "And yet, you give it to me?"
"Like I said. I trust you. So, what do you think, partner?"
Tirek entered the room where Eggman was doing some experiments with magic. "Guess what, Eggman! I found us a way to fight back the ruby!"
Interrupting his experiment, Eggman turned toward him. "Really?"
That was when Discord popped from Tirek's back, waving at the doctor. "Helloooo!"
Taken by surprise, Eggman asked, "Who is this?"
"A new ally!" answered Tirek. "Discord, the Lord of Chaos himself! Probably the most magically powerful being of this planet! One snap of his fingers, and he can bend reality to his will!" Tirek frowned. "But those pesky ponies are stopping him from having his fun, so he decided to join us." He smiled back. "He will be our mean to defend ourselves against the ruby!"
"And I totally can," said Discord. "I calmed down Infinite before he could go on a murderous rampage and brought back the weak chicken in control."
"That's great news!" shouted happily Eggman. "Now I can finally focus on spreading my... our empire without risk!"
"However..." started Discord as he began rubbing his fingers. "I may have caused a little problem..."
"What problem?" asked Eggman with a frown.
"Well, I was kinda working for the ponies before joining you, so I freed the ponies your robots captured when I came here. As we're talking, they're probably telling Princess Sunbutt about your not so hidden anymore fortress," finished Discord before giving a sheepish smile.
Eggman facepalmed.
Scootaloo, as Zero, was in Canterlot training with Shining Armor when she was called by Celestia to meet her in the throne room for an important last-minute reunion. When she entered the room with the stallion, the Elements Bearers were already here, along with Luna and some ponies she didn't know. Those last ones got scared when she entered, but the others quickly reassured them. The worst was that some of them looked pale and hadn't their Cutie Marks, like the ones in the factory that Tirek had drained.
Not long after she entered, and once the ponies were calmed, Celestia started speaking. "Now that everypony is here, let's start this emergency meeting." She looked at the ponies Scootaloo didn't know.
Understanding that it was their cue, one of them talked and explained what happened. Dodge City, the town they came from, was attacked, and everypony here had been captured to be drained by Tirek and enslaved by Eggman. Thankfully, Discord saved them.
"So Discord found Tirek and Eggman and captured them?" asked Fluttershy happily.
"That's the problem, miss Fluttershy," said Celestia. "They saw Tirek being captured, but not Eggman. And if Discord had succeeded, then he would be there with the both of them in chains."
"But he's not," continued Luna. "So we believe that something happened, and that Discord failed."
Fluttershy put her hooves on her mouth in worry.
"But, at least, we now know the emplacement of Eggman's new HQ in the Badlands, and it's not finished yet. It is another chance for us to end Eggman's actions and capture him and Tirek."
"And of course, you can count on me to be here to assure our victory," said Scootaloo. "I trained hard with Shining Armor, so what happened in the factory won't happen again. I promise."
Celestia nodded at her. "Thanks to Eggman's factory, hundreds of robots are now part of our army, and we’ve equipped all our soldiers with weapons and armor equal to Eggman's robots. We sadly couldn't build yet the airships like you showed us, Zero, but I don't think Eggman had time to build them either." She looked at everypony. "Victory is within our reach. We can't let pass this chance. If we fail... I fear that this situation may turn to a real war. We must avoid this."
"But what about us, Princesses? We are not soldiers," said Rarity.
Celestia nodded. "But you are very resourceful. You proved it again and again. I'm sure you will find a way to help in this battle."
"We can do it, just like against the changelings!" Pinkie Pie said before she put a hoof under Twilight's neck and grabbed her tail with the other. "Remember?"
"Totally!" shouted Rainbow Dash before she hoofbumped Applejack.
"For civilians, we sure showed them," said Applejack.
"I... I want to see if Discord is alright..." said Fluttershy, shaking.
Celestia smiled. "Then we will all go to the Badlands and, hopefully, end this."
"And this time, end this for real," said Luna.
In the Badlands, the Equestrian army advanced toward Eggman's fortress, with the princesses, Shining Armor, and Scootaloo at its head. Scootaloo couldn't help but gulp as she saw thousands of robots waiting for them in front of the unfinished wall surrounding the fortress. The battle in Manehattan were just skirmishes compared to what was about to happen. A real, total battle between thousands of soldiers that will certainly result in a lot of deaths. At least, they had now a lot of robots on their side.
The equestrian robots had various shapes, but the most common was the pony model that constituted the first line. They were earth ponies made of metal with a cannon in their mouth to fire energy projectiles. The more advanced also had a horn to use magic. Sadly, they couldn't reproduce pegasus robots yet. Instead, they had the second most common model: spherical drones flying thanks to propellers with a single cannon at the front. Some other models consisted of minotaur-like robots heavily armored with Gatling guns instead of arms very hard to produce, and robots rather small but quick with wheels under each leg and a big horn on the head, not to use magic, but to impale anything on their way.
There weren't many of them, just a few hundreds, but thankfully, Scootaloo knew of a way to make that number grow to a few more hundreds. So, just before the battle started, she rose in the air and used the power of the Phantom Ruby to create hundreds of replicas of the robots. This slightly drained her, but at least this should reduce the number of deaths on their side.
Then the battle began. The robot replicas were the first to charge, followed by the real robots, and finally by the ponies who went to covers to fire at Eggman's robots while remaining protected from their projectiles. Shining Armor and other unicorns used shields as cover to slowly advance on the enemies while attacking, pegasi were raining destruction from the sky, dropping hundreds of bombs, and the alicorns used their vast magical power to destroy huge numbers of robots very rapidly.
Rarity's multitasking with her magic revealed to be formidable in this battle. Thanks to it, she could wield many guns at once. Rainbow Dash was a real superbomber, and Pinkie Pie was... Pinkie Pie, enough said. Applejack, her, climbed on one of the equestrian wheeled robots and used it as a ride to quickly approach the enemies and destroy them one after another with her strong hooves. As for Fluttershy, again, to save the little critters trapped in Eggman's robots, she was a real tiger, easily dodging the robot's projectiles before opening them to let the animals out.
And in the middle of all this, there was Scootaloo and her Phantom Ruby, who destroyed half of Eggman's army in just a few seconds. But then, just as she sent hundreds of spears to rain on more robots, her spears were turned into streamers.
"What?!"
Then, she was hit by something, and she found herself bouncing from pegasus to pegasus and even from Celestia, each bounce followed by a 'ding', before she ended inside a cave in one of the mountain, a giant 'TILT' appearing above the entrance of the cave. Scootaloo rapidly came out of it and spotted Discord smiling smugly at her while twirling a hammer.
"Hello there."
"Discord? YOU!!!" Scootaloo put her hands on her mouth. "Calm down Infinite!"
Let me out! I will kill that clown!
"Seems like someone isn't happy to see me," said Discord. "Meh. I'm used to that."
"Discord? Did you attack me? Why?!"
"Sorry, chicken, but the bad guys proposed a juicy offer to me that I couldn't refuse."
Scootaloo growled. "So you're betraying us?"
"In one word... Yes."
"I knew we couldn't trust you!"
"You never trusted me in the first place."
"Fluttershy trusted you!"
Discord winced at this, but quickly recovered. "I don't need her. What I need is chaos, something that I was really missing while on your side."
At this moment, a Death Egg Robot came out of the fortress, followed by Tirek and a robot looking like the blue hedgehog from Infinite's memories, but a little smaller and rounder. The three of them quickly began to spread destruction among the equestrian army, with Tirek draining ponies left and right, turning the tide of the battle despite the alicorns' quick intervention to fight them. Surprisingly, Luna, who was fighting Tirek, was the one having the least amount of trouble, Eggman's robots constantly helped the centaur who was still not powerful enough, but Tirek was wearing a strong armor.
Scootaloo charged toward them to help, only for a brick wall to appear just in front of her, stopping her on the spot, only causing some bricks to move to form her body-shape.
"Already wanting to leave me? Come on, we aren't finished yet," said Discord with a laugh.
Scootaloo turned to him. "Darn! I don't know if I can deal with him yet!"
Then let me out, and I will deal with him.
"No!"
Scootaloo looked at the battle in worry, then turned back to Discord, readying herself. She must at least try!
Discord gave another smug smile. "So you think you can defeat me? Very well. Let's see if you can do better than Edge Emperor."
He snapped his fingers at the same time that Scootaloo sent him to a new reality to make him vulnerable, and a giant ball appeared in the sky and dropped toward Scootaloo. The filly changed gravity to send the ball dropping toward Discord, only for the draconequus to invoke a giant baseball bat and to hit the ball with it, sending it back at Scootaloo. So the filly created a hole in the ball so it passed through her without hitting her, and the ball went to hit a mountain.
"Home run!" shouted Discord.
Scootaloo then appeared beside him to punch him on the head, and while she succeeded, Discord's neck stretched like rubber, and the head suddenly came back to headbutt her, sending her flying while Discord rubbed his head. "I felt it..." He snapped his fingers, returning to a more normal reality where he was invulnerable. "Better."
"Discord!" he suddenly heard someone shout. He immediately recognized the voice and turned.
"F... Fluttershy..."
Here she was, tears streaming from her eyes, looking pleadingly at him. "Discord... Please... Stop... Why are you doing this?"
Discord quickly looked away from her, frowning. "So I can do all the chaos I want with no one telling me to stop. I felt too imprisoned among you, too limited. Now, I'm taking back my freedom."
Fluttershy looked at him, heartbroken. Before they could say more, a new wave of energy from the Phantom Ruby caught Discord in another reality, immediately followed by a giant cannon firing a huge laser that engulfed him, the draconequus yelling in pain.
Scootaloo then appeared beside Fluttershy and grabbed her. "I don't think it will be enough against him. We must go."
They teleported to Celestia just as the princess avoided a magical beam from the Death Egg Robot. Scootaloo then raised a part of the floor under one of the feet, toppling the robot on its side.
"Celestia! We must go! Discord has joined them, and I don't think I can defeat him yet!"
Celestia bit her lips, not wanting the battle to stop like this. But if Discord joined Eggman, then things could turn for the worst, and they were already having difficulties dealing with Eggman, Tirek, and that hedgehog robot.
"Very well." She fired a black magical projectiles toward the sky, signaling that they must retreat.
Discord, after snapping his fingers to heal himself from the laser, stared at the ponies retreating, then teleported beside the Death Egg Robot.
"What are you waiting for?!" yelled Eggman. "Go after them!"
"It would be too risky for me. I can fight the ruby, but I can't fight the ruby, three alicorns, and an entire army at the same time by myself," replied Discord.
The hedgehog robot went after them, only to be easily destroyed by Scootaloo and the three alicorns.
"See?" said Discord.
"Damn it!" shouted Eggman before he took a big breath. "At least, we pushed them back. Good job. Tirek was right. Thanks to you, we will be able to defend ourselves against the ruby." He then looked at his army, frowning. "But they destroyed a lot of my robots." He huffed. "Using my own technology against me! The nerves! Even the people of Mobius hasn't gone that far! Normally, they destroy what I create!"
Discord shrugged. "Yes, ponies are paradoxical this way. They can take stupid decisions, like sending me to deal with you, and take smart decisions, like repurposing your factory for their use." He sighed before stretching his arms. "Well, I'm gonna rest a little. I need to recover after that huge laser I took."
