//------------------------------// // Volume I - Chapter 6: Enter Dr. Robotnik // Story: Equestria Girls: Sonic the Hedgehog // by sonicfan05 //------------------------------// Somewhere at Canterlot City's Park, Sonic was laying on a tree branch on one of the park's trees, hidden beneath the leaves. After his debacle at the school's baseball field last night, he fled to this park and hid on this tree since then. Normally, resting on a tree branch is one of his many favorite past times, but because of what happened last night, he couldn’t stop thinking about it and worried that his actions will get everyone to discover him. While nothing happened so far, but that didn’t ease his worries in the slightest. Man... I can't believe I did that last night! Sonic thought as he was watching the clouds. My power caused a blackout at the field- no, the entire town! This… this never happened to me before. Was this because... I was upset? Sonic pondered for a bit before he shook his head. Well whatever the case may be, I have to keep myself under control and stay on a low profile until this whole thing blows over! Sonic's ear perked up when he heard someone approaching, more specifically towards the bench near his tree. He looked over and his eyes lit up when he sees his favorite human rushing over to their usual bench. Hey, there's Equestrian Girl! I wonder what she'll be writing about today? His smile was short-lived when he noticed something was wrong, specifically at the girl's expression. Instead of her usual cheery and upbeat attitude, it was hasty, worry… and fear? Wait… why is she looked so distressed? Sonic wondered as he watched the girl quickly wrote something on her notebook. The girl looked around anxiously before she quickly placed the note under their usual rock and then walked away at a fast pace. Curious to see what it was about, Sonic rushed from his tree to the rock which was behind the bench. Once he retrieved the note, Sonic immediately began to read it. Dear Sonic, I don't have much time, but I won't be able to respond to your letters for a while. Last night, a mysterious energy wave caused half of our country into a massive blackout. Sonic winced when the letter mentioned the wave that he caused, but then his eyes widened at the revelation. H-half a country!? As a result, military soldiers showed up to our school to investigate. The real kicker was, the energy wave came from our baseball field! Military!? Investigation!? Sonic knew that his power must have caused some damage last night, but he never realized that the damage was that much. He was more in trouble than he thought. Shaking in fear and anticipation, Sonic continued to read the letter. I couldn't help but feel that I was responsible for this, even though this wasn't from Equestrian Magic for once. Still, they've been watching us ever since I first arrived at CHS and this incident was the breaking point. Sometimes I wonder if I should ever come to this world at all. I'm getting off-topic. Whoever and wherever you are, please be careful! Even though we never meet each other in person, I consider you as my best friend. Your friend, Sunset Shimmer Sonic felt extremely guilty when after reading the last two paragraphs. Another thing that he didn’t realize that his actions didn’t just harm him, but also to Sunset as well since she was from another world too. Despite that he was the one at fault, Sunset was taking the blame just by coming to this world, and that she considered him her best friend, even though she never officially met him. And worse of all, he had just compromised himself and now he has to leave her, this planet, and everything behind, just like when he had to leave Longclaw behind. Sonic began to shake while having a mile-long stare. He never even noticed nor that he cared that the letter had slipped out of his hands while he fell onto his knees. "...no!” he whispered. “Not again… not again!” Meanwhile, at CHS, Tempest and the soldiers from the government were still investigating the school's baseball field. The students who were trying to see the action earlier have already dispersed due to orders from both Tempest and Principal Celestia. The former wanted to get work done as smoothly as possible without any interference while the latter was only looking out for the students’ safety. Unfortunately, the only students who were still too stubborn to leave the area were Snips, Snails, and Trixie Lulamoon. Tempest, who was running out of patience, had been trying to get them to leave for over an hour, but to no avail. “For the last time, this area is strictly off-limits!” Tempest explained to the kids in frustration for like a fiftieth time. Trixie huffed as she crossed her arms. “You think you could fool Trixie? You are obviously hiding something and Trixie is intending to find out!” “Yeah!” Snips added. “We’re curious to see what you guys found in the field!” Snails nodded. “Yeah! We wanted to see!” Tempest crossed her arms. “Didn’t your parents ever told you that ‘curiosity kills the cat’?” Snips gave Tempest a confused look. “But... I don’t have a cat.” “I have a newt,” Snails spoke up helpfully. Trixie scowled as she facepalmed herself. “Morons!” Tempest let out an irritated sigh as she rubbed her temples. “Look just… go home! Okay? And if you three don’t leave in the next ten minutes I–” She stopped speaking when she noticed a huge black truck suddenly arrived at the scene along with some several blacks vans behind it. “...what the?” Tempest whispered as she watched the vehicles come to a complete stop. She was confused about a random truck arrived out of nowhere, until her eyes widened when she recognized a small red circle on the top part of the front of the truck. Oh no… not him! Tempest thought both in dread and in anger. The panels on the side of the truck slide down then lowered to the ground as a panel. Within seconds, the back of the panel turned into a staircase, impressing the two boys in the process while Trixie only watched in curiosity. “Whoa… that truck is fancier than Rarity’s RV!” Snips exclaimed. “And bigger too!” Snails added. At that moment, they all saw someone appeared from the top of the stairs who appeared to be a man and very intimidating. Everything he wore was black, including his shoes, shirt, gloves, an overcoat, and his sunglasses. His hair is short, but his mustache was long and bushy. As he was climbing down the stairs, several agents including another man with a beard came out of their vans.  They all slowly walking across the field until the mustache man stood in front of Tempest. Neither spoke a word for a moment until the man spoke. “Tempest,” He greeted curtly. “Robotnik,” Tempest replied coolly. She then turned to another man with less coolness “Agent Stone.” “Agent Shadow,” he replied with a slight bow. With a smirk, Robotnik removed his sunglasses from his face. “So… are you in charge here?” he asked. Tempest frowned. “Yes, I’m–” “Nope!” Robotnik interrupted, much to the three CHS students' confusion and Tempest’s annoyance. “I’m in–” “Wrong!” “I–” “I’m in charge!” “I’m the one–” “Me!” “–who is leading this–” Robotnik quickly leaned close to Tempest’s ear. “I’m in charge!” he whispered before pulling away. Before Tempest could speak up again, Agent Stone reluctantly presented Tempest a small electronic tablet, revealing Robotnik’s digital insignia.  Robotnik pointed the tablet with a smug grin. “You've never seen anything like this before. It says I'm the top banana, in a world full of hungry little monkeys. Allow me to clarify.”  He held up his pointer finger, then he turned it and his head away from Tempest while he made some ‘buzz’ sounds like he was some kind of robot. “In a sequentially ranked hierarchy, based on level of critical importance, the disparity between us is too vast to quantify,” Robotnik said at a fast pace, confusing everyone sans Agent Stone some more. “Agent Stone?” He gestured to his right-hand man in his normal voice as he walked away towards his truck. “The Doctor thinks you're basic.” Agent Stone clarified. "Ooooooh burn!" Snails cried. Snips turned to Snails with a confused expression. “Uh… what does he mean?” Snails shrugged. “I don’t know. I gave up trying to understand him after he said ‘monkeys’.” Trixie only rolled her eyes at the boys' remarks. “I'm initiating a sweep sequence,” Robotnik announced as he began to press some buttons on his remote glove with an LCD display right on his arm. “Ten miles in every direction should suffice…” As Robotnik was pressing buttons on his gloves, the roof of the truck opened, raising up several of his drones. Each drone has a strong resemblance to a large egg, including its shape and color. The only added feature to each drone was a large single red “eye” at the very tip, which turned out to be a highly advanced camera. As the drones began to hover and rise into the air Robotnik glanced back slightly. “Is she still looking at me with that angry look of hers?” asked Robotnik with his back still facing them. “Yes, she is,” Agent Stone answered while glancing at Tempest. “Tell her to stop, or I'll pull up her search history,” Robotnik said nonchalantly. Agent Stone turned to Tempest. “If you don't stop looking at the Doctor, he'll take a closer look–” “I'm not deaf!” Tempest growled angrily, causing Agent Stone to immediately shut up in fear. “And also tell her that her men report to me now. Blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah, blah-blah-blah!” Robotnik added while making some funny sounds.  “Excuse me?!” Tempest exclaimed angrily. “In case you didn’t know, I already personally assigned myself to lead on this investigation! I don’t know why my fath– the commander decided to send you here, but I can assure you and him that I have complete control!” “Oh really?” Robotnik challenged before gesturing a small audience behind him. “Then why are these kids here? This area is strictly forbidden and off-limits except for the government!” Tempest frowned. “I’ve been trying to get rid of these kids for over an hour and they don’t seem to take the hint!” “Well… that goes to show that you aren’t doing very well at your job!” said Robotnik before shaking his head. “Never send imbeciles to do a genius job! Agent Stone?” “I’m on it!” said Agent Stone as he walked over towards Trixie and the two boys. “C’mon kids!” “Oh come on, that’s not fair!” Snips complained as the men in suits began to drag them. “We just wanted to see some action!” “Yeah, we wanna see!” Snails added, who was also grabbed by the men in black. Trixie quickly jerked away before an agent has the chance to grab her. “Hey! You have no right to touch Trixie! We have every right to be here! While those two imbeciles were here for their own childish antics, The Great and Concerning Trixie, is only here to check the field for the school’s interest and–” “Excuse me,” Robotnik spoke up as he turned towards Trixie. “What is your name again?” Happy that she got someone’s attention, Trixie swelled up her chest in pride. “Well, you’re looking at a famous future magician, the Great and Powerful–” “Nobody cares!” Robotnik shouted, cutting Trixie off and then did a fake cry. “Nobody cares…” He then began to walk towards her. “Listen, Nobody Cares?” He whispered while becoming more intimidating in each step. “You know why nobody cares who you or your two friends are? Because nobody cares about your feeble accomplishments.”  He then started circling all around her, making Trixie and the two boys nervous and very uncomfortable.  “Nobody cares about how important you really are. Nobody cares how ‘cool’ you are by hanging around and interfering with the government. And nobody cares how proud your mommy is that you're now reading at a third-grade level. Have you finished Muffet's Web yet?”  Before either of them answered, Robotnik stood behind Trixie and brought his face close to her. “Spoiler alert: she dies in the end. But she leaves a big creepy egg sac!” Snips gasped. “Dude! We haven’t read that yet!” “Yeah, not cool dude!” Snails remarked angrily. Robotnik shook his head. “Augh! What do schools teach these kids these days? It’s no wonder we’re living in a world full of morons!” He leaned close to Trixie's face. "If I were you, little girl, I suggest you grow up and do something far more worthwhile than pretending to be some useless street performer!" "Useless!?" Trixie shrieked in rage, but Robotnik ignored her and walked away, not caring that his words offended her.  “Get this showboat girl, along with Dumb and Dumber out of my sight!” he ordered. “How dare you mock Trixie you big mustache president look-alike jerk!” Trixie yelled angrily as she and the two boys were dragged away by some agents. “Just wait until I use my magic to make your mustache disappear!” “Oh, I’m shaking in my boots!” Robotnik said sarcastically while rolling his eyes. "'Magic'? Bah! How ridiculous!"  He then turned to Tempest with narrowed eyes. “As for you, Agent Shadow, I don’t like working for you either! Believe me, I don’t! If it were up to me, I would’ve sent you packing, but your daddy insisted that we should ‘combine’ our skills and talents to speed up this job, even though I’m more than enough for this. But like it or not, we’re stuck together… but I’m still the head of this operation and we will do things my way! Capiche?” Tempest glared at Robotnik with contempt. “...fine!” She growled. “But I still have some investigations of my own! So don’t interfere with me!” “Whatever floats your boat sweetheart!” Robotnik said nonchalantly. His eyes lit up the moment he sees countless of his drones floating in the air in front of him. “Ah, my babies! Hoo! Look what came out of my egg sac!” Tempest just scoffed at Robotnik’s terrible pun. “You know what I love about machines?” Robotnik asked as he faced Tempest while spreading his arms out. “They do what they're told. They follow their program! They don't need time off to get drunk and put the boat in the water!” He then pointed at Tempest with a scowl. “And you do what you're told. Now stand over there, on the edge of your personal abyss… and watch my machines do your job.” Tempest lingered her glare at Robotnik for a moment before she simply walked away from the area.  Satisfied that he put his rival to her place, Robotnik turned back to his drones. “Can you feel it, Stone?” he said as he typed feverishly on his gloves again. Agent Stone grinned. “I can feel it, Doctor.” “It's evolution, Stone,” Robotnik declared while clenching his fists. “It's evolution!” The drones then started flying into the woods to begin scanning for anything clues of the incident. From the sidelines, Tempest glared as countless drones slowly disappeared behind the trees. When she was sure that no one was watching, she pressed her secret communicator which was hidden in the collar of her jacket. “Grubber, have you located Sunset Shimmer?” “Yes I have boss,” Grubber replied from Tempest’s communicator. “She is currently staying in her apartment and hasn’t left since.” “Good!" said Tempest with a frown. "Keep watching her! And if she leaves, follow her and notify me immediately!” “What’s wrong boss?" Grubber asked, noticed the way Tempest spoke. "You sounded agitated– er, more agitated than usual.” “Dr. Robotnik is here!” Tempest growled.  “Ooooooh! Him!” Grubber replied in understanding before he responded more upbeat. “Well, how’s Agent Stone? Did he get my birthday card I sent him?” “Nevermind that!” Tempest snapped. “Just focus on Sunset and the girls for now! The last thing we want is for them to cross paths with that man!” “Roger that boss!” said Grubber. “And maybe once our mission is over, we should take a quick stop and Sweet Shoppe so we can get ourselves some sponge ca–” Tempest simply hung up on him. Sonic wasn’t sure how long he was kneeling near the bench, but at that point, he didn’t bring himself to care. Right now, he was still beating himself up for being so careless and potentially brought trouble to Sunset and her friends. The military, or whatever they called themselves, will be coming for him and now he has to leave before they catch him. All of this was happening was because he was playing baseball! He could imagine how disappointed Longclaw must be for him to do something foolish. "Why…” Sonic whispered. “Why did I always ruin everything? Why was I even born with this power? And why… can't I just be normal?" Before he could think further, his ear perked up when he heard a sound of machinery above him. Sonic looked up and his eyes widened when he sees several strange floating devices in the sky. What are those things? Floating eggs! Sonic thought with a perplexed expression. He watched as they split up to different directions of the park. One of those strange egg drones were heading towards Sonic’s direction with a bright red circle facing him. Panicked, Sonic quickly picked up Sunset’s letter and fled into the woods, running over their special rock and left a mark in the process. The drone eventually reached the benched area and began to scan everything that looks suspicious. The drone eventually found something very interesting on one of the rocks, specifically the top of it. The camera on the drone zoomed closely and scanned a strange mark on the surface of the rock. Once it completed the scan, all of its data and image was automatically sent to its original source for further analyzing. Dr. Robotnik was inside of his portable lab from within his truck, analyzing the image of a strange mark with his highly advanced computer. He had a puzzled look on his face as he was typing away the information he gathered from his data. At that moment, Agent Stone entered his lab. Despite that his eyes were still on the computer screen, Dr. Robotnik somehow was able to identify him. "Agent Stone?" "Doctor?" Dr. Robotnik pointed at the screen. "Do you see anything useful in this image?" Agent Stone stared at the screen for a moment, specifically, at that strange mark which was on that rock. He shook his head. "Nothing at all, Doctor." Dr. Robotnik let out an irritated sigh. "Of course you don't! Your eyes weren't expertly trained to spot tracks by the Native American Shadow Wolves." As Agent Stone looked at his boss in confusion, Dr. Robotnik typed some more on his computer and then he rolled his chair back for his associate to see. Agent Stone watched as Dr. Robotnik’s computer was analyzing the mark before it alters and breaks down into a shoe footprint. Then the computer analyzed even further, revealing a mark of a human-like foot underneath the shoe print that was in. Agent Stone stared at the screen in awe. “That's extraordinary!” Dr. Robotnik rolled his eyes. “No. What's extraordinary is I determined the exact height, weight, and spinal curvature of this creature. And my computer can't find a single match for it, anywhere, in Earth's Animal Kingdom.” He then stood up from his chair and pointed at the footprint on the screen while facing Stone. “This blackout was not a terrorist attack and that's no baby Bigfoot.” He went back towards his desk and leaned towards the screen. “This guy… is something else… entirely. Divert all search units to the site of the footprint!” He ordered as he let out a huge grin. “That's one small step for men... one giant leap for me!” Some time has passed and the military was combing the wooded area. There were a bunch of soldiers patrolling the land with their search dogs at their side. There were also several drones floating in the sky, searching for anything out of the ordinary. From the sidelines, miles from the searching team, Sonic was hiding from behind the boulder with a semi-panic expression. "Okay, okay. Everything is fine!" Sonic whispered, trying to keep himself calm. "You played some baseball, got a little upset, lightning shot out of your butt and now they're coming for you." Seeing that the military was coming closer, Sonic quickly used his super speed to run to the far off woods in order not to be found. Within seconds, he was back inside his cave, but he knew it would only be a matter of time before the military will find him here. "Alright, alright, Earth isn't safe anymore," he muttered. "Time for Plan B: Mushroomville."  Sonic quickly grabbed his backpack and then he zoomed right next to his bean chair. "I gotta take my stuff!" He stated as he placed his backpack down and zipped it open. "Okay, essential items only!" Sonic then started speeding around the cave to gather up his stuff to the best of his ability. "Okay, toothbrush, toothpaste, hair gel, night light, funny hat." He then zipped back to his backpack while wearing his hat to store his things into his backpack. "This half-eaten cantaloupe," he added as he picked up his half-eaten food and placed it in the bag as well. "Oh, and my scented candle!" he exclaimed as he rushed to get his candle in question along with some other items. "My entire comic book collection," he said as he placed them next to his bag. "Beanbag chair…" He paused. "Can a beanbag chair fit in a backpack?" He shook his head. "No, no, no, of course not! That's stupid!" He ran around the room, dropping his hat in the process to gather more items. A second later, he returned to his beanbag and stored the remaining objects into his backpack. "Okay, what else?" He asked himself. His eyes widened in realization when he remembered the most important item. "The rings, the rings!"  He quickly ran over to the other side of the cave to pick up the bag of rings that were given to him by Longclaw. "Yes, of course," he exclaimed as he ran back to the center of the cave and was now wearing his backpack on his back. Once he was sure that he got everything he needed, Sonic pulled out a ring. "Okay, here we go. Ring time! Mushroom planet, here I come!" As Sonic was ready to throw the ring to open up a portal, he suddenly heard multiple dogs barking and countless drones above him. "Oh no!" Sonic gasped. "They're right outside. I gotta go somewhere else!" Sonic placed a ring back in his bag and started to run, only for him to stop and looked back for a moment. This wasn't just a cave to him, it was his home. He lived here for ten long years ever since he first arrived on Earth. He loved it here and the town that he's in. But now, because of his actions, he was forced to leave... again. Worse of all, he had to leave the people he admired from afar behind. With that mindset, there was one thing he had to do first and quick. Sonic let out a heavy sigh as he gazed at his home one final time. "Goodbye, cave…" Sonic whispered before he turned and fled the area.