Robotnik was fuming, breathing heavily as he stared at his computer screen for the past few minutes. Not only did one of his top robots fail to capture the creature and the girls, it got destroyed by the said creature and the girls. The first time he believed one girl's house was a fluke, but the second time… he failed.
He never fails.
"Did we get them?" Agent Stone asked who was standing behind Robotnik. "Oh, no there they are. They're real survivors, that group," Stone added, not helping Robotnik’s mood.
Robotnik slowly turned and glowered at Stone.
"Can we have a moment?" he asked calmly in an eerily tone.
Not wanting to anger his boss further, he obliged as he followed him further away from the computer until they were near the wall.
"Pin yourself to the wall," Robotnik ordered while facing away from him.
With a sigh, Agent Stone grabbed his collar and threw himself backward toward the wall. Robotnik then turned and leaned his face closer to Stone's in anger.
"You know, I won't miss you when you're gone," Robotnik growled. "Human beings are unreliable and stupid, and I care very little about them. My machines are diligent, relentless. They're everything to me!"
Before he could berate Agent Stone further, he noticed a blue glow coming from Stone's inner jacket pocket. He slowly peeled Stone's jacket open, revealing a glowing blue quill that they took from the Sparkle's residence. Curious, Robotnik took the quill out of Stone's pocket with his fingers and inspected it at every angle.
"...Omoshiroi," he uttered quietly in another language.
For whatever reason, Robotnik slowly brought the quill close to his mouth and licked it.
Only to get a brief electric shock as a result.
He recovered quickly from that shock and silently offered Stone to lick the quill, to which the latter refused.
Suddenly, they heard the alarm blaring in the background, startling the two men. Robotnik glanced at his computer screen and then relaxed when he saw it was his scout, entering into the back entrance with their "guest" trapped in a net.
Robotnik grinned. While we didn't capture the creature, at least we got that pony girl! Things are finally coming my way!"
The Eggrobo finally entered the lab and slowly approached the two men. As soon as it stood in front of them, the Robo plopped their "luggage" right in front of their feet.
"Excellent work my minion!" Robotnik praised, rubbing his hands gleefully. "I knew I could count on you, you–
Robotnik froze when he got a clear view of who was trapped in a net. Instead of Sunset Shimmer, the one who they captured turned out to be Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, despite being trapped in a net, was lying on her side glaring at the two men.
"You… you imbecile!" Robotnik roared, causing Agent Stone and the Eggrobo to flinch. "Not only didn't you get the creature, but you also brought me the wrong girl! I gave you one job! One job! And you still screw it up!"
The Eggrobo bowed its head in shame.
Agent Stone cleared his throat. "Well, to be fair, Doctor… a lot happened during that chase. So it's understandable that he made a mix-up–"
Agent Stone briefly froze in place when Robotnik gave him the death glare.
"Right… shutting up now," Agent Stone muttered meekly.
Robotnik let out a loud huff, most of his anger evaporated. "Well, no matter… she will do. Besides," He slowly turned towards his captive. "She and I have so much to discuss!"
Twilight gulped quietly as Robotnik was looming over her.
"Y-you can threaten me all you want, Robotnik!" Twilight stammered, trying to act tough. "I will never join you! And I will never ever betray my friends!"
"Oh Twilight, Twilight, Twilight…" Robotnik hummed. "I'm afraid you wouldn't have a choice in the matter. Speaking of which…"
Robotnik slowly stretched his arm out towards Twilight making the teen pull back in fright. She expected him to hit her, but to her confusion, he didn't. But to her horror, he grabbed her necklace and yanked it away from her.
"Well, well, well…" Robotnik eyed the necklace as if he won a prize. "It would seem that you're very attached to this little thing." He then grinned evilly. "Care to explain, Twily?"
Twilight stared back with a look of dread and fear.
The suburb part of Manehatten was usually quiet and peaceful, away from the stressful life of the city. Anyone who is around the suburb would think it was just a typical day, unless they spotted a damaged tour bus with no roof, zooming down the street with some difficulty.
After they're run-in with Robotnik’s tank and robot, the Rainbooms were in low spirits. Their bus is heavily damaged, Sunset was planning on leaving this world, Sonic was badly hurt and unconscious due to an explosion from a robot, and worst of all, their dear friend Twilight was kidnapped by Robotnik’s robot.
They weren't able to chase after her due to their bus not starting properly. And even if they did, they wouldn't be able to catch up to her due to the damage on their bus. There was nothing for them to do but for them to continue to head to Manehatten to see Cadance and then planned to save Twilight. The fact that they managed to get the bus started at all was a miracle of itself.
The Rainbooms, the CMCs, and Spike sat miserably on the bus while trying to distract themselves from recent events. Applejack was busy driving their bus while focusing intensely on the road. Rarity mindlessly checked herself in her pocket mirror a dozen times. Rainbow Dash just stared over the bus with a bored expression. And Pinkie kept counting trees and houses as they passed by.
The CMCs sat quietly in the middle row, still shaken from the robot's attack. They all held on to each other for support while nervously surveying the area around them in case they got attacked again.
Fluttershy was sitting at the back row of the bus, cradling Spike who was on her lap. Spike whimpered in sadness and despair over his missing best friend and family. Even getting petted by a nice pink-haired girl wasn't enough to cheer him up.
Sunset took Twilight’s kidnapping the hardest. Sunset just sat quietly, as she held Sonic in her arms who was still injured and unconscious. She didn't say a word since witnessing her friend being taken in front of her. The robot was originally gunning for her, but Twilight saved her at the last minute and took her place. She felt a huge amount of guilt and blamed herself for letting that happen. If only she hadn't frozen like a scared little filly.
The whole bus ride was quiet and awkward until Rainbow Dash let out a sigh with an impatient look.
"Are we there yet?" Rainbow asked for like a hundredth time.
Applejack resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she kept her focus on the road. "We should be at Cadance's place in a few more minutes."
"Oh, thank goodness!" Rarity exclaimed. "I don't know how much longer until our bus collapses."
"Yeah, no thanks to that robot, our bus is now as slow as a tortoise! Even Tank can go faster than this!" Rainbow Dash remarked. "We've been on this road for hours!"
"We've only been on this road for over forty minutes," Applejack deadpanned.
"Or one year and four weeks to our fellow readers!" Pinkie pointed out before glaring towards the fourth wall. "Seriously Author, I know you've been busy and have a life, but you can't keep your readers hanging!"
The girls stared at Pinkie strangely for a moment before shrugging, thinking Pinkie was just being Pinkie again.
"I'm mostly concerned about Sonic," Fluttershy spoke up with a concerned expression. "We only used what's left of our first aid kit to help him, but it wasn't enough."
"Don't worry darling," Rarity assured gently. "As soon as we get to Dean Cadance, the sooner we can help him."
"Let's hope so," Applejack commented. “But in order to do that, that would mean we have to tell Dean Cadance about Sonic.”
Rarity frowned. “I know Twilight said nothing but good things about Cadance, and that she’s nothing like her former principal of Crystal Prep, but should we trust her?”
Applejack shrugged her shoulders. "Well, we can’t go to the hospital for obvious reasons and no one else to turn to, so we have no choice.”
“Well, regardless of whether we trust Dean Cadance or not, I’m hoping that she has some good food because I'm starving!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
Pinkie perked up. "Well Dashie, if you’re really hungry, then maybe we’ll disguise ourselves and have a quick bite at the–"
"Pinkie, I swear to Faust, if you bring up Grape Garden one more time, I will kick your butt all the way back from here to Canterlot City!" Rainbow shouted.
Pinkie whimpered with a hurt expression, tears welling in her eyes.
"Rainbow Dash, that's not very nice!" Fluttershy scolded harshly.
"I concur!" Rarity glared at her friend. "We're all stressed enough as it is! You don't need to make it worse with that attitude of yours!"
"Worse!? How could it get any worse, Rares!?" Rainbow yelled in frustration. "Just take a look around you! Our bus is trashed, Sonic is hurt and unconscious, we're still chased by the government and that crazy Doctor, and said crazy Doctor just kidnapped our friend, who's also been the brains of our escape up to this point! We're now at the threshold of Tartarus!"
Rarity frowned, aggravated with her friend’s behavior. "Well, we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't decided to challenge Sonic into a race!"
"What!?" Rainbow screeched angrily. "You're saying it's all my fault?"
Rarity scoffed. "Well, you irresponsibly used up all of our magic in efforts to beat Sonic because of your bruised ego! And our magic hasn't recovered since!"
"I hate to take sides, but Rarity’s right!" Fluttershy added with a deep frown. "If we still had our magic, we could've saved Twilight!"
"Aw c'mon! That's not fair!" Rainbow Dash retorted, glaring at her friends. "Yes, I screwed up! I'll admit that! But at least I was trying to keep that robot-tank thing away from us! What have you all been doing during all of this? Fixing your hair with your pocket mirror? Hiding under a chair? Daydreaming about eating those stupid 'never-ending pasta bowls' at the Grape Garden?"
Rarity and Fluttershy were both hurt and offended by Rainbow’s remarks, but not more so than Pinkie Pie.
"Hey! What does Grape Garden ever do to you!" Pinkie Pie shouted in an angry tone.
The three girls began to argue among themselves, while the CMCs, who was watching the exchange, felt helpless and uneasily from the sidelines. Accusations and insults were thrown between the three of them, voices grew louder by the second. Applejack grew frustrated both for losing concentration on her driving and seeing her friends losing their cool during the most crucial time. She opened her mouth, ready to get their attention, but someone else beat her to it.
"Quiet!"
The girls ceased their argument and turned to Sunset, who gave them all her disappointed frown.
“I know you’re all upset and on edge since that incident with Robotnik on the highway, but yelling at each other isn't going to help us! We need to work together to get out of this mess!”
Rainbow scoffed. “Oh yeah, like you’re the one to talk about ‘working together’ who was also planning on ditching us without telling us!”
Sunset winced at that.
"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy scolded.
"No… it's fine," Sunset sighed. "I want to tell you girls the full truth behind my reason for leaving… I really do, but right now, our focus is we get to Cadance’s as soon as possible for Sonic and us to recover, and then we'll plan things out from there."
"And what about Twilight?" Fluttershy asked in concern. "How are we going to save her?"
Sunset paused, furrowing her brows. "...I don’t know."
There was an uncomfortable silence within the bus, lost and uncertain about their situation. No one said a word for a full minute until they heard Applejack speak.
"We're here!" Applejack announced.
The gang looked over the bus to see a huge white mansion with a balcony sitting on a hill, surrounded by a tall black picket fence.
"Huh... for a Dean, that house looks fancier than I expected," Rainbow Dash commented.
"I believe this house belonged to Cadance's colleague," Rarity pointed out.
"Let's just hope this colleague will let us in," said Applejack as she drove their bus into a driveway.
As soon as she parked the bus, the engine immediately died out, but that was the least of the girls' worries. As most of them immediately ran out of the bus and towards the mansion, Sunset covered Sonic with a blanket and then gently carried him in her arms.
"Come on, Sonic," Sunset muttered as she rushed out of the bus and towards the mansion. "You're gonna be alright. You'll be alright," she assured, both to Sonic and herself.
By the time Sunset caught up, Rainbow Dash had already rung the doorbell. They waited for a moment before the door opened. The girls, especially the CMCs, were surprised to see who was on the other side of the door.
"Diamond Tiara?" Apple Bloom exclaimed in a surprised tone.
Diamond Tiara, who was holding the door open, stared back with a shocked expression. "Apple Bloom? Sweetie Belle? Scootaloo? What are you all doing here?"
"We're here to see Dean Cadance," Apple Bloom answered. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, this is one of many of our vacation homes," Diamond answered as if it was obvious.
"Yer vacation home?" Apple Bloom blinked before her eyes widened. "Wait. Does dat mean–"
"Diamond Tiara, who's at the door?"
Everyone cringed from the sound of a female and a very familiar demanding voice.
"Aw fiddlesticks!" Apple Bloom muttered.
A moment later, an older woman appeared at the door alongside Diamond Tiara. The woman was none other than Diamond Tiara's mother, Spoiled Rich, who is also a member of the school board. To put it simply, she wasn't well-liked due to her snobbish attitude and looking down on people who are less rich than her. Spoiled dislike the Rainbooms and believed they were a bunch of hooligans due to their mysterious magic despite all the good they have done. She really dislikes them after they prevented her husband from owning Camp Everfree to build their very own Spa Resort and resented them since. She also dislikes the CMCs due to their antics, especially after they "corrupted" her daughter and then befriended them.
Needless to say, Spoiled wasn't so happy to see them, especially after she watched the news involving them.
"Oh no no no! Not you girls!" Spoiled shouted, pulling her daughter aside.
"Wait Mrs. Rich," Sunset exclaimed. "We can explain–"
"Oh no! You're not welcome here! Goodbye!" Spoiled stated coolly as she was shutting the door.
Luckily, Rainbow, Applejack, and the CMCs were fast enough to hold the door, preventing it from closing.
"Mrs. Rich, don't!" Applejack exclaimed.
"I said, you're not welcome here!" Spoiled growled through her teeth.
"Mother, let them in!" Diamond yelled as she tried to pry her mother away from the door, but Spoiled wouldn't budge.
During the commotion, another woman walked into the room behind Spoiled.
"Mrs. Rich, what's going on– girls!"
"Cadance, let us in!" Sunset yelled.
Without hesitation, Cadance quickly shoved Spoiled to the side and then let the girls inside the mansion.
"You alright girls?" Cadance asked in a concerned tone as she shut the door.
"We went through worse," Rarity answered for the group. "Thank you for letting us in!"
Before Cadance could ask further, she was interrupted by a furious Spoiled.
"How dare you allow these criminals into my house!" Spoiled shouted at Cadance in an angry tone before facing the girls. "I am not allowing this! I'm going to call the police– no, the FBI– no, the S.W.A.T. team– no, I'm calling your mothers!"
"Mrs. Rich, please!" Cadance scolded calmly before addressing the Rainbooms. "Girls, what is going on? You're all over the news and ever since Shining Armor called me, I tried calling Twilight but I couldn't reach her!"
"That's because we had to get rid of our phones so that we wouldn't get tracked," Sunset answered.
"Tracked?!" Cadance exclaimed in a bewildered tone.
Meanwhile, the CMCs were having a conversation with Diamond Tiara.
"Nice to see ya again Diamond Tiara," Apple Bloom said sheepishly. "Though, Ah wish we meet again under better circumstances."
Both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded in agreement.
Diamond frowned in concern. "What's going on with you girls? Is everything okay?"
Before either of the CMCs could answer, Diamond was pulled away by Spoiled.
"Diamond Tiara, get away from them!" Spoiled yelled, glaring daggers at the young trio. "Now look at what you all did! My daughter became an accessory to treason!"
Apple Bloom scowled at the older woman. "No, she ain't!"
"Yeah, you're being ridiculous!" Scootaloo shouted.
"For sure!" Sweetie Belle added in frustration.
Seeing a fight between Spoiled and the three girls, Cadance tried to defuse the situation.
"Alright, let's all calm down–"
"Calm down! I will not calm down!" Spoiled screeched.
"Cadance's right!" Applejack interjected. "We should all calm ourselves down and let us properly expla–"
"Don't you lecture me you criminal!" Spoiled spat, narrowing her eyes. "I always knew you girls are trouble! I tried to get the school board to expel you all, but I was constantly blocked by Celestia and other admins for being unreasonable! But this time, I have a good excuse!"
"Spoiled, that's enough!" Cadance scolded, now starting to feel impatient with the woman. "Don't ever call them criminals again, especially my sister-in-law! We blocked your attempts to expel them because you have no grounds against them! And they've done a lot of good in our committee and you know it!"
"Oh really?" Spoiled spat. "Well, I would like to see you try to defend them for being wanted terrorists!"
"We don't know the full story yet," Cadance argued. "I've known these girls for a while and they would never do this!"
"Oh sure, only you would say that!" Spoiled replied in a condescending tone.
Spoiled then noticed Sunset was holding something with a blanket covering it. "Hey, what do you have underneath there?" She demanded. "Is that plutonium? Some kind of weapon!?"
"Yes, it's obviously a weapon!" Sunset responded sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She then addressed Cadance. "Look, this is getting out of hand. Perhaps we should all go to the next room so we can–"
"You stole something, didn't you?!" Spoiled accused as she stepped closer to Sunset. "I demand you show me what you're hiding!"
"Hey, stay back!" Sunset shouted, stepping away from the Spoiled, but Spoiled ignored her and reached for that "item".
She was quickly blocked by Rainbow Dash and the rest of the girls.
"Back off lady!" Rainbow growled. "Leave her alone!"
"Mom, knock it off!" Diamond pleaded.
"Stop this at once, Spoiled!" Cadance yelled. "You've gone too far this time!"
Despite being held down by teens and an adult, Spoiled continued to ignore them as she was reaching out for the "item" in question. After a moment of struggling, Spoiled managed to grab the blanket and tried pulling it.
"Let go!" Sunset cried.
Spoiled refused and kept on tugging the blanket until she finally pulled the blanket away from Sunset. When she finally got a good look at what was hidden in Sunset’s arms, Spoiled, as well as Diamond Tiara and Cadance, were stunned when they saw that it was a strange unconscious blue creature. The Rainbooms and CMCs stood nervously at their reactions for a moment before Spoiled started swaying unsteadily.
"Oh– oh catch me, Diamond…" Spoiled muttered before she fainted on the floor, losing consciousness.
"Oh, thank Faust!" Scootaloo exclaimed with a relieved expression. "I thought she would never shut up… no offense Diamond Tiara."
"None taken," Diamond Tiara responded, but still stunned at the blue hedgehog in Sunset’s arms.
It was then that Cadance had finally broken out of her shock.
"Okay… will someone please tell me what is going on!?" Cadance demanded, now freaking out. "What is that thing? Why were you all chased by the government? And where's Twilight!?"
The girls were silent, wordlessly looking at one another on who will be the one to break the news to the former Dean. Deciding that she will be the one to tell her, Sunset loudly cleared her throat.
"We'll explain everything!" Sunset assured awkwardly, bringing Sonic closer to her chest. "But first… can we have a glass of water?"