//------------------------------// // Epilogue: Darkness Rising // Story: Sonic The Hedgehog x My Little Pony: IDW Comics // by BronySonicFan //------------------------------// Sonic walked back and forth on the Brighthouse's bedroom with concern. Tails was using the Chaos Energy lectures from once of the Chaos Emeralds they had to try and track down the remaining Emerald. They tried to find any meaning to Discord's riddle for the past few days, but so far, they couldn't get anything from whatever the draconequus meant, and the fact that he refused to elaborate, even after he returned the Pegasus Crystal, just made things harder and worse. Zipp, Sunny, Hitch, everyone already tried to get somewhere with the riddle. Izzy even tried to persuade Discord a bit more so he could finally spill the beans... but it didn't worked, either. And to be honest, he was sure it wasn't going to work, anyways. If the other six Emeralds where weakened/half dead before being restored by his powers and Eggman, then it was really possible that the remaining one needed a similar treatment. Therefore, nothing they did was going to track down the Chaos Emerald, unfortunately. "Any luck, little bro?" Sonic asked to Tails after while. Tails' computer replied instead of Tails himself with a beep sound and a red light, while Tails turned to face Sonic and denied with his head and a concerned expression. "Great..." Sonic groaned, grabbing his head and trying to find another solution to find the Chaos Emerald. "Just when I thought Discord will be mature enough after returning the Crystal, he refuses to elaborate and leave us hanging!" he complained with a frown. "Not to mention, he keeps insisting we should leave Equestria as soon as we find the final Emerald. Yet, he refuses to help us to find it" Tails pointed out. "Yeah, don't mention it... Sonic said with a frown. "Don't you feel like this is pretty weird? That it's been almost a year since I arrived with the Chaos Emeralds to Equestria, yet we haven't find the sixth Emerald in this whole time... What if Eggman has it, but he's waiting for the proper time to make it work again?" he questioned in concern. "I think if he does has the Emerald, he probably would have say it already" Tails pointed out. "I mean, he's a terrible secret keeper, so if he really does has the final Chaos Emerald, I think we'll already know at this point" he added. "Right..." Sonic said unsure. "Still, it doesn't explains why we haven't found the Emerald yet" he pointed out in concern. "We'll eventually find the Emerald" Tails assured. "But until then, I think we definitely should get some fresh air" he stated with a smile. Tails walked off the room, leaving Sonic behind. Sonic himself rubbed his chin a bit and tapped the floor in frustration. He had a really bad feeling, and he couldn't help but thing that Eggman had something bigger in store for them... "No, no, no, NO!" Eggman shouted, as the new simulation Sage, his AI, showed him didn't convinced him either. These past months, Eggman decided to use all the commotion Discord causing by stealing the Pegasus Crystal to make some adjustments at his plans. He was running countless simulations for what to do with both all the magic of Equestria and the Chaos Emeralds once they were on his power. All these simulations were just excuses to see what would he make when the time to conquer Equestria comes, if it ever comes, that is. He wanted something big, remarkable, unforgettable. Something everypony, and Team Sonic, could see and never forget even if he lost because of plot convenience. He wanted something like his Death Egg, just not as big as a moon, but bigger than any other machine he ever created before at the same time. Yet, none of the simulations so far was convincing him. Either there were stuff he already tried before and failed, or it could be something that actually worked, yet it wasn't what he was looking for. He felt so... lost, desperate and confused at the same time. "This makes no sense!" Eggman shouted in anger. "I've been planning every single detail of this plan to detail! Yeah, I had some complications, but so far, I'm still safe! As long as Opaline does not plans on stabbing me in the back, everything should work out just fine... Yet what is the most important and vital thing so hard to define?!" he shouted in frustration. He smashed his keyboard as hard as he could, before sighing in defeat and then seat in his chair again with a tired expression, with his mustached 'saddening' a bit as well. His story with Sonic was the classical 'battle between the light and dark, good and bad, goodness and evil' and a long etcetera that Eggman wasn't in the mood to list... and I'm not in the mood to write it down, either. Sonic was the hero, the loved one, that popular child almost everyone wanted to be friends with. Many claim that Sonic could be a 'chosen one'. A hero which destiny is to defeat the forces of evil until they are eradicate forever. However, for both Eggman and Sonic himself, he's just a random guy that so happened to be there on Green Hills when Eggman decided to take over the world by kidnapping animals and use them to make his badniks work. Yeah, not even Eggman was proud of himself back then. In fact, he has no idea why he listened to Zavok when he convinced him to use animals again for the badniks, but he was glad that said phase was over. And what about him, though? Well, Eggman is the bad guy. The bad third, the rotten seed, call him however you want. Eggman is to Sonic like Bowser is to Mario: they're nemesis, they despise each other, and the sooner they can get rid of the other one, the better for them (and in Sonic's case, for everyone else as well). Eggman was that 'bully'. The weird kid, the guy that no one notices, or the guy that everyone hates just because he's different. Just like everyone claims Sonic is a hero, everyone also claims that Eggman's destiny is to fail over and over again in order for Sonic to fulfill his potential and become the hero he's supposed to be. Of course, Eggman always said that this is bullshit, and that he wasn't another piece in a massive board just for Sonic to be something greater. No, he refused to believe that. No matter how much it could take, no matter how much he could fail, no matter if he had to tear apart the entire multiverse itself: he would prove destiny that he wasn't a piece on a board, and that he could defeat Sonic and win for sure. One way or another, he was proving that. Eggman smirked, and he stood up from his chair, with his mustache raising up and everything. "Sage, run another simulation" he instructed. "But this time, make sure that whatever machine you'll build up makes justice to my image and my greatness! Make sure everything and everyone on this pitiful land remember my name, even if I fail again" he added with a sinister grin. "Right away, doctor" Sage replied. And so, Sage began to run a new simulation with all the details that Eggman instructed her to make. Thankfully, this entire simulation gave lots of joy to the doctor: First, the sea near Maretime Bay could be seen... and then, a massive Death Egg Robot raised from the ocean. It was so big... even bigger than those Death Egg Robots he used back when he took over the world for six months. It had his face, and the arms were large and with five fingers instead of the usual three that were more like spikes. It was gigantic, massive... memorable. It wasn't just a generic Death Egg Robot, no... It was a massive titan. Said robot was walking over Maretime Bay, and just by swinging the right arms from behind to the front, a model of the Brighthouse could be seen flying away, crashing and tearing apart into pieces on the ground. Then, the robot used two different types of lasers: One in the chest, probably impulsed by magic or Chaos Energy, or even both in the best of scenarios, that the machine used to destroy everything on its way. The other type of laser was in the eyes, and it seemed to be less potent, but just as destructive as the other one. Between other functions, this robot also seemed to have a flamethrower on the knuckles, a variety of missile arsenal, a giant wrecking ball that could be used the same way the Egg Beater does, and the ability of fly, or at least elevate from the ground like the past robots. But the cherry of the cake was definitely when the simulation showed up a pretty much banged up Sonic on the floor, being crushed by one foot of this massive robot. Saying that Eggman was happy was only a simplification of how he felt right now. He was beyond satisfied: the amount of happiness and joy he was feeling right now couldn't be described in any sort of known way. The simple fact that this simulation showed up a scenario he was expecting was good enough... but making the biggest variant of the Death Egg Robot so far to make sure no one forgets his name and what he's capable to do? That was simply spectacular. "Sage, dear..." Eggman said with a sinister grin. "Charge up the prints of this new model to my database. Code name: Death Egg Titan" he stated. "Yes, doctor" Sage replied. Meanwhile, Eggman stared at the hologram of the new robot he would create once all magic in Equestria, and the Chaos Emeralds, were under his control. "Soon enough, this land will be mine!" Eggman stated with an evil laugh. Opaline walked back and forth on her Throne Room with a frown. Eggman hasn't come out from his labs in weeks. He still owned her an apology for almost killing her months ago, but now he not only refused to share any new details on his plans, he also didn't talked to her in weeks, unless he needed Misty for something or when he needed to get supplies to survive. Out of that... Eggman distanced himself. He only told her about his plans on analyzing Team Sonic's and the Mane 5's fighting styles that one time, but nothing else. She was getting tired of this... so that's why she was going to make plans on her own. But she was changing her strategy once and for all. She didn't needed to steal magical artifacts, and she didn't need to steal Sparky's fire either now. Surprisingly, even for her, she was planning to listen to Misty's theories for once... even though she kinda regrets the idea, but at least she's going somewhere now. Misty mentioned Cutie Mark magic multiple times during her reports. Back in the day when Twilight Sparkle was around, she and her friends kinda already experimented with what Cutie Mark magic was capable of. It only shone and vibrated when something called the Cutie Map had an assigned mission for certain ponies, but it sorta did the trick. Now, however, that magic was something else: it could increase a pony's power, it could combine to reveal secrets and even transform stuff into something more practical and useful. But something like what the Cutie Mark magic did on Winter Wishday was... simply spectacular. She's gonna admit it once and never again: she did found what happened beautiful, but since Misty was there, she needed to pretend she only wanted power. Now, however, she was alone, so saying... or thinking that it was something cool won't kill anyone. Too bad for everypony else that she was going to steal all that magic for herself... Again, too bad for everypony else. 'So, what is her plan?' You might be wondering. Well, it was simpler saying it than actually doing it: she was planning on stealing the Mane 5's Cutie Marks and use all that magic and power to steal the Unity Crystals once and for all. She could leave her castle to do that. In fact, she could have done it thousands of times before if she ever wanted to, but she couldn't just face the Mane 5 and Team Sonic to steal the Unity Crystals on her current state. That's exactly why she wanted to steal Sparky's dragon fire, because even if he's just a baby dragon, his magic is strong enough to restore Opaline's power, and therefore, she could leave the castle and face the Mane 5 and Team Sonic properly so she could steal the Unity Crystals. But now that she knows about Cutie Mark magic, it was time to leave that baby dragon for now. She wasn't sending Misty to do her dirty job this time, however, at least not now. With so many failures, she needed someone else. And Eggman wasn't an option, either. He barely talked to her, so is he went to ask him for the favor, something worse than what happened last time could happen. "It doesn't matter" Opaline stated to herself with a smirk, before using her bolder to make an image of the Mane 5 appear. "One way or another... your Cutie Marks will be mine!" she stated confidently.