//------------------------------//
// 10. Dancing With Destiny 
// Story: Sonic The Hedgehog x My Little Pony: Make Your Mark - Season 2 
// by BronySonicFan 
//------------------------------//

Sunny could see absolutely nothing for quite a while.

The last thing she remembers was that Sonic and Misty helped to defeat Opaline, but then Eggman came by and defeated all of them, before he pulled out a weird green gas that he used to knock her and her friends out.

She also remembers that he let go Misty and Sparky, but nothing else.

What happened to them? What happened to her? Where was Sonic? Was he okay? Was he even alive? She couldn't tell, because she couldn't see anything at all right now...

Or at least, she couldn't for a while, because in the middle of her darkness, a light flashed and startled her a bit.

And then, she started to open her eyes. She did it slowly, because she still needed to get used to the light in the room.

However, once her eyes did got used to the light, they opened wide, because she was on some kind of laboratory.

She looked around confused: computers with Eggman's logo, control panels, some of Eggman's machines she could recognize, some she couldn't, the three Chaos Emeralds he obtained in a capsule... And then, she gasped terrified when she saw five big capsules, with her friends trapped in four of them.

The capsules were as big as a cell, and at the top, there was a digital screen that showed the last name of whoever was trapped inside, that being 'Moonbow', 'Storm', 'Trailblazer' and 'Petals' respectively, with the capsule in the middle being completely empty.

"G-Guys?!" Sunny called out.

It seemed that her friends woke up before her, because they all turned to her and smiled.

"Sunny!" the four of them said.

"Are you okay?!" Hitch asked with concern.

"I think I am..." Sunny said, checking all over her body, but then, she noticed that she didn't had her bag, although it didn't mattered right now. "Where are we?" she asked, looking around.

"I think it's some kind of lab" Zipp pointed out with concern. "Or rather I said, Eggman's lab..." she added with a small frown.

"Sunny, do you see Sonic anywhere close?" Pipp asked with worry. "I've been trying to call him out from here, but I get no response!" she pointed out.

"Haven't you tried to text him?" Sunny asked.

"Apparently, Eggman took all our stuff" Izzy pointed out with concern, showing that she wasn't wearing her bracelets on her mane, tail nor hoof.

"He even took my Sheriff belt and badge!" Hitch pointed out with concern. "I feel naked without them... and I'm always naked!" he pointed out with a panicked expression.

"Okay, everypony, calm down!" Sunny told them. "First, I have to find out how to take you guys out of here... Is your magic still working?" she asked.

"Yeah, but..." Izzy said, as she lightened up her horn and tried to grab the capsule with her magic, but it din't worked. "It doesn't works outside of this capsule..." she pointed out with a sad expression.

"It's like being trapped in our own bodies!" Zipp said, as she flew quickly in circles around her cage with a frown, before landing and groaning frustrated. "Before magic, there was no point in having wings if I couldn't fly... Now? There's no point on having wings at all if I can't fly freely!" she pointed out with anger.

"And that's what makes this spectacle the more enjoyable!" Eggman's voice spoke suddenly.

The Mane 5 felt startled by hearing him, and so, they all looked upwards, were they saw Eggman looking down at them with a huge grin from a balcony.

"I'm glad to see that all of you are finally awake!" Eggman said happily. "Now, let's get this party started!" he stated, before jumping from the balcony and land in the same platform that Sunny was standing over.

"You think you can defeat an Alicorn without your machines, Eggman?" Sunny asked with a frown, but also smirking mockingly. "Because right now, I got plenty of advantage!" she stated.

"Go get him, Sunny!" Zipp cheered.

"Kick him in the balls!" Hitch said with a slight sinister smile.

"Woo!" both Izzy and Pipp cheered as well.

"You really are confident, aren't you, Starscout?" Eggman mocked up... however, there was no grin this time around. He was showing a rather very serious expression. "Too bad that confidence of yours is your biggest weakness..." he added.

Sunny only snorted and activated her Alicorn form. Then, she boosted against Eggman... but that wasn't a smart idea...

Eggman growled, and just when Sunny was about to punch him, Eggman raised the Yellow Chaos Emerald in front of him.

"Chaos Control!" Eggman shouted.

With this, the Chaos Emerald's power stopped Sunny in her place. And then? Eggman did something nobody ever though he could be able to: He raised a fist, and stroke a punch straight into Sunny's face, canceling the 'Chaos Control' effect in the process and sending her backwards.

Sunny crashed against the crystal of the empty capsule and fell to the ground, with her alicorn form glitching a bit in the process.

"It's time to make my own hands dirty!" Eggman stated with a grin, also cracking his knuckles.

Meanwhile, Sunny's friends looked with horror at what Eggman just did, specially because Sunny's nose started to bleed a bit.

However Eggman wasn't done with her, because he approached Sunny, grabbed her, and then launched her towards a panel control, that she of course broke with the impact, but it also caused her wings and horn to disappear.

Eggman growled in anger and started to walk towards her, while Hitch snapped from his shock state of seeing Sunny crashing with the crystal.

"Sunny!" Hitch shouted desperate. "Run!" he begged.

Sunny shook her head a bit dizzy, then noticed that her nose was bleeding and panicked, but then, she noticed Eggman approaching, and she immediately ran away, as Eggman smashed what was left of the panel control with his bare fists.

"I'm really sick of you, Sunny!" Eggman said in anger, grabbing part of the panel control and launching it towards Sunny, who barely dodged the attack. "8 months. I've been watching you for 8 fucking months... And you are not doing anything useful!" he shouted in rage, as he grabbed a chair near by and launched it to Sunny.

This time, however, Sunny's hind legs got hit, and she fell to the ground.

She quickly tried to get up, but Eggman approached her and grabbed her from her tail, quickly smashing her against the floor.

"Stop it!" Zipp begged as well, hitting herself against the crystal, in a desperate attempt to get out, but she was just hurting herself by doing so.

"You have the power to stop hunger..." Eggman continued, as he stomped on Sunny's tail and made her groan in pain, since she tried to get away from him. "You have the power to stop corruption!" he added, now stomping on Sunny's back and pressing over her bones, while Sunny screamed in pure agony and pain.

"Eggman, stop it!" Izzy begged as well, tears running down her cheeks.

However, Eggman only retired his feet from her back and tail, just to grab her mane and smash her face against the floor. "You can even cure fucking cancer!" he pointed out. "But NOOOOOOOO! You chose to waste your power on stupid marches and causes NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT!" he added, as he grabbed Sunny again and launched her against a wall.

Sunny fell to the floor and coughed a bit of blood, also feeling her eyes watering because of how painful she was feeling right now.

"You were given a fucking bless, and you waste it in a dream that isn't even yours!" Eggman kept telling. "Worst of all, you literally are nothing without your wings, horn and friends!" he added with anger.

"Doctor, stop it!" Pipp begged. "You're gonna kill her at this rate!" she pointed out, also letting out tears of agony.

"Kill her?! I would have done that the moment she disappointed me!" Eggman declared with a frown, before looking back at Sunny with pure rage. "No... I'm not gonna kill her... I'm gonna make sure she understands why I'm not a guy she should underestimate!" he stated.

After that, he grabbed her from her tail and dragged her to the center, so her friends could see what he was about to do.

However, he first removed his glasses, showing his black sclera and red ires to the Mane 5 sins Sunny.

"Take this as a lesson on why you shouldn't mess with me..." Eggman declared with anger, before starting to smash Sunny in the floor from one side to the other, for the Mane 5's horror. "I am a MENACE!" he stated, smashing Sunny again. "I have the MASTER PLAN!" he said again, also smashing Sunny to the ground one more time. "I. Am. THE EGGMAN!" he screamed, smashing Sunny one last time, before finally leaving her there in the ground.

The rest of the Mane 5 couldn't believe what they witnessed. Izzy's tears were falling nonstop, Zipp had her nose a bit broken by trying to smash the crystal to help Sunny, but seeing her friend like that broke her composure, as she feel to the floor and started to tear up. Pipp was crying uncontrollably as well, and Hitch's expression was anxious, panicked, shocked...

Broken...

He just saw not only his childhood friend, but also his crush, his love being crushed down to the ground just like a bag.

Sunny herself wasn't any better: Her mane was all messy now, her right eye was purple, her nose and mouth were bleeding a lot, her back felt incredibly painful, and she could swear that one of her hooves broke because of Eggman's smashes.

"Y-You..." Hitch managed to say, now with tears rolling down his eyes, then he looked up at Eggman, who's sinister grin only made the sheriff frown. "You... MOTHERFUCKING MONSTER!!!" he yelled out in rage.

"Pff. I've been called worse" Eggman said with a cold stare towards Hitch. "Besides, she's not dead. Killing doesn't suits my brand unless I see it necessary" he added, like if what he just did wasn't a big deal.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Zipp asked with concern. "You just beat the shit out of our friend almost to death! How can you be so relaxed after that?!" she questioned in disbelief.

"Emphasis on almost, Zephyrina" Eggman said with a smirk.

"You... You did all of that and enjoyed it... Y-You are even worse than just a bad guy..." Izzy said with concern, as tears kept falling from her eyes.

"Why, thank you, Isabela!" Eggman said with pure joy. "Is such a great compliment!" he added.

"What do you get from all of this?!" Pipp asked desperate.

However, Eggman only laughed at their attitude, and he looked at them with a sinister grin. "I knew it! I was right all along! HAHAHAHAHA!" he cheered.

"What are you talking about, you piece of shit?!" Hitch yelled in rage.

"Uh! You kiss your mother with that mouth? Oh, wait! I forgot you have no mom!" Eggman said happily, before burst laughing like a maniac.

Hitch felt his anger only increasing by the second thanks to that declaration.

"I knew all along that Sunny was the Sonic of your group!" Eggman stated with joy.

"What does that even mean?!" Zipp asked in rage.

"You put your hopes, dreams and aspirations in the hooves of a broken pony that got a power that she doesn't deserves" Eggman started to explain. "She just opens her mouth, and all of a sudden, you feel inspired and hopeful. But then, she fails, and you all feel like there's no point on living anymore. But the most hysterical part of all of this?! She found a group of broken ponies that claim to be fixed together, when they couldn't be far from the truth!" he added, as he laughed again.

"Broken ponies?!" Pipp asked with an offended look. "How on earth could any of us be broken?!" she questioned with anger.

Eggman grinned even more sinisterly, as he approached to her capsule, while Pipp stepped a bit back as Eggman kneeled to face her, still with his eyes penetrating on her soul.

"You aren't just a generic influencer that needs the approval of thousands of strangers to feel like her life is wroth something..." Eggman told her with glee. "You are all of that, as well as the little sister. The second place. Your sister's shadow... an outcast. A burden. You know that being the second in line for the throne means that you are nothing, so you became an influencer! You gain easy money by just existing. You have talent, I won't deny that, but it doesn't changes the fact that you are just a pegasus princess with low steam that needs constant approval so her worthless life can have a purpose!" he explained.

Pipp's rage and confidence all faded away once Eggman said all of that. If she had her phone close, she could just distract herself to ignore him... But it was that urge to check on her phone to see her fans approval what made her realize that Eggman was right... she did needed constant approval... and right now? She needed said approval...

"What's the matter?" Eggman asked sinisterly. "Looking for this?" he added, now showing Pipp's phone on his hand.

Pipp felt desperate to grab it from his hand, but the crystal in the middle didn't allowed her to do so, and she let out some desperate squeaks to reach her phone, as some tears also fell from her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, little pony..." Eggman said with a fake sad expression, throwing the phone away. "But I'm afraid your fans have better things to do than waste their time on you" he added coldly.

That only made Pipp feel worst, as she fell to the ground in defeat, while sobbing a bit before covering her face with her hooves.

"Leave her alone, you fucking bastard!" Zipp said. "My sister is worth a million more than you'll ever be!" she stated with a confident tone.

"Hmm... You know what? She's still worthless. BUT, she DOES have a lot more worth than you, Zephyrina" Eggman said, now walking to stand in front of Zipp. "After all, it is your fault you are all encaged here in the first place" he added with a cold stare towards the pegasus.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Zipp asked with a frown.

"Let's see: You are the heiress to the throne of Zephyr heights. Yet, you spent all the time running away from any Royal responsibilities, flying around town and trying to find a so called 'mystery' in order to feel that you're not disappointing anyone" Eggman stated. "But guess what? You failed!" he added with a sinister grin, now looking straight into Zipp's eyes.

Zipp genuinely felt scared and stepped back, even though she was still frowning at Eggman.

"You spent 6 months trying to find my location, 6 months trying to prove your worth by helping others with nonsense little mysteries, 6 months avoiding the fact that you are not a worthy heiress to your mother's throne" Eggman added, with his grin just growing and growing, which made Zipp feel uncomfortable.

"I-I don't know what are you––" Zipp tried to say confidently, but the look in Eggman's eyes didn't allowed her to finish.

"What kind of heiress runs away from her duty with her kingdom? You claim to be a detective, but there's not a single case you have solved so far" Eggman pointed out. "And the funniest part? I am the reason of many of them! Sunny's lantern? I buried in that garden! Sparky's disappearance? I hide him on that closet! The one who broke the window to steal the Crystals?! It was me as well!" he lied.

Okay, yeah, Misty did all of those, but since he still considered her his friend, he decided to lie to Mane 5 and say that he did all of that.

"... Y-You... You did all of that?" Zipp asked in such a lower voice that it almost sounded like someone else.

"Duh!" Eggman said like it was obvious. "Now you solve it, Zephyrina. You know who made all of those crimes, you found my location... And you still failed!" he added, now laughing like a maniac even more, as Zipp's ears lowered and she looked at Eggman with a broken expression. "You found the place of your enemies, and still lost against them!" he stated. "What a joke of a heiress you are!" he mocked up, before moving away.

However, the damage was done, and Zipp couldn't help but feel incredibly bad and worthless. Either Eggman was a good manipulator, or he was right... Because she couldn't help but cry even more than when she saw Sunny a few minutes ago.

Eggman, on the other hand, approached to Izzy's capsule, and saw that the unicorn had stepped backwards and was trying to hide her face from Eggman with her own tail.

"... You are already broken, as I can see" Eggman recognized. "I'll have mercy on you... but remember, Isabella: If you lose your friends, you're worth nothing" he muttered to her, before walking towards Hitch's capsule, as Izzy only covered her ears with her hooves, trying to convince herself that Eggman wasn't telling the truth.

Finally, the doctor was right in front of Hitch's capsule, who's cold expression hasn't changed at all.

"Go on, Doctor. Try to get in me. You won't brake me" Hitch stated with a determinate look.

"Sherif Trailblazer..." Eggman started. "Kind, loyal and respectful. All the qualities a good sheriff requires. Yet, down below that shell, you're just a broken little colt that lost mommy and daddy, and his only way to make sure no one ends like him is to be as a good of a Sheriff as he can be" he added with a cold stare.

Hitch did flinched a bit, but his expression never changed.

Meanwhile, Sunny was hearing all of Eggman's words, and as she let out tears of pain and sadness, as well as coughing more blood, she was also praying that Eggman wouldn't cross the line with Hitch that much...

But it was just a delusional wish.

"However, you feel anxiety, insomnia, headaches and, worst of all, useless... Because the only thing you actually did that helped was bring magic back. Out of that? Pff. You haven't done anything that makes you worthy of the tittle of 'Sheriff', Hitch" Eggman stated.

"T-That's... n-not true..." Sunny spoke weakly, coughing a bit of blood as she looked up at Eggman.

"You're still here? How impressive..." Eggman recognized. "However, even if I already destroyed you physically, your mind's still intact..." he pointed out, grabbing Sunny from her neck and raising her in the air, as Sunny looked weakly at the doctor. "You are the worst of the five. Your father dies and, instead of forging your own path, you decided to follow his dumbass steps instead of thinking carefully. Your dream is delusional, Starscout. A stupid, childish desire that stays on that line: a desire" he stated.

Sunny tried to say something to prove him wrong, but she couldn't come up with anything.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with your dream, Sunny: Even if Opaline and I are defeated, once your pathetic, miserable existence is buried 20 meters underground, someone will undo everything again, separate the ponies, making everything your daddy's work has been in vain!" Eggman said with anger. "So keep crying, fighting and bleeding, My Little Pony, because everything you've done up to this day has been for nothing, and I cannot wait to see your reaction when your home burns down into ashes, as I stand in the top as the ruler of everything!" he stated, smashing Sunny to the ground again.

Then, he took out a small remote and pressed a button, which opened the empty capsule. Then, Eggman kicked Sunny inside of it and pressed the button again to close it, as the word 'Starscout' appeared on the digital screen of the capsule.

The rest of the Mane 5, despite of how they were feeling, saw Sunny with concern, and Hitch's heart was braking at the sight of his crush all beaten up.

Sunny, on the other hand, slowly stood up and coughed a bit more of blood, before passing a hoof over her mouth and blood, looking at the ground with sadness, since Eggman's words did got into her.

Then, Eggman pulled out his glasses again and cleaned them, before putting them back into his face. After that, he pressed another button on the remote, which made a capsule similar to the one Shadow was sent to Earth from the ARK come out of the ground and show Sonic, who was still unconscious and tied from wrists and ankles with metallic claws.

"Sonic!" Pipp cried out with worry. "What are you gonna do with him?!" she asked to Eggman with anger.

"I saw that you met Shadow... Wanna hear a tragic story?" Eggman asked with a grin. "He spent 50 years asleep in ice, right after watching his best friend, and my cousin, Maria, DIE right in front of him!" he explained.

The Mane 5 gasped after hearing that, and Pipp could only fear the worst for her boyfriend.

"So, I'm gonna put this hedgehog to sleep for 50 years as well. However, the realization of knowing he's all alone when he wakes up would be even worse! Because all the people he cared for will be gone by the time he's awake!" Eggman explained with a huge grin. "And I'll gladly receive him when he does!" he added, before laughing like a maniac and turn around to leave the Mane 5.

"... D-Doctor..." Sunny called out suddenly, and Eggman stopped walking, then turned around and looked at Sunny with a raised eyebrow. "... Y-You... Y-You have the potential t-to do incredible things... but you waste it on ridiculous and dangerous schemes that do more damage than they repair..." she pointed out.

Eggman felt a massive dejà vu by hearing those words, and he groaned in annoyance, also rubbing his forehead to try to avoid a massive headache.

"W-Why?" Sunny asked with pain. "W-Why did you wasted your life like that?" she added.

Eggman sighed and walked towards Sunny, standing right in front of her capsule, although Sunny didn't stepped back, she just stared Eggman face to face.

"... If I have to be real, I not always enjoyed doing all of this..." Eggman confessed. "I tried for years to reach to anyone through my machines by the pacifist way, just like you" he started to explain. "And, just like you, I was either not listened, marked as a crazy idiot... or straight made fun of..." he added.

Sunny understood the feeling, since she always felt so little before meeting her friends.

"So, one day, I reached my limit" Eggman kept going. "If the world wasn't going to listen to me... Then I'll make the listen!" he stated. "I started by searching the location of the legendary Chaos Emeralds... And once I found it, I decided to make clear why I have to be feared!" he added with a smirk. "Of course, I didn't knew Sonic's parents would be killed by my hand, nor that their son was going to be such a pain in the ass, but it didn't mattered. Even if I met him years later, he was only delaying the inevitable: MY victory!" he cheered.

"... But... but you'll be alone..." Sunny pointed out with concern.

"Eh. I wouldn't be so sure. Opaline will be there!" Eggman pointed out. "And today, after 8 months of careful planning, I finally have you and your friends exactly where I want you!" he stated confidently. "I will say, however: If neither Sonic or Izzy arrived that day to Maretime Bay... I'm pretty sure you would have ended like me one day... So consider yourself lucky, because you would never have to be stressed over building an Empire" he added with a frown.

"... D-Do you really changed... b-because nobody else payed you attention?" Sunny asked curiously and weak.

"... It was more a process, to tell the truth..." Eggman confessed once again. "Let's just say that I realized how society works: You either die being nobody, or you Make Your Mark in the world!" he stated with a grin.

With that being said, Eggman turned around and approached to the capsule where Sonic was encaged and tied up.

"As for you... I can finally said that you were too slow to stop me, Sonic!" Eggman said with glee, before burst laughing like a maniac, as he started to leave the room.

Doing so, he left behind mentally broken mares, a physically and mentally damaged Sunny, and a completely angry Hitch, who wanted so bad to brake that crystal with his bare hooves and give Eggman a lesson.

However, at the capsule on his right side, Sunny just lied in the floor and rested her head on her hooves, looking at the ground and sighing defeated.





Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge and Sparky were heading towards the same zone that Sonic and the Mane 5 went.

Misty came out clean and explained everything: That she was working with Eggman and Opaline all along, that she tried to get Sparky out of the castle when Opaline captured the Mane 5, how she redeemed herself and gained her Cutie Mark by saving the Mane 5, how Sonic and Sunny defeated Opaline, and how Eggman turned the tables by capturing them and letting Misty escape with Sparky.

Once Misty revealed the truth, Tails felt hurt and devastated by the revelation. He spent months treating Misty like a friend, defending her from Zipp, protecting her from her accusations... And in the end, he was the stupid one, because Zipp was right, and Misty was a traitor.

She used them for months, she worked with Opaline and their sworn enemy, she lied about many stuff for so long...

And yet, all anger he felt towards Misty vanished when she mentioned everything she did to help save Sparky, despite the failed first attempt. Of course, Tails was conscious that everything Misty did for months was wrong, and he did felt hurt and used by her... But she was trying to redeem herself, and that was a very good start on his eyes.

So, he and the rest instructed her to stay in the Brighthouse and watch over anything going wrong, which she agreed to do so. Knuckles also said that this could be a test to put her loyalty at stake, which made her agree to stay even more now, specially because Knuckles did exploded on her after she revealed her betrayal, which made Amy and Shadow to hold him and calm him down so he wouldn't do anything stupid.

After that, Tails quickly turned on the Tornado IV, with Amy and Knuckles seating on the passenger seats, while Rouge went flying, Shadow stood in the wing of the plane, and Sparky was with Amy.

"I didn't wanted to bring this up so soon and suddenly, but what if Eggman is expecting us to arrive?" Rouge questioned. "The doctor might make questionable decisions sometimes, but I know very well that he isn't dumb enough to let us in just like that" she pointed out.

"6 months in Equestria haven't been in vain, Rouge!" Tails said with a confident smirk. "If he does has a surprise for us, I have plenty of surprises for him myself!" he stated.

Rouge only nodded at that.

Meanwhile, Knuckles had something bothering him as he looked at Amy in the front seat. "Um... Ames?" he called out.

"Hmm?" Amy asked, not looking at him.

Knuckles took a deep breath and sighed. "Look... I know we promised to never bring this up ever again, but... I really wanna say that we're sorry..." he apologized.

Amy felt a bit strange at hearing that, so she turned around and looked at him. "You're sorry? For what?" she asked.

"Because we made you feel less and excluded back when you were part of team..." Knuckles pointed out. "We didn't knew you felt like just 'the girl of the group', and... we're very sorry for that..." he apologized once again.

Tails heard the conversation as well, so he putted the plane on auto-pilot and turned around to face Amy. "Yeah... We kind of always needed to be in line whenever we had a bad idea..." he pointed out as well.

"I wouldn't use 'bad' to remark your ideas, guys. Is way too much of a compliment" Amy replied with a mocking smirk.

Knuckles bursted out laughing and Tails rolled his eyes with a smile. "The point is... that you were pretty much what kept us in the ground, Ames" Tails kept saying with a smile.

"Yeah... There's no point on being a team if the heart is missing" Knuckles added with a little smile.

Amy turned to look at him a bit surprised, but then she smiled warmly at him.

"Also, we kind of miss having you around" Tails confessed with a smile, and Knuckles nodded in agreement. "And yes, Sonic has missed you too, even if he will never admitted openly" he added with a smirk and a wink.

"Yeah, because––" Amy started.

"He's too cool to openly show feelings!" Tails, Knuckles and Amy all said in unison.

The three of them laughed at that, and Shadow snorted a bit by hearing the talk, even if he didn't showed emotions openly either.

However, the plane's screen made a beep sound, and Tails checked on it once again. He saw that they were close to the location Sonic went, so he turned around.

"Alright, everyone!" Tails stated. "Brace yourselves, 'cause we're gonna crash this party!" he stated with a smirk.

And so, after putting the Tornado IV at top speed, the group crossed some stormy clouds and saw Opaline's Castle in the distance.

"Opaline's Castle!" Tails said. "Its been hiding behind these clouds this whole time?! Now I feel stupid..." he pointed out to himself with a bored expression.

"Too bad Eggman's not hiding from attacking us, though!" Shadow said with anger.

And he said that because several flying badniks were heading towards them, charging their lasers and guns to shot at them.

"Time to take out the trash!" Tails stated, as he pressed a button on the plane.

This made the vehicle to turn on the auto-pilot again, while Tails seat was lowered down with a new panel control, this one connected to a pair of guns. So, Tails started to shot all the badniks he could, while Shadow teleported in the air to hit some badniks as well, and Rouge decided to join her partner.

"Whoa, Tails!" Amy cheered with a smile, impressed by what Tails just pulled out. "That's a very neat trick!" she complimented.

"Press the button at your side, and you guys can join me!" Tails shouted with a smile, still shooting at the badniks.

"Oh, fuck yeah!" Knuckles cheered, pressing said button with no hesitation.

Then, his seat was moved towards the right wing, that took out a missile launcher that made Knuckles grin sinisterly.

"EAT THIS, MOTHERFUCKERS!" Knuckles announced, as he started to blast missiles towards the badniks, and his voice was vibrating with his tongue out as he did so.

Amy, on the other hand, hesitated at first, specially since she was holding Sparky, but then, she nodded determinate and decided to join them, so she pressed the button as well.

Her chair was moved to the left wing, which got out a mechanism similar to the Splat-a-pults Phylis used to make, except this ones launched bombs.

Amy smiled and started to launch the bombs to more badniks as well, exploding them out of the sky in the process, but neither she, Knuckles nor Tails didn't noticed that several badniks sneaked behind the plane and were ready to shot.

Seeing this, Sparky frowned and climbed off from Amy's grip. "Hey, Sparky! Come back!" she said with worry.

However, Sparky kept climbing, and once he reached the tail of the plane, he took a deep breath, before blasting out a powerful flame of his magical dragon fire towards the badniks, immediately turning the machines into a bunch of cupcakes.

You might be wondering how the baby dragon did that despite getting his magic drained... Well, he had some rest on the Brighthouse while Misty explained her story, and it seemed to be enough for him to recover enough for his fire to be as powerful as usual.

Seeing that the badniks were gone, Sparky nodded with pride and carefully moved back with Amy, as he sat down on her knees, while Amy stared at the baby dragon wide eyed, since she did heard that Sparky was powerful, but she didn't expected him to be that powerful, specially since he's a Baby Dragon.

"... You... are a very powerful little fella..." Amy said with a nervous smile, but Sparky only smiled cutely at her, and Amy couldn't help but coo at him for being a baby.

However, more badniks appeared near the bridge that lead to the entrance of the castle, and Tails frowned, so pressing a button, he made the three seats go back to the plane.

"Hey! What's the matter, Tails?!" Knuckles asked with a frown.

"More badniks down there!" Tails replied. "Take Amy and Sparky by glide, Knux! I will take care of those things!" he stated.

"Are you sure?!" Amy asked with concern.

"As I said, Amy... I also have tons of surprises!" Tails replied confidently, also winking at her.

Amy smiled and nodded, and once she saw Knuckles preparing to glide down, she hold Sparky tightly and climbed on Knuckles' back, while the echidna launched himself from the plane and started to glide down.

As Rouge took Shadow's hand and got to Knuckles' side, Tails pressed a button in the plane, switching the vehicle to the robot he first created when he unlocked his powers, as he raised the hands of the robot and blasted lasers from the palms, destroying several badniks from the bridge.

Then, the robot landed in the bridge itself and started to blast lasers towards all the badniks incoming, while everyone else landed behind Tails and the robot.

"... When he said he had tricks of his own... I wasn't expecting a robot with his face..." Shadow confessed with a raised eyebrow.

"If Eggman did taught us something, is that it works!" Knuckles pointed out.





Sonic was slowly waking up from his unconscious state.

He opened his eyes slowly, trying to remember what happened. Then, it hit him: The fight with Opaline and Eggman's unexpected ambush. Worst of all, even in an unconscious state, he heard everything Eggman did to Sunny and told all of the Mane 5.

He already was mad with the doctor because of what happened to Tails and to his parents after finding out the truth, but now he crossed the line with his friends. He was determinate to put Eggman on his place next time he face him, but first, he needed to wake up.

So, with some effort, Sonic opened his eyes better and shook his head, looking around confused. He saw part of his reflection in a crystal, but he could also see some kind of lab at the other side by narrowing his eyes.

The only thing he could recognize were the Silver, Yellow and Light Blue lights from the Chaos Emeralds that Eggman had, but other than that, it was kind of hard to tell.

Then, he tried to move a hand, but it was right there when he realized that he was tied up from wrists and ankles. However, instead of panicking, he took a deep breath and carefully tried to find something that could get him free from his prison, but even moving his wrists and ankles at fast paste didn't worked.

Sighing frustrated and defeated, he looked through the crystal again, and his eyes widened when he saw the Mane 5 on capsules, with the mares feeling saddened and Hitch kicking the crystal of his capsule like a maniac, desperate to find an exit.

"What the..." Sonic muttered confused.

"Hitch... please stop..." Sunny begged weakly to her crush, but Hitch either ignored her or didn't heard her. "Hitch! Are you deaf or something?! I said stop!" she said again, now yelling it loud and clear.

Hitch did stopped for a second, but just to look at Sunny confused. "Why? So we can let him steal the Crystals and take over our home?! No way!" he stated, before trying to kick the crystal again.

"You really are delusional if you think we can defeat him now, Sheriff..." Zipp said with a broken snort, as her cheeks were already ruined because of her eyeliner running down from the tears.

"You say it like if we already lost..." Hitch said, and he was about to kick the crystal when...

"Because we did, Hitch!" Pipp told him, and Hitch stared confused at the young pegasus. "We already fucking lost this shit!" she added with anger.

Sonic felt a bit surprised that Pipp sweared. Is not like she never did, at least not in public because he has heard her swearing when they're doing... stuff, but it was still weird for him to hear her swearing.

"He... He really is a monster with no turn back..." Izzy said sadly, looking to the floor with shame. "What's the point of having restored magic if we're not able to face the only two threats to it?" she asked in defeat.

"You girls can't be serious..." Hitch said with disbelief. "Are you seriously going to let that guy defeat you with a bunch of words?! Come on! We're better than that!" he stated.

"But are we?" Sunny asked suddenly.

Okay, that shocked Sonic, because if Sunny of all people was loosing hope, then it was time to start and pray.

It seemed that Hitch had the same reaction, because he stared in disbelief at her. "What?" he questioned with concern.

"Are we actually better than what he said?" Sunny asked, sobbing a bit as she cleaned some blood that still was coming out of her nose with a sad expression. "Look at us, Hitch... we tried to rescue Sparky, and we failed. Then Sonic arrived, and we still lost because of Eggman. I tried to fight him, but ended up like this!" she stated, showing her current state with a very sad expression.

Hitch really wanted to say something to stay positive, but... seeing Sunny's point, he actually started to think that there was no hope.

"And the worst part? Is that he's right... My dad's dream won't remain forever, anyways..." Sunny added as well.

Well, this was getting out of hand, because even the other girls turned to Sunny and looked at her with disbelief.

"S-Sunny!" Zipp said concerned.

"I wanted so bad for everypony to be together... But what would be the point? Twilight couldn't stop Opaline from spreading the rumors between ponies... And even if we manage to find successors, who says that they will keep everything the same way we did? Or who says we won't screw it, either?" Sunny questioned, as tears rolled down her cheeks, while she also spit some blood. "Eggman's right... Keeping everypony together is just a delusional dream that will brake eventually, no matter how hard we try to fulfill it..." she added in defeat, as she gave her back to Hitch and just lied on her capsule.

Hitch stared speechless at Sunny, one of the most positive forces he's ever met, if not the, just being followed by Sonic and Izzy.

But here she was, feeling useless and hopeless, with her usual shining aura only he could see not shining anymore... It was like if a part of her was lost.

But Hitch wasn't the only one who noticed that: Everyone in the room could see that. Pipp was heartbroken to see her friend like that, and she so wished she could say something to cheer her up, but she wasn't feeling happy, either. Zipp was also devastated at Sunny's attitude. She hasn't seen her this sad since the incident with her Alicorn form.

And Izzy? She could see on her sparkle that she was incredibly sad and defeated, because it was grey and dull, just like Sunny seemed to be and feel.

Finally, Sonic couldn't believe that Sunny has lost all hope already. Eggman did a very good job destroying her moral if she's feeling this defeated, and that only made him feel more anger towards his enemy. However, he wouldn't allow Eggman to just take away from Sunny what exactly give her her name.

"Well, I think Eggman is being the delusional one" Sonic said with his usual cheery tone.

That made the Mane 5 sins Sunny turn towards his capsule, and Pipp smiled happily when she saw her boyfriend awake. "Blue Star!" she cheered with joy.

"Oh, yes!" Zipp said with a slight smirk, as a bit of hope and confidence returned to her.

Izzy only smiled weakly, and Hitch nodded with a happy look.

However, Sunny took her time to turn and see that Sonic was awake, and he felt terrified when he saw Sunny's purple eye and bloody nose and mouth.

"Holy shit, Sunny... What did Eggman did to you?" Sonic asked with concern.

"He took away my hope, I guess..." Sunny said with a broken and hurt smile.

"Yeah... I heard everything you said... And you couldn't be more wrong..." Sonic stated with a smug look.

However, Sunny only snorted and shook her head with sadness. "Sonic... don't be as delusional as Hitch was a few seconds ago... We cannot win this..." she said with defeat.

"Who says that?" Sonic asked with a raised eyebrow and a mocking tone.

"Eggman says so..." Sunny replied.

"Exactly. Who says that?" Sonic repeated himself with a confident smirk.

Sunny actually allowed herself to laugh a bit after she got what Sonic meant, and the others ended up joining eventually, even Sonic himself, since the laughter was contagious.

"Okay... I might have needed that..." Sunny confessed.

"And you know what else we need? To get the hell outta here!" Sonic stated confidently. "Of course, I'm still tied and have no idea on how the heck I'm gonna get out of this capsule... But it won't stop me from trying!" he assured with a smile.

Sunny sighed and looked at him weakly. "Sonic... I really appreciate that you're trying to be positive here... but I think it's time to face the fact that we lost..." she said with a sad tone and expression.

"Sunny, Eggman was right only in one thing: You either die being nobody, or you Make Your Mark in the world" Sonic confessed. "And honestly? You already did the latter. So why don't you stop mourning like if we just got killed and show Eggman and Opaline how you made your mark in Equestria, huh?" he asked rhetorically with a smirk.

Sunny looked back at him for a moment and raised an eyebrow confused.

However, before she could ask him on what he meant, Eggman arrived on his Eggmobile, and this time, Opaline came as well.

Thankfully, none of the villains noticed that Sonic was awake, so he closed his eyes and pretended to be unconscious. Pipp noticed that, and Sonic winked and smirked at her, before going back to pretend he was unconscious.

Pipp smiled and nodded, before looking back at Opaline and Eggman with a frown.

"The time of planning has come to an end" Eggman stated with a grin, as Opaline landed in the ground with the same grin, while Eggman got down of his Eggmobile. "It is now the time for my Empire to rise! And Equestria will bow before us!" he stated, as he grinned at Opaline, who grinned back at him.

"Well, maybe we cannot stop you..." Sunny confessed. "But, if there's any hope left, then the rest in the Brighthouse are gonna stop you..." she added, even though she actually didn't believed on her own words.

At that, Opaline and Eggman looked at each other, before bursting out laughing at her.

"What's so funny?" Zipp asked with a bored expression.

"Those incompetents left the Brighthouse unprotected!" Opaline said with glee.

"They are outside fighting my badniks!" Eggman added with a smile. "But don't cheer nor feel confident: While they are winning, even if they get inside, it's going to take them hours to find you. By the time they arrive... Let's just say we won't be here!" he added with an evil grin.

"Oh, and I want to thank you personally, Sunny!" Opaline said with a mocking tone, as she approached to Sunny's capsule with an evil grin. "Because of you, we have quick access to the Unity Crystals now!" she stated happily.

Sunny only raised an eyebrow, not even feeling concerned about the possibility of her enemies getting the Crystals. "You do? How?" she asked calmly.

"Well, I was checking on the stuff in your bag..." Eggman started with a mocking tone, as he brought out Sunny's saddle bag and throw it away. "And look what I found!" he added.

What he was showing was a warp ring, the one that Sonic gave her in case of an emergency... the one she putted on her bag.

For the first time in a good while, her eyes widened, even the purple one, and she stared in pure shock and fear at the warp ring in Eggman's hand.

Sonic opened an eye just to check on how things were going, but then he panicked at the sight of the warp ring in Eggman's hand. Yet, he literally couldn't do anything to stop him, as much as he wanted, so he just closed his eyes and prayed for the best.

"Now that we have this with us... the Crystals, and all the magic in Equestria, will be ours!" Opaline stated happily.

Then, Eggman threw the warp ring away, as it opened into a portal. At the other side of said portal, he could see the Unity Crystals floating in the Crystal Room on the Brighthouse. The Crystals were reflecting in both Opaline's eyes and Eggman's glasses, as they both grinned sinisterly at the sight.

"Care to do the honors, Ivo?" Opaline requested.

"It'll be my pleasure!" Eggman stated, as he walked through the ring.

He could hear from behind the desperate screams of the Mane 5, clearly trying to convince him on stopping this, but of course, he wasn't going to listen. His price was right in front of him, and he couldn't be any happier.

So, he extended his hand and grabbed the Unity Crystals, as they shone bright and let go a massive expansion wave of power, but Eggman only raised an eyebrow confused at that action.

"Well, that was very anti-climatic..." Eggman said with a bored expression, before grinning again and move the Crystals away from the rainbow light.

That caused both the light and the Crystals to glitch a little, but Eggman couldn't care less.... he finally had the power source of ALL the magic of Equestria in his hand.

With a huge and happy grin, Eggman traversed the portal and returned to the Castle, as the ring closed behind him.

"The magic of Equestria... in the palm of my hand..." Eggman cheered with a grin.

Sonic was still pretending to be unconscious, but even then, he still frowned a bit more, feeling anger at Eggman's accomplishment.

As if Eggman having the Crystals wasn't bad enough, the magic of the ponies in the room was also glitching, and Sunny's alicorn form appeared just to show that.

Zipp, Pipp, Opaline and Sunny's wings were all glitching, Izzy, Sunny and Opaline's horns too, and Hitch and Sunny's hooves were glitching as well.

"Seems like keeping away the Crystals from its source affects all magic" Opaline pointed out, but she didn't cared. After all, she was planning to have all that magic for herself. "Not like it matters, anyway. Soon, all that magic will belong to me!" she stated confidently, once again walking towards Sunny's capsule. "And once I have all the magic, you and your pathetic besties will answer to me for the rest of your lives!" she assured with a maniac laugh.

Sunny felt terrified at the idea of having to serve Opaline, but looking at how things were going, it seemed like it was going to happen...

Or that would have been her final impression, if it wasn't because of the fact that Opaline got hit by an electroshock from her back, that made her scream in agony, before falling into the ground in pain.

The Mane 5 looked confused at Opaline agonizing in the floor, and even Sonic opened an eye confused, until they all looked that Eggman had a stunner on his hand, while looking down at Opaline with a sinister grin.

"Honestly, Opaline... I'm impressed that you actually fell for the trick..." Eggman said, as he stepped backwards and raised the Unity Crystals in the air. "Niamer lliw cigam on, desimorpmoc steg ynomrah fi. Liaverp lliw cigam, DNIKYNOP GNOMA ECAEP S'EREHT SA GNOL SA!!!" he casted.

With that being said, the Unity Crystals let out small sparkles and started to shine bright in purple, while now floating in the air on their own.

Eggman's grin grew bigger, Sonic started to sweat nervously with his eyes closed, and the Mane 5 were scared of what might happen now.

Then, the Unity Crystals kept glowing in purple and slowly descended, while Eggman just putted his hands around the Crystals so he could guide them.

The next thing he did? Well: He pointed the Unity Crystals at Opaline, and since they detected that she had a lot of magic, they started to absorb it all away from her.

"N-No..." Opaline muttered weakly, as she felt all of her magic leaving her body.

However, this time it was worse than when Twilight sealed the magic away, because even her wings and Cutie Mark disappeared, leaving her as a regular unicorn.

As if that wasn't enough, she was also magicless now, because the Crystals took away all signs of magic she ever had, even taking the dragon fire magic that she stoled from Sparky earlier.

"YES!" Eggman cheered. "The spell worked! Now, the Unity Crystals remove magic and contains it instead of giving it! This is a massive success!" he celebrated.

"I-Ivo..." Opaline called out, trying to stand up, but falling into the floor eventually. "W-What did you do?" she asked.

"Oh, dear Opaline... You really are oblivious, aren't you?" Eggman said with a mocking tone. "There's no 'us' in any of this! There never was, and there never will!" he stated with a frown. "I wanted the power of the Crystals all along, but in order for my master plan to be completed, I had to play the long game!" he added, grinning sinisterly. "In order to succeed, I just had to keep my friends close... and my enemies even closer!" he declared with glee.

"B-But you are... m-my––" Opaline tried to say, but just thinking on saying the word was difficult for her.

"Friend?" Eggman snorted, before burst out laughing right in her face, enjoying all of this a lot, while the Mane 5 stared at Eggman on disbelief, specially Sunny, because he used friendship as a double edged sword to trick Opaline. "Dear, dear Opaline... Friends are... open... honest... and vulnerable between each other. It means that 'X' squared times the hypotenuse of 'Y' divided by the absolute value of friendship equals... A BIG. PIECE. OF SHIT!!!" he stated angrily.

After that, Eggman grabbed the Unity Crystals with his right hand, and so, the power of the Crystals entered his body, changing his clothes entirely: Now he was wearing a larger black coat with purple stripes, green googles instead of the original ones on his forehead, gloves that had buttons on them, and the Crystals were shining bright on his hand.

With his new look ready, Eggman grinned and moved over the Crystals to point at the Mane 5, as he started to steal their magic as well.

As before, Pipp and Zipp's wings glitched out, and Zipp desperately flapped her wings to try and fly away, but since her magic was being stollen, her wings were just flapping, because she wasn't elevating from the ground.

"No, no, no, no!" Zipp cried out with so much concern... but it was too late.

Both her magic and Pipp's was stolen, and their Cutie Marks disappeared as well. Pipp also flapped her wings, but she wasn't going anywhere.

The next one was Izzy, who's horn was lightened up against her will, and she tried very hard to do something with her magic, but just like with Zipp and Pipp, it was stolen, and her Cutie Mark also disappeared.

Next one was Hitch, who's hooves were glowing bright as well, but he was more confused than concerned, so his magic disappeared almost as a natural effect, and so, his Cutie Mark also left his flank.

And finally, Sunny was trying so hard to hide her Alicorn form, even if she knew it was useless. And yet, the inevitable happened, so her horn and wings disappeared entirely... But it wasn't over, because her Rainbow Streak on her mane also disappeared, followed by her Cutie Mark as well.

And just like that, Eggman stoled the Mane 5's magic thanks to the Crystals, while the doctor laughed like a maniac.

Sonic opened his eyes fully and growled in anger, not caring of blowing his cover anymore.

Eggman noticed that, and so, he smirked at him. "Hedgehog... Now that the Crystals are under my full control, it's time to say goodbye to these stupid little ponies!" he stated happily.

After saying that, he lifted his left hand and pointed at Opaline, surrounding her on magic thanks to the power of the Crystals, and then launching her towards a wall.

Opaline groaned in pain, before falling to the ground weakly, while Eggman's grin grew bigger.

"Eggman! When I get out of here, I'm wiping the floor with your ass!" Sonic stated with rage.

However, Eggman only laughed more and snapped his fingers.

That turned on a 5 minute countdown on Sonic's capsule, as some ice started to show up on it, which startled both Sonic and the Mane 5.

"Too bad you won't even have the chance!" Eggman stated with a happy smile.

Then, he putted the Unity Crystals over the frontal part of his Eggmobile, climbing on it, while the Crystals finished stealing the magic from the Mane 5.

And then, a massive purple blast came out of the Eggmobile and pointed at the sky, traversing the ceiling of the lab, and therefore, showing up to outside of the Castle.

"MAGIC. IS. POWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" Eggman screamed in joy.

And then, just in a flash, both Eggman, the Chaos Emeralds he had capsuled, and the purple blast disappeared, leaving the Mane 5 still encaged, and Sonic about to be freeze'd on his capsule.





Outside of the Castle, just a few seconds ago, Tails smashed down the door to Opaline's Throne Room with the Tornado VI, still transformed into a robot.

However, as he and the rest approached inside, with Amy holding her Piko Piko Hammer, and Knuckles having Sparky on his arms; a massive purple blast traversed the ground and the ceiling, startling the rest.

"Holy shit!" Knuckles exclaimed surprised.

"What is that?!" Amy questioned confused, standing ready to fight if necessary.

"MAGIC. IS. POWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" Eggman screamed in joy.

The others looked at each other confused, but then, the blast disappeared as soon as it came, and now nobody understood what the hell was going on.

"That was definitely Eggman!" Rouge said with a frown.

"Then don't waste your time, ladies and gentlemen. We got work to do!" Shadow stated, before jumping towards the hole.

Rouge, Amy, Knuckles and Sparky immediately followed, while Tails turned off the Tornado IV, leaving it like a robot, and then jumping to the hole as well.





The Mane 5, except for Sunny, were now trying to find a way to get out of there, while Sonic checked all around his capsule to find a mistake that could save him from this situation.

Besides, he had 4 minutes left before being freeze'd, so he must get out of here quickly.

Fortunately, he didn't had to do anything, at least not for himself, because Rouge and Shadow landed in the lab through the hole that Eggman created with the Crystals, and then, Amy, Knuckles, Sparky and Tails also arrived.

"Knuckles!" Izzy cried out happily.

"Izz!" Knuckles said, as he rushed to her cage and immediately charged his fists with electricity. "Stand behind, honey. I'm tearing this shit down!" he stated.

Izzy only nodded and obeyed, stepping back and covering herself just in case.

Then, Knuckles let out a warrior cry and made a massive clap with his hands, sending al the electricity he charged towards the crystal and finally braking it apart.

With the crystal gone, Izzy stoped covering herself, and seeing that her exit was finally open, she immediately rushed and hugged her boyfriend, burring her face on his chest as she sobbed softly.

The moment Izzy hugged Knuckles, he lifted her a bit and twirled her in the air, before putting her down and caress her mane, as he tried to calm her down because of her sobs.

"It's okay now, Izz... It's over... I'm here with you..." Knuckles muttered to calm her down, but it only increased her sobs a lot as she hugged him tightly, which only concerned Knuckles. "For Chaos... what did Eggman did to you?" he asked  with worry.

"Let's just say that he tortured us mentally..." Zipp replied with a bored expression, trying her best not to brake like Izzy did, while Tails hacked on the panel control at the side of Zipp's capsule.

Then, said capsule opened up, and Zipp got out of there, just to immediately wrap Tails into a hug, which startled the fox a bit as he blushed embarrassed.

"U-Uh... Z-Zipp?" Tails called out confused.

"Just... give me a second, okay?" Zipp begged, and Tails's embarrassment faded away to let concern get over his body. "I had a rough time... I need this..." she added.

Tails only nodded, and turned around properly to hug her back.

Meanwhile, Knuckles made another powerful clap that teared down the crystal of Sunny's capsule, but only shattered the crystal of Hitch and Pipp's capsules.

Still, Hitch and Pipp used their hind legs to kick the crystals and finally get out of their prisons. With that, Pipp immediately rushed over Zipp and hugged her tightly, while her sister hugged her back just as desperate.

"Are you okay?!" Zipp asked with concern.

"Yes!" Pipp replied, before looking at Zipp in her eyes. "You?" she asked with worry.

"I am!" Zipp assured, as tears actually rolled down her eyes, while she just kept hugging her sister.

Hitch, on the other hand, approached to Sunny, who didn't even flinched when Knuckles destroyed the crystal of her capsule. "Sunny!" he said with concern, now checking on her and feeling his heart broking at the sight of her purple eye and her bloody nose.

Sunny slowly looked at him, and she bursted down crying again, hugging him tightly and burring her face on his chest, while Hitch wrapped his hoof around her and rubbed her back, in order to try and make her feel better.

Tails approached as well, and gasped with horror at how badly she was hurt. "Sunny! What the heck happened?!" he asked with concern.

"Eggman literally smashed the ground with her body..." Hitch replied with anger.

"That son of a bitch did what?!" Amy screamed in rage, also covering Sparky's ears so he won't hear the swearing.

"Wow, Amy!" Sonic's voice finally spoke. "I didn't knew you had such a dirty mouth!" he added with a snort.

"What the fuck..." Shadow muttered, confused on why Sonic was in a situation that brought him terrible flashbacks.

"Took you guys long enough!" Sonic mocked up with a smirk, since he was still trapped on his capsule.

"Sonic?!" Tails asked confused, as he approached to him on the capsule.

"Hey, little bro!" Sonic greeted with a smile. "Glad to see you're awake and ready to kick tail!" he added.

"How did you get in there?" Knuckles asked confused.

"Well... Long story short: Opaline had trapped the Mane 5, Misty free'd them, I fought her, Sunny helped me after a while, then Eggman arrived, put us to sleep with a gas, and the next thing I know is that he was planing to do a Shadow on me..." Sonic said with a bored expression. "No offense, though!" he added with a mocking smirk and a wink to Shadow, who rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Also, you got, like, 2 minutes to get me out of here before this thing freezes me for the next 50 years" he added.

"Then why didn't you said so, you idiot?!" Knuckles asked with concern, charging his fist with electricity and preparing to smash the crystal of the capsule.

"Knux... I know you are a knucklehead, but haven't you considered that smashing the crystal with Sonic in the middle is gonna kill him because of the crystals?" Tails asked with a bored expression.

Knuckles' eyes widened in realization, and the electricity on his fist faded away. "Huh... Well, is not like the lost will be so big, anyways!" he said with a mocking tone and smirk. However, he only gained a triple smack from Tails, Amy and Pipp. "Ow!" Knuckles complained with a frown.

"That's for being an idiot!" Amy scolded him.

Then, Tails approached to the capsule and entered a various series of different codes he knows Eggman would use, but none of the codifications he was using were working. "Darn it!" he complained with a frown. "I don't think I can hack on this one as easily as with the Mane 5... If I had time, I could try to figure it out, but––" he tried to add.

"But we have no time... Yes, I know..." Sonic said with a slight frown, looking up and then panicking. "The clock in here literally says that there's just... 1 FUCKING MINUTE BEFORE BEING FREEZE'D!" he shouted in panic, as he stared to moved his arms at fast paste again, trying to get free from the capsule.

"Can someone here please do something before he gets freeze'd?!" Pipp shouted in panic.

Immediately, Amy brought her Piko Piko Hammer and began to smash one side of the capsule, but it wasn't working, because the crystal didn't shattered a single bit.

Tails kept trying codifications, and Sonic even tried to use his electrical powers, but they weren't working either.

"... Hang on, Tails" Shadow called out suddenly, as Tails, Amy and Sonic stopped doing what they were doing. "I think I might have something..." he stated.

So, Shadow approached to the capsule and introduced a new code, one he deep inside it didn't worked because of the meaning behind said code...

Unfortunately for him, but luckily for Sonic, the code did worked, and so, the countdown of the capsule stopped right in 10 seconds.

Sonic sighed relieved, and then, the capsule opened up, followed by the claws holding Sonic releasing him.

The hedgehog smirked and jumped out of the capsule, rubbing his wrists and ankles as he also brake danced a bit, just to make sure that everything was in order.

"Yup! Everything seems in order!" Sonic said with a smirk and his thumbs up, while both Tails and Pipp immediately hugged him, and Sonic hugged them back, also rubbing Tails' hair and kissing Pipp's cheek. Then, when they broke the hug, he looked over at Shadow with a mocking smirk. "Thanks for the help, faker!" he mocked up.

Shadow, however, wasn't in the mood and turned around, walking away from the rest.

"Hey, Shadow!" Tails called out. "What combination did you––" he tried to ask, but...

"Maria's death day" was all Shadow replied with anger. "Eggman clearly has gone insane this time" he pointed out with a frown.

"Yeah... Eggman's been more menacing than he's ever been..." Sonic confessed with concern. "But that won't stop us from defeating him!" he stated. "Besides, it's not the first time he has the upper hand and still loses. What's gonna change this time?" he pointed out with a smirk.

"Glad to have you back, hedgehog!" Knuckles said, patting his head carefully with a smirk.

"Glad to be back!" Sonic said with a wink.

"Sonic..." Sunny called out, and Sonic looked at her confused, while Hitch cleaned the remaining blood from her nose with a towel and Sunny hold a bag with ice over her purple eye. "I-I know you still want to help... But you should stop already..." she begged again with sadness.

"Seriously? You're still mourning?" Sonic asked with disbelief and a bored expression, also looking at Sunny more annoyed than concerned at this point.

"Eggman stole our magic... you saw it!" Sunny pointed out, even showing her flank with no Cutie Mark.

"Shit... This is really that bad, huh?" Knuckles asked with concern.

"He has the Unity Crystals... he even has three Chaos Emeralds!" Sunny kept telling with rage, even though she was also crying. "Why are you insisting on solving something with no solution? On winning something we already lost?!" she shouted to him, but Sonic's bored expression remained. "Please... just... please, for the sake of everyone... stop..." she begged one last time.

The rest, even Shadow, couldn't believe how badly Eggman left Sunny's steam and hope. In fact, it seemed like there was no hope left in her, since she was showing nothing but sadness and anger to Sonic.

Speaking of him, Sonic just snorted at Sunny, crossed his arms and booped her nose. "Nope!" he replied to her.

Sunny felt confused at that reply. "... No?" she asked confused.

"Do you really think a depressing speech from 2002's gonna make me give up on my quest to stop Eggman from taking over Equestria?" Sonic asked her with a mocking tone and smirk. "Well, think again, because I will not!" he stated confidently.

"Uh... what?" Sunny asked confused. "A-Are you seriously going to keep trying? Even after we failed?!" she added with disbelief.

"Stopping is not what I do, Sunny" Sonic assured, this time with a serious expression. "We will stop Eggman and recover the Crystals, and we will save Equestria!" he stated confidently. "And there is no way you, or Eggman, is gonna talk me out of it" he added, as he gave his back to her. "Besides… A knight never flees his foe" he stated once again with a smirk.

Sunny, however, still couldn't believe he was willing to keep going, so she shook her head on disbelief and looked at the floor with a thoughtful expression.

Meanwhile, Tails went to the upper floor and took the Mane 5' stuff back, as he gave back her detective gear to Zipp, her phone to Pipp, his sheriff belt to Hitch, and her bracelets to Izzy.

He also gave Sunny her saddle bag, and she smiled weakly at him, but then returned to see the floor with sadness.

Then, once Tails was done returning their things to the Mane 5, Sonic made everyone but Sunny gather around in a circle. "Alright, guys. Eggman kicked my ass, he stoled Opaline and the Mane 5's magic, stored it on the Unity Crystals, and now he'll take over Equestria. We might not have the upper hand, but we're not giving up so easily, either!" he stated.

"What's the plan, big blue?" Rouge asked curiously.

"Eggman must have something here that tell us what's he gonna do with the Crystals now that he has them..." Sonic said. "Tails, use that brain of yours and look for something in Eggman's data base that allows us to see what's this master plan he can't stop bragging about" he instructed.

"On it!" Tails replied, as he flew towards a computer on the top of the lab.

"Knux, take care of Opaline and encage her on the only capsule that is available" Sonic told Knuckles.

"With pleasure!" Knuckles said with a smirk.

Then, he went towards Opaline, who was still unconscious, and grabbed her, before throwing her like a bag inside the capsule, which he closed afterwards.

"Uh... shouldn't we do something about her?" Zipp questioned. "Even if she has no magic, she is still evil after all" she pointed out.

"As you just said, she's magicless, and even if she wakes up, she'll be encaged on that capsule. She's not a threat, and not worth our time either" Sonic explained with a frown.

"If you say so..." Zipp said with an eye roll.

"Shadow, Rouge. You take the Mane 5 back to Maretime Bay, and find a way to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds from whatever Eggman's gonna build or use to take over Equestria" Sonic instructed them.

"A haunting mission? Sounds fun!" Rouge said with a smirk.

Shadow only nodded in agreement, and then, he pulled out a warp ring from below his glove, before launching it to a certain direction, as a portal opened and showed the Crystal Brighthouse on the other side, then he and Rouge immediately went through it.

"Wait... Why are we going to Maretime Bay?" Hitch asked confused.

"Eggman's probably heading there first because of the Emeralds on the Brighthouse" Sonic pointed out. "If that's the case, he's also stealing the magic of everypony in there. Since you five are, let's call it 'the Guardians of the Magic', then you should go and put everypony safe from Eggman. It could be either Canterlove, or even getting everypony out of Maretime Bay... I don't know, you guys try to come up with something. Just put everypony away from Eggman if he steals their magic" he begged.

"Put everypony safe from Eggman? I think we can do that!" Izzy said with a determinate look, and Zipp and Pipp nodded in agreement.

With that being said, Izzy kissed Knuckles for luck, and Pipp did the same with Sonic. Then, Izzy, Pipp and Zipp crossed the portal immediately, but just when Hitch was going to, Amy stopped him.

"Hitch!" Amy called out, and Hitch stopped on his place. "Here! Your son should be with you just to be safe!" she stated, as she nuzzled her cheek with Sparky's head, before extending him to the sheriff.

Sparky cheered once he saw Hitch, and the earth pony smiled widely. "Sparky!" he cheered happily, grabbing the baby dragon and nuzzling his head with his. "Thanks for taking care of him, Amy. And you too Knux!" he told them putting Sparky on hi back and extending his hoof to Knuckles, as the echidna smiled and fist bumped with him.

Then, Hitch also crossed the portal, and the only remaining pony was Sunny, who was still looking at the ground, as she seemed to be lost on her thoughts.

"... Sunny?" Tails called out, as he approached to her with concern. "Um... Are you alright?" he asked with worry.

"... I don't know..." Sunny replied with honesty, as she let out a sigh. "Sonic... You said that I already made my mark in Equestria, but... I still don't understand how..." she confessed, now looking at him with worry.

"Seriously?" Sonic asked confused. "Sunny... You are the reason why we are here today! Because of you, and your desire to unite ponykind, the Crystals came back together and restored magic! Because of you, everypony believes in the power AND magic of friendship! Yeah, earth ponies took their time to accept magic, but once they saw their advantages... and after they got magic as well, they opened their hooves to friendship!" he pointed out.

However, Sunny still didn't believed, and she looked at the floor again.

So, Sonic sighed and approached her, lifting her chin with his hand. "But most importantly... Is thanks to you that Equestria is the wonderful place it is today" he pointed out with a smile. "Sunny... have you ever imagined what would happened if we never met you? What would happened if you gave up your dream?" he asked her.

Sunny only denied with her head, still looking at him.

"Like Eggman said, you probably would have ended like him... Forcing friendship or something like that. Hitch wouldn't have changed that much, but... maybe he wouldn't be at your side if you did went the Eggman route..." Sonic started to explain. "Izzy would be unhappy in Bridlewood, and would eventually have turned into a depressed pony, just like how the unicorns used to be before magic came back. Zipp and Pipp will still be living a lie, with Zipp hating the idea of being a Queen and Pipp still being a selfish influencer that enjoys living a lie..." he pointed out.

Sunny's ears perked up, and she looked at Sonic with disbelief, since she actually never considered how things could have been if she never met Izzy and Sonic the last year.

"And us? If I never arrived, our lives would still be what they were back then... Knuckles would be alone half the time in Angel Island, Amy would still be helping anyone on her own way, Tails and I would go from adventure to adventure, I will still be fighting Eggman..." Sonic narrated. "And I would have never find the truth of my parents... About the Emeralds' true origin... And I would never have met you, nor any of the others... not even Pipp... I guess I should thank you in that aspect, too. Is because of you that I met who's my girlfriend today..." he added with a smile.

"And it's because of you... That we're more united as a Team now" Knuckles added, first looking at Sunny as he said that, before turning to see Amy. "All of us" he repeated.

Amy smiled and nodded in agreement.

Sonic smiled at that, before looking back at Sunny. "Look. I understand that you think this is over because of what Eggman did to you... Even if I was unconscious and underground, I did heard what Eggman was doing to you, and... I guess I get why you feel so hopeless right now" he said, standing up and stepping back. "If you choose to stay in your 'mourning phase', then I won't stop you... But if you cross that portal, then you better show everypony why the Crystals choose you as the Alicorn! Magic or no magic!" he stated with a smile, also winking at her.

Sunny looked at him, and her eyes sparkled a bit. Her ears also moved upwards, and she couldn't help but smile at him, a genuine smile after so long.

"... A part of me still believes there's no point on fighting back..." Sunny confessed, before standing up and look at Sonic with a determinate smile. "But everypony used to tell me that I would never unite ponykind... And I proved them wrong! So, I'm gonna show Eggman that he's wrong as well... Or fail in the attempt, at least!" she stated with a newfound confidence.

"Now that's the Sunny I remember!" Sonic stated with a smirk, extending his fist to her.

However, Sunny smiled even more and hugged him tightly, which did startled Sonic at first, but he still smiled and hugged her back.

Then, Sunny separated and looked at him with a determinate look. "Well, time to get everypony safe!" she stated, now rushing towards the portal, but before traversing it, she turned around and looked back at Sonic. "Oh! And Sonic?" she called out.

"Yeah?" Sonic asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Thank you for the little confidence boost. You really are a miraculous hedgehog" Sunny said with a bright smile.

Sonic smiled back at her. "You gave me a confidence boost when I was feeling down in Longclaw's death anniversary. It was time I returned the favor!" he stated. "Besides... I'm looking out for you!" he sang the last part and winked.

Sunny smiled even more at him and nodded, before traversing the portal, that closed afterwards.

Sonic only nodded, and then he looked back at Amy and Knuckles. "Alright, before we go to destroy Eggman's plan as always... Amy, I think we should talk about... well... your departure from the group" he pointed out.

"No need to apologize, Sonic" Amy said with a smile. "If anything... I should apologize for leaving you three behind. I wanted to find out what was my purpose, but... Just like the three of you, I like to help out others! Specially if that means to put my life at risk. So... If you guys want to... I'm fine to be part of the team again" she stated confidently.

Sonic smiled at that statement, then he looked at Knuckles, who nodded at him with a smile, and he nodded back at the echidna.

"What do you say Tails?" Sonic shouted from the lower floor, since Tails went to the upper one to check on Eggman's data base. "Are you up on letting Amy join again to us?" he asked.

"I don't even get why she left in the first place!" Tails shouted back with happiness.

Sonic snorted and looked back at Amy. "Guess that decides it!" he stated, extending his hand to her in a formal way. "Welcome back to Team Sonic, Ames!" he added with a smile.

Amy gasped with sparkling eyes, and she squealed like a little girl, before... actually extending her hand to Sonic as well.

However, Sonic smirked and tricked her, because he grabbed her hand and pulled her into a hug. "This is for all the times you did the same to me!" he stated with a laugh.

Startled at first, Amy laughed and wrapped her arms around Sonic, returning the hug to him.

However, both Sonic and Amy suddenly felt breathless, because Knuckles himself wrapped his arms around both and hugged them tight.

"Sorry, I just didn't wanted to be left out!" Knuckles said joyfully.

"G-Great... B-But we need our lungs to breath, Knucklehead..." Sonic pointed out with pain.





In Maretime Bay, everypony was confused on why their magic was failing.

Worse of all, Misty approached to the Crystal Brighthouse and looked with concern at the rainbow light, since it was glitching a lot.

Then, the Mane 5, Shadow and Rouge bursted out of the Brighthouse, with Sunny and Shadow leading everypony else.

However, and weird enough for Misty, Sunny's rainbow streak was gone, and when they all passed by her, none of the Mane 5 had Cutie Marks, which only confused her even more.

So, Misty quickly rushed to catch up with them, and she approached to Izzy. "Izz!" she called out, now panting a bit exhausted. "What in... Equestria... it's happening?!" she asked with concern.

"Basically: Eggman stoled the Unity Crystals, and he stoled our magic and the magic of that evil Alicorn Opaline too, betraying her in the process!" Izzy explained.

"He did... WHAT?!" Misty shouted in disbelief.

"Now he wants to steal all the magic of Equestria... And conquer it all! But we're gonna stop him!" Sunny stated confidently.

However, Misty stopped following and looked on with panic and disbelief. Eggman betrayed Opaline... Which meant that Eggman was in trouble, specially since one day, she heard from her room a conversation Eggman and Opaline had, where Eggman declared that it wasn't convenient for any of them to be enemies.

And now, Eggman betrayed Opaline by stealing her magic, which was already a bad sign, because if Opaline ever got it back, she'll definitely try to get her revenge on Eggman, and Misty wasn't going to allow that. Villain or not, Eggman was still her friend.

So, Misty quickly resumed her run to catch up with the Mane 5.

With that, the Mane 5, Misty, Shadow and Rouge reached the town, where they saw that everypony's magic was glitching and failing because of the Unity Crystals' absence.

Then, as the Mane 5 got near Mane Melody, Posey decided to be the first one to approach them. "Hitch, Sunny. What is happening?!" she asked confused and concerned. "The magic of everypony in town is glitching! No one can fly, nor levitate anything, nor make any plant grow!" she explained.

"And the rainbow light in the Crystal Brighthouse can't stop glitching!" Dahlia approached and pointed out as well. "Have you any idea of what's happening?" she asked concerned.

"You want the short version, or the long one?" Sunny asked with a sheepish smile.

However, Posey and Dahlia gasped in horror when they saw Sunny's purple eye.

"S-Sunny!" Posey called out with worry. "W-What happened to––" she tried to ask.

But before she could finish her sentence, a purple lightning started to appear in the sky, calling everyone's attention.

"... It seems like we won't have to explain ourselves that much..." Hitch said with a concerned gulp.

Then, the lightning materialized into the Eggmobile and Eggman, as the doctor stared down at the ponies in Maretime Bay with a sinister grin, while the town's reflection reflected on his glasses.

"Uh... who's that?" Dahlia questioned.

"The reason why magic is failing... and why we lost ours..." Sunny explained with a frown.

"I'm sorry... you did what?!" Posey screamed in shock.

However, Eggman snapped his fingers, and so, a massive wave of power was sent through all Equestria, allowing the doctor to hack on any device that has a screen so he could deliver a message.

At first, what the screens showed was a purple variant of Eggman's logo, before glitching out to show Eggman, with his hands together and still grinning sinisterly.





Back in Opaline's Castle, Tails was still hacking into Eggman's data base to find something useful.

However, the computer started to glitch out, first showing Eggman's logo, and then showing Eggman's face, which startled and worried Tails.

"Guys?" Tails called out. "You might want to check this one out..." he pointed out.

Soon, Amy and Knuckles jumped to the second floor, while Sonic ran there, and they all frowned when they saw that Eggman was on the screen.

"Greetings, Equestria" Eggman started. "My name is Doctor Ivo Robotnik, also known as Doctor Eggman, and I'm here to make an announcement..." he declared. 

"Please don't say Shadow, please don't Shadow, please don't Shadow..." Knuckles begged desperate, while Amy looked at him with a bored expression and smacked his head, and Knuckles groaned in pain, rubbing his head a bit annoyed.





However, in Maretime Bay, Shadow wasn't reacting so differently.

"Please don't say my name, please don't my name, please don't my name..." Shadow begged desperate as well, while Rouge at his side stared at him with disbelief.





In Zephyr Heights, Queen Haven and Alphabittle, as well as other ponies around, were looking at the screens of the city confused.

"For the past 8 months, I've been watching over you and your lifestyle. Your daily lives, your desires, aspirations... I know everything about you" Eggman stated with a grin.





In Bridlewood, ponies around were looking terrified at the news, specially since they had no idea of what was Eggman.

"However, I'm not here to tell you all that I know your favorite colors and biggest fears, because I don't give a shit about that stuff" Eggman said.





Back in Maretime Bay, the Mane 5, Shadow and Rouge were frowning at Eggman, while everypony else stared at him in fear, and Misty in a mix of confusion and disappointment.

"I'm here to tell you all that things are gonna get wild! Because..." Eggman started, before laughing like a maniac and smash a button.

Then, the Unity Crystals separated from the Eggmobile, still shining in purple and they started to float in the air.

The next thing they did was weird: let's just say that they recreated how they first brought magic to Equestria... but backwards, because they launched a massive energy wave to the sky, but the next thing they did was take it back inside.

Everypony in Equestria was loosing magic: Pegasi stopped flying, and some even fell to ceilings, pools, or straight into the pavement; unicorns couldn't levitate anything anymore; and earth ponies' hooves stopped glowing with the wave.

As if loosing their magic wasn't enough, their Cutie Marks also disappeared, representing the lack of magic.

Once Misty noticed this on her flank, she frowned. "Oh, come on!" she groaned in frustration, since she just lost the Cutie Mark that cost so hard for her to gain.





In Canterlot, Discord was watching everything through his own TV, and he frowned in anger.

"I won't allow that guy to mess with my home!" Discord stated, snapping his fingers...

However, that snap did nothing, because absolutely nothing happened.

"What the––" Discord muttered confused, snapping his fingers again, but still, nothing happened. "My magic... Is not working!" he shouted in panic.

It was right then when he realized that there was a purple aura coming out of him, and once he looked back at the TV, he saw that his magic was also being stolen, leaving him completely useless.

"Well... This is gonna be a problem..." Discord muttered in panic.





With the magic now stored back into the Unity Crystals, they returned to the Eggmobile, as Eggman's laugh become louder.

"Now that I have all the magic in Equestria, you will ALL. KNEEL. TO ME!!!" Eggman stated with a sinister grin, laughing like a maniac once again and snapping his fingers.

With that snap, electricity came out of hid hand. Said electricity was redirected towards the Marestream, right outside of the Brighthouse.

You might think this did nothing... it did.

The Marestream elevated from the ground, and slowly but surely started to tear apart piece by piece, nut by nut, bolt by bolt, as all the pieces of the vehicle started to approach to the Eggmobile.

"OH, YOU GOTTA BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!" Zipp shouted in anger.

But as if that wasn't enough, more lightnings came out of the Eggmobile and moved towards several places in Maretime Bay: Canterlove Studios, Mane Melody, Electronic Tails, and even a home appliances store.

What happened next? Well: All kind of electronic devices and technology started to separate piece by piece, and were all dragged to the Eggmobile as well.

"Welcome... to the new norm!" Eggman declared with a grin.

Then, Eggman created a tornado using the power of the Unity Crystals, with which he began to disarm even more electronic and technological gadgets, causing the pieces to begin floating in the air as they followed the Eggmobile and the gigantic tornado. Heck, he was even disarming the remaining tramcars of the town to the tornado.

"H-How did he do that?!" Dahlia asked puzzled, looking in disbelief at what was happening.

All the ponies, Shadow, and Rouge stared at the tornado, and the storm it created in the process, and no one knew what to do about it, not even the wretch Sunny.

"This isn't going to get better anytime soon..." Pipp murmured worriedly.

"He disarms anything electronic in all parts..." Hitch pointed out with a frown.

"And he's going to build something else…" Sunny added with concern.

Meanwhile, the tornado grew bigger every second, while Eggman's laugh could be heard from inside.





After Eggman stated he would take over Equestria, the transmission was lost, so Tails quickly returned to hack into Eggman's data base.

Fortunately, it didn't took him long to find something in the computer. "Bingo!" Tails cheered with a smile.

"Did you found something, little bro?" Sonic asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes!" Tails replied, as the rest of the team approached to check on what he found. "There's a lot of schemes on Eggman's base, and there's at least 500 prints of old machines he has used already... But one print is not well blocked on the data base" he explained. "In other words: from all the blue prints Eggman hided, only one isn't" he pointed out.

However, as he opened the blue print, all Team Sonic gasped in horror at the sight of a massive Death Egg Robot, even bigger than the one's Eggman used to take over Mobius back when he created Infinite.

"Death Egg... Titan..." Knuckles read the label on the top.

"This must be what Eggman's planing to do with the Unity Crystals!" Amy pointed out with concern.

"That is, if he isn't doing it already as we speak!" Tails pointed out.

"Tails, did you brought the Tornado IV with you?" Sonic asked to the young fox, while he nodded. "Then turn in to the max and let's go save the day already!" he stated with a smirk, before jumping towards the hole in the ceiling.

With determinate looks, Amy and Knuckles followed, while Tails used his tails to fly through the hole.





Near the forest near Maretime Bay, a ring portal opened, and the Tornado IV emerged from it, again as a plane.

It was flown by Tails, with Sonic and Knuckles holding on to one end of the wings each, while Amy was sitting in the seat behind Tails. They were heading towards Eggman's tornado, with Sonic and Knuckles scowling.

"That can only be one thing..." Tails said with concern.

"The magic of the Unity Crystals!" Knuckles declared angrily.

"If Eggman really stole all the magic, we're in trouble" Sonic said anguished, before frowning again "With Eggman it's all trouble..." he added annoyed.

"Hey, Sonic..." Tails called out to his brother suddenly. "Do you really think that if you hadn't met Sunny, things would still be the same as always?" he asked curiously.

Sonic looked at Tails a little confused, but then he smiled at him. "I think if we hadn't met her... I wouldn't have learned to see certain things from another perspective... Like the fact that I don't feel very heroic if you guys aren't fighting by my side" he confessed.

"Is it just me, or has being in this pony world made you soft, Sonic?" Amy asked with a smirk.

"I told him the same thing!" Knuckles pointed, also with a smirk.

"Nah. Like I told Knuckles: I'm the same old Sonic that loves adventure and kick Eggman's ass!" Sonic assured with a smirk as well. "It's just like I said: Meeting Sunny made me see things from another perspective... She kind of saved me when I felt lost. Now, it's time I save her by returning the favor!" he stated, once again looking at the tornado with a determinate look.





Inside the tornado, a gigantic robot was forming, the same robot that Eggman has wanted so much to put together.

At the head of it, which resembled Eggman, as always, was Eggman himself, who slowly descended in his Eggmobile to face an outward-facing chamber, which had windows that were positioned to form a smiley face.

Eggman then got up in his Eggmobile and took the Unity Crystals, then used their magic to create a harness around his body, so he could use the Crystals' magic himself.

Soon, the doctor was floating without his Eggmobile thanks to the pegasi magic, then, he was engulfed in purple electricity, and this electricity spread throughout the chamber, granting him full control over the gigantic machine he had created.

"Yes!" Eggman cheered with a grin. "My masterpiece is finally completed! Now, all of Equestria will burn with my mighty!" he stated with joy.





The tornado began to break up little by little, until it was completely immersed in the water.

"What the hell..." Sonic muttered confused from the plane, as he looked at the place where the tornado, and therefore Eggman, disappeared.

The Mane 5 were also confused when that happened.

"Did he... did he just gave up?" Izzy asked confused.

"No..." Shadow replied. "He's preparing for something..." he added with a frown.

And just like he expected, a giant metallic hand came out of the ocean, smashing the sand on Maretime Bay's beach and covering it all in the process. Then, the other hand grabbed part of th town's streets and held into it, because the rest of the robot started to rise from the ocean.

It was not another Death Egg Robot, however, since the only thing it shared with said design was that it had Eggman's face, plus the body was different: It combined his distinctive red color and also a bit of light blue and black. The arms were very flexible, as well as the legs, and instead of giant spikes like with other Death Egg Robots, this one had regular fingers.

As if that wasn't enough, the robot also mimicked every action Eggman performed inside its head, all thanks to the power of the Unity Crystals. Also, the light from both the eyes and the chest was pink, since it represented that the Robot was controlled by Eggman's body.

This wasn't a robot... it was a titan. The Death Egg Titan that Eggman wanted to build so badly.

Half of the robot was out of the sea now, since only the chest and upwards was out. And yet, Eggman was already planing on doing something, because he focused his sight on Sunny and her friends.

"Starscout..." Eggman said, but not mad because the Mane 5 escaped, but rather happy because they were going to witness his next action. "I've been dealing with your unity bullshit for 8 months... Today, I finally showed you why I'm not a guy tom mess with... And you are still fighting!" he shouted in rage.

Sunny didn't said anything, she just frowned and looked at Eggman expectantly.

Let's just say that she won't like what's about to happen...

"But not anymore!" Eggman stated, as the head of the robot turned to face something else... the Crystal Brighthouse, which rainbow light was completely gone now. "You've messed up my plans time and time again, all in sake to protect this place... NOW BEHOLD HOW IT ALL TEARS DOWN!!!" he shouted with a maniac laugh.

With that being said, Eggman moved a hand like if he was about to grab something, and the robot imitated his action, as the hand was moving towards the Crystal Brighthouse.

The only one who seemed to notice that almost immediately was Zipp, who's eyes widened in panic. "No... No, no, no, no, no, no!" she shouted with worry.

However, no cries were gonna stop the inevitable, and so, the hand grabbed the Crystal Brighthouse and elevated it in the air, tearing it apart form its base in the ground.

"W-Wait!" Pipp cried out. "W-What is he doing?!" she asked with concern.

"No, no, no! Stop it!" Izzy begged.

"No... not again..." Sunny muttered, breathing heavily as the hand raised the Brighthouse.

Inside the building, everything was shaking violently, and the chest with Team Sonic's Chaos Emeralds fell from its place, releasing the Emeralds inside as they scattered on the floor.

Then, Eggman took a look to the Brighthouse, before launching the entire building towards the forest near the town, as the building twirled in the air, before crashing into the ground and falling apart, as the entire Brighthouse scattered across the forest, while also destroying it a bit in the process.

Team Sonic saw everything from the air, with Amy covering her mouth with her hands, Tails having his jaw dropped, Knuckles looking on anxiously, and Sonic growling in anger, as he looked back at the Death Egg Titan with a frown.

"Oh, now you've done it, Robotnik!" Sonic said with rage, as his eyes went blue for a second.

"Should I be concerned that he called Eggman by his name and not his nickname?" Amy asked with wide eyes after Sonic called Eggman by his name.

"Yes, you should..." Tails replied, now also looking at the Death Egg Titan with a frown.

On the other hand, nobody in Maretime Bay could believe what Eggman just did to the Crystal Brighthouse, and Sunny felt her entire world fading away...

She saw her home being destroyed and teared apart not one, but two times... and both were caused by a giant robot with the face of their creator.

If she had any spark of hope left, it faded away with this last action. She was now convinced that Sonic was just a suicidal maniac if he really pretended to defeat that titan.

"Take this as my last lesson, Sunny!" Eggman said with a chuckle, looking at her once again. "Nobody messes with me and gets away with it! Not without consequences!" he added, once again letting out a maniac laugh.

Sunny started to breath desperate, feeling like there wasn't enough air to breathe anymore. She placed a hoof over her chest, and just froze on place, completely shocked by the fact that her home was destroyed again.

Worst of all, Misty's disappointment just increased by every action Eggman committed.

Meanwhile, Eggman himself raised what was left from his Death Egg Titan, as the giant robot raised its feet and stomped them hard enough over the pavement of Maretime Bay.

Inside the robot, Eggman smirked, and pressed a few buttons on his right glove, approaching it to his face with the shape of a phone. "Sage, 'World Domination' Playlist!" he instructed to his AI through the glove.

"Yes, doctor" Sage replied.





Eggman then began to use his right leg as a guitar, spinning his hand wildly as music blared in the background.

Immediately afterwards, the doctor began to move inside the robot, causing it to walk for real on the outside, imitating the movements of its creator.

And so, the robot began to walk towards the ponies, still imitating Eggman's footsteps.

"I think this is the part where we put Sonic's plan in action!" Hitch declared, as he took out a megaphone and turned it on. "Everypony take cover, quick! This is not a simulacrum! I repeat! This is not a simulacrum!" he instructed.

The other ponies in Maretime Bay didn't think twice and started moving towards Canterlove Studios, since that was the safest place in town, while the Mane 5, sins Sunny, and Misty went over to help everypony take cover.

Sunny, however, was still froze in her place, because she was still shocked by what Eggman did to the Brighthouse, something that Shadow noticed.

So, he grabbed the earth pony mare and teleported to the factory, where Hitch somehow gotten already.

"Sheriff, she's in a shocked state" was all that Shadow told him, before placing her down and teleport back with Rouge.

"Sunny?" Hitch called out, but Sunny had her gaze lost, and she was barely breathing now. "Sunny?! Sunny, react! Come on!!!" he begged desperate, but Sunny was still froze in place.

On the other hand, Shadow and Rouge were frowning at the Death Egg Titan, that was having fun stomping buildings and shooting laser from its eyes around the town.

"Shadow, I think we should do our part of the plan as well!" Rouge stated, flapping her wings and elevating from the ground.

Shadow nodded in agreement, grabbing Rouge's hand and using his teleportation ability to take both him and her out of there.

Meanwhile, the robot stopped moving for a moment, as it noticed a quartet of anthropomorphic animals on a plane approaching it.

"Uh... Sonic?" Tails called out concerned, as he pointed at the giant robot. "How are we supposed to defeat that?" he asked worried.

"By making a plan!" Sonic replied with a determined look. "Knuckles, you are the deputy of the town, and the ponies trust you. I want you to use your strength to go down there and protect those citizens like the good deputy that you are!" he instructed the echidna.

"Consider it done!" Knuckles said with a serious expression, balling his fists which released some reddish electricity.

"Amy, you go with him, and use that hammer of yours to destroy anything Eggman sends that could threaten the lives of the ponies" Sonic instructed Amy. "If anything gets close to them, tear it apart and let nothing be left!" he added he with a smile.

"Honey, leave the 'destroying fun' to us!" Amy assured with a thumbs up and a wink.

She then climbed on Knuckles's back, while the echidna crossed his arms and dropped out of the plane, landing in the woods near the town.

"Wow...Okay, I didn't expect him to do that..." Sonic confessed with a bit of astonishment, before looking at Tails with a determined look. "This is what we'll do. Step 1: Laugh at him!" he declared himself, as he climbed onto the wings of the plane. "Step 2: I have no idea!" he added, still with a determined look.

Meanwhile, Izzy, Misty and the sisters were still getting more ponies inside of Canterlove Studios, while Hitch managed to make Sunny react a bit, as Sparky was sitting on her back and hugging her for some comfort.

However, it didn't took for Pipp to notice the plane in the sky. "Guys, look!" she pointed out.

The others turned to the sky, just to see Sonic and Tails in the Tornado IV, which made them smile. Even Sunny smiled a bit at the sight, forgetting for just a moment what happened to her home again.

On the other hand, Tails began to rotate the plane around the robot, as if it were a mosquito bothering a person.

"What a cute little doll, Eggman!" Sonic mocked up with a smile. "It does something, or it just stands there looking ugly?" he added, crossing his arms.

Once they got to the robot's face, Tails began to walk away from it, unaware that the robot was now looking directly at them.

"Like a blister, it appears again!" Eggman exclaimed furiously, already tired of having to deal with the hedgehog. "Luckily, you're on the 'to kill' list, so I'm just going to launch the missiles and enjoy your death!" he added with a sinister smile.

Unknown to him, Shadow and Rouge teleported inside the robot, and they both looked with wide eyes and jaws dropped at how insanely big the robot was.

"Um... I think this stealing mission's gonna be a lot more difficult than we thought..." Rouge pointed out with concern.

However, as they both looked all around the machinery of the robot, Shadow managed to see the three Chaos Emeralds that Eggman has with him at the top... near the Eggmobile... and also right below Eggman.

"Maybe a bit more than just 'difficult', Rouge..." Shadow pointed out with concern.

Rouge looked at him a bit confused, but as soon as she saw on the same direction that him, her eyes widened again, and she gulped nervously.

Meanwhile, Eggman activated all of the robot's missiles, which were fired in the direction of the plane from the machine's chest.

Tails hadn't noticed yet, as he looked at Sonic with a smile and gave a thumbs up, but when he looked straight ahead, he noticed the missiles, and his eyes widened.

"Uh oh..." Tails exclaimed in panic.

"I'm going to open that thing up like a can of chili–– HOLY CHAOS!" Sonic exclaimed in terror upon noticing the missiles.

"Hold on!" Tails yelled.

Sonic didn't think twice and held on to the wings of the plane, while Tails made the vehicle do a very sharp turn in the air to avoid the missiles.

Sonic, for his part, was screaming in terror, still clinging to the wing of the plane, and praying internally that he wouldn't fall and that Pipp wouldn't scold him if she was watching.

Spoiler: She is watching, and she was breathing heavily to keep from passing out in panic.

Soon, Tails did another spin in the air to the other side to evade more missiles, then positioned the plane well. Thereupon, he pressed a button that activated the autopilot and lowered his seat, which brought him back to the canyon with lasers.

Tails used the cannon again, this time flipping it backwards and firing at all the missiles, which exploded in midair.

Sonic sighed in relief to have come out in one piece, while Tails returned to pilot the plane and loudly celebrated his maneuver before the horde of missiles.

"That was close..." Sonic said with a smile, relieved that no one got hurt...

Well, almost, because immediately after, a remaining missile blew Sonic out of the plane, causing Tails to look back with wide eyes.

"SONIC!" Tails yelled in a panic.

"YOU KEEP FLYING, TAILS!" Sonic yelled back.

On the other hand, Eggman began to move like a chicken inside the robot, causing it to imitate the action.

Suddenly, someone's scream caught his attention.

"EGGMAN!" Knuckles yelled furiously, as he ran towards the gigantic machine with a scowl on his face.

The robot turned its head in the direction of the echidna, which was running down the street in its direction.

"GET AWAY FROM MY CITIZENS!" Knuckles yelled angrily, as he charged up his electrical powers and ran even faster.

"Die, mosquito!" Eggman exclaimed with a smile, while with his fingers he simulated two feet running towards the echidna.

The robot mimicked the action, and started running its fingers towards Knuckles.

It quickened its pace, and when they were face to face, the echidna jumped into the air and hit the robot's hand hard with its fist.

He pulled back his hand, while a slight charge of energy was released from the impact.

"Oho-ho! I did feel it!" Eggman exclaimed with a mocking smile, while he rubbed his hand.

With Knuckles being sent backwards after the smash, Amy was the next one to come by, as she lifted her hammer and ran at top speed towards the robot.

"Miss Rose want to play?" Eggman mocked up with a smirk. "Then get a load of this!" he stated, as he closed the left hand on a fist and prepared to smash Amy.

However, Amy only smirked, before starting to twirl around with her Piko Piko Hammer at fast paste, before jumping in the air and hit the hand with the hammer, sending it backwards in the process.

Inside the robot, Eggman grabbed his hand and rubbed it in pain. "Shit! I felt that one too!" he exclaimed, but this time with anger. "Perhaps linking my moves to the robot wasn't the smartest move..." he recognized with a frown.

On the other hand, from the plane, Tails pressed a button, and two yellow pistols came out from the sides, just behind the propeller.

Thereupon, the fox began to descend towards the robot while shooting.

Seeing this, Eggman began to move his arms as if he were some kind of Godzilla, while the robot imitated him, but failed to hit Tails.

Then, Tails changed to the robot and turned on its thrusters, at the same time separating the mechanisms that functioned as tails and transforming them into a sword, with which he made several cuts to the machine, but none was a blow that really affected.

So, Tails transformed the sword into a sniper, and started to shot laser at the robot, while Eggman launched missiles and moved the hands around, in hopes that the robot will eventually hit the young fox.

Yet, those same missiles were either destroyed or dodged by Tails, but he didn't noticed that the dodged missiles were heading towards some of the ponies that were still heading to Canterlove.

Pipp's Pippsqueaks, aka Glory, Seashell and Peach Fizz, were also part of those few ponies who haven't got to safety yet, and therefore, there were a bunch of missiles heading towards them.

Fortunately, Knuckles was near by, and so, he smashed his hands into the floor, before tearing apart a piece of pavement and launch it against one of the missiles. He repeated this two other times, and then, when he saw a fourth missile, he jumped over and grabbed it with his bared hands.

Of course, the missile was trying to fly away because of the rocket it had, but that didn't seemed to bother Knuckles, because he turned the missile around and made it fly towards another one.

That missile exploded, and the explosion reached several other missiles that exploded as well.

Knuckles nodded, before turning to see the fillies, who were smiling at him with sparkling eyes. "Don't stand there and go to the studio for cover!" he instructed them, before boosting away.

"Thank you, Deputy Knuckles!" Seashell shouted with a smile, before she and her friends resumed their run towards the studio.

On the other hand, Amy was also using several replaceable stuff to throw at the missiles, not only to prevent them to hit and hurt/kill somepony, but also to avoid damage to private property.

Back with Tails and Eggman, the latter was already getting tired of dealing with the former, since for how huge the Death Egg Titan was, the Tornado IV in robot form looked like a fly, a very irritating one for the doctor.

However, he had a very bright idea, so he redirected some of the electricity around him to his face inside the robot.

The real robot then moved its mustache just as Tails was aiming its snipers at the face, and the mustache ended up crushing the sniper, which also caused Tails to be sent backwards, losing control of the Tornado IV.

"Whoa!" Tails cried out startled, as he jumped out of the robot and spin his tails to fly in the air, while the robot crashed in the floor and turned off. "Aw, man..." he complained with sadness, since it took him a lot of time and effort to build up the plane.

However, he shook his head and nodded determinate, before boosting on flight towards the town.

Meanwhile, Eggman was rubbing his mustache, making sure nothing was out of place. "Geez... that was a better idea on my mind... But at least the yellow pest has left!" he pointed out, once again grinning.

Suddenly, Sonic appeared, now riding the missile that Eggman launched at him as if it were a wild animal, and managed to divert it so that it went towards the doctor's robot.

"Return to sender!" Sonic yelled, then jumped up and let the missile explode into the robot's knee.

The impact moved the entire gigantic machine, shaking Eggman a bit, who nearly dropped the Unity Crystals from his harness, but luckily for him, he managed to adjust them so they didn't fall out.

"Okay... That hedgehog is very crafty, and I seriously don't know how I forget..." Eggman muttered to himself with a bored expression.

The shake also seemed to affect Shadow and Rouge, who were sneaking and climbing the machine at a very slow paste to grab the Chaos Emeralds that were near the Eggmobile and below Eggman.

"You okay?" Shadow asked to Rouge with a slight frown of concern.

"Yeah..." Rouge replied, shaking her head a bit. "Let's keep moving. The sooner we get the Emeralds, the sooner we can get out of here!" she stated.

Shadow nodded in agreement, and so, they both kept climbing the machine.

On the other hand, Team Sonic huddled behind some rubble to avoid being seen by Eggman.

"Does anyone know where Shadow and Rouge are?" Sonic asked with a frown.

"If they're not here, they must be inside the robot," Amy pointed out. "After all, we still need to get the Emeralds Eggman has" she added.

Suddenly, the ground trembled strongly, and Knuckles stuck his head out to see the robot.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Eggman said, followed by a maniacal laugh. "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you yet... I'm just going to make you suffer a lot!" he assured, before laughing maniacally again.

At that, Knuckles growled in annoyance, and hid again to talk to the rest. "Those were our best attacks, and they did nothing!" the echidna complained furiously.

"We can't beat Eggman as long as he's got those Crystals" Tails pointed out with concern. "He's too powerful!" he added he anguished.

"And if that robot keeps attacking the town, we'll end up roasted!" Amy pointed out, equally concerned.

"Hey! Listen..." Sonic called out. "We aren't strong enough to beat Eggman on our own... But there's 4 of us!" he pointed with a smile. "Your strength..." he told Knuckles, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Your smarts..." he told Tails, putting his other hand on his shoulder. "Your cunning..." he told Amy with a smile, while Knuckles placed his hand on her shoulder and nodded at her. "And my speed! Together! That's how we'll win" Sonic assured. "We've always beaten Eggman together. True, I'm the one who delivers the killer punch, but without you, maybe I'll end up dead" he confessed. "The four of us together will defeat Eggman, and restore magic to Equestria!" he assured her once more.

"So we make our stand here. On the field of battle!" Knuckles yelled determinedly.

"As a team!" Tails declared with a smile.

"To beat Eggman together!" Amy assured, also smiling.

"It's showtime!" Sonic announced with a serious and determined expression.

On the other hand, the Mane 5 and Misty continued to help evacuate the few ponies that remained inside Canterlove Studios.

Even Sunny was helping now, since she had managed to recover from her shock, although she was still somewhat shocked by what happened with the Brighthouse...

However, she remembered that Sonic was counting on her and her friends to get the other ponies to safety, so she clung to that thought so as not to freeze in panic again.

Suddenly, Izzy's ear twitched a bit, and as he turned from her, she saw something that made her gasp, then she touched Sunny's shoulder to get her attention.

Sunny saw Izzy, then in the same direction as her, and gasped, too.

"Guys..." Sunny called to the others.

The rest looked in the same direction as her... And what did they see? Well, Team Sonic climbed over the rubble in which they were hiding, while they frowned at Eggman's gigantic robot.

"This... is how we roll!" Sonic stated determinedly.

Seeing this, the Mane 5 and Misty smiled, but then they heard several ponies panic, so they looked at each other and nodded determined, before running off to help them get to safety as well.

On his part, inside the robot, Eggman put his legs and hands together and smiled sinisterly, as he watched the quartet of anthropomorphic animals.

"Time to fight!" Eggman declared with a sinister smile.

And then, from the robot's shoulders, thousands of badniks poured out, heading towards the quartet.

At the same time, Eggman used the power of the Unity Crystals to feed unicorn magic to the machines, allowing them to levitate objects.

Interestingly, these badniks did not have their distinctive colors, but instead were silver with neon purple stripes.

To fight them, Knuckles used his fists to destroy the badniks, Tails used a gun that disintegrated the robots and also a boomerang, Amy used her Piko Piko Hammer to smash them, while Sonic did break dance moves and used his Spindash and Homing Attack.

"This is the worst time to say this... but I actually don't have a plan at all..." Sonic confessed, doing a break dance move to destroy some Buzz Bombers. "Tails, any ideas?" he asked his little brother.

"We have to find his weak spot!" Tails replied, throwing his boomerang and using the gun to disintegrate some Crabmeats.

"I suggest the groin!" Amy said, using her hammer to not only destroy a couple of pieces of debris that a Buzzer threw at her with magic, but also returning a piece of debris to that same badnik.

"What?! No... Ugh, no!" Sonic denied with a scowl, in turn charging a Spindash at a Buzz Bomber, while Tails used his pistol to destroy a piece of debris that a Moto Bug threw at Sonic.

"Traditionally yes! The groin is weakest spot!" Knuckles pointed out, destroying a Crabmeat he was holding under his arm, in turn blocking with his hand a smoothie cart thrown at him by a Caterkiller.

"Stop. Saying. Groin!" Sonic pleaded desperately, making Knuckles look at him with a bored expression.

"Hedgehog!" Eggman suddenly yelled from the robot.

Following that, the doctor raised his arms inside his head and simulated firing lasers, causing the robot to raise its clenched hands into fists and begin shooting real beams from its knuckles.

"Look out!" Sonic yelled.

Immediately afterwards, the quartet of anthropomorphic animals ran away before the rays hit them.

Soon, they began to dodge the lightning bolts as they ran down the street, and then lined up to draw up a plan, while continuing to run and leaving an aura behind with the respective color of their skins.

"I know what his weak spot is. It's me! I'm 'the groin'!" Sonic exclaimed determinedly.

After that, Sonic curled up into a ball and launched himself at Knuckles, who grabbed him with his hand and threw him at a Buzzer, destroying it in the process.

Following, Sonic straightened up in the air and was caught by Tails, who started spinning with the hedgehog holding hands, destroying several badniks on the spot: Sonic with his feet and Tails with his tails.

"Think about it! I live rent-free in this guy's head, so if I go out there and rile him up…" Sonic began to explain.

"He'll focus on only you, letting his guard down completely..." Knuckles continued.

"So while he focuses on you, Tails, Knuckles and I can surround him and take the Crystals!" Amy finished with a smile.

As Knuckles spoke, he took a Buzz Bomber and used it to destroy a Buzzer, destroying both badniks in the process. He then jumped into the air and spun with his fists outstretched, destroying various debris thrown at him by Moto Bugs, as well as some more Buzzers.

Amy then used her hammer as momentum to jump into the air and spin with the hammer, destroying Buzzers and Buzz Bombers alike, then slamming the hammer into the ground, destroying several Crabmeats, before holding hands with Sonic and spin both in the air, while Sonic used his electrically charged fist, and Amy used her hammer.

Then, while Amy was saying her thing, Knuckles extended his fist at him and destroyed a Moto Bug that was launched at his face, while Sonic did a series of Homing Attacks against Buzz Bombers and magically levitated debris.

"Hedgehog, I was wrong about you..." Knuckles spoke once again. "You are a brave and noble warrior! Go to your certain death with honor!" he added confidently.

"We're gonna have to work on your pep talks, Knux" Sonic told Knuckles with a smirk.

"And please don't say we're gonna die, that doesn't helps..." Amy begged with a bored expression.

Tails only chuckled at the conversation. "Yeah!" he declared with a smile.

"Let's go!" Sonic declared, as he went straight towards the Death Egg Titan.

Then, the group split up at an intersection: Sonic went in the middle, Tails went to the right, and Knuckles and Amy went to the left.

Now, the blue hedgehog stopped just below Eggman's robot with a frown.

"All right, Egghead!" Sonic sneered, though he still was frowning. "You want me? Come and get me!" he challenged, still with a mocking tone.

"You don't tell me about coming and getting!" Eggman declared rhetorically, as the robot pointed at itself. "I am on the cutting edge of coming and getting!" he added furiously.

Inside the robot, Eggman began to imitate walking movements, while the machine did move on the outside.

In turn, the doctor repeatedly said "Coming, getting!".

Sonic, for his part, ran off into a forest near the town, with the robot and Eggman following close behind, unaware that Tails, Knuckles, and Amy were chasing behind him, planning to jump on board.

"You ready for this, Tails?" Amy asked to the fox with a smile, also putting her hammer aside.

"Thanks to Knuckles, I might be able to carry both of you to the top!" Tails declared with a smirk.

"That's the attitude!" Knuckles declared with a smile.

And then, after reaching the end of the roof they were running on, Amy and Knuckles launched themselves, while Tails grabbed their hands and flew at full speed towards the top, until he reached the back of Eggman's robot, which they began to climb without Eggman himself noticing.

Why could he feel a tremendous punch from Knuckles before, but not three things climbing on him? Because that's what the plot requires, what else do you want me to tell you.





On the other hand, the Mane 5 and Misty finished putting everypony safe, while Hitch talked with Phyllis inside of Canterlove Studios.

However, Zipp noticed right then that the Death Egg Titan was walking away from the town, which confused her.

"Um... guys?" Zipp called out. "Where's Eggman going?" she asked confused.

It wasn't until she mentioned it, that her sister, Sunny, Izzy and Misty noticed the robot walking away as well, and as soon as Hitch came back, he also noticed that.

"Did he ran away?" Hitch asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No..." Sunny replied with concern. "I think he's chasing down something... Or someone!" she pointed out with wide eyes.

"He's following the boys!" Izzy pointed out with panic. "We cannot let that guys put a hand over Knuckie nor the others!" she stated with a determinate look.

"Uh... I don't think Tails, Knuckles or Amy need help..." Misty said, as she pointed at the back of the robot.

When she did, the rest saw that Tails, Knuckles and Amy were climbing the back of the Death Egg Titan, apparently trying to reach the head.

"Wait... if those three are fine..." Pipp muttered, before her eyes widened in realization. "THAT SON OF A BITCH IS FOLLOWING SONIC!" she shouted in rage, as her ears let out some smoke and her face got all red.

The others just looked at her, both startled, confused, worried, and scared, but then, Sunny shook her head and looked back at the robot. "We gotta help them take that thing down!" she stated.

"Whoa, what?!" Zipp asked in disbelief. "But Sunny, we don't have magic! How can we help when right now we're just a bunch of little ponies?" she pointed out with concern.

"Magic or not, this is our home, and we must fight to protect it!" Sunny stated. "I know that I was feeling down back in the lab, and that he destroyed my house for the second time... But I'm not letting that get the best of me!" she said with a determinate look. "Equestria is our home, and now? That guy wants to take it!" she pointed at the Death Egg Titan with a frown. "Even if we don't have magic, I'm still gonna fight to protect this land. After all, I'm Alicorn, and the Unity Crystals choose me as such for a reason! It is time I fight for that reason!" she stated once again.

Her friends smiled with determinate looks at her.

"So, are you up 2 to save Equestria? Or are you too afraid?" Sunny asked with a mocking tone, before run away towards the Death Egg Titan.

The rest looked at each other and nodded with smiles, before chasing after her and the Death Egg Titan as well. "Sunny! Wait for us!" Izzy shouted with a chuckle.





Back with Sonic and Eggman, the doctor had made it to the woods, not far from the Brighthouse rubble, but being out of shape, he was starting to get tired from stomping around.

"Coming... Getting... Ugh..." Eggman groaned, as he finally stopped to catch his breath. "Geez... I shouldn't have quit Zumba classes..." he pointed to himself wearily.

Since his driver needed to take a break, the robot stopped moving, while Sonic was up on top of a pine tree.

"Yoo-hoo!" called Sonic with a smirk. "So what's the plan here? You gonna build a big robot house? Get yourself a big robot wife?" he sneered with a chuckle.

The doctor frowned at him, thinking he already knew what was going to happen.

"I'm going to enslave everypony and force them to service my machines!" Eggman responded furiously. "First Equestria, then Mobius, then the entire multiverse, and then who knows?! Maybe that'll be enough!" he added he, while the robot shrugged.

Sonic frowned at him as he made a fist, charging up some electricity.

"Full disclosure?" Eggman said, while his glasses turned neon purple from the power of the Crystals. "You won't be there!" he assured himself with a sinister smile.

And thereupon, the robot began to shoot laser beams from its purple eyes.

The laser fell under the pine tree Sonic was in, and it didn't hit him luckily, but it did cause him to fall out of the tree. Although he landed on his feet, as he began to run, another laser collided with a tree, and the impact of the explosion sent him flying, crashing into another tree.

"Laser eyes? Really?!" Sonic complained angrily, as he ran to avoid a laser that he almost hit him with.

Eggman continued to shoot Sonic with his laser eyes, unaware that Tails, Knuckles, and Amy were already about to enter the robot.

On the other hand, Sonic started to dodge all the laser attacks, in a desperate attempt to get away.

He ran through the forest so he could try and trick Eggman so he could lose track of him, but every new corner he reached was always hit by a laser, because Eggman was making sure there was no forest where he could hide.

Still, that didn't stopped him from trying, so he kept running across what was left of the forest.

Meanwhile, the Mane 5 and Misty managed to reach the scene. Thanks to all the forest burned down by the Death Egg Titan's lasers, they could perfectly see Sonic running away from the robot, but also struggling in trouble.

"Sonic!" Pipp screamed in panic, not thinking twice and actually running towards him.

"Pipp! No!" Zipp said with concern, as she grabbed her sister's tail with her mouth and hold her back.

"Zipp! LET ME GO!" Pipp shouted desperate, as she tried to run away from her sister's grip, even trying to kick her so she could go and help her boyfriend. "HE'S IN DANGER!" she shouted in panic.

"He'll be fine, sis!" Zipp said, still holding her back. "It's Sonic we're talking about! He always––" she tried to add.

However, Eggman screamed in rage suddenly, and started to launch lasers even wilder, while Sonic was now struggling on dodging the attacks.

And then, Eggman punched the ground hard enough, making it not only rumble, but also causing the road to brake and get launched in the air, with Sonic getting launched as well.

And finally, Eggman launched the lasers again in Sonic's direction, hitting both all the pieces of earth that got lifted in the air, the remaining ruble of the Crystal Brighthouse that landed earlier in the forest, and Sonic himself.

With that, the hedgehog rolled in the ground, until he finally stoped, as earth and ruble landed all around him, with Eggman laughing louder than before.

"NOOOOO!" Pipp screamed in pain with tears in her eyes.

The good news was that Sonic was alive... but the bad news was that he fell unconscious because of the impact.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha! Giving up already?" Eggman asked with a grin, but of course, Sonic didn't replied anything. "Not so tough when you're fighting someone 700 times your size, are ya?" he added with a chuckle.

However, as he looked down on the head of the robot, he noticed that something was missing... and when he realized what it was, he only putted on a bored expression and made a 'Tch' sound with his mouth.

And just then, Shadow and Rouge jumped behind him, with Shadow holding the Light Blue Chaos Emerald, while Rouge had the Yellow and Silver ones on her hands.

They were ready to shout 'Chaos Control!' to the doctor, but Eggman just snapped his fingers, and both Shadow and rouge were freeze'd in place, but still holding the Emeralds.

Then, Eggman used the levitation of the unicorn magic to move both Shadow and Rouge to face him, and he also started to suffocate them.

"I'm impressed that you two managed to sneak inside of my machine, but that didn't changed anything, did it?" Eggman mocked up with a smirk.

Of course, neither Shadow nor Rouge could say anything because of being suffocated.

"You think you can climb into my robot and escape without consequences? Well, too bad!" Eggman shouted in rage.

And then, he shoot a pair of powerful lasers from his hands that sent both Shadow and Rouge out of the robot through the eyes. In the process, they both let go the Chaos Emeralds they were holding, with the ones Rouge was holding landing near her, while Shadow dropped his almost at the same time as he was sent backwards, which made the Emerald land right in the middle between the Death Egg Titan and Sonic.

"You fools!" Eggman said with a sinister grin once again. "You can't beat me! I'm all-powerful! All-knowing!" he stated confidently, but before finishing his sentence, he could feel that something was off, so he frowned. "All-seeing..." he added with anger.

Immediately afterwards, he turned to his right, and saw that a hole opened in the roof of the robot, and Tails came out of this hole.

"Looks like your fancy robot has a glitch!" Tails mocked up with a smirk.

And then, thousands of clones of the little fox began to enter through the hole. These clones were all made thanks to the watch he created for him, Sonic and Knuckles.

All of Tails' clones positioned themselves around Eggman while taunting him, as the doctor hit several clones with his electricity, hoping to hit the real one, but never managed to hit him.

"Is it me?" one of Tails clones said, before being wiped out by Eggman's lightnings.

"What about me?" other clone said, also being wiped out.

"I'm over here!" another of Tails' clones mocked up, before being wiped out by Eggman.

"Up top!" one Tails said.

"Down below!" another Tails mocked as well.

"Behind you!" other Tails' clone mocked too.

"I'm over here!" a Tails' clone called out with a smile.

"Sorry!" one apologized for not being the real one.

"Over here!" another of Tails' clones kept mocking, before being wiped out.

"Too slow!" one of the clones mocked as well.

Tired of games, the doctor made a small explosion with his electricity all over the robot's head.

"You can't outsmart me. I'm the outsmarter-er!" Eggman declared confidently.

The Tails clones disappeared, and the real one went flying into a corner. He was left dangling over the edge, but managed to climb up without much difficulty.

"Eggman!" Amy screamed suddenly, as she jumped towards the doctor with her hammer.

Eggman looked on her direction, and immediately teleported aside, dodging Amy's attack in the process.

However, Amy landed over the head and jumped back to Eggman, launching her hammer free towards him. Just like before, Eggman dodged the hammer, but he didn't expected to be punched on the face by Amy.

Growling in anger, Eggman teleported and grabbed Amy from her arm, before launching her to the other side.

"Amy!" Tails screamed in panic, jumping in the air and catching her, before landing over the floor with a grunt.

"As I said: I am the outsmarter-er!" Eggman stated once again with a maniac laugh.

However, as both Amy and Tails kneeled, they looked at each other with knowing smiles. "That's the thing, Eggman. We didn't outsmart you..." Tails muttered with a smirk.

"We're just the distraction!" Amy stated confidently.

"Eggman!" Knuckles' voice spoke.

However, before Eggman could turn around, his face was punched hardly by Knuckles, who at the same time ripped the harness with the Unity Crystals from his chest.

As a result, Eggman fell from his placed and landed with a grunt of pain on his Eggmobile, while Knuckles glided and landed in front of Tails and Amy.

Outside of the robot, this one stopped moving and just stood on its place, as the purple eyes shut down and the entire robot got out of service.

The Mane 5 and Misty already managed to pass the robot at this point, and they noticed that the Death Egg Titan wasn't moving anymore.

"What happened?" Izzy questioned, both confused and worried.

"I think... I think they did it!" Sunny said. "If the Crystals powered the robot, and it isn't moving... they did it! They actually stopped Eggman!" she cheered with a huge smile.

At hearing this, the other ponies smiled and cheered as well, with Izzy and Pipp hugging each other tightly, and then Misty being suddenly dragged to that hug by Izzy, while Zipp and Hitch hoof bumped, and Hitch and Sunny made their secret hoof shake.

And they were not the only ones celebrating, because inside the robot, Knuckles presented the Unity Crystals to Tails and Amy with a huge grin.

"We hit the jackpot!" Knuckles stated with a smile, as Tails and Amy cheered.

However, Eggman wasn't done, because he shook his head and sat on his Eggmobile. Then, when he noticed that he didn't had nor the Unity Crystals, nor his black clothes with neon purple lines, he growled in anger.

"Sage! Auxiliary power! NOW!!!" Eggman instructed with anger.

"On it, doctor!" Sage replied.

And so, the robot started to turn on again, slowly moving again, but this time, the light on both the chest, eyes and smile were color red, all because of the auxiliary power of the robot.

The robot rumbled and made everything shake again once its power was restored, and he looked down to the floor, were the Mane 5 and Misty were still standing.

They didn't noticed yet, however... until a shadow covered them completely.

Sunny noticed that immediately, and she turned around slowly, just to feel her ears dropping and her throat gulping at the Death Egg Titan's face looking at them with its red eyes.

"Guys..." Sunny called out nervously. "Retreat..." she said.

"What? What do you––" Hitch tried to ask, but as soon as he turned and saw the robot's eyes on them, he gulped in panic.

"RETREAT! NOW!" Sunny screamed this time.

And without thinking it twice, the Mane 5 and Misty started to run for their lives, while Eggman's laser shoot towards them. The laser was red this time around, and Eggman's voice couldn't be heard anymore, or not yet at least.

Misty herself was incredibly scared and confused now. She remembers that Eggman promised that, even if they were on opposite sides, he would never hurt her, no matter what... A promise he was braking right now.

As this happened, Sonic finally woke up again, and his entire body hurt as hell, even though there was no broken bones. If you're wondering how much it hurt, well, it was basically like if his skin was burning and his bones were cracked and destroyed into small pieces. Again, no bones were broken, but he could still feel the pain on his entire body.

He then stood up and looked at the disaster surrounding him, until his sight stopped on the Light Blue Chaos Emerald.

"... I... need to..." Sonic said weakly, as he took a step, and then immediately fell in the ground with pain. "... g-get... that... Emerald..." he finished, as he stood up again and started to walk slowly towards the Chaos Emerald.

Meanwhile, Eggman was laughing maniacally inside the robot with a sinister grin, looking thanks to a screen on his Eggmobile at how the Mane 5 and Misty ran away from the lasers.

He didn't noticed, however, that Tails, Knuckles and Amy saw all of this, and they all frowned and growled in anger.

"Leave our friends out of this!" Knuckles shouted, as he jumped and prepared to punch Eggman again.

However, a shield activated around the Eggmobile once Knuckles was near the doctor. Eggman smirked after seeing that, and so, he kept having fun with the Mane 5 and Misty.

Outside, they kept running, until the laser finally hit a rock that lifted the ground, and so, the Mane 5 and Misty were lifted in the air and rolled in the ground, until they finally stopped, while feeling a lot of pain.

Eggman laughed once again at this, and then, he pressed several buttons on his Eggmobile, and the head of the Death Egg Titan opened up completely.

After that, the robot putted inside the right hand and grabbed Tails, Amy and Knuckles, before pulling it out of the head and launch the three critters away.

They screamed in fear, before rolling on the ground and land near by the Mane 5 and Misty.

The ponies stood up with effort and pain, with the three members of Team Sonic doing the exact same thing.

"G-Guys?" Sunny asked in pain, as she stood up. "A-Are you okay?" she asked.

"As okay as we can be..." Knuckles replied with a painful expression, as he grabbed his chest with a hand, while Izzy came by and helped Knuckles to stand by crossing his other arm around her neck.

"H-Here..." Tails said with a painful expression, as he approached Sunny and gave her the Unity Crystals back.

Sunny sat down and grabbed the Crystals, looking at them with a smile. The Crystals were still all purple, shining bright and vibrating, but Sunny was happy that everything seemed to be back to normal.

Eggman, on the other hand, was looking at Sunny holding the Crystals with a frown, but suddenly, something else called his attention, so he moved the head of the Death Egg Titan straight once again, and he frowned even more, even growling this time, when he saw that Sonic was standing, and limping towards the Chaos Emerald ahead of them.

"No... Not anymore..." Eggman muttered with a frown, before pressing a button that turned on the Eggmobile, as it elevated until it stopped right in front of the face, and so, Eggman pressed another button that extended two hooks that attached to the Eggmobile, holding it in place while Eggman kept growling in anger. "I might have lost the Crystals... But I can still win!" he stated, now turning on the speakers of the robot and starting to manually move the robot towards Sonic.

Speaking of him, he was limping in pain, holding an arm and groaning, while still moving towards the Light Blue Chaos Emerald.

On the other hand, we had the Mane 5, Misty, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, and soon enough, Rouge and Shadow also arrived, even though both of them also seemed to be in pain. In fact, everyone at this point had bruises, dirt, messed up hair and slight cuts around their bodies, but none of them seemed to care, because they all wanted to keep fighting.

"O-Okay... the Crystals are back... All we gotta do now is make sure they release their magic again..." Sunny said with a shaky voice.

"H-How do we do that?" Zipp asked, as she coughed a bit as well.

However, before anyone could say anything, they all heard a 'crack' sound.

Everyone's eyes widened, and they all slowly turned their gaze back to the Unity Crystals... just to see that the earth pony crystal and part of the pegasus crystal had a crack.

Now, you might be wondering why the Crystals seem to be shattering, right? Well, since they didn't had the earth pony magic stored before, the Crystals were overpowered, and since Eggman abused their power, they now reached their limit.

"W-What the––" Hitch muttered with a worried frown.

"Please don't tell me that––" Pipp said with concern.

But what everyone didn't wanted to happen still happened anyways: The Crystals shattered even more, until they finally broke apart, as the small pieces fell from Sunny's hooves and into the ground, while their pink aspect also disappeared and got replaced with a more grey-ish one.

"No..." Sunny muttered with concern. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" she screamed in shock and panic.

However, it was already too late: The Unity Crystals fell apart, and in the process, all the magic in Equestria was lost forever.

"T-The Crystals..." Zipp muttered in utter shock and disbelief.

"T-They... t-they just..." Izzy added, with her voice sounding very shaky and nervous.

"A-And the magic..." Pipp added, at the edge of just bursting out crying. "O-Our magic..." she added with a nervous and shaky voice as well.

However, Tails' ear twitched when he heard the Death Egg Titan moving again, and when he turned around and saw that Eggman was moving towards Sonic, he panicked, specially because Sonic was moving too slow, and he never moved slow.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted in panic.

It was then when the rest noticed that Sonic was limping towards the Chaos Emerald, or rather, he was kneeling and taking it on his hands, while the Death Egg Titan stopped right in front of him.

"S-Sonic..." Pipp muttered. "Sonic!" she shouted again, now in concern.

Without thinking twice, she rushed towards him, with nobody being fast enough to stop her.

"PIPP!" Zipp shouted in panic.

However, the one that went behind the pegasus wasn't her, but Sunny instead, who also snatched Tails' watch from his wrist, which startled the young fox.

"SUNNY!!!" Hitch yelled in fear.

"STOP SHOUTING NAMES, FOR CHAOS' SAKE!" Knuckles begged with a groan.

Meanwhile, Sonic was looking at the Light Blue Chaos Emerald on his hands with a smile, and he still couldn't believe that the Emerald was stuck in the past all this time.

However, his smile faded away and got replaced with a frown once he noticed that the Death Egg Titan was right in front of him.

"21 years..." Eggman said with anger. "We've been dancing the same song for 21 years, Hedgehog.... BUT NOT ANYMORE!" he assured with anger.

And so, Eggman launched the laser eyes towards him, while Sonic simply closed his eyes and held the Chaos Emerald close to his chest.

Things could have ended there, since we're back to where everything began, but...

Sonic never got hit. In fact, he even heard grunts for some reason. So, he opened his eyes, and felt amazed when he saw that Sunny and Pipp were both in front of him, with the shield of Tails' watch activated, as Sunny hold the watch with her hoof, while both she and Pipp protected Sonic from the laser.

"... G-Girls?" Sonic called out amazed.

Both Sunny and Pipp looked back at him and smiled, still grunting as they protected Sonic with the shield.

"We... are not letting you getting hurt..." Sunny stated with a smirk, grunting again as she held the shield over the laser.

"And if you are to fall here... then we'll fall with you, Blue Star!" Pipp assured with a Smirk as well.

Sonic smiled warmly at them, before standing up and approaching them, also putting his watch and activating the shield, in order to help his friend and girlfriend in the protection area.

"As long as we're together... Not even the multiverse can defeat us!" Sonic stated with a smirk.

However, for their bad luck, Eggman was not only shooting the laser, but he was also walking towards them, something that the others noticed.

Shadow tried to teleport towards them, but the blast from before leave him in a weakened state, so he couldn't help them.

It was now when Zipp tried to rush towards them, and even Izzy tried as well, but Knuckles grabbed the latter and Tails grabbed the former, both stopping them from doing something both stupid and reckless.

"TAILS! LET ME GO! S-She's gonna..." Zipp said with sadness, as she started to sob with worry.

"Knuckles, no! I-I need to help her!" Izzy cried, trying to get free from her boyfriend's grip, but when Hitch joined him, she knew there was no chance on saving Sunny now.

"Please save yourselves, please save yourselves, please––" Amy pried with her hands together and her eyes closed, hoping her friends would come back alive.

Misty had her mouth covered with her hooves, also hoping that none of them would die in Eggman's hands, and also hoping that Eggman himself would wake up and realize how wrong this is.

Unfortunately for her, Eggman stopped launching the laser, while raising the left foot right above the trio, who finally realized what was Eggman's intention here, as their shields went out.

"Game Over, Sonic!" Eggman grinned inside the robot with joy.

Finally, after years of fighting, he was going to end his mortal enemy, the pest he believes Sunny is, and Sonic's girlfriend, right here, right now.

"Oh crap..." Pipp said with wide eyes.

"Heh... I don't have any warp rings..." Sonic confessed, weirdly enough, with a smile.

"I... I don't think any of us have..." Sunny pointed out with concern and disappointment.

"Ditto..." Pipp said with sadness, before smiling again. "But at least... If this is our end, I'm just glad I'm dying for a bigger cause... Not just pretending to be pretty in front of a crowd of ponies..." she confessed.

"Yeah... I never thought I'll die fighting a villain of all things, but... At least I managed to do all the important stuff I always wanted..." Sunny said with a sad smile.

"You know? I kind of imagined not dying alone... I just never knew who I was going to die with..." Sonic said as well, but with a genuine smile. "And girls? I'm sorry for dragging you into my problems... I... I really wished we could have more time..." he apologized.

Both Sunny and Pipp started to tear up by hearing that, and so, they both wrapped Sonic into a tight hug. At this, Sonic let go the Chaos Emerald, wrapping his arms around the two mares, while also tearing up and sobbing.

The three of them just did that: They hugged each other tightly, feeling that this was it. This was the end for all their adventures... this was how they were going to die, and this was how everyone will remember them... as the group of friends that tried to stop Eggman from conquering everything.

"I love you, guys..." Sonic said with a sad smile.

"We love you too, Sonic..." Pipp replied, sobbing and also with a sad smile, while Sunny nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, the Light Blue Chaos Emerald shone bright and started to float in the air.

Then, the rest of the Chaos Emeralds also started to shine bright and float, with the ones that Team Sonic collected coming out of the Brighthouse's ruble, while the ones that Rouge recovered from Eggman also started to float.

Soon enough, the 7 Emeralds moved towards the trio, as they spin around Sonic, before entering on his body and make a slight white light to appear on his chest.

And then, Eggman smashed the trio with the Death Egg Titan's foot...





Sonic couldn't tell what happened exactly.

One second, he was hugging his friend and girlfriend seconds before to die. The next one, he could hear the Chaos Emeralds jingling around him before feeling all their might running though his veins. And now, he could see nothing.

Heck, it was weird, because he could also swear he was drowning. How was he drowning? Was dead supposed to be like this? Dying was just drowning and that's it? Because if that was the case, then even dying is lame...

Suddenly, however, he felt that something grabbed his arm, and so, he was being dragged upwards.

The next thing he knew? He was out of the 'water', gasping loudly as he got his breath back, and now he was lying over the 'water', that was just a lot more of darkness.

Still, Sonic felt confused and got up, shaking the wetness from his body and looking around confused.

"Uh... what the fuck is this place?" Sonic asked confused.

"Geez... I don't remember having taught you that kind of vocabulary, young man!" a voice spoke behind him... a voice he hasn't heard in 10 years.

His eyes widened, and he slowly turned around... just to be face to face with the same owl lady that raised him and taught him almost everything he knows today...

He was looking at Longclaw, his mentor... his mother figure... She was right there, in front of him.

"... L-Longclaw?!" Sonic asked puzzled and shocked, not able to believe what he was seeing.

Longclaw smiled at him, and even fought the urge to cry. "Hello, my dear Sonic..." she replied.

Sonic wasn't sure if he was going nuts, so he decided to approach her carefully. Once he was in front of her, however, Longclaw extended her hand and softly caressed his cheek.

That was everything that made Sonic brake entirely... His eyes watered and started to cry, as he stared in utter shock at her.

Not able to resist that urge anymore, Sonic immediately wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, also sobbing hard on her chest as he did so.

Longclaw couldn't fight that urge anymore and started to cry as well, also hugging her son back.

"L-Longclaw... M-Mom..." Sonic cried out hardly. "I-I've missed you... I-I've missed you so, so much..." he confessed.

"Sonic... dear... I-I've missed you too..." Longclaw replied with a smile, as she nuzzled her head over his, also hugging him tightly. "I-I'm so, so sorry for never telling you the truth..." she apologized.

"Don't, Longclaw... You had a very good reason to never tell me... I just wished you haven't lied to me about my parents, but... The past is in the past now..." Sonic replied with a smile.

Longclaw smiled back, and she hugged Sonic even tightly, with him reciprocating the action.

They stood like that for a while, hugging each other like if their lives depended on it.

Finally, however, Sonic broke the hug and looked at Longclaw with a warm smile. "... It's good to see you again, Longclaw..." he confessed, before looking back at his surroundings. "Although I have no idea of what the heck is this place..." he pointed out confused.

"It's hard to explain..." Longclaw confessed. "The Emeralds only call our spirits here in times of need... And I can only guess that you really need me" she said with a smile.

"... Yeah... I've actually been needing you ever since you died, but... Eh, it's fine now" Sonic said with a smirk, as he hugged her again. "I don't care how much time I have here, I want to spend it well" he stated happily.

Longclaw chuckled at his attitude, before slowly pulling him away. "While I would love that... I'm not the only one that wants a word with you..." she said.

Sonic tilted his head confused, but soon enough, two new presences appeared behind him.

Sonic turned around and... he saw two hedgehogs... two hedgehogs that seemed like strangers, but... he could also feel he knew them from somewhere.

And yet, he had no idea on who they are, so he slowly separated from Longclaw and walked to them, stopping right in front of the hedgehog girl.

"... S-Sonic?" the girl asked, almost at the edge of tears.

"Uh... yes?" Sonic replied with a sheepish smile.

The girl couldn't believe it, and so, she wrapped Sonic into a tight hug, which startled Sonic a lot, as he looked confused at her.

"Uh... what's going on?" Sonic asked confused and embarrassed.

"Let her by, my son" the hedgehog guy said with a proud smile. "Your mother's just happy to finally meet you" he pointed out.

"Oh, ok–– I'm sorry, SHE'S MY WHAT?!" Sonic screamed in shock.

The girl, aka Bernie the Hedgehog, Sonic's biological mom, broke the hug and looked at her son's eyes with happy tears and a warm smile. "I-I'm sorry for being this sudden, Sonic... I-It's just... I can't believe it's really you..." she said with sadness and happiness at the same time.

Sonic couldn't believe what he was hearing... The very same mother that he hated before finding out the truth was right in front of him... And he had a lot of mixed feelings right now.

Then, Jules, or the hedgehog boy, approached to both his wife and son, smiling at them. "Well, I'm just glad to see that my boy has become a big and strong young man!" he said with a chuckle and a proud smile, placing a hand on Sonic's back.

Now Sonic stared at him with wide eyes, specially since he never thought about a father figure before, since even if Bernie died along Jules, Longclaw worked as his mother figure his entire childhood and part of his adolescence.

Yet, Sonic snorted and placed his hands on his hips once he remembered something. "... Let me guess... You're the guy that jumped to your death in order to save mom and I, aren't you?" he mocked up with a smirk.

Jules blinked a few times at hearing that "... Seriously? That was your first impression over your old man?" Jules asked a bit mad. "I was doing it to save everyone from the village!" he tried to point out.

However, Bernie rolled her eyes and Sonic shook his head mockingly. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that!" both his son and wife said at the same time with a mocking tone.

After saying that, their eyes widened and they looked at each other before smiling and laugh about it.

Jules, however, putted on a bored expression. "Great... he did got your sassiness. But at least he also got my charm!" he said, now with a proud smile.

"And your recklessness..." Longclaw pointed out, as she approached them and rubbed Sonic's hair a bit.

"Yeah, well, what can I say? I'll do me!" Sonic said with pride. "But... why are we here, though? Why did the Chaos Emeralds brought our souls to this place? ... Wherever it is..." he asked concerned.

"Well... all I can say is that the Emeralds work in strange ways..." Jules said.

"But if there is a reason... I guess it's to tell you how proud we're of you, Sonic..." Bernie said, as she caressed the cheeks of her son, and Sonic smiled at her. "We've been watching you ever since we... we left you, and I wish I could make up for all the wasted time..." she added with sadness.

"Mom..." Sonic called out, and Bernie felt her heart jumping from happiness and her eyes widening when she heard her son calling her like that for the very first time. "It's okay... You did what you thought was the right thing" he said with a smile, then he looked at Longclaw. "Longclaw raised me to the man I am today, true... But you two are my parents. And... And I'm happy to know everything you did for the ones you care for..." he added.

Both Jules and Bernie smiled warmly at him, and they both pulled him into a hug, with Sonic hugging them back.

"... Sonic... please still be this good hearted hero... no matter what..." Jules said with a smile and a few tears.

"I will... dad..." Sonic replied, also letting out a few tears. "I promise..." he assured.

Jules also felt incredibly happy at being called 'dad' by his son for the very first time ever, and he just kept crying a lot, hugging Sonic tightly.

Then, when they broke their hug, Sonic hugged Longclaw too, and Longclaw hugged him back.

"I feel like our time together in this place is getting over, but... Even if it was short... I'm glad I could talk to you one last time..." Sonic said happily.

"I'm glad to, my dear Sonic..." Longclaw replied with a smile and a few tears, as she also caressed his head.

He broke the hug and looked at Longclaw and his parents one last time with a smile. "I'm glad I could meet all of you... And thank you" he told to his parents. "Even if we never got to be an actual family... I'm glad to know how wonderful my parents truly were..." he added, still letting out a few tears.

Bernie smiled, and even kissed his cheek lovely, while Jules smirked and rubbed his hair in a playful way.

And then, the four of them glowed bright before turning into light, with Longclaw, Jules and Bernie's spirits going upwards, while Sonic's went downwards and back into the 'water'.





The 7 Chaos Emeralds moved towards the trio, as they spin around Sonic, before entering on his body and cause a slight white light to appear on his chest.

And then, Eggman smashed the trio with the Death Egg Titan's foot, and the remaining Mane 5, Misty and remaining Mobians saw everything completely shocked.

"NOOOOO!" Zipp screamed with pain and horror.

Eggman, on the other hand, was extremely happy, because he finally managed to defeat Sonic.

"I got him!" Eggman cheered with a maniac laugh. "I FINALLY got him!" he kept cheering, feeling happy that he finally finished Sonic's life, and Sunny and Pipp's as well in the process.

However, his time of celebration was shortened when the Death Egg Titan suddenly shake, which startled him and confused everyone else outside of the robot.

"What the heck was that?" Eggman questioned confused, now looking back at the foot that stomped over the trio.

Well, let's just say that the foot was starting to elevate, and a golden light could be seen from above.

Everyone else stared confused at the light, everyone except for the Mobians, who only smiled/smirked, knowing very well what happened.






I'm here
Reaching far across these new frontiers (I'm here!)
With my life I'll fight this fear


Then, below the foot, Sunny and Pipp raised their heads and realized that they were fine, but a golden light was blurring them. However, as soon as the light's intensity minimized, they felt surprised, because they saw Sonic surrounded by a golden light, with his blue fur going golden as well, and his quills lifting up too.

After 1 entire year, Sonic finally transformed into the real Super Sonic, and he was ready to take down Eggman's plans.

Now that he made sure that his friend and girlfriend were alive, Sonic blasted through the foot to keep them safe. In the process, the foot stepped backwards and let Sunny and Pipp free.


Don't, don't, don't look down
Don't, don't, don't look down


Then, Sonic stopped right in front of the Death Egg Titan's head, showing his full might as Super Sonic to Eggman, who got startled at seeing his transformation.


 Don't look down, don't look down
Let's go!


"Time to end this, Eggman!" Sonic stated with a frown. "You and me! Now!"


Welcome to the mind of a different kind
Were we've been growing slowly
Thing I'm on eleven, but I'm on a nine
Guess you don't really know me


Eggman growled in anger, and so, he launched all the missiles towards the hedgehog.

Yet, that did nothing, because Sonic either dodged the missiles, took some and launched them against others, or simply blasted through the missiles, getting absolutely no damage in the process.


Can you hear the spirits sing?
Lost messages of long ago? (Long ago)
Can you hear the spirit shout, the secrets in their melodies? (Can you hear them?)
Let's go!


Since this didn't worked, Eggman charged the right fist of the robot, with some rockets showing up even, as he boosted it towards Sonic.


It's time to face your fears
'Cause when your time has come and gone
I'll be the one to carry on
And you can throw me to the wolves
'Cause I am undefeatable


However, this didn't did anything either, because Sonic blasted through the arm and destroyed it entirely in the process.

That startled Eggman again, who still growled in anger, and so, he charged the laser eyes and launched them towards the golden hedgehog.


No more compromise, this is do or die
And now you've crossed the line
You'll wake the beast inside


Sonic, however, received the blast like if it was nothing, and he even flew through it and towards the Death Egg Titan.

Once Eggman stopped launching the laser, Sonic punched the robot's face, sending it backwards once again.


Here I am
Standing at the border of everything
Listen close


"Come on, man! You can do it!" Hitch encouraged from the ground.

"Finish him, Sonic!" Tails said with a smile.

"Hit him were it hurts!" Zipp cheered, also smiling.

"Have no mercy!" Knuckles added, also recording the whole fight with her phone, while Izzy just cheered.

"Sonic!" Sunny called out as well. "Show him what you're made of!" he cheered with a smile.

"Go on, Blue Star! Get him!" Pipp said too with a smirk.

Sonic smiled when he heard that his friends were cheering at him, and so, he looked back at the Death Egg Titan with a frown, before boosting towards it.


Can you hear the spirits sing?
Lost messages of long ago? (Long ago)
Can you hear the spirit shout, the secrets in their melodies? (Can you hear them?)
Let's go!


Eggman saw this, so he launched a bunch of missiles again. However, Sonic stopped time, and therefore, the missiles, before using his super speed to gather them all together, and then launch them like a cannon ball towards the Death Egg Titan, that got hit by it.


Will the whole word know you're name
When we dance with destiny
Will the whole word know you're name
When we dance with destiny


Eggman growled in anger again, and so, he charged the lasers and blasted them towards Sonic again, but Sonic dodged the attack this time and boosted towards the face, striking another punch.


It's time to face your fears
'Cause when your time has come and gone
I'll be the one to carry on
And you can throw me to the wolves
'Cause I am undefeatable


Then, Eggman tried to punch Sonic again with the left arm this time, but Sonic once again blasted through the arm and destroyed it completely.

That seemed to worry Eggman, because he gulped nervously. "Oh dear..." he muttered in panic.


I'm hanging on to the other side
I won't give up 'till the end of me
I'm what you get when the stars collide
Now face it, you're just an enemy


Tired of these games, Sonic began to go through the entire robot using his super speed to tear it to pieces.

He tore through the entire structure, at full speed, delivering the final blow by finally passing through the robot's chest.

Finally, with the robot already in pieces, Sonic slowly approached his face, where Eggman was looking terrified at the golden hedgehog. And then, with a little touch of his foot, Sonic made the robot start to go backwards.

"Oh, it's like that?!" Eggman asked with a frown and disbelief.

But he got a combination of a glare and a bored expression from Sonic, who looked at him raising an eyebrow, almost shouting 'You seriously asked that?' with his face.

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Eggman said with annoyance, crossing his arms as well. "We're not friends..." he added with an offended tone.

And so, the machine fell backwards as severals parts of the robot exploded, until it landed in the floor and caused a massive rumble, that also made everyone else cover their faces from the amount of dust it released.

Then, the Death Egg Titan shut down completely, with the face of the robot shutting down entirely.

Meanwhile, inside the robot, Eggman was groaning and laying on his Eggmobile in a bit of pain, but then, a golden light illuminated the room

So, he straightened the Eggmobile, and then gulped when he saw Sonic right in front of him with a frown.

The hedgehog raised a hand, and with that, the quills Eggman took from both him and Knuckles flew away from his pockets. Of course, Eggman tried to grab them, but it was too late for him now, since Sonic already recovered them.

Then, with just a snap, Sonic made the power of the quills dissipate, and then, the quills themselves turned into dust. This only made Eggman feel even more nervous, because he gulped again and stared at Sonic on his super form with pure fright, even sweating a bit.

Sonic was more than mad with Eggman, because he went very far in this occasion. He tortured Sunny, destroyed her spirit, stoled the Crystals, burned down a forest and almost destroyed Maretime Bay.

But his crimes started way before he even met him: He killed his parents, destroyed their home, and even tried to kill Longclaw without him even noticing it.

He was beyond angry with his mortal enemy, and now that he had the power of the Chaos Emeralds, he could just end everything there and now. He only needed to snap once, and that's it, he was gone...

"... Sonic... please still be this good hearted hero... no matter what..."

Jules voice echoed on his mind, and Sonic's eyes widened.

What was he even thinking? Killing Eggman wasn't the way to go... He might have done unforgivable things, but... killing him was just an easy route for him to not pay for his crimes.

So, Sonic sighed and looked back at Eggman, still frowning, but not as mad as before, at least not anymore.

"... I'm not gonna kill you, Eggman..." Sonic said.

At hearing that, Eggman sighed in relief... but then, Sonic grabbed the Eggmobile from below and boosted to the air, carrying the Eggmobile, and therefore Eggman, in the process.

The doctor screamed in fear, and as they reached the sky, Sonic let go the Eggmobile and moved to the front of it with a frown.

"But I'm not gonna save you, either!" Sonic stated with anger.

Eggman gulped in fear, and so, Sonic kicked the Eggmobile hard enough, sending it through the air and towards Opaline's Castle.

"CURSE YOU, HEDGEHOG!!!" Eggman screamed in anger and fear, as all sign of him got lost in the air.

With Eggman gone, Sonic blasted through the ground, just to come out below the Death Egg Titan's back and lift the entire machine in the air.

"Hey, what is he––" Zipp tried to ask once she noticed him doing that.

But she got her answer before even asking it, because Sonic launched the robot in the air, then he grabbed it from one foot, spin it at super sonic speed, and then, launch it to a random direction, while the robot's sight also got lost in the air.

"Pfft. Show off" Shadow snorted with a smirk.

With the robot gone, Sonic nodded with a smile, and then, he went back with his friends in the ground, lowering himself but still floating in the air.

Just so you know, Sunny and Pipp already gathered back with them, and of course, Hitch, Tails and Izzy dragged Sunny in a tight hug, while Zipp did the same with Pipp.

"Everyone okay here?" Sonic asked with a smirk.

"All thanks to you!" Tails replied with a wink.

"Gotta say: I haven't seen you doing so much stuff as Super Sonic in quite a while" Knuckles confessed with a smirk. "You did well, though!" he added with a wink as well.

"What? Did you doubted me?" Sonic snickered.

"Well, I say that you look great with golden fur!" Pipp said with a loving gaze. "But no offense, sweetheart. The quills going upwards suits only Shadow, not you..." she added with a mocking smile.

"See? I told you!" Shadow told Sonic with a mocking tone, while Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Dude, that was amazing!" Zipp said with a smile. "I didn't knew you could get this stronger when going 'Super'!" she confessed.

"I'm also glad to see that you're fine, Sonic..." Sunny said with a smile, before looking back at the ground with sadness. "Too bad the Crystals shattered and we lost magic, though..." she pointed out.

"Huh?" Sonic said confused.

It was then when he noticed that the Unity Crystals got shattered, so he approached them and looked at them with a smile.

"You guys act like if this didn't have a solution!" Sonic stated confidently, before snapping his fingers.

By doing this, all the little fragments of the Crystals floated in the air and started to build together again.

First the Earth Pony Crystal, then the Pegasus Crystal, and finally the Unicorn Crystal. Then, they recovered their colors, before joining together in a perfect fit again, and so, they restored all the lost magic to everypony in Equestria.

The first ones to notice this effect where the Mane 5 and Misty: Zipp and Pipp's wings glowed again, and when they flapped them, they were flying; Izzy and Misty's horn lightened up, and they both squealed excited, because it meant that their magic was back as well; Hitch's hooves glowed, and he stomped one to make a small flower glow, which made him smile.

Sparky also got the magic Opaline stoled from him back, since he giggled happily when his horns started to glow. And finally, Sunny's Alicorn form returned, and she was flapping her wings as well, also flying in the air.

Also, their Cutie Marks were back as well, and they were glowing bright too.

Then, the Unity Crystals kept glowing and started to fix all the mess caused by Eggman: First, they restored the forest, which made everyone head back to the town. Then, in the town itself, the Crystals restored everything Eggman disarmed, even restoring Tails' workshop.

And finally, above the hill were the Crystal Brighthouse was located, the Crystals made the rainbow light appear once again, and in doing so, they also glowed so bright that, when the glow was gone, the Brighthouse was restored, like if Eggman never destroyed it in the first place, as well as restoring all the magic across the land.

The Mane 5, Misty, the rest of Team Sonic, Shadow and Rouge approached, with the former group, Tails and Knuckles looking completely amazed at how the Brighthouse was back and intact.

"W-What?!" Sunny asked on disbelief. "B-But how––" she tried to ask.

Then, Sonic came by, still as Super Sonic, and smiled at her. "Consider this a little favor, Sunny. As I said, we are where we are because of you. This is my way, and the Crystals' way to, to thank you back!" he stated with a wink.

Sunny smiled back at him, before looking at the Brighthouse once again with a smile.

She was glad that this was over, but most importantly, she was glad that her home was safe, and that her house was back as well.





Opaline finally started to wake up, and she shook her head a bit dizzy.

She stood up, and when she did so, she felt surprised to feel her magic, or what she had left at least, and her wings back. She looked over her flank and also saw her Cutie Mark, which only confused her even more.

However, as she looked around, she realized that she was on one of the capsule's where Eggman had the Mane 5 earlier, and she frowned.

She not only had lost, but she also had no dragon fire magic left.

Then, she suddenly heard a groan, and when she turned to see where it came from, she saw that it was Eggman himself, who landed along his Eggmobile through the hole on the lab after Sonic threw him away.

"... Ivo?" Opaline called out, both confused and still mad at him for what happened before.

Eggman flinched and turned around, showing that his suit got all damaged, while his mustache was made a mess, all because of the impact of the fall.

"You're finally awake, I see..." Eggman said with a frown. "Well, at least you can be glad to hear that I failed... again..." he said, although he sounded more dizzy and confused than mad or annoyed.

"And why did you came back? So I can feel bad over you and reconsider allying with you again?" Opaline asked with a snort. "You betrayed me, Eggman. You made believe that I actually had a competent enough ally to even dare consider calling him my friend! And you still stabbed me in the back!" she shouted in rage, although part of her voice also sound kind of broken.

"I'm not here to make you more miserable than you already are" Eggman stated with a frown.

After that, he pressed a button on the panel control at the side of the capsule, and so, Opaline was free once again, because the capsule opened up.

"Consider this my last favor to you, Arcana" Eggman said with a frown. "For what concerns me, we're not partners from now on!" he stated with anger, turning around and giving her his back.

Opaline only frowned and nodded in agreement. "I couldn't agree more, doctor" she stated, before open her wings and fly back to her throne room, but not without trying to say something else. "Oh! And as for all your stuff––" she tried to say.

"You'll wake up tomorrow, Opaline" Eggman interrupted her. "By the time you do so, everything that reminds you of my existence will be gone" he assured.

Satisfied with that answer, Opaline simply nodded and resumed her flight, although deep down she was still disappointed that Eggman did betrayed her, even though she was planning on doing the same at some point.

She quickly shook her head and made those thoughts fade away. "Doesn't matter anymore..." Opaline told to herself. "It's better if you're alone..." she reminded, before looking upwards once again.

Eggman, on his own, was lifting his Eggmobile with some effort, while also trying to use this effort as the excuse to release his frustration of his recent lost against Sonic.

8 Months of planning went through the window, and now he's back to square one... completely on his own, since he already declared that he isn't allies with Opaline anymore.

"Well... It's better to be on your own than in bad company..." Eggman told himself with a frown, before resuming his effort on lifting the Eggmobile.






One week later...


Pipp decided to stage a little concert in Zephyr Heights to celebrate Team Sonic's victory against the Death Egg Titan.

Yes, Sonic made the killer punch, but he insisted that it was a teamwork thing, so both him, Tails, Knuckles and Amy were all praised equally.

Now, if you wonder what happened with the magic, everypony got it back, as well as their Cutie Marks, and they were all incredibly happy to have their magic back. Yes, Discord also got his magic back, and yes, he was right now at the concert as well.

Shadow and Rouge wanted to leave, because they want to search for Omega's corpse in the snowy mountains of Equestria, since he sacrificed himself to allow Shadow and Rouge to cross the warp ring portal before it closed.

However, Sonic pointed out that even if it was important to go and look for him, they still needed to rest for a while after spending so much time busy.

Shadow declined at first, but Rouge managed to convince him, for his eternal annoyance. What did she told him so he could stay? She said that he could meet Sunny better and see if she's as similar to Maria as he thinks she is.

That, in fact, made Shadow happy in the inside, but he still wanted to act 'edgy' and tough about it.

Also, the Chaos Emeralds spread across all Equestria once Sonic let them go. When Sunny asked why that happened, Tails explained her that the Emeralds always do that once their purpose is done.

Of course, Zipp wanted to know more about it, and Tails promised that he would tell her everything, but after Pipp's concert, since he also wanted to rest from dealing with Eggman, and Zipp actually agreed with him.

Knuckles was mad that they had to go and collect the Chaos Emeralds again, but Amy managed to convince him that maybe the Emeralds spreading again was for the best.

And now, moving to the concert, everyone but Shadow and Rouge were there, since they wanted to stay in the Brighthouse to keep an eye close to the Unity Crystals, in case either Eggman or even Opaline tried to do anything with them.

Also, since this concert was to honor Team Sonic, all the songs that Pipp performed were from Sonic's games, like 'Open Your Heart', 'Live And Learn', 'His World', 'Endless Possibilities', and even a new arrangement of 'Fist Bump' made by herself, which she named 'Strength'.

In fact, she just finished singing said song, and the entire crowd stomped their hooves in a massive applause, while Team Sonic also clapped their hands and cheered at Pipp, with Sonic even whistling at his girlfriend.

"Aww, thank you everypony!" Pipp said with a smile, as she blew a kiss to all the crowd, until they finally stopped cheering. "Now, this next song is a little gift I've been working on for quite a while now. And, since he made the killer punch to save Equestria, I want to dedicate it to my boyfriend, and Eggman's defeater: Sonic the Hedgehog!" she stated happily.

With that announcement, the crowd cheered loudly again, and Knuckles even gave Sonic a friendly pant on his back, although it did hurt him because of the echidna's strength, but Sonic still smiled back at him.

Then, the crowd went silent, giving Pipp the space to perform her song...






Blue Streak...speeds by, Sonic the Hedgehog!
Too fast for the naked eye, Sonic the Hedgehog!

Sonic! He can really move!
Sonic! He's go an attitude!
Sonic! He's the fastest thing alive!

Look out when he storms through, Sonic the Hedgehog!
Don't doubt what he can do, Sonic the Hedgehog!

Sonic! He can really move!
Sonic! He's got an attitude!
Sonic! He's the fastest thing alive!

Sonic! He can really move!
Sonic! He's got an attitude!
Sonic! He's the fastest thing alive!

Sonic! He can really move!
Sonic! He's got an attitude!
Sonic! He's the fastest thing alive!

He's the fastest thing alive!
He's the fastest thing alive!


Once Pipp was done singing, the crowd once again clapped loudly.

However, this time around, when they calmed down, Pipp looked down to Sonic, who was in the first row of the concert, and smiled at him. "Hey, Blue Star! Why don't you come up here and sing a bit too?" she asked him.

"Oh, no, it's not really nec––" Sonic tried to assure.

However, as soon as Pipp suggested that, the entire crowd started to animate him on going there, and he smiled a bit nervous.

Then, he suddenly got levitated by Izzy's magic and launched into the stage, landing on his feet right at Pipp's side.

He felt a bit confused and startled on how he got there, but seeing that everyone was still cheering, he looked back at Pipp, who smiled at him and kissed his cheek, before extending him a wireless microphone.

Sonic looked at it, then at the crowd, and then he smirked. "All right, all right... But only one song!" he stated, which made the crowd cheer.

Then, he whistled to Tails and Knuckles on the crowd, who smiled and immediately got over the stage as well. After that, Sonic grabbed an electric guitar, Knuckles moved to the drums, and Tails grabbed a bass.

And so, with the three of them ready, Sonic whistled once again before starting to play his guitar.






Oh yeah!
All right!

Well, I don't show off; don't criticize
I'm just livin' by my own feelings
And I won't give in, won't compromise
'Cause I only have a steadfast heart of gold

I don't know why I can leave though it might be tough
But I ain't out of control, just livin' by my word
Don't ask me why; I don't need a reason
I got my way, my own way!

It doesn't matter now what happens
I will never give up the fight!
Long as the voice inside drives me to run and fight
It doesn't matter who is wrong and who is right

Well I don't look back; I don't need to
Time won't wait and I've got so much to do

Where do I stop now; it's all a blur and so unclear
Well, I don't know, but I can't be wrong!

It doesn't matter now what happens
I will never give up thе fight!
Long as the voice inside drivеs me to run and fight
Place all your bets on the one you think is right

Oh, it doesn't matter now what happens
I will never give up the fight!
Long as the voice inside drives me to run and fight
It doesn't matter who is wrong and who is right

No, no, no, no
It doesn't matter!


Once they were done singing, all the crowd got into the cheers again, specially Amy.

"Hey, Amy!" Sunny called out to her suddenly in-between the cheers of everypony else. "I didn't wanted to bring this over here, but shouldn't we worry about Eggman attacking again?" she asked concerned.

"Eggman always disappears for a good while before acting again, so don't worry!" Amy assured with a smile. "We won't hear from him anytime soon!" she added. "Now chill and enjoy the concert, girl!" she finished.

Sunny, for once, decided to let her worries aside and smiled, as she also kept cheering at Sonic, Tails and Knuckles over the stage.





Eggman was at his new hidden lab, far away from Opaline and from Maretime Bay.

He was frustrated to see that 8 months of work went all to hell thanks to Sonic... as always...

He was back at square one, and now that he betrayed Opaline, he was completely alone... Worst of all, he broke the promise he made to Misty about never hurting her, and he attempted that when he was trying to crush the Mane 5 with the lasers.

He felt horrible at the simple thought... Even if he's a villain and braking promises is sort of his thing, he did considered Misty his friend, even if she's with Sonic and Sunny now... He was convinced that Misty probably hated him now, specially since he tried to kill her...

But shame or not for that, it wasn't the time to mourn. It was the time to plan.

Thankfully, he had a reserved plan in case the first one was a flop. So, he accessed to his data base and opened an archive that say 'Starfall Islands Expedition'.

"5 Islands, full of an ancient technology left behind by an extinct civilization that used the Chaos Emeralds..." Eggman said with a slight frown. "This only confirms that the Emeralds come from this dimension. Whatever lead them to Mobius must have been bad... but it doesn't matter!" he stated.

Then, he started to click on his keypad, as well as mumbling something to himself.

"It's gonna take me at least 2 months to prepare everything, but I hope it'll be worth it" Eggman said. "If there's nothing useful for me in there, then it's fine. I will have a Plan C by then!" he stated with a grin.

Then, he pressed enter on his computer, and several images of the Starfall Islands, the Chaos Emeralds, and some pictures he took from books' pages in Opaline's library appeared in the screen.

"Now, where were we? Ah, yes... Kronos Island!" Eggman snickered sinisterly with a maniac laugh.


To be continued...