Dr Eggman adjusted the final details on his Crabmeat.
Unlike the other ones, this was more like a fusion between the usual Crabmeat and a spider, since he had 8 legs instead of two. This little update was made to make sure he could sneak inside the Brighthouse properly, and also dodge the Mane 6 and Team Sonic in case they discovered him so he could crawl around the walls and get away. And of course, he also had the tongs, which he would use to steal the Chaos Emeralds.
Yup, that was Eggman's plan: Now that his enemies had all the Emeralds that they collected for months, he needed to steal them, and this Crabmeat was going to fulfill that goal. "No more playing careful, Hedgehog" Eggman muttered with anger. "I tried that before, and I almost succeeded, two times! But not anymore, I'm playing old school now" he stated.
His first plan was simple: get the Emeralds, 'help' Opaline steal magic and then stab her in the back to stay with that magic so he could take over Equestria, and then use the Chaos Emeralds to return to Mobius and conquer that world as well. He was planning on expand to other dimensions as well if everything worked out as he planned... But of course, Sonic had to step in.
At first, and luckily for Eggman, he wasn't such a headache, he was just doing some friendship stuff and running around, doing Sonic stuff as he liked to call it. But then, he got the remaining Emerald completely functional, he destroyed his Metal Mane, Metal Sonic, some of the robots he sent as a distraction, and at the end, he restored magic and defeated all his plans by transforming into Super Sonic. Heck, in the middle of all of that he even got a girlfriend! And it wasn't Amy, it was a pony!
His second attempt almost killed him when the Ancients' tech turned against him, and he had no choice but to join forces with Sonic. And then... Sage sacrificed herself. That wasn't Sonic's fault, actually, it was totally his. He treated her like just an AI program... but he eventually loved her like a daughter.
And now, his third attempt wasn't any successful either. The third time's the charm, some people say, but Eggman's third time was as much of a failure as the previous ones. He created a metallic virus that turned ponies in some kind of metallic zombies, and he could have managed to take control over all of Equestria. But OH BOY, what a surprise: Opaline turned the plan against him and infected the virus to him as well, while she took control over Equestria for a short while.
Fortunately for him, neither Zipp or Misty got infected and finished his cure, although it wasn't strong enough at first. Then, and once again fortunately for him, Tails used the power of the Chaos Emeralds and spread the cure all over Equestria along Sunny, freeing everyone from Opaline's control and destroying her plans, also freeing him from the virus.
But even if Tails and Sunny saved him, they were still enemies in the very end.
He couldn't understand how Sonic and his friends always stepped on his way, how they always found a way to burn everything he worked on so hard and burn it down. He was tired of it, and he was tired of letting Sonic win.
"Not this time," Eggman stated with a frown. "I won't play safe anymore, Sonic. So prepare yourself, because soon you'll have an unexpected guest!"
He started to laugh maniacally, while the Crabmeat turned on and his eyes frowned, since he was ready to start on his mission: to steal the Chaos Emeralds from the Crystal Brighthouse.
Team Sonic was watching Tails' computer on the Brighthouse bedroom in search for any signs of Dr Eggman or Opaline. After the Metal Virus, they decided to take both Opaline and Eggman's schemes more seriously, no matter how dumb or absurd it could sound: They were not letting them get away with their plans, just the way they always have.
"Any sign of them?" Knuckles questioned.
The computer made a beep sound as it turned red for a second. "No," Tails replied with disappointment. "Its been three weeks, and still nothing!"
"First a giant robot made with magic to conquer Equestria, then ancient technology that turned against him and almost killed me in the process, then a metallic virus that took control over all of Equestria..." Sonic listed with a frown. "After all of that stuff, they must be planning something even bigger... and I don't like it," He added, crossing his arms.
"There's no warranty that they could be planning anything that soon", Tails tried to point out.
"We though the exact same thing three different times, and we've been proved wrong!" Knuckles reminded with a frown. "We cannot make the same mistake a fourth time!"
"But we've been looking anywhere!" Tails said with concern. "My drones have traveled around Equestria up and down; Zipp has checked around Maretime Bay every day; Amy is covering some ground in Bridlewood, and Team Dark is far beyond Equestria just in case!" He listed with worry. "And yet, there's no sign of Eggman, not to mention that the barrier protecting Opaline's Castle is getting stronger with each passing day. So, wherever Eggman is, we are still far from finding him, and Opaline is sadly out of our league..."
"Don't be so pessimistic, Tails," Sonic told him with neutrality. "We may not know where he is, but it's Eggman we are talking about, remember? Wherever he is, it can't be that hard to find."
"And it doesn't matter how powerful Opaline's barrier is now. We'll find a way to sneak in eventually!" Knuckles stated as well with confidence.
"Maybe..." Tails said, not really convinced. "Anyways, we should get going to meet the rest on Mane Melody, right?"
"Yup, Little Pipp wants show her new song today and we're getting VIP seats," Sonic said with a smile.
"Sounds good to me, as long as we can forget about villains for a few hours," Knuckles said with a side smile.
But just as they got out of the bedroom, two crab eyes poked outside of the window from Zipp's side of the room and opened it. He scanned the whole room in search of any life form, and when the results showed no one else in the room, the entire Crabmeat entered the room.
He quietly jumped and landed on Zipp's desk, and then he jumped again to land on the floor. He scanned the room again, this time to search any kind of hidden tramp. When he didn't detected any, he started to scan all the room once more, but now looking for what he came in the first place: the Chaos Emeralds.
He scanned first in the most obvious section of the room: Sonic's side. He always used the Emeralds against Eggman, so the logical thing was that Sonic himself hid them somewhere on his side of the room, right? How wrong he was, because they were not in there.
"Huh, weird," Eggman said, looking everything the Crabmeat did through the camera of his eyes. "I guess if Sonic doesn't have them, then Tails is the one hiding them."
The Crabmeat moved now to Tails section and scanned it in search for the Emeralds, but then he stopped in front of a safe box. The Crabmeat kept scanning it, until the results seemed to be positive: the Chaos Emeralds where, indeed, behind that safe box, and Eggman grinned as he looked at the camera.
"Perfect!" Eggman stated with a smile. "Now, blow that box and get out of there!"
The robot obeyed, and it climbed up Tails' desk to stand in front of the safe box, then pulled a welding from its right tong. Then, it started to make a hole on the safe box, which immediately sent an alert to Team Sonic's watches, but the Crabmeat was convinced that it could steal the Emeralds quickly.
Finally, the frontal part of the safe box had a giant hole, and the Crabmeat used its free tong to grab the door and rip it away, then he appreciated the 7 floating gems inside of it. He brought a small bag out, with enough space to save the Chaos Emeralds inside. He grabbed all of them on the bag with a single move of his tong, and then he closed it.
"Yes!" Eggman cheered. "Now, get out of there before you get––"
"Busted?!" Sonic's voice spoke, which made the Crabmeat to turn around and find Team Sonic, ready to charge against him.
"Oh crap!" Eggman exclaimed. "Crabmeat, quick! Evasive maneuvers!" He ordered, as the crab lifted the bag with the Emeralds on Santa Claus' style and used his spider legs to crawl in the walls to get away.
"Oh no, you won't!" Tails said, as he used his electrical powers to bring out a laser gun and try to shoot at the Crabmeat, but instead he hit the walls.
"Stop it!" Knuckles said, as he launched himself with his fists charged up and tried to punch the Crabmeat, but he dodged the echidna, who crashed against the wall and got stuck on it, while the robot escaped through the bedroom door, while a shot landed behind him.
Tails was about to charge another one, but Sonic snatched the gun from his hands. "I think you did enough for a day, Tails. We don't need the girls putting us to fix all the room if you shot it," He pointed out, throwing the gun away and quickly running towards the main door.
He managed to block the way, and charged up his electrical powers against him, but the Crabmeat dodged his Spindash and started to run through the living room, being chased by Sonic, who kept trying to attack him, destroying some furniture in the process.
The Crabmeat ended up finding the entrance to the basement, but then Sonic finally managed to grab him. However, that made both him, the Crabmeat and the bag with the Emeralds to roll downstairs, which also made them fell into the basement and open the door. First, the bag entered, jumping in the ground and heading towards a purple mirror with pink gems around, while the Crabmeat fell next and then Sonic crushed him with his belly.
"I should have expected this..." Eggman's voice spoke with frustration, while the Crabmeat died completely and Sonic looked at the bag with the Emeralds with widened eyes: The back crashed against the mirror, but instead of destroying it, the bag passed through it.
Sonic gasped at the sight. "Did... Did they just.... passed through the mirror?!" Sonic questioned in shock. He stood up and stared at the mirror for a while, until Tails and Knuckles arrived.
"Sonic!" Tails called out. "Are you okay?"
"Did you got the Emeralds?" Knuckles questioned, placing his hand over Sonic's shoulder.
Sonic just denied with his head', still staring at the mirror, and then he frowned. "Tails, please call Sunny and tell her to bring the rest along," He ordered with his deep serious voice. "We need to talk," He stated, making Tails and Knuckles look at each other worried and confused.
Tails used his powers to fix everything that Sonic broke when he chased the Crabmeat around the living room, and Knuckles managed to clean up the room before the Mane 6 arrived.
Once they did, Team Sonic filled them up with everything that happened before they even called them out, from the signal of Tails' safe box being opened forcefully, to the Emeralds passing through a mirror in the basement.
"... Wow... just... Wow..." Zipp said, still trying to process everything.
"All of that just happened while we were preparing everything at Mane Melody?" Pipp questioned, both shocked and worried.
"Yup," Sonic replied with a bored expression.
"And now you lost the Emeralds... again..." Hitch said with a sheepish smile, looking at Team Sonic staring daggers at him.
"It would be amazing if we could keep them for 5 minutes!" Knuckles yelled in anger.
"I should have reinforced the safe box more..." Tails said ashamed.
"Wait..." Sunny said suddenly. She has been paying attention, but she immediately looked for something on her father's journal after Sonic mentioned the mirror. "You said you fell in the basement with the robot and that the bag with the Emeralds passed through a mirror, right?"
"Uh, yeah?" Sonic said, rising an eyebrow with confusion.
"Does it looked like this?" Sunny asked him, showing a draw of said mirror on her father's journal to Sonic.
The image was basically the same purple mirror with pink gems around. "Yeah, it's the same one," Sonic replied with a neutral expression.
"Oh boy..." Sunny said, now a bit worried.
"What?" Knuckles said confused. "What do you mean with 'Oh boy'?"
"Well..." Sunny began, then she started to read something on the journal. "My dad discovered that Princess Twilight's Magic Crown was stolen one time, and it was taken to a parallel world at the other side of that mirror. So, if the Emeralds went through it, then that means..."
"That someone probably already took them..." Tails finished with worry.
"Well, parallel world or not, I don't give a damn!" Knuckles stated. "We have to take them back!" He said, hitting the table they were sitting on with his fists.
"Now hold on!" Zipp said. "Even if the Emeralds are in there, you have never been in that world before!"
"Yeah, you wouldn't know where to start in the first place," Hitch pointed out as well.
"But if we leave the Emeralds there, they can fell in the wrong hands!" Tails said with worry. "We cannot risk another world to that!"
Sonic, however, stoped listening, and managed to stood up and get away from the discussion that recently started, with the Mane 6 but Misty trying to persuade Tails and Knuckles and convince them to stay instead of traveling. Pipp noticed that, and she also stood up to follow her boyfriend.
Sonic returned to the basement, and looked at the mirror with concern. He sighed with frustration, and looked down with worry. Now that he thinks about it, everything happened so fast that he didn't had enough time to process what happened. And now, the Emeralds were on a parallel universe that he knew absolutely nothing about.
He slowly sat on the ground, still looking at his reflection on the mirror, questioning what to do now. He had to get them back, that wasn't in discussion, but Zipp and Hitch had a point: It was a world he never explored before, so finding the Emeralds would be a struggle. And then, he felt someone resting on his shoulder, so he turned just to find Pipp nuzzling her head on him, while she wrapped his back with her wing.
"I guessed you'll come here to think quietly," Pipp said, while Sonic placed his hand around her girlfriend and rested his head over hers. "You're thinking on going there, aren't you?"
"Am I that predictable?" Sonic asked back, with a smile as well.
"After almost 2 years of wild adventures, and 9 months of being dating, I can read your emotions pretty well" Pipp replied with a smirk, kissing Sonic softly on his cheek.
"Guess that'll make it," Sonic said with a smile, that faded away as he sighed. "But I can't stand here and wait for a miracle to return the Emeralds. Now, going there, to an unknown world that I never visited before, I don't know if that's a good idea, either..."
"But you feel like you need to do it, don't you?" Pipp questioned.
"...Yeah" Sonic said with honesty. "The Emeralds have already brought trouble to Equestria, to our friends, to you... I don't want any other world to suffer because of those things... because of me..."
Then, Pipp cut him before he could say anything else with a kiss on his lips, which Sonic accepted as he did the same. "My Blue Star, you are no responsible for everything Dr. Eggman nor the Emeralds have caused so far," She assured to him, after braking the kiss. "And I know how much damage they can cause, so... I believe you should go."
Now that, that shocked Sonic. "Okay, who are you and what did you did with my girlfriend?" He asked playfully, as he tickled Pipp on her wings.
"N-No!" Pipp cried out, as she laughed because of Sonic's action. "S-Sonic, please! S-Stop!" She pled in the middle of her laugh, while Sonic kept tickling her on her wings with a grin. After a while, he stopped the act and rested in the ground with her over him. "B-But I'm serious, Blue Star. I really think you should go and bring those things back before someone finds them, no matter what their intentions can be."
"Are you sure?" Sonic asked a bit worried. "I know you hate when I go to do these things with no guarantee of coming back intact..."
"I'm pretty sure," Pipp assured with a smile. "Besides, saving the world is kinda your thing, isn't it?" She said playfully, as she made some circles on Sonic's chest with her hoof.
"What did I did to deserve you, Little Pipp?" Sonic asked, as he stood and kissed Pipp again. When I said he loved her lips, I wasn't joking.
"So, are you going in there?" Pipp asked with a smile.
Sonic looked at the mirror again. He still had no idea of what could be at the other side, nor how long it would take for him to find the Emeralds. However, staying there wasn't going to bring them back either. He looked back at Pipp and smiled, with his decision taken.
"I'm going," Sonic stated with confidence.
Sonic's plan was simple: Travel there, try to get all the Emeralds at one go, or stay in case they spreed around and gather them as fast as possible to return to Equestria. Yeah, simple.
It took him a while to convince Tails and Knuckles to stay, though, since they insisted on going with him, but Sonic said that they were more needed on Equestria, and that he will go there fast enough to bring all the Chaos Emeralds back. Still hesitant, Tails and Knuckles accepted to stay as long as he comes back.
"I won't let you down, you two," Sonic said with a confident smile and a wink. "I'll be back before you even have a chance to miss me!" He assured. He was at the basement with the others, ready to explore that alternate reality as they all stood in front of the mirror.
"You'd better be," Tails warned with a bored expression. "And also, you should take these with you," He said, extending a small bag to Sonic. The hedgehog grabbed the bag and looked inside of it, just to find a bunch of rings on it. "Warp rings. Perfect for fast travel if you need to."
Sonic thanked him with a smile, and putted the bag with rings on his quills. "Remember to kick Eggman's ass if he dares to show up!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Knuckles said with a bored expression. "Just get over there and bring those things back before they fall in the wrong hands!"
"You bet!" Sonic said with a smirk.
"And remember..." Sunny called out to him. "If you see three stars getting close to the moon..."
"It means I'm running out of time, got it," Sonic said with a smile.
"And be careful," Pipp reminded as well. She was extremely worried deep inside, but she was the one that told him to go in the first place, so she wanted to remain strong for him.
"I will!" Sonic assured her, kissing her shortly. "I'll be back as soon as possible, I promise!" He reassured to the whole group. He then turned to see the mirror and walked towards it. He took a deep breath as he looked at his reflection, and then smirked. "Here goes nothing!" He said, crossing the portal.
"He's... He's gonna be okay, right?" Pipp questioned, finally showing up her worry.
"I hope so..." Tails said, not so sure if Sonic will actually be okay on his own at all.
"Meh, I think he would handle it pretty well," Knuckles said with a bored expression. "It's not like he would freak out or something."
Sonic travelled at hyper speed through the portal, that had a rainbow pallet of colors, as he screamed and twirled around in fear.
"I'M FREAKING OUT! I'M TOTALLY FREAKING OUT!!!" Sonic shouted, as he kept twirling around the portal. "Is this how Mario felt everytime he entered a damn frame on Peach's Castle?! Because if it is, I totally understand why he hated it so much now!"
And then, he saw the light at the end of the portal, just to feel like his sigh was blinded as he landed on something hard and painful, which made Sonic groan as he rolled a bit before stopping. He was now lying face up on the floor, groaning a bit since his whole body hurt a lot. He slowly felt his gaze returning, looking at the blue sky with some clouds moving around.
"Aw, man... I probably hit my head harder than I should..." Sonic complained, as he sat down on his place. And then he looked around.
First he saw a statue with a horse a few meters in front of him, then he saw some grass at both of his sides, and then he stood up and turned around to find a big read building with a golden six point star at the top of it. However, he also noticed the bag where the Crabmeat putted the Chaos Emeralds, at the feet of some stairs that led to the buildings entrance.
Sonic gasped and awkwardly ran towards the bag, just to confirm his bigger fear: none of the Emeralds where there, meaning that either someone else took them or they spreed around this parallel world once they touched the ground. He though the second one was more plausible since the bag was ripped apart.
"I guess this means I'm staying for a few days, huh?" Sonic said with a smirk. He then threw the bag away and looked around, seeing that some humans were walking. However, he could swear to Chaos that he saw all their faces before, because despite the fact that they were humans, their skins were just like the ponies'.
"A human world that's a literal parallel world to Equestria," Sonic muttered to himself. "Then that means... That my friends also exist here..."
It had sense, actually: It was a parallel world with the same ponies he already knew back in Equestria, but they were humans. Humans that pretty much had different lives, he was totally sure ages, and there was the possibility that they even had different personalities. Also, he quickly ran to the ceiling of the building before anyone noticed him.
"I guess I should stay in the shadows for now. I don't want to scare humans that never saw a giant blue hedgehog that talks and runs super fast," Sonic told himself. "Once I found all the Emeralds, I'll come back here and cross the portal. I only pray Chaos that I make it in time before the portal closes or anyone finds the Emeralds..."
He then saw a big city at the distance, then nodded to himself and boosted towards said city to start his search for the Chaos Emeralds.
Some kind of white drones with an egg form where near a forest, searching for some weird power resource that their creator detected a few hours ago.
According to him, some kind of strong PEM managed to traverse the entire country in a matter of seconds. Despite he detected 7 sources spreading around, three of them already disappeared, but he managed to locate the exact location of one of those sources, so he sent an army of his drones to extract said power and bring it to him.
Let's just say that the guy behind those machines was so in love with himself and his intelligence. In fact, if he could literally marry a robot, he would, simply because he rather kiss a machine that has no emotions at all than even touch a human being. That's how obsessed he is with his technology.
After floating around for what felt like hours, one of the drones scanned something behind some bushes. He took some kind of mechanical clamp from his lower part and pushed the brushes aside, jut to find a glowing green emerald laying in the grass. The drone scanned it again, and the lectures confirmed that it was one of the sources his creator detected.
With the same clamp, he grabbed the Emerald and held it inside, then he sent some kind of signal to his creator and the other drones, indicating that the object has been found and that they could leave back now.
All the drones flew away, back to the place where they came from, with the one that grabbed the Emerald leading the rest.
After flying for hours, the drones flew down and entered to some secret compartments a black large truck had. Inside of said truck, there was a massive computer and some analysis devices, while a man that seemed to be on his 50s with brown hair and a mustache with black clothes awaited impatiently for his drones arrival.
Once all the drones headed inside the truck, the one that grabbed the emerald approached to his creator and extend it to him. The man grabbed the emerald, and the drone got back to his 'resting spot' in the truck, while his creator approached to one of his analysis devices and placed the emerald on it.
After waiting for at least 5 minutes, he got the results: the emerald was indeed a huge power source, and one of the 7 that caused that weird PEM signal he detected hours ago. The man smirked mischievously as he looked at the emerald, with thousands of possibilities going through his mind.
"Soon enough, I'll discover how to take advantage of your powers, little emerald," He stated with an evil grin. "Or my name isn't Dr. Ivo Robotnik!" He started to laugh maniacally.