Ponies in a Half-Shell

by MetalJrock

The Invasion

"There it is..."

Shredder held in his hand a Warp Crystal, similar to the one he found in New York. "Now... To use it before the ponies find me..." he added, turning himself around. 'It took long enough, but of course my enemies delayed me... Soon, two worlds will learn of my wrath. All will bow to the Shredder!'

"Not so fast!"

Rainbow Dash stood in front of the others, all of them just as angered as the pegasus herself. Shredder laughed, "I do not have time to play games anymore, ponies. With this crystal, I can now accomplish my goal... You all stood in my way, and I was willing to spare you, but I feel that you deserve what comes next..."

"Oh yeah? And what would that be?"

The turtles jumped from the shadows, standing and towering behind the ponies. Saki noticed that Raphael was back to his old self. "It seems that Sombra had failed... Very well, I shall finish what he claimed to have started."

"We're not letting that happen!" Twilight shouted.

Shredder ignored her, and raised his arm that held the crystal, vanishing in a bright white light. The turtles all leaped after him, but by the time they did, he was already gone from their vicinity. "Where the hay did he go?!" Dash questioned, hiding her worry.

"I-I don't know!" Donnie answered.

Rumbles were heard from within the caverns. "Stay close, everypony!" Cadence ordered. The turtles and ponies all circled around her. Twilight and Cadence then lit their horns, teleporting themselves out of the crystal mines.

A light appeared, revealing the heroes. Leonardo looked up and noticed they were back on the surface. He turned his head, but then looked around and saw that Shredder was gone. "No!"

"It is alright my son... We will give chase to Shredder right away..." Splinter tried to comfort his son. The crystal ponies watched the scene in confusion and worry. "For now, we must warn the princesses of Shredder's escape right away."

"Right. We'll take the train to Canterlot." Twilight said. "It'd be for the best if we warn them in person." before they could start, her brother stood in front of them. A determined look on his face was shown as he started to speak. "Shining Armor? What are you doing?" Twilight asked, wanting to hear what her brother was going to reply, even through everypony else knew exactly what is was, especially Leonardo and Splinter, who already had an answer.

"We're all going, Twiley," Shining Armor said. "I'm not letting you go fight withut some help."

"No... You two stay here and defend the Crystal Empire in case Shredder comes back here." Leonardo ordered, pointing a finger at the shiny ground to prove a point. "The last thing we need is for a kingdom like this to be defenseless..."

"But..." Shining began.

"Let's listen to him for now, Shiny..." Cadence said, "Shredder could come back at any moment with the crystal in his possession. We don't want him getting back into the mines again, or otherwise he could become even stronger."

---

The Friendship Express slowed itself down as it reached the station. The ponies and turtles all ran out of it. "Do you guys even know where Shredder is at?!" Dash asked, flying above the rest of her friends at their pace. Leonardo shook his head, trying to focus his thoughts the best he could.

"I have a few ideas, but I think it's be best if we wait." Leonardo answered, being vague as to not cause a panic among them for now. "I'll explain later, but for now, how about we just hurry?"

"We've already been doin' that, Leo!" Applejack reminded the blue masked turtle.

"Yeah, but speed it up!"

Pinkie turned to Mikey while galloping, "Is he always like this, Mikey?" she asked.

"Yeah, when things get serious, anyway... But he's right! We gotta kick this into overdrive!" Michaelangelo answered, trying to run faster than earlier. They eventually reached their destination, which was the castle in which Princess Celestia and Princess Luna resided in.

The castle doors burst open, revealing the team. The guards had let them pass by through Twilight's word. The ponies and ninjas made their way to the throne room where Celestia was in a meeting. "Princess! We need your help!" she shouted. The Sun Princess raised a brow at this plead from her former student.

"What is it?"

"Shredder got away..." Donnie panted, "He has this weird crystal that can break the dimensional barrier of our worlds! We need you and Luna to set up defenses all around Canterlot, Manehattan and any other Equestrian town. If Shredder does what we think he's about to do... Then all of our worlds are in grave danger."

"Okay... What are all talking about?" Rainbow Dash finally asked in frustration of their vague wording.

"Believe us... You don't want to know..." Leo replied, glaring at the brash pegasus. "We just need to prepare you for what could be the biggest battle you'll ever face."

"Worse than Shredder himself?" Rarity asked.

"Yeah... This ain't no laughin' matter, ponies. You thought Shredder was bad, wait till you meet some of our other enemies." Raphael commented, getting nervous glances from the ponies standing around, each of them looking at one another worridly.

"Um... How are we going to help?" Fluttershy asked.

"Easy. You're going on the frontlines with us!" Mikey answered, getting a loud squeak from Fluttershy. "Okay... Maybe that wasn't the best choice of wording on my part. Heh. My bad..."

"Splinter... What do you think our course of action should be?" Celestia questioned the rat. Splinter shook his head, putting his cane down on the marble tiled floor.

"I do not know, Princess... You and Luna are the leaders. You must do what you think is best for the kingdom you rule. Our sons and I will aid you. We faced all kinds of evil back on our worlds. The last thing we needed was to bring your world into our conflict with Oroku Saki." Splinter apologized once more.

"And we should apologize for getting you all involved with Sombra." Twilight noted. "At the very least Shining Armor and Cadence are back at the Crystal Empire. I'll ask Spike to send a letter about our plan of defense."

"Already got it, Twi!" Spike shouted, holding a blank scroll and quill in his claws.

"Sombra came back!?" Celestia asked in shock. "Why hasn't anypony told us? We could help!"

"Ah, I wouldn't worry about him anymore. That unicorn creep tried messin' with my mind and I sent 'em packing. Hopefully for good." Raphael revealed, Celestia sighing in relief.

"That's what happened to him?" asked Applejack. "In that case, I really wish we stopped Shredder in time..."

"Yeah... Don't worry about it, girls. We all did our best. Heck, if anything that was probably the quickest attack we ever countered." Leonardo complimented. "So, with us focused on Sombra and our attention divided from Shredder, the Elements managed to slow him down, but by the time Sombra vanished and we caught up, Bucket-Head already had the crystal in his possession." Leonardo explained, to fill in Celestia for when she told Luna.

"I see... Very well, Leonardo. I shall warn Luna to set up her guard for when she raises the moon. The two of us will have Canterlot and Manehattan on high alert. It would be best if you went back to Ponyville. After all we cannot hope to separate our forces too much."

"Thank you, Princess." Splinter bowed. After standing back up straight, a loud rumbling sound was heard coming from outside. Splinter pointed his staff behind him, "Now... That is peculiar. Let's investigate my sons..." he ordered.

"C'mon everypony!" Mikey chanted.

---

"What the shell?" Raph muttered.

Shredder stood right outside the castle. His arms crossed and no fear in his eyes. Behind him was the very thing the turtles feared would happen. He had an army. Though not of his mutants or more Foot robots at his disposal. No, they were strange robots with a pink brain-like creature sitting in the torso, presumably controlling them. A large number of them surrounded the castle.

"Wh-What is that!?" Fluttershy moved her hoof to the object. It was a metal dome on wheels. The turtles scowled, realizing that Shredder had done the unthinkable once again. He formed an alliance with the dreaded creatures they have been fighting. The strange drome remained still all the while Shredder laughed.

"Turtles!?" Applejack managed to say. "Who the hay are those things behind Shredder? Because I don't think they're here for a formal introduction!"

"Are they those mutants you were talking about?" Spike wondered.

Leonardo held out his katanas, while his brithers followed with their own weapons. The ponies stared wide-eyed at them, curious since no one had answered them.

"Shredder brought the Krang from Dimension X! And that thing up there is the Technodrome. Get everypony evacuated as soon as you can, we'll hold them off!"