Sonic Origins Vol 1: Rainbow Dash's Story

by LightWinzz

Chapter 6: The Death Egg Robot

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, My Little Pony, or Dragon Ball Xenoverse.

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Chapter 6: The Death Egg Robot

"ATTENTION!" said the intercom on board the Death Egg. "THE INTRUDERS HAVE BEEN SPOTTED HEADING FOR THE MAIN CONTROL CENTER! MORE THAN LIKELY ITS THAT BLASTED HEDGEHOG AGAIN! GET DOWN THERE AND STOP HIM IN HIS TRACKS FOR GOOD THIS TIME!"

As the alarms still blared throughout the station, a group of badniks all took their places on the other side of a large metal door. They took aim at it and waited. On the other side, they could hear what sounded like a series of crashes and explosions, the noise was getting closer and closer to their position. A lot of yelling could be heard as the walls themselves began to buckle at whatever was causing them. If they didn't know better, it sounded like pure killing intent was coming after them.

Another explosion shook throughout the hall, this one much bigger than the others. The door itself looked like it was about to collapse, and it only got worse as the yelling drew closer. All the badniks in the group were starting to shake in fear. They didn't even know if they were programmed to feel fear. Non-the-less, whatever was coming for them had them visibly shaking in their metal boots. After some time, however, it became completely silent. No more noise could be heard on the other side of the door. They all looked between one another in confusion as some even lowered their weapons.

BAAAMMM

The loud impact noise caught their attention once again and they all noticed the rather large dent that had manifested itself in the door. Another dent appeared in the door soon after, also resulting in a loud noise echoing through the hall. The badniks all raised their weapons again, some of them shaking as they did their best not to run. Whatever was making its way to them couldn't be any worse than what Robotnik would do to them if they disobeyed orders. Could it? Another crash was heard along with another dent in the door. This process repeated several times, the door at this point looking like it was about to fold in on itself like a piece of paper. Finally, with one more crash, the door flew off its conveyors, hitting a few of the badniks and completely crushing them when it slid against the metal floor.

The rest of the badniks didn't wait for what awaited them next. They all opened fire at the now opened corridor, some firing with their pistols like weapons and others wielding large rocket launchers fired missiles, causing the entire doorway to be covered with a mix of fire and black smoke. Despite none of them letting upon the fire one bit, one of the badniks towards the front of the group suddenly imploded, causing even more smoke to fill the hall and blinding some of the others. The rest of them all looked in confusion at the sudden loss of an ally, but it was soon replaced with surprise and fear as the yelling once again started up. The smoke was about up to their waists at this point and in the confusion, they just started firing in whichever direction they could. This, unfortunately, was futile. Another badnik soon exploded as something impacted its stomach area. Soon, many of the badniks in the room were being quickly dispatched without any of them able to retaliate in any way.

Only three of the original group remained at this point. All of them were backing slowly out of the smoke, hoping to gain some kind of advantage. The lead bot, however, noticed a silhouette in the middle of the smoke. It was small and it stood on two legs while its arms were at its side like it was hoping to tear something apart. As the smoke cleared a little, it could barely make out a pair of purple colored eyes looking straight at him with pure rage.

Before any of them could even react, the lead bot was impacted right in the stomach area, the figure it saw before carrying it back violently with its fist. As it was continually being pushed back, its back impacted with the badnik behind it, and that one impacted with the one behind it. All of them were now being practically dragged down the corridor with a fist imbedded in the first one. With a powerful yell, the mysterious figure gave one final push, causing the badniks to fly through the air at tremendous speeds before impacting on a wall at the T-junction at the end of the hall. Their metal bodies crumbled upon impact, resulting in a final explosion as pieces of scrap and shrapnel were scattered on the floor.

This didn't stop the figure one bit, however. It just kept running without missing a beat and not allowing the smoke to hinder it as it made a right turn at the junction.

"ROBOTNIK!" it roared in pure anger. "GIVE ME BACK THE MASTER EMERALD BEFORE I SEND THIS WHOLE PLACE TO THE SCRAP HEAP!"

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Rainbow Dash didn't even know where to start right now. She had been sent here to help a great hero from certain destruction. She had been told to come help the so-called savior of this world and that she'd have a great time with him. Well as of right now, she wasn't having a great time. In fact, she felt like she was being knocked upside the head with how aggravating this was.

After Sonic had dashed off, she had begrudgingly given chase to the speedy hedgehog. In the process of flying down the seemingly unending corridors, they had eventually opened up into a much larger and open area of the station. The distance between the floor, ceiling and the walls was great in all regards. She kind of liked it this way as it gave her much more room to maneuver and fly. Along the entire passage were several walkways, conveyor belts and massive machines that worked to no end. Worker robots lined alongside the machines doing who knows what with their controls. The entire place looked like a giant factory building, and the heat that the machines were giving off negated the cool air she felt before. In fact, she was starting to miss it already as beads of sweat rolled down her forehead.

Below her, she managed to spot a blue streak racing along on of the walkways that was headed to the end of the large factory-like room. Begrudgingly, she flew down to meet her soon to be 'partner'. Her eye twitched slightly at the thought. She took a deep breath and came to his side, still racing through the air.

Sonic's legs at this point looked like they were going in a figure eight that was moving at breakneck speeds. His hands were thrown behind him as he looked straight on, not even paying attention to Rainbow at his side. Rainbow was about to speak up, but before any words left her mouth, a group of five flying badniks came into view.

Each of them were dark blue in color and had a very round body without any arms or legs. A rotating disk, their source of flight, separated their body into an upper and lower half. The top half was what must've been its head, as it had two distinctive eyes that locked onto them immediately. On the lower half was what looked like a cannon that was pointing directly at them.

Rainbow smirked and sped ahead of Sonic, the hedgehog finally taking notice of her with a hint of curiosity. The badniks took aim at the pegasus and opened fire, lasers showering around her. With great agility, she darted between the volley and connected her hoof with the badnik closest to her. The flying, blue machine spun out of control in a daze from the strike, its face a crumbled mess as it fell into the depths of the station.

Rainbow quickly dodged the next volley of lasers by flying straight up, causing on of the shots to accidentally strike another badnik. It exploded the instant the shot hit. Rainbow looked down and saw that there were only three badniks left to take out. She could also see Sonic still running on the walkway with an eyebrow raised. She smiled to herself. Maybe now he'd see that she could handle herself.

Sonic's curious state quickly vanished, however, and was replaced with a competitive smirk. Keeping his momentum, Sonic rolled up into a ball and bounced up to the three remaining badniks. Uncurling from the ball, he grabbed hold of the gun of the nearest badnik as they were still occupied with the pegasus. The badnik looked down and tried to frantically shake of the offending hedgehog. The other two quickly ignored the pony and rushed to aid their comrade.

Rainbow saw what he was doing and pushed her wings to rush back down. She slammed her hoof into the one of the retreating badniks on the top of their head. The badnik was knocked off course, but was able to pull back into a stable flight and opened up fire on Rainbow. She dodged the shots as they came, but there were a few that came close to hitting her. She could feel the warmth that some of the shots gave of as they passed her body.

The badnik just flew straight at her, trying to get close enough to where she wouldn't have time to dodge. Rainbow speedily flew away from the badnik, dodging lasers the whole way. She knew she had to get away, but she also knew that she couldn't get too far away. As much as she had a problem with the kid, her job was to help him get through this whole thing alive. If this thing was shooting at her, all Sonic had to deal with was the other two.

Meanwhile, the Sonic was still hanging onto the frantic badnik, enjoying the whole ride. He had already noticed the other two badniks coming to its aid, but then the pony was able to keep the one of them distracted. While he could've easily dispatched them both along with the one he was on, but he'll have to settle with these two for now. The badnik he was on was currently trying to shoot him as he held on, to no avail as Sonic just maneuvered his body to wear the shots just flew past him.

A second set of lasers started flying past him now, and he saw that the bot that wasn't distracted by Rainbow had started shooting at him. With swing of his body, he made the top of bot he was on act as a shield for him. The badnik rocked as the lasers impacted, the bots sparking and careening out of control. Before he was sent into the depths with the badnik, he flipped its body to where he was on the top and used its broken body to jump towards the other one.

He was twisting his body to dodge the shots before he landed on top of the other bot, it still making a futile effort to shoot him. He was now riding it as if he was surfing as it jerked back and forth. Giving the bot a cheeky grin, he grabbed onto it with both hands and started spinning into a ball once more. The bot was now spinning in midair with him.

At this point, Rainbow was still trying to get closer to the badnik that was still on her tail the whole time. She always went in a zigzag pattern to try and throw it off, and for the most part it was working rather well. Finally, after some time, the laser stopped shooting. The entire barrel was smoking and the metal was red hot as it had overheated. Seeing her opening, Rainbow rushed the bot, its eyes going wide as it tried to fire again, only for its weapon to spurt black smoke again.

She was about to make contact, but moments before she reached it, it suddenly lurched forward as it had been hit by something from behind. She quickly noticed it was the other robot, and behind it was Sonic looking like he had just thrown the thing. In a swift motion, he spun into a ball again and flew straight into them, shredding them apart before he fell back to the walkway and sped on. Not wanting to fall behind, Rainbow tore her eyes away from how easily he took out those bots and raced to catch up to him.

"Hey Silver," she said through the communicator, "you hear me?"

"Yeah, I hear you," he answered. "What is it?"

"When were you gonna tell me I was helping some kid?" she asked accusingly.

"Huh? At the time, it didn't seem like it mattered," Silver responded.

"Why wouldn't that matter!?" she nearly yelled. "Aside from Blaze, everypony I've met here has been nothing but irritating and overly annoying! And now I'm dealing with some brat!?"

"You've only had me to compare!" he argued.

"And you made a great impression when we first met," Rainbow said sarcastically.

"Just give him a chance ok," Silver said like he was letting out a sigh. "I get he can be a little hard to work with. Me and Blaze only knew him when he was older. But believe me, he's a hero in his world."

"I'm still going through with this," Rainbow responded, "but next time something like this comes up, give me a heads up ok?"

"You always talk to yourself Colors?" she heard somepony say with amusement in their voice.

Rainbow looked next to her and noticed that she was flying right next to the walkway Sonic was on. The young hedgehog was running right next to her, but he was running backwards with his arms crossed and looking at Rainbow with a grin. Everything this kid did just seemed to make Rainbow question just what was going on. Not only could he run as fast as she could fly, but now he was doing it while backwards! And what was with that smug grin? Is he trying to get on her nerves more than he already was?

"I'm not talking to myself!" Rainbow blurted out with a light blush. "I was—"

"Don't tell him!" Silver yelled in her ear.

Rainbow nearly felt her body jump as the hedgehog on the other end of the earpiece yelled in alarm at her. She was about to ask what he was talking about, but he spoke up again before she could.

"Don't let him know that you're from the future!" he said. "Don't even let him know you're talking to someone!"

Rainbow was just trying to process what he was saying. Why not? What's the harm? She looked back at Sonic and noticed he was now looking at her with a raised eyebrow. Deciding to play along for now, she said, "I…um…fine, I talk to myself sometimes when I'm…uh…nervous."

Sonic turned his head away from her a bit and she raised an eyebrow. That's the best she could come up with on the spot. Did he not believe her? It was then, however, she noticed that he put his hand to his mouth, and it looked like he was snickering a little. Wait. He was laughing at her! That little—

"Man," he said still trying to suppress his laughter, much Rainbow's embarrassment, "You're really a mixed bag, aren't you? First you take on a bunch of badniks with your bare, what are they, hooves, and now you're getting nervous?"

He finally turned around, running straight again. "Well don't worry lady, I'll make sure ya get back to Earth safely enough."

"I never said I needed rescuing!" Rainbow said still trying to ignore her blush. "In fact, I'm here for the same reason you are!"

Sonic's laughter died down, but he still had on that cocky grin. "So, you want a piece of old Robuttnik too huh?"

Rainbow's anger left for a second as she now looked at him questioningly. "Don't you mean Dr. Eggman?"

Sonic's grin disappeared as he looked like he was lost in thought. Before long however, he let out another laugh, although this one wasn't suppressed like the last one was.

"Eggman! Hah!" Sonic laughed out. "I'll have to remember that one! Although Egghead would've been the first on my list."

Rainbow looked at him confused, but he spoke up again. "Well come on Colors. Old Eggman isn't gonna stop himself."

On que, he dashed off in another burst of speed, leaving Rainbow behind a little. Rainbow pushed her wings to keep up with him however, and a thought hit her as she did.

"Hey!" she yelled. "My name is not Colors!"

Either he didn't hear her, or he just didn't care to respond. He just kept running. Annoyingly, Rainbow kept up with him long enough until they finally made it out of the large factory room and made it into a rather massive hallway. It was big enough to fit the town square of Ponyville in it. At this point, Sonic had made his way off the walkway and was running down the corridor at breakneck speeds, Rainbow right behind him.

While he was still out of earshot, Rainbow spoke up through her earpiece again. "What was that?"

"I'm sorry," Silver said on the other side, "but we couldn't let him know that you came from the future."

"Why not?" she asked as if that whole statement was ridiculous. "Wouldn't make our whole job easier if we let him know something is going to happen?"

"It's bad enough that we're messing with the past in the first place," said Blaze. "Anything you do there could have direct effect on the future. Telling him could change it in any number of ways."

"But—" Rainbow started.

"No one there can know Rainbow, "Silver finished. "Nothing may come of it if they did, but it's just that there are too many unknowns for that. Please."

Rainbow thought for a second before letting out a sigh of defeat. "Ok, fine. He can think that I really am crazy."

The rest of the way the two speedsters didn't say a word to each other. Sonic just kept his eyes forward the whole time, not paying any mind to the pegasus following him. Rainbow, on the other hand, kept her silence as well, but was taking quick glances at him from time to time. She just couldn't really figure him out. He was completely immature and cocky. She admitted, she could get like that at times, but to be on the receiving end of this kid wasn't something she didn't particularly enjoyed. But, despite all that, he seems like he can handle himself pretty well. She still can't understand how he's so fast though. It boggles her mind that there's somepony without wings that can keep up with her.

After some time, Sonic and Rainbow suddenly stopped. In front of them was a massive blast door that encompassed the entirety of the corridor. It looked as if it opened up splitting down the middle and parting, and the center had large caution lines over it.

"Huh," Sonic said as he tapped the giant door, "looks like Egghead doesn't want us down here."

Rainbow looked all around the large door, but she could spot anything that looked like it would open it.

"Maybe there's something on the other side that opens it?" she said as if it was a question.

"Gee," Sonic said, putting his hands behind his head, "that'd be a shame if Robotnik made a door that doesn't open."

"Hey kid, I'm just saying ok," Rainbow grumbled in defense.

Sonic didn't seem that interested in her retort and Rainbow couldn't help but feel her irritation growing again at the fact she's being ignored. Suddenly, Sonic jumped back a few feet, leaving Rainbow to wonder what he was doing. Her question was answered was Sonic burst forward in an instant, curling into a ball and spin dashing into the center of the door. Rainbow flew back quickly, almost getting hit by the zooming hedgehog. As she landed she covered her eyes, blocking the sparks that flew off the door from the contact with the spin dash.

Rainbow could see the metal starting to turn red from the friction between the two. Some of the sparks started to circle around Sonic himself, smoke forming from the heat. Sonic started pushing even harder, the blue ball narrowing at the pressure. Rainbow just looked at the young hedgehog in bewilderment. Was he crazy?! He's literally trying to cut through a metal door with nothing but his own body!

Eventually, the spinning stopped and Sonic stood on his feet, but he was holding his head as he was trying to keep his balance. It was like he was having a horrible headache. As a result of the pain, he fell into a sitting position, still in a dazed state.

"Note to self," he started, "if the door looks big, don't bash your head into it."

"Gee, it'd be a nice if he made a door that easily opened," Rainbow shot at him.

"Ha ha…lady why don't try then," Sonic shot back. "Maybe your amazing charms can coax it into opening."

"I'm sure it'd work better than ramming your body into it!" Rainbow didn't even let him argue back. She just flew up to the massive door and floated there with a determined look.

"Hey Eggman!" she shouted at the door. "Are you gonna open up on your own, or am I gonna have to tear this thing down with my bare hooves?! Either way I'm getting in there! I've had to put up with a lot of stuff up to this point, and so help me, I'm getting in there, and I'm gonna get this whole thing over with! Now get out here!"

For the next few seconds there was no sound. Aside from the noise of the distant machinery, there was nothing. Rainbow just glared at the door as if she was trying to scare it into opening. As expected, this yielded little results.

"Maybe you should insult its ability to communicate!" Sonic yelled up to her.

A tick formed on Rainbow's forehead. "Maybe you should—"

A loud bang suddenly rang out on the other side of the door. Sonic and Rainbow instantly stopped their banter and focused their attention on the noise that was only getting louder and louder. For a second, Rainbow thought what she had just done had actually worked. That was before the door was suddenly broken off its tracks and both halves were thrown into the air, revealing a dark part of the hallway on the other side. Rainbow's eyes widened as she flew between the two halves in order to dodge them. Sonic followed suit and slide underneath the flying projectiles. The two pieces of the door hit the floor with a massive bang echoing throughout the hall before sliding and stopping their tracks.

Sonic stood up from his slide and looked to the now opened doorway, before he was hit by a flying red object, causing them both to collide with the floor and cause several glowing objects to fly out of Sonic. Rainbow saw him get hit and flew down to meet him. While she may not be on good terms with him, he was the reason she was here, and she was gonna make sure he made it out of this one way or another.

Rainbow stopped when she felt her chest heat up again. There it was again. That same feeling she's felt so many times lately. This time though, she noticed the small, red lightning bolt symbol form around her chest. She contemplated it for a split second before it vanished again. As it did, she felt a surge of energy flow through her body. It felt very similar to how it did when she fought Silver before, but at the same time it felt a bit more potent. Many thoughts were flowing through her head all at once. What the hay was this and why was it affecting her this way? It obviously had something to do with her element, but she didn't even have it anymore.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she spied Sonic lying on the metal floor with another being about the same size as him and seven glowing objects scattered beside them. The objects all glowed brightly and they looked very similar to the Sol Emeralds back with the others. The difference being that they looked like perfectly cut diamonds as opposed to the emerald look.

Sonic and the other figure were now picking themselves up and Rainbow got a good look and the new being. It was the same size and looked to be the same age as Sonic. It was red in color and it had what looked to be dreads hanging off its head. Its shoes were red with a yellow stripe across it with a green band on the ankles and a metal plate on the top. It had on white boxing gloves with two spikes on each of the knuckles. Finally, it had on a brown cowpony hat with a band around it.

Rainbow landed next to them and only felt her chest start to burn even more. She looked at the brightly glowing emeralds at her hooves and gave it some thought. Silver said that their emeralds used chaos magic, or whatever their equivalent to that is, so maybe this world has an equivalent to that and her element was reacting to them. She'd have to discuss this with Twilight next time she got the chance.

Sonic finally looked at his assailant and he had a look of surprise on his face. "Knuckles?!"

Now that she was down here, Rainbow noticed the that his eyes were purple in color and he wasn't a hedgehog like Sonic was. In fact, she didn't really know what he was.

The figure now known as Knuckles looked back at Sonic and grew a similar expression. "Sonic?! What're you doing here?!"

"You know him?" Rainbow asked Sonic.

The three of them shut up once they heard a loud thud behind them from where the door once stood. Then another. And another. Knuckles was the first to respond, quickly standing back up to meet what came, until he fell on one knee, holding his right arm in pain.

"Darn it," he let out. "Get the emeralds out of here!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Sonic. "You have any idea what we went through to get them?"

"You don't get it!" Knuckles shot at the hedgehog. "He's done something. He found a way to harness the Master Emerald's power."

"What?!" Sonic yelled out. "How?!"

"Like I said, get the emeralds out of here now!" Knuckles commanded him. "I've got a job to do."

Rainbow didn't know exactly what they were talking about, but she could tell that whatever this Knuckles kid was implying that it was bad. She also had a feeling that whatever was coming at them means business.

She turned to Sonic and asked, "Hey, don't you think we should listen to him? I mean he's your friend."

"At least one of you listens," Knuckles grumbled as he looked at Sonic out of the corner of his eye.

Sonic was silent for what seemed like a whole minute. He was never one to run from a challenge, especially when Robotnik was at the end of it all. He had only known both Knuckles and Colors over there for a short time. While they may be worried about what Robuttnik could do, he's faced him more times than anyone could count. Then again, the fact that he somehow managed to gain control over the Master Emerald was a bit unnerving. How he had managed that he had no idea, but as of right now, he had to make a choice.

"Sonic!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "Come on what're you waiting for?!"

Sonic crossed his arms and was lost in thought. For a second Rainbow thought he would never get out of that state, until he looked right at her and said, "Alright we'll do it your way."

"Good, now get going," Knuckles said as he slowly stood back up.

Without waiting for Sonic, Rainbow went straight to picking up the closest emerald to her. It was white in color and was lighter than she would've originally suspected. She could still feel the warmth in her chest and it only felt even stronger as she picked up the glowing emerald. That proved that whatever was affecting her had to do with these emeralds, she needed to know in what way.

"Watch out!" she heard Knuckles call out.

Without warning, a light blue arc of lightning shot its way directly to her from the darkness of the hallway beyond. She instinctively threw her hooves as if it would block the lightning entirely. The bolt connected with her, and she let out a pained scream. It didn't feel like it was engulfing her body, but it felt like it was shocking the end of her hoof, the electricity coursing through her fore leg. She felt a tug on her hoof and the emerald was torn from her grasp.

Rainbow fell to the metal floor as the pain from the shock left her body. However, when she looked back to the emerald, she saw that it was now floating away from her, appearing to be pulled away by the arc of electricity. Sonic let out scream of his own and she noticed an emerald being pulled from his grasp as well. At this point, all seven of the emeralds were suspended above them before being pulled into the dark, their glow illuminating it before they vanished.

They didn't stay that way however. Soon after, their glow appeared once again. They were all in a perfect circle, unmoving and surrounding one giant, green glow. Slowly, they moved closer, a loud thud booming through the hall as they did.

The group didn't move the whole time, unsure of what just happened. Although, Knuckles appeared to be sweating bullets. Another thud echoed, and the emeralds got closer. They stopped just short of the light. In an instant, the lights came on and Rainbow finally saw what stood before them with wide eyes.

She looked up and saw a giant, red machine on two legs with the ugliest face she had ever seen. Its body, like most of the other robots she had seen here, was big and round, connected to its legs by massive pistons. On each of its arms were what she supposed it used for hands, only on the ends of each of them were three metal spikes. Its head was half embedded into its body with the same weird smile and beady eyes as the other robots, but this one had on a brown, metal mustache and eyebrows slapped onto it. In its chest was a glass casing with a circular dial design inside. The seven emeralds were in each dial and in the middle, was a massive green emerald, at least 10 times the size of the others!

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" came a crazed laugh from the large robot.

"What is that thing!" Rainbow exclaimed as she scrambled back to her hooves.

"I have a pretty good idea…" Sonic answered.

The head of the robot split down the middle, steam shooting out from the inside as it opened up. Once the hatch opened all the way, Rainbow could make out a figure sitting in a large, round chair. The figure stood up and placed its hands behind its back.

"Welcome friends!" it said gesturing to the group. "I hope you all found the welcome committee enjoyable."

"Robotnik!" Knuckles growled.

"Now Knuckles, its rude to interrupt your host in the middle of his greeting," it said.

Rainbow got a good look at their greeter. He was a tall, and notably fat, creature with very little hair aside from the mustache and eyebrows that matched those on the robot. He wore a pair of black glassed specs and a red lab shirt with a yellow cape draped over his shoulders. He had on a pair of black pants and a pair of white gloves. It was subtle, but Rainbow swore that behind those glasses she could see a faint red glow.

"Give those emeralds back Robuttnik!" Sonic said as he walked to the front of the group. "If ya play nice we'll leave your big toy in one piece!"

"Sonic," the doctor said with a hint of venom in his voice. "You my spikey haired friend have been a thorn in my side for a long time. Now with that I have the power of the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds, that problem will soon be rectified."

Robotnik then turned to Rainbow and he raised one of his bushy eyebrows in a questioning look. "I don't believe we've been introduced miss...?"

"My name is Rainbow Dash," Rainbow said trying to sound intimidating.

"Miss Rainbow Dash," Robotnik finished. "I have no qualms with you whatsoever, so if you can just wait until I'm done squashing these pests, I'll give you an escort to the roboticizer and we'll get you comfortable."

Rainbow gave a questioning look at the weird doctor. She didn't know what a roboticizer was, but she didn't like the tone in his voice when he said that.

"Rainbow, you hear me?" Silver said through the earpiece.

Rainbow perked up at his voice and spoke lowly enough to where the other wouldn't hear her. "What is this thing Silver? It's huge."

"That's Eggman's personal fighting machine," Silver answered. "We just refer to it as the Death Egg Robot."

"I'm supposed to be fighting that?!" Rainbow forcefully whispered. "I wasn't expecting anything like this?!"

"Calm down," Blaze said. "You need to focus right now."

Rainbow took her advice and took a deep breath, only lowering her anxiety slightly, however. "Ok, so what the hay am I supposed to do?!"

"This timeline has already been messed with," said Silver. "You need to try and restore things to how they were before."

"And just how do I do that?" she asked.

"You see that massive emerald in the robot's chest?" he asked. "That's the Master Emerald. A gem that's been said to control the will of the world. Originally, Eggman used it to power the very same machine in front of you. This time though, it looks like he was ready for Sonic to show up with the Chaos Emeralds. He's now using them along with the Master Emerald, so there's no telling how strong that thing is now. You need to find a way to get them away from him."

"Just what are they anyway?" Rainbow asked. "Are they supposed to be like your Sol Emeralds?"

"Hey Colors," she heard Sonic call out to her. "You doing ok?"

"Well I wish I could entertain you all a bit further," Robotnik interrupted them, prompting them to focus their attention on him, "but I think I've let you stay on board my station long enough. I'll defeat you all and I'll take you all to the roboticizer myself!"

Finishing his speech, an eerie, purple aura enveloped the doctor, a red flash appearing behind his glasses. He plopped down into his chair and closed the cockpit to his robot, getting it into a rather threatening position. Its chest closed up as well, hiding away the emeralds. Rainbow, Sonic and Knuckles all got into fighting positions of their own, Rainbow flaring her wings, Sonic looking like he was about to dash into the bot with a smirk, and Knuckles in a boxing stance.

Robotnik from the inside the protection of his cockpit let a sinister grin grow onto his face. These little pests thought they could still be a threat to him. He was in his prime right now. He was determined to show them just how much trouble they were in, especially one particular hedgehog, which he couldn't help but feel himself growing even more angry at the thought of him. He took his fist and slammed down on a giant red button to his right.

"I'll see you all next fall! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Robotnik laughed.

The group all grew questioning looks before they felt the floor underneath their feet, or hooves, completely disappear. They looked down and saw that the floor had given way to a trapdoor. It was so quick that none of them even caught onto it until they were all falling, a massive robot looking down at them from the ledge.

Rainbow recovered quickly. She straightened herself out and let her wings carry her. She saw that both Sonic and Knuckles were still falling at an alarming rate. With great agility, she jetted down to them, the warm feeling she got in her chest somehow feeling like it was enhancing her already great speed. She ignored it and focused on the blue hedgehog in front of her.

Sonic saw that the pegasus was heading straight for him and readied himself to be caught. He grabbed her extended forehoof and was thrown onto her back. If anyone else was seeing them right now it would look like he was surfing on her.

Rainbow then turned toward Knuckles and noticed how close the floor was approaching them. She quickly reached her other hoof out to him. He took it, and like Sonic, was thrown onto her back right behind the hedgehog. It's a good thing they were only about the size of Scootaloo, otherwise Rainbow might not have been able to support them both. See thing floor rapidly getting closer, she extended her wings out wide, instantly slowing their decent and causing her whole body to jerk. Nonetheless, she was able to safely land on the metal floor, Sonic and Knuckles jumping off soon after.

They got a good look of where they landed. They were now in an absolutely large square room with a massive window on one wall looking out into space and the blue planet beneath them.

"Hey, thanks for the save miss," Knuckles said giving her a smile.

Rainbow gave him a grin and crossed her hooves. "No problemo."

"Yeah, you really saved our butts their Colors," Sonic said with a thumbs up.

This time, Rainbow had to force to keep her smile. "My. Name's. Not. Colors."

Before anymore conversation was had, the group was thrown off their feet by the impact of the massive robot landing beside them with a loud thud. They all landed, but quickly picked themselves up and faced Robotnik.

"Take this!" Robotnik yelled from the bot's mic.

The robot raised its right arm high and brought in back down towards the group. Seeing the arm rapidly approaching, they all picked a direction and dodged out of way, letting the arm slam onto the floor. Seeing his opportunity, Sonic rushed the robot, jumping in the air and delivering a punch to the top of its head. That was a bad idea on his part, as he felt his entire arm shiver in pain while Robotnik hadn't even budged. He held back a single tear, not daring to let it drop.

Seeing the hedgehog in his position, Robotnik nudged the robot's head forward, causing Sonic to be sent flying. Sonic righted himself and landed on his feet, clutching his hand trying to fight back the pain.

"Ok, new plan guys," Sonic said looking for suggestions.

"I've got this!" Rainbow said cockily.

She dashed into the air, letting her new power speed her up even further. Robotnik attempted to block the oncoming pegasus, but was to slow to react to the intense speeds. Rainbow just zipped around his arms and passed right by him. She made a quick U-turn a delivered a powerful buck to the robot's left leg. The robot stumbled a bit as it tried to right itself.

Keeping the robot up, Robotnik spotted the offending pegasus and swung at her with the bot's left arm, spinning the three spikes on the end rapidly as he did. He came close to hitting her, but in an instant, she was already in retreat, the attack completely missing her. He barely even noticed wear she had gone she was going so fast.

Before he could respond, she was already making her way back, not giving him any time to gain a footing. He swung again, but she just dodged it again before colliding with the bot's chest area, causing it to slide back a couple feet.

"Hey she's actually pretty good!" Knuckles said to Sonic.

"She's alright," Sonic said rubbing his nose. "Nothing I couldn't do though."

"You mean like what you pulled a second ago," Knuckles said sarcastically.

Sonic put his hands behind his head lazily. "I was just testing the waters ya know. Can't go into a fight without knowing what you're getting into."

"Well if you're so enlightened now do you think you should help a little?" said Knuckles.

Sonic just gave him his trademark smirk and stepped forward, popping his knuckles as he did so. "You mean am I ready to kick Egg Head's big butt back to Earth? Yeah. I think I can do that."

He didn't let knuckles respond. He dashed off to the currently ongoing battle between the blue pegasus and the fat, metal giant, leaving behind a gust of wind.

Meanwhile, Robotnik was still attempting to take out the now very annoying pegasus, who was still moving too fast for his sensors to keep up. Whenever he thought he had her, she just retreated and appeared somewhere else.

"Hmm…she's more of a threat than I originally thought," he growled. "I suppose it's time to step it up a notch."

He grabbed a lever next to a red meter and pushed it up halfway. The meter turned from red to yellow as the machine whirred to life. Unseen within the inner workings of the robot, the Master Emerald glowed brightly as energy seemed to flow from it through a series of pipes and wires.

As this was going on, Rainbow was about to make another pass at the bot. With her new power flowing through her she had been able to keep out of that things reach for the most part. Without this speed, she might have been caught pretty early on. Although, whoever this doctor guy is, he really didn't seem like as much of a threat as he was made out to be. This would be a piece of cake at this point.

Rainbow was about to deliver another powerful buck to the bot, but before she made contact, she saw a flash of light appear at one side of the robot and it, surprisingly, quickly moved to her left, causing her attack to miss it completely. She skidded on the floor and stopped, taking in what just happened. How had it moved that fast when it was so slow before?

She didn't have any time to think on the matter, as the bot was suddenly charging her, the bright light illuminating the area behind it. Instinctively, she flew straight up, letting the robot go right under her. She managed to get a good look at what was behind it this way as well. On its back were a series of ports that were all of a sudden opened up. Out of each one came a torrent of bright, white flame, propelling the robot forward. Stopping its assault, the robot closed the ports and it slid along the floor as it turned around, causing sparks to fly from its feet.

It didn't give her anytime to breath as it shot out one of its spiked arms at her. She was so surprised by it that she couldn't react fast enough to get out of the way in time. Before it could make contact, however, it was quickly hit away by a rapidly spinning blue ball, sending it flying away from Rainbow. Without missing a beat, it shot itself at the robot at intense speeds, constantly spinning as it made contact with its head. The bot stumbled backwards as it attempted to right itself.

The ball came to the floor and uncurled to reveal Sonic before he ran behind the bot to its blind spot. As he did, he spotted a glowing, green opening in its underside. With a swift motion, he jumped up and hit the supposed weak spot.

"What the!" Robotnik yelled in confusion as the robot fell forward and landed face first on the metal floor, knocking the good doctor around a bit in his cockpit. The bot teetered a bit on its round belly before coming to a halt and sitting motionless on the floor as the machinery inside weakly whirred until the sound disappeared.

Sonic, seeing the state of the bot, jumped unto its back before knocking on the metal. Even still, the robot wasn't moving anymore and Sonic looked up to Rainbow Dash, giving her a toothy grin and extending the V-sign at her.

"HA! Did you see that?!" he asked excitedly. "Total knockout!"

Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes in response, but she honestly couldn't be irritated at his cockiness. He did pretty much save her from that last attack, so she could let him bask in his own success for a bit. And…that was pretty cool.

"I think I came up with something there," he said looking at his fists. "Never really tried launching myself like that before. Robuttnik had no idea what hit him."

"Ok kid, don't get ahead of yourself," Rainbow said plainly as she flew down to meet him.

"You're just jealous you didn't do it lady," Sonic said extending a finger at her.

Rainbow gave him a bored look before focusing on the robot below her. "I think it's time we gave Robotnik a taste of his own medicine.

"Now you're speaking my language," Sonic said winding up his arm.

---

Unknown to them, Robotnik was still inside trying to situate himself back in his chair. He knew he should've installed seatbelt in this thing. Everything was all sideways and it was difficult to find the controls again. As this was happening, a round hatch opened up coming from the body and a small, red and perfectly round robot rolled in. It quickly had to open up its body and extend it arms to catch itself from the disorienting cockpit.

"I suppose it's wrong of me to say that this isn't going as you planned," said the robot as matter of factly.

The robot was bunced as a yellow cube fell through the hatch and hit on the doctor's head, eliciting a pained grunt. The cube landed above the controls to the bot and opened up to reveal a square, yellow robot.

"Ugh…I thi—thi—think my voice chip is loo—loo—loo—loose," it said as it's voice stuttered in static.

Robotnik grabbed the little robot by the head and threw him back behind him, clearing the controls. It slammed into the side of the cockpit as its counterpart went to its aid.

"So now what doctor," the round one said as it worked on its friend, looking for that loose voice chip. "By my calculations, we have a 0.99999999999% chance them not breaking in here. Another cause of you rushing into a fight without a surefire plan."

The yellow one jittered a bit as sparks flew from it head. "I think it was a gr—great plan. Just look. The hedgehog and his fri—fri—friends fell into the trap, didn't they?"

"Much good that did us," the round one said sarcastically.

"Just shut up you nincombots!" Robotnik yelled as his eyes glowed red again. "Prepare all systems. We're pushing all the way to full power!"

The round robot looked surprised at those words and accidentally knocked its friend in the back of the head, causing more sparks to fly for a second before stopping. "Full power?! I don't believe this machine can handle that much output!"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Robotnik said flashing an evil grin.

The robot just shrugged. Why did it even try? First though, it needed to fix its friend. No telling what kind of damage could've been done to the voice chip. It turned back, only to see the square one already pulling levers and throwing switches.

"YEEEEEHAWWWW," it yelled in a western drawl as the machinery flickered and whirred to life.

The round one just face palmed and joined him in the system startup, not even trying to argue anymore.

"Now Sonic, Rainbow Dash, let's see if your speed helps you after this!" Robotnik said throwing the power switch up to its max, the yellow bar going all the way up to red.

---

Sonic and Rainbow stumbled as the robot under them started to move. Rainbow noticed the hatches on its back start to open up and her eyes went wide.

"Move!" she yelled has she grabbed Sonic and threw him and herself off the back. Soon after, its entire back ejected a torrent of white flame again, this time being able to reach all the way up to the ceiling.

They rolled on the floor before coming to a stop and readying themselves for what came. The flames on its back had ceased and now there were flames coming from its stomach, propelling its entire form into the air. The arm that was deflected by Sonic rose into the air and magnetized itself back to the robot's empty arm, reattaching itself. The flames then ceased, letting the robot fall back to the floor, landing feet first and facing the two heroes.

"Chaos Cannon, fire!" Robotnik's voice yelled.

The robot's chest opened up to reveal the emeralds again and the seven Chaos Emeralds were spinning rapidly clockwise around the Master Emerald. They all glowed brightly as the energy built up in the dial. Without warning, a large, white beam shot from its chest, heading right for Sonic and Rainbow. Their eyes widened as it approached. The floor was being torn apart as it passed over, and they hadn't reacted early enough to move out of the way. That is, until Sonic felt something run into him from the left, and it in turn caused him to hit Rainbow Dash, and they all fell out of the way, but just barely. The beam impacted with the wall and a bright flash engulfed the room.

The flash quickly subsided and Sonic and Rainbow sat up to see that it was Knuckles who had pushed them out of the way. He was breathing hard, as he must've ran hard and fast to make sure he got them to safety. They both looked over to where the laser had impacted and saw a massive hole in its place. The wall looked as if a tunnel was dug out in it, and the edges of it were red hot. If they had been in the way of that they would've been nothing but dust.

"You both need to pay more attention," he said through long breaths. "The moment that thing opened up I was booking it right to you."

"Thanks for that," Rainbow said at his side. "You ok?"

"Yeah…I'm fine," Knuckles answered.

"Man, you look like you pushed you yourself harder than me. And that's saying something," Sonic said helping him up.

"Well Knuckles, you had to go and attempt to ruin my plans again," Robotnik said, causing them all to look back at the robot. "This time I'll be sure to get all three of you."

"YEAH! GET EM BOSS!" another voice yelled through the mic.

The robot whirred again, the dial spinning to let another blast off.

"Scatter!" Knuckles yelled.

The group responded quickly, as they all went in different directions. Robotnik grunted in annoyance and canceled the laser, closing the chest back up. It focused its attention on Sonic. He was the main target.

The robot charged at great speeds with the help of its boosters. Sonic was surprised at how fast this thing was. It quickly caught up to him and swiped its massive arms at him. Sonic managed to dodge the first arm, but the second arm caught him off guard and sent him flying across the room. He slid along the floor before coming to a stop. Robotnik wasn't letting up. Already he was charging him again.

Rainbow had turned back to help Sonic and was wondering why he wasn't trying to move at all. Unless that last hit knocked him unconscious. Rainbow squinted her eyes at him and from what she could tell, he was out. She saw how fast the robot was approaching and saw how it was raising its arm to bring down on top of him.

Without thinking, she did the only thing she could think of. She reached out to her new power and used it to boost up her speed. She soared through the air and in a sudden flash of red, she boosted right for the falling arm of the robot. She managed to put herself between the arm and Sonic, and saw the arm rapidly approaching her. She charged straight at it and the two impacted.

However, instead of Rainbow going flying as expected, a bright flash of red encompassed Rainbow and the robot's arm was sent bouncing off and it came to a complete stop. The bot stumbled again as a result.

"What?!" Robotnik yelled as he fought with his robot.

The light died down, revealing Rainbow still flying in the air with her hooves covering her face. She lowered them cautiously, finally realizing she was still unscathed. Not only that, but she also saw what looked to be a transparent, red barrier around her. As soon as it came, however, it faded away. She looked at her hooves as she pondered on what just happened, but her thoughts were interrupted almost immediately as she heard machines whirring. She quickly looked back up to be met with a massive robotic fist.

The robot's spike tipped hand impacted with the small pegasus, her barely missing the spikes and being hit with the smooth, but metal surface. The hit sent her spiraling toward the floor, her impact nearly leaving a dent in the metal as she bounced and landed next to Sonic. Robotnik looked at his handy work with the two heroes and let a wicked grin form on his face.

Rainbow's entire body like it was in intense pain right now. She clutched her stomach and squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to fight off the aches and pains. She opened one off her shut eyes with a twitch as she looked at her body, noticing a small glimmer of red along it. The red energy faded away from her body like a mist, leaving her still struggling to recover. She had no idea what was going on, but she felt that if whatever that was wasn't there she would've been in much worse shape.

"It's been fun," Robotnik said amusingly, "but it's time to say your prayers. They'll be your last."

Rainbow struggled to look up, and noticed that Sonic was finally coming to. He, like her, was having a tough time fighting through the pain. If she didn't know better, she'd say he was trying to burn right through Robotnik's cockpit with a glare. Rainbow focused back on the robot and saw it was about to deliver a finishing punch. She tried to pick herself up, but she still felt the pain trying to keep her in place. Sonic was in the same dilemma. At most he was just able to get to his knees, but nothing more than that.

"Say goodbye Sonic the Hedgehog!" Robotnik said, throwing the bot's fist at them.

Rainbow just closed her eyes and waited for the attack to hit. There was nothing she could do but take the hit and pray that it didn't finish the job. Yeah right. That attack would probably crush them into blue paste. She could hear what sounded like yelling coming through her headset form Silver, Blaze and her friends, but at this point she wasn't even listening to them. Just to the sound of machinery closing in on her.

She suddenly felt a breeze and something hit her in the head and her body tensed up has she readied herself for what came. Strangely enough, however, the impact from the fist never came. She waited for a few more seconds, but still nothing.

"Nice save again buddy," she heard Sonic said.

She slowly opened her eyes to see a cowpony hat sitting on the floor in front of her. She looked up and couldn't believe what she was seeing. The robot was still directly in front of them, and its fist was still attempting to squish them. Holding it in its place, however, was knuckles pushing against the massive fist with nothing but his bare hands.

"You've…already done…enough today doctor," Knuckles struggled out.

"You insignificant pest," Robotnik said with disdain as he tried to move the robot forward.

Knuckles was pushed back slightly as sweat dripped down from her brow. He wasn't giving up though. With a mighty yell, he started pushing even harder against the massive hand.

"What?!" Robotnik yelled in surprise as his robot started to slide backwards.

Knuckles continued to push and push, letting out a grunt with each step her took. Step by step, the robot kept moving back.

"Full throttle!" Robotnik yelled. "Get that blasted echidna out of my way!"

The panels on the back of bot opened up again and let out a torrent of flame again. The new force allowed the robot to start pushing against knuckles again, Knuckles still trying to keep the bot at bay. He brought out all the strength he had and let out another yell. The robot stopped in place and both it and Knuckles were locked in a battle of endurance, which the robot clearly had a lot of. Knuckles could feel his muscles burning and his face turning even redder than it already was. This was a losing battle and something needed to be done fast.

"If you two are done sitting around I could use some help here!" he let out in a single breath.

Rainbow struggled to stand back up, but slowly she was able to get on all four hooves. Sonic was also able to stand up fully and she wondered where to go from here. Brute force obviously wasn't working. So far, they've barely made a dent in that thing. Speed was there best way to go from here, but what could they do to finish it off?

Sonic, on the other hand, was already getting into a sprint, despite the pain he was feeling throughout his body. He jumped and launched himself at the robot.

"Take this Robuttnik!" he yelled. "Homing attack!"

Robotnik heard that comment and brought the robot's free arm up and blocked Sonic from making contact with its body. Sparks flew from their contact and the robot pushed its arm and sent Sonic flying back again, letting him land a few meters away.

'Idiot,' Rainbow thought to herself.

Rainbow slowly took flight, still trying not to bring out any more pain than there already was. She saw Knuckles still struggling against the robot with Sonic making more attempts to take it down. This time, the robot's eyes were shooting red lasers at him in an attempt to keep him away. The head kept tracking the blue hedgehog everywhere he went, not letting him gain any ground.

Think think. What could she use to gain an upper hand on this thing? If they get close, it'll shoot them at this point. If they do nothing, Knuckles will get steamrolled then it'll come after them. This was turning out to be way harder than she signed up for.

Then it hit her. 'Silver our fight may have given me an idea,' she thought.

She fought back the pain as best she could and rushed the robot. It spotted her and charged up its eyes, but before it could fire, Rainbow suddenly flew up, moving into the robot's blind spot. She quickly started flying around in circle way above its head.

"This is gonna be close," she said to herself.

A breeze started to pick up as the artificial air started to form a mini tornado around the robot's body. Knuckles, Sonic and Robotnik all noticed this wondered where she was getting at. Even a tornado didn't look like it could do anything to this things body.

"I think Colors has lost it," Sonic said.

For once, Robotnik actually agreed with the annoying hedgehog. There was nothing this little pony could do against his masterfully crafted machine. With the emeralds powering it, it was invincible. He smiled smugly, that is until he started to get a little hot. In fact, he was starting to sweat profoundly.

"Wow sir," said the yellow robot, "you been workin' out. You look like you've been pushin' yerself for once."

"He hasn't worked out in ages Cubot!" the red one said. "The robot is heating up!"

True to his words, on the outside, the tornado was now slowly taking in the white flames shooting from the back of the bot. Slowly but surely, the flames soon engulfed the entire body of the robot, stopping at the wrist of the hand as not to engulf Knuckles as well. Knuckles and Sonic looked at the display with wide eyes. Ok, that's impressive.

Rainbow was still circling in the air, doing her best to keep the tornado at the right size while also trying to keep herself from being burned by the flames that were now shooting up to the ceiling.

"Sir!" the red robot said. "We're all gonna melt if this keeps up! All the systems are overheating!"

"AAARRRRRRRGGGGG!" Robotnik yelled. "Shut down the thrusters!"

On que, the thrusters shut off and the flaming tornado disappeared, showing the red, hot body of the giant robot. Feeling a lot of pressure being let off him, Knuckles yelled with a giant heave and pulled robot off the floor. As he pulled it over him he let it go, throwing it over to the other end of the room and let it hit the floor with a massive quake. Knuckles fell to one knee again and he tried to catch his breath, Sonic and Rainbow meeting with him.

"Thanks, miss," he said addressing Rainbow. "A few more seconds there and I would've been squished."

"It's Rainbow," she said through loud breaths of her own, "and you're welcome."

"I'll admit it wasn't too bad," Sonic said with a rub of his nose.

"Says you," Rainbow said with a smirk. "Last I checked you were just running in circles."

"It could've worked. After all, you were flying in circles were ya?" Sonic pointed out.

Before their conversation continued, they heard the sound of metal against metal, and saw the large robot trying to pick itself back up again.

"Quick, both of you come here," Knuckles said.

Both Sonic and Rainbow walked up to him and he extended his hands out to them, one for each. He closed his eyes and a feint, golden glow appeared around his gloves and enveloped Sonic and Rainbow. They both looked a little surprised as the pain they felt earlier slowly faded away. The glow stopped and Knuckles started breathing heavily again. Sonic and Rainbow looked at their hands/hooves in wonder. They still felt a little pain, but it was nowhere near as bad as it was before.

"What was that?" asked Rainbow.

"Being the guardian of the Master Emerald, I picked up a few techniques from its power," Knuckles explained. "I can't do it too much at once though, so sorry for that."

"Hey, I'll take what I can get," Sonic said stretching out his now healed limbs.

"ALL OF YOU ARE INSIGNIFICANT PESTS!" they heard Robotnik yell from the now standing robot across the room. "I WILL STOP YOU HERE AND NOW!"

The robot was covered in scorch marks from Rainbow's stunt earlier, and the metal on the head was slightly indented from the throw Knuckles gave it. That didn't stop it from being fully functional though. The chest opened up like it did before and the dial slowly started to spin up.

"This isn't going to end well," Knuckles said.

"Anyone got a plan," Sonic asked, not too sure of what to do himself.

Rainbow thought for a second and answered, "I think I've got it!"

Knuckles and Sonic looked at the pegasus with interest. If she had something that could end this quickly, they would take it at this point.

"PREPARE TO BE NOTHING BUT SPACE DUST," Robotnik yelled as the laser charged.

"What do you think?" Rainbow asked. She though it was a good plan, but unfortunately, it was all up to them.

"I say go for it," answered Knuckles. "We don't really have anything else rely on."

Sonic looked like he was in thought for a second and Rainbow thought that he was just gonna mock her again in some way. Surprisingly, he gave her a smile and a thumbs up. "Lady, this whole thing is crazy, but that's the only language I speak."

"FARWELL FRIENDS!" Robotnik yelled as the laser finished charging.

"Alright! Go!" Rainbow yelled.

Knuckles ran off to the side, making sure to stay away from where Sonic and Rainbow were headed. Sonic, using his super speed, ran toward a wall and ran straight up it. Rainbow, on the other hoof, flew to the other end of the room and started waving her hooves back and forth.

"Hey Eggman!" she said as an insult. "What's with the whole fat robot thing?! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to project!"

That got his attention alright. The robot turned to Rainbow and the massive laser fired once again. She dodged the blast and flew as fast as she could another part of the room, the robot turning to try and follow her with the white laser. It started tearing through the metal walls of the room and left massive, hot gashes everywhere.

"Hey! Egghead!" Sonic yelled, prompting the robot to turn its head to him sitting on a pipe on the ceiling. "So, you do you prefer hard boiled, or scrambled eggs?! Cause at this point we could go both ways!"

Robotnik, with rage in his eyes, turned the robot to Sonic and the laser followed it right to him. Sonic jumped off and landed on the floor, running as fast as he could and letting the laser follow him this time.

"Sir!" the red robot said. "You can't keep this up! The systems weren't meant to handle this amount of power!"

"Just shut up!" the doctor yelled with red growing in his eyes. I'm going to teach these two a lesson and I don't care how much it takes!"

This continued for some time. Sonic and Rainbow would occasionally switch places and let the laser follow the other, but it could never find its mark. All it did it was leave massive cuts through the entire room.

"FULL POWER!" Robotnik yelled once more.

The laser grew larger and just barely missed Rainbow and Sonic. It cut straight through the walls and blasted through most of the space station. If anyone looking at the Death Egg from the outside, they'd see a large white beam blasting through the exterior from inside and flying into space.

The laser had now stopped, and Sonic and Rainbow looked at the robot. It looked like it was jittering a bit form the power it had just used, and the dial was still spinning, but very slowly. Smoke could be seen seeping through the now present cracks in the glass.

"Knuckles! Now!" Rainbow yelled.

On que, Knuckles came out from the shadows and leaped in front of the robot. With all of its energy used up, it could do nothing but watch as Knuckles collided his fist with the glass casing in its chest, shattering it completely. He grabbed hold of the master emerald and yanked it out with great force, the yank nearly pulling out the entire dial and letting the Chaos Emeralds fall from their place.

Knuckles jumped back with the Master Emerald held over his head in an impressive display. The Chaos Emeralds however, all fell in tandem before glowing brightly and flashing practically out of existence.

"What just happened?" asked Rainbow. "Where'd they go?"

"That's what happens with the emeralds," Knuckles answered. "Once they've been used they disappear. They then separate to different parts of the planet. This way they have to be found all over again in order to be used again."

"Man, that's a bummer," Sonic said disappointingly.

They heard a noise and saw the top of the robot open up to reveal Robotnik floating up with two small robots next to him inside of a tiny flying machine. This time however, his eyes were no longer glowing and there was no purple aura covering him.

"Give up doc," Sonic said with confidence. "We've got you cornered this time."

"You may have won this time Sonic, and company, but next time it won't be so easy," Robotnik said as a glass dome closed over the top of the machine. "Have fun with reentry!"

He flew off through one of the many holes the laser cut open earlier and disappeared.

"Hey! Come back here!" Rainbow yelled, but stopped as they all nearly tripped up from a rumbled.

"Uh…guys," Knuckles said.

Sonic and Rainbow looked at him and saw that he was pointing at the large window. What they saw, they didn't like. The planet was getting closer, fast.

"Man, we must've really messed up this place if its falling back to Earth," Sonic said.

"We did kind of let that guy blast up the whole place," Rainbow said with a bead of sweat falling from her brow.

Another rumble shook the whole station and flames were already starting to cover the window.

"We have to go!" Knuckles yelled as he varied the Master Emerald away.

Nodding, the other two follow suit, but they were soon brought to a halt as the window suddenly broke open and started sucking them out. Knuckles grabbed a grate with one hand and held the Master Emerald with the other. Rainbow did the same with both of her hooves and Sonic just grabbed her rainbow, colored tail, getting a pained yelp out of Rainbow as she gave him a glare.

Outside, they could already start to see the fire dying down as clouds started to pass them by. The air was still trying to suck them out, but so far, they were able to stay rooted in place. That is, until the Master Emerald slipped right out of Knuckles's grasp, flying straight out the window.

"The Master Emerald!" he yelled with worry as he let go and followed it out.

"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled as he let go of Rainbow's tail.

"Oh pony feathers," she let out as she let go as well and followed them both out.

It was pure chaos outside. It was open sky, falling debris were everywhere, there was a massive station right behind her with an equally ugly face on it as the robot, and she had little to no control over where she went as she tried to right herself. The shrapnel from all the flying debris came very close to hitting her many times before she finally managed to gain control over her movements. As she did, she spotted a piece of metal flying right at her face and quickly barrel rolled out of the way.

Finally getting some breathing room, she quickly scanned the area for Sonic and Knuckles and spotted them both clutching onto the Master Emerald. She also noticed the massive piece of the station that was spinning right in their direction. Quickly, she managed to keep control over her body as she darted straight for them. The piece of scrap was about to hit them as she slammed right into the side of the emerald and pushed it and them out of the way just in time. Now, all three of them were hanging onto the Master Emerald as they slowly sailed away from the falling space station.

"What now?" she asked as they fell faster and faster. She could just fly on her own, but she couldn't leave them behind, and didn't seem like they were gonna leave the emerald to fall in what she could only assume to be ocean below them.

"Beats me," Sonic answered. "Knuckles?"

He was silent for a moment before answering, "We could—"

He was interrupted as they were suddenly jerked in one direction, all of them barely hanging onto the emerald in the process. They managed to pull themselves back up as they noticed the toe cable latched onto the top of the emerald. They were being carried. They looked up and saw what Rainbow could only interpreted as a large, blue bird with something spinning on the front.

"Is that Robotnik again," she asked, hoping it wasn't.

Sonic just smiled and answered, "Hardly! Hey Tail's!"

---

The group finally found a place to land after that entire fiasco, that being an island with lots of jungle covering it as Knuckles led them deeper into it, the Master Emerald still on his back. When they did, Rainbow was finally able to meet the one who saved them, who turned out to be a yellow fox named Miles, but he just asked her to call him Tails. She could see why, as he had not one, but TWO fluffy tails. Although, after everything else that happened today, she just wasn't questioning it anymore. She did like him though. He was definitely younger than Sonic or Knuckles, but he turned out to be quite a tinkerer, especially with that flying machine he had.

The group continued through the jungle until they reached what looked like a ruin with a pedestal on top with stairs leading up to it. Knuckles and the group walked up the stairs until reaching the top and Knuckles placed the Master Emerald on the pedestal.

He left it there and backed away. There was a pause before the emerald glowed brightly and the ground started to shake. Rainbow, Sonic and Tails all looked a bit surprised, but Knuckles looked as if this was normal. Over the course of a few minutes, the shaking stopped, and the group looked a bit perplexed. What was that?

"What just happened?" Rainbow asked.

"If I had to guess," started Tails, "I'd say that the Master Emerald's power started flowing through Angel Island again. What might've happened was just the island flying back to its place in the air.

"It what!" Rainbow exclaimed as she looked at the sky. Now that he mentioned it, the clouds did look a lot closer than they did before. 'Just a weird part of this world Rainbow Dash. We have Cloudsdale, so I suppose it's not too crazy.' She thought to herself.

Knuckles turned to the group and gave them all a smile. "I want to thank you guys for your help up there. I don't think I could've done it alone."

"It wasn't a problem Knux," Sonic said with his trademark grin. "Only next time don't be accusing me of stealing."

"I'll think on it," Knuckles said jokingly.

Rainbow smiled at the display. Even hear she could tell that these guys were great friends. It kind of reminded her of her and her friends back in Equestria.

"So, Colors," Sonic said addressing Rainbow, "What're you gonna do now that old Robotnik flew the coup?"

And that smile instantly vanished. "I told you before that my name is not Colors! It's Rainbow Dash and you better remember it you little pin cushion!"

Sonic just threw his head behind his head and grinned. "You know you're real easy to get a rise out of."

"Sonic," said Tails worryingly. "Do you think you really should be antagonizing her?"

Sonic turned to Tails with a raised eyebrow. "What's wrong with that?"

Rainbow was able to show this little punk a piece of her mind as she clutched her hooves. However, she heard what sounded like Silver's voice through her earpiece.

"Rainbow! You did great!" he said excitingly.

Rainbow tore her attention away from Sonic and answered, "I just…did what I thought was right. So, is everything fixed? Or is there still something going on here?"

"No. It looked like whatever was affecting that part of the timeline has left and its gone back to normal," he answered. "Although I think it's time for you to come back. No need for you to stay any longer."

She didn't answer him, back she looked back to the group and said, "Hey guys, I gotta get going. Got things to do that don't involve falling space stations."

Knuckles walked up first and looked up at her with his hand extended. "Well thanks for your help Rainbow Dash. I don't say this much, but I hope we get to meet again sometime."

Rainbow smiled and excepted the hand/hoof shake before letting Tails come up toy her.

"I hope we get to see you again!" he said before extending his hand as well.

Rainbow didn't think this much, but she couldn't help but think how cute this kid was as he excitingly came up to her and repeated the same thing she did for Knuckles.

Finally, Sonic walked up to her and she couldn't help but cringe. This kid was annoying, definitely annoying. But, he did save her more than once today, so she supposed she could forgive him this time. She extended her hoof and Sonic accepted it with a grin.

"We should race sometime Colors," he said. "I'm itching to see which one of us is faster."

Ignoring her nickname, she smirked at him and said, "Maybe when you're older squirt." She then ended the hand/hoof shake before she flew away and didn't look back, despite hearing Sonic trying to shoot something back at her.

Leaving her new acquaintances behind, she flew for some time before finding a good spot some ways away from the ruin before landing and moving behind a tree.

"Umm," she started unsure where to go from here. "How do I get home Silver?"

"It's simple really," he answered. "Just concentrate on the place where you came from and the Time Gate will do the rest."

Rainbow nodded, although she knew he couldn't see it, and closed her eyes as she thought about the ruin she and the gang were at prior to all this. She felt her body get lighter as, unknown to her, a blue light began to encompass her. She subtly felt her new power welling up inside her as this happened.

'Man, am I gonna have a story to tell everypony back home,' she thought as she disappeared seemingly out of existence, leaving only sparkles where she left.

To be continued…

Comments

[Crankshaft]

Why does this have so few views and a less-than-great reception?!

Bar some minor errors here and there, it's great! By far and away, it's among the more enjoyable and well-written Sonic/MLP crossovers — mainly, because, for once, it's not the same old "Sonic Crew goes to Equestria and stops Eggman" shebang. The long chapters are great for the immersion, too.

You've really put a lot effort into this!