Robotnik vs. Equestria

A “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” Fanfiction

Written by Jade Dawn

“My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” is owned by Hasbro. "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" is owned by SEGA, DiC Animation City, and Bohbot Entertainment. I own nothing.

Chapter 2: Snooping (and kidnapping) as Usual

The Castle of the Two Sisters

It had taken a few hours for Dr. Robotnik's flying saucer to cool off after entry into Equestria's atmosphere. But now at last, the ship had cooled enough for its three devious occupants to venture outside and see the world which would be the target of their hostilities.

Slowly, the boarding ramp uncoiled from the saucer like a giant tongue, and the door opened up shortly afterwards. Robotnik descended the ramp and paused, taking in a view of his surroundings.

They had landed in a clearing in a large, forested area. Behind the saucer were the ruins of what once might have been a castle, with a large moat and rickety-looking bridges connecting to it. The trees all had strange, curved looking trunks, looking for all the world like something out of a fantasy novel. Birds were singing happily, and the sun shone down upon the flying saucer, reflecting off of its silver hull in a brilliant yellow haze.

Robotnik took a deep breath of fresh air. "Look at this," he said happily, gesturing at the landscape around him. "So peaceful. So tranquil. So...completely unsuspecting of my diabolical plans for its destruction! MWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!" He laughed loudly, then turned back toward the entrance to the saucer. "Scratch! Grounder! Where are you two bolt-heads?"

There was loud crash from within the ship, which Robotnik could only assume was some piece of equipment knocked over by the two bumbling bots. An instant later, the duo were at the entrance, saluting their creator.

Scratch spoke up first. "You called us, your..." he trailed off as he got an eyeful of the world around them. "Whoa! This place looks amazing!"

"Yeah!" Grounder agreed. "There were never this many trees back on Mobius."

"Yes, yes, more oxygen being pumped into the air. Big deal," Robotnik said sarcastically. "Now–"

"And look at that!" Scratch pointed upward at the sky above them, which was strikingly monochromatic compared to Mobius's typically multicolored sky. "The sky is blue!"

"Oh, shut up, you ding-bots!" Robotnik chastised. "We're not here to admire the scenery! We're here to make this planet my domain, remember?"

"Oh, yeah!" Grounder replied. "Yes, of course, your maliciousness!"

"That's better. Now...for our first act of conquest." He pointed at the castle. "With a little fixing up, these ruins could serve as a perfect foundation for my new base of operations. I shall remain here and begin moving our wares in. While I am engaged with that, I have a job for you two."

"What do you need?" Grounder asked.

Robotnik pointed to the forest. "The ship's sensors detected a settlement to the southwest as we came down. I assume this is where these so-called pony creatures live. I want you to go to that town, capture one, and bring him or her back here for interrogation. I want to know as much as I can about how their society works before I start my takeover."

"But didn't that I.M. Meen guy say they would be easy to overthrow?" Scratch asked.

"Now, look," Robotnik replied. "I know he gave us a pointer to an ideal planet at least, but that doesn't mean that I trust the man. Me and Meen have a rather rough history between us, and if this is some kind of practical joke, I want to know as soon as possible. I didn't come who-knows how many lightyears just to get stiffed by that annoying, child-snatching magician." He pointed again. "Now get to it!"

"Right away sir!" The robotic duo said, as they moved forward to embark on their assignment. But then they suddenly stopped. "Uh..." Scratch began.

Robotnik sighed in annoyance. "What?"

"How exactly are we supposed to catch one of these ponies?"

Robotnik groaned. "I don't know! Offer it a carrot or something! I didn't spend my childhood studying up on multicolored equines! I spent my childhood learning how to be an evil genius! Now get a move on so I can start making that happen!"

The two saluted, and went off into the forest. Soon, they had disappeared amongst the trees in the direction that Robotnik had pointed them in.

Robotnik turned and went back into the ship's interior, and began to unpack the various pieces of equipment that they had brought. Those two nitwits had better not bungle this up, he thought to himself as he worked. Oh, who am I kidding? It's Scratch and Grounder. Of course they'll do something wrong.

Ponyville

"...no, no, a little more to the right. A little more...a little more...there, that's it! Well done, everypony!" Twilight said as the volunteers set the last of the stage lights into place, while she hovered a few feet of the ground. She smiled as she surveyed the stage that was being set up for Coloratura's concert that night, visualizing how it would look when evening came.

In her mind, it was a thing of beauty. It was going to be the best concert since Songbird Serenade's at the Friendship Festival.

She alighted down to the seating area, where Applejack, Rarity, and a few other volunteer ponies were busy setting up the seating and decorations and such. "And how are things going with the seating arrangements?" Twilight asked cheerfully.

"About as well as it can be," replied Rarity, who was occupied with placing cushions on the seats. She took a look "And you've been doing a wonderful job here, Twilight. This concert is going to be simply fabulous!" she said, dramatically gesturing at the surrounding area with a hoof.

"Yeah, it sure is gonna look good," Applejack agreed, coming up to the other two. "Although, if ah'm bein' perfectly honest with y'all, I just can't wait to see Rara again."

"Did somepony call my name?"

At the sound of the all-too familiar voice, the three turned around...and there was Coloratura, smiling warmly at the trio.

"Rara!" Applejack exclaimed happily. She ran over to Coloratura and pulled her into a warm embrace. "It's so great to see ya again!"

"It's good to see you two, AJ," Coloratura replied. As she pulled herself out of the hug, she looked at Twilight and Rarity. "And it's nice to see you again, Princess Twilight. And, um...Rarity, was it?"

"Yes, that would be me," Rarity affirmed. "I must say, you entrance this time around was much less...extravagant than last time."

Coloratura nodded. "It's part of the new theme: 'Just a Pony'. Not to much fanfare or anything like that; just trying to remind Equestria that, except for the career, I'm just like the rest of you."

"Nice," Twilight said. "You even kept the outfit from that night."

"Yeah," Coloratura replied, looking down at the simple black shirt and skirt that she wore. "The audience seemed to like the new look. I do too." She grinned. "It also takes a lot less time to put on than the other one."

The four shared a laugh.

"Anyway," Twilight continued. "I was hoping to go over the musical selection with you. Do you think we could do that?"

"Could we put that on hold for a minute?" Coloratura asked. "I was gonna go to my trailer and freshen up a little before we start."

"That's fine," Twilight said with a nod. She began to head back toward the stage. "Meet you in a minute or two."

"I won't be long. Be right back," Coloratura said, giving a brief wave to Rarity and Applejack before she began to head to her trailer, which was parked a little ways behind the stage.

She smiled as she walked. It felt good to be back among the ponies that had helped put her back on the right path. Or rather, had removed the disgusting, contemptible bully of a manager that had knocked her off the right path in the first place. Either way you put it, they had helped.

But that feeling soon began to dissipate as she neared her trailer, and saw that the door was open ajar. She couldn't remember if it had been locked, but it definitely wasn't supposed to be open like that.

And then she heard the voices. Two of them, both male. Coming from inside the trailer.

Something resembling dread settled upon Coloratura's consciousness as she gingerly stepped up to the trailer, carefully opened the door, trying to avoid making a noise, and stepped inside.

To her left were two of the strangest excuses for living beings that she had ever seen. One of them was a tall, chicken-like creature with a body coated in some kind of armor. The other was a short, fat, metallic creature with drills for hands, treads for feet, and gauges for eyes. They stood before a bowl of candy that was on a table before them, arguing with each other.

"See, Scratch?" the short one said. "I told you they could eat candy! This'll be perfect as bait!"

"Okay, okay, I get it, Grounder," the chicken thing retorted, waving his arms in a defensive manner. "So they can likely digest candy without dying. Unless the one who lives here is suicidal or something. But even so, if they're anything like people back home, then their mothers would probably have given them the whole "stranger danger" speech."

"Why would they need to worry about strangers?" Grounder asked.

"For all the some reasons that they're going to worry about Doctor Robotnik. Now we can't stand around here arguing. Somebody's liable to hear us. Now let's go back outside, and–" he stopped mid-sentence as, while turning to head back to the door, he and his companion caught sight of Coloratura watching them.

"Oh, look!" Grounder said. "It's one of those pony-things." He gave a cheerful wave. "Hi there!"

For a moment, Coloratura said nothing. She just stood there, staring at the two robotic intruders with shocked, mind-blown eyes. She had expected to find over-eager fans or worse, but this...this was on a whole new level of awkward.

Finally, she slowly lifted a hoof and pointed at them. "What...the hay...is going on here?"

Grounder started, as if suddenly remembering. "Oh! Well, uh...you see..."

"I'll handle this, Grounder!" Scratch interrupted. He cleared his throat, and took a step forward. "Miss, we're sorry-not-sorry to inconvenience you like this, but..." he suddenly raised his hands menacingly, and Grounders drills retracted into his arms, being replaced by a butterfly net and a pair of handcuffs. Evil smiles suddenly stretched across their faces. "...you're coming with us. Come quietly, and we won't hurt you."

It didn't take too long for Coloratura to figure out what they wanted.

Not good. Not good at all.

Coloratura whirled for the door, but Grounder got their before she did, and slammed it shut, blocking it with his body. "Going somewhere?" he taunted.

Coloratura backed away. As she did, the two metallic mooks advanced on her.

"W-what do you want with me?" she asked.

"That's for us to know, and you to find out," Scratch answered. Coloratura had backed up against the wall of the trailer, and Scratch loomed over her. "Now, look. Our boss really needs one of you ponies, so if you'd just–"

He never got to finish.

A word of note here: Coloratura wasn't exactly an expert on combat. She wasn't into martial arts (although she was seriously considering taking lessons after an unfortunate incident with an over-eager fan) or anything like that. But she had a pretty decent kick. Not as powerful as the ones she'd been told that AJ could deliver, but she was a pretty doggone good kicker.

Scratch found this out the hard way.

Her kick hit him square in the chest, and he flew across the room with a loud yelp of pain, crashing into the opposite wall and sliding to the floor.

"Hey!" Grounder shouted as he charged forth. "You can't kick Scratch around like that! Only us and the boss are allowed to YOW!!!"

Coloratura had managed to duck behind him and kick him in the back, hurling him straight into a tall lamp in one of the corners of the trailer, sending it wobbling. Grounder fell to the floor with a groan.

Coloratura dusted herself off. "Alright, you creeps," she said as she once again headed for the door. "I'm gonna report you two to Princess Twilight, and then–"

THWACK!!!

The lamp, which had finally lost it's balance and fallen over, crashed against the back Coloratura's head. She slumped to the ground, and lay still.

Grounder slowly righted himself. "Wha...what happened?"

After getting back onto his own feet, Scratch went over to Coloratura's motionless form. He felt for a pulse. "I think she got knocked out by the lamp."

"Does...does that mean we won? Does that mean we caught her?" Grounder asked hopefully.

"Yeah...yeah! We did it!" Scratch exclaimed joyfully. "We caught one of those pony things! C'mon, Grounder! Let's get her back to Doctor Robotnik!"

Outside the trailer

While all of this mayhem was going on, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had decided to pay Coloratura a little visit. It would be nice, they had said to each other, to thank her again for allowing them to sing with her last time she had been to Ponyville.

"It feels lahk it's been forever since Coloratura came here last time," Apple Bloom said.

"I know, right?" Scootaloo replied. "That last concert was awesome! I'm really glad she's kept the new style."

"Do you think we'll get to sing with her again?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Maybe." Apple Bloom answered. "We'll just have ta' what an'..." she suddenly paused. "Wait a sec, y'all."

Sweetie Belle looked confused. "What's the–"

"Shh! Into those bushes over there!" Apple Bloom whispered, diving into the aforementioned bushes that were conveniently growing a few feet a way. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle quickly followed suit.

"What's going on?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Apple Bloom pointed at Coloratura's trailer, which was a few yards ahead of them. As they watched, the door opened slightly, and–much to their surprise–a chicken-like head poked out of the resulting crack, and peeked around.

Scootaloo was suddenly aware that her two friends were giving her an odd look.

"What?"

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Nuthin'," she said, then turned back to look at what was going on.

After a moment, the chicken head ducked back inside. Immediately afterwards, the door opened. A short, green creature with treads for feet and drills on its arms came out first. The chicken thing came out next. It was much taller than the other creature, and in its arms was–

"Oh, sweet Celestia," Sweetie Belle gasped.

The thing was carrying Coloratura in its arms. Her forelegs were tied against her body, and it looked like she was unconscious.

From the safety of the bush, the Crusaders watched as the two went off, apparently making an effort to keep themselves as quiet as possible. None of the fillies dared to move. They simply stared as the creatures disappeared into the tree line that marked the beginning of the Everfree Forest.

The Crusaders remained silent long after the strange creatures and their captive had disappeared into the forest.

Finally, Scootaloo spoke up.

"Well...uh-oh."

"This is terrible!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "What are we going to do?"

"We gotta find Princess Twilight an' tell her what happened!" Apple Bloom answered. She pulled herself out of the bush and launched into a run. "C'mon! We might not have much time!"

Somewhere in the Everfree Forest

"Let me go!" Coloratura yelled, kicking and squirming against her ropes. "I demand you set me free right now!" She gave Scratch another kick in the stomach.

Scratch yelped and struggled to keep his balance. "Will you please–OW!–quit moving a–YOW!–around so much?! You're not–AH!–making this easy–GAH!–for any of us here!"

"That's kinda the idea, bird face," Coloratura hissed.

"Look, we're almost back to the boss," Grounder said. "You might as well–OW!" He cried out in pain as Coloratura landed a kick on his drill nose, bending it. "My nose!" he exclaimed, rubbing the aforementioned drill.

"How is that even hurting you?" Coloratura asked. "You're robots. Robots can't feel pain."

"Doctor Robotnik calls it 'cartoon physics'. He says it's some logic bending force created by a mystical being called 'Aw-Ther' or something."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Neither do I. Now will you please stop kicking me so we can get this over with?"

The only response he got was a kick in the face.

"I'll take that as a no."

As they continued forward through the forest, Coloratura suddenly recognized their destination as the Castle of the Two Sisters. Her attention was drawn to a massive, silver flying saucer parked on crab-like landing gear outside the moat of the castle. It looked like something out of a comic book.

So they're aliens, Coloratura thought. That explains a lot.

Finally, after more walking (and a bit more damage to Scratch's already battered torso), they came to the throne room. Many of the old banners and carpets had been torn away and laid in a pile off to the side. Pieces of scientific equipment that Coloratura didn't recognize were scattered around the room.

But what drew here attention most was the being that she assumed was her captors' commander. A fat, mustached creature on two legs wearing a red and black suit was busy carving Celestia and Luna's old thrones in half with some kind of laser gun. When he finished taking the left and right sides of each throne, he pushed the two together, and then wielded the two pieces together with the laser.

"There!" the creature said. "That should do very nicely as a temporary throne. Now, where are those two bolt-headed..." He paused as he turned around and saw the newcomers. "Ah! Scratch and Grounder; you're back." He caught sight of Coloratura. "And, lo and behold! You actually managed to bring a guest back with you."

"Yes, sir!" Scratch replied, as he sat Coloratura down on the ground in front of him.

"We did good, didn't we, Doctor Robotnik?" Grounder asked.

"Yes, yes, good job. Whatever." He came up to them and gave their "guest" a look over. "What a garishly colored animal," he said to himself.

Coloratura considered retorting that this Doctor Robotnik guy should probably lay off every food item known to sentient life to bring his diameter back to an acceptable width, but she stopped herself last second.

"Now, then," Robotnik continued to his two minions. "You didn't make any mistakes in bringing this pony here, did you?"

"Oh, they did a great job," Coloratura snarked. "Aside from...oh, I dunno...hitting me with a lamp and dragging me away from the concert I was supposed to be in! Now I demand that–"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," Robotnik interrupted. Then, very slowly, he asked, "What do you mean by 'concert'? Were you a backstage helper, or..."

"Lead singer. It was kind of my concert charity event."

Robotnik said nothing. He looked up at Scratch and Grounder.

Then, very, very slowly, he closed his eyes, raised a hand to his head, and sighed.

"Uh, boss?" Grounder asked nervously. "We...we did a good job, right?"

Robotnik shook his head, his hand never once leaving his forehead. "No, Grounder," he said. His voice was unusually calm. Dangerously calm, in fact. "You did not do a good job."

Scratch's face fell. "But...but you told us to get one of those ponies. Isn't that what we did?"

And just like that, Robotnik exploded. "You were supposed to nab a pony that they wouldn't care to search for! Somebody that we could take without them noticing! And of all the ones you could have grabbed, you took a STUPID CONCERT PERFORMER!!! Don't you know what will happen now?! They'll come looking for her, and then they'll find us you...you NINCOMBOTS!!!"

He stopped to take several breaths. Scratch and Grounder were huddling each other in terror, and even Coloratura looked up at Robotnik with wide, fearful eyes.

"But..." Robotnik began again. "I suppose she'll do for now. If she's a traveling singer, she's bound to have been around a lot. In the meantime, I want you two clods to go outside and patrol the area. It's the least you can do after bungling up the way you did. Now get to it!"

"Yes, sir," the two said in unison, and rushed off before he could yell at them anymore. As they left, bits of their conversation could be faintly heard.

"Man, she really banged me up...I thought these ponies were gonna be easy to conquer."

"Well, look on the bright side, Scratch."

"Is there a bright side?"

"At least it wasn't Sonic we were dealing with. By this time, he usually would've done much more to us."

"Hm. Good point."

Robotnik watched the two robots walk off. "What a pair of bumbling idiots," he muttered. "One of these days I'm going to start over and build minions that are actually competent. After Scratch and Grounder finally left, he looked down at Coloratura. "Now as for you–"

"No," Coloratura interrupted, trying to sound as brave as she could. "Whatever it is you want from me, I won't do it."

Robotnik stomped the ground "Don't interrupt me!" He shouted. "Look, I have a very specific way of announcing my diabolical intentions to people, and now you've just thrown off my whole speech plan! So thank you very little."

"Oh, go ahead," Coloratura said, rolling her eyes. "It's not like I can stop you or anything."

"That's better. Now..." he clapped his hands together. "We can either do this the easy way, or the hard way. I want you to tell me every last relevant piece of information regarding your kind's society; defenses, government, currency, fads, that kind of thing. I want to know it all."

Coloratura cocked her head. "Why? So you can take over the world?"

"No," Robotnik replied sarcastically. "I'm just asking because I have a bad case of extreme curiosity." He suddenly reverted back to his usual self. "Of course it's so I can take over your world!"

"Forget about it," Coloratura snarled. "I'm won't tell you anything." Her bravado faded a little as a new thought occurred to her. "I don't suppose you're gonna tell me that you have ways of making me talk, right?"

A wicked grin crossed Robotnik's face. "Actually...I do."

Coloratura gulped.

"Oh, don't worry. It's not like I'm going to torture you or anything. I'm simply going to probe your brain and look through every relevant piece of information that I might need."

Coloratura breathed an internal sigh of relief. "Okay. For a minute there...wait. What?"

But Robotnik had already turned away, and was beginning to unpack several items from a large crate nearby. Coloratura watched as he pulled out a kind of chair with straps on it, something that looked like a colander, and various machines and wires. She didn't like the look of any of it.

"Now, if you'll give me a few minutes, we can start rummaging through your mind in–"

"DOCTOR ROBOTNIK! DOCTOR ROBOTNIK!" Scratch and Grounder's all-too familiar (and annoying) voices suddenly echoed down the halls. The two burst back into the throne room, skidding to a halt before their creator.

"B-boss..." Scratch panted, clearly out of breath. "We-we've got something..."

"Not now," Robotnik said, never once turning away from his work. "I'm busy."

"But boss!" Grounder started.

Robotnik whirled on them angrily. "I said not right now! Can't you see I'm trying to go through this young lady's most private mental information?!" He paused briefly. "You know, that actually sounds pretty terrible when you say it out loud..."

"But boss!" Scratch interjected. "Some more of those ponies just showed up outside! I think they're coming for us!"

Author's Note

Voila! A new chapter is up! I had hoped to get it posted last night, but I ended up delaying it until tonight so I could add a little more.

So now things are starting to pick up a little. Robotnik and his minions have made their first disastrous move, and they've clearly stirred up some negative attention. A battle is on the horizon. Will the ponies manage to defeat him? Or will Doctor Robotnik completely obliterate their mostly peaceful society? So many questions, so many possibilities! (insert tense music here)

P.S. I do have to admit: I'm a little concerned that I might be portraying Robotnik and the others as a little bit too menacing. They did have some moments in the show, but overall, they were mostly comical. What do you think? Lemme know in the comments.