Sonic walked back and forth in the Brighthouse's bedroom with concern.

Tails were using the Chaos Energy lectures from one of the Chaos Emeralds. They had to try to track down the remaining Emerald. For the past few days, they have tried to find any meaning in Discord's riddle. Still, they couldn't get anything from whatever the draconequus meant, and the fact that he refused to elaborate, even after he returned the Pegasus Crystal, just made things harder and worse.

Zipp, Sunny, Hitch, everyone already tried to get somewhere with the riddle. Izzy even tried to persuade Discord a bit more so he could finally spill the beans... but it didn't work, either.

And to be honest, he was sure it wasn't going to work, anyway. If the other six Emeralds were weakened/half-dead before being restored by his powers and Eggman, then it was possible that the remaining one needed a similar treatment. Therefore, nothing they did was going to track down the Chaos Emerald.

"Any luck, little bro?" Sonic asked Tails after a while.

Tails' computer replied instead of Tails himself with a beep sound and a red light, while Tails turned to face Sonic and refused with his head and a concerned expression.

"Great..." Sonic groaned, grabbing his head and trying to find another solution to find the Chaos Emerald. "Just when I thought Discord would be mature enough after returning the Crystal, he refuses to elaborate and leave us hanging!" he complained with a frown.

"Not to mention, he keeps insisting we leave Equestria as soon as we find the final Emerald. Yet, he refuses to help us find it," Tails pointed out.

"Yeah, don't mention it... Sonic said with a frown. "Don't you feel like this is pretty weird? It's been almost a year since I arrived with the Chaos Emeralds in Equestria, yet we haven't found the sixth Emerald this time... What if Eggman has it, but he's waiting for the proper time to make it work again?"

"I think if he does have the Emerald, he probably would have said it already," Tails pointed out. "I mean, he's a terrible secret keeper, so if he does have the final Chaos Emerald, I think we'll already know at this point," he added.

"Right..." Sonic said, unsure. "Still, it doesn't explain why we haven't found the Emerald yet," he pointed out in concern.

"We'll eventually find the Emerald," Tails assured. "But until then, I think we definitely should get some fresh air," he stated with a smile.

Tails walked off the room, leaving Sonic behind. Sonic himself rubbed his chin a bit and tapped the floor in frustration.

He had a bad feeling, and he couldn't help but think that Eggman had something bigger in store for them...

"No, no, no, NO!" Eggman shouted, as the new simulation Sage, his AI, showed him didn't convince him either.

These past months, Eggman decided to use all the commotion Discord caused by stealing the Pegasus Crystal to adjust his plans.

He was running countless simulations to determine what to do with Equestria's magic and the Chaos Emeralds once they were in his power. All these simulations were just excuses to see what he would make when the time to conquer Equestria came if it ever came.

He wanted something big, remarkable, and unforgettable. Something everypony, and Team Sonic, could see and never forget, even if he lost because of plot convenience. He wanted something like his Death Egg, just not as big as a moon, but bigger than any other machine he had ever created before at the same time.

Yet, none of the simulations so far was convincing him. Either there was stuff he had already tried before and failed, or it could be something that worked, yet it wasn't what he was looking for. He felt lost, desperate, and confused at the same time.

"This makes no sense!" Eggman shouted in anger. "I've been planning every single detail of this plan to detail! Yeah, I had some complications, but so far, I'm still safe! As long as Opaline does not plan on stabbing me in the back, everything should work out just fine... Yet what is the most vital thing so hard to define?!" he shouted in frustration.

He smashed his keyboard as hard as possible before sighing in defeat and sitting in his chair again, tired. His mustache also saddeningly sat a bit.

His story with Sonic was the classic 'battle between the light and dark, good and bad, goodness and evil'—and there was a long list of other things that Eggman wasn't in the mood to list—and I'm not in the mood to write them down, either.

Sonic was the hero, the loved one, and the popular child almost everyone wanted to be friends with. Many claim that Sonic could be a 'chosen one' —a hero whose destiny is to defeat the forces of evil until they are eradicated forever. However, for both Eggman and Sonic, he's just a random guy who happened to be there on Green Hills when Eggman decided to take over the world by kidnapping animals and using them to make his badniks work.

Yeah, not even Eggman was proud of himself back then. He has no idea why he listened to Zavok when he convinced him to use animals again for the badniks, but he was glad that said phase was over.

And what about him, though? Well, Eggman is the bad guy. The bad third, the rotten seed, call him however you want. Eggman is to Sonic like Bowser is to Mario: they're nemesis, they despise each other, and the sooner they can get rid of the other one, the better for them (and, in Sonic's case, for everyone else).

Eggman was that 'bully.' The weird kid, the guy that no one notices or everyone hates just because he's different. Just like everyone claims Sonic is a hero, everyone also claims that Eggman's destiny is to fail repeatedly so Sonic can fulfill his potential and become the hero he's supposed to be.

Of course, Eggman always said that this was bullshit and that he wasn't another piece in a massive board just for Sonic to be something greater. No, he refused to believe that. No matter how much it could take, no matter how much he could fail, no matter if he had to tear apart the entire multiverse itself, he would prove to destiny that he wasn't a piece on a board and that he could defeat Sonic and win for sure. One way or another, he was proving that.

Eggman smirked and stood up from his chair, raising his mustache and everything. "Sage, run another simulation," he instructed. "But this time, make sure that whatever machine you build up makes justice to my image and greatness! Make sure everything and everyone on this pitiful land remember my name, even if I fail again," he added with a sinister grin.

"Right away, doctor" Sage replied.

Sage began running a new simulation with all the details Eggman instructed her to make. Thankfully, this entire simulation gave lots of joy to the doctor:

First, the sea near Maretime Bay could be seen... and then, a massive Death Egg Robot was raised from the ocean. It was so big... even bigger than those Death Egg Robots he used back when he took over the world for six months. It had his face and arms large, with five fingers instead of the usual three, which were more like spikes.

It was gigantic, massive... memorable. It wasn't just a generic Death Egg Robot, no... It was a massive titan.

Said robot was walking over Maretime Bay, and just by swinging the right arm from behind to the front, a model of the Brighthouse could be seen flying away, crashing and tearing apart into pieces on the ground.

Then, the robot used two different types of lasers: One in the chest, probably impulsed by magic or Chaos Energy, or even both in the best of scenarios, that the machine used to destroy everything on its way. The other type of laser was in the eyes, and it seemed to be less potent but just as destructive as the other one.

In addition to its other functions, this robot also seemed to have a flamethrower on its knuckles, various missiles, a giant wrecking ball that could be used the same way the Egg Beater does, and the ability to fly or at least elevate itself from the ground like past robots.

But the cherry on the cake was definitely when the simulation showed up a pretty much banged-up Sonic on the floor, being crushed by one foot of this massive robot.

Saying that Eggman was happy only simplified how he felt right now. He was beyond satisfied: the amount of happiness and joy he felt right now couldn't be described in any known way. The simple fact that this simulation showed up a scenario he was expecting was good enough... but making the biggest variant of the Death Egg Robot so far to ensure no one forgets his name and what he's capable of doing? That was simply spectacular.

"Sage, dear..." Eggman said with a sinister grin. "Charge up the prints of this new model to my database. Code name: Death Egg Titan," he stated.

"Yes, doctor" Sage replied.

Meanwhile, Eggman stared at the hologram of the new robot he would create once all magic in Equestria and the Chaos Emeralds were under his control.

"Soon enough, this land will be mine!" Eggman stated with an evil laugh.

Opaline walked back and forth in her Throne Room with a frown.

Eggman hasn't come out from his labs in weeks. He still owed her an apology for almost killing her months ago, but now he not only refused to share any new details on his plans, he also didn't talk to her in weeks unless he needed Misty for something or when he needed to get supplies to survive.

Out of that... Eggman distanced himself. He only told her about his plans to analyze Team Sonic's and the Mane 5's fighting styles that one time, but nothing else.

She was getting tired of this, so she was going to make plans alone. But she was changing her strategy once and for all. She didn't need to steal magical artifacts, and she didn't need to steal Sparky's fire either now.

Surprisingly, even for her, she was planning to listen to Misty's theories for once... even though she somewhat regrets the idea, at least she's going somewhere now.

Misty mentioned Cutie Mark's magic multiple times during her reports. Back in the day when Twilight Sparkle was around, she and her friends kinda already experimented with what Cutie Mark's magic was capable of. It only shone and vibrated when something called the Cutie Map had an assigned mission for certain ponies, but it did the trick.

However, that magic was something else: it could increase a pony's power, combine to reveal secrets, and even transform stuff into something more practical and useful. But something like what the Cutie Mark magic did on Winter Wishday was... simply spectacular.

She will admit it once and never again: she found what happened beautiful, but since Misty was there, she needed to pretend she only wanted power. However, she was alone, so saying... or thinking it was something cool wouldn't kill anyone. Too bad for everypony else that she was going to steal all that magic for herself...

Again, too bad for everypony else.

'So, what is her plan?' You might be wondering. Well, it was simpler saying it than actually doing it: she was planning on stealing the Mane 5's Cutie Marks and using all that magic and power to steal the Unity Crystals once and for all.

She could leave her castle to do that. She could have done it thousands of times before if she ever wanted to, but she couldn't just face the Mane 5 and Team Sonic to steal the Unity Crystals in her current state.

That's exactly why she wanted to steal Sparky's dragon fire: even if he's just a baby dragon, his magic is strong enough to restore Opaline's power. Therefore, she could leave the castle and face the Mane 5 and Team Sonic properly to steal the Unity Crystals.

But now that she knows about Cutie Mark's magic, it is time to leave that baby dragon.

However, she wasn't sending Misty to do her dirty job this time, at least not now. With so many failures, she needed someone else. Eggman wasn't an option, either. He barely talked to her, so if she went to ask him for a favor, something worse than what happened last time could happen.

"It doesn't matter," Opaline stated with a smirk before using her bolder to make an image of the Mane 5 appear. "One way or another... your Cutie Marks will be mine!" she stated confidently.

Author's Note

Thanks to JD1 for editing this chapter!