A day later tails was working on the tracking device in the library. Twilight, sonic, and rainbow dash were also there. Sonic started to get impatient. He stood up and walked over to tails "is it done yet" he asked. Tails finished screwing in a screw and picked it up "yup, it's done" he said with pride. Rainbow flew over to look at it "it's so small" she said. Tails looked slightly offended "it has to be or else he'll notice it" he said. Tails turned to sonic and rainbow "anyway, it's going to be up to the two of you to get it on him" he said as he handed it to sonic.

Sonic looked at it "so how's it work" he asked. Tails pointed to a button on the front "push this button and throw it. It should stick to almost any surface" he said. Sonic nodded "alright, so now I guess we just wait" he said. Just at that moment they heard screaming coming from outside. They ran up to the window to see eggman in his egg mobile and an army of robots "come out sonic, I know you're here" he said. Twilight turned to rainbow "rainbow, get the others" she commanded. Rainbow nodded and flew out a window. Sonic smiled "let's go greet our friend" he said As he walked outside.

He waved to eggman "yo eggy how you been, it's been a while" he said. Eggman stopped and looked toward him "ah sonic, I'm going to need those emeralds you have" he said. Sonic stepped closer "why would I do that when we haven't had some fun yet" he said. Eggman laughed slightly "i thought that you'd be difficult" he said. He put his hand forward "charge" he yelled. His robots started moving to the three. Sonic got into a stance "get ready, here they come" he warned. Before the robots could reach them rainbow landed next to them followed by shadow with pinkie on his back. Rainbow took a battle stance "the others will be here as soon as they can" she said.

Sonic nodded and jumped near a buzz bomber. He homing attacked it and landed in the middle of some motto bugs. Sonic started running In circles quickly and made a small tornado, destroying the badniks. Tails was being cornered by some egg pawns with laser guns. Tails jumped on one of their heads. Another pawn tried to shoot him but he dodged it causing the pawn to be hit instead. Tails grabbed the laser gun and shot the other egg pawns. Rainbow flew over to a motto bug and bucked it into a egg pawn, taking them both out.

Pinkie landed next to her with a party cannon. She fired it to take out some catterkillers. Shadow ran up to an egg pawn and kicked it's head away. He landed and punched a nearby crabmeat. Twilight charged a spell and released it to take out a group of motto bugs. An egg pawn with a spear charged at sonic but before it could reach him, knuckled slammed his fists into it's head. Knuckles looked at sonic and smiled "mind if I drop in" he said. Sonic looked to his left to see fluttershy, applejack, and rarity. Eggman growled "more of them" he asked.

Eggman collected himself "time to bring out the big guns" he said. A giant robot with a hammer walked onto the battlefield. Sonic looked to knuckles "knuckle head, take out the egg hammer" he said. Knuckles pounded his fists together "not a problem" he said, running towards it with fluttershy and applejack following him. Knuckles jumped towards it only to get whacked away with it's giant hammer. Fluttershy ran to his side "are you okay" she asked. Knuckles stood up "I'm fine" he said. Applejack stared at the size of the robot "I think we need a plan" she said. Knuckles nodded "I think I have one" he said. He turned to fluttershy "flutters, do you think you can distract it" he asked. Fluttershy trembled for a second but nodded bravely. Knuckles told them his plan and they got to work.

Fluttershy flew into it's face "c-come get me m-mr. Robot" she said, as she started to fly away. The egg hammer started to chase her. Knuckles pointed to applejack "now" he yelled. Applejack threw her lasso and it caught it's leg. She pulled and tripped the egg hammer. It fell to the ground. Knuckles ran up to it's exposed head and punched through it. Fluttershy flew back to knuckles and smiled "we did it" she said. Knuckles nodded and faced the rest of the robots "no time to celebrate, let's clean up the rest of them" he said.

Back with sonic he noticed that there were a few robots left. He turned to rainbow dash "dash this is our chance" he said. Rainbow nodded as sonic got on her back. They flew towards eggman. Eggman saw them and dodged. While he was dodging sonic threw the tracker at the bottom of the egg mobile. Eggman growled as he saw how little robots he had left "fall back" he said. As he and his robots started leaving.

Everyone started celebrating. Knuckles started walking towards fluttershy. Before he could get to her, eggman flew by and grabbed fluttershy. He flew up high. Only knuckles and applejack seemed to have noticed. Eggman looked down at knuckles "if you value this pony's life, bring me the chaos emeralds" he said before flying away. Knuckles fell to his knees and pounded his fist into the ground "damn it" he yelled. Applejack tried to comfort him "don't worry sugar cube, we'll get her back" she assured. Knuckles looked up towards the direction eggman flew to "you're damn right we will" he said as he stood up.

He and applejack walked back to the group. sonic saw them and greeted them "hey, where were you guys" he said. Knuckles stayed silent. Applejack decided to answer for him "fluttershy was captured, and he told us to bring him the emeralds or he'd...kill her" she said. Twilight gasped "what, we have to go save her" she said. Tails turned to sonic "you attached the tracker right" he asked. Sonic nodded "yeah" he said. Tails thought for a second "let's go back to the library, so we can grab my miles electric and the emeralds" he said. Everyone agreed.

Once they got back to the library knuckles grabbed the emeralds as tails started messing with his miles electric. Twilight walked up to him "can you see the tracker" she asked. Tails turned a knob and smiled "yes, and it seems like it stopped" he said. Sonic looked at the screen "so that's where he's hiding out" sonic asked. Tails nodded "yup, it has to be" he said. Twilight thought for a second "we're not actually giving him the emeralds right" she asked. Tails shook his head "we just need him to think we are, so he won't hurt fluttershy" he said. Knuckles cringed slightly "can we just go already" he said. Tails nodded "oh yeah let's go" he said as they started walking.

While they were walking sonic saw knuckles walking slightly apart from the group. Sonic started walking next to him "what's up knuckles" he asked. Knuckles barely reacted "what do you mean" he asked back. Sonic studied his face "something's bothering you" he said. Knuckles sighed "i promised to protect her sonic" he said. Knuckles clenched his teeth "i let my guard down, I let her down" he said. Sonic thought about what he was saying "you really care about her, don't you" he said. Knuckles didn't answer him. Sonic put his hand on his back "we're going to save her" he said. Knuckles nodded "thanks sonic" he said quietly.

Tails saw that the tracker was close "it's around here somewhere" he said. The others started searching for a secret entrance. Twilight saw a bit of metal covered by leaves. She moved the leaves and saw a metal hatch of some kind. She turned to the others "is this it" she asked. They walked over to see it. Tails nodded happily "great job twilight" he said. Knuckles walked up to it and punched it open.

They walked in to see a large dark room. A part of the room lit up and they saw eggman floating in his egg mobile. He laughed "I'm surprised you found me so quickly" he said. Knuckles stepped up "where is she" he said. Eggman flicked a switch "i wish I could say that she's uninjured, but she struggled so I did what I had to do" he said as another part of the room lit up. Fluttershy was in a cage hanging from the ceiling. She was conscious but she seemed hurt. Knuckles clenched his fists "bastard" he said. Rainbow extended her wings "you'll pay for that" she said. Eggman pressed a button and the floor under fluttershy's cage opened to reveal acid. Rainbow looked at it with shock "what" she said. Eggman showed them a remote "one push of this button and you can say goodbye to your friend" he said with a evil grin.

Once eggman saw that no one was going to try anything he put the remote down "good, now give me the emeralds" he said. Sonic was thinking of what to do when tails started whispering to him "stall him" he said. Sonic nodded and smiled "we'd love to give you the emeralds doc, but how do we know fluttershy will be safe" he said. Tails walked to twilight "follow me" he whispered as he walked into a dark part of the room without eggman noticing.

Twilight followed him as he walked to a dark part of the room behind eggman "what's this all about" she asked. Tails pointed up to the cage "the machine that's holding the cage up seems like it's controlled by something over here, can you give me some light" he said. Twilight brightened up her horn. Tails looked along the wall until he found a panel. He opened it and saw a bunch of wires "bingo, shine your horn over here" he said. She complied and he got to work. After a couple seconds he replaced to panel and gave twilight a thumbs up "it's done" he said. They sneaked back to the group "this is the last time I'm going to ask, give me the emeralds" eggman said.

Tails gave sonic a nod and sonic smiled "no, I don't think I will" he said. Eggman held the remote up "are you willing to let this girl die" he said. Rainbow whispered to sonic "what are you doing" she asked. Sonic whispered back "trust me" he said. He turned back to eggman "you're not getting the emeralds" he said. Eggman laughed "don't say I didn't warn you" he said as he pressed the button. Everyone held their breath but nothing happened. Eggman pressed it again, still nothing. He threw it at the wall. Sonic crossed his arms "looks like it's all over for you" he said. Eggman laughed "over? Not quite. Every self respecting evil genius has a backup plan" he said as a wall opened up revealing a giant gold suit of armor. He slotted his egg mobile into it "let me introduce you to the egg emperor" he said. Everyone stared at the machine with awe.

Sonic turned to the others "tails take knuckles, twilight, and rarity and go free fluttershy while we take out the trash" he said. Tails nodded and ran towards the cage with the others. Sonic ran up to eggman but he swatted him away with his shield. Sonic got up "this might be harder than I thought" he said. Rainbow readied her wings "i'll distract him" she said. She flew at him and dodged his lance. Eggman then tried to hit her with his shield. When he was defenseless sonic took that chance to homing attack his chest. Eggman backed up slightly "try some of this" he said as missiles flew towards them. Shadow quickly jumped and kicked them each away. Pinkie climbed on eggman's head "i can see my house from here" she said. He tried to hit her off but she dodged causing him to hit himself "you're really starting to piss me off" he said.

While they were fighting, the others were trying to find a way to free fluttershy. Twilight looked up to tails "do you have any idea of how to free her" she asked. Tails started rubbing his chin in thought "can you pick it up with your magic" he asked. She nodded "yes but it would have to be disconnected from that chain" she said. Knuckles stepped forward "get me up there, I can do it" he said. Tails nodded and started flying. Knuckles grabbed hold of his hands and was dropped off on the cage. He hung his head off the edge so he could see fluttershy. She was obviously hurt, mostly one of her back legs. She managed a weak smile at him "kn-knuckles i-" she winced in pain. Knuckles looked at her with worry "don't speak, just relax while we get you down from here" he said.

He looked down at twilight "ready" he asked. She nodded at him and both her and rarity focused their magic on the cage. Knuckles walked over to the chain. He was able to pull it apart. Once he did twilight an rarity slowly guided it down to the floor. Knuckles jumped off of the cage and grabbed the door of the cage. He pulled it off and threw it aside. Fluttershy was laying unconscious on the floor of the cage. Knuckles picked her up bridal style and carried her out. The others saw the condition she was in. rarity walked up to her "oh dear, is she alright" she asked. Knuckles nodded "she's just unconscious" he said.

Over with the others fighting the egg emperor, eggman was starting to get overwhelmed. His mech was being worn down but he had one more idea. He ejected his egg mobile from the egg emperor. Sonic chuckled "are you giving up" he asked. Eggman laughed "not quite sonic" he said as he pushed a button. The egg emperor started to vibrate "egg emperor set to self destruct in one minute" said a robotic voice. Eggman flew though a opening in the ceiling that closed after him. Sonic looked towards the exit but it had been covered by a thick metal door.

Tails started to panic "everyone, try to find an exit" he said. Everyone ran in different directions trying to find some way out. After a few seconds of futile searching, tails saw it counting down from ten. He looked beside him to see twilight "since this is the last time I'll be able to see you. I need to tell you that I l-" he stopped when twilight's horn glowed brightly. She created a magic barrier around the egg emperor. Once the count down ended it exploded with amazing force, but it was contained within the barrier. Once the explosion was over twilight stopped the spell and started breathing heavy. Tails stared in shock. Twilight looked at the others "let's get out of here" she said. The door seemed to have opened after the count down.

They walked outside. Rainbow looked into the distance trying to find eggman. She gave up after a few seconds "what do we do now" she asked. Tails noticed how drained twilight looked "let's head back I'm sure we all need to rest after today" he said. Everyone agreed and they started their walk back.