You can thank 4kids and some children's card game yet again for the title.
Mechanized Melee
"Lookout!" Applejack cried out to her family when the mysterious, blue-armored being grabbed one of the apple trees and hurled it at them. She readies a lasso with her tail, but it wasn't enough to catch it in time. Thankfully, her brother, Big Macintosh, is there to protect the Apple Family. He caught the launched apple tree with his forehooves.
"Nope!" Big Mac gave out a steamed snort after setting their family tree aside on the ground. He readies his hooves on the ground for a fighting stance.
The armored being, called Mecha Knuckles by Eggman to distinguish him from the racing unit in Metal Knuckles, pounds his fists together in a taunt. He grabs another apple tree with his yellow gloves and launches it again.
"That's private property yer whippersnapper!" Granny Smith yells at the dredlocked being when Big Mac caught their second.
"What gave you the right to attack using our pride and joy?!" Apple Bloom shouted at the stranger.
Mecha Knuckles ignores the yelling. Instead, he does a Spin Jump, curling into a ball shape in the air, and glides towards Big Mac. He lands a hard fist to the ground in front of the Earth Pony, creating minor shockwaves to disorient the stallion's balance. The combat unit dashes towards Big Mac, giving him several jabs to the face until grabbing and judo-flipping him to the ground.
Big Mac quickly recovers consciousness from the ground and sees his opponent raising a fist. He bucked his enemy further away from him before the opponent could strike.
"No!" Big Mac snorts a steam, standing back into defensive position and regaining his composure.
His opponent, within distanced length, continuously bashed his fists on the ground, creating cracks. The blue armor grasps into bits of rubble and hurls a barrage of rocks against Big Mac. The stallion covered his face with his forehooves from the pebbles, and fairly notices a stop in the barrage. He sees his enemy carrying a larger piece of rubble, twice its size and about one quarter larger than Big Mac, and throws it at the stallion. It was a bit harder than catching thrown trees, but a large size boulder is not something Big Mac for all his strength couldn't handle. Upon getting a hold of the giant rock, he is being pushed back by an explosive shock. His mechanical opponent had dashed towards him while Big Mac was still holding onto the bounder, and shatter the rock with his bare hands.
Big Mac, steadfast and calm from the sudden surprise, stood his ground, raise his forehooves, and collides with his opponents charging towards him with punches. This creates a shockwave between the two power busters with a force in the wind felt by bystanders.
The two combatants wrestle each other in a deadlock with neither side holding an advantage. Big Mac is certainly strong and Mecha Knuckles is modeled after a anthropomorphic echidna whose strength is his specialty. The weakness of a mechanical echidna is the lack of grit and willpower from the organic counterpart. Big Mac is slowly gaining an advantage with his forehooves, pushing his opponent down close to his knees. The blue echidna robot then opens his mouth. From Big Mac's perspective, he is seeing something red and metallic. Unbeknownst to him, it is a missile; and it fired off point-blank and exploded into his face.
"Big Mac!" The Apple Family called out to him, who is screaming in pain from the explosion. Everypony in the vicinity could see the red eyes glaring through smoke. When the smoke cleared, they could see the blue armored being standing in front of their incapacitated family member.
"Stay away from him!" Granny Smith throws all their farming equipment and kitchenware at the invader. Apple Bloom joins in the assault. The invader didn't bulge, but Winona the family dog charged in and bites his leg. None of the attacks fazed the mechanical echidna, though he had to shove the dog aside. The combat robot opens his mouth and launches a missile at Granny Smith. Apple Bloom saw this, and quickly manages to get both her and her grandmother running to safety. They evaded the attack, but they were shocked when the missile hits the barn previously behind them and decimated the whole place. Mecha Knuckles marked his target once more and fires another projectile from his mouth.
"Oh no you don't!" Applejack cried out, having enough of watching her family suffering long enough. She had her lasso to catch the missile in time, but it is not an easy task. She held her own controlling the trajectory and velocity of the missile until she manages to slam it onto faraway ground. The invader launches another missile and Applejack catches it also. Once she has gotten the hang of it, she channeled her rope to hurl the missile back at the shooter and explodes upon impact. In the midst of the explosion, she hastily grabs her brother for Apple Bloom and Granny Smith to care for the wounds while she goes off to fight.
"I don't know who you are, but I can't have you hurting my family like that!" Applejack yells at the home invader after the smoke cleared. Mecha Knuckles is damaged, showing his internal parts that was once covered in armor. Applejack didn't know what to make of him, but after remembering hints from Gamma, he is a robot.
The combat unit jumps into the air, curls into a ball, hits the grounds, and burrow underneath. Applejack, being an Earth Pony, can sense his movement underground, but he seems to be moving away from her. He pops out higher in mid-air and glides away.
"Hey, get back here!" Applejack shouted.
"Applejack!" Apple Bloom screams. The older sister had to put off hold of her pursuit and went back to her family. She sees her brother in bandages but not fully healed. "Big Mac is not responding!" Apple Bloom had waved her forehoof in front of Big Mac's eyes but with no eye movement. All she got was groans.
"We need to get him to the doctor." Granny Smith said. Applejack, feeling vindictive against the attacker, had to put her chase on hold. The family brought Big Mac onto a cart and they all traveled to Ponyville for the hospital, only see the town in a similar situation as their home.
"Impressive." Eggman watching through his recorded scans of the battle. "These Earth Ponies sure know how to stand their ground, despite not having any hands to defend themselves. Mecha Knuckles." He orders his mech. "Before you head back to base, I'll need to you to stand in position right over there." He pointed somewhere on the electronic map between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest.
I had this chapter done about a month ago. Why the delay are due to depressive mood swings (as usual), struggling to find a simple job, and trying to promote and gain support for the Sonic/MLP crossover in dA and facebook. The former is easy. The latter is a major pain in the ass with all the hostile comments of a social network, and the frequently polite yet redundantly frustrating 'no' for the crossover.
Mecha Knuckles is a boss from Sonic Advance, where he fights like regular Knuckles but with a missile launcher from the mouth. Originally, I was thinking about giving Applejack more screentime with more fight scenes. Then I thought about Big Mac, "wouldn't his injuries be worse if he's not in the hospital in time?" So I ended the fight with Applejack's lasso counter launching the missile back at Mecha Knuckles.
Ponyville in a similar situation as the Sweet Apple Acres. That doesn't sound reassuring...
Long Live the Eggman Empire
Sonic the hedgehog characters, settings, and related materials are © to SEGA and Sonic Team. Created by Mr. Yuji Naka.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters, settings, and related materials are © to Hasbro and DHX Media. Created by Lauren Faust.