Ch. 3: Invasion

Out of nowhere, a loud rumbling echoed around the city. The ponies of the city looked and saw a mass of large black clouds sweeping toward the city.

"Storm clouds? I ordered perfect weather," said Twilight. "Rainbow Dash!"

"Uh… I don't think those are storm clouds," said the Pegasus. Sonic looked into the cloud and saw a strange blue sigil that resembled horns.

"What was your first clue?" he asked. "The evil-looking airship?" And just as he said that the sigil parted the clouds to reveal a huge darkly-colored airship. The ponies stared in awe as mothers hid their foals behind their legs.

"Ooh!" said Pinkie jovially. "I bet those are the clowns I ordered!"

"Did you order them to arrive via evil airship?" asked Sonic, pulling down on his gloves. Then the airship began descending, smashing three tall towers and a few crates of clown equipment.

"Or definitely not the clowns I ordered," said Pinkie. Then the ship touched down and a large metal gangplank dropped down and crushed a balloon animal that landed in front of it.

"Brian! NO!" yelled Party Favor. Sonic just stared at him weirdly before he returned to the matter at hand and the Princesses walked out onto their balcony. Something then started walking down from the gangplank. It was obviously very short and carrying some sort of crate. Once it put down the crate, Sonic and the ponies saw it was a short hedgehog-like being with dark fur and a white mohawk, wearing dark armor. Then the crate started transforming into a large speaker system with an attached microphone, which the being then spoke into.

"Ponies of Equestria, I am Grubber," he said in a strange voice with an obvious lisp. "We come on behalf of the fearsome, the powerful, the Almighty… Storm King!" Then a large banner fell from the side of the ship, revealing a large picture of a white satyr in dark armor not unlike what Grubber was wearing. The ponies cowered upon seeing his picture. "And now, to deliver the evil, evil message, put your hooves together for Commander Tempest Shadow!" Then something else walked into the doorway on the ship, also clad in dark armor. But it was nothing anyone was expecting; it was a pony. Specifically, a mare with deep red fur and a pink mohawk, not to mention a scar over her left eye.

"Is that a… unicorn?" asked Twilight awestruck.

"I think so," said Spike. "But what happened to her horn?" Indeed, Tempest's unicorn horn was broken, leaving a jagged, sparking edge on her head.

"What happened to her, period?" asked Sonic. "Even on Mobius, people don't lose extremities like that from nothing." Just then, the other princesses flew down and landed near the ship.

"'Tempest', is it?" asked Celestia. "How may we help you?"

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked," said Tempest kindly before turning bitter. "How about we start with your complete and total surrender?" Sonic jumped over the princesses and landed right in front of them, taking a martial arts stance.

"Not likely, sweetheart," he said, cracking his neck. The ponies, Tempest and Grubber all just looked at him in confusion.

"And who are you supposed to be?" asked Tempest.

"Sonic the Hedgehog. The guy who can rearrange your face before you can even blink," he said menacingly. Tempest snickered.

"Cute," she said, sending a blast of magic out of her horn and hitting Sonic right in the chest, sending him skidding backward. Sonic groaned as he kneeled and moved his hand away from his chest, to see a large burn on it.

"Ugh," he groaned. "Okay, that was a cheap shot." Then Twilight stepped around on Cadence's right side.

"Hi there," she said, giving a nervous wave. "Princess of Friendship. Not exactly sure what's going on, but I know we can talk things out."

"Don't bother," said Sonic walking up, his healing factor reducing the burn. "This chick's got bad guy written all over her."

"Oh goody, all four princesses," said Tempest walking down from the ship. "Here's the deal, ladies. I need your magic. Give it up nicely, please, or we make difficult. For everyone!"

"And what makes you think we'll kowtow to you?" asked Sonic, having zipped around the crowd. "It's nine-hundred seventy-three against two, our favor. You'd be better off running back your king with your tail between your hind legs." Tempest gave a cruel chuckle.

"I was hoping you'd choose 'difficult'," she said. Then out of the clouds came a whole fleet of airships, and from them, large monsters clad in dark armor dropped and attacked the ponies of the city. Sonic looked around and smirked.

"Finally, some exercise!" he yelled happily as he zipped to a large group of monsters. "Hadouken!" Then he blasted a blue ball of energy out of his hands at one of them, knocking him into a wall, and knocking him out. The other two charged and attacked him, but Sonic jumped and started giving a flying spinning kick. "Tatsumaki Senpukyaku!" He knocked the first one away, but the first jumped above him, about to attack, but Sonic just smirked as he jumped and spun into an uppercut. "Shoryuken!" The last soldier was sent flying until another group came charging at him.

Then he moved both his hands to one side, which he let the Chaos Emeralds fall into before a large ball of energy started forming between the points of the gems. "Ka… Me… Ha… Me… HA!" Then he shot a huge blast out of the gems, blasting the soldiers away into another wall. Then Sonic zipped up behind another soldier, who had just thrown a spear at him and missed.

"Where ya aimin', dugong?" he asked tauntingly before blasting a yellow blast out of his palm into the monster's back. Then a battalion moved to attack him with weapons.

"Oh, so that's how we're playing now, huh?" he asked. "Okay then, let's play!" Then he jumped, avoiding their weapons and pulling one of the gadgets off his belt and pressed a button.

"Weapon select," said a robotic voice from the device. Sonic spun the dial until he found what he was looking for and pressed another button. "Triple katana." Then three katana swords materialized in loops on the left side of his belt. Once Sonic put the device away, he pulled all three swords out at once, grabbing one in each of his hands, and the last one clenched between his teeth. Then he fell down spinning on an axis, slashing all the monsters' weapons to kindling and scrap metal. "Adios muchachos," he said, muffled by the sword in his mouth. Then he kicked and punched them all before he moved on, still fighting.

But then he saw Tempest kick a strange crystal orb with a shifting green core towards the princesses. Cadence tried to stop it with her magic, but he knew it wouldn't hold long. "Get down!" he yelled, knocking Twilight, Celestia, and Luna away, but he wasn't fast enough to save Cadence as the orb shattered open and created a green vapor which started turning Cadence into obsidian.

"Cadence!" yelled Celestia in terror.

"I can't stop it!" Cadence screamed.

"Sonic, help her!" yelled Twilight.

"I can't," said Sonic. "If I damage the stone, I risk breaking off part of her body." Then Tempest walked all the way down the gangplank and jumped again.

"Luna, quick!" said Celestia. "Head south beyond the Badlands!" Then Tempest kicked another crystal orb. "Seek help from the Queen of the Hippo-" She couldn't finish as the crystal hit her and started turning her to stone as well.

"Sister!" yelled Luna in distress. She quickly blasted away the monsters nearby and tried to fly away, but Tempest just kicked another crystal orb at her, shattering and turning her to stone. She almost fell and shattered, but Sonic quickly jumped up and grabbed her landing perfectly.

"Luna!" called Twilight, terrified. Tempest chuckled as she jumped again and readied another orb, kicking it down at her.

"Twilight!" called Rainbow Dash as she shot in just as the orb shattered on the ground. The monsters moving to surround Twilight quickly backed off as Tempest landed nearby chuckling.

"Easy as pie," she said.

"Oh, I love pie," said Grubber. "Oh, you totally got the last princess." But when the vapor faded, it was revealed that it wasn't Twilight, it was just Ditzy Doo wearing a party hat, which then promptly fell off her head.

"That's not the princess," said Tempest angrily, her horn-stump sparking with energy. "Grubber! Get! Her! NOW!"

"Guys, we gotta get the princess!" he yelled as he and his guards ran to find her. Tempest stomped on the crown Twilight left behind, crushing the metal and scattering the gems.

"Over here, guys!" yelled Sonic. "Cmon, let's get the hell outta here!" Quickly, the team ran across a high bridge as fast as they could, but then they were surrounded by monsters. Twilight warmed up her magic, and Sonic knew what she was going to do.

"No-no-no, don't!" he yelled, but too late. Twilight had already blasted a beam at the monsters in front of them, one of whom blocked the blast with his shield, reflecting it back into the part of the bridge they were on, causing it to crumble and let the team fall into the river. They all quickly shot their heads up and took breaths, but then Sonic looked ahead and saw no more land.

"Please tell me this river doesn't fall off the cliff!" he yelled.

"I could, but I'd be lyin'!" yelled Applejack. And they were right. The team was then sent cascading off the cliff down to the lake below. Grubber and two guards walked over to the cliff and looked down.

"Which one of you guys is goin' down there?" asked Grubber. The strange storm creatures growled and walked away. Grubber sighed. "I would but I just had a hearty meal, and I will sink and I will side-cramp. I'm very big-boned. I sink quick."

That might be true for him, but what about for Twilight and the girls?