Doctor Robotnik is a fun one to throw into those "what would [media character X] do with [cursed artifact Y]" hypotheticals because the answer is always "misunderstand or disregard its intended purpose and use it to power a giant evil robot". The One Ring, the Death Note, the Necronomicon – it doesn't matter. Evil robot. The question isn't what he'd do with it, but how it's going to go horribly wrong.
You CANNOT make a Maria is alive AU and not share the dynamic she may have with Dr. Eggman! Can we see that please?! I feel like he'd be very casual with her when he's not being evil and all that!
I'm now realizing that there's actually not a lot of Maria here. Oops.