Sprawling Light

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 8
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20

Chapter 1

On Angel Island, Sonic and Shadow revert from their fused state, and Shadic ceases to be. Sonic is heavily fatigued, so Knuckles helps him up. Shadow is passed out altogether, so Tails helps Shadow up. Knuckles looks at the blue hedgehog he’s carrying, "Tails, let's take them somewhere to get some medical treatment; they may need a doctor," He pauses with a concerned look on his face and stares at Tails, “I could probably heal them in a few days with an emerald, but I’m pretty beat unless something else horrible happens soon."

After saying that, he quickly knocks on a fallen log to un-jinx himself. Tails holds up Sonic by his shoulder; as Knuckles picks up Shadow, Tails pushes a button on his watch to call the Tornado to the island. They then load the two hedgehogs onto the Tornado and take off.

--Meanwhile--

Location: Ruined Robotropolis

"The monster from the Master Emerald, it has been eliminated, sir." Snively’s nasally voice echoed.

Doctor Robotnik looks visibly and uncharacteristically shaken, then nods, deciding he should act now. Robotnik booms an order: "Snively, bring out item ‘1564-Luciferian: TDS’."

Snively shuffles around to view his uncle, "The fox doll, sir? If I recall, you gave up on that project."

Eggman stares forward stoically, "I need to see something..."

Snively brings out the Tails Doll, wincing as he looks at it, even remarking, “…How dreadful…” A machine Robotnik was going to use as a spy drone, but he lost interest because he had more in-depth ways to spy on the Freedom Fighters. He then replaces the gem with a fragment of the Master Emerald he had collected, and its systems activate.

Suddenly, a violent cascade of negative chaos energy erupts from the doll’s gem causing a metamorphosis. Robotnik gazes at what he had done in bewilderment; the doll starts to pull and rip metal from around the lab and connects it to its body with strange black tendrils; it also grabs the nearby broken husk of Metal Tails and joins it into its being. The shape of this creature takes form as the body of the Tails Doll vanishes into Metal Tails, and it begins to move like it’s alive and breathing.

The hinges in its joints disappear, being filled in with a black fluid. Its Master Emerald shard dangles from the cord on its head, shifting from a familiar green to a glowing black. Its two tails contort and segment into long sharp points no longer suitable for flight; in between these points flows this same black fluid, allowing full mobility. The blank metal face rips open into a smile as its robotic eyes blink to life.

"IIIIvooo." The chilling, shrill voice that sounds like Tails echoes about the room. Robotnik scrambles around for a device with a self-destruct switch for the entire facility. He can’t use an unknown entity he cannot control.

“I’ve done too much, so much progress, it will not end here…” Suddenly, one of the doll’s tails punctures Robotnik's shoulder, revealing his metal muscle fibers that bleed. The force of the strike knocks his glasses off of his face, showing his red irises.

"I want to thank you for creating me, Ivo. I want you to live so I can tear all life asunder, and you can watch as I bring about the end," It smiles, “Have I mentioned how wonderful it is to have real emotions, not some algorithm or advanced AI? I will be able to feel every death with extraordinary satisfaction!” It giggles as Robotnik coughs up blood.

The Doctor grits his teeth and yells out, “Do it now, Snively!” Hiding behind a desk, Snively pushes a button, and it makes a loud beeping noise. This victory is short-lived, however. As the doll slices Snively, and the desk he’s hiding behind, in two with a lightning-fast tail whip.

Metal Tails frowns, “That’s not good.”

With a bright flash of light and a deafening explosion, the entire facility goes up in a nuclear fireball, but the doll uses Chaos Control just in time. “You’re a poor sport, Ivo. Truly a shame.” Then, it looks toward New Mobotropolis. “Now to find my true targets.” It cackles, and its unnatural voice echoes across the destroyed landscape.

A day after Nazo was defeated, Sonic and Shadow received medical care and got equally stir-crazy. They are both at a small doctor’s office in Furville, an armadillo doctor diagnosing their injuries. Looking at their medical chart, “Well, Sonic, Shadow, both of you have the same injuries: fractured femur, a few of your toes are shattered, and, somehow, all of the injuries are in the same place and the same pattern.“ she stops then looks up with a scolding look, “Whatever you two did I wouldn’t recommend doing it again.”

Sonic snickers, “Yeah, me and Shadow won’t be getting that mixed up for a while.” Shadow stares forward blankly and groans in shame.

Then Tails gets a message on his wrist transceiver. His face becomes grim. Before Sonic could ask what was going on, Knuckles barges into the room, holding a chaos emerald, and uses that chaos emerald to heal all of Sonic and Shadow's injuries. This reckless magical healing angers the medical professional, “Excuse me, sir! You can’t just do that! You have no idea- “

Knuckles snaps at her, “New Mobotropolis is on fire, and we need the two guys who can stop the end of the world, and they’ve done it multiple times. So, back off!” The doctor clears her throat and leaves the room.

Shadow looks at Knuckles, “Is this the Doctor’s doing?” Knuckles grimaces and nods. Shadow continues, “Then I suppose I can get us to New Mobotropolis.”

Sonic crosses his arms, “That Eggman is gonna get a piece of my mind for doing this!”

They warp there in a green flash of light. They arrive at the entrance to the city, just before the houses get dense closer to the main castle. Tails looks around and asks, "What- What happened here?"

They all feel empty as the place of hope and prosperity they had worked so hard to protect burns to the ground in front of them. Fire is rampant, and bodies lay in the streets.

Knuckles looks at the bodies of people around, "Robotnik committing an atrocity the day after Nazo nearly killed us all? It’s just like the bastard."

Suddenly, they hear a scream, a loud snap, and then drag. Something walks ahead and casts a shadow, so Sonic gives a hand gesture, signaling them to go into an alleyway.

Sonic peeks out from the wall to see the macabre model of Metal Tails. It hums a tune as it drags a freshly killed citizen behind it; the corpse is a raccoon girl; she is missing her lower jaw, and her eyes rolled back into her head. Sonic’s mouth opens, agape in horror, he gulps as he turns back from peeking around the corner.

Before he could disclose the information to everyone else, the gang hear a "Psst." From an area behind a house across the street. The source of the noise is Sally Acorn, as well as an emotionally broken Amy Rose. They stay low as they move behind the house before 'Metal Tails' see them.

"Sal, we need to know what the hell happened here?" Sonic, with urgency in his voice.

She looks down, "It happened this morning… that thing came from nowhere. I've watched it for a while, entirely helpless. Sonic, that monster is not just a bucket of bolts. It seems like it has a motive beyond conquering, grandstanding or serving Eggman, it-it it’s unlike anything Robotnik has ever made." Sonic grimaces.

Shadow’s eyes flick to the direction of all the scattered bodies, "How many people have we lost?"

Amy holds her head and shudders at the words. Sally stares forward, with tired eyes, "Too many."

Sonic stands up straight, clearly angry, but not raising his voice above a whisper, "We have to stop this thing!"

Sally gently grips his arm, almost choking up, "Sonic, it tore Rotor in half! I almost lost you yesterday, I will not lose you today!"

Then Amy stands up, her eyes red with tears. "Please- pl- Please Sonic. I don't want you to die."

Suddenly, the ground shakes with an unnatural screech. Everyone covers their ears, as Knuckles manages to peak around the corner and look at Metal Tails, it had leaned backward, opened its mouth, and screeched like a predator securing its kill. The more Knuckles stares the more he realizes that this monster is barely a machine. He recognizes that shard in its head.

It stops screeching and stands up straight, its head snaps toward the entrance and Knuckles instantly gets back behind the wall. Knuckles’ eyes widen and his voice lowers as quietly as possible, "Guys, we need a plan fast because it’s on its way here, and it has a piece of the Master Emerald hanging from its head."

The monster drops its victim, breathing loudly as it marches toward the entrance of town. It starts to maniacally speak to itself, to everyone’s horror, "They all died so easy, cut, bled, gutted. Like my very own slaughterhouse. A city of souls leaving this mortal coil, it makes me feel so very alive."

Sonic grits his teeth and looks to his friends, his voices drips with anger, "When I find that Eggman…" Sonic sighs “That thing said it killed everyone in the city, how could it kill that many people?"

Sally looked away, almost ashamed, "Well, it broke through our defenses, shut down Nicole and her nanites… I don't doubt what it said. Thankfully though, there are a few survivors, but... most of the Freedom Fighters are missing or dead, I haven’t found Bunnie or Antione."

Tails covers his mouth in grief and Knuckles moves farther away from the corner but, Shadow is deep in thought about a strategy. Suddenly, the doll looks up at something and is blasted to the ground with a mighty push of psychic energy. Then it gets lifted into the air and the cyan aura flings it into a building.

Silver the Hedgehog slowly descends from the sky, “You will not harm any more people here.” With a fierce look he touches the ground. Metal Tails limps its way out of the building, and its leg is heavily damaged.

Its eyes begin twisting and whirring, scanning Silver, “You’re new to me, now I’m interested. That and you are the first to damage me.” Its leg then completely repairs itself. A black fluid seeps out then it stretches and expands to graft metal scraps into itself. Black static runs up the leg as it finishes its crude regeneration. Silver readies his psychic power.

Sonic and Shadow see Silver, then they both speed toward Metal Tails bash into it, these sends it further into the house that it was slammed into. It pushes a wall off of itself as the three hedgehogs stare down Metal Tails.

Sonic looks at Silver for a moment, “When did you get here Silver?”

“I came back because I sensed something so strong that its energy was palpable in the future,” Silver then holds out his hand toward Metal Tails, “I overshot my Chronos Control, sorry I couldn’t help with whatever it was. This thing though? It shouldn’t be too hard.” Metal Tails stands back up, as the black fluid fixes every broken part of it.

“Sonic and Shadow, my main targets, I’m glad you showed yourselves,” it chuckles “I want to feel my life threatened, I want the thrill of nearly dying. They’re all so weak here! So, I had fun in a different way! I peeled them apart!” it opens its arms, “Now it’s different, so very, very different! Three thrills! My short life will be ended today!” It smiles ear to ear and the black fluid comes out of the gaps in its shoulders, knees, and out of the various segments of its tails, the metal contorts to his new dimensions, making him taller and hunched over, his tails longer, the static on his black gem turns red, and red static runs down his body. “KILL ME!” it screams.

It gets on all fours and leaps at Silver. Silver holds it in mid-air, as it gnashes and claws at him. He launches it skyward as Sonic runs up the side of a building to bash the metal abomination with his built-up momentum. He slams into the bot while in a ball and ends his attack with a sharp downward kick. All the while Shadow charges and throws a Chaos Spear into its chest. Impaling it into a building before it could hit the ground.

It groans and coughs up black ichor as if it was blood. The Chaos Spear dissipates as it slides down the cobblestone wall and leaves a black trail. Its head shoots up at Sonic, then uses its nine tails to push itself up onto its feet.

Its manic eyes flit between the three heroes, “What is this? You three aren’t going all out!? Am I not worth a simple Super Form?!” In a fit of rage, his tails expand and then stretch rapidly, splitting into nine blade-tipped tails. Sonic and Shadow dodge the tails, as Silver manifests a force field around him, but as they dodge these whipping tails, the Doll slowly walks toward them, “You still hold back? Why? Why can’t I make you all see that I am worth killing.” Then Metal Tails shifts gears again and manages to find a blind spot on both Silver and Shadow. It swats them both away in the blink of an eye. It mutters to itself, “Maybe I’ve been doing this the wrong way. I should focus on a singular target.”

He singles out Sonic and begins slashing him with all nine tails at blinding speeds. Sonic is able to keep up since this speed is elementary to him. Even so, he doesn’t notice as a tail grips his ankle, then tightens which makes him trip and then all the tails bash into him with violent fervor. The exhaustion from fighting Nazo hits Sonic in full force as he feels heavy and sluggish, unable to escape.

The tails start beating Sonic further into the pavement. Hearing and feeling the ground shaking, Sally yells out, “Sonic!” from the sidelines. Sonic sees her and tries to tell her to run but can’t with the agony he’s suffering.

The pummeling stops, the tails suspended in the air, as Metal Tails’ head snaps toward Sally, “The Acorn Princess... Delightful!”

Suddenly Metal Tails disappears with a Chaos Control. Then it reappears behind Sally, its tendrils twist back together, turning into two scythes. Its over-stretched body hunches over Sally, and its blades start sharpening themselves against each other as he looms over her. Her eyes and body tremble with fear as she hears it breathing behind her. Metal Tails, almost giggles, “You will be his catalyst.” As it smiles ear to ear.

The deranged machine drives its scythes through Sally.

With a rip and a twist, her body is shorn by the waist. The blood splashes on Metal Tails coating his teeth in a glimmering crimson. Metal Tails looks down at his newest victim. Then his eyes travel to Sonic.

Metal Tails hears Sonics heartbeat. It hears Sonic’s breathing go ragged. Metals Tails smiles wider, as its eyes become pinpricks, vibrating in anticipation. “Child of pure chaos. Grant me a death through Darkness.”

Tears start to stream down Sonic’s face, as he sees Sally reach out to him, light fading from her eyes slowly as the damage done to her body is irreparable. His thoughts race.

She was right there. I could have saved her. I could have saved her!

He clenches his fists and punches the ground.

He punches the ground again, and the punch fractures the cobble road. He yells hoarsely, his grief intermixing with his anger. Then his entire body explodes with dark energy, causing gusts of wind that extinguishes every fire in the city.

When the dust clears Sonic’s body is pitch-black, Sonic is unnaturally still, the air around him is shimmering. Silver stares in awe and Shadow looks dumbstruck, seeing that there aren’t emeralds anywhere nearby.

Sonic, without saying a word, booms toward Metal Tails at the speed of light, and with a hard kick to its side, he knocks the creature miles away. Sonic looks back at everyone who saw, his irises reappearing for a moment, his voice strains against his anger, “Get… these people… to safety.” Then he vanishes with a streak of blackness in his wake.

When he reappears, he is twenty or so miles away from the center of New Mobotropolis, in the middle of the forest and Metal Tails is embedded into a crater. “So, this is your true- “.

Before it could speak, Sonic grabs its mouth and starts to slowly crush the abomination’s head. Metal Tails lets out a low-pitched yell. Dark energy quickly flares out of Sonic’s body as he lifts Metal Tails up, then rams it into the ground, Sonic gets on top of the Doll and punches it hard, he straightens out its face and punches it again splattering black fluid on the ground with each blow. Sonic then grips the wire on its head.

“Kill me, pull it out, pull out the wire and do it. Do it,” it pleads and begs for death. Sonic squeezes the wire harder, making the Doll convulse.

“Why did you do this?” Sonic growls

Metal Tails coughs and then chuckles, “It’s why I was born, and thus, why I must die. Duality. Dichotomy. My very essence commands me to commit horrific acts, I feel them conspiring in my head, two people in the Void. They want you strong. You can already achieve a Super Form without the emeralds now the possibilities are endless, accessing the Chaos Force like Shadow can.” Sonic processes what the Doll has sad, then the Doll smirks, dried blood encrusted on its teeth, “Do you think Sally would have liked the ‘all-black’ look?”

With that Sonic, lifts it into the air and bashes his knee into Metal Tails’ face, while it falls onto the ground, Sonic warps further into the air, and black energy forms in his palm. “Black. Wind!” He slashes his hands in the air multiple times and the dark Chaos energy blasts screech through the sky, and the explosions can be seen for miles, spanning higher than the tree line.

As he fires the blasts, he realizes that he killed the Doll with the first blast, he slows down as his emotions push through the Dark Super Form, and he stops. Then as he powers down, he lands softly onto the ground, he looks toward the massive crater he has created, and he puts his head in his hands and sighs deeply, stands up and stares into the sky, “I hope you’re seeing this Sal, because I’ll do everything to avenge you.” Then he picks up the Master Emerald Shard and limps away from the crater.

Chapter 8

-on Equestria-

Shadow races back to the Mane 6 and Silver, to see that most of the refugees scattered after the explosion produced by Kilo decimated a nearby mountain. Shadow stops in front of them. “Shadow what happened in there?” Twilight asks as Shadow’s eyes scan the tree line, responds after making sure that no one is watching them.

“We aren’t safe here, it’s worse than I feared, an organization is after the Elements of Harmony and probably the Chaos Emeralds as well, we need to get ahead of this.”

Rarity steps forward, “Have some tact Shadow, the wake just ended for the worst attack Equestria has ever received, I don’t think even Discord hurt this many ponies.”

“We are going to die in the dark if we don’t act now.”

Twilight grows a hopeful glint in her eye, “Let’s try to calm down, while we’re here and Celestia isn’t too busy we should ask her about giving us the elements, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that this time, dear pupil.” Celestia’s voice is filled with authority, as she approaches the group being flanked by a royal guard and Princess Luna. Celestia’s face is grim and so is Luna’s.

“Why not Princess Celestia? Bad people are after them. We could use them to fight back.” Twilight pleads but Celestia shakes her head.

“That’s why they are staying in the vault. If some evil force from another world wants them, they’ll have to go through all of Canterlot.”

Shadow grimaces and looks down in thought, as Twilight looks back, her ears lowered, “Yes, that sounds fine, just we’re worried is all.”

“There is simply no need to worry, Luna and I can handle any threat that comes our way.” With those final words Luna and Celestia fly off, Luna looks back at Shadow and Silver with an ounce of suspicion but then turns her head back.

“Damn it.” Shadow mutters. Twilight then looks around then looks at Shadow.

“Hey, where did, Sonic, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash go?”

“They all went to Mobius, the pink one’s strange senses allowed her to find a portal, after what that machine said.”

“There are enemies on Mobius too? Wait, how are Pinkie and Rainbow Dash going to get home?” Twilight asks as panic starts to set in.

Shadow looks to where the portal once was, “If Pinkie one can find a portal once, I’m sure she can do it again.”

As they begin to walk home to Ponyville, the animals of the countryside appear to have nearly vanished, except for a few crows. Shadow walks in silence, ever vigilant, while Silver tries to make conversation.

“So, uh, what do you guys do for fun?”

Applejack looks at Silver, “Well I like keeping myself busy, farm work and other chores, sometimes I do some athletic stuff and competitions.” Silver looks at her confused by her accent being gone but no one else notices. He notices a faint robotic glint from her eyes and comes to a startling realization.

“You are not Applejack!” Silver’s hand glows, and it restrains the fake AJ, who’s eyes dull.
It warps out of his grip, and reappears a few feet away. The air shimmers around fake AJ and a new form shows itself.

A tall Metal Sonic, with shoulder pauldrons with dense arms and legs. It has spikes on the back of its head to mimic Sonic, these spikes are lined with a black metal. Where a jet engine should be in its chest, is instead a black gemstone just like Kilo and Fist.

He stands up straight as he turns his head back to look at the group, then he throws Applejack’s hat on the ground.

Twilights horn starts to glow, “Where did you take Applejack!?”

Its voice was emotionless and low, “She’s fine for now, alive and unharmed but if anything happens to me, she will die.”

Shadow looks at it with a snarl, “You must be Lix.”

He tilts his head up, proud, “Correct, I am the apex of all Metal Sonics, I am bits and pieces of every robotic copy of Sonic.”

Silver lets out a bit of anger as his hands glow brighter, “Bastard! Tell us where Applejack is. Now!”

Lix looks toward Silver, “I will tell you where she is, for a price. You, Twilight Sparkle, a student of Celestia, teleport me to Canterlot, I will disguise myself as Shadow, you will then escort me to the throne room.”

Twilight’s eyes widen, “Then what are you going to do?”

Lix stares up at the sun, “Complete my mission.”

Twilight looks to the group, “I’m sorry. I have no choice. If my friend is in danger, I have to do this.”

Lix’s eyes shift to everyone. “If any of you follow, I will detonate the black gem in my chest, which will drag Canterlot into the Chaos Void.”

Shadow furrows his brow, talking under his breath, “What the hell is the Chaos Void, and why does that sound so familiar?”

“I’m glad that this was so cordial, using your bond to your friends as a weapon was most effective.” Lix gloats, much to Twilight’s chagrin.

Twilight looks up, “When will you tell us where she is?”

“She will appear when we are in Canterlot, you have my word.”

“Fine let’s get this over with.” Twilight’s stares daggers at Lix, who twists and morphs into a perfect copy of Shadow, who scowls at the idea that this machine would take his form. Then Twilight’s horn began to glow, and it burst with a magenta light as they both teleport away.

However rather than Applejack appearing magically in some way, she appears from behind the group, much further down the road, panting and looking around worried.

“Hold on there fellas, sorry about that,” she picks up her hat with her mouth and flips it onto her head, “Applebloom ran out from the woods and grabbed my hat for some reason, I yelled at her that she shouldn’t be this far from home, Granny would be more cross than a bull at a red flag convention.” The ponies and hedgehogs look mortified at what she said, realizing the gravity of the situation.

-In Canterlot-

Twilight and the disguised Lix appear in Canterlot, Lix’s Shadow disguise still startles the ponies, but as Twilight calms them down, she still looks at Lix with a lump in her throat knowing the danger this being poses.

They walk to the main castle, without a word to each other, Twilight glances at Lix, looking him up and down. They walk up the stairs and wander into the throne room, Luna and Celestia are in the middle of discussing something, and they both turn to look at their new audience, Celestia eyes the fake Shadow “Twilight, Shadow, we just got back, is something the matter?”

They stand in silence for a moment, Luna growing concern on her face, as Lix breaks the silence in his own deep voice. “All lifeform data… Successfully copied.”

With that utterance he quickly transforms into his true form. Lix looks at Celestia, while also combing through all the information he just acquired, “So that’s the spell you use to alter the Elements, I wondered why they changed. Interesting. My gambles have paid off.”

Twilight looks to the princesses with worry, she yells out, “Princesses don’t attack him, that gem in his chest is a bomb of some kind!”

Lix’s eyes sharpened as he looks back at Twilight, “Incorrect. That was a simple lie, this gem only houses my soul, if it were a bomb, Kilo would have used his to obliterate Sonic and Shadow before they put him down.”

Feeling confident enough to strike, Celestia tries to rush forward, but Lix holds up his hand, “Siphon of Tirek.” A yellow orb appears in his palm as the magic within Celestia, Luna, and Twilight are pulled into it. The three ponies fall to their knees.

Celestia mutters, “How? How did you know any of this?”

“One of the pieces I was made from has the ability to copy organic and inorganic beings, copying their abilities, adding a few more steps were simple. If I had the bio data, I could scan any being’s neurology and surmise their thoughts and memories. My practice with this ability has led to a 100 percent success rate. I knew I would learn the spell to reset the Elements of Harmony into their original form but sadly, I feared I wouldn’t have the reservoirs of chaos energy to cast it properly. This fear is made apparent as I had to use this spell.”

He walks toward Celestia as his power steadily increases, “I made this spell myself, after researching spells that would assist me in absorbing energy from others, I thought of adapting Aluminum Sonic’s syringes, but they couldn’t handle this much power. Then I learned of a being in Tartarus who has the ability to absorb the magic from anyone he comes across. I studied him personally and developed this spell after testing it on unsuspecting unicorns.”

He leans down, “I was granted the leadership position from my master, and I put every piece in the place it needs to be.”

Twilight looks at him angrily, “Don’t you dare leave this room and hurt my friends!” Now shimmering with power Lix stands in the room of weakened ponies and turns around he looks at Twilight, “Make peace with yourselves as I abolish the light from this world and every world, your friends will receive a swift and painless death.”

He walks out of the throne room toward Canterlot Tower, as he rounds the corner on the hallway to said tower. He sees royal guards lining the walls, these unicorn guards steady their magically held halberds at him, but he simply walks towards the wall of halberds, without making eye contact. Lix forces all of them to bow with gravity magic. Lix eventually reaches the vault with little to no resistance.

He holds up his hand, and it magically glows from light gold then to deep magenta then to a light purple. He clenches his fist, looks up at the lock, sticks out his finger and puts it into the keyhole. A brilliant light flashes and the door swings open.

He sees the Elements in the form of five necklaces and a tiara, “A very imaginative form, one would never guess these objects were a source of unimaginable power that the master requires. Now to reset them, the Elements being bonded to specific individuals would make them difficult to use.”

He centers his mind. As a weakened Twilight walks up the stairs, she witnesses this being surrounding himself in energy and his form turns from blue to gold, with streaks of black lightning running across his body, he aims his open palms at the Elements and a stream of concentrated and controlled energy collides with them, causing feedback. Marble pillars next to Lix crack as does the marble at his feet as he achieves his Super Form.

As the static and energy settle, Twilight sees the Elements of Harmony transformed into five elongated hexagonal cut gems as they were in the past, including one shaped like a multi-pointed star. “This one must be the focus for the rest, I’m curious how they interface with the Tree…” he mutters to himself.

Twilight feels as if something in her chest was torn out as the Element of Magic was unbonded from her, the others receive the same feeling from miles and worlds away, as if a veritable piece of their souls were just removed. She grits her teeth as she groans in pain. Lix looks at her while holding the purple Element.

With a coldness in his voice Lix looks down at Twilight, “Even without your magic, you persist? Your resilience will not change the outcome.”

“I said earlier,” she continues almost ignoring him, “that I won’t let you hurt my friends. And I meant it! Equestria is my home, and my friends are everything to me!” The newly reborn emeralds respond to her, Lix looks to them then to her as her mane and fur start to shift color, his eyes record the change in her energy, her magic fully restoring itself, her mane turns from blue, purple, and pink, to red and gold with a bright purple streak, her fur turns gold, light twinkles around her and her horn crackles with incandescent energy. Her eyes also turn from purple to red. This transformation cracks a few of the murals.

Before Lix could comment, Super Twilight slams her front hooves on the ground, and teleports them both outside of the city limits of Canterlot.

Lix drops the emeralds to the ground, and gets into a fighting stance saying, “This is unexpected but allow me to fully introduce myself, in this form I am Neo Lix, the true ultimate lifeform!” his dark energy flares out.

Super Twilight simply exhales as a response, as if her new energy is settling in her body. Not caring about introducing herself to this unfeeling creature.

Neo Lix rushes off the ground and flies at Super Twilight so fast he’s leaving afterimages behind himself, Twilights eyes and horn glow as her eyes only barely manage to keep up with him, then she teleports and slams down on him from above, floating above where she knocks Lix. Twilight charges a ball of purple and gold energy, and thrusts it down, causing a massive spiring explosion.

Lix teleports behind Twilight, only for her to use Chaos Control mixed with a time stop spell, Lix tries to move in this stopped time with his own Chaos Control but can’t because of the spell, then Twilight charges a blast at point-blank range, her horn aimed at Lix’s chest. The moment time begins, the explosion sends Lix flying through a mountain and moving him into a snowy mountain range.

Twilight easily warps to his location, standing on a cliff above him, her mane flowing wildly with energy. Lix only seems slightly injured from the blast, a few burns on his chassis. Then he puts his hands together and red energy accumulates around him, “Chaos Torrent!” he fires a beam that slams into Super Twilight’s magic shield, but the shield cracks and explodes into shards.

Twilight flies back, but stops herself in mid-air, Lix warps to her this time with a ball of energy in his hand, he puts it in Twilights face before she can shield, and it makes a small explosion, then Lix grabs her horn, knees her in the stomach, and hits her with a flurry of jabs, ending with a spin kick, sending her into the ground.

As she bounces up, she regains her stance, uses an intense gravity spell that multiplies the gravity by a thousand, cratering Lix instantly. Lix looks up at Twilight with his eyes going furiously red. “You're a fool if you think you can do this alone!”

Twilight then loses her sight as Lix uses the princesses’ magic to change the day to night, with the moon in the sky, while Twilight is distracted and her spell wavers, Lix delivers a left hook to Twilight’s cheek, followed up by him grabbing Twilight’s tail and spinning her around. He stomps down at faster than light speeds, and does an over the shoulder throw, slamming her on her back, causing her to cough up blood as she’s buried in rubble.

Lix’s arms combine, using the exact long railgun transformation that was used to obliterate Cloudsdale and aims the barrel at the pile of rocks that Twilight is trapped in. It powers on much quicker due to his Super Form, and a light begins to appear at the end of the barrel. Coinciding with this power surge, the moon and sun set themselves in the sky at the same time causing an eclipse to be the backdrop.

“Goodbye Twilight Sparkle, you fought valiantly.”

Then Lix feels two massive surges of power behind him, he turns to looks and he sees Shadow and Silver in shimmering gold forms, that are all too familiar to him. Shadow stands with his arms crossed, “Now you’re going straight to hell.”

While Silvers hands glow bright, and he yells out, “You’re going down!”

The three other weakened ponies, Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity, guard the Elements of Harmony, though feeling drained from losing their connection, they still stand to protect them if all else fails.

Neo’s railgun morphs back into regular arms and Super Twilight bursts out of the pile of rock, huffing and panting a steady stream of blood coming down her nose, dripping on the ground, but she wipes it with her hoof, and her horn charges with energy, she smiles confidently, “Now that my friends are here, there’s nothing we can’t do!”

Lix scoffs, “We shall see.”

Chapter 2

2 months after the attack -

Silver walks into Tails’ Workshop, a fair distance away from New Mobotropolis, and walks up to Tails, saying, “Hey Tails did you find that warp ring? I tried to Chronos Control back home this morning… again, but I didn’t have any luck.”

Tails types rapidly on his keyboard, “I did, it was in the middle of nowhere, it’s also mildly unstable, Sonic offered to check it out, you know he kind of needs the fresh air...” Tails stopped “Y’know, I hate funerals, I couldn’t attend any of the ones that were held for the victims of… you know… It wasn’t because they wouldn’t let me, but because I look, and sound, like the thing that killed entire families, orphaned kids… I didn’t want to cause more pain. Meanwhile, Sonic attended every single one of them. Without a frown, and without a smile, with nothing but professionalism, the likes of which I’ve barely ever seen from him. After the services, he sat in Sal’s room for a week straight, he would only go there to sleep, eat, drink, he wouldn’t talk to anyone, except to Sal’s ashes, and whenever he was done, he made sure to leave that room the exact way it was. The Guard let him sit in there. So, when he agreed to go check out the warp ring, it made me really happy, but I’m still worried he’s going to do something… stupid,” Tails tears up, he notices and quickly wipes it away, then he continues, “A-anyway, here are the coordinates. Thanks for being here Silver, it’s nice having you around.”

Tails hands him a calibrated GPS, Silver nods somberly and leaves, he shuts the door behind him, and he exhales deeply as he walks out of the room. “This place is so tense, I don’t blame anyone, but I really hope these guys can get through this.”

Silver walks forward two feet when he hears, a familiar gruff voice, “Are you taking to talking to yourself now, Silver?”

“Ah! Shadow? What are you doing?”

“I was listening to your conversation with Tails, Sonic went to find a warp ring. I’ve been wanting to see what he has been up to, as he has been… worryingly uncharacteristic lately,” Shadow sighs, “I don’t usually say this but, seeing Sonic in this way, makes me uneasy.”

Silver smirks, “Glad we’re all past hating each other.”

Shadow looks off into the middle distance, “I know loss. If he is going through that, I can’t find myself hating him as of right now.”

Silver scratches the back of his head, “Hey, could you warp me there? None of my warping abilities have been working.”

Shadow looks behind him a faint smirk, “If I can call in a favor later, then yes.”

Silver rolls his eyes, “Heh, sure Shadow.”

In a flash of light, Shadow uses Chaos Control and warps both of them to where Sonic is.

When they arrive, they see Sonic standing in front of a massive purple vortex, Silver, and Shadow stare at the vortex. Sonic then starts to speak, “Tails was a bit off when he said, ‘mildly unstable’, this thing is huge, a little bigger than most of the warp rings I’ve seen.”

Silver steps forward looking at it, “Sonic, I don’t think this is a warp ring,” Sonic looks over at Silver, Shadow following a few steps behind. “This portal doesn’t have the ‘ring’ around it, it’s just a random portal, in the middle of nowhere.”

Sonic then looks at Shadow, nods, then he looks at Silver and nods, “So, we going in?” Before Silver or Shadow can say no, he grabs their wrists and runs into the portal. It disappears when they jump through, but Silver accidentally drops the GPS behind him.

Shadow opens his eyes, and looks around, he is in a forest he has never seen before. “This could be a lot better of a situation,”

Sonic and Silver also both wake up. “Ugh, where are we?” Silver groggily stands up.

“Ask Sonic, he literally dragged us here, he must have had some resemblance of an idea.” Shadow Grumbles

Sonic smirks, dusting himself off, “Well, I don’t have a clue, but we can explore and find out.”

Shadow snarls and clenches his fists, “Damn it Sonic, why did you drag us here knowing anything?!”

Sonic walks past Shadow, his face twisted with aggression, “Get the stick out of your ass! Could you try to relax and have a good time!”

Shadow stiffens at the response. Sonic walks ahead. Letting Sonic lead the way, Silver looks at Shadow, his voice quiet, “Let’s just try to keep the guy happy, huh? This kind of thing is good for him.”

Shadow sighs in agreement, “…I guess you’re right…”

Shadow and Silver follow Sonic through the unknown woods. As they walk, they hear a twig crack in the woods, they all stop at the same time. Sonic turns to see a pack of wolves made of timber, as they try to ambush the trio. Silver smashes two of them together and throws the pile of sticks as far as he can, Shadow throws a Chaos Spear and destroys three at once.

Sonic peels out, spin dashing into the pack, and cuts one in half like a circular saw, then he continues through the rest of the pack, targeting large and small. When Sonic finishes, he stands on a pile of sticks, and the stragglers run away, Sonic almost gave chase, but stopped, deciding it wasn’t worth the effort. After the fight Silver and Shadow felt something off about Sonic but they chose to ignore it.

“Wolves made of wood, guess there’s a first time for everything- Wait, are they actually timberwolves, that’s funny,” Silver laughs lightly to himself as they exit the forest. As they reach the top of a short hill, the trio look around and see that they’ve exited into inhabited land with houses and barns in the distance.

Shadow crosses his arms as he scans the skyline, he sees thatch roofed houses and wagons, “Civilization? It seems rather primitive, let’s hope we haven’t gone too far back in time, if we are lucky, we could see if they have some rudimentary understanding of Chaos energy to send us home.” As the three continue on the dirt road walk to the closest house on the road: which is a small cottage with a tree growing out of it.

They walk up to the door, Sonic is the first to say, “Alright you two, be ready for anything, these primitive Mobians could be friendly or bloodthirsty.” Sonic knocks on the door. The door slowly creaks open, and a yellow face peaks her head out of the door, seems to be equine in nature.

Shadow sees the pony and has a sharp realization, “This isn’t time travel.”

Silver looks excitedly at her and Sonic maintains a calm smile.

The pony is taken aback but she isn’t scared away just yet, “H-Hello?”

Shadow sighs in relief, “It speaks English.”

Sonic starts to greet her, “Sorry if we’re bugging you, but my name’s Sonic, Sonic the hedge- “, then the pony opens the door all the way, bashing it into the wall on the other side, almost as if she had an epiphany.

“Don’t say another word, You poor, poor critters!” She hurries the three inside. Before they knew it, they were all inside the cottage, in blankets, on a couch and each given an empty cup for tea.

“Ma’am, I appreciate the hospitality but- “, Sonic gets hushed instantaneously.

“Shhh… don’t exhaust yourselves, you’re going to rest your little heads. My, you all look so very tired!”

Silver squints, looks at himself and whispers, “...little?”

Shadow looks at the pegasus pony and puts down the teacup he was given, “Since we’re now your guests I’d like to ask some questions.”

The pegasus pours the three hedgehogs teas, “I’d be okay answering some questions, my, you sure are talkative for a hedgehog.” She giggles but Shadow stays stone-faced.

“Who are you, what are you and where are we?”

“You three are in Ponyville, I am a pegasus pony and my name is Fluttershy. I normally only talk to animals, like you three, but lately I have been making friends with other ponies.”

Silver takes a sip of tea, “So your name is ‘Fluttershy’, and you are, in fact, shy?” Silver shakes his head as he laughs to himself, “This place, man.”

She smiles at Silver’s reaction, “Well, you all may be bigger than usual- wait how did you three grow so big?” Sonic raises his hand and was about to respond, “Oh no! Did Twilight preform some spell on you!?” Shadow nearly asks a question but is interrupted by a now livid Fluttershy. “I told her to stop testing her magic on the animals in the Everfree!” then she flies out of the door at top speed, leaving the front door wide open.

The trio get up, Sonic asks “Are we following her?” Silver drinks all of his tea then puts the empty cup on a nearby table. They all nod at each other and walk out and as they leave Silver politely shuts the door.

As they start going after her, Shadow and Sonic zoom to the city, leaving Silver in the dust, he sighs, and he rockets in the air with his psychic powers. They stop close to the town hall, and as they do, they get weird looks from all the ponies around them. Silver lands next to them, which garners more looks, Sonic snaps his finger, “Darn it! She outmaneuvered us.”

Then Shadow senses something, saying “Everyone, keep your eyes peeled, there’s something watching us.”

Sonic and Silver keep their eyes and ears open, then they hear a loud noise, and hear, “Incoming!” in a peppy voice, then the pink projectile is stopped mid-air by Silver’s telekinesis.

The pink pony notices she’s in the air, “Woah, so cool! I’m floating!”

Silver looks at the cannon in surprise, “Did- Did you just fire yourself out of a cannon… to hit us?”

“Pfft, obviously! How else was I going to greet the new visitors to Ponyville?”

Shadow crosses his arms, “In a way that wouldn’t be seen as an act of war in some countries...”

She laughs hysterically. “You’re hilarious, newbie!” Shadow’s eye twitches.

Suddenly a purple blast of energy flies past Silver’s head, he dodges and drops the pink pony, “The hell man, that could’ve killed me, Shadow!” Shadow turns spotting a purple unicorn with a smoking horn.

“It seems as if it wasn’t me,” he scowls, “interesting.” Fluttershy stands next to the purple unicorn and puts her ears down.

“Don’t you touch her, monster!” Yells the purple unicorn. Shadow takes a step forward, but Sonic walks further. Shadow looks at Sonic with a confused look, Sonic clenches his fists.

Shadow snarls, “Sonic, I can deal with this.”

Sonic looks back at Shadow, “Help Silver up.” Sonic’s voice sounds like he is holding back a fiery rage. Sonic pulls both of his gloves up and looks at the purple pony. “What’s your name?”

She looks at him, “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and you had better- “

Sonic yells, “That attack almost killed one of my closest friends.” Twilight stammers and Shadow looks onward in shock.

Silver gets up, then helps the pink pony he dropped, “Hey sorry about stopping you in the air, it was just instinct.”

She gleefully beams at Silver. “Oh, it’s fine, I’d do the same thing if I had magic powers, and something was flying at me. I’m Pinkie Pie by the way!”

Shadow intrudes “Silver, ‘Pinkie Pie’,” without looking at them, keeping his eyes forward, he slowly walks backwards. “We need to move.”

Silver dusts himself off and pulls his gloves, “Why’s that, Shadow?” then something explodes where Sonic is, and the dust is blasted away by pitch black energy.

Shadow wears a grim face, “Sonic has officially lost his mind.”

Twilight steps back slowly, beads of sweat forming on her face. “H-hey I didn’t mean to- “

Sonic blankly stares down, “Shut. up.” He holds up his palm and a ball of black energy manifests, but before he can obliterate Twilight, Fluttershy, and half of Ponyville. Everyone hears a boom and a rainbow-colored streak rockets itself into Sonic’s side, sending him through multiple buildings.

A pony matching the streak of color stands where Sonic used to be, she looked over at Twilight, “Twi! Are you okay? Don’t worry I’ll handle this creep!“

Before Rainbow Dash could utter another syllable, she catches a strong right hook to her jaw, bashing her into the ground, Sonic flattens his hand, it burns with sharpened black energy, and is about to go in for the kill. Then Sonic’s body stumbles as Silver holds out both hands, swings them down and pushes him toward the ground with his mind.

“Get a grip, Sonic!” Silver adjusts himself as Sonic struggles violently. Silver’s control almost breaks but Twilight also puts her own telekinesis into the hold, after a minute Sonic powers down and passes out.

Silver pants, and Shadow walks toward the unconscious Sonic, shakes his head, “What the hell happened to you?”

Twilight looks at Shadow, he face having a mix of curiosity and apprehension, “You say that as if you have no idea what happened, he’s your friend, isn’t he?”

Shadow grimaces, “Something like that, yeah.”

Then, in almost a minute the rainbow pony sits herself back up, bleeding from the nose and yells “Alright you overgrown porcupine, let’s go!” She directs this to Shadow, who more than used to being falsely recognized as Sonic, he then points to Sonic. the pony sheepishly scratches the back of her head, “Oh, heh, sorry.”

Suddenly, Pinkie jumps into the rainbow pony, “Dashie! You’re okay!” and they hug.

“Pinkie! I thought they hurt you.” Pinkie shakes her head furiously, “No, no, no! you’ve got it all wrong, Silver, that silver one over there,” Silver just waves at Rainbow Dash, “he only held me in the air,” she looks back at Silver, “because I launched myself out of a cannon at him and his friends.”

Twilight looks at the other ponies, “I think we should hold a meeting to see how we should go about helping these hedgehogs,” she looks at Shadow and Silver, “are you guys okay with coming over to my Library? I think we may need to have a conversation of some sort.”

Shadow responds, “That should be fine for the moment, me and Silver both need to figure out how to get back to Mobius.”

Fluttershy’s eyes open wide, “Wait... so you aren’t from the Everfree... and Twilight didn’t do anything to poor little animals,” she looks at Twilight, “I’m so sorry Twilight...” Fluttershy then gives Twilight a hug as they make up.

Silver and Shadow watches this exchange, then Silver leans over to Shadow, “Are we in like a fairy tale or something? Oh god, is this like that genie stuff Sonic went through?”

Shadow looks around at the broken houses, “I don’t think so Silver.”

When they get to Twilight’s home, the Golden Oak Library, two more ponies arrive on the scene, Applejack and Rarity. As Twilight begins the meeting, Sonic rests upstairs in Twilight’s bed, Silver and Shadow are in the circle of ponies in the middle of the room.

Applejack points a hoof between the two hedgehogs, “So, what in tarnation are y’all, I’ve seen plenty’a critters in my day, you three ain’t none of ‘em.” .

Shadow quickly scan the room, then looks at Applejack, “I am Shadow, this is Silver, and the person upstairs is Sonic. We are hedgehogs from the planet Mobius.”

They all open their eyes wide. Twilight stammers, “So y-you’re aliens,” her eyes then instantly light up “that’s so exciting!”

Shadow whispers under his breath, “Technically speaking, she isn’t wrong.”

Rainbow Dash then looks at Shadow, looks him up and down, “So, how does ‘Sonic’ have superpowers? How come he’s blue now instead of that, weird purply-black color?”

Shadow looks at her and sighs, “That’s a lot to explain, because I’d have to tell you about the Chaos force, the Chaos Emeralds, and how Sonic couldn’t keep his damn emotions in check.”

Shadow becomes visibly irritated. Silver takes over, “I’ll fill you in,” Silver looks at Shadow, “Hey man, get some air, don’t blow a gasket.” Shadow looks at Silver and lets out a breath, he nods, then Shadow walks out of the front door to stand around. While he stands there, he sees a small purple lizard, Shadow and the lizard look at each other for a moment wordlessly before the lizard walks into the tree house.

The little purple dragon looks around “So, who’s that outside?”

Twilight calmly greets him. “Oh hello, Spike, that was Shadow outside.”

Spike looks at Silver, Silver waves, Spike gives Silver a look of curiosity, “I’m not too sure I know what’s going on but color me interested!”

Silver then begins to teach the ponies about everything that’s happened. He explained Chaos, the Chaos Force and The Chaos Emeralds, then he told them about how they got there and why Sonic is the way he is, “...he’s a hero back home, he fought in a revolution against a mad scientist who was bent on domination, he was always the first guy to jump into a fight,” Silver looks down, “a few months ago, his home city was… attacked...”

Rainbow Dash gets pumped, “Lemme guess; Sonic kicked their butts and saved the day.”

Then a voice resonates from the top of the stairs, “No, I lost so much that day. More than I could ever hope to get back to feel normal.” He walks down the steps as the air in the room becomes tense, Sonic’s face wracked with guilt and grief. “My best gal and my closest friends… all of ‘em were butchered.” He nearly collapses on the steps clutching his chest, “I hear ‘em... begging for my help, I run as fast as my legs can take me but,” Sonic sits down on the steps as the ponies watch closely, they each look at each other in worry. Then Silver walks up to Sonic on the steps and sits next to him. Silver wraps an arm around him, then Sonic’s voice breaks, “But I just can’t get faster, I lose them every single... Goddamn time!”

He looks at Rainbow Dash, “I’m sorry for earlier,” he chuckles weakly, “I watched myself hurt you, I- “

She quickly interrupts him, “Hey! Don’t sweat it, no hard feelings.” Sonic smiles at her, then looks at Silver, who has a worried face.

“I’ll be okay, Silver.” Silver gets up and gives Sonic a hand, pulling him to his feet. Shadow hears Sonic’s voice and walks back in.

Shadow eyes Sonic, he sees the tears in his eyes, and he sighs, “As of now, we may be strangers and I’m not one for asking strangers for help, but… I’ll swallow a bit of pride. We need help.” Shadow looks at all the ponies.

Twilight smiles in understanding, “Well, you picked the right group of ponies! We’re always willing to help anyone in need.”

All of the ponies happily nod. Pinkie extends a hoof to Silver, “We’ll get you home, I Pinkie promise!”

Silver happily shakes Pinkie’s hoof.

Fluttershy looks down, not making eye contact but with a faint smile, “Well, if you three need a place to stay, my door’s always open.”

Pinkie then bounces up and down “Tomorrow we should definitely throw a party! To welcome Sonic, Shadow, and Silver to Ponyville!”

Sonic glances outside and sees that it’s dark out. “I was out for a while, huh?”

Silver, stands up, “How about we get some rest for the night, huh guys?” The trio follow Fluttershy home and take their spots on the floor in the living room, except for Silver who decided to take the guest bedroom.

In the middle of the night Sonic opens his eyes and realizes he can’t sleep, either because he was passed out for the entire evening or because he doesn’t want another nightmare.

Then he quickly and silently tip-toes out of the house, and speeds to a hill. The night sky is filled with bright stars, no light pollution to speak of, and the moon is a crescent. He lays on his back and blissfully looks at the sky. A voice calls out, “Hey. You like the view too, huh?”

Sonic turns his head and sees Rainbow Dash, Sonic’s face showing some surprise, “Didn’t know anyone would be up about now.”

She stands next to Sonic, “I can’t really sleep either, guess you must’ve clobbered me pretty good.”

Sonic continues to look up, his smirk turning to a small frown, “How are you guys so forgiving? I almost did something… really bad.”

Rainbow plops onto her back to look at the stars as well, “Thank Twilight for that stuff, I normally hold grudges, but after your friend Silver told us about what kind of hero you are, what you’ve done for your home… it kind of psyched me up… It’s the kind of thing I wanna do, y’know?”

“Sorry we met the way we did,” Sonic sits up and holds out his hand, with cheer, “Lets redo it! My names Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!”

Rainbow reciprocates, smirking, “Nice to meet you Sonic, The name’s Rainbow Dash!” They shake hoof and hand.

Sonic looks up at the pegasus, “When you hit me earlier Rainbow Dash, you were moving pretty fast,” .

Rainbow Dash grows a cocky smirk, “Well yeah, I’m the fastest flyer in all of Equestria. Say you’re pretty fast too, we should race.”

Sonic’s faces mirrors hers, “Yeah! I need a good race.”

The pair spend a few hours staring at the sky, Sonic trying to find familiar constellations, and they both eventually split off and go back to their residences, temporary or otherwise, so they can both get some well-deserved rest. Though Sonic slept as well as he could, he was still haunted by the same nightmare he described earlier in the day.

Sonic wakes up still fairly detached but wearing his normal attitude to the best of his ability, Shadow woke up before him and was staring out the window, Silver came down the steps in fairly good mood.

Silver starts “So fellas, want to walk around the woods and find a way home?”

Then an explosion rattles Fluttershy’s cottage, Fluttershy rubs her eyes as she walks down the steps, “What’s with the noise?” Another rattle and Fluttershy almost trips on the steps, Silver holds her in the air and gently brings her to the ground floor. Shadow opens the door and sees a bunch of rubble in the field, animals scattering.

Then something pushes all the dust and debris away, and a mossy metal machine stands in the rubble. “S-S-S-S-Sonic detected! D-D-Destroy!” as it stares at Shadow, Shadow turns and yells for the others, “We have a hostile!” the hedgehogs walk onto Fluttershy’s front yard, “Is that Metal?” Asks Shadow,

Sonic smirks, “Older. That’s Silver Sonic.”

Silver looks over, and points to himself “Like me?” Sonic just squints at Silver, “Oh! You mean like the material! Got it.”

Then Silver Sonic finishes charging up and spin dashes at Sonic, Silver then stops and tosses it into the Everfree Forest. “How did one of Eggman’s old robots get here?” asks Sonic,

“I’d say the same way we did.” Silver answers.

Shadow prepares a Chaos Spear as Silver Sonic rushes from the forest, “Wouldn’t explain the moss, I think it’s been here for a year or two, but Badniks are built to last if they aren’t being trampled.” He then lobs the spear, and it pierces the robot’s chest, the robot sparks, then it powers down one last time. Fluttershy shakily walks outside, “Is it over?”

Shadow answers, “Should be, but you should probably get your friends, they may be able to help.

The ponies get there, and everyone looks at the robot. “What the heck is that?” Rainbow Dash asks.

Shadow clears up some moss on its broken body, “This is a Badnik, a type of automaton, it was clearly created by Doctor Robotnik.” Robotnik’s insignia is etched into the machine’s left shoulder,

Rarity looks at it, “Its design is simply dreadful, I mean its eyes are so garish, not to mention the color.”

Applejack rolls her eyes and touches the machine with her hoof then has a realization, “Wait! I recognize this doohickey! I thought it was a statue, this thing was deep in the Everfree, I think it popped up a few years ago, saw it once when an errand took me ways away from Sweet Apple Acres,” she looks at Sonic, “it came from the sky and landed smack-dab in front of a tree. I’d go to it every so often, and it’d make weird noises, didn’t think about it too much.”

Sonic proudly smirks, then boasts, “Didn’t know I beat this bot so bad; it had to run to another world!”

Then Sonic has a realization, he looks at Shadow and Silver, and asks, “How many of Eggman’s old toys could’ve landed here?”

Shadow then adds on “And how many of them have been activated because we arrived here?” Like clockwork, a fireball rises from Ponyville and the ground rumbles.

Twilight looks off at the tree-line, “We should get over there, and if what you guys said is true, someone should stay here and watch the Everfree.” .

Fluttershy looks down, “I-I’ll stay here and cheer you guys on...”

Silver holds up a finger, “I’ll also stay here, just in case something happens.”

Rarity then trots next to Silver, lays out a blanket and sits down, “No violence for me today, dear, I just got my hair to curl perfectly. I will keep an eye out and enjoy this beautiful weather while doing it.”

Applejack faces the direction of her orchard, “Me and Pinkie will head to Sweet Apple Acres. Either one of you boys want to go?”

Shadow steps forward but Sonic puts his hand on Shadow’s Shoulder, “Hey pal, I’ll go with those two, Rainbow and Twilight might need your firepower.”

Shadow shakes his head, “I appreciate the offer, but you have some aggression to work out. Go and take care of whatever is attacking Ponyville. I’m confident whatever is at this orchard won’t be very deadly to us.”

Sonic stares at Shadow then gives him a thumbs up, “Alright, suit yourself Shads,” Sonic and Rainbow Dash boom away as soon as the conversation is over. Twilight sighs and just teleports to town. Applejack’s squad rushes to Sweet Apple Acres, and Silver’s squad hunkers down around the body of Silver Sonic.

Chapter 3

When Sonic reaches Ponyville, he is welcomed by a strange sight: a moss-covered robot with hinged legs and its shoulder has the text ‘E-112’, it has dual mounted rocket launchers that are somehow still fully loaded. It destroys a building, and ponies flee from the fire and flames, all while yelling “Monster!” It stares down the road and locks on to Sonic, its voice crackles to life, “Hedgehog located: energy signature matched; identifying Sonic the Hedgehog. Engage.” Sonic gets an almost nostalgic flashback to fighting Gamma on the Egg Carrier.

“Guess you’re Gamma’s tenth youngest brother, huh?” Its rockets flare to life from its feet, and it blasts toward Sonic. It fires a flurry of missiles, but as soon as they fly toward him, Rainbow Dash smashes directly into the robot. Then, Twilight stops all of the missiles in mid-air with her telekinetic magic, as one missile slows to a halt, it stops an inch away from Sonic’s nose, then she lets go and they all fall flat on the ground.

One of the missile launchers on its back aims at Rainbow Dash’s face, before it fires, Sonic spin dashes into its chest, successfully deactivating it. Rainbow Dash fumbles back, Sonic walks over to Rainbow Dash, he offers to help her up, “Hey, you alright? That thing almost blasted you.”

Sonic helps her up, and she nods at Sonic, “Thanks for having my back, Sonic.” Sonic nods as Twilight calms down the townsfolk and explains the situation.

“Everyone, everything will be fine! A new friend of ours helped defeat the monster!” She yells across town. The ponies then look and see Sonic for the first time. “What in the name of Celestia is that?!” A normal pony points his hoof to Sonic, then the others notice, and their eyes start going wide with fear, “People of Ponyville!” Twilight yells, “He is the one who helped defeat the thing that blew up that house over there, he is new and is here to help!”

The ponies look at Sonic and one yells out, “Didn’t that guy punch Rainbow Dash through Shoeshine’s house?”

Sonic awkwardly scratches the back of his head while looking over at Rainbow Dash, and whispers, “Guess they aren’t forgetting that one, huh?”

Rainbow Dash whispers back, ”I’m sure they’ll come around eventually.”

Twilight then yells out, “Yes, I apologize that Sonic may have caused a little bit of property damage, but he just stopped a lot more destruction. Besides, He and Rainbow Dash are friends now.”

Shoeshine herself steps forward, “I’m glad they’re friends and all but that cost me almost a thousand Bits to repair, my insurance wouldn’t cover it.”

Twilight looks at her, “I don’t really know how to respond to that, but I will tell you that you can all go home.” The crowd disperses as Shoeshine stares daggers at Sonic.

Twilight sighs loudly, “Let’s just go and meet up with Applejack. I bet her, and Shadow are having a better time than us. “

As she speaks, something flashes in front of her then Shadow appears, and she bumps into him, “Shadow, what are you doing here, how are-?”

He interrupts her, “Applejack sent me here, we are all going to the farm immediately, something just unearthed itself, and I think, to me, Sonic and Silver, it is extremely distressing.” He gestures for Sonic and Rainbow Dash to come to him. Then Shadow teleports them to Sweet Apple Acres.

Silver teleports to Sweet Apple Acres, as well, with Rarity and Fluttershy in tow, deciding it is time to meet up, “Sorry we were late, there was an army of old Moto-Bugs, but they were- “, Silver looks at everyone, their attention is focused on a giant metal sphere, half buried, uprooting a small area of trees. Silver then comments, “That’s certainly more interesting than the Moto-Bugs.” Silver and his group meet up with the others.

Shadow sees Silver starts to walk forward, Shadow crosses his arms, “Moto-Bugs, huh?”

Silver nods, “There sure were, whole bunch of ‘em from nowhere.”

Then Shadow shakes his head in realization, “Wait, how did you just Chaos Control here?”

Silver looks at Shadow, looks down to his own hands, “I guess because this is a new place or something. You’d know more than me.”

Silver then further inspects the massive spherical satellite, reminiscent of the Death Egg, it was about the size of a few houses, “What in the hell is going on here?”

Sonic points up at a familiar insignia, it was G.U.N.’s, “This is one of Eggman’s designs no doubt about it. So, maybe G.U.N. was inspired by the Death Egg, made a smaller version? That would answer a few questions...”

Shadow joins in, “How would the Doctor or G.U.N. for that matter, even have the means of entering this world, judging from how deep it is, this has to be a decade old.”

Applejack’s face scrunches as she furrows her brow, “Hold on now, how have I never seen this big ol ball, think I’d remember something this big hitting the ground in the middle of my orchard.”

Shadow gestures to the satellite, “Then there are even more questions to be answered inside.”

Twilight puts her hoof to her chin, “If this thing has a door, we should go in there and, assuming this is one of his, we should see if this ‘Eggman’, or G.U.N., left anything behind.”

Pinkie’s head twists her head as she wanders closer, “Hmm, it doesn’t look like it has one... even with how old it might be, it doesn’t even have a single hole!”

Rainbow Dash backs up a bit, “Well if there isn’t a door, we’ll just have to make one.” She opens up her wings.

“Wait, Rainbow, use your head!” Twilight yells.

Rainbow Dash smirks, “I am!”

Then she rockets into the egg-like satellite, when she collides with it, a shield activates, and it displays a hexagonal grid, she gets ricocheted off, and goes directly up, then she gets angry, “Why does this thing have a force field?!” Then she rams into it repeatedly, getting faster and faster.

“Say that’s not a bad idea!” Sonic spin dashes into the force field trying to saw through the energy.

Fluttershy pushes her hooves together in worry, “I hope nopony gets hurt doing this.”

Applejack reassures her, “Don’t worry sugar-cube, that Rainbow Dash is one tough nut to crack.”

Silver leans down a smirk on his face, “Same goes for Sonic, I watched him ram himself into more things than you could imagine.”

Fluttershy smiles, Silver’s words calming her down, but it is short lived as Shadow’s voice booms out “Everyone!” he pushes out his open palms and begins charging blue energy, “Out of the way!” Silver and the ponies start walking back like walking away from a bomb.

Shadow’s voice echoes across Sweet Apple Acres, “Chaos Arrows!” a blue light explodes from his palms as he fires a barrage of energy projectiles. He peppers the force field with high intensity, but he knows he’s doing no damage.

“Damn it!” Shadow struggles to maintain the attack.

Then Twilight’s eyes light up, “Shadow, aim at that cracked spot!” Shadow looks in the direction Twilight points her hoof and sees a hexagon with a crack.

“Very perceptive, Twilight.” Shadow smirks, stops his Chaos Arrows. Then he gets into a stance where he looks like he’s about to launch a javelin. Yellow energy charges in his fist and the ponies look in awe. While Silver mouths the words: ‘Show off’.

He lunges the spear with all his might, and it hits the hex, but it ricochets off the force field at a 90-degree angle going up. The Spear explodes in the sky like a firework. Shadow pants slightly, and charges another one, “Damn, I don’t have much Chaos Energy left in reserve...”

Twilight walks up and charges a magic blast, “Then let me help you, it may need two to do this.”

Shadow nods and catches his breath. He stands up straight as he conjures another Chaos Spear, “Are you ready?”

Twilight her horn glowing brightly, smirks with determination, “Yes!”

Then they both yell out at the same time and blast the broken part of the grid. The yellow and purple beam punches a hole through the hexagon. The forcefield whirs and slowly the hexes begin to fade away. Shadow breathes heavily, “We were successful... good.” He then winces and falls on one knee, “I-I used too much power...”

Twilight runs over to him, “Are you okay?”

Shadow glances at her concerned look, and he rises to his feet, “I’ve handled worse.”

A staircase haphazardly swings downward from the side of the sphere, Sonic, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, and Silver go to the staircase and they look surprisingly pristine, even with a faint scent of ‘new car’.

Sonic looks at Shadow, Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy, all of them sitting. “Yo, you guys staying out here?”

Shadow nods, “I can’t speak for everyone, but I need to recuperate, just share your findings with us.”

Applejack then yells, “Oh, we wouldn’t want a certain pony to be ruinin’ her mane, now, would we?”

Rarity scoffs then looks away saying, “Hmph. I’ll have you know I spent all morning freshening up!”

Applejack chuckles to herself as she trots up the stairs, “Come on you guys, last one there is a rotten apple!”

Sonic and Rainbow Dash boom up the stairs instantly, they knock Applejack off the side and then Silver catches her with his powers, “Are you alright, uh, Applejack?” Silver asks meekly,

“I’m right as rain, Silver, thank ya.” She drops, land and smiles at Silver. Pinkie happily hops up the stairs next to the rotten apples.

When they get to the top of the staircase, Silver, Pinkie, and Applejack see Rainbow Dash and Sonic looking around at the high-tech design, bright white walls, and floors, not even a speck of dust. Sonic searches around for evidence, “Definitely Eggman’s, now we just need to find out what he was using it for.”

Then Pinkie Pie points down the hall with her hair, “That way!”

Sonic and Silver look at each other, then Silver squints looking at Pinkie, “Wait, how do you know? This facility has been in the ground.“

Pinkie adamantly continues to point, and then yells, “My Pinkie senses say that we need to go this way!”

Applejack shrugs with a light smile, “Oh well shoot, if it’s one of her wacky senses, then it usually works.”

Rainbow Dash crosses her forelegs, “As much as it weirds me out, she’s usually right with this kind of stuff.”

Sonic looks down the hall, a half-smile on her face, “We got nothing else to go off of, besides, I’m pretty curious.” Everyone walks in the direction Pinkie points.

Then they reach a four-way intersection, and her tuft of hair starts pointing to the left. As they walk, they start to feel uncomfortable and tense. As they start hearing creaks in the walls, with smells of rust and rot, ebbing in and out of vents. Then they walk past a metal door with a handprint scanner, and it’s the first door they’ve seen since they entered the satellite, and sure enough Pinkie’s tuft of hair stands straight up, “Yup. This is the place!”

Applejack’s face scrunches up, “How’re we gonna even get in?”

Sonic and Rainbow Dash nod at each other and prepare to barrage the door, then Silver steps in between them and the door and he telekinetically forces the metal door off of its hinges, and it flies back, Silver then looks at everyone and does a ‘Come right in’ gesture.

It is a circular room with multiple desks, workbenches, and a cylindrical computer in the middle of the room, Silver moves closer to the computer and everyone else investigates other parts of the room. Suddenly, a screen pops up on the far side of the room, across from where the door was, on the screen is Dr. Robotnik, when he was younger, fewer wrinkles on his forehead and he had a shorter mustache, and the screen is a paused video it seems.

“What in tarnation is that?!” Yells Applejack

Sonic then looks at the screen in confusion, he then asks, “Eggman?”

Rainbow Dash then comments “That’s Eggman? He really does look like an egg! Weird question though, what is he?”

Sonic answers the question, “He’s human for the most part.”

Then Silver starts the video, and everyone’s eyes are glued to it, Robotnik begins the video with yelling, cursing, and throwing everything off of a workbench in a completely different location, he catches his breath and looks into the camera.

“I warned the fools at G.U.N. I nearly killed myself begging for my resources not to be used in the pursuit the original six Chaos Emeralds, my brother hypothesized. Mistakenly, I tracked their location based on evidence Colin collected, and it led us to a warp ring... without a ring. I told G.U.N. It was unstable, but they ignored me and my brother. They replicated it in a lab, extorted my brother and sent him and a satellite into it the portal. May I remind you that the satellite you nitwits created were based on designs I drew!” He looks down and shakes his head, “As G.U.N.’s Lead Technical Researcher I resign, officially, I will not sit idly by while my designs are being used for your benefit without my consent.” He sits down in a chair, “I’m going to talk to Naugus and go to the Kingdom of Acorn, to fulfill what must be done to destroy this regime. Former Technical Research Lead, Doctor Ivo Robotnik, signing off. Try to make it back home, Colin, I’ll make sure to take good care of the family while you're away.”

Silver starts looking through the files for ‘Colin’. “It says here that Colin is, in fact, Colin Robotnik, Eggman wasn’t lying. Weirdly, it also says here that he left this facility sometime after it crashed. How does that work? Did he purposefully crash this thing just to be on the planet?”

Rainbow Dash looks at the paused image of Eggman in confusion, she looks at Sonic, “His brother was sent to another planet and the only thing he cared about was his toys?”

Sonic nods, “Good to know he’s always been like that, I heard rumors he roboticized his own family, but what he said at the end there makes a pit twist in my stomach.”

Pinkie then hears a rustling noise behind her, she turns around and sees nothing but a metal panel, she sighs in relief. Then something bashes into the wall behind her so hard, that the panel bursts open, and then everyone looks to that wall and sees one red, digital, eye, the glowing pupil moves back and forth as it scans the room and then it steps into the light. It’s on all fours and has a light blue hull, it has a rainbow colored, solid metal, headpiece mimicking Rainbow Dash’s hair. Then, its metal wings expand and a jet engine on its back starts to rev up.

Then it takes off but before it could hit anyone, Applejack bucks it in the face, and it flies diagonally into a metal girder in the wall of the satellite, and it starts to spark and malfunction. As it tries again, Silver telekinetically diverts its flight path, and it bashes its head into the ground, suddenly Silver sees it spark for a moment, then it starts to beep rapidly, and he yells, “Everyone get down!” Metal Rainbow Dash then self-destructs.

Silver holds up his hands and creates a force field, blocking back most of the explosion. It pushes him back a little, but when the smoke clears, the explosion destroys the doorway, and most of the room as the explosion was curved around Silver’s shield.

Silver puts his hands on his knees and tries to catch his breath. Then he looks back at everyone huddled together and gives a thumbs up, then Sonic’s eyes spot something coming up from behind Silver, “Look out!”

Before Silver can turn around, Sonic sees another Metal Rainbow Dash this time on two legs. It back-hands Silver, he hits the wall and slides down. Before Sonic can retaliate, two more Metal Rainbow Dash’s show up.

“There’s more than one!” Sonic puts his fists up with the ponies behind him. They take a defensive stance as more come in. It gets to the point where there’s a dozen Metal Rainbow Dash’s in the room.

Sonic then speaks under his breath, “I’m going to make a distraction, you three grab Silver, and get out of here.”

Applejack responds not taking her eyes off the robots, “No way, no how, we ain’t leaving you behind Sonic.”

Pinkie also comments, “We haven’t gotten you home yet, and I never break a Pinkie promise.”

Lastly Rainbow Dash looks at Sonic, “There’s no way I’m letting you take all the action!”

Sonic looks ahead then smirks, “Alright, then, let’s show these creeps!”

Rainbow Dash flies into a group of Metal versions of herself, with a hoof out, and bucks one in the face while flying, the force knocks it back into other robots. Pinkie does what she does best, and pulls her party cannon out of her mane, jumps into the barrel, and fires herself into the crowd, sending Metal Rainbow Dash’s flying in every direction, like bowling pins being hit by a Mach-speed bowling ball.

Applejack kicks as hard as she can, and she takes out each one that tries to attack her, shattering their torsos, knocking their husks into the center console, and they begin to pile up at the base of the console. Sonic bounces on top of the heads of the Metal Rainbow Dashs, bashing their faces in, with his homing attacks, and Rainbow Dash headbutts any of them that are distracted, and bashes them into a wall.

More keep pouring in from vents and loose panels, “How many more of these tin cans are there?!” Applejack yells.

Sonic notices an orchestra of beeping, then yells, “We need to hurry! I’m gonna make an opening! Rainbow, grab Silver and let’s get out of here.” then Rainbow Dash swoops over to Silver, still knocked out, and picks him up under his arms, then Sonic spin dashes and plows through a giant group of the Metal Rainbow Dashs then before backup comes, they rush out of the room, but as they rush out the defeated Metal Rainbow Dash’s all explode and block the corridor in front of them forcing them to go the opposite way, loop around and find the exit. In the opposite corridor more Metals are crawling out from the ceiling and vents on the floor. When they get to the exit, they all leap down the steps, they see Shadow, and Twilight defending Fluttershy and Rarity from the Metal Rainbow Dashs.

The gang ran to Shadow and Twilight. “Shadow, Twilight, what’s going on? How many of those weird Rain-bots are coming out?” Sonic asks as Applejack kicks a robot out of the way, so their explosions can’t harm anyone.

Rainbow Dash sets Silver down as he comes back into consciousness. He then asks groggily, “What happened? Man, I’m dizzy.”

Twilight starts to explain what happened, “A few minutes after you guys went in, they started flying out, a few went to town, we were going to stop them, but they started coming out of the ground, what did you find out in there?”

Silver sits up, as he pulls out a file from Pinkie’s mane, “I managed to snatch this before we left, it was a file Colin wrote, apparently, before he left the satellite,” he skims it, “I’m reading here that Colin saw a ‘giant multi-colored explosion’ and monitored an ‘Equine individual named… Rainbow Dash’, he became obsessed and started making these Badniks, but what could this ‘Multi-colored explosion’ even be, and how did he see it from orbit?”

Rainbow Dash smirks, “He might be talking about my Sonic Rainboom, something I did when I was just a filly!”

Silver looks back at the notes, “That would explain the obsession…”

Twilight’s eyes open wide, “So we aren’t the only ones affected by the Rainboom? Why would a human scientist be interest in something like that?”

Then the gang starts hearing screaming in Ponyville, Sonic and Rainbow Dash look at each other, they both smirk and race off to Ponyville, to deal with the onslaught. Everyone else follows suit and they run/fly to Ponyville. As everyone else runs off to Ponyville, Shadow turns and looks at the space-craft, he takes a deep breath. “Let’s see if I can do this.”

Twilight looks at Shadow, about to ask what he’s doing, then is stopped in her tracks, as a red aura flares off of his body and the rings on his gloves come off. “Twilight,” Shadow glances at her as he charges energy, “this attack is going to destroy the satellite and prevent anymore machines from leaving, you need to get to Ponyville, they’ll need you.” She then nods, with a worried look then, teleports off.

As she teleports farther away, she looks over at Sweet Apple Acres, and she waits to see the attack, after a while, Twilight turns around, “Guess he was- “, then her hair gets blasted back as a giant red sphere envelops the entirety of the satellite. Then when it stops, Shadow walks out of the trees limping, then he collapses on a tree. Twilight teleports over to him and helps him up. “Are you okay, Shadow!?” she asks frantically.

his eyes dart up with an annoyed glare, “Why haven’t you run away?”, then he coughs up blood.

Twilight’s eyes widen seeing the blood, “Stop talking! You need to rest!”

Chapter 4

“Pinkie! Two of them on your six!” She looks back confused and then realizes what Silver means, and bucks the two robots, they spark and explode a few yards away. Silver gives Pinkie a thumbs up, and she giggles. Sonic and Rainbow Dash spot scores of them trying to break into town hall, then they both swoop in and destroy every last one.

They both sit and try to catch their breaths, as they fist bump, a Metal Rainbow Dash jumps out of a bush, but before it could touch them, a magical blast hits its side, and it gets blasted into the side of a wall. Before it can explode, Silver tosses it high into the sky, and its blast rattles the ground. Sonic and Rainbow Dash look up to see Shadow, scratches and bruises cover his body, and Twilight without a scratch, but before they could ask about what happened to him.

Shadow preemptively answers, “I destroyed the satellite, I don’t think I can use Chaos Control to warp, but I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

The Mayor of Ponyville steps out of town hall, shaking, “Are those-those monsters taken care of?” She sees Rainbow Dash and screams, “There’s one left!”

Before she can slam the door, Rainbow Dash yells, “No, I’m the real Rainbow Dash!” Then the Mayor peers out, breathes a sigh of relief and walks onto the porch.

“Thank goodness! I was certain that me, and the congressional committee had no chance!”

She walks up to Sonic, “I’m not exactly sure who, or what, you are, but you definitely helped to save my life and the lives of the committee, I guess this is fate telling us not to have a meeting this week.” She nervously chuckles as the townsfolk timidly trot to the center of Ponyville. The hedgehogs and the ponies stand behind the Mayor of Ponyville about to make a speech, then she begins to speak into a microphone.

“We have been saved… again!” the town cheers, “Do any of you have any words for the crowd?” The ponies murmur, then Shadow stands up, he stands at the podium, “I’ll keep my words brief and blunt; I am Shadow the hedgehog, the two behind me are Silver and Sonic the hedgehog, us three are stuck here for an undisclosed period of time, while we are here, we will not hesitate to assist with anything that isn’t normal for this area. Thank you.”

Night falls yet again, as everyone falls asleep, Shadow sneaks out of Fluttershy’s cottage, he walks to the field and he wanders into the Everfree Forest, he finds the scraps of Moto-bugs, and he follows their tracks. After fifteen minutes he finds that the tracks just stop, he tries to walk forward, but he’s stopped by an invisible wall. “What is this?” He mumbles to himself as he runs his hand along the invisible wall, feeling a smooth metallic structure, then as he runs his hand along the wall, he feels the indentation of a door. He feels around the dimensions of the wall.

Shadow finds a keypad to his left and enters in a code that G.U.N. uses for all of their systems, assuming this is a G.U.N. facility, “One, Two, Four, Three, Five,” He mutters as he types, then the lock in the door clinks loudly, “I.T. was never creative…”, the door opens as the invisibility shuts off, he walks in and the door shuts behind him, then he reactivates the invisibility from inside, then changes the keypad code. “There now I can sleep soundly.”

He turns around from the door to get a view of this place as the lights flicker to life, it seemed like a rundown garage, he sees broken Badniks of all types, all of them are covered in a thick moss, he sees the G.U.N. symbol on the garage doors but sees the Eggman symbol on the Moto-bugs, Shadow furrows his brow and then he suddenly smells intense rot, and he gags.

Looking around he sees a rotted human corpse, splinters litter the body, bite marks do as well and is in a shredded lab coat, he walks over and looks the corpse from head-to-toe and he sees a keycard, it has the name ‘Colin Robotnik’ written on it, he also spots a gun in his hand, he checks the clip, and it is two bullets from full, as he’s kneeling. He also turns his head to see a busted open ventilation shaft, with remnants of twigs and leaves covering it.

At that moment, Twilight makes a surprise appearance, as she teleports in. She sees the body and almost screams. But before she does Shadow covers her mouth, “Shh!”, while covering her mouth he looks at her and her panicked look leaves with a deep breath through her nose, as Shadow uncovers her mouth, he goes back to checking Colin’s pockets.

“Shadow? What in Celestia’s name, are you doing here?”

Shadow raises an eyebrow, “I could ask you the same thing Twilight; appearing where I am in the middle of the night.”

Twilight shrinks back, “Well, I was trying a new teleportation spell that would allow me to teleport to a location based on a thought or pony, and you three were on my mind.”

“I see.”

Twilight looks curiously at Shadow, “Do you happen to study magic?” Shadow pulls out a bronze key from the back pocket of Colin’s pants, he looks at it inquisitively, and looks to the only container in the room, a locker, fallen front-first.

“No, but I do know of magic users where I come from, their magic comes from Chaos energy,” Shadow walks up to the knocked over locker flips it over, and unlocks a padlock, “I wonder if there’s a connection,” He pulls a file out of the locker.

“What I wonder is, where and what is this place is, and who is this poor human.” She looks at the corpse with unease and a hint of sadness, while Shadow starts flipping through the papers.

“This garage is in what you called the ‘Everfree Forest’, I’m assuming the man over there used this place to preform research, “ He flashes the folder, “that man was, Colin Robotnik, engineer for G.U.N., a government back on Mobius, Colin, driven mad by the Rainboom, must’ve come down here after that satellite began producing those robotic copies of your friend. Peculiarly, he used his own blueprint and didn’t base these Rainbow Dash copies off of any pre-existing design. Other than that, I’d say he’s been dead for months, killed by those wooden wolves.”

Twilight perks up, “Oh, the timberwolves?”

Shadow shakes his head not believing that Silver was right, “Yes, of course, those. They must have gotten in through some kind of air vent above us.”

Twilight walks up to the body and magically lifts up the arms, “This… isn’t right…” She looks at Shadow as he walks up to the body.

“What do you mean?” Shadow asks

She lets the arm drop, “From what Fluttershy told me, timberwolves only attack to defend their territory,” Shadow studies the bite marks as Twilight talks, “This is atypical, compared to their normal behavior, even if this building is in their territory, they tend to move farther away from unnatural structures rather than move toward them, meaning something drew them here.”

Then they hear something topple over in the back of the building, acting instinctively, Shadow grabs the gun from the corpse, slams in the clip, cocks it and aims at the darkness, holding it with both hands to keep it steady. The light in the direction of the noise flickered due to age. As the light leaves and goes, they start to hear a gargled voice, “C-Crush. Kill-ll-ll. Destro-ro-roy.” Shadow gestures his head forward to Twilight and starts to move forward, Twilight follows, and her horn begins lighting up with purple energy.

As Shadow walks into the darkness, and he sees a light coming from the corner, and he sees a Rainbow Dash robot, with an amalgamation of crystals imbedded into its chest, the crystals form a symbol, a cloud with a lightning bolt, the lightning bold had three distinct lines, “Twilight, look at this.” Shadow is firm on the trigger. Twilight tries to investigate the robot, but as she gets close, the robot tries to launch forward, in response Shadow opens fire at its joints in its shoulders and legs. the bullet blasts the joints to pieces. Twilight isn’t prepared for the gunshots, which scared her more than the robot, she turns to Shadow, who checks his clip to see only two rounds left, Shadow remarks, “Damn…”

Twilight looks at the gun, “That’s a very loud weapon, I’ve never seen anything like it,”

He cocks it again, “Yes, this is a G.U.N. standard pistol, a near ancient gun, an M1911. Does Equestria have any type of firearm?”

She looks back at the disabled robot, “The closest thing we have are cannons and muskets, but besides that, this crystal is in the shape of Rainbow Dash’s Cutie-Mark.”

Shadow then asks, “Is there a more scientific name?”

Twilight realizes how she sounded, “Oh, sorry, the slang sounds extremely juvenile, if you want the medical term, it is Cutaneous Iconographia, as its typically appears on the skin during when a pony discovers their special talent,” She laughs to herself, “Usually no pony asks about the medical terminology.”

He gets closer to the writhing Badnik, “This crystal is emitting energy. Chaos energy.”

Twilight hovers over it with her horn, “I sense magic.” He looks at her, “Which means this is a part of Colin’s research.” Shadow walks over to the file and finds a paper labelled, ‘The Original Six Chaos Emeralds, Equestrian Magic and a Possible Second Master Emerald’ He reads it for a second while Twilight pokes and prods at the robot.

“Twilight.” Shadow paces as he reads.

“Yeah?”

“Colin was very meticulous and obsessive, he knew who you and the other five were. He knew what the ‘Elements of Harmony’ are, and he says that they are the ‘Original Six Chaos Emeralds’.”

Twilight thinks for a moment, “The Chaos Emeralds are thought-based power conduits from Mobius, correct?” Shadow nods and Twilight continues, “We had a problem with a being named Discord, a little while back, he was a spirit of Chaos, I wonder if they could be related…”

Shadow crosses his arms and rests his chin in his hand, thinking, “How coincidental, he even detailed this Discords’ world altering abilities, which apparently, aligned itself very well to Chaos-type abilities.” Shadow lets out a yawn, “Damn it. Guess I need to rest,”

Twilight follows him to the door, “Should we… bury him, give him a proper funeral?”

Shadow looks at Colin’s body, “We should.”

They make a fairly deep grave outside of the facility, and they cover the body with dirt and put a small stone to mark the grave Shadow also buries Colin’s ID badge next to the grave.

They split at Fluttershy’s house, Twilight wanders to her library, while Shadow silently reenters the cottage and goes back to sleep.

Chapter 5

Shadow wakes up in the morning first and he takes apart his pistol, he wipes the surface with a very soft cloth, uses a small amount of lubrication, and starts to slide all the pieces back together. Sonic wakes up, wipes his eyes, and looks at Shadow in surprise,

“Wha- How did you get a gun? How do you always manage to find a gun?”

Shadow shrugs, “Well, I lost the one I tried to shoot Nazo with, so it was fate that another one would fall into my hands.”

Silver then walks down the steps in a pink, fluffy robe, Shadow, and Sonic look at him then at each other. Silver then asks, “Hey, you guys brew some tea yet, I need some caffeine.”

Sonic sits up and stretches, then Sonic raises an eyebrow, “Hey Silver, have you gotten comfortable, buddy?”

Silver smiles stupidly, “I cannot tell you how good of a host Fluttershy is, I told her that it was little chilly then she gave me an entire robe. She said this was one of her old ones, the one who made it was that one horse, uh…”

Shadow glances up Silver, Shadow while looking down at the iron sights of his pistol, “They are ponies, for one, and it would’ve been Rarity who made it as she’s fashion designer.”

Silver pours his tea in a comically small cup, “Here I am, scared you’d make fun of me for wearing pink, but no, Shadow the hedgehog, the dude with a gun in his hand, not only corrects me for saying ‘horse’ instead of pony,” he takes seat in a chair, takes a sip of his tea, then continues, “You even know who specifically made this- Is this something you gained through reconnaissance or…?”

Shadow’s voice turns blunt, “Silver, it doesn’t take an agent of G.U.N to figure out that the pony that runs a boutique is a designer.”

Silver takes another sip, processing what Shadow’s said. Then Silver puts his hands on his hips, “I don’t know when you had the time to figure that out.” Silver laughs to himself.

In that moment they all hear a knock at the door, they sit there for a second until the knock is hard and loud.

The three hedgehogs look at each other, Shadow walks toward the door, he looks back at everyone and mouths, ‘Be Ready.’ Sonic nods while Silver mouths ‘What?’. Shadow rolls his eyes turns and opens the door. Suddenly they see a massive minotaur.

Shadow clears his throat, “Can I help you?”

The Minotaur yells, “You can help me, brother! My name is Iron Will, I’m here to see…” He puts on reading glasses, lifts a clipboard, and reads from it, “a ‘Fluttershy’? She signed up for my program a few days- err, uh, months ago! Then something blew a building up in town and I had to…” He looks around, leans down, and speaks into Shadow’s ear, “I’ll level with you, my main man, I was one of the people running away yesterday, I cannot be in this town anymore, there is just way too much weird stuff happening,” He hands Shadow everything he has, “just have her follow the regimen, it’ll make her braver, more outspoken. You’re getting this stuff for free because I am out of here.” The minotaur sprints away and was gone in a minute.

Silver points, “Was that a minotaur? What’s next a dragon?”

Sonic responds, “Silver not only are there minotaurs on Mobius, but we also have dragons on Mobius. Remember Dulcy?”

Silver looks at Sonic then argues, “Okay you got me with Dulcy, but if you're referring to every Bull on Mobius as a minotaur, that’s actually racist.”

Sonic crosses his arms, “Terrence calls himself a minotaur.”

Silver shrugs, “I don’t know who that is, I think you made him up.”

Fluttershy groggily wonders her way down the steps, as Shadow lays out all of the pamphlets and information out. Fluttershy reads over it with Shadow, “’When somebody tries to block, show them that you rock.’? This is all for assertiveness, hmph, I’ve seen school children with better methods. I can teach better assertiveness, Fluttershy come with me. Sonic, Silver I’ll need your help.” Shadow gets up and walks to the door, Shadow then yells, “Chop, Chop!”

They all walk outside and walk to a tree, Shadow points to the two hedgehogs, “Sonic, Silver stand next to each other and face Fluttershy, don’t let her pass.” They both do as they are told, then Shadow, in a softer tone, “Fluttershy, try to walk around them.”

She tries to walk around them, and Sonic and Silver block her way, “Excuse me.” Her voice is gentle and kind. Silver almost lets her pass, with a guilty look on his

Shadow barks an order at them, “You two are an obstacle now. Obstacles can’t understand language!” they both immediately stiffen up. Shadow’s voice softens but it’s still firm, “Alright, you can’t talk to them, how do you solve the problem?”

Fluttershy sheepishly smiles, “tiptoe around?”

Shadow crosses his arms his voice flat, “No."

“Go home and try again tomorrow?”

“No. allow me to show you.” Shadow walks up to the ‘obstacles’, “Alright Silver, get ready.” Silver gulps. Shadow gets in a combat stance, and mimes punching Silver in the stomach. Silver flinches as Shadow lectures, “You see, on bipedal enemies you want to aim for the diaphragm, and for ponies in this scenario I’d recommend going for the head.”

Fluttershy shakes her head, “I-I can’t do that, I don’t fight...”

Shadow then stops in place, “Oh, that’s different.” he stands up straight, he rubs his chins and thinks, muttering aloud, “assertive, assertive. Hm, that may work…” Shadow walks up to Fluttershy, “Repeat after me: Move out of the damn way!”

Fluttershy builds up her courage, “Move out of the… darn way!”

“No, it’s: damn. Let’s start there actually; say damn.”

“D-D-Darn!”

Shadow ponders for but a moment, “We need to put you in a simulated experience, so we can get past this roadblock…” Shadow then turns toward Fluttershy’s house, and he charges a Chaos Spear. He looks like he’s about to lunge it into her house.

“Mister Sh-Shadow, what are you doing?”

Shadow blankly responds, “I’m going to blow up your house, obviously. If you can’t even say damn, what chance do you have at protecting a house?”

Fluttershy, now frantic, “Wait, you can’t do that!”

Shadow cruelly stares at Fluttershy, “What could you even do about it to stop me?”

Fluttershy scowls, flies up, spins and kicks Shadow in the gut as hard as she can, and Shadow, discharges the energy, then falls to one knee to catch his breath. “Don’t touch my fucking house!” Fluttershy screams.

Shadow smirks, “Is this how it felt to train people in the Freedom Fighters, Sonic?” He stands up and looks toward Fluttershy with a bit of pride.

Fluttershy turning red in the face, “Oh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it, I- I- don’t know what- “

Shadow interrupts her, “No, never apologize, channel whatever feeling you had before and say fuck again.”

She then bolsters her courage, and then she manages to yell out, “Fuck!” she smiles brightly, “I did it! Thank you, so, so much Mister Shadow!”

“Just don’t get carried away, use ‘fuck’ sparingly, it’s a very strong word and if you want to learn more combat techniques. I can help train you in Mobian hand-to-hand. I’ll have to adapt it for you of course.” Fluttershy nods in a brighter happier mood, and with a sprout of more confidence in her new state of mind.

Sonic and Silver look toward the Everfree Forest.

“Hey guys, you might want to take a look at this,” Silver points toward the trees, urgency in his voice, while Sonic was just silent his face darkening. Fluttershy and Shadow stare at the horizon to see a spire of light and electricity.

It dissipates, and something marches out of the tree line. It has a clean, silver color. It’s a Badnik with Sonic’s form except taller, easily the height of a human, its design is sleek, and aerodynamic. The differences between Sonic and this thing become more apparent as one looks at its quills, which are medusa-like tendrils with syringe tips, it has a long tail with a larger needle on the end, it has an engine in its chest reminiscent of other members of the metal series, but a large difference is that the quills it has on its back to mimic Sonic’s own quills, are designed to alleviate air resistance. It looks up at its four adversaries, as its almost hundreds of syringes started plugging themselves into trees, and ensnaring small animals, then they watched in horror as all the life-force was drained from these lifeforms. The animals fought for a moment as they withered to bone, the machine dropped the skeletons of birds, squirrels, rabbits and even field mice. The trees withered to a dark gray and crumbled, as a thick, dark green irradiates from this new machine.

Fluttershy scowls. “How dare that monster!” her wings stretch outward. Silver glows with energy, Shadow gets into a combat stance and Sonic gets ready to run at it.

It's two digital eyes, blinking to life, both of them glowing a soulless red. Slowly the engine in its chest starts to spin, and electricity sparks around it. It uses its syringes to root itself into the ground and drain the ground of life. Its arms lazily hang by its waist as this energy charges, the ground slowly becomes darker as the grass dies.

Then the engine slows as its syringes flow behind its head once again, then as swift as the wind. It makes a sprint up the hill toward the gang, as it reaches them it makes a dead stop and looms over the four of them, it tilts its head as it scans them. They all are waiting for it to attack first, but it doesn’t even move, now that it’s closer they see how clean it is, it looks like it’s brand new.

Then as it finishes scanning, it stiffens its back and looks past all of them toward Ponyville. Then before anyone could stop it, it sweeps everyone’s legs with its tail. As everyone is falling in the air, it vanishes. Shadow, thinking in the moment grabs Fluttershy and immediately warps after it, while in mid-air. They appear in town as it just stands on the top of town hall, looking down. Shadow gets up, and helps Fluttershy stand, they both look up at it.

“Are you willing to fight this thing?” Shadow asks without breaking eye-contact with this new Badnik. Fluttershy looks forward with her new confidence turned to fury.

“Yes. Yes, I am.” Her wings stretch open as she gets ready to charge, and both of Shadow’s hands glow blue.

“Fluttershy, charge it and then I’m going to barrage it with Chaos Arrows. Aim your attacks at its chest, you might get hurt if you aren’t careful, so aim right for the middle.” Fluttershy nods while staring forward intensely.

“Now!” Fluttershy takes off at an impressive speed, as Shadow focuses a barrage perfectly curving around her. It looks down, and then just backhands Fluttershy so hard, she crashes into a house. Then the arrows hit it, and it falls from its perch, then it uses its tendril to wrap around the flagpole, and it lunges itself forward toward Shadow, Shadow fires a chaos-charged bullet right at its head with his gun, and the force of the bullet makes it loosen its grip on the flagpole and as it free-falls, Fluttershy rockets out of the rubble.

As she gets close, she spins in the air and spin-kicks the machine into the cobblestone. It hits the road with a loud clank, then she drops her full weight on it, making it convulse. Then it pushes itself up, flips itself over as Fluttershy tries to ground-pound, but it kicks her in the chin as it does a handstand, on the follow through, it slams her face into the ground, and it stands up straight.

It looks down at Fluttershy as it prepares to pierce her with every syringe it has, then a rock hits it in the head. Its syringes retract as it looks behind it to see an angry mob. “Hey! Get out of- “ before the orange unicorn at the head of the mob could speak, six syringes pierce his face and he screams as blood gushes from his wounds, then the mob watches as he slowly shrivels, and pleads for help, then in his last moments, he collapses and turns into a bloody skeletal form, the syringes retract revealing a bunch of small holes in the skull. The mob runs away, screaming in mortal terror. The metal medusa suddenly pulses with orange energy, and with a low humming noise. Its tail starts glowing orange brightly, Fluttershy then tries to stand up, shaking. Shadow runs over to her, until he is suddenly unable to move as if he’s being held in place. The machine looks directly at Shadow, and Shadow then notices that the aura holding him in place is magic, “Fluttershy! Hurry! run!” before Fluttershy could stand, and before a flurry of syringes absorbed her essence, a bolt of purple energy smashes into and it is launched through the whole of Town Hall, Shadow falls to one knee and pants, as Twilight runs toward Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy! Are you okay!?” Fluttershy stands up, only a little wobbly, and wipes a small amount of blood from her nose.

“Yes, I am, thank you, Twilight.”

Shadow limps forward with a fire in his eyes and walks past the two ponies as red static spans his body. “Twilight,” Shadow snarls “you should stand back.” Shadows limiters pop off, and his pupils disappear, then his entire body turns a glowing red, the air shimmering around him, as he continues to walk, the Aluminum Sonic walks toward him through the hole he made, and as he maintains eye contact, screams are heard inside the building as its tendrils stretch from its scalp. The energy around its body becomes multi-colored.

Shadow warps toward it as soon as the machine begins to absorb more ponies, but the deed was already done. With the Badnik in his grasp, he warps to a mountain in his line of sight. As they land, Shadow feels the searing pain of dozens of needles piercing his back, but he still yells out, “Fine! Take as much as you can stomach, because you’re going straight to hell!” then he, grips the creature’s head and bursts with pure-red energy, snapping every needle still in his back, he then screams, “Chaos,” the gravity of the area increases ten-fold, as the pressure craters them both scores of feet into the ground, “Blast!” with an exponentially denser explosion compared to the one used to blow up the satellite, it rattles the ground all the way in Ponyville, the wind blasting the trees back for miles. While it doesn’t upheave the ground, it was visible from Canterlot.

Shadow warps back to town, falling on his back. The machine’s burnt head in his grip, he lays there, takes deep breaths as he puts his Inhibitor Rings back on his wrists. Twilight and Fluttershy help him up.

“Are you okay, Shadow? You’ve pushed yourself again!” Twilight lightly scolds.

Panting, Shadow looks forward, “We… need to show the others.”

Shadow stands to his full height and picks up the head, scowling at it.

In mere moments, The Mane 6, Shadow Silver and Sonic meet at Fluttershy’s cottage

“Alright,” Shadow speaks to the room, “We have a massive issue, if the head on the table and the scores of casualties in town aren’t evidence enough: we are being watched by someone.”

Rarity holds up her hoof, “Darling, if I may interject. I’m always one for helping to solve the various issues of Ponyville, believe me,” Then her expression changes and shifts to concern, “but I think I speak for the mares in the room when I say, we are not capable of stopping these things on a constant basis.” Applejack scrunches her face at this, as Rarity continues, “We, and I’m using that loosely, can fight things that are stronger than most, but not every day,” She looks around, “my suggestion, is that we go to Canterlot, and get help from the Princess.“

Twilight then sits up quickly, “I forgot! Sonic, Silver, Shadow! Princess Celestia is coming here!” Shadow squints at Twilight.

Sonic excitedly asks, “Oh, yeah? When?” Then Fluttershy’s door swings open and standing there is a tall white equine, with multi-color hair, she emanates royalty.

All the ponies kneel, and the hedgehogs look at each other, then they kneel as well.

“Rise, all.” As everyone gets up, Celestia walks into the building and shuts the door behind her with magic, then uses the same magic to close every curtain at once. “Greetings, newcomers. I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, and of sunlight. I assume you three are from the world of Mobius, correct?” She looks at the Hedgehogs.

“Why have you made a sudden appearance, princess?” Twilight asks, still surprised.

“Well, I noticed your letter, Twilight, and it was eerie to say the least, massive machines made in another world, and three creatures from that world…”

Shadow leaned against the wall, “With all due respect, princess, I have a question. What is Equestria’s connection to Mobius? How did G.U.N. tech get here?”

Celestia looks to Sonic and Silver, “This is knowledge only I am aware of; around twenty-five years ago, a strange machine appeared in the orbit of this very world. It was small, but I could sense it. Before I could teleport to them, they sent me a message, a little automaton came from the sky and to my bedchamber, I thought it was some type of apparition or something to be banished to Tartarus. Before I could do anything about it, it spoke with something else’s voice. Whatever was speaking was not of pony-kind, it said was from the Planet Mobius and doing research. The voice said it meant no harm. Thus, I allowed it to stay in the sky, and they promised to stay from sight. I forgot about the strange sphere in the sky, but when Twilight told me that a strange sphere, what you called a satellite, appeared in Sweet Apple Acres, I got curious. I was even more curious when I was told about the machines coming out of the ground and some of them looking like our very own Rainbow Dash. Suffice it to say, I do have information that can help you, something I have sensed recently. A portal did open a few miles near Cloudsdale, I would recommend heading there.”

Sonic bows his head, then looks up with a glint in his eye, “Thanks a million your majesty, we owe you one!”

As Celestia smiles, her eyes open wide, and she becomes wracked with worry quickly.

“What?! What just happened to Cloudsdale?!” Celestia yells, as Sonic, Shadow and Silver feel an all too familiar sensation of dread.

-Meanwhile mere moments ago on the ground near Cloudsdale-

a blue-metal figure breaks the tree line, two red robotic eyes stare up at an evening sky, with Cloudsdale in the foreground. “This city is the only line of aerial defense for Equestria, if it is destroyed, his goals will be far easier to complete.”

The robot puts its hands together and its hands begin to transform, combine, and enlarge to become a massive railgun, two braces shoot out of the robot and anchor it to the ground to lessen recoil and it begins to charge up, four lights begin to blink green as it charges,

Ignite

As the weapon booms, the trees flatten with the force of the recoil. Windows are shattered miles away and anyone looking toward Cloudsdale could see a bright flash as a crater forms on the bottom of the floating city, and the crater expands violently, the clouds dissipate that once held it aloft, and the city proper erupts into a fireball, as the football sized projectile pierces out of the opposite side of the cloud at a million miles an hour. Cloudsdale is completely destroyed. Anyone in the city was killed almost instantly.

His hands retract back into their normal form, and he holds a hand to his head and speaks out loud, “Kilo, Fist, its Lix, we can begin the hunt just as we were instructed.”

Chapter 6

The group hurries through the path to where Cloudsdale once floated, and there is already a crowd of ponies there, mostly now homeless Pegasi, Celestia flies ahead giving a nod to her pupil. She stands to give a rallying speech to her subjects now destitute.

Shadow looks solemnly at the destruction, then his eyes catch a young filly staring at Sonic in sheer terror, as if she had seen him before, Shadow looks at Sonic and wonders what this filly saw last night. As Shadow looks at Sonic, Sonic’s eyes drift to a large ring of flattened trees.

Sonic leans to Shadow and Rainbow, his voice lowered to a whisper, “We should slip out of this crowd, investigate whatever that is.”

Rainbow Dash, looks up, in a similarly hushed tone, “I’ll tag along.”

Then Shadow, Rainbow Dash, and Sonic slip out of the crowd, and walk toward the crater. As they weave through the crowd they receive a few more glances. Sonic receives some more looks that are in either confusion or horror.

Shadow frowns seeing them stare but recognizing “Sonic, I think that something that looks like you did this.” Shadow looks back, “It was probably a Metal, considering all the machines that have been activating.”

Sonic grimaces and crosses his arms, “I really wish I could go one day without seeing myself or someone I know as a robot… and that there wasn’t so much destruction.”

Rainbow Dash looks down as they walk, talking to no one in particular, “So many ponies gone, I’m trying not to think about it, but…” She looks at the scattered ruins solemnly. Pieces of the Weather Factory, and some of the columns with their accompanied buildings still attached. She didn’t see any bodies. Her thoughts start to become static as she can’t stop thinking about the Wonderbolts. Then to her mom and dad. Ponies that used to bully her that she made up with. Then to the Wonderbolts Academy. The thoughts start looping. She grits her teeth, “No,” She stops herself from her thoughts overwhelming her, “Gotta stay strong Rainbow Dash, gotta stay strong.”

Sonic sees Rainbow’s turmoil and looks away, feeling immense guilt as they approach the site where the blast occurred. Feeling as if it’s his fault these robots are causing so much mayhem.

Shadow’s quills stand up on end as they all look down at the shallow crater, “You feel that Sonic?”

Sonic nods, “I can taste that, talk about a lot of chaos energy.”

Rainbow Dash looks at her hooves then to her wings, “Woah is that the staticky feeling I’m getting all over?”

Shadow crosses his arms “You must be feeling the energy here. This must be the site of the attack that destroyed that city. We should investigate further in.”

They walk over uprooted trees and toward a more forested area. As they find a small clearing ten minutes or so in the woods, they scan everything around them, “Either of you see anything?” Shadow asks. They stand in these woods and rather than any chirping of insects or singing birds it is replaced with a stagnant silence.

Rainbow Dash looks around worried, “Not gonna lie, this is absolutely not normal.”

Then the trio hear a very familiar metallic echoing laughter in the woods, it almost sounds like it’s coming from everywhere. The three get as back-to-back as they can in defensive stances. Rainbow Dash looks shaken, as Sonic is on edge while Shadow is calm and collected.

“Exactly on cue, Sonic the Hedgehog, you got here almost as fast as you got to New Mobotropolis.”

To the group’s horror something from above lands in the middle of the three of them, with the same body Sonic saw that fateful day, the same eyes, the same laugh, and the same tails. Curiously, there is now a black gem dangling from a wire on its forehead. Sonic trembles in both anger and grief seeing this monster.

“Metal Tails, how are you alive?!” Shadow yells while preparing a Chaos Spear.

“Oh, Metal Tails will not do anymore, I have deviated from that identity as a copy of Miles ‘Tails’ Prower. You may call me Kilo, as in kilometer, I thought that it would be some measure of ironic.” Kilo bows.

Sonic looks forward fiercely and cracks his knuckles, “Let me at this bastard Shadow!” Shadow holds his arm up, “Sonic something’s different here, look at his head, that is not a piece of the Master Emerald, something is wrong here.”

Kilo laughs, “Not as astute as Knuckles but still able to get that little piece of my puzzle, no its not a piece of the Master Emerald but a decent facsimile for my soul.” Kilo then eyes Rainbow Dash’s glare and meets it, “Also, I can’t believe you beat back of all our Metal Rainbow Dashes, Colin had a satellite full of them. Color me impressed.”

Before Sonic or Shadow could respond, Rainbow Dash yells, “Listen here creep, I’ll knock you all the way back to where you came from, don’t mess with me! And I’ll bet you’re the one that killed all those ponies in Cloudsdale, admit it murderer!”

“I can’t take the credit for that, that was my good friend Lix, but don’t think we didn’t know how it would affect you Rainbow Dash, my associates and I have files on every member of your little team.” Rainbow Dash looks over at Sonic in shock and looks back at Kilo, as he continues “But depending on what you say, you all get to live! So, all I need are… those little Elements of Harmony you have.”

Rainbow Dash gets into a charging stance, “You aren’t getting them, monster!“

Kilo snaps as his four of his nine tails smash the ground where Rainbow Dash is, he warps through the kicked-up dust, grabs her by the neck and slams her into a tree, “My name is Kilo!” he then screeches, repeating, “Kilo! Stop avoiding my name!”

Rainbow Dash has a bit of blood leak down her face as she smirks and looks him in the eyes “You’re just a monster.”

Kilo’s eyes dilate as four of his tails combine into a spinning drill. “I’ll paint my name on the trees with your blood, horse, now say it or die.”

Rainbow Dash looks on defiantly, “Fuck. You.” her snarl filled with venom. Sonic sweeps Kilo’s legs, as Shadow delivers a hellish elbow drop on his neck. As the drill goes forward it sheers through the tree and Rainbow Dash takes to the air in the blink of an eye.

Seeing an opening, Rainbow Dash comes down with a kick, aiming for Kilo’s center of mass as he bounces off the ground by Shadow’s attack, Kilo gets rocketed through a few hundred yards of trees as this supersonic pony launches herself into him.

Sonic, Shadow, and Rainbow Dash get ready to throw down as Kilo stands up and he powers up, the black gem on his head becoming outlined in red, this gathering of power, blows wind in all directions, and shakes the ground, a red light forms in Kilo’s mouth, he gets on all fours and his mouth opens wider than normal.

His nine tails balloon as they fill with red chaos energy, and as all the tails decompress instantly then he launches a super speed projectile of chaos energy at the trio, they all manage to dodge, but they notice the blast tearing through the trees behind them, it screeches into a nearby mountain and causes a massive explosion, sheering a perfect hole into it.

“That’s a lot of chaos energy!” Shadow yells, Sonic looks at the blast with fear for a moment, then he looks at Rainbow Dash seeing the explosion. Sonic remembers that there are innocents not too far away. Sonic’s eyes flash red for just a second as if he’s about to go Super.

Kilo readies to fire another blast, but he stops charging as he looks to his left, and he gets blasted in the face with a concussive blast of confetti, he flinches as he stares down. He sees a pink pony, looking up at him defiantly. All of the confetti drifts off of Kilo and all nine tails rise up, Rainbow Dash calls out “Pinkie!”

All of the tails launch forward in a barrage, and each impact shakes the ground, as the smoke clears Pinkie Pie is unscathed. “You aren’t gonna hurt anyone ever again!” Kilo looks down bewildered as each of his tails had missed, he howls out like a rabid animal, and goes in for another barrage, with the addition of using his claws.

Kilo has been coming to the realization that he wasn’t missing, Pinkie was expertly and intuitively predicting and dodging each strike.

Her eyes follow each tail, and both claws. His onslaught increased in speed as nearby trees were ripped apart just by being in the proximity. He thrusts his claws forward and when it appears he had pierced Pinkie, Rainbow Dash gasps, but the illusion fades, as Pinkie appears on the opposite side of Kilo.

In frustration, a single tail quickly inflates and then violently decompresses energy resulting in a quick bolt of chaos energy out of his mouth and Pinkie side steps it. Kilo then teleports to Pinkie, and slams down his claws, but Pinkie disappears and reappears somewhere else, with the flash of a Chaos Control.

Sonic and Shadow look at each other, then to Rainbow Dash who is just as surprised as they are.

Shadow looks at Rainbow Dash, “Rainbow, how long has Pinkie been using Chaos energy?”

Rainbow Dash shrugs, “I didn’t know she could actually teleport, I’m as surprised as you are!”

Sonic gets into a runner’s stance, confidently, “Surprised or not, he’s off balanced, let’s take this guy down and get some answers.”

While Kilo’s mind wrestles with what’s happening, he gets two hooves to the face by Rainbow Dash at Mach 2, at gets sent flying as Sonic and Shadow spin in place sending up dirt behind them while they gather light, then when they are fully charged, they both take off at the speed of light.

As Kilo is still in the air, he sees a yellow and blue blur rocket from above and underneath him respectively, Shadow delivers a sharp knee to his back while Sonic rocks Kilo’s head with an axe kick, the force and speed of the attack, causes a horrific rip in Kilo’s midsection that escalates to Kilo being ripped in half.

Sonic and Shadow land side-by-side as they slide on the ground to a halt, as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash trot up as well. While Kilo’s upper body tumbles to the ground, rolls and ends up with his back slamming against a tree, dazed as the hedgehogs talk to him.

Shadow holds his open palm to the Doll, and blue sparks build in the center of his hand, his voice becomes loud and threatening, “Talk! What did you mean by ‘us’ and why did this ‘Lix’ destroy this place?”

Sonic stands at Shadow’s side, crossing his arms, “Yeah, and how did you come back after I made you bite the dust?”

Kilo looks up, “Death will be taking me again soon, so I don’t have much to lose, can’t come back again after failure, despite the unforeseen events, that’s what M-“

Kilo tries to say a name, but his mouth won’t physically let him, “Ah it appears, I can’t disclose that, regardless, I do have a group of associates, their names are Fist and Lix, if you’re as smart as I think you are you may already know what we all are. Though I was the first.”

Rainbow Dash walks up, “The first of what?”

“I was the first of us to be granted a soul, but when Sonic killed me, my soul was uploaded to Robotnik’s servers, and the exact schematics of my form were uploaded as well. Then I was recreated. Reborn. When he remade me in that place he altered my mind. I can’t say his name, I don’t even remember where I was, and I couldn’t follow my heart’s desire and go directly Canterlot and murder every stupid horse there.” Kilo smiles.

Sonic clenches his fists “Where are the rest of your pals at?”

Kilo’s eye blink as his systems start shutting down, “Lix is still here on Equestria, while Fist is back on Mobius, we were going to attack you guys in Ponyville and Fist was gonna hit the Freedom Fighters hard, in about a day or two but if Lix is still watching he’s probably gonna move the plan up a bit. Also, you, pink one,”

Pinkie looks over with a bit of apprehension, “You're a blossoming bud of chaos energy, but that sense of yours is a crutch.“ then his eyes fade all the way as the black fluid begins to evaporate, the metal on Kilo’s body clatters to the floor as the crystal dangling from its head shatters completely. The four stand over the former body of Kilo.

They all jump as clattering metal hits the forest floor from behind them, as they turn, they see the lower torso of Kilo and all of his tails disintegrating in midair, as if trying to get one last attack in before the end.

Sonic looks over at Shadow, “What was that crystal hanging from its head, you said you felt something earlier?”

Shadow nods, “It felt similar to that fake chaos emerald that Tails made a long time ago to trick the Doctor, but this crystal seemed to be made to channel only negative chaos energy.”

Pinkie Pie giggles, “That must’ve been why he was so cranky.”

“Pinkie? You were using actual magic earlier! That was so freakin’ cool! How did you do it?” Rainbow Dash asks.

“Oh that? I just trusted my Pinkie sense, guess I did it accidentally. Also is it just me or have you been feeling a little weird since our new hedgehog friends got here?”

Rainbow Dash puts a hoof to her chin, “Maybe a little bit, I wonder if Twilight and the others feel anything.”

Sonic smiles, “Weird feelings or not, you guys are a lot more tough than we might’ve thought, speaking of tough, you were on fire in that fight Dash. You fight like me. Well, if I had wings.”

Rainbow Dash smirks full of pride, “I’m no stranger to fighting, been in quite a few. Enough of about me, what did you two do earlier? You guys covered yourselves in light and moved so fast I couldn’t see it!”

Sonic smirks, “That was the light speed attack, I’ll have to show you how to do it sometime, I have a funny feeling it might suit you.”

Shadow looks around, “We may not have time for that if this ‘Lix’ is here, and I think it might be a Metal Sonic.”

Sonic frowns “Normally I’d tell you to relax, but if one of Kilo’s pals is on Mobius we should find a portal there soon and working with your little theory, I think Fist is a Metal Knuckles.”

Pinkie’s hair points in a direction, “Oh yeah, my Pinkie sense could help us!”

“You’re a genius Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash shouts, “But shouldn’t we let Twilight, and the others know?”

“I’ll stay behind and tell them, you two should be able to help Sonic defeat a Metal Knuckles, no matter how sentient. A Metal Sonic might be more of a challenge for the others. I can at least match Sonic’s speed.”

“Sounds good Shadow, just be careful, he might surprise you in some way.” Sonic smirks as he holds his fist up for a fist bump.

Shadow smirks and gives Sonic a fist bump, “He might surprise me, but I am still the Ultimate Lifeform, I’m sure to prevail.”

The hedgehogs nod to each other as Shadow takes off to the ruins of Cloudsdale, as Sonic goes to where Pinkie’s hair is pointing.

Chapter 7

-On Mobius-

Knuckles and Tails sit in Tails’ workshop, and Tails is rapidly going through program after program on his computer to find any data on Sonic, Shadow, and Silver’s whereabouts, but is getting disheartened quickly.

“This is so frustrating, they’re nowhere to be found, not in any zone, not in any other place I could think of, and that darn ringless warp-zone won’t show up again. I really hope they’re okay.” Tails looks down sadly.

Knuckles stands up and walks toward Tails and puts a big hand on his shoulder, “I’m sure they’re all fine, those three are some of the best fighters we have, if anything tries to threaten them, they’ll handle it.”

Tails smiles faintly before a notification appears on his monitor, “Knuckles, looks like someone is fiddling with the Master Emerald, should we go check it out?”

Knuckles crosses his arms, “Yeah, I’ll have to tell Ray to stop fidgeting with it.”

As they load up into the Tornado, Tails looks out at New Mobotropolis still bearing some of the scars of the attack of Metal Tails, and he cringes as he turns on the plane.

They take off and head toward Angel Island at a leisurely pace, but when they arrive, they see a brawl taking place as the Chaotix valiantly fighting something, the pair get out of the Tornado and rush to the scene.

They see a metallic version of Knuckles much taller than everyone else, and with a wider frame, punching anyone who gets too close to him, his shoulders are squared and he’s bouncing up and down exactly like a boxer. On his fists where there should be knuckles are rectangular holes for something to come out. Each of its downward quills are made of a clear material and they are all full of a black fluid.

Espio who had already gotten hit when Knuckles and Tails arrived, tries to get close to this machine again and he gets hit with a lightning-fast gut punch and then a straight jab with the machine’s other fist, sending Espio into a pillar, Charmy tries as well, but he’s already injured as the machine jumps up and delivers a downward slam with both fists, rocketing him off the altar and into the ground, causing Charmy to crater.

Vector tries to ambush the machine while it’s in the air, but it falls faster than Vector could react and drops low then delivers a devastating uppercut paired with a full-force gut punch immediately afterward, causing Vector to cough up blood and double over in pain.

Mighty and Ray try to double team him with Ray from above and Mighty from below, the machine grabs Mighty before he could make a move and uses him as a weapon, he launches Mighty at Ray like a cannonball, they both fall out of the sky and hit the ground at the bottom of the altar.

“Aw man, I was promised a good fight, I guess I’m too strong for this lousy bunch.” The machine bemoans.

Espio looks over at Knuckles, “Sorry boss, he was too strong, too observant, and surprisingly fast. We were outmatched.”

The machine chuckles, “You’re damn right you were.”

Knuckles grits his teeth, “Who the hell are you?!”

The machine dusts himself off, “My name is Fist, and I’m the strongest there is. Period.”

Knuckles marches up, “Oh so you think you’re gonna mosey onto my island and take the Master Emerald?”

Fist looks down, “Yeah, pretty sure I am, little man.”

In a flash Knuckles delivers a powerful jab right to Fists chest, which sends Fist a few feet back into the Emerald. “Good one. My turn!” Fist reels back and swings a punch with much greater speed and force than he did with the Chaotix, on contact, Fist sends Knuckles flying off the altar with a sonic-boom, as Knuckles flies through the he hits the ground and skips like a rock on water, before hitting a tree, bouncing off of it and landing face first.

Tails looks at Fist with a mix of fear and anger, while Fist’s hands have smoke coming off of them from the punch. Tails points his arm cannon at Fist. Fist glances at Tails and chuckles. He tilts his head up and smirks brimming with arrogance, “And what do you think that’s gonna do to me?”

Tails thinks fast, and fires a quick blast at Fist, who bats it out of the way. Tails rapid fires blasts while taking to the air, Fist then starts dodging and avoids all of them, he mutters, “You’re wasting your time, kid, you can’t hurt me.”

Tails makes a knowing smirk, “Not aiming for you, genius.” Fist looks back to see all the balls of energy floating in the air, then Fist gets a look of shock as Tails pushes a button on his arm and all the spheres of energy close their distance on Fist, and they all collide with him resulting in an explosion. As the dust is kicked up, Tails holds his gun arm to where Fist was.

Tails hears, “Like I said, earlier, I’m taking this big rock.” a projectile disperses the dust, a sharp black gemstone, which imbeds itself into Tails’ shoulder before he could even dodge. Then he feels his consciousness fading as this gemstone is making him weaker, he notices his veins turning black, around the wound. He rips out the shard and tosses it to the ground, but he slowly plummets out of the sky hitting the ground with a thud.

Fist heaves the Master Emerald onto his shoulder and jumps off the altar landing right next to Tails, “I didn’t want to use that, but you were cheating by being in the air. I shot you with enough negative chaos energy to kill an elephant. Anyways.” Fist’s left knuckle shoots out a long and sharp black gemstone blade and he holds his fist in the air, as he swipes down, Tails flinches, until he opens his eyes and sees a pitch-black tear in space-time, Fist casually tosses the Master Emerald in, and as he does the entirety of Angel Island shakes.

Fist feels the island about to fall, he smirks, “Man guess I get to solve all my problems today!”

Then the shaking stops.

Fist looks around confused, “Huh? Hey, stupid island, you’re supposed to fall!” then Fist turns to see Knuckles with the seven chaos emeralds spinning around him as his fur starts to turn magenta.

“No, not today, I’m gonna break you apart, ‘Fist’.”

His quills flare upwards, and he booms from where he’s standing, Fist puts his fists up defensively, but Super Knuckles blindsides him and punches him in the back. Fist sneers as he throws a punch back, Knuckles dodges and punches Fist in the face, knocking him into the air, then Knuckles charges energy into his fist and punches the air, the air pressure itself becomes a projectile, blasting Fist into a nearby mountain.

Knuckles roars out, he looks toward a suffering Tails and his Chaotix, Knuckles then punches the ground and sends healing energy through his fists and heals everyone around him, this also negates the negative energy in Tails’ body. Before Tails can thank Knuckles, everyone looks up at the mountain, Knuckles can feel negative energy being pulled out of the Emeralds. Suddenly a spire of pulsing dark energy blows the top off the mountain, Knuckles looks to the Chaotix, “Everyone get out of here, unless you think you can beat that!”

The Chaotix runs for their lives as Tails stands next to Knuckles, their fur getting blasted back by the turbulent winds, Knuckles stretches his arms, “You wanna do this Tails? I wouldn’t blame you if you ran.”

Tails starts powering up as his fur turns a shimmering gold. Tails smirks with confidence, “I’m not running, Knuckles, not now, not ever again.”

As they confirm their determination, Fist warps onto the battlefield in a jarring new form.

His body has shifted from a red metal chassis to a fully organic body with dark purple fur, his quills are much longer and tipped black. Both of his fists have two foot-long, black gem blades extended from their knuckles. His frame is shredded with muscle, and he has black fluid running down his cheeks and a black Chaos Emerald-esque gemstone in his chest. His irises are bright red with his sclera being black.

“Kilo wishes he could get a form like this, if I wasn’t the strongest thing alive before, I definitely am now.” Fist spreads his arms out. “Now I’m Super Fist, Let’s go!”

Tails and Knuckles get into a fighting stance, the static of the conflicting chaos energies create lightning that scars the ground, as lightning strikes, Fist propels himself forward and clotheslines both of Tails and Knuckles, making them both spin in the air, Knuckles lands and hits Fist with a jab to the side, Fist responds with a downward punch that knicks Knuckles on the cheek, Knuckles feels his form falter for a moment.

When it powers down for that moment, Angel Island shutters, but Knuckles refocuses and lands another jab, causing Fist to wince but still smile with unshakable confidence, Tails hits Fist with both of his tails after spinning like a top at lightspeed, knocking Fist off of his feet and making him fly into the air, Fist looks at Tails as he’s in the air, and his purple aura erupts out of him as he does a U-turn in mid-air and flings himself at Tails.

He goes right past Tails, but his claws still cut Tails’ arm, he erupts in pain as his veins turn black in the fraction of a second, as Tails falls to one knee. This cut disables Tails’ Super Form, the ever-smiling Fist, goes back-in, to land the finishing blow but Knuckles comes up from below and punches Fist in the stomach, diverting his path. Focusing fully on Knuckles, he throws a hard punch from above while Knuckles meets his enemy’s blow, despite the blades, the blades pierce Knuckles’ hands but he pushes through the pain and his Super Form waning on the edge of disappearing.

Through sheer willpower, Knuckles yells at the top of his lungs, shattering both blades as their fists meet. The shockwave from this collision causes a ripple across the island.

The shrapnel from the shattered black blades, become unstable mixes of positive and negative energy, the result is a purple portal being shorn into space-time.

Afterwards, Fist leaps backwards and bellows with a hearty laugh, “Now that was gutsy, little man, you positive energy users can’t take negative energy like that, but look at you!” Knuckles’ left arm is limp and cut up, but Knuckles is still in his super-form. “You’re keeping yourself and this whole island up. Hell, if I knew any better, I’d say you’re filling in for the Master Emerald.”

Knuckles puts his remaining fist in a combat ready position, “Quit your blabbering, we are not done yet.”

Fist smiles, as he starts running toward Knuckles, Knuckles tries to weakly guard but takes the full force of a super-charged tackle, Fist warps to where Knuckles is about to be and grabs him by the back of the head and he slams him into the ground a few times, before spiking him headfirst, then Fist rockets upwards booming off of the ground with his raw strength, going a mile up. Knuckles rolls onto his back his face is swollen, as he stares at the pinpoint of where Fist went.

Knuckles’ Super Form finally fades, “Where the hell are you, Sonic?”

Then Fist plummets like a meteorite, and lands a vicious knee drop on Knuckles, the force makes the already falling Angel Island pivot to one side and as Angel Island hits the ground, it levels out but sends a wave of dust and debris around for miles. Fist climbs out of the crater he made, still powered up by negative energy, the Chaos Emeralds, now tinged black are orbiting around him.

He cuts a black portal open and throws the Emeralds inside, but as it closes, he looks at the large purple vortex, and he sees three figures stepping out: Sonic, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie.

Author's Note

Fist, drawn by the wonderful NazoKG

Chapter 9

-on Mobius-

Fist cracks his knuckles, smirking at Sonic, then his eyes move to Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. “You guys are real gutsy coming here, hope you guys are even stronger than the rest, I’ve barely broken a sweat.”

The portal slowly closes behind them, as Sonic scans the battlefield he sees a still steaming crater behind Fist, Sonic then looks to his left to see Tails on his back covered in black veins. Sonic grits his teeth, “What happened here?”

Fist answers, “A whole team of people got in my way, then Tails and Knuckles showed up, went super and thought that’d be enough. Showed both of ‘em that they were wrong.”

Sonic feels darkness creeping its way into his mind, his fur blinks to a darker color for but a moment, then he looks at Rainbow Dash, who looks back at him with a worried glance.

Sonic looks at Tails again, and sees his chest faintly moving up and down, he breathes a sigh of relief, and his fur stops turning black. Instead, his eyes turn red, as he’s about to go Super. Sonic looks back to Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, “Help people off this island, quickly, this ‘Fist’ guy is bad news.”

Rainbow Dash flies up to Sonic, “We can’t let you fight this guy alone, let us help!”

Pinkie tags in, “Yeah Sonic, come on, we need to fight him together!”

Sonic smiles, “Lets worry about the people on the island first, I’ll try to distract him, don’t worry he won’t be able to keep up when I’m Super Sonic. Stand back by the way.”

Before they could even try to protest further, Sonic’s fur starts to shift to gold, as Fist’s eyes widen with glee. Sonic floats in the air, and he feels his need to protect his friends outweighs his want to hurt Fist, and his body floods with positive Chaos Energy, he explodes in a gold light, and floats in the air to stare down Fist.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie split up, Rainbow Dash flies to Tails and Pinkie Pie runs to Knuckles. Fist’s eyes follow the ponies as a sneer grows on his face, “Where do you two think you're going?” then he glances back at Sonic. In a millisecond, even with his eyes on the hedgehog; Fist doesn’t register Super Sonic already in his face with a fist wound back.

As this fist connects, it pushes Super Fist back a few feet, then Sonic streaks past the purple mass of muscle, moving faster and faster circling the globe punching him with each pass, from the ponies’ perspective, a gold blur continuously pummels the purple echidna.

Rainbow Dash gently lifts up the injured Tails and flies with him off of Angel Island which has crashed in the middle of some hilly plains, the ground is covered in rubble, but she manages to find a safe place. Pinkie appears at the same place Rainbow Dash does with a Chaos Control with a beaten and broken Knuckles on her back, one of his legs are twisted and mangled horribly, his hip bone and four of his ribs were shattered, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash coordinate to lay him down in the least painful way. Yet Knuckles still yelps in pain.

Rainbow Dash scans over the two Mobians, “Sonic’s friends aren’t looking too good, this fox guy looks like he’s poisoned, and the red guy looks like he’s not gonna make it much longer.”

Pinkie looks around anxiously, “We need to find a doctor or anypony that can help!”

Knuckles groans, as he opens an eye, “Don’t know who or what you two are but, thanks for helping us. Pass me that watch on the yellow guy’s wrist, would you? I need to contact someone to evac us.”

Rainbow Dash carefully removes the watch with her mouth and gives it to Knuckles. Knuckles manipulates the device, “Don’t know how good you two are at fighting but if you have an ounce of energy left, go help Sonic. we’ll be fine down here and don’t worry about introductions-,” He winces in pain, “Damn it! Sorry, my ribs are killing me. Anyways, give that fake echidna hell.”

Pinkie and Rainbow Dash meet each other back on the edge of the Island and see a purple and gold light show, as Sonic has stopped continuously ramming into him now, they are fist fighting at light speeds, the ground starts turning bright red and melts in to superheated magma.

Fist interrupts the melee and they both bounce off of each other, Fist wipes a bit of black blood off of the corner of his lips, While Sonic seems to be in a bit of pain, Fist looks at his bladed hand, then snaps off the weapon. “Nah, I wanna do this fair and square.” He eyes, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie “You two horses want in?” His voice drips with bravado.

Rainbow’s eyebrow raises in confusion, “I couldn’t even see the fight much less help.”

Fist puts a hand to his chin. “Oh yeah, you're right, here,” he regrows the blade from his hand and cuts a hole in space. He plunges his hand into the inky darkness fishes out the 7 Chaos Emeralds one at a time, “Since you guys might need training wheels still.”

Sonic and Rainbow Dash look at him with a bewildered look, while Pinkie tilts her head “What?! Aren’t those the whole reason you came here?”

Fist stares at Pinkie with a wide smile, “I want to have fun! Besides,” His pupils narrow as he beams, “I’ll win anyway.”

Sonic looks at the emeralds, then to the ponies, and he gives a smirk then yells out, “Just think of your friends back home, think of what you want to save, who you love, and the Emeralds’ll give you what you need!”

As they prepare, they both suddenly feel a sharp pain in their chests, as they are unbonded from the Elements of Harmony, they both yell out in pain, they feel themselves get weaker, “What… just happened?” Rainbow groans as Fist frowns

“Aw man, Lix already reset the Elements? Dammit this’ll be boring…”

As Fist turns toward Sonic, his entire arm ignites with black energy, and he gets into a pose, “Hope you're ready, Sonic! Starless-” the black energy expands out then condenses itself to the size of a pinpoint, “Impact!” Then him thrusts his fist forward and a beam rockets out from the end of his knuckles, the attack envelops half the island and splits the clouds, and it fires off of Mobius in a straight line.

The dust clears and black static crackles across the battlefield as a smoking ravine stretches across Angel Island, Fist’s knuckles steam as he looks around, “Guess he wasn’t fast enough.” He chuckles as he feels two massive surges of power.

He sees Sonic taking a knee as Pinkie Pie’s mane has changed from hot pink to gold and her fur is now a glowing white. Pinkie’s eyes shift from their normal cerulean to an emerald green. Rainbow Dash’s mane stays like a rainbow but now with a new white stripe, her fur shifts from cyan to gold as her wings flex out. Rainbow Dash’s eyes change from their usual reddish-pink to a deep red, similar to Sonic’s own eyes when he’s super.

Now with both ponies in a Super Form Sonic stands to his feet and pulls up his gloves, he looks at Fist with a smirk, “Alright ladies, I have a plan.”

He whispers something in both of their ears and Fist cracks his neck. “I gotta love this. The strongest thing alive versus the fastest thing alive, this fight really is like poetry. Well, give or take the two ponies.”

Pinkie and Rainbow smile at Sonic and nod. Then faster than a flash, Sonic and Rainbow rocket off the ground. Fist looks up with an annoyed look, “Hey! Where the hell are you going?! We were fighting!”

“Then fight me!” Fist’s eyes scale down to Pinkie Pie who is doing her best to be intimidating. Fist eyes become focused and unimpressed, but then Pinkie laughs seeing Fist’s face scrunch up, “Pffft, your head’s so small!”

Fist smiles but it poorly masks his anger, “Oh, you're laughin’ huh? I should teach you a lesson.” He winds his fist back and goes for a punch but without using her sight, Pinkie dodges still laughing, and she accidentally whips him with her tail, the force knocks the wind out of him, and he gets knocked back tumbling into the ravine he created. Before he lands on the ground, orients himself and flies out.

He sees Pinkie cliff with a gleeful expression as he crests the cliff, she giggles out, “I’ve never been so excited before! I feel like I’m throwing a thousand parties at once!” Then she spontaneously conjures a ball of pink energy from her hoof as she’s floating, and she spins around then tosses it at Fist, yelling out, “Party Favor!” the ball rockets toward Fist and as it hits him it explodes sending out strips of confetti made out of chaos energy, Fist notices it too late, as they detonate as well.

Fist clears out the smoke with an annoyed swipe of his hand and a burst of dark energy, only to get pelted with a barrage of Party Favors. He tries to charge forward to punch but Pinkie evades easily, and She retaliates by making a Party Favor, and detonating it directly in his face.

Fist breaches the dust cloud yet again, tries to get a single hit on Pinkie, but she continues detonating blasts in his face. Despite the constant explosions Fist seems not to be damaged but his smile is becoming a frown on his face as he gets angrier and angrier. Pinkie looks at him, still confident and crackling with energy. Fist reels back another punch, “This should be it, you annoying, pink piece of shit!”

Pinkie smiles, “Hey, Fist, instead of picking on me, you should look up, there’s another present coming for you!” Pinkie Chaos Controls out of sight as Fist tries to connect a punch and fails. He growls in anger then he hears a few loud booms as he looks up and sees two forms a foot away from his face as his perception slows down, he sees Sonic and Rainbow Dash on fire, Sonic in a ball and Rainbow with her leg out, both moving faster than light speeds, blazing through the atmosphere from orbit. The white streak in Rainbow Dash’s mane glows with light, as Sonic’s leg comes out into an axe kick.

This combined attack hits Fist directly on top of his head. The golden explosion could be seen for miles as it kicks up a magnitude of wind. The force made Fist tunnel for more than mile. His back being shredded through bedrock. He then breaks on more foot of stone before falling into an underground lake.

He surfaces panting, as the trio surround him, Fist’s smile completely disappears as he gets ready to continue fighting, his denial palpable, “Come on. Let’s go, I’m not done yet.” But he looks at his left arm and it’s shattered and limp. “This isn’t anything, we aren’t done.” His eyes get wilder, “I am the strongest!”

Sonic looks at him with pity, “Nah, we’re done, you’re evil, but you’re clearly no machine. We won’t kill you if you just go back to wherever you came from. And don’t you ever come back!”

“You what?! You think I’m losing? No! This fight is mine!” His right arm charges with black energy, “I’ll kill you hedgehog!” Fist regrows his two black gemstone blades, and he yells as he charges desperately.

Then Fist gets bashed with a face full of pink chaos energy as Pinkie Pie yells, “Party Cannon! “as a much more potent blast explodes and sends him to the wall on the opposite side of the cave. Still living, with part of his body burnt, he roars out in fury. And his damaged arm explodes with black blood as dark crystals erupt from under his skin and his arm twists back into place painfully.

Rainbow Dash flies upwards then she flies into Fist, before he can react, Rainbow Dash kicks off of him and causes a Sonic Rainboom right on his chest, which rattles the cave system and craters Fist further into the wall.

As Rainbow gets out of the way, Sonic charges his Light Speed attack, but when its charged, he focuses the light energy from his body to just his fist, and it starts vibrating. “Light Speed Blast!” He punches but he opens his palm at the end and a white beam shoots out, Fist’s eyes open wide as he is consumed completely by the light, screaming out as he is blasted out of sight.

Pinkie and Rainbow, yell out at the same time, “We did it!”

Sonic grimaces, “We aren’t out of the woods yet, his partner is still on Equestria.” Sonic’s eyes snap in realization, “We need to check on the emeralds now!”

The trio warp to the top of Angel Island and see a grizzly site, Fist, with half of his body missing stands in front of a shifting black rift. As he throws the Chaos Emeralds into the portal and closes it.

He then turns with half of his face burnt down to the skull, “Even when you win,” Fist utters out in a strained voice, “You still lose.” Then he looks up and his body crumbles down to dust as he loses his Super Form.

Sonic, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie defeat Fist but lose the Mobian Chaos Emeralds.

Chapter 10

-On Equestria-

Lix stands alone against the tide of positive energy wielders, as Fist falls, his robotic eyes beep and blink to deliver the notification, “Hmm. It seems your squad on Mobius managed to eliminate Fist. He managed to get the Mobian Chaos Emeralds, so I suppose his sacrifice was not in vain.”

Twilight perks up, “So we have you at a disadvantage then, you’re alone while we are all together.”

Calmly Lix explains, “Not quite. While true I am without comrades, I am not at a disadvantage, my advantage lies with knowledge. I know where the Equestrian Master Emerald is, and even if I die in this field, my master will have that knowledge. Secondly, I again deceived you, I am only in my Semi-Super Form.”

Shadow and Silver look at each other than to Lix, and Silver states the obvious, “But you’re gold that means you’re super, don’t try to bluff us!”

Lix shakes his head, “My kin and I are quite different from you, you see when we truly access a super-form, we undergo Reverse Roboticization, where we become organic beings. Such forms are tailored for the more efficient control of negative chaos energy. As to why I’m gold, Silver the Hedgehog, I accessed this form using the energy from the princesses and Twilight Sparkle.”

He turns to Twilight, “As you may recall Twilight, I went super before I unbonded the Elements of Harmony.” Her eyes widen in realization and a since of dread overwhelms her.

Shadow charges two Chaos Spears, “We won’t let you access that form then; you won’t even leave this spot.“

All the wind then stops, silence fills the field with Lix’s red eyes flickering with confidence, “Then why are they already at my feet, Shadow?”

They all three look down and see the six elements of harmony, they glance back up at the weakened ponies and see that they are just as surprised. Twilight’s jaw drops as she looks between the machine and her friends, “What was that, he didn’t use Chaos Control, and I didn’t see him move or teleport or use any other kind of magic.“

“You rely so much on your sight and your senses into the chaos. Truth is only seen if you are welcomed by it, otherwise you are caught in infinite lies.” All six of the Elements start turning black, “Now witness the dawn of perfection and the arrival of truth.”

The eruption of black energy is viewed by families in both Canterlot and Ponyville, Spike looks out of the window of the library with worry, as the black spire towers and its tendrils spread out across the sky, twisting and filling it in, blotting out the moon, sun and every star for but an instant and as the blackness fades, Neo Lix’s organic eyes open, his sclera shrouded black with cyan irises, his fur turned a midnight blue with black stripes going down from his upturned quills, and a small strand of hair curled down past his right eye, the center of his chest has a black gemstone embedded into it, his shoes are half red and half blue in a design that Shadow recognizes, the quills on his back are also in a familiar shape, long and extended outward to the side.

Neo Lix clenches his fist as black static runs up and down his body. “At this moment I am truly Neo Lix, and I would like to welcome you to my Equestria.”

A pulse of black energy emanates from his body and shifts the color of the atmosphere as he powers up. Then his eyes glance at Shadow. Before the Ultimate Lifeform could even think to react, he gets punched in the chest at twice the speed of light.

From everyone else’s perception Lix simply appears in the same place Shadow was just standing. The new being’s fist still has steam rising off of it.

Shadow was hit so hard and fast that he smashed into a cliffside on another continent.

Silver tries to fight Lix with psychokinesis, but Lix counters with his own, and flings Silver with such force and speed that he reaches exit velocity in a second. Shattering the time traveler through the mountain, Lix was fighting Twilight on.

As Super Twilight tries to cast a spell. Lix’s eyes become green sparing his irises and wisps of purple energy flow from the corners of his eyes. Twilight recognizes the dark magic as Lix stares into Twilight. Lix’s voice echoes within her mind, “As the student of Celestia, you have failed. As a protector of the Elements of Harmony, you have failed. As a bulwark of light on this world, you have failed.”

As he speaks, Twilight starts to back up with her eyes transfixed on Lix’s cold eyes. He continues to approach as he grips the air and creates a ball of dark energy surrounded with a cyan light.

He holds the orb to her head. Twilight refocuses and breaks the dark spell. Twilight teleports away, but she realizes too late that Neo Lix was wise to her spell.

He appears in front of Twilight with the sphere of energy in his hand, hand wound back, “Now die. Starless Torrent.” He pushes the ball into Twilight’s chest and decompresses it into a black beam outlined in cyan, it bores a ravine straight through the mountain Canterlot is attached to.

This beam causes a tremor that rocks the capital city, causing panic in the streets. As Twilight plummets to the ground, her form wavers for a moment. She strengthens her resolve when she hears the cries of the ponies in Canterlot.

She grits her teeth, “Nopony is dying today! Nopony!”

She teleports back to the battlefield, with a ball of purple energy on her horn, she swings her head around before she casts out the energy downward at Lix. The beam engulfs the hedgehog, burying him in a crater that stretches deep into the ground.

Her eyes dart around but then she senses Neo Lix use Chaos Control about to appear behind her. Twilight quickly counters the way she did before, with a Chaos Control of her own and a time stop spell.

As Lix appears and they are both in stopped time, Lix’s eyes gleam once more, and the colors reverse him as he performs a Super Chaos Control. Before Twilight’s mind can even realize it, she gets slammed into the ground.

As the unicorn bounces off the hard stone, Neo Lix warps beneath her with another Super Chaos Control, and knees her in the back as she’s falling, rocketing her straight up. He warps again appearing where she’s going to be, and roundhouse kicks her mid-air in the direction of Ponyville at blinding speeds.

She smashes through five houses in the town, skipping like a rock on a lake through the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres.

Neo Lix appears before her in a blink and pummels her through apple trees. She tries to send out another beam, but her attacks can’t land, as if she were trying to fight the air. Lix grabs her by the throat and tosses her again. He reappears and catches her by her mane in the middle of Ponyville where a crowd has gathered.

The ponies look up, seeing the beaten and pained body of Twilight Sparkle. Twilight looks at the Mayor, and every other pony she knows. Her mind screaming at her that she has to protect them. Neo Lix speaks, his voice devoid of any feeling other than hard, cold, intelligence, “Twilight, these people depend on you, and I feel as if I must teach you the most important lesson in a protector’s life. Despair.” His free palm opens, and a black orb apparates grows to a cataclysmic size.

Twilight yells out, pleading with the malevolent creature, “If you do that, you’ll destroy Ponyville, you can’t do this!”

As the orb condenses, Lix prepares to launch the attack, Twilight thinks fast and teleports out his grip, then she focuses on another spell, to teleport the orb miles in the sky. The orb detonates high in the sky blotting out the eclipse.

The blast clears all the clouds, and the wind pushes everyone downward and blows back trees. As she’s about to get hit by Lix once more, Super Silver and Super Shadow Chaos Control to her in the nick of time, Silver holds up Lix’s arms as Shadow lands a gut punch then a knee to the side of his head that sends him into the Everfree.

Shadow looks over to Twilight, “We need a plan fast, he’s only slightly weaker than Nazo in his super-form, an enemy I and Sonic fought not too long ago, and extremely similar to him, if he’s also like Neo Metal Sonic, then he’s adaptable. Adaptability and strength, the likes of which we can’t handle without planning.”

Silver holds his chest and grows a little worried, “This guy is crazy all he did was look at me and copied my abilities.”

Shadow then gets an idea, “Silver, you have a good grasp of Chaos Control, right?”

Silver nods, “Yeah, I think so, why?”

Shadow turns to look at Twilight, “Get to your friends and recharge your Emeralds. Try focusing, and channeling positive emotions into them. You need to hurry. Me and Silver are going to buy you time.”

“We are?” Silver asks with concern.

Twilight nods “Alright Shadow, I trust you.”

As Twilight warps away, Shadow looks to Silver, “On my signal we need to Chaos Control into the same place at the same time.”

Silver looks at Shadow as they see Lix walking toward Ponyville, “That’ll kill us, Shadow!”

Shadow snarls with worry thinly disguised by anger, “Its either we die to that, or we die trying to even the playing field, besides you still owe me a favor from a few days ago, remember.”

Silver rolls his eyes, but relents, “Fine, let’s do this. We only have one shot.”

“Chaos Control!” They both yell at the same time, Shadow and Silver disappear, in between them appears a golden orb of light as bright as the sun above Ponyville.

Then a new golden hedgehog appears, with Silver’s boots merged with Shadow’s Hover-shoes, and Silvers glowing gloves now adorned with inhibitor rings, he has Shadows up-turned quills with Silver’s leaf pattern quills both sets of quills have red-streaks.

Neo Lix looks him up and down, “Chaos Fusion, I’ve only seen this once before in person.”

The fused hedgehog appears next to Lix, “Once before, you say? How is that possible I wonder when Shadow and Sonic are the only two to ever do it when they became Shadic? You weren’t there.”

Neo Lix tries to punch the fusion, but his arm is stopped with focused psychokinesis from one of this new hedgehog’s hands.

The fused being’s eyes hum with energy as he mutters, “Chaos Barrier.” Then a solid barrier of Chaos Energy materializes around Neo Lix’s forearm and hand. Neo Lix Chaos Controls five feet away, as the barrier fills with red chaos energy and explodes. the fusion puts a finger to his chin, “Fast. As I’d expect.”

“What should I call you, fusion?” Lix asks while rubbing his arm.

The golden hedgehog ponders Lix’s question calmly, “Simplicity is a good foundation to have, call me Shilver. In this form I’d be Super Shilver.”

Shilver looks around at Neo Lix, “My senses are enhanced, I see what you did earlier, how you retrieved the Elements and how you tricked Applejack into seeing her sister in the woods. Interesting. I’ll have to get rid of that ability so I can hit you.” Shilver’s red eyes glow brightly, as a thin veil of negative energy shatters around Lix.

The two hedgehogs stare at each other, emotionlessly and inquisitively, gauging the other’s next move. “You discovered my Chaos Hypnosis, only a being with extremely precise senses could even imagine something was wrong, I used it as sparingly as possible, so that in the off-chance someone could sense it, I could simply deactivate it, but you aren’t just perceptive, you’re proactive. Impressive.” Neo Lix charges up his energy without a word and Shilver does the same.

They both vanish and collide at blinding speeds, their fight takes to the air as a line of black and a line of gold slam and collide with each other hundreds of times per second, then Shilver flies back a distance and his hands glow with a grey light outlined by red. Lix tries to close the distance, but he hits a psychic wall.

It reveals itself upon impact, colored like the one on his forearm before. Lix tries to Chaos Control out, but it fails, the barrier keeping him in place. He takes a step back and looks around at the structure. Shilver’s glowing hands then completely glow red, as the box crackles with red energy, Shilver snaps his fingers, and it bursts apart with a contained Chaos Blast.

The dust and static clear to reveal Lix using Metal Sonic’s Black Shield. The shield powers down, then Shilver’s palms flash far more intensely, sensing the incoming danger, Lix warps out of the way of any barrier forming around him.

Lix tries once again to close distance, but Shilver’s hand wraps itself in his powerful barrier, and blocks the attack. His spare hand then glows as an intense psychokinesis crushes Lix in a powerful grip, for Shilver to fling him to the ground.

Shilver warps to Lix’s location and the fused hedgehog’s eyes and hands shine as the psychic energy begins to press Lix deeper into the ground, causing the dark-blue hedgehog to vomit blood. Shilver rockets him up and puts a barrier around him.

Lix, covered in black blood, breathes heavily. Shilver snaps his finger and this time he hurts Lix with an exploding barrier, Lix falls for a moment before using Super Chaos Control and appearing behind Shilver. The fused hedgehog turns in surprise, as Lix puts two red balls of energy in his face and detonates both.

The dust clears revealing Shilver had closed a barrier around himself. Then Shilver watches as Lix’s body regenerates, the blood reenters his body and all scratches close.

“That is what I thought. You have Nazo’s abilities, his back spikes, and his shoes, but you aren’t him. Nazo would not have waited to use his regeneration.” Shilver crosses his arms, “You’re also testing me, Lix.”

Lix nods, “Correct. I’m curious as to how your abilities will evolve during this bout. You’ve already combined Shadow’s focus with Silver’s psychokinesis. You're using these barriers so intuitively. I’m more than impressed but I wonder,” he tilts his head, “how long will this form last?”

“We’ve talked enough, I think we should end things.”

“I agree, I need to retrieve those emeralds.”

Shilver conjures a long and dense Chaos Spear as he mutters, “Chaos Gungnir.”

Lix starts to spin in place and gather light energy, then he stops as he becomes a midnight blue silhouette, he vanishes and starts disappearing and appearing all around Shilver, all while Shilver reels back his arm and gets into a throwing stance, Shilver’s eyes rapidly look around.

Lix then leaps toward Shilver with a blade of black gemstone he conjured from his palm, but Shilver catches on and tosses the spear. It booms out of his hand and Lix dodges it, Lix then sees Shilver twist his palm, turning the spear and it rockets back point first at Lix, Lix gasps out as it pierces his chest, and his Light Speed aura vanishes.

The spear flies back into Shilver’s hands. He then grabs it with both hands and starts thrusting it at Lix. He dodges the best he can with a hole in his chest, as the spear barely misses him, and his face gets cut by the energy. Lix tries to block the assault with his gemstone blade, but it shatters on impact.

Shilver goes for jabs and swipes, but Lix, now on the backfoot. Lix tries to retreat so he can heal but Shilver throws the spear to the right.

Lix watches it fly off, then he gets sucker punched by a solid left hook hardened by a barrier. Lix stumbles backward as the spear comes down from above. Lix’s eyes widen as it pierces his chest and pins him to the ground like a taxidermized insect. Then Shilver encloses another barrier around the replicant hedgehog.

Lix glares at Shilver, this time in a strained voice, he huffs, “This will… only delay the inevitable…”

Twilight appears back at where her friends were earlier, and they had gathered around the grey and drained gems that were once the Elements of Harmony.

“It’s rather sad that these dull rocks were once pieces of us.” Rarity sighs sadly

Applejack looks on to Ponyville, “That fella… I don’t know if we can win this girls.” Fluttershy looks down quietly as Twilight approaches.

Twilight smiles warmly at her friends, “We have been through so much together and I don’t just mean the past few days. It’s never been quite so dire. I know that you’re all feeling tired, I was too when my connection to my element was taken from me. Those gems don’t define us! We define who we are, and our friendship helps us shine brighter. I don’t think that I’d be here fighting like I am without all of you.” She starts to tear up, “I love you girls so much and I know that if we really put our hearts into it, we can win!” Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity, smile, and they all hug Twilight, and she nuzzles into them.

As this display occurs, these new Emeralds become emboldened with color again, they all glow with power. Twilight looks confidently at her friends wiping away her tears. “Let’s go get ‘em!” They all nod and Twilight warps them to where Shilver is.

Shilver holds this barrier in one hand, while holding Chaos Gungnir down into the ground with the other, he senses Twilight and Emeralds appear, he also feels his Super Form and fusion nearly out of time.

Lix stares in pain at Twilight, and sees the former Elements fully recharged, his eyes widen as he tries to think of a way out. Shilver yells out, “Twilight, get ready to send Lix to the stratosphere with all the power you can muster!”

The emeralds orbit the ponies and the multi-pointed gem hovers above Twilight’s horn as she charges a massive amount of energy, her mane flares out and she floats up into the air. The other ponies also float up with Twilight, creating a current of positive energy, as they channel their thoughts and feelings into Twilight.

“Now!” The instant Shilver lets the barrier down, he jumps back. Twilight, as all the gems focus through her Emerald, she fires a wide spanning multicolored beam. Lix is stunned at the bright light approaching him. The rainbow-colored beam slams into the hedgehog. It makes Chaos Gungnir disperse and pushes him along the ground in a straight line. Lix feels his body disintegrating by touching the mass of positive energy.

Regardless of his burning flesh, Lix slams his hands onto the beam, and he summons a beam of black energy from his two palms and pushes it with everything he has. Lix stops getting pushed back, as he equals the pony’s energy output. The gemstone in his chest fractures.

His face now crazed he screams out, “How far are you willing to push yourself, Twilight Sparkle!”

As his black beam pushes this beam of pure light to a standstill, Applejack yells out, “We’re down two ponies! We just don’t got enough in us!”

Then appearing behind the four ponies is Shadow and Silver in their base forms, Silver yells out, “We got you guys covered, let’s do this Shadow!” Shadow nods. They both align themselves with the positive energy and float in the air with the ponies.

Shadow and Silver’s eyes glow and they push every ounce of their remaining Chaos Energy into the attack.

This new input of energy balloons the blast in the hero’s favor, as the black beam gets engulfed, Lix sees his beam disappear. Before he is swallowed by the beam. He faces forward with a dignified stare, and his arms behind his back, “Well played, bearers of light.” His body is slammed once more by the energy, until he is engulfed completely. The rainbow-colored beam continues through the air, parting the clouds. It appears as a spectacular display above Ponyville.

The beam disperses into twinkling lights, which fall like snowflakes over Ponyville.

Shadow and Silver fall to their knees panting, Silver then looks over to Shadow and holds up his hand for a high five. “We did it, heck yeah!” Shadow gives him a high five, while wearing a smirk. The ponies sit down panting. Twilight powers down from her Super Form as she collapses to one knee. The Emeralds still remain on the ground and in their possession.

Twilight watches as the eclipse ends and the sun and moon move back to their proper places. She smiles with hope, “Celestia and Luna must’ve gotten their magic back. Good. Hopefully, they can help us get Pinkie and Rainbow back home.”

“Darling, I think I need a spa day after all this craziness. Surviving yet another near-death experience warrants a bit of rest and relaxation. Treat ourselves if you will.”

Silver laughs, “I feel like I’ve been on my feet for days, a spa would be amazing right now.”

The group walked toward Ponyville with Lix successfully defeated and the Equestrian Chaos Emeralds are safe and sound.

Chapter 11

-On Mobius-

Sonic, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash leave Angel Island and go to the ground, having mixed feelings about their win. As Sonic sees a group of nurses and doctors, taking Knuckles and Tails into a hover-ambulance. Sonic runs over with Pinkie and Rainbow not too far behind. A Mobian horse is one of the doctors bandaging up Knuckles and Tails, she turns to see Sonic, “Sonic the hedgehog? Well, you’re here right on- “, she looks down at Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, her eyes move between them, and they both look at her. She looks at her own hands then back at the ponies, Rainbow Dash furrows her brow.

“You got a staring problem or something?” the nurse jumps at Rainbow Dash talking.

“Oh, I see, you’re not normal horses, thank God. Anyway,” She moves her reading glasses down to the bridge of her nose to look at a clipboard. “Your friends are lucky to be alive, Knuckles the Echidna is going to need some extensive care, and Miles Prower is going to also need extensive care after what we could only describe as intense poisoning of some kind, its subsided but his immune system seems to be compromised. We are going to put him under some state-of-the-art procedures and Knuckles will be in a full-body cast for a while after constructive surgery to reset his leg and chest. We’ll try to let you know any updates.”

Sonic worried beyond belief, “Can I see or talk to them?”

She shakes her head, “Not right now, unfortunately with Miles’ condition we can’t allow any visitors, and Knuckles is unconscious at the moment. We will get into contact with you when they are up, they’re in good hands I assure you.”

Sonic nods sadly, as the ambulance drives off, leaving the trio behind, Rainbow Dash looks up at Sonic, “Are you okay?”

Sonic shakes his head, “No. not really. Feels like It’s my fault people I care about keep on getting hurt.”

Pinkie chimes in, “That’s not true Sonic, you can’t control when some big ugly monster comes to town and causes a bunch of problems, and I’m sure your friends would never blame you.”

Sonic smiles softly, “Maybe I’m just thinking too much.” Then he perks up, “Well on the bright side, when Tails pulls through, I’m sure he can get you guys home, or better yet, make a permanent portal. Because I don’t think we’re done working together yet but, in the meantime, maybe I can take you guys on the New Mobotropolis tour.”

Rainbow Dash lights up, “Oh my gosh that would be so cool! From what you’ve told us your home sounds like a really fun place to be.”

Pinkie Pie hops up and down, “Oh, oh, I bet there’s lots of places that sell cakes and cupcakes and tarts and all kinds of stuff.”

Rainbow Dash smiles at her enthusiasm, “Pinkie, we can find bakery stuff at home, I want to try a chilidog personally or see what kind of adventures we can get up to before we go home.”

“You think that Twilight is working on something on her end?” Pinkie asks as they leisurely walk,

Dash nods, “Oh, I’m sure and knowing her she’ll have a portal open before we know it.”

The group wanders from the crashed Angel Island, toward New Mobotropolis, after an hour of rest in a local town, the group speeds to New Mobotropolis, as Pinkie appears next to them. “Pinkie. I swear you’ve done that before we met Sonic.” Rainbow Dash looks at Pinkie all the while Pinkie looks around with a look of wonder on her face.

The ponies see the walled city, outlined by trees making a small patch of forest. The ponies see Mobians bustling about and carrying on with their daily lives.

“Wow Sonic your home looks so cool! I want to take a day and just meet everyone!”

Sonic smiles, “Well, I’m sure they’ll like you Pinkie, though I don’t know anyone as enthusiastic as you, they might get a little overwhelmed.”

While standing in the streets, a few residents see the ponies with a bit of confusion. The ones that notice Sonic first, a few give him a wave, others give him a saddened look and walk by a little faster. Sonic looks at the two ponies, “Hey, would you guys come with me to visit somethin’ in town? It’s been some time and… I didn’t see it get finished.”

Outside of the civic center, there is a group of statues made of bronze, consisting of Sally Acorn, Antoine D’Coolette, Rotor Walrus and Bunnie D’Coolette. Sonic looks up and down, his eyes linger on Sally for a while, and he looks at the base covered in flowers, candles, and photographs.

“Y’know, Applejack and Bunnie would have gotten along really well.” Sonic wears a half-smile as he solemnly stares at the statues. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash follow behind, looking at each other as both feel a rising sadness in Sonic, then they all get closer and read the plaque that stands before this memorial.

‘In Memoriam of the first Freedom Fighters, who lost their lives tragically in service of their country and their city. These brave men and women, beat back Robotnik with every ounce of their being and they will never be forgotten.’

Sonic takes a moment of silence, as some people walking by take notice of him staring at it and some start to tear up.

Rainbow Dash hangs her head in respect and so does Pinkie Pie. Then Sonic opens his eyes and looks up, “Hope you're watching over us guys, I’ll check you later.”

He turns back to Pinkie and Rainbow, “Sorry about the sad stuff, I couldn’t even look at this statue for who knows how long, but I owe it to them to look ahead.”

They start to walk back toward the street, and Rainbow Dash rubs the back of her neck, “It’s no big deal, Blue.” Rainbow’s eyes scan the buildings around her, and she sees a glowing sign, “Say what’s ‘Uncle Chuck’s Diner’ supposed to be?”

Sonic looks over, “Oh yeah, that’s my uncle’s restaurant, we can get you a chili dog there, and maybe we can say hi to him.”

As they enter a little bell chimes, and Uncle Chuck is behind the counter, serving a few customers, “Come on in, we’re just- “, he sees Sonic, “Sonic, my boy!” he looks over to a few customers, “Family occasion folks, I’m taking a small break.”

Sonic and Uncle Chuck embrace firmly and Chuck pats his back, “Where have you been, son, Tails told me you stepped through a portal. You’re so reckless, had me worried sick.” Then his eyes notice the ponies, “Sonic. This establishment isn’t meant for animals, I mean if a health inspector came in- “

Rainbow Dash flies up, “I’m no animal old-timer, I’m a pony!”

Uncle Chuck connects some dots, “Call it a hunch but I feel like they might be related to where you’ve been all this time. Let’s sit down for a second so we can talk.” The four sit down at a table.

Sonic looks at Dash, “Yeah, these two ponies are pals I made while I was on a whole other world, wasn’t like anywhere I’ve ever been, and I’m thinking that place isn’t just another Mobius.”

Uncle Chuck becomes a little surprised, “Really? Hmmm, that means most our ways of getting to other dimensions might not work.”

“Wow, you mean you guys have made portals to other places before?” Pinkie Pie tilts her head.

“Why, yes, we had a nasty incident with, less than kind versions of our own Freedom Fighters some time back. I wonder if me and Tails could modify it somehow…” Chuck then looks to Sonic, “Say Sonic, I heard in the news that Angel Island fell again, it happened a few hours after Tails and Knuckles took off, what happened?”

Sonic, Rainbow, and Pinkie then relay everything that happened on Equestria; the G.U.N. satellites, Colin Robotnik’s research, and him fighting Kilo and recently Fist, with Lix still on Equestria.

Chuck is taken aback, “A coordinated attack on multiple worlds at once? You said Fist was supposed to be a machine?”

Pinkie Pie nods, “Yeah! That mean Kilo guy said that but when we got here, he was a big hulking purple guy.”

Rainbow Dash adds onto the story. “Me, Sonic and Pinkie went all gold and stuff and laid the smack-down on ‘em.”

Chuck stares into the middle distance, “It’s like the opposite of Roboticization, why would that be useful to their leader. At least we can rule out Robotnik, he would abhor this. This is very strange, regardless, let me get you folks some dinner. A whole plate of chilidogs comin’ right up for Sonic and his newcomer friends.”

As Chuck gets up and starts cooking, Rainbow Dash looks at Sonic, “Say Sonic, after we eat you wanna race?” Sonic smirks, “While I think that’s a good way to get a cramp, I accept your challenge, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow Dash smirks back at the hedgehog, “Don’t take it easy on me either Sonic, I want to use what I’ve learned and really get the hang of it.”

Pinkie looks to both of them, “Ooooo, and whoever wins, I’ll throw a party for them. And everypony’s invited!” she yells out to the restaurant, “Oh wait, I have to go introduce myself to everyone, hold on everypony I’ll be back!” she zips out of the restaurant, as Uncle Chuck puts down a plate of twenty chili dogs.

Sonic and Rainbow smell them and their mouths water, Rainbow Dash puts her hooves on the table, “Holy hay, these smell good! You get to eat these every day?”

Sonic smiles wide glancing at his uncle, “Yep, sure do, and they’re completely vegetarian, especially with an uncle who’s, the best cook in the world.”

Chuck then smiles wide, “Oh, I do my best.”

“Not sure what vegetarian means, but,” Rainbow Dash, bites through one, with her mouth full, “That’sh good, whatsh in theshe.”

Sonic eats one whole like he’s been starved, “Well I’ll have to give you the recipe sometime.”

They eat through the entire plate in a few seconds, and the entire plate is completely clean they both lean back with full stomachs. “I don’t think I could eat another bite.” Rainbow dash burps loudly, “Oh excuse me.”

Sonic then looks outside for a moment and sees Amy then looks back at Rainbow Dash, then does a double take and sees Pinkie talking to Amy. “Hey, look at that, its Amy, haven’t seen her in a while.” As the two watch through the window Sonic notices Amy and Pinkie start laughing with each other and he smiles warmly.

“Alright Dash, I’m ready to get this race started. Let’s go!”

“Heck yeah, this is gonna be so awesome.”

As they are standing outside, Sonic makes a line in the dirt, “Okay so we’ll start here, and the finish line will be…” Sonic struggles to think of an appropriate finish line, “Hey Amy!” Sonic yells over as Amy Rose looks at him, she smiles widely.

“Oh my gosh, Sonic!” she runs over, “Your friend Pinkie Pie, adorable name by the way, was just telling me about everything on Equestria, I’m so glad you, Shadow and Silver are okay. Not to mention Tails and Knuckles.”

Sonic smiles, “Well yeah, of course I’m alright, but I need your help real quick.”

Amy looks over at Rainbow Dash, looks at the line in the dirt, “You need a finish line, don’t you Sonic?”

Sonic shoots finger guns at her, “You know it Amy, me and Dash are about to race. We’re both pretty fast, to say the least, so what do you have in mind?”

Amy shrugs plainly, “Why not just run around the world?”

Sonic and Rainbow Dash look at each other and Rainbow Dash mutters, “That’s not a bad idea.”

The both of them start to stretch, their legs, as Amy looks at Pinkie Pie, “So, how fast is your friend Rainbow Dash?”

Pinkie then jumps up, “Oh she’s really fast, especially when she uses her Sonic Rainboom!”

Amy then looks forward, “Here on Mobius, Sonic’s called the ‘Fastest Thing Alive’, I know this race is just for fun, but Sonic doesn’t hold that title lightly. If I were a bettin’ girl I’d put my rings on Sonic.”

Pinkie raises an eyebrow, “How many rings?”

“Twenty rings. On Sonic.”

“You ma’am have got yourself a bet, cuz I’ll put twenty, uhm, bits on Rainbow Dash.”

The two shake hoof and hand and the bet is sealed.

Sonic and Rainbow Dash get into running stances, “3. 2. 1. GO!” they both say at the same time as they blast off, a streak of blue and a streak of rainbow sail across the ground and sky, respectively.

Sonic boosts a little and looks up at Rainbow Dash, seeing her easily keep pace, “Not bad, Dash, not bad at all.”

Rainbow Dash smirks, “You haven’t seen anything yet! Watch this!” she boosts exactly like Sonic, and they both remain neck and neck. Sonic swiftly navigates around trees, and spin dashes down hills to give himself some airtime, Rainbow Dash twists and twirls through holes in rocks and around treetops, feeling the Mobian air and sun on her skin.

They reach a lake and Sonic starts running on it as Rainbow Dash flies just above it, causing wakes to spread out across the lake. As they breach the shoreline, they accidentally ruin Big the Cat’s picnic, him getting covered in water and his sandwich becomes soggy, Sonic yells back, “Sorry Big!” and Big just absentmindedly waves back.

Switching biomes, they speed through a desert whipping up whirling sand behind them, Sonic and Rainbow Dash maneuver around cacti and the occasional jutting stone.

Sonic runs through a fully grown cacti and gets covered in little needles, he lets out a meek, “Ow.” As he holds his arms out to the sides, Rainbow Dash sees this and chortles while flying at high speeds, before slamming through a dune and getting a mouthful of sand. Sonic laughs back, which causes Rainbow Dash to laugh at herself.

Sonic shakes off the needles and then looks fiercely at Rainbow, “Ready to take it up a notch?”

Rainbow grins, “You know it!”

Sonic then reaches super speeds by peeling out, blazes into the horizon, Rainbow Dash, goes up then pushes herself down making a sonic-cone in front of her, then it booms out forcing her forward as she Sonic Rainboom herself, Sonic sees the boom from where he is and continues until the biome turns into a small city. He runs down the main road narrowly avoiding cars and humans on the streets, as he looks up, he sees a fairly small streak of rainbow pushing slightly ahead of him. Rainbow sees Sonic behind her and smiles. “Catch up to me now, Blue!”

As they exit the city, they enter a jungle, Sonic leaps upward using his momentum to land on the tree tops, “Her flying might give her the win if we aren’t on flat land. So, lets’ even the odds with a Light Speed Dash.”

As he’s running, he charges light into his body then bursts into a blur of light, blasting through the jungle from above as he lands on the top of a grassy plateau, Rainbow Dash sees him take the lead, “Oh yeah? Let’s see if I can’t do it too!” As she focuses herself, she remembers when she came down from orbit as Super Rainbow Dash, and the light energy charged in her.

She replicates that feeling as her body vibrates and glows with light, then she bursts in a rainbow-colored silhouette, streaking and shimmering across the sky, successfully pulling off the light speed dash. They both shear themselves across the ocean, making large waves as they speed next to one another.

Amy sees them coming on the horizon, “Oh wow, they’re coming in fast.” she thinks about it for a moment, “Oh crap, they are coming in fast! Get out of the way, Sonic is racing someone fast everyone!”

Sonic and Rainbow Dash run through New Mobotropolis, with the ground on fire behind them, as they both slow themselves down, Rainbow Dash slams her hooves into the ground while Sonic brakes with his heels, they both stop perfectly at the finish line. Pinkie Pie looks over at Amy, whispers in her ear. Amy nods.

Sonic and Rainbow Dash look at each other as the dust clears, “Were you keeping track?” asks Rainbow Dash

“No actually, gotta be honest I didn’t really think that far ahead.” Sonic responds.

“You guys see who won?” Sonic asks

Amy looks at Sonic, “It was a tie, as much as I’m somehow not surprised you both got here at the same time, something makes me feel like it was rehearsed. You two plan this?”

Sonic shakes his head, “You got it all wrong Amy, Dash just used the light speed dash, and we both got here at the same time, she’s a quick learner.”

Pinkie hides her mouth with her hoof as she tries whispering to Amy, “So, if they tied, who wins the bet Amy?”

“Guess we keep our money.” Amy giggles a little.

Pinkie then jumps up “Oh yeah, we still need to throw a party! Since both of you won. Everypony in New Mobotropolis, you’re all invited to the ‘Bestest Pinkie Party Ever: Mobius edition.’

Pinkie quickly and feverishly got a party ready in the Civic Center, Amy leans to Rainbow, “How did she know that’s where we do that?”

Rainbow shrugs, “That girl prolly already met and befriended everyone in town.”

Sonic then mutters, “That’s nuts, I don’t think I even know everyone in town. Oh well time to party.”

The day winds down, as Pinkie Pie somehow made cupcakes, punch, and decorations for the inside of the Civic Center. Sonic leisurely enjoys his fill of cupcakes and Uncle Chuck brings a catering supply of chilidogs for everyone.

The night winds down as New Mobotropolis heals a few of its wounds.

Chapter 12

Silver and Shadow, sit in the steam bath of a spa in Ponyville, with towels around their waists, they loll their heads back, Silver groans, “I feel a year of stress leaving my body, oh my god.”

Shadow has a towel covering his eyes, “This was not what I was expecting to do today.” hiding the fact that his muscles haven’t been relaxed in years, Silver yells out, “Ma’am, could we get some more steam in here.”

The pony attendant smiles and pours more water over the rocks. “Thank you. That is spectacular.”

Silver looks at Shadow, “You getting the full thing Shadow? It was Rarity’s treat.”

“I’ll pass on the full experience today; I think the steam was all I needed.” Shadow remarks

“I don’t know about you, but I need to try that seaweed wrap and the mud bath. My fur and skin really needs the minerals.”

Shadow lifts up his head and lifts up the towel on his face, “Are spas not in the future?”

“No. No they are not. And if they were, I couldn’t afford it. I’m broke. Do you have savings Shadow?”

“Yes, I do actually, G.U.N. pays a fairly hefty amount for my services. Commander Tower wouldn’t let me work for free.”

“How much do you make?”

“A lot. I don’t buy much.”

“You ever stop to think about how absurd that is? Like that the ‘Ultimate Lifeform’ is employed.”

“I suppose, I haven’t considered how absurd it is that I ‘make a living’.”

“Do you also pay taxes?”

“I work for a government agency in the United Federation. Of course I pay taxes. I like my job, after all.”

Silver then stands up, “Well, guess it’s time for me to enjoy the rest of this spa trip, what are you gonna do?”

Shadow thinks for a moment, “I guess I’ll get dressed and go take a walk.”

“Alright, Shadow, I’ll see you later.” Silver with a towel tightly around his waist, goes and catches up with the ponies, “Hey, girls I’m steamed up and ready to destress.”

Shadow puts on his shoes, drops the towel in a towel hamper and walks outside. He walks through the town and tries to find a hill to be alone on.

Silver wrapped in seaweed, sits in the mud with his eyes partially glazed over from comfort. The ponies are chatting with one another as they also enjoy a mud bath.

Silver listens to Rarity speak, “This is just an awful turn of events, my best fabric supplier from Canterlot, hasn’t shown up. I do hope that our battle didn’t deter her from making that delivery.”

Twilight looks at Rarity, “I can’t say I blame her; she probably just feels a little unsafe right now, what with Cloudsdale being destroyed and a massive hole in Canterlot Mountain, I probably wouldn’t leave home either.”

Applejack chimes in, “Well that Lix fella, blew up hundreds of bits worth of apple trees, Sweet Apple Acres can’t handle any more big ol’ craters. We’re losing a lot of money over there.”

Fluttershy looks over at Silver, “Where did Shadow go, Silver? Did he not want to do the mud bath?”

“No, Shadow probably just wanted to be by himself for a while. He’s not upset or anything, he’s just been around people and ponies for like three days straight. it’s probably a lot for him.”

Applejack looks over at Twilight, “Well ain’t that somethin’, you were just like that when you came to town, huh Twilight.”

Twilight tilts her head, “Back then I wasn’t that introverted. I’m glad Shadow doesn’t dislike us.”

Silver smiles, “Yeah, he doesn’t throw his whole life on the line for people he doesn’t like. You guys must’ve made an impression on the grumpy guy.”

Fluttershy smiles fondly, “It makes me so happy to hear that! I hope we made a good impression on all three of you.”

Silver floats a little bit out of the mud, “Are you kidding? You guys have all been so nice! I can’t speak for Sonic or Shadow, but I can say that this place sure beats where I’m from.”

Applejack tilts her head, “Where are you from on Mobius?”

“Oh, I’m a time traveler, from the future.” He looks at everyone’s shocked faces, “Sorry I haven’t told you guys, this is the only natural way to bring it up and it hasn’t been relevant.”

Twilight blinks, at Silver, “You’re from the future? You hedgehogs just keep getting more and more exciting!”

Applejack gestures with her hooves, to try and establish some sense, “Now let’s wrangle this conversation back in now. Before sayin’ you’re from the future Silver, you’ve gotta prove it before we go hog wild askin’ about it.”

Silver laughs nervously, “Well, I would but I can’t. My Chronos Control has been a little bit, uh, not working.”

“Okay well, why do you time travel?” Applejack presses.

“At first it was to stop horrible things from ruining the future… but multiverse theory is an unkind mistress so I can’t change my time. Now I just don’t want Mobius to end up like my future. Devastated and lonely.” Silver looks down with a bit of sadness, then he perks up, “Being here makes me feel a lot less alone.”

Rarity smiles at the hedgehog, “Silver, darling, that’s so nice to hear it would be a travesty for such a kind soul to feel lonely. Also, I think it’s time for the massage portion of this wonderful spa day.”

The ponies and hedgehog then transition to the massage tables. Silver is face down as the masseuse beats the knots out of his back, and he melts, the pony giving the massage, mutters to herself, “Sweet Celestia this guy is full of knots.”

Silver with a vibrating voice, “That’s my build-up of combat stress, ma’am. You gotta earn that.”

After the full spa experience, Silver steps into the sunlight and breathes in deep, “Ahh, I feel like a new hedgehog.”

Rarity looks over pleasantly surprised, “I’m glad you enjoyed It, darling, I didn’t expect you to take to it this much.”

Shadow laughs a little, “I was just telling Shadow that there aren’t spas in the future, I would go at every opportunity if I could.”

Rarity reacts with overdramatic horror, “What? No spas in the future. What a ghastly nightmare!”

“Hey, its fine Rarity! Again, it’s in my future, Equestria is a whole different ballgame, I’m sure spas will be around.”

Rarity regains her composure, “I suppose, you’re right, I would not want to build up a future where ponies can’t indulge in keeping themselves beautiful.”

Applejack rolls her eyes, then looks at Twilight, “Onto somethin’ more important. We should catch up with Shadow. We gotta brainstorm ways to get Dash and Pinkie over here from Mobius. Also get our boys here home.”

The ponies nod as they approach a hill where Shadow is sitting. Standing around him are three little fillies, continuously asking him questions.

Apple Bloom’s excited eyes are the size of dinner plates, “What’s it like being a hedgehog? Can you lay your head on pillows without ruining him with your quills?”

“Can you roll in a ball like one?” Asks Sweetie Belle

“How fast are you?” Scootaloo asks.

Shadow has his eyes half open, resting his head on his hand, clearly a little annoyed, and asks, “Didn’t your parents teach you not to talk to strangers.”

Apple Bloom frowns, “Please Mr. Shadow, you're such a cool hero, we wanna know everything about you.”

Scootaloo leans over “Where’d you learn his name, Apple Bloom?”

“Applejack told me.”

“Rarity never told me his name!” Sweetie Belle whines

Shadow warps away to a rooftop when they’re not looking and looks down at them. Scootaloo looks left and right, “What? Where’d he go!”.

Shadow sits down, “Finally some peace and quiet.”

“Hey Shadow.”

Shadow’s eyes shatter open, and he looks at Silver floating in front of him, glistening in the sunlight, “Could I have-!” Shadow then sees Silver’s complexion. “How do you look that clean?”

“Because of the spa, dude, Aloe, and Lotus Blossom really know their stuff! Anyway, we’re gonna brainstorm ways to get home.”

Shadow leans back and closes his eyes, “If Twilight had a spell that could do that, don’t you think she would have sent us home a while ago?”

“Maybe but she could have something up her sleeves. They don’t have sleeves, but you know what I mean.”

Shadow gets up, jumps off the roof and lands on the ground. As he stands up he sees the faces of the Mane 6.

Shadow gestures to the road, “Lead the way then.” Shadow stays in the back of the group as they walk all through town.

Fluttershy slows down to match pace with Shadow, “Excuse me, Mr. Shadow?”

“Just Shadow, Fluttershy.”

“R-Right. Um, if it isn’t too much to ask, could you teach me more about how to fight?”

Shadow looks down at her, “You want more training?”

Fluttershy nods, “Yes. I want to help everypony fight, I don’t think I could handle it if my friends got hurt and I couldn’t stop it.”

Shadow continues looking at her and sees conviction in her eyes, “Alright then, but I’ll warn you I am not an easy teacher. Is that acceptable?”

Fluttershy smiles, “Absolutely!” then her voice retreats, “If it isn’t a bother to you of course…”

“In the morning, we can spar so I can get a baseline of your skill, and we’ll work from there. Depending on how much time we’re still on Equestria; I’ll make a monster out of you.” Shadow smirks.

They all pile into the treehouse as Twilight makes some tea and passes a cup to everyone. Shadow takes a sip, “So Twilight, any ideas?”

“I did have one,” A book already on the table opens magically, revealing an image of a magic mirror, “I was doing some research, and there is a mirror in the Crystal Empire, where my big brother and his wife Princess Cadance live. I think if I have some time, I could reverse engineer the enchantment on the mirror and use that to make a more stable portal for you two.”

“If you think that will work, I’ll default to your knowledge. How much time do you think this is going to take?”

“Two or three days.”

“Sounds fine to me.” Shadow then finishes his tea.

-Meanwhile in an unknown facility-

King Sombra reels from his defeat. He then realizes that he is alive, not destroyed.

He grins as he looks at his hooves, and a wave of black energy travels up his curved horn. But he looks around himself and sees that he is in a metal facility with no lights.

The unicorn tyrant looks forward to seeing the empty and pervasive darkness expanding in front of him, he looks behind and sees the same. “Why am I unable to see? This darkness should be as visible as daylight.”

Sombra walks forward, more irritated than before, he sees the walls of this facility are covered in some dripping black ooze that irradiates negative energy, “…Dark magic?” Sombra mutters as he passes.

Eventually he gets to an open antechamber. There are a few blinking lights on the walls, multiple workbenches with scattered parts and 3-D printers with half-finished automatons.

Catching his eye as well are containers containing dull black diamonds.

Then Sombra hears groaning to his right and as Sombra’s eyes scale up the wall, he sees a human man with his arms and legs melded into the wall.

His body has pitch black spikes made of gemstone piercing through his strangely rotund robotic body. It is full of tubes and wires.

This man only has half of his face, one half has a long mustache, with a glowing red eye. the other half is a metal skull.

In a semi-robotic voice Doctor Ivo Robotnik groans loudly, “You. Unicorn. This place is Hell. Kill me quickly! Before that thing comes back!”

Sombra stiffens as he feels something appear behind him. For the first time Sombra felt true fear, he didn’t feel this much dread when he was trapped in ice, nor did he when he was defeated by the ponies and their dragon.

He has never felt this much murderous intent since he was born. Sombra turns to see glowing red eyes full of stretching black veins leading to bright-emerald, green irises, and a slit for the pupil. It looms over the dark unicorn.

Sombra leaps back, and he charges a spell, landing a few feet away, trying to get a better view of his foe. The blackness around this being is far too dense. “What are you, creature!”

The creature speaks without blinking, “I’m a simple hedgehog, King Sombra.” Its eyes trail up to Robotnik, then its irises compress to a thin line, as the spikes in Robotnik’s body twist, Robotnik screams and tries to pull his torso from the wall, but to no avail. “Do you like my art piece? I was inspired by you. Your dark chaos crystals are a wonderful implement. I copied it. Came quite easy to me.”

His eyes move to Sombra again, who is still charging magic, Sombra feels a cold hand touch his soul as he hears an airy “Cease.” From the blackened figure and he feels his dark magic dissipate. Sombra takes another step back, as these eyes in the blackness close in on him.

Sombra bares his teeth, “What do you want from me? Where am I?”

“Welcome to the Chaos Void, King Sombra. I dragged you here from perdition on Equestria. This is a place of freedom for people like us. Though this facility was made by this,” it looks at Robotnik, “symbol of oppression. To exploit and manipulate the power I was born from.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Magic. Your Magic. I am going to use that man’s blueprints for one last creation. A pony that will break the ones down there. I will be down there with this new being, and it will enforce my rule of Equestria. The Equestrian people will die in the cold, and I want to watch their hope die as every light in the sky is extinguished. Mobius will be shattered to pieces with both Master Emeralds, and both sets of Chaos Emeralds on it.”

Not understanding what he’s talking about, Sombra attempts to back up, but feels his body stiffen again, as an aura of black encircles him, he then looks up to see these eyes staring a foot away from his face, Sombra feels a clawed hand touch the side of his head. “Where exactly is it you think you’re going? We must begin the extraction immediately.”

Chapter 13

On Mobius, Uncle Chuck plugs in two cords, and he looks at Rainbow Dash and yells, “Now Dash pull it! Sonic hit 1-6-6-7 on that computer!” Rainbow and Sonic do their tasks at the same time but the machine he created, which is a chrome ring suspended above a staircase, fizzles for a moment, powers on and crackles with electricity before failing. Uncle Chuck snaps his fingers, “Darn, not enough wattage it seems. Its gonna need some adjustments.”

At the same time on Equestria, Twilight has converted most of her library space into a wild magical laboratory, papers and pipes scattered all over the ground, She scratches her chin, “Maybe a different methodology? No. Is the thought process different? No that’s not it either.”

Spike looks at Twilight, worried, “Hey Twilight, maybe you should take a break, you’ve been at this for two whole days.”

Twilight with dark bags under her eyes, and her mane is slightly unkempt, “I know Spike, but I feel like I’m on the brink of figuring this out, I have the functionality, I don’t know where it goes, but I do know that crossing through that mirror transforms you into something else and that would leave us wide open if those robot monsters’ master shows up, I’m trying to reverse that process, but so far it isn’t working I need to come at this from another angle.”

Spike then thinks, “What if it uh, didn’t work like a mirror?”

Twilight’s eyes open in realization, “You're a genius Spike!”

“I am? Oh cool, I guess I am.” Spike smiles with an overblown ego.

Then on Mobius, Uncle Chuck fiddles with a bunch of wires and cords, his eyes widens as he yells, “Oh darn it!” Sonic looks over, “Hey what’s wrong?”

“The cord I purchased is too out of date, and I don’t have the proper adapter. Hmm, I’m a little out of practice, I may need Tails to finish this.”

Sonic nods sadly, “Yeah, I haven’t heard anything from the hospital where him and Knux were at.”

Then when they say that. The door to Tails’ workshop opens, and Tails is standing in the doorway, his arm, torso, and head are covered in bandages. He’s panting and sweating.

“Tails what are you doing here?” Sonic asks

Tails stops panting when he hears Sonic and he looks at him, Tails lower lip starts quivering and he starts bawling his eyes out, jumping into sonic crying into his shoulder. Sonic pats him on the back as he cries out, “I thought you-you were dead, I couldn’t find you on the monitor and-and-and the portal’s signature wouldn’t show up.” Sonic stops him, “Hey, little buddy, I’m here and I’m not dyin’ anytime soon.”

Tails stops crying as Sonic and Tails sit on the floor. Sonic then asks, “Are you still sick, or poisoned?”

Tails shakes his head, “Oh not anymore no, I was discharged earlier today. I flew here with my own tails, after Knuckles told me you were here. He’s also okay but he’s still recovering, he took a lot of damage.”

Sonic sighs in relief, “Good, I’m glad you two held that big guy off. Also did you meet my new friends, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie?”

“Oh, yes. I had figured they were from some other world, Knuckles told me about them, I’m surprised that they are so strong with chaos energy.”

Then Tails looks over and sees Uncle Chuck, looking under a device. Tails calls out to the old hedgehog, “Hey Uncle Chuck!”

Uncle Chuck looks back with a smile, “Hey little Tails, could you give me a hand with the ol’ machine, I’m tryna get Dash and Pinkie back to their home, Equestria as it’s called.”

Tails stands up and wipes his tears on his forearm then looks at all the machinery, “I think that wire there goes there… and what program are you using to control the portal’s frequency?”

“I was using Moebium.exe, Did I overlook something?” Uncle Chuck plugs the cord he had in his hands into a different area.

Tails steps over him and walks up to the computer, “I think you used the wrong ‘Moebium’,” his fingers dance across the keyboard like a pianist, “Oh. You used the right program, it just needed an update, and the launcher was bugged, so I just made a patch. Its updating now.” Tails then pushes a button as Uncle Chuck pulls a lever, and the portal lights up with a silvery light.

On Equestria, Twilight stares into the mirror, she breathes out and then her horn glows purple as she casts an improvised spell and fires into it, the mirror turns black first, and then it crackles with static but as the static goes across the surface of the mirror stops reflecting and begins to glow with a silvery light.

Twilight whispers to herself, alright now to test it. She levitates and throws a balled-up piece of paper through the portal, on the other end, where Tails, Sonic and Uncle Chuck are standing, a wadded-up piece of paper shoots through the portal. Tails unfurls it and reads aloud, “’Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned the value of compashin.’ the heck is that?”

“Hey, I know that name! That must mean the portal worked!” Sonic is full of excitement. He peaks outside to see Rainbow Dash lounging in a hammock.

He yells out, “Yo, Dash! Portal’s workin’.” She flies out of the hammock and lands in front of the door, “Well what are we waiting for?” Sonic lets her in and is about to let Rainbow Dash step through it, before Sonic asks, “Wait what about Pinkie?”

“She was hangin’ out with Amy and Big at the lake. She’s been havin’ a good-“ before Rainbow Dash could finish, Sonic vanishes in a blue blur then comes back with Pinkie in his arms.

Pinkie is wearing a camo bucket hat continuing her conversation as if she’s still there, her eyes closed from laughing “-then Rarity laughed so hard she shot her smoothie through her nose it was so funny!” Pinkie Pie looks left and right, then sees the blue hedgehog, “What the- Sonic, what’s the big idea? I was telling Big and Amy the funniest story ever!”

Then she sees the swirling portal, “Oh.” She looks kind of sad, “Can I least say bye to everypony?”

Sonic lets her down, smiles reassuringly at her, “If everything works out, we should be able to come back and forth but you two should go through first.”

“Hold that thought Sonic, we don’t have enough power for continuous travel, we’d need a… Chaos Emerald, which may be in short supply.” Tails rubs his arm with a pained expression.

“How many trips are there?” Rainbow Dash asks Tails.

“Well, from what I can see, there’s only three. Which is serendipitous if Sonic does want to go back,” Tails then turns back, “but until we find a sufficient power source over here, it’s a one-way trip for a long time.”

Sonic gets an idea, “Dash, I got a plan.”

“What’s your idea, Sonic?” Rainbow looks at Sonic in excited curiosity.

“What if we stuff one of those Elements of Harmony in there, Colin’s journals said there were like Chaos Emeralds.”

“I can go in there and do that, should be a piece of cake!” then she takes off and blips into the portal.

As this is happening Twilight writes down a note, and talks to Shadow, Silver, and Spike. “Thanks for getting the guys, Spike.”

Spike’s smugness hasn’t worn off yet, he grins “Wasn’t a problem, Twilight, ‘specially with how tight me and the boys are,” he holds up a fist bump to each of them, Silver gives him a fist bump without hesitation. Shadow rolls his eyes at first but wavers and gives Spike a fist bump.

Twilight speaks aloud, looking at the notes she’s taken so far, “So by my estimations, based on the strength of my spell, and the strength of the previous enchantment, only three ponies can use this portal.”

As she finishes her last syllable Rainbow Dash then blasts through the portal, and Silver catches her with his powers before she can slam through the bookshelf.

“Make that two ‘ponies’.” Silver nervously smiles.

“Rainbow? Oh my gosh are you okay?” Twilight asks.

“Ugh, my head is spinning…” Rainbow Dash lulls back and forth. Then she shakes her head and flies up to Twilight, “Twilight! That Tails guy needs a Harmony Emerald, err, an Element of Chaos, wait no, I need an Element of Harmony.”

“Woah, woah, Dash, slow down. Who’s ‘Tails’ and what does he need again?” Twilight puts a hoof on Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash, breaths deep, “So, in our fight with a guy named Fist, the purple dude took Sonic’s Chaos Whatevers. So, we need an Element of Harmony to keep the portal on the other side open, like maybe mine or Pinkie’s, something like that.”

Twilight looks down, “Dash, the Elements of Harmony aren’t anyone’s anymore. I’m sure you felt it on Mobius. In the state they are in, they are far more dangerous.”

“Yeah, well this portal has to stay open, or we can’t visit Mobius, Sonic can’t see his home or worse we can’t see Sonic!” Rainbow Dash has nervousness welling up in here.

Shadow shakes his head, “No. If we don’t have the full set, none of us can access our Super Forms and powering both sides would take two Elements.”

Rainbow Dash scowls at Shadow, then yells, “Okay then, smart guy, what’s your idea?”

Shadow crosses his arms, “Obviously we need Sonic to fight, and Pinkie lives here. If you passed through the portal, that means only two people can pass through. Therefore, Sonic and Pinkie should come to this side. We’ll figure out a way to get back later, as long as we have the emeralds then Mobius is safe.” Shadow walks forward, “Think about it, our enemy does not need portals to get between worlds, he has another method involving this ‘Chaos Void’ I’m sure. If he needs both sets, we need to find the Master Emerald here as soon as possible.”

Rainbow Dash crosses her arms like Shadow, “Well, there’s one more problem, how are we supposed to tell them that?”

Then a device gets thrown through the portal from the other side. Its plastic frame clatters to the ground and slides between Shadow and Rainbow.

The black screen turns on to see Tails’ face along with Sonic in the background and Pinkie bouncing around, Tails looks at the screen, “Connection test. Check one, two. Anyone there? Shadow, Silver, uh, Rainbow Dash? Respond.”

Rainbow Dash gives the device a suspicious look as Shadow picks it up. “This is Shadow.”

“Oh good, With the portal open our P.D.A.s have full signal with each other. Where are you at right now Shadow? Is that a library?”

Shadow points the P.D.A. at the modified mirror, Tails puts his whole face into the frame of the P.D.A., “What the heck am I looking at, is that a mirror?”

Twilight walks over, “Shadow, can I see that thing?” Shadow hands over the P.D.A. and Twilight magically takes the P.D.A., and she talks to Tails about how they set up their respective portals, and how they were made, with Uncle Chuck also talking about his process. Twilight then lights up, “That’s why our portals connected, they’re operating on the same frequency. I wonder if I could change the spell just a bit to give you full functionality with your tech.”

Tails then lights up, “You should try it, I’ll adjust the program on my side, maybe if they are more aligned the efficiency output would be much greater considering our limited energy.”

Through a coordinated effort the pair of prodigal geniuses find a way to format the portal so that both sides can operate it with equal authority.

Twilight looks at her notes then to the group, “With the adjustments me and Tails made, we can make two more trips, meaning it has only four uses. I think we should keep one available, so the P.D.A.s still work.”

Shadow smirks, “That’s back up. we could get Sonic and Pinkie over here, as well as Knuckles, we need his strength on this side.”

“Actually Shadow, Knuckles is… still really hurt from fighting that Fist guy.” Tails laments

Shadow snarls, “Damn.”

Then on the P.D.A. everyone loudly hears, “Sonic the Hedgehog! Why did you take Pinkie away from our lunch?! She was telling us a really funny story!” Amy spits her words with an annoyed tone.

“That’s what I said!” Pinkie Pie yells out.

Sonic tries to defend himself, “Amy, we just figured everything out, things might get really bad soon and I may need to go back to Equestria.” Amy looks at Sonic with an even more incredulous look.

Tails then looks at Amy, “Hey, Amy, they’re gonna need some muscle over there, you should go with them.”

Amy looks at the portal, then she looks back at New Mobotropolis through the doorway, “But what if something happens?”

Uncle Chuck sits up and smile at the pink hedgehog, “Don’t you worry Amy, worse comes to worse one of you power houses can come on back, besides Tails is no pushover. Sonic might need ya over there and your new friend prolly would be sad if you weren’t there.”

Amy smiles at Uncle Chuck, “You're right. Thanks Chuck. Let’s go everyone!”

Sonic, Amy, and Pinkie Pie Jump through the Portal. With one use remaining both sides of the mirror remain connected.

As they all get their bearings and greet each other, say hi to one another. Ponyville shakes and trembles, the Mane 6 and 4 Freedom Fighters converge on a form that craters itself in the middle of town square.

They see a body surging and pulsing with pitch-black energy, it convulses on the ground until the ones that fought Neo Lix recognize less than half of his corpse, but his jerky and twitching motions betray the movements of an independent lifeform looking more like a puppet on strings. A corpse being manipulated.

The body stands on legs made completely of darkness, the only body that is shown is the burnt left half of Neo Lix’s chest, neck, and head, where the flesh and limbs should be is replaced by ever-moving darkness. His eyes open, though they aren’t his own.

The eyes glow red, and the irises are a cold emerald green.

As it stands there, it almost ignores the world around it.

Then it speaks as a white line forms its mouth in the darkness moving as it talks. “Oh, Lix my failure of a child. Why did you fail? Now I have to address these repugnant,” its eyes tremble for a moment, “sacks of flesh and bile myself.” In an instant it looks up.

Its hate filled eyes pass over all ten of the heroes present that night. For a moment, the only thing they see is the creature.

It mumbles single word.

“Revelations.”

Twilight feels wrong, this ability is like Sombra’s Dark Magic but stronger a thousand-fold. Fear grips her fully.

Then Twilight blinks. She’s in her library. She looks down and around. She checks her bed and notices the Mirror Portal is gone. She talks to herself, “What just happened? What is this? It’s okay. Whatever happens here I have to remember it’s just dark magic. As long as-“

“Tw-Twilight.” Spike’s voice sounded pained and weak.

She stops talking and slowly turns her head.

Twilight sees Spike standing in the doorway, behind him in an infinite expanse of darkness.

Spike looks up and his eyes are dull.

“You’re going to let me die, aren’t you?” His voice lacked any optimism.

“Spike don’t talk like that. I’ll always save you.” Twilight steadily tries to comfort her first friend.

Spike frowns sadly at Twilight, “No you won’t.”

Then something breaches the darkness and grabs Spike by the head, white claws grip the back of his head tightly, his face becoming wracked with fear, “Twilight! Please! Help!”

Twilight tries to access her magic, but she doesn’t feel like she has any, as Spike is dragged out of the door, she sees those green irises in the darkness. Twilight tries to run forward but her legs become impossible to lift.

“Stop this! Whatever this is! Please!” Twilight cries out tears, streaming down her face.

Outside of the door to her library, she sees Spike being grabbed by a hundred clawed white hands, each of them digging into his flesh. The eyes stare at her in the inky Void.

“You. Won’t. Save. Your. Family.” An amalgam of billions of voices repeat these words.

“You. Won’t. Save. Your. Family.”

“You. Won’t. Save. Your. Brother.”

Twilight closes her eyes but can still see Spike.

She tries again to use her magic but there is still none to use.

Twilight shakes her head, as the hands grip and make Spike scream.

Then she closes her eyes once more. The screaming stops and it all fades away. The darkness clears in her eyes and Twilight feels the world come back into view. She breathes heavily as she notices everyone snaps out of it.

Shadow grips his head while he looks at the being, furious.

Sonic has tears running down his face repeating “Not again.”

Silver stares off into the distance quietly.

Amy is on her knees crying into her hands.

Twilight’s eyes travel to her fellow ponies.

Rainbow and Fluttershy share the same look of pain. Fluttershy keeps herself from completely shattering right there. The same look she had at Cloudsdale.

Applejack and Rarity share a look of profound grief, tears in their eyes.

Pinkie looks at Twilight seeking reassurance, “I’m here, right?” Pinkie’s eyes tremble, “I’m not really alone, right?”

Twilight looks back at the being, it sits on the ground staring only at her, it speaks, with a warbled voice. “Children, the lot of you. So weak in mind, in spirit and in body. I wonder sometimes how they lost to you. What is friendship, I wonder? Is it just cooperation? Is it an aspect of love? No.”

It stands, and smiles pieces of the flesh its wearing disintegrating, “Why is it that friendship is only an aspect of the Good? of the light? Could a friendship be forged in the name of hate?

It stands, “To all of ten of you present. I will be here in two months. I am going to take your Elements of Harmony, then I’ll rip your Master Emerald from the ground, and detonate all fifteen of those gems on Mobius. Scattering them forever. I will allow Equestria to be free. While I will destroy Mobius outright. I’m going to make this place, Equestria, my playground. Bloodied expanses where all evil can live. No one born in the dark will be subjugated, no one of my ilk will be stopped. If they want to rule, they can rule. If they want to kill, they can kill. Light will die. The stars will die! On the cold battlegrounds, the only warmth that will be felt is hate!”

Twilight chokes on her words but she steps closer, she feels waves of hatred pass over her being. This tide of hate pours out from him like an ocean, the yells out, “Why us?! Why Equestria?!”

The being laughed and It ripped at its borrowed flesh, “It’s so very, very simple, Twilight Sparkle.”

Its pupils turn to emerald pinpricks, “I chose it on a whim,” it laughs louder splitting the jaw of Lix apart, “A whim, Twilight! At complete random! Ponykind would have been the first to die if I decided it. But I didn’t! This is the essence of freedom!”

Twilight takes a step back, “Then why give us a time… you could just do it now?”

“I could, but I want to have fun. I gave an arbitrary time limit. I might not even abide by it. I might take more time. Regardless, I will kill the ten of you, you all signed your death warrants when you killed my children.” Its laugh starts again as the body of Lix fades to dust.

The Ponies and Mobians now have a limited time to complete their task before The Blackout.

Chapter 14

The day after the Master made his warning, Amy and Pinkie take a tour of Ponyville, to try and feel a little bit of normalcy, meanwhile Shadow suggests making the ponies more adept at accessing the chaos emeralds, through a type of training he’s come up with. He’ll start with Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy, then he’ll put the ones who have accessed Super Forms through more rigorous training. While in Twilight’s treehouse discussing this training with the ponies. Shadow then looks at Amy, “So, I have to ask Amy, can you access a Super Form?”

Amy puts a finger to her chin, “It’s been years, haven’t since the first Death Egg took off, it’s funny, I can barely remember it.”

“You might need the training with Pinkie Pie then. Also, You’re going to have to get used to being in that form. I’ve named this training ‘Chaos Saturation training.’ All ten of us are going to have to get really comfortable in those forms if we want to stand a chance.”

“How long are we going to be Super?” Amy asks with worry.

Shadow’s voice becomes blunt, “For as long as possible, going Super multiple times a day if need be.” His crimson eyes scan the room, “Our goal should be a week straight if everyone can access the form, my current hypothesis is that Pinkie, Rainbow, and Twilight, are natural prodigies, similar to me, Sonic and Silver.” His eyes scan to Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity, “However I’ve never seen any of those three truly access chaos energy. Rarity may be a unicorn, but I don’t imagine her specialty is easily transitioned to combat.”

Rarity nods, “I’m afraid you're quite correct, I use my magic for finding mundane yet beautiful jewels, and to create luxurious clothing, not for anything as barbaric as combat.” Rarity’s slightly smug attitude wavers, “but, that beast yesterday, it was overwhelmingly… hateful. I looked into its eyes, and I saw horrible things, like I was witnessing what it wanted to do. The violence. I want to prevent that. I’ll do anything to spare Sweetie Belle from… what I saw.”

Everyone winces remembering what they saw in that creature’s eyes. Shadow flinches when he feels a pain in his head, remembering what he saw the previous night. “I’ll… give some of you time to recuperate mentally, but when you feel ready, I and a few others who said they’d train will be on the edge of Ponyville.”

The Hedgehogs and ponies leave the treehouse as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash sit in the room alone together.

Twilight sees Fluttershy and Rainbow stay behind, she’s about to ask if everything’s okay, but she remembers that neither of them had the opportunity to grieve Cloudsdale, so she ushers Spike out and closes the door behind her, she looks down at Spike stops in the road and nuzzles him, “Quit it, Twilight! You're embarrassing me!”

Twilight then stutters, “D-Don’t leave my side for a while. Okay Spike?” Spike looks up at her and behind her smile Spike sees her anxiety. Spike stops protesting then hugs her. “I’m not going anywhere Twilight.”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy share a glance, and Fluttershy talks first, “You saw it too, right? When you looked into that monster’s eyes, you saw… home…”

Rainbow’s eyes widen and she grits her teeth, as tears build up in her eyes, “…Yeah, that thing had some damn nerve showing me Cloudsdale. He’ll regret that.”

“Have you heard from, your family?” Fluttershy asks weakly.

Rainbow looks over almost in rage, but she sees how full of tears Fluttershy’s eyes are, “I s-saw them.”

Rainbow wraps a wing around Fluttershy, sharing her sadness. “I miss home too Flutters.” Rainbow starts to break, “I wish I could see my-my mom or my dad.” Rainbow starts to tremble, “That thing, took them from me.”

Fluttershy, rests her head on Rainbow Dash, “I want to be stronger, Dash, I can’t stand to see anymore death.”

“I can’t either. And it feels like. We’re fighting against… evil. Not just misunderstood or friendless but literal evil.” Rainbow Dash tears block her vision, so she looks up at the roof of the library, tears streaming down her neck “He’s not getting away with it! I’m gonna get stronger. Strong enough that I’ll be able to protect everypony!”

Fluttershy looks down, “When should we start Dash? Our training.”

Rainbow sniffle and dries her eyes with a wing, “I don’t know, I think I’m good to sit in here for a minute.”

Rainbow wing tightens a little bit around Fluttershy as they both try their best to feel a little bit better.

Near the edges of Ponyville, for the first day of their training, the ponies and hedgehogs spar with each other. Switching battle partners every so often. The pairs then spar in their base forms.

Shadow spars with Applejack. They stand in a small patch of trees. After a few moments Applejack tries to rush down Shadow, and an aerial kick. Shadow side steps out of the way of the attack and goes in for a punch. Applejack takes the blow to her cheek for the opportunity to bite Shadow’s glove. Applejack throws him around and slams him into the ground. She flings him up in the air still biting down on his glove.

Shadow falls to the ground but as he tries to right himself with his Air Shoes, AJ jumps up and kicks him in the face. Shadow rockets into a tree, the force snapping. Shadow stands up. Not winded at all.

Shadow wipes a bit of blood from his lips then smirks at Applejack, “Good form and instinct.”

Applejack is shocked at first then smirks back “Alrighty Shadow, how’s about you show me them powers you got.”

“I will. Let’s see how you handle it. I won’t hold back.” He charges a Chaos Spear, and he holds the pointed end at Applejack. Using it as an actual spear rather than a projectile. Shadow thrusts it forward deftly and Applejack barely dodges out of the way. Even when she’s in the clear, she feels her face get cut.

She feels a dribble of blood go down her face. Shadow zooms forward, before AJ can react to him as hits her on the side of the head with the blunt side of the spear.

Then the spear detonates. The explosion of energy sends Applejack into a small outcropping of trees across from the fighters. As Shadow turns, he sees Applejack uproot a tree by stomping her front hooves near it, then she quickly turns and bucks it at Shadow. The hedgehog makes another spear, and he lobs it at the tree. When the tree explodes, Applejack uses the dust and shrapnel to flank Shadow, but he notices and blocks her downward punch with one arm. AJ leaps up with her hind legs, spins in the air and bucks Shadow in the back of the head from above sending him face first into the ground.

“How’s my fighting for ya, Shadow?”

Shadow dusts himself off, “Exceptional to say the least, I’m not surprised, I believed you to be the most physically imposing of your friends.”

“Well shucks glad to prove yer theory right.”

Meanwhile Silver and Twilight face each other down to spar, “Alright Twilight this is just gonna be normal training so we can figure out how to help each other, I know you don’t need to throw a punch, so we are gonna have a battle of telekinesis.”

Twilight smiles, “Okay Silver, I really hope you aren’t intimidated that telekinesis is the first spell every unicorn learns.”

Silver shakes his head, “Nah, It’s also one of the first abilities I learned to use, I’m pretty confident with it, but I know you're not a push over, so I’m giving it my all.”

Silver’s hands glow as Twilight’s horn glows, then they both try to push each other backwards, the struggle causes the ground to split, as their auras clash together. Causing silver and purple sparks to fly in the air. Silver’s eyes glow as well as he takes a step forward, and nudges back Twilight a few feet, then the glow on Twilight’s horn increases in luminosity. Silver’s feet drag for a few yards as Twilight unleashes an oppressive wave of magic to bear down on Silver. Like holding up a mountain, Silver stands firm where he was pushed back, wreathed in psychic energy as the mental might of Twilight Sparkle bears down its full weight, Silver falls to one knee, as Twilight stops.

“Are you okay, Silver? I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Silver stands up, a bit of a smile, “No, you didn’t hurt me. I am shocked, however. Shocked that you are that powerful, with this power and in a Super Form you should’ve been able to crush Lix like an ant.”

Twilight puts a hoof to her chi, “Well, he did have my magic; I was considerably weakened.”

Silver smirks, “Well guess you really aren’t gonna need much training.”

At the same time Sonic and Rarity are sparring, “Okay since you said you don’t fight very often, I’ll take it easy on you just block my attacks, think of it like tag.”

“Well, dearest Sonic, I do thank you for being delicate with me and I hope that you can be patient with me as well.”

Sonic adjusts his gloves and pulls up his socks, “No problem, Rarity. Now hope you’re ready!”

“Of course, let us-”, faster than her words Sonic was already in front of her with a fist wound back. His eyes glow and streak as he appears a foot away from Rarity’s face. She instinctively makes a barrier an inch away from her face. Beads of sweat drip down her brow as the barrier, only gets lightly tapped by Sonic, almost playfully.

Sonic whistles, “Dang Rarity, you reacted fast, I was goin’ a little slower than my normal runnin’ speed.”

Not letting the barrier down Rarity asks, “And how fast pray tell, were you moving?”

“A little under the speed of sound.”

Her eyes go wide, “How fast do you want me to go, Sonic?”

Sonic smiles, “Prolly a lot faster than sound, light speed, if we wanna get crazy.”

Rarity gulps, “Okay, you’re the expert if you think I’m capable.”

“Believe in yourself a little bit more Rarity, I can tell you’re not weak, you’d probably give a few guys I know on Mobius a run for their money, so keep those magic shields up. Then we’ll work on your offense.” Sonic grins.

“Alright dear, but not too fast please.”

Amy and Pinkie look at each other as they both begin their sparring session, “So, Pinkie how often have you fought?”

“Not too often but lately I’ve been fighting a whole heck of a lot, and I think I got the hang of it.”

“So, you don’t care if I use a weapon, do you?” Amy holds her hand open, and a hammer appears in her grip from seemingly nowhere.

“What is that? Some kind of big mallet?” Pinkie asks.

“This is my Piko-Piko Hammer, I’m at my best with this in my hands.” Amy proudly smiles.

“Now I’m excited to see what you can do! So come on Amy, let’s tussle, me, and you.”

Amy then takes off sprinting at Pinkie, as Amy swings her hammer Pinkie leans back. The hammer passes over her. Pinkie does a summersault backwards after dodging, as Amy starts spinning with the hammer in her hands turning herself into a small tornado, Pinkie manages to keep jumping backwards, then Amy slams the hammer down, missing Pinkie but upheaving the ground. Pinkie sees the jagged stone being unearthed and she giggles, “Holy hay, you are strong!”

Amy looks up and smiles, “You haven’t seen anything yet!” Amy spin-dashes at Pinkie and as she unfurls, she has the hammer up in the air, and swings it down, Pinkie dodges but then the hammer fades into light as Amy recalls the hammer. Then Amy recreates it in her other hand, swinging up and as she does Pinkie manages to lean back in the nick of time.

“You're really good at dodging!”

Amy exclaims, and then Pinkie giggles, “Yeah, my Pinkie Sense has been super-duper sensitive lately, I was able to dodge that mean old Kilo guy.”

Amy dismisses her hammer as she asks, “Who’s Kilo?”

Pinkie face gets scrunched up in frustration, “He’s one of those robots that wanted to hurt everypony. But Sonic and Shadow went all glowy and fast and took him down.”

Amy’s eyes widen, “Did it have nine-tails and look like Tails?”

“You know what? Now that you mention yeah… yeah it did. Wait is that the ‘Metal Tails’ from Sonic’s story? Oh my gosh, Amy, I’m so sorry, I forgot you were also in New Mobotropolis.” Pinkie wears a sad look, as Amy holds her chest as she remembers what she saw in the ‘Master’s’ eyes.

She saw Sonic being violently bisected by that very same nine-tailed robot that invaded her home, but she composes herself, “No you're okay Pinkie, That thing’s eyes made me see something I really didn’t want to see.”

Pinkie looks down, “Yeah me too, I what I saw was horrible. I was alone and the world was all grey. It was just me. Nopony anywhere. I felt like I was there for… days” Pinkie looks sad but then brightens up, “but I know we won’t let anything like that happen!”

Amy smiles and laughs, “You’re totally right Pinkie, I doubt that anyone could take down me and you if we work together.”

The two go back into town after their bit of sparring to go shopping and have a little lunch.

The six present at Training meet back up, and have a small picnic, Sonic, Shadow, and Twilight barely broke a sweat, Applejack and Silver were exhausted while Rarity was fanning herself. They sat on the blanket and ate a few sandwiches.

Rarity then lulls her head back dramatically, whining, “My training today has been absolutely dreadful, I hope this gets easier.”

Applejack sips some water, “Well that’s hard work for ya, it’ll be real hard on the first day. Wouldn’t you say Silver?”

Silver looks up at Twilight with a bit of a shudder, “Twilight is the scariest person I have ever fought. She has so much latent power, holy crap. I couldn’t move half the time.”

Applejack looks at Shadow, “Phew, I could say the same ‘bout Shadow, that hedgehog is made of some tough stuff, I don’t know how many of my kicks he took, but his hide barely has a scratch, meanwhile one of those spears of his cut my cheek up and then he made it go ahead an’ explode!”

Rarity whines, “Sonic made me block dozens of his attacks, he told me he was going slower than the speed of sound, but I could only barely keep up.”

Shadow barks an order, “Silver, it’s time for our training, get over here.”

Shadow stands next to the Elements with Sonic and Twilight, Silver finishes his sandwich and stands next to the other three, “Wait, weren’t Rainbow, Amy and Pinkie going to do this Super training with us?”

Shadow looks over, “I’m not going to force them. Besides it’s not a good idea to access a Super Form with prevailing negative emotions, they could go dark. Let’s get started.”

The emeralds start to glow as Sonic, Shadow, Silver, and Twilight are enveloped in golden auras,

“Alright we’re gold. Now what do we do?” Silver asks.

Shadow answers, “We see how long we last, we should do this after training every day, if our forms last longer than a day. we only spar with other Supers or in Twilight’s case make headway on finding that other Master Emerald.

Rarity walks up to Twilight, “Darling, you look stunning in that new form, the gold and the red very much suit you and oh your eyes, they match your hair. I may make a dress inspired by this!”

Applejack looks Twilight up and down, “Sheesh Twilight, I can’t even use that Chaos stuff, and I can feel how much of it you got.”

“Now for today let’s just go about things as normal, but we’ll be Super while we do it, try not to strain to keep it, if it fades let it happen.” Shadow explains.

As the day progresses, their forms end in about an hour after the initial transformation, then the heroes go back and recharge the emeralds, then repeat the process.

The next day, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash make an appearance at training as well as Amy and Pinkie Pie. Sparring gets more intense as the Super Formed heroes fight one another. The sky burns with rainbow and pink streaks as Super Pinkie and Super Rainbow bash into each other in every which way, Shadow dodges Twilight’s horn blasts and tries to match her output with his own chaos attacks, she even manages to block one of his punches with a kick.

Sonic then coaches Amy on achieving a Super Form and has the ones who haven’t yet tried. Silver has no one to spar with so he watches and waits. “Alright Amy, what do you remember from back on Angel Island in the old days, about going super?”

Amy then answers, “Well I think started by focusing,” Amy closes her eyes, and breathes out, as the emeralds respond to her and then her quills curl upward, her eyes turn bright blue as her fur turns a light gold color, she looks down at herself floating, “Yes, I did it! Looks like Amy Rose still has it.”

Sonic gives Amy a thumbs up, “Heck yeah, good job, Amy, now who’s next?”

Fluttershy mumbles, “…I’ll try.” She sheepishly walks up to the Emeralds, “So, um what do I do again Mr. Sonic?”

Sonic lands on the ground, “Just think about protecting someone, and what you want the emeralds to do then they will give you what you need.”

Fluttershy closes her eyes, and she thinks about Ponyville, the animals she helps. She gently smiles as the emeralds respond to her, and when her eyes open, the emeralds grant her a Super Form. Super Fluttershy’s eyes turn from cyan to a brilliant red, her mane goes from its lighter pink color to a darker red, and her coat turns from a light gold to a more pronounced orange-gold.

Sonic’s eyes widen, “Alright, go Fluttershy! guess the emeralds are passing out Super Forms like candy, honestly I thought this would be a little harder.”

Only after a minute the form wears off, and Fluttershy starts panting, “That… felt, so heavy, I couldn’t keep it anymore, does this mean I need more training?”

Sonic itches his nose, “Maybe we’ll have to see you fight if you’re up to it. Hey Shadow!”

Shadow struggles to hold back a magic blast from Twilight with two hands, and yells “What?!”

“Could you power-down and spar with Fluttershy. If you remember, you told her you would.”

Shadow diverts the magic beam to the left and it dissipates before it touches the ground. “I haven’t forgotten, but I suppose we should start now. Is that fine for you Twilight?”

Twilight simply, “Oh sure, you take as much time as you need, I think I want to challenge Silver’s telekinesis again.” Silver looks up confused as he is teleported by Twilight to be across from her.

“What wha- what are you doing?” Silver’s eyes grow with anxiety as Twilight gets a devious smirk.

While Silver is fighting as hard as he can even in his Super Form, Shadow powers down and looks at Fluttershy. His voice becomes authoritative, “I suppose this means it’s time for the next lessons of your assertiveness training.” Fluttershy gulps, as Shadow continuous, “Follow me, we’re going to need space, Applejack, Rarity.” Shadow points at them as they all turn their heads, “You’re coming with me.”

Chapter 15

-Three months later-

Relative peace throughout Equestria promotes leisurely activities. Some ponies celebrate the crowning of a new princess in Twilight Sparkle, The princess of friendship. Some admire the 4 Hedgehogs that accompany the Mane 6, that have stood by their side and have protected Ponyville as if it were their own home. All ten of them have completed their training and have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of something wicked.

Even with the heightened number of ever-increasing nightmares, and flashes of memories of that day three months ago, nothing ever happened.

Until it finally did, one month later. One day Equestrian and Mobian scholars would later call this event The Blackout.

Canterlot did not see it coming, despite the warnings from Princess Twilight Sparkle, though they were on high alert a month ago, their alert faded over the weeks, as nothing had taken place. The only person whose perception did not falter was Shining Armor who returned to the city a month ago to help out the Royal Guard. While he did want to return to the crystal kingdom to be with Cadance, he knew that something was bound to happen.

Walking the streets of Canterlot, is an Earth Pony, whose name is Stone Turnip, a turnip farmer. He has a dull-gray coat with spots of brown, his beige mane and tail are short and messy. His eyes are a brilliant green and his Cutie Mark is a half-buried turnip.

The large pony walks into an alleyway where no one can see him. Then the shadows of that alley intensify for a brief moment. Afterwards two beings step onto the boulevard

One is a being that looks like Shadow, except the red on his quills are grey, his pupils are slits, and he has no mouth. This being is known as Mephiles the Dark. This a being who killed Sonic in a timeline that no longer exists.

The other has light cyan quills and fur. his shoes are red and blue, and his back quills stretch out far. This being is Nazo the Hedgehog, who is believed to be dead.

The dark duo walk the street toward the castle side-by-side, the ponies see the two and are astonished that the heroes Sonic and Shadow are visiting them. No one figures it out that these two are not their heroes. A folly that has happened an astonishing number of times.

The pair ignore the stares and speak to one another, Nazo starts, “You do still have it don’t you? That artifact will be vital to our success.”

Mephiles responds, “Of course, our painstaking hours to recreate the prison I was trapped in will not go to waste.”

After a few moments of walking through crowds. They approach the great wooden door to the castle. Nazo smiles, “How did we want to proceed, brother?”

Mephiles’ form shifts into his non-disguised form, covered in crystalline quills reddish pink sclera with yellow irises, and clawed hands, “We embarrass these ponies, crush their resolve, and contain the sisters.”

Nazo chuckles, “Us being here is already embarrassing them. So let us begin.”

Mephiles sinks into the shadows on the ground as Nazo opens his hand and readies a ball of red energy, before the guard looking down can blow the war horn, the front gate of the castle is demolished, the ponies in the castle run and hide as the smoke bellows and fires start to spread, a squadron of Royal Guards come to the scene as a pool of darkness opens beneath them, they see each of their comrades get dragged into the shadows, as the other guards try to escape they are mauled by scores upon scores of imp-like beings that climb out of the sea of shadows, Mephiles closes the shadow pool trapping still living ponies inside.

A unicorn guard, covered in battle damage, tries to swing down a halberd at Mephiles as Nazo appears next to the pony, grabs the pony’s head, and bashes him into the stone. While this guard’s head is inside the ground. Nazo’s hand glows red, and he makes this stallion’s head explode, scattering viscera everywhere.

The blood covers his hand, and he swipes it off in disgust, “I hate that we lived amongst these ‘things’ for three months.”

Mephiles looks over, “I understand the sentiment towards them, but we must make haste, surely the god sisters know by now.”

Celestia and Luna then appear before them, without a chance of delay, Luna charges at Mephiles while Nazo takes a faster initiative and flies past Luna to fight Celestia.

Luna fires a magic beam at Mephiles who sinks into the shadows, Luna tracks his movements very well, knowing a similar ability. Luna stamps on the ground, and a magic shockwave hits Mephiles, knocking him out of the shadows. “Foul shade, you will reveal thyself!” she yells out in anger as she fires a beam pushing Mephiles into a wall.

He groans out in pain which then contorts into a laugh, “This is nothing!” he puts his hand out and fires a white spear of energy. This spear pierces Luna’s wing, which makes her stop focusing on her beam. While she’s reeling Mephiles summons his imp-like minions in swarms that surround her, but she explodes with a purple light, she stares Mephiles down fiercely, as he opens his arms to the sides.

Nazo gets to Celestia and does a triple spin in the air, preparing a monstrous kick, aiming it at Celestia’s head. Before it could land, she fires a powerful bolt of magic and he reacts quickly, kicking it out of the way, it breaks through a window and lands in a nearby field, making a large and bright explosion. Nazo quickly lands and aims his hands at Celestia, then yells, “Chaos Torrent!” instantly enveloping Celestia in red energy that blasts past her and through the back of the castle, Nazo warps to where she’s falling grabs. her by her horn and looks back to Mephiles, “Celestia has been defeated, how are you coming along?”

Luna looks back with a snarl, “Sister!” then she yells to both hedgehogs, “Hast thou no honor?”

Mephiles, then appears in her shadow, and appears above her, “No. I don’t. Don’t worry you and your sister will spend the next eternity together.” He then takes a hand as he’s falling and smashes Luna’s face into the ground, then he kicks her where he pierced her wing, causing her to scream in pain. Then he holds out a hand and fires a volley of grey Chaos Arrows, sufficiently weakening her.

Then he pulls out a modified Scepter of Darkness, Nazo tosses Celestia to the ground near Mephiles, and he activates it yelling out, “Drag them in! Scepter of Light!”

Luna and Celestia’s beaten bodies are pulled into the Scepter, with a flash of light. leaving the scepter glowing with bright white energy.

Nazo smirks, “That was far too easy, I think we outdid ourselves.”

Mephiles looks past Nazo, “There’s one more ant on its way to save its queen.”

Shining Armor looks at the two hedgehogs as he pants, as if he were running as fast as he could to get there. The unicorn’s horn starts to glow as, “You aren’t getting away with this.”

Nazo then smirks, “You are outclassed by every metric, Shining Armor. If you fight us, you will die.”

Mephiles steps forward, shadows obscuring his feet, “It would be wiser if you looked at the city, Shining.”

Shining armor takes a glance and sees, fires starting and ponies laying in the streets. Shining Armor grits his teeth, “You bastards! Stop this right now!” Nazo punches Shining to the ground and holds Shining up by his horn, “I’m tired of hearing you speak. Besides, you think this is the only place, Mephiles’ shadow creatures are?”

Shining’s eyes open wide, “How many cities, where else have you put them?”

“Here, Ponyville, Appaloosa, Manehattan, The Cloudsdale refugee camp, and” Nazo’s eyes glow faintly, “The Crystal Empire.”

Shining Armor fires a blast at Nazo, and the smoke clears on Nazo’s face, he frowns as he lets Shining Armor go and knees him in the face, causing profuse amounts of blood to erupt from his nose. Shining tries to get up as Nazo firmly places his foot on his neck.

Mephiles then taunts, “Your poor wife must be wondering, ‘Where is he? Why isn’t he protecting me?’ as my shadows tear her to pieces.”

Shining’s eyes well up with tears in a powerless anger. Nazo’s voice drips with condescension, “Let us make an example out of him, deliver a sharp message to Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

The people in town watch the imps destroy buildings. As they see the sun starts to slowly dim, not like its being lowered but obscured by a black veil. Physical darkness manifests and rises into the air from the ground itself, thick like smoke.

The ponies can only see by the fires in the street lights.

A few ponies remember that Shining Armor is still in town, and that they still have a chance. Then that hope is dashed as they hear an explosion, Shining is thrown from the top of the castle, bounces off the cobble stone, craters into the ground in the middle of the city. Nazo then appears at his broken body, Shining cries out in agony as Nazo smiles, then kicks him to a wall.

Mephiles rises from the darkness next to Nazo. Then the dark hedgehog pulls a tightened fist back as black crystal spikes erupt out from the wall Shining is embedded into, they wildly pierce his body, crudely crucifying him to the wall. He screams out again as his body explodes in pain.

Nazo then smiles, “That will be loud and clear.” His smile fades when he notices Mephiles flinch, “What’s wrong, Mephiles?”

Mephiles looks over, “My shadows were all killed. At the same time.”

Nazo frowns, “That fast? I knew they all achieved their Super Forms but to what extent?” As they speak, they notice the sky lighting up with bright twinkling stars, through the blackness.

“We have their attention, but I find it odd that they had no one in Canterlot.” Mephiles’ voice was filled with suspicion.

Shining Armor then speaks through a pained breath, as he coughs up blood, “Fluttershy! Now!”

Super Fluttershy’s energy spikes out from behind Mephiles and Nazo their eyes both go wide as every shadow-imp in the city is completely obliterated in the matter of seconds, just from her energy flaring out. She hovers above the pair, then vanishes and appears on the ground, in front of them.

Nazo looks at his arm and he sees it’s been completely sliced off. Fluttershy looks back with a menacing glare and flicks off the blood from her wing.

“Impossible!” Nazo snarls as he regenerates his arm. Nazo rushes forward, with his fist wound back and throws a punch. With an intense glare, Fluttershy ducks under it, and opens her wings. She boosts off the ground and delivers a staggering uppercut. Nazo takes the blow but reacts quickly, grabbing her foreleg and slamming the pegasus into a wall. As Nazo lets go, she is flung through ten houses.

Fluttershy grits her teeth she uses the momentum, she straightens her wings and curves up, booming into the sky. Nazo looks at Mephiles, “Go in the Void and get the emeralds, now!” Mephiles extends his claw and cuts a portal in the air, then he slips through the tear before it could close.

As Nazo looks forward, he sees Fluttershy moving like a comet through the street, making the ground beneath molten from the friction. Nazo puts up his guard before she slams into him. His simple guard is not enough to stop the golden bullet of a pegasus, as Nazo gets pushed backward off of his feet.

It takes him a moment, but he slams his feet against into the ground.

“Enough!” Nazo flares with red energy and brings the collision to standstill, “You caught me off-guard ‘Super’ Fluttershy, but that form is not enough to kill me!” he grabs Fluttershy’s hooves and delivers a sharp knee to her diaphragm. Making her aura disperse for a moment as it knocks the wind out of her. He then headbutts her into the cobblestone.

All Nazo sees is a golden blur and his arm gets severed yet again. That’s when he notices he hasn’t felt any pain this entire bout.

“Stop your games, you pest!” his arm quickly regenerates, and he fires a massive red blast that blows the large chunk of the ground apart. Fluttershy blocks it with her wings and is unharmed but as they unfurl, Nazo Chaos Controls at her with an overhead punch ready. Fluttershy Chaos Controls as well, and then they continuously clash at faster-than-light speeds, atomizing every boulder floating in the air.

Nazo leaps back and regenerates his injuries but his irritation was palpable. “Your control of this form is impossible, you only had three months. I also can’t stand your little ability to prevent me from feeling pain. I can’t tell how damaged I am. You’re quite annoying to fight, horse.” His voice was full of venom.

Fluttershy, just stares in quiet determination.

Nazo squints with his lips curled in a snarl, “What did you people do to prevent us from seeing your progress?”

Mephiles reappears next to Nazo. At the exact same time. Sonic, Silver and Applejack appear next to Fluttershy, all of them in their Super Forms. Applejack’s Super Form makes her coat a light-pink with her mane becoming a glowing gold, her eyes also shift from green to red.

Sonic’s eyes grow wide, “Nazo?! Me and Shadow destroyed you, how are you alive?”

Nazo grimaces, but it slowly morphs into a smile, “Oh Sonic, you wish you had killed me, however all you did was make me more equipped to kill you.”

Sonic and Silver’s eyes then shift to Mephiles, Silver feels a strange sense of déjà vu but still asks, “I’ve heard of Nazo from you Sonic, but who the hell is that?”

Mephiles then snarls, “I’m almost offended you don’t remember me, Silver. Since my timeline was destroyed by you two wretches, I’ve had to cower in the dark, my other half was obliterated in that destruction. The Chaos Void pulled me in before I too was destroyed. There I met my new brother, Nazo.”

Applejack furrows her brow, “Well how about y’all get on back there, after you tell us what you did with the Princesses?!” then her eyes look over to Shining Armor crucified against a wall, his head slumped over. Applejack grits her teeth, “Y’all sons o’ bitches ain’t gettin’ away with this. Y’all hear me!”

Nazo frowns, as Mephiles orbits the emeralds around himself, and he warps the Mobian Master Emerald to their location. Nazo frowns at Applejack as he crosses his arms, “I think we should kill Applejack first.”

Mephiles then responds, “Then let’s give these insects a show, brother. I think it’s time for the signal.”

The emeralds turn black, and Nazo smiles as he powers, up his voice changing with the transformation, “For the second time Sonic, pray to whatever god you worship,” as he turns red, morphing into Perfect Nazo, “because our plans will come to fruition.”

Mephiles then starts to shift and transform as the shadows start to converge toward him, the Emeralds emitting even more darkness, “I will force my memory into every one of you, and you will never forget the name Mephiles the Dark!” Mephiles voice warbles and shifts as his crystalline body turns from a smoky black to a fiery red, the tips of his crystal quills become black.

While standing next to each other. The two irradiate a type of malice that feels almost familiar. Wind buffets The four, forcing them to cover their faces. They all feel themselves getting pushed back.

Sonic’s eyes widen as he senses their energies aligning themselves, he whispers, “Oh no, this is really bad.”

The pair of villains look at each other, Nazo clenches his fists and glances at Mephiles, “Let’s not take any chances, sibling of the Void.”

Mephiles looks over nodding firmly, “Great minds think alike, Nazo.”

Then in an instant they both stand up. Both look down with a look of satisfaction.

The dark creatures yell out, “Chaos! Control!”

The two beings warp themselves to the same place, at the exact same time.

The sky blackens yet again, and the ground shakes across Equestria. A few rocky mountains crumble miles away. The ponies that had evacuated their homes in Canterlot look back for just a moment.

All they see is an orb of shifting blackness enveloping the city they once called home.

The blackness takes shape, and it forms into a pale gray hedgehog, with sharp upturned quills the tips are jagged and encrusted with pitch-black gemstones that grow a few inches down the quills, His shoes are half-red and half-blue, stretching up his shins are a thick crust of black gemstones.

His hands have stark-white claws, and his wrists are covered by the same gemstone crust on his spines and legs. His back spines are long and out to the side, he has a tuft of black chest fur.

His most striking feature are his eyes, the sclera are red with black veins leading to his bright emerald-green irises. The haunting and nightmarish eyes that penetrate deep into the heroes’ subconscious. The same eyes that forced them to see horrific things three months ago.

Its mouthless face tries to talk, but it’s too muffled, so it takes its claw and carves its own lips where its mouth lies behind closed flesh. “That’s much better.” As it talks black blood sprays from its makeshift lips, it smiles. “It’s a real pain doing that every time I’m born.”

Then they feel waves of concentrated hatred wash over them, stretching for miles and miles. Some ponies on the roads collapse in utter terror.

“In these last seconds before you are wreathed in death, you have the privilege of calling me Mephilzo the Void.”

Chapter 16

-In the Crystal Empire-

Rarity stands outside the castle in the center of the empire, her Super Form glows gently as the specks of shadow creatures fall and disintegrate on the ground.

Rarity’s coat is now tinged silver, as her indigo to violet gradient mane has become a dark purple to dark blue gradient. Her once blue eyes have become a hot pink. She looks up as the sky turns pitch black, she stares at the inky blackness and mutters to herself, “Come on, Twilight clear this darkness…” Rarity then sees the stars start blinking brighter in the sky making everything visible, “Thats what I was hoping to see from her.” Rarity turns to the castle, “Perhaps I should go check on the princess,” then as she’s walking, she stops, “or I could sit here and bask in the praise of my simply divine new color, I do think this form suits me perfectly.”

Her eyes then scan over all of the crystal ponies hiding in their homes, looking at her through the windows. She smiles nervously, “Maybe I should check on the princess after all.”

Rarity turns back around and sees Shadow and Rainbow Dash a foot in front of her, both Chaos Controlling in. Rarity squeaks in fear. Her face turns red from the embarrassment. She covers her mouth with her mouth, “My dear sweet Celestia, you cannot just appear wherever you want! I do not need more stress marks!”

Shadow ignores Rarity and looks over at Rainbow Dash, “Did the refugee camp take any casualties Dash?”

Rainbow Dash confidently shakes her head, “Nope not a one, those shadow monsters never stood a chance.”

Shadow then looks at Rarity, “I just came from Manehattan, creatures scoured the city to cause mayhem. Do you know where everyone else is, Rarity?”

Rarity, full of pride, “Well, darling I believe, Twilight is in the Everfree Forest, Applejack was in Appaloosa, Fluttershy was patrolling Canterlot, Amy stayed in Ponyville, Silver went to Fillydelphia, Sonic went to Applewood, and Pinkie went to Rockville. I haven’t heard from anyone yet, but this enemy is indeed attacking us from very vulnerable angles, hometowns, places of sentimental value and even military value. This is just as we predicted during our training.”

Her face tinges with worry, “We should check on Cadance, poor girl must be mortified.”

They enter the castle and see Cadance running over, “Rainbow Dash! Rarity! Thank you both for visiting us- me. Especially, under these circumstances.”

Cadence looks at Shadow, the red streaks visible in his Super Form, “With the red-streaks… You must be… Shadow, right? Twilight written to me a bit about you and the other, um, ‘Mobians’, it’s nice to meet you!”

Shadow nods, “Likewise to you. I apologize that we have to meet under these unfortunate circumstances, our group has eliminated an invasion of sorts. But we fear this place may have a target on its head.”

That’s when all four of them feel a deep and dense hatred wash over them. Shadow senses it radiating from Canterlot, Shadow becomes concerned, “That was their Master’s presence, what the hell is going on in Canterlot?”

Cadance’s eyes go wide, while she mumbles, “Shining, please be okay.”

Shadow then feels something else his quills stand on end, he sprints to the balcony of the castle, he looks up and he sees a black rift open at the end of a road. He looks toward it as Cadance, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, look at it as well. “Shadow, dear, what am I looking at right now?” Rarity asks fearfully.

“A portal. I don’t think the Master came here alone.” Shadow snarls

Rarity’s frown deepens, “I thought so, I was hoping I was wrong.”

Shadow then looks down at Rarity, “You’re the reason we could train for as long as we did. We are prepared for this.”

Something quadrupedal steps through the portal, a mechanical Alicorn, with a dark blue chassis, a black gem embedded in their left flank in the shape of the sun and moon intertwined. Their horn is red and curved in a way that resembles King Sombra much to the fear of Cadance and the crystal ponies, their mane and shifts through all seven colors of the rainbow as it bellows around like smoke. Like other members of the Metal Series, they have red Irises with black monitor-like eyes. As they walk, they keep their wings folded, they are taller than Celestia by a foot.

The portal closes and their shadow gets closer to the castle as they slowly trot through the streets, Shadow, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity stand in his way. “Name yourself and state your business, machine.” Shadow’s hand bursts with yellow energy as he conjures a Chaos Spear.

The machine then responds, “I am Prism, the last seraphim of Master Mephilzo.”

Rainbow Dash pops her neck, a smirk on her face, “So that’s your master’s name, huh? Mephilzo, finally got a name to the face I’m going to beat in.”

Then Prism’s robotic voice gives way to a zealotry-induced rage, “You, foul light bearer, dare to disgrace the name of Master Mephilzo in such a way, in front one of his angels. I will rend you to pieces as an offering on this, the bloodied altar of Mephilzo.” their horn glows with Sombra’s dark magic and their eyes glow green with black smoke.

“Light bearers. There is no absolution when I take your life. You will experience,” A green ball manifests above their head,

“Annihilation”

The orb seems to increase in density exponentially, then they aim their horn at the trio. The ball screeches out a hyper-concentrated beam of energy at Rainbow Dash who blocks the beam with her wings, it pushes her back but then her aura flares out, she spins, using her wings to divert the beam, it veers off and detonates in the frozen wasteland. The sky glows green with the explosion.

Rainbow Dash lands and looks over at Shadow, “Can I use my ability on you Shadow?”

Shadow grimaces, “Yeah, just don’t overdo it, last time it gave me a migraine.”

Rainbow’s eyes glow and she smirks, then Rainbow Dash’s Cutie Mark appears on his cheek, Rainbow almost laughs but keeps her composure, then she looks forward, “Let’s go.”

Dash bursts forward with her hoof wound-back, Prism doesn’t look impressed but then their eyes widen when Dash’s hoof wraps itself in a rainbow cone, when her hoof flies forward it creates a small Sonic Rainboom. Her hoof makes instant contact with Prism and a shockwave blasts out from the impact as Dash sends Prism flying into the skies above the frozen wastes at light speed.

Prism’s wings expand and they use the speed to their advantage, curving further up and blasting off. Creating a streak of smoke behind them that changes colors, Rainbow Dash accepts the challenge and follows after the robotic Alicorn.

As Rainbow catches up, she starts spinning herself in the air like a small sideways tornado, generating an electric charge, rainbow colored lightning coalesces in orbs under her wings, Prism sees this and fires lasers of dark magic that Rainbow Dash barrel rolls out of the way of, then she opens her wings charged with energy.

She holds both of her hooves out, yelling “Rainblast!” The rainbow lightning shoots out of her hooves, zig zagging toward Prism.

They try to move out of the way, but Dash just realigns her hooves, “Oh no, you aren’t getting away from me!” as the lightning twists and twirls to follow Prism’s flight.

Prism Chaos Controls, the lightning fizzles out, and they wind their hoof back to bash Rainbow in the face, but they get pierced by a chaos spear through the chest from above, sending the machine to the ground below to explode on impact.

Shadow looks down at the crater, “This new machine is based on you Dash, flies just like you.”

“Yeah, good choice of pony, but making me an Alicorn feels like a bit much, especially one with Sombra’s horn.” Then Dash looks at Shadow, “Also I am sick of seeing myself as a robot.”

The ground fractures from where they are floating, as a sphere of green envelops the crater accompanied by green lightning that licks the icy ground tearing it apart. At first the two aren’t worried, until they feel Prism’s power increasing. “Wait. How can this robot go super without an emerald in sight?! The heck is happening here!?” Rainbow Dash yells out.

The pair see the green aura shift to black as the energy spires into the sky, stepping out of the black spire is an organic alicorn with a black coat, vestigial wings covering their eyes, and two sets of wings on their back, their flank has a splotch of dark blue to show the black crystalline Cutie Mark. Their horn now longer and a brighter red and their mane flows like the other Alicorns’ manes, but with rainbow colors, “My connection to the Void is absolute. I am the elite of my siblings. I am Seraphim Prism Lightshatter.”

Prism uses a Chaos Control and hovers in front of Shadow, grabbing him with telekinesis, and slinging him down to the ground, Rainbow Dash tries to intervene and gets hit by a blast of black energy.

Then Prism turns their attention back to Shadow as they open all four wings. They all start glowing black and green. The energy bubbles and Prism fires a barrage of blasts, yelling out “Judgement!” pelting the ground with rapid-fire explosions.

As smoke rises, and clears, Prism sees a purple shield with Rarity standing in it. Seraphim Prism looks around for Shadow and Dash, then Rarity clears her voice, “Excuse me, Prism, your opponent is standing before you.”

“You are not who I wish to kill at the moment, you will die soon enough.” Prism turns their back and then before they know it, Prism is inside of the shield Rarity had created, while Rarity floats in the air where Prism once was. “What manner of magic was that? You’ve never used that spell before, according to recently acquired data.”

“It’s Generosity, my Element Ability, darling, not a spell. Ever since my dear friends and I were separated from our elements, they began to manifest within us as special abilities when we are in our Super Forms.”

She flings her hair back, “I can give anypony anything of mine. Dear, we didn’t swap places. I gave you my location. Since we can’t be in the same place, I get sent to where you just were.”

Rarity smiles, “As you may imagine this ability allows me to get quite creative, I can give ponies my memories, or my coat color. I can also give things that are not even alive qualities of mine.”

She holds up a hoof, “Let’s say hypothetically, I used Chaos Control. In that instant I have the quality of ‘being slowed down’. With Generosity, I could give anything the effect of ‘being slowed down’. I could give that effect to the inside of a… magic shield perhaps,” Rarity gives Prism a smirk.

Prism bashes themself angrily against the shield, furious at the pony’s threats.

“Yoohoo, Rainbow, Shadow! I believe they are sufficiently irritated.”

Rarity then lets down the shield as Shadow and Rainbow both speed toward Prism ready to attack them, Prism looks left and right and straightens out their four wings ready to cut down Rainbow, a millisecond before impact, Rainbow Dash swaps places with Shadow.

The Cutie Mark on his face glowing as he appears. He preemptively blocks the attack with his forearms. Before Prism could turn around, Rainbow Dash lands a Rainboom laced punch right to their face, sending their flying on the follow through. As they try to right themself while rocketing through the air, they get stopped instantly, making their body suffer thousands of Gs of force, crushing a few of their ribs to pieces.

They see Rarity flying in the opposite direction at their speed, with her glowing horn gripping Prism with enhanced telekinesis. This reversal of momentum slingshots Prism back to Shadow, who smiles as he’s swapped with Rainbow Dash again, who’s in a drop kick stance with her legs coiled back moving blisteringly fast.

Rainbow grits her teeth, “Rain-drop Kick!” her hooves shoot out like shotgun slugs, the impact shifts the color of the atmosphere for a second, and Prism is sent flying so fast, that they exit Equestria’s atmosphere in 2 seconds. Prism floats in the vacuum of space, blood erupting from their nose. They try to move their body, but they realize they can’t. They breathe their last breath while looking at the planet from thousands of miles away. Prism Lightshatter fades to dust as their Super Form powers down.

Rainbow Dash twists and lands, looking up, “And they’re outta here, man aren’t my Loyalty powers cool or what? Just imagine the stuff we can pull off just me and you swapping places, me keeping all my momentum.”

Rarity smirks, “Should I have mentioned to poor Prism that your abilities are the most straightforward, Rainbow Dash?”

Shadow looks up at the dark rainbow streak across the sky, “I don’t think it would have mattered.”

Dash looks back, “So, should we go to Canterlot? I don’t like the feeling I’m getting from there.”

Shadow crosses his arms, “No, not yet, we don’t know if we’re safe to leave yet, another one of those machines could appear here.”

The three heroes stand vigilant in the Crystal Empire, waiting with bated breath for a sign to leave the Empire to go help their friends in Canterlot.

Chapter 17

-In the Everfree Forest, a little before the Blackout-

Amy and Pinkie Pie fly through the trees in their Super Forms, with golden streaks behind them, “So Pinkie, did anyone get hurt in Rockville?”

Pinkie giggles, “Nope, I blasted all those shadowy ghosty guys away. How was guarding Ponyville?”

Amy gets a little sheepish, “Took out those little things with ease, but I may have caused a small earthquake.” Amy looks around, “You see the Tree anywhere?”

Pinkie’s tuft of hair twitches to the left, “Oh! Oh! There it is, finally got it on my Pinkie-Radar. C’mon Amy!”

They both zoom beneath the canopy of leaves to find an old castle that is across a canyon connected by a rickety bridge, Amy asks, “What is this place?”

“This is where me, Twilight, Dash, Rarity, AJ, and Fluttershy solidified our friendship and defeated Nightmare Moon! Who was actually Princess Luna. Who isn’t evil anymore. Anyway, this place is super-duper sentimental for us.”

Amy and Pinkie land on the ground in front of a cave. Amy looks up at the cave, “I can sense the Element Emeralds in there with Twilight, as well as a… massive wellspring of power.”

Pinkie then responds, “Holy hay! You're right, that’s a crazy amount of power. We should say hi to Twilight.”

They enter the cave, and Twilight is standing in front of the glittering Tree of Harmony. The Element Emeralds are on the cave floor in front of the Tree.

She’s talking to herself, “Okay. Let’s try again. You can do this Twilight.” Her eyes and horn glow with dark magic. Twilight tries to cast a spell on the Tree, but the bolt of energy scatters itself on the Tree’s surface. She groans in frustration.

“Hey Twilight, watcha doin’?” Pinkie looks at Twilight then up to the Tree.

Twilight turns around, still in her Super Form, her wings splayed out, “Oh gosh, well this is embarrassing, but hello, Amy, Pinkie. What are you two doing here, you handle your shadow-imp problem?”

Amy spins her hammer in her grip, “We beat all the ones that showed up until they stopped appearing. Me and Pinkie thought that the Tree of Harmony would have a ton of those things but seems like they didn’t show up.”

Twilight ponders while looking through various books and notes she has scattered about the place, “I was moderately concerned about that, considering that the Master knows where this is, or at least he said he did. That’s why when Rarity used her Generosity to send me a message about all the shadows, I doubled my efforts to make this darned Tree moveable.”

“Why Is this happening today?” Amy thinks out loud as the cave gets darker and darker.

“Hey, who’s turning the sun down!?” Pinkie yells

Twilight stops what she’s doing, “Wait what?”

She warps outside to see the sky turn black, she spreads out her wings, her horn and eyes glow bright, as her aura sharpens and expands, then she fires a small beam that creates a small star in the sky, like shining a flashlight on a black sheet. This single star expands and multiplies rapidly to millions of little glowing dots in the sky, giving a decent amount of illumination.

“The sky is covered in such dense darkness; I hope what I did helped in some way, and I hope the princesses are okay.” As Twilight ponders, she goes back inside.

Twilight looks to Amy and Pinkie, “I cast a star spell on the sky, its improvised but it should hold for a long while.”

Amy looks at the sky, impressed, “That’s a lot of energy Twilight, hard to believe you’ve in a Super Form for a month now.”

Twilight blushes, “Oh stop. It’s just my Element Ability. Magic lets me have a lot of reserves of energy. Plus, I can improvise spells! I just wish I could write them down or put them in a scroll. The only spell I can’t improvise is the spell Lix took from Celestia.”

Twilight groans “If the Princess just taught that spell to me, we could have gotten the Tree out of here by now.”

Amy looks over, “Why didn’t Celestia teach you, Twi?”

“Because apparently its ‘dark magic’. Like that really matters at a time like this! So, I guess I just have to figure it out.”

Amy turns toward the exit, “Well we got your back, Twi. Isn’t that right, Pinkie?”

“Absolutely! No baddies are gonna get through us! We’re powered up and ready to throw down!” Pinkie yells out while bouncing. Then they all sense it. Something dark has erupted in Canterlot. Pinkie’s ears flattened against her head, “What just happened?”

Amy grips her hammer, “Something really bad just popped up in Canterlot right now. If we can feel it from here, it makes those shadow things look like a joke.”

Amy and Pinkie guard the cave, as Twilight continues to blast spells at the tree.

As the two stand there for a minute, Pinkie looks on the ground and sees pebbles shaking violently, then they start floating upward. Her tuft of mane points to the left, her eyes widen as she jumps toward Amy to save her from something unseen, Pinkie yells out, “Amy, look out!” as she pushes Amy, four long tails stab deep into the stone where Amy’s head was. Amy’s eyes widen recognizing the tails.

“Damn you and that little power you have, Pinkie.” As Pinkie Pie hears the voice, she recognizes it, but she knows it isn’t Kilo. it’s Fist.

As he breaks the tree line, they see an upgraded Fist, he was given parts from his failed partners, but all given a purple coat of paint. He still has a metallic body, like his initial Metal Knuckles form, but he has nine twisting tails, his hands are not like Knuckles’ and instead look more like Lix’s hands but with the same empty holes where the knuckles are that shoot out crystal blades.

“Man, this is fate or something. I get to find the Equestrian Emerald and I get to kill two shit stains. It really feels like my birthday.” Fist arrogance emanates off of him as he lumbers close.

Pinkie and Amy flare with energy as he comes closer, Amy’s voice becomes full of disgust, “Stay back, freak, you are not welcome here, turn around and go.”

Fist stops points at both of them, “Aw come on, you guys are starting in your Super Forms? That’s not very fair. Pinkie, that’s not very nice. I gave you the Emeralds to power you up when we fought, can’t you do the same for little ol’ me?”

Pinkie raises an eyebrow, “Uh, no! You tried to kill us! I’m never gonna give someone evil like you a single thing! Besides why are you back? Didn’t we kick your muscle-brained butt?”

Fist’s voice gets angrier, still smiling, “Let’s not mince words, Pink, you killed me. You, Rainbitch, and the blue bastard, took my body from me.” Then he chuckles, “But I still won. Got myself a little promotion for getting those emeralds, my boss, Mephilzo, let me pick from Kilo and Lix’s blueprints to upgrade myself. I got Kilo’s tails, and I also took Lix’s databanks, so I know all of his tricks.”

“So, your boss’s name is Mephilzo?” Amy asks.

Fist responds with his arms crossed, “Yeah, he lifted the mental block, because he’s on the planet, so I and my good buddy Prism can sing his praises or whatever. If you want my opinion, I don’t really care about ruling Equestria, I just want to fight strong people and get stronger, then someday I’ll kill Mephilzo myself. Until then, it’ll be smooth sailing. Now which one of you ladies want to fight me before I Reverse Roboticize and flatten the western hemisphere?”

After Fist’s threats leave his robotic speaker, Pinkie bursts off the ground, she blazes toward him at faster than light speeds, she throws a Party Favor at him, he smiles ready to take it to the chest, but then it hits him.

The pink ball explodes with a much greater force than when they fought on Angel Island. Fist flies back, his chassis already damaged. As he struggles to right himself, Amy drags her hammer along the ground, kicking up dirt. Fist turns his head while he’s flying through trees, only to see Amy’s red eyes streaking with a glow as she runs next to him.

She raises her hammer high and slams it downward as hard as she can on Fist’s Chest. The hammer snaps on impact.

The blow craters Fist into the ground. Amy tosses her broken hammer pommel down, it poofs away.

She holds out her hands and summons a hammer in both. Amy swings one like a golf club scooping Fist up and flinging him to the air at an angle.

As he reaches the top of his ascent. Amy teleports in and bashes his head between her two hammers. Fist’s eyes almost blink off, as his monitor eyes crack, his robotic voice garbled a scream.

Amy opens her arms and spins around with both hammers in a swiping motion. Both flat ends of the hammers slam into the front of his body. The robot echidna gets blown away toward a grouping of trees. He looks up and he sees Pinkie’s hoof with Party Favor aimed at point blank. When the Party Favor detonates Fist plummets through the pink smoke.

Except Pinkie feels a pull on her leg. As Fist successfully wrapped a tail around her hindleg. Fist laughs, “HA! Got you!”

Pinkie’s eyes grow wide, ah aims toward the ground and activates the jets on his shoulders. Slowly dragging them both down.

Pinkie tries to get away, but Fist grabs the tail that Pinkie’s leg is stuck to. The other tails provide wrap around the singular tails for more strength.

He yanks hard and Pinkie plummets to the ground. As she bounces off the ground of the forest. Fist starts spinning Pinkie bashing her into trees. He whips the tail to slam her into the ground. Fist yanks hard on the tail to slingshot Pinkie in his direction.

Fist holds a stiff arm outward as she flies toward the brute.

Fist leans forward and delivers a hard clothesline, slamming his inner elbow into Pinkie’s snout.

On the follow through, Pinkie spins vertically before crashing face first into the dirt, blood pouring out of her nose.

“Pinkie!” Amy grips her hammers tightly and rockets toward Fist with a glittering gold streak.

Seeing her coming Fist puts one hand in front of him to parry her hammer, then he clenches his other fist and slams her in the side of the head with a nasty haymaker.

Though her head moves, Amy’s body doesn’t budge as she stares down the multi-tailed echidna, with his fist in planted in her cheek.

She pulls her head back, forcing Fist to stumble on the follow through.

Amy grits her teeth and slams her forehead into Fist’s, making a cacophonous clanging noise. As Amy reels back, she lands on the ground.

She pulls back her other hammer and bashes his knees out. She spins, her red eyes shimmering and bashes him on the side with both hammers at once. He gets sent flying a few yards then grinds his feet against the ground, to stop himself. One of his knees shatters as he stops himself and Fist is forced to fall to one knee while he glares at Amy.

Amy helps Pinkie up, and Pinkie shakes the blood off of her face. Pinkie spits out some blood, then they both match Fist’s glare.

Fist puts a hand on his head and a dark energy circulates through his body.

“No! I will not lose a second time. Not to these weak fucking nothings.” He looks up and his robotic eye trembles in madness, “You people are going to die and be thankful for it!”

As his voice gets louder his body starts to morph like Super Fist, his metal plates become a dark purple fur. The other difference being his nine tails become extraordinarily long, and cover themselves in matching purple fur, but the tips are made of jagged black crystal, and as he transforms another tail appears, bringing it up to ten.

His hulking body hunches over. He breathes out through his mouth reveling razor sharp teeth. He howls with laughter as his tails wriggle behind him. “God, do I love this transformation, don’t need a single one of those stupid rocks. I’m Ten-Tailed Fist. I’m gonna kill you.”

His eyes look at Pinkie, “Alright Pink, let’s see if I can do this.” He opens his palms, and all ten of his tails point toward the hands, then they all start to glow. Black static starts to form in his hands, then a purple orb highlighted with black manifests and Fist then yells “Star Buster!”

The blast of dark purple energy soars through the air as Pinkie holds up her hooves, to try and hold it back. As her hooves grind against the dirt, the beam seconds from overtaking her.

She Chaos Controls out of the way.

The Star Buster blazes into the horizon, then it detonates deeper inside the forest. It illuminates the Everfree purple for miles.

Pinkie snaps forward to see a form above her. Fist readying a downward punch. Though startled, Pinkie still dodges to the left, like her Pinkie Sense tells her to.

But a fist collides into her head from the side rather than above. She is it sent flying through the forest, her body splintering trees to pieces before slamming and skidding into the ground. Pinkie feels more blood gush from her nose, she stands up breathing heavily.

Fist swipes Pinkie’s blood from his knuckles. “Finally. That dodging shit was getting old.”

“H- How? My Pinkie Sense is unbeatable!”

Fist smirks, “Not really. Lix made this little technique called Chaos Hypnosis. You’re Pinkie Sense is subconscious, if your sense don’t work, it’s useless.” His red eyes tremble again, “I said I’d kill you, Pink, this next time,” His blades shoot out from his hand, “I’m gonna skewer you.”

Pinkie stands up, her breathing stable and blood drips from her nose. Then she smiles. Wide

“If I were everywhere, how many ponies do you think I’ve made laugh?”

Fist looks at her with a confused glance, “One or two? I don’t know, why does that matter?”

Fist notices another Pinkie Pie walking into sight, then another one and another one, I gets to the point to where there are twelve Pinkie Pies bouncing around.

Fist crosses his arms while hovering, “So you can clone yourself, huh? How is that impressive in anyway?”

Her smile remains as wide as ever, “On its own, I think it’s pretty neat. Though I had to use Chaos energy to copy what the Mirror Pool did and, well darn, it was some real work to make them coordinate.”

Pinkie cleans the blood from her face, “You probably don’t know, but I have super special ability based on my Element. I’m Laughter so my Element Ability is obviously Laughter! When I make ponies laugh, I get stronger. I sent my Pinkies all over Equestria to make people laugh.” Pinkie smirks as she continues to look at Fist. “All these Pinkies are brimming with Laughter!” Her Chaos fueled eyes widen, “Wanna see what happens when I absorb all of ‘em?”

Pinkie claps her hooves together, her golden aura turns pink, as the energy from the copies start to flow into her. The Pinkie copies slowly fade, as Pinkie’s aura becomes opaque pink, the only thing behind the pink light, are two wild white eyes.

Fist slowly hovers to the ground. Fist’s smile turns into a look of abject horror. His fur stands on end like a cornered cat. Swiftly all of his tails light up with energy as he creates a massive energy ball to eliminate the threat.

Pinkie Pie spreads her arms from within her Pink cocoon and disperses the energy, the pink aura remains stretches with clusters of golden static running about her body. Her pupils are completely dilated as she hovers in the air. Her grin stretches across her face as she stares upward.

Fist feeds his attack more energy, “Are you high or something! What the hell is going on here!?”

Pinkie’s head snaps at Fist. She straightens herself in the air, raises her hooves above her head and charges her energy. The air for miles vibrates from the intensity, pink static erupting in the atmosphere.

The ball she creates is the size of a house, then it doubles.

And doubles

Then doubles again.

Fist starts to sweat. This attack is so large it blocks the view of the black sky when standing under it. And so bright it could be mistaken for the sun.

Everything rumbles when Pinkie condenses it. Until its compressed to fit perfectly in her hoof.

She winds her hoof back and prepares to toss it like a baseball at Fist.

Her voice echoes across the Everfree. “Smile Bomb!”

Fist tries to combat it with his Star Buster. The force of the energy colliding sinks Fist’s legs into the ground. He puts everything he has just to keep it from touching him.

Fist made a grave error forgetting that Amy Rose was still in the fight. Amy flies into Fist’s view with a gargantuan Piko-Piko Hammer being pulled behind her, it was hundreds of meters long, with its hammerhead being half the size of Ponyville.

Amy grips the handle with both hands, she grits her teeth. Amy lifts the city-sized hammer slowly into the air, as it stands straight up. Amy adjusts her grip then drops herself on the ground cratering herself. Her body bursts with gold energy, as her red eyes burn with a righteous fury at Fist.

Then she puts everything into the downward swing, “100 times Piko Hammer Slam!” the hammer’s shaft curves slightly as she aims the full weight of the weapon right on Fist’s head.

When the Piko Hammer reaches the Smile Bomb, it neutralizes Fist’s Star Buster, and the condensed bomb is pushed into Fist’s chest. Right below the Gem housing his soul. He yells out in agony, his flesh burning against the positive energy. As Fist’s back is pushed into the ground. the Smile Bomb detonates.

Pink light spreads in every direction, the feeling is Laughter made manifest. Bright and Happy. The concussive blast completely obliterates the giant Piko Hammer, turning the head of the hammer to dust.

The pair of pink monsters view the massive wound in the ground they created. The hole crackling with pink static and the faint laughter of ponies across Equestria.

Amy and Pinkie slowly land at the bottom. They see the barely breathing form of Fist, charred from the blast, his mouth agape.

Fist shakily stands up.

Then he laughs his arm sloughs off and fades to dust.

He turns to Pinkie, “You surprised me, Pink. Truly. What a monster you are.” Fist’s aura flares, “I’m not done yet though.” His eyes glance in the direction of Twilight, and he Chaos Controls away.

Pinkie and Amy warp in the same direction.

Twilight sweats, but she focuses her magic as hard as she can. “Please, work with me! My friends need help!” This time the Tree twinkles as the spell hits and the Tree shimmers and morphs into a large white, hexagonal cut gem. “Finally, now I can-“

Fist arrives, and Twilight can’t react fast enough to stop the massive echidna from cutting a hole in space and throwing the Cyan Element Emerald into the Void. He pivots on his heel and is about to run.

Then Twilight grabs the purple echidna with magic and flings him into wall, she holds him in place magically. Twilight looks him up and down. “You must be Fist…”

Twilight’s eyes and horn alight with energy, she casts a spell on Fist.

An orb of light encloses itself around Fist. The light fluctuates for a moment then it starts burning his flesh as the light intensifies like a microwave. He yells out in pain as he thrashes against the magic.

Twilight stops the spell for a moment, her eyes still gleaming, “You were about to run. Why!?”

Fist snarls as his body is turning to dust, “Eat shit!”

Twilight frowns and flicks her horn. The light intensifies once more. Amy and Pinkie watch this grizzly display nearby.

Twilight stops again, “I don’t want to do this, but I was told with things like you, we have to take drastic measures. I am willing to let you go, if you just tell me why you only took one Emerald then tried to bolt.”

Fist pants then starts laughing, “So cold blooded, you’re just like me, Twily.”

“You don’t get to call me that. Only my brother gets to call me that.” Twilight sneers, “And I’m nothing like you!”

“You're torturing a man who’s going to die. I’m kicking it, with or without this little spell you’re using. Bet you feel cathartic, huh?”

Twilight’s eyes refocus, “You’re avoiding my question! Why did you only take one?!”

“Your mother.” He spits on the ground.

Twilight frowns and lets down her telekinesis, “I’m not going any further, Fist. Get out of here so you can pass on peacefully somewhere else.”

The moment Fist is free, he lunges at her like a rabid animal. Fist’s other arm sloughs off from the movement and how damaged It is.

Twilight looks away as her spell reactivates. Fist’s whole body is wreathed in a burning light, and Fist screeches like an unholy beast. As his body is turned to dust The gem on his chest shoots off and lands on the ground next to Twilight. It reflects the light for a moment, until Twilight stamps on it, shattering Fist’s gem. Twilight’s eyes catch a small black wisp creep from the gem. Her eyes glow for a moment. As the small wisp is incinerated by a flash of light.

Twilight exhales, “Sorry you gals had to see that.”

Pinkie walks up and gives Twilight a hug, “Twilight, don’t you feel bad. If a tiny light spell can hurt them, then these guys are evil to the core.”

“Pinkie’s right. We’re fighting the closest thing I’ve ever seen to real demons.” Amy looks at the dust blowing away in the wind, “Also, we learned the master’s name. It’s Mephilzo, I’ve never heard the name before, but we should get moving.” Amy conjures a new hammer and rests it on her shoulder.

Twilight summons her resolve, “Okay, let’s get going! I’ll take the Elements- “, as she turns, she watches as the Element Emeralds are enveloped by a black cloud. Then in a burst of energy they all vanish.

“No!” Twilight yells as she runs over to the empty spot where the Emeralds once stood. As the Equestrian Master Emerald is removed, the entire forest goes quiet, “Without our Master Emerald the Everfree’s environment can’t sustain itself!”

Pinkie gasps, “Twilight we gotta go! If they disappeared that means that Mephilzo has ‘em!”

That’s when they all sense something else happening in Canterlot. A monstrous charging of energy, as this power builds, it starts rumbling the ground, everything shaking and tremoring.

Twilight looks in the direction of Canterlot with her eyes wide, “Fluttershy?”

Chapter 18

-Canterlot-

Mephilzo’s dark energy flares out then disperses, black static rises off of his body. Before anyone could breathe, all four of the heroes take off at the same time, Sonic tries to punch him in the face, Silver tries to flank from behind, Applejack tries to kick him in the gut, and Fluttershy comes from the side to get a kidney punch in.

Every punch lands at the same time but he doesn’t flinch. He delivers a painful palm thrust to AJ’s face and sends her flying back, his eyes dilate. The beast punches her into the ground and picks her up by the mane. Then knees her in the stomach, then slams both of his fists on her back. She bounces off of the ground, and Mephilzo spin kicks AJ into a house. Her hat slowly floating to the ground.

He turns to see Sonic trying to blitz him, but Mephilzo smiles as he dodges Sonic’s initial jab. Sonic then backs up and starts going around Mephilzo, rapidly firing golden X-shaped projectiles at him.

Mephilzo sits there, unphased as he is pelted with these projectiles. “Interesting, you’ve adapted more rapid-fire ranged techniques to your arsenal, I must say I am relieved to not have to get hit with ‘Sonic Wind’ over and over again.”

Sonic spin dashes while hovering in the air while Mephilzo’s eyes watch intensely.

Sonic spinning creates ten golden orbs of energy. He fires the barrage at Mephilzo. The blasts all converge on his location, creating an even larger cloud of dust and debris.

Mephilzo chuckles as the white hedgehog swipes away the cloud of dust, still no damage taken, “So many new ranged abilities. If I were Perfect Nazo, I may be considerably damaged. You’ve gotten so much stronger that Shadic would only need a Super Form to wipe Nazo in any form off the map.”

His grin widens, “Unfortunately for you, I am beyond my half Nazo in strength. Multiplicatively even.”

As Sonic floats there with a grimace. Mephilzo looks up and sees a house being levitated above him by Silver, rather than just dropping it, Silver slams it onto Mephilzo’s. Mephilzo disintegrates the house as it crashes into him with a flare of energy.

He grins, “Oh, Silver, you shouldn’t have. Here, a gift from me.”

Mephilzo lazily points a clawed finger to Silver and fires a thin beam from his finger that pierces through Silver’s shoulder. Silver winces hard as blood leaks down the hole in his chest. Mephilzo then looks at Sonic, “Remember when Super Forms were thought to be invulnerable. Truly ignorant times.”

Fluttershy appears next to Silver and places a hoof on him, she focuses a little bit of her energy and heals Silver’s wound. She gently asks, “Are you okay Silver? it shouldn’t hurt anymore.”

Silver moves his arm around in a circle. “Thanks Flutters, I appreciate it.”

Mephilzo grits his teeth, ”She is going to be a problem.”

The creature looks up at the trio, and his eyes gleam in a familiar way, then he utters a word that fills them all with dread.

“Revelations.”

The trio’s eyes turn pitch black,

Sonic holds his head in his hands, mumbling while on the verge of tears as Mephilzo refreshes his memory on Kilo’s murder of the Freedom Fighters, he even forces Sonic to watch Rotor die. he makes Sonic watch Sally die. He forces him to sit through an agonizing replay of Kilo butchering Bunnie and Antoine as they try to fight in vain. “No, No, NO!” Sonic screams out.

Silver slowly floats down. He watches a memory from when he was younger. In his desolated time. Two figures in front of him, slowly walking away. He runs forward, but they are eternally out of reach. He yells out, “Mommy! Daddy! Please! I won’t eat so many rations! I’ll drink less water! Don’t go!” Silver falls to his knees as tears stream down his face.

Fluttershy, floats down and she starts screaming, “Mom, Dad! Please you have to get out of there! Get Zephyr and- “, then she watches as everything gets ripped apart violently. Then it reverses and repeats the same scene. Over and over. While in this trance, Fluttershy tries to close her eyes, or turn her head, but her senses force her to perceive the tragedy.

Mephilzo chuckles at them all breaking down in their own minds and he holds an open palm at charging a beam aimed for Fluttershy, “How is this still so easy?”

“Cause yer usin’ illusions you fuckin’ coward.”

Mephilzo turns his head to see Applejack. She looks straight into his eyes without a blink. “I wonder what mockery of power you’re using to stop my ‘Revelations’ from working on you. I also wonder why you’re alive.”

Applejack spits out a bit of blood, “My Element Ability is Honesty, freak, your petty illusions ain’t gonna work on me no more.”

Mephilzo stares but instead of condescension, he is intrigued. “And how does this ‘Honesty’ function, exactly?”

“You made me watch my lil’ sister get murdered in my own head back in Ponyville. I ain’t explainin’ nothin’ to filth like you. How’s about you just watch this?”

Applejack’s eyes gleam with energy as she slams into ground with her front hooves, a pulse of orange energy, washes over the ones affected by Revelations, There eyes all clear of darkness.

Mephilzo grimaces and tries to move from where he’s standing but his body has stiffened completely. His eyes flick to AJ, her red eyes gleaming.

AJ smirk, “Feelin’ stuck and helpless? Good. Hope yer little visions weren’t too strong. Honesty’s a real bitch.”

As Mephilzo grits his teeth AJ raises her foreleg and slams her hoof onto the street. A wide stake of energy, in the shape of an apple tree, shoots through the center of Mephilzo’s chest diagonally, planting him to the ground. He coughs up black blood. “You… can’t be… this powerful!”

AJ frowns, “I ain’t. My punches weren’t doin’ a thing to ya. But yer ‘Revelations’? That’s pretty darn powerful, so my Honesty took it, froze ya and now yer stuck to the ground like a cowpie in the summer. Now sit there a while, why don’tcha!?”

Mephilzo’s pained look turns to sheer malice, “You think you’re cute? A thematic power, to be assured.”

“But”

He grips the tree, his hands burning from the positive energy.

“ultimately futile.” He crushes and shatters the tree of orange energy, scattering orange splinters in every direction, the center of his chest is now a gaping hole.

He looks down and the wound stiches itself closed. He glares at AJ. “Nazo may have been onto something.” He prepares another attack but then he gets sucker punched by Fluttershy, the force moves his head backward and his feet slide back.

Fluttershy’s eyes were full of rage.

Mephilzo glares at the formerly shy pony, “That stung.”

Not relenting, Fluttershy spins and slams Mephilzo with a downward kick, Mephilzo blocks with a forearm. The force Fluttershy exerts makes a shockwave that pushes Mephilzo into the ground.

The evil being pushes her back with an outward flare of black energy. He smiles ”I always enjoyed you Fluttershy, dare I say, you’re my personal favorite.” He opens his arms, “Since I like you and not the hick. I’ll let you hit me as hard as you can.”

Fluttershy then looks him up and down, “I don’t care what you like. You never hurting anypony as long as I draw breath.” Fluttershy glances to Shining Armor, the crystal spikes dissipated, and he now lays on the ground bleeding. Mephilzo notices her glance.

“Oh no. You’re thinking of healing him with your, ‘Kindness’ ability, aren’t you?”

Fluttershy looks back, hiding a bit of shock on her face.

Mephilzo grins, “Of course you’re the healer, it fits you so well, but I said hit me as hard as you can, not play doctor. You step in his direction; I’ll kill him now. Are we clear?”

She glares at Mephilzo and growls out, “Crystal.”

In an instant Fluttershy warps a few hundred meters away, Canterlot Castle looming behind her, she yells, “Everypony get out of the streets!” Applejack and Silver help Sonic up, and they all get to relative safety in the air.

Then Fluttershy holds both of her hooves to the sides as her golden aura condenses around her, she grits her teeth once more, and her pupils disappear. Faint signatures of visible energy start blinking in each hoof. Lighting starts ripping through the cobblestone and making lines of fire on the roofs of the buildings.

A streak of lightning skates past Mephilzo and ho grins widely, “Yes! I can really feel your hatred!”

In a quick motion Fluttershy’s hooves come together as a very visible ball of yellow energy starts to form.

Silver’s eyes go wide, and he yells out, “You're gonna destroy the whole planet! Flutters, you’ve got to stop it!”

Applejack flies up to the hedgehogs looking back at Fluttershy with worry, “Sonic, Silver, move!”

The ball of yellow energy completely solidifies, “Final!”

Fluttershy vanishes with a Chaos Control.

Mephilzo sees a yellow glow illuminate his side, he feels the heat from this star destroying mass of energy.

The beast’s eyes are wide in genuine surprise.

“Kindness!”

She releases the golden energy skyward, and it engulfs Mephilzo’s upper body in an instant. The violent beam bores through the upper floors of houses in its way, as it expands to the size of Canterlot itself. As the beam reaches the veil in the sky, it scorches a wide hole that makes the sunlight shine on Canterlot. The beam stretches for thousands of miles into space before thinning and dispersing.

Fluttershy breathes heavily.

The dust clears and in the light shines down, everyone sees Mephilzo still standing.

Half of his face is burnt off revealing a swirl of dripping black ichor. His arms slough off his immolated shoulder and they dissolve into particles of darkness.

Mephilzo’s voice shakes, “What a fool I was to let this happen…”

Then a grin stretches across his face, “I mean I could have stepped out of the way.”

His body instantly regenerates. All lost flesh appearing in a blink. He turns around and looks up at the sun being allowed in, “That’s annoying.” He clenches his fist as the sky and the hole heals itself.

He turns back to Fluttershy, “Final Kindness? I see, it’s like a mercy killing, very dark, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy trembles as beads of sweat drip down her chin, she mumbles, “That was… everything I had.” Her Super Form flickers as she tumbles to the ground.

As Mephilzo approaches her he gets pelted in the back by projectiles from Sonic, Applejack even tries to punch him from every angle she can but to no avail. Mephilzo delivers a neck chop to Applejack, grabs her by the back of her mane and throws her to the side. Silver tries to smash carts or houses into the beast, desperately trying to protect his friend, but he doesn’t budge from the objects getting launched at him.

Mephilzo sneers, he swipes his claws down aiming at Sonic and Silver. Then he mutters, “39 Lashes.” They both get brutalized by invisible whips, which leave slashes across their chests and backs. It doesn’t stop and they can’t move.

All while Mephilzo looms over Fluttershy.

“I’ll make you see a true hell.”

He places a palm on Fluttershy’s forehead then grips tightly as they both Chaos Control to the moon in a second. Fluttershy pushes Mephilzo off of her. She tries to haymaker him, but he catches her hoof spins around her and puts her in an armlock. His other arm wrapped her neck as she struggles against his strength.

His voice drips with malice, “Fluttershy, how long can you keep up that Super Form with how much energy you’ve used? I really wonder if ponies get their blood boiled in zero pressure.”

He twists her arm and makes her look at Equestria.

“Look at how beautiful this view is!”

Fluttershy manages to open her eyes, then they widen all the way as her heart drops.

She sees the entire planet, being covered by a spreading and growing blackness. The only grace in the shifting cloud of evil are the dots of light Twilight had created.

“I hope that those disappear after I kill Twilight.”

Mephilzo lets go of Fluttershy, she takes the opportunity to make some distance. She feels her Super Form falter even further as Mephilzo holds out his hand.

Mephilzo grins “Oh, Fluttershy, killing you will be the hardest thing I ever enjoy.”

A black ball of black energy grows in his palm, and he blasts it forward into a beam.

She tightly closes her eyes, preparing for the end. When it doesn’t come, she opens them to see Shadow struggling to hold back the blast.

The intense hedgehog looks back at her, “I didn’t train you for a year for you to die on the moon! Get up Fluttershy, keep on fighting!”

Fluttershy activates her Element Ability and heals herself, her Super Form running on willpower alone. She flies up and slams her hooves on the blast, and with their combined strength, they divert the attack into the dark reaches of space.

Fluttershy’s stumbles where she stands and Shadow looks at her with concern, “I’ll handle this. Let me send you back to Equestria.” Fluttershy weakly nods, her form about to give out any minute.

Shadow places a hand on her and Chaos Controls her away.

Mephilzo then laughs, “Well! A surprise appearance from the Ultimate Life form himself! Oh, I have to see how you’ve improved beyond Chaos Controlling others!”

Shadow sneers at Mephilzo then he snaps his fingers, “Chaos Beacon.”

In a flash of light Sonic and Silver appear at his sides.

All three of them have the same glare of anger.

Before Mephilzo can say another word, Silver he crushes him between two giant boulders, both unnaturally dense, and becoming more solid as Silver’s grip intensifies.

Mephilzo holds the two rocks apart, he sees Shadow flying with two red Chaos Spears, “Well now Mephilzo. I Hope you’re ready!”

He throws both spears, and they pierce both of Mephilzo’s elbows then explode. As his arms collapse inward, Mephilzo is slammed between the rocks. Silver crushes the ball of rock so very intensely with his psychokinesis that the stone turns molten, he slams the molten ball onto the ground. Making sure to put his all into the attack.

He yells out, “This is for hurting, Fluttershy!” and he pushes downward and sinks the ground in, the crater almost being visible from the Equestria.

Mephilzo stands up in the middle of healing himself as Sonic holds his hands forward.

He screams, “Super Homing Shot!”

Mephilzo gets pummeled into the moon’s surface by a hundred golden orbs Sonic made, they each crash and explode into him this time knocking him around.

This time it actually causes real damage.

As the grey dust clears, Mephilzo regenerates but he has an annoyed look on his face. “Wretches! I am the Messiah of Dark Chaos!”

He slams both palms into the ground of the moon. Then he pumps energy into the moon, so much so that the surface starts to crack. Geysers of energy start to spew from the stone as the energy floods into this celestial body.

Mephilzo looks up at the trio. “Now DIE!”

With a final push, the energy built up inside the moon detonates and Luna’s old prison is splintered into thousands of city sized chunks of silvery rock.

Sonic and Shadow watch as Silver shields all three of them form errant moon rocks or geysers of energy.

But a streak of black zips behind him and Mephilzo slams both fists down on the shield, launching the cyan bubble, with all the hedgehogs inside of it, towards the planet. As they plummet through the atmosphere, Mephilzo breaks through the bubble and grabs Sliver by the face.

He forces him down form orbit like a speeding comet. The beast slams Silver into the ocean, and the time-traveler coughs up blood through Mephilzo’s fingers.

Silver grabs Mephilzo’s wrist tight enhancing his grip with psychokinesis, and rips Mephilzo’s hand off from the forearm. Mephilzo reels back as Sonic rockets down and kicks Mephilzo in the back of the head.

Mephilzo plummets into the depths and his back touches the sea floor.

Shadow comes upon him like Poseidon and pierces Mephilzo’s belly with a Chaos Spear. Mephilzo gasps, bubbles spewing out from his mouth, as Shadow drives it in the and teleports away.

Leaving the spear to explode.

The three hedgehogs hover on the surface of the water looking down.

Mephilzo warps up as well, the hole in his torso stitching itself closed with rapidly shifting black threads of sinew.

“Tenacious. An admirable quality.” He frowns, “You people keep thrashing against me. It’s getting on my nerves.” He holds his hand up, charging his claws with energy. “I think I should slash you to ribbons!”

Before he can attack, he feels an intense presence appear behind him. he smiles to himself.

“So, the Princess of Friendship deigns us worthy of her presence.” Mephilzo’s voice drips with sarcastic malice.

A furious Twilight Sparkle is behind him, she then yells out, “Mephilzo. Give back the Elements, now!”

“Let me think about it…” he holds his open palm to Twilight, “No.”

Twilight fires a small bolt of energy that stops Mephilzo in place, paralyzing him. His eyes tremble in rage at the pony princess.

Twilight looks at the trio of hedgehogs, her face full of worry, “We have to go to Canterlot now! The rest of us are there and we need to come up with a plan, he’s far too powerful for us to beat! Even in our Super Forms!”

They all Chaos Control away leaving the villain frozen in place.

For a full minute, Mephilzo is paralyzed.

As he is freed from bodily stasis, he pants for a moment, “Damn… When did Twilight learn such a potent paralysis spell… must be a result of her ‘Element Ability’ and somehow one of these abilities allowed them to dilate time itself, they trained for a full year in the span of three months. How to combat such an obstacle…”

As Mephilzo ponders, he stands on water. A few seaponies swim to the surface and stare at him, the stranger in their territory.

He looks down at them, and his face turns to disgust, “Revolting.”

Mephilzo snaps his claws and the ocean itself begins writhing, as he slashes into it with a thousand invisible whips. Mulching the seaponies into streams of crimson viscera.

Chapter 19

Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, and Amy are still in Canterlot as they see Fluttershy come around the corner with a grim look on her face and her hooves covered in blood.

Rarity gasps, “By Celestia, Fluttershy, are you okay? What happened.”

“I’m fine but… Shining Armor said that the princesses were trapped in something called the ‘Scepter of Light’. That was the last thing he said. Then he-” she chokes on her words, “…s-stopped breathing. If I just healed him earlier. I wasted so much time. It’s my fault he’s-”

Applejack places a hoof on Fluttershy, “Hey none of that talk now, It ain’t your fault sugar-cube. it’s that evil bastard we got runnin’ around,”

Fluttershy trembles, tears trailing down her eyes, “What should I do Applejack? I- I don’t have a Super Form.”

“Don’t worry, sugar-cube, get on out of here and we’ll take care of the rest.”

Fluttershy sadly nods, sniffling as he flies off towards Canterlot Castle.

Rainbow Dash looks off into the distance, “Sure hope everypony who could, got outta here before all this happened.”

Twilight then appears in Canterlot with the three hedgehogs, she looks around and feels a pit in her stomach. “This place looks so much worse than I- Wait where’s Shining?” she sees her friends’ sullen eyes, none of them except AJ can make eye contact.

Applejack gives her friend a solemn expression, “Twilight… he’s gone.”

Twilight’s world comes to a halt her friends voices sound muffled as she wanders forward. She pushes past Applejack. Unable to hear her protests. Then she sees it.

Her heart shatters.

Shining Armor in a pool of blood, martyred by Mephilzo.

She stands in place for a moment, her tunnel vision locked on the crumpled body of Shining Armor. She trots closer. His blood staining her hooves as she walks through the crimson puddle. She looks down at her brother. Twilight leans down and nuzzles him, one last time.

A tear runs down her cheek.

“I’m sorry, Shining. I’m so sorry.” The dam behind her eyes breaks and she sobs, trying to stifle it, and she walks away from his body.

“Twilight…” Applejack’s voice softly, “We’ll get Shining outta here as soon as we can. I promise.”

Then.

The air runs cold.

The dark creature appears looking down at them from the top of a building.

Mephilzo looks down with a grin, “Twilight Sparkle. Did you like the gift Mephiles and Nazo left for you? To think, Fluttershy almost ruined the surprise.”

Everyone remains silent, as Twilight’s horn crackles. Her tears evaporate with the energy pouring off of her body now that she sees her primary target.

Shadow looks over, “Twilight. What’s your plan? he’s already here.”

For a moment, Twilight’s coat turns black, “I don’t have one.” her voice muffled as she talks through her teeth, she narrows her eyes at Mephilzo,

“My only plan is to kill that son of a bitch.” Her voice, full of vitriol.

Mephilzo grins, “Oh? Is that a fact?”

Before the speedsters could react, Twilight’s eyes gleam as she uses her Element Ability, almost instinctually. Her coat becomes pitch black, and her mane becomes a flowing aurora of purple and violet.

The Princess of Friendship vanishes from sight leaving only whisps of black static where she once stood.

Mephilzo looks to the left to see Dark Super Twilight rush him like a bull. She winds back her hoof, and bashes Mephilzo in the face with a haymaker. He gets sent flying but flips around and stabilizes himself.

As the beast stands in the street, he sees Twilight charging her horn.

Mephilzo starts to see small black circles start appearing on the ground and moving toward him.

As they get into position, Twilight reels up her horn and spikes made from hardened shadows erupt from the ground, Mephilzo jumps backwards, but more circles keep appearing. He ducks and weaves each spike, all of them aiming for his head from any angle.

Mephilzo grins and continues to deftly dodge the spikes.

Twilight tilts her head and flies in, horn-first. Her wings flap once and accelerate her a hundred-fold. She pierces Mephilzo through the eye and he screams out in pain. She uses her magic to extend her horn while it’s in his head to skewer him through his head.

Mephilzo stumbles back, then plants his foot firmly on the ground, “You made a good effort Twily. However,” he snaps his fingers, and Twilight’s horn retracts. Her pupilless eyes widen in surprise.

“You converted your Positive Chaos Energy into Negative Chaos Energy. My domain is Negative Chaos Energy, you blithering idiot.” Mephilzo winds his palm back and thrusts it forward, bashing her in the snout, he then grabs her hindleg and slams her into a wall, he grips her hindleg tighter, then throws her into the air.

He holds one hand out aimed at Twilight, his fingers in an ‘L’ shape, to gauge the distance. Underneath Twilight a blackened spot begins to open. She feels an intense heat beginning to build. Before she can pivot out of the way, Mephilzo slams his claws into the ground yelling “Gehenna!”

Black fire begins to erupt from the ground from underneath her. Twilight sees her light flash before her eyes.

Shadow reacts fast before the fire engulfs her and he focuses his energy on Twilight, then he snaps fingers. Chaos Beacon activates, and she is brought back to the ground. Shadow looks down at her, “Twilight. That was stupid and reckless, you need to-.” He stops when he notices her fur shift from black back to gold, and her eyes gleaming this time of her own cognition.

She mumbles, “I know it was, I’m sorry.”

Shadow grits his teeth and looks forward, “Don’t apologize. Just stay focused.”

Mephilzo steps onto a building, He then opens his arms, “Everypony,” a reverberation of darkness highlights his form as every emerald he’s stolen appears and starts orbiting around him with the two Master Emeralds at his feet.

“Today is a grand day. An emancipation. A day of true freedom.”

He raises a finger, “Before then, let me ask you a question. Why did I just summon the very artifacts that I want to destroy? Well, I cannot turn Chaos Emeralds into Super Emeralds. That is something only Sonic and Shadow have demonstrated.”

His grin widened, “Will I turn Hyper if I absorbed two sets of Chaos Emeralds? Let’s find out!””

The Chaos Emeralds and the Element Emeralds turn black as he transforms one last time.

As his body erupts with energy, the city starts to fall apart. The spire of black energy is so dense that light starts to bend around it. His whole body flashes with rainbow colors, which are swiftly turned pitch black.

His fur turns stark white, the jagged crystals on his quills fully enclose them, his clawed hands are also now made of black gemstone, but they are just as flexible as before. The black gemstones enclose his arms and legs, his shoes have now turned black and white. His eyes become brighter as he looks down.

He breathes out and dark clouds rise out of the corners of his mouth.

He glares at Shadow.

Mephilzo mutters, his voice low “39 Lashes”

Shadow gets battered and slashed repeatedly, his body convulses in every which way. Then the final slash makes a large gash down his chest, the force from the slash carves a canyon through Canterlot. barely missing Canterlot Castle with Fluttershy hiding inside.

As Shadow starts to bleed profusely from this wound, he grimaces.

Sonic yells out, “Shadow!”

Then Sonic gets grabbed by a white blur. Mephilzo warps Sonic high above the clouds, Sonic tries to land a kick, but it doesn’t do anything.

Mephilzo releases his grip and knees Sonic in the gut, making him double over. Then Mephilzo grabs him by the sides of the head and knees him in the face. Sonic tries to block, but Mephilzo knocks Sonic’s arms way and bashes him with a flurry of jabs to his chest. He ends the combo by grabbing Sonic’s neck.

The beast zooms downward burning through the air with black streaks, he winds back his arm and spikes Sonic at the ground as if he was a volleyball.

Sonic slams into the ground getting buried in a deep chasm of a crater. Mephilzo hovers above it as Sonic climbs out and vomits blood.

While trembling in pain, he points, “How- how the hell are you still fused? Fusion can’t last this long, especially in a Hyper form.”

Mephilzo wags his finger, “I’m calling this form Perfected Mephilzo, don’t throw your labels at me. And to answer your question, my halves are barely physical entities, when I’m born its indefinite. I could split at any time, but I prefer to remain myself.”

Sonic rises to his feet, “Then tell me why. Why are you doing this? Why hurt people on two different worlds, ruin families, What the hell did any of these people do to you!?”

Perfected Mephilzo’s pupils turn to slits, “The simple answer? Because I hate you. It is within my nature to detest every. Single. One of you. I want to be free to hate. I want others to feel my definition of true freedom. I even tried to educate a rather powerful creature here on Equestria in my philosophy, to join my cause, but he disappointed me. He’s elsewhere now.”

His eyes flick over to the ponies that were there, “As for you, ponies. I watched all of you. Robotnik recorded years of footage. From a thousand angles. I watched it on loop for what felt like eons. I learned everything about every one of you so I could make you all suffer.”

The beast leans forward. “Then I tortured that diluted old man into showing me how to build machines. These machines would defy order, take a soul from the Void and become truly alive. Metal made flesh. Beings I could make again and again and again!”

Mephilzo exhales, “I could have just reincarnated them for eternity. Win the game of attrition.” His grin expands, “But then I wouldn’t be having so much fun right now!”

Then Mephilzo gets on all fours and blasts off the building he’s standing on, blazing through the air towards the heroes.

He flies at Rarity first, he lands on the ground beside her. His claws are drenched in her blood as her throat explodes open. Rarity’s eyes turn fierce as her eyes start to glimmer at Mephilzo.

The beast’s confidences wanes as his own throat is slashed and bursts with black blood. Rarity’s neck heals though her incandescent coat is stained with blood.

Mephilzo scoffs and regenerates as Rarity makes a shield around herself preparing for his retaliation.

Amy zooms in from the side with her hammer, Mephilzo blocks it with his forearm, as Sonic comes from the right and lands a hard right hook to his face. At the same time Rainbow Dash flies at him from the front as Applejack comes up from behind, Applejack’s face gleams with Rainbow’s Cutie Mark.

As they swap places Mephilzo doesn’t have time to adjust before he takes a hard gut punch and a high-speed kick to his back.

As he slashes down with his claws, they all manage to Chaos Control out of the way, his eyes flick around wildly, not knowing who he should target first.

Then feels an immense amount of energy.

It had been building since he slashed Rarity’s throat.

He turns to see Super Twilight charging a ball of purple energy, accented by red, her eyes gleam as she charges it, and a vein pops out of her forehead.

“This is for Shining, monster.” She then screams out “Light Piercer!”

She swishes her horn around and aims her horn at Mephilzo. The ball compresses and turns into a thin purple beam that screeches forward. Mephilzo hold up his hands to intercept it but as it makes contact, the piercing purple light drills through his claws and his chest, Making wide holes.

Then he feels Silver grab him with telekinesis, while weakened momentarily, his body collapses in on itself from the pressure and the hole present in his chest. He falls to one knee. With a burst of black energy he regenerates, he stares daggers at Silver.

The beast aims his functioning hand at Silver, instead of open palm he aims all of his clawed fingers, and he yells out, “Decalogue!”

He then fires a volley of beams from the tips of his fingers at Silver he ducks and weaves between all of them. While missing their mark the beams still ruin whatever walls and buildings are left, shredding through stone like wet paper.

A pink ball smashes him in the face, it explodes with energy confetti, Pinkie only annoys the beast as it whips the beams around at any location Pinkie could be at. He rushes forward at Pinkie. In a flash Rarity, takes Pinkies place, and his claws bury themselves in her shield.

With a scowl, he pushes down and shatters the shield. As her eyes widen, Rarity swaps with a boulder, which gets atomized. Seeing how close that was, Rainbow Dash circles back around to circle Mephilzo, building up for a kick to the side of his head.

She feints a kick to his left, then spins and around and kicks him to the right from behind. It lands only tilting his head, the force from the kick breaks apart more of the ground.

While the ponies are rushing Mephilzo, Twilight pants from her release of energy.

Shadow, holds his chest, looking at Twilight, “Do you have a plan now, Twilight? I’d try to think but- urgh!” he winces, and his wound aches.

Twilight looks over with concern, “I’m thinking as fast as I can! Please hang in there, Shadow.”

She looks down and starts thinking rapidly, quieting everything outside of her mind.

She opens her eyes with a flash of inspiration, she eyes the thirteen emeralds and both corresponding Master Emeralds, completely unguarded. “If it’s possible for me to do, I want to recharge the Element Emeralds and the Chaos Emeralds.”

Shadow, pants, “Super Forms… Won’t be enough… turn the Element Emeralds into Super Emeralds. The Element Emeralds… were once connected to you, that’s going to be our only chance… We need to be Hyper.”

Rainbow Dash bounces backward and skids next to Twilight, “This guy is insanely tough!”

Rarity trots next to Twilight, “I have an idea myself. I could give somepony my chaos energy, make them ‘Hyper’ as it were. That is, if that would even work.”

Twilight nods her head, “You should try it, Rarity. We don’t a lot of options.”

Mephilzo’s eyes land on Twilight, Rarity, Shadow and Rainbow. In an instant he fires a city leveling attack at the group. As the black blast is launched, it hurtles toward them at asinine speed.

A golden blur zooms in front of it as Sonic takes the attack face first. As it detonates, the rush of air and dust is split right where Sonic is standing leaving everyone behind him, completely unharmed.

Rainbow yells out, “Sonic!”

The smoke clears around Sonic as his arms are in a guard. He has blood dripping down his face, body and legs as it all forms on the ground into a puddle, Sonic clenches his fists, “That won’t be enough to kill me!” rainbow colored static starts to travel up his body, “As long as I’m on my two feet you aren’t gonna hurt my friends. I’m gonna make Equestria safe, drag you back to the Void, and wipe both of you off the map!”

Sonic’s whole body shifts from gold to rainbow, as he yells out and focuses his energy. His fur flashes every color at once in a mesmerizing display, as It then shifts to white.

Hyper Sonic looks up at Mephilzo with a grin, “I’m gonna beat you senseless! I’ll show you what freedom actually means, you twisted bastard.” Sonic leans back then throws himself forward into a rapid spin dash.

In a blink, Sonic rockets off, Mephilzo takes the spin dash to the chest, but he grabs the spinning ball. Sonic stops spinning at the perfect moment to crack the dark hedgehog with a mean uppercut. Sonic then warps behind him. Firing a white Cross Slash at Mephilzo’s back, making him stumble.

Rarity acting on instinct looks at Rainbow Dash, “Dash, darling, I’m going to give you, my energy.”

Rainbow looks over at Rarity, “What? You should give it to Shadow, not me.”

“Dash trust me, Shadow will be fine. We trained with that hedgehog for an entire year last month. But Sonic needs backup now.” Rarity then powers down, donating her energy to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash then erupts into rainbow colors, her mane constantly shifting colors with the new energy, her hoofs are also shifting rainbow colored. Hyper Rainbow Dash looks over to Rarity and nods,

She aims herself right at Mephilzo’s back. And in a burst of insane speed, Rainbow shoulder checks the beast hard. Then Rainbow ricochets off of Mephilzo. He grits his teeth in pain. She then channels a build-up and static electricity, and blasts Mephilzo with a beam of rainbow lightning. “Take a Rainblast chump!”

Sonic and Rainbow Dash stand next to one each other as Mephilzo dusts himself off. He looks at the powered down pony, “So it was Rarity that allowed all of you to train for this so extensively. Very impressive. I’ve never seen or experienced techniques quite like these before.”

He grins but then it turns into a muted panic as Mephilzo notices that all the Emeralds are gone, his eyes widen then looks around and sees Silver, holding every stolen gem in a telekinetic grip.

Silver quickly launches all of them to Twilight, but as he does this Mephilzo flattens one hand, his claws joining together as a solid crystal blade. Sonic tries to intervene, but he gets kneed in the stomach and slammed to the ground. Rainbow almost lands a strike but the beast Super Chaos Controls behind Silver.

He slams his free hand on Silver’s shoulder then grips tightly, Mephilzo’s voice is full of rage, “I had to block the timestream in two universes because I didn’t want you running things afoul. Why didn’t I kill you?”

Mephilzo then pierces Silver’s chest with his bladed hand, then he horrifically tears it back out with a squelch. Silver’s eyes grow wide, then they dim, as his Super Form fades.

His body falls from where he was once floating and hits the ground with a thud. A massive amount of blood starts pooling around Silver as he fades in and out of consciousness and struggles to breathe.

Shadow sees Silver’s body as he pants from his own pain. Shadow grits his teeth, “No! Damn it!” he yells out. Shadow coughs up more blood as he rests an arm on Twilight, trying to stand up.

Rarity looks at Silver and tears up, “That-that fiend, Silver didn’t deserve this...”

Shadow’s energy flares up as he stands up straight, stumbling a little, blood in his teeth he yells up to Mephilzo, “You think you can play god? Take lives? Destroy whatever you want?”

Shadow’s gold fur starts to spark with rainbow static, “I made a promise a long time ago, to someone dear to me, that I would protect the world she loved so much. I’m adding this place to that promise! You won’t lay a goddamn finger on anyone else I care about!” His fur turns rainbow as he too becomes Hyper without the emeralds. “I’ll put my life on the line to put you down.” Though in his Hyper form his severe injuries are still there.

Mephilzo looks down at the three Hyper formed beings. “Oh, great they’re multiplying.”

In a burst of coordination, the three charge at Mephilzo, Sonic and Rainbow start flying around him making afterimages with their speed, as Mephilzo is distracted, he feels his torso get pierced by four chaos spears, he winces in pain as they all explode.

The holes are about to regenerate as Sonic continues a rush down, swinging punches and kicks to distract Mephilzo from healing then Rainbow Dash helps with Sonic’s high-speed blitz. Mephilzo dodges a few blows, but he still gets bashed around by high intensity jabs. Sonic hits him with a liver punch, then spin kicks Mephilzo, knocking him off his feet. as Shadow slips behind to flank, he starts punching the beast in the back. Mephilzo tries to react but gets kicked in the face by Rainbow.

Mephilzo rights himself, grabs Sonic by the neck and they start flying above the Equestrian landscape, Mephilzo starts slamming Sonic’s back into the ground, shredding it against the stone. Hyper Shadow, and Hyper Rainbow fly next to both of them.

Mephilzo grimaces and starts firing blasts of black energy, which fly off and explode elsewhere as Shadow and Rainbow dodge.

Then Rainbow shoulder slams into Mephilzo grinding him face first into the ground, Mephilzo spins around and his eyes glow, yelling “Revelations!” stunning the three of them with horrific imagery, though they still keep flying.

Mephilzo holds his hand up ready to fire a blast, until he hears, “Oh no you don’t!” from Applejack as he’s stopped in place, he sees Applejack, Pinkie and Amy blazing a trail to him.

He is a second from breaking free until seventeen spikes of light come down and pierce him, he yells out in agony and anger as they all explode, his upper torso and legs are nearly blown apart, until he forces them back together. He looks up angrily at Applejack, then raises a hand to the sky, then the darkness in the sky warbles as he yells out, “Gomorrah!” then he pulls his hands down as building sized spires of crystallized negative energy rain down from the dark sky, they pummel the ground localized entirely on Applejack; but she starts breaking each of them with a swipe from her hooves, before they can overwhelm her, Amy and Pinkie help shatter these massive spire of. The three hyper formed heroes surround Mephilzo again.

In Canterlot Twilight does her best to try to recharge the emeralds, but to no avail.

Rarity and Fluttershy try their best to provide Silver with first aid, but the wound is too severe, and he has but moments to live.

“Why isn’t this working? Positive emotions recharged them before! What is the problem here?” her brain moves at a million miles a second, until she comes to a rather bleak theory, “We’ve used them so often. For months upon months. They’re exhausted but Silver is going to die if I don’t do something.”

She then looks into the Equestrian Master Emerald, the bright white gemstone gleaming with energy. She feels a pull from within herself. A thought echoed from this emerald’s memory to his own mind. She hears a mantra repeat in her head in the voice of an old stallion from long ago.

‘The servers are the six elements.

Chaos is magic.

Magic enriched by the heart.

Friendship is the magic that unifies the chaos.’

Twilight focuses, she sees Shining, all of her friends, Spike and Celestia as her eyes turn white as her mane flares upward with power, then the Elements Emeralds grow in size and transform into Super Element Emeralds, brimming with new power. Twilight looks at the new emeralds in awe. Then she feels the clashes in the distance, and looks at Fluttershy, “Fluttershy, go Hyper and heal Silver quickly. I’m going out there to help. Join us when you can.”

Twilight then absorbs a portion of the energy from the emeralds, her body glows rainbow like the other Hyper forms and her coat also turns stark white but her mane, becomes her base color, but deeper, and it flows like the other Alicorns’ manes. She looks over at Silver, then off in the distance and whispers, “Rest well, big brother, I’ll be back for you.”

Then Hyper Twilight Sparkle teleports into the fray.

Chapter 20

As she arrives, she sees Pinkie and Amy trying their best to keep up with the blazing speeds of the hedgehogs and Dash. She trots up to Applejack, who is panting and barely able to track the fight with her eyes, Applejack grimaces, “He’s too much… That Hyper form they got is draining fast, but this Mephilzo bastard ain’t budging. Not to mention Shadow… he’s too hurt.”

Mephilzo backhands Sonic, before tossing Rainbow at the ground. Mephilzo fires a ball of energy at the ground, it blows up and rumbles the ground with a white explosion, but Rainbow Dash flies back up undeterred. Shadow tries to flank, but Mephilzo punches him right in his still bleeding wound, Shadow winces in pain.

Seeing this, Twilight’s horn glows white and extends to the length of a lance, as her eyes flash with energy. She crouches down and puts as much strength into her wings as she physically can.

She booms off the ground, leaving a violet streak in her wake. The Princess of Friendship aims this lance of light at Mephilzo. Shadow feels something approaching, he bashes Mephilzo in the face with his forehead, and then he steps out of the way just before a dazed Mephilzo is skewered. The momentum slows for just a moment before Twilight rockets with the dark hedgehog through the upper atmosphere.

Twilight screams out with righteous fury, as her enhanced horn starts to rapidly rotate as if it were a drill, and it sprays black blood in a vortex. Then she opens her wings, increasing her drag, and slowing her down enough that Mephilzo slips off the blood slicked lance, flying forward.

The energy that created the lance recoalesces into a ball of white light on the end of Twilight’ normal sized horn. Mephilzo looks at Twilight with a look between surprise and disgust. With her eyes wild Twilight snarls, “You pushed me to this! Mephilzo!”

The ball on her horn condenses to a pin prick.

“Now get off my planet!”

The pin prick of energy decompresses and engulfs Mephilzo. It clears the darkness in the sky for miles as Mephilzo is propelled into a large chunk of moon rock.

He digs his claws into the stone as he stands up. He pants as he feels the wound in his chest. Healing far slower than it did before. He grimaces at the implications and stares forward.

Mephilzo looks up on a ridge overlooking the area where he landed.

Over the ridge walks, Twilight, Shadow Sonic and Rainbow Dash. Their Hyper forms illuminating the area of space around them. Mephilzo frowns deeply upon seeing Twilight, “Of course. I can’t create Super Emeralds, despite one of my halves being born in a Master Emerald but the pony Princess of Friendship, who’s only had a Master Emerald for less than a day, is able to.”

Mephilzo groans but then his grin returns. “But now that we’re off-planet. I can let lose a little more, I didn’t want to ruin my playground too badly. Besides, if it’s just you four I’ll be fine. If there was a fifth Hyper Form? Now that may do me in… too bad Fluttershy’s still wasting time with the time traveling hedgehog.”

Sonic looks over and sees Twilight still resolute and full of power, his eyes glance to Shadow who is taking a knee and holding his wound. Sonic frowns, “Damn, Shadow’s really hurt. It wouldn’t be a good idea to do that with him, but…”

Sonic looks at Rainbow Dash, “Dash, I have a really stupid idea, but it has to work.”

Rainbow looks over, “Hit me with it, Blue.”

Sonic grins nervously, “How good are you with Chaos Control?”

Rainbow Dash looks over knowing exactly what he means, “How would that even work? We don’t have the same… anything?!”

Sonic responds with a smile, “We may look different but there’s no doubt we have the same heart beatin’ freedom in our chests. No offense to Shadow but this fusion is bound to last longer than Shadic. I just got a feelin’. Are you with me, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash looks at Sonic in his eyes, she first feels a wave of self-doubt pass over her which is then followed by a surge of self-confidence, “You bet, Sonic the Hedgehog! Let’s show this guy we mean business!”

Mephilzo looks at Twilight before scanning over to Sonic and Rainbow Dash, he shrugs, “It won’t matter. Fuse. Grovel. Cry. Pray. The end will come all the same.”

Sonic and Rainbow Dash both level out their power, then they both yell out “Chaos! Control!”

The moment their energies combine they both become a mass of bright white light, highlighted by an aura of waving rainbow fire. As the ball solidifies and condenses in a silhouette, two glowing blue eyes appear in the light.

This new being is bright white, and has a Mobian hedgehog head, the middle of their head has a line of rainbow-colored mane that flows upwards and has the colors flow backward, they have Sonic’s hands and gloves a bit of rainbow color flows up to the elbows. The lower half is hooved and has a rainbow-colored tail, there are also wings on their back replacing where the back quills would be. On their flank is a Cutie Mark of a rainbow-colored Chaos Emerald superimposed a cloud shooting rainbow colored lightning.

Twilight and Shadow look on in amazement as the unified beings to stretch their legs, Mephilzo then asks, “What is it you think you’re doing?”

Their voice booms out, multitoned like two people talking at once, “What’s it look like, genius, I’m stretching my legs.”

Mephilzo then retorts, “Whatever makes you comfiest in your coffin... What do you call yourself?”

“I’m Hyper Sonic Rainboom orjust Sonic Rainboom. You’ll get to know me in a few seconds just wait.”

Rainboom then beams smugly “Done!” and takes off swinging gut punching Mephilzo so hard and fast, the follow through sends him farther away from Equestria.

Rainboom looks back at Twilight. “Stay here, Twi. I got this guy covered for now.” They then disappear, catching up to Mephilzo in an instant, they grab the back of his head, then accelerate him deeper and deeper into space.

Rainboom lets go and sends Mephilzo into a gas giant the size of Jupiter. As they watch him plummet, they smirk until they see the gas giant turn black and explode in seconds. From withing the scattered remnants of what used to be a celestial body, Mephilzo bursts at Rainboom with a trail of darkness behind him.

Rainboom smirks and does the same, leaving a fiery rainbow trail behind them. They both punch each other in the face at the same time, the force of the attack collision bursting a multitude of moons in the former gas giant’s orbit.

Mephilzo takes Rainboom’s arm pulls them close and goes for a straight jab for their face. Rainboom leans backward to avoid the punch then twists their other leg up, to rock Mephilzo in the jaw with their hoof.

Mephilzo spins around from the kick. Then his claws alight with darkness as he yells out, “39 Lashes!”

Rainboom gets caught in the onslaught of slashes, until they close their wings around themself. The wings glow, and the slashes stop causing damage. Under the wings Rainboom smirks.

Then they vanish with a Super Chaos Control.

They then appear below Mephilzo. deliver a upside down double kick to Mephilzo’s chin, landing two hooves squarely to Mephilzo’s jaw.

With a crack he flies upward, as blood shoots out from his mouth it floats in zero gravity.

Rainboom pivots their body to face Mephilzo. their wings glow, then flex out. Rainboom exhales focusing their energy. Then their eyes gleam, and they buffet their wings, causing two multicolored Cross Slashes to slice through the emptiness toward Mephilzo.

As the beast rights himself, both of his arms are sliced off, his eyes widen as he sees his arms float away from his shoulders. Rainboom bursts forward, spinning in above Mephilzo. They stop spinning with the perfect amount of momentum built up. They clap their hands together into a fist and fully charged with bright white energy.

Rainboom then yells, “Freedom Comet!” and smashes Mephilzo in the head so hard that his body rainbooms through space, his eyes spin in his head as he plummets through Mephilzo slams though a moon in another solar system. He floats in space for a moment as he stares through the hole where he just came from.

Mephilzo laughs, “I am impressed! So very impressed Sonic Rainboom! You will be remembered throughout time!”

His body alights with a sickening black aura, he takes off and destroys this other moon completely as he blasts through it with his speed and power. Mephilzo shoulder checks Rainboom at incomprehensible speeds, getting back to the unified creature much faster than they anticipated. They cough up blood, as Mephilzo drives an elbow into their diaphragm.

As they reach another solar system, Mephilzo stops, lets Rainboom fly forward, then spin kicks, them in the side of the head aimed at a blue planet.

On Mephilzo’s follow through, Rainboom slams into the blue ocean planet. They extend their wings and despite lighting on fire from entering the atmosphere, they stop just above the water. Rainboom starts breathing heavily as they look up and they see a massive black ball hurdling toward them.

They say smirk, “Wow. This guy really isn’t holding back. Good thing this planet isn’t populated.”

Their ears flatten against their head as they look behind themself to see an alien species’ city on the water.

“Oh. Oh crap!” Rainboom immediately focuses, and they open up their palms and charge as much energy as possible.

They hold the energy above their heads, their hybrid rainbow quills start alternating colors even faster “Hyper Rainbow Wind!”

Rainbow slashes down diagonally, sending out a shimmering arc of white energy that collides with the black orb, it resists against the slash, pushing it back higher out of the atmosphere. When it’s at a safe enough distance, Rainbow clenches their fists and the arc sharpens, cutting the orb clean in two.

Both halves detonate harmlessly in low orbit. The arc continues and it hits Mephilzo vertically, passing through his body smoothly before the energy explodes behind him. His body sloughs into halves for a moment but he slams his hands on his head and pushes the halves of his body back together.

He breathes heavily as his evil flesh reseals. Rainboom appears a smug look on their face, while also breathing heavily.

Mephilzo becomes irate and yells out, “Let’s settle this.” His eyes glance to where Equestria is lightyears away, his grin stretches across his face. As if he had an epiphany. As he Super Chaos Controls away, Rainboom follows suit, their face becoming concerned with where Mephilzo is going.

Sonic Rainboom appears on the ground Ponyville at their back. as Mephilzo, has been in the air for a second before Rainboom got there.

The beast holds his hands to the sky, “I commend your efforts, Hyper Sonic Rainboom. I know what I must do! I’ll shatter both worlds! I’ll find some other sapient race in the universe, one that will embrace freedom. Or die!”

What was left of the blackened sky swirls down and twists itself into a ball of energy in Mephilzo’s hands. It grows and grows as the beast’s eyes become crazed, “This is your end, and my beginning.”

The ball pulses with energy and condenses. Then Mephilzo puts it between his palms “Genesis!” he aims his palm at Rainboom.

Rainboom starts to sweat as they put their hands together. High pressure air swirls and twists in their palms. It sparks with rainbow colored energy and lightning.

A few civilians watch the start of the battle in anticipation mixed with awe. Rainboom hears some of the guffawing behind them. With a look of anger, they look back, “What the hell are you gawking at! Get to cover, now!”

The ponies, now frightened, run to their homes.

They look up at Mephilzo, focusing all the power they can muster into their hands. The Cutie Mark on their flank starts to glow brightly. With a booming yell, Rainboom shouts, “The way you think about freedom is so twisted and warped! Freedom doesn’t mean you get to do whatever you want! Everyone and everypony deserves to be happy! They deserve to make their own decisions without fear of someone killing them or torturing them! This attack is gonna thrash you with real freedom!”

Their blue eyes burn brightly as they scream, “Freedom’s Breath!”

Sonic Rainboom fires a white blast of wind charged with positive energy, surrounded by a light of flaming rainbow, it roars through the air causing rainbow static to erupt in the sky.

Mephilzo grins, his green pupils vibrate in his eyes, he pushes his hand toward Rainboom and fires a beam of darkness that bends light around it. As the black beam sheers though the air, the planet reacts violently to the appearance of this incredible amount of mass.

Their beams clash and it breaks every window in town, cracks trees, and shakes the houses.

Mephilzo sees Rainboom’s power waver, he capitalizes on it and pumps more energy into the beam.

It pushes Rainboom back, their hooves grinding against the ground, but they find their footing and push back. It’s not by much but they’re at a standstill. Their heart sinks as they feel their fusion fading fast.

Mephilzo laughs, “This is the end!”

Before Mephilzo’s beam could disperse the winds of freedom. Hyper Fluttershy and Hyper Twilight appear next to the unified being.

Twilight yells out, “Let’s do this Rainboom!”

Fluttershy also yells out. “He won’t win!”

They both put their energy into the blast, Mephilzo continues screaming as he plunges his whole being into the Genesis.

Then a Chaos Spear and a Party Favor hit him at the same time, one piercing his hip from the left and the other slamming in his head from the right.

Super Pinkie beams, “Hey! Why don’tcha pay attention to your blast!”

Hyper Shadow pants but he yells, “This spot will be your grave, Mephilzo!”

The explosions from both attacks knock him off kilter.

But he’s fully thrown off balance by a blazing hammer slamming into his back from, causing him to be smashed into his own attack.

“Now!” Amy yells out, ducking low to get out of the way other energized wind.

The three hyper formed heroes scream out, pouring their souls into Freedom’s Breath, as the blast completely obliterates Mephilzo’s Genesis. The wind and positive energy scorches his body and shreds his body.

The heroes keep pushing, but the resilient beast keeps regenerating. His body has no arms or legs, but he stares down at the three, “I’ll survive this! When my body regenerates, I’ll rip all of you in half!”

Then he feels something grip him telekinetically and condenses crushes him still. Silver smiles as he clenches his fists making sure every bit of Mephilzo burns away in the light.

Then Shadow drops next to Twilight, and Pinkie drops behind Rainboom. Applejack warps in at the same time Amy does, as they all put their hands and hooves out to add their own energy to the now gargantuan blast.

Mephilzo struggles against his invisible restraints, but he glares at Silver, “This is not the end! I will be back! When I come back, I’m going to mount your-“

Silver clenches his other fist, forcing Mephilzo’s mouth shut, he looks at Mephilzo with disgust, “Save it, monster, you’re never hurting anyone ever again!”

Mephilzo feels his body be fully destroyed every particle of his evil being burns away in the intense wind and light. The beam of energy roars through the sky causing swirls of energy to paint the very atmosphere with rainbow.

Silver feels what he’s holding with his mind get weaker. And weaker. Until eventually every particle in his grip is completely destroyed,

As the beam disperses, the ponies and hedgehogs stumble, nearly collapsing. Everyone except Fluttershy powers down.

Sonic and Rainbow Dash unfuse and are in their base forms. Both clearly hurt, they look at each other Sonic smirks, “That was tight, Dash! We nailed it!”

Rainbow smirks back, “You're damn right it was! That was so freakin’ awesome! I can’t believe I was on another planet!”

Shadow falls to one knee he looks down at his wound, “This is definitely going to scar.”

Silver walks over, “Tell me about it, mine’s already scarred, see?” Silver points to a scarred wound on his chest that Fluttershy healed.

Shadow glances to Silver, “You had me concerned for a moment Silver. I thought you were killed.”

Silver looks down and smiles, “Well I was close, but Fluttershy saved my life.” He glances at Fluttershy for a moment as she walks over to Shadow and places a hoof on her.

Shadow then notices her Hyper form, Fluttershy’s mane is pink like her base form but has streaks of red and magenta and her coat is white like the other Hyper Forms.

Shadow smiles lightly, “You were very formidable Fluttershy. You should be proud.” As his wound heals over, a slash scar remains going up his torso.

Fluttershy smiles gently, “I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without you Shadow, I’m glad that you’re my friend.”

Twilight remains in her Hyper Form and looks onward into the middle distance, “We still need to find the Princesses. I’m scared to think where they could be.”

Sonic then looks over, “Safe to say they’re both in the Void, Twi. I don’t know how Mephilzo was able to do it, but he managed to capture them. If only we had a way to get there.”

Twilight then thinks for a moment, “I can improvise something, I’m sure.” She steps away from everyone as her eyes gleam, and she channels dark magic into her horn. She produces a long black gemstone blade not dissimilar to Fist’s blades, which grows overtop her horn.

Twilight focuses and makes a quick swipe with her horn blade. The blade fractures and falls apart as space-time opens up like a wound, revealing an inky black vortex.

Twilight looks back, “Who wants to come with me?”

Sonic and Rainbow are healed enough to move comfortably by Fluttershy as they stand up, Amy summons her hammer and nods. Shadow and Silver sit on the ground, too tired to go anywhere. The others are too tired to press on, including Fluttershy who powers down the moment everyone is healed.

Twilight, Sonic, Rainbow, and Amy step through the black wound.

As they feel everything around them warble, they open their eyes, they can only barely see a metal corridor with black slime streaking down the walls. They hear what sounds like arguing down the hallway, two voices, Twilight and Dash recognize the voice of King Sombra while Sonic and Amy get a shock down their spine hearing Dr. Eggman’s voice.

They follow the sounds and they all gasp as they see Sombra trapped in a glass tube, as well as Dr. Robotnik, still crucified on a wall, disemboweled and only half his face remaining. Their personalities clash as they argue about anything and everything. Across from them is a device that secures the Scepter of Light in place, this artifact is also the only light in the room.

“I feel my magic return to me but, I simply cannot escape this glass prison.” Sombra grimaces.

“Could you quit yammering on and on, if I’m stuck in here for all eternity I want silence.” Eggman growls out. Then they both turn their heads, Sombra snarls seeing Twilight, while Eggman looks at Sonic with contempt. Twilight sees Sombra in surprise, while Sonic stares daggers at Eggman.

Sonic walks forward and looks up at Eggman’s mutilated state. “Guess Mephilzo really took his anger out on you, huh Egghead?”

“He did. That wretched beast tortured me like he was the devil himself.” Eggman looks down at Sonic.

Sonic looks up, “I don’t say this about a lot of people, but if there were any scumbags on Mobius that deserved this, it’d be you.”

Twilight walks up to Sombra, but Sombra speaks, “I wasn’t here as long as the human, but I was made… subservient. He ripped my magic from me.”

Twilight then looks at the tube he’s in then looks back at the dark unicorn pointedly asks, “If I let you free from this place, what will you do?”

Without a second glance Sombra sneers, “I will take back my kingdom. Even battle you and that dragon of yours again.”

Twilight brightens the room as her Hyper energy intensifies, “Look at me, Sombra, you aren’t winning that gamble.”

Sombra then notices the wings and the mane, “You look a miniature Celestia, fitting I suppose,”

The dark king smiles mockingly, “What will you even do? Kill me? Please.”

Eggman then cuts in, “If you at all value your pathetic life, I suggest you stop talking.”

Sombra snarls at Eggman, “Silence Human!”

Eggman stares into the eyes of everyone in that room, “The creatures before us, just killed the closest thing either of us could ever equate to Satan himself. Why do you think this place feels less… oppressive?”

Sonic smirks, “Finally realizing you lost Eggy?”

Eggman leans his head back, “What else am I to do in this situation? This is my last spare body. My main facility was obliterated, and I am crucified on this wall in my own hidden complex in another dimension. This is the most I have ever failed in my life. So, hedgehog, why don’t you do us both a favor, kill me or leave. Like I told the petulant horse, that I loathe to spend eternity with; I would rather spend my eternal suffering in silence.”

Sonic looks up at him, “Between killing you and leaving you up there. I think I’ll just leave you up there. This place is like the best prison for you anyway.”

Amy eyes Eggman as she walks toward the scepter, “Call it a hunch, but I think the princesses are in here.”

Twilight walks over to the scepter and lifts it from the device with her magic.

Rainbow looks up at Eggman, “You’re the guy who terrorized Sonic’s home. You sure aged like milk from your resignation letter, egghead.”

Eggman coldly stares, “I would have roboticized you into a bomber-bot, you would have dropped gas bombs on unsuspecting people. You drove my brother insane. He was weak, an embarrassment to the Robotnik name. if G.U.N. didn’t send him to Equestria, I would have roboticized him into a coat-rack.”

Rainbow looks over at Sonic, “This guy has some serious problems.”

Sonic responds, “He sure does but this place is starting to really rub me the wrong way,” Sonic turns to Twilight, “We ready to get outta here?”

Twilight nods, “We are, but what about them? Should we just leave them here?”

Sonic then smiles, “Hold on they need some entertainment while were gone.” He walks up to the monitor and starts playing all the footage from the beginning then sets it to loop. “There. Maybe if they watch you and your friends for a while, they’ll learn something.”

Eggman’s eyes widen with hate, “You damnable hedgehog, turn this preschool drivel off!” Then the four walk off, ignoring the screaming man on the wall, Twilight looks back at Sombra who stares at her with unfathomable hatred.

They leave the Void with the Scepter in Twilight’s magical grip, everyone looks in awe as Twilight smashes the Scepter onto the ground and the forms of Celestia and Luna stretch out of the light, with their return. The sun returns to its rightful place in the sky.

They both look shake their heads and looks around, Celestia looks at Twilight in astonishment as she closes the portal and powers down. “Twilight, my dearest pupil,” then she eyes the others, “and her pony and hedgehog friends, I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. Luna and I must travel back to Canterlot, it will take time and resources but, fixing what has been damaged and destroyed is our top priority.”

She looks over at Luna who looks for the moon but can’t feel it. “Sister, the moon has been destroyed, is there a way to fix that as well?”

Celestia laughs a little, “I’m sure there’s a way to- “, Celestia comprehends what her sister just said, “Did you say the moon was destroyed?”

Luna nods a bit of sadness in her voice, “Yes, it’s in pieces.”

“Pieces you say?” Celestia then looks at the ten heroes. “I’m sure our esteemed heroes can help us fix the moon. Anyway, it is time for us to return to Canterlot. Once we set up some temporary homes, there will be a grand celebration!”

The princesses fly back to Canterlot and then Sonic turns to look around, he sees uprooted trees, broken houses, and deep canyons in the ground. Sonic frowns, “Man we did a number on this place.”

The new heroes of two worlds go to their respective homes and where they’ve been sleeping, to rest their aching bones. After a few weeks of rest and relaxion, Sonic got to tell Tails and Knuckles about what happened on Equestria as Twilight finds a way to interface an Element Emerald to the portal, Sonic throws all the Chaos Emerald and Master Emerald through the portal, a little too haphazardly. Knuckles barks angrily through the P.D.A. that the Master Emerald had just been launched through the portal.

Knuckles and Tails pass over to finally meet the ponies they’ve only met through a screen and a massive party is held in Canterlot Castle, even though the city is only partially reconstructed. The banquet also acts as an unveiling of a new mural in the hall of friendship.

Twilight is given the opportunity to speak at the end, “Ponies of Equestria, my name is Twilight Sparkle. Equestria has faced a hard ship these past few months on a scale far larger than anything we have ever dealt with.”

She stares up at the moon, “While I have sworn to fix the moon, there is something that we all have lost. Ponies we care about and love.”

Twilight looks down, then she sees Cadance in the audience and gives a small smile, “But rather than remembering them for how they died, we should remember them for how they lived.”

Her eyes scan over Sonic, Silver and Shadow, “Let’s also celebrate the brave hedgehogs who came to our world as strangers but ended up putting their lives in danger to save us. Becoming true friends to all of us.”
Twilights eyes become more resolute, “The Elements of Harmony and the Tree of Harmony may never go back to normal and there could be more things that lurk in the dark. Monsters that crawl out from nowhere. No matter what, we are going to be steadfast to defend this place, our home, and the world of Mobius, if it needs to be saved.” There is a loud applause of hooves.

After the speech, Sonic leans on a railing. The blue blur drinks some punch and looks out at the frames of houses and construction that is on hold. Rainbow Dash trots up behind Sonic. They both stare out from the castle. Rainbow Dash looks forward, “Hey, so… Just want to let you know, I’m sure they’re proud of you. the Freedom Fighters I mean.”

Sonic looks over with a smile, “Thanks Dash, and I’m confident your family would be proud of the fact they raised the coolest pony around.” Dash smiles back at Sonic and holds up her glass, they clink glasses and drink.

Dash then continues, “So when I come back to Mobius, we need to race or have some other kind of contest!”

Sonic sighs with exhaustion, “Honestly Dash, when I get back to Mobius, I might just take it really easy for a while. Equestria’s been fun, but everything else has been pretty rough. Say, we could go to a sunny beach, set up our hammocks and just snooze for a while.”

Rainbow gets excited, “Oh my gosh a beach on another planet! That would be way beyond cool.”

Shadow has his arms crossed and sticks to the corner of the party as Twilight approaches him, “Shadow the Hedgehog being a loner at a party hosted by the Princess of Friendship, I’m offended.” Then she laughs, “Kidding, of course.”

Shadow smirks, he scans the party. He then speaks, “You would be the type to approach anyone who looks lonely.”

Twilight tilts her head, “Well, yeah. It kind of comes with territory. Are you enjoying the party?”

Shadow looks up at the night sky, a faint smile on his face, “I am. It’s good to see the people of this world without worry. To see them with hope. A type of peace I have strived to achieve for a very long time on Mobius may be possible now.”

Twilight smiles but looks forward, “When we first met, I won’t lie, for a while I thought you hated us. Then you put so much time into building Fluttershy’s confidence, you lead our training… I pieced it together pretty quickly that you are a really good person. I’d give you a hug, but I get the feeling you aren’t the touchy-feely kind of guy.”

Shadow sighs “You get one.”

Twilight looks over, “Are-are you sure?”

Shadow repeats himself and holds up one finger, “Just one, Twilight, you get a singular hug.”

Twilight beams, flies up and hugs Shadow tight, “Thank you so much Shadow.” She blushes a little.

Shadow looks forward, not expecting the tightness of the hug. He gives a small hug back and his voice softens, “Don’t mention it, Twilight.” It hardens again, “I mean really, don’t mention this to anyone.”

Twilight winks, “Okay, Shadow, I won’t ruin your tough guy persona.”

As Twilight walks back to the crowd of ponies, Shadow remains alone but he also remains smiling.

Silver levitates some fillies around, to provide some entertainment, as he flips them around in the sky, he hums carnival music. Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack come over as they see Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom getting spun around.

Applejack smiles, “Well ain’t that nice of ya Silver, playing with the kids like this.”

Silver tosses another kid into the air, “Yeah, with what the kids were going through, y’know all this crazy stuff happening, I felt like they deserve a little time to have fun. It’s… rough growing up too fast. I would know.”

Fluttershy tilts her head and smiles, “Aw, that’s so sweet of you Silver.”

Rarity looks at him and then glances to the tables that have been set up, “Darling, aren’t you going to enjoy the party yourself, I’m sure the kids wouldn’t mind if you took a small break.”

Scootaloo interrupts, “C’mon Silver just a little longer, I wanna go even higher!”

Silver then looks at Rarity with a shrug, “Well, clearly my hands are tied. Up you go!” and he levitates Scootaloo higher up in the air.

Applejack frowns sadly, “Well we were just wonderin’… When ya get back to Mobius. Are you gonna go back to your own time? Y’know since your Chronos Control is workin’”

Silver then looks over and starts to feel guilty, “O-Oh! Well, I wasn’t thinking about leaving for a week or so. Besides, I’ll be back. I’m sure some other time-anomaly will rear its head.”

Rarity smiles with her eyes carrying a bit of sadness, “Since we knew you were leaving, the girls and I made you something.” Then Rarity levitates a small silver box wrapped in a neat yellow bow, to the time-traveling hedgehog. Silver looks over, he becomes curious, and slowly starts to put the kids on the ground, despite their whining.

Silver takes the box in his hands opens, he unties the bow, and he opens it to see a scarf stitched with six squares each a color that represents the Mane 6, Orange, White, Pink, Purple, Cyan and Yellow, each square with a corresponding Cutie Mark embroidered into it. Rarity continues waiting for Silver’s reaction, “We didn’t want you to… forget us, and I’m sure that the future gets very cold.”

For a moment Silver is speechless. His eyes well up with tears and they start to streak down his cheeks. Silver sniffles, “I’d-I’d never forget you guys. This is so nice of you. I’ll cherish it always.” Silver wraps the scarf around his neck, and he beams, tears still pouring down his cheeks. He gives each of them a hug.

Fluttershy hugs Silver tightly and has a few tears in her own eyes, “We’ll miss you Silver and my cottage is always open to you when you come back.”

Silver lets her go and pulls back, smiling wide while drying the tears from his eyes, “T-thank you, Flutters. Being here is always going to have a special place in my heart.”

The party winds down a bit and the Canterlot survivors clear out leaving the twelve of these heroes to converse amongst themselves for a good way into the night. The next day all the Mobians would be going home to spend some time with a few people who didn’t get to walk through the portal the first time it was created.

Knuckles and Applejack carefully move the Mirror portal outside so that Twilight could make her library feel a little bit more normal. The pair place the Crystal Mirror down and it stands right next to the door to the Golden Oak Library.

Applejack looks at Knuckles, “How’s it feel to be on this side of the portal, Knux?”

Knuckles looks around, a slight hint of weariness in his expression, “I’m not the biggest on travel, and it seems nice, but I’d much rather be on my island. Not that you ponies aren’t good hosts, but I get nervous when I’m not there nowadays.”

Applejack nods, “Oh I hear ya, I’m patrolin’ my orchard so much I can see my own hoofprints goin’ in circles.”

Knuckles looks at the mirror portal, “I should probably get out of here. Whole island to protect and repair.”

“You ain’t gonna say bye to anypony other than me?”

Knuckles scratches the back of his head, “That was my plan… until you said that and made me feel bad about it.”

“Well, I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad or nothin’, just sayin’ maybe you could find a few more ponies to talk to.”

Knuckles mulls the words around, “I don’t know… but hey, I’m sure I’ll need some adventure and come on over here. One of these days.”

AJ smiles, “You’d better Knux.”

Knuckles smiles back and heads through the portal.

Sonic, Shadow and Silver step into view with Tails and Amy behind them. They had just come from down the road.

Sonic looks at AJ, “Yo AJ!”

“How’re you all doin’ this mornin’?” AJ Beams.

“We slept pretty dang good last night, man, we were so tired.”

Silver wears the multi-sectioned scarf he was given. It covers his mouth, and his sad look is still visible.

Amy looks at Silver, she nudges him. The kind hedgehog looks over and Amy gives him a gentle smile.

Silver smiles back, “I’ll be okay Amy.”

Shadow crosses his arms as they all approach the portal. He looks at Silver and his scarf then looks away, holding his tongue on a sarcastic comment.

Tails zooms ahead to look at the Mirror. On the top of the mirror’s frame stands affixed is a purple star-shaped Element Emerald. It faintly thrums with energy. Tails flies there and admires the craftsmanship.

Twilight and the others join AJ outside, filing out from the library.

Twilight scans the group of heroes before her, “You all saved our home, I’ll be forever grateful for that, and it was a wonderful experience to be friends with all of you. While these past few months, were fairly traumatic, I’ll never forget the good times we all shared.”

Sonic gives a thumbs up, “Hey, It’s no problem, we should really be thanking you! If it wasn’t for you guys being so understanding with my uh… situation when we first got here, this could have been a completely different story.”

Tails flies up and waves, “Well. Bye you guys, It was awesome meeting you! Maybe Twilight and I can come up with some way for the portal to not need a Chaos Emerald or Element Emerald.“

Twilight nods, “We sure can try! Bye Tails!”

Tails blips through the mirror.

Amy looks at the ponies, “If any of you gals want to go shopping in New Mobotropolis do not hesitate to find me. Hanging out here with all of you has been a blast.”

Pinkie jumps up pointing at Amy, “Amy! You had better come over here to visit us too, you promised me we’d have some monthly meet ups!”

Amy giggles a little, “I haven’t forgotten Pinkie. Besides, I can’t break a Pinkie Promise!”

Amy winks at Pinkie as blips through the mirror.

Silver stands in front of the mirror. He looks down then turns around. “I know I talked about it in Canterlot but… I-I promise I’ll come back.” He gives one last hug to everyone. “I think even with this scarf I’m gonna miss you guys.” A tear forms in his eye, but he wipes it away quickly, “Heh, can’t cry in public again.” he turns toward the portal and walks through it.

Shadow walks toward the portal, he’s about to leave without saying a word. But he stops with his foot on the pedestal. He turns his whole body back, the scar from Mephilzo’s slash attack still visible through his fur. His voice is low, “I didn’t hate my time here. You’re all strong. Protect this world with everything you have and keep up with your training.” There was a sense of melancholy behind his words, but before he could express it, he walks through the portal.

Sonic turns to the ponies, “Well you gals, guess this’ll be it for a little bit. Wanna run around Mobius before the next bad guy comes around.”

Rainbow Dash flies up, her face covered in worry, “You said you are coming back. Right?”

“Of course I am! What kind of a pal would I be if I let the ‘Fastest Flier in Equestria’ go on without a proper speed rival.” Sonic smirked.

Rainbow smirked back, “Oh yeah? Next time we race, I’m gonna smoke you, ‘Fastest Thing Alive’!

Sonic holds out his fist, “I’m countin’ on it Dash.”

Rainbow bumps his fist, and smiles at him.

Sonic turns to Mobius through the mirror, and steps through. Awaiting whatever challenges come his way the next time Harmony has any Discord.