Sprawling Light

-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.