Sprawling Light

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“The cord I purchased is too out of date, and I don’t have the proper adapter.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.