Sprawling Light

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.”