Sprawling Light

-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.”