Sprawling Light

-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.