//------------------------------// // Crisis // Story: Blue Blur In Equestria // by DKN117 //------------------------------// The next four days after the foiled attack on Ponyville were spent in peace. Celestia & Luna, having recovered from the exertion of helping Sonic & Shadow kill Discord, had decreed that the group could take the time to rest and recuperate, as well as to patch things up with Rainbow Dash, as Nightmare had dropped off the grid for the moment. Twilight had briefly made herself into Dash’s personal slave in penance, only for the blue pegasus to tell her to knock it off halfway into the second day, finding it just too annoying to put up with and telling Twilight bluntly that she would have to find some other way to ease her own guilty conscience. Pinkie was at Dash’s side near-constantly, sometimes chattering in her own way but mainly just being there for & with her. Silver and Sonic had given Dash and Cadence a more detailed explanation of events up to present. The peace and calm would come to a brutal end very soon. The whole gang was finishing up a picnic at Flutter Field (Cadence and Rarity thought it cute how Dash actually let Pinkie feed her a little) when Spike suddenly coughed up a letter from Celestia. They all gathered around to read it: “Everyone, we have a very serious problem. Nightmare has deceived us. While you were all taking down the four Dark Generals he had going after well-known Planetary Magical Nexuses, he was busy gaining control of another nexus that Luna & I were unaware of in gryphon territory. Furthermore, he then traveled between the realms and to Sonic’s world, where he has clandestinely gained control over two nexuses there, one sharing the same geographical coordinates as the one in the gryphons’ lands. Now he has returned to this world, and is aiming to gain control of the other corresponding nexus outside Manehattan. “You MUST get there IMMEDIATELY, and stop him from gaining control of that nexus, or he will be able to tap into the worlds’ ambient mana and dramatically increase his power. Time is short!” Everyone had gone pale by the end of the message, shock and mild panic setting in. After several seconds, this gave way to a teleportation circle beneath everyone’s feet, as Cadence’s power flared. In a flash of pale-blue light, they all vanished. They reappeared on a hilltop overlooking Manehatten, the sprawling metropolis looking unharmed for the moment. Twilight took position and began her Scanning Spell, trying to locate the planetary magical nexus before Nightmare could. As she scanned, everyone stood nervously, waiting. Suddenly, without warning, Silver lunged into movement, appearing between his two fellow hedgehogs and shoving Sonic & Shadow in opposite directions and away from him… allowing the dark-magic spears aimed for their torsos to miss them completely. Silver grit his teeth as the one meant to kill Sonic grazed his side, drawing blood but causing no serious damage. He telekinetically leapt up high just in time to avoid the spears’ detonations, landing beside the shocked others. Sonic actually looked a little spooked as it sank in that he had just escaped death thanks to Silver; Shadow was more in control, but his widened eyes spoke volumes. “Somehow, I had a feeling that wouldn’t work.” Everyone looked toward a nearby patch of dead grass, where a large and familiar shadowy figure materialized, eyes glowing red. “So that’s Nightmare…” Rainbow Dash murmured, her body tensing as she prepared to defend herself. “Glad you could all come. Now I have an audience for my ascension.” “What makes you think we’ll let you reach the final nexus?” Knuckles said, taking a fighting stance. Nightmare smirked. “Because I already have.” The dark semi-ethereal figure pulsed, and in response a massive magical rune-circle popped up directly beneath him. He’d been hovering a few inches above the nexus the whole time. Cadence and the unicorns immediately began firing blasts of magic at him, joined by Shadow firing Chaos Spears and Omega releasing a rocket barrage. Nightmare simply raised an ethereal hand and pointed it toward them, and the attacks splashed harmlessly off of a transparent magical barrier. His power flowed into the nexus, and a few seconds later the nexus’ power flowed back into him. Nightmare threw his head back and laughed in triumph as the four-nexus connection between the worlds was completed, and both planets’ magic flowed into and through him, his power skyrocketing. Arcane power began gathering at his call, a titanic spell preparing to be unleashed. Cadence immediately cast the strongest shield spell she could manage around the group, hoping that it would withstand being at Ground Zero for what was about to happen. The seven Chaos Emeralds, acting independent of any command, added their own power, reinforcing and supercharging the shield to the point where it became opaque. The wave of dark magic raced out at the speed of sound, engulfing the city and surrounding areas. The sky turned red, and the fabric of space-time was visibly distorting in a distinctly unnatural manner. When it was over, Manehatten had been transformed into something out of Hell. When the shield spell came down, Nightmare had disappeared, heading to parts unknown. The group stared in shock and horror at the warped city below. After several seconds of shocked silence, everyone found themselves teleported to just outside the city by/with Cadence. Up close, a major new complication was made apparent. Several unfamiliar structures were not only mixed in with the known Manehatten buildings, but some of the buildings – old and new – were phasing in & out of existence. In addition, among the handful of dead bodies (the work of Nightmare’s demons now rampaging through the city), some of the bodies were ponies but others were humans. “The barrier between dimensions is damaged…” Shadow said. “Manehattan and Mission City are twisting together.” “…Why not Manhattan?” Sonic said after several seconds. “Despite the names,” Tails replied, “apparently Manhattan and Manehatten don’t share a geographical location on the two worlds. Go figure.” Cadence took to the air. “I’m going to head in and help survivors” she said. “The rest of you, make your way to the far end of the city. I’ll meet you there.” With that, she took off, flying deeper into the dimensionally-distorted metropolis, blasting a few aerial demons who thought to bar her path. The group made their way a little ways into the city, finding a burning hellscape with rubble, fire, and even some lava awaiting them. “Alright, everyone” Sonic said. “Watch yourselves. If you see any survivors, help them out, but otherwise keep moving. Okay, let’s go!” (MUSIC: Sonic 2006 – “Crisis City”) They split into three separate groups, all heading in the same direction: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Fluttershy, Spike, & Twilight; Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, & Pinkie; and Silver, Amy, Cream, Applejack, & Trixie. A large group of Nightmare’s demons stepped out to engage them, only for the determined force to easily bust through them, Knuckles and Silver getting the most kills. Sonic took off at his usual speed, Tails & Knuckles keeping up with him while Fluttershy carried Twilight (who used a spell to lower her own mass and make herself easier to carry) and Spike in flight and managed to keep pace with the blue blur, the seriousness of the situation compelling her to fly at her best. They all advanced into the city, taking different paths at different (but fast) paces. Shadow’s group took down another group of demons (Omega’s machineguns and Shadow doing most of the work) and then made their way over a lava-filled gap (Dash carried Rarity & Pinkie, Rouge carried Omega, and Shadow simply ran along the side of a nearby building). A pack of worm-like fire creatures awaited them, only for a rocket barrage from Omega and a burst of conjured water from Rarity to destroy them. They continued on, picking up speed, and Pinkie used her earth-pony strength to kick down a damaged piece of building wall standing in their way, knocking it down on top of and crushing a few smaller demons that had been waiting in ambush. The group didn’t even notice the dying creatures as they sped past them. Silver’s group had taken to the rooftops, moving along the high route toward their destination; Silver and Cream flew over the gaps while carrying Applejack (telekinetically) and Amy, respectively, while Trixie simply relied on her Lightning-Aura-enhanced speed to make the running jumps necessary to cross the gaps (with Silver keeping an eye out in case she didn’t make any jumps, so he could catch her). Halfway through a particularly long jump, it looked like Trixie wasn’t going to make it… until her Lightning Aura extended outward from her back to form a pair of wings, with which she glided the rest of the way; they weren’t nearly strong enough for her to fly under her own power, but she could at least glide with them. A squadron of flying demons dove at them while they were halfway across a rooftop, only for Silver to blast some away with focused telekinetic shock-blasts while Cream fired Amy via Thunder Shoot, taking out several more. The last two fell to Applejack, and the quintet continued on. Knuckles’ punch sent the big demon flying back at least 50 feet, and a burst of flame from Spike finished off the downed creature before it could recover. Fluttershy swooped down, flying low over a pack of smaller demons, while at the same time Twilight, who Fluttershy was carrying, unleashed a volley of explosive bursts of magic. The combined effect was a carpet-bombing that cleared the area of all but a few hostiles, who in turn were quickly dealt with by Sonic and Tails. They continued on, and soon reached a dimensional amalgamation of the town squares of Manehatten and Mission City. Halfway across, a large group of Nightmare’s demons emerged from all sides, surrounding them. Before they could strike at their ambushers, however, someone beat them to the punch. A hail of shuriken came from seemingly out of nowhere, cutting into several of the demons and destroying some of them. A small yellow-and-black figure then flew in, flitting about and striking demons as he went. Finally, a large green figure came crashing down, stomping a demon into the ground as he landed and then sending another one flying with a punch. The green one – a bipedal semi-humanoid crocodile – turned to the group. “Hey, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles. Long time no see.” “Vector! Espio! Charmy!” Sonic greeted. “What are you guys doing here?” “We were working on a case in the city when everything went crazy!” Charmy excitedly answered. “We helped some people get to safety,” Espio added, “and we were about to try to find whatever’s causing this when you guys showed up.” “It’s being caused by a dark entity called Nightmare” Tails said. “Nightmare?” Vector asked. “We’ll explain on the way” Sonic replied. “We’ve gotta keep moving. You guys wanna come?” “Sure thing! Lead the way!” As Sonic’s group, including its three new members, got moving again, Shadow’s group was punching through another group of fire-demons. Spears of rock formed & launched by Rarity’s Earth-style magic cut down a significant number of them, while Shadow and Omega took down the rest with Homing Attacks and machinegun-fire. At the same time, Team Silver had pretty much finished roof-hopping and was now ground-bound again, fighting through the streets as they advanced, Silver’s high-speed telekinetic projectiles and Trixie’s blasts of lightning easily dealing with most of the enemies they encountered. As everyone continued onward, however, a new - and very large – obstacle made itself known. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me…” Knuckles said. The humongous tornado moving around the city had a rather interesting property: it was made of fire. Bits of building were swirling around in it, as were several blocky objects. It became clear exactly what the blocky objects were when a twisted, scorched carcass of a car was flung outward from it and bounced off the side of a building near to Team Sonic. “Jeez…” Vector said. “That thing must be carrying half the cars in the city. Maybe it formed over a highway.” The three teams soon regrouped together, and now found the flame-tornado to be blocking their path. Rainbow Dash set Pinkie down and then took off, flying in a high-speed circle around the tornado in the opposite direction it was spinning. The tornado began to destabilize and weaken, shrinking and breaking apart, all the debris it had been carrying raining back down to the ground. As it did, however, an energy blast came from inside it, narrowly missing Dash, who then dived down to the ground to dodge a few more. The tornado finally dispelled, revealing a large machine, bearing dark, black & purple shades of color along with a slash mark that went across a caricatured, grinning mustached face. It was one of Dr. Eggman’s machines, corrupted and taken over by Nightmare. (BOSS MUSIC – Sonic Generations – “Crisis City (Modern)”) The machine zipped down, firing a few cannon blasts at the heroes, who dodged them. As it turned and then began racing down/above the burnt and damaged highway, Sonic gave chase. “You guys keep moving!” he shouted. “I’ll meet you there!” Speeding down the highway, Sonic quickly caught up to his target. The corrupted droid pounded the highway, letting loose a dark shockwave across the ground that Sonic leapt over. Sonic then noticed that Nightmare’s corruption had failed to eliminate the typical Eggman-brand machine weakness: a big, glowing weak point. He took advantage of this, getting in close and hitting it with a Homing Attack. The mech was knocked back, the uncontrolled surge of energy caused by the blow to its power core having caused moderate damage to it. It shook off the surge and fired a barrage of cannon-fire at Sonic, who dodged & weaved, narrowly avoiding blasts from the three .75-caliber guns firing at him. Sonic boosted forward and struck, destroying the right-most cannon. The corrupted machine sped up a little bit, but Sonic easily kept pace. This time, when the droid smashed its mechanical fists down, a column of spikes rising up from the ground accompanied the shockwave, aimed at Sonic. Sonic flash-stepped to the side and then jumped, avoiding both portions of the combination attack. This was repeated twice more. He then leapt forward and struck with another Homing Attack, hitting the machine’s weak point again. The corrupted mecha twitched and sparked as more of its power core’s energy was forcibly loosed through its systems, damaging them further. Its left arm shifted, transforming into a large cannon, the barrel five inches across. Sonic narrowly dodged the first shot, which blasted a chunk out of the highway behind him. The two remaining .75-caliber machineguns opened up again, joining the big gun’s fire. At the same time, the robot used its free arm to unleash another shockwave and column of crystal spikes at Sonic. Sonic channeled the power of one of the Chaos Emeralds stored within him, generating a bluish-white shield of energy around him and allowing him to bust through the attacks. He leapt forward and, one last time, struck the power core harder than ever. The corrupted machine let out a mechanical roar as its power core’s containment began to fail completely. Sonic slowed down, letting the out-of-control machine get distance. Several seconds later, there was a powerful explosion as the mecha’s volatile power core detonated, completely destroying the Nightmare-turned machine. A few minutes later, Sonic caught up with the others, who had just finished off another pack of Nightmare’s demons. They all quickly reached the location designated by Cadence earlier. Less than a minute later, Cadence herself showed up, flying overhead. She came in for a landing, looking a little tired and slightly singed. “I managed to save some,” she said sadly, “but there were at least twice more that I was too late for. …We should head back to Canterlot.” In a flash of pink, the entire group disappeared. Several seconds later, they all appeared in the middle of Canterlot Castle’s throne-room. Celestia and Luna were both there. Upon seeing them, Espio got down on one knee and bowed his head. Vector followed suit after manhandling Charmy into doing it as well. After a few seconds, she noticed them and bid them to rise. “Princess…” Twilight said. “I’m sorry. We were too late.” “I know” Celestia replied, her tone weary yet with no anger or disappointment in it. “We felt it. It’s not your fault, Twilight.” “Indeed” Luna added. “Nightmare has over 200 millennia of experience; outwitting Celestia & myself, who are barely a step over three millennia in age, must have been rather easy for such a foe.” “Then what chance do we have?” Amy said solemnly. “We can’t give up hope yet” Trixie cut in. “Just because we’ve hit a setback doesn’t mean that Nightmare has automatically won. Have a little faith, guys; I’ve learned the hard way what happens if you lose hope in things.” Celestia’s eyebrows quirked up as she felt, for an instant, a faint pulse of familiar energy from within the blue unicorn. Following a hunch, she spoke up. “Why do you believe so strongly in the power of hope?” Celestia asked, her tone making it clear she was not disagreeing, merely curious. “Because for a long time, it was all I had” Trixie replied. “All that kept me going. Hope for making a name for myself, rather than being confused with my sisters, drove me to leave home when I was a child. Hope for a better future kept me moving forward when things were hard back when I was first starting out. …After I realized that night how I’d fallen from what I used to be, hope that I could redeem myself kept me from giving in against the Ursa Minor. And after you all took me in and accepted me, it got me through every one of the trials we faced. Without hope, I’d have long since curled up and let myself die.” “Excellent words, my dear. I daresay you embody hope just as Applejack embodies Honesty, or Pinkie joy, or Rainbow Dash loyalty. In fact… It seems the Elements think so, too.” Confused, the girls looked down – having been focused entirely on Trixie during her little speech – and noticed that each of them had their Harmony Element’s symbol glowing with its respective color on/over their chests. The six symbols then unleashed thin, curving beams from each of them that met at the same spot on Trixie’s upper chest. In a burst of light, a bluish symbol of a five-pointed star formed, rapidly solidifying into a golden necklace holding a blue, star-shaped gem. Celestia smiled. “Welcome to the Elements, Bearer of Hope.” “Heh” Sonic said. “So now we’ve got seven Chaos Emeralds and seven Harmony Elements. Nightmare’s in for a hell of a fight.” “Speaking of the Emeralds,” Luna cut in, interrupting the Mane Six’s crowding around Trixie, “we have discovered that there is an artifact on Sonic’s world that may be able to help stop Nightmare: the Master Emerald.” “As soon as you’re all ready,” Celestia said, “Luna, Cadence, & I can teleport you all over to Sonic’s world; Nightmare isn’t the only one who can take advantage of the weakening of the cross-dimensional barrier. I can’t lock in onto the Master Emerald’s power signature; you’ll have to find it the hard way once you get there.” “I know where it is” Knuckles replied. “I am its guardian, after all.” “Very good. As soon as you’re all ready to go, let us know.” After about 10 minutes of preparation (and, for Team Chaotix, explanation), the group was ready. Celestia, Luna, and Cadence formed a triangle around them, charging their power. The wounded fabric of space-time bent to their will, and in a burst of light the heroes disappeared.