Blue Blur In Equestria

by DKN117

Bad Dream

When the group came out of the forced teleport, it tossed them all haphazardly about, leaving many of them sprawled out on the ground and groaning. As they picked themselves up and looked around, they marveled at the bizarre realm they’d found themselves in. The sky was a roiling, shifting thing of reds, blues, purples, silver, and black, rock formations as big as multi-story buildings stretched to the sky in-between stretches of dead, flat ground, and the air was slightly cold.

“So this is a realm that exists between our two realms?” Rouge wondered aloud.

“It’s very dark and dreary” Rarity commented.

“So which way do we go?” Tails asked.

“I guess we just… start walking and hope we find something” Twilight replied.

It was as good a plan as any, so they did. The landscape was eerily quiet besides the howling of wind, but everyone kept their senses on high alert regardless. The seven Element-Bearers made double-sure their Harmony Elements were with them and ready. Everyone kept their eyes peeled, on the lookout for anything they could find. It didn’t take long before something found them instead. Halfway across a flat area, a rather large amount of Nightmare’s shadow-demons sprang up from the ground, every one of them eyeing the group like they were prey. Shadow made the first move, a barrage of Homing Attacks that took out nearly a fourth of the attackers. Several bolts of lightning that chained between targets took out many more, courtesy of Trixie. Spike, Cream, and Fluttershy had teamed up, covering each other as they took out anything that got too close. Omega and Sonic collaborated to take out another few handfuls. Within less than two minutes, the enemies were down and out, and the group continued on.

The next half an hour was spent in similar circumstances – quiet walking with occasional bursts of enemy activity. As they advanced, they reached a massive, flat area with occasional spires of rock here & there. Here, they found four stationary pillars of opaque violet energy, each bearing a different symbol. Suddenly, as one, the symbols pulsed. At the same time, a voice came from overhead, from seemingly nowhere.

“I do not have time to deal with you lot at the moment” Nightmare said. “I shall leave you to be disposed of by these avatars of my most powerful previous forms; they only have half as much power as I did when I was them, but that will certainly be enough. Now you shall face the power of Nightmare four times over!”

With that, the pillars surged with power, soon forming into four dark figures. The first was an exact copy of Nightmare Moon. The second was a tall, black-armored, human-shaped figure carrying a scimitar-shaped plasma blade and bearing glowing red sigils on his armor – the Nightmare-possessed Promethean-class Forerunner called Nightmare Abyss. The third was a towering, ape-like creature, its fur pitch-black and its fangs lengthened by Nightmare’s corruption, wearing black and silver armor and hefting a massive hammer with glowing components in one side of its head and a wicked silver blade on the other – the corrupted Jiralhanae Chieftain, Nightmare Skaltulus. Last and largest was a huge insectoid being with many glowing red eyes and a carapace bristling with dark-energy spikes – the corrupted Rachni Queen, Nightmare Kr’lss.

(BOSS MUSIC: Kingdom Hearts II – “Disappear”)

“Well, crap” Knuckles succinctly summed up everyone’s thoughts.

Nightmare Moon made the first strike, firing a barrage of Darkness-element magical arrows at the heroes. Everyone scattered, the three unicorns’ shield spells blocking the few the group didn’t dodge, and everyone split into four teams to each focus on one of the Nightmares.

(Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, & Twilight vs. Moon; Shadow, Rouge, Omega, Trixie, Applejack, & Spike vs. Kr’lss; Silver, Amy, Cream, Fluttershy, & Rarity vs. Abyss; Espio, Charmy, Vector, Rainbow Dash, & Pinkie vs. Skaltulus)

Espio threw a few kunai at Nightmare Skaltulus, whose armor-mounted energy shield shimmered as it protected him from harm, the weapons bouncing off. The beast roared, and leapt at the two ponies. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie launched to the side in either direction, and as the hammer cracked down on where they’d been it released a violet pulse of energy, a low-pitched pulse sound, and a gravitic shockwave that utterly pulverized the ground it hit. Not even a notoriously-durable earth pony could survive a direct unprotected hit from that thing, and even a glancing blow could break bones. Espio threw three more kunai, these with explosive tags wrapped around their handles; they exploded, making Skaltulus’ energy shield flare as he roared in anger. A high-speed kick from Dash brought his shields down, leaving him open to a series of blows from her & Pinkie. The girls leapt back as the Nightmare got his bearings back and took a swing with the blade end of his hammer, Dash barely avoiding being de-winged.

Nightmare Abyss’ crimson blade swung downward, crashing against the Gem Shield that Rarity had conjured, cutting deep into the shield. He then leapt away before he could cut through in order to avoid a hammer swing from Amy. Abyss activated a wrist-mounted blaster and aimed at Cream, only for the shots to be deflected by a psionic barrier cast by Silver, who was standing between Cream and Abyss. Silver then launched his barrier forward like a shockwave, bowling Abyss over. The Nightmare quickly leapt back to his feet, making a short-range teleport to appear above & behind Silver, sword poised… and was bashed away by Fluttershy, who hit hard enough to cause a sorta-small crack in his armor’s chestplate. The figure growled and fired a barrage of Darkness-type projectiles at the pegasus, who took to the air, out-flying the homing blasts for long enough to Silver to conjure a barrier between her and them to dissipate them.

Waves of ice spears were conjured and fired by the copy of Nightmare Moon, cutting through the air as they raced toward the four beings arrayed against her. Twilight cast a Fire Shield that rendered the frozen projectiles harmless, and then launched the shield as a solid concussive wave of flame at the facsimile of the corrupted alicorn. NM responded with a shockwave of cold darkness that met Twilight’s attack head-on, the two techniques cancelling each other out. Moon was then blindsided by a Homing Attack from Sonic, knocking her off-balance and nearly cracking a rib. She growled and fired a blast of lightning, but Sonic had already moved out of the way before it had left her horn. Knuckles, fired by Tails’ Thunder Shoot, came hurtling in, uncurling and lashing out with a lightning-infused punch that sent Moon tumbling back several meters. She caught herself and fired a barrage of Darkness-type magic bolts at him, only for Sonic to dash in and pull Knuckles away at high speed, making the attack miss.

Nightmare Kr’lss paid little mind to the bolts of lightning and blasts of fire from Trixie and Spike, the corrupted and mutated Rachni Queen’s thick carapace protecting her from them as easily as it deflected Omega’s machinegun rounds. That is, until a green fireball from Spike barely missed one of Kr’lss’ eyes; in response, the beast let out a roar and fired a shockwave of dark power at Spike and Omega, the two barely getting out of the way in time. She then gave a burst of surprising speed, her many legs carrying her quickly toward Applejack and Rouge, her body wreathed in Darkness-type energy. Rouge quickly picked Applejack up and flew the both of them out of the way, barely avoiding Kr’lss’ charge. Trixie then fired a well-placed lightning blast that hit one of the dark queen’s leg joints, where two pieces of carapace/armor met, allowing the electricity to make its way in and surge through Kr’lss’ body. The insectoid queen let out an unearthly shrieking roar, which transitioned into an enraged hissing growl once the shocking came to its end. Kr’lss threw her head high and let out a call that sounded like heavily distorted whale-song, her eyes glowing red. In response, several swirling dark portals opened on the ground, and from each of them rose a large insectoid creature. Each one was a black-carapaced, vaguely prawn-looking insectoid with two spike-tipped tentacles and several spikes lining their bodies; it was obvious that whatever they were, they were mutated by Nightmare’s power and corruption just like their queen was.

The other three Nightmare Hosts quickly followed Kr’lss’ example: three Shadowbolts formed around Moon, Skaltulus called forth a small horde of twisted dark creatures, some hunched and wearing triangular backpacks while others were thin and birdlike with arm-mounted shields, and Abyss summoned several mechanical beings in the form of galloping laser-blaster-headed quadrupeds, floating two-disked support mechs, and bipedal things with arm-mounted blades and directed-energy rifles. All were visibly tainted by Nightmare’s power. And as one, they attacked.

Rainbow Dash and Charmy immediately started picking off the shield-carrying birdlike beings, using their speed & agility to get around the shields before the creatures could get them to bear in time. Espio and Pinkie focused on the short, stout ones with packs on their backs, using well-placed kunai and earth-pony strength to start bringing them down. Vector, meanwhile, bull-rushed straight through them, mowing down any minions that got in his way as he charged Skaltulus. He picked up a wounded minion and threw it at the corrupted Brute, smacking Skaltulus in the face and disorienting him. Vector used this opportunity to land a heavy punch that dented the corrupted Brute’s chestplate, followed by a series of more heavy blows that culminated in wrenching Skaltulus’ gravity hammer out of his hands. He swung, smashing the beast in the side and sending him to the floor. A downward strike then pulverized Skaltulus’ head, and his body faded away. However, the minions he summoned did not vanish upon his death, and thus Vector used his new weapon to begin clearing the field.

Fluttershy bucked a corrupted Promethean Watcher so that it smacked into a Promethean Knight hard enough to damage something vital, both machines collapsing to the ground inert. Spears of rock from Rarity shot up from the ground and took out several Crawlers, and Cream focused on any Crawlers that Rarity didn’t get, while Silver & Amy focused on Nightmare Abyss. Amy landed a hammer blow on the crack in Abyss’ chestplate left by Fluttershy, widening the crack. She then barely dodged a point-blank blaster bolt to the face, flipping out of the way as Silver let loose a telekinetic punch that fractured Abyss’ faceplate. Suddenly, the ground beneath and around Abyss rapidly broke apart, sand infused with Rarity’s magic flowing upward and toward the corrupted Forerunner. Fluttershy and Cream covered the unicorn as she concentrated, forcing the sand into and through the cracks in Abyss’ armor. The Nightmare-Host’s movements gradually slowed as the sand filled his armor. Then, Rarity let out a pulse of magic, and the sand compressed with great force, crushing Nightmare Abyss instantly. The sound of bones shattering accompanied a burst of purple mist from the armor’s seams and cracks. After a few seconds, the motionless figure toppled over and began to dissolve away. With that accomplished, the group turned their attention to the remaining Promethean Droids.

A well-placed punch from Knuckles shattered the ribcage of a Shadowbolt, destroying the dark construct. Sonic was in the middle of a high-speed duel against another of them. Tails threw a dummy-ring bomb at Nightmare Moon-2, the weapon exploding in her face. Briefly flash-blinded, she snarled and blind-fired a blast of ice magic that Tails easily dodged. Twilight fired six swirling disks of slicing fire; two of them cut down the third Shadowbolt, while the other four flew at Moon, who only managed to dodge one of them, the other three cutting/burning into her wing, side, and rear legs. Her eyesight now regained, she fired another barrage of Darkness-type magic projectiles, focusing fire on Twilight and Sonic. Twilight used her Harmony Element to cast a brief-lasting shield-dome of Light-type magic, while Sonic used the opportunity to lure the Shadowbolt he was fighting into the attacks, which destroyed the being. Then, in a blur of blue, Sonic appeared right in front of Nightmare Moon-2… with two charged Chaos Emeralds inches from her face. In a flash of two-colored light, a double charged burst blew the alicorn construct’s head off, the body dissipating into Darkness particles as it fell.

Corrupted Rachni Soldiers screeched as they were cut down by Spike’s fireballs, Omega’s flamethrowers, and Rouge’s carapace-shattering kicks. Meanwhile, Shadow, Trixie, and Applejack focused on Nightmare Kr’lss. Another Homing Attack smacked into the corrupted Queen’s head, disorienting and angering the creature. Applejack landed a crushing double-kick to one of the Queen’s many legs, taking it out of commission. In response, another leg came within inches of spearing through AJ from above, the farmgirl narrowly avoiding impalement. A burst of lightning from Trixie took out one of Kr’lss’ smaller eyes, causing her to shriek in rage. And then Vector came in from out of nowhere, having finished off the last of Skaltulus’ minions, and struck with his new gravity hammer at a spot on the corrupted Rachni Queen’s upper back, fracturing the thick armored carapace there. Applejack then jumped and ran up the massive creature’s sides and back, jumping up and coming down hard with a gravity-assisted, earth-pony-strength stomp that broke off a portion of the natural armor. Finally, Omega got through the corrupted soldiers holding him back, jetted up, and fired three missiles directly into the new weak point. The resulting explosion tore Kr’lss open, scattering burning bug bits in every direction. The mighty beast collapsed to the ground, going still, and soon faded away. Without their Queen’s direction, her soldiers went still and toppled over.

As the dust settled and everyone caught their breath, they congregated together and tended to each other’s (light) wounds; Vector was quite happy to discover that his new weapon did not disappear. Within less than a minute, however, the ground began to shake. A booming voice echoed across the land:

“THE TIME HAS COME FOR MY ASCENSION.”

In the distance, a massive figure could be seen rising up into the sky. It was black, with midnight-blue claws on its four hands, purple membranes on its six wings, a silver glow to the five horns on its head and to the spikes lining its long, thick tail, and the red glow of its four eyes could be seen even from here. This was Nightmare’s corporeal, full-power “complete” form, achieved by feeding off the mana from the two worlds. It let out a deep roar that made the sky and ground tremble, its mere presence disrupting reality. Nightmare ascended high into the sky, not deigning to even notice the tiny things staring up at it with awe and fear.

“Now what do we do…?” Vector muttered.

“That thing makes Discord look like a pushover” Spike said fearfully.

Their attention was drawn to a multicolored glow nearby. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver stood in a small circle, eyes closed in focus as the seven Chaos Emeralds slowly orbited them. Standing in a circle around them were the seven Element-Bearers, their eyes closed as well as their Elements glowed in tandem with the Emeralds. The glow from the fourteen magical artifacts increased as the Emeralds’ orbit speed increased. As they reached their zenith, the 10 opened their eyes, which were glowing white. Then, in a near-blinding flash, their fur turned golden, and the irises of their eyes became a warm, piercing crimson. From the backs of Twilight, Trixie, Rarity, AJ, & Pinkie, four golden, feathery wings sprouted; Dash and Fluttershy each got a second pair of wings. The three hedgehogs floated around a foot off the ground.

“T-Ten Chaos Emerald Super Modes…” Charmy gasped.

“Alright, guys…” Sonic said, his voice low, even-toned, and deadly serious, but also confident. “Let’s go save the worlds.”

One by one, in rapid succession, the 10 took off, soaring up into the sky at speed. Espio, Charmy, Vector, Spike, Rouge, Omega, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, and Cream stared up in wonder, knowing that all they could do now was hope and pray.

(FINAL BOSS MUSIC: Sonic 2006 – “Solaris Phase 2”)

Before long, Nightmare came into view. Shadow announced the group’s presence with a charged Chaos Spear that smashed into the abomination’s right side. Nightmare let out a growl as he looked down and spotted the 10 golden figures flying toward him.

“DO YOU MORTALS HONESTLY THINK THE BOOST THOSE ARTIFACTS GIVE YOU WILL BE ENOUGH?”

The group said nothing in reply as they leveled off at Nightmare’s altitude, floating/flying a few hundred feet from him. Nightmare fired a wave of large Darkness projectiles… only for Twilight to cast a hypercharged shield-spell that easily deflected them. Trixie and Rainbow Dash each unleashed a huge bolt of lightning-type magic at Nightmare, both of them striking dead-on. Nightmare, caught by surprise by how much power these little beings now wielded, let out an angry roar as the supercharged lightning scorched his armored hide. He was angry at these insects for harming him, and angry at himself for underestimating them and the power the Emeralds and the Elements gave them.

A purple light heralded a massive beam of energy fired by Nightmare at the group, who scattered to avoid it. Sonic, AJ, and Dash rushed in, ramming themselves into Nightmare with auras flaring, and then falling back to avoid his retaliatory swing, the daemon having lost one of his horns to Dash’s hit. Nightmare fired a bolt of black lightning at Pinkie, only for Silver to intercept it with a psionic shield, which then shattered into a fusillade of slicing energy blades that flew at Nightmare, most bouncing off his armored hide but a few cutting into joints or the membranes of his wings. Rarity struck next, a beam of raw offensive magic that she “swung” downward, burning a line down Nightmare’s lower body and then severing one of the spikes halfway down his tail. Nightmare lunged/flew forward with surprising speed, claw raised to swat Rarity like a fly, only for Fluttershy to dash in and pull her out of the way.

A transonic-speed punch to the face from Sonic rocked Nightmare’s huge head to the side, and a super-strength flying double-kick from Applejack impacted mid-back, near the base of the daemon’s wings. The blows left proportionately-small cracks in Nightmare’s natural armor, black light spilling forth from them. His eyes flashed red, accompanying a roar of fury and an omni-directional pulse of dark power that knocked the close-in fighters away from him. He then unleashed a sweeping stream of dark purple fire, which was countered and cancelled out by a stream of glowing white fire from Twilight. Silver fired a huge “cannonball” of compressed telekinetic force, his Super Form giving him enough power to launch the thing at Mach 1.2. With an accompanying sonic boom, the psionic projectile smashed into Nightmare’s chest area, knocking the titanic beast backward and damaging the ‘armor’ there.

“I HAVE LIVED LONGER THAN YOUR SPECIES HAVE EXISTED! AND YET YOU INSECTS WITH NO MORE THAN TWO DECADES TO YOUR NAMES DARE TO THINK YOURSELVES SUPERIOR?! YOU ARE NOTHING BEFORE MY POWER, MY EXPERIENCE!”

“Didn’t you know?” Silver shouted back. “It’s the nature of things for the old to make way for the new!”

Pinkie somehow formed a huge ethereal cannon, pointed at Nightmare. It fired, a shell of hyper-compressed wind racing out and exploding against Nightmare’s lower body, damaging his tail. A Super Homing Attack from Shadow then struck the base joint of Nightmare’s secondary left arm, the force nearly tearing the limb off. A sword/spear made of blazing fire, courtesy of Twilight, flew in and finished the job, severing the appendage. Nightmare roared in pain and rage, and fired a crimson laser-beam based off that of the huge squid-shaped mechanoid he’d faced off against 150,000 years ago. The beam cut through the air, and Rainbow Dash narrowly avoided being incinerated by it. In response, Fluttershy flew at Nightmare with great speed, using the agility her new second pair of wings gave her to deftly dodge Nightmare’s next shot. She got in close and struck at his neck, the strike forcing him to cut off his attack as his remaining secondary arm reached up to protect his throat while the two primary arms tried to swat Fluttershy out of the sky, to no avail.

It was then that something new formed overhead: a huge eastern-dragon made of lightning. Trixie swung her head down, the glow of her horn intensifying as the lightning dragon dove at Nightmare. The daemon’s form seized as bolts of lightning cascaded across his body… and several seconds later he released his own torrent of black lightning at the group, with Silver & Twilight’s combined shield barely withstanding the attack. As soon as it was done, Rarity fired a barrage of ice spears… ice spears that exploded on contact, as Nightmare found out when he took a swing at some. They tore into his wing membranes and his primary arms, damaging him further. Then Shadow finished charging his own attack: two Chaos Spears which he launched in quick succession. One impacted the center of Nightmare’s chest, further damaging the armor/hide there; the other hit him in the head, blowing off three of his horns and taking out two of his four eyes.

“I AM ETERNAL! I AM CORRUPTION INCARNATE!! I AM THE DARKNESS IN WHICH ALL LIGHT DIES!!”

“The lights of our hearts will never be extinguished” Shadow replied. “Others have failed to do so before, and you will not succeed now!”

A huge ball of white fire from Twilight surged toward Nightmare, only for him to cancel it out with an equal-sized dark-purple fireball. Before the smoke had even cleared, Applejack and Sonic rushed in, dealing a double super-tackle that damaged Nightmare’s primary left arm and punched a meter-wide hole through the membrane of one of his wings. Pinkie came in low, her own attack actually blasting off the tip of Nightmare’s tail, eliciting yet another pained roar of fury. Rarity fired a barrage of large magical projectiles, and when Nightmare crossed his arms to block them they flew over, under, and around the defense and smashed directly into the daemon’s front and sides. Nightmare’s crimson beam lanced out again, and Silver brought up a maximum-strength psionic shield that just barely managed to protect him and Trixie.

Another fireball from Twilight managed to connect, the white flames searing and scorching Nightmare’s armored hide. Two well-aimed Chaos Spears from Shadow badly damaged the daemon’s secondary wings, and twin supersonic blows from Dash & Fluttershy severed his remaining secondary arm. A wave of magical projectiles from Trixie curved around and struck the upper back all at one spot, widening the crack left by Applejack’s earlier blow. Shadow blitzed in with a supercharged uppercut that rocked Nightmare’s head back, and a follow-up blow by Applejack broke off another of his head-horns. Finally, a combined magical attack by Twilight, Rarity, and Silver raced out and impacted head-on, an explosion obscuring Nightmare from sight.

Then the smoke faded, Nightmare hovered in place, badly damaged.

“I… AM THE ETERNAL SHADOW… THE BEING WHO BROUGHT GALAXY-SPANNING CIVILIZATIONS TO THEIR KNEES. I AM HE TO WHOM ALL OTHER LIVING BEINGS ARE PLAYTHINGS! TRILLIONS HAVE FALLEN BEFORE ME!”

“It’s all in your name, Nightmare” Sonic said, as the other nine began pouring their power into him. “You’re a bad dream that haunts the lives of the galaxy. But the thing about bad dreams is that they don’t last forever. They always reach an end. Now…”

With a sonic boom, he charged, his entire body glowing, his first held out in front.

“…It’s time for the worlds to wake up!!!”

There was a burst of light as Sonic impacted Nightmare, entering through the damaged armor on the front and bursting through the crack on the other side. Nightmare roared as his body twisted and seized, beams of light punching through him from within, one by one. Seconds later, there was a blinding burst of light that burned away the darkness once and for all. After over 200,000 years of terrorizing countless civilizations, Nightmare was no more.

Everyone shielded their eyes as the wave of light expanded outward, enveloping everything and everyone, enveloping the entirety of the realm between realms.

Author's Note:

NOTE: This chapter was written before Halo 4, and thus before I learned (the hard way) just how infuriatingly durable and hard-to-kill Promethean Knights really are. Had I known, I may have written things a big differently during the fight against Abyss.

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There was a burst of light as Sonic impacted Nightmare, entering through the damaged armor on the front and bursting through the crack on the other side.

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