Blue Blur In Equestria

by DKN117

Approaching Shadows

“I still can’t believe Rarity managed to beat those troll-dog things without lifting a hoof!” Tails said.

“That’s because you don’t know what a girl is capable of when she needs to be” Amy replied.

The whole group was walking through the rocky area near the Diamond Dogs’ caves. In addition to letting her go with carts full of gems, they’d pointed out to the group the location of another vein of gemstones that they had been planning to start harvesting from. In exchange for the information, Rarity promised to leave half of what she found for them. Today, she had enlisted everyone to help her, with Sonic’s group coming along for security (there were rumors of a rogue dragon-snake living somewhere in the area).

They reached an area where several massive rock formations provided ample shade, and Rarity & her volunteers got to work, Spike & Pinkie digging while Rarity & Twilight detected & retrieved the gems, and Knuckles did both. Suddenly, there was a shriek. Everyone looked to see that a shadowy hand had emerged from the ground, grabbing hold of Rarity’s leg. She quickly composed herself and lashed out at it with a telekinetically-wielded gem-blade. The unseen creature hissed and withdrew. From the shadows, dozens of creatures emerged – bipeds, hunched over, with long arms and huge claws, standing twice the shoulder-height of a pony, entirely featureless except for glowing red eyes.

“These aren’t the Shadow-Slashers you told us about, are they, Sonic?” Knuckles asked.

“No” the hedgehog replied. “I’ve never seen these guys before. Twilight?”

“They’re not native. I have no idea what they are. Whatever they are, they feel wholly different from Black Doom’s minions… but just as unnatural.”

Two-dozen of the things charged, and everyone readied themselves to fight. Sonic and Dash struck first, using their speed to blitz about, taking down several foes each in rapid succession. Two bursts, one of fire and the other of lightning, signaled Twilight’s and Trixie’s attacks. Soon, everyone leapt in.

Suddenly, a cry from Cream caught everyone’s attention. She was being held up off the ground by the neck by one of the creatures, struggling vainly to break free. Cheese was being kept from helping her by two more of the creatures. The beast raised its other hand, extending a claw, and went to stab her with it… and got a kick to the head from behind, knocking Cream out of its grip. The reddish blur grabbed hold of Cream and flashed away from the beasts, coming to a stop atop a boulder and letting her down.

“Aren’t you usually the one who does the ‘saving damsels in distress’ thing, Sonic?” the black-and-red hedgehog asked.

“Well,” Sonic replied, “I could’ve done it without your help, but thanks anyway… Shadow.”

The seven girls and Spike looked up at the newcomer.

“So that’s Shadow…” Applejack said.

There was the sound of impacts behind the group, and the sounds of creatures falling and fading. They turned, to see a bipedal bat waltzing toward them, four fading-away darkness creatures in her wake.

“I figured you’d need our help, Knuckles” Rouge taunted.

“Hey, we’ve been doing just fine so far!” he replied

“There’s something coming” Shadow said. “Something that could endanger both worlds. These things are that something’s minions.”

“Another one?” Trixie said with a tone equal parts shock and exasperation.

“Great” Amy sighed. “First we stop Black Doom from being reborn, and now this?”

“…What?” Shadow’s eyes widened. “Black Doom was here?”

“Yeah, but he’s gone for good” Spike replied. “Turns out when you hit him with that planet-buster, a little piece of him survived and made its way here. We helped Sonic and his pals destroy that piece and stop the guy from being properly reborn, and this time we made 100% sure that no pieces of him made it out. He’s dead for real now.”

‘Status of former foes is irrelevant” Omega said as he walked up to the group. “Must focus our attention on present threat.”

Omega then readied his arm-mounted machineguns, targeting a dozen of the creatures that were now charging at him. He opened fire, the storm of high-caliber bullets tearing through the creatures, gunning them down quickly and easily. The rest of the shadow-beasts attacked, and the heroes responded in kind, Team Dark supporting them.

-SCENE BREAK-

The group of 15 headed back into town, some sporting a few cuts & bruises; it was certainly an eye-catching sight, and many townsfolk turned to stare at the three newcomers, who ignored it. Among the group, introductions had been made on the way back. They headed through the town and to AJ’s farm, for some (relative) privacy. Once there, they all holed up in the barn.

“So,” Sonic said, “what’s this about a new foe?”

“Whatever it is,” Shadow replied, “it’s powerful enough to endanger this world and ours. This is partly because, in a cross-dimensional sense, the two worlds occupy the same point in their respective space-time. That’s why it’s possible to cross over between them. And it’s why if this dark entity gains a solid foothold on one planet, it’ll be able to easily assault and ravage the other.”

“Any idea what it is?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“No,” Rouge replied, “but it’s old; much older than Black Doom or the Chao Guardian Chaos.”

“How’d you find out about it?” Knuckles asked.

“There was the disembodied spirit of a girl who called herself Tikal” Shadow answered. “She claims to periodically check up on the physical realm from time to time, to make sure civilization’s still holding itself together. She informed me. …Just in case, we brought these.”

Shadow held out his hand, and in a flash of light the red Chaos Emerald appeared. Rouge called forth the white Emerald, while the violet Emerald came out from Omega’s storage compartment.

“So we’ve got all seven now” Sonic said. “What do we do now?”

“Our only option is to wait for our foe to make their first move” Omega replied. “It will be completely undetectable until that happens.”

“So make yourselves at home, guys” Sonic said to Team Dark. “It may be a few weeks before anything happens.”

“I’ll stay with Miss Rarity!” Rouge said happily.

“Oh no, ya don’t!” Knuckles said. “You’d steal every gem in the whole damn house!”

“Why would she steal my gems?” Rarity asked.

“I never told you, did I?” Knuckles replied. “On this world, gemstones and things like gold, silver, platinum, and such are common enough to be used as decorations and dragon food, but on our world they’re very rare and quite difficult to mine. As a consequence, they have a lot of monetary value. And Rouge here is a highly accomplished thief who prefers to focus on gems – the more outlandishly shiny and expensive, the better.”

“Oh, come now” the bat said. “It’s not like the desire consumes me. I’m quite capable of not allowing my desire for those lovely gems to distract me from mission parameters. I am a trusted government agent, after all, and they wouldn’t assign the missions, importance, and clearance that I possess to some impulse-driven kleptomaniac. You’re just sore over that incident with the Master Emerald.”

“You took one look at one of the most sacred relics of my people, the controlling equal & opposite of the Chaos Emeralds, a mobile magical nexus, and could only think ‘gee, I wonder how much I could get for that?!”

As Knuckles and Rouge continued to bicker like an old married couple, Sonic led the rest of the group away.

“Sorry about that, girls” he said. “Those two tend to get into it like this every so often. Let’s just ignore them until they calm down.”

“If those two don’t have feelings for each other on some level,” Applejack muttered, keeping one ear on the argument, “I’ll take a bite out of my hat.”

“Eeeeyup” said Big Macintosh, standing right behind Applejack and Fluttershy.

AJ jumped and cursed, holding a hoof to her chest; Fluttershy squealed and then her body locked up, toppling over (Sonic could swear he heard the sound of a goat bleating).

“Give us all heart attacks, why dontcha?” Rainbow Dash snapped.

“Jeez!” Tails said. “How can someone so big move so quietly?!”

“Sorry” the stallion said as he helped Fluttershy to her feet. “Old habits die hard.”

“I will take up residence at the warehouse at the southwest border of the town” Omega declared.

“I guess I’ll stay here at the farm” Shadow said. “Nice and quiet. That okay with you two?”

“It’s fine” AJ and Big-Mac said at the same time.

“Bat-Girl could stay at my place, I guess” Rainbow Dash said.

“Hey, Rouge!” Sonic shouted. “You mind stayin’ with Dash?”

“Hm?” Rouge pulled herself away from the argument. “Oh… Oh, alright.”

“Okay!” Twilight clapped her hooves once. “Now that we have lodging sorted out, let’s help familiarize our new guests with the area.”

“I’ll send a letter to the Princesses to tell ‘em what’s happened,” Spike said, “though I’ll bet one or the other already at least knows these three are here.”

-SCENE BREAK-

Several weeks, Fluttershy’s brief modeling career, a trip to the Wild West, a phoenix incident, a new assistant for Twilight, and a Pinkie-Pie psychotic episode later

(AN: Yeah, I truly am sorry that, despite hours of wracking my brain, I couldn't think of what to do with those episodes and the Sonic crew)

Sonic sighed. “Man, I hate these boring types of parties…” he said, fiddling with the bowtie around his neck (he’d basically put it on in addition to his normal gloves and shoes, and stated it was the fanciest they’d ever see him look).

“Don’t say that, Sonic!” Amy replied, standing next to him in a body-hugging red dress. “There’s still the… No… And when… Wait, no… And the…” She sighed. “You’re right. It is boring…”

“It’s not all bad, though” he said, and then pointed across the hall, where Tails and Cream were sitting together, enjoying each other’s company.

“Yeah” Amy giggled. “Those two…”

There was a sudden commotion as, convinced her little musical number wasn’t going well, Pinkie randomly chose to stage-dive… right onto the handle of the cart carrying a huge Applejack-made cake. The massive cake was, obeying the laws of physics, catapulted clear across the room. Sonic and Amy’s eyes followed the huge confectionary as it flew in an arc, right towards…

“Oh, dear” Sonic said.

Thankfully, even after Prince Blueblood grabbed hold of the white mare as a living shield, Rarity’s recent training to prepare for the inevitable “new threat” meant that she reacted quickly enough to cast a shield-dome spell, which the cake disintegrated messily but harmlessly on impact with, leaving her clean and dry. However, she then leapt away from Blueblood, turned around to face him, and let him have it.

“You… YOU RANCID SON OF A BITCH!!!”

Rarity’s voice, magically amplified, drew the attention of every single pony (and Sonic, Amy, Cream, & Tails) in the room. She slowly walked towards Blueblood, her horn and eyes glowing a pale blue and the tiles beneath her feet crumbling and cracking, the pieces floating up to orbit around her. Blueblood’s eyes widened in fear as he sensed the raw power emanating from the enraged mare who was now advancing on him.

“All I wanted tonight, all I looked forward to, was to meet a proper gentleman and be treated with the care and respect and dignity that a lady should. Instead, I get stuck with the most arrogant, ignorant, intolerant, narrow-minded, narcissistic, self-absorbed, idiotic, uncultured, cowardly, chauvinistic, worthless excuse for a stallion to ever defile this planet with his presence! Years of hoping and dreaming, all shattered into a billion pieces over the course of 80 minutes! And, to end it all, you have the gall to use me as a living shield just so you don’t get your over-groomed coat messed up, placing me in the path of an airborne pastry with such mass and speed as to potentially give me a concussion!! After all you’ve done to me this night, I OUGHT TO FLAY YOU ALIVE, YOU WORTHLESS BASTARD!!”

Applejack’s jaw had dropped. “Holy sh*t…”

“About damned time someone went off on that pompous idiot…” Octavia muttered. “And with the Royal Canterlot Voice, even…”

“S-Stay back!” Blueblood muttered, terrified, as he backed away. “Please! Don’t kill me! I w-was only…”

“Thinking of yourself?” Shadow said in a low, dangerous tone from right next to Blueblood.

Blueblood screamed and leapt back… bumping into the base of a large statue, which began to slowly topple over. There was a blur of motion as Rainbow Dash appeared underneath the falling statue, catching it in her back despite it being several times bigger than her. Unfortunately, it was too heavy for her, and she began to stagger about, losing her balance. Two blue-and-yellow blurs accompanied Spitfire and Fleetfoot of the Wonderbolts dashing in to either side of her, helping her support the statue. All three breathed a sigh of relief… and then the statue split in half down the middle and fell to the floor on either side of the trio with two loud thuds.

“Well, it was worth a shot” Spitfire said.

The doors nearby opened, and Celestia & Twilight walked in, having a look around at the minor disaster(s) unfolding.

“…Well…” Twilight said. “It can’t get much worse, right?”

On cue, a stained-glass window higher up shattered as two entities, locked in combat, burst through it and into the ballroom. Fluttershy, her mane messed up and her dress torn, leapt away from the red-eyed, black demon with an obviously-broken arm and several other wounds. Shadow leapt into action, a Homing Attack finishing the thing off. There was an unearthly howl as dozens more of the things began to leap into the area through the broken window while more busted in through the door to the gardens, and the aristocrats began to panic.

“Why did I say anything?” Twilight murmured.

“Guards!” Celestia shouted, and 10 Royal Guard pegasi appeared. “Escort the civilians out of here!”

“Yes, ma’am!” all 10 replied in unison, saluting with their wings. They then began herding the various socialites out into the southern hall, fighting off any demons that got too close. As the last of them left and the doors started to close, Rouge and Knuckles ran through the closing doors and into the fight, unleashing their power on the shadow-demons. Rarity, Dash, Pinkie, and AJ joined the battle, and soon Omega and Trixie rushed in from the gardens, catching the enemy off-guard from behind, the latter unleashing a lightning-laced telekinetic shockwave while the former fired his arm cannons. A burst of fire from above signaled Philomena’s entry to the battle, frying six of the shadow-demons. Another, much larger burst of fire from Celestia obliterated two-dozen while leaving everything and everyone else completely unharmed/undamaged by the flames, even if they were caught in them.

Against such a large, powerful, and formidable assortment of defenders, the horde – large though it was – was quickly wiped out, little waves dashing themselves futilely against ship-sized rocks. The ballroom was somewhat the worse for wear, but definitely reparable.

“They’re getting bolder” Trixie said. “Usually, up until now, they’ve waited until two or three of us are otherwise alone… Not that it helps them, of course.”

“Have we confirmed there were no casualties amongst the civilians?” Shadow asked.

“They focused all their attention on us” Dash replied. “Once the up-tights were out of the ballroom, they were home free.”

“…Well, though it didn’t end in any way close as I would expected,” Celestia said, “I’m just glad that stuffy, dull get-together is over and done with early. As soon as the proper personnel get here to handle the situation, what say we all head somewhere more casual and actually enjoy ourselves and each others’ company?”

“Now that’s my idea of a good time!” Sonic said.

-SCENE BREAK-

Sonic and his group were making best speed for Canterlot Peak. Four days earlier, they’d all been sent by Celestia to investigate a potential lead into their mysterious new foe on the semi-official border with gryphon territory, as well as lending their skill to defusing a potentially volatile situation with the gryphons that had been building lately. They’d accomplished the latter without incident, but found nothing of note with the former. On their way out, Shadow had sensed a powerful and malevolent presence emerging in Canterlot and later making its way down the mountain to Ponyville. Now, they were all rushing home.

Suddenly, as the town came in sight over the horizon, a massive rainbow-hued dome of magical energy formed around it and then pulsed outward with a bright flash. Everyone came to a stop.

“That dark presence…” Shadow said. “I can’t sense it anymore…”

“Heh” Sonic grinned. “I guess the girls didn’t need our help with this one after all.”

“They could be hurt, though” Amy said. “Let’s hurry back!”

Everyone picked up the pace, hurrying to the town. When they got there, they found many of the townsfolk confused and disoriented, and some had clearly been traumatized by something, but they were all unharmed. The group soon found the six Element-Bearers in the center of town, exhausted but unharmed.

“What the heck happened here?” Tails asked.

“Just vanquished a dark spirit of chaos” Twilight replied breathlessly. “It’s kind of a long story.”

‘Where are Trixie and Spike?” Rouge asked.

“Trixie’s still in bed with the flu, and Spike’s… not exactly in tip-top shape right now, either.”

“Care to fill us in?” Sonic asked.

“Help us back to my library, and we’ll talk.”

The eight off-worlders promptly helped the worn-out ponies to their feet and began escorting them to the library.

-SCENE BREAK-

Beneath Canterlot, something stirred.

Author's Note:

New threat revealed next chapter

Comments

[Tryhard McFatface]

Lemme guess...........
Gaia.

[-headshot123-]

As Knuckles and Rouge continued to bicker like an old married couple,

damn bro didn't have to do him like that