Blue Blur In Equestria

by DKN117

Dark Generals

After a couple of hours’ rest and talk, Celestia informed the group that a few of her Familiars had located a trio of planetary magical nexus points that bore dark energy signatures overtop them – not powerful enough to be Nightmare, but leagues above the daemon’s foot soldiers. Tails dubbed them “Dark Generals”. After a little planning, everyone (with the exception of the Princesses, who would be staying at Canterlot for a few days to recover the energy they expended helping Sonic & Shadow kill Discord) split into four groups – Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Twilight Sparkle would deal with the Dark General at the “Cold Desert” nexus up north; Shadow, Rouge, Omega, and Rarity would handle the DG at the 1,500-year-old ruins of a gladiatorial arena within ancestral pegasus territory; Silver, Applejack, Spike, and Fluttershy would take on the DG in the White-Peaks mountain cave system; and Amy, Cream, Pinkie, & Trixie would be stationed at Ponyville in the somewhat-likely event of Nightmare sending forces to attack the town while it was comparatively under-guarded. All three groups were teleported by Celestia to points near their objectives.

-Team Silver-

The odd group of a bipedal hedgehog, an earth-pony, a pegasus, and a juvenile dragon skulked through the cave, Silver projecting green-hued “flashlights” from the rings on the palms of his gloves; the other three stayed close behind him. Up ahead they could see what looked to be a particularly large chamber lit by phosphorescent crystals. They entered the chamber, to find it empty.

“I can sense the nexus’ energy here,” Silver said, “so we’re in the right place. But… where’s the Dark General?”

On cue, a large figure dropped down from the ceiling, landing on its feet with a thud. It was a bipedal thing, with a wide, muscular chest and huge, thick, muscled arms ending in wicked claws. Its head was like that of an ogre, with large fangs in its mouth and a set of four horns from the top of its head. Its legs, though well-muscled, were disproportionately small for its body. It roared a challenge at the intruders.

(BOSS MUSIC: Sonic Adventure 2 – “Masters of the Desert” (King Boom Boo’s Theme))

“Had to say something, didn’t you?” Spike said to Silver in a deadpan tone.

Fluttershy briefly cowered, but snapped herself out of that when she reminded herself what was at stake. “I can’t see any obvious weak points” she said.

“Well, we’ll just have to whittle ‘im down ‘til he drops” Applejack replied.

“At least he should be easy to avoid,” Silver said, “considering how big and beefy he is.”

With fate properly tempted, the massive ogre-like beast rushed forward with startling speed, closing the gap within seconds. Caught off-guard, the quartet barely got out of the way in time, as a massive fist cratered the ground where they had just been standing.

“Why do you keep saying these kinds of things?!” Spike shouted at Silver.

“How can something so big and strong move so fast?” Silver said in disbelief.

The beast roared again, and then slammed both fists down hard into the floor. The cave shook, and several stalactites from above came falling down toward the four. Silver flashed out of the way of one and over to Applejack, pulling her out of the way of another; Fluttershy flew along the ground to dodge hers, swooping in and grabbing Spike before he could be crushed by the one coming at him. Silver telekinetically grabbed several large chunks of rock that had been a stalactite, and fired them at the beast. It raised its massive arms to block, and most of them deflected off them harmlessly; a few hit its stomach and the top of its head, but did little damage. One chunk hit the top of its left leg, causing a growl of pain and a comparatively-small but noticeable injury.

“Well, looks like we have a target” Silver said. “Go for its legs!”

Applejack charged, avoiding a horizontal swing and lashing out with a double-kick at the creature’s right leg. There was a ‘crack’ and a howl from the beast, which then knelt down. Its eyes flashed with dark power, and several large chunks of rock broke away from the ground and floated up into the air. One smashed down at Applejack, forcing her back away from the creature. The other floating rocks shot through the air towards the four heroes, forcing them to scatter and nearly knocking Fluttershy out of the air. The yellow pegasus came around and dive-bombed at the beast’s face, landing a blow that sent its head reeling back as she passed by. A fireball from Spike came flying in, hitting the creature in the stomach, the naturally-enchanted dragon-fire dealing not-insignificant damage to the dark being. It roared and its eyes flashed, and another floating boulder flew through the air at Spike, who barely rolled out of the way in time.

Silver telekinetically caught the boulder before it could roll to a stop, and threw it back with nearly double the force it was initially launched with. It impacted the creature in the chest, knocking it over onto its back. He then focused his power, a green aura surrounding him as all the large rocks created and thrown about in the fight floated up at his command. They floated directly over the creature, which was still struggling to get up, and then all came down at its head and legs. After several seconds, a dark pulse of power launched the pile of rocks away in every direction. The creature was heavily injured, and struggled to get up. Applejack rushed in and bucked its other leg, leaving it ground-bound again. Then a rather large green fireball surrounded by Silver’s power struck the downed beast in the face. With one last howl, the beast went still. After several seconds, it dispersed into a shower of darkness particles which quickly faded from existence.

“Is everyone okay?” Silver asked.

The other three checked themselves over and replied in the affirmative. Soon, a large magical rune-circle sprang up in the middle of the cave chamber – the access point of the nexus. Applejack pulled the scroll Celestia had given her out of her hat, and Silver placed it down in the center of the rune and channeled his power into it. There was a pulse of golden-yellow light, and a sound like a giant door being locked.

“The nexus is sealed to all except the princesses and the Harmony Elements… for now” Silver said.

“Let’s hope the others are doing their part” Spike said.

Fluttershy was staring off into the distance.

“What’s up, ‘shy?” Applejack asked.

“It feels like… something isn’t right…” the girl replied. “W-We should probably head back to town now.”

The quartet left the cave, Silver and Fluttershy taking flight, while the former carried Applejack via telekinesis and the latter let Spike ride on her back.

-Team Sonic-

The cold wind blew. All around were mountains and a few small glaciers, and the Sun’s light was weaker than it was near Ponyville. Twilight was using her magic to keep herself warm, Tails and Knuckles were used to it due to spending time at high altitudes, and Sonic presently wore a (surprisingly comfortable) pink scarf Amy had made for him. Tails had described the area as “Antarctica Lite”, and Sonic was inclined to agree; though nowhere near as cold as Earth’s southern continent, this area had the other features of chilling, high-strength winds, and being classed as a desert due to scarcity of precipitation. Despite the temperature, there wasn’t a snowflake in sight.

“Any idea how much farther we have to go before we find the Dark General for this area?” Twilight asked.

“Who dares intrude upon the domain my Master set aside for me?!” a bombastic voice cried out.

“I’d say not very far” Knuckles replied in a deadpan tone.

In a swirl of black and violet smoke, a figure appeared, floating a few feet off the ground. It was about seven or eight feet tall, nearly all its features hidden by the blue and dark-violet robes it wore. From the end of one sleeve of the robe, a hand – scaly like a bird’s talon, with three fingers & a thumb – grasped a silver staff tipped by an upside-down triangle of sapphire.

“I am Rodok, elite disciple of Nightmare” the being introduced itself with a grandiose, masculine voice, gesticulating as he talked. “I know that you four seek to undo my glorious Master’s grand plan, and for that I cannot allow you to leave this realm aliiiiive!”

There was a dramatic wind from out of nowhere that made the figure’s robes billow; considering that it coincided with a slight flash of light from the sapphire crystal topping the magical staff, it was easy to figure out where the random wind came from.

“This guy’s as much of a ham as Eggman…” Knuckles muttered.

“The nexus beneath these frozen grounds shall only be accessed by my Master! However, your heads shall look rather well on pikes surrounding it! Prepare yourselves for the eternal darkness of obliviooooon~!!”

(BOSS MUSIC: Sonic Heroes – “Egg Emperor”)

Rodok made the first move, raising his staff high. The crystal atop it pulsed, and several ‘arrows’ of dark magic came into being and then shot forward toward the heroes. The quartet scattered, the projectiles ripping up the frozen ground where they’d just been standing. Before the dust had even settled, Rodok had swept his staff back and forth several times, each swing unleashing a cutting wave of fire at the heroes which they barely avoided.

“Okay,” Sonic said, “so maybe he isn’t all talk.”

Twilight conjured six swirling disks of fire and let them fly, buzzing through the air towards the dark mage. They split up, each coming at him from a different direction. Rodok swung his staff, batting away two of them. One grazed him in his left side, burning through his robe and him. In response, he let out a pulse of power that knocked the others away. Knuckles leapt high, Sonic & Tails curled up and held in his fists. He “launched” them down at Rodok, two fiery cannonballs that impacted solidly, knocking the dark mage back. Rodok growled as he held his staff aloft.

“This place shall be your grave!”

Several bolts of lightning shot out in various directions from the tip of his staff, striking at the ground; the heroes barely managed to dodge them. However, they remained connected to the staff, and instead of fading out like normal lightning bolts, these ones dug into the ground, and when they lifted up into the air each one was “holding” a large chunk of the frozen rocky ground. Rodok now had seven large, electrified flails at his disposal. One came swinging high at Tails, aiming to knock him out of the air, only for the kitsune to drop down to the ground, narrowly avoiding the crushing blow. Another came down from above at Twilight, who managed to teleport out of the way in time. Sonic Homing-Attacked one, shattering it, and Tails Thunder-Shot Knuckles into another, destroying that one as well. The remaining five then came at Sonic all at once. However, when the dust cleared Sonic was within a translucent purple barrier-spell courtesy of Twilight, who stood next to him.

The barrier spell shattered, and then the shards of it transformed into magical projectiles which shot toward Rodok at high speed in a deadly fusillade. They got past the electrified rock flails, only to impact a shield spell cast by the dark mage’s free hand, splintering harmlessly against it. While Rodok was distracted, however, Knuckles had leapt up behind him, and now he struck. A massively powerful punch sent Rodok hurtling forward, making him lose his “grip” on the remaining five Lightning-Rock Flails, the five chunks of rock falling to the ground. The dark mage righted himself before he could crash, and thrust his staff toward Knuckles, unleashing a blast of ice. A fireball from Twilight intercepted it, canceling it out and sparing Knuckles any harm.

A Homing Attack from Sonic hit Rodok dead-on, dealing further damage, and a focused blast of telekinesis from Twilight struck him like a cannonball. A lightning-charged double tail-whip from Tails hit Rodok, and finally another crushingly powerful blow from Knuckles sent the dark mage tumbling. Finally, Twilight fired a huge blast of raw destructive magic. Rodok summoned a shield, putting all his power into it, and Twilight responded by trying to push the blast through the defense. Sonic pulled out a Chaos Emerald and fired a burst of Chaos magic from it at the tail end of Twilight’s attack, giving it the push it needed to break through Rodok’s shield and hit him directly, exploding violently. When the dust cleared, Rodok was sprawled out on the ground, coming apart into particles of darkness.

“Master… Forgive me… It seems I shall not be able to see the world of darkness and ruin you promised, after all…”

With that, he faded away into nothingness. After a few minutes’ searching, Twilight located the nexus and then placed the seal Celestia had prepared for it. With that done, they began the trek back to Ponyville.

-Team Shadow-

The old stone-crafted arena, bearing what Rouge called startling resemblance to the Coliseum on Earth except in better shape, was carved into the side of a mountain. Well over a millennium ago, the pegasi had celebrated their time-honored warrior traditions with various contests and battles held here. Here, Pegasus warriors fought against other pegasi, wild beasts, the rare condemned criminal, and – during & shortly after the First Gryphon War (1,250-1,244 years ago) – captured enemy soldiers. As society had gradually evolved over the next several hundred years, however, the old arena had become less and less frequented, as interest in this sort of thing faded, and as newer arenas were built in the cloud-cities that came into being; the last major event here had taken place 800 years ago, on the 700th “anniversary” of the arena’s opening. Nonetheless, the old coliseum was a protected historical monument for the pegasi; the attack force that had attempted to destroy it during the Second Gryphon War (765-761 years ago) had learned that the very hard way, and during the Third War (240-233 years ago) the gryphons hadn’t even tried, the tales of the pegasus ponies’ vicious defense of the site having been passed down over the generations; ditto for the Fourth War (26-24 years ago).

Fortunately for everyone involved, the dragons left the site alone during their lone war against Equestria 900 years ago, and the long-lasting treaty and personal friendship between Princess Celestia and King Spykoros the 4th had ensured no further major conflicts between the two species since then.

Four figures slowly walked across the dusty ground of the arena floor, the only living things around (well, one of them technically wasn’t a living thing).

“Alert” Omega reported as he readied his machineguns. “Sensors detect the approach of an entity bearing the energy signature of a high-level underling of Nightmare.”

The other three immediately went alert – rocks floated up off the ground and around Rarity, while Shadow & Rouge took their own combat stances. After several seconds, a swirl of dark energy sprang up in front of them. It died away to reveal an ogre-like creature about eight feet tall, a spiked club held in its clawed hand. It growled a challenge at them.

“That’s the Dark General?” Rouge said. “This’ll be easy…”

The ogre took a step forward… and suddenly something huge came in from above, landing atop the ogre-beast and destroying it instantly.

(Start – BOSS MUSIC – Shadow the Hedgehog – “Black Bull”)

The new arrival, a massive, black-and-silver-furred wolf-like creature, fixed its glowing violet eyes on the heroes and let loose a near-deafening roar, baring its large and wicked fangs as its three tails whipped about.

“You were saying, dear?” Rarity said to Rouge with a deadpan tone.

The wolf-beast charged at them at great speed, forcing them to scatter to avoid being trampled. It skidded to a halt and turned around, firing a large “cannonball” of compressed air at Shadow. The black hedgehog narrowly twisted out of the way, and the projectile continued on into the side of the arena, blowing a 10-foot-wide hole upon impact. Omega opened fire as soon as he regained his bearings, a storm of .45-caliber bullets streaking through the air toward the wolf-beast. Against such a large creature, however, the hits did little damage. Rouge flew in, aiming for a gravity-assisted kick to the back of the beast’s neck. At the last second, however, the wolf-beast moved so that the blow hit its thick skull instead, doing little damage. Rouge barely flew out of the way of the resulting counterattack.

“Chaos Spear!”

The golden-yellow spearhead of Chaos energy impacted the wolf-beast in the right shoulder, nearly knocking it over. The beast let out an angry snarl and charged at Shadow, storming across the arena at surprising speed. The black hedgehog took a stance and, at the last second, rolled underneath the beast, barely avoiding a tail-strike as he came out the other side. A spear of rock jutted upward from beneath the wolf-beast, courtesy of Rarity’s magic, but it only managed to deal some blunt-force damage, failing to penetrate the creature’s hide. Nevertheless, the creature leapt away, responding to the harm dealt to it by firing another “wind-cannonball” at Rarity, who barely got out of the way in time as it blasted away the spot where she’d been standing.

A barrage of rockets from Omega impacted and detonated along the wolf-beast’s back, aggravating and causing pain to the creature. It roared and grabbed hold of a boulder with one of its tails, and then threw it at the war-droid with great force. Rarity telekinetically caught it and tossed it back at the beast, only for the wolf to leap out of the way. A Homing Attack from Shadow caught the beast in the side of the head, dazing it and allowing Rouge to land a rising kick that snapped its head back. The bipedal bat barely avoided the slash of the creature’s fangs as it regained itself, having seen the scar on Trixie’s body and not willing to receive her own. She flew up and away just in time for a massive support column (long since fallen from its original position, so it wasn’t a vital thing ripped from its place) enveloped in Rarity’s magic to slam into the creature’s side, pushing it into the arena’s side wall.

There was an enraged roar and a pulse of power that knocked the shattered pillar away. The wolf-beast stomped forward, now visibly injured. It planted its four paws firmly on the ground as if bracing itself. It then reared its head back while curling its three tails forward… and motes of white and black light began to very rapidly coalesce into a large sphere hovering above its open mouth.

“No way…” Shadow said in shock, eyes wide as he sensed just how much power was being gathered. “That’s enough power to obliterate this entire arena five times over! We can’t stop that!”

The swirling dark-purple sphere grew to larger than the wolf-beast’s head, and then began compressing. The creature prepared to fire… when a blue and yellow blur smacked into its chin from below. The beast lost hold of its attack, which fired into the air rather than at its intended targets. The dark sphere shot high into the sky and then detonated, a brilliant flash and a tremendous bang accompanying a shockwave that almost knocked down an arena wall even with the distance gained. The quartet’s savior flew down to them, revealing himself to be one of the Wonderbolts – Soarin’, if Rarity remembered correctly. Two more flew in to attack the creature – Spitfire and Fleetfoot. Their flying tackles and kicks did little more than aggravate the beast, however.

“Thanks for the save” Rouge said to the pegasus.

“My pleasure” Soarin’ replied. “That demon’s trying to destroy our race’s historical monument?”

“Actually, it’s after the magical nexus that’s underneath this place” Shadow said.

“Well whatever it’s after, we won’t let it have it. You guys have any plan on how to destroy that thing?”

“…I have an idea” Shadow said. “It’s risky, and it’s not guaranteed to work, but it’s the only thing I can think of. I need some time to set it up, however. Rouge, Omega, I’ll need your Chaos Emeralds. After that I’ll need Rouge and Rarity to help me charge this up.”

“We’ll keep the wolf-thing busy” Soarin’ said as Omega handed Shadow his Emerald and then went to join the blue pegasus. Soarin’ took to the air while Omega jetted forward while firing his machineguns. Meanwhile, Spitfire scored a “Razor Wing” hit on the wolf-beast’s face just below its right eye; a dark-purple glow came out instead of blood. Shadow explained his plan to the girls, who nodded and got into position. A spinning “Drill Tackle” from Fleetfoot smashed into the wolf-beast’s left shoulder, grinding away for a few seconds before she was then swatted away by a tail-strike. The white-furred Wonderbolt shrugged it off and got back in the fight. A rocket-propelled punch from Omega hit the wolf-beast across the face, and another razor-wing strike from Soarin’ slashed across the creature's legs. They continued these “minor” attacks for several minutes.

“Everyone, get clear!”

Alerted by Rouge’s shout, those engaging the wolf-beast broke off… just in time for a whirling cannonball to come flying in toward it at great speed. Shadow, in his curled-up form, enveloped in the power of three Chaos Emeralds, charged by Rouge’s Thunder Shoot, and propelled by Rarity’s magic, had perfect timing as he entered the wolf-beast’s roaring mouth… and came out the other side. Cored clean through, the wolf-beast stumbled about, unable to make sound due to its throat being pretty much destroyed by the high-velocity magically-overcharged projectile that had just punched through its body. Finally, it keeled over, landing on its side with a thud. After a few twitches, it went still and then began dissolving away into particles of darkness.

The group congregated in the now-quiet center of the arena, Shadow panting lightly from exertion. Before anything could be said, the nexus reacted to Shadow’s mental will and sprang into visibility – an enormous, glowing-white magical rune that encompassed the entire arena floor. Shadow wordlessly pulled out the seal Celestia had given him and placed it down, activating it. With that, the nexus was quickly sealed. Suddenly, however, his head shot upward as he sensed something.

“What’s wrong, Shadow?” Rouge asked.

“…We need to get back to town. Immediately.”

“Why?” Rarity asked, sounding worried.

“Because there’s a fourth Dark General approaching Ponyville.”

-SCENE BREAK-

On the grassy hill overlooking Ponyville, a hoard of dark creatures gathered. Standing at the head of them, a full-armored bipedal figure, around six feet tall, observed the town. He drew his sword and pointed it forward at the town, and the creatures obeyed, rushing down the hill and heading toward their target.

Comments

[zeldawolffang]

OH SHIT TAILED BEAST BOMB!!!