Blue Blur In Equestria

by DKN117

Loyalty

Ponies of all ages moved about, following the evacuation protocols the hyper-organized Twilight had come up with weeks ago. Some pegasi had spotted from above the horde of dark creatures approaching Ponyville and had quickly spread the word. Now, everyone gathered in large groups, preparing to move to dedicated ‘safe-zones’. Not everyone had gotten to safety yet, which was very bad as the offensive scouts of the enemy had already arrived. Trixie and Amy were doing their best to hold them off while Pinkie and Cream tried to hurry the townsfolk along.

There was a crack as Amy’s hammer struck another shadow-demon, sending it tumbling into the side of a house. The wall survived the impact; the demon didn’t. Trixie bowled her way through several more with a lightning-charged tackle, destroying some and stunning the others. A rumbling drew the two girls’ attention, and they looked… and felt mild horror at the sight of another, considerably larger wave of hostiles approaching.

“We can’t hold off that many long enough for the others to get to safety…” Trixie whispered.

“We have to try!” Amy replied.

The duo fought their hardest to keep the enemies from advancing, but some of them managed to get by, heading toward a group of evacuees, while their compatriots kept Trixie and Amy too busy to run to the civilians’ defense. Having fallen behind from the group, Scootaloo’s eyes widened in fear as around a dozen of the beasts came straight at her… and a multi-colored blur smashed into them from above, kicking up a dust cloud and sending the shadow-demons flying in various directions.

“Leave. Her. Alone.”

The feminine voice, speaking in a low, dangerous tone, sounded rather familiar to Scootaloo. Everyone looked as the outline of a pegasus could be seen inside the slowly fading dust cloud, her body sparking with a few small bolts of electrical magic. The obscured figure beat her wings once, blowing away the cloud and revealing herself, her lean and muscled body tensed as her slightly-glowing magenta eyes glared at the enemy. A little ways away, Pinkie stared, shock giving way to relief and joy, and Scootaloo’s eyes widened and grew moist as she gazed upon her savior, her heroine, the mare thought lost:

“Rainbow Dash!!”

Scootaloo’s shout was heard by many of the ponies who were in the middle of fleeing toward safety zones, and they all turned to look, seeing that the girl they had so cruelly driven away had indeed returned, and from the looks of it she was now stronger and more serious & focused than ever. Pinkie, Cream, Amy, and Trixie ran over to her.

“Girls” Dash said, her voice low and steady. “Get the rest of the townies to safety. I’ll handle these guys.”

“By yourself?!” Amy replied. “No way!”

“You won’t be able to get everyone clear without all of you pitching in to help in that” Dash snapped. “I can handle this. I’ve been training – to make myself faster, stronger, tougher… so I won’t be too late to help anyone anymore. These guys are cannon fodder; at the least, I can hold them off.”

“…Amy, stay and help Rainbow” Trixie said. “I’ll join the evacuation efforts.”

“Alright” the pink hedgehog replied, gripping the handle of her hammer.

“Pinkie” Dash said without turning away from the slowly advancing horde. “Keep her safe.”

The pink pony nodded as she scooped up Scootaloo and ran off with the retreating crowds, Cream and Trixie joining her. Dash’s body crackled with barely-contained energy; though the pegasus couldn’t use it to the extent that a unicorn could, Trixie wasn’t the only one with a Lightning-type elemental affinity. Her wings spread wide, held up at a 45-degree angle as the feathers shifted, the leading edges becoming thin & sharp as that particular type of pegasus magic made them into deadly blades capable of slicing through dragon scales like heated knives through butter.

“Come on, you bastards” she muttered. “Come at me.”

Several seconds later, the horde broke upon the two like waves against rocks. Rainbow Dash struck again and again, each blow packing enough power to one-shot its target, her training having increased her physical strength to levels rivaling Applejack or Lightning-Armored Trixie. Her movements were as fast as ever, but had a touch of grace and economy of movement that they previously lacked. Amy was getting her fair share as well, hammer strikes and homing-attacks taking down shadow-demons at a respectable rate. But the real star was Dash; the blue pegasus’ hooves sparked with power as she dashed forward a few feet above the ground, blitzing through a line of enemies, her wings slicing through several of them that her electrified forelimbs didn’t take out. She flew up over the crowd at the end, and then dived back in from a different angle. She repeated this several times, taking out a significant amount of the shadowy beings with very little effort. Still, however, the horde kept coming.

After several minutes of this, Rainbow Dash and Amy stood in the square that would have been overflowing with demons’ bodies were it not for the fact that the creatures dissolved away into nothingness upon destruction. Both were panting for breath, having used up quite a bit of energy. Suddenly, a figure appeared on the battlefield, slowly walking toward them. It was a tailless biped around six feet tall, clad head to toe in black armor that concealed its entire form. A black-bladed sword was held in its right hand, and a pitch-black aura of Darkness clung to it. He stopped a couple-dozen feet away from them.

“Who and what is that?” Dash snarled.

“There’s a new threat on the loose” Amy replied. “This is one of the new threat’s Dark Generals.”

“Technically, the threat is something you would see as an ‘old threat’, Miss Dash” the armored figure said in a smooth male voice. “My Master is the entity who possessed the being that you call Princess Luna; she was the latest of the countless sapient beings Master has taken as a host over the last 200,000 years. Each of us ‘Dark Generals’, as your hedgehog friend calls us, is based upon one of Master’s previous incarnations. I am the form of Nightmare Tyralus, the form Master took upon possessing a human soldier of the Al-Hazred Imperium around 1,400 years ago.”

“…So blasting Nightmare Moon only exorcised the corruption instead of destroying it…” Rainbow Dash said with comprehension.

“Why would you come here?” Amy said, pointing her hammer at the man. “The Dark Generals went after planetary magical nexuses, and there aren’t any of those in, under, or near this town!”

“I and the demon-soldiers assigned to me were sent here to slaughter the population so as to demoralize the Harmony-Element bearers, to sap their will to fight so Master’s plan could progress without their interference. I was not expecting the one whose confidence and will were shattered so thoroughly by her former friends to arrive and bar my path.”

“…I’ll admit, I don’t know why I’m here” Dash said. “I’ll have to figure out later just what the hell got in me and drove me to return to a place where I’m hated.”

“You won’t be alive to discover those answers, girl. Your re-entry to the playing field means the Harmony Elements are again a potential factor against my Master. I will kill you here & now before that threat can take form.”

“You will try…” Dash readied herself to fight. “And you will fail.”

“We shall see…”

(BOSS MUSIC: Kingdom Hearts OST – “Destiny’s Force”)

The demon-in-the-form-of-a-man raised his sword and charged. Amy rushed forward to meet him, blocking his downward sword swing with her nigh-indestructible hammer. Rainbow Dash attacked next, hitting him with a flying tackle. Tyralus rolled with the blow, swinging his sword to launch a blade of black wind at the pegasus, who narrowly dodged it as she kept moving. He then barely avoided a homing-attack from Amy, and she in turn dodged an attempt by him to bisect her vertically. Rainbow Dash came in again, stopping right in front of him. She ducked under a sword-swing aimed at her neck, and then lashed out with a blur-fast punch at his head, accompanied by a ‘crack’ sound as her fore-hoof broke the sound barrier milliseconds before impact. The attack struck Tyralus in the helmet, part of it shattering from the force. A pulse of dark power sent Dash back, giving Tyralus some room.

Descriptions from Sonic and his friends had given Rainbow Dash a basic idea of what ‘humans’ looked like: bipedal tailless primate-descended beings with five-digit hands with nails (as opposed to the clawed, four-digit hands of dragons and gryphons) with head-hair ranging from blonde to black, and furless skin with color ranging from pale pink or peach to dark brown, and eyes much like ponies’ except with more narrow color range. However, the part of Nightmare Tyralus’ face revealed by his broken helmet (namely, the right eye and some of the surrounding area) was quite different. Though his hair was an unremarkable black, his flesh was unnaturally pale, practically bone-white, and his visible eye was glowing red with black sclera and a pupil that was slit like a reptile’s. Dash surmised that these were the effects of Nightmare possessing a human, much like Nightmare Moon’s drastic difference from Princess Luna in terms of appearance and structure.

“Impressive…” he said. “Most impressive. Were it not for my armor, that blow would have shattered my skull. You are stronger than the memory data master gave me stated you to be. Were this a fair fight, I might have significant difficulty here. However…”

He stabbed his sword into the ground, and a horde of Nightmare’s shadow-demons sprang up from the earth, surrounding Dash and Amy.

“I have no intention of fighting fair.”

The shadow-demons all moved in at once, Tyralus accompanying them. Amy and Rainbow Dash flew back into action, striking out as quickly and precisely as they could. However, fighting both Tyralus and his underlings at the same time was proving more difficult than fighting either of the two alone. It wasn’t long before the pegasus and the hedgehog were both spotting surface wounds that they did their best to ignore. Help came, however, in the form of a half-dozen attack dogs made of blue lightning charging in, three attacking some shadow-demons and the other three latching onto Tyralus and shocking him. The next announcing of Trixie’s presence was her lightning-charged clothesline flattening an alicorn-sized shadow-demon before it could impale Amy on its two bull-style horns. Rainbow Dash reacted to a high voice shouting

“Dashie, behind and up!” and dodged an attempt by another shadow-demon to blind-side her, and Pinkie then leapt in, landing at Dash’s side, looking dead serious (her mane & tail halfway deflated, even).

“I just got you back” the pink pony said to Dash. “I am not going to lose you again!”

“What about the townsfolk?” Amy asked.

“They’re all safe” Trixie replied. “An Equestrian Army squad from the base halfway up Capital Mountain arrived, and they’re protecting the civilians.”

Unbeknownst to the quartet fighting, several of the town unicorns had worked together to cast a “camera spell” that ‘broadcasted’ the fight to the ponies in hiding, using large mirrors and attached speakers to see & hear the action.

“Come on, Dash” Scootaloo muttered, eyes wide and transfixed on the ‘screen’. “You’ve got this.”

Back at the fight, the addition of two more defenders had evened the odds a little, especially as Trixie added her strength and lightning-based techniques to the task; she and Rainbow Dash were taking down the most shadow-demons, and the blue unicorn had managed to deal a blow that crumpled Tyralus’ chestplate. Tyralus responded by ordering all of his shadow-demons to focus their attention on Trixie, Amy, and Pinkie, while he focused solely on Dash. Both combatants were injured but still ready & able to keep fighting. Dash’s forelegs and wings crackled with lightning-type magical energy, and Tyralus shifted his grip on the hilt of his sword.

Tyralus made the next move, disappearing in a flash of super-speed movement. Rainbow Dash leapt to the side, avoiding by inches a strike meant to slice her in half, the dark sword cleaving into the ground where she’d been standing. He lashed out with a kick, his leg catching her in the chest and sending her tumbling several feet, but she managed to come out of it with all four hooves on the ground. Rainbow Dash struck again at the same speed, hitting Tyralus in the chest and further damaging the chestplate of his armor. He reached down and ripped the heavily damaged piece of armor away, tossing it aside and revealing a black cloth-like under-layer that clung tight to a muscled chest. He lashed out with a sword swing that cut a shallow cut across her chest, a line of red soon standing out amongst the light-blue fur. Still, she fought on, ignoring the pain.

A shadow-demon went hurtling overhead in an arc, courtesy of a double-kick from Pinkie. Before it could hit the ground, Amy hit it with a hammer strike that knocked it into a small group of the things, resulting in four shadow-demons destroyed. Trixie was firing beam-blasts of lightning-charged pure magic from her horn in addition to her physical attacks with her Lightning Aura; Pinkie had briefly wanted to use Trixie as a living gatling gun, but the fact that the unicorn’s Lightning Aura was indiscriminate in who it shocked upon touching her put the kibosh to that idea, so the earth pony was content to help Amy in bludgeoning and bashing shadow-demons into submission.

The parallel battles wore on for several more minutes. As the shadow-demons were thinned out, Tyralus had erected a barrier field to keep the others out as he continued his one-on-one against Rainbow Dash. Both of them were now worse for wear; Dash had a few more cuts on her body and was pretty sure she had a hairline fracture in one of her right wing’s bones, while Tyralus had taken some heavy blows and had also lost the rest of his helmet along with much of his right arm’s armor. Both of them were panting and tired, yet neither of them would stop or give in. They charged each other again, getting into a close-range slugging match, Dash’s electric-charged hooves and Tyralus’ sword adding a new dimension to the brawl. As the last of the shadow-demons outside fell, the other three came up to the edge of the transparent barrier, watching and listening, hoping & praying for Dash’s victory.

The two broke apart, staring each other down for several seconds. Then, Rainbow Dash’s body crackled with lightning-type magical energy, while Tyralus’ body seethed with pitch-black power. They charged toward each other, and met in a clash of energies that threw up a screen of dust. When the dust slowly settled, one could practically hear Pinkie’s mane & tail completely ‘deflate’ at what was now seen. The three observers could do nothing but stand completely still, in horrified silence at what they were seeing. Rainbow Dash and Nightmare Tyralus were standing directly in front of each other (the former on her hind legs), Dash’s fore-hooves resting just in front of Tyralus’ hands on the base of his sword, which had been driven through her chest up to the hilt. She coughed, and blood spattered on the armor of his arm.

“Well fought, girl” he said, panting for breath. “Had you gone up against anything less than a Nightmare, you’d have survived this day. You’ve earned this warrior’s death.”

“I’m… not finished yet…” Dash whispered.

With that, she slowly moved her fore-hooves up, and the split-second before they touched his exposed arm he saw them spark with power, but he could not react in time. They made contact, and instantly Rainbow Dash channeled power directly from her mana core, converting it into a devastating surge of magic electricity that surged from her hooves and down the sword presently stuck inside her and then into & through Tyralus’ body, the combined force of the high voltage and the energy signature of an Element of Harmony quickly cooking his body from the inside out, sparks shooting out of his eyes, ears, and mouth. With a final twitch, the dead body of Tyralus keeled over backward, smoke rising from his body. Within a few seconds, his body dissolved into particles of darkness, fading away into nothingness. The barrier fragmented and dissolved away, allowing the three onlookers to rush to Dash’s side as she fell to the ground, the sword inside her staying put despite its owner’s death. Amy went to remove the sword.

“Don’t touch it!” Trixie snapped. “If you pull that thing out, she’ll lose blood even faster!”

“D-Dashie…” Pinkie whimpered, kneeling at the blue pegasus’ side, tears in her eyes.

“I… c-couldn’t let everyone here die” Dash whispered. “Even after everything they’ve all done to me… I wouldn’t have been able to… live with myself… And I guess now… I won’t live at all.”

“Don’t say that!” Pinkie’s voice was wavering as tears fell freely. “You’re everything to me! I can’t lose you!!”

Suddenly, there were five different-colored lights in the air above Rainbow Dash. Pinkie, Amy, and Trixie looked up, and saw Sonic walking toward them, arms outstretched and palms raised. Five Chaos Emeralds floated above Dash, slowly spinning as their glow intensified. They soon spun faster, and tendrils of energy formed between them, connecting them. The tendrils then lanced downward into Rainbow Dash’s body, her barely-conscious form floating a few inches off the ground. The sword came free, falling to the ground, but no blood flowed from the hole through her torso. Instead, each and every wound she had was infused with a glow of power that shifted between the colors of the five Chaos Emeralds. Before everyone’s eyes, the wounds began to rapidly heal, the hole sealing shut as organs, muscle, and flesh were repaired to good as new. The “lesser” wounds were healed as well, cuts sealing shut and bones mending.

“Miraculous…” Twilight Sparkle muttered, standing along with the other members of the away teams. They had arrived right behind Sonic, just in time to catch the beginning of the Emeralds’ healing of their lost friend.

After around half a minute, the light died down and Rainbow Dash slowly floated down to the ground, lying on her back. The five Emeralds returned to Sonic. Several seconds later, Rainbow Dash slowly opened her tired eyes. The first thing she saw was Pinkie’s face hanging over her, mane flat and eyes wet. The pink pony then pounced, grabbing Dash in a near-crushing hug while sobbing in joy and relief. Dash soon felt as five other ponies rushed in and latched on, all of them spilling out apologies and pleas for forgiveness. It wasn’t long before the townsfolk began spilling out of their hiding places as well, begging for forgiveness and apologizing from the bottoms of their hearts. Rainbow Dash could see and feel a little orange filly squeezing her way into the central group hug; Fluttershy gladly shifted so Scootaloo could properly get into it. Dash held the little girl close as she clung to the older pegasus for dear life.

While the girls were having their group hug, Amy walked over to the sword lying on the ground. It had changed drastically in appearance; the blade had changed from black to blue-tinted silver, and the guard now bore a wing motif with a three-toned lightning bolt in the center. It seems that exposure to the Chaos Emeralds and to Rainbow Dash’s core energy signature had ‘purified’ it.

“I think this is yours now, Rainbow Dash” Amy said as she held the sword up. Dash’s head poked out from the group hug, and her eyes widened at the sight.

“It’s so shiny…” she muttered. “I have a sword. I have… a sword. …So awesome.”

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a swarm of glowing purple magic binds popped up, catching everyone by surprise and holding them in place. The group began to panic as they looked around and vainly struggled.

“You were all fools to presume me dead…” Rodok said as he floated toward them all, the head of his staff glowing, sporting visible injuries except those from Twilight’s finishing blast. “It was difficult for me to cast the Illusory Substitution spell in that instant before the blast that Sparkle fired struck after breaking my shield, but I succeeded with it. Now I can do what Tyralus, Bytor, and Blackfang could not…”

He raised his staff high, charging power, as the group tried to break free of his binds. However, there was a sudden, massive blast of pink and blue light that struck Rodok from behind, engulfing him. His scream was quickly silenced as the powerful magic consumed him, wiping him from existence. The bind spell broke apart, freeing everyone.

“I’m sorry I’ve been gone for these last few months” a female voice said. “I had to stop the zebras and the wildebeests from going to war with each other. Celly has filled me in on what’s happened, however.”

The group turned to see an alicorn walking towards them, about the size of Luna or a few inches shorter, with light-pink fur and purple, pink, & yellow mane and tail. Most of the populace knelt down in reverence to one of the three Princesses of the land. Twilight’s reaction, however, was to break out into a childishly gleeful grin and run up to her.

“Cadence!”

The alicorn smiled and held her forelegs out as Twilight joyfully leapt into them, the two hugging each other tightly.

“It’s been so long!” Twilight said. “I haven’t seen you in nearly three years!”

“I know, and I’m so sorry for that, Twilight. With you throwing yourself into study, and my time spent either helping Celestia & Luna run Equestria or traveling the world to stop conflicts, we hardly see each other anymore. I’ve missed you so much. But I’m back and I’m here now. Whatever else Nightmare throws at you and your friends, I’ll be helping you.”

The two of them hugged for a little while longer, and then walked over to the group.

“Twilight…” Rarity said. “Why did you never tell us you were on close & personal terms with another member of the triarchy?”

“Um…” the purple unicorn sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. “You… never asked?”

“I used to babysit her when she was little” Cadence said, to the surprise of many. “I was taking a few-years break from globe-trotting and decided to do a little babysitting on the side. That’s how I met Twilight. She was always my favorite filly to foal-sit. And when she became Celestia’s student, I got to spend even more time with her! Unfortunately, as time went on conflicts started brewing around the world again and I had to set out and put a stop to them before they could devolve to actual bloodshed. I visited Twilight as often as I could, but… things kept happening on both ends to keep us apart. I just got back from a five-month mission to stop the wildebeests and zebras from going to war against each other over territory and resources.”

“I hope my people did not give you much trouble, milady” Zecora said as she walked out from the crowd. “I have heard of the increasing tension with their neighbors lately.”

“I was able to prevent bloodshed, Miss…”

“My name, fair Princess, is Zecora. I am a shaman, utilizing the local flora.”

“I…” Twilight looked sullen as she spoke again to Cadence. “I suppose Celestia told you about… my mistake… my failure…”

“We can think about that stuff later, Twilight” Rainbow Dash interrupted, sounding rather tired. “I’m still angry at you, but I’ve forgiven you. We’ll work from there.” She then finally noticed Silver. “Who are you?”

“My name is Silver the Hedgehog” he replied. “This is gonna sound strange, but I’m from the future. Nightmare ravaged my timeline, because he managed to kill Sonic & Shadow in an ambush and then pick off the Harmony-Element bearers, and then he unleashed his power on this world and Earth. I came back to stop all that by ensuring Sonic & Shadow survive.”

“Time travel? …Meh, not the weirdest thing we’ve heard. So… what was that bright flash high in the sky yesterday? I saw it from clear over Appleloosa.”

“That was the death of Discord” Shadow replied.

“…What.”

“Nightmare unsealed Discord” Fluttershy explained to Dash. “But Sonic and Shadow used the seven Chaos Emeralds to unlock their super-forms – the ones Sonic told us about when he first came to this world. They, Celestia, and Luna pursued Discord up into the stratosphere, and the four of them together were able to not only defeat him, but a combined blast from Sonic and Celestia actually destroyed him completely.”

“…How much else have I missed out on?”

“Twilight’s 20th birthday party, I had a nasty experience with what happens when dragons lose themselves to greed, and we found out Granny Smith actually helped found Ponyville” Spike counted off on his fingers.

“So… What now?” Pinkie asked cautiously, her mane & tail slowly returning to their natural, poofy state.

“Honestly?” Rainbow Dash said. “I feel exhausted right now. The Emeralds healed my wounds, but they didn’t get rid of the tiredness from using all that energy and from the adrenaline wearing off. I’m beat. I feel like the second I lay down again, I’ll be out like a light in seconds.”

“Wanna crash at my place, Dashie?” Pinkie asked. “If it’s okay with the Cakes, that is.”

“Of course it is” Mr. Cake said as he walked up, the very pregnant Mrs. Cake close behind him. “You can stay as long as you feel you need to.”

“Which will probably be at least a few days,” Mrs. Cake added in, “considering the effect wind and such have had on your cloud-house in the time you’ve been gone. It’ll probably take a few days for the other pegasi to repair it, depending on how many volunteer to.”

Immediately, at least three-dozen pegasi raised a hoof.

“Thanks” Dash said with an eyes-half-open smile, struggling to stay awake. Cadence telekinetically lifted the girl onto her back and then looked to the Cakes, who nodded and began leading her to their bakery/home, Pinkie Pie following. By the halfway point of the short journey, Dash was already asleep. There was a fast-moving patch of smoke shooting up to Canterlot as Spike sent a situation report up to the other two princesses.

In the Red-Claw plains inside gryphon territory, Nightmare let out a quick, subdued evil chuckle as he located a planetary magical nexus.