The next day, Shadic woke up to find Trixie sitting and watching him.
"Did you know you suck your thumb in your sleep?" She asked him.
Shadic looked at his hand then back to her, "I did not know…and now I wish I didn't know. Anyways, did you sleep well? I hope my thumb sucking didn't keep you up all night."
"Oh I slept well. Though, I think you helped with that." She said smiling.
"Hey, it's what a bodyguard does. I may sleep but I am always alert, so you don't have to be." He responded before getting up and stretched.
There was a knock at the trailer door. It almost sounded frantic.
Trixie opened the door to see Pinkie Pie jumping with a slight panic.
"Pinkie? What's up?" Shadic said a little concerned.
Pinkie froze for a second seeing Shadic and Trixie together, "Oooooo did I interrupt something?"
Shadic blushed and Trixie laughed at his embarrassment, "No, Pinkie, you aren't. Shadic and I did nothing."
Pinkie seemed disappointed then looked at Shadic, "This is serious! We need to go to the Crystal Empire!"
"Crystal Empire? Where? Why? And for who?" He asked now standing and clenching his fists.
"For Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence a little ways away from Ponyville. See, Twilight sent out a message to all the princesses about your dilemma and turns out Shining Armor found a gemstone that might be one of the chaos thingies!" Pinkie informed him.
Shadic's eyes widened and he got ready, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's see if they found a chaos emerald! That would make 4 to our collection!"
Trixie raised her hand, "Shadic, you never did finish explaining these things to me. All you told me was that they were dangerous. How?"
Shadic sighed, "I will explain later. We need to go now."
Once everyone got ready, they started walking toward the Crystal Empire.
Shadic was pulling Trixie's trailer with him and looked at Twilight then whispered to Rarity, "I didn't know Twilight had any siblings."
"Oh yes, her brother is such a dear. You would like him, trust me." Rarity whispered back.
"So wait, wouldn't that make Twilight royalty as well or?" Shadic asked.
"To be honest, I'm not too entirely sure, dear. I think it does but I don't want to assume." She whispered back.
Rainbow Dash decided to stop the silence, "So, Shadic, I guess since it will take us a while to get to the Crystal Empire, why don't you tell us more about yourself, the emeralds, and your fusion."
Shadic laughed, "That would be something I expect Twilight to ask but alright. Where do I start? I guess I should explain the emeralds first since they are easiest."
Everyone started to slow down walking to listen carefully.
"So, the chaos emeralds, seven in total. Each with different abilities to grant the user unimaginable power. Just one chaos emerald can grant access to unlimited power, though this is all based on the user's thoughts, and as such, the emeralds transform these thoughts into power." Shadic pulled out the red emerald, "Say for instance, if I wanted to…uh…" he looked around then pointed to a large stone. "Let's say I wanted to destroy that stone."
Everyone watched as the emerald sparked and glowed as Shadic for a ball of energy in his other hand and threw it at the stone causing it to shatter into pieces.
"Now let's say I wanted to restore that rock I just destroyed." Shadic said as the emerald levitated just out of his reach and the stone started to reform itself back to its original state.
"Ohhh" Said everypony watching him.
"Now all chaos emeralds are tied to the master emerald. I briefly mentioned this around you Twilight, but I never fully explained it. The master emerald is infinite energy incarnate and can control the chaos emeralds at will, whether that be to stop their power usage, or to call them to a certain location." He further explained.
Twilight looked at him, "Well why don't we just find the master emerald instead and use it to call the rest of the emeralds to us?"
Shadic shrugged, "I haven't sensed it. With the amount of chaos energy is in that thing, my senses would be overloaded, but I haven't felt it. That could mean it's not here sadly. Though this could work in our favor as well. If there are any individuals you have any problems with, we can count on them not having their hands…or hooves, on the master emerald and its infinite power." Shadic said laughing.
"What if they have a chaos emerald?" Fluttershy asked.
Shadic paused for a second then nervously laughed, "W-well I don't think we have anything to worry about heh. I mean, well…" He looked at Trixie, "Considering Trixie figured out how to unlock the emeralds power…that could be scary. Rainbow Dash tried unlocking the power of the blue emerald but to no avail. I was partially relieved. I told her how to do it and she still couldn't it, so I just thought that inhabitants here wouldn't be able to harness chaos energy."
"Until you saw me use it?" Trixie asked slightly puzzled.
"Yeah, and the fact you were using it so easily for minor things so skillfully speaks volumes. If someone with a trained mind could unlock the power of chaos energy and mix it with magic…who's to say, someone with a vendetta against the world couldn't?" Shadic asked them.
They all looked amongst each other thinking some of the worst case scenarios involving the emeralds and some of their enemies.
"So, how are you able to sense the chaos emeralds?" AppleJack asked.
"My link to the chaos force." Shadic responded as they started to cross a small stream.
Twilight started writing this information down, "What's the chaos force?" She asked almost instantly.
"It is the embodiment of all chaos energy, the mystical power wielded by many inhabitants of my world, Mobius, and is the all-encompassing energy of the universe. For one to establish their own link to the chaos force, requires years of exposure to the chaos and master emeralds as well as be well versed in using chaos energy. Shadow and Sonic both have links to the chaos force, so naturally my link is the sum of both of theirs combined." Shadic said proudly.
Twilight finished writing the information down and nodded at Shadic before they saw a kingdom of gems.
"Whoa! That place looks beautiful!" Shadic said rushing to the entrance of the Crystal Empire.
Once they were all in, Twilight told Shadic to follow her to meet up with Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadence.
"Actually, you go on ahead. I will catch up with you." Shadic said, "I kinda want to check this place out a bit." He smiled at her.
"Alright just don't leave the city." Twilight said as she walked away.
"I wont leave, I promise." Shadic said walking away and around the empire.
Everywhere he looked, the inhabitants glistened like gemstones and sparkled in the sunlight. "Man, I see why it's called the Crystal Empire. Even the inhabitants here are gems themselves."
He began making his way toward the Crystal Castle where he saw Rarity, "Hey, Rarity!" He called to her.
She seemed to turn around quickly and upon her seeing Shadic she seemed off, "Y-yes?!"
He walked over, "Hey, hey, ease up. You seem very tense. Hope I didn't scare you." Shadic said to her patting her back and stopped.
Rarity's eyes went wide and she felt Shadic's hand on her back.
"Rarity? Since when did you feel so…rugged?" Shadic said as he narrowed his eyes at her slowly pulling his hand away from her.
"I-I uh…uh…" She started to shiver and feel trapped.
Shadic laughed and pointed behind him, "There is a spa that way. I can see you're tense from all this, so why don't you take it easy and relax for a bit. I'm going to meet with Twilight. Catch you later." He said waving and passing her.
In the Crystal Castle
Shadic walked in and was escorted by guards to where Twilight and the rest were.
He was shocked to see Rarity already there before him, "Huh? Rarity? How did you get here so fast?"
Rarity looked at him and seem confused, "What are you talking about Shadic?"
Everyone looked at him, "I just passed you on the way here. You seemed tense so I told you to head to the spa. Either you didn't go or they relieved you of your stress faster than I can run."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Shadic. Are you sure it was me and not someone else?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'm 100% positive. It was you. I felt your fur and everything. It was so rugged." He commented and they all looked at each other.
Shining Armor and Cadence looked at each other then Shadic, "Where was this?" Cadence asked.
"It down that direction." He pointed the way he came from, "Did I do or say something wrong?" He asked slightly panicked.
"No, but I fear we may have just made a mistake." Shining Armor said looking at Shadic.
"What do you mean?" Shadic asked.
Trixie sighed, "Apparently, you were just in here 5 minutes ago. Shining Armor gave you the chaos emerald and you then left saying you were going to head to the bathroom."
"How is that possible? I just stepped foot in the castle." Shadic said looking at everyone.
"Changelings." Twilight said, "Creatures that can change their bodies to look like anypony they want. It's not just their body they imitate, their voice, their mannerisms. You couldn't tell the difference from a changeling to the original."
"You mean to tell me that someone just waltzed in her with my face and sweet talked you all out of the emerald and walked out?" Shadic said slightly irritated.
Everyone nodded and he clenched his fists, "Damnit!" He yelled before hitting a wall, "So we essentially just handed some random stranger a chaos emerald."
Everyone was silent. No one has seen Shadic this upset before.
"We need to find them…if they knew to use my face then they must know we are here. Even more so, they could possibly know if we have the other emeralds." Shadic said walking to the door.
"No need." Cadence said.
"What was that? Do you know what we are talking about here? Power that could possibly destroy the world! We don't have time to sit on our asses and twiddle our thumbs!" Shadic yelled.
"What I'm saying is, if it was a changeling, then we already know who is behind it. Queen Chrysalis." Cadence replied settling down the pissed of hedgehog.
"You guys go find her before they get-" Shadic was then interrupted by a loud explosion.
When they all looked outside, they saw the magic barrier that defended the city was being attacked from all sides.
"Friends of yours?" Shadic asked as he saw what looked to be hundreds of pitch-black creepy unicorns.
Among them was one who looked different from the rest. She held out a hoof and Shadic saw the purple chaos emerald, "She has the chaos emerald!"
There was another explosion, one strong enough to shake the ground and soon, the barrier gave out allowing a full scale invasion to happen.
"They must have went for the crystal heart!" Shining Armor said as he helped up Cadence.
"You guys work on getting that barrier up, I will deal with these guys." Shadic said as the 3 emeralds levitated around him before being absorbed into his body prompting his super form.
Trixie watched in awe as Shadic looked at her, "Stay safe. Got it?" He said to her.
She nodded and he jumped out a window flying into battle.
Shadic watched as some changelings divebombed into structures to take them and tried to intercept them as best he could. Kicking, punching, and blasting as much as he could to protect the city from the onslaught.
There more coming in than he could intercept so he had to start using chaos energy to diminish the numbers a little more for the defense to be more manageable.
The Crystal Empire started fighting back, firing magic at the invading changelings and protecting the citizens on the streets with occasional assistance from Shadic from the skies.
It wasn't long before Shadic saw another Shadic flying away and went after him. Causing the other Shadic to fly faster.
Shadic then teleported in front of the fake and glared at him, "You know, they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Funny enough though, I feel more insulted than anything else. Hand over that chaos emerald you're holding, and I wont break every bone in your body…only half." He got close only to get kicked out of nowhere.
He hit the ground causing a small crater and for him to drop the emeralds. Whatever hit him landed in front of him and went to reach for them but Shadic grabbed its arm and looked at it, "No way…Metal?"
Shadic was struck down again and Metal started grabbing the chaos emeralds only to get shot by lightning and fire from behind.
He turned around and saw Twilight and Trixie attempting to fight him. Metal Sonic held onto the chaos emeralds and rushed at them near full speed.
Shadic slowly regained consciousness and watched as Metal Sonic was standing over Trixie and Twilight holding the 2 chaos emeralds, "What did you do to them? What did you do?!"
Metal Sonic turned around and looked at Shadic before starting to walk off, "Chaos Emerald acquired."
"You bastard!" The chaos emeralds turned pitch black and Metal Sonic was launched miles away from the crater with Shadic now hitting him with a barrage of punches.
When metal Sonic looked at Shadic, he was Shadic was pitch-black with no pupils in his eyes. He threw a punch at Shadic only for Shadic to grab his arm and rip it off making oil spill out of his arm. Shadic threw the arm aside and started slamming his fists repeatedly into Metal Sonic's chest damaging it and denting it with every punch.
Metal Sonic twitched and squirmed to get away but no avail as Shadic punched through his chest and ripped his fist out. Metal was then forced to witness Shadic grab his face and slowly start to crush it, "Let this be a lesson Eggman. You mess with Equestria again, it will your head I crush! Stay out of this dimension!" With that, Shadic crushed Metal Sonic's head then ripped it in 2 tossing the pieces aside.
"Shadic?" Came a weak voice from behind." Shadic turned around and saw Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie standing there.
He said nothing before stand and reverting to normal, "Sorry, you had to witness that." He turned around and saw the chaos emerald were gone. "Oh no…"
Shadic then saw Trixie and walking with Twilight holding the blue chaos emerald. "Guys…I'm sorry. The others got away from me."
They looked at him then handed him the emerald sitting to catch their breath, "What is that thing?" Twilight asked pointing to Metal Sonic.
"Metal Sonic. A robotic copy of Sonic the Hedgehog. He was created by my enemy, Dr. Eggman, with the intent of gathering the emeralds and beating Sonic. I don't know how he got here. I was hoping that it was just a changeling mimicking Metal…but when I grabbed his arm, I felt nothing there. If it were a changeling, I'm sure I would feel skin or fur of some kind, but all I felt was titanium. He is the real deal."
"So, Metal Sonic was working with Chrysalis?" Trixie asked.
"I guess…but why? It's not Metal's MO to work with someone unless there was something in it for him. Tell me about this Chrysalis, what is she like?" Shadic said taking the emerald.
"Chrysalis is shifty, manipulative, but most of all, cunning. She has a ways with words like no one knows. Maybe she could have persuaded him?" Twilight said.
"Maybe, but what's in it for him? I guess I should also think about Eggman as well. Metal does take orders from him. Something has to be in it for him, but what?" Shadic said starring at the chaos emerald in hand.
Within that second, the magical barrier was put back up and the royal couple regrouped with the gang, "Twilight? Are you ok?" Shining Armor said running to Twilight.
"I am fine big brother. Shadic saved me and Trixie from being further injured from the invasion. Thank him." Twilight said looking at Shadic who turned away still upset.
"I guess we haven't been properly introduced. I am Prince Shining Armor, and this is my wife Princess Cadence." He said to Shadic.
"I am Shadic the hedgehog, fusion of Sonic the hedgehog and Shadow the hedgehog. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Sorry, we met under these circumstances." Shadic said before showing the chaos emerald, "Not only did they get away with the emerald you were going to give us…but they also got away with 2 out of the 3 emeralds that were already in our possession prior to coming here."
"What's so special about these gemstones?" Cadence asked.
Shadic looked at her then started teleporting all around the area before appearing behind her, "That's what's so special about these emeralds. Not to mention, when all 7 are gathered, immense power is obtained."
Cadence levitated the emerald to her and tried using it and her eyes went wide, "Whoa!" She yelled causing everyone but Shadic too look shocked.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Shining Armor asked her overly concerned.
"You all were very slow for 10 minutes! D-did I?" She looked at Shadic who nodded.
"As I feared, someone else learned how to use chaos control first try on a whim. Seems you just ran so fast, time slowed down for you. Imagine what all seven could do in the wrong hands?" He said crossing his arms.
One of the guard unicorns came running toward them panicked and scared, "My lord! My lady! Something terrible has happened!"
"What happened?" Cadence asked walking over.
"Lady Flurry Heart has been ponynapped! She isn't in the kingdom!" The guard says before looking and seeing Metal Sonic's remains. "That monster took her!"
Fluttershy looked at Shadic, "Was he carrying anything?"
"Besides the chaos emeralds, no. He blindsided me and I don't remember him holding anything when he did." Shadic said remembering when Metal Sonic ambushed him.
Cadence and Shining Armor broke down in tears, "They took our little girl!"
Shadic watched and growled with anger, "Those monsters! Can this get any worse!?" He yelled before his body started to glow white. "Huh? Now wha-"
In a flash of light, where Shadic once stood now stood 2 individuals, one blue and one black and red.
"Huh? Shadic? What happened?" Asked Twilight.
The blue one looked at her, "Shadic? I think you have the wrong hedgehog." He said as he rubbed his head. "The name's Sonic."
Everyone then looked at the other hedgehog, "That would make you, Shadow, wouldn't it?" Asked Pinkie Pie.
"Hmph. Obviously." Shadow said sarcastically.
Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and AppleJack caught up and saw the 2 hedgehogs, "Who're they and what happened to Shadic?"
Twilight looked at them and with a sad expression informed her that Shadic defused into Sonic and Shadow.
"So, who are you?" Sonic asked standing and dusting himself off with Shadow doing the same.
"You don't know? You mean as Shadic, you both don't know any info?" Twilight asked confused.
Sonic opened his mouth to talk but was interrupted by Shadow, "Obviously not. Otherwise he wouldn't have asked the question." He said crossing his arms and looking at the amount of damage done.
Everyone Shocked by Shadow's outburst looked back at Sonic who was stretching and looking at Metal Sonic's body parts, "I knew it was only a matter of time before old metal head finally kicked it.
Shadow looked back at Metal's remnants, "Hmph, about time someone destroyed tin grin once and for all. I'm only upset that I couldn't be the one to do it."
The mane six looked at Metal Sonic, "He must have been a lot of trouble for you." Rarity assumed.
"Hardly. He was more of a nuisance if anything. I just never thought this would be how he goes out." Sonic said picking up Metal Sonic's arm and inspecting it, "Do you gals think you could fix him?"
They looked at Metal Sonic and gave a slight nervous answer, "We might but it may be a bit off."
Sonic and Shadow looked at each other then sighed.
"Also, will you guys be able to fuse back into Shadic?" Asked Rainbow Dash.
Sonic looked at her then picked up the chaos emerald, "We could, but to pull of chaos unification, we need the 7 chaos emeralds and turn them into super emeralds."
"Super emeralds? There're more types of emeralds?" Cadence asked.
"Sorta." Sonic responded scratching his ear.
"With the power of chaos we can turn the chaos emeralds into super emeralds. Super emeralds are even stronger versions of their chaos counterparts. We need the super emerald to use chaos unification. Once that happens, Shadic will be back. Until then. We are stuck unfused, and considering we only have 1 emerald, it will be a while until we fuse again." Shadow commented.
They watched as the sun start to set. This was going to take a while.
Elsewhere…
"So, Did it work? Did you get your hands on the emeralds?" Came a childlike voice as a filly held up what looked to be a cyan colored gemstone.
Chrysalis enter the location with the red and clear chaos emeralds in her possession, "Of course I got them. Guess that thing wasn't a waste after all. He kept that one hedgehog busy long enough for one of my changelings to grab the 2 emeralds and run off."
There was another voice, a more rugged and slightly raspy one, "Splendid, That now increases our collection to 5 leaving only 2 left. Once we have the last 2, Twilight Sparkle and her friends will be no more."
"What about the hedgehog? Surely he will be some kind of threat? You saw exactly how strong he was correct? I would expect us not to ignore that." Came a more refined and posh voice.
"Of course, we aren't going to ignore that, but remember, he is no more. The emeralds power ran out for them. They have unfused and wont be doing so as long as they don't get their hands on all 7." Came a much more old sounding voice.
Chrysalis sat the emeralds on a table and the other's came close and looked at them. There they were: the red, clear, blue, green, and purple emeralds. Unbeknownst to them, that their blue emerald was a fake. One of them grabbed the red emerald and started to feel his power increased and started laughing. "Oh yes! With power like this, I will crush Twilight and her pathetic friends easily."
Another picked up the green emerald, "Interesting, the Crystal Empire will have no chance stopping me now."
Chrysalis smirked, "Don't worry about getting the other emerald off them. I have the perfect plan." She laughed bringing out a small filly, "That metal thing snatched this brat from the Crystal Empire. You all thinking what I'm thinking?"
One of them gasped then started laughing while the filly cried, "That's the daughter of Princess Cadence! Surely they will hand over their chaos emerald to ensure the safety of their daughter."
The old voice began to speak, "Don't forget the most important thing. Destroying their precious elements of harmony. Then they will completely powerless will no chance to stand against us."
A new voice spoke, "Don't get to ahead of yourself. Just because Shadic unfused, doesn't mean you aren't safe. I have had my run in's with Sonic and his pals. Don't underestimate them. The fact they have 1 chaos emerald is enough for you to be on your guard. Metal Sonic is proof of this, though he did he job. Now I have collected data on Shadic." There was a glow in the area before the sound of electricity flooded everyone's ears.
"What is this? Another one of your useless machines human?" Said the old voice.
"Oh quite the contrary. This one has Metal Sonic's battle data, along with a Shadow android's combat data, as well as the data collected on Shadic. Say hello to my new greatest creation, Neo Hyper Metal Shadic!" The human began cackling as Metal Shadic powered on and looked at the chaos emerald.
"Prime directive, destroy Sonic and Shadow the Hedgehog." He said crossing his arms and looking at Chrysalis and the rest.
"Oooo, scary." Said the little filly poking Metal Shadic whose head turned and looked at her quickly and grabbed her hoof.
"Ah!" She shrieked and pulled her hoof back.
"Little girl, that is not a toy." Said the human, "I can only send things to your dimension one at a time with the master emerald. So don't mess this up."
"What makes this one so different from the last one you sent? It could barely take on 10 changelings from my hive at once." Chrysalis said watching Metal Shadic.
"Why don't you test him out." Said the human with a slight hint of malice to his tone.
Chrysalis whistled and 50 changelings came out and changed into twilight and her friends.
"Metal Shadic, ready combat mode alpha." The human said.
Metal Shadic's eyes flashed for a second before the changelings started flying at him.
1 by one Metal Shadic started beating them down much to the dismay of Chrysalis, "My Hive!"
She wanted to stop but one of her allies held her back, "Watch." He told her.
Metal Shadic felt one cling to his back but that didn't hinder him as he was still punching and kicking the rest that came close to him.
The Changeling tried to bite Metal Shadic only to crack his teeth as Metal Shadic grabbed him by his horns and use him as a tool to hit the other changelings that came near.
"How could a being that uses no magic be so strong?" Asked the posh voice.
Metal Shadic then started to glow yellow before looking at the 30 changelings that remained, "I'll crush you!" He yelled at them before speeding at them.
He grabbed one and started to teleport to different ones in the surrounding area to smack them with their friend. There only 15 left.
The human was laughing loud with delight, "Brilliant Metal Shadic! Don't hold back!"
Metal Shadic looked back at the vision of the human before starting to glow white.
The 15 changelings that were left were hesitant to fight with Metal glaring at them.
"You're doomed!" He yelled as he raced toward one and slammed it into a wall and blasted it before teleporting behind another and grabbing it by the throat. It squirmed and kept punching Metal Shadic in his face.
It didn't phase the titanic plated hedgehog as there was a cracking sound before the changeling fell to the ground not moving.
Metal then appeared behind 2more and slammed their heads together then raced for 3 more and grabbed them by their wings and slammed them to the ground before striking each in the throat.
5 changelings circled around him and shot magic at him to keep him at a distance forcing him down on one knee.
"Well seems he isn't so tough after all." Said Chrysalis with a cocky attitude.
Someone pointed at Metal Shadic and saw him starting to glow red before pulling out the green chaos emerald, "Chaos control!"
They all blinked and saw that only 1 changeling was left.
Metal Shadic looked at the last changeling who started to run, "Limiter disengaged." He said causing his body to turn slightly red.
The changeling was then grabbed by it's tail and then grabbed by its throat forced to looked Metal Shadic in the eyes.
It squirmed and yelled in fear before being thrown into the ground and dragged through only to then be tossed into the air and kicked into and through a wall.
Metal Shadic started giving it an onslaught of punches and kicks before kicking it all over the place and teleporting around to bounce it around like a pinball, "ARRRR! YEAAHHH! DIE!" He started spindashing everywhere.
Chrysalis and her allies watch as Metal brought back the head of the last changeling who ironically changed itself to look like Twilight.
"I am the mightiest!" He yelled before shooting a chaos spear at the head exploding it into a mess of blood and parts.
"I like it." Said the rugged voice, "He will join me when looking for the last emerald and if I run into Twilight. We know what to do." He started laughing loudly.
Metal Shadic looked at Chrysalis and starred.
"I'm glad you like it. Now then, about our deal…" Said the human voice.
Everyone looked at him and smiled, "Yes, we do have a deal. Seeing as you held up your end, we shall hold up ours."