A New Dawn Chapter 23

Shadow landed in front of Sonic and Rainbow Dash, bringing his hands together and outstretching his palms to crack his knuckles. He then began to massage his right shoulder with his left and as he rotated his right arm in circular motion.

“I’m going high,” Sonic informed the Rainbow Dash.

“Then I’ll hit ‘em low,” she confirmed.

“Oh good, you gotta plan, hope it works out for ya,” Shadow said confidently, before his face twisted into a mischievous grin. “Let’s start this party off with a bang!” he yelled out as he gathered energy in his right hand and hurled a supercharged Chaos Spear at the ground between them.  Sonic and Rainbow evacuated their location just as the ground exploded with a fiery blast that sent chunks of rock flying through the air. The two split and went in separate directions, both creating sonic booms in their wake as they left golden and rainbow colored trails behind their respective selves. The two hooked inwards and both charged at Shadow from opposite directions before Shadow had time to recover from throwing his Chaos Spear.

Shadow grunted in pain as Sonic’s heel drilled into his cheek from a flying side thrust while Rainbow Dash tackled him hard at the knees. Both of them sailed passed their target, leaving Shadow flipping over several times before landing face down on the ground with a dull thud. The Ultimate Life Form began to push himself back to his feet when he felt hands grip his ankles, only to be lifted into the air and slammed, back first into the ground over Sonic’s head. Shadow’s attention was then drawn to the sky above him which rippled out Rainbow colors and before he could react, the glowing white pegasus landed with both of her hind hooves squarely in his chest, forcing his body deeper into the ground. Rainbow Dash hopped off of him as Sonic reached down and grabbed him by the quills on his head with his left hand as he wound up and punched him in the face with his right. He let go of him as he hit, letting the attack send Shadow stumbling backwards and grabbed his face in pain as he unknowingly walked into a ready and waiting Rainbow Dash. The pegasus spun around and reared up on her forelegs as she cocked her hind legs back and unloaded, bucking Shadow in his spine as he stepped into her attack. The blow sent him sailing up and away through the air and crashing into a building out of view.

“You got another one of those in you?” Sonic asked.

You kidding?” she said looking back at him. “I could do this all day!”

“Good! Lock and load!”  Sonic prompted as he jumped in front of her hind legs and turned to face the direction Shadow was launched. “On my mark!” with that he dropped into a super spin dash and began to rev himself up to speed, the ground melting to a burning red fluid under the friction.

In the distance, the building Shadow crashed into blew apart in a fantastic explosion of golden light as an irate Shadow raced towards the two, looking to exact some vengeance. As he zoomed closer, Sonic bounced into the air while maintaining his spin dash, signaling to Dash to buck him. The pegasus obliged and kicked him straight towards his target at terrifying speeds. Shadow saw Sonic buzzing his way towards him, but it was two little too late, the speed Dash kicked him was greater than what he could react and Sonic collided with him mid-air, ceasing both of their trajectories. Shadow reeled from the attack as he hung listlessly in the air, giving Sonic the opportunity to attack as he rolled out of his spin dash and fired off a punch to Shadow’s abdomen, sending the him flying towards the ground.

Rainbow Dash saw the falling Shadow and with a Sonic-Rainboom, raced underneath, striking him with another bucking kick just before he hit the ground, sending him back into the air and into a flying side thrust to the face from Sonic which drove him into the pavement. Sonic attack continued with force of the momentum from the kick, allowing Sonic to ride him an additional fifteen feet like skateboard while his head split open the pavement he burrowed through. Once he came to a complete stop he hopped backwards and Rainbow Dash landed by his side.

“You like that one Shadow?” Sonic called out to him mockingly as Shadow stirred and slowly began to rise. “I call it, ‘Walk the Dog’”

“This is it? This is what all the hoopla was about? Sonic, I can take this loser all by myself,” Rainbow Dash said, pumped from the beating they just gave him. She raised up on her hind legs and began to shadow box as she bounced back and forth on her hooves, “What do you say tough guy?” she taunted to Shadow. “Just hope you’re not afraid of getting beat by a girl.”

“Wow,” Shadow said with smile on his face that bothered Sonic but went unnoticed by Rainbow Dash. “You get in a few good cheap shots and you think you’re something special? You actually think you stand a chance right now, don’t you? You know what your problem is?” Shadow asked, but before he answered, he teleported from sight and reappeared between them and grabbed them both by the back of their heads. “You’re already dead, you just don’t know it yet…” he said and brought their heads together cracking their skulls against one another. He turned and drove his knee into Sonic’s gut before extending the same leg and driving it into Rainbow Dash's stomach. With them both hunched over in pain, he grabbed Sonic by the quills and Rainbow Dash by the mane and began to spin violently about at high speeds before releasing them into the air, flinging them in separate directions into and through buildings on separate sides of the street. Shadow teleported in Sonic’s trajectory and struck him with spinning snap kick as his body burst from the other side of the building. The blow sent him crashing back through the same building towards the street. He then teleported and appeared in front of Rainbow Dash a moment later and repeated the attack, sending her flying back as well, finally teleporting himself back to the street  just in time to see Sonic and Rainbow Dash burst from the buildings and collide painfully with each other before falling to the ground at his feet. Shadow laughed at the situation, “I call that one Cat’s Cradle”.

Sonic began to get up, but just as he began to push himself with his hands off the ground, Shadow punted him away, sending him sailing through the air, so he could turn his full attention to the pegasus who was also beginning to stir but hadn’t gotten up as fast. Shadow reached down and grabbed her by the mane, drawing a yelp as he yanked her to her hooves. He switched up his grip as he wrapped his arms around her tightly so that both hands gripped the opposite sides her head.

Rainbow Dash felt rush of panic overcome her as she felt a sudden strain on her head and neck as Shadow began forcing her head to one side. She planted her hooves, gritted her teeth and with every ounce of strength she could muster fought to keep her head up right. However she was losing the battle and centimeter by centimeter she felt her head twist more and more and terror began to grip her.

“Come on baby…” Shadow cooed. “Give daddy what he wants…” Then his voice turned sinister, “Lemme hear that snap!”

Rainbow screamed loud and strong, partly from exertion but mostly out of fear that she was about to meet her end.  Her cries were met with another scream, but one that was filled with rage and anger as Sonic flew through the air and flung himself, shoulder first, into Shadow, forcing the Ultimate Life Form to release his grip as he tumbled backwards from the blow. Rainbow Dash sank down on her haunches and took in several deep breaths as everything that had just occurred began to register in her head. Not even in the battlefields with the Wonderbolts did she feel as close to death as she did just then. Sonic quickly recovered as well and coaxed her back to her feet by rubbing her on the back, but never taking his eyes off Shadow.

“Sonic…” Rainbow Dash sputtered out.  “You, you saved my life!”

“Don’t thank me now, we’re not done yet!” he corrected.

“Sonic I know this guy is supposed to be your friend and all, but what are we supposed to do? I’m not sure if we can beat him, let alone get him back to normal!”

“I know, I know…” Sonic offered her frantically trying to think of a solution, and then an idea popped into his head. “Break his arm!”

“Huh?”  Rainbow Dash said with a voice filled with doubt.

“We gotta incapacitate him; if we can break his arm he won’t be in any position to fight us! Look, I’ll set you up, but I need you knock him to the ground okay?” Sonic explained hurriedly as Shadow began to pick himself back up.

“How do you recommend I do that?”

“I, uh…I got an idea, when you see your chance, put him in the ground and I’ll do the rest.”

“The only rest you’ll be doing is resting in peace!” Shadow yelled out cockily, and then his cruel grin faded as he stopped and put a finger to his lips. “Eh…that was pretty lame…Hang on, gimme a sec, I can do better.”

Sonic and Rainbow Dash tensed and readied for another assault as moments went by as Shadow stood in silence.

“Nope, got nothing, I’ll get back to you on that one,” he confessed. Then his smile reappeared. “Now, where were we? Oh yeah…killing you.”

“Hang on Shadow, “ Sonic said, desperation in his voice but a small smile appearing as well. “I got one more trick to show you,” he said as he began to hover and fly high into the air.

Shadow looked at Rainbow Dash who looked nervous but maintained a defensive stance. He cocked an eyebrow at her, “Last time this happened, your stupid Princess hit me with about twenty tons of fist. I really should just stay down here and kill you…” He put his hand to his chin as he gazed up at Sonic who floated above the skyscrapers staring down at him. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “Why not?”  he mumbled as he took the air after Sonic, as Rainbow Dash let out a sigh of relief.

Once equal height with Sonic, Shadow crossed his arms impatiently.

“All right Shadow, I’ll call this one, ‘Around the World’,” Sonic said with a grin.

“I’m gonna be honest, I think the yo-yo jokes peaked with cat’s cradle,” Shadow commented.

“Just hang in there with me,” Sonic responded as he balled his fists as his muscles began to tense. “It’s a fan favorite…” Sonic teased.

“Oh yeah? Well let’s see it?” Shadow taunted.

“Be right back,” Sonic announced. Then Shadow felt himself knocked over and tumble through as Sonic seemed to disappear from sight.

“What the?” Shadow questioned as he righted himself. The attack didn’t hurt at all, it was as if Sonic just pushed past him, but now he was gone. “We’re did that stupid faker go?”

Then his attention was drawn to the far horizon, he thought he spied a small golden glimmer, and then he felt nothing but pain in his jaw as he flipped over and over again. He once again righted himself. Trying to figure out what was going on. Then the golden speck at the horizon was back, followed by pain in his stomach, and more flipping, like someone punched him in his gut. Then pain his back, he hadn’t even had time to recover from the flip. Then pain his face, his stomach, and his chest erupted one by one as it dawned on him what Sonic was doing.

Sonic cocked his fist back again fired it at Shadow’s abdomen, delivering the blowing before sailing past for another strike. The lights and fires of city appearing as simply streaks of light as Sonic flew through for all but a moment before his vision went dark as he began to fly over the vast ocean.  An instant later the capital city of Wyndia streaked passed as did the rolling plains where he hand found the Equus and fought Metal with Rainbow Dash. Numerous more cities and bodies of water passed his vision in the blink of an eye before he was crossing yet another ocean then more lights as he passed another city, more terrain, another city, then his vision focused a golden speck in front of him as he flew forward with both fists to deliver his final blow.

Shadow felt his chin explode as both of Sonic’s fists connected and sent him tumbling down out of control. Rainbow Dash saw this as her queue and flew quickly into the air and grabbed onto the dazzled hedgehog and flung him into the ground. Shadow struck with a thud but before he could get up, Sonic was upon him. He grabbed a hold of his left leg. He stepped forward, placing his right leg next to Shadow’s left thigh, spun his left over him, completing as three sixty, bending Shadow’s left knee around Sonic’s right leg. Then Sonic reached, grabbed a hold of Shadow’s other foot with his free hand, brought them together and fell backwards on the ground, locking him tightly into a figure four leg lock.

Shadow yelled out in pain and frustration as he struggled but could not stand, or get out of the hold. Sonic strained with all his might to keep him locked in, but Shadow had unnatural strength, even for a super form. Sensing he might not be able to hold him very long he called out to Dash.

“Do it! Break the arm!”

Rainbow Dash bolted down next to Shadow and grabbed onto his flailing left arm. She hugged it tightly and began to yank. Shadow thrashed against her efforts, even grabbing and yanking her mane to illicit whatever pain he could. Frustrated at his resistance Rainbow Dash stomped with her right rear hoof on his cheek and leaned back pulling with all her might. Then a stomach churning crackling noise filled the air as Shadow’s shoulder dislocated from its socket, forcing a scream to erupt from Shadow’s mouth.

Shadow burned with anger at the sensation of pain these two had caused him. He balled his right fist and with all the rage and malice he could muster he swung his good arm around and struck Rainbow Dash in her right thigh, sending pain through her major artery causing her leg to buckle and her to scream.

“L-Look at that Sonic," he stammered, "bet you didn’t know you could give a pony a Charlie Horse!” Shadow laughed maniacally as he hit her again causing her to scream again. Sonic was incredulous to Shadow fighting with a dislocated shoulder. However, Rainbow Dash was now furious that Shadow was still making jokes and was still wounding them. She rose off of his body and while still holding his left arm high placed her right rear hoof at his elbow. She gave Sonic a desperate angry look. Sonic saw the look in her eyes and felt Shadow’s struggle against the hold not let up one bit. He swallowed hard and nodded for her to proceed.

Rainbow Dash began to push hard against the elbow but Shadow knew her intention and flexed his arm fighting the attempt. But he was losing the battle and centimeter by centimeter, his elbow grew taught.

“C’mon baby…”Rainbow Dash said through gritted teeth with a heart filled with anger. “Give mama what she wants…LEMME HEAR THAT SNAP!!” she screamed as she put everything she had into her right leg and as a sickening crack filled the air and the loud howl of anguish bellow from Shadow she knew she had succeeded. She looked to see her hoof was deep in Shadow’s arm as his elbow was disjointed and bending inwards. She let go of his arm and as he pulled it close to his body in pain. Rainbow Dash felt a sense of superiority over him, and dropped down to all for legs as she leaned her face close to his so she was inches away as she stared eye to eye with him. “What’s the matter? THAT HURT!?” she taunted.

Shadow’s right hand lashed out and gripped her tightly by the windpipe. Rainbow Dash felt all the air escape as she was surprised by the attack.  Her eyes wide with terror as Shadow pulled her closer. “No…” he said through clenched teeth, saliva dripping from the corners of his mouth. Suddenly his eyes began to glow brightly; Rainbow Dash stared on in disbelief. “BUT THIS WILL!”

Powerful beams of energy shot from his eyes into Rainbow Dash’s, exploding in a violent burst of fire and energy on contact. He let her go and the pegasus stumbled backwards before falling to her knees, her fore hooves clutching her smoking eyes in pain as she let out a death curdling scream. Shadow rocked up, concentrated on energy for a Chaos Spear in his right hand and saw Sonic who had a horrified look on his face.

“Super Shadow…Now with laser vision!” he announced as he hurled the spear at Sonic’s face, the force from the blast causing Sonic's grip to loosen.  Shadow got his feet, picked up Sonic by the throat, held him high above his head, and sent energy to his hand as if he was charging a Spear, effectively frying Sonic alive while he writhed in his grasp. Once Sonic’s struggling ceased, Shadow dropped him on the ground and marched over to Rainbow Dash who was still on her knees rubbing her eyes from his attack. “Too easy,” he muttered as he grabbed her by the back of the head by her mane and began slamming her head repeatedly into the pavement before hoisting her high into the air, chucking her into the ground, creating a small crater. He then began stomping repeatedly on her head yelling as he did so. “You…weak…insignificant…speck...You don’t…deserve…to live...You dumb…little…PONY!” Shadow raised his foot high, slammed hard into her temple with his heel and began to grind her beneath it. “Now suck on pavement you filthy little horse!” Shadow walked backwards from the downed pegasus who was squirming in pain. Shadow’s breath was fast and rapid with rage as he eyes darted around him until they landed on Sonic who was trying to crawl over to them.

Shadow stormed over to him, grabbed him by his quills and hoisted him the air with his good arm until they were eye level. “Here Sonic, let me show you the real super power of teamwork!” he scoffed as he walked them back to where Rainbow Dash lay. He tossed Sonic into the air and caught him by the ankle, and then swung him down hard, striking the back of Sonic’s head and sharp quills into Rainbow Dash. He lifted him back up and swung again, and again, and again before dropping a battered and bruised Super Sonic on top of a beaten and aching Super Rainbow Dash. “Now…Stay.” He said, partially exhausted from the effort. He turned from them and walked down the street until he saw what appeared to be a bar. He kicked open the door which splintered immediately. Heading to the counter all he saw was various kinds of wines and hard apple cider. “What? No Bourbon? Geez la wheeze they should be thanking me for killing them! I’m doing these ponies a favor” he muttered as he grabbed some hard apple cider and broke the neck of the bottle on the bar table.  He greedily chugged the contents until it was half gone before slumping to the ground and setting the bottle next to him.  He grabbed his left arm with his right, bent his left knee up, wrapped the backwards joint around his knee and with a scream and strong jerk, snapped the elbow back into its proper position. “AAAAAHHHHOHOHO!!…Hoooo!!…Hooo!!…hooo boy! That stings…okay…one down…” He reached down and chugged the rest of the bottle, tossed it aside, gripped his left bicep with his right hand jerked the shoulder back into socket. “ERRRRRGHH!! It hurts soooo good!” he yelled out. Then raising from the ground and rotating his arm and flexing at the elbow he began to make his way outside, grumbling as he went. “That’s it…Somebody is totally gonna die.”

“Ugh, Sonic” Rainbow Dash moaned as she and the hedgehog struggled to get to their feet and catch their breath.  “What…What just happened?”

“You ever hear the saying, ‘beat you with one arm tied behind my back?’ Well, he just beat us with one arm broken in two different spots, so as you can assume…things are not looking good right now.”

“Aww c’mon on!” Rainbow Dash cried out as Shadow walked back into view still testing out his fixed left arm. “He’s got both arms again! Now what do we do?”

“Okay,” Sonic said, weary and a loss for words. “Here’s the plan…”

“Oh no you don’t,” Shadow interrupted. “No plans, no schemes, no hijinks, no conniving, no horseplay, no tomfoolery, and above all else, no last ditch acts of heroism. All that’s going to happen right now…Is you dying, painfully I might add.  Now brace yourselves,” Shadow’s eyes began burn brightly with energy, Sonic stepped in front of Rainbow Dash, his eyes wide fear and determination, his teeth gritted and his arms outstretched as he moved to protect Dash from the impending attack. However, Super Sonic felt Super Rainbow Dash’s forelegs wrap tightly around him as she held him close and buried her head against his golden quills, bringing him a sense of calm despite the chaos.

“Dash?” he questioned.

“Together Sonic, we’ll face this together okay?”

“Together,” he nodded. And he brought his arms in and crossed his forearms in front of his chest.

“This is gonna sting… a lot!” Shadow sent the laser blast out directly at the two wounded friends just as sonic boom erupted overhead. Sonic closed his eyes and tensed for death, but a familiar voice that he never thought he would be glad to hear filled his ears.

“BLACK SHIELD!”  Metal Sonic boomed out of his PA system as a high powered force field erected around him that Shadow’s laser blast struck, ricocheted, and struck the Ultimate Life Form in the chest, sending him flying away in a terrific explosion.

Sonic rushed forward grabbed, spun Metal Sonic around and shouted with joy. “YOU BEAUTIFUL, MAGNIFICENT, HANDSOME COLLECTION OF WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!?”

Metal Sonic brushed his hands off of his shoulders and spoke out in his calm robotic unfeeling voice. “I have monitored the battle between the ascended Shadow and the Super Sonic and,” He turned to look at Rainbow Dash.

“Super Rainbow Dash,” she said proudly.

“That is unoriginal and stupid,” he said flatly.

“Oh like you could do any better?” She huffed. “How about Super Mare, or Mega Dash, or umm…Turbo Trotter!”

Metal let an uneasy silence hang in the air before answering. “Designation: Super Rainbow Dash,” he remarked, deeming her other names absolutely terrible. This caused her to snort hot air through her nostrils over his passive aggressive insult.

“Easy now, I like the name,” Sonic said with a smile. “Well, I’m glad you saved us but I think we are all about to be tuned to a bloody pulp as soon as he gets up…well, you’ll be an oily one.”

“I ascertained the Super Sonic and the Super Rainbow Dash where having difficulties so I formulated a plan for success.”

Sonic glared at Metal, “So help me, if you even think for one red second, to tell me to use a homing attack…”

“Metal shook his head. “Negative.”

Silence.

“WELL WHAT IS IT?!” Dash yelled out impatiently.

“In my journey to this planet in pursuit of Sonic the Hedgehog I was tasked with alerting the creator upon positive identification. System corruption prior to identification has led me to delay this act.”

“So you haven’t called home to tell Eggman you’re okay?” Sonic said, trying to follow along.

“The Creator is heading to the planet as we speak, he comes with an entire Egg Fleet and a super powered Egg Carrier powered by the Master Emerald.”

“What?!” Sonic yelled.

“He is a great distance away and without a light speed jump it will take him months to home in on my signal.”

“Soo...” Sonic egged him on, getting impatient.

“I had determined we would deal with the Creator after the threat of the ascended Shadow was dealt with, however a solution presents itself.”

“What solution!?” Rainbow Dash urged barely following along.

“Send proper coordinates to the Egg Fleet. Creator warps here. We utilize the Creator’s resources to strip him of his chaos energy and return him to his natural state.”

“How?! How can we do that?!” Sonic said, hope in his voice at the thought of bringing Shadow back from the brink of insanity.

“The Egg Carrier is powered by the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald has unlimited Chaos Energy. Ascended Shadow does not.”

“THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ BOUT!! YES!” Sonic rejoiced and he reached gave Metal a noogie. “YOU ARE DA…DA…hmm…DA ROBOT!!”

“Gahh!!” Shadow shouted as he emerged from rubble looking angry and slightly singed from his own attack. “What did I JUST SAY ABOUT LAST DITCH HEROICS!?”

“Metal, one question?” Sonic asked as they all took battle stances. “How are we going to deal with the whole Egg Fleet?”

“When the fleet teleports in, I plan to have the ascended Shadow right in middle of it.” Metal cocked his head to look at Sonic. “How do you think that will play out?”

A sly smile crossed Sonic’s face.