Consequences of Darkness

Chapters

Consequences of Personality
Consequences of Arrival
Consequences of Idiocy
Consequences of Introductions

Consequences of Personality

“Okay, water, rations, your special gear, your brain, and your baby making bits?”

There were three eye rolls, two scowls, one amused cough from Quiet Mirror, and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh, wait, no, that was the sound of grinding teeth.

Eesh, tough crowd.

“Funny business out of the way, I want everyone to be sure they’ve got some spare water in addition to the rations. The blizzard may have tainted the snow. Does everyone have equipment enchanted against cold?”

“Againappi are naturally resistant to cold and shadow magic,” Shadow Play pointed out, the bat-winged pony nearly ramrod straight in her sitting position, before adding in as an almost afterthought, “Sir.” Surprisingly, it wasn’t sarcastic.

Some part of me cringed at the word, but… better than ‘your majesty’ at least. I’d deal. “I’ll take that as a no for you then?”

“No, sir.”

“We’re going to fix that.” She started to scowl but I kept going, “I believe you, but I’d much rather be safe than sorry when it comes to things like this.” Thankfully, the unpleasant look on her face eased.

I remembered that feeling, that feeling of being in charge, of being responsible for the lives of ponies, to have their fates placed in my hands and having to direct and command them. I channeled that, I tapped into what I imagined people like Sun Tzu, Ceasar, or Alexander must have been like, “This blizzard is apparently supernaturally bad and I’m not going to risk your life over a hunch.”

I turned to the sound of another voice, “They have equipment in her size enchanted against severe cold?” That was… Cumulus Rose. She’d pulled her wonderbolts mask up, though the goggles were hanging around her neck.

“We’re going to be jury-rigging some basics on the ride there,” I clarified for the smaller mare, “Nothing fancy or long lasting, but basic and functional. Twilight and the rest of the Element Bearers are getting the materials we’ll be enchanting as we speak.” I jerked my head at the entrance to the train station.

Right now, the only ponies here were Applejack, Dash, the team, and myself. There were a few curious ponies at the steps up to the platform, but a pair of guards discouraged them from coming up here.

“We can put together an enchantment that quickly?” Quiet Mirror asked incredulously, the silver unicorn tilting his head.

“Between Twilight and myself? Yeah, it’s doable,” I glanced around at the team arrayed around me, trying to get their measure, my thoughts interrupted by the scratchy voice of the pegasus behind me.

“Yeah! Twilight can do pretty much anything when it comes to magic,” Dash bragged for our friend, and I could practically imagine her shining a hoof against her chest.

While most of the team gave the pegasus a neutral look, Quiet Mirror nodded quickly and interestingly, his massive earth pony antagonist gave a solemn nod. But I rolled my eyes, “Anyways, outside of Shadow Play, is everyone’s equipment enchanted against severe cold?”

“My Starcloak is more powerfully enchanted than anything else you’ve seen in your life, fool, I shall be fine regardless of the danger we face,” Grave Danger sneered, earning him a particularly deadpan look from me.

“My armor is similarly enchanted against all environments,” I turned to look up at Punic, who was admittedly a veritable wall of steel, chainmail, and padding. You wouldn’t think you could cover the equine form in that much metal plating and maintain mobility, but you wouldn’t have thought that about medieval knights either. He gave the slightest of bows with his head, a polite smile on his face, “I have faith in the skills of my family and its artisans.”

Still, I moved my gaze down the line to Cumulus Rose, the light pink mare hooked a foreleg in the collar of her outfit in response, giving it a tug, “Already switched to my Wonderbolt Cold Weather Suit. I’m good to go.”

Visually, I couldn’t tell the difference, but whatever. So long as it worked and that sword of hers stayed strapped to her back, we were golden. I really had no idea how a sword staff like that worked for a pony, especially with a bladed semicircle on one side of the long handle…

My gaze landed on Qubanna, who bowed his head slightly, “Could I get some of these enchanted materials of which you speak? My own magics may keep me warm, but I won’t turn these down.” The zebra had added a number of bandoliers to his ensemble, lined with small pouches. It could probably pass as clothing at a goth or punk convention… maybe a hippie goth convention given the thorny vines he had wrapped around his legs?

Hey, they can’t all be winners.

“Noted, Quiet?”

“I’ve got my cold weather gear,” he said softly. A.K.A. - Fuzzy fur lined armor. Not even joking. It was adorable.

“Alright, it’s going to be almost a full day before we reach our stop in the north,” I’d checked with the conductors about our ETA while the girls and I had waited for the rest of the team to arrive. Grave Danger had already been here by the time we’d gotten back from the Quartermaster, “So I want everyone to relax as best you can, at the very least until we can see snow.”

It would take about twenty four hours without stops by train to get there, we had a large amount of coal and water on the eight car train just behind the engine as well as two conductors. We’d be going full tilt overnight as well, no stops on the Save-the-Day-Train it seems.

My left ear flicked off to the side quickly, the two earrings swishing quietly as it angled towards the clop of hooves, but I continued, “Luna didn’t cover this, but ideally we get as much of this train to the Crystal Empire as possible,” I nodded at the decent length of choo choo on the tracks, that was definitely the clatter of hooves, “The other four cars are loaded with supplies for Shining Armor’s troops.”

“Sir,” Cumulus Rose raised a hoof, “Aren’t we heading into an unknown combat situation…?”

“In which it’d be a bad idea to haul around this much stuff? Possibly, yes,” I admitted with a nod even as the multicoloured forms of Twilight and the other girls came up the steps to the platform, “This isn’t an optimal situation, but they haven’t been able to establish a supply line at all, they need anything we can bring them. I know I can haul about one of the cars, but that’s pushing my upper limit right now. Others?”

“I can carry three of the others while maintaining combat readiness,” Grave Danger said dismissively, earning an eyeroll from me as I turned to Quiet Mirror who shuffled his hooves.

“I don’t think I can manage a full car,” his purple tail flicked in embarrassment, “My talents lie elsewhere, not in brute force.”

“Fair enough,” I turned to the lavender unicorn approaching, bolts of various kinds of cloth on her back as well as on the other girls, “Twilight, how much did you catch of that?”

“I heard that we’re bringing supplies to Shining Armor too. I could carry all of the train cars easily,” she pointed out as she stepped into the circle of the team and myself.

“I know,” and I did, I had a pretty solid conception of how absolutely absurdly powerful she was, “But I’d rather you save your power for emergencies. Two cars if at all possible to ease up the burden on Graves and me.”

“Are you sure?” she asked with a small scowl, her ears sweeping back, “I could do it pretty easily.”

“And you could also clear the field if we need you to, but not at the same time,” I countered even as I swept my eyes to each member of the teams and jerked my head at the train, turning towards it myself, “We’ll debate it on the way there though.”

“Fine,” she grumbled, stepping up beside me as I watched the team filed into the train car, “But I really think it’d be better if I carried the supplies.”

With some focus and an exertion of will I flicked the stacks of rations and water onto Applejacks and Dash’s backs, earning me an irritated look from Applejack at my interruption of her own efforts to pull the saddlebags on. I grinned and waggled my eyebrows at her, earning an eyeroll and small smile from her before she headed towards the train car.

“Twilight,” I said softly, my grin fading as I watched the team and our friends head into the car, Rarity and Fluttershy a bit winded from the efforts of carrying the bolts of cloth so far, “I’m trusting you here.”

“Emeris?” she replied just as quietly, likely giving me a funny look as we stood on the platform.

“If things go sour, I’m trusting you to get yourself and the girls out of there,” my lips pressed into a thin line as I glanced at the unicorn on my right, my mismatched ears swept back, “If the shit hits the fan, I’m counting on you to ditch me and the team and get our friends out of there.”

“What?!” she hissed, opening her mouth again, but I cut her off.

“Twilight,” my whisper was harsh, “Protecting you and the girls is our job, that’s why we’re here. But you know the girls, they wouldn’t abandon me or the team no matter how bad it got. You have to. I’m trusting you to listen to me if I tell you guys to run and to make them follow through… or to make the call yourself.”

Despite the glances back at us from several of the girls and the team, my friend practically snarled at me as she whispered, “Don’t you dare try to throw your life away.”

“Twilight-!” I was actually offended by that, half turning towards the smaller unicorn, “Damnit that’s not my point and you know it. I’m going to do my best to keep myself and this team alive but I need to know that you’ll cut your losses if you have to.” I lowered my head, keeping my eyes locked with hers as I whispered, “We are acceptable losses, you girls are not.”

At this point, Shadow Play and Applejack were waiting at the doors to the train car, looking back at Twilight and me curiously as we argued. Twilight biting back a retort as if sucking on a sour lemon, her eyes scrunching up as she restrained what I’d assume was an emotional response. It was only after a long breath that she whispered back hotly, “I don’t like this.”

“And you think I do?” I countered, “I don’t want to die or even risk my life to be honest, but ponies need us–”

“And they need the Elements of Harmony more. I get it,” she finished for me with a grumble, earning a small nod from me, my face softening.

“Yeah,” leaning over I bumped my shoulder against hers gently, “Can you do it?”

Her look was a very eloquent ‘Are you seriously asking me that?’, “Emeris…” she snorted, shaking her head slightly, “Yes, I can. But I do it under protest. And you’re going to have to accept that we’re not going to just abandon you or this team.”

A small smile appeared on my face, “I don’t expect you to,” I said softly as I started to walk, my hooves quiet against the tile of the station, Twilight walking beside me. My smile faded and I turned to look at her as we approached the doors of the car, “But I need to trust that if it comes down to it, you’ll protect yourself and the girls.”

To my surprise, Celestia’s star pupil stumbled for just a moment at the transition between platform and train car, staring at me with wide eyes, making my head cock to the side in confusion. After a moment Twilight shook her head at my questioning look, “Sorry, I just… I haven’t seen that look on your face since… well since you were Gary.”

Not unnoticed by me, Shadow Play’s ears and eyebrows shot up, though I did my best to remain focused on Twilight, “Okay…? I’m sorry…?” I ventured. By the way, Twilight, sweetie, great job, I’d been hoping to keep that quiet if it was feasible. They didn’t seem to know who I used to be and I had hoped to keep it that way. Nice. Sweet. Wonderful. … damnit.

“Don’t apologize, it was just kind of startling. I don’t really associate you like this with that ‘I’m in charge’ face,” she said, a small smile appearing on her face, “It’s not as intense without the red eyes and flaming mane, but the scars help.” She reached out with a forehoof to lightly boop my left cheek.

My look was particularly unamused, “It also probably doesn’t look as stupid now.”

“Touche’,” she said with a small smile, “Though we’re holding up the train, come on.”

oOo

The two unicorns walked into the train car, Twilight heading down the rows of open benches towards where Rarity was setting up a quick workstation as Emeris’ hindleg kicked the doors closed.

Applejack started to open her mouth to ask what her friends had been arguing about, having only caught bits and pieces of the whispered conversation, but the againap beside her beat her to it, “You…” the dark blue-gray mare’s mouth worked silently for a moment, sharp teeth flashing in direct contrast to the shock on her face and in her tone, “You were Gary Stu…?”

The dark-green unicorn winced even as the large lieutenant continued, “I– I had no idea– that explains– I’m so sorry your highness–”

The armored againap froze as the even larger pony whirled on her. His eyes flashing a bright green and his lips curling back from his teeth he growled, “Don’t–” It was Shadow Play’s turn for something inside her to quiver as the previously unthreatening unicorn loomed over her, “Ever–…” after a moment, in spite of trembling with anger, Emeris closed his glowing eyes, taking in a slow, shuddering breath. Then, like steam being released from a boiler, he seemed to deflate, “Call me that.”

Applejack cringed, raising a hoof and wondering whether she needed to step in. But after a moment, the larger of the two mares near the door hesitantly ventured, “Sir…?” her head held low, as were her wings.

“That’ll work,” Emeris ground out, his ears swept back as he continued to take slowly steadying breaths, “I’m not that pony. I chose my current state and I will not be associated with Gary if I have anything to say about it.” His eyes opened, gray-green once more, “That pony is in the past and should stay there.”

“I–…” Shadow Play’s pale yellow eyes were wide as she blinked a few times. The trio of ponies at the closed door not noticing the curious looks the other ponies in the car were giving them. But then her wings snapped to her sides and she held her head high, “Of course sir.”

“Good,” he closed his eyes and sighed, the intensity almost melting out of him, returning his large form to its seemingly more natural, unthreatening state.

Applejack relaxed. She still didn’t really know what it was with his eyes changing the way they did when he was angry, but at least now she was sure she wouldn’t have to step in.

Emeris opened his eyes, finding Shadow Play still at attention, earning another sigh, “Dismissed. And seriously, try to relax on the train ride, just… don’t mention the Gary thing please?”

Her ramrod straight posture easing slightly, the againap nodded, “Of course sir.” With that, she walked further into the car, towards one of the empty benches. Pausing as she moved to pass Emeris, she turned her head slightly, “... you make a lot more sense now, sir.” The slightest of smiles appeared on her face, sharp teeth glinting in the midday sun shining through the windows of the car, “Just be sure to get me an autograph, my stallion has wanted one ever since you relocated the Shadowpoint mountain.”

The unicorn pulled a face like he’d sucked on a lemon, his ears sweeping back and his short tail flicking as he muttered, “I hate autographs.”

Shadow Play’s smile became an amused smirk as her leathery wings resettled against her dark armor, her head turning back to the rest of the car, “I know, Pianissimo won’t shut up about how you never gave out paraphernalia, it’s what would make it meaningful.”

An unhappy scowl appeared on Emeris’ muzzle, his eyes locked on the doors to his left as the train started to jerk into motion. But his body tensed when Applejack reached out, gently placing a forehoof against his side, the farm mare didn’t know exactly what was going on in his head, but she didn’t need to know. She did know that now, this time, he didn’t have a good reason to tell her no.

She didn’t have to say a word. Her touch was enough to make him stop and think, to try and figure out what she was trying to tell him. It was with a sigh and now drooping ears that he said, “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you, sir,” Shadow Play said, a small smile on her face as she headed further into the train car, walking along the simple carpet floor.

Applejack shuffled closer, slinging a foreleg over his withers and gently bumping her muzzle against his chin, causing Emeris’ eyes to go wide and a dusting of pink to appear on his cheeks before an embarrassed smile appeared on his face and he leaned into the farmmare’s touch, “Sorry… I wasn’t… I was expecting her to hate me, not…”

“Not worship ya’, and it scared ya’ bad,” Applejack finished for him, giving his withers a brief squeeze.

“Yeah… I didn’t exactly react well to that,” he grumbled even as she pulled away, a bit of a pout on his face, earning a small smile from Applejack.

“It’s okay sugar, ya don’t have to apologize for nothin’,” she slugged him in the shoulder lightly, a smile on her face, “Just don’t tear somepony’s head off if they call you ‘y’er highness’.”

He snorted, pouting some in spite of himself, “I wasn’t going to tear her head off.”

“Sure didn’t seem like it,” Applejack countered with a stern look, making him cringe and shuffle his hooves.

Emeris looked away, his ears drooping and his tail tucking against his legs as he said, “I only yelled a little bit…”

“Mhm… right” Applejack said as she turned, “Now don’t you got some work to do with Twilight?”

“Yeah…” taking a steadying breath, Emeris’ gathered himself, holding his head high once more as he headed towards the group, “Yeah, I do. Thanks.”

Applejack watched her coltfriend go, a troubled look crossing her face as she murmured, “It ain’t nothin’.”

oOo

The train car was one of two dedicated to the passengers, mostly open rows of cushioned benches, windows at every seat and a red carpet on the whole floor, a bathroom tucked in the back of the car. The car closer to the engine and coal-car had a small kitchenette and several bunks for the conductors to trade shifts and the passengers to sleep.

While the majority of the group had arrayed themselves together in the seating car closer to the kitchen and bunks, there were outliers. Grave Danger had found a far corner to lay down on the bench, his cloak pooling around him and his eyes closed, his head held high.

Cumulus Rose had picked a spot several seats down from the main group, sitting ramrod straight, her eyes going between one side of the car and the other. Qubanna wasn’t far from her, though he’d decided to just fall asleep, somehow managing to achieve this in the past hour despite the sunlight still streaming through the windows.

Punic, while in the group, took up most of a bench himself simply due to his size and that, aside from Pinkie, none of the others were comfortable enough to sit in the leftover space.

Sitting across from Punic were Fluttershy, Shadow Play, and Pinkie Pie, the party pony trying to draw her section-mates into a conversation with middling success. Not so much because Punic and Shadow Play were unwilling to talk, but because they struggled to get a word in edgewise between their own surprise at the party pony.

Across the aisle were the remaining members of the group. Applejack, Emeris, Rainbow Dash and Quiet Mirror sat on one somewhat crowded bench. cross from them sat Twilight and Rarity as well as a mess of cloth, needles, and thread.

Applejack had laid her head against Emeris’ withers, doing as Qubanna had and trying to fall asleep, snuffling slightly as it eluded her.

Emeris worked quietly with Twilight and Rarity, trying to throw together some basic enchantments. The stallion was the resident expert on runes, Twilight the expert on magic in general, and Rarity the expert on actually putting the cloth and runes together into something (stylish) that could be worn. The conversation consisted mostly of Emeris and Twilight throwing together runic inscriptions before the other vetoed it, sometimes with Rarity vetoing it due to size constraints.

“I must say,” Quiet Mirror said from his place beside Rainbow Dash, “It’s an honor to work with you girls. I mean, you’re national heroes!”

“Why thank you dear,” Rarity preened slightly as the other two unicorns whispered back and forth, debating the meaning of three runes together.

“Sure, most ponies don’t know your names or what you look like, but still!” he gushed, his helmet laying on the seat beside him, “I mean, you’re a successful businessmare who has several lines of clothes that are being worn throughout Canterlot! Applejack Apple, you’ve taken home how many different medals from rodeos? And Twilight Sparkle, you’re the personal student of Princess Celestia!”

While Applejack was too close to sleep and Twilight too engrossed in her debate to notice the gushing, Rarity adjusted her coif self-consciously.

“And Rainbow Dash! You’re in the top five in every measurable flight stat, the only confirmed pony able to break the mana-barrier, they even named the event after you!” The silver unicorn practically squirmed in place, “I really hope your petition to join the Wonderbolts proper goes through! I can’t think of anypony better suited!”

The multicolored pegasus preened under the praise, straightening feathers even as Rarity raised an eyebrow, “I know, I’m awesome~”

“No joke!” Quiet Mirror grinned at the pegasus beside him, “Three mastered martial arts, two expert level ones, wing power of sixteen point five. Heck, experts thought the Sonic Rainboom was impossible before you performed it!”

Rainbow Dash fluffed her wings and pressed them against her sides, her tail flicking beside her as she gestured with her hoof, “True, true, it’s all true~”

Emeris glanced up from his debate over at the exchange before sharing a look with Rarity. The fashionista gave the barest of shrugs before nodding marginally at Emeris. The large former human sending another glance over at his marefriend and the armored unicorn before shifting slightly and returning to his discussion with Twilight.

“It ain’t easy being this awesome mind you,” Rainbow Dash said, polishing her red-wrapped hoof against her chest.

“I totally understand!” Quiet Mirror exclaimed before getting a better handle on his volume, his cropped purple tail pressing over the large saddlebag that covered his cutie mark, a smile on his face, “I’ve tried to pick up pieces of Rolling Earth to add to the standard Solar Guard CQC to compliment my focus and I can barely get any of it down.” He nodded, his eyebrows and ears high as he acknowledged, “Earth Pony focused styles are super hard for pegasi and unicorns.”

“You might be coming at it from the wrong direction then, Em here’s been picking up Rolling Earth really well,” Dash jerked her head at the unicorn beside her even as she spread a wing over his withers, “Any tips for him big guy?”

Looking up from his debate with Twilight, Emeris raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash, his damaged right ear cocking ot the side, “You know that’s not fair Dash, I’m stronger than the average unicorn.”

“Come on,” the pegasus bumped her shoulder against his, both missing the brief pout that crossed Quiet Mirror’s face, but Rarity didn’t, “You’re really saying you can’t help the guy?”

The green unicorn rolled his eyes, “Probably nothing he hasn’t already figured out for himself,” leaning forward a bit he looked past her at the armored pony, “What have you noticed while learning it? I might actually pick up some things from you.”

Even though Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, Quiet Mirror held his head high, “I’ve definitely realized that I don’t have the raw strength for the majority of the style, or the size and leverage that the ground-work requires.”

Emeris gave Dash a meaningful look, raising his eyebrows at her and earning himself an eyeroll, “Yeah yeah, you’re big and strong, I get it.”

He smiled some before turning back to Quiet Mirror, “Anyways, from what I’ve figured out, I’d recommend focusing on the side-rolls and counters of the style, they’re likely to be the most useful moves for you. Don’t bother with the forward rolls, your horn will just get in the way.” He paused, thinking, “Honestly, without earth pony strength and mass, you can’t really use the shoulder checks and body slams that seem to be most of the style’s offense.”

“Ah…” Quiet Mirror shifted slightly, turning towards the pegasus beside him, “Would you agree with that Rainbow Dash?”

“Yeah, I don’t have the horn problem, though I had to change the normal side rolls of the style into a sort of cartwheel to avoid hurting my wings,” she flared them briefly as punctuation before folding one back against her side and wrapping the other one back around Emeris, the primaries lying across Applejack’s chest, “I struggled to get the body slams to work at first, but I found out that by going really fast I can make them hurt still!” She suggested eagerly.

“Force is mass times acceleration… I don’t think he’ll be able to manage your kinds of speeds though.” Emeris mused before saying, “You might be better off adding magic to your close quarters combat or just going with something more natural to you.”

That earned him a funny look from Quiet Mirror, “Only experts in Flowing Stream, Still Way, or the Shattered Mirror styles even think about using magic in CQC.” He paused, raising his head a bit in an attempt to look over the back of the bench over in Grave Danger’s direction before pulling back down and glancing between the other ponies in the bench, “Well… that or a Broken Horn.”

Emeris gave his fellow unicorn a funny look of his own, “Um, why?”

Now every pony paying attention to the conversation gave the large unicorn a disbelieving stare, though it was Twilight that spoke up, “Um… Em… when a unicorn’s horn is hit, the pain will disrupt basically any spell, especially if it’s done mid cast.”

But he shook his head, “No no, I get that. I’m wondering why unicorns don’t have spells they can cast at a thought. Something you can cast as fast as you throw a punch or kick.”

“Using telekinesis like that is the entirety of Still Way,” Quiet Mirror said, “It takes intense practice and effort, and since it’s obviously not happened to you, getting hit while casting is excruciating.”

“I know,” Emeris said tersely, “Dash has hit me in the horn several times while we spar,” Quiet Mirror gaped which Emeris ignored with a shrug, “It sucks and it leaves me open but being able to shut down her flight is entirely worth the risk.”

“Emeris.”

Pausing at his name, the unicorn turned to Twilight, “Yeah?”

She cocked an eyebrow at him, “Your perception of pain is skewed, remember?”

“... oh, right,” he paused, looking away in thought before turning back to her, “It’s really that bad?”

“Yeah, it’ll usually knock a unicorn out of the fight entirely,” Rainbow Dash filled in, “There are exceptions though.”

“Huh… didn’t think of it like that…” he mused, not really paying attention to the questioning glances Quiet Mirror was shooting him and the girls, “By the way, before I forget. What is a Broken Horn anyways?”

Every pony in the seats shifted uncomfortably at that before Quiet MIrror softly said, “One of those exceptions.”

“Huh…” Emeris cocked his head to the side in thought before nodding thoughtfully, “I’ll go with that being good news. Anything more specific about them though?”

“They’re elite special forces, I… actually don’t know much,” Twilight admitted a bit sheepishly, her ears drooping.

“They’re the leaders of the Starcloaks,” Punic supplied gently from across the aisle, “They are tasked with mastering dangerous magics and they are, to a pony, capable of casting their spells even if their horns were to be broken entirely off in the middle of a fight. It’s where their name comes from.” He paused, before giving an apologetic nod to Twilight, “There is more, of course, but it becomes highly classified beyond that.”

“They’re basically the Boogeypony of spellcasters…” Quiet Mirror said softly with a shiver, “And for good reason, I’ve had reason to work with them on two occasions I…” he paused, shifting in place, “They’re terrifying when at work.”

“Huh…” Emeris pursed his lips comically in thought before nodding, “That’s cool. Anyways, Twilight, I still think that the Kenning, Ankh, and Vulcanis runes in this orientation will refer to the body heat of the wearer.”

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash said before voicing the thought on the mind of the other ponies there, “What?” The other ponies awake stared at the large unicorn in disbelief.

He glanced amongst them, raising an eyebrow, “... what?”

“Just like that, you’re going to find out something like that and go back to what you were doing?” Quiet Mirror asked, staring at what was technically now his commanding officer.

Rarity delicately coughed into her hoof before venturing, “It is a rather abrupt topic change dear…”

“So?” he rebutted, raising an eyebrow at them, “Last I checked we’ve got something we need to be doing.”

“Fair enough dear…” Rarity trailed off, the ponies exchanging glances.

The green unicorn huffed, rolling his eyes, “Oh awkward awkward awkward,” he punctuated each word with an exaggerated waggle of his hips, “Eesh, I’m weird, I get it, now we get it. Can we move on please and thank you?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, swatting Emeris’ muzzle with her forehoof, making his eyes cross as he stared at the spot, “Hush ya dork, that doesn’t fix the problem.”

He blew a quick raspberry at her in response, earning him a snort and several eyerolls. But the moment was truly broken when Applejack grabbed a hold of Dash’s wing and pulled it over her like a blanket, snuggling against Emeris as she did, using his withers as a pillow and somehow falling asleep despite the conversation going on around her.

Dash and Emeris both blushed at the pony-handling as the farmmare started to softly snore.

“Anyways!” Dash said quickly, turning to the silver, armored unicorn beside her, “About those styles.”

Twilight smirked slightly at the embarrassment on Emeris’ face even as the two of them returned to debating the best usage of runes. Unnoticed though was the slightly concerned look on Rarity’s face, her crystal blue eyes locked on Applejack’s now completely peaceful face.

oOo

Several hours had passed since the train ride had started, at some point Pinkie had dragged Cumulus Rose closer to the group, sandwiching her between Fluttershy and Shadow Play even as she sat in the limited space beside the veritable wall of steel and padding that was Punic.

Though any of the mares in booth would agree he was an admittedly well shaped wall of metal and pony, but still a wall.

“–so was thinking that when we get to the Crystal Empire we hold a festival! Just games and streamers and events and fun and food everywhere!”

“That… might not be a good idea Miss Pie,” Cumulus Rose cautiously suggested, her Wonderbolts hood having been pulled down some time ago.

“Pinkie!” corrected the party pony.

“I actually disagree Sergeant,” Punic said, bowing his head slightly, “The morale of Shining Armor’s troops is likely flagging against such persistent foes, and a true festival would likely be welcomed.”

“See!” Pinkie bounced, “Properly applied parties can be the answer to any problem!”

Fluttershy cringed slightly, remembering a time not too long ago that a party had almost made things much worse instead. It was Cumulus Rose that spoke up again, “Still, it’s going to be in the middle of a combat situation.”

“In which Captain Shining Armor, of the same House as Twilight Sparkle, the Noble House of Light, is the commanding officer,” Punic pointed out, his polite smile not wavering an inch, “His mastery of abjuration magic is unmatched, he has maintained eighth circle shield magic for days prior to his own marriage. It is without doubt that I say that the Crystal Empire is secured against any threat, no matter the siege it may be enduring now.”

“I do have to agree with Sergeant Cumulus Rose, it seems a bit out of place given the situation,” Shadow Play said from between the two pegasi, acutely aware that she was the largest mare on the train.

“But, Punny said it’d be a good idea,” Pinkie pouted dramatically. Despite what others might think, she didn’t actually think parties were always the answer, they were just a really efficient way of providing maximum smiles to the largest number of ponies in the smallest amount of time.

“Pinkie Pie, I would appreciate it if you did not give me a nickname,” Punic said with the same polite smile, although careful observation could find the slightest tightening around the corners of his eyes, “My name is important to me and I do not wish to have it twisted.”

“Oh…” the baker paused, blinking a few times before beaming up at the massive stallion, “Okey dokey lokey!”

“Thank you,” his smile widened fractionally as he placed a forehoof against his helm beside him, turning back to Shadow Play, “And morale is a crucial thing in larger scale engagements. A commander who does not consider it and its effects is a failure at his task. It may not be necessary given Captain Shining Armor’ and Princess Cadenza’s leadership, but one must not simply discard the idea out of hand.”

“Still, a festival in the middle of a combat zone…” Shadow Play unconsciously gave a slight shake of her head at the thought.

“A celebration of reinforcements during a war,” Punic countered with his polite smile, there was the slightest crinkling at the corners of his orange eyes, “One must remember that we are speaking of a force of approximately two hundred ponies entrenched in a large city, not merely a dozen or so well behind enemy lines or on the move.”

Shadow Play scowled, “Fair enough.”

“Ooh! Ooh! So the festival is on! Woohoo!” Pinkie cheered, earning herself strange looks from everypony awake and unaccustomed to her exuberance, “Ooh! I’ll make it super awesome and it’ll have so many awesome events! What do you think? I know Fluttershy can sing and Dashie and Applejack can perform stunts and Twilight’s really good at magic and Rarity can make really awesome decorations and Emmy can–! Um…” she paused for half a second in thought before shrugging with a grin, “I actually don’t know what Emmy can do that’s party related, but knowing him he can probably do something! So what can you guys do?”

How Pinkie could manage all of that in one breath would probably go unanswered for a long, long time.

The rambling question threw off the ponies sharing a section with her, though Punic was the first to recover. Raising a hoof to his mouth to cough into the armored limb, doing so with surprising delicacy and quiet in spite of his armor and baritone voice, “Ah, my Family requires that I compose myself appropriately for it’s future head and I am unable to… perform in such a manner. And I know that Captain Quiet Mirror, in spite of his nobility is ill-suited to such endeavors, his specialties lie in abjuration rather than any of the more spectacular magics.”

“Awwwww…”

“Um… well, I’m talented at using umbram– um, shadows to envelop my form, it’s my namesake after all…” the againap said, “My herd says they’re pretty, but I’m not sure how well those would work for a festival though…” she paused in thought, her leathery wings shifting against her armored sides before she offered, “Um… I can joust?”

“Ooh! That could work!” Pinkie vibrated before turning to the soft pink Wonderbolt with a beaming grin.

The smaller mare squeaked, almost trying to hide behind the large blade propped against the red cushion, “Ah! Um… well… I cloud carve…?” The other ponies turned to her, curious looks upon their faces, though Punic managed to retain his polite smile. Shifting uncomfortably under the scrutiny, Cumulus Rose adjusted her swept back mane, “Well, it’s my specialty, weather manipulation that is… and, um… I find it relaxing to carve cloud sculptures…”

“That… um… sounds pretty amazing, I could never do that…” Fluttershy said softly, hiding behind both her long mane and the larger form of Shadow Play.

“Thank you,” the Wonderbolt said with a nod, no longer attempting to hide behind her sword, the beginnings of a smile appearing on her face.

“That may be acceptable,” Punic said, the stark white stallion nodding his head slowly, “Could you sculpt a scene of the princesses conquering their foes…?”

“Um… maybe…? I usually do flowers…”

oOo

I scanned over the current inscriptions we had. Runic magic was sort of like computer code, just in three dimensions rather than one linear one. A major trick was to keep the runes linear rather than allowing it to become two dimensional. It was also a bit like accounting in that the various ‘accounts’ of the equation had to balance, energy in had to match energy out sort of thing. It was also an entirely new language, considering it had its own grammar and syntax and word structure, not to mention vocabulary.

Now, I’d dabbled in computer coding in college, and I was going for a degree in accounting so I didn’t hesitate to say that I actually had some talent at runes. I’d only had high school spanish though so I didn’t have the triforce of backgrounds to make runic magic my bitch, but eh.

I’d dabbled in runic magic over the past two years, mostly as a way to defend my home from the insanities that had plagued me. Waking up with somepony being compelled to try to rape themselves using you is something I wish I’d never had happen; it’s a barrel-full of nope. Once was more than enough for me.

So yeah, runic barriers.

There were other forms of magic that could last after you were unconscious, mid to high level abjuration for example, but runes had been the easiest for me personally to pick up and use. My own talents just leaned more towards it is all.

“Emeris?”

“Hm?” I looked up at the sound of Twilight’s voice.

“You were just quiet for a several minutes,” she said, her purple tail flicking once.

“Ah, sorry,” I said, looking back at the inscriptions, “My mind was wandering.”

Rarity had taken the actual materials off into another set of seats to give herself some more room to work on the first runic inscription we’d hashed together to test. Once she’d sewn it into the scarf, Twilight would use her greater magical reserves to initially empower the runes. I could have done it, but Twilight had insisted on it, successfully arguing that the loss of magic for her was proportionally less enough to warrant it.

My contribution so far had mostly been experiential, my greater prior knowledge and practical experience with runes was complemented by Twilight’s general magical theory.

“Can I ask to what?” came Twilight’s gentle voice.

I blinked in surprise, glancing back at the lavender unicorn before turning back to the window. It was a pastel of colors with the sun starting to set, the sky awash in orange and blue, “... why I learned runes in the first place.” My smile was only a bit bitter as I gave a half shrug, careful not to wake Applejack, “Not the most pleasant thought to be honest, no matter how useful it is now.”

While Applejack was still asleep against me, Dash had taken Quiet Mirror into the hallway between the rows of seats to walk through some basics of Zephyr Blade. I didn’t know much about the style, but Dash had come to the conclusion from talking with Quiet Mirror that it might be better suited for him than Rolling Earth.

A soft touch of a hoof against my foreleg dangling off the front of the seat brought my attention back to Celestia’s personal student, a look of concern on her face. I smiled as a bit of warmth bloomed in my chest, appreciating the offered comfort, “S’okay, don’t worry about me.”

The magical lights in the car flickered on as the light outside started to dim, drawing my eyes. As far as I understood it, most train cars had gas or oil lanterns for night travel, but more expensive or higher quality ones like this one had the magic lanterns. I focused on the little flame at the back of my mind that was the activation of their magic, studying it out of curiosity.

It seemed… like it was just mana being run through something and the waste energy was light instead of heat.

… fucking hell magic could be weird sometimes. Though… hrm, it was likely classically enchanted so that it absorbed some reidual mana from the ambient light during the day and when it stopped being able to absorb that it would release it in the same form–

There was a soft thump of a hoof against mine, and I turned back to Twilight, her light purple eyes narrowing, “You’re zoning out again, what’s wrong?”

“Twilight, I–”

“Don’t,” she interrupted me, eyes hard but voice soft, “Don’t gloss it over. We’re friends,” her eyes softened, ears drooping slightly, “Don’t be afraid to tell me the truth.”

Silence reigned for a moment in my shock before I worked up the courage to sigh, murmuring, “It’s less to do with me not wanting to tell you as not wanting to tell myself…” I squeezed the edge of the cushion absently with my fetlocks, frowning at the line of tension I could feel in myself, “I’m worried about my ability to do this mostly… and I don’t really have a task at the moment to distract me.”

“You’re not the only one,” Twilight said equally softly. After a moment of uncomfortable silence she raised her head and I could practically see the idea in her eyes, “We could figure out more runic inscriptions?”

I snorted, causing the unconscious earth pony snuggled against my side to snuffle unhappily. A small blush appeared on my face even as she squeezed my barrel and attempted to shift closer. Smiling affectionately down at her I lit up my horn even as I softly countered Twilight’s idea, “We’ve already given Rarity four variations to work with, any more would be silly.”

The lavender unicorn blushed, her ears drooping before sweeping back as she scowled, “There’s got to be something we can do…” As she trailed off, I lifted Applejack’s hat off her head with my emerald magic and set it down on the seat beside us.

“Well, I’d intended to go talk to my team and figure out their strengths and weaknesses, but… well…” I pointedly looked at the orange forelimbs wrapped around me, before saying with an amused smile, “Not that I’m complaining, but the timing could be better.” Definitely not complaining. Dash was beautiful, no doubt, but Applejack could make my unpoetic ass write a sonnet in the right light.

Without being bound, her mane and tail were flowing curtains of gold in the light of the dawn, it had rendered me speechless more than once.

“True…” Twilight said with a smile, before she offered with a tilted head, “Would you like me to do it for you?”

I shook my head, “N’ah, thanks though. It’s my responsibility, and I need to be able to intuit things, and asking myself will help with that.”

“That makes sense,” Twilight mused before looking at me, “But I want to know as well, I need to know what we’ve got to work with.”

“Fair enough,” I admitted.

A comfortable silence hung in the air for a long moment as I gently groomed Applejack’s long, blond hair which had gotten just a bit tangled in her sleep. It had been weird at first to use my mouth and teeth to do this sort of thing, but I found that I actually liked doing it. I had a feeling that shampoo manufacturers here went out of their way to ensure their stuff tasted good, Applejack’s smelled and tasted slightly of strawberries, complimenting her natural scent of apple and grass.

“Well, while you’ve got a convenient marefriend to cuddle with,” Twilight grumbled adorably, a blush appearing on my face, “But that leaves me with nothing to do.”

My cheeks still red, I searched around in my mind for something… Lifting my head, I said softly, “Well, I wouldn’t say no to helping figure out how to enchant the bits of armor I picked up and my outfit to protect me better.”

Twilight blinked before a small smile appeared on her face, “That could work. What did you pick up so I know how much space we have to work with?”

With a bit of will, I lifted the plating out of the saddlebags I’d left on the seat behind me. It resembled nothing so much as a silver, unadorned version of the solar guard armor. Segmented plates covering the hindquarters, rigid chestpiece that covered the chest and left my underside terrifyingly exposed, something I’d definitely fix if I ever got something made for myself.

Timberwolf teeth on your stomach once is more than a enough please and thank you.

I’d picked up a helmet, devoid of a crest like Shadow Plays, as well as war-shoes. All unadorned and simple steel and leather padding. If this was going to be even a semi-regular thing though, I’d have to get myself used to more armor than this.

Again, Timberwolf teeth. Not even once (more, damnit).

“There aren’t enchantments on it already?” Twilight asked, her magic mixing with mine as she took the armor from me, a sensation that always felt extremely intimate to me despite having been told otherwise repeatedly.

“None that I’m aware of.”

She slowly turned the steel over in her magic, a contemplative look on her face, “What were you thinking?”

“Throat and stomach. I need those protected. Wolves are going to go for there after grabbing the legs to trip me up,” I scowled slightly, “Though I can’t think of how to protect my legs.”

Humming softly, Twilight’s purple eyes searched me for a moment before her ears perked, “Fire wraps!”

I blinked once in confusion before I picked up on her brainwave, “Ah! Yes, offense in place of defense…” I looked down at the wrappings around my legs, it was actually a lot of room to work with, “We inscribe on these about channeling mana into fire and light–”

“–and use your war shoes as a generalized focus point so it amplifies the hits and channels the aura into your strikes.” Twilight finished for me.

“That way the wraps can be swapped out easily–” I said eagerly, ears perked.

“–while the harder to forge shoes only need to be worked on once– “ her head bobbed in excitement.

“–so if the situation is different from what we expect–” I grinned.

“–we can throw something together on the spot,” she finished, earning an unmanly giggle of exuberance from me.

Applejack snorted against my skin, giving my barrel another squeeze as she buried her face against me with an unhappy grumble at the volume Twilight and I had reached. We both blushed a bit, though I couldn’t keep the grin from my face, “So I’m thinking something along the lines of what I put around my house, an exception based exclusion field using the edges of the armor as a boundary and using the stuff we used to all the wearer to envelop the barrel.”

“That should work, though I’ll need to see the actual runes, I can probably enchant your vest directly to make it as strong as chainmail, it’s a pretty standard enchantment for the clothing of nobility.”

oOo

Qubanna sat at the window, his eyes searching the darkness. Much of the team and Element Bearers they were sworn to the protection of had gone into the car ahead of them to sleep in the stacked bunks. The zebra briefly mused on how long the two unicorn Element Bearers and the large unicorn that lead the team had stayed up working, staying several hours after sunset.

The only other ponies in the transport car were Grave Danger and Punic, the smallest and largest of the collected group.

While the nearly alicorn-sized earth pony had chosen to remain in his armor, simply using his saddlebags as a pillow and sleeping on one of the benches. Qubanna was no expert on armor, favoring the plant based armaments of his Kundi, but he was pretty sure that armor anywhere near as heavy as his shouldn’t be comfortable to sleep in.

The zebra could see how a pony in the traditional style armor could sleep comfortably provided they slept on their stomach, but all that chainmail and the plating that covered every non-flexible inch of Punic should give him sores if he slept in it…

“I’m pretty sure it’s enchanted.”

Qubanna didn’t jump, though he did blink in surprise as he turned to the large unicorn who was in charge. It seemed that the green unicorn was capable of surprising silence, “Hm?”

“You were staring at his armor,” he offered, nodding at the sleeping Punic before giving Qubanna an amused smirk, “And I’d like to think your thoughts were more on that than on something as silly as ‘What is with that much metal’.”

“And what do you mean by ‘that’?” he questioned Emeris.

To Qubanna’s surprise, the unicorn shrugged, “How he can stay in it all the time? How he can sleep in it? How he moves so quietly in it? I took a shot in the dark as a conversation starter.”

Qubanna snorted, “And why, pray tell, do you need to start a conversation?”

The relaxation bled out of the large unicorn, leaving an intense pair of gray-green eyes locked with Qubanna’s own brown ones, “I need to know what you can do. Luna didn’t give me a road map or profiles on you guys and gals and I don’t want to go into this blind, not when your lives are at stake.”

“What of our companions?” Qubanna asked, nodding at Punic.

“Mr. Big and Metal here has an even split between his sheer size, two mastered earth pony martial arts, and strategic level command skills,” the large unicorn let out a small snort, his smile amused, “And he’s proud of that armor to the point of almost being silly.”

Emeris turned back to Qubanna, giving him an expectant look, but the zebra meaningfully glanced at the door to the sleeping quarters and kitchen. Rolling his eyes, Emeris hopped up onto the seat across from Qubanna, “Quiet Mirror is a master of countermagic, both in combat and out, with some close combat skills thrown in for good measure.”

Saying nothing as his commanding officer settled in, Qubanna waited for him to continue, “Cumulus Rose’ focus is on weather shaping magics, primarily through her dawnblade,” for some reason, an amused smirk played across Emeris’ face at the weapon, but he continued, “The two of them are along to deal with this blizzard we’re facing.”

“Shadow Play is a stealth specialist that also happens to be a certified master of close combat, she’s the inventor of a new style of againap-focused close quarters combat,” he glanced out at the shadows of trees passing by through the windows, noticeably different from when they’d started out, “She specializes in quick takedowns, but don’t worry about protecting her if things get hairy.”

“And what of Grave Danger?” Qubanna asked.

Emeris shrugged, “He’s out of it right now, has been for a while.”

Qubanna raised a dark gray eyebrow at the knight before pointedly looking over the back of his seat at the pale yellow unicorn, hidden in his cloak, his head still high and facing out the window, “What of that seems asleep to you?”

“Not a damn thing,” his soft tone somewhere between irritated and amused, Emeris shook his head, “But he’s out of it, trust me. Meditating or in a trance or something. He’s been using some low power magic and doesn’t respond to his name right now. I could interrupt him, but without knowing what he’s doing, I’m not going to unless I have to.”

“Mm,” Qubanna grunted noncommittally, his face neutral as his tail tucked against his side.

“Okay,” turning back to his companion, Emeris smirked, “Your turn.”

The slightest of frowns crossed the zebras face as he crossed his vine covered forelimbs in front of him, his ears sweeping back, “What of my abilities do you specifically seek?”

The dark green unicorn scowled, “Everything relevant to combat and the situation we’re getting ourselves into.”

“What of my skill in my Kundi’s hoof to hoof style?” the zebra asked, being deliberately obtuse, “Or what of our use of plants in battle?”

The green unicorn’s head tilted to the side in confusion, though it lacked some of the frustration that Qubanna had grown accustomed to seeing on the faces of those from Equestria he interacted with. With a small shrug, the unicorn continued his interrogation, “What are you capable of with plants? I need some measure and general idea, I’m unfamiliar with your Kundi and its customs.”

“What importance do my people, the Msitu, hold to you?”

“A small practical demonstration would be nice, Qubanna,” he countered with an amused smile, “I’m not particularly familiar with the Zitu.”

Qubanna ignored the mispronunciation, at least he’d tried, “Why would you be, when we value the strength knowledge grants us?” he asked as he reached into one of his bandoliers with a hoof.

“And thus, secrecy and the constant questions,” Emeris mused as he watched the zebra cradle a seed on the soft frog at the center of his hoof, briefly marveling at Qubanna’s demonstrated ability to stick things to the bottom of his hoof.

“Watch.” With the first imperative he’d used since they’d seen one another, Qubanna let his magic flow through the seed, the natural magic of a zebra channeled and focused.

There was a pulse of chaos as the seed split and bloomed there on Qubanna’s hoof, sprouting into a small, bright pink flower with a beautiful, soothing aroma.

While some Kundis used potions to give their variations beyond its natural limits, others using war drums to extend its reach, and some used it to master beasts of battle… the Msitu had focused on twisting and mastering the plants of their verdant homeland.

Emeris was rightly impressed by the efforts, gray-green eyes locked on the rapidly growing flower, its roots wrapping around Qubanna’s hoof before it slowly began to wither. As a bulb appeared in the center of the fading flower, the unicorns eyes swept back over Qubanna’s body, reassessing his equipment with a new eye.

Qubanna struggled to put it into words, even to himself as the bulb of new seeds settled onto his frog, but something about this unicorn seemed… off. His body language was off, but only subtly so and that could be chocked up to a different culture like Qubanna’s own. No… if Qubanna hadn’t been in touch with the flows of natural magics around them he would have simply felt uncomfortable and anxious around this unicorn, he might not even have been able to pinpoint him as the source so quickly.

“I see…“ he looked back up at Qubanna, his gaze intense, “I’m guessing that the pouches all contain seeds or equivalents and that the vines are actually hybrids of several kinds?”

“Why would you ask something you already know?” the zebra rebutted. Yes, something was definitely off about this unicorn. He favored his left eye, turning his scarred right cheek ever slightly away from Qubanna when he talked to him. Qubanna filed that information away should he need to fight him.

“Confirmation,” he said with a small smile before becoming serious once more, “Any stand outs in those pouches I should know about?”

“Do you ask of the maiti ua, a flower which may act as a shield, or the kifo harufu, which may spread poison? Or maybe of the damu mnywaji, whose thorny grasp will consume any it finds?”

“Do you have anything that can deal fire or light?” he asked.

A brief scowl crossed Qubanna’s face, “Do you speak of the nyota maua, which shines with light?” the unicorn nodded, “I have some, but only a few, will I have time to cultivate more?”

“That depends, how much time?”

“What of midday tomorrow?”

“Good enough,” the unicorn said with a small nod.

Qubanna didn’t smile, but neither did he scowl, “Why do you ask?”

“We’re dealing with wolves of shadow and cold that seem resistant to damage. First guess would be to use flames and light for massive damage.” He scowled, “We’re uncomfortably heavy on close combat. Out of everyone here, only Twilight, myself, and possibly Graves are really ranged focused, and even then I’ve only got the bare bones of elemental spells.”

His tail flicking in irritation, Emeris met Qubanna’s gaze, “Don’t push yourself, we expect to arrive tomorrow evening, but any way to allow our more melee focused members to engage more effectively is a priority right now. Am I clear?”

“Why would you not be?” Qubanna asked neutrally.

“Good,” the large unicorn hopped off of the cushioned bench to the rattling floor of the train, “I’ll leave you to it.”

“What of you?” Qubanna asked, making his commanding officer pause. He’d noticed that the unicorn had offered little of himself.

The unicorn blinked in confusion, looking over his shoulder at the zebra, once again favoring his left eye. An attack from the right would be ideal he decided.

A melancholy smile made itself known on Emeris’ face, “My specialty is Reality Calcification, but the uses for that are… limited to say the least,” his smile became darkly amused, “For all practical purposes, I beat things up with my mind,” the ghostly image of a blade as broad as Qubanna was tall flickered between them briefly,”I can handle myself in close combat, but I prefer staying out of the way and stabbing things with my brain.”

“What…” Qubanna blinked a few times, tilting his head, “The buck is Reality Calcification?”

“The counter to reality warping magics,” he offered freely, turning fully to face the zebra on the bench, “It operates by reinforcing natural laws and is primarily used as an active field. It has a non-meaningful effect on most forms of spellcasting aside from a marginal increase in mana cost. But… the things it was meant to deal with?” A small smile played across his lips, “That which toys with the laws of physics, such as gravity manipulation, temporal manipulation, casualty twisting, almost all forms of teleportation, things like that? Those simply don’t function.”

“And you believe this will be useful on our mission?” Qubanna asked curiously, but Emeris shook his head.

“No, I was serious when I said the uses are limited. It’s hard to find actual reality warping magics, they’re extremely energy intensive. The only practical use of Reality Calcification is to nullify all teleportation within an area without having to counterspell the specific instance of magic.”

“... and what of the impractical purposes…?” Qubanna asked, concerned why someone would treat that as their focus.

A flash of emotions went across Emeris’ face, amusement, then melancholy, then ache, then a vicious grin. He turned, stepping out into the aisle and cast his answer over his shoulder, “Stopping the power of gods.”

Gray eyes watched Emeris retreat towards the sleeping quarters as Qubanna tried to make sense of the larger unicorn. He used no weapons or armor, mastered an unknown form of magic, and spoke of the power of gods as if from personal experience… Qubanna’s eyes were drawn to the retreating cutie mark in hopes of some insight into this creature. A closed book with a black lotus design on its cover… Qubanna did not pretend to be an expert on the heraldry of Cutie Marks, but such a mark spoke of knowledge and dark perfection… with his admitted specialty being dealing with gods…

The princesses had placed their trust in this unicorn, but as mighty as they may be, that did not mean they were always right, nor that Qubanna would do the same. He didn’t know what the Crystal Empire’s power truly was, but if the princesses desired it, Qubanna would ensure that none but Equestria would take its power.

oOo

Applejack lay beside Rainbow Dash in the small bunk against the side of the train. The pegasus was snoozing against her, using Applejack’s withers as a pillow, though Applejack was wide awake in the dim light, listening to the soft clacking of the train as it rolled along.

She’d woken up not long after the sun had gone down, though now basically everypony else was asleep. She was pretty certain that the zebra in the other car was still awake, same with the little unicorn stallion, but even Emeris had gone to sleep several bunks down.

She glanced back at the bunk, unable to see more than an outline of the large stallion as he breathed slowly, but knowing that he’d removed his vest at Rarity’s insistence. He lay on his side, stomach exposed, and Applejack could remember all too clearly the web of faint scarring that his regrown coat failed to completely cover… scars he’d gotten while protecting Applebloom.

No matter how many times he said she’d paid him back by saving his life immediately after, it didn’t change the fact that Applejack felt like she owed him.

With a sigh, she looked over her other friends. Rarity and Twilight had gone to bed earlier, Rarity and Fluttershy sharing a bunk. Applejack gave a quiet snort, she loved Fluttershy, but that mare had to get herself a pair of teats and ask Cheerilee or Big Mac out already.

Rarity had been frustrating ever since Applejack and Emeris had had their date. He’d taken her to a spring in the Everfree and done something fancy to keep the monsters away. They’d had a picnic, it’d been nice, they’d just softly talked, joked around, enjoyed the scenery. They’d made a bit of fools of themselves in the water, neither a particularly strong swimmer.

A small smile crossed Applejack’s face, in spite of being perfectly willing to stare down a pack of Timberwolves while he was at death’s door, he hesitated mighty fierce when it’d come time for the kiss. He’d obviously wanted to, but he’d been fighting himself over it.

Applejack hadn’t been privy to what had been running through his head, but she’d taken the decision out of his hooves and kissed him herself. No, it wasn’t traditional, but pretty much nothing about their courtship had been.

In spite of that, she still wasn’t–…

The pegasus draped across her snorted in her sleep and snuggled closer, interrupting Applejack’s thoughts. The farmpony smiled as she turned to place a small kiss on Dash’s cheek, a pleasant warmth filling her chest as her tail wrapped around Dash’s side.

Apparently her little fighter had taken that Quiet Mirror stallion under her wing, metaphorically that is, and started teaching him. She’d plum tuckered herself out … or at least Applejack assumed so, but then again Dash could sleep damn near anywhere if she put her mind to it.

It’d still be a few hours before Applejack would be able to fall asleep, but she had no doubt that she’d be up around the crack of dawn regardless, farmpony instincts and all. Though that’d mean that she’d have to wait for a fair bit of the day until the train arrived at the Crystal Empire. The conductor they’d had during the day was sleeping in one of the bunks around here, the night shift one doing his best to get the train there as soon as possible.

Applejack wasn’t worried about their mission. Yeah, it was sorta weird that they’d sent somepony with them on Element Bearer business, but that only made her feel safer. Sure, she had no doubt the Element Bearers could handle it together, they’d handled everything thrown at them so far and this would be no different.

So… why was she worried? Why wasn’t she happy? Her tail tightened around the pegasus cuddling with her, the cute, warm ball of feathers and rainbows letting out a happy little sound as she buried her face against Applejack’s withers.

A bit of red appeared beneath Applejack’s freckles as she smiled briefly. This made her happy, she liked this, so why wasn’t she…

Dash was happy! Applejack had done good getting this little herd together! Emeris was happy too in his awkward and slowly healing way…

So… why was she worried?

oOo

Fluttershy sat quietly at the table as Pinkie whipped up some pancakes for the ponies on the train. She sat near Cumulus Rose, preferring the quiet pink mare to the other ponies on the team. Not that there was anything wrong with them! But…

Grave Danger was scary, even though he was small he managed to look down on the ponies around him. His robes hid so much of his body, and his black cloak hid all that was left… He was just so mysterious and ominous that it gave Fluttershy shivers. She even thought that she could occasionally see a fossilized hoof underneath his robes and the occasional twinkle of a star in his cloak!

A loud yawn right behind her nearly made Fluttershy jump out of her seat with a squeak before Applejack stepped up to the table and dragged herself into the seat a bit further down from her.

Fluttershy wrung her forehooves a bit as she glanced amongst the ponies around her. Her friends weren’t all awake yet, only Pinkie, herself, and now Applejack were up. Rainbow Dash had started to wake, before realizing that she didn’t have to do any work on the weather today and gone straight back to sleep.

But all the military ponies were wide awake despite the sun only starting to peak over the horizon, leaving Fluttershy feeling overwhelmed by the new and scary ponies.

Punic was just so big, and he wore so much armor… she was sure that the armor would be very pretty and elegant if she wasn’t such a scaredy-cat. He was very pretty though, he had a strong jaw and nice orange eyes, and his brown mane and tail were straight and lustrous and he was very polite… but he was even bigger than Big Mac and he was so intimidating…

Shadow Play was really nice though! But she was big for a mare, and she had such sharp teeth and scary yellow eyes and those ominous membranous-wings…

“Round one! Ready? Pancake!”

Fluttershy shook her head at the craziness of her friend, smiling as plates of pancakes slid across the table in rapid succession, stopping perfectly in front of each pony currently awake.

“Thanks Pinkie,” she said softly, not wanting to wake any of the currently sleeping ponies. Sure, she’d appreciate her friends being around her, but their sleep was more important. The pegasus demurely began to eat her pancakes as Applejack dug in with her own thanks to the pink party pony, the other ponies at the table doing so more hesitantly.

Fluttershy was pleased to see happy surprise appear on the faces of all of the other ponies as they ate, various thanks being given to Pinkie Pie as they nibbled.

“Mmph,” Fluttershy looked over her shoulder to find Emeris waking. Some part of her was treacherously happy, knowing that if anything bad happened, Emeris could handle it. She didn’t like putting that burden back on him, even in her mind, but some part of her still was comforted by his presence–

*thump*

Fluttershy blinked even as somepony behind her snorted in amusement. The large unicorn had rolled out of the bed without the slightest hint of grace or poise, flopping onto the floor of the moving train with a subdued “Murgle.”

The butter yellow pegasus covered her mouth with a hoof, suppressing her own laughter as Emeris’ legs flopped around as he lay on his back, “Bleargle.”

“Oh wake up you lazy bastard,” Fluttershy flinched in spite of the amusement in Shadow Play’s voice, squeaking as the againap chucked a salt shaker at the semi-conscious unicorn.

“Em–!” the salt shaker seemed to catch with emerald flames as it froze in the air, the unicorn’s left eye having snapped open, “-eris-!”

Her friend yawned, the salt shaker floating back onto the table in a normal emerald field to the surprise of Fluttershy and Applejack, though only Quiet Mirror of the gathered military ponies seemed surprised. Shadow Play raised an eyebrow as Emeris rolled onto his stomach, smacking his lips, “Good reflexes.”

“Had to have them,” he grumbled, rubbing his eyes with a hoof. With that both Applejack and Fluttershy immediately realized what he was talking about. Before he’d made the runic barrier around his house, he’d had to sleep under the danger of ponies trying to do various things to him while he slept. Sure, then he’d been a lot more powerful, but the reflexes needed to be there.

Noticing the curious looks he was getting from the rest of the team, he shrugged, “I live in the Everfree forest, there’s quite a few monsters there and I had to worry about them attacking me while I slept until I properly defended my home.”

Applejack knew that was technically the truth but… it hadn’t been the monsters that ‘Gary Stu’ had been worried about. She’d learned long ago that he’d been far more worried about somepony finding him.

“That makes sense, though why would you live there?” Qubanna asked, and Fluttershy had to struggle not to cringe. She didn’t have anything against zebra’s, but they tended to be creepy at first, and he had thorns in his ears!

Wobbling up onto his feet, Emeris yawned as he stumbled over towards the table, “I’m not good with people most of the time.”

“Emmy! Round two! Ready? Pancake!” The large unicorn blinked in confusion before snorting in laughter, clambering up onto a seat at the crowded table, ending up between Fluttershy and Applejack, much to the pegasus’ comfort.

With the comfort of an additional friend at the table, Fluttershy relaxed, if just a bit.

She really shouldn’t have been, she knew that, all of them had been very polite and pleasant! Well… Grave Danger hadn’t been and Qubanna had been sort of cold… but Fluttershy was sure they had their reasons!

Oh… she just wished that this would all be over, this was far too much excitement for her. But… she’d be here for her friends.

oOo

I yawned just a bit as I turned the scarf over in my magic a few times, mentally running down the inscriptions and their relations to one another.

This basically read as:

if(worn = yes){

while(Power>1 && worn == yes){

if(AmbientTemp >= Wearer_Natural_Temp * .80 && Power<15000){

AmbientTemp = AmbientTemp * .98 ∴ Power += AmbientTemp * .01

}

else{

Power--

AmbientTemp++

}

}
else{

if(Power<=15000){

AmbientHeat = AmbientHeat * 0.95 ∴ Power += AmbientHeat * 0.05

}

else{

wait 1 second

}
}

It was honestly more complex than that since we’d had to define what a ‘wearer’ was and how the runes would figure out what their natural body temp was and so on. That and normal language could only encapsulate so much about runes, but it got the gist across and it helped order my thoughts about it, “Yeah, this should work. Twilight?”

“Stand back, this should work but I don’t want to take any chances.”

The ponies stepped back, leaving just Twilight and myself near the scarf as Twilight lifted it in her magic. She gave me a glance but I looked back at her, “I’m here in case it does explode.”

She shrugged, a small smile appearing briefly on her face, “Fair enough.”

Her horn lit as her eyes scrunched up in concentration, lavender power pouring into each rune in sequence, causing it to glow and a trail of light to trickle its way down the scarf- “Ease up,” I said softly to not break her concentration, “The magic twists and jumps in the runes, you have to let it settle a bit.”

She grunted in acknowledgement, the leading edge of the glow slowing some as she trusted my personal experience with runes. That and the eyebrows I’d lost.

I kept the mental image of a shield in the back of my mind, ready to bring it into existence if there was the slightest problem. But the lavender power poured down the runes without issue, finding the end of the scarf and slowly glowing brighter. Twilight spoke, her voice tense with concentration as she funneled more power into the scarf, “How much do you think I should put in…?”

“Wait till it pulses and then cut the power,” I said, keeping an eye for that very thing, “That’s the visual representation of the effect crystallizing–” I paused as the runes pulsed once and Twilight’s power eased, the scarf being lowered by the lavender aura to the floor, “-so that means its at its most stable.” I started to walk closer to the scarf, cautiously mind you, just in case.

“So any more power would make it unstable?” she asked, getting a nod from me, though she cringed away when I lightly tapped the cloth with a hoof, “Why did you vouch for such a high upper limit then?”

“Any more power in the form of raw mana would be slightly destabilizing,” when the cloth didn’t do anything, I lightly turned it over with my hoof, giving it a moment to catch fire or turn into liquid heat or something else, “The runes can handle a significant amount of power, but it has to be in the form the runes are built for, thermal energy in this case.”

“So what we just did was the initialization energy?” she asked, stepping closer as I picked up the scarf with my magic now.

“Basically,” I confirmed as I turned the scarf over a few time–

“Oh just bucking put it on already!”

“I will!” I shouted with a bit of a smile, “But I’m blaming you if I catch fire Dash!”

She blew a raspberry at me even as I wrapped the brown scarf around my neck a few times, the cloth was cool to the touch, and at first I was afraid that was all, but then I could feel a slight tingle against my coat and the temperature around me changed. The previously warm train car suddenly cooled slightly to a more comfortable temperature.

I waggled my limbs a few times just to make sure that the effect followed, first one then the other, tail included, before I nodded in satisfaction, “It’s working.”

There were more than a few sighs of relief, not that I could blame them. I was happy to still be, y’know, not on fire. Applejack wiped her brow, “Ah’m glad that worked out.”

“Yeah, see? No problem!” Dash slugged Quiet Mirror in the shoulder, earning a shy smile from the stallion as she hovered in place, “And you were worried.”

I rolled my eyes, a small smile on my face. Translation: ‘I was worried and I don’t want to admit it’. I lifted the scarf off with my magic, turning to the white unicorn in the group, “Rarity?”

“I’ll have eight of them ready soon dear,” her teal magic took the scarf from me for reference. The scarf was the same dark brown as my mane and tail and would be mine since it’d worked, but the girls, Shadow Play and Qubanna still needed one for themselves. First step was Rarity using her greater magical dexterity to actually put the scarves together, and the next was for Twilight to charge them up as they came. My part was (regretfully) over.

“Thanks,” I murmured softly to my friend as she picked up bolts of cloth and spools of thread, heading to an empty booth to work, giving me a small nod as she passed.

The rest of the group began to disperse now that the mild excitement was out of the way, Grave Danger watching the scarf that Rarity had taken, “How long shall the enchantment last?”

While Twilight took a moment think about it, I was more surprised by the question than anything else, “Um… until the thread gets worn out? There’s nothing preventing the scarf itself from being damaged since it’s a jury-rig job, so if it gets damaged or just worn out due to use it’ll lose power…”

I suddenly found myself to be the center of attention once more, a strange combination of Quiet Mirror, Grave Danger, and Punic all giving me a surprised and disbelieving look.

“... what?”

“Um…” it was the more palatable Quiet Mirror that spoke up, “To be frank, I’m not sure I believe you…”

I smiled just a bit as a funny popped into my head, my mouth working before could stop it, “Hi Frank, my name’s ‘I’m not sure why’, pleased to meet you.” Twilight groaned beside me and Quiet Mirror pulled a face as Punic and Grave Danger both scowled slightly at me. Still, I continued, “More seriously, I actually don’t know why, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me…”

“Tch, fool, only masters of enchantment can create perpetual enchantments such as that,” Grave Danger snorted, “Only an idiot would assume otherwise.”

“Emeris is, at minimum, a sixth degree master of runic magic,” Twilight said from beside me in the aisle, stepping forward a bit with a small smile on her face, “And he’s right, the power in the runes will regulate itself for the foreseeable future. Had we more time, I’d classically enchant the scarves to be extremely resilient, but we’re pressed for time and energy.”

Grave Danger scowled, “I find myself not believing the words of a fool reaching beyond their means.”

Both Twilight and I bristled a bit at that, but to my surprise, it was Punic that spoke with his confident baritone, “I do. I have every confidence that Doctor Twilight Sparkle knows what she is talking about. No matter how outlandish it seems to the rest of us.” The smile he gave Grave Danger was excruciatingly polite, though it got a bit better as he turned to me, “I may not know you, Sir Emeris Fillson, but I know more than enough of Twilight to accept her expertise.”

And finally he turned to Twilight with actual warmth in his smile, giving her a slight nod of acknowledgement, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Twilight’s cheeks turn a slight shade of pink.

I… didn’t know how I felt about that actually.

“It- I’m nothing special,” waving it off with a hoof, her tail swishing slightly, “Emeris is the one who did most of the actual work, I just sped it along some.”

Several emotions flashed across Quiet Mirror’s face, too fast for me to identify, settling on mild amusement.

Grave Danger scowled, his lank black hair hanging loosely as his ears swept back, “Runic magic is extraordinarily complex, there are few masters of it, and I have only read of masters of the seventh degree.”

“I can certainly vouch for Emeris’ skills,” came a call from Rarity who peeked out from around the edge of the seat, “He threw runes together to fix a boiler within a few minutes that worked for almost two weeks even after the boiler was properly fixed.” She smirked and I suddenly knew she was teasing me damnit, “He’s also been churning out increasingly complex runes for my designs over the past few weeks.”

“There are already several runic enchantments for clothing,” Punic said almost hesitantly, though I didn’t understand why.

“Oh yes, I’m aware,” Rarity said, waving a hoof dismissively, “I’m not worried that he’s swindling me if that’s what you’re concerned about, it’s not in him.”

… oh. That’s what he was implying. … well that bites. I wanted to feel insulted but I’d have thought the same in his position.

The alabaster unicorn continued, definitely smirking, “He got those to me rather quickly, though most of those are for long trains and dresses and cloaks. He’s been adding to them and getting me commissioned effects ever since.”

Okay, seriously, enough about me. I snorted, “It’s not that impressive, quite a few professional enchanters do the same thing with even fewer research materials than I’ve got access to.” I’d found that out while looking for reference materials to work with, I kept running into ones for normal enchanting rather than runic enchanting.

“You are rather creative with how you use runes,” Twilight pointed out, a small smile on her face. Wait, no, that was a smirk. Damnit mare, were you getting in on the teasing too?! “You have a half dozen tricks that keep the complexity inherent to runes low.”

“Also known as: I cheat,” I interjected, now scowling. This felt too familiar in the worst way, “I don’t have the actual skill of a sixth degree master, but I know some shortcuts and tricks so I can operate near that level by essentially cheating.” I looked around at the four ponies in the aisle, “Now are we done with this? Rarity has work to do and everybody should rest up, we arrive today.”

I turned fully to walk between Grave Danger and Quiet Mirror, making a beeline for the booth Dash and Applejack were sitting at near the door. Conversation fucking over.

I didn’t like being talked up like that, it had happened far too much… I loved being legitimately good at things, especially when I worked hard at them, but–

But I couldn’t take praise like that, I just couldn’t–

Not anymore. No more.

oOo

Rarity carefully moved the needle through the fabric, the slightest error on her part could ruin the whole enterprise as she’d learned while working with Emeris on other designs. She’d also learned that the runes could be almost invisible, being the same color as the cloth provided there was some distinction between them and the background.

However, with her dreadfully limited selection of colors and thread she had to limit her muse and its directions. But there was only so much that she could do so. It was with a fair bit of enthusiasm that she chose the same shade of brown for Applejack’s scarf as she had Emeris, the runes for both the same orange as her coat.

She didn’t expect this one to last, but it gave her a wonderful idea to… suggest to Emeris to get her as a gift comparable to the tie that he’d… ‘given’ Rainbow Dash on their date. While Rainbow Dash had taken to wearing the tie as a wrapping around one of her forelegs, this scarf at least would be used for its original purpose!

The alabaster unicorn looked up from the finished symbol, checking up on her friends and companions, finding the situation unchanged. Applejack sat with Emeris and Twilight, the three of them talking softly about something, likely dealing with the dreadfully unfashionable pieces of metal on the floor of the booth.

Definitely purple for Twilight, though that left the question of whether to do the runes as the same pink as her mane-streak or to go with gold… hmmm…

Grave Danger had once again gone off alone, though now Qubanna sat with Shadow Play and Pinkie Pie. The zebra seemed slightly out of sorts talking with the party pony, though Shadow Play seemed to be enjoying herself.

For Pinkie she’d have to go with a light pink and gold, she simply didn’t have the cloth or thread to do anything else. Shadow Play's unusual coloration made things difficult, that dark blue-gray would be hard to match or compliment even at her Boutique, but she had some cloth to match the color of her dark armor at least. The best she could do for a rune color though was gold. How dreadfully boring! And she was repeating herself as well!

And Qubanna! Designing for a zebra could be incredibly frustrating. One could always be dreadfully plain and go with white and black and gold, but even in such a case she had to choose between black on white or white on black! How was she supposed to make such a decision without the proper time to coordinate the various ensembles?!

Rainbow Dash had taken Quiet Mirror into the aisle once more, walking through the steps and motions of some form of fighting or another. Rarity didn’t know, what she found interesting was the completely obvious crush that the silver unicorn had on her pegasus friend. While Applejack had surprisingly missed it in her nap and her current conversation, neither Rarity or Emeris had.

Rarity wasn’t sure whether or not she should have been surprised by Emeris reaction, or more accurately, lack thereof. She also wasn’t sure it was the appropriate one. She tried to get into the mind of a monogamous species, but to her consternation, she wasn’t entirely sure she succeeded.

Another male should have been competition, but she knew him well enough to believe that her friend likely thought he was doing the right thing. But a stallion seeking to join a herd had to gain the approval of the stallion already present, or head stallion in the rare case there were multiples.

And to be frank, Rarity wasn’t sure Quiet Mirror wasn’t competition.

Rarity let out a somewhat unlady-like huff as she worked with the sarf before her, the same shade of red as Rainbow Dash’s eyes and the tie around her foreleg. It obviously had to match, though Rarity was going to indulge her muse just the tiniest bit and make each rune a different color in the sequence of the rainbow.

Fluttershy sat with Cumulus Rose, the two of them talking quietly. There was an interesting contrast between the body language of the Wonderbolt while she had first gotten on the train and now. She was more reserved, less ramrod straight, her dark blue tail pressed against her side much like Fluttershy’s longer tail was.

Rarity certainly didn’t envy the Wonderbolt, with a dark blue mane and a light pink body, there had to be so little that actually matched or complimented her colors, especially with the obvious muscle she had. There was obviously no real bounce to that mare’s flank, and the muscles around her neck and wings were thick and powerful, but certainly not something a stallion would look for.

Given the chance, Rarity would have loved to indulge her muse with the materials for Fluttershy to accentuate her pegasus friends wonderful figure and plumage but alas! The fashionista’s selection was dreadfully limited and unable to properly do Fluttershy justice. She was limited to the same pink and gold style she was using for Pinkie Pie, making Rarity’s muse throw a fit, but one must work with what they’ve been given.

The work of a genius is never done and must thrive during adversity!

…

… black on white, definitely black on white.

oOo

I could see snow stretching out as far as the eye could see, all forty feet. Clouds darkened the sky in spite of it still being nearly noon, and generally it looked like I’d imagine Hel to. Single L there, not double.

“Alright everyone, gear up, scarves on, helmets on, and make sure to put on your little booties. We’ve got maybe an hour left before we reach the station and I want us ready to hit that snow running.” To my pleasant surprise, none of the team argued in the least, many hopping off the bench they were on to pick up their things.

Twilight on the other hand, “Wait, what? We’ve barely got the barrel section and helmet of your armor inscribed and enchanted, and we could make more scarves for–”

“Twilight,” I interrupted, ignoring how everyone else was now looking at us, “It’ll have to be good enough.”

“But we still have an hour, you said it yourself,” she rebutted with only a hint of petulance.

“Which you know won’t be enough to do anything meaningful, and only exhaust us more,” I countered logically even as I enveloped the barding in my magic, pulling it towards me, “Stop, relax, and be ready.”

“Those last two seem mutually exclusive,” the lavender unicorn grumbled.

Shadow Play snorted in amusement, “Welcome to guard duty.”

I looked over the barding, considering how best to put it on…

“Really? Trying to relax and be ready at the same time? That’s guard duty?” Dash asked, quirking an eyebrow up before turning to Cumulus Rose, “Please tell me that’s not something the Wonderbolts have to do.”

Then I remembered I had a bunch of ponies more accustomed to armor than me. “Quiet Mirror, could you help me with this?” I asked softly, trying not to interrupt the other conversation going on.

Cumulus Rose shook her head, “Not very often, we go on patrols which is sort of similar in the state of readiness, but Wonderbolts aren’t really a ‘guard duty’ branch of military.”

I chose the Solar Guard over the others because he wasn’t involved in a conversation right now, and I wasn’t super comfortable with physical contact still. He gave me a curious look, likely not understanding what I was asking for help with, so I elaborated, “ I’m not used to armor and not sure of exactly how to put it on.”

Then a different voice broke in from behind me, “Tch, you can’t figure it out?” it was Grave Danger, the smaller unicorn sneering, “Fool.”

I gave him a small scowl, “I could, but considering I have someone here who actually knows how, why not ask them?” I turned back to Quiet Mirror, who had a decidedly awkward look on his face, his ears at odd angles as he cringed, very obviously not wanting to get involved. Thankfully, he seemed to be the only one to notice the exchange, the others still in their own conversations.

But Grave Dumbass wasn’t done, “It makes you look like a fool, inexperienced at best and incapable of leading a team of elites such as this.” Thankfully he was sneering less now that he’d gotten a decent answer, at least I was assuming that was the reason.

Still, I snorted, “Better to be open about my weaknesses and failings so that y’all know where to cover me as well as help me fix them. Especially compared to just fumbling around with the armor and making myself look like an overly proud fool.” Hah! Snark snark subtle insult, bite my fat, brightly colored ass.

No, I didn’t really like this guy, how could you tell? Something about him just ground my gears. I think it was the default expression of a sneer…

Quiet Mirror’s magic almost hesitantly enveloped the armor and I focused on him, studying as he opened it up slightly around the collar.

“So you would rather confirm yourself to be a fool under controlled circumstances rather than take the chance of appearing like a worse fool in spite of the possibility of appearing competent?” I glanced over at Grave Danger, finding that his sneer was less obnoxious for some reason… his face hadn’t really changed much aside from a raised eyebrow… and his ears weren’t swept back anymore! That’s what it was. Huh…

Still… I shrugged as I returned my focus to Quiet Mirror, “Not how I would put it, but that sounds about right.” The already armored unicorn guard nodded his head downwards, gesturing for me to do the same, and I did, allowing him to slip the barding over my horn and head with a little juking motion.

Grave Danger snorted again, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, if just barely. I did roll my shoulders and hips, getting the barding to settle better against me as Quiet Mirror strapped me in. There weren’t many for the pony equivalent of a chest-piece, aside from the one strap that I mentally dubbed the saddle-strap, that was a thick band of some leather-like material that went around the lower end of my ribcage.

The spine of the armor was actually surprisingly stiff, even throughout the segmented plates that covered my flanks, likely because of the comparatively limited motion the pony trunk was capable of… aaaand I was nervous and mentally rambling, fuck a duck.

Quiet Mirror pulled out the war-shoes, “Have you ever used these before?”

I shook my head, “Never needed them before.”

“They just slip on, though it’ll be somewhat uncomfortable since it’s your first pair, hold out your hoof?” I obliged as Quiet Mirror wrapped the silver war shoe in his magic and pushed it on. There were layers of cloth at the bottom of the shoe, and the metal flexed just a bit as it squeezed into place. It covered my leg from the fetlock down in metal, the tightness reminding me of a well fitted set of ice skates.

Huh, that was cool, “Thanks, I can get it from here,” I smiled warmly at the smaller unicorn.

He returned the smile before turning to go get his helmet and do final checks on his oversized saddlebags. … still didn’t know the fuck was in those things. Forgot to ask.

“So…” Qubanna spoke up from beside me, making my ears snap to attention, “What are those weaknesses?”

Confused, I looked over to him as I pulled the second foreleg shoe over towards me. Admittedly, I blinked like an idiot for a moment before my brain caught up with what he’d said and I let out a small snort of amusement. Grasping it with my already covered leg, I pulled it on over the martial arts wrap I had around the leg, using the effort to buy the time I needed to think.

There was something off about him asking about that that I didn’t like, so what did I want to tell him…?

I couldn’t see any reason not to go with the truth, not right now at least, not without being paranoid, “I‘ve only got the most basics of elemental magic going for me, even less in terms of illusions, alteration, and general evocation,” I grunted a bit as I squeezed the war shoe on finally, twisting the shoe around some to make sure it was settled properly.

It was Quiet Mirror that spoke up, “That… seems like a bad mix for this situation…”

Tactful, I’d give him that, “Fair enough. But I can handle myself, don’t worry about that.” I slipped my rear hoof into one of the remaining shoes, forcing it on.

“By the way,” I continued, pausing to finish slipping the war shoe on with a grunt, “Graves–”

“Grave Danger.” He immediately corrected, continuing tersely, “You will use my name or I will use one of your less desirable ones.”

I blinked once, the implication not lost on me, “Fair enough.” At least he didn’t hate me for it, he just hated everybody, “Sorry now if I use Graves in a combat situation though. Not gonna do otherwise.”

The smaller unicorn grunted as the other members of our group talked and got ready, scarves getting tightened, helmets put on, straps tightened, the train car filled with the quiet murmur of conversation.

“Anyways, what are your specialties anyways?” with a thump, I settled the last war shoe onto my leg. Man that’d take a bit to get used to, “I never got a chance to ask earlier.”

“Necromantic and Vice magics.”

… so that’s what people mean when they say ‘So quiet you could hear a pin drop’. Mind you, I could still hear the muted howling the wind outside and the clacking of the tracks but damn.

“Huh,” I scowled a bit, turning to him, “Are you the only Arch-Warlock? I don’t know the structure–”

“No,” I twitched at the interruption, “I was simply the most generally capable Broken Horn available.”

I let out a slow breath through my nostrils even as I lifted my steel helmet with my magic, both of us ignoring the stares and slight shuffling away with a practiced ease, “Fair enough. I would rather have a specialist to deal with demons or the fey. These shadow wolves sound more like those to me.”

To be honest, it was a pleasant change that the bubble of ‘I don’t want none of dat shiz!’ was focused on someone other than me. The small, black-cloaked unicorn sniffed, “At least you aren’t a complete fool. From the information given those do seem like the most likely candidates for the nature of these beings. Were they only white I would believe they were elementals…”

“But they’re black, and the blizzard unnatural…” I trailed off as the helmet settled down around my ears before turning to the pale-yellow unicorn, “Could elementals be corrupted?”

Grave Danger’s lips pressed into a thin line, “Unlikely.”

“But possible,” I finished for him in a grumble. Damn. There were just too many variables, we didn’t know what we were getting into at all. With a mental flick, I buckled the helm into place.

Silence reigned for a long moment before a soft voice broke it, “You’re a master of Necromancy?” Twilight Sparkle asked, pushing through the group of ponies to look at Grave Danger in a mix of fear, incredulity, and surprise.

I idly noted that most of the other ponies had gathered into a huddle near the doorway to the bunks and kitchen, it seems that Punic, Shadow Play, and Quiet MIrror weren’t surprised by this, though only the againap and unicorn weren’t in the press of bodies that Twilight had pushed her way free of. Though everyone looked to be uncomfortable at a minimum, even Punic stood at the edge of the group, his tail pressing against the back of his legs the only betrayal of his otherwise stoic appearance.

The accused unicorn snorted, before he sneered, “Yes child, I am a master of death,” he lifted a forehoof, his cloak parting and the voluminous sleev– fucking fuck!

I blinked as my eyebrows went up and there were a few shrieks and whimpers from the group of ponies.

It was a skeletal hoof. Fucking hell. His right foreleg was skeletal, entirely if I guessed correctly, it was just covered by the massive flowing sleeves of his black robes. Celestia damn.

“W-W-What the buck is that?!” Dash exclaimed, her normally scratchy voice cracking a bit. I glanced back, finding that Punic had put an armored foreleg in front of Twilight even as the mass of ponies had cringed backwards. Even Shadow Play and Quiet Mirror seemed a bit stunned this time. I was shocked, certainly, because seriously who the fuck does that?

But I’d seen worse, by miles.

“A prosthetic you fools,” Grave Danger said smugly, gesturing with the skeletal hoof, “An expression of my power and skill in my replacement of my lost limb.”

“Graves,” I said warningly. He scowled at me, but I narrowed my eyes, my ears sweeping back, “Stop scaring them.” It was an order. I didn’t appreciate him scaring my friends, the insult didn’t help either.

His fadedgreen eyes locked with mine as he gave me a sneer but I didn’t flinch. I’d stared down things a lot scarier than your shitty ass, Graves.

After a moment, he snorted, putting his skeletal hoof back down and looking away, “They are fools if they think that darkness does not exist.”

“That don’t mean you’ve gotta go and wave that around in our faces!” Applejack exclaimed from the throng of ponies.

Snorting, the small unicorn tilted his head up to look down on the ponies gathered by the door, “And denying that it exists is at best a convenient lie. There are times when one must take the darkness and use it as a sword against that which resides within it.”

I opened my mouth to say that didn’t excuse his action, but Twilght’s soft voice beat me to it, “But there are also times when one has to cast a light into that darkness.”

My head jerked around to look at her in slight surprise as she stepped out from around the makeshift barrier Punic’s large, armored leg made. “Yes, there are times when the only way is to use a questionable method,” her lavender eyes were intense, locking gazes with Graves, “But we also have to be careful and not have it as our first resource. The darkness should be the last sword we draw, it’s the light that should be our shield.”

Grave Danger was quiet, studying Twilight for a moment before a small smirk played across his face, ”This is a pleasant surprise, you’re less of a fool than I anticipated.”

Twilight scowled at Grave Danger’s smug look, and despite wanting to support her, there was nothing coming to mind. I stood between the two, a pale paragon of darkness shrouded in black cloth and a darker genius who championed friendship, the latter practically growling out, “You… are a horseapple. An arrogant, mean, and spiteful monster.”

Grave Danger snorted even as my chest tightened, this was escalating too far, “And you are a sheltered child, still weak and naive, but we are here to save these fools from their own mistakes and foolishness and shall have to work together to accomplish that.”

None of the gathered ponies looked super happy about that, though most of the military ponies outside of Qubanna and Cumulus Rose looked like they could stand it at least.

“I don’t know why Celestia chose you,” Twilight growled. Okay, time to step in–

“And I don’t understand why she would chose one such as you as her personal protege,” Grave Danger sneered.

Twilight opened her mouth but I cut her off, “And we’re done here.” Both unicorns glared at me, though Twilight’s was significantly milder, “No, we’re done. We’ve got a job to do. We don’t get along obviously but sniping at each other like this accomplishes nothing and I’m putting my hoof down. That’s enough.” I glanced between the two, my look pleading towards Twilight but challenging Grave Danger.

My lavender friend sighed like a boiler letting off its pressure, air rushing out between her lips as she looked away, glaring at the seat beside her, “Fine.” Punic reached out with a forehoof, almost delicately placing it against her side, making her blush just a bit at the concern.

I pointedly ignored that, turning to lock gazes with Grave Danger. He held my gaze in another contest of wills, but I had a distinct feeling this one was more for show than anything else when the smaller unicorn looked away, “For the sake of the mission I shall do as you say.”

A small sigh escaped me, an equal mix of frustration and relief as the tension in my chest eased just a bit, “Good. With any luck we’ll get this mission over and none of us have to see each other ever–” a slow howl cut me off, causing our heads to collectively jerk towards the windows on the side it’d come from, “... again.”

I scowled out at the swirling snowflakes, they seemed gray rather than the white they should have been, almost appearing as night-time in spite of still being day. I couldn’t see anything out there but the swirling snow, and now I could hear nothing but the terrible wind. It had gotten darker and the storm worse in the time we’d been talking.

Damn, this could– movement.

My eyes refocused even as Fluttershy squeaked and several of the girls gasped as a dark form appeared briefly in the swirling snow, running full tilt alongside the train. I glanced out the other side quickly, seeing two more before they faded back into the darkness. There were more howls, eerie, low howls that made my heart clench.

Damn.

“Graves,” I said, not looking away from the window, “How are your barriers?”

“I can easily maintain a sixth circle ungrounded sphere.” No nonsense from him, good. That meant a… a mobile bubble shield. Perfect.

“I want you up with the conductors then,” the ponies in this car weren’t the only ones on the train after all, I had to stay aware of everyone, “We can’t leave them if we get attacked.”

“Tch, the fools would likely try to save the engine if we were,” he sneered, his horn lighting up with crimson light, and at this distance I could see glowing hairline fractures along its length as his hood was lifted up over his head, throwing his face into shadow. But the warlock moved with purpose, the team and the girls parting as he went through the door towards the engine of the train.

Good, that was one thing off my mind, though now I could see more and more forms of wolves fading in and out of the darkness. I couldn’t keep count. The wind was picking up too, buffeting the train car. Damn.

I looked back at the ponies still huddled by the doorway, the team was at attention and the girls were still gathering their courage. Pinkie was trying to start up a giggle even as the team started to look to me. What did I have to work with here?

“Cumulus, Shadow, which of you can see better in these conditions?” quick and to the point. Be calm.

“I can sir,” it was the pink pegasus that spoke up, her hood and goggles on, “My goggles are enchanted specifically for this.”

“Good, you’re on overwatch,” I nodded at her as I stepped forward, grabbing the last runicly inscribed scarf for myself, wrapping it around my neck, “I want you to be our eyes in the sky, keep us appraised of attacks and movements.”

She nodded, “Sir.”

“Mirror,” I turned to look at him, “How’s your evocation?”

“Sir,” the silver unicorn snapped to attention, “Fifth degree, sir.”

Not ideal, but more than functional, “I want you on our left then, you, me, and Graves are going to act as the outermost perimeter of our defenses. Blast at will. I will be taking the rear, Graves the right.” I’d put Quiet Mirror on the same side as my dominant eye, if Graves was a fraction of what his reputation and arrogance implied he could handle himself.

A particularly strong gust of wind made the entire car rock and I planted my hooves wider to maintain balance, some of my friends letting out small sounds of surprise, “Punic,” I kept my voice tight and controlled, loud enough to be heard but not to risk cracking, “I want you on point. Depending on the depth of the snow we may need you to act as a literal plow.”

“As you wish,” the massive stallion nodded and settled his concealing helm into place.

“Qubanna,” the zebra turned to me, his tied down mane moving slightly, “Pass out the plants and instruct ponies on their use as best you can,” he nodded pulling small wreaths from one of his pouches, “Your main method of combat is to use the vines on your limbs as thorny weapons correct?” I took an educated guess.

“What would give you an idea otherwise?” Basically yes, good enough.

Another gust made the car rock on the tracks, my head snapping to the window. Damn, if this kept up we’d get derailed, “These things may not notice that. Be prepared for it. I want you to screen anything that might get past Punic, I’ll be covering him from the rear, but my attention is going to be split. Are we clear?”

“What else would I be doing?” he asked with the smallest of smiles as he began to whisper instructions on the wreaths use to each pony in turn.

Fine, “Shadow, you’re screening the air with Cumulus and on targets of opportunity. If something looks like it’s going to get past us it’s your job to turn it back or take it out.”

“Sir,” she nodded, her wings rustling as her pale yellow eyes focused into thin slits at the growing number of wolves visible out of the windows.

“Hey! What about me?” Dash asked, interrupting my train of thought. I turned to her, some distant part of my brain finding her to look wonderful with the rose-colored silk tie wrapped around a foreleg as it was and the equally colored scarf around her neck, “I can outfly anyone here and I can handle myself in combat just fine! Why aren’t I on screening?”

“Because I need you and Applejack as our final line of defense,” I said with finality, locking gazes with her. Now wasn’t the time for affection or the little buried squee at how amazing she looked, “If something get past the team, Twilight and Rarity, I want you two to keep your wits about you and defend yourselves and the others, but AJ, Dash?” I nodded at them even as another powerful gust buffeted the car, “You two are the final line of defense, keep the rest of the girls safe but stay at the center of the group. It’s our job to make sure y’all make it to the Crystal Empire safely, so I want all our Element Bearers at the center of this circle.”

Dash scowled, “I don’t like it…”

I bit back the ‘too bad’ part of me wanted to say, “Dash, I’m trusting you to protect our friends. I’ve got to cover the whole group, I want you to focus on just the other girls, okay?”

She blinked a few times before nodding, a slight blush on her cheeks, “Yeah, I get it.”

“Good,” was that everybody? That was everybody- conductors, right, remembered them earlier, “The conductors are going to be in the middle with the girls.” Okay, that was everybody, my eyes swept through the team, “Alright, our job is to protect these girls–”

The howls intensified, and my lips pressed into a thin line before I continued, “So let’s make sure that–”

“Sir!”

My head jerked to Cumulus- her gaze was out of the window–

My head kept turning– Fuck.

A gust of gray snow and wind almost as big as the car– it was practically a giant fist–!

–dodecahedronal system of elastic material–

It was a solid mass headed for us–! Was that laughter-?!

–parameters for all available space within five meters– gotta trust Graves to see it–!

My horn blazed with emerald light as I screamed, “Brace for impa–”

With a boom and the scream of tortured metal the world went grey and white.

Author's Note

Ta daaaaaaa~

I feel so deliciously evil.

Anyways, I'm mostly happy with this chapter! There are some parts that I'm super happy with, others that I'm not happy with at all, merely content that they serve their purpose. There are some subtleties in the conversations that I'm supremely happy about.

This chapter is a bit under-edited though since two of my usual three editors are caught up in school starting up, and my own updates are going to slow a bit as I get back into it myself. So please point out any errors that you see!

So I have a question for ya: Who's your favorite of the new characters? Your least? Any that you hate? I'm curious!

Regardless, as always, comments and critique's are always appreciated, TIS WHY WE LIVE!!!

Anyways, Decepticons, Rise Up!

Consequences of Arrival

Green– fucking fuck–

Focus damnit!

Pressure– twisting– the world was spinning-! My inner ear was screaming at me!

–green was everywhere - squishy - soft - cold - doing its job–

The spell was fraying–! No! Stay in place–!

Celestia damnit!

Focus! It’s magic 101. Will made reality– I said will made reality damnit!

Muffled shocks and whines and screeches reached my ears through the material.

My inner ear finally settled, gravity deciding to pull in a single direction as the torque and centripetal forces faded. There were howls.

Fucking hell.

With a twitch I abruptly cut off the energy to the foam I’d filled all available space in the car with, the constructed material quickly fading from existence and dropping me to the floor.

Correction, wall. Wait, which wall was that? Crap, we’d rolled at least one full time. Damn.

“Roll call! Who’s not dead?!” I shouted over the howls of the wind and wolves- there was a rumble through the wall as I leapt up onto my hooves, eyes darting about, trying to get the measure of the situation.

There were several groans and coughs– wind?!

Were there holes in the car–? No, the wind was coming through all the shattered windows– a dark shape above-!

With a snarl and a sweep of my head I slammed steel plating against what was now the roof of the car, covering it entirely in softly glowing green plates.

Another glow- blue, a quick glance confirmed it was Quiet Mirror, also up and mildly surprised at the plating. Then he blinked and his eyes snapped to mine, “The doors-!”

Quick as thought I glanced at the ends of the car and mentally measured them before placing appropriately sized plates at each door.

“Pres–” Shadow Play had to stop to cough and suck in some air, “Present and accounted for!”

“Cumulus Rose, awake and uninjured sir!”

A quick glance confirmed that she was up and about, a fetlock hooked around the handle of her dawnblade as she hovered in place. Shadow Play was pushing her way out from beneath a bench that had been ripped from its place bolted onto the floor.

“Will those hold?” Qubanna was up, practically dancing around the edges of the car, inspecting it and the plating I had created.

“I’d be more worried about the walls of the car than those,” I said quickly as my eyes darted around, “What about the girls-?”

“They’re okay!” it was Punic, my head snapped over to him as he quite literally stood protectively over Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight, “Ms. Fluttershy is unconscious and lady Rarity is disoriented, but Twilight’s shield protected them.”

The purple unicorn groaned unhappily as she pushed herself up, “Should’ve gone with a pillow like you did. We got bounced around–”

Not important, “Pinkie? Dash? Aj?”

“Here! Can we do that again? What with all the spinning and turning and–” Pinkie had popped out from beneath some cushions and bolts of cloth, good, uninjured, “–and it was like being held in green cotton candy!”

“Dash? AJ?!” I called out again, turning about, searching the turned over cushions and glass and cloth.

“Here!” my head snapped to the blue pegasus as she shoved the remains of a bench off of her, her wings protectively enshrouding Applejack’s form, they’d been close enough to be enveloped in my ‘pillow foam’ construct. There’d probably been something in my eyes because she hastened to say, “I’m alright! AJ hit her head though!”

The farmpony shook her head even as she shoved Rainbow Dash off, “A’hm alright sugar! A little bump on my head ain’t gonna slow me down!”

“But AJ–!” the blue pegasus worried over her.

“Ah said Ah’d be fine!”

I looked at her critically even as I asked, “Can you run?” Her emerald eyes met mine, they were slightly unfocused but getting better, no trembles, no blood, also no hat, it wasn’t any guarantee but it might have to be enough.

“Of course Ah can!” she snapped, standing to her full height, with only the slightest wobble.

My lips pressed into a thin line, “It’ll have to work,” there was a thud against my will as something I’d guess to be a wolf slammed into one of the steel plates covering the windows. My head jerked up at the feeling, the sound of it lost in the howl of the wind and wolves outside the car, my eyes went back to the beautiful pegasus, “Dash, cover her–”

“Ah said–!”

“And I’m making a call!” I roared, making her almost flinch back. I ignored the pain it caused to see that look, “Dash, cover her until you’re sure she’s okay! Roles are still the same but I want you to keep an eye on her. And find her hat while we figure this out!”

“Right!” Celestia I felt like an asshole.

My head jerked around, emotions later, saving people now, “Punic, can you carry Fluttershy?”

The large stallion nodded his helmeted head,“Easily if we can strap her on.”

“Good, Quiet, use what cloth we’ve got left to tie her down on his back,” I realized just after I said it that I was making the two that had a history work together, but then I discarded it. Now wasn’t the time, I could hear the wolves batting against what had once been the ceiling and floor of the car, “Rarity, how are you holding up?”

The white unicorn wobbled a bit as she stood, “I–…” she paused, swallowing even as Quiet Mirror began to gather up the cloth that he could find scattered about, Punic settling down some as Twilight lifted our unconscious pegasus friend onto his back, “I don’t believe I can run at the moment dear, I’m dreadfully sorry…”

Damn. “Punic?”

“I can carry both, easily.”

“Good, get it–” *flsh-POW* My head jerked to the sound and flash, a blade at the ready before I recognized the black cloak and two other ponies who were wobbling on their hooves, “Graves, status?”

“I am uninjured, obviously, the conductors are shaken, but fine.” Graves gave a slight toss of his head, moving his mane out of his face, “As if they could be anything else.” He was fine though, good. Next problem.

I looked to the two conductors, one cream and the other a soft blue, “Can you two run?”

The cream colored one swallowed, the mare nodding her head with a soft, “Y-Yeah,” her fellow conductor nodding as well.

“Good, stick close to Twilight. She’s going to be at the center of the group, just stick with us,” calm, controlled, hold their gaze. I’m in charge and I know what I’m doing, “Can you do that?”

The blue mare nodded, “Y-Yes sir.” Damn, she was trembling. Both of them were, I don’t think they were ready for this. Fuck. I glanced over their outfits: denim jackets, handkerchiefs, their hats lost in the crash. Would that be enough? No, probably not. Damn.

In spite of the tremble of fear in my chest I pulled my scarf off, feeling it's magic fade as I tenderly wrapped it around one of the mare’s necks, “Good, we’ll get you through this. Just stick close to us and we’ll take care of everything.” Graves rolled his eyes and I had to resist the urge to snap at him as I turned, “Shadow Play, your scarf.”

She gave me a curious look for a half second, her yellow eyes glancing between me and the mare I’d just given my scarf. I saw the realization come across her. My magic scarf, like her own that she might not need due to her innate resistance to cold.

With a quick motion of her leathery wings and a hoof she unwrapped the scarf, coming over to place it on the other conductor. As she did, I turned to the necromancer, “Graves, we’re traveling in a group, Punic is on point, Quiet’s on the left, you’re on the right, I’m covering the rear.”

“Hmph, functional.” He gave me a look from beneath his hood, one I struggled to decipher though it resembled a sneer, “And can you keep yourself warm without the scarf?”

Good question. Probably not. But I could do better than an earth pony mare. “I’ll handle it.” My voice was thankfully strong in spite of fear making my chest clench.

I took a slow breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Okay, now what? Get everyone safe. How to do that?

… wait.

It was quiet… relatively that is. There was the howls of the wind and the wolves, the rattle of the twisted and tortured metal of the wrecked train car… but there wasn’t scratching or thumping from the wolves attacking the car itself. But with their slowly wailing howls there was no doubt that they were still nearby.

I scowled. Dammit, what was going on out there?

The exterior of the car was mostly intact, it was the inside that was torn up, the windows having been blasted out, though now covered by emerald steel.

“What now?” Qubanna asked, making my lips press into a thin line. Good question, I could maintain this plating for quite some time, but that’d only delay the inevitable.

I glanced about, trying to determine the situation, even as Quiet Mirror shouted over the increasingly loud howls just outside the train car, “There’s a lot of glass on the floor! If you don’t have shoes on or can’t fly, watch it so your frogs don’t get cut up!”

Good point, damn, “Girls! Hooves up!” my friends raised hooves curiously and I worked as quickly as I dared, focusing on each limb, measuring, calculating, and formulating the basic physics of a war-shoe for each. With some focus I encompassed each limb in a green-steel shoe. Realization dawned on each of their faces and they raised each hoof in turn.

“Grave Danger,” I said over the howls of the wolves, focusing my power into the shapes around the girls hooves, I needed more info before I could plan anything, “Could you see anything through the storm while you were up there?”

“Nothing.” For once his sneer didn’t really seem directed at me, “ I couldn’t even see the tracks through this tartarus damned blizzard.”

“Damn, okay, we can’t stay here. We need to get moving, anyone here can do tracking magic?” The tail end of the sentence was cut off by a loud slam as the car rocked, the roof denting inwards. The girls yelped even as the team tensed, myself included. Honestly though, I felt more irritated at the interruption than actual fear in spite of the formulaic blades hovering at the edges of my consciousness.

No one spoke for a long moment, staring at the dent, the howls had stopped… no, there they were, starting again with renewed vigour. Joys. Still no one answered. I snapped, “Tracking magic, anyone?”

“I have nothing,” Quiet Mirror shook his head, glancing back at the dent, “Sir.”

“What kind of–” Qubanna started, interrupted by another slam in the same place, the car rocking and the metal of the car roof splitting just slightly with the screech of tortured metal. All of us tensed once more, Rarity, Pinkie, and Twilight getting behind Punic even as Dash stepped in front of AJ, Qubanna finishing his sentence a fair bit louder than he started, “What kind of tracking?”

I readied an oversized blade, five foot by five inches by one inch of sharp steel ready to be made a high velocity reality even as the cold wind from the crack washed over me, my entire body tense.

“Any at all, scent or blood or anything!” Well shit, I could see a shape of black flame rushing towards the car through the split. Oh fuck that noise.

WIth an exertion of will I finished the creation of the blade and gave it direction in addition to its velocity. The emerald blade blurred through the crack in the roof and slammed into the shape, sending it tumbling off with a canine scream.

I ignored the wince the girls gave at the pained sound as well as the part of me that cringed. I hated causing pain, didn’t matter that I needed to do so. Grave Danger wasn’t affected though, “I can use blood to track somepony, any user of blood magic could, but we don’t have anypony–”

“Twilight!” I snapped even as there was another slam that rocked the car, this time impacting what had once been the floor of the train car. A quick glance confirmed that it hadn’t dented like the roof, thank Celestia.

“What–” to my relief, Twilight didn’t question me like Graves started to, instead hopping around Punic even as the necromancer cut himself off. I was inordinately satisfied when his head jerked towards Twilight, eyes narrowed, “Yes, that would work.”

“Can you do it?” I questioned him, my eyes focused on the crack in the former roof, searching for any other targets as snowflakes fluttered in, my ears flicking back and forth as I listened for any clues as to where the next one would come.

He scowled in thought even as Twilight looked to me and asked, “Do what?”

“Use your blood to track Shiny,” I supplied, ears twitching around, listening to the howls despite the rapidly dropping temperature of the train car. Something was weird, it was like they were… it was like the wolves were testing our defenses.

Fuck, these things were organized.

“I–” she blinked in surprise before making a sour face, “Ew.”

“Quit your sniveling and stick out your hoof, I need some blood to work with,” his eyes snapped back to mine, “I’ll need several minutes to work this spell, it is not one I need to do often.”

“Done,” I said, my eyes focusing on the crack. If they were smart… this is where they’d attack, just from an angle, everything else was covered or too tough. ”Just make it happen.” I could cover it, but if I left an opening, I could tell where they were going to attack.

Twilight hissed, and my muscles reflexively clenched at the sound of the pain from my friend. It was to be expected. Focus. I can’t let my concentration waver, keep the power flowing into the steel plating and war-shoes, keep them real. Doesn’t matter how much I want to turn with a mace of willpower, I couldn’t do anything, this needed to be done.

Fucking hell.

“Wait, we’re just going to go straight to the Crystal Empire from here?” Quiet Mirror asked, “Do we even know where we are?”

That… was actually a good question, Damn, I made a snap decision, “No, we’re going to follow the train tracks if we can, we don’t know if there’s a friendly welcoming party for us or not. If the tracks are covered we’ll follow Graves tracking spell.”

There were nods from the group as well as several curt acknowledgements of: “Sir.”

I glanced about quickly, taking in the readiness of the group. Fluttershy was still unconscious but now strapped to Punic’s back with Rarity soon to join her. All of the flight-capable ponies were hovering in place, Dash staying close to Applejack. Pinkie’s grin was hesitant, though she hadn’t really stopped smiling, I still felt a surge of gratitude that she understood that laughter wasn’t appropriate for this moment.

The train car was a mess, benches and cushions and glass and cloth were everywhere, this thing wasn’t salvageable at all. Damn. Would we even be able to grab the supplies?

Twilight was holding out a hoof, blood dripping from her foreleg into a small bowl Graves had pulled out from beneath his cloak, the two conductors seemed torn between sticking close to her as they were told or staying as far away from Grave Danger as possible.

Quiet was helping secure Rarity to Punics back as Qubanna stayed near the crack in the roof, slightly off to the side.

A shiver went through me before I clamped down on the reflex, the wind seeping through the crack was frigid in spite of my vest and coat of fur. The armor plating I wore still retained my heat, but for how long? Ugh, don’t think about that.

Okay… goal in place, how do we accomplish it?

We need to get out of here safely first, already have a plan for transport, and we’ll just have to wing it from there. How to get out with these things swarming around the car like roaches?

… well… everything could be solved with the proper application of high explosives...

If I had any high explosives that’d actually be a good plan, but the best explosive spell I had was a fireball, and the best I could manage with that would’ve just dented the train car. But I had swords. I doubted swords could have the same level of ‘solving all your problems’ as high explosives, but they might apply here… Swords Like Stars through the ceiling where they’re likely gathered, a barrier above us as we charge out?

Actually… I liked that plan.

Could I manage that spell while holding the plating?

Yeah. Yeah, I could.

Okay, blast out the roof where all the wolves are probably gathered, rush out to the tracks and try to follow them to the station where Shiny might have some guards holding it and then follow them to the actual city? If we can’t follow the tracks or there isn’t anyone at the station, we follow Grave’s spell. Wait, the tracks are probably in the direction of the floor…

A quick glance about to confirm the thought. Yeah, definitely in the direction of the floor. From the direction of the seats and knowing the side that… gust? Snow fist? Whatever it had been had hit. Between those two that meant the tracks would be in the general direction of the “floor” and we’d have to turn left at them. So go through the floor? No… Hrm.

I can’t do both, blast open the floor while carpet swording where the wolves are, at very least not while I’m maintaining this plating…

Wait, team, right, not alone this time.

“Rose!”

“Sir.”

“Can that sword of yours cut through the floor easy?”

“Yes sir!”

“You’re going to be opening the way then,” a snowflake landed on my scarred cheek, a drop of frigid cold against my skin, “Once everyone’s secured I’m going to kill everything on the other side of the train as we bust out that side and make a beeline for the tracks.”

“Sir,” she acknowledged with a nod.

“The girls are secured,” Quiet said just out of my peripheral vision.

“Good, get ready to breach the floor,” I ordered, tilting my head some, “Graves?”

“Quiet fool, I need more time.”

“Just checking,” I turned back fully to the crack in the ceiling. Oh, there’s no way that’s a good sign. I couldn’t see the corpse of the wolf I’d stabbed through the crack anymore. Where in tartarus did it go?

Right. Still on a team. Okay, “Quiet, watch the crack while I prep my spell.”

“Sir.”

I closed my eyes. I held the visualization of the steel plating I’d placed around the train car as well as the horseshoes I’d made for the girls. It was too many points of focus to add in the field of stars, but… With focus, I pulled power from myself, pouring willpower and mana into the constructs on the girls hooves, giving them a bit more permanence, they wouldn’t last long but I wouldn’t need to concentrate on them.

There.

In my minds eye, I could see the archway of steel in a field of darkness. I visualized the howling winds, the tundra around that archway, and I could vaguely sense the power of the wolves swarming over the archway like flies around a corpse.

And then I saw the stars.

Countless pinpricks of emerald against the black void around the archway of steel in my mind. Each point of light a blade, each one a sword or hammer or mace, each star in that black sky a weapon in its entirety. a formula of weight and strength and force.

“Graves,” I said tersely, holding that delicate image in my mind, “We move on your signal.”

“Tch, it’ll go faster without interruptions!”

Yeah yeah, I get it, “Alright! We move once my spell starts! Everybody ready?!”

There was a chorus of affirmations of varying degrees of enthusiasm and courage. Earning a tight smile from me. This… as horrible as this was, it was real, this wasn’t a bunch of mindless drones following me because I was Gary, these were people following me. I felt a small surge of stupid pride at the thought before I viciously crushed it. Now wasn’t the time.

No one spoke as the wolves and wind both howled.outside the car, small flurries of snow sneaking through the crack they’d made. Why were they waiting? Were they waiting for us to make a move–?

Then Graves spoke and there was no more time for distractions, “Ready!”

I took in a slow breath, filling my lungs with frigid oxygen before I spoke. The words were more for myself than for any requirement of the magic, but I growled them out anyways, “Swords Like Stars.” My power pulsed and even through my closed eyes I could see the emerald glow of my horn as it shone.

It was a shower of blades and weapons that I guided. I’d created the weapons and gave them their initial velocity, now all I had to do was focus them in as gravity did the rest.

Even over the howl of the wind the screams of the wolves could be heard, the shuddering thuds and small booms as oversized weapons weighing anywhere from ten to forty pounds slammed into them and the ground at somewhere around terminal velocity.

This was the spell that had reduced a section of the Everfree Forest into kindling and splinters, and for good reason. The earth actually shook with the force of the literal rain of blades, the construct plating I’d created shuddering under the rain of blows.

And as the last of the stars I held in my mind started to fall to the earth my eyes snapped open as I shouted, “Rose! Now!”

There were three quick screeches of metal behind me as I turned, Shadow Play and Qubanna shoulder checking the triangle Rose had cut into the floor, sending it flying free. “Let’s go!”

The frigid wind surged through the opening even as the others leapt through the hole, I couldn’t afford to hesitate as I leapt after them. The flurries of snowflakes and cold air making my muscles quiver as my eyes flicked about at the damage I’d done.

Snow mounded up around us, scattered by the wind and the rain of emerald weaponry, the last of the weapons still standing in a twisted parody of a battlefield before the residual magic within them faded, some stuck in the still flaming corpses of wolves. There were dozens of bodies strewn about, divots in the ground where the weapons had impacted, and through the gray snow the only colors were the ponies in front of me, the brightly colored car, and the black flames of the wolves. No blood.

Even as my hooves pounded against the snow as I rushed after the mass of ponies ahead of me, my breath was already coming in harsh pants. The spell took a fair bit out of me. But I would definitely say it was worth it.

All of this was taken in with just a momentary glance, because there was a more pressing concern.

The dozen or so wolves in the air in front of us.

“Are you bucking kidding me?! They can fly?!” came the indignant shout from Dash even as Quiet’s horn flashed and a bolt of energy slammed into an oncoming wolf, literally bounding along the edies of snow in the air.

“Keep moving!” Blade. Blade blade. Blade. I thought as I swept my eyes across the sky, shooting an emerald sword into each wolf I saw. The mass of imagined steel slamming into the airborne creatures and knocking them away. My hooves thudded against the dirt and snow beneath me, the ground I ran along already mostly cleared by those running ahead of me.

Something wasn’t right.

The wolves Quiet and I’d hit were disabled, knocked off course… but Quiet’s had caught itself several feet above the snow and started bounding towards us with a mad howl, the ones I’d struck from the sky with my blades pulling themselves from the snow as well.

“They’re not going down!” came the cry from Punic even as the horns of the other unicorns flashed. The massive stallion was avoiding the few wolves still close to the ground, instead allowing Qubanna and Shadow Play to swoop in and knock them aside.

“I noticed!” I snapped even as I glanced behind me, the wolves I’d brought down around the car that we were running away from were getting back up. Damnit. There was the briefest flare of fear in my chest before I violently suppressed it, gathering another blade in my mind. I took the fraction of a second longer in the creation of the blade in my mind to inscribe the rune for fire in its hilt and give it that dollop of more power. The weapon literally blazed as it flew through the air, a flaming arrow of green steel as it slammed into one of the wolves.

When in doubt, kill it with fire.

The shadow wolf screamed, an unearthly screech that had no business coming out of the throat of any canine. The wolf dropped from the sky, writhing on the ground even as we rushed past it, the horns of my fellow unicorns flaring once more, accompanied by two yelps and another scream. There was a sickening crunch that drew my eye upwards, finding the origin of the noise the wrenched neck of a wolf that had the misfortune to end up in Shadow Play’s grasp.

A swing of my will as I knocked another wolf away from Quiet’s form, the unicorn turning the spell he’d been readying onto another target. A quick glance back at the wolf I’d hit with the flaming blade found it struggling up, but definitely not down for the count.

“Fire helps!” I shouted.

“But it’s not enough!” Grave Danger snarled, a bolt of fire the color of blood flying from his horn and into the face of another wolf, earning a gurgling scream from it as part of its face disappeared, “They still regenerate!”

The shadow wolves were swarming around us like flies around a corpse, another glance back confirmed that several dozen more of them were rushing towards us from the car. Damnit. “Could you figure out what they are better while on the run?”

“Who the Tartarus do you think I am?!” Graves snarled even as crimson power wrapped around a shadow wolf and wrenched it closer, slamming its face into the ground as we ran, “Keep them off of me!”

I had to tilt my head to bring Graves into the vision of my better eye– Fire Blade! –so that I could keep an eye on him and shoot the–

… nevermind. Rose has got it. Damn. I’m usually the one cutting things in half. She practically buzzed around the cloaked unicorn, her massive dawnblade in her mouth flashing in quick strikes to lop off limbs and even cleave the shadow wolves in two. The strikes were quick as lightning and deliciously efficient, reducing the large beasts into smaller bits.

Right, she’s got it. Back to overwatch. I twisted my head back around–

Those howls were way too close behind me.

I twisted my head over my shoulder and fired a shotgun spread of flaming blades behind me, hearing a few pained yelps and more mundane screams at the action. That took out a handful of the closest ones– still about two dozen left– did I have time to deal with them-?

I glanced back forward- Punic was avoiding combat with his cargo, Qubana was sticking close to the armored stallion, cartwheeling about, thorny hooves shining with light as he knocked the ground-bound wolves aside- Shadow Play and Dash were both in the air, Dash was pinballing between two wolves, lacking the mass to do serious damage, Shadow Play was defaulting to breaking the necks of the wolves- Quiet was firing bolts of fire off to the left- the other girls were in a tight group at the core-

Enough time.

A smattering of stars, emerald pinpricks of light, each a star in the sky–

Each one blazing with fire–

And the stars fell.

A tight concentration of emerald streaks as the weapons fell upon the oncoming edge of the pack of shadow wolves.

The inside of my chest felt cold at the usage of power, my brain tingling unpleasantly at the rapid usage of higher circle magic. But the results were worth it, the screams of the wolves a tortured piece of music to my ears as their momentum stumbled.

I turned back tow– Oh you’ve got to be shitting me!

The wolf Rose had cut in half and we’d left behind was trying to pull itself back together.

All aboard the nope-train to fuck-that-ville. “Graves! We need some answers!” I could start experimenting again but if I had an–

A wolf twice my size was thrown past me with a sickening crunch, crimson magic fading from its form, “They’re feeding on Vice magic! Use Virtue Magic on them!”

“Good enough!” I shouted. It was like Vice magic in practice, just a different focusing lens for the power.

I thought of Applejack, of the pleasant spike of warmth and affection I always felt when I looked at her, I held onto that feeling and poured it into the blade that I fired into one of the shadow wolves, fire and affection and blade met black flaming flesh-

With a scream that put the previous ones to shame, the wolf fell to the snow, the impossibly discordant pitches of the sound it let out making me grit my teeth in actual pain. The shadows encompassing its form faded as we rushed past it, the emerald and pink blade taking up a significant portion of its torso.

Good–

“I don’t know Virtue Magic!” shouted Quiet with no fear in his voice, but definitely a tight worry.

There were sounds from the others, but I shouted over them, “Later! Get to the tracks!” Our melee fighters couldn’t– right! I’ve got a fix! I just need time, “Twilight, once we hit the tracks, throw up a shield bubble around us! We need to stop so I can do some magic!”

There were a chorus of affirmatives as we rushed forward through the snow.

I focused on the sweeping feelings of giddy happiness Dash could bring to me and cleaved one of the wolves in two with the blade, freeing up Dash to handle the other–

A bolt of crimson flew through the air, knocking another wolf from the ground around us–

Purple and blue light flashed, the blasts thudding into wolves, knocking them from the air, it wouldn’t last but we just needed the respite–

“We’re at the tracks!” came a shout from Punic.

“Twilight!”

Purple power was already flaring into existence around us, “Right!” It had trapped one wolf in here with us, one that lunged straight for Twilight.

I was more concerned about the fact it knew exactly who to attack than Twilight’s safety considering that it was struck immediately by two bolts of flame, one deep crimson and the other a crystal blue before Shadow Play slammed into it from the air an instant later, the massive armored mare making chunky salsa of what remained of the shadow wolf’s head.

These things were either smart or being controlled by someone smart, the black wisps of shadows fading from the corpse. My hooves crunched in the freezing snow as I approached, without the shadowy ‘flames’ it was a normal if large gray wolf. Exempting the disgusting lack of face and holes from the bolts of magic of course, and the lack of blood. Completely normal timber wolf. Of death.

I scowled, trying to figure out what we were dealing with as everyone’s breathing started to even out. Twilight’s horn shone as the howls of the other wolves sounded outside the barrier, Qubanna was the first to speak “And what spell do you need to cast?”

“Give me a second,” I replied as I pulled my attention from the corpse, stepping through the snow and onto the tracks. I could see the devastation of the train jumping the track… actually, one of the supply cars was pretty close! The corner of my mouth finally quirked up. Finally, a bit of good fortune!

Anyways, I needed to give our melee combatants a way to actually hurt these things now, we only had a few seconds before the pack hit Twilight’s shield and she couldn’t maintain it forever. Okay, I needed to give the team flaming hooves of justice in the next minute. No pressure.

I locked my eyes on Qubanna’s hooves, he’d need this the most, if no one else got it he’d need it, his thorns and poisons were useless against these things. Fire was easy, the trick was keeping it from harming the recipient of the spell–

A loud slam heralded the arrival of the wolves, several rapid fire thuds following immediately, Twilight letting out a small “Nng!”

–Okay, I needed a source of Virtue magic to ascribe into the power, as a focus filter for the spell–

The howls were loud through the barrier, the team setting up a circle around the inside of the sphere of purple, the Elements of Harmony and the conductors at the center.

With effort, I tuned it all out, closing my eyes and focusing on thoughts of my friends, my real friends, the ponies that talked to me and I enjoyed time with, the warm fuzzy feeling and bubbly giggles that they could bring out in me. I latched on to that feeling and opened my eyes, taking it and using it as a focusing filter as I took a basic fire spell and hooked the formula for it onto Qubanna’s existence, particularly his hooves.

The actual mechanisms behind it were pretty complex, as was any boon, but the long and short of it was that attaching a spell to the mana aura of a pony properly would keep it from hurting them, though it’d eventually wear off.

It was with a fair amount of satisfaction that I watched Qubanna’s hooves light with emerald flames, the zebra letting out a small yelp despite both himself and his vines being unharmed.

My grin was vicious, “Good, Shadow Play, hold still for a second.”

It took effort to keep the proper mindset, to keep that focusing lens of Virtue, but it was within my ability. As quickly as I dared, I wrapped the basic fire spell around the hooves of AJ, Dash, Shadow Play and myself. A much easier bit of magic was imbuing the edges of Rose’s dawnblade with the spell. By the time I’d finished enchanted all of our melee combatants the base of my skull was on a slow roast, but I had it done within two minutes. Punic had to be left out, his armor’s magic was too strong for me to affect him in this situation.

“Okay,” Dash muttered, barely audible over the howls of the wolves and the thudding of their bodies against the shield as she looked at her flaming hoof, “That’s bucking cool.”

A small smirk played across my face because I had to agree, the flames were slowly changing from the emerald green of my magic to match that of the individual's own natural magic. In Dash’s case, it was every color under the sun, creating an honestly beautiful effect despite the horrors outside of the shield as multicolored flames licked at her sky-blue legs.

Shaking off my fascination with Dash, I turned to look at Twilight, her eyes scrunched up in concentration and her horn glowing brightly. She could maintain this, but we needed her as close to full strength as possible, “Alright,” I spoke up loudly, speaking from the chest to boom over the noise of the wolves, “I’m going to fire off another Swords Like Stars and Twilight’s going to drop the shield and we’re going to make a top speed that-a-way.” I pointed with a hoof, even if I hadn’t kept track of which direction, the remnants of the train in the distance pointed the way.

Punic spoke up, the scowl audible in his voice even if I couldn’t see his face through that helmet, “That’ll leave enemies hounding our flanks.”

“And fighting them here runs the risk of them getting reinforcements,” I countered quickly.

It was Graves that snorted at that, “And we might be running into those reinforcements and be caught between them.”

“Or we could be running to our own reinforcements,” I pointed out even as I glanced about, “It’s a risk we have to take. We’re on a time limit, both our reserves and on the scarves.” I glanced down at my armored legs and the emerald flames that encompassed them, somewhat warmed by the magic, “And I don’t know about y’all, but I’m a bit chilly.”

There was a round of surprised blinks at that before my fellow scarf-wearers glanced worriedly at their pieces of cloth. The breaths of everyone visible in the chill despite them not feeling it, reminding them of the frigid environment even with Twilight’s shield. Several concerned looks were shot my way from AJ and Dash as well as Twilight and Rarity.

Pinkie, however, decided to hop onto my back, wrapping her forelegs around my neck and snuggling close. The power of the scarf didn’t affect me, but it did warm the metal at my back. I shot her a grateful look and a small smile, getting a grin in return.

Still, Graves snorted, no steam coming from his lips for some reason, his voice soft but audible over the sounds of the beasts outside the bubble, “This is a risk.”

“I’m aware,” I said as I closed my eyes, once more visualizing a field of stars, taking my time to do it properly and try to conserve some mana. Each star a blaze of flames, an aspect of Fire, I focused on the feelings of happiness my friends could bring me, ignoring the sounds of the wolves, “But it’s one we need to take.”

“Twilight, Pinkie.” It was all I needed to say.

“Yupperoonies!” The warmth on my back rolled off, with a small crunch as her hooves landed in the snow.

“I’m ready,” Twilight said tightly, the light of her horn shining even through my closed eyes, “Go for it.”

Twilight Sparkle, like the sparkling of the stars… heh… yeah, I could work with that. The twinkle in her eye when she teased me, that smile on her face when she geeked out about something.

I focused on that, and focused my power through it, my horn shining brightly as I opened my eyes, “Swords Like Stars.”

The stars fell, and the screams of the wolves pierced through Twilight’s shield bubble even as the ground beneath us shuddered as the blades rained to the ground. My teeth clenched though as I glared, power flowing into the spell. The fuckers had moved. I watched as over half of them were caught in the raining blades, but they’d started moving before I’d even finished the spell. Damnit, that level of coordination… there was probably someone in control.

As if on cue, Twilight dropped her shield the moment the last blade buried itself halfway into the earth with a boom. The group starting to run as the glow from her power disappeared.

Rapid-fire bolts of flame flew from the horns of Graves and Quiet into the mass of wolves ahead of us, only about a dozen, knocking some aside as we barreled through. Rose and Shadow Play leading the charge.

I glanced back at the derailed car and turned to Twilight, her horn already lighting up the instant our gazes met. A lurch of metal told me that the car had been picked– Wait–

Damnit! Applejack! I spitroasted the offending wolf on a flaming blade, the damn thing had broken past the lead mares by running behind another wolf! Damnit, it’d nearly been at Punic!

It was chaotic, but in moments we’d broken through the mass of wolves and were thundering down the tracks. I fell to the back of the group, hooves ablaze as they thundered against the ground.

Bolts of crimson and blue arced from the horns of Graves and Quiet respectively, lancing back into the pack of shadow wolves behind us. Many thudding home and removing a wolf from the fight, either permanently, or at least keeping them away.

The cold wind changed directions, and we were soon running against it, my teeth chattering before I clenched my jaw so hard it hurt. The flurries of snowflakes leaving specks of even deeper, lingering cold against my coat.

A quick glance back confirmed my fears, the wolves were faster than us, they were gaining on us, running along the winds rather than pushing through the snow.

The heat from our hooves made things a bit easier in that regard, but the pack would soon be upon us.

I picked my targets carefully, firing flaming emerald blades over my shoulder. I’d already fired two before I remembered to focus them through the feelings I felt for the girls, but high velocity flaming swords tended to ruin your day whether they’d been infused with warm fuzzies or not.

This wouldn’t work though, we needed something to control where they could attack from. Twilight couldn’t save our asses while hauling around that train car–

Wait.

Fucking idea! “Twilight!”

“Em?!”

“Use the car to cut off their approach!”

“Right!” with outstanding ease, she hauled the massive train car around, moving the mass of steel into place, the car cruising sideways only a foot above the snow as it walled off part of their approach.

Right, gotta reassign tasks–

“Shadow Play! Rose!” I barked out even as I started to pant, the freezing air burning in my lungs, “I want you two flying interference! Dash! You’re on our air defense!” I could hear the acknowledgements shouted over the wind, “Quiet, Graves, fire at will! Qubanna, stay in front! AJ! We’re handling anything that gets past Quiet and Graves!”

Two streaks went past me, one blue-gray and one dark blue, and for the briefest of moments I felt sorry for the wolves. It was only an instant, but I’d have to liken the two differently sized mares to a freight train and a blender. Shadow Play juked the first wolf just enough that its jaws glanced against her armor as she wrapped her forelegs around its neck and twisted.

Its head and body went two separate directions, the stumps seared by the flames on her hooves.

Said neck was about as thick around as her barrel.

Blade held in her mouth, Rose had done a precision turn and change of angle, tucking her wings tightly against her as she flew just beneath a wolf. She went right between its legs, her blade perpendicular to the ground as her feathers brushed against its fur. Between the mass of her blade and the speed she was flying at, I shouldn’t have been surprised when the wolf was bisected.

In both cases the mares had performed the action smoothly as part of their movement, killing the lead wolves in passing as they got between our group and the rest of the pack.

… yeah, memo to self: Never make them mad. Y’know, ever.

I turned back forward as we galloped, glancing ahead of us to ensure none had circled around. Visibility was getting worse, the flurries of snow obscuring more and more of my vision, and I’d be damned if it wasn’t getting colder.

I could still see Dash darting around right above the main group, the girls that were awake glancing back repeatedly even as they ran, Punic using his great mass to simply plow through the snow on the tracks, making a channel for the rest of us to follow after.

Graves and Quiet were firing off bolts of fire behind us, and I glanced back quickly to check. With the train car taking up a large part of our right flank the target range was a lot smaller. A wolf started to run on the winds above the train car–

Not happening.

With thoughts of Applejack in mind I launched a flaming blade into the wolf’s side. I didn’t lead it enough and got it in the hips rather than the shoulders, but the force of the oversized blade slamming into it knocked it out of the sky.

We ran, the biting cold of the wind seeping through my armor, my coat slowly getting soaked with the frigid water. Between the bolts of magic being fired behind us and the two airborne missiles of death, the wolves struggled to approach. Any that got past the mares were subject to my blades.

I picked my shots carefully, I had to. We didn’t know how far the station was from here, let alone the Crystal Empire, we had to conserve our power. I’d already expended a fair amount of my power on three Swords Like Stars, the base of my skull burning from the exertion.

My chest quivered out of fear as well as the cold, if those things got to the girls… Damnit, can’t think of that, got to focus.

The moments didn’t matter anymore, seconds or minutes weren’t the concern. The tremble in my legs, the increasingly harsh breath of my companions, the increasing intensity of my shivers… those were the measures of time.

Time passed.

It was mechanical. Pick a target, focus on friendship, fire flaming blade, don’t stop running. I lost track of time. I couldn’t allow myself to get angry, I couldn’t think too hard about the situation, I needed to keep using Virtue Magic, I couldn’t stop running in spite of the growing ache in my muscles.

The wolves were thinning, but they weren’t attempting to overtake us anymore. They were simply hounding us rather than pressing our defenses. There were maybe twenty of them left, less. But they stayed far enough away to dodge the bolts of power from Graves and Quiet–

“Shadow! Stay with the group!” I shouted at the againaip, who had started to engage. A surge of relief accompanied her immediate response, pulling ahead of the wolves once more with several powerful beats of her wings, but a pair of wolves pulled ahead of the pack in bounding leaps, closing the gap–

Damnit, no!

My blade had already been fired, aim was slightly off but it accomplished its task even as I fired another. The first oversized blade clipped one wolf and knocked it out of the air. My second blade was no better aimed, but hitting the wolf’s leg didn’t knock it out of the air, the wolf lunging at the flank of the large mare–

Damnit! Blades wouldn’t–

A bolt of crimson fire finished its journey, passing within a foot of Shadow Play to burst against the wolf’s head, reducing it to a charred stump, the corpse tumbling out of the air even as the shadows fled from its body.

I shot a grateful look at Graves, who was scowling from beneath his hood, teeth gritted, “Fool! They’re hounding us! We either engage them as a group or don’t! Do not try that again!”

Shadow Play nodded, cringing slightly as she flew, glancing back at the pack that still hounded us. I didn’t say anything because he was right, I just hadn’t had time or the breath to say it.

I turned forward once more, focusing ahead of us. hoping that we weren’t being hounded into a trap.

The tracks that we were following were being covered in larger and larger amounts of snow as it came down… the snow wasn’t white anymore. Okay, that’s not good.

I glanced about, despite the worsening visibility now that I’d noticed I couldn’t stop seeing how the snow was transitioning from pure white to a dirty gray. Our group was thundering along, pushing through the nearly foot-high banks of snow on the ground. A herd of multicolored ponies in varying states of armor, most of the group was fine, Grave Danger wasn’t even breathing hard.

But Twilight wasn’t used to running through snow like this, and between running and lifting the loaded train car she was starting to sweat and pant. But it was the conductors that really concerned me, the two mares obviously weren’t athletes and wouldn’t be able to keep this up. Hell, I wouldn’t be able to keep this up, I was more of a sprinter than an endurance runner at the best of days, but in this blizzard? The wind and snow were leeching the heat and strength from me bit by bit, killing me by inches.

Yeah, fuck that noise.

I grit my teeth and snarled, popping the lid I’d had on my emotions, on my anger. Power bubbled up inside of me as I seethed. These fucks were treating us like prey! These pieces of shit! A fire pooled in my chest as my barrel heaved, I was exhausted, but I wouldn’t allow these fucks to harm my friends!

Tongues of emerald fire licked at the corners of my vision as I fanned the flames of my anger in both a metaphorical and literal sense, allowing the roiling power to warm my body and banish the chill, if just for now. I’d be useless for a while after this was done, but if I survived till that time I’d count it as a win.

It was just about when my breath was coming in puffs of flames that Dash shouted, “There’s the station!”

I couldn’t make it out through the rolling gray and the flurries of snow, but I trusted her vision far more than my own, “Double time people! We’ll take a rest at the station regardless of what’s there! Graves! You’re on barrier duty!”

“Tch, you can’t handle it?” I couldn’t see him well, but I’d swear Graves was smirking, and there wasn’t much heat in the question. But I still snapped at him.

“Have you cast three sixth-circle spells recently? No? Then bite me!”

As the necromancer laughed, I could finally start to see the station through the blizzard, the sight of it enough to make me push myself just that bit harder, the others in the group doing similar. We thundered the rest of the way towards the platform, nothing more than a covered area in the middle of the snow near the end of the tracks. My eyes darted around wildly as I searched for figures in the snow, either more of the wolves or, hopefully, ponies–

“Hey! There’s ponies!” This time it was Rarity that saw better than me and I quickly followed her gaze, finding several ponies throwing camouflage blankets off of themselves and standing.

“Sir Emeris!” Punic shouted, the question implied.

“Go for the platform!” They’d meet us there and at the very least, the conductors and I needed a rest, Twilight probably did as well.

… the howls had picked up. Fucking fuck of fuck!

A quick glance back confirmed my fear, the monsters had started to really put on the speed, rushing towards us and trying to close the gap before we made it to ‘safety’.

“Sir?!” Shadow Play barked the question, having seen the same thing.

“Graves! Quiet! Discourage the fucks!” Bolts of crimson and blue shot from their horns as I turned back forwards, trying to close the last few dozen yards to the platform.

Qubanna launched himself onto the platform, quickly followed by Punic and Pinkie. The two conductors struggled up onto the raised platform even as Twilight and Applejack leapt up, Twilight managing to turn the train car sideways in a smooth motion and fitting it onto the platform with room to spare. I ignored the mass of steel rushing past me as I spun in place, facing the oncoming pack of wolves, a blade at the fore of my mind as I waited for the other guards to hurry over.

Fifty yards.

Forty more yards before the wolves were here, Shiny’s guards…

Thirty yards.

There wasn’t enough time!

Rapid-fire swords flew into the side of the pack, the emerald blades clipping their targets and occasionally thudding home, but none did permanent damage to the shadow-infused wolves. But they accomplished their task, slowing the wolves on that side and caging their movements. Four bolts of magic flew over my head into the leading wolves, accompanied by screams from the creatures before another volley was loosed.

Ten yards.

“Graves!” I snapped as I launched myself backwards up and onto the platform, moments before the last of Shiny’s ponies were on it. A wall of crimson snapped into existence inches from the front of the platform, a distorted bubble of semi-transparent crimson encompassing the entire platform–

The first few wolves slammed into the shield with a snarl, not even bothering to slow down as they did. There were several tense moments as the wolves thudded against the red barrier before the attacks slowed, the wolves instead starting to prowl about the edges of the bubble, some trying to gnaw or claw at Grave’s barrier.

I scowled at the beasts momentarily before turning back to the group, trying to get my breathing back under control, “Graves, how long can you maintain this?”

His hood was down, his pale yellow horn glowing brightly, and there were definitely hairline cracks glowing a dark red in a ring about halfway down it, “Indefinitely of course.” He said it with confidence, but there was definite concentration on his face, he was making it look easy, but with the wolves literally gnawing at the edges of it there was no way he wasn’t feeling it.

Still, I trusted his statement enough to turn to the rest of the group, “Okay, status reporrrrt.” I clenched my teeth at the shiver that interrupted me.

Despite her own panting, Twilight started to step towards me, “Em–...”

“I’ll be fine.” I responded curtly. Not that I really would at this rate. It was getting colder, I was sure of it. Fuck this noise. But we’d deal with that later. First, everyone else, “How are we holding up?”

“The conductors are exhausted,” Shadow Play stood protectively over the two mares, and my eyes caught a small quiver of her muscles beneath her thick coat. The two conductors seemed fine aside from being coated in sweat and panting on the tile of the platform.

I held back on the ‘I told you so’ to Shadow Play, it would’ve just been rude.

“Miss Fluttershy awoke briefly during the run, but fainted immediately afterwards.” I turned towards Punic, a part of me irritated at the ease which the massive stallion was able to speak despite carrying two full grown mares and that much armor while being our plow through the snow. But that part was mostly crushed beneath the gratitude for him doing so.

“Rarity?” I asked, looking at the fashionista.

“I’m fine darling, though I hope we have a bit of a reprieve from the excitement, my mane is atrocious,” she huffed, earning a small smile from me even before she added as an afterthought, “Oh, and I do think I can run on my own now.”

“Good, get down to make it easier on Punic,” I swung my head around, finding Twilight’s breathing starting to even out, though there was some sweat dripping from her. She gave a short nod and a brief smile and I moved on, she’d be okay.

“We’re good,” Dash pre-empted me before I could ask, a flaming hoof waving off the concern as she smiled. Both Aj and her seemed fine, though the farmpony was rubbing her head some. She’d retrieved her hat as well, good.

My eyes kept moving, Qubanna was uninjured, as were Rose and Quiet. I turned to the silver unicorn, “How are your reserves?”

“I’m fine,” he shook his head, eyes darting about, following the wolves outside the shield, “But I still don’t know Virtue magic. I’m practically useless here.”

Since my hoof was on fire, I bonked him in the side of the head with my elbow, “That wasn’t useless back there to me.” Quiet Mirror blinked at me stupidly as I continued, “No, they weren’t down for the count but your magic kept them off of us. We’ll deal with the knowledge later, when we’re not on a time limit.”

He blushed some as he nodded, “Ah, sir. Yes sir.”

Finally I turned to Shiny’s men, “Alright, report.” Two unicorns, one pegasus, one earth pony, all stark white from the magic of their golden armor that itself had a coat of white over it.

As one, they saluted and the pegasus stallion stepped forward, “Sir! First Lieutenant Strider, here to retrieve your team and the Element Bearers, sir!”

“Good to hear lieutenant, how far are we from your main base?” The tracks stopped here, there was just a loop for the engine to turn around and a small building on the other side of the tracks.

“The Crystal Empire is about a five minutes gallop away, sir.”

I couldn’t help the scowl that appeared on my face, “We have civies with us lieutenant, they might not be up for that kind of run, and I’m operating without cold-resistance here. Do either of your unicorns have a warming spell?”

One of the two unicorns stepped forward, “Sir.”

“Get to it then, I’m freezing my tail off,” a small smile crossed my face, “And I’m not being metaphorical.” I gave the appendage a wag and there was an audible crackle of ice as it fell away from my short tail. It didn’t actually hurt, but man it sounded bad, it got a snort of amusement from me as I quipped, “I mean, ow.”

There were a few sympathetic cringes from the ponies, though I had no idea why. Seriously, most of it was hair. But the unicorn’s horn lit up with a deep blue glow before a similar glow appeared against my skin, I didn’t feel anything at first, but I let her work her magic as I turned back to the lieutenant, “Regardless, is there any way to send a message to Shining from here?”

But the armored stallion shook his head, “No sir. We’d have to go ourselves. The blizzard is interfering with all forms of communication.”

The unicorn mare scowled at me for a moment before her horn brightened and I felt the beginnings of pins and needles across my skin, as if I’d suddenly started pouring warm water over a numbed appendage. Which actually, probably wasn’t too far off from the truth.

“Damn, okay,” I took a breath as I tried to figure out what to do. Goal was to get everyone to the Crystal Empire, which was apparently all our base belong to us. “Alright,” I turned to the other unicorn of Shiny’s men, “Could you maintain a shield while Grave- Danger rests?” I caught myself before calling him Graves. I doubted this counted as ‘in danger’.

“For a while sir…” the unicorn trailed off, unsure.

“Grave Danger is the only one here who can consistently put these things down–”

“Other than you,” Dash pointed out with a smirk, earning a scowl from me.

“Consistently put them down,” I stressed, my lips pressing into a thin line as I shot her a glare before returning to the unicorn, “So we need him as close to full strength as possible.”

“He can–?” The magically white unicorn glanced between me and the necromancer with wide eyes for a moment before snapping back to attention, “Sir! Yes sir!” The stallion’s horn lit up and another barrier appeared within Graves own, this one a bright pink.

Graves scowled slightly, “I’m able to handle this.”

“Rarity, can you bolster his shield?”

“Certainly darling,” the proper unicorn nodded as she finally slipped off of Punic’s back, “I’ll get right to it.” She closed her eyes and her horn lit with a crystal blue.

“Good enough Grave Danger?”

The small unicorn rolled his eyes but his horn dimmed, his barrier slowly fading as the pink one began to shift into purple, “This is not such a great strain on me.”

“I don’t doubt that, but you’ve seen how intelligent these things can be, do you think that they haven’t been calling backup?” The pale unicorn’s lips pressed into a thin line as I continued, a revelation coming to me. The wolves were only truly killable with Virtue Magic, or maybe a combination of Virtue and fire magic. With as many soldiers as Shiny had as well as Cadence, the single most powerful Virtue magic user in existence… this should’ve been a cakewalk. “And think about it, if this was all they were dealing with,” I jerked my head towards the wolves circling the now purple dome, “Don’t you think that Cadence and Shining could’ve handled it?”

Grave Danger scowled, but said nothing as I turned away from him. The girls were huddling together, Dash’s wing wrapped around Aj, Twilight trying to gently wake Fluttershy on Punic’s back. Pinkie was making funny faces at the wolves circling outside of the barrier.The more military ponies though were all at attention by now, or at best, ‘at ease’.

Regardless, I turned to Strider, “Lieutenant, what are we dealing with here?”

The pegasus’ wings ruffled some, his eyes darting to the side, “Ah, sir, an unknown number of these shadow wolves, lower estimates are in the hundreds and the supernatural blizzard cutting off communication, magical transport, and supplies.”

“Well, good news, we’ve got some supplies with us,” I jerked my head towards the train car sharing the platform with us before locking gazes with Strider, “Now tell me what’s the real problem here.” I had not missed that hesitation.

He glanced behind me, likely at the conductors, his hooves shuffling against the tile of the platform, “Ah, um, it’s a new development sir.”

I scowled at him, barely restraining a small snarl, still riding high from the anger I’d used to keep myself warm, “What are we really dealing with here lieutenant?” Yes, my bedside manner was shit, and we might be scaring the conductors shitless, but we needed to know–

There was a twitch in his face, “A mountain.”

Well that derailed my irritation, “... you’re gonna have to elaborate on that lieutenant.”

Strider half turned, likely looking out in the direction of the Crystal Empire and snarling, “It’s a Celestia damned walking mountain!” he snapped before restraining himself, “Sir. It’s bipedal like a minotaur, reports say it’s made of ice, but it’s hundreds of decahooves high! It towers over the whole city!”

I blinked a few times even as several of the others reacted with disbelief, that sounded familiar. And was going to be problematic. The fear on the faces of Shiny’s men was unsettling, but the sheer absurdity of such a statement made it hard to feel actual fear about the terrifying thought. Fuck. “Well, doesn’t that just fiddle my biscuits. I’m guessing this thing moves pretty slow or isn’t super observant otherwise you wouldn’t be here?”

Strider took a slow breath and nodded, “Yes sir, avoidance has been our only option so far, but any engagement seems to draw its attention.”

“Really wishing we’d brought the Elements proper then,” I grumbled as I sat down on the tile. While the tile had thankfully been warmed by the flames on my hooves, without the power I had as Gary something the size of a mountain was probably beyond anything we had. I started to turn towards Graves but the lieutenant’s voice interrupted me.

“You-... you didn’t bring the Elements themselves…?”

I turned towards the sound from the earth pony member of Shiny’s squad, finding her to have slid to her flanks, though in her case it didn’t seem a deliberate choice.

“We had no reason to believe that there was a singular enemy that would stay still long enough to use the Elements on,” I explained patiently and with more calm than I really felt, “Apparently we were wrong, we’ll deal with it.” And we would. Always another step forward, gotta keep moving and play with the hand you’re dealt. I turned to Graves fully, “Do you have anything that can deal with something that scale?”

The necromancer had pulled his hood back up at some point, shaking his head sending the black cloth rustling, “No.”

“Damn, okay,” hadn’t expected him to but I’d hoped. I chewed my lip in thought as Dash flew up.

“Pfft! Don’t you worry! No stupid mountain is gonna stop us! We don’t need the Elements to beat it up!” She made a few shadow boxing moves with her flaming hooves, getting a small smile from me even as the guards looked at her like she was crazy.

Still, I rubbed my chin with my flaming hoof as I thought, starting to pace with the hobbled gait. Okay, hopefully we can get to the Crystal Empire proper without this thing intercepting us and then deal with it at our leisure. But what if we can’t? Did I know anything that could slow down a walking mountain? I knew Twilight didn’t, though she had the brute strength to manage something just by beating at it…

I reached the edge of the bubble and turned. Instead pacing in front of the train car, avoiding the mass of ponies at the center of the bubble.

Much of my research and magical study had been dedicated towards finding a way to understand and negate my status as Gary-Stu. Thus the weird specialization in Countermagic, enhancement magic and reality warping. Could I enhance Twilight enough that she could beat this things face in? Hrm, no, not really–

“Sir–”

With a raised hoof, I cut him off. My knowledge of cliches was the only thing that kept me from just brushing it off, “Is it important information about the capabilities of the creatures, the situation between here and the Crystal Empire, or something about the Crystal Empire itself that affects the tactical choices we make now?”

“Ah,” the stallion blinked shuffling in place, “No sir.”

“Then give me a minute to think,” I made sure to say it with at least a bit of a smile, though I doubted it fully reached my eyes. I was tired and my friends were in danger, I wasn’t exactly in the mood to sing kumbaya right now.

Okay. I took a breath as I got my thoughts back on track, ignoring Dash as she started to brag on me and the movements of the group about me. Seriously, we’d have to talk about that later. I didn’t like it. But enhancing Twilight was out, the magics I knew for, well, enhancing magics were almost all dark and dangerous and something you could only do for yourself. I didn’t know of any ways to use the magic to enhance someone else’s power at the moment.

But, as loathe as I was to do it, I could enhance my own power. As Gary, I’d been drawing power from the planet itself, directly hooked up to all the leylines. I could imitate that and get a large power boost at the risk of burnout. There were also the other things I’d looked into, either as a possible source of my power to cut off or a way to get enough power to break the curse directly.

I could use some of my own life force to fuel a spell, and there was always the possibility of tapping into the power of tartarus, the dead, and the fae. With some effort, I should be able to pour an overwhelming amount of power behind a single spell. I didn’t know the upper limits though, but tapping into even two of those power sources would make it a sixth circle spell like Swords Like Stars…

Finally stopping my musing, I found that Pinkie had started up a conversation with Shiny’s guards. Or was trying to at least, the soldiers looked a bit uncomfortable at her rambling. I stopped pacing in front of the train car, “Alright, I have a basic plan.”

“–and there’s going to be streamers and cloud carving and- yes Emmy?” Pinkie as well as the others turned to me, the unicorn warming me nodding in acknowledgement as she concentrated.

The mass of ponies gathered around as I sat, my back to the steel, “For the moment we’re going to rest, but once we’ve got our breath back we’re gonna blast our way out of this mess and make a beeline for the Crystal Empire. Odds are pretty good this mountain is going to be in our way. Roles are basically the same, Lieutenant, I want your unicorns covering the left flank, but you’re going to be leading the way back on point.” Strider saluted.

Then I turned to the remaining ponies, “Cumulus Rose, Quiet Mirror, I want you two to work together and figure out if there’s a way to break some of the magic in this blizzard. Engage if necessary but if we can teleport then Twilight can get most of the ponies out of the line of fire. Get started now.”

The two of them nodded, “Sir!”

My eyes landed on our zebra, “Qubanna, I’m reassigning you to mid-range support. But if we encounter that mountain I’m going to need you to cover me while I set up my spell.”

At his nod I turned to my purple friend, “Twilight, you’re on area denial, limit the ways these things can attack us. If Quiet and Rose can break this blizzards magic you’re to teleport yourself, the conductors, and the girls to the Crystal Empire.”

She scowled, “I don’t think I can manage that many at once.”

My lips pressed into a thin line. Damn. My first instinct was to tell her to leave the conductors but I knew she wouldn’t. “Then be ready to send a message to your brother as well as Celestia about the situation. One to ask for reinforcements from him and one to ask her to send the Elements themselves.”

Twilight nodded and I blew out a breath as I looked at Strider, “Lieutenant, you two are on point,” I nodded at him and the earth pony beside him, “You know the direction and distance. Lead us straight to the base.”

He nodded, “Sir.”

I gave my hooves some experimental taps against the tile of the platform, feeling the shock through my legs properly. Good, no longer numb or shivering. I turned to the unicorn, “I’m good now, save your strength. Thank you.”

She nodded, her horn dimming as she took a few shuddering breaths, cool air washing back over my coat and skin.

The wolves outside were slowly circling the bubble of power Rarity and the other unicorn were projecting, but they weren’t attacking yet. “Alright, five minutes before we head out!”

“Sir yes sir!”

oOo

Ponies sat together under the purple shield as Rarity and the military unicorn maintained the barrier. Qubanna watched his fellows as they either stood or sat, none laid on the cold tile of the platform. While the scarves kept the air around them warm, it didn’t warm the iced over ground.

He shot a quick glance at both Emeris and Shadow Play, the two who’d given up their scarves to the conductors. While the againap had wrapped her leathery wings around herself as small puffs of steam escaping her nose, their team leader on the other hand had the wing of the blue pegasus wrapped around him. Quiet Mirror was shooting unhappy glances at their team leader but had yet to say something.

If this ‘Sir Emeris’ had been competent, he’d have left the two conductors on their own, as it was he’d weakened himself and two of their team to save them. It was a hard truth that sometimes you needed to sacrifice something for the greater good. They could barely protect the Bearers, let alone civilians that could add nothing.

Qubanna wasn’t sure he believed the large unicorn really had a way to deal with a walking mountain, but then again, he wasn’t sure he believed there was a walking mountain. But he had no particular reason to disbelieve either other than the unlikelihood.

He looked out at the wolves circling the barrier, massive things of shadow, each one was about the size of Punic with sharp teeth and claws as well as the ability to recover from even the most grievous of wounds.

The pink earth pony mare was the only pony smiling at the moment, the expressions of the others ranging from grim determination to emotionless silence to nervous shuffling, the yellow pegasus that had finally awoken again was practically shaking like a blade of grass on the savannah.

There was a warm sigh, steam rolling out of Emeris mouth as he stood, stepping out from under Rainbow Dash’s wing, “Alright, break’s over ladies and gents. Up and at’m.” A brief smirk played across his lips as he stepped into the center of the bubble, Qubanna and the others gathering around, “Lieutenant, which direction are we headed?”

The pegasus nodded almost straight out from the platform, “That way sir.”

Qubanna looked in the direction, seeing only the purple of the shield, the burning black of the wolves and the gray of the swirling snow. A small snort came from Emeris, “Of course it’s through the greatest concentration of them.” Their commander turned, “Rarity,” he paused, before almost asking, “Private?”

“Sir,” the addressed military unicorn nodded in acknowledgement, his horn still glowing.

Rank confirmed, Emeris continued, “On my mark, drop the shield and we’ll charge out through the wolves. Twilight, keep the train car behind us. All other unicorns are going to open fire into the wolves as we power through.”

But Qubanna couldn’t let that sit, not that cowardice, “Could we not simply slaughter the wolves? We have more forces now and the ability to permanently put them down.”

But the large green unicorn shook his head, only half turning towards the zebra, “No, we have civvies with us and we don’t know whether reinforcements are coming for the wolves or not. Our priority is getting to the Crystal Empire and lingering here only endangers that.”

“And yet are we not leaving our back unprotected for a dagger to stab into it?” Qubanna countered with a scowl.

“No.” His tone was uncompromising, green eyes locked with Qubanna’s own, “We’re not. We’re leaving.” The dismissal was clear, the conversation was over.

Unable to help himself, Qubanna snarled, “You’d run from a battle?! Our foe is right there!”

The unicorn whirled on Qubanna, and for the briefest of moments, he was afraid. Emeris likely weighed half again what Qubanna himself did, maybe more, and unlike his normal unthreatening posture, the unicorn loomed over the zebra, his eyes flashing a brilliant green. But Qubanna had faced scarier things before and did not back down. Regardless, it was only a moment later that the menace bled out of Emeris’ stance and he spoke, just barely louder than the growls of the wolves outside of the barrier, “Our goal is not to defeat our enemy. Our goal is to get to the Crystal Empire and prevent its capture by enemy forces–”

“And are you not ignoring an obvious opportunity to further that goal?!” the battle-shaman snapped, his hackles risen, gesturing at the wolves outside the barrier.

Emeris bristled, but restrained himself, instead growling out between his teeth, “They are not the same thing! Killing the wolves is just one way to accomplish our goal, and I’m judging that the risk outweigh the benefits in this situation–”

“But we can–” Qubanna started, but Emeris talked over him.

“A fight is never a goal in of itself!” teeth were bared as his eyes glowed in the half-light of the storm, “It’s only a means to an end, and is sometimes a distraction from the true goal! Like now.”

The two of them had gotten closer during the confrontation, allowing a wash of steam from Emeris breath to hit Qubanna’s face. An image of only a few minutes ago, of emerald flames licking at the corners of the unicorn’s mouth, came unbidden to Qubanna’s mind. The connection between breath, and flame, and fury with the unicorn in front of him was made and the zebra felt his insides clench in reflexive fear.

Gazes locked for a long moment before the unicorn ground out, “We’re done here.”

Qubanna’s jaw clenched tightly, but he said nothing as Emeris turned around. Qubanna disagreed, but Emeris was in charge according to the Princess and Qubanna had flinched. When in a confrontation of wills, one couldn’t flinch. He’d fall in line, for now at least.

“Everyone ready?” he addressed the gathered ponies as Qubanna swallowed a growl. The other ponies in their group glanced between the two of them, the tension obvious. The unicorn’s lips pressed into a thin line and he looked over his shoulder at the zebra, eyes simmering, “Do I have to worry about you at all?”

Qubanna looked away, admitting defeat for now, “No, sir.”

“Good,” he turned to the Element Bearer and military unicorn maintaining the shield, “Drop the shield on my mark.”

The military unicorn nodded his armored head, swallowing, “Sir.”

The white Element Bearer coughed delicately into her hoof, “Of course dear.”

“Good, now is everyone ready?” There’s a hint of anger and impatience to the unicorn’s tone and Qubanna counts that as a victory of sorts as the group choruses affirmatives, the various ponies arranging themselves. Qubanna did as well, placing himself near the Lieutenant at the edge of the barrier. The wolves had bunched up on the same side of the shield, three on the left, four on the right, and twelve wolves right in their way while the rest had gathered in two groups to flank them.

“Alright, on three! One!” Qubanna lowered himself into a crouch, “Two!” Horns lit, the train car lifting with a rumble and moving behind them as the group tensed, Qubanna’s flanks and back bunching as he prepared to spring forward.

“Three! Drop it like it’s hot!”

The barrier popped like a soap bubble and a number of things happened at once.

There was a flash of emerald light from behind the group and two massive flaming blades slashed horizontally through the air, cleaving into the flanking wolves–

A bubble of crimson flame flew from Grave Danger’s horn, engulfing several of the oncoming wolves–

Multicolored bolts flew from the horns of the other unicorns–

The mass of steel and supplies lurched into motion behind them as the ponies began to move–

Qubanna launched himself forward, off of the platform and into the mass of wolves just ahead of the Lieutenant– His hooves met shadowed flesh and he could no longer keep track of the others.

Hooves of fire and power slamming into the hides, flaring up upon contact and blasting away bits and pieces of the dark smoke of shadows that clung tightly to the wolves, revealing burning fur. Flashes of colors appeared at the edges of his vision as he tumbled forward, lashing out at legs as he passed. Jaws snapped at his flanks and back but he was in constant motion, just as he had always been taught.

Several sudden loud thuds drew Qubanna’s attention and he caught a glimpse of a massive emerald limb swiping several shadow wolves aside–

“Push through! Move move move!”

Hooves thundered against the ground as they charged forward into the flurries of snow. Qubanna cartwheeled forward, eyes darting about, searching for weakness in their formation. Tumbling into a roll, the zebra launched himself forward, forehooves extended as he plowed into an oncoming wolf’s neck, the bursts of flames heralding the sharp break of its neck.

Bouncing off of the wolf, Qubanna rolled onto his hooves and ran along with the herd, darting between the armored forms of the slower ponies.

And then there was the gray and white expanse of the tundra.

Qubanna’s eyes darted back as they broke from the pack. Bolts of magic were flying from the unicorns as several wolves advanced on the flank of the group. Qubanna fell back as Sir Emeris shoulder-checked one wolf advancing on Graves– the jaws of one wolf snapping around his torso, clanging against his armor before a blade stabbed into it, but the wolf didn’t let go, holding Sir Emeris in place.

The large unicorn snarled, his hooves flailing above the ground as the wolf lifted him despite the blade impaling it as the rest of the group charged onward.

Qubanna fixed that problem.

Three rapid strikes to the wolf’s jaw shattered its bones, causing Sir Emeris to fall free as Qubanna ducked underneath the wolf’s claws, using its mass to shield himself from the next wolf, the pack trying to close around him and the unicorn–

Emeris bit the scruff of the wolf’s neck and slammed it around into the others as he started to run, Qubanna getting a glimpse of solid emerald eyes as he rushed after the armored unicorn. Bolts of magic blasting over their shoulders before the train car slammed between them and the wolves.

Snow flurried as their hooves kicked it up, tearing through the wake of the rest of the herd of ponies.

Qubanna shot a glance at Emeris, confirming that the unicorn was uninjured before focusing his eyes forward. The flurries of snow were getting worse, the wind and gloom making it increasingly difficult to see even the ponies in front of them. The wolves were baying at their flanks, trying to surge around the train car first one side, then the other, but bolts of magic and ethereal blades of fire met them as they did.

“Twilight Sparkle!” the necromancer shouted, his horn blazing beneath his hood, “Lift the car!”

His cloak flared as he spun around, magic the color of blood lashing out from his pale horn in a wave. The power enveloping the wolves, the predators screaming as they scrambled, trying to take to the sky but failing to escape the surge of crimson. Qubanna would later swear that he could see the shadows of equine skulls in that wave of destruction.

Grave Danger had stopped running, standing his ground and staring down the receding wave of destruction. Qubanna slowed to a trot, as did the others, turning to stare at what remained of the wolves. What little there was at least. The blast had reduced the wolves to bones, tatters of skin and ligaments hanging from the bleached bones… there were a few wolves that hadn’t been completely enveloped, but everything the wave had touched had been eaten away.

Qubanna forcibly swallowed down the bile in his throat as several of the partially consumed wolves twitched and whimpered and cried.

“Graves,” hot steam escaped Emeris’ mouth as he looked over the carnage. His face was… blank, and Qubanna found that even more unsettling than the carnage he had just witnessed. Everypony aside from Grave Danger seemed ready to lose their lunch, and even the necromancer that had cast the spell wasn’t… blank like that. “Why didn’t you tell me you could do that earlier?”

“I needed them all in one area,” Grave Danger returned with a sneer as he resettled his hood over his head in the wind.

Emeris head snapped to Grave Danger, his eyes flashing brightly in the gloom as he snarled at the much smaller unicorn, “That’s not what I was asking and you know it.”

Grave Danger bristled, his hackles rising. But after a moment, he forcibly calmed himself, “I didn’t know for certain if I would be able to.”

The armored unicorn grit his teeth, but with a breath that had emerald flames licking at the corners of his mouth, he visibly forced it down. “That’s not a valid excuse. If I’d known, I could’ve been covering you specifically when you tried it.”

The rest of the small herd backed up slightly. None wanted to get between the two spellcasters as Grave Danger’s lips pressed into a thin line, his nostrils flaring, “I must admit that I am… unaccustomed to working with others.”

Emeris took a slow breath in, letting it out as a mass of steam, glaring out at the remains of the wolves. A gust of chill wind that Qubanna barely felt through the magic of the scarf blew past and the armored unicorn shivered. Emeris grit his teeth, “Don’t do it again. We don’t really have time to stay here though. We need to get moving. Lieutenant, lead the way.”

oOo

This wasn’t good.

There was no other way for Cumulus Rose to put it.

Wind speed was increasing and visibility was getting worse, even with her goggles she could barely see beyond the herd of ponies. Even untrained ears could probably hear the howls of the wolves over the unnatural winds.

They’d been moving at as swift a pace as they could given the thick mounds of gray snow. Even with the flaming hooves Sir Emeris had given them, those on the ground were making slow progress.

“How much farther?” Rainbow Dash shouted over the howling winds.

“We’d be in sight of it now if it weren’t for the snow!” Strider shouted.

Rose couldn’t see anything; she hoped the lieutenant was right. A puff of emerald flames lit up the swirling gray snow beneath her, causing her to glance down at Sir Emeris. The large unicorn was keeping to the paths the others had cleared through the snow, flakes of gray snow clinging to his armor and coat, and Rose could swear that she saw ice forming against the metal.

The scarves were certainly doing their jobs, those that had them had no ice or snow on their coats in direct contrast with with Sir Emeris and Buck Sergeant Shadow Play. The large unicorn’s armor and coat were slowly icing over, and Rose’s fellow flyer wasn’t faring much better.

If Rose had ever had any doubts about the supernatural nature of the storm, they were long gone. Normal blizzards didn’t chill her to the bones or make her feel cold and afraid inside, not through her Wonderbolt uniform. And she knew that despite the intense cold the speed which her team leader and fellow flyer were icing over was unnatural–

“Oh! Oh! Twitchy tail! Twitchy taaaaaiiiiilllll!!!” Cumulus Rose blinked and looked down at Pinkie Pie, finding her… having a siezure…? Was she okay…? The earth pony stopped quivering at the center of the group, eyes wide, “Hooooo boy it’s a doozy!”

Rose resisted the urge to float down to her to check on her fellow pink pony, but Grave Danger spoke up over the howling winds, “What are you going on about you–… fool…?”

She didn’t question his pause, because Rose had seen the same thing. The Element Bearers and Sir Emeris had reacted to the statement by tensing and going on high alert, like a sparrow that’d realized it was in hawk territory.

Suddenly the orange farm-pony’s head jerked about, “Did anypony else feel that?”

“Be more specific AJ!” Sir Emeris shouted over the howling winds, a scowl on his face, “I’m sorta numb–” Rose watched as nearly everypony on the ground other than the unicorn himself twitched. Rose’s head jerked around, peering into the gloom around her as Sir Emeris shouted, “Okay, I’m guessing I missed something?!”

“There are tremors in the ground!” Twilight Sparkle shouted.

Horror flashed across their leader’s face for just a moment before it was replaced with rage, his eyes blazing even in the gloom of the storm, “What are you waiting for?! Move! Move! Move!”

*boom*

The herd started to scramble forwards through the snow and against the howling winds, the conductors practically gibbering in terror, and even their guides seeming rather unsettled. Shining Armor’s soldier's parting the thick banks of snow for the rest of the group as they pushed their way forward–

*boom*

Rose was concerned, this wasn’t feasible. Sure it was the home stretch but they were ignoring the sounds of the wol– buck!

Rose dove to the side, twisting around and bringing her flaming dawnblade to bear, nearly opening the throat of the wolf that she had barely dodged mid-air. Rose continued with the spin and brought the other blade of her dawnblade whipping around, the blazing cloudsteel going straight through the wolf’s neck.

There were several muffled thumps and the sounds of magical discharge, quickly followed by the pained sounds from the wolves. Rose’s brain was just starting to make the connection that they’d been swarmed by the wolves when Grave Danger shouted over the winds, “Damnit Emeris, this isn’t working–”

*Boom*

“Damnit, we can’t see anything– Rose! Mirror! Get over here!” Rose’s head jerked towardsSir Emeris before she dove down to his level, careful of her blade as he spoke, “What have you found out about this storm?”

“The storm is linked to a source but is a separate phenomenon!” Quiet Mirror shouted over the howling wind, “It’s being powered by the source, that’s why it’s so persistent!”

“Rose, could you break the storm if it wasn’t being powered?!”

“That’s–” Cumulus Rose jerked back in surprise, “The scale is just absurd!” A single pegasus cutting an entire storm of this scale was the stuff of legends, not reality! “No! No sir!”

“But in theory it’s possible?!” the large unicorn shouted, his green eyes glowing brightly in the darkening gloom.

Rose’s mouth worked uselessly for just a moment before she said, “Yes! If we had a dozen more wonderbolts!” If the storm wasn’t being sustained, any pegasus could clear it out with some time, but to do it in a combat situation? A storm of this size? They’d need a dedicated team of Wonderbolts!

*Boom*

Sir Emeris turned back to the smaller unicorn guard, “Quiet, can you sever the connection?!”

Rose ducked and lunged out with her dawnblade, taking the forelegs off of a shadow wolf, jerking her head back and stabbing it through the neck as it tried to recoil. Blasts of light and flashes of flaming hooves impacting shadowed flesh appeared briefly around her as the herd beat back the wave of enemies. Quiet Mirror shouted back over the howling winds, “If I was three times stronger maybe!”

“Do it! I’ll handle the power problem!” Is he mad–?!

Twilight Sparkle's head jerked towards the larger unicorn, “Em! Don’t strain yourself, I’ve got it!”

Emeris looked over to her, blinking once with a scowl before nodding, “Do it! Rose, be ready to cut the storm!” Rose gave a small shake of her head, this was madness… Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sir Emeris’ irises expanded to encompass his entire eye in glowing green, a snarl on his face, “Graves! Twilight! Cover us magically!”

Four horns lit up the darkness, revealing a mass of wolves circling the group, causing Rose’s insides to clench in fear as she tightened her jaws about the handle of her dawnblade. There were at least a dozen within the circle of multicolored light alone. Even as the train car was swung between them and some of the wolves and barriers of purple and red appeared around them. This… this was madness…

But… the pony in charge had given her an order, she had to trust he knew what he was doing.

*Boom*

She only prayed that he was right.

oOo

Okay, Twilight’s got Quiet’s back here, I just need to worry about Rose.

Ignoring the burning at the base of my skull, I called up my power. I’d studied boons extensively, as well as amplifier artifacts. I didn’t remember all the detail, but I remembered the basics and that’s all I needed here. The basics… and raw power.

I might not be Twilight, but power? Power I could do.

“Rainbow Dash! Ally-oop!” Rose shouted over the howling winds.

“Right!” my marefriend swung over towards the wonderbolt.

“Don’t leave the group!” I shouted, building the spell in my head to focus and amplify pegasus magic, “Don’t forget these things can fly!”

Quiet Mirror released his spell, a bright blue comet with a tail of lavender hurtling into the gloom.

Right, had to trust that. I immediately began the spell, ignoring the burning at the base of my skull. With fury and anger as my focus, my refusal to give an inch to this bullshit, I used that to amplify the basic effect I was recreating, powering through the burning in my skull. Emerald light started to pour from her massive dawnblade as I wove and ‘wrote’ the amplifying spell.

Heh, Emerald Dawn combination attack.

“Grave Danger!” That was Twilight-? “I’ll hold the barrier, build up another one of those blasts!”

“Don’t mess it up child!” All right, that’ll do–

There was a mental *pop* as Quiet Mirror’s spell went off and I shouted, “Rose! Now!”

Dash grabbed a hold of Rose and began to fly in a tight circle with Rose on the outside, turning the pair of pegasi into a blue disk with rings of colors–

Graves took that as his cue to release a blast of crimson death, turning the shadow wolves into chunky masses of gristle, bone, and shredded pieces of skin–

With a grunt that was barely audible over the winds, Dash let go of Rose, sending her hurtling in a tight arc, barely going thirty feet up– at the top of the arc, the pink pegasus snapping her body forward, drawing her blazing blade down–

And the sky parted.

Like Moses parting the sea, Rose’s blade split the clouds and winds apart without even touching them– the sky and air clearing, revealing blue skies, a pink dome and mountains in the distance, a mountain coming from them and getting… closer–

… oh. So that’s the walking mountain.

*BOOM*

I jerked about as the earth quaked beneath us, a massive foot, damn thing had to be over a hundred feet high. It was vaguely humanoid, with a lump of ice in the middle of its thirty foot wide shoulders that acted as its head. It was like a freaking walking glaciar of black ice, with baleful green and crimson eyes in its lump of a head, with wolves of flaming shadow swarming about its lumbering mass like flies around a corpse. Each step seemed to agitate the swarm as it tried to settle on the crags and ledges on its icy form.

Okay, this is bad. “Twilight–!”

“I can teleport! Getting the conductors to the city!” *flsh-POW!I

A glance– … huh, you could see the city from here, covered in a pink dome. Strider had a good sense of direction–

“Guardsponies!” a flash of focus and Fluttershy was cut free from Punic’s back, “Get the Element Bearers to the city! Team! We’re stalling!”

“Sir!” came the shout of acknowledgement with varying levels of fear as Shiny’s men started to push towards the city once more, one of the unicorn’s picking up the unconscious Fluttershy in their magic as the group pushed through the snow.

Dash started to protest, “Em–!”

“Stalling not dying!” I snapped, “Now go!”

How long did I have to cast here? Each step took about 10 seconds and looked to be about 20 feet per stride and the thing is about a mile away… that’s about forty five minutes. That’s not the problem though, those wolves are going to be here in just over a minute and we can’t run full tilt with these snow drifts… Okay, we’re running to put some more distance between us and that swarm of teeth, claws, and bad dental hygiene.

“Team, with me!” I launched myself into a full gallop, using my mass to plow my way straight through the gray snow, ignoring the freezing chill against my coat. The team was on my flanks without a moment’s hesitation, “Cover me while I build up a spell! Graves, get that things attention on us!”

There’s a crackle in the air before a… a pony skull of deepest black and shrouded in crimson fire went screaming through the air at the mountain. If I couldn’t feel the nastiness radiating from the thing I’d have thought it to be a joke, but it got my attention and I’d seen some nasty stuff as Gary. A wolf intercepted the skull, and I could feel the blastwave even from here.

Okay, yeah, that got its attention. I could just about feel the anger from the thing being pointed this way as the mountain started to turn.

*BOOM*

Alright, focus on the problem.

Fireball. Munchkin up a really nasty fireball. Get something going before the swarm of wolves engulfed us.

Half remembered phrases, fuzzy recollections of incantations and only semi-coherent thoughts crystallized in my head as the mass of howling death raced ahead of the mountain towards us.

"Fire beyond heat," I murmured beneath by breath as I plowed through the banks of snow. Using that half-remembered phrase to touch upon the power of the ‘sun’ in Tartarus, the flames of hell. My horn lit up as I opened the gate and I had to grit my teeth as my heart felt like it’d caught aflame, molten pain crawling through my veins.

The howls were getting closer– No! Focus! Can’t lose focus! Not while using this!

I tuned it all out, the freezing ice, the howls of the wolves, all that mattered was the spell. "Ice beyond the coldest reach," the fire pouring outwards, lines of pain spreading through my veins. It raced outwards from my heart as I reached for the coldest depths of Tartarus, the furthest depths of the prison from its terrible sun. The fire in my veins reached my heart and I let out a wordless sound of pain as my body acted as a conduit for terrible powers.

I grit my teeth and just let my blood burn as I channeled the power of two ends of hell through my body and horn, bringing them together at the tip. Out of the corners of my eyes I could see two flames, one a brilliant green, the other blacker than night, coming together in a fire at the end of my horn.

Not enough! I knew it wasn’t enough! I needed to do more. Come on.

“Thunder and lightning of a storm beyond,” I ground out through the pain, starting to burn up my life force for power, causing a numbing and crackling sensation to spread across my skin as my nerves trembled. Unable to help myself now, the next line was shouted, “Of which the souls of the damned are fond!” I used my life force as bait and power to open a channel to the realm of the dead. I entwined the powers together, my burning life and the power of death pouring through my body, my flesh feeling cold even as my veins burned down to the capillaries.

"Gather and clash!" I shouted, the words coming unbidden from my mouth as I focused the conflicting powers at the tip of my horn, forcibly bringing them into contact. Ice that would freeze even light and fire that would burn stone, the crackling power of life and the thunderous power of the dead… I… I don’t even know what I’m casting now… I’m just a conduit and focus.

My flanks twitched.

"Contained in a dream!" I snarled, touching upon the dreams, the feeling of reality shaping that I’d shared with Luna and poured it through my horn. I’d opened a conduit to the better sides of the astral plane and encased the seething mass of power. Multicolored threads started to encroach on the edges of my vision with each beat of my heart.

*BOOM*

My head jerked towards the walking mountain, eyes locked with its own malevolent green and red ones, each the size of house… "Nightmares manifest…” I murmured, knowing there was equal violence in my own eyes before snarling, “Shine and scream!” I stopped restricting myself to the dreams and opened myself fully to the astral plane, the dreams and the nightmares. With every beat of my racing heart, my vision shook and threads of every color and every shadow started to overwhelm my vision, those same tendrils reaching out from my horn to encase the blazing and crackling mass of energy in a tight sphere.

I couldn’t feel the chill of the snow anymore…

My flanks twitched. Still not enough.

"Sired by my Sins!" I tapped into the darkest parts of my psyche and focused the powers I already strained to contain through it. I opened myself to my darkest emotions and focused the terrible powers through it, "Born of my Darkness!"

"It is Wrath from Anguish!" I roared, accepting my fury at my weakness, at my inability to to save and help-! Tears of fire running down my cheeks as light of crimson, emerald, icy blue, and impossible darkness seethed around my horn, cradling the multicolored sphere hovering at the end.

"Hatred from Guilt!" How much pain had this thing caused already? How many had died because of it? I would allow no more! I wouldn't let this bastard do anything more!

"Suffering made manifest!" the seething pearl of anguish pulsed as it became solid, coherent, physical. A wave of pressure exploded outwards from it, making me grit my teeth as I struggled to contain it. I couldn’t feel my muscles or flesh… just the fire in my veins and an ache in my bones… I could barely see now past the colors and darkness creeping through my vision… all I could see was the mountain, that thing, that walking glacier of malevolence and dark magic…

My flanks twitched. This… this would work.

I skidded to a halt, spinning to face the oncoming thing, shadows and ice flowed freely at the edges of my vision, but I ignored them, trusting the others to cover me. Planting my hooves wide as I lowered my head, snarling at our foe.

"And so I unleash–!" I roared, focused on my target, "The HELLBALL!"

Blinding pain shocked through my horn as if it had been struck, my body convulsing as the screams started. A bolt of emerald lightning and shadows showed the trail the blast had taken in that briefest of instant as the ball of death expanded.

A ball of sickly green with shadows seething across its surface, images of skulls and faces flashing in and out of existence as the burning sphere grew, the screams of a thousand souls heralding the blast, a warbling wail of pain and agony as the world shook. Pressure blasting away as the sphere of destruction grew, kicking up the snow and pushing us back even as we stood just over a mile away.

The glacial form that stood over a hundred feet high was almost entirely encompassed by the blast, a flurry of snow and gravel and black ice surging out from it in a wave that was evaporated even as it blew outwards.

I trembled like jello, muscles quivering masses of pain as the wave of frigid water and air rushed past us, soaking me to the bone. The blazing green ball lingered, burning in the air before slowly dispersing into wisps of ghosts and smoke and shadows, the wailing screams slowly fading.

The world jerked as the mass that had once been one of the mountain's arms hit the tundra and I jerked around, my ears ringing and vision swimming– Fucking fucker fuck! It felt like there was powdered glass in my veins!

Fuck, couldn’t see– vision was swimming–

I'd blown off the lump that had been its head and a fair portion of its torso. I'd somehow missed the center of mass, one arm still dangled by the equivalent of a thread as the body slowly toppled. If it's arm had—

Someone shouted as if through water, "Brace yourselves!"

Then it hit, an unknowable number of tons of black ice falling back to the snow-covered earth. The world jerked and I was thrown from my hooves having tried to brace myself. The impact with the snow was like razor-blades, and the less said about hitting the ground beneath it the better. Coughing past the pain and tears streaming from my eyes, I twisted back up onto my hooves, struggling past the pain in my limbs.

The team was still going, I wasn’t the only one knocked down– our two airborne members had been blasted back– the wolves?!

They were scattered, disorganized–

I was panting, each breath felt like my lungs were scraping against concrete. Damnit. They were coming back! "Everyone up!” I shouted hoarsely, “Come on you lazy bastards! On your fucking feet!" Several of them were struggling out of the scattered snow–

"T-The buck was that?!"

"The army buster!" I snapped at Quiet Mirror, my forelegs buckling beneath me. Damnit legs, work! Work! We’ve got somewhere to be damnit! "Now come on!" I shouted over the wind, "We've still got to get back to the shield–"

I trailed off.

… we just cleaved the storm… there shouldn’t–

Oh you've got to be shitting me!

"Fuck!” I was interrupted by a coughing fit as I tried to stumble forward, past the ground glass in my joints and knives that seemed to dig into my muscles with every movement. “We've got another problem!" Forcing my way past the stabbing pains I raised my head and lit my horn back up, burning fingers clenching around my brain, "Graves! Quiet! Up and at 'em! We've got work to do!"

“What?! But sir–!”

I cut Quiet Mirror off, stumbling forward, “We need to bury that thing!”

“Wha– But how?!”

*flsh-POW* “Em! What–?”

“Twilight! IT’s still alive! We need to bury it!”

“Wha- right! Avalanche! We don’t have enough to– be right back! Get yourselves to the city!” *flsh-POW*

What was she– the city! Guard! Right! I stumbled forward, nearly falling onto my face as my legs failed me, “Damnit–! Agh…” I coughed as I suppressed a scream, the team glancing over at me. Okay, this isn’t working, “Punic, gonna need a ride!”

“Sir!” the armored earth pony acknowledged and I found myself slung up onto his back–

–!!!

… ow. My everything.

“Sir!” That was Cumulus Rose right? She sounded concerned. Wonder why. There’s no way it has to do with how I just cried out. Nah, never.

“Just–” I swallowed down a groan, “Just take it a little easy with me please and thank you.”

“But sir–”

“I’ll be okay!” I snapped, trying to cling to Punic’s back as he stood fully, “We just need to get to the city, I’m going to be useless, can one of you stick me on–” a bolt of crimson splashed against my torso, “... well then.” At least Graves was on top of– Another bolt of crimson struck me, making me blink and turn towards Graves, finding him scowling, “Um… what…?”

His scowl deepened as the howls started to drift on across the gathering winds, “Later,” he turned towards the others, “Let’s go.”

“Right!” the team acknowledged as they started off–

–!! Agh! Oh! Okay! Nope! That’s a nope! Just– all the fuck that! Fuck! Just– Celestia damn, my vision was swimming with every thud of Punic’s hooves!

Come on, focus– that was close!

My head jerked back as a barely coherent construct-mace slammed into the far too close shadow-wolf–

My construct shattered–?!

There was a flash of sky-blue and dark gray and I suddenly felt something splatter against my numbing face–

What–? Was that Dash–?

Guh… ooooohhhhhh…

I– I think I just… something ruptured or something in my head cause now I can’t see out of my left eye… that’s… that’s not good.

… ugh…

World’s… swimming… come on…

Can… can we not spray snow and ice into the face of the brightly colored sack of potatoes on your back please and thank you? I want to focus on not throwing up and watching the pretty lights–...

… pretty… lights…?

Oh… that’s good, that’s… that’s a lot of spells flying over our heads…

There was a rumble that had nothing to do with the thunder of pony hooves and despite the pain in my neck I glanced over and saw the spells impacting against the side of the nearest mountain, setting off a cascade of snow and rock. It was in a barely coherent trance that I watched the mass rush down the mountainside with a bass rumble before rushing across the plains between the mountain range and the city.

There were flashes of numerous colors along the edges of the oncoming avalanche until it had encompassed the prone form of black ice of the walking mountain… spells…? The wolves were almost black specks against the darkening skyline, a swarm of flies buzzing about the buried form of the walking mountain.

… that… that worked out pretty well…

Punic’s hooves found a particularly hard bit of tundra– the jolt had brought tears to my eyes. The impact had sent a wave of razor-blades through my chest cavity. Bile rose in my throat, ugh, I–

I…

I don’t feel good.

oOo

Twilight anxiously looked over the oncoming team, firing off blasts of magic alongside Shiney’s guardsponies, keeping the shadow wolves off of them.

The winds were kicking up the gray snow once more, starting to conceal things in the distance as the clouds rolled back in, “Keep up the spells! We’re getting them under the shield! Don’t let the wolves take another pony from us!” Shiney shouted to his fellows as he fired off several bolts of magic himself, “Squad three, be ready to bring them in!”

“Sir!”

Twilight had already gotten all the rest of her friends and the supplies beneath the shield, she’d teleported out and picked them all up in pairs and dropping them off outside the barrier before going to get others. Her hooves shuffled anxiously even as she fired off a spread of magic into the swarming wolves above the team.

If she could have, she’d have already done that to get the team, but with the return of the winds, so had the interference. She couldn’t just jump out to save them. Counting the moments as the team approached.

Thirty decahooves.

Wait, where was Emeris?!

Twenty decahooves.

“Squad three! Go!” A half dozen pegasi darted away from the line of unicorns, hooves flashing through the sky as they helped the team beat back the wolves.

Ten decahooves.

There! On Punic’s back– why was he on– No!

With a snarl of her own, Twilight released a wave of force from her horn, blasting back shadow wolves even as Shiney shouted out, “Get back behind the shield! Move move move!”

As the team rushed past them, the line broke and fell back through the pink shield with a thunder of hooves. It was only when Twilight felt the warming love of Cadence’s shield that she let out a sigh of relief. Everyone was back in–

*thum-th-th-th-thump!*

“Eep!” Twilight squeaked, jumping away from the barrier as the shadow wolves slammed into the opaque field of love.

The howls of wolves and wind began to pick up just beyond the barrier… but the magical shield held. Thank Celestia…

“We’re–” Emeris coughed a few times before grinning, “We’re here we’re here, great balls of hellfire, we’re here.”

“Em?!” “Emmy?!” Twilight and her friends rushed over to their friend draped across Punic’s armored back. He hung limply across the steel plates, his eyes bloodshot and unfocused, tears and snot flowing freely and a trickle of blood was leaking from his nostrils, “Emeris?!”

He waved off their concern with a hoof, “I’ll be okay, just… your brother’s here right Twilight? I can’t see shit right now…”

Shiney stepped forward, his armor staying on as he gave Twilight’s friend a concerned look, “I’m here…?”

“Shiney!” Emeris grinned as his left eye tried to focus on Shining Armor, “Good to hear you, right, Sir Emeris reporting with the team the princesses sent. I’m turning over command of the group to you as ordered, though I’m a bit useless at the moment.” He tried to look around, but seemed to decide it wasn’t working with his unfocused eyes, “We’re going to need a debrief for everyone, we–” the dark green unicorn started to shift about, but froze, letting out a sound somewhere between a groan and a whimper, “Ah… we… we need to exchange notes.”

Shining Armor scowled, “And we need to get you healed up. We’re headed to the palace.” Shining Armor turned to his guardsponies, “Squads two and three, you’re back to the reserves. Squad four, you’re off duty, put squad six in on your route.” The soldiers nodded as the went to follow orders and Shiney turned to Twilight’s friends and the team, “Everyone here?”

Punic nodded, “Yes sir, we were fortunate not to have lost anypony.” He gestured to the armored unicorn slumped across his back, “Sir Emeris here is by far the worst off of us, the most we have are some scratches.”

Applejack placed a forehoof gently against Emeris’ scarred cheek, getting little reaction from the limp unicorn. Twilight frowned even as Shiny asked her friend, “What happened to you anyways?”

While Emeris tried to raise his head again, it was Grave Danger that actually spoke, “This idiot is suffering the consequences of excessive black magic.”

Shining Armor’s head jerked back, shooting a look at Grave Danger before doing a double-take at his cloak. Shiney blinked once before a small scowl settled on his face and he asked, “Is it going to be a problem?”

But Grave Danger shook his hooded head, “No, this idiot damaged his internal organs, but given some generalized but intense healing magics he should be combat ready within the day.” Twilight sighed in relief, her friends mirroring the action. As much as she disliked the necromancer, she trusted him to know what he was talking about when it came to black magic.

With a small sigh, Shining Armor nodded, “Good… we’re going to need everypony we can get.” He turned towards the crystal city and started to walk.

Frowning, Twilight cantered to catch up to her brother, she hadn’t seen a look like that on his face in a long time, “What’s wrong Shiney?”

His lips pressed into a thin line as her friends and Emeris’ team followed after them, “Cadence’s shield is starting to fail… we’re running out of time.”

Author's Note

I HAVE RETURNED (again)!

Sorry about the delay on this chapter, but it's here!

This isn't my favorite chapter, but I have some moments that I really like in it. What are your favorite parts? Any parts you don't like?

I have a feeling there's an error or two in here that have been missed, please point them out if you see them!

As per usual, comments and critiques are always welcomed! Tis the breadcrumbs of joy for authors!

Anyways, Decepticons, Rise Up!

Consequences of Idiocy

“It’s been way too long.”

Eloquently and articulately expressing every iota of my feelings, I groaned, “Uuuuggghhhhh…”

My eyes scrunched up tightly at the discomfort of light pouring through my eyelids, sound returning to me in warbling bits. A soft warmth gently nudged my cheek, but that action alone sent unpleasant pins and needles spreading through my body, “Come on, sugar, ya’ gotta wake up…”

“Ulp… ugh… I do not want to…” I muttered, trying to crack open my eyes.

Ow. Ow? Ow. Also? Ow.

That had not worked, because my eyes had immediately scrunched back up, and the soft voice of my marefriend was like a scratching pain on the inside of my skull, “You’ve got to hun…”

“I’ve got it.”

“Twilight-”

“No, I’ve got it.” She insisted.

The sensation washed over me of being dunked in a hot bath after coming in from the cold and I let out a little relieved sigh. While the light didn’t fade, the pain it was causing through my eyelids did, “Twi…?”

“You with us Emeris?”

My face scrunched up as I forced myself more upright, eyes finally opening, “Not really…? Ugh. Anyone get the number on that train?”

“Yes, it was called the Emeris’ Stupidity Express.”

Memories started to return, of a giant ice mountain, and of my attempts to put it down, “Ugh… well… at least that train’s pretty regular?”

“Y’er not joking,” Applejack grumbled beside me.

Blinking away the spots in my eyes, I looked around.

Huh… an unfamiliar ceiling.

…

Damnit not again.

… and fuck, I do have two chicks trying to get into my metaphorical pants now. Fuck, am I approaching some sort of Shinji Ikari Singularity? Pls no universe. Pls no.

Ugh, anyways, we were in this large hall, with crystals everywhere… like… everywhere…

Finally, my brain began to catch up to the reality of the situation. I was still riding on Punic’s heavily armored back, though now we were in some massive hall… likely a greeting space for royalty. The team were all nearby, as were the girls. AJ was standing beside Punic, looking up at me, and Dash was hovering, both literally and figuratively. Twilight on the other hand was standing on the other side of Punic, her horn just now dimming as she looked me over.

Oh, and let’s not ignore the other guard-ponies scattered around. Almost a dozen of them, not to mention the royal couple themselves not far off, “Ugh…” wincing just a bit, I dragged my head up, ignoring the aches that the motion caused me, “Okay… what happened while I was out…?”

“Not much,” Twilight spoke up, “We were just now catching up, and I felt it would be good to at least get you up and running before we really got into what’s going on.”

“Right…” with some effort, and ignoring the little stabs of needle-like pain in my joints at the action, I got my hooves beneath me and tried to get off of Punic’s back.

“Woah big guy!” Dash nearly dove in, “Easy there, you really did a number on yourself.”

“Yeah, but I can’t keep riding like this, there’s better uses for Punic than a bookworm chaufer service.” I squirmed in place for a moment, “Could you help me down? I don’t want to faceplant on the floor.”

While AJ gave me a concerned look, Dash thankfully went about the efforts of getting be down, and while every touch was a bit of pain against my skin, it wasn’t too bad, “Okay, so, can we bring me up to speed?”

“Well, we’ve discussed a bit so far…”

-oOo-

“You can’t take over for her?”

Twilight cantered beside her brother, scarf trailing. The two of them were at the head of the group, Shiny leading the way towards the city. Her friends were following behind them, the team in a loose circle around them with the exception of Punic. The heavily armored stallion was towards the center of the group, carrying Emeris magically on his back, AJ and Dash hovering over the barely conscious unicorn.

“Only briefly,” Shiny scowled as they approached the edge of the buildings, “I can’t maintain the proper attitude for the spell. I could keep out the wolves, but the mountain has been using magics that can bypass a purely kinetic barrier. Honestly, it’s best when we’re both maintaining the shield together, right now I have my personal squad of unicorns bolstering her shield.”

“It’s–” Twilight started to say, but scowled herself. She looked at her brother closely, while he was wearing his royal purple armor and helm, she could still see some of his face… and there were bags beneath his eyes. Her lips pressed into a thin line, “It isn’t a matter of power is it? It’s a matter of sustainability.”

Applejack looked over as she cantered beside Punic, “Wait, what are you talking about Twi?”

“Cadence and Shiny can create an amazingly powerful barrier together, there’s no way anything could break through…” Twilight watched her brother’s face for confirmation as she elaborated on her current theory, “But they didn’t know about the mountain until recently, so they didn’t have a target, they just had to fortify their defenses and withstand them… but while the shield is extremely strong…”

“They can’t keep it up for days on end,” Dash finished for her, a scowl on her face as she literally hovered protectively over Emeris.

“Unfortunately,” Shiny agreed tiredly, looking back at them, “I’ve been taking over for Cadence when I can, but she’s only been getting in short naps.”

“I must ask Captain,” Punic spoke, his bass rumble projecting clearly from his helmet as they reached the edge of the buildings, “Why have you fortified such a large area? I am certain a soldier of your caliber would not spread your forces so thin without reason.”

Shiny scowled, “Because we have to protect the citizens of the Crystal Empire.”

Twilight stumbled, “Wa-What?”

“Take a look,” Shiny gestured with his horn, as they entered the city proper. Twilight hadn’t really taken the time to look at the city, built from crystal and marble, it was amazingly beautiful, but what she’d assumed at a glance to be soldiers in the city… were instead natives. Ponies that superficially resembled Earth Ponies, but up close Twilight could see the glitter in their eyes, as if those orbs had been made of a solid piece of crystal…

“They… they survived…?” Rarity asked with a slight amount of awe, staring at the glittering crystal in both pony and architecture, “But… how could they survive for so long? Wasn’t the Crystal Empire lost for over a thousand years?”

“We’re not sure,” Shiny admitted as they moved through the streets. Twilight stared at the despondent ponies as they walked by, the ‘crystal’ ponies? “It’s possible the Crystal ponies were in stasis, or pushed beyond time, or something even crazier! It… hasn’t really been a priority to find out.”

“Crystal ponies-?!” Rarity gushed, “Ahhahaha~! There are crystal ponies?!”

The group paused to look at the alabaster unicorn in various measures of confusion or embarassment. Getting a delicate cough and awkward look from Rarity, “Ah, ahem, sorry, continue.”

“So what’s the plan?” Qubanna asked.

“We’ll decide once everyone’s up to date,” Shiny said, “I need to relieve my wife anyways, so we’ll get the debriefing done in the palace–”

oOo

“Shining, I’m fine to continue–” Cadence started to interrupt, but her husband shook his head.

“No, you’re not. You’re exhausted.” He countered, and she definitely looked it with bags under her eyes and a wan complexion. The pink alicorn of love had definitely seen better days. The royal unicorn turned back to the group, “Cadence is the best pony for the job, but she’s getting overworked, as much as I love her, I can’t maintain this sort of shield for very long, she’s barely getting catnaps, she doesn’t sleep, she barely eats,” he gave a little shake of his head, blue mane bouncing about, “We can’t keep this up.”

Twilight smiled, “That’s why I’m here.”

“That’s why we’re all here,” Rarity corrected, the rest of the girls and myself nodding along. Twilight just beamed at us in return.

Shiney gave his little sister a wan smile before continuing, “Cadence has been using all of her power to protect the city, my troops doing their best to keep an eye on the movements of the shadow wolves, and I’ve had to run interference between the two of them.” His head dipped, “We haven’t been had the time to learn anything useful from the Crystal Ponies. But we have to believe that one of them knows how to defend the Empire without having to use Cadence’s magic.”

Grave Danger snorted, “Idealism, foolish, there may be no such solution.”

More than a few scowls were sent his way at that, but I was focused on something else, “Cadence, how long could you maintain the shield comfortably when fully rested?”

Something flashed across Shiney’s face as he turned to look at where I lay on the floor, “Two days.”

Cadence disagreed with a small frown on her face, “Three.”

“Workable,” I muttered, thinking for a moment before looking at my friend, “Twilight, can you maintain this sort of barrier?”

“Not really,” she said with a sad shake of her head, half turning towards me, “Cadence is an alicorn, and Shiney’s special talent is built around defensive spells. Not to mention that I don’t actually know the spell they’re using…” her eyes slowly narrowed, “But you knew that, didn’t you?”

It wasn’t a question.

A brief cringe crossed my face, “I suspected at least. The issue here is that we’re on the clock. We have enough smart ponies here to figure out how to break this, but not necessarily in the time provided… if we can get Cadence the rest she needs, that’ll extend the time we have massively.”

This was a workaround… it was sort of like thinking on how to get the enemies set up while I’d… when I’d been Gary. Sure, I didn’t have the raw power to smash the problem by myself anymore, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have an equivalent force here between my friends and the team, the concept was the same. Use everything else to set up for the knockout blow.

“And what could you manage that would compare with the grace of her highness Cadence?” Punic questioned.

“By myself?” I snorted from my place on the floor, “Jack all. I’m nowhere near powerful enough to shield a city. But I have a feeling that we have enough skills and power here as a group...” I looked over at Twilight, “Do you think we could put together a channeling enchantment-?”

She gave a little nod, already picking up on what I was going for, “That mimics the ones we put on your armor and-”

“-let a focal pony maintain the emotional context and the others provide the power. Yeah.”

“I think so…” she trailed off in thought, scowling at the floor for a moment. Unnoticed by either of us were the glances that the royal couple sent our way. Then her eyes came back up to mine, “I don’t like it. You’re the only person that can handle being the focus for any length of time, and channeling outside energies again…”

I cringed a bit, I hadn’t considered that, “You… could do it…?”

But she shook her head, “I don’t have the experience with utilizing outside energies, and even if I did think Grave Danger did,” she shot a little glare over at the pale yellow unicorn who just rolled his eyes, “He does not have the attitude for it.”

“I do have a measure of experience making use of external sources of mana, child, but no, I do not have the demeanor for utilizing Virtue magics.”

With another small cringe, “Right… we’ll make it work though, give the royal couple some time to rest.”

“While we handle that…” Twilight trailed off before looking over at our friends, “Girls, I want you to go through the city and talk to the Crystal Ponies,” Rarity let out an excited little giggle at that, “See what you can find out. The Crystal Empire had to have a way to defend itself.”

A smile appeared on Twilight’s face, “It’s almost like a research paper.”

Dash smirked beside me, “Yeah, everypony loves those.”

“They’re not that bad,” I countered with a little smile, “I just look at it like learning stuff and then writing something to teach other people what you learned.”

“Neeeerrrrrd,” the rose colored mare said with a grin.

And I grinned right back, “Why yes, I am, thank you for noticing.”

Twilight gave us an eyeroll of her own before turning to her brother, “Don’t worry Shiney, we’ve got this.”

“And what of us?” Qubanna asked, the zebra stepping up and asking Shiney.

While the unicorn captain took a half second to think, I actually had an idea, “Qubanna, do you have anything on you that could restore someone’s vitality?” The zebra turned towards me as I elaborated, “I’m talking about something like a super caffeine or even a general restorative.”

His eyes widened briefly before he scowled, taking a moment before responding, “Would it be alright if it took a night to grow?”

“Yes. Get to it. We need some for Cadence and Shiney at minimum, some for the rest of us would be ideal, do what you can.” Despite the aches it sent through my body, I turned to the rest of the team that were still mostly gathered around me, “Quiet, Rose, I want you two working on figuring out that storm. Figure out how to break that storm. Power is not an issue, we’ll figure out how to power whatever you come up with, the how is.”

They both nodded, “Sir.”

I swung my head around, “Grave Danger, we need to know more about what we’re up against. Get us all a report on what these Shadow Wolves can actually do and how to break them.”

“Tch, if the fools are truly unable to do it themselves.”

“Punic, Shadow Play, I want you two to accompany the girls-”

AJ scowled, “Do we buckin’ need babysitters now?”

Okay, that is not my intention, and the very thought made me cringe, “No. But it’d give me some ease of mind.” I looked my… my marefriend in the eye, “Please hun, this isn’t a time to be risky.”

The orange earth pony made a face like sucking on a lemon, “Ah still don’t like it.”

“I understand hun, but please, it’d make me feel better.”

AJ sighed, “Alright sugar, Ah won’t complain…” a little smile crossed her face, “Too much.”

Some of the tension in my chest eased, if she could joke we should be okay. I still hated doing this to her, it definitely felt like treating her like a kid, but she was my charge and I’d be damned if I didn’t keep them safe.

“Would it not be better if I were to assist here?”

The originator of the question slightly surprised me, and I swiveled my head around to Punic, “If you know anything about runic systems? It probably would, but unless you’re pulling that skill out of your… ah… rear,” damnit, again with the ass / donkey-racism, "I’d prefer it if you could investigate as well before getting a place for us all to set up for the night.”

There was the slightest twitch of Punics eyes beneath his helmet, but he nodded, “I shall defer to your judgement.”

“Thank you.”

When no other comments were forthcoming, Twilight nodded, “Good, let’s get to work then. We should probably put together a checklist…”

This time it was my turn to sigh, “No Twilight. No Checklists.”

“Awww…”

… also seriously, that kid thing was gonna bug me now that I’d been made aware of it.

oOo

I lay as far out of the way of Twilight’s work as I could manage, going over what I was going to be doing as well as trying to keep half an eye on the actual runic system she was making.

My head still hurt, the base of my skull burning unpleasantly once more. It was like after the Timber Wolves all over again, I’d seriously strained my magic using structures. But this time I wouldn’t have time to just recover unfortunately, I’d have to jump right back into the thick of it basically right away.

I’d be acting as the focus for the power, a conduit, same as with the leylines, same as with the Hellball, though thankfully a lot less straining. I wouldn’t have to contain the power for any length of time, just point it in a direction, more being a sprinkler at the end of the hose rather than a water balloon. And man could magical metaphors get weird sometimes…

Twilight and I both knew that this wasn’t going to be easy on me even then, but her entire argument had fallen away without a word with a single glance at Cadence.

For all of her concern over my state, I wasn’t as important as Cadence was, not even for the here and now, let alone in the grand scheme of things. I knew she didn’t like it, but I was willing to go through the pain and strain for the sake of protecting these ponies… these ponies that I’d apparently kept locked away for years longer than they should have been...

My lips pressed into a thin line as I watched Twilight sketch out the basics of the runic circles that we’d be using to channel the powers safely. I… even if I intellectually knew that I couldn’t have had any idea, that I’d made the best choice I could have at the time, I still felt horrible for doing that. It was one thing to lock an empty city away for longer, it was another thing to lock people away…

Unbidden, a little sigh escaped me and I glanced at the floor.

I felt terrible, I’d at least have to try and apologize to the Crystal Ponies, ignorance was no excuse, and even if they hadn’t known about it didn’t mean that they didn’t deserve consideration. Ugh… at the very least I’d like to apologize to Cadence and Shiney, their entire honeymoon had been ruined by my presence multiple times–

“I saw that–”

“MEEP!!!”

My limbs flailed uselessly for just an instant as I flopped onto my side, unable to just leap to my hooves in my current state and get away from the sudden voice beside me. It only took an instant for me to recognize Shiney’s voice and calm down, but it’d already been more than long enough for me to be embarrassed as all hell.

“Um…”

“Please ignore me,” I said with a sigh, just laying there limply with an unhappily deadpan look on my face, my cheeks a brilliant shade of red, “I was lost in thought and you caught me by surprise.” Making an effort to raise my head, I looked over at the good sized unicorn stallion, “Please, do continue.”

Shiney blinked a few times before tilting his head curiously, “Well… I saw that spell of yours, the one you used against Sombra.”

I blinked, pushing myself back up into a pony-loaf position, confusion apparent on my face without a doubt. I actually felt the feather and flower earrings brushing against the side of my face as my ears cocked at a funny angle. And then it clicked, “Wait, the mountain is Sombra?”

The Captain looked about, mentally confirming the positions of the other ponies in the room. There was a small squad of unicorn soldiers on guard, Cadence, Twilight, and the two of us, everyone else had headed out into the city on their assigned tasks. But as Shiney turned back to me, his deep blue eyes were hard, “It’s the best theory we’ve got. It has the right color scheme, the right magical aspects, and it definitely has access to powerful dark magics… all things that Sombra did… it’s just… well…” The unicorn shrugged, “It’s sort of like he’s possessing a Xixecal.”

That made me stop. Then blink. “Wait, what did you call that?”

“Ah, um, a Xixecal…” he rubbed one of his forehooves with the other, looking away bashfully, “It’s… well…”

“Is that a Dungeons and Dragons reference?”

Shiney gave me a little funny look, “Nnnnnooo…? It’s a reference to Ogres and Obilettes…?”

My mouth worked stupidly for a few moments as my brain caught up. That sounded familiar… “Um… wait, board game sort of thing where you have characters that get stronger as they get experience and you roll dice to determine success of actions?”

“Yeah… it’s the default RPG…?”

Okay, so Fluttershy not knowing what an RPG was was a Fluttershy thing, not an Equestria thing… “Um… ah, I’ve played something super similar back home… it’s… anyways, not important, but when you say Xixecal you mean giant ice mountain that’s pseudo divine and really hateful right?”

“Yeah… how’d you know? You just made it clear you’ve never played Ogres and Obilettes and… I thought you…” another glance around before he lowered his head to whisper, “Aren’t you something from beyond Equestria…?”

“I am, I’m just as surprised as you are actually…” I admitted in just as much of a whisper, blinking confusedly, “I… even if there’s a similar game, the fact that they share a name, especially for something so esoteric is sort of… weird.” That made me pause, “Then again, the fact that we’re using the same language at all is strange now that I think about it…”

“Huh. Yeah.” He made a face that looked as confused as I felt, “Could it be a translation thing?”

“Mmmaaaayyybe? I… honestly don’t know… it might be a holdover from the GSE or the Harmony magic…” Those were things that I still barely understood and the most likely culprits…

His head tilted to the side, ears cocking at different angles, “Gee Ess Ee?”

“Ah, um…” I paused, before shaking my head, “Sorry, shorthand for the Gary Stu Effect…”

A deadpan look came across his face, “You named an effect after yourself?”

“What-? No. No no no. That’s… ugh…” rather eloquently facehoofed for a moment, “Right, let’s start over. My name, my real name is Emeris. I didn’t want my real name to be associated with that…” I gave a little shudder, shaking my head, “That thing I’d been turned into. Gary was a pseudonym I used while I… well… was like that. I’m sorry about all of that mess by the way I just…” I gave a shrug, unable to figure out a better way to apologize, “I’m sorry, it was never my intention for that sort of stuff to happen. I know I ruined your honeymoon a number of times… I just…”

But Shiney shook his head, interrupting my fumbling attempts at an apology, “Hey, it wasn’t fun, but if you can forgive me for trying to coordinate an… ah… assault on you? I can forgive you for trying to save the day and us getting caught up in it.”

A little smile started to spread on my face as some of that terrible fear in my chest began to ease, “Don’t worry, you’re plenty forgiven for it. You don’t even have anything to be forgiven for in my opinion. You didn’t have any control over your actions.”

That didn’t seem to make him feel entirely better as his ears swept back and tail flicked behind him, but the unicorn brushed the topic off with a little shake of his head, “We’re getting off topic. That spell you cast, that was Dark Magic.”

“Yeah.”

A small frown crossed Shining Armor’s face, “Seriously Dark Magic.”

I cringed just a bit, “To be fair, Luna specifically ordered me to use whatever Dark Magic I knew, and if she hadn’t, I’m not sure I would have even thought to have done something like that…”

Okay, even if I did have a better understanding of pony expressions, I don’t have the foggiest clue what that expression’s supposed to have been. Confusion? Wariness? Thoughtfulness? Contemplation? I really had no clue. And soft, almost too soft to be heard even this close to him, he murmured, “She ordered it…?” But after a moment, Shiney gave a little shake of his head, “That’s not it. I didn’t recognize that spell. At all. And as a Captain of the Guard I’ve been given a solid overview of what to look for with dark magics. And that was at least an Eighth Circle Spell, I should have recognized it at least a bit. So what was it?”

“Um… I… sort of… made it up…?”

Blue eyes blinked once, twice, “... what.”

“I… ah… I took a basic fireball spell and supercharged it with a half dozen black magic methods…”

He gave me incredulous look, “... that’s seriously it?”

“That’s seriously it.”

The unicorn’s mouth worked silently for a few seconds before his flank slumped to the , “I just… what…?”

“I call it the Hellball?” I offered a bit sheepishly.

Shiney blinked twice more before snorting and covering his face with a hoof, a little smile on his face, “Seriously? The Hellball?”

An almost hesitant smile spread across my face, “I’m not exactly good at naming things…?”

“Could you at least have called it Tartarus Marble or something cool?” Shining Armor grumbled.

“Ooh!” I brightened in spite of myself, “That’s a much better name! Thanks!”

That thankfully got a small chuckle from the powerful unicorn, and the sound brought a bit of warmth to my chest. He hesitated for a moment before, “That magic… did you know what you were doing?”

“Barely.” I admitted quietly, looking away, my rebelious tail flicking in discomfort, “It was a desperate effort… I know how to tap into external power pretty well, but fusing that many power sources together like that isn’t something I’ve trained to do… I’ve been avoiding tapping into those dark magics.”

There was another one of those really confusing expressions on Shiney’s face that I couldn’t interpret at all before he asked, “You’re sure it didn’t bring Sombra down?”

“Not permanently, no. If it had, the blizzard would have ceased.”

Considering that for a moment, Shining Armor nodded, “Yeah… it’s sort of scary, that something that powerful couldn’t kill him.”

“It’s not that, it was like trying to kill fire with fire. It’s not something you can do…” I trailed off for a moment, thinking of fire breaks and such and how those might relate to dark magics. I shuddered, “Um… well, not in any way we’d be willing to do.”

A brief confused look crossed Shiney’s face before he half rushed to his hooves, “No joke! We’re not even- don’t even consider stuff like that!”

My mouth opened for just a moment before I closed it, “ Yeah. But, I don’t think it’s a power thing, otherwise… ah… Gary would’ve taken him down. I believe it’s more of a wrong thing to fight it with… thing…”

What I didn’t bring up was the fact that honestly, those horrifying methods needed to stay on the table in some way or another just in case. It was the same problem I’d had with Outsiders at times, raw power doesn’t work, sometimes you have to cut out the cancer or however you want to use a metaphor to justify horrifying things to stop the spread. It was a method of last resort, the final gasp of desperation, and it was something I’d do so that Twilight and the others wouldn’t… I’d already done stuff like it, and no matter how deep it cut, I could manage it again.

… though I guess… Grave Danger would be able to assist… ugh, as unpalatable as I found him, I was at very least thankful that that much was true.

The unicorn captain had slid back down into a sitting position as he contemplated what I’d said. Eventually his gaze lifted to his wife sitting on the throne, “You think we need to fight fire with water instead of more fire.”

“Basically, yeah.”

Shiney heaved a sigh, “Really wish you guys had brought the Elements of Harmony, this would’ve been a lot easier.”

“No kidding,” I couldn’t help from grumble, even as some of the tension in my chest that I hadn’t even noticed eased. Honestly, it was good to be getting away from that uncomfortable topic, “At the very least we’d know what to do.”

“Yeah, things can’t be simple can they?”

“They sometimes are,” I noted with a little smile, “But yeah, it’s pretty rare and that usually requires the ability to just overwhelm the problem.”

Shiney chuckled just a bit before looking at me, “Ga-... Emeris… thank you for keeping my sister safe, and for thinking of Cadence’s safety.”

I shifted a bit uncomfortably in place, the praise was a bit unsettling honestly, “Um… it’s nothing, really. Twilight honestly did as much if not more than I did.”

Shining Armor rolled his eyes, and for a moment there was a little smile on his face. But then his eyebrows drew down into a small scowl, “Even so, you better not try anything funny with my little sister.”

Now it was my turn to blink a few times, but then a small smile crossed my face, one of understanding, “Yeah, I get it. Don’t worry.”

That only made his scowl deepen, and he jabbed a hoof at me, “I’m serious, no funny business.”

“I know? I understand, there won’t be.” I gave a small shake of my head, before locking gazes with the unicorn. He was actually just a bit bigger than myself, just a bit more bulk to him, just a bit more intensity. But my eyes focused on his, trying to convey just how serious I was about this, “Shiney, Twilight’s my friend, and hell, it’s my job to defend her. Trust me, I’d rather die than allow any harm to come to any of them.”

“And I’d rather you didn’t get hurt at all.” Twilight interjected, making both of us jump.

… well, made Shining Armor jump. I didn’t jump, no sir.

I just squeaked again and flopped onto my side. Celestia damn useless legs!

The purple archmage in training just rolled her eyes, having come to stand near the two of us, “And Shiney, are you giving him a hard time?”

“No!” Her eyes narrowed at him and he shuffled his hooves, “Well… a little… I’m just worried about you, you know?”

Twilight’s look softened, “I do, B.B.B.F.F., trust me, I really do. But trust me, Emeris is about as threatening as your old teddy bear.”

“Ow, my fragile masculinity,” I deadpanned as I lay on my side.

That made Twilight’s smile widen as she continued to focus on her brother, “But don’t you have better things to do than bug my friend?”

“Don’t you have work to be doing?” Shiney countered.

Twilight just grinned at him, knowing she’d won that little exchange before moving on to another part of the growing design on the floor, her horn alight.

… actually, all three of the family members had their horns alight, Cadence, Shiney, and Twilight were all doing magic in some way. It made me feel just a bit irrationally inadequate for not helping.

Making a sound somewhere between a sigh and a groan, I pushed myself back up into an upright position, “Anyways.”

“Anyways.” Shiney agreed before turning back to me, “Keep them safe.”

I nodded easily, with a slightly somber smile, it was what I’d intended to do in the first place after all, “Will do.”

“And stay safe yourself.” I blinked at the unexpected order, “That aura you were carting around, that G.S.E. thing, it might have been bad, but you did good work with it and in spite of it.”

I frowned, scowling at the ground, “I pretty much just fixed the problems I caused by existing, it wasn’t that good.”

Blue eyes bore into me for just a moment before he shook his head, standing once more, “Regardless, you need to rest up, if this thing works you’re going to put yourself under some serious strain.”

That made me sigh, laying my head on my forelegs, “Yeah. Good point…”

I’d take the time to apologize to Cadence later, when at least one of us was closer to functional. With me an achy mess and her bordering on exhausted… it just didn’t feel like a good idea to bring up the topic.

oOo

“Emeris…?”

I cracked open my eye, “I am awake Twilight.”

“Could you double check this? I’m pretty sure it’ll work, but you’re our expert on runes after all.”

Okay, now that made me snort, “Oh, yeah, right, the perfectionist messed something up.” It took me a moment to push myself up onto my hooves, and what’d ya know? The ache had gotten worse. Ugh.

Cadence was still nearby, Shiney having gone off to get some work done with his men… stallions? Guardsponies? Fucking terminology was still getting me messed up. But there were two guardsponies in here as well keeping watch.

I wobbled for just an instant before walking forward and moving around the design, mentally checking it over. I was thankful that the burn in the back of my head was easing, but I was going to be horrifically stiff by the end of tonight. Fun fun. Blech.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “I am not that much of a perfectionist.”

That just had me raising an eyebrow at the unicorn, who glanced between me and Cadence before sputtering, “I’m not!”

In surprising synchronicity, Cadence and I shared a glance that, for all of my issues that I still had with Equestrian body language I understood fully. We turned back to Twilight and it was Cadence who gently pointed out, “Twilight, you kind of are.” The little smirk she had sort of hurt the effect though.

“Ugh, fine, I’m a perfectionist,” she gave me a scowl, “That doesn’t mean I know runes half as well as you do.” My mouth was barely half open in a rebuttal before she jabbed a hoof towards me, “And you’re way better at throwing together a spell on the fly than me. This isn’t about power or any more normal sorts of magic that I focus on. This stuff is almost literally your specialty, so hush. It’s okay to be good at it.”

My mouth shut with a little click, and had my legs not been aching so much, I would have shuffled my hooves. “Still feels weird to be better than you at anything,” I muttered, eyes going to the design to avoid meeting hers. My chest was a warring mess of emotions, discomfort and a hint of unfounded fear at being good at something, but also the pleasant warmth, something that I hadn’t really had a good opportunity to feel in a good while… pride.

Ugh, emotions could be such a pain at times. Wouldn’t trade them for anything mind you, but still.

Twilight just smiled, “Don’t worry, you’re still not as good at me at telekinesis, transformation, teleportation-”

I chuckled, “Okay, okay, I get it.”

The design was sort of like a triangle, it had a total of four circles, three at the points and one within. The central one was the focusing lens and the three outer ones meant to channel power inwards safely. Tons of the funny little squiggles all around it that were the cuniform and runic symbols that did most of the heavy lifting of actual runes, but the lines themselves were important too.

It took only a few moments of checking before I was as sure as I was gonna get, I looked to Twilight as I half wobbled, half walked towards the center of the design, “It looks solid. It wouldn’t hold up to long term use, too few checks or balances, requires too much skill of power balancing from those inputting power, but this will hold for the night, which should be enough.”

My friend shot a glance over at the pink alicorn, which didn’t go unnoticed. The alicorn giving her former ward a warm smile, “It’s alright Twilight. A single night’s rest will do wonders for my complexion.”

“Then there’s no time like the present.” I said, flopping down in the center of the runic design, “Let’s get up some unicorns to take up my slack while you get some rest.”

“Right!” Twilight brightened before her ears drooped slightly, “Um, I don’t… who…?”

Cadence took over, stepping off of the throne and moving towards us, turning to one of the guards, “Lieutenant, please, could you find Shining and tell him that we’ll need some assistance?”

The guard saluted, “Your highness.”

I couldn’t help the little smile that appeared on my face, “Beat me to it.”

Purple eyes flicked over to me for a moment before she smiled, “You are quite used to this aren’t you?”

I very nearly flinched at that, and even Twilight had a moment of discomfort before she started forward, “Cadence, it’s–”

But to my surprise, even the otherwise beautiful alicorn cringed, seeming to realize what she’d said, “I- no… sorry, that came out wrong…” She gave a little shake of her head without looking towards us, her mane bouncing about before she took a deep breath and looked me in the eye, “Emeris, I don’t like you.”

I flinched, even if I’d expected–

“No. Stop. Hear me out.” Cadence sighed, “I shouldn’t dislike you as much as I do. I know the truth, even if I struggled with the aura you created. But that aura… it went against everything I stand for. Even if I know you had no control over it, even if I know you hated it just as much as I do or more…” Her mouth worked silently as her wings ruffled before she shook her head, “It’s hard to look past how you, unintentionally, twisted Love into knots around you.”

My heart went out to her, because had I not just been thinking about this shit? “Hey… it’s okay. I get it. It’s fine.”

But the alicorn’s purple eyes settled on me without wavering, “No, it’s not fine. You haven’t done anything to deserve it.” She paused, eyes flicking away in thought before she admitted, “Well… more than frustrate me.”

From her tone, I knew instantly what things she was talking about and I cringed sympathetically, my ears drooping and my earrings brushing against my cheek as I pointed out, “I did try to apologize.”

Twilight’s head bounced between us even as the princess sighed, taking a seat just beyond the design, “I know, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating, especially with how hard it was to talk about anything else for the rest of the day.”

I made a little retching noise at that, “Ugh, sorry, I can imagine.”

“Okay, wait,” Twilight raised a hoof, “What are you two talking about?”

Both of us, the present alicorn and the formerly so, shared a glance. But I was the one to answer, “Um… you don’t want to know.”

“Emeris…” the unicorn said warningly.

I cringed and caved like the bitch I was, “Well… I tended to interrupt them when they were, ah, husband and wife?”

In just a few instants, a half dozen emotions went across my friend’s face before the realization fully hit her and it settled on “... oh… oh… ewww… I did not want to think of my B.B.B.F.F. or foalsitter like that!”

“I did warn you!” I pointed out.

oOo

The sun was starting to sink behind the mountaintops, barely visible above the pink and purple dome that covered the city. What was thankfully not visible was a moving mountain, at least not yet. The world outside the barrier was barely more than silhouettes of shadows against the lighter backdrop of the sky, but even that much was surprising given the intensity of the blizzard out there...

The girls were trickling back into the greeting room, as were the rest of the team, “Ugh, I’ve got nothin’ so far.” Dash grumbled as she gave a little tug on the wrap around her forehoof.

“Same here,” AJ muttered, the two mare’s leaning against my sides for the moment, each one a pleasant ball of warmth, “These crystal ponies don’t seem to remember anythin’ useful.”

Fluttershy approached us up the stairs, and both Twilight and myself looked to her– and holy shit did she just unzip her– oh… it’s Pinkie Pie…

The party pony zipped over to Twilight and whispered quickly, “It’s been a quivering forehoof and floppy ear! A quivering forehoof and a floppy ear!” –and then she was gone.

…

I blinked, trying to work my way through the weird pinkie sense codes, “... wait, is that the one with the mayonnaise or the one with the gerbil?”

“I thought it was something about trains…?” Twilight said looking at me.

For a moment there was silence at that as the rest of the girls approached, and then it cracked, “Pfft.”

“Hehehehe…”

A wave of probably inappropriate giggles swept through the group at that, and even Shadow Play and Quiet joined in a bit, though theirs was a bit more sheepish due to the lack of Pinkie Pie Exposure. Punic was stoic as ever, and Rose just looked confused, but Graves and Qubanna both rolled their eyes.

“Ahem, yes,” Rarity cleared her throat, “Anyways, I’m sorry dear, but I wasn’t able to find anything either.”

“I’m really sorry, but they didn’t tell me anything either…” Fluttershy shuffled her hooves in place.

“It’s almost like every citizen of the empire has targeted amnesia, sir,” Shadow Play said, her membranous wings shifting in place.

“Wait, the entire population?” Twilight said, more than a bit shocked, her eyes narrowing in thought, “The power involved…”

My ears swept back, because that wasn’t a joke, I don’t think there was much of Twilight’s knowledge of mental magics that had been left behid in my head, but we’d both studied it in order to separate ourselves, so I had a pretty solid idea myself of how ridiculous the power requirements for such as that would be. I turned to Grave Danger, “Is there anything you know of that would explain that?”

“Feh, you can’t figure it out you fool?” the relatively small unicorn sneered, “You practically used it yourself.”

I just sort of stared at the pale yellow unicorn for a long moment, but when no further explanation was forthcoming, I pressed, “So… are you gonna explain it…?”

Grave Danger snorted, “Only if you are such a fool that you can’t figure it out yourself.”

My teeth ground together, and I’ve gotta admit that I was super grateful to AJ for coughing delicately and pushing things forward, “The only thing they did mention ta me was somethin’ about a library.”

Sparkles began to appear in Twilight’s eyes as she inhaled, “A library…?”

“Twilight…” I drew out warningly, cutting things off before they got out of hand. We had other things to do first.

“What?!” she demanded, though her tone conveyed that she knew exactly what I was talking about.

“After we get Cadence and Shiney some rest.”

The purple unicorn heaved a sigh, her head drooping as she muttered, “Ugh, alright. Like you’re not interested too.” Now it was my turn to cough awkwardly at being caught.

With another sigh, this time more resigned than anything else, Twilight continued as I returned to my ponderings, “Alright, so is there anything else?”

‘Okay, so, I’ve already basically done it…? Recently? I’ve channeled considerable power… I’ve used a lot of dark magics… does he mean that Sombra was using dark magics? Which, I mean, duh, of course he was, but that shouldn’t…’

At the shaking of everyone’s heads, Twilight gave a little nod, “Alright. So this is how we’re going to make this work. Emeris is going to act as the focus of this spell, while Grave Danger, Quiet Mirror and myself provide the raw power.”

‘Yeah… a singular pony frame shouldn’t be able to withstand the amount of power that’d go through it in order to accomplish a spell like that… so it’s not like he just drew on that much power straight from the tap…’

“While we do that, the rest of you are going to do your best to get some rest. We’ll check out that library first thing tomorrow morning, see if we can find some sorts of leads.”

‘Summoned demons? No, that’s something that could work but it’s not something I’ve done, at very least not in a way that Grave Danger would recognize… the problem is that there’s no magics that are safe to use, at least none with sufficient power… like, I couldn’t channel enough power of hell to do a spell of that scale without either being a powerful demon or just burning my insides out…’ Dash’s wing stretched out to lay across my back like a warm, delightfully fuzzy blanket, and I leaned into her touch, ‘Hell, even as Gary, the only reason I could approach that scale of effect was because it was my ‘special talent’, I was an Alicorn of Terra, I was able to tap into the leylines directly and safely… and if Sombra is such a master of dark magic, he can’t have had the monofocused ability required to have that measure of affinity with any one type of dark magic source to channel it safely…’

“Shiney, you’ve already got forces ready?” At his nod, she continued, “Depending on how strong this shield ends up being, you might want to put more ponies on guard or let them relax. If it’s pretty strong we can relax, but if it’s not as strong as Cadence’s, we’ll want to have more ponies ready.”

‘So what power sources could it be? Tartarus is out, the dead are out, a Lich could channel that amount of power safely, but there wouldn’t be a city here anymore in that case, the fey would have cost him a whole lot more than he could provide, the leylines or elementals would have scoured a pony to ash through simple inefficiency at those power levels, no malice required; and there’s no way you can produce that much power with your own emo-... tions…’

My eyes had slowly widened.

“Grave Danger, Quiet Mirror, you two and myself are going to provide power to this array while Emeris acts as the filter and fo-cus… Emeris…?”

“Girls…” I kept staring at the floor as I tried to keep my racing thoughts contained and on focus, “Did the crystal ponies seem afraid or nervous?”

“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash’s head turned towards me, “How’d you know?”

This time, my head snapped to the necromancer, “Grave Danger, Sombra was making the ponies of the empire afraid and then channeling their fears and pain to power his spells, it was something that the empire is well suited for, wasn’t it?”

A smirk, barely visible beneath the shadow of his hood, “That is the most likely explanation, yes.”

That pushed me to provide a precisely eloquent and perfectly purple prose piece of provisional pronouncement, “Fuck.”

“Um, ya lost me there sugar… how’s that bad?”

“I…” I snorted quietly before biting my lip for a moment. Then I shook my head, “No, it’s not bad for us by itself, it’s a data point, but it’s not a fun data point. Like… ugh, it doesn’t change anything we’re doing right now. This is still our next step.”

There was a beat of silence after that as everyone stared at me in confusion, making me shift uncomfortably before Twilight broke it, “Right, are there any questions?”

“Can AJ and I stay here with Emmy?”

The question itself made my cheeks flush, my chest tightening even as warmth surged through it. But a sad look came over the purple unicorn’s face, “Sorry Dash, that inner circle is going to be pretty dangerous for anypony that doesn’t know how to channel it.”

Dash deflated just a bit, and I bumped her cheek with my own, “Hey, it’s alright. And trust me, she’s right. This circle’s gonna be like Twilight at max power, it’s not gonna be a fun ride.”

Her wing batted me in the back of hte head lightly, “That’s why I wanted to see if we could stay ya dork.”

Heat flared in my cheeks and I couldn’t help but chuckle, “And I definitely appreciate it, trust me…” I bit my lip for a fraction of an instant before I leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to her lips, savoring the warmth the action as well as her little surprised, but not unhappy squeak sent through me, “It means a lot to me. But this is something I’ve got to do myself. You get some rest.”

My marefriend’s mouth worked soundlessly before an evil grin spread across her face and I immediately started to get my ears out of the way, but instead of going for my ear she drew me into a headlock, “Gack!”

She laughed as her hoof rubbed the top of my head, “Don’t go and try and act like you’re cool!”

oOo

My lips drew down into a frown as I watched Sir Emeris play about with his herd. Even if I understood the need to be with your herd and I otherwise liked our commanding officer, this felt like a terrible time to do so. If he hadn’t already shown that despite his quirks, he was perfectly capable of buckling down and getting things done, I’d have probably said something already.

The knight continued to wrestle with the Element of Loyalty for a few moments before Qubanna stepped forward, a scowl on the zebra’s face as he started to open his mouth- only to be cut off as a flash of red around his mouth, sealing it shut with crimson light.

I was far from the only member of the protection team that looked at this in surprise, tracing the light back to Grave Danger, the Broken Horn putting a hoof to his lips.

In spite of the scowl that Qubanna shot at the necromancer, most of the rest of us, as well as the Element of Generosity shot him a confused look. There was a laugh from the little herd as the Element of Honesty was drawn into the half-hearted wrestling match.

But the necromancer provided no explanation prior to the Element of Magic delicately clearing her throat, “Alright everypony, let’s get this done. Grave Danger, Quiet Mirror?”

Quiet Mirror nodded, nearly saluted, not that I could blame him, Twilight may have had moments of awkwardness, but the unicorn had a commanding presence when she put her mind to it. It honestly reminded me of Princess Celestia at times, just… younger I guess? I didn’t truly have a good comparison though, I’d only occasionally worked with the Day Princess rather than my own.

The Broken Horn continued to be disrespectful and antagonistic though, simply stepping forward and into one of the three circles, his cloak moving easily about him.

“Sorry girls, but…”

“Yeah yeah, we got it Twilight, sheesh,” the blue pegasus rolled her eyes and squirmed out from the grasp of the knight’s forehooves.

As the unicorns took their place, the Element of Honesty also left the central circle of the design, pausing to glance back at her stallion with a brief, complicated expression… one I think I recognized actually. But before I think even the dark green unicorn could notice, she dove in and gave him a quick peck on his scarred cheek, “Be safe sugar.”

HIs face lit up like a fire hydrant, but he still managed to give her a slightly shaky grin, “I’ll make it happen AJ, don’t worry.”

The mare straightened her hat atop her head with a little smile before truly leaving the area proscribed by the design on the floor. The other Elements of Harmony all gathering about together, which I guess made sense given that their strength was in their unity…

With a quick glance to confirm that everypony was in place, the Element of Magic nodded, “Okay, push your power through the system, remember to pace yourselves for the entirety of the night-”

“If we didn’t know to do such as that, we wouldn’t have been selected for this duty child, get on with it.”

That earned the Broken Horn a number of glares, particularly from the Major Punic.

But with a sigh, Twilight Sparkle led the casting, each of the four unicorns closing their eyes in concentration.

One by one, the horns of the unicorns lit up, the Element of Magic’s a brilliant sunset purple, the Broken Horn’s a deep, bloody crimson, the Zenith Captain’s a rich, ocean blue, and the Knight’s a brilliant emerald green. The strange design beneath them starting to light up with their respective colors, pouring down through the lines towards the central circle.

The entire design pulsed once as it was filled with power, and Sir Emeris earrings began to dance about in the upcurrent of power.

Sir Emeris took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and I could have sworn I saw a glimmer of pink light from his closed eyes before woah!

My wings flared out reflexively as a wave of power washed over us, a purple wave of magical energy expanding rapidly and surging out.

Okay, againap’s might not be true magic users the way a unicorn was, but I knew what magic was and had a good appreciation of its power. But this… what kind of monsters had I been teamed up with?

Sir Emeris had blown apart a mountain, and from what I could feel, Grave Danger was of similar power. But Twilight Sparkle…

In spite of myself, I actually shivered, my membranous wings wrapping around my torso tightly. Because even with her deliberately matching the power of the other unicorns, I could tell that she was holding back… entire train indeed… and none of the Elements of Harmony even seemed surprised by the amount of power coming off of her. Her brother and her highness Cadence I could understand not being surprised by that amount of power but…

A little look crossed Quiet Mirror’s face, and I actually had to pity the Zenith Captain just a bit. He wasn’t a weak unicorn, but I felt a little inadequate in the face of this and I wasn’t even a unicorn!

“Everyone okay?”

Grave Danger just snorted in response, even as Quiet MIrror nodded, “Yes Miss Sparkle.”

She glanced at the unicorn in the center of the design, “Emeris?”

It took him a moment to respond, but when he did he gave a little nod of his head, his voice soft, “Doin’ okay… little… rough… but I’ll hold it together.”

“Okay…” the Element of Magic cracked open an eye and glanced out the doorway to the hall, and my eyes followed her to find that the sky outside had instead become a solid shade of purple rather than pink, though it was an unusual shade of such… likely due to the mixing of the colors of the four unicorns… but it was still purple rather than pink. With a nod, Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes, “Cadence, you can drop your shield, we’ll keep the Empire safe for the night, you get some rest.”

“I… thank you Twilight…” her highness sighed out with a little smile, the horns of both of the royal couple dimming as they let their shield drop.

Twilight Sparkle smiled at the sound of her highness voice, tilting her head slightly towards the Elements of Harmony without opening her eyes, “Girls, try and get some rest, we’ll get to work tomorrow.”

“Rightyo Twilight,” the Element of Honesty mock saluted, and the military mare in me ground her teeth at the improper salute. Gah, always with the civilians and that.

The ponies, exchanged a number of ‘good nights’ and such as they started to turn and–

“IT’LL BE A SLEEPOVER! WOOHOOOOOOO!!!”

I cringed just a bit as the pink party pony appeared out of nowhere, sweeping up a number of her friends in a group hug. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the Element of Laughter, Sunspot would probably love her, but I was not my herdmate. But still, the long suffering sighs and smiles the Element’s of Harmony gave as they were dragged off made a smile of my own appear.

My hooves began to move as I followed after the Elements of Harmony. Even if he hadn’t explicitly stated as such, I knew that it was still my duty to keep an eye on the Elements of Harmony even in this place of safety.

Something niggled at me though as I started to follow after the mares, while half of our group was a part of the ritual, and Qubanna was heading off to finish the creation of the super-caffeine… that still left…

I blinked, looking first at Cumulus Rose, and then at the distinct lack of Punic following alongside us. My head continued to turn to look over my shoulder to find the honestly massive Earth Pony laying down near the ritual space, not far from the Element of Magic, “Punic, sir?”

“I shall stay here to watch over them, Shadow Play” he said, already knowing the question I was about to ask, setting his helmet down beside himself, an almost demure smile on his face, “I could not find it in myself to leave Twilight Sparkle undefended, not in good conscience.”

A little frown crossed my face at that even as my eyes could pick out a little dusting of pink crossed the Element of Magic’s cheeks, it wasn’t like Shining Armor was taking all of his soldiers from the room or anything, and Sir Emeris himself was right here. And while he was quirky and strange, I had no questions about his ability to protect them. But specifically calling out Twilight Sparkle like that…

It took only a brief glance to confirm that Captain Shining Armor had also paused to give the larger pony a… pointedly neutral look. And even both Sir Emeris and Quiet Mirror had shifted about uncomfortably at the statement.

But the large stallion made no effort to move or expand on that, and it wasn’t like I had a good reason to question the decision, the ritual space was important and all…

With a small sigh, I shook my head, “Alright, we’ll keep an eye on the rest of the Elements of Harmony.”

Punic gave a little nod of acknowledgement as he lay down near the ritual space, and I did my best to ignore the slight unease I felt, nobility always did that to me. Ugh. Still, with any luck I'd be able to make time to talk with the Ele-... with Applejack...

A little sigh escaped me as I trotted after the girls, with any luck we’d have at least a decent place to sleep…

oOo

Terrible winds howled just beyond the pink barrier that cut them off from the Empire, beasts of shadows and hatred nipping at the edges of the barrier, seeking weakness but finding none.

There was a change.

Even as ice continued to build on the buried mountain of rubble, as whisps of shadows and hatred seeped out from between the cracks… the barrier’s flavor changed… and then, the pink barrier fell.

Strange… they had another that could provide such a barrier?

But then, as this was contemplated, the barrier flickered for just an instant, and the beasts that continued to probe at its edges surged forward.

Most were cut off, most were cleaved in twain by the power of virtue and passion, most were repelled.

But most was not all.

Near the edges of the Crystal Empire, as the sun fell behind the mountains, shadows began to pool.

Author's Note

Iä! Iä! Consequences of Darkness fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Consequences of Darkness Fimfiction wgah'nagl fhtagn!

RISE!!! RISE I SAY!!! RISE FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE BEYOND!!! RISE AND BE COUNTED!!!

-casts Void Circle Necromancy-

Aaaand done.

So I make no excuses. Life was rough. But this lives once more.

This chapter was a fair bit rushed, so it's far from my favorite. I wrote this in about a week and there's a minimal amount of backchecking and betaing and editing. I'm also not super happy with the fact that this is primarily a transition piece rather than something seriously advancing the plot in some way or another. If anything seems out of character or out of place or just reads weird, do not hesitate to point it out! It's far more likely that I messed something up in this chapter rather than it being a deliberate choice.

But it's here, and it's alive, and I'm doing what I can to keep it that way. I'm getting back into the swing of putting out horse words.

As always, I highly encourage criticism and commentary. That which I've gotten on this story has consistently been some of the best I've gotten in my time putting purdy wurds on the intertubes.

Anyways, Decepticons, Rise Up!

Consequences of Introductions

My name’s Emeris Fillson, at one point I was human, but… well… I’ve been a lot of things. Monster, prey, beast, umbralkin, demigod, something straight out of bad fanfiction, and now a unicorn. A brightly colored pony unicorn. Yeah, it’s been that kind of life.

But it’s like what my family taught me: ‘It’s not what you are, but what you do.’ Though I’m pretty sure they’d never taken the sorts of things I’ve been into account… Perhaps something like: ‘It’s how you play with the hand you’re dealt that shows the real you’ or something like that. But, I mean, it’s not like a whole lot’s happened since I’ve arrived here…

… okay, that’s a lie, quite a few things have happened, but they’re not really important.

…

Alright, a lot of them were important too, but they’re not important right now, okay?

Because right now I’m trying to keep my friend from driving herself insane… well, even more insane.

“Oh I’m going to need more quills, can’t ever have enough quills–”

“Twilight,” I said even as the rest of the girls and I followed Twilight’s frantic rushing back and forth, our heads moving in amusing synchronization.

“–and paper! Have to have enough paper to show my work! It wouldn’t do to come in without enough paper–”

“Twilight dear…” it was Rarity that spoke up this time as our eyes followed Twilight on her run back to the other side of the library. The fashionista sounding just a bit hopeful that she’d get through to our friend… just a bit though. We all knew better by this point.

My fellow unicorn went unheard as Twilight rushed around, the seven of us sharing a sigh.

“Ah don’t think she’s listenin’,” Applejack pointed out.

“Me either,” I muttered. And as amusing as it was to watch this, she was working herself into a tizzy and I couldn’t really just stand by while she did, “Twilight, it’s just a test.” Spike immediately scrambled off of my back.

Twilight froze in place briefly before wheeling on me, eyes frantic, “Just… a test?!” I stood my ground as she approached, idly noting that the rest of our friends took a synchronized step away from me as the smaller unicorn bore down on me, “Just a test?! Princess Celestia calls us both in, wanting to give you a mission and me an exam and you’re trying to tell me to calm down because it’s just a test?!”

…

What the heck, you only live once.

“Yes.”

I could practically see her train of thought hit a cow, derail, and slam into the countryside. It was a very eloquent look. It was looks like that that were the reason I loved giving blunt answers like that.

Then Twilight grit her teeth and started vibrating, I could practically hear the kettle boiling over. Shields up! Go to red alert! All hands to battle stations!

As my friend let out a scream of frustration and incoherent rage, I lit my horn.

oOo

Rarity hummed softly to herself as she brushed Twilight’s mane, occasionally pausing to spray some water on the slightly singed hair before returning to her brushing, straightening out the tangled mess. Amusingly, the lavender unicorn was still grumbling under her breath about the magic bottle I’d created around her to contain the magical outburst.

Mind you, I hadn’t fared a whole lot better, I was kinda surprised I still had my eyebrows since Twilight’s greater power had popped the created false-mage-steel like a bubble. Thankfully, my short brown mane was already a swept back mess, now it was just kinda singed and bit spiky too, so not much of a difference. Still, I’d managed to contain the worst of Twilight’s ‘little’ explosion.

“Twilight, dear, you must sit still, I can’t fix your mane very well with you fidgeting like that,” the fashionista admonished her friend.

“But Rarity!” she whined with all the elegance and grace available to her, shifting around the book in front of her, “I have to study! It’s an exam from the princess!”

Applejack and I shared a glance before rolling our eyes in unison. Of course Twilight would focus on the exam part, not the part where the Elements of Harmony plus myself had been called to Canterlot for reasons (aside from the test) currently unknown..

There were times where I could hardly believe that I’d only been able to talk to ponies in any meaningful way for less than three months now. Before that had been… nevermind. Just fuck that noise. That was in the past and it was staying there.

“But you can’t meet the princess with your mane in such a state!” Rarity exclaimed, the noise enough to make the sleeping pegasus on my back snort and shift position.

“But– study!”

The eight of us were packed into a train car room, whatever the technical term was. Applejack, Pinkie, Dash and myself on one side, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight and Spike on the other. While the other side was rather well organized, what with Fluttershy sitting demurely on the cushion and Spike reading his comic, my side was a bit more haphazard.

Sure, Applejack was sitting properly, but Dash was sprawled out on my back asleep and Pinkie was using my flanks as a pillow.

Couldn’t really say I minded, I was over half again the size of the girls, comparable in height to Big Mac, though I was significantly leaner than the massive stallion. It meant there was plenty of room on my back for Dash to make a bed while waiting for the comparatively slow train to get us to Canterlot.

Dash wasn’t a surprise, she’d been delightfully snuggly ever since we’d started going out… hell, was it really just two weeks ago? Not that I’d say that how delightful I found her snuggling was in public, I’d watched more than enough anime to know that teasing a tomboy about her less ‘awesome’ traits was a quick way to the observatory.

Y’know, what with all the stars she’d make me see.

But it was Pinkie that sort of surprised me, she wasn’t exactly a snuggler, and I hadn’t expected her to fall asleep on the train ride. But eh. What were friends for if you couldn’t use them as a pillow?

… a lot of things, really, but eh.

Rarity huffed, grabbing Twilight’s head with her forelegs and turning it this way and that as her teal magic manipulated the brush, to much grumbling from the lavender unicorn, “You’ll thank me later darling.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, earning a scowl from Twilight, which admittedly only made me grin at her.

With a small sigh, Applejack laid her head against my shoulder, making me stiffen briefly before I forced relaxation back on myself in spite of the spike of my heart-rate.

Now it was Twilight’s turn to smirk at me, to which I responded with an utterly eloquent and refined raspberry.

Okay, sure, I intellectually knew I was dating both Applejack and Dash. Intellectually I knew that herds, where three or four mares and one stallion made a family unit, were standard operating procedure for ponies. Intellectually I knew that these two mares actually liked one another as much, if not more, than they liked me.

But intellectually was different from emotionally, especially considering my personal issues. I was from a freaking monogamous culture damnit! Harem animes were wish fulfillment! And nearly being raped off and on by pretty much every pony I ran into over the course of two years kinda gave me a teensy weensy, itsy bitsy, tiny winy, totally mild case of being fucking insane.

I was getting better, but there were still moments like this where everything was perfectly innocent and fine by even my own standards, but I’d stiffen and have a tiny freakout.

It was kinda embarrassing, since I knew better, but little steps people, little steps.

Applejack shifted, the length of her side pressing against mine as she got comfortable, using my shoulder as a pillow, the pleasant warmth causing my cheeks to heat up and an almost hesitant smile to appear on my face..

Rarity and Twilight both gave me a bit of a smirk at that. Heck, even Fluttershy was giving me a smile that made me want to scowl. So I pouted, pointedly looking out the window, settling in for the thankfully (unfortunately!) short ride to Canterlot.

oOo

With a grunt, I stretched my legs out as I stepped off of the train, my joints popping as I did.

It was with a practiced ease that I ignored the way ponies scampered out of my way. It wasn’t as bad as Ponyville had been, but they still gave me a large berth of personal space, almost a dozen feet actually. There were a few of those looks scattered amongst the ponies at the station, but this time it probably had more to do with my appearance than my previous… occupation. Yeah, let’s go with that word. That works.

I mean, I was big for a unicorn, and my light pink vest was a weird contrast with my blackboard green coat, but those were pretty normal in a big city like Canterlot. It was the scars that probably scared them off, freakin’ flighty ponies.

Twilight was quick to lead the way, setting a bit of a hard pace for our little group with Spike on her back. I trotted after her towards the carriage that waited for us outside the train station, Dash grumbling on my back at the jostling of her bed, earning an amused smile from me.

The crowd parted easily for us as we moved, though I had no doubts it was because of me than any of my friends.

Sure, I was missing half of my right ear, had two earrings in my whole left one, a trio of broad scars on my left cheek, and a scar that traced from the middle of my bottom lip all the way down my neck and chest, disappearing into my vest. At least my heavy vest, saddlebags, and my martial arts wraps hid the scarring on my torso and legs.

… okay, if I was in their place I’d be pretty wary of me too, but still! This was excessive. It was like casting Dragon Slave or Ultima on a single mudcrab!

There wasn’t really any doubt that this carriage was for us, what with all the royal guards and royal seal and royally plush cushions for Celestia’s royally plush flank and all, so we piled on in.

With a quick little hope, I was the last one in, the royal guard closing the door behind me even as he went to the yoke to help pull it along. I rolled my shoulders and dumped a sputtering Dash onto the seat with a grin, Twilight having set her own saddlebags in front of her and searching through them frantically, “Ohhhh, where’s my checklist?!”

“Quills, ink, paper, The Abridged Complete History of Equestria,” I started to list off as I grinned at Dash, the pegasus rolling over to scowl at me even as the rest of the girls settled into their seats and the carriage jerked into motion, “Advanced Universal Thaumic Theory, volumes one through three, the latest edition of Fundamental Physics Equations, the driest edition.”

Spike, who had slid into the seat beside Twilight and looking in the saddlebags, spoke up, “Check, check, check, check, check, and definitely check on the driest edition. Super boring.”

Dash suddenly smirked and I had a bad feeling, “Equine Psychology the Hundreds Series, Bit Economics by Macro, Micro, and– ACK-!” a pair of forehooves, one blue and one covered in rose-red silk had blurred out and latched around my neck, and next I knew I was on the seat in a chokehold.

“Check and check by the way,” Spike noted.

Damnit! I got cocky (kid)! Do a barrel roll! Press B to shoot!

With a twist and flex, I put a foreleg between Dash and I, pushing her far enough away to get the other between her legs and my neck, getting me some breathing room, “Nng-! The– The Schools of Magic in Depth by Lemondrops, flash caaAAArd-oof!” the pegasus had twisted and likely used her wings and the seat for leverage to roll us onto the floor of the carriage as it started to move, causing me to gracefully faceplant.

There was more rummaging as I twisted and turned before Spike spoke, “Check and check.”

“Woo! Go Dashie!” Pinkie, now fully awake, bounced in place on the seat.

“Then–!” with a grunt, I pushed off of the floor, wedging Dash into the corner between the seat and the floor, locking her in place with a squeak as I twisted around, “You should be good Twilight!” Now almost facing her, and with far better leverage, I was able to twist my neck out of her hold, wrapping my forelegs around her and pinning her own forelegs to her barrel. I grinned down at the pouting pegasus before turning to look up at Twilight, “You’ve got all of your bases covered, anything more would just be silly.”

“Don’t give up yet Dash!” my head swung to Applejack to pout at her, which only made her grin wider, “Ya’ ain’t beat yet!”

“Traitor, why don’t you ever cheer for me?” my head jerked to the side as the pegasus beneath me lunged up and barely missed latching onto my still-whole left ear, “Hah! That don’t work no more!”

“Ooohhhh, but what if I’ve forgotten something?” Twilight fretted, earning an eye roll from me as I held my head out of Dash’s reach, keeping her forelegs pinned to her sides with my own.

“Twilight, hun, don’t worry, just go over your flash carrRDDS–!” Ack! I forgot about the feather! Forgot about the feather!

My head reflexively jerked downwards as Dash tugged on her feather that I’d put into one of the earrings in my left ear, long enough for her to reach up and latch onto the ear proper with her teeth, and so I went tumbling back across the floor of the carriage.

“Woo! Get ‘im girl!”

Ceiling-Floor-Ceiling-Floor-BLUE-Floor-*THUD-!*

… Ceiling.

I huffed as Dash wiggled around a bit to get comfortable, my forelegs pressed against my torso by her body and my back wedged into the corner between the floor and seat, mimicking Dash’s position moments before with the beautiful pegasus’ body perpendicular to my own. Damnit

Applejack leaned over the edge of the seat to give me a quick little peck on the cheek, causing said cheek to heat up as I blushed, “Ah don’t cheer for ya’ when you’re wrestlin’ ‘cause ya’ usually don’t need it sugar,” she said with a bit of a smirk.

My attempts to get out of the position were half-hearted at best. For one, I knew that despite being bigger than Dash and no pushover myself, she was strong enough and had enough mechanical advantage to keep me pinned; I’d, learned that the hard way when she’d been training me in Rolling Earth style. For another, this was actually pretty comfy.

“I win~” Dash smugged good naturedly down at me.

Yes, it is a word. Twilight said so, so there.

… well, she had when she was deprived of her coffee. That had been hilarious.

I blew a little raspberry at her, earning a giggle that made my chest feel all warm and fuzzy before turning to look up at Applejack, “You say that, but last I checked, I tend to lose… because y’all cheat.”

Even as Twilight frantically went through her flash cards, the carriage rolling along, Rarity spoke up, “You know darlings, you two never did tell me how your first date went…”

My face heated up as I scowled at the fashionista, great friend or not that was an absolutely horrendous segway. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone in those feelings as Applejack joined me in the scowling session, “Are ya ever gonna drop that Rares?”

“Oh don’t say it like that dear! You make it sound like I’ve been asking forever!” her smile was coy, but it wasn’t fooling anyone, “It’s only been a week since Emeris and you had your first date after all.”

“You just want gossip,” I pointed out as Pinkie lost interest in the inside of the carriage now that I’d lost, instead leaning out the window and waving at ponies on the street.

Rarity’s hoof came up to her chest in (mock) indignation, “Is it wrong to want to be sure that my friends are doing well?”

“You know full well we’re doing okay,” I said with a raised eyebrow before reiterating, “You just want gossip.”

The admittedly beautiful marshmallow huffed, “Can you blame me? Your love life is the only one with anything interesting happening in it right now! Ever since Cadence and Shining Armor were married the political scene has been all up in a tizzy about who else they’re considering for their herd! It’s the only thing they talk about anymore and the marriage was over two years ago!” with a dramatic gesture, Rarity rolled over and draped a foreleg over her forehead, “But I know that they still want to enjoy their time with each other for at least a few more months now that there’s no risk of…” she cringed, her eyes flicking to me as her ears swept back, “Well…”

“No chance of my being in the same postal code ruining their honeymoon,” I supplied with only the slightest grumble at the thought. Man I’d hated that part of my curse.

“Yes, well,” Rarity continued with a brief wince from her place upside down, “It means that there’s no meaningful gossip going around about anypony’s love life right now! Your little herd is the most interesting thing happening! I’m gossip deprived!”

“Boo hoo,” I deadpanned, making Dash snicker and Fluttershy smile demurely even as Rarity pouted.

All of this went unnoticed by the frantic lavender unicorn who was flicking through her note cards at a rapid pace, muttering to herself under her breath. To be fair though, we didn’t really pay too much attention to her either, as Applejack huffed at her most prim and proper friend, “Ah don’t see why you can’t gossip about the love lives of other ponies in Ponyville.”

Flipping back onto her stomach and letting her forehooves dangle from the seat, Rarity pouted, “Well, since Fluttershy hasn’t worked up the courage to talk to Cheerilee about joining Big Mac’s herd,” the butter-yellow pegasus lit up like a fire hydrant, desperately hiding behind her mane, “There haven’t really been any big changes in Ponyville’s herd structure for the past few months. I mean, sure the twins are having a spat and Thunderlane’s been caught in the middle all over again, but that’s not gossip!”

I rolled my eyes as Rarity began her tirade. I really didn’t feel like this was the time to be concerned about things like this.

Laying my head on the floor, I closed my eyes, enjoying the closeness of Dash. Honestly, I was more concerned with how we’d been called. If it’d just been Twilight called in and we’d come to support her? No worries. But calling in me as well? That set off alarm bells.

See, the girls had all their special skills, but mine could be boiled down pretty easily: Business, Anti-Reality-Warping, Curses/Blessings, and Face-Punching.

The princesses had advisors that immersed themselves in the countries economics, as well as their own immense experience to draw from, so that wasn’t likely. Either of the princesses could deal with reality warping effects as good or better than I could and probably understood it better, so that was also unlikely.

I might be called in because of my knowledge of Curses and Blessings, or as I preferred to call them, Boons and Banes, but I doubted I was the only pony to study them thoroughly in recent memory. There were probably specialists that made me look like a chump, and definitely ones that were at least comparable and with greater experience.

But that left face punching. And while I didn’t consider myself great at it, I definitely wasn’t bad. Dash, what with three black belts, could kick my ass six ways from Sunday in hand to hand (Hoof to hoof, sorry), but if I was actually trying to hurt someone I could always whip out my Construct magic to even the playing field.

Those latter two options, the actually plausible ones? Didn’t bode well for why I’d been called in with the girls.

“And you’re not even listening anymore,” Rarity grumbled.

Cracking an eye open, I couldn’t help but smirk at her, “What clued you in?"

The fashionista pouted at me and just as I started to continue the snark, I felt something weird against my whole ear. Rarity and I both blinked, and my ear flicked once as my brain finally put two and two together and got four, realizing that someone was playing with my earring with a hoof.

Tilting my head some I looked up to find Applejack flicking her hoof idly at my ear with a pensive look on her face, “... AJ?”

The farmmare practically jumped, startled out of her reverie, “What? Ah wasn’t doin’ nothin’!” I didn’t believe her a bit, and I’d bet money that she’d been playing with the earring based around the flower she’d given me for our date.

While with Dash, I’d taken the Secondary feather she’d given me and placed it within an earring, Applejack had given me a bit more traditional flower that was the same color as her coat. I’d taken the time to enchant (bless being the technical term for living things) the flower so that it wouldn’t fall to pieces and worked it into another earring. I’d done that since my hair was too short to properly tuck them in and I… well, I wanted to hold on to these fragments of real affection…

Despite not believing her though, I didn’t press the cowpony, just shaking my head, “Nothing.”

“Applejack dear…” Rarity gave her friend a look I couldn’t really discern, her ears drooping. It was… concern and… something else?

“What?” she snapped, scowling at Rarity.

After a moment, the fashionista looked away, “Nevermind dear, it was nothing.”

The farmmare huffed, crossing her forelegs and looking out the window, the one Pinkie wasn’t hanging out of. Overcoming the awkwardness of the moment, Rarity turned towards the still bright red Fluttershy, attempting to coax her back out from behind her mane. Twilight was still stressing over her flash cards, Spike dutifully going through them with her.

… I think Pinkie was calling out to ponies by name… color me impressed. Which was probably some shade of chartreuse or something, but still, color me that!

Warm breath played across my ear, making me blush as the ear twitched, “Hey, you okay?” Dash whispered into my ear. The silk of my old tie that was wrapped around her foreleg brushed against me as she gave my neck a gentle squeeze, “You’re tense…”

I closed my eyes, suppressing a scowl as I whispered back, “Worried. I think there’s more to this than just some little test for Twilight.”

The pegasus was quiet for a moment, shuffling a bit tighter against me and scooching her head closer to my ear, “What do you think’s going on?”

My lips pressed into a thin line, my eyes still closed as I listened to the carriage roll along towards what I assumed was the palace, “Dunno, gonna have to find out.”

oOo

I followed after Twilight, who was leading the way. The lavender unicorn had composed herself at least a bit better, she’d found out where Celestia was waiting for her and off she went. Something I’d noted though in my paranoia was that the guard had said that the princesses, plural, were waiting. Yeah, alarm bells were a ringin’ in my head.

Twilight obviously knew the palace like the back of her hand… hoof. Right. Pony not Humey. I’m a dork. Anyways, she knew it well since she’d practically grown up here. I knew a whole lot of nothing, so I was just part of the pack of our friends following after her.

… okay, I knew some parts of the palace and it’s general layout, but I really preferred to avoid this place. It was fine now but beforehand it’d been rather unpleasant to be fawned over here–

My mismatched ears perked, “–the Crystal Empire’s magic cannot fall into the wrong hooves,” that was Luna’s voice, that… that didn’t sound good.

Twilight turned a corner to a set of double doors, coughing nervously and giving the room a weak smile as the rest of us caught up. It was Celestia’s voice that softly said, “I know little sister, it won’t.”

The rest of us came up to the doorway, and it was easy to see the two princesses. Now I knew the room, it was the one with the absolutely stunning stained glass windows of the various important events in Equestrian history, arranged tastefully along the hallway to best guide light through them.

I hated this room.

Personal reasons, usually avoided the damn thing like the plague.

My eyes fell back to the princesses and I found Luna’s gaze locked on me as she walked towards our group, Twilight walking past her down the beautiful red carpet towards her mentor, “You wanted to see us? To give me a test?” The adorable unicorn sounded somewhere between excited and terrified, “I brought my own quills–”

“Emeris,” Luna had drawn abreast our group, the rest of us waiting at the doorway while Twilight approached Celestia. Her voice was soft but her tone commanding, I’d guess she didn’t want to interrupt Celestia and Twilight.

“Princess?” I asked, my head turned towards her.

“Walk with me.”

“Of course Luna,” I spun on my rear hooves and followed after her down the hallway.

I could hear Twilight still talking as we walked away, “Um… oh! And plenty of paper to show my work!”

“Twilight, this is a very different kind of test–”

Luna turned another corner and despite my ears swiveling freely I could no longer make out what they were saying. I glanced over at the alicorn I was following a half step behind, “Do I want to know?”

“You shall find out soon enough, Sir Emeris.”

Right, shut up and follow, gotcha. Happily. Though now I’m curious on top of worried. Great.

A few minutes later, as we wound our way through the palace, a large member of Luna’s guard approached, one of the ones with the bat wings. I’d never learned the proper term for them since they were relatively rare outside of Luna’s guard… bat-ponies? “Princess.” She saluted with a wing as she approached, sounding surprisingly feminine despite of her bulk and size, being almost as tall as me but with significantly more mass.

Luna nodded at her subordinate, continuing to walk as she fell in step on the other side of the alicorn, “Shadow Play, good, have the others been notified?”

“Yes ma’am,” she nodded, and I noticed that her helmet lacked the usual crest (either brush or fin) that the most visible guards’ helmets usually had. She was a dark blue gray, a shade that I could only describe as the color of dark, her mane and tail both covered by her light barding. There were no gems set into or ornamentation to her dark purple armor; it was comprised of nothing more than simple, segmented plates, “The ponies are being gathered in the briefing room.”

“Thank you,” with a brief nod at her subordinate, Luna pressed on, “Let us not waste time.”

“Luna–” my question about what to expect was interrupted by a sudden *thwap* that made my head jerk forward with an accompanying sting.

“Don’t you dare refer to the princess so casually!” the bat-pony beside me hissed. And it was a very impressive hiss, my insides actually quivered a bit as my eyes blinked rapidly in confusion, shock, and a bit of fear. Though the bubbling irritation won out and I swung my head around to scowl at her.

But it was said princess that spoke, her voice gentle but uncompromising, “Shadow Play.”

The armored mare stiffened even as we walked, “Ma’am.”

“Emeris has a different relationship with my sister and I than most,” while technically true, having it put like that made me cringe, it made me sound more important than I was, “He is allowed to be more informal.”

While the bat-pony beside me scowled, she nodded, “Princess.”

Luna turned her head, her teal eye looking over her other shoulder at me, “Emeris, please wait until the briefing, I have much to explain.”

I sighed softly, “Alright princess.”

Falling into step with her again, I sighed softly. Great.

Still, that left something else. I slowed my pace just a bit, “Hey,” I met Shadow Play’s pale yellow eyes when she looked over, “Sorry, didn’t know the title was a big deal to you.”

She blinked, somehow surprised that I was apologizing. I mean, I’d offended her, I should apologize. Still, Shadow Play nodded a bit jerkily, “Thank you, I am sorry for reacting as I did.”

“Don’t worry about it, you’re forgiven,” I smiled warmly at her, which only seemed to confuse her more.

It was then that I noticed Luna was giving me a look over her shoulder. What? What did I do? Was it because I’d forgiven her? What was it with ponies saying I forgave too easily?!

With a huff, I looked away, staying in step behind the Princess of the Night.

It was several minutes of silence and at least a dozen twists and turns later that we came to a set of double doors at the end of a hallway. I might not have been able to follow how we got here, but I knew generally where we were: somewhere in Luna’s tower of the palace. Especially blatant not only because of the doors we’d gone through and the general decor, but also because of the pair of bat-pony guards at the doorway.

Strangely, there was also a unicorn in the traditional gold barding of the Solar Guard sitting outside the door. I cocked my head to the side as we approached, though Luna seemed to recognize him, “Ah, Quiet Mirror, are the others gathered inside?”

The almost silver-gray stallion nodded, “Yes princess.”

Ah-haha… Silver like a mirror. I get it. Funny. It was kind of interesting how their names always seemed to line up with their appearance and or talent in some manner or another. The former was understandable but the latter was just weird, I’d never found out why that was…

“And you are not because…?” Luna led with as we approached the door.

He shifted uncomfortably, his saddlebags jangling slightly against his sides, “Punic is already in there.”

“Ah, yes, that would explain it.” Luna, sweetie-pie, that explained a whole lot of nothing to me, “Come, let us not waste time.”

One of the bat-ponies at the door opened it with a wing, allow the four of us inside, closing the door behind me. I scanned the unfamiliar room as we entered.

In addition to those of us that had just entered, there were four ponies in the dimly lit room. I stepped up to the edge of the circle in the center of the room that the ponies had gathered around and sat down as Luna stepped into the center of it, “Thank you for waiting. The briefing for this quest starts now. The Crystal Empire has returned.”

While Quiet Mirror and the only other unicorn in the room both gasped, I wasn’t the only one that was confused.

I raised my hoof.

Luna gave me an unamused, sidelong glance as she continued, “Few remember it existed at all,” I put my hoof back down as Luna started to pace, “Even my sister and I do not know much, but what we do know is that it contains a powerful magic. One thousand years ago, King Sombra, a pony whose heart was darker than any night, took over the Crystal Empire. He was ultimately overthrown, turned into shadow, and banished to the ice of the arctic north. But not before he was able to put a curse on the Empire, causing it to vanish into thin air.”

Now scowling, I raised my hoof again. Luna apparently hadn’t anticipated this one, raising an eyebrow at me, “Yes, Sir Emeris?”

“Did this Sombra character have red irises with green…” I paused, my brain coming up blank, “Um, whites or whatever the proper term is?”

The still un-named unicorn in the room, a small fellow in a large black robe that covered most of his body sniffed, “The term is Sclera, fool,” he said with a sneer, his voice soft and raspy.

I didn’t roll my eyes, much, “Yeah, anyways, those.”

Luna scowled, “Yes, he did.”

My lips pressed into a thin line at that, “Then I think I blasted him about two years ago, not long after I…” hesitating, I searched for an appropriate term, nopony here seemed to recognize me, which was strange. Good, but strange. I settled on, “Arrived… in Equestria.”

The princess blinked twice before her eyes widened in realization, “I see.” Scowling, her ears swept back as her gaze locked with mine, turning around so that she faced my place in the ring of ponies, “I was not made aware of this. What happened?”

“A guard came to me about something in the north going screwy, so I went to handle it. I found this big shadowy cloud thing with…” I almost said ‘Christmas-y’ but realized the term didn’t work here, “The silly eyes. So I blasted it. I also found this spell that was failing nearby, it seemed like a barrier or seal, so I assumed that was what was keeping this thing contained. So I strengthened it.” I made a face, “In hindsight, I might have been kinda off in my assumption.”

Once again, Mr. Pale and Greasy spoke up, “Tch, and why would we believe a fool like you?” This time I actually turned to look at him, his coat was a pale yellow, almost like aged bone, and on top of his robes he was wearing a black cloak. Oh, and beneath the lank, black mane that hung on either side of his face? He was sneering at me. Great. “The guard would certainly come to the princesses before you.”

“Grave Danger,” Luna said gently yet firmly, interrupting the snark that had been about to leave me, “There were extenuating circumstances.”

The unicorn stallion scowled, but nodded, “Of course, m’lady.”

Luna turned back to me, “Emeris?”

“That was about it,” I shook my head, “I didn’t know a whole lot about magic at the time, I was just throwing power around. I found a shadow thing in the north, blasted it, and shored up a spell.”

The Princess of the Night nodded, “Hm. That changes nothing however. We know the following: If the Crystal Empire is filled with hope and love, this will be reflected throughout Equestria. But if it is filled with hate and despair…”

“Bad juu-juu up in the whazoo?” I ventured, getting more than a few weird looks. I raised an eyebrow at them in a very eloquent ‘What?’ look. I was weird. I knew it. I reveled in it, dammit. I liked being weird.

Then a deep voice from my right spoke up, “... is that supposed to be racist?”

I turned, finding a Zebra stallion almost my size two ponies over, “Ah… no. Not at all. It’s a cultural reference from my home, sorry.” I meant it too, shifting uncomfortably, “I didn’t realize that might come across that way, my bad.”

“Emeris,” it was all Luna had to say.

“Shutting up.”

She nodded before continuing, slowly pacing around the circle made by both the room and the people in it, “We have already sent Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain Shining Armor to the Empire to secure it, but their forces have encountered problems.” Her horn lit up, as did the circle beneath her, an illusion appearing around her of a frozen tundra, a city that seemed to be far too temperate given its surroundings with a massive Eiffel Tower look-alike in the center, and mountain ranges off in the distance.

Her horn flashed once and the entire image was covered by surging flurries of snow, “In addition to the unnatural blizzard that surrounds the Empire, missives speak of wolves that fight even when they have lost limbs and enshrouded in darkness and cold.”

I winced, that did not sound fun.

“My sister is sending the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony to support Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor’s forces, and to find a way to protect the Empire,” she paused, her eyes sweeping to each of those of us in the circle around her, “I am sending you as the guards for the Element Bearers.”

Quiet Mirror at my right raised his hoof, “Princess, why do the Element Bearers need a guard?” he’d taken off his helmet, revealing a short purple mane in the style that guards tended to favor, “They’re some of the most capable ponies alive as shown at the Invasion of Canterlot prior to Gary’s arrival.”

I unconsciously winced at the name even as Luna nodded to acknowledge the question, “While my sister favors the minimal amount of force required to accomplish a task, I prefer to leave nothing to chance,” Translation: I prefer overkill. That thought made me smile briefly, “Given the situation, the severity of the consequences of failure, and the surprisingly coordinated resistance of these ‘shadow wolves’, we felt it was prudent to send additional forces to ensure the Element Bearer’s safety.”

Her teal eyes swept over us, “Any questions?”

Shadow Play, on my other side, raised her wing, “Capabilities of these ‘shadow wolves’ ma’am?”

“They continue to fight even after limbs have been removed. They seem able to reform after attacks which break them apart. Fire seems to slow their reformation, but does not appear to do permanent harm,” the alicorn of the moon scowled, “There have been unconfirmed reports of them running upon the wind.”

Luna’s wings ruffled some, “We do not have any information on their numbers or organization, though they are coordinated in some fashion. Our forces are having difficulty gathering any reliable information in the constant blizzard.”

Okay, now that had me scowling. That didn’t sound like anything normal… that sounded more like a Wendigo of shadows… I raised a hoof, “Are they confirmed to be physical?”

While that got me a couple of weird looks, several ponies including the little Grave Danger ass-hat nodded. Luna though scowled, “Yes. They have physical forms, merely ones shrouded in shadow.”

I scowled some, that meant I had no idea what these things were. Not a huge surprise, but from the looks around the room, everyone else was in the dark as well. Damn.

The large zebra raised a hoof, “How shall we be traveling?”

“By train for most of the distance to the frozen north, on hoof through the blizzard.”

Grave Danger asked a question that had me giving him a funny look, but Luna took it just as seriously as mine so there was definitely something behind it, “Limitations on spellcasting?”

“None other than your own discretion,” now that was an interesting answer, “I fear that this situation is more dire than it currently appears.”

Now the lone earth pony in the group spoke, and when I finally really paid attention to him I found myself in the unusual situation of looking up at someone, “What forces do we currently have deployed?”

Before… well… back when I couldn’t talk with people, I’d only had to look up at things like dragons, but even now I was able to look Big Mac in the eye comfortably. This earth pony was almost the height of Luna herself, and had the proportional mass of a draft horse like Big Mac. This guy was freaking massive. How’s the weather up there?

“Shining Armor took his personal company of the Equestrian Guard, two hundred strong,” Luna’s visage darkened for just a moment, “Current losses are two earth ponies, six pegasi, and four unicorns.”

Oh, well… damn. Now I feel bad for making jokes.

A poignant silence hung for a minute before Luna spoke, “Any other questions?” I shook my head, as did a few others, “As this team draws from almost every branch of the Equestrian military, I shall make the introductions.”

She nodded at the large bat-pony beside me, “Shadow Play, Againap, Lieutenant of my own Lunar Guard.” Hah! Didn’t have to ask about the term. … where the heck did that one come from anyways? Pegasus and unicorn made sense, but againap? The heck…

I did notice that the Lieutenant had removed her helmet, revealing that her black mane had been cropped short as she saluted, “Ma’am.”

Luna’s head turned to the next pony in line, and I had a sudden, sneaking suspicion, “Cumulus Rose, Wonderbolt Sergeant.” The hereunto silent pegasus saluted at this, her light pink coat contrasting with the blue of the Wonderbolt’s uniform, though it matched her blue mane.

Her hood/mask and goggles hung around her neck, her salute crisp and efficient. Gotta admit, kinda liked that. Beside her was a massive… sword? Double-bladed sword? Sword-staff? I dunno, I hadn’t seen something like it before, I’d have to ask later.

With a return nod, Luna moved to the next pony around the circle and I knew for certain that she was leaving me for last. Damnit Luna.

“Punic, Major of the Equestrian Army,” the only earth pony of the group and big enough to make me consider compensating for something. Are we not going to talk about the fact that this is the single biggest pony I’ve ever seen outside of alicorns and he’s wearing more metal than the rest of the ponies here combined?

He bowed his head in a smooth motion, placing an armored hoof to his chest as he did, “It is an honor to be here, your highness.” He wore thick plating and chainmail, almost resembling a knight in full plate armor. Only his head was visible, his coat a white to rival Rarity or Celestia’s, and it was my ‘beauty sessions’ the former subjected me to that let me identify an immaculately styled mane and tail.

“To be asked to work with such luminaries as Grave Danger and Quiet Mirror is truly something few are worthy of,” his mane and tail were a dark brown like my own, though his mane lay flat against his neck and his tail was long and almost perfectly straig– Wait, hold the phone, asked?

I gave the pony a funny look, noticing Quiet Mirror cringing slightly at that. This was the guy that made the unicorn beside me uncomfortable to be around. With a phrase like that… okay, a different set of alarm bells were going off, my DiD sensors were firing, also known as ‘Douchebag in Disguise’ alerts.

Still, Luna only nodded and moved on to Mr Dark and Greasy who looked like this was a great sacrifice on his part to be here.

Now, I know that judging a book by its cover is a no-no, but ooooohhhhhh, I was a judgin’, I was a judgin’ like I belonged in a Phoenix Wright game, “Grave Danger, Broken Horn Coven, Arch Warlock.” I blinked even as there were a few soft, sharp intakes of breath around the circle, the term Broken Horn was familiar but I didn’t know what it meant. That said, Arch Warlock sounded pretty damn impressive, gotta admit.

Then the little unicorn, probably no taller than Twilight, made a ‘can we get on with it’ gesture with a foreleg, the voluminous sleeve of his robe flapping around some as he did.

Aaaaaand he went right back into the douchebag box.

Luna moved on, not addressing the near insult even though I could practically feel Shadow Play stiffen beside me. She’d gotten to the zebra, a bit bigger than the average stallion and well muscled, “Qabanna, a Zenith Guard Lieutenant,” the zebra bowed, his mane and tail were both short, tied down with leather string, an oddity to say the least in a herbivorous species. Unlike Zecora, he didn’t have gold earrings or decorations, instead having vines wrapped around his limbs and… were those thorns in his ears? Okay, that was hardcore, “He’s been acting as an attache of ours doing work in the Zebrican lands and has only recently gotten back in.”

Given that she’d given him an explanation and not the others… I noticed that he was getting some curious looks from some of the others around me, Grave Danger and Shadow Play being the only ponies that weren’t staring a bit. I could kind of understand why, unlike the others, his cutie mark was exposed, a stylized hoof with thorns sticking out of it. There was a surprising amount of scarring on his torso and legs, greater than even my own but easily missed beneath his stripes.

Luna came to the wiry unicorn beside me, “Quiet Mirror, Zenith Guard Captain.” While standard guard armor barely covered a cutiemark, he had a large pair of saddlebags that covered the rest of his thighs… most unicorn magic eschewed additional foci or materials, and traditional combat as far as I could tell didn’t involve anything like potions or single use items, so… what did he have in those…?

He gave her a quick salute before giving the room a nod, conspicuously skipping over Punic.

Welp, this was about as suspicious as a jock at an anime convention… the fuck was it with these two?

“And finally, Sir Emeris Fillson, Knight of Equestria,” I cringed just a bit at the title, I really hated titles for myself. Sure, this one was mostly legit and Celestia was using it as a political play that I was caught up in, but that just made it less stomach turningly disgusting to me.

It was at that point that Luna dropped the bomb, and apparently I was Hiroshima, “He will be the leader of this team.”

A half second’s silence–

“What?!” I wasn’t the only one that shouted at that as I leapt to my hooves, more than a few of my fellows in the room had as well, though others had merely given the princess a strange look as the room erupted in voices.

“This unknown? I’ve never heard of him before, what qualifies him for–” the massive Punic started, his deep voice controlled but loud.

“Ma’am I know he’s different but how can you put him in charge–” Shadow Play practically bristled beside me, having leapt to her hooves and her wings flaring.

“What qualifications does this stallion have to lead a team like ours in defense of the Element Bearers–?” this was Cumulus Rose, who’d also gotten to her hooves, almost knocking over her massive blade in the process.

I didn’t add my voice to the din, instead giving a Luna a look that spoke for me. Why? Why me?

”ENOUGH!!!” my hooves slid across the tile floor slightly at the force of the Royal Canterlot Voice, my teeth gritting even as Luna returned to a more mortal shout, “The decision was made by both my sister and I!” The room went silent as fierce teal eyes swept across the gathered ponies, “Punic, you have not heard of him because we have not wished it. My sister and I have avoided letting him become known for reasons of our own.”

The heavily armored stallion didn’t scowl, but I could see his lips press into a thin line as his ears swept back and he tilted his head up slightly in a sniff.

She turned to Cumulus Rose, “Emeris has greater experience in dealing with situations like this than any here except possibly myself. He has dealt with situations of both extreme danger and unknowns, having led the ponies on site in defense on numerous occasions.”

“Luna.” I said softly, but with every bit of warning I could put into my voice in spite of the tremors in my chest. This wasn’t a dream, this wasn’t the place to talk about these things.

But she met my gaze with one just as hard, “Sir Emeris, you dislike acknowledging it, but you have your talents.”

“My talents are accounting and runic magic since the way unicorns are taught doesn’t encourage it. All that experience you’re talking about doesn’t matter anymore, I was used to being the strongest thing on the battlefield, I’m not anymore, and as for my… ‘experience leading’,” I practically spat the phrase with all the bile I could muster, and I could muster up a lot, “You know why that doesn’t count.”

“Celestia and I disagree,” Luna said without hesitation, her wings extended slightly as she looked down at me, “While you are certainly lesser than you were, you have proven that you still retain at least a fraction of your skill.”

“How?” while it still came out accusatory, it was equal parts curiosity and disbelief.

“The timberwolf pack,” she said simply.

I winced slightly at the reminder of the source of many of my scars, “That could be a fluke,” I protested weakly, only now noticing that every other pony in the room was silently watching my confrontation with the princess, “But it didn’t show leadership on my part.”

“You led the Apple family rather well in saving your own life in spite of being near death at the time,” she countered, her eyes hard.

Snorting, I looked away, “One event does not a confirmation of skill make.” Yoda my mentor–…

“But it does indicate that the skill you showed previously still applies.” Yoda! Why hast thou forsaken me?!

Well, I certainly didn’t feel like it did, but I couldn’t come up with a good counter argument. Snorting, I turned away, “I still don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Your feelings have been noted Emeris, and were expected. But my sister and I are in agreement here,” Luna’s term brooked no contradiction, her wings slightly flared outwards, “You are going to lead this team in its defense of the Element Bearers. At the Crystal Empire you shall be turning over command of the team to Shining Armor, the leader of this operation’s more militaristic elements.”

With a sigh, I bobbed my head once, “Alright.”

I wasn’t happy with this. I really didn’t think I was the right person for this job, but I trusted Luna, and I trusted Celestia. I’d put my life in the Princess of the Sun’s hands… hooves… time and again, willingly, and while she’d made mistakes, she’d done better than I could have.

“Now that that has been settled,” mind you, Luna didn’t sound happy about this mess either, probably because I’d questioned her in front of others the way I had, I’d have to apologize for that later, “Are there any other questions?”

I wasn’t going to apologize for having issues with this plan though.

“Is there an estimated duration of this mission?” it was Punic that spoke even as I let my ass slide back to the tile floor of the dimly lit room.

“We currently do not have any solid estimates,” Luna made a half turn to speak to him directly, “But anticipate greater than a fortnight.”

As Punic nodded, Quiet Mirror spoke up, “Who’s in charge of logistics?”

“The castle quartermaster will see to your initial supply, but your team will be on your own once you are in the Crystal Empire,” the princess scowled, her wings ruffling and tail flicking slightly in agitation, “We have not been able to establish a proper line of supply through the blizzard and wolves.”

Well fuck. Gotta pack some food then, water shouldn’t be a problem with all the ice around.

Grave Danger spoke up, a scowl on his face, “What’s the full chain of command for this?”

“Myself, Shining Armor, Emeris, Twilight Sparkle, yourself, Punic, Quiet Mirror, Shadow Play, Qubanna, and Cumulus Rose.”

A quick glance around the room confirmed that nopony else had anything to bring up, so with a curt nod, Luna spoke, “So be it, the train shall be leaving at sixteen hundred from the High Canterlot Station, dismissed.”

Salutes of various kinds came from us, my own a quick nod as I turned, “Emeris.”

Damnit. “Princess?”

“Please stay, there are other things you must be informed of as team leader.”

“As you wish,” I let my flanks fall to the tile with absolutely excessive grace and poise, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! Except for, ya know, anyone with a functioning eye and attached brain. But aside from them! Not a soul!

The others filed out of the room, all except for the smallest unicorn. Grave Danger? Yeah, that was right… the door closed and he still stood in the room.

“Grave Danger,” Luna’s tone was patient, “This is a confidential meeting.”

“If it’s about him having been Gary,” my entire body tensed, “Then I would like to stay.”

The Princess of the Night’s eyes widened some even as I forced myself to relax. Damn near everyone else has known who I was immediately… mind you my sampling size was just Ponyville… but these ponies hadn’t known… “And what makes you believe that Grave Danger?”

“Tch,” he snorted, “It’s obvious. He tensed at the mention of the name, you speak of him being lesser than he was and of amazing feats he’s accomplished. Even without having met Gary, I can identify the unnatural sensation of an Outsider which the Starcloak reports confirmed Gary possessed.” The pale unicorn sneered, “But if the others couldn’t figure it out then they’re bigger fools than I give them credit for.”

I blinked at that. I felt unnatural…? Why hadn’t anyone told me?

… I mean, it made sense, but I’d have thought the girls would have told me about that at some point… maybe you had to be trained to notice it…?

The princess scowled slightly, closing her eyes in thought as her wings shifted, “I’ll have to deny the request Grave Danger, this is of personal nature for Emeris. Just know that he is likely more capable with black magic than you expect.”

Grave Danger made a face, but bowed his head, “As you wish princess.” Turning on a hoof, he walked out past me without even a glance.

His horn flared a deep crimson as did the door, which was jerked open and then closed after him with almost surprising delicacy. A part of me recognized that shade, not just that of partially dried blood, but also the one that I’d had for almost two years… I did not like that color.

I shook my head as I turned back to the princess, “Is he always that much of an…” I paused, I’d been about to say ‘ass’ but that was actually racist here, “Ah, horseapple? Douchenozzle? … fuckface?”

The princess snorted in amusement, her ears perking even as she kept her smile subdued, “Unfortunately yes. He is loyal and extraordinarily competent… there is a reason he is the next in line for command after yourself. But he can be… cantankerous.”

“A fuckface,” I rolled my eyes, “Joys. Anyways.”

“Yes,” she nodded in acknowledgement, stepping out of the circle on the ground and walking towards me, “Emeris, I know that you studied black magic extensively while searching for a way to break your curse.”

“Futilely too it seems,” I snorted, “I was looking in the wrong places for a fix.” It’d had to do with full on reality warping magic to break that curse, and not a damn thing to do with black magics.

Stopping just in front of my sitting form, Luna looked down at me, “You are to use them on this mission.”

I paused, blinking, my ears swiveling back, then returning to their original position one after the other as I tried to get a handle on my confusion, “... princess?”

“I want you to use your black magics on this mission,” I couldn’t read her facial expression. I’d gotten better at translating the different facial structures and body language, but she had a freaking poker face.

“Princess…” I was confused, and not entirely sure how I felt about that, “I lost a lot when I ceased to be Gary…” my voice was soft as I looked up at Luna apologetically, “I remember less than half of the spells I learned in those two years.”

“Emeris, the limited amount you know is greater than that which Twilight Sparkle has been taught,” Luna reminded me, “And my sister and I am trusting you to act as a buffer between her precious student and the darker aspects of our world. This is her task, this team is only there to protect her and make her plans happen.”

I cocked my head to the side briefly, my left ear sticking out sideways in confusion, the earrings dangling from it. Something was off about her statement… like… no, it was something about– My mismatched ears suddenly perked up and my eyebrows went up as the realization hit me, “This actually is a test for her.”

The Princess of the Moon was quiet for a moment, “Yes, it is. I shan’t say much, but we are seeing how Twilight Sparkle handles responsibility and the leadership of her fellow ponies.”

“So… defer to her? Despite technically superseding her in the command structure?” I ventured, trying to understand the intent.

“If you can do so without being obvious, yes.”

“I’m not exactly capable of subtlety on command Luna,” I pointed out, earning an amused smile from her. Then she reached out and patted me atop the head with a forehoof and I just had to giver her a ‘Really?’ look, which admittedly only made her smile more.

“We have no doubt you’ll pull through.”

That made me scowl, “Luna–”

“In the ways that matter,” she talked over me, “You will likely be cantankerous and problematic, but we have every reason to believe that you shall be efficient and effective in your coordination of the team in protecting Twilight Sparkle.”

The princess quieted for a moment, her wings ruffling before her teal eyes met my gray-green ones, “And make no mistake Emeris, that is your primary task,” there was steel in her eyes and her tone as she continued on, “More so than the lives of you or your team, you must protect the Element Bearers. Allowing Twilight Sparkle’s test to continue unimpeded is secondary to this.”

I blinked once, absorbing that. It was one thing to hear someone from fiction say that a task was more important than their own life or such, it was another to hear it said to you… and it was rather unsettling to be told, straight out, that someone else’s life was more valuable than your own, and that you were expected to sacrifice yourself in their place. I wasn’t military before all of this, this was something new to me.

“Understood,” the soft word came out before the thoughts were even finished.

Because… I agreed. Their lives were more important than mine. Not just because they were my friends, but because they were the fucking Elements of Harmony.

The reaction made Luna smile briefly before a more serious look returned to her face, “It is because of this that I am ordering you to use every power available to you. Any black magic you still retain from your studies that could help, any at all, should be used.”

I winced at that, my ears drooping, “That’s very little Luna…” Most of my skill that I’d retained dealt with the ability to create formulaic constructs fueled by my magic and willpower, basically green-lantern constructs. I had dabblings of other magics, the basics of elemental magic, some piss-poor illusions, three versions of a short range teleport… when you got right down to it, I didn’t have much going for me.

Admittedly, I could bless or curse living things pretty well and I could do some comparatively mean runic inscriptions given time. Ponies just didn’t have many runic enchanters since the way unicorns were classically taught didn’t lead well into learning runic magic, whereas my background of accounting and light coding was almost ideal. It had allowed me get to a level of not suck with the little squiggles and dots and slashes that most unicorns never bothered to achieve.

“Celestia suspected as much,” Luna said, “But we will fix that in time. For now, you have a task to accomplish and a team to lead.”

Pushing myself to my feet (hooves, damnit brain, get with the program), I nodded, “Princess.”

“Dismissed.”

oOo

Following the guard through the twists and turns of the palace, there was a fair bit of relief as I stepped out of the castle. I mean, sure it was sunshine and rainbows out here, but it could be worse.

Walking across the threshold of the doorway, I suddenly felt… out of place? Wrong? Like… I was intruding on something… it was… it was a new feeling. I’ve felt like an outsider plenty of times but this was… it was different.

I hesitated, not sure if I should continue. I preferred to trust my gut unless logic dictated otherwise and logic said nothing here…

But… I was curious, and I needed to find the girls to talk to them. So I flipped the mental coin and went with it, slowly walking forward.

I heard… a tune? As I slowly walked down the marble steps, it was at the edges of my hearing… more a feeling than an actual sound… It… it was familiar and beautiful and yet… yet I felt like I shouldn’t be here. My ears perked forward and I blinked Was that Twilight’s voice…?

“–for I can do so many tricks~ But I wasn’t prepared for this~” sang a beautiful voice that I could hardly believe I recognized.

Stepping around the corner, I found a full on song and dance routine going on, Twilight going down the street, the other girls beside her as the various ponies sung supporting parts. Yeah, it was Twilight, damn girl, when did you learn how to sing…?

“Levitation would have been a breeze,” her horn lit up and Fluttershy was floated by in her lavender aura, the pegasus letting out a little giggle, “Facts and figures I could recite with ease~”

I blinked as I watched her recite the square root of five hundred forty six. It… this was beautiful and wonderful but… I was intruding. There was no question, I shouldn’t be here…

“I could ace a quiz on friendship’s bliss,” she sang as she almost danced her way back and forth across the street. The sparse ponies already out of her way and humming parts even as they moved.

It was then that the other girls started to step up and sing main parts rather than merely echoing her, Applejack stepping up beside the lavender unicorn, “She could save a farm from a pair of thugs~”

“She can save a city from an invasion of bugs~” Dash sang with surprisingly good tone as she landed on Twilight’s other side.

Fluttershy and Pinkie fell into step behind Twilight, the pegasus singing as she leaned in towards her friend, “She could help a pony stand up to a dragon~”

Pinkie’s head leaned in to meet Fluttershy’s as she sang, “She could save a pony when her spirits are flaggin’~”

But… that didn’t mean I had to leave. Stepping back, I leaned my shoulder against the wall as I watched and listened, smiling as I enjoyed the… heartsong? Yeah, that was the name. I’d never heard any of the girls sing before in spite of being here for over two years, and each one had a beautiful singing voice. This was honestly pretty wonderful.

“She could bring a town together~” with a voice that was soothing to the ears, Rarity sung as she flanked the group cantering down the cobblestone street, “Help us through any weather~”

“She could save me from dragons who were all meanies,” Spike was the odd one out, lacking the beauty to his singing voice that the girls had, but with equal emotion, “Help me raise a phoenix who's just so teensy~”

“But I wasn’t prepared for this~” Twilight sang as she dramatically stepped forward, gazing upwards at the sky, she looked to her friends on her right, “Will I pass?” she turned to her other side, “Will I fail?”

A small smile appeared on my face as I shook my head, leaning against the wall. Silly Twilight, you could do this. You’re not perfect, no, but you’ve got the girls to catch you if you fall.

“My mind is sharp, my skills intact, my heart is pure…,” Twilight came to a stop, bringing a hoof to her chest, “But can I lead them right and sure~?”

My left ear cocked to the side as I looked away in thought, the echo line from the rest of the girls going unnoticed. Though if someone had pushed her over… I suppose now it was my job to stab them repeatedly. I considered that thought.

“Oh I’ve taken my share of licks,” the lavender unicorn sang to one side and then the other, “I’ve made it through thin and thick.”

Yeah… I was okay with that. I liked this job and was happy to be a part of it. Definitely better than just having a title and pay. Except for the whole possibility of getting stabbed myself, that would probably suck in the moment, but hey, ya win some ya lose some.

Still, I’d help the girls convince Twilight she could handle this, not to mention helping her through it.

“But no I wasn’t…” the feeling of intrusion peaked as the song reached a crescendo, “Prepared for this!”

The song closed and a small smile made its way onto my face as the girls held a pose. Pushing myself off of the wall, I walked over towards the gathering of multicolored female ponies, no longer feeling the intense discomfort of intrusion.

Well, not the supernatural kind. Sure, the ponies in the street gave me a larger than normal bubble of personal space, but I was accustomed to this sort of reaction. I didn’t bother acknowledging it as the ponies went back to their lives after the heartsong and I got close enough to hear the girls talking in a more conversational volume.

“–ear, we’ll get through this. Together,” Rarity had thrown a foreleg around Twilight’s withers in a comforting hug.

“Yeah!” Dash pumped a hoof from her place hovering nearby, “We’ll definitely save this Crystal Kingdom or whatever it is!”

“They’re right Twilight–” I started, but was interrupted when Fluttershy squeaked and dove behind Applejack, though most of the other girls had stiffened as well. The girls turned around, Fluttershy peeking over Applejack and blushing as she realized it was just me.

“Em!” Dash exclaimed, flying over, her scratchy voice surprisingly comforting to me as she asked, “Where were you big guy?”

“Being briefed by Luna,” I said as I walked up into the circle of ponies, Dash hovering by my side, “I’ve been put in charge of a team and ordered to keep you girls safe.” I swept my eyes around the group before locking eyes with Twilight, “And as I was saying before, the girls are right, you’ve got us to help make this happen.”

“But… Celestia’s put me in charge… and I haven’t studied for this–”

“But you’ve got plenty of practice leading the girls and Ponyville in saving the day,” I countered, steamrolling her nervousness and objections with a smile, “It’s going to be hard, but we’ll make it work.”

“But I’ve never been given this kind of responsibility!” the purple unicorn countered with a scowl, her tail flicking in agitation as we settled into a rough circle in the middle of the street.

It was mean, but I smirked, “Oh obviously, it’s an entire country. It’s not like you’ve been tasked with defeating a god of chaos that threatened the entire world or were expected to stop the goddess of the night from plunging the world into eternal darkness with no prior knowledge or anything.” I shrugged, turning to look over at Dash, who was barely containing a snicker, “Or like she accomplished both of those tasks without any previous training or knowledge of the situation.”

Twilight rolled her eyes with a sigh, a small smile on her face in spite of what I'd guess to be her best efforts, “You can be such a horseapple sometimes.”

“Only on–” I paused, blinking and turning to look at Applejack, “What day is it again?”

It was Pinkie that volunteered the information, “Ooh! Thursday! It’s Thursday.”

“Ah thanks Pinkie,” I smiled at her before returning to Twilight in an over the top tone, “Only on Thursdays!”

That earned me several groans and eyerolls, even Fluttershy demurely coughed into her hoof as Twilight countered, “I think you mean only on days ending in the letter ‘Y’.”

My eyes brightened as I pointed a hoof at her, “Ooh! Ooh! That one! I like that one! Let’s go with that.”

There were the facehooves covering smiles. I’d done my job, they were a bit more relaxed. Letting my grin fade into a more subdued smile, I continued, “But regardless, we’ve only got a few hours to get geared up for this mess. While the city itself seems temperate, there’s a supernaturally harsh blizzard around it so we’ll need to have some warm clothes.”

“And we might need food since it’s in the tundra, we don’t know what kind of stores the Crystal Empire currently has, and probably water in case the blizzard has tainted the snow…” Hrm, I hadn’t thought of that, good idea. Twilight trailed off before turning back to me, “We can pick up things from my parents, they’ll have plenty of things.”

“I’ve been given access to the castle’s resources and quartermaster for supplies, that’s where I was about to suggest.”

Twilight rubbed a hoof against her chin and I finally noticed that the other girls heads had been bouncing back and forth between us like a tennis match, which made the corner of my mouth quirk up in amusement, “Okay… Emeris, I want you to go to the quartermaster and pick up saddlebags for everypony that doesn’t have them as well as some water and military rations. Also, swing by the library to pick up Rune Temperature, 72 Degrees of Magical Inscription and For the Love of Runes.”

Her head swung to the alabaster unicorn beside her, “Rarity, we’re going to pick up some cloth and materials from my parents house for you to work with on the train ride, and between the three of us we’re going to enchant the outfits for protection against the elements and to help fight off whatever these things are.”

Purple eyes swept across the group, “Any objections or ideas?” I shook my head, as did most of the others, at which Twilight nodded, “Alright, Applejack, Dash, go with Emeris to help him carry the stuff. He could do it with his magic but we’ll need every drop of it when it comes to the enchanting. Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie you’re with me for the same reason. We’ll spread the weight of the cloth out between us.”

Another round of nods, causing a small smile to appear on Twilight’s face, “Alright, let’s go!”

With a quick nod, we broke up into the two groups, three of us heading back towards the castle as the other four turned down the street. Still, I couldn’t leave without two other things, “Fluttershy?”

“Um, yes?” the butter yellow pegasus said, her eyes blinking as she stopped and half turned.

“Sorry about startling you, didn’t mean to do that,” I said, knowing that the other girls had stopped to see what we were doing, though I missed the glance that was shared between them.

She smiled gently at me, “It’s alright, you’re forgiven,” a small bit of tension in my chest eased, “B-But you didn’t need to apologize for that. I’m sorry I’m such a scaredy cat.”

A small smile appeared on my face, “I could turn that back around on you, you don’t need to apologize for being startled. Thank you for caring though.”

The smile that appeared on Fluttershy’s face made more than a few parts of me quiver, damn pony hormones and her being freaking adorable and sexy at the same time. I wasn’t interested but damn, she could conquer the world if she put her mind to it.

“Regardless,” Twilight said, thankfully interrupting the moment I knew I’d make awkward in a few moments, “We have work to do girls.”

“Right,” I turned, “Let’s go.” A small smirk appeared on my face as we started to trot and I called out over my shoulder, “And you thought you couldn’t do this Twilight! You sure seem to be doing good to me!”

It was with a smile that Twilight hurled back over her shoulder, “And you seem to still be a horseapple!”

Yeah, she’ll be okay. Shifting to a solid canter, I led the way back to the castle and towards a guard, knowing full well that I had no idea where the quartermaster was and that we’d need directions. Time to save the world, only it wasn’t me responsible for the job, it was me helping someone else… and that made it so much better. Not even being sarcastic there.

An admittedly nasty grin wormed its way onto my face at the thought. It was wrong, to be happy that I didn’t have the responsibility, but I was.

A soft southern drawl interrupted my thoughts as we cantered up the steps, “Em, what’re ya thinkin’?”

I glanced over at Applejack briefly before smiling, feeling poetic, “Onward into the darkness of the unknown, onwards to fight the villains and slay the monsters.” My smile became a grin, “Onwards to face the things that go bump in the night…” the grin became vicious, “And onwards to bump back.”

Author's Note

Welcome newcomers and old hats to the first chapter of Consequences of Darkness! Thanks for sticking with the whole first chapter.

If you haven't read the previous story, don't worry. If I've done my job right you shouldn't need to at all.

I'm happy with this chapter, while it does feel a bit clunky to me that's mostly because of how I've written it for newcomers. I've got a couple lines in here I'm particularly happy about though. I do have a question of what tags are appropriate for this story, particularly Alternate Universe. I may have to add the Dark tag depending on how things play out in practice, but ironically it currently isn't planned.

Regardless, many thanks to my pre-readers/editors for helping make this possible and helping pen my raging plot bunnies and making this chapter as solid as it is.

But for new readers and old: I always encourage criticism and commentary and questions! It's the best way for me to improve when people point out where I suck or drop the ball.

Anyways, Decepticons, roll out!