Friendship and Courage

Chapters

Lending a Hand
Stallion in the Shadow
I Dream of Dark Things
The Star Steps Forth
Light and Darkness
After it All
Magister Misplaced
Shadows and Darkness

Lending a Hand

His fate changed, this young man now has a choice, will he turn his back on those in need, or will he lend his aid to the ones who are still lost?

You aren’t going to give it a rest, are you, bro?

Probably not.

Sometimes I wonder if you’re sane...

I’m serious when I need to be.

I guess you don’t mind that grabbed the panties from, nah, you won’t.

Al... what did you do?

Just tell them about how you met the Pretty Pink Princess already.

The Pegasus had flown off, apparently to give word to his commanding officer about my presence. The remaining two guards offered to escort me into the settlement proper. It wasn’t a request. It wasn’t as if I was would have denied them anyway, considering I had no real idea what was going on, and even less of where I was.

“You okay, bro?” Al asked as he climbed up my leg to reclaim his perch on my shoulder. The unicorn guard looked at him with surprise.

“As I’ll be for a while,” I responded with a gentle shrug, not wanting to throw him off. Then again, he was able to hold even in the middle of fight sequences, so it was probably a baseless concern.

“It talks?” The unicorn rubbed at the base of his horn and groaned a moment later, his ears flicking back. “Of course it does. Wouldn’t be the wildest thing I’ve seen recently.”

“Talking weasel isn’t the wildest thing?” Well, considering the widest thing I’d seen was a glaring mist cloud, Al only ranked about... seventh on my list. And the top ten was currently monopolized with things from the past hour or so. You know what would help? Information. I could really use a bit of context for what was going on. I looked over at the “Excuse me, mister... um... sorry, I just realized I don’t know your names...”

The pony snorted, shooting a glare at me. “You don’t need to.”

“He’s only a foal. What’s the harm?” The unicorn’s gaze had a subtle rebuke to it when he caught the regular horse-man’s eye. “I’m Verdant. This is Brass Bond. So, you mind telling us what you are doing out here? And outside the barrier? You’re not a Crystal Pony, that’s for sure.”

“A crystal pony? What’s that?” I asked before I could stop myself. The earthen roadway had given way to paved stone, the surroundings progressively getting more developed as countryside quickly became city. The buildings really were made of some sort of glassy or glazed seeming stone. Even the stones in the roadway seemed crystalline. Al murmured impressed sounds as we looked around.

There were a few more of the horse people lurking around, though they looked strange; hooves dragging, eyes to the ground, tail and ears dropping, coat a bit drap. They were like a puppy someone kicked. It was somewhat depressing to watch.

“You turn up this north of Equestria and you don’t know that?” Brass scoffed, not looking impressed.

“Brass,” Verdant said warningly to his companion. He gave me a more reassuring smile and started explaining. “Crystal Ponies are the original inhabitants of the Crystal Empire. Unfortunately, their last king cursed the entire city to look the way it looks now.”

“Crystal Empire?” Al spoke up, voicing the same thoughts I was having. It explained the buildings. I looked around with renewed interest. They must have used crystals to build most things rather than common stone.

“Verdant, you are touching on topics the Princess would best address,” Brass said firmly.

Princess? There was a princess now?

“It’s only history,” Verdant responded. “There’s nothing wrong with telling the colt a little history.”

“It’s actually rather informative,” I interjected, supporting the unicorn man. I was in over my head and only getting deeper with each step. Verdant was at least pointing me to where the surface was. Brass narrowed his eyes at me. It didn’t seem as if he was fond of me.

“Verdant, leave it to-” Brass’ response was interrupted by the return of the pegasi, and the man, stallion I supposed, that accompanied him foot. He was another unicorn, white coated with blue hair, his outfit somewhere between military wear, formal wear and casual wear, heavier on the last and first, going by the various elements.

“Captain Armor,” the two guards who remained to escort me promptly snapped to attention.

“There’s no need for that,” Captain Armor said, his attention focused on me. He was huge, over six feet tall with a solid build. He didn’t quite sound as I expected a military leader to, but there was no denying he had authority.

“Captain Armor, this is Noah Springfield. He is the one that came through the barrier,” Verdant reported.

“Hello,” I said, my grip on my staff tightening a bit. Al waved.

“I see,” the captain said, his tone difficult to judge. “Princess Cadance wishes to see him.”

They wanted to know who and what I was. So I told them. I explained a bit about being a mage and a child prodigy and getting my staff and half my equipment from a strange vendor before being forcibly teleported to this place. I glossed over the fact that I hadn’t exactly been a magi before getting here, but I didn’t have any reason to trust them with that fact.

In turn, they helped fill in some of my knowledge a bit. They covered that they were ponies and not horses and the four kinds. They explained a bit about the King Sombra character and his dark magic. They explained about the Empire being lost for over a thousand years. They explained the sustained attack that had started shortly after their arrival to the empire, held back only by the force field.

There was a protracted period of awkward silence as both sides processed the new information. I was surprised the throne room looked as it did considering it was over a thousand years old. It wasn’t covered in dust, the hangings and carpet were in good condition. There were even flowers set in bouquets, only slightly wilted.

As my gaze roamed while my thoughts worked to process it, Al's gaze alternated between the princess and me, more specifically; her generous bust. Some things never chance I suppose. Captain Armor, who had been introduced formally as Prince Shining Armor was still giving me a more assessing and calculating look, a small frown on his muzzle. The princess on the other hand was smiling slightly. Throughout the entire conversation, her horn had a blue glow to it.

In fact, it had been glowing even before I came in. The prince’s horn wasn’t glowing, neither had Verdant’s during the walk. I exhaled slowly, shifting my awareness to the more magical spectrum, curious as to if it was just a quirk of hers. Immediately I recoiled from the pressure. "Bwaa!"

"Bro?" Al asked.

"Oh, are you okay?" Princess Cadance asked, sounding worried. Prince Shining Armor didn't say anything.

"No, I'm fine, I just," I blinked a few times, "I just wasn't prepared to feel that much magic power flowing up close. I take it you are personally holding up the protection spell over the city? Because that is nothing short of amazing."

"Oh, it's nothing much..." Princess Cadance said, trying to make little of it. "Shining's speciality is shield magic as well. He could cast a partially self sustained barrier around the empire himself. Unfortunately King Sombra seems able to corrupt and block almost all forms of normal magic.”

“One of my best soldiers is down, his horn covered in black crystals that are blocking his magic,” Shining admitted reluctantly.

"My talents are in spreading love and light," Cadance continued, "both of which are keeping him at bay for now."

"Love? An ally?" Al muttered softly. I ignored him.

"But Cadance can't go on forever," Shining said, speaking up again. "If her magic fades... We are expecting assistance, but there is only so much we can do in the meantime."

I didn’t need to take a second look at the princess. Shining was right. She was exhausted. There were a few universal rules that not only the two styles of magic I was somewhat familiar with, eastern and western, shared, but also applied to ki as well. One of them was that physical weariness could and did affect the supernatural abilities. I figured it would be the same for the pony's magic.

"Would you mind if I helped out as well?" I asked. I might not really know them, but even if that mist cloud wasn't the same king that cursed the empire, it wasn't anything good. That; and I was still more or less lost. Being in the good graces of the locals would be a boon.

"You?" Shining asked. "No offense, but you are a foal. A child."

"I'm also Mage. I graduated at the top of my class." Okay, that was Negi, but I had his skills. "I am a teacher as well and have a university degree. Besides, you said love and light were effective, right?" I held out my hands and let some of the magic that was in me flow. Jolts of electricity shot from my left hand to strike at the ground as the air whipped itself into a small twister around my feet. "My affinities are to wind, lightning and light. Even if I don't have the love part, I can possibly be of use."

They stared at me in stunned silence. I let my magic settle somewhat reluctantly, the effects dying away. The smell of ozone and something burnt caught my attention and I looked down to find scorch marks on the carpet from where the jolts of lightning hit the ground. "Oh, um... sorry, I didn't think." I quickly moved on. "I might be able to help you directly too, princess."

"No, just 'Cadance' is fine," she said. "And how?"

"Would you allow me to cast a spell on you?" I asked, already moving towards on of the decorative bouquets. Actually, wasn't this place supposed to have been cursed and missing? I dismissed the thought and picked on of the flowers out.

"What kind of spell?" Shining asked, moving subtly so he was between myself and his wife.

"A recovery spell," I responded. "It won't replace real rest, but it should keep you going for longer than you would have without it."

"Shiny," Cadance said, almost too softly for me to pick up. She smiled in my direction and nodded.

I smiled in return and closed my eyes. Okay, Negi used this one during the exams... Right! It was a simple thaumaturgy spell at the base. Using the flower as a medium... I let my magic pool in the flower and started chanting the words before letting a magical breeze flow from it.

"Ras tel ma scir magister. Fragrantia Floris, Meis Amicis Vigorem, Vitalitatem, Auram Salutarem. Refectio."

The spell was prettier than I expected. With the amount of magic I poured into it, a bit more than necessary in retrospect, a mistake born of inexperience with the skill, the wind itself had a hint of a red and gold glow to it. Faint images, like petals and blossoms of the flower I used for the medium, drifted in the wind as it wafted over Prince Armor and Princess Cadance.

The effects were almost immediate, Cadance visibly perking up, her ears flicking with renewed energy, her posture loosing some of its weariness. “Oh my...That was lovely!”

“Wow...” Prince Armor remarked. “I guess you weren’t just making things up...”

“Bro’s one of the best mages around,” Al bragged, leaping from my shoulder. I raised an eyebrow at him. And just where was he getting that from?

“Um, Al...” I cautioned.

“And just who are you?” Princess Cadance asked; curious, not accusing.

“Um, he’s sorta my... familiar, I guess,” I shrugged. I really wasn’t sure how to class the little weasel. “Assistant, maybe? Pet?”

“Albert Chamomile!” Al said with much bravado, giving the princess a bow. “Ermine Love Fairy.”

“Love Fairy?” Princess Cadance smiled. Prince Shining flinched at her tone. The princess looked at me and nodded. “I’d be glad to accept your help. Shining, would you mind finding the best place to put him?”

“Of course,” the prince agreed.

“And Noah, would you mind if I kept Albert around for a while to talk with?” There was a glint in the princess’ eye that I did not like at all. Worse since Al shared it.

“Sure, it shouldn’t be a-”

“Excellent!” Cadance said. She turned her smile on Shining. “You two have fun now!”

I spent three hours in the Crystal Empire’s largest library. Shining Armor, he insisted I drop the titles, had assured me that simply fighting the Shadow King wasn’t main objective at the moment. There was still the Empire itself to restore. The barrier did more than just keep the King out. It also acted as a terraforming shell over the land, holding back the worst of the local weather. Princess Cadance could not be expected to maintain it by herself indefinitely.

What little they knew about the place from legends and lore hinted there was some device that would serve that purpose. So I headed to the library. The librarian, or a pony who thought she might be the librarian, was of no help, and she seemed to be in actual pain when we tried to press her. Whatever curse was on the place was impressive. The library itself lacked a reference guide, so I turned to the divination and lesser spirit magic I knew.

Fun fact: the local spirits looked vaguely equine in nature.

Related fact: they were different from the ones I expected and took a little more convincing than I hoped.

While the spirits were divining potentially useful tomes and texts, I flipped through the supplies I bought before arriving. For the most part, it was reassuring. I had several simple and beginner wands, three magic guns, a fair stock of reagent and catalyst potions and the like, a healthy supply of Evangeline’s transformation pills, even a stock of eastern magic gear. Flipping through the books made me realize that while western magic could run on simple understanding of magic rules, the higher level spells operated on influencing the world and the spirits into bending and in many cases outright breaking conventional laws of physics. The bad news was that the local spirits and even the astrological charts and signs were slightly different from the spell designs I was trained in.

The conclusion?

“So my magic will be inefficient until I adapt the spells, the high level spells likely out of the question all together,” I mused to myself, nibbling on one of the military food bars Shining Armor provided when I admitted I didn’t have anything in terms of living supplies. And I was so looking forward to hitting that King Sombra with a Thousand Thunderbolts to see how he would handle it. A smirk quickly developed as possible solutions popped into my head the more I thought about it. Being a kid genius was fun. “Should be too hard... Just changing a few of the spell structures and renewing the contract...”

“I found one! I found one!” one of the spirits chimed as it darted over on its oversized insect like wings, noodle like limbs waving cheerfully. It was a tiny thing, about the size of a mouse, with large eyes and a tiny body, its mane and tail almost bigger than it was.

“We brought it! We brought it!” chorused a group of others that drifted after the first, a book in their grips. It took five of them to manage the book. Dropping the book so it could join the pile they had been building with a slight thump, they went back to their tasks. They were adorable, if a little annoying.

“A culture book on crystal berries?” I murmured, checking the latest find. “Fifth mention of that fair thing… it’s starting to look important.” I flipped through the pages a little. At least I had learned a lot about the world I was in, even if I hadn’t learned a lot about this place in particular. There were a few references I noted down, but I still hadn’t found what the key in sustaining the barrier was.

“Mage Noah!” Someone called. It was the pegasus who had been with Verdant and Brass. I tried to place his name. Cliff something. Cliff Diver? Climber? No… Jumper. Cliff Jumper. The pegasus landed lightly, hardly displacing any air with his wings. “The captain is about to head out to meet a group from Equestria! He’s requested you join him.”

“Oh, of course!” I said, fumbling for my staff and setting the book aside. I checked my belt and pouches to make sure they were snug and adjusted my cloak. Well, I volunteered my aid, so it was time to put my magic were my mouth was. I nodded at Cliff Jumper. “Lead the way.”

Stallion in the Shadow

You know those moments when your plans just fail to come together?

It had looked like a good idea at the time.

My faith in you didn't waver just because of one failing.

No plan survives first contact. And it could have been worse.

Yeah, but I feel like a fool looking back…

Nonsense! I heard you were awesome.

Rainbow Dash?

*giggle* Her and Pinkie Pie, but yes. You left quite an impression on her~

“Just how are you fine in this weather?” Shining Armor grumbled as he trudged through the snow. While his natural fur coat had helped stave off some of the weather, he still had to don a thick shawl. He had a set of snow shades perched over his horn as well. I wasn’t quite sure why, since it was overcast enough that there was no clue if what time of day, or night even, it was.

“Protective barrier,” I grinned, letting the magic field around my person glow enough to be visible. While he tramped through the snow, I was riding my staff and matching his pace. “A simple and useful trick for staying comfortable in extremes. I’m not sure if your magic can manage it.”

“And we don’t have the time to test it out either,” Shining said in a tone that would be misconstrued as complaining if he were a lesser man. Stallion? Er... these terms were going to annoy me to no end until I found out what was right for them.

“There’s a bright side,” I said encouragingly. “With your fur you still manage to get by with far less than I would need without the barrier.”

“Small favours,” Shining muttered. We traveled in silence for a while more before he broke it with another question. “Don’t misunderstand this as trying to turn down your offer, but why help?”

I shrugged and rolled my eyes. Everyone always wanted to know ‘why’. I often found it more amusing to approach it from the other side. “Why not help? I already ended up in a place I know nothing about, and I’m not that proud to think I won’t need help from others. Especially considering the local weather.” Shining chuckled along with me at that. Mine died as my mind flashed back to the encounter with who I really hoped was Sombra, if only because I didn’t want to think about the possibility of two incorporeal beings lurking around. “And I’d be... I just couldn't leave without offering to help in a situation like this.”

“Huh. I suppose that does make sense,” Shining commented. And it was right back to silence.

“There’s the train station,” Shining Armor finally announced, pointing at a structure just visible through the blowing snow. By my estimation, we had covered almost two kilometers. Maybe more, maybe less, but it was a long way from the edge of the barrier.

“Finally,” I said, shading my eyes, more out habit than any actual benefit, as I observed it. “It’s a bit far out, isn’t it?”

“You have to remember,” Shining chuckled, picking up his pace. “Until a few days ago there was nothing out here but snow and ice. We’re lucky that the station was even this close. We will likely have to move it once we deal with Sombra.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, my respect for the prince rising. Not even a hint of doubt that they, well, we would solve the issue. There were a few colourful figures milling around the stations general area. Considering I hadn’t seen any ponies aside from the guards, Shining and his wife, I had thought that a white coat and blue hair was common for them. There were a few who still matched that description, but five of them really stood out.

Was that... rainbow coloured hair?

“Twily!” Shining yelled out, breaking into a full run. I slipped off my staff, slinging it to my back and jogged after him.

“Shiny!” one of the figures, a purple woman, called back, rushing out to meet him. It was like a Lifetime Movie Moment when they embraced. I kept my distance a bit, giving them a moment, curious as to what their relationship was. He was a married man, after all...

“I’m so glad you could make it, sis!” Ah! That answered my question.

“How could I not come and help out the best big brother in the world? And his wife; the best baby sitter in the world?” Twily giggled and squeezed him tightly. “Princess Celestia asked me to come and help you out as much as I could.”

“We would appreciate any help you could give,” Shining ruffled her hair before turning his attention to the others who were only just catching up, the colourfully coated mares, and one person that looked about my size but scaled, at the lead. Some sort of lizard or reptile person? There were ponies, so it wouldn’t be that far out. “Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Spike. I haven’t seen you all since the wedding!”

Yeah... this was sort of awkward. It was a lovely friendly reunion, with me lurking awkwardly in the background. Well; at least I wasn’t the only one. There was a group of eight more guards lingering behind the group of mares look just as uncomfortable as I felt. At least their moment didn’t last that long.

“So; who’s the kid?” the one with rainbow hair asked somewhat rudely.

“Ahhahaha…” I chuckled nervously. Yep; didn't last long at all. I gave a little bow. “Hello, I’m Noah Springfield. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m providing Shining Armor and Cadance with some assistance with the trouble in the Empire.”

“You… are helping them?” ‘Twily’ stammered slightly. She whimpered little. “But… Princess Celestia sent me to find a way to protect the empire…”

“Easy, sally, I’m sure there’s enough help for everypony to pitch in,” the orange one in denim and a hat said, putting a hand on ‘Twily’ shoulder. She gave me an easy smile. “Name’s Applejack. Nice ta meet’cha. This here is Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.”

“Hi!” the pink one said eagerly. The others made their own form of acknowledgements as they were named. They really had their share of descriptive names. And branding. They all had symbols branded on their outfits. I noticed it on Shining and Cadence, but had assumed it was from their station. Now I was reconsidering that. Cultural? The list of things I needed to ask about was getting pretty long. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your opinion, Applejack was still talking, preventing me from musing on it for too long.

“The little fellow is Spike, and those guys…” Applejack gestured to the guards and shrugged a little. “Ah never did get their names. Strong silent types an’ all.”

“Nice to meet you all,” I said, filing away the names. Being a kid was sort of annoying. Spike was the only one on my level, though I was a little taller. Even the shortest one was still almost a head taller than I was. I caught Shining’s attention with a slight sigh. “Shouldn’t we head back? I was hardly out here for half an hour last time before he showed up.”

“Right,” Shining nodded. He immediately started giving the guards orders and got our group moving. The pink one and the rainbow one focused their attention on me as the rest started moving. They were the two shortest mares in the group. I still had to look up at them. This height thing was starting to bug me for some reason.

“Hi again, Spring Field!” Pinkie said happily, grabbing my hand and giving me a wild handshake. “I’m Pinkie Pie, though Applejack already told you that. Very nice to meet you. I like your staff. It’s all… staffy!”

“Um… thank you?” I said, rescuing my hand from her grip. Man was she strong.

“You’re welcome!” Pinkie grinned. She proceeded to inspect me, lifting my arms, shifting my legs, ruffling my hair, pulling on my digits, tugging on various parts of my clothing, over all leaving me in a very flustered and confused state.

“Eeeeh? Miss Pie?” I said in a weak protest as she snatched my glasses away, gave them a quick polish, and put them back.

“Just Pinkie! Auntie Pinkie as most,” she tut-tutted, performing what looked like a surprisingly accurate palm reading, only with a magnifying glass she pulled from somewhere. Rainbow was snickering behind her.

“Oh, well; Pinkie? What are you doing?”

“Oh, nothing,” she chimed cheerfully before bending and engulfing me a tight hug. I was even more confused when she started whispering in my ear. “Remember to giggle at the ghosties when it gets dark, okay?”

“Wait, what?” I said, staggering slightly when she quickly let go.

“Do it for Auntie Pinkie, kay?” she chirped, skipping to catch up with the others. Her little distraction had caused them to get a bit ahead of us.

“I- uh… what?” I said, feeling my brain seize up a little from the encounter.

“That’s just Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow snickered. “I think she gets a kick out of confusing ponies. So kid; what’s this about helping out the prince?”

“I’m a mage,” I said, shaking my head free from the confusing cloud of Pinkie. Giggle at the ghosties? What was that supposed to mean? I found myself thinking about the philosophy of a Master Magi. “They needed help. I’m a mage, and I could, should and did offer it. They accepted.”

“A mage? And that’s supposed to be what now?” Rainbow asked sceptically.

“A magic user,” I expanded. "Like a wizard."

“Really now…” she scoffed. A few flaps of her wings got her airborne. “Magic is a unicorn thing, and I don’t see a horn on your head.”

Really? Only unicorns did magic? That was… not what I expected. True; not everyone had the real potential to be a full magic user, much less a real mage, but most people could manage at least the minor spells with a bit of practice. To say that on...ly... what did I know? Magic was fake to me a couple hours ago and now I’m having mental monologues about the nature of magic? I rolled my eyes.

I think Rainbow misunderstood my expression as being directed at her, as she narrowed her and moved in front of me with a flap of her wings. She poked me in the chest. “Okay then, wise guy. Who’s this ‘him’ you and Shining Amor were going on about.”

As if her words were a cue, a low bellow rippled through the air. Heads whirled, trying to pin point its source. Finally, one of the guards pointed to the distance, yelling out, “There!”

The black mist was back, collected into a mass, a vague shape formed atop it, the eyes glaring out at us. This time it brought friends with it; six large quadruped shapes marching along with it. They seemed to be constructed of some dark crystalline material, each roughly defined head bearing a red gem fixed in it.

“That’s him,” I said with more calm than I felt, straddling my staff in preparation to take off.

“Sweet Celestia, what is that?” the white unicorn mare, Rarity, cried. The yellow pegasus had vanished somewhere.

“There’s no time for that now! Run!” Shining ordered, quickly waving the group in motion. Rainbow and I had fallen behind. She was already in the air, and I took off and joined her, heading after the group as they started running, covering the rear.

“You can fly?” Rainbow demanded, matching my pace with ease.

“Mage! Later! Just go!” I yelled curtly at her, keeping an eye on the Shadow of Sombra (nice name, don’t you think?) and those golems as best I could. They were moving quickly, the mist mass flowing over the ground, the golem lumbering alongside it much faster than I would have liked. I somehow did an aerial skidding halt, angling my staff like a motorcycle or bike. “Shining! Think we can hold them off?”

“Guardstallions! Get my sister and her friends to the Empire!” Shining directed, leaping on my idea as if we had worked together before, skidding to a halt as well.

“Wait! Shining, what are you doing?” Twilight demanded, coming to a stop herself. “We can’t leave you out here!”

Rainbow was making her own protest. “What makes you think I’m gonna leave a kid out here with that thing!”

I was already incanting my spell. “Ras tel ma scir magister. Undetriginta spiritus lucis. Coèuntes, sagittent inimicum meum! Sagitta Magica; Series Lucis!”

Eleven glowing points of light formed in the air around, floating as I chanted and mentally picked targets, and darted forward like the guided missiles they were. Rainbow's wings missed a few beats, and I’m sure both Shining and Twilight probably had dropped jaws. Maybe all the unicorns, considering what Rainbow said about magic. Shining might have expected me to have some combat potential, but he’d never actually seen it in action.

The magical projectiles split; eight of them moving to strike the golems, the other three going for the mist. The latter three ended up missing, the Shadow of Sombra (I really did like that name) distorting itself, causing them to pass through the empty air. The other eight had mixed result. The golems seemed to have some sort of magic resistance build it' the arrows striking moderately accurately, but most of the force seeming to dissipate around them, though two lucky shots managed to damage a limb, causing the figure to trip and fall.

I had kept the count to eleven arrows as a test. I could easily tell it was still well within my limits, but my new magic know-how was also telling me that the spell took a bit more out of me than it should have for something at that level. Great… handicapped by the local environs… I really *really** need to find a chance to remedy that.*

I whirled to catch up with the group again, only to find them pretty much where I last saw them. “What are you doing?” I demanded.

“That was…” Twilight started.

“Run now! Talk later!” They started moving again, this time with more purpose. The guards stayed between them and the encroaching danger, providing more motivation for them to keep moving. It was two kilometers to cover. They could make it, but they’d need time. I swooped down to hold a line. Shining joined me.

The mist surged forward, the upper portion leaning towards us, gaining more definition as it did. An equine head was slowly taking shape at the peak of that mass. A hint of gaping jaws seemed to lurk beneath the miasma streaming eyes, eyes that called out. I hesitated, enthralled with trying to make out the details, not fully realizing how close it was coming.

“Noah!” A half dome of pink energy formed between and the mist crashed into it. Shining’s horn was glowing as he kept the barrier up. The Shadow of Sombra bellowed again, the barrier flickering, streaks of dark swirling through it. Shining started grunting from the strain, and dark streaks started appearing in the glow over his horn.

"Wa-what?" I blinked, shaking off the trance I had somehow fallen into. Freed from it, I quickly got my head back in the game. Those streaks did not look good... Quickly; I pulled one of the simple wands out of my pouch, following a hunch and casting a barrier spell between Shining’s shield and the Shadow of Sombra. “Deflexio!”

It reeled back and Shining’s shield collapsed, the unicorn prince panting heavily, staggering slightly from the strain of the effort he had been extending. On my end, the simple wand had a few black crystals formed on it. I ignored them for now. “Shining!” Ras tel ma scir magister: cantus bellax.

My impulsively performed unincanted spell actually worked, boosting my physical power to the point that hauling Shining unto my staff was easy and I tried to put some distance between us and the Shadow. The Shadow of Sombra recovered and bellowed again. I looked back to see even dark crystal formations building around it. They shattered, countless shards rocketed towards us.

“Deflexio!” I canted again, extending the wand and using it as my focus. The large spell circle formed, providing cover for most of the attack as dozens, hundreds of small crystal shards pelted the general area around us. Even with the large spell circle providing protection, I was forced to fly lower to the ground, if only to reduce the danger faced from to magnitude of the attack and to cut down on the number of things I had to focus on and as I pour more magic into it my spell.

“Noah, ugh,” Shining groaned, coming back to full awareness. “My head… what… he was trying to corrupt and block my magic!”

I didn’t respond right away. Couldn’t. Not with my attention split between trying to keep us level and airborne while maintaining the defensive barrier. All while fighting the cloying, painful sensation creeping up my left arm, the one I was using to focus the spell. My skin was darkening, turning black. Not the normal skin colour black, but actual dark black; the swirling glowing patterns of magia erebea slowly coming into being, claws slowly starting to form on the tip of my arm, nagging emotions and feelings at the back of my head.

More of the dark crystal was forming on the wand as the shards slammed into my barrier like hailstones, and it was becoming harder and harder to maintain the spell. I didn’t want to switch to using the staff or ring. They were both more effective activating foci than the wands were. They might give the corruption an even easier route to the core of my magic.

“Shining,” I ground out, even as my head started pounding. I couldn’t let my magic go frenzy right now. That might be as bad as letting the Shadow of Sombra have his way. With an effort of will, I started pushing the corrupting effects back, focusing my magic on the light side of my affinity, hoping that would help. “Think you can distract him?”

Shining didn’t speak. He just turned, pointing his horn back at the shadow, his arm extended for addition precision. He waited a moment, watching. “His attack is going to stop in a little bit and we'll have a small window before he can recast it,” Shining reported, every bit the Captain of the Guard he claimed to be.

“Yes, and?” I could make out the glow of the Empire’s protective barrier ahead of us. I couldn’t see our group, so hopefully they had enough of a head start…

“Drop your barrier on my count….” Shining ordered, a glow building on his horn. “Three… two…. ONE!”

I dropped it. A beam of pink pure magical energy, about as big around as my thigh, lanced out at the Shadow of Sombra (maybe the name is a bit of a mouthful…)

‘If I added that power, made it my own…’ The Shadow of Sombra didn’t get hit. He did another one of his mist body deformations to avoid it. Instead, it struck one of the golems, the force of Shining's blast knocking it back; a leg shattering and falling off, its barrel fragmenting, it's head being blow right off. But the important point was that it forced the Shadow of Sombra to stop casting.

“Accelet!” I yelled, dropping my active barrier and grabbing the staff with both hands as I pushing the thought away. I poured magic into my staff and pushed our speed up; darting off towards the Empire at high speeds. Shining started yelling and held on to me as we hit the speeds I had been afraid of earlier and then some. We caught up to the group in no time, still maybe four, five hundred meters out from the safety of the Empire’s shield.

“Rapide subsistat!” Even with the command, I almost over shot them, and messed up the landing anyway; sending Shining and myself tumbling. I groaned, picking myself up. “Need to work on that…”

“Yes… you really do…” Shining’s frustrated and pained response came. Right… he didn’t have a barrier around him. He was probably half frozen from wind chill on top of it…

“Um... Oops?” I said lamely.

“That stick of yours is pretty fast,” Rainbow observed, flying over to us. “Faster than a lot of pegasi I know.”

“Shiny!” Twilight yelled. I think Fluttershy might have mumbled an apology at the same time. “And Spring Field! Are you two okay? Did you stop him?”

Another bellow blasted out. He sounded pissed. Shining and I just shook our heads. I kept my left arm under my cloak as I watched the horizon. The others were exhausted from their run of more than a kilometer, and were reduced to about a panting jogging pace.

“He can corrupt magic. Corrupt and block it. He almost got my horn but Noah interfered before he could,” Shining Armor reported to the weary group. I glanced at him when he mentioned my name. Twilight shot me a grateful look. “We need to get into the Empire now!”

“That might be a mite difficult,” Applejack reported, sounding a bit strained. “He’sa coming around again!”

The Shadow of Sombra abandoned his troops and charged at us as fast as he could manage, which, while not matching the speed of my staff, was still distressing.

“Shouldn’t we be, um, running?” Spike said nervously. His words got everyone moving again with renewed vigour.

“I’m going to try something,” I said suddenly, getting back on my staff. Time to see just how high a level I could hit without making the adjustments.

“Try what?” Shining asked as he ran.

“Ras tel ma scir magister!” Negi had been able to manage the spell I had in mind before his shonen upgrade, back when he was an average mage. Even with the handicap of the off pattern magic, it should still have an effect. The Shadow of Sombra was still a maybe two hundred feet away, his golems even further behind, but it was closing swiftly. Good. I didn’t want it to dodge this one.

“What's he doing?” Spike asked. Pinkie smiled and motioned for him to keep moving.

“Veniant Spiritus Aeriales, Fulgurientes!” Power built around me, the world bending to my will. Rainbow and the other two pegasi guard that were airborne had to work a little harder as wind gathered around me, the air patterns in the area changing. They might have yelled something, but I couldn’t hear them over the roar and crackle of the wind and lightning energy I was collecting. Magic spilled wastefully from my intensely glowing hands and my ring grew hot on my skin. I was forced to pour more and more into the spell to keep it from collapsing, compensating for the flaws the spell had, as far as the local world was concerned.

“Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina!” I yelled out the second verse of the incantation, my works echoing as I funnelled the power and will together. I rose higher into the air, holding the spell just long enough to take aim, slowing my drift towards the barrier so the rest of the group was behind me. I didn’t want them to be caught up in the backlash of this one.

“Iovis Tempestas Fulguriens!” Wind whipped together at dizzying speeds, lighting riding it, focused by wind and will and blasting outward in a beam of brilliant destruction, roaring with the voice of a storm.

The spell almost hit him. Almost. Still, it was enough. While the concentrated beam portion of the spell was the primary source of damage, it still had an envelope of wild wind raging around it. The Shadow of Sombra evaded a direct hit, but the wind caught him up and dragged him along as it steadily tore into his incorporeal body, forcibly dispersing it bit by bit. When the attack impacted with the ground, the shockwave of displaced force, wind, lightning and magic did a lot to knock the entity senseless as it tore into the ground with the force of a small explosion.

I still had magic left in me, but I felt drained just from the effort that one spell took to cast. Sure, it was a high level spell, but if I got my estimates right, I should have been able to manage at least one Thousand Thunderbolt. This was just a Jupiter's Thunderstorm! I really needed to find time to look over the spell adjustments.

“I think he even got the golems,” I overheard one of the pegasus guards was saying, the ringing in my ears dying down. He was hovering in the air, peering into dust cloud with a small telescope.

“That was awesome!” Rainbow Dash yelled, punching the air, leaping some fifteen feet up as she did. “It was like wind and lightning and BAM!”

“And it was all bright and pretty and there was the explosion and the scary cloud when all ‘waaaaa’ and got blown away!” Pinkie continued.

“Are you okay?” Shining asked as I landed heavily.

My limbs felt a bit like someone had strapped weights to them, and I recognized the magic strain symptoms. The darkness on my left hand had faded, but I could still feel the claws on them, that change being more reluctant to break down. I stuck it in my pocket. “I’ll be in a couple minut-ahk!”

Pinkie caught me up in a hug, lifting me off the ground, pressing my face against her generous bust. She twirled around a few times as I had flashbacks to the origin of the term ‘marshmallow hell.’ “You so awesome Noah! Like a real mage!”

“How did you do that?” Twilight asked, looking at the damage my spell had done. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spell like that before. It was… somewhat like weather manipulation but the destructive power… How did a foal like you learn that?”

“It’s a combat spell, I learned it in school,” I said, a bit evasively, still in Pinkie’s grasp, though she had turned me around by that point. It might not have been in the curriculum but it was in the school’s [restricted access] library.

“What school was that?” Twilight pressed. She blinked as she realized the obvious.“You aren’t a unicorn… How are you using magic like that?”

“Sir, I think I see the Shadow creature! It looks weakened but it’s still moving!” the pegasus in the air reported.

“Okay everypony,” Shining Armor said, taking command again. “We can continue this when we aren’t in the cold and in the open! Svelte, High Rise, you two keep an eye out in case he pulls himself together, though it’s unlikely he can catch back up to us at this point. Everypony else; we stop when we pass the barrier.”

We didn’t have any more trouble. Either I knocked him loopy enough that he couldn’t get back to us in time, or he lost interest for the moment. Maybe both. There was a collective sigh of relief when we started going through the barrier.

It burned. I had expected it, and didn’t make any outward signs of it aside from my gritted teeth, but the barrier stung like sticking my left hand in boiling water. It didn’t last long, but the memory was strong. It calmed the erebea corruption though, my hand clear of it when I took a peak at it. My wand was still partially encased though.

“That could have been my horn,” Shining remarked, shaking his head at the near miss.

“Well, it’s pretty clear fighting him directly isn’t going to work,” I added, wagging the wand in the air. “If he can corrupt both our types of magic even when we are blocking him, and managed to mostly shrug off my Jupiter’s Thunderstorm…”

“We’re going to need to find another way to save the empire,” Shining completed, looking back at the barrier, as if he could see past it and at the shadow of the mad king that lurked out there. “Hopefully my sister can come up with something too.”

“Don’t worry, Shining,” Twilight said, giving him a hug from behind. “I won’t let you, Cadance, or Princess Celestia down. I promise. Even if it’s the last thing I do.”

I Dream of Dark Things

Things really do work out at times you know?

I keep telling you, you worry too much. You just gotta live sometimes.

I suppose… helps me feel like I did good.

What? Who told you didn’t do good? You’re the second coolest stallion I know!

Aw, thanks, Sp- wait, second?

Still not cooler than Shining.

He has you there, bro. Shining Armor’s pretty cool.

Aren’t you supposed to be on my side?

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hands and do a little shake!” Cadence and Twilight sang and did a little dance with each other before breaking down in a fit of giggles.

“Do they do that often?” I whispered to Shining, a little confused. The other mares that had arrived were hanging back, expressions between bemused and amused. Just to point out; they seemed to have a tradition of tattooing or dying their sides. And displaying them. Now that they were out of winter gear, it was clear to see that their outfits were tailors to expose the symbols on their sides. I added it to the long list of things to research when I had a moment. Spike was more conventionally dressed. Shorts and a vest. Whatever worked, I supposed.

“Every time they get together,” he whispered back with a fond smile. “My sister and my wife have always been close, from back when Cady was Twily’s foalsitter.”

It took me a moment to translate the term, but my eyebrows shot up. “Your sister was baby- foalsat by a princess?”

“I know, we get it a lot,” Shining grinned sheepishly. “The way Cady tells it, it was a means for her to relate with the more average pony instead of just being stuck with nobility.”’

“Oh? I think there might have been another reason for it, eeeeh?” Al snickered, wagging his eyebrows at the now blushing Shining.

Our conversation was cut off when the lights flickered, Cadance’s shield fluctuating under the pressure for a moment. Cadance sighed wearily. “One day, Twilight, one day we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn’t hanging in the balance.”

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked worriedly.

“No, she isn’t,” Shining sighed. He looked out the throne room’s window at the hazy barrier, once more back up at full power, not showing any evidence of the strain it had just suffered. His hands clenched into fists. “She’s been holding up that shield for days. She hasn’t sleep, she has barely been eating. I don’t know how much longer she can keep it up.”

“But she looks fine,” Rainbow huffed.

“That’s my doing,” I volunteered. “I cast a recovery spell on her to give her some vitality, but it wouldn’t do much to recovering her actual magic levels.”

“What about that super special sparkling shield you used when the changelings attacked Canterlot?” Pinkie asked, throwing her hands in the air.

“King Sombra can counter Shiny’s shield,” Cadance admitted.

“And his golems can force their way through the barrier at time, even if he can’t,” Shining continued. “Because of that I, and the guards we have here with us, have been too occupied maintaining a watch to find out anything from the Crystal Ponies.”

“Crystal Ponies?” Rarity was suddenly very interested, pinning Shining with an expression I couldn’t place and he looked unnerved by.

“Of course!” Twilight said gleefully, clapping her hands together. “I must be here to do research for you and Shiny, Cadance!”

A few puzzled looks went around the room, and a few rolled eyes, but no one contested the statement. I shrugged. “Well, if it helps, I’ve been doing some research of my own in the library. There are a few books you can look through.”

“Excellent! We need to get started right away!” Twilight, of course.

“Just one more thing before we separate!” Cadance said suddenly. She waved Shining over. A bit confused, he complied. The moment he was in range Cadance grabbed the front of his armour and draw him in for a passionate kiss. Al struck as well, drawing and empowering a spell circle in an instant.

“Pactio!” he declared happily.

It was a good five seconds before Cadance let her husband go and a card hovered in the air. Al got a frustrated frown on his face as he snapped his fingers. “Cha! Only provisional!”

Twilight had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. She didn’t let Al and I go until we at least give her the bare bones of the Magister/Ministra system of the pactio. Cadance had been enthralled with the idea and had Al teach her all about it while the rest of us were off risking life and limb against the Shadow. I wasn’t exactly pleased with that, and took a certain pleasure in the fact that even Al’s pactio magic was hampered until he could get his own circles updated.

Even that didn’t break Twilight’s interest, and it took Spike reminding her about the ‘test’ to get her moving. Freed, I took Al and hit the library again, this time accompanied by Twilight and her assistant Spike, who was actually a young dragonkin. The other mares had gone off to question the residents to see if they knew anything. Going by Amethyst, the mare I found in the library, I doubted it would be much.

Between Twilight, Spike, Al, the books the spirits found and myself; we were finally able to get a name and rough idea of what we were looking for, so that was a boon. The Crystal Heart. Apparently, the fair I had been stumbling across was also a ceremony to ‘recharge’ its energy. Unfortunately, the references to where it might be located where lost. Rather than spend too much more time wanting to rip my hair out, I took a more… drastic step.

I got Amethyst’s permission to check her memories.

A quick spell, air and water with no need for a circle sent her off to sleep. A few magic charged words should be able to subtly lead her dreams towards the memories I needed.

“Al, a circle please," I requested after setting the slumbering mare on a chair. Al pulled a chalk from his extra space and in no time at all scribed out a circle. I went around it and started filling in the twelve zodiac symbols. The distinctive sound of hooves on the floor gave warning of someone’s approach.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked curiously after watching me work for a few moments. Spike was behind her, looking less interested in me and more in finding a place to sit.

"Making a spell circle," I responded casually. "Normally I could construct it mentally, recalling it and letting my magic project it, but everything is a little off here, so I'm still learning what does and doesn't work."

"But you didn't seem to have any trouble earlier," Twilight pointed out. "Not even with that large wind and lightning spell you cast."

"Well, that used up about twice, maybe three times as much magic as it was supposed to," I grumbled, remembering the intensive strain I felt after that spell. I really needed to sort out the contracts and spirits. The fact that it was a simple task that I just couldn't do until I found a few spare hours to sit down and doing a bit of reading was what made it really annoying. I stood up and looked over my work. "This is more delicate magic, and not one of my affinities. I can't just power through it like I did with Jupiter’s Thunderstorm without risks.”

I touched up a few spots, and nodded. “Okay... that should do it."

I plopped down, cross legged, and lay my staff over my lap. I inhaled and extended my hand towards the slumbering mare. “Ras tel ma scir magister... Nympha somni, regina Maeve.” I spoke slowly and clearly. Magic started flowing, the circle glowing, motes of light gathering, my staff raising from my lap. My voice took on the faint echo as power flowed into them. “Portam aperiens ad se me alliciat!”

The glow swelled as power gathered, swirling around me for a moment before rushing towards the sleeping Amethyst, seeking to pull my consciousness into hers.

And nothing. The spell collapsed and magic escaped as a powerful burst of wind.

"Aiyaaa!" Twilight shrieked as her dress was blown apart. Al was instantly there, having pulled a camera out and snapped a few pictures of her pale lavender panties with a dark purple bow, with a matching bra. "NOAH!"

“What the hay?” Spike asked as the gusts of wind forced him to duck and cover.

"I didn't mean to!" I yelled quickly, averting my eyes.

"Sheesh, Noah!" Twilight had conjured fresh clothes for herself and trapped Al in her telekinetic aura, pinning him to the ground.

"I told you, my magic is off," I ran my hand through my hair, the other rubbing my cheek were Twilight slapped it. I never should have dropped my barrier. "I didn't expect it to backfire like that..."

“Pretty cool, though,” Spike grinned from his perch on the table. Twilight pushed Al into his face. “Hey!”

"What were you saying anyway? I'm not fluent in the spoken versions of the old tongues," Twilight admitted, still a bit huffy.

"Trying to get into her dreams. But I didn't think the ruler of dreams would be different too..." I flailed about in frustration a bit. "Now I have to research who that's supposed to be... unless the signs are off too…"

"You mean Princess Luna?"

I gaped at her. "What?"

"Princess Luna. She's the guardian of dreams," Twilight said casually, looking at my circle with new interest. My jaw continued to hang loosely. "And this is supposed to be the zodiac? A few of your signs are wrong.”

I tackled her from behind, clinging to her tightly as I gushed. "Please please please please please help me fix this!"

"Gah! Mpoah! What are you..? I'll help! I'll help!" Twilight yelped as she tumbled over. There was a thud from behind us as her focus slipped, knocking Al and Spike off the table. “Just get off!”

Once I got my… enthusiasm under control, Twilight corrected a lot of differences and errors. Drawing up the new signs and getting a better grasp of the cosmology took only a few minutes between Twilight’s remarkable knowledge base and my new skills at learning. I grinned as I tentatively put a little magic into the circle. It felt right. “You have no idea how much time you just saved me.”

“I think I do. I study magic too, you know,” Twilight smiled. Then she frowned.

I tilted my head and looked at her. “Twilight, what’s bugging you?”

“Um… well,” she sighed.

“It is the test thing?” Spike asked.

“What? No!” Twilight said hastily, waving her hands. “Well… maybe a part of it?”

“Why would it bother you? You have all your friends helping you, you even have me helping out,” I pointed out to her. “Shouldn’t that make it easier?”

“That’s the issue… Princess Celestia told me to do it! This was my test! What if I fail this because I let other ponies do the work for me?” Twilight was getting slightly hysterical. “I can’t let the princess down! She told me to help out Princess Cadance and my brother and instead I’m letter the girls go around town and helping you do things! I… I should be finding the answer! I sh-”

I put a hand over her mouth before she started pulling her hair out. “Okay, sorry if this is a little forward, but you need to calm down. Breath. Okay?” She nodded at me. “Better now? Can I move my hand?” Another nod. “Good.”

“Sorry about that,” she said when she could speak again. “But I’m just so worried about disappointing Princess Celestia.”

“I really doubt you would,” I said thoughtfully.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her,” Spike grumbled. “But she hasn’t been listening to me.”

“Bro can get like that too. All worried over nothing,” Al said, finding a new perch on Spike’s shoulder.

“But she said-” Twilight started.

“Ah-ah!” I cut her off. “From what you’ve said, I gather she asked you to help and sent you and your friends out here, right?”

“Yes..?” Twilight said slowly.

“And this Princess Celestia and both your teacher and ruler?”

“Of course. She and her sister are Equestria’s Princesses,” Spike bragged. “Twilight has been her personal student for years.”

“Then I’m pretty sure this is a test of your skills as a leader, rather than your ability to… do whatever you think it was,” I concluded. Twilight looked like she was going to protest again. “Ah! I’m a teacher. Somewhat. I know what I’m talking about. Plus, considering what we are going against, she expected you to succeed, but she also expects you to use what resources you have, which includes your friends.”

Twilight paused, considering what I said, then smiled slowly. “I guess you’re right. That’s Noah. I guess I should start by accepting your help.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” I asked.

“You’re one of my friends now too,” she said, giving me a hug. I was a bit caught off guard, but I guess I hit on something that was really troubling her.

Besides; she was soft.

Don’t judge me. I’d gone from browsing a convention to fighting some eldritch foe in the frozen north (I assumed from a few throwaway lines in the books, it wasn’t as if I had seen the sun since getting here) somewhere alongside anthropomorphic equines with magic, while personally wielding magic.

Part of me also couldn’t get over how awesome this was either, but that was a comparatively small part.

“Okay, we are running on borrowed time,” I said, albeit a tad reluctantly. There was a certain measure of comfort in being the smaller participant of a hug, and that was a feeling I hadn’t experienced for years. Al chose to ruin the moment, of course.

“Why don’t you make a pactio bro? Might come in useful,” he sang out. A muscle twitched in my face. I flicked a finger and knocked him off Spike’s shoulder with a well-aimed telekinetic hit and he squawked as he tumbled down.

“You mean like that kiss that Cadance gave Shining?” Spike asked. Twilight flushed. Huh. I didn’t think they would be able to do that through fur.

“N-nevermind that!” I said, feeling my own cheeks warm. “I’m ready to try the spell again. Would you like to accompany me, Twilight?”

“Yes, I’d like that,” Twilight responded.

I motioned for Twilight to make sit. “I don’t know how long it will take to navigate her memories, so we don’t want to be stiff. Our minds will be watching, but our bodies will stay here is a more or less meditative state.”

“Spike! Keep an eye on our bodies while we the spell is working,” Twilight instructed, taking a cross-legged position on the ground.

“You two can disrupt the spell by waking us if you really need to,” I added, including Al in the instructions. “Just don’t do it haphazardly. It will leave us with a headache.”

“No problem,” Spike said, giving us a sharp salute. “You can count on me. Well, us.”

I grinned and started the process again. “Ras tel ma scir magister... O you in the thrall of slumber, in the mist’s embrace, let your mind wander, to when the one King Sombra still reigned on this land.” I watched carefully, and the moment she started making soft sounds, I cast the spell. “Nympha somni, regina Luna. Portam aperiens ad se me alliciat!”

The circle glowed perfectly, the magic for the spell flowing without errors this time. I clasped my hands together, closing my eyes and, with a flash of bright light, we were drawn into her dream.

The glare cleared, though the dark setting we were hovering in didn’t over the best of visibility. It was pretty obvious it was the Crystal Empire, but I was beginning to see why Amethyst and the other crystal ponies refused to think about their time under Sombra. The sky was brown and dirty, the buildings had an even darker tint to them than they did when I saw them.

Lines of ponies were being led through the streets, chains on heavy collars around their necks and on their arms. There were guarded and guided by the crystal golems largely, looking more like deviations on powerfully built horses from back home. Here and there I could see shadows moving independently, so I added Shades and/or Shadow Beings to my mental list of Sombra’s attendants.

More worrying to me were the unchained ponies. They seemed to be in charge, as much as the golems were. Their scleras were a pale faintly glowing green, from what I could make out from the distance. Even the air itself felt cold and off-putting, much like the mist around the Shadow of Sombra. I tried to take in as much as I could in a few moments, since the people and surroundings were not the purpose of this expedition.

“Noah,” Twilight’s level voice came from behind me. I turned, and kept on turning, blushing.

“Sorry, Twilight,” I said quickly, making sure not to look at her. “I forgot about that part. It’s just how the spell works. The astral forms don’t have clothes…”

I heard Twilight exhale, her breath hissing through teeth I assumed were clenched. “Fine,” she said finally. “What’s with the string of light going off into the distance?”

“It’s our tether to our body,” I explained, sighing once it was clear I wasn’t in the line of fire again.

Twilight made a contemplative sound. “I suppose it makes sense. With only our consciousness being projected, there would have to be some way of tracing the connection back. Otherwise you would run the risk of the spell being disrupted and the consciousness being trapped inside the target.”

“Indeed,” I smiled. Inwardly, That… couldn’t happen, right? “We can continue analysing the spell afterwards, for right now, we should try and find a clue of what we are looking for.” Amethyst was trudging along below us, and I was beginning to regret having to do this, making her relive the memory. “We should get this over with as quickly as we can.”

“I agree,” Twilight said. She drifted past me a little, looking at the ponies enslaved. “If this was what it was like… If one pony could do all this…”

“He was a powerful one,” I agreed. That many constructs, automated or not, would take a lot of magic power to keep active.

I willed myself over the landscape. Twilight followed after a moment, awkwardly moving her arms as she tried to master the movement in this plane. On a balcony of the castle, Sombra stood, lording over his empire with arrogance. His eyes match the Shadow Entity I had been fighting outside the shield, down to the purple miasma spilling from them. “If I were Sombra, where would I put an artifact that might be the key to my defeat?”

“Somewhere you had control over the access to?” Twilight asked in a curious tone.

“Like where?” I asked, looking at her. I followed her pointing finger to the top of the spire that was the Crystal Castle. A malignant dark purple and black light seemed to be emanating from it. “Hidden in plain sight…”

“We should head up there and take a look,” Twilight said. She did her odd arm waving again, trying to move towards it.

“No, it’s not going to work,” I said, grabbing hold of her hand. “This is a memory. The only places with structures will be ones the owner of the memory had.”

“Right,” Twilight said. She sighed and looked around some more. “Then we should try to learn as much as we can while here.”

I nodded and raised a hand, waving it through the air. “Do you feel that? Sombra’s dark magic must have blanketed the city during his time…”

Twilight shuddered at the word dark magic. As a pair, we descended towards our host as she was pulled along. One of the golems was making its way towards her, its every step heavy and intimidating. Amethyst cringed as it approached.

“Enough of this, slumber should bring you peace,” a voice rumbled. Everything stilled, and the world around us started to crack before shattering like fragile glass, revealing little more than unformed darkness and gently shifting dark blue mists spotted with glowing points.

I drew back, hovering protectively by Amethyst side. “Stay close Twilight,” I said, worry making my words curt. There wasn’t much magic I could do in this setting, but I could get the spell, hopefully. “I… don’t know what’s going on, but…”

“No, I think I recognized that voice,” Twilight said.

“That you should, Twilight Sparkle,” the voice said again. A portion of the mist part, admitting a tall pony in a formal but sensible dark blue gown; an ornate black chest piece on her upper body, a white crescent moon at its center. Wings graced her back and a horn on her head, a crown sitting behind it. Her hair and mane were billowing like the mists she stepped out of, spotted with what looked like stars. It was… like the night sky. She waved her hand and the mists rose up and engulfed Amethyst before disappearing with her.

“Princess Luna!” Twilight said, sounding both happy and a bit confused.

“Princess Luna?” I echoed. I looked back at the princess, then at Twilight, then at where Amethyst had been, then back at the Princess more leaning towards terrified. “She’s… an actual person?”

“And why would I not be?” she said, narrowing her eyes in my direction. “Twilight Sparkle, I trust you know this strange pony? And I suspect it has something to do with you being here in the dream realm, not to mention in the dream of a pony in the midst of a night terror, a created one, in such a strange form, at that…”

“Twilight… you never mentioned that Princess Luna was…” I groped for a word that wasn’t ‘real’ or ‘alive’ as I whispered at her, “active!”

“I am quite, active, as you say,” Princess Luna remarked. I swallowed nervously. Sharp ears, she had. She didn’t raise her voice, but the potential for anger was clear. “Do you care to explain what intentions you had for our subject? It seems you left your bodies behind for this venture. Quite the risk. One might call it brave. Or foolhardy.”

“I’m sorry, your majesty,” I said quickly. If she was the ruler of the dream realm, there were a lot of nasty things she could do to us in our current state. At least Twilight knew her. “My name is Noah Springfield. I’ll helping Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armour in their efforts against the former King Sombra.” This was, what, the third time explaining this? “I got the permission of Amethyst Maresbury to look through her memories in order to find a clue for stopping him.”

The intensity of the look Princess Luna was giving me made me swallow again. She nodded and relaxed somewhat. “Very well. I can tell your intentions were pure.” She smirked at my look. “It is not easy to lie to me in this realm.”

“How did you know we were here, Princess?” Twilight asked.

“The dream realm is my responsibility, young Twilight,” Princess Luna smiled. “As is the well-being of those dreams in Equestria.”

She spread her wings and rose from the ‘ground’ on that enigmatic note, drifting away from us as the surrounding started to fade. “Wake and continue your efforts, Noah Spring Field. You as well, Twilight Sparkle. My sister has confidence in your abilities, and… I believe you can succeed as well. But do refrain from causing night terrors in your task…”

The return to the woken world was a bit jarring, since the dream was ended by another, rather the spell being cancelled. Twilight was a bit groggier than I was so I got up unsteadily and lay my hand on Amethyst’s forehead and whispered a little charm to ease the memories of her dream. “Ras tel ma scir magister. ut gratiae tuae memoriam tristis ventus...”

“Hey, you’re awake!” Spike said happily. He hopped off the table and hurried over to give Twilight a hand up.

“So bro, how’d it go?” Al asked, scampering up unto my shoulder.

“It went… interestingly,” I said vaguely. He gave me a look of dissatisfaction. I rolled my eyes. “Fine. We got a lead on where the heart might be. And I met Princess Luna.”

“Wow, was she as good looking as Cadance?” I pushed Al off my shoulder.

“So Spike, what did we miss?” Twilight asked.

“Not much,” Spike reported. “The girls got started on your plan for running the fair since the crystal ponies didn’t know any and didn’t want to talk anyway.”

“We could see why,” I said, remembering the setting of the dream. I rummaged through my bag, considering what to use and what not to as Twilight started pacing. At least another wand would be advisable, in case of Sombra’s magic sealing. “What about the shield?”

“It flickered a few more times… Shining and his guards had to fight off a few golems and this weird shadow thing that got through.” Spike looked both excited and a bit scared. I couldn’t blame him.

“I need to go talk to the others,” Twilight said, coming to a sudden stop. She nodded as if to reassure herself and trotted out quickly. “I’ll meet you at the castle in ten minutes!”

Spike and I watched her go with mixed feelings. I shook my head and got back to sorting through my gear. I had a strong suspicion things were going to get very hectic very soon. I took out all the eastern mysteries supplies and left them on the table. Worst case scenario; Sombra got to me and I’d need the catalyst potions. I didn’t need to take excess equipment with me..

A snowflake fell from my sleeves as I sorted. I would have ignored it, but as far as I knew, there shouldn’t have been anything snowflake related in my gear. Not even Eva used anything like it. I held it up to the light, trying to make sense of it.

“To those of you to find this token, to those of you who need a friend, a Guardian or just someone to talk too. I let you know, that I am here. Either come to me or call me. I will not refuse. I am the one of legends, one long forgotten and alone. I am the ageless and the young. I am the one they call Jack Frost. Call me if you need me, for I am one to abide.”

"Okay?" I murmured as a voice echoed in my head. Yeah; I was definitely not messing with that thing right now. I dropped it in one of the empty reagent cases and put it away in a pouch. Yet another thing for The List. "I really need to write these down somewhere..."

“So what’s with all this stuff?” Spike asked with an eager grin on his face. “It looks kind of Neighponese.”

“Oh, its magic supplies from the Eastern School,” I said, closing the pouch. Talking to a dragon person was weird, even discounting the height and size thing that put me on his level, reminding me that I was a kid again. “I’m a mage, so my focus is the Western Schools. I know some of the Eastern stuff, but not enough to risk messing with it right now.”

“Ah,” Spike nodded, looking at, but not touching, some of the spell tags. He chewed his lip for a moment before speaking again. “So… how bad is it?” I tried to give him a confused look. “I know Twilight. Whatever you saw in that dream really shook her up. How bad is it?”

“Bad. Real bad. If Sombra gets back in here and we can’t stop him…” I sighed.

“And he has those walking statue minions too, like the ones you and Shining were fighting,” Spike commented. Huh. He was a smart kid. “I really wish I could help out more…”

“Can’t you? You’re a dragon,” Al pointed out.

“I’m a baby dragon,” Spike sighed with long sufferance. “Sure I’m tougher and a bit stronger than a pony my size, but that’s about it. Twilight is, well, she's an egghead. She likes books and didn't used to go out much. I was too young to learn anything from Shining when he was around, either. Plus my flame, the regular one, isn’t hot enough to go anything really useful. Not like I really know how to use it for that anyway...”

“But you have claws and fangs!” Al continued, not seeing it.

“I’m not a feral!” Spike snapped. He looked a bit embarrassed at the outburst, but he didn’t take it back. “I’m not a feral. And I never learned how to fight. The closest thing was a little bit of martial arts from Rainbow Dash, but that was only a couple classes. And I don't have any useful magic either. Not like I can send King Sombra a letter to make him go away. I want to help. I want to protect Twilight, Rarity, the crystal ponies, the city… more than just being an assistant… but…”

Now I felt bad for the guy. I could see why Twilight would keep him out of things. He was a kid, after all, but he… I acted before I could change my mind, pulling out the two magic guns and sliding them across the table to Spike. The smaller one resembled a pistol with a narrow barrel, the larger one had a wide barrel and thicker and heavier body. “Here.”

He looked at them with a bit of shock. “Wait… what are those?”

“These are mine. Two magic powered projectile weapons. They are limited application magic channelling tools.” I choose my words carefully. Sombra’s golems were already breaking through the shield. If they took the whole thing down, the handful of guards Shining had would be woefully insufficient. “You said you wanted to help? These run on magic and fire concentrated bursts of it. They were made to take down automatons and magic constructs like what Sombra uses. Take them.”

Spike hesitantly laid his claws on them, carefully picking them up. He looked up at me. I smiled. “The bigger one holds fewer shots, but does more damage. The smaller one shoots more and faster, but doesn't hit as hard. You said you wanted to take care of Twilight? Help protect the Empire? Those are collector’s items. So I expect you to take good care of them and give them back to me when everything is done.

“ ‘Our magic isn't omnipotent, a little bit of courage is the real magic.’ Someone once told me that.” It didn't sound as cliche as I thought it would. It actually felt right. “Maybe you don't have much in terms of regular magic, but courage? You got that in spades.”

He lunged forward and hugged me, tears in his eyes. “Thanks Noah,” he whispered.

“Yeah, well, I still have to teach you how to use them,” I said, feeling better about myself. He might be a kid, but, technically, so was I, and he seemed competent enough. “Now, first off, you need to know how the magic works in these…”

The Star Steps Forth

You know that moment when you think you have anything under control, only to find out you don’t?

The climax of any situation brings the greatest challenge. It’s how you overcome them that matters.

You weren’t exactly the best example of a level head yourself.

Well, you see, this isn’t exactly about me…

Look on the bright side; you at least got get some practice in before it all went south.

Small favours.

“Jaculetur!” I called out, sending another three balls of light darting into the air. Spike fired off three shots in quick succession. His first two missed the targets, whizzing past the moving orbs to impact the edge of the field barrier I erected. His third shot was spot on, the ball exploding harmlessly like a firework. I shook my head as I dismissed the two he missed. “Still not good enough, Spike.”

“I know, I know,” Spike grumbled, kicking at the ground a little. Twilight hadn’t turned up yet, so I used the opportunity to let Spike practice with the borrowed weapons. It also gave me a change to put in some more magic practice in. The spells and formula tended to come to me when I focused on them, but I was still considering going the Nagi route and jotting down notes in a little notebook.

“Don’t feel too bad,” Al said from his shoulder perch. “You’re learning fast.”

I waved my hand, conjuring another five glowing orbs to hover with them in a lazy circle. I really couldn’t help but grin. Magic was just pretty fun. Spike was actually pretty good at shooting for a beginner, as well. The targets were only slightly smaller than footballs, and while he was no sharp shooter, he was good at more or less hitting in the general area of where he aimed. He attributed his claw eye coordination to years of assisting Twilight.

“Okay, this time I’m going to be trying to hit you,” I announced happily.

“WHAT?” Spike yelped, backing away despite already being about twenty feet from me. “I saw what those things did to the golem things!”

“These are different, don’t worry,” I said with a smile, waving dismissively. They were too; wind element rather than light. “At most they will just knock you down while they try to bind you.”

“And that’s supposed to be reassuring?” Spike said, folding his arms.

“It is!” My grin didn’t drop. Actually, I probably should see if the kenpo skills were up to par. I mentally summoned my staff to my grasp and tentatively twirled it. It felt more natural than when I messed around with a broomstick, at least.

“How ‘bout we make it a game?” With the staff and a bit of magic, I marked out a circle maybe eight feet across. “I’ll try to get you with my sattiga magica, you try to get me with the guns. I win if I can pin you for ten seconds. You win if you can hit me or force me out of the ring.”

“Wait, won’t that be dangerous?” Spike asked. “And you can fly and stuff!”

“I won’t fly, I won’t leave this circle, and the only defence I’ll have is my staff. No other magic than it and the five arrows I have.” This might actually be fun. “Oh, and no; it’s not dangerous. Are you game?”

Spike thought about it for a moment then nodded. “Game!”

We had gathered something of an audience in a few minutes, lined up at the edge of the barrier’s boundary, watching Spike and I go at it. It was our fifth round, all in my favour thus far, though Spike did a little better each time. He finally realized that he couldn’t be a fixed shooter after his first loss, and his running around bought him a bit more time each round.

“You’re getting closer!” I encouraged as I deflected a blast before sending two of my arrows racing towards him from the side. He hurriedly backed away and actually managed to shoot one of them down.

“That’s two down!” he cheered, as did a few ponies watching, though he refrained from doing a jig. I caught him in his victory dance the last two times it did it. Instead, he kept moving, wildly shooting in my direction on the hopes of a lucky shoot either taking down one of the last arrows or getting to me. We had expanded on the rules, and I wasn’t allowed to summon more than five arrows at a time, and couldn’t replace them until ten seconds after he got them all, though we never reached that point.

“Still have three more,” I called back, sending them after him with a swing of my arm. He actually surprised me by running towards them. He got one of them on his reckless charge. At the last minute he dropped into a tumble and rolled under my attack. I was impressed. It was a bit bad for me, but I was still impressed. Still, was missing my front line defence until I could call them back. “Crap!”

He popped back up and started shooting at me again. I defended the best I could with a twirling staff and recalled the arrows. Their return was a bit less precise than if I used a hand, but that's where my share of the practice came in. “If you think this gambit is gonna-”

There was a flash of purple light and Twilight, carrying a bag in her hand, appeared in our battlefield. “What the hay are you two doing!” she demanded. I started and hastily turned to her, trying not to look guilty.

“Twilight! We arrrRUGH!” I yelped as one of Spike’s shots hit me from behind, causing me to stagger and ultimately fall to one knee even as my arrows whizzed away uncontrolled and met their ends when they hit various points on the barrier.

“Noah!” Twilight exclaimed. She whirled on Spike. “What did you do!”

“Wait, Twilight?” Spike skidded to a stop and tried to hide the guns behind his back. “This isn’t what it looks like!”

I laughed as I got back to my feet. Al quickly ran over from the bench he had been using to referee our bouts. "Game, Spike!"

“Ha! Looks like you finally got me, Spike. You win this round,” I chuckled.

“… W-what?” Twilight stammered in her confusion.

“I won?” Spike echoed, uncertain. Our audience cheered, hooves stomping their approval. “I won? But Twilight…”

“Nah, I got distracted. Those kinds of things happen. How you handle them is what counts. I got distracted and you took advantage.” I brushed off my pants and gave him a toothy grin. “Still; final score is 4 to 1, in my favour.”

“Colts,” Twilight huffed.

“So… what was that flash?” I asked Twilight as I destructed the barrier, waving at a few crystal ponies as they dispersed since the show was over. They were starting to look… better, for lack of another term.

“What? You mean when I teleported?” Twilight asked. She hastily started explaining. “I was worried about what you and Spike were doing when I spotted you and saw the flashes and light. I used my teleport spell to… is something wrong?” My dumbfounded expression was probably what confused her.

She teleported, without a medium, without any arrays, devices or tools, and she managed to completely bypassing my barriers. Admittedly, they weren’t the strongest barriers, but still, everything I knew about magic placed teleportation, true teleportation, as high ranked spells. I shook my head slowly at the concerned mare. “Never mind, Twilight.”

“Well, then,” Twilight looked a bit confused still, but she let the issue drop. She reached into her bag and pulled out a wrapped package, handing it to me. “I brought you something to eat. I figured you didn’t have much time to eat anything and might be hungry.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said, surprised not only by her kindness, but also by the growling of the stomach I had ended up ignoring in light of all the excitement that had been going on. I belatedly realized it was literally hours since I last ate anything. I carefully peeled the package open to find a pastry as Twilight handed another to Spike, who took it gleefully.

“It’s a few of the crystal berry fritters Applejack and Pinkie Pie whipped up for the fair,” Twilight explained. I broke off a piece and gave it to Al as we took seats on the benches. Twilight pulled out a few drinks.

“How’s the fair coming anyway?” I asked, tentatively trying a bit. It was actually pretty good, and I dug in with gusto. I hadn’t known what to expect from crystal berries, but they were sweet, with a slight tang to them. Something like a cross between raspberries and tangerines, maybe.

“Surprisingly well,” Twilight admitted, sounding relieved. “Once the crystal ponies realized what we were doing, they latched on to it as if it were a life line.” She sobered a bit. “After what we saw in the dream, I don’t blame them for wanting to forget it. Rainbow Dash has got the jousting games set up while Pinkie and Applejack have the concessions going. Pinkie also set up a few games that everypony seems to be enjoying.”

“Sounds like everything is falling into place,” I sighed. I looked up at the tower. “All we need to do now is get the Heart.”

“With the enthusiasm for the fair building up, it will be a cinch to charge it and finally take the pressure off Cadance.”

“Why don’t you two make a pactio?” Al asked again. I would have loved to have paid more attention to Twilight’s spectacular spit, but I was too busy choking on a piece of fritter that went down the wrong way. Al snickered. “That was an impressive reaction. 4 stars, easy. Both of you.”

“Al!” I said warningly. “Do I look like I need a partner?”

“He’s right,” Twilight said, glaring at the weasel. “From what you explained, it's a contract you shouldn't be taking so lightly!”

“And I’m Twilight’s assistant!” Spike interjected, though he looked a bit unsure as to how much weight his point would carry.

“Oh?” Al’s expression turned smug as he huffed in amusement. “You two are only planning on facing off with an evil unicorn king that left an entire empire cursed, the locals cringing at the memory of him and a creature intent on breaking back in now that it's returned from being banished. You obviously don’t need any more help.”

I flinched at his words. Twilight did too. Al pressed his advantage. “A contract doesn’t have to be permanent, you can make them provisionally. It’s better to be safe than sorry, after all. We don’t want that king to take over just because you were too caught up in yourself.~”

Twilight hugged herself. I glared at the little weasel, snatching at him. He nimbly and mockingly danced away from my hand. “You have a lot of talk for someone who was mute a couple hours ago!”

“Sorry bro, but what we know about his abilities doesn’t make ‘taking chances’ an option,” Al said, irritating me all the more because he was actually making sense. “Remember the magic blocking? Who knows what else his dark magic can do.”

“He’s right,” Twilight whimpered, hugging herself tightly. “I had done some reading on dark magic to prepare after Princess Celestia told me about him, but after seeing what he did in that dream… Dark magic corrupts…”

“Twilight,” Spike said, resting a comforting hand on her thigh. He glared at me, the fledgling ‘bro bond’ that was developing between us communicating his thoughts. This is your fault! Fix it!

I shot back an exasperated look. Well what am I supposed to do? And what was that about dark magic corrupting? “Don’t worry, Twilight. Our aim is to avoid directly facing off with Sombra’s magic. So-”

“You don’t understand, Noah,” Twilight said, trembling slightly. “I know how to use dark magic, and I might have to…”

We all looked at her in stunned silence for a while. “What!?”

“Princess Celestia showed me before we left Canterlot,” Twilight continued. “The only way to undo some of King Sombra’s enchantments is with Dark Magic. I might have to use it, and I… I don’t want to turn out like he did…”

A few pieces clicked into place. She was scared. She wanted to please her teacher. He teacher taught her something that scared her even more. Using it terrified her… I hugged her. “I understand, Twilight. I really do.”

She looked like she was going to interject something, but I held out my hand. Faint spiraling patterns traced themselves across it as I focused magic into them. Twilight looked at them, then back at me, not getting my point. “That’s a mark from the dark magic I have.”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she yelped and she tried to back away from me, but only managed to tumbled off the bench. I sighed and rolled my eyes as Spike just gaped at me.

“You have dark magic? Who? When? Why? First Twilight, now you?” He groaned in frustration and jabbed a claw at Al. “Don’t tell me you have dark magic too!”

“Nope! Ermine Love Faerie,” Al said proudly. “No dark magic, only the blushy-blushy lovey-dovey ability to sense the relationship between people and look into their hearts. Like that little thing you have for the whi-”

Spike pounced on Al and covered his mouth, eyes narrowed to slits as he hissed. “That’s worse than dark magic!”

I sighed and held out a hand to help Twilight back up. She took it before realized what she did, tried to yank away, but I held her tight. “Listen to me, Twilight. There are reasons why I have it.” Well, they were Negi’s reasons, but still. “It might have been distasteful, but it was the best option at the time, and it might even come in handy now, but that’s not what’s important right now.”

“How can something like that not be important!” Twilight said, looking distinctly frazzled. At least she stopped trying to pull away. “Anypony would tell you something like that is important!”

“Twilight!” I said firmly. “Listen to me. You’re afraid that using dark magic is going to make you turn into Sombra, right?”

Twilight paused, flustered and confused. Slowly, her expression changed to shame and she nodded, looking down. “Yes.”

“So what?” I asked.

Twilight snapped her head back up so fast that I feared she would suffer whiplash. Her tone was venomous. “So what?”

“You’re supposed to be helping her,” Spike hissed.

“So what? You have your friends.” I smiled a little. From what I could tell, Twilight was firmly on what Rakan and Eva called the ‘Path of Light’. “Love and Light can fight back dark magic, and the princess with that power is your sister in law. You have your friends to help bring you back if you do stumble.

“A hero isn’t someone who doesn’t make mistakes. She's the one to keep working, even if you get a little dirt on you.” Twilight looked thoughtful as I spoke, so I let her hand go and continued. “If you’re afraid of it, it’s not a problem. Your strengths don’t come from just things you are good at. Running away from something can be a strength too. It is a strength. It's part of your strength. You just need to have confidence in you.”

The sky flickered again, a faint roar and crackle accompanying it. I looked up and suppressed the urge to swear. “Um, I would explain a bit more but-”

“No, it’s okay,” Twilight said, smiling a little. “I understand. Let’s hurry and get this done and over with.”

Twilight and Spike were a bit of a load, but I managed to fly us all up without any real issue, particularly with the wavering shield motivating me. Getting into the room wasn’t an issue either. The room was more an observatory, giving a panoramic view of the entire empire, the openings more that wide enough for me to fly us through.

The issue was the lack of anything in the room.

There was a staircase coming up from the lower level and the center of the room had a snow flake pattern worked into the floor. But there was no Crystal Heart.

“It’s supposed to be here,” Twilight said, pacing the room. I frowned and started summoning lesser spirits of divination and had them use their detection and assessment magic on the room as Twilight worried. I looked at her, chewed my lip, and summoned up a few more for good measure. Since Twilight assisted me with addressing the errors in my spell circle, I had started on getting my magic properly sorted out. Summoning a small swarm of the tiny winged equines was no challenge at all and soon they were scouring the area with military tenacity.

“This is bad, very bad! This was the only lead we had! We don’t have the time to try anything else. And even if we did, Princess Luna forbade us from searching the dreams of another pony. At this rate Princess Cadance will run out of magic before we can help her!”

“Twilight, calm down,” Spike said, chasing after her and tugging on her skirt, trying to bring her back down to sanity. “It will be okay!”

“It will be okay?” Twilight demanded. She pointed at the flickering sky. “Does that look like it’s going to be ‘okay’ to you!?”

“Twilight,” I said hesitantly as the spirits worked.

“I know, I know, I shouldn’t get so worked up,” Twilight said, her mane style fraying in places. “But, I’m sorry; this is serious! If my projections are right, Cadance’s magic might fail any minute now!”

“Um… Twilight?” Spike’s quavering voice interjected.

“Umm? Ah… bro?” Al’s voice was shaking too.

“What is it, Spike?” Twilight asked.

“Please be good news,” I added, knowing that it likely wasn’t. Our respective assistants were pointing to something. At the extreme edge of the barrier, spires of dark crystals that were growing just inside the shield and the rapidly flickering barrier was clearly on its last leg. The two crystal towers that acted like a gate to the empire’s territory were slowly darkening, being corrupted.

“Oh no… we need more time!” I said, paling.

“This is very very bad!” Twilight echoed.

“I have the report!” a tiny voice said. I jumped before I realized what it was. Without much courtesy, I snagged the small conjured papers, small for me, massive for the spirit, and skimmed the report.

“What is that?” Twilight asked, somewhere between curious and frantic.

“It’s the divination report,” I said in a distracted fashion. “Oh dear…”

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“Wow, that’s unexpected. This Sombra character doesn’t mess around, does he?” Al comment, having read over my shoulder.

“What is it?” Twilight asked again, getting a bit frustrated. “Noah, you tell me right now or-”

“The Crystal Heart is here,” I said, nodding at the spirit, who nodded politely and vanished without much flair. The rest of them followed suit, a few calling out things like 'summon us again soon' and the like. Very nice, the local spirits were. “But Sombra set it in a spatial warp. It’s both here and not here.”

“What?” Spike asked. “Wait, is this like when Devious Dare hid Radiance’s bracelets away with the Door of Dimensions in issue #87?”

“I… what? Maybe?” I gave him a confused look.

There was a low rumble as the barrier gave one final struggle before dissolving away, revealing the same dirty sky we saw in the dream. The Shadow and its mass of dark mists was waiting just were the barrier ended, and it oozed between the gateway. The shadowy form of a stallion rose out of it, and despite the distance we could hear his voice. “My crystal slaves… how long has it been…”

“Sorry, but I think we just ran out of time,” Al whimpered as the screams started.

“Can we break the spell?” Twilight asked. She snatched up the divination report from me with her magic.

“I don’t know! These things normally have a disarming trigger, an entrance or something, but the spirits couldn’t find it in the vicinity.” I explained. The shadow chuckled, and its golems started marching. “It’s got several extensions spreading from it, covering the room and even spreading down all the way down to the Castle dungeons! I need to do something!”

Twilight’s horn was glowing, and the air in the center of the room was wavering in response. “I could try and break this, but I’m not likely to succeed without some reference or research, and we don’t have time for that!”

“Bro! No isn’t the time to be holding back!” Al chided.

“Um, what?” I unfortunately knew exactly what he was getting at, and he knew that I knew. He just raised his eyebrow at me, then wagged them. “Gah! Fine!”

“What?” Twilight said, looking back at me.

“Remember I said there was a time when my only option was the distasteful one?” I asked.

“Yes, but what does that have to do with- oh…” She said, realising. She looked around hesitantly, her eyes finally landing on Spike.

“What?” Spike looked at us, then focused on Al. His eyes shrank and he started waving his claws, rejecting the possibility. "No way! You're a cool stallion and all, but I'm saving my lips for Rarity!"

“Fine! I’ll do it! Only because-” I cut her off with a kiss. Al danced around us and got the spell circle up in an instant, its glow surrounding us, causing our hair and loose ends of our clothing to billow slightly.

Al rejoiced with a cheerful cry. “Pactio!”

I had kissed a girl before, but never a mare. Her fur tickled my lips and skin, but it wasn’t unpleasant; her lips where soft, and after her shock passed, she relaxed into it. I broke it off after a few seconds, looking at Twilight’s stunned expression. “Sorry, but we need it.”

A card formed from the fading light of the magic. It bore an image of Twilight in what looked like a wizard’s outfit from one of those Japanese RPGs; a motif of stars similar to the one she already had patterned on her outfit prevalent on it, though she had a sun shaped trinket hanging from a strap around her waist, posing with a hand held to the side, palm up, and a staff pointed at the viewer. A book with the same star crest on it floated above the open palm of her extended hand. The staff was fitted with a gem that matched the shape of purple star, held firmly in her other hand.

Al quickly forged Twilight her ministra copy. She took it uncertainly. “Is this..?”

“Yes, your pactio card and artifact,” I said curtly, shrugging off my cloak and unbuckling my larger bag. I left my staff on the ground too. I cast another glance out the windows. The royal guards had engaged the Shadow’s forces. The shadow itself was content to laugh mockingly at them, letting its constructs and summons fight for it, and I wasn’t complaining. What I didn’t like was the darkness and random outcropping of black crystals making their way across the landscape and towards the castle we were in.

“Al, you stay and teach Twilight how to use that. Hopefully she can bust through the space where the Heart is,” I instructed. I resisted the urge to swear as I noticed some of the outcroppings were spawning new constructs or shadows, and those were behind the first line of defenders. I spotted a rainbow contrail as a pegasus charged at some of them, a lance in her grip. “Spike! I might need to use those shooting skills to either protect Twilight or help the civilians.”

“Sure, wait, what will you be doing?” Spike asked.

I inhaled, finding my center, touching the part of my new skills I really hadn’t wanted to use yet. My skin darkened and my hair paled, the spiral patterns forming on my arms in stark contrast as I activated Actus Noctis. Time to see if Negi’s extensive training in martial arts transferred over as well as everything else did. It seemed to during that little spar with Spike, but this would be the real test. I cast Song of Battle with it's incantation as the two natives gasped behind me.

“No-Noah?” Twilight asked. “What… is that… is that your dark magic?”

“It is,” I responded. Even my voice was affected by ‘Gesture of Dark Night’, coming out hollow and a slight bit rough. “I’m going to try and hold back the shadow so you can work.”

“Are you sure you can manage that?” Spike asked.

“Didn't I saw all it took was a little bit of courage?” I smirk, reassuring myself as well.

“Hey, bro can handle himself,” Al defended.

Spells, ideas and combat tactics rolled across my thoughts like old friends. White Lightning. Assorted Kenpo techniques. Crushing Fists. Even the mechanics for my Magia Erebea forms. I focused on one. The void step and independent flight spell. The former felt easy, the latter not so much. Either way… I quickly cast four unincanted spells and set them on delay as I moved to the window.

“Noah! Your staff!” Twilight called.

“Not taking it! Focus on your job!” I yelled back. And I leapt off the edge.

“Noah!” Twilight yelled after the mage as he left them to go fight the greater challenge.

“He’ll be fine!” Al assured her. “Worry about us! You need to call your artifact! The trigger word is ‘Adeat’. Your artifact is Doctrinis Magnorum Ariolos.”

“Right,” Twilight said. She was slightly distracted by Noah as he bounded through the air, racing towards the outskirts of the city. She swallowed and mared up. He was a stranger and putting his life in danger to help them. She would do what she could to help some of her oldest and closest friends. “Adeat!”

There was a flash of light and pressure as her outfit changed and the artifacts appeared before her. On a reflex, she caught the staff as it fell. The book hovered serenely in the air as she stared at the gem on the staff in mingled shock and confusion. “This is… this looks like my element of harmony. But… how? Why?”

“Twilight!” Spike called. He had both guns out and alternated between looking worriedly out at the city and at her. “Can you worry about that later?”

“Oh, right!” Twilight looked at the book. “Okay… book and staff… what do I do with them?”

“Hmm… classic wizard set up,” Al observed. He quickly scampered up to Twilight’s shoulder and studied the book. “Looks like spell book… Maybe we can see if it has anything on detection magic.”

“What? That would be far too-” Twilight was cut off as the book opened, pages turning rapidly before setting somewhere in the middle. The page was headed in fine calligraphy ‘Magics: Detection, Examination and Divinations’. Twilight continued her sentence lamely, “convenient…”

“Never under estimate pactio magic,” Al chuckled as he rubbed his paws together. “Maybe we can narrow it down to something helpful?”

“Like what? ‘Spatial Detection Spells?’ I don’t think it…” The book’s pages turned again, and this time a few illusion like images of other helpful pages formed in the air around it when it settled on a new section. Twilight's expression turned neutral. “I’m going to stop protesting now. It’s like the Pinkie Sense all over again…”

Leaping tall buildings in a single bound and using the very air itself as a foothold was just plain awesome. I know it was a pretty dangerous situation, and that I was running into a fight I had no clue if I could handle, but it was still awesome. The fact that I was charging towards said fight like the shonen hero I was not should have been more worrying, but I was caught up in how it felt.

My barriers were back up to full strength in preparation, and I could feel some minor attention on the spells I held delayed. My magia erebea was churning inside, just waiting to be unleashed. There was nothing I had ever experienced that I could compare to what I was feeling. People might have said they had power, but that was nothing. This was power. It was literally at my fingertips. On a whim I cou-

I landed heavily on the closest rooftop, ignoring the damage my sudden landing caused, slowly clenching and unclenching my fists, bringing my thoughts and impulses under control. I focused on my breathing. In. Out. I never realized how… dangerous magia erebea was. No, I had realized, but I had forgotten. The real danger of it wasn’t just in the magic itself, but on its effects on the user’s psyche. I pushed it back. I could hold out until after this was dealt with. Princess Cadance might be able to help. Maybe even that Princess Luna.

My impulses my own again, I focused on the situation. The guards under Shining’s command were doing the best they could, and where actually holding back the main press of what the Shadow had called up. But a few things had slipped past them. By the loping prismatic trail, I could tell Rainbow Dash was still among the defenders in the city itself, but while her lance might crush the golems, the Shades skulking about would be her bane.

Fortunately, I could do something about that.

“Ras tel ma scir magister.. Sagitta magica: undetriginta spiritus series lucis!” I yelled, twenty nine glowing balls of magic forming in the air around me. I quickly picked my targets; the shadows that had gotten past the front line fighters. With a wave of my hand, my magic arrows lanced out like the magical missiles they were. Unlike in my earlier fight, I was closer to the top of my game, well; Negi’s game, and I packed quite a bit more magic into these. The constructs didn’t stand a chance, getting blown apart by my arrows as they exploded on impact.

I started leaping rooftops again. I needed to get to the front lines. There was no why the regular guards could match the Shadow. I wasn’t being arrogance, much, but their magic style made them very vulnerable to its corrupting effects.

There was a shrill scream. I ground my teeth together and changed course.

It was hard being a good guy at times.

Following the screams, I found a group of golems had cornered a few of the crystal ponies that had lagged behind. The golems were small, but I could tell they were still growing. Kicking off the rooftop, I cleared the cowering ponies and flipped in the air, landing amidst the golems in a slight crouch. I followed the urges of my body. My fists, elbows and feet flew in precise patterns, smashing limbs, crushing heads and punching through the artificial torsos of the quadrupedal constructs. In seconds, only broken parts lay around me.

“Who are you?” a shaken voice asked.

I looked back at the huddled ponies. They flinched and drew back slightly. I gave them a smirk. “Noah Springfield. A mage. You five hurry to the castle.”

“Hold up!” a rough voice yelled. I got into a defensive stance on a reflex before my mind made the connection and relaxed. Rainbow Dash landed before me, glaring daggers, her borrowed, I presumed, lance still in her grip. “Noah? What the hay is this?” She gestured wildly. “The eyes, the marks, the crazy awesome fighting, that downright evil look!”

“No time for that now, Rainbow!” I said. “Can you take they ponies to the castle? I’m going after the boss!” I didn’t give her any chance to response, leaping into the air and using the flight spell again. I suppressed a smirk as her frustrated scream followed me. Instead, I kept my eye on the goal.

The guards were fighting back, but they were only just. I quickly cast my magic arrows unincated and sent them lancing out, heralds to my arrival that blasted a gap in the golem’s advancing force. Said gap made for a convenient opening to leap through the line and land near the shadow.

It was even more intimidating up close. I couldn’t risk using too much magic, least it corrupt and seal it. I’d have to depend mostly on close range melee skills and augmentation. I was hoping that the nature of Magia Erebea would keep it save from outside corruption. I glared at the shadow, my sunken and faintly glowing eyes locking its red and miasma leaking ones. It sneered at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said cooly. “But you can’t have these ponies. Many are my friends, and the rest might be. Leave.”

“And who are you to command King Sombra?” it hissed, smirking as it, he, took on a more corporeal and humanoid form, complete with hands and the hints of feet. His oddly curved and coloured horn glowed slightly as he called up a new crystal pillar. “A misshapen child?”

Well crap. It really was King Sombra. I didn’t break my resolve though. I would just have to put my fist were my mouth was and hope I could back my words up. That ‘child’ comment irritated me, however, and I frowned. Magic flared around me as I increased the output of my Song of Battle.

“Noah Springfield,” I said as his eyes narrowed. I shifted my footing, ‘grasp the earth…’ and used instant movement to get right in his face, thrusting my hand into his form. He had a brief moment to widen his eyes in shock. “And you aren’t welcome here.”

I unleashed the lightning.

Sinsistra Emittam: *Fulguratio Albicans*.

Light and Darkness

Bro, you okay?

I.. I don’t really like this part of the story, even if it was the end.

It worked out, didn’t it?

But at what cost?

Was it worth paying?

…

Well?

It was.

Then, that’s all you need to know.

~Shining Armor~

“Stay within the confines of the shield!” I yelled towards the milling and panicking throng of ponies gathered in the plaza. A wall of my magic provided some semblance of protection for the distressed civilians, while the members of the guard provided another line of defense against the forces Sombra set against the empire. It was only a small favour that the other relentlessly advancing army had no interest in destroying the infrastructure, and that it wasn’t out looking to cause fatalities either.

A prismatic streak cut across the sky, resolving itself into Rainbow Dash. She still held the lance she had appropriated from the castle armory and was in the matching armour, her other hand supporting the wailing foal that clung to her. She quickly left the foal with the support team and zoomed up to the balcony I was on. Her chest heaved lightly from the exertion she was making, though she tried to keep her expression and bearing casual. A part of me hated the idea of having to use her and her friends in this situation. But they volunteered, and it was dire enough that rejecting any help would be foalish, much less the aid of national heroines.

“I’ve got another group of five coming in from the west,” Rainbow reported. “I cleared out the crystal thingies and shadows I saw in their path, but Applejack and one of your guards are with them anyway.” She looked behind me, concerned. “How’s the princess doing?”

“I’m fine,” Cadance said, smiling weakly from the low couch she was resting on, Rarity fussing over her. As much as Cadance tried to sound as casual as Rainbow Dash did, she couldn’t keep the strain from her voice, hide the sweat that matted her coat or shake off the fatigue that plagued her. Noah’s spell had helped, but it was a stop gap measure, not a solution. She may have only been physically tired, but her mental state was weary, and her magic almost completely drained. “I just need to rest up a while, is all…”

“She’s not fine,” I said as Cadance slipped into another doze. I forced myself to look away from my wife and out at the city. The sounds of the panicked populace wasn’t comforting, nor was the sound of combat coming from all directions helping anything. “She could be much better. With the shield down, she finally has a chance to rest, but what was the point?”

“Don’t worry, Shining Armor,” Rarity said, mopping at Cadance’s brow with a damp cloth. “Twilight has yet to fail when pressed. Not with Nightmare Moon, not with Discord and not even with that witch at your wedding.”

“And you got Noah helping, too,” Rainbow added. A wide grin spread across her face. “Last I saw him, he was racing off to beat the coat off that Sombra. And you’ve got us. No way are we letting this go south.”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack, both having some martial arts training, volunteered to help the guards. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had joined the support efforts focused on the civilians taking refuge behind my barrier. Rarity insisted on waiting on Cadance. Twily and Noah were working on finding the Heart.

A cry went up from one side of the plaza. I moved quickly to see what the issue was, with Rainbow taking flight and racing towards it. Another group of the golems had pushed past the guards and were striking the shield, a shadowy streak surging above the wall. Even as Rainbow rushed to provide her support, I charged a pulse of my magic in my horn before shooting a fresh burst of power towards the shield to reinforce it in a flash of purple and a dull thrum.

“Guardsponies! Squads 6 and 8! The northeast!” I roared above the clamour. There was little else I could do while sustaining the barrier but watch the others do the work. I could feel the strain my barrier was under as it echoed to a minor degree across my horn. To join the battle would disrupt the spell. I couldn’t put the lives of all those ponies at risk just because I wanted to get my hooves on the front lines. I called out a few more orders, redirecting the forces.

“Princess Cadance is one thing, but how are you fairing?” Rarity asked me once reinforcements were moving towards the pressed line.

“Barrier spells are my talent. I can manage this much,” I said, only half lying. It wasn’t even Sombra himself, but we were forced to retreat to the castle grounds. Hopefully, Twily and Noah’s plans were working out. There had been a few flashes from the castle’s upper level not long before. I took them for a good sign. “Twily thinks the Heart can be the end to all of this. We just have to hold out until they come through.”

~Noah~

Raisuko Shundo was disorienting and difficult to control. I would pick my destination, and before I realized it, I was already there. It was like that when I left Twilight; just focusing on leaving the room and I was moving. With aspects of the sky and heavens bound to my very soul, manipulating and controlling my speed and momentum were mainly subconscious, which made it even more disorienting. I was beginning to understand why Negi used the diorama sphere and phantasmagoric scroll to stretch out his preparation time as much as he could. I would have loved more time to practice with the Raisuko Shundo.

For the moment, I needed to find him. There was a glowing wall around the castle grounds, and a very large number of ponies crowded within it. I was fairly certain Sombra wasn’t among them, so I looked outwards, towards the rest of the city.

There.

A flare of Sombra’s magic caught my attention. Apparently, the Crushing Fist had hurled him well into the residential regions. The world shifted again as I transitioned to and from lightning, skidding to a rough stop on the crystal road. Homes lined both sides of the street, Sombra himself standing maybe twenty feet away. I hoped everyone had already evacuated. “Sombra.”

“Child,” the former king smirked. He didn’t waste time on banter. Shadows leapt up, gathering into numerous arm thick tentacles that lashed out towards me, striking out like whips.

I moved, leaping into the air and avoiding the mass of tentacles that crushed the crystal paved street, causing a fair amount of damage to the property I had been standing next to. My magic conjured a foothold, and I launched myself towards him, flaring the wind and lightning aura that clung to my form, flipping and attempting to crack his collar bone with my heel.

A shadow clad arm blocked it. Sombra grinned, and his shadowy tentacles started moving again, a mass of narrow needles twirling into being from the mass of viscous shadows that pooled around his hooves. “Is that all?”

“No.” In another flicker, I moved, leaping back as the needles jabbed into the space I previously occupied. I misjudged my jump, putting too much space between myself and Sombra. No matter. Dozens of points of light flared into existence around me before darting out in deadly force. “It’s just the start! Quadraginta septem spiritus lucis!”

Sombra’s shadow constructs interposed themselves between the assaults, taking the blows for him. The volume of the attack tore many of the constructs apart, but still left him untouched. It didn’t matter, since I honestly didn’t expect the arrows to get through. They were merely a distraction. My jumps were more accurate this time around, and Sombra had hardly turned before my fist struck out, magic churning around it. “Ōka Hōken!”

The explosion of magic knocked Sombra back a few feet, but he was still wearing that smug expression. It was pretty clear why from the withdrawing remains of the wide swatch of shadow that had interposed itself between my blow and his body. The blow had managed to damage it, but it still reduced the damage to near nothing. Sombra applauded mockingly. “You continue to surprise me, child. Not even the princess of the night had the control of wind and lightning you exhibit. But it is for naught if your blows cannot penetrate my defenses.”

As… irritating... as Sombra’s speech was, I let him talk. He really was more of a challenge back in his body. Considering the story Shining told me basically admitted ‘turning him to shadow’ was the most effective solution to be found at the time of his last uprising, I wasn’t that surprised. Still, he was no Rakan.

Crap, only fifteen seconds. I would still take what I got. Not for the first time, and likely not for the last, I shot a grateful prayer off that whatever granted me the powers of a mage, also gave me enough experience, even if it was detached and second hand, to work it.

I moved as Sombra launched a hail of crystal shards at me. Time to test just how thorough his defenses were. The shundo hurled me into his personal space, my fist having found its way towards gut, but a shadow was quick to intercept. In the corner of my eye, I could see his hand coming around to strike me. I leaped back, putting a couple metres distance between us before jumping back in the moment my feet grasped the earth, coming in with another hammer blow. Again, a shadow interposed itself, but some of the force still reached him, judging by his grunt.

To make sure, I tried it three more times, from three different angles; the side, behind, above. Each time, a shadow would appear. Sombra chuckled. “Valiant, child. But ultimately futile. Every shadow cast by your approach is another that moves to pro-”

My fist slammed into his jaw, knocking him a step back. I grinned at his stunned expression. “You were saying?”

He rubbed his jaw with a contemplative frown. “Most impressive.”

His shadows were quite similar to Takane Goodman’s in their function, but likely above Kagetarou’s in terms of power. Which was, in and of itself; a terrifying thought. Either way, its automated responsiveness was fast enough to intercept a shundo, and strong enough to block most of my blow’s power. And that wasn’t counting how hardy Sombra himself was. Still, there was another trump card.

Raisuko Shundo.

It remained hard to use, requiring me to stay as focused and quick witted as I could in order to avoid wasting magic and stay on target, but its speed surpassed the reactiveness of his defenses. And considering how everything else was working out, it would only become easier to use as I fought.

With a flash, I slammed a kick into his side and pulled out before his retaliatory blow could land. Another flash, and I was assaulting the other side. Another, and I was behind him. Then, before him twice in quick succession. Again, behind to kick at his feet before appearing above to try and slam him to the ground.

Infighting. The best exploit a speedster could have. Even if I was limited to aiming from afar without the additional augmentation of Raiten Taiso’s second level, my blitz was effective. Flashes of lightning surged around him as I turned the tides. He was no Rakan. He might have a hardy body. His shadows might have withdrawn to form a protective screen in addition to his already sturdy barriers, but even so... the dance of a thousand fists riding on lightning was leaving its bruises as I wailed on him, and they were adding up.

Huh. Dance of a Thousand Lightning Borne Fists. That was actually a pretty good name for this technique.

I stumbled as my focus slipped. Sombra didn’t miss the opening, and I was forced to withdraw as dozens of crystal spikes lanced out from the ground around him. I held a ready stance, and the lances crumbled. I was prepared to respond to whatever Sombra pulled, but… was he laughing?

“While I have no knowledge of what you are child, I cannot deny that you are skilled,” the dark king chuckled. His horn glowed as fragments of black crystal rose from the ground, aggregating into five masses that floated over his shoulders. “Overcoming what should have killed you once, and managing to cause me acknowledgeable injury four times now.” He shook his head slowly. “To think, the largest stumbling block on my return would be one so young. I almost regret having to end you.”

“You can try,” I frowned. His sudden confidence was concerning. The infighting before was just to prove I could get around his defense. With it, I could dominate him. He might have been able to withstand my punches, but those were just basic strikes. Combining those speeds with more complex strikes, I could take him down. Still; it was a bit worrying. The aura around my body flared, and I attacked, charging with Raisuko Shundo, the world blurring.

A wall resolved itself the instant before I slammed through it, crashing into some living space. Everything spun for a moment as I staggered upright. What… just happened? Even with my barriers, that impact was a doozy. Pressing my hand to my forehead, I glared at the smug king.

“What was that, child?”

A fluke. It had to be. I shifted my stance and attacked again, this time taking several steps, circling before going for his ribs. It was the ground this time. As I rebounded, something grabbed my hair, and I had a brief glimpse of his armoured shin before it slammed into my chest.

Pain disoriented me for a moment, but I pulled through, flipping in the air and launching myself first with a void step then another Raisuko Shundo. I felt something this time, a tug. A moment later, an elbow was in front of me and pain returned as Sombra knocked me away and into another house.

‘This… seems familiar somehow…’ I thought to myself as I shifted a chunk of rubble away. I brought a hand to my face. Yep, pretty sure that was a broken nose. Hurt like hell. Before I could do anything further, crystal and stone formation bound my limbs and body.

“Surprised?” Sombra asked. He slowly walked over towards me as I struggled. Whatever he used was interfering with my magic as well as physically restraining me. “I must admit, your speed really was too much to handle. Fortunately, I was right in my observation that you were using weather magic to achieve it.”

Right. I recalled reading up on that in passing. The lion’s share of wind and air magic was classed under ‘weather magic’ in their system.

“Haven’t you noticed that my empire sits in an unusual bubble of perfect weather in the midst of the frozen landscape? The magic to control weather was tied into the empire’s construction. For me, it is foal’s play to assume control of it in a localized region.”

I paled at that. If he could control the weather around him, Raisuko Shundo was effectively neutralized. And I was in no position, nor was I anywhere confident I was even capable of using Raiten Taiso’s second level. He was better than Rakan, in a way. He was more akin to Negi than Rakan. A powerhouse, but a clever one.

He cupped my chin in his hand and angled my head towards him. “Last time I left you to die, to be petrified, yet you managed to overcome it. Impressive. I will not make the same mistake this time.”

The miasma leaking from his eyes intensified, and I felt a pressure exerting itself on my thoughts, my mind. My body seemed to numb as the world grew fuzzy and darkened. Words were hard to come by, but I forced them. “What… are you…”

“I will see to it that you are ended this time, child,” Sombra said. His words seemed to echo in my thoughts, fragmented and sharp, scattering my own as they did. “Consider it a mark of respect, an acknowledgement of your skills. Now… fall into darkness.”

I did.

~Spike~

“How am I supposed to get this down when I don’t know my way around?!” I spared the breath to yell as I raced through the castle halls. For the most part, they looked the same, and they didn’t follow the same logic the Canterlot Castle did, so I was running blind. I held the crystal heart tight to my chest, trying not to think of what would happen if I messed this up.

“Less talking and more running!” Al urged from his perch on my head. He tossed something behind me that exploded with a sharp retort. “Ch-ya! Missed!”

A dark shadow darted along the walls as it rushed past me before looming from the ground a few strides ahead. A broad torso atop the elongated form was anchored in the shadow, a featureless equine head angled towards us and griffon like claws reaching out.

I shot it in the face.

One hand might have been holding the Heart, but I had my other on tight around the smaller of the two guns Noah gave me and kept on shooting for a few seconds. Even without a mouth, it managed to shriek as the green tinted blasts of magic struck it, knocking it reeling. I didn’t stop as it collapsed back into the pooled shadow, my heart pounding and way too riled up.

Besides, the Shades weren’t the issue. Noah’s magic guns worked great on them.

“Incoming!” Al yelled urgently. I glanced back and hurled myself to the side, avoiding the chunk of crystal the construct hurled at me. I hit the ground hard, tucking and rolling as Rainbow Dash taught me the best I could as the projectile whooshed through the air where I had been and crashed somewhere further down the hall. The Crystal Heart and the larger gun were both knocked loose and rattled after it. Al didn’t fail to notice and jumped off my head and chased after them. “The heart!”

The constructs were the issue. The guns worked on them too, but they were just tougher than the shades were. They were solid and strong, but somewhat slow. I had only managed to take down one of them, and that was after setting an ambush, like when Shining and I played war. I had taken out three shades.

“I see it!” I gasped, scrambling back to my feet. The heavy footsteps of the construct bore down on me, as my claws struggled fleetingly for traction on the crystal floor as I grabbed the gun before I was running again. Even if they weren’t collectables like Noah claimed, he lent them to me, and they were a huge help. No way I was losing one. For whatever reason, King Sombra’s crystal constructs didn’t have any way of attack aside from physically. I wasn’t complaining. I wouldn’t have made it if they were fake unicorns or something.

Just before Al could reach the Heart, the Shade came back, racing across the ground in its shadow form and emerging underneath the Crystal Heart, picking it up as it did. I didn’t think, I just pointed both guns at the shade and blasted it like I heard Twilight had done to the changelings at the wedding.

“Oh crap!” Al yelped when he noticed the barrage, jumping out of range. The Shade tried to get away, but whatever stuff the guns did were too much for it. It could only flail about before it started breaking apart and fading. In its wild throes, it tossed the heart towards one of the doors. I dove after it, crashing through the doorway, Al at my heels.

“Shut the door!” Al yelled.

“No time!” I yelled back. The last two constructs and the only other shade were already at the door. I turned, and I kept running, charging through the doors on the other side of the room. I roughly yanked them open and shut it behind me to delay them for a second or two and turned…

Only to find myself on a balcony with no way off but back through the doors.

“We are screwed!” Al yelled.

~Twilight~

I stared at the hovering book, using it as a focus as possible solutions to the conundrum I was in were formulated rather than actually taking in the words. Thus far, my attempts at breaking out of the trap were unsuccessful. They weren’t a waste, as each successive failure improved my understanding of the mechanics behind the spell King Sombra employed, but repeated failures was not helping my own cause, nor was complimenting the tyrant that sought to bring down unspeakable horror on innocent ponies!

“No, I am a good student,” I said suddenly, abandoning my vigil and starting to pace the confines of my prison. “Maybe Celestia sent me here because she knew King Sombra was a talented spell caster and need somepony like me around to understand and best counter his spells!”

I gasped and whirled, pacing in the opposite direction. “Oh! That’s nonsense! I can’t do this! And I sent Spike off with those things following him! Oh, why did I tell him to do that! He’s going to get hurt and Sombra is going to get the heart and I’m going to fail the princess’ test!”

I slapped myself. Only to wince and rub my cheek. “Oooo… too hard… Still, keep it together Twilight! You can do this… I… I just need to objectively look at what I’ve learned and make a concise and appropriate assessment of the facts before I can determine a proper course of action!”

Armed with my plan, I paced along the inner walls that held me. There were three, no, five primary challenges poised. I could neither use magic across the barrier determined by the ring, or use magic on it. The ring effectively neutralized and counteracted magic I tried to push past it, where as magic cast directly on it was quickly drained and absorbed, further bolstering its power. Thirdly, magic that attempted to circumvent the ring, such as teleportation and detection spells, were ‘tagged’, in a sense, before being rebounded, most times painfully on the caster.

“Fourth point: Attempts at physically traversing the ring are no more successful, as the wall of dark crystals seem to emanate a passive force field that reflects any attempts to leap over with… lets say fifteen to twenty-five percent more force, judging by the bruising on my side,” I continued, rubbing my arm. I had lapsed into vocalizing my thoughts without knowing it. “And finally, the fifth point: the ring itself leeches magic from attempts to bypass it, particularly methods that directly expose it to magic, and use that power to increase the height of the dark crystal structure.”

The jagged crystals had been at my waist when I was first trapped, but under the influence and exposure of several attempts at escape, it was becoming more akin to a cage than a simple wall. Fear of being closed off completely was part of the driving force behind my decision to switch to the theoretical attempts.

“Dark magic, despite my hopes, hasn’t been the solution either. Even casting Peridot’s spell using dark magic, was no more successful than my previous attempts,” I continued, leaning on my staff wearily. “I suppose it was foolish to think ‘dark magic’ alone was the answer. I am quickly becoming aware of the fact that dark magic can be as nuanced as standard magic. If only I was able to utilize the more powerful light and love spells like Cadance can…

“Actually…” I stared at the staff. More specifically, the star-shaped gem set in it. “There was one spell that managed to get past the wall without being rebounded…”

The gem strongly resembled my Element of Harmony and I could sense a faint but ever so slightly familiar connection between it and my magic. The Elements were said to have been used on Sombra and his magic in the past, and even more so, my element was magic, the spark of friendship.

“Perhaps the bonds of friendship are close enough to the light and love?” I mused. Of course, I could have been wrong. Very wrong. “The best case scenario in the event of a failure is that the seal reacts exactly the same as it did before, gaining more power from my attempt, which doesn’t exactly leave me that much worse off

“Worse case; the circle reacts negatively and the feedback cause undue harm, possibly to the point of causing lethal injuries…” I chuckled nervously. “Actually, I’m sure I can come up with a more feasible solution if I put my mind to it. Princess Celestia did assign this test to me after all!”

“So what? You have your friends. Love and Light can fight back dark magic, and the princess with that power is your sister in law. You have your friends to help bring you back if you do stumble. A hero isn’t someone who doesn’t make mistakes. You keep working, even if you get a little dirt on you.”

The context wasn’t exactly the same, but the message still applied. I grinned as I started to build up magic. Instead of letting the power stay in my horn to put shaped into a spell, I found that faint link and poured the power into it, feeling it expand and swell to allow it. Sheesh, a colt’s advice was what was going to make me do this, but he was right. I had my friends. I trusted them with my life, and they trusted me with theirs all the time. This plan depended on my bonds of friendship, and those were the strongest magic I had!

The gem in the staff blazed with light and magic. The energy shone out from it in waves, almost blindingly so, forcing me to turn my head away as I lifted the tool to the sky. “Dark magic or not, Noah’s right!” The light swelled. “My friends believe in me, and I’m not going to just sit back and do nothing!”

A shockwave burst from the gem, and I not only saw the thick dark crystal wall shatter under the pressure, but felt the dark magic reeling. In the glare, three of Sombra’s shades were forced into their corporeal forms, only to scream shrilly as they were destroyed.

The fatigue of the magic rush hit me and I slumped against the staff for support. Strangely enough, the faint connection to the gem was suddenly a comfort to me. Still, I didn’t have time to waste. I headed for the stairs.

~Noah~

It was dark and empty, even sensations seemed muffled, but it was cold. I wasn’t sure how long I drifted in that abyss, listless, mind-muddled. Where was I? What was I doing? What was I supposed to do?

Such a dark place, your heart…

Wait… that voice. It was familiar. Was it? The space around me flickered slightly, images trying and failing to form multiple times before a pair of eyes manifested, purple mist leaking from the outer edges of the glowing green sclera, red iris…

Sombra!

Strange, child… you are rooted in darkness.

The clouds stubbornly clung, even as I battled against them. I could feel him dredging through my mind, my memories. Flashes of things I had put behind me surrounded me, distorted images and warped voices. The worse ones. Not just times of humiliation or embarrassment. Those were there too, but by far, the most common ones were when my own nature was turned against me.

When my willingness to give aid was exploited. When ones I would consider friends used my attempts to keep them out of trouble to throw me to the wolves. Moments when I was made the bad guy for letting the razor tongue lash for once. Faces of people from my past. The best and the worst.

Time after time. I grit my teeth as old wounds, long since scabbed over but apparently not healed, were scratched open. I hugged myself tightly as years of swallowed pride and repressed anger were made fresh. No. I… I enjoyed helping people if I could. These memories? They were of minor slights. Nice guys didn’t always win, but it didn’t bother me. They were nothing.

Such trials for one so fair. Yet this isn’t the root of your darkness. The pressure increased, and Sombra’s voice echoed as the abyss seemed to tremble. The flickering images and sounds shattered like glass. The fragments hovered in the air, forming a ring around me, then another, and another, until a cage of light protected me. Sombra pressed on, the eyes growing in intensity. Show me… where is your darkness? What left that festering wound?

Go! Away! There is nothing! These memories are behind me!

SHOW ME! Sombra roared, a power rippling from the eyes, and a ghost of a claw pressed in on the cage. Fall into DARKNESS!

The cage shattered into dust, the shock leaving me dazed. A new memory came into being, forging itself from the remnants of the cage around me.

I was playing with my toys, pushing the hot wheel cars across the floor as I crawled around on my hands and knees. I giggled to myself as I made them race around the carpet, using the pattern of rings as tracks. I could see the pretend course the two cars were barreling down. “Vroom, vroom! Red Rocket passes Blue Bullet! But Bullet uses his hook shot! Whoosh!”

I giggled some more as both racers sped down the imagined track until their race was disturbed by a giant! I looked up at the face of Annabelle, my babysitter. “Hey, little man, what you doing?”

“Playing with my race cars! Speed racer!” I responded cheerfully. A second figure approached, one whose knees I immediately abandoned the toys for to embrace. “Auntie Danni!”

Aunt Danielle, or Auntie Danni as I knew her, didn’t look as enthused to see me. In fact, her expression was bleak.

No… I… I don’t want to remember… to relive this.

The memory jumped. Auntie Danni had me seated on her knees. “Noah… I need you to be strong, a big boy for me, okay?”

“Why, Auntie Danni?” I asked innocently. “Why are your eyes red?”

“Noah… you… do you remember Biscuit?” she asked. The memory wavered for an instant, a black and brown dog flashing before it settled back.

“Uh-huh!” I nodded. Then, I frowned. “But then, he got hit by that mean man and his car…”

“I… I… the…” She swallowed nervously. It distorted. “Something bad happened. I heard today that… that your mommy and daddy were in an accident, and… and they …”

“Oh no! Are the people they went on the plane with gunna help them get better?” I asked. “Like how they went to help hurt people?”

“Oh, sweetie,” Danielle said softly before embracing me. I didn’t understand why she started crying. The memory started cracking. “I’m so sorry sweetie, but… it’s like little Biscuit… I’m… they died, sweetie… your parents, my sister… they died…”

My pained wail shattered the memory. Children emotions were simple, but strong. The pain was fresh all over again. My parents. Dying overseas on an aid trip. Caught up in a suicide bomber’s strike on the facility they were working in.

There is the darkness… Sombra said smugly, pushing his own abilities to worsen the pain.

Why? Why would they..? Why did they..? They were there to help. To lend a hand, and instead, one of the people they were helping turned out to be a plant. They found out later. Pretending to be a patient to attack those who just wanted to help? Why did people do that? Exploit others. Use them. Take their goodwill and pervert it!

The scream was of mingled pain and rage, purple mist leaking from my eyes as my negative emotions were amplified by Sombra’s magic. For the first time, I was aware of the nothingness and loss of sensation that was creeping in on me, likely the crystallization effect he was pushing with this mind rape.

A spark of magic spawned over my hand as my scream petered out. My eyes abruptly shifted to a pale yellow glow as my iris shifted to red, the mist cutting off suddenly. The magic surged into whirling, surging spiral patterns over my arms.

The eyes retreated slightly.

I bellowed again, but this one was far more primal, wild, bestial. Sombra miscalculated. He wasn’t aware of all the variables. He wanted me to fall into the darkness?

I did.

The darkness I floated in took on a faint tint of redness, and behind me, a monstrous maw opened, seeming to suck in what little light existed before it bellowed in time with me, the force of it warping the environment and blasting the eyes apart.

I fell. And Erebea frenzied.

~Shining Armor~

Morale had fallen. More and more of my guard had been forced back out of the city by Sombra’s forces. It did have the unforeseen benefit, one I should have expected, of making it easier to hold the line as it concentrated the troops. Even so, the crystal ponies weren’t reassured by knowing that the guard was fighting just outside their place of refuge.

Morale wasn’t helped by the continuous growth of dark crystal formations around the city. One of the more coherent crystal ponies explained that it was common from the dark crystals to spread when Sombra was exerting his power. A side effect of the affinity between them.

It was a blessing that King Sombra hadn’t turned up. From what I heard from the guard, there was a strong chance the self professed mage Spring Field was responsible for that. A few reported having been saved from Sombra by the mage, and two pegasus sighted Sombra engaging a glowing figure on the outer edge of the city.

“I don’t know who you are,” I murmured, “But you were a heaven sent.”

“Shiny,” Candance’s weak voice instantly caught my attention. I quickly turned from the edge and moved to her side.

“Don’t strain yourself, dear!” Rarity chided, having not left her post as a hoofmaiden, gently dabbing my wife’s brow with the new cloth Fluttershy provided her. Speaking of affinities, Rarity also had an affinity to crystals, enough that the balcony remained pristine and clear of Sombra’s overt influence because of her.

All of Twily’s friends were helping. While Rarity was attending to Cadance with Fluttershy's assistance, Pinkie was down with the crystal ponies, doing their part to keep spirits from falling too far. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, as of my last check on her, were still at the barrier fighting with the guards, despite several recommendations not to. Unfortunately, with the situation, we couldn’t refuse her outright. We couldn't afford to turn away willing hooves. A few crystal ponies were there as well.

Judging from the marks on their backs I noticed when they donned armour of their own, their strong will hadn’t left them unpunished during Sombra’s time.

“You still need your rest,” Rarity insisted, gently pushing Cadance back down as she tried to rise.

“No… something is coming…” Cadance said, looking up, a glint in her eye.

I turned, following her eyes. There was somepony moving, much further up the castle structure. Something with them was glowing. Curious, I shielded my eyes from the glow of my horn, trying to make out the details. “Is that… Spike?”

~Frenzy~

Less than a minute had passed. Under King Sombra’s influence, the dark crystal had steadily consumed the boy that proved himself quite the nuisance in the short time since his return, but that road block was about to be terminated. More than just an encasement, the king intended to fully crystallize the impertinent youth, turning the child’s own inner darkness into the fuel for the spell.

Sombra recoiled suddenly, yanking his hand from the young man’s chest as if it were glowing hot ore. He hissed, then growled softly in mingled frustration and disbelief. “Even more surprises from you, child?”

The crystal statue, the supposedly immobile one, moved, even as the crystallization finalized, yet warped. Odd outcroppings of crystal formed on its temples, on its arms, along its back, on its feet. It moved, lashing out at him, a jagged hand, its fingers tipped with rough formations, snatching at his neck. Sombra slapped it aside with his right hand, blasting it in the chest with a burst of magic from his horn.

The statue staggered back, but didn’t fall. Instead, it jerkily shifted its head, cracks forming on the torso, climbing its neck and spreading across the face. The lower half of the face and head shattered as the child’s mouth opened, exposing fanged teeth, releasing another pained roar like King Sombra heard when he penetrated the youth’s very being.

With the jaw freed, the rest of the crystal followed suit, fragmenting and breaking away in large chunks. The child’s formerly brown skin was dark grey, approaching black. His red hair turned pale. His hands were more like talons, a chaotic collection of magic dancing in a spiral crest atop it. He seemed to have grown a tail, the hair long and jagged, somewhere between a wild pony’s tail and a dragon’s. On his head, just above and before his ears were two pronged horns; a shorter length angled forward over his temples with three times that raked back. More daunting yet was the pair of wings that sprouted from his back. They straddled the line between construct and summon, made of fiercely glowing red magic, but seeming to have a physical presence to them.

King Sombra had but a scant few moments to take note of it all before he was attacked again. Not losing any of the speed he first demonstrated, even in this state of frenzy, the monster Noah had become used instantaneous movement to invade Sombra’s space, talons slashing at him, parried only by the defensive shadows.

“What are you, child? First a warrior, and now, an untamed demon?” King Sombra marvelled. He frowned at some memory as he raised his hand, shadows weaving into lances. “One that seems familiar, for some reason… but all the more reason to lament the need to end you!”

The lances stabbed into the ground, but Noah was already gone, having leapt out of range and circling around to strike from the side. Sombra scowled as the talons slashed at him, his defensive shadows turning back the attack. Sombra quickly turned defense to offense, the sweeping shadow’s force sweeping several times over and bashing Noah away. “This rashness will do little save delay your end, boy!”

The blow not only knocked Noah off his feet, but threw him some distance away. With a snarl, Noah extended his wings, using them to flip him around and bring his flight under control, finding purchase in the air with his void step before charging in once more.

“It’s a pity, child!” Sombra growled, countering Noah’s powerful yet direct attacks with both his shadows and his martial skills. In the throes of the frenzy, Noah’s mind was clouded with thoughts of pain and anger. Directed at no one in particular, he was only lashing out at the more opportune target, Sombra. Unlike before, the king’s expression was serious and conflicted as blows and strikes were exchanged. While not the complicated moves exhibited earlier, the power Noah possessed was a magnitude greater, turning his inner conflicts into pure power, and a lot of the nuances that had been in his previous movements were lost in his rashness.

“To think you, who were such a promising one, is reduced to this!” Sombra grabbed Noah’s wrist and yanked. Noah’s eyes widened as he was pulled off balance. A metal shod leg slammed into his gut. A powerful arm smashed just between his wings. A blast of magic knocked him away again. Sombra panted slightly. “A wild beast of power. A demon. I do not claim to know how you resisted my power, but was it worth it, you Shadow of what you were? For what reason? These ponies of little worth?”

“Sombra…” Noah’s thoughts focused somewhat. his jaw clenched as tears ran from his glowing eyes. Spheres of light formed in over his shoulders and shot back in a retaliatory strike.

Sombra’s shadow rose up and intercepted the magic assault. “Futile, child! Wasted ef-urk..!” Sombra’s retort was lost to gurgles as taloned fingers clenched around his neck, the magic arrows being a mere cover for a frontal assault.

Noah tightened his hold, his fingers drawing blood where they penetrated Sombra’s magic defenses and reached flesh. “Sombra…” The tears that had been streaming had dried, leaving streaks on his face. His horns crackled and glowed faintly with power. The green in Sombra’s eyes slowly began to be invaded by the yellow that possessed Noah’s. The eyes of both parties widened as somehow flickers of memories started passing from Sombra to Noah in some strange mirror of their previous connection.

Sombra’s expression contorted, and his horn flared to life.

The ground at their feet exploded, forcing the two apart. Noah flinched, shielding his face from the burst of magic and shrapnel even as Sombra filled his lungs. The dark king’s counter was not over, however. Countless tendrils sprang from the shadows and wove around Noah, binding his limb and body. If any of the stone and crystal shards were pinned painfully in the restrains? It was only a boon, as far as Sombra was concerned.

“What… were you attempting, you impudent whelp? I have not experienced that since the master…” Sombra demanded, his tone a cool contrast to the fury in his expression as his accusation trailed off. Noah paid him little heed as he struggled against the bindings, snarling and growling like an animal. Sombra scowled. “You are… an unknown. No; you are a dangerous wildcard. One I will be best to-”

A faint pulse of magic washed over them. Sombra whirled quickly. It didn’t take him long to pinpoint the source. Even from the distance they were at, it was possible to make out the purple form of Spike nimbly scrambling down the twisted dark crystal formations that encroached on the castle’s central spire, as well as the pale blue Crystal Heart he carried. Chasing after him was a small group of Sombra’s crystal constructs, having far more trouble with the descent than Spike was, but managing. Even as they watched, a clever attack from Spike knocked one of the constructs off the formation and left it to plummet in a fall that would most certainly end it.

“Impertinent youth! One after another, impeding my plans!” Sombra seethed. Without further thought towards Noah, he rose up on a spur of dark crystal and rode it rapidly towards the castle.

Noah was still, his eyes locked on the scene, the red slowly fading from his pupils. Be it the effect of the heart or the seeing his friend in danger, perhaps both, Noah’s heart calmed some, and his reasoning returned. The thoughts of anger and pain were quieted, allowing a softer voice to be heard.

I still want to help them…

Noah roared, not in animal pain, but with the frustration of a bounded man wanting to act and being unable to. His wings flared as magic and lightning spread from them, ripping and eating into the shadow bindings. “I… won’t let him!”

~Noah~

I knew where I went wrong.

I tried to run from my pain. I tried to ignore it, and instead of making it mine, it took over.

That’s why my Magia Erebea went wild. But I… I wasn’t quite there, at the point of owning the power, but I was in control for the moment. My ‘true self’ was quieted, curled protectively around my core, and I could feel the power burning in every vein, the same power that had just been haphazardly thrown at Sombra. The urgings of the frenzy were still there too, but the more I regained focus, the more its nagging dropped off.

Inwardly, I laughed. The hotheaded style was powerful, but it wasn’t what would end this. In fact… I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do. Something I noticed while Erebea raged.

The wings and the tail would have been disconcerting if I paid them any heed, or if I hadn’t been emerging from the grip of the frenzy. It was a strange turn of faith that losing control made being in control easier. I flexed, the crest patterned wings extending and expanding, the small crest swirling on my arms flared, breaking through the shadows like tissue paper as a fine network of lines spread over my body.

The instant I was free I took off towards the castle. The wings took less effort and power than using the flight spell or even consecutive void steps, but combining them pushed my approach past the speed of my instantaneous movement. I needed the speed. The constructs were closing in on Spike, and Sombra had used a spire of dark crystal to vault over the glowing wall I assumed someone cast as a protection, spikes of shadow and crystals ready to fire.

Spike took a leap of faith, the Heart clamped between his arms as both guns spat magic at the constructs, Al riding his shoulder. Already, the one closest to him was breaking apart under his assault, its main body damaged and the glow fading away as it was deactivated. His attack was even battering the ones behind it. Even so, he started to fall, and Sombra’s attack was approaching…

Flans Paries Aerialis!” I yelled, placing myself in the line of fire, picking a priority. Sombra’s attack exploded against my barrier, without harm to me or Spike. I whirled, wings pumping, ignoring Sombra’s furious cry as I tossed magic arrows at the others. Ras tel ma scir magister.. Sagitta magica: novem spiritus series lucis!”

My wings flared as I tried to find Spike.

NO!

Sombra turned his attention to Spike and Al! Magic gathered in the wings and at my feet as I was about to…

Cadance appeared out of nowhere. No, wait… There! Shining Armor was trying to recover his balance from having… had he just thrown his wife? Whoa…

Her wings were extended to their maximum span before she gave a powerful flap, combining her own strength with the momentum of her husband’s powerful throw to reach high speeds. Her arms extended and horn glowed as she caught both Spike and the Heart, arching over gracefully at the apex of her climb.

“I will not allow this!” Sombra roared, gathering his own magic and power to strike out.

Well, I for one wasn't about to allow that.

Sombra’s expression was dumbfounded when I appeared before him with a rush of wind, clamping my claws around his wrists. It quickly turned into one of fury. The magic accumulation twisted as he prepared to blast me. “What must I do to be rid of you?!”

I wordlessly cast Flans Exarmatio, unconsciously channelling it through the wings as they flapped. The burst of wind magic ripped not only his gathered magic, but also a good portion of his armour and outfit. I drew back my free arm, my eyes blazing with power, the Erebrea crest flaring wildly. “Ah, ah!” I chided him. “My turn!”

I stabbed my arm into his chest, and wrapped my fingers around his magic core and forced my way in.

Images flashed around me. Fighting me. The timeless void of being sealed in ice. A battle with two powerful individuals. Ruling the empire. Fighting an army. Wandering different lands. A figure with blazing crests at his arms. Standing with others like himself. Crafting a golem. Countless images, almost too quickly to process. The last one was of a hooded and robed figure motioning for him to rise before I found myself in an empty space of pale stone.

Sombra stood before me, but not as I knew him. He was far from the statuesque figure with the defined muscles and intimidating armour. Instead, he was slighter of frame and a few inches shorter than I recalled with a normal horn. His eyes still shown green and spilled the purple haze, but they shifted between red and green, and his hair and tail wasn’t the solid ‘slice of darkness’ black it had been, seeming more natural, though hanging limp.

“Boy…” Sombra started, but he stopped with sneer. “No… I suppose I should cease calling you that. It has led to me underestimating you.” Blackness tentatively spread from his feet. “So... you have managed to penetrate my own core. But if you think it will be enough to stop me, you would be mistaken.”

The shadows surged up, forming into multiple snake- or dragon-like heads that towered over him, baring their fangs at me. “Even here, the darkness is more than strong enough to consume you.” I snickered. I tried holding it back, but I couldn’t help it. It quickly turned into a chuckle, the glowing wings on my back twitching and the tail behind me waving in mirth. Sombra growled as the perceived slight. “You laugh!?”

“Sorry, sorry! It’s just…” I controlled myself with a snort, which was helped by a sobering recollection. Remember to giggle at the ghosties when it gets dark, okay? Had… had she known something like this would happen? That was actually something of a terrifying thought. Brushing it aside for now, I approached Sombra. It wasn’t like there was anything else to see in the place, but I had a question for him. “What are you afraid of, Sombra?”

“I am King Sombra,” he sneered. “King of the Crystal Empire, Master of Darkness. I fear nothing.”

“Master of Darkness?” I snorted in derision and tapped him on his chest. “Please.”

“Perhaps you truly are but a child. Perhaps it is for the best… that I end you in your folly!” Sombra roared. He leaped back, the physics of the place turning that leap into something spectacular, and directed the monstrous heads towards me.

“You control a few shadows, and you call yourself a master of darkness? You play on the fears of others and manipulate them with it, and you consider that to be mastery? You don’t know what true darkness is,” I finished with a sneer of my own. The massive inner monster form of Erebea manifested behind me, hunched over, emotionless eyes fixed on the attack. It tore its maw open and roared, sucking in everything. Sombra found himself fighting an almost irresistible force that viciously dragged him forward. His shadows had been torn apart and consumed already, even the space we stood in feeling the strain, bits and pieces of it being torn up and sucked in.

Despite all that, I was mostly untouched, my longer hair seeming to wave in a light breeze as I stood in stoic contrast to Sombra’s struggles as he dug his hooves in the ground, trying to find some purchase. Every so often, he would aim a blast of magic, throw some summoned crystals, or even try to strike me with more shadows, all to moot. “Eva would laugh at you, too. Shadows? Please! It’s simpler than that! You don’t know what real darkness is. It is more than suffering. It is more than pain. More than failure. More than loss. Inadequacies. Tension. Greed. Weakness. Lust. Cowardice. Helplessness. Revenge. Hate!

“Even more than Fear!” My voice peaked and was yelling. “It’s all that. Everything. It’s taking it all. It is swallowing it all, bending it to your will and making it your strength! That’s what darkness is! As for you?” Sombra’s attempts finally failed, and he was pulled into the air and drawn into the maw that clamped on him. “You’re just a joke.”

The pebbles and rocks that were being sucked in fell to the ground as my manifestation faded. I wasn’t quite sure what would happen next. This was supposed to be Sombra’s mindscape, and I just defeated, sorta, his mind, breaking him. When Negi’s spirit almost broke in his mind, he almost died and petrified as a result. It was only the intervention of projections that saved him. It was only by chance that I recognized the similarities when Sombra launched his mental attack.

But now what?

“Master, no!”

Um… what?

The space changed; from pale rock to frozen stone, ice and snow. Cold air whipped about. I looked around frantically. “What the he-”

The words died on my tongue. Not ten feet from me a younger looking Sombra fell to his knees in grief. And beyond him? A tall man with a glowing body, a long reptilian looking tail, hair of matching length and horns on his temples, one that cleaved into a vaguely familiar hooded figure in flowing robes. I made the connection between this hooded figure and the glimpse I caught breaking into Sombra’s core. Of greatest interest to me was the glowing Erebea crest that floated beside the glowing one’s arms. Unlike my own, they were large, about as long as he was tall, and fully defined and developed compared to my unruly ones. A massive spell circle came into being around him, and magic power started raging.

Another figure, this one a solidly built earth pony, appeared beside Sombra and grabbed him by the shoulder. “Don’t just sit there, new colt! That’s a sealing spell! Stay too close, and you’ll get caught up in it!”

“But the master!” Sombra protested. The larger stallion roughly picked Sombra up and leaped away as the magic circle’s power peaked. I turned to follow…

...And realized the flashback memory had ended, and I was back outside his mind, slowly starting to fall to the ground. Sombra was limp against my arm, his expression vacant and his eyes lifeless. Mist seeped from the wound I made as some of his own dark crystals crept over his body. He was barely supported by my smaller frame, and the added weight was dragging us both down.

What… what was that? There was another user of Magia Erebea? And it looked perfected at that. No sign of corruption on his body! Before I could think more on the matter, a glare of bright light that felt like the Heart washed over us both. In its wake, I felt the last grips of the frenzy cleared away, the demonic form hardening over me and cracking like a shell. A wall of light blue was approaching as well, but I was more concerned about Sombra. Cracks were appearing all over his body as well, but the light seemed to be more hurting him rather than the cleansing it was doing for me.

“No… No way I’m letting you die after seeing that!” I yelled. We were still falling, but I couldn’t worry about that. Someone else with the same dark magic I had? Who? No, when had Sombra seen that? A thousand years ago? Erebea was a potential form for immortality. The user could still be alive! I tightened my grip on Sombra’s core as I felt the light scorching it, instinctively pouring my own magic into it even as it was assaulted. The silver blue glow was swallowed by the gold and red of my magic as I felt my magic reserves quickly falling, and then the wall hit us both.

Despite the massive drain as just about all my magic was ripped away to preserve Sombra, I felt nothing but relief as the shell of Erebea’s demonic form was blasted off me, fragments being hurled off into the distance. Whatever the magic was, it was gently lowered me to the ground... fortunate, since I was just about out of all of my own. Despite the laboured breathing, I quickly performed a physical check. I… was mostly back to normal. Well, the normal I had since I got to this world. The first anomaly was that my arms seemed crystalline, for all they felt like flesh, and I could actually see through them a bit. Considering the Crystal Ponies, I mentally chalked it up as a (hopefully) temporary side effect of being exposed to the Heart’s magic pulse.

The more worrying one was, well… I still had wings. They were entirely flesh and blood this time, though as crystal like as the rest of me, and boasted tawny feathers, but much smaller than they were during the frenzy. I found the tail a moment later, that one with the same russet colour of my hair. Considering everything that had happened up to that point, I added it to my ever increasing list of ‘Things to Fret Over Later.’

Something exploded in the sky, and a third blast of magic rushed across the land. The sky cleared in its wake, the city gaining a new luster as the dark crystals were eradicated and even the clouds that had built up like a wall were dissipated with prejudice as the magic of the Crystal Heart asserted its dominance. That last blast even seemed to restore my magic a little.

Not much, but it was better than nothing. I started looking for Sombra, worried that despite all my efforts the Heart had destroyed him.

The glowing mass of light not too far from me gave me hope. I could hear people rushing over towards me, but I wanted, needed to know, magic or no magic. It dispersed into fading shards as I approached and let the unconscious figure it concealed gently fall to the ground.

“Sombra?” I questioned. My confusion wasn’t all that surprising. The figure that was revealed didn’t match the King Sombra that attack, or even the one I found when I invaded his core. This one still had the grey fur, if a bit lighter, but his horn was normal, at least, no longer curved and red. His hair was a light less intense black, and had cobalt streaks in it. His armour was gone, which may have been my fault, leaving him in oversized and badly tattered pants. More importantly, he was my size.

“Is that King Sombra?”

“It can’t be! He’s a foal!”

“Who is that pegasus colt?”

“Did the Crystal Heart do that?”

“He’s the one that saved me and my family! I’m sure of it!”

“King Sombra is still alive! No!”

“He was fighting King Sombra, too!”

The crowd had caught up, and already, questions filled the aired. I looked around, realizing for the first time how close the fight had gotten to the castle. We were in the area surrounding the castle itself, the one that had been within that shield I noticed before. No wonder they came so quickly. I got my first good look at the crystal ponies, too. Like myself, they sparkled slightly and seemed translucent. I just never expected their name to be that… literal.

“Make way! Make way!” A familiar voice yelled. Shining Armor and a much more refreshed looking Cadance approached. The latter quickly embraced me as the royal guards, who also sported new crystal looks, pressed the crowd back.

“Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you! If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know how this would have turned out!” Cadance gushed. Her thanks stopped abruptly, and she drew back. “Did… you didn’t always have wings, did you?”

I shrugged. I really wasn’t about to make any assumptions. I just kicked some major Final Boss level ass with powers that should have been fictional in my own One Winged Angel Mode. It would take a few more hours before panic set in. “Wait, did anyone find Twilight?”

“Spike told us. He, her friends, your Al and a few of the guards are gone to retrieve her. Now, I won’t go as far as my wife, but thank you for your help, Spring Field,” Shining Armor smiled. “Spike also told me to tell you thanks.”

I grinned awkwardly at him. “Glad to be of help.”

His warm expression hardened as he looked at the other figure. “So, is that Sombra?”

I quickly positioned myself between the unconscious colt and the prince. “Before you do anything rash and likely deserved,” I said quickly, as Shining looked at me in disapproval and suspicion, “I have reasons to suspect he might have information relevant to me and how I got here.” I raced to pull together other logical reasons. “Not to mention he might be the key we need to properly undo the damage his curse did to places like the library. Plus… I think the Heart might have had a positive effect on him.”

Shining Armor gave me a neutral look, and I did my best to match it. Cadance placed a hand on his shoulder, giving him a soft smile. Faced with his wife, he sighed. “Fine. Guardsponies, take the… colt and detain him properly.”

Three of the guards nodded and moved quickly and efficiently, securing the de-aged former king. I sighed, and all the tension and adrenaline left my system, and I swayed slightly. Shining Armor was quick to catch me. “Easy there, Noah. I got you.”

“Thanks,” I groaned, feeling the backlash from burning through all that magic hitting. At least whatever the Heart did solved the Erebea encroachment issue for the moment. “I think I need a nap before I see what Sombra knows.”

“You’ll have to wait quite a bit, I’m afraid,” Cadance pointed out.

“Huh?” Geeze, I was really get out of it. Was I running on the rush that hard?

“For the first time in nopony knows how long, the crystal ponies are free. Saved.” Cadance waved her hand around her, and I looked around. Sure enough, ponies were conversing happily, laughing, singing, even dancing in places. It was as if the Fair Twilight and her friends set up had taken off and evolved into it’s own festival. Cadance continued speaking as I marvelled at the sight. “They found a faint hope, and it turned out to be real. You are a hero to them. Spike too, from what I overheard. I might be their Crystal Princess, and Shining Armor their prince that protected them. But Spike was the one to bring the Heart back to them, and you were the one to challenge the tyrant directly.”

She hugged me again as I let that process. Hero of an empire? Seriously? In the end I just grinned weakly. “I suppose so, huh? I guess I can live with that.”

After it All

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Magister Misplaced

There are a lot of ways I would have rather been introduced to the reality magic, and to the existence of parallel worlds. In fact, I can think of a dozen other ways that would have been better. A letter in the mail… A visit from a wizard… A two way communication mirror…

Bro… You’re starting to go off topic again! You’re supposed to be explaining things, not making them more complicated.

Oh, sorry, sorry… *Ahem*

This is a story of a single man, unaware of how his fate is about to change, and what destinies lay waiting at the end of his-

Bro!

Fine, fine. I’m Noah Springfield, and this is the story of how my life turned upside down.

I would admit; I had been torn over the decision. I had steadfastly resolved to go to the convention in costume. The hard part was picking one. There were just so many awesome works of fiction. In the end, I brought my top three ideas to my pal who was actually going to be making the costume for me, and asked her which one she wanted to tackle, based on what materials she had. Of course, she was kind-hearted enough that she said it didn’t matter, forcing me to pick anyway.

That’s how I ended up strutting through the convention dressed as Negi Springfield, technically; the Fake-Nagi Negi at the height of the Festival Tournament. Considering we shared the name Springfield, and I actually had relatives living in UK, it should have been a no brainer. There was something quite empowering about the mixed fantasy/modern garb get up, particularly the hooded cloak that billowed behind me if I kept my pace brisk.

Of course, the details were important. A white stuffed weasel I got in a dollar store was pinned to the cloak’s shoulder. I had a small thigh pouch between my black pants and the over legging (fantasy outfits; odd, but awesome looking), and it matched the tan colour decently enough. It held a container with coloured candy and few plastic tubes of coloured water and coloured powers standing in for ‘esoteric reagents.’ All in all; it wasn’t too bad for a guy cosplaying for the first time. True, the Nagi guise didn’t wear glass, but I didn’t have prescription contacts.

I had some time before the next panel I wanted to attend, so I spent it perusing the booths, hoping to claim some of the legendary convention ‘swag’ while I was there. True, I did see a lot of interesting things, but nothing really grabbed my interest, no ‘I must have it’ item.

“Well made garb,” one of the vendors greeted me. “Custom job, from the looks of it.”

I tossed a grin over my shoulder. The next booth over was in what seemed like a bad spot. That, or he didn’t want attention. His booth was deeper than it was wide, snuck in a weird bend of the aisle, and I probably would have completely missed it if he hadn’t called out to me.

“Yep. A close friend of mine is a former dressmaker and experienced overall at tailoring,” I responded, crossing over to take a look at what he had. There was a hand written sign with the calligraphy ‘Merchant’s Wares’ perched on the back corner. And yes; calligraphy. For all the sign’s plainness, the handwriting was exceptional.

His table was covered in props and toys from a range of magic themed media. A blasting rod and pentacle that matched the description from Jim Butcher’s works, wands from Harry Potter, the standby forms of a few of the devices from Nanoha, a couple medallions from the web comic Skin Deep, a scroll headed with ‘Tenser’s Floating Disk’ among other things.

“They did good work,” the merchant nodded, the cloth he wore over his face jostling lightly. Considering his trench coat and gloves, I supposed that even vendors wanted to dress up at times.

“I’ll let them know it got compliments,” I said with a slow smile. Cocking my head slightly to one side, I pointed to what looked like a cellphone. “Is that a morpher from Mystic Force?”

His voice was slightly raspy as he answered. “Aye, that it is. But that’s not what you need. You’re costume’s missing a few things.”

“The staff? I know,” I shrugged a bit hopelessly. “I had a stick back home that sorta looked like it, but...”

The merchant grinned, as far as I could tell by the movement of his mask. It could have been a grimace for all I know. “Maybe I can help you there. You’re looking for some interesting memorabilia, aren’t you?”

“Well sure,” I said, hiding my own grin as the vendor got his sales pitch ready. “Got anything I might be interested in?”

He waved his hand over the table. “My stock is from wizards and sorcerers from all many worlds and lives. All of them special in their own way. Surely I can pique your interest.”

“True, but you did say my outfit was incomplete,” I hinted. The merchant smiled. At least, I think he did. The look of his eyes hinted at it. Coloured contacts.

“Fair enough, fair enough.” He reached below his table and rummaged for a bit before coming up with a few things. A waist bag (no, it wasn’t a fanny pack, shame on you for thinking that)and an attached thigh pouch was next, the improperly clasped flap for the main pocket half-exposing covered containers, the grips of what might be magic gun models, other less immediately recognizable items fitted inside. A hand sized case followed, quickly joined by a book. The last item he produced was a near perfect replica of Negi’s staff.

“The staff you should know. The belt is a mage’s typical tool set. You’ll find a lot of the items from the series represented. The book is a copy of A Mage’s Educational Manual, which is a compilation of information from the extras, magazines and interviews with Ken Akamatsu.” The merchant expounded the worth of his wares with what I swore was a hidden smile under his mask.

For my part; I stared at the swag with as much neutrality as I could muster. In one sense; I was a lot like Negi. I liked collecting stuff. I had some a couple dozen Yugioh and Pokemon cards just sitting at home in a drawer doing nothing more than being owned and occasionally flipped through. I still had all my old cell phones, and a few of my parent’s old ones when they were changing them, including a relic of a Nokia that I could probably use to kill a man. That was a lot of cool stuff he was offering to sell me.

The merchant was good at reading people though. He pushed the case towards me and tapped it for emphasis. “This one is a bit special. Take a look, eh?”

“Colour me skepti-” My words died on my lips as I opened it. Several gleaming Ala Alba badges rested on the velvet. In the center was a perfect replica of Negi’s activation ring, right down to the inscriptions on the inner edge and the layered metal design. After a moment, my aborted sentence managed to complete itself, “-ical…”

“Ah, so you are interested,” the merchant coyly commented. “Shall we discuss prices? I can give a discount if you get it as a set…”

I sighed, already hearing hundreds of dollars cry out in pain, knowing they are about to be silenced. But he played his cards well. At least I had already resolved myself to spend a lot of money on the trip. “How much?”

My wallet was still mourning the loss alongside the part of me that managed the finances as I happily headed to off to the room my panel was to be held. In a way, being freed of the oppressive weight of that much money was a blessing. Now the merchant was the one who’d have to deal with the obligations of…

Yeah, I wasn’t fooling anyone. It cost me most of my cash. I would actually have to hit one of the ATMs if I intended to so much more spending here. Still, the wrapped wood of the staff almost felt natural in my grip. I was twirling it slightly when all hell broke loose.

The floor glowed brilliantly and a roar filled the air. Spell circles snapped into being, forming a ring around me. Even more formed in the air, the complex forms of multi-circle patterns. The roar developed a curious echo as energy built.

“Wait, wait, wait... is this that-?” I started screaming like a little girl. Gravity seemed to fail, the ground falling away and my cloak billowing upwards as some unseen force washed over me. It seemed like a bit of an overreaction as the whole thing flared to eye searing levels before it abruptly ended, the sudden silence disorienting.

It was dark on the other side of that port spell. I hung suspended high above a frozen and snowy landscape, the sky darkened and coved in thick clouds, the lingering effects of the spell denied gravity it’s rightful hold.

I started screaming again when gravity returned with a vengence and I started plummeting.

“Bro! Do something!” a voice yelled in my ear.

“Do what!” I demanded, flailing about in the frigid air, to panaicked to even question who was talking.

“You’re the guy with the wizard cloak!” they yelled back, sounding just as terrified as I was. “Make with the magic!”

“Why the hell would I-” A solution popped into my head. I had no idea were it came from, and was rather concerned about the feeling of certainty I had that it would work, but considering it was ‘splat’ even if I didn’t try it...

I had started falling from just high enough for that little discussion to eat up most of the distance. With seconds to spare before impact, I swung my staff and aimed it at the ground. “Ventus Nos!”

Using magic was an amazing feeling. A burst of air rushed downwards, faster and with more force than I was falling, blasting away snow and ice and dirt, laying nude the rocky ground that had been hidden beneath it. The plume of air was like a cushion, holding me aloof and allowing me to gently drift the last few feet to the ground.

It was still freezing, likely in the double digits below zero, Celsius, I still had no clue as to where I was or what was going on, but I was stoked. Stoked and running on the adrenaline rush of falling about five stories and surviving.

“Holy... That just happened... that just happened!” I said, said, fear chuckles bubbling up. I plopped to the ground and clutched at the staff as if it were a lifeline.

“Bro! You okay?”

“Y-yeah,” I said a little shakily, a faint grin on my face as I turned to face the speaker. “I’m fiiiiii-eeermine..?”

The white furred stoat on my shoulder cocked his head curiously to the side. “What?”

“So... you’re saying that you’re the same weasel-”

“Ermine,” he corrected.

“-Stoat,” I said steadfastly, choosing to ignore his persistent terminology, “that I let out of that trap two summers ago? The same one that I kept seeing around the house since then?”

“I am. Alfred Chamomile,” he nodded, puffing his chest with pride. “And you’re my Big Bro!”

“What?” I deadpanned. As heart racing as it might be, being introduced to a concept in such a dramatic manner did do wonders for shattering mental walls of denial. Being in subzero conditions with only the possibility of magic to protect you helped break whatever else was left. The cloak I had was too thin to serve as any real protection.

Al (I decided that I wouldn’t use Chamo as a nickname) and I were protected under a layer of magic energy, keeping us warm and warding off the worse of the wind’s cutting chill. My staff was our transportation as we headed towards the pink dome he had seen while we were taking free sky diving lessons. I wasn’t flying high or all that fast. My willingness to believe and trust in mysterious magic didn’t quite extend to taking that much risk.

While I kept a portion of my attention on steering, and another on the conversation with Al, my head was otherwise reeling. There was a lot of magic knowledge in my head. As in practical ‘I did this is school’ knowledge. All of it matched and explained the magic from the manga. Hell, even this situation... The only reason I had let the weas- Al out in the first place was the humorous thought that maybe I could get my own Ermine Fairy Sidekick out of it...

“Ever since you saved me, I’ve been following you around in my spare time, you know, when I wasn’t looking for food or stuff,” Al said a bit sheepishly.

Well, let’s see how close the parallels ran... “You know, there were all those rumours about an animal in the women’s locker rooms and dorms on campus...”

“I needed things to line my burrow,” Al snuffed. “Women’s underwear is warm and heat retentive.”

“You little weasel!” I groaned, exasperated. This was getting creepily reflective now.

“Anyway, I hid in your bags when you headed to the convention. Don’t know how we got here though.”

“No, that would be too convenient. Suspiciously so,” I sighed, looking down at my hand, skin colour one or two grades lower than it used to be, and smaller at that. My hair was close to Negi’s hair at the moment, if not identical. Speaking of suspicious... that Merchant... Ten to one this was all his fault. Paralleling coincidences or no paralleling councidences. “Okay, why are we heading to that pink dome again?”

“Apart from it being the only think as far as we could see?” Al quipped.

“Aside from that,” I rolled my eyes.

“Well, I don’t know how to explain it, but...” Al shifted from my right shoulder to my left, staring at the dome as we approached. “I sense something from it... like a powerful kindred spirit...”

“Oh, that’s reassuring, coming from the weasel that stole underwear and stalked me for two years,” I muttered. I drew to a stop a couple feet from the dome and landed. It wasn’t a pretty landing, and I might have eaten a faceful of snow on the dismount, but I landed. “I can feel a lot of magic coming off this thing...”

“Hmmah, hmmah,” Al murmured scurring and sniffing back and forth along a few feet of the barrier, his whiskers twitching. “It feels like love magic...”

“And how do you know about love magic?”

“I’m an ermine fairy!” Al said resolutely. His expression shifted to the leecherous grin zone. “A fairy of love...”

“And why shou-” I started to retort.

“You rode here on a flying staff,” Al countered with a wicked smirk.

“Ah... ga- fine,” I relented. There were enough things wrong with what was going on to fill a book anyway. “Is it safe?”

“I’m still working that out,” he said, going back to his examinations.

I sat on the ground and let him work. I figured it would take him a couple minutes to come up with a concrete response, and I had nothing better to do than sit and wait. After a few moments, I let my thoughts wander over that ‘magic’ I mysteriously picked up. The ‘memories’ and ‘knowledge’ felt natural, like old friends.

The chill in the air changed. It was no longer born of the temperature, but had a more malevolent feel to it. I whirled, half rising, staff in my right hand, left hand, the one bearing the stupid ring that tempted me, extended. I didn’t see anything in the darkness that would warrant the prickling on my senses. But som-

Darkness? A dark mist was drifting down from the clouds.

“Oh, no...” I muttered.

“Sup, bro?” Al asked from behind me.

“You might want to work faster... there’s something out here, and I don’t think it’s friendly,” I swallowed. No point in not being proactive. Dark mists were, about 80% of the time, bad things. I snapped my hand out and called out the enchantment. “Ventus Nos!”

In truth, it was little more than controlling wind with will, the spell translating to ‘protect us wind’, roughly, but I was hoping. A power gust rushed out and blasted the mist, forcing it back and dispersing it somewhat. But only somewhat. It reformed within moments. The mist billowed from the sky, pooling in dark roiling clouds.

“I don’t think it’s friendly either,” Al whimpered.

A faint laugh issued from the clouds as a portion detached partially, a pair of red eyes set in green scleras leering out at us, purple mists, maybe miasma might be a better term, trailing from it.

“Flans Saltatio Puverea!” I yelled. It was a more powerful version of ‘Ventus Nos’, and actually combat spell. It did little but push the mists back, the eyes cringing shut. They seemed to smirk when the spell petered out, a pleased and smug growl coming from it. Shapes started moving within it, figures seeming to march towards us.

“Nope,” I managed, staring up at the leering form. I turned and ran full out at the dome.

“Wait! I still don’t know if it’s dangerous!” Al yelped when he realized my intentions.

“Well, that cloud definitely is!” I snagged him and charged into the barrier, closing my eyes against the brilliance of the pink light.

“Honey... You aren’t really helping anything by pacing like that,” the woman seated on the dias smiled weakly. Her hair was well groomed, flowing in multicoloured locks; violet, rose and pale gold, styled so one side hung longer than the other. Her gown was conservative, but lovely, her crown resting just behind the long horn that grew from her forehead, encased in a steady light blue glow, hands trembling slightly as they rested on the arms of her throne. Her pink coat hinted at her state, the short fur laying a bit ragged in places, but it was her eyes, and the deep bags that hung from them, that truly gave away her state.

The stallion that had, until that point, been pacing the width of the throne room, forced his hooves to remain planted, his tail flicking with a trace of shame. He placed a hand on his chest and exhaled, forcing himself to relax. He carefully walked over and knelt before his wife, placing his hands on one of her her own. “Sorry, Cadance. It’s just... this whole thing is stressful.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad, Shining” Princess Cadance smiled, more genuine this time. “You and your stallions have to periodically blast the golems that he sets on the shield. I just have to sit here, and hold... the sky up.”

Shining Armour ducked his head, a soft chuckle his response. “That one was horrible, Cadance.” His voice broke a little. “My Love Song... I wish I could help you more, but...”

“You goof. Your soldiers are busy right now making sure the shield doesn’t get too much strain,” Cadance said softly, pulling her husband into an embrace. “You are here, keeping my spirits up with your love and presence, ready to put up your own shield if mine falters, even though yours wouldn’t be able to stand up to the corrupting effects. We just have to wait for-”

Cadence stopped, eyes widening as she sense something affect the magic she was sustaining. Her husband looked up at her, a faint worry tinting his expression. “Shiny... some... thing just came through the barrier. I’m not sure what it is, but...”

Shining didn't wait to hear any more. He ran out of the throne room at a full gallop. If Sombra managed to get something inside, then it wouldn’t matter if help arrived. It might already be too late by that point.

Charging blind lent itself to stumbling and falling. The barrier, whatever it was, tingled something fierce as Al and I barreled through it, my body going numb, leaving to my tripping over my own feet and crashing to the ground on the other side. I groaned and rolled over, trying to find a better position to wait out the somewhat crippling numbness.

“Wow... this place is pretty sweet,” Al marveled, standing on his hindlegs on my chest.

I slowly opened my eyes, and stared up with bemusement at the blue sky, graced here and there with a few clouds. I tilted my head enough to peer at where the light was coming from, confusion increasing when it revealed itself to be a glow from the tip of, well, a fancy tower that looked like it was made of crystals. In fact, all the buildings clustered around its base seemed to be made of something more crystal like than simply stone like.

“Why did I expect things to start making sense?” I muttered, covering my face with my hands. “Talking weasel-”

“Ermine,” Al said, stomping a little on my chest. I ignored him.

“- magic powers, mist with eyes, random arrival in the middle of someplace’s winter...” I sighed. “What next? Pixies?”

“You! Leave the staff on the ground and get on your hooves!”

“Right... the authorities,” I grumbled. Struggling a bit with my still stiff limbs, I got up. “Of course, officeeeerrs?”

A trio of mostly identical... somethings were closing in on me. There were in armour, armour with a distinctly fantasy/medieval flair to it. Considering my own fantasy garb, I wasn’t complaining too much about that. I was more concerned about what they were. White fur covered them, as far as I could tell from the exposed areas. Their legs were hoofed. They had muzzles. One held a hammer ready. Another had a horn growing for his forehead, a horn with a golden glow around it. The third held a spear and hovered in the air, white wings flapping.

“You! Who and what are you?” the horned one asked. Demanded might be a better word.

“Wait a minute, I think it’s a foal,” the winged one cautioned, landing before the other two. He gave me one of those ‘don’t worry kid’ smiles. “Hey there, what are you doing out here? Where are your parents?”

Foals were young horses, so these were horse people? With horns and wings? Unicorn men and Pegasi folk? Right, the foal/kid comment? I started at the convention around six feet and in my twenties. I’d been avoiding thinking about it, but that ‘foal’ and ‘kid’ comment sealed it. I got Negi’s staff. I got most of Negi’s knowledge. I got Negi’s magic. I even got his plucky magic weasel side kick.

Apparently, I got his size and age too.

I ground my (presumably) ten year old teeth for a moment before looking up at them from my four feet and some change perspective and giving them a smile. “Hi. I’m Noah Springfield. Pretty sure I'm a mage. Nice to meet you.”

Shadows and Darkness

Sombra’s bellow was something you’d expect from a wild beast, not a thinking creature; an animalistic sound of pain and surprise as currents of blindingly white lightning wreaked through his form. The spell pushed him back a step or two, but I still got his roar of pain directly in the face. The sheer disjunction between it and the controlled voice he spoke with before was so jarring, and loud, that I dropped my stance. His arm lashed out, the dark form swelling as his mist and shadow collected in and around it, whether from a conscious act or a subconscious response. I was too shaken to use shundo, instant movement, to evade and was cleanly hit.

Even with my barriers up the backhanded blow felt like it wanted to take my head right off my shoulders, knocking me clean and clear away from the former king. My back hit the ground and I bounced once before I managed to recover; flipped upright rather than letting myself bounce again, sliding to a rough halt, my head pounding and ears ringing. The sounds of battle continued behind me, though muffled from my perspective, but I could no more take the time to see how they were doing than I could let Sombra pass.

Sombra’s form had been disrupted by my attack, but he was rapidly and steadily pulling himself back together. I was beginning to see why people would hate having mostly incorporeal entities. He snarled savagely at me, fangs filling his mouth. “I will kill you for that.”

“You can try,” I snapped back. Mentally, I back tracked and realized an error I made, casting the wrong support spell. Melodia Bellax. While Cantus Bellax was fine, there was nothing wrong with using the improved version.

“There is no ‘try’ when dealing with certainties,” Sombra stated, his form collected once more, this time fully defined. He waved a hand and the crystal pillar he had summoned fragmented into large shards that launched towards me. “Crystal Cleaving Shards.”

“Evocatio! Four Spirits of Lightning!” I charged at him again as I called out the spell. I had to give it more magic and leave it fairly open in terms of parameters, my thoughts sharping it towards ‘defense’, ‘offense’ and ‘lightning’, since I wasn’t exactly sure what form the local spirits would take.

Magic flared around me and collected into four orbs of light that burst into feminine figures that blew past me with powerful wing strokes. Each was well armoured, winged helms covering the entirety of their faces. They held a different weapon in each of their grip; a mace, spear, broadsword and finally a lance much like the one Rainbow Dash had.

The mace and lance wielding spirit pegasi knight shattered the large crystal shards Sombra attacked with, the other pair going directly at him. On my part; I called up two arrows of light then crushed them with my fists while still maintaining the spell itself, coating my arms in their magic. The wafting dark aura that had been seeping from my body was chased away from my arms and replaced with the faint glow of the Kyuu Ho Chuu Ken. As the technique settled into place, I leaped into the air.

“Such paltry tricks, child!” Sombra roared, tendrils lashing out from his mist-like mass around his feet, slicing the lance bearer’s weapon in two, and continuing to do the same to the lance bearer as well, cleaving the limbs from the mace wielder that tried to flank him. Sombra paused to gloat as their bodies bent in silent agony as they dissipated. “They are far too little to stop the likes of me!”

“Put they make good distractions!” I snapped as I descended, having used void instant movement for extra force, somersaulting and landing a two handed strike on Sombra’s shoulder. My blow went right through his incorporeal form. He still cried out though, the magic from the arrow of light adding a little to what would otherwise be inconsequential.

I didn’t stop though, even as I landed in a couch to avoid the wild counter the fallen king attempted. My blood was pounding as it never had before. I used my arm and upper body strength to plant both my feet into his solar plexus.

He grunted and pulled away, though he didn’t seem to take much damage from that blow either. His arm shot upwards, multiple crystal shards forming around it as his shadowy limb morphed into a cruel mockery of a claw. He slammed the claws and crystals down in a savage attack that left scattered holes dug into the ground, an attack I just barely avoided with another shundo. He snarled in frustration. “Hold still, pest!”

Adrenaline coursed through my veins. I shouldn’t be enjoying this. I shouldn’t be having a thrill from these near dead encounters. Yet I was grinning against my will. I never considered myself much of a daredevil or risk taker before. Was this the cost of power? Was it the Erebea influencing my mind? I tried to narrowed my focus to the situation at hand rather than get lost in introspective thought.

“No!” I yelled back. I used shundo again to snap at his neck with another chop, but he managed to divert most of the force, taking the blow on an arm. Was he learning to read my attacks? Tendrils of shadow lashed out, his phantasmagoric whips far swifter than the crystal assaults and only my clever footwork and barriers kept me in one piece. Even so, two of the lashes ripped through barrier and clothing, laying open nasty gashes on my right arm and shoulder blade.

My step out was rough, the stinging lines of pain on my arm and back shaking my focus, my ‘return to the world’ marked with a plume of dirt and shards the ill-controlled magic kicked up. I clamped my hand over the bleeding gash.

“This is the end, child!” Sombra smiled as he doubled the number of lashes. My eyes widened at the sight of it. He laughed at my reaction and the tendrils rose up, ready to strike.

Three blasts of magic energy interfered, two striking at the tendrils, one harmlessly passing though his form. With a scowl, Sombra leveled his gaze at the group of guards. They were worn out from their fight with the constructs, and I didn’t think any of them was uninjured from their clash. Behind them the defeated constructs littered the area, several still in largely intact aside from shattered limbs. It seemed they had switched their tactics from simply ‘destroy’ to ‘subdue.’

“King Sombra! Stand down and surrender to the Equestria Royal Guard!” the leader of the group demanded.

“Ah, the princesses’ toy soldiers,” Sombra smirked. The mists behind him pulsed and bucked before it sank into the ground, darkening it even further than it already had been. The dark spot surged forward, under my feet and towards the guards.

“What are you doing!” I demanded, glancing between the guards and Sombra. The guards themselves looked uneasy as the dark patch rushed underneath them and reached the rubble and remnants of the constructs. The mists seeped from the ground, rising into the air around the guards.

“King Sombra, submit before, gah,” the guard staggered slightly, narrowing his eyes and continuing resolutely. “Before we are forced, to… gah!”

I watched in stunned silence as the guard screamed, shards of dark crystal forming on his body and armour. His companions quickly joined his peals of pain and terror as portions of the mists curled almost lovingly around them. Behind them, the fragments from the downed constructs were collected by the main body of the mists and quickly rebuilt themselves into a large demonic parody of the equine form.

It stood maybe fifteen, twenty feet tall, its body made from a frame work of Sombra’s dark crystals, black shadows shifting around and within the crystal body. Its maw opened and a low hiss came forth as more mist poured out on the stallions of the guard, their cries intensified, most convulsing on the ground.

“You send me toys, it is only fair I raise a pet to play with them. Lovely, isn’t it?” Sombra taunted me, lips curled in a soft chuckle. “As long as they remain in those mists, my crystals will continue to grow until those guard are no more.”

“No.” It was a simple statement of fact. I refused to let anyone die before me. It didn’t matter if I was regular guy or not, or what things were like before; I was not going to stand by and let something like that happened. My already darkened face contorted with poorly suppressed anger.

Sombra, ignorant of my internal conflict and merely witnessing what he thought was despair, laughed loudly. He moved, positioning himself so that he blocked my view of the suffering guards. “I can stop it, child. Merely give up this futile struggle against me. While I might not recognize the forms and styles of your magic, I can sense the darkness in you, as you can in me. Give up, and I let the guards free. Join me and I may even leave the Empire whole.”

“Join you?” A vein throbbed in my forehead. I raised my hand slowly, pointing my palm at Sombra. “You must think I’m idiotic. And I might be a bit of a fool at times, I’m far from being an idiot. Domimus Aerialis.”

The delayed spell triggered as I spoke the confirmation phrase I set up earlier and magic surge out, collecting in the instantly revived spell. For the second time that day wind and lightning were focused into a stream of destructive energy. It was only by chance that my aim was away from the city, or I might have done more harm than I was trying to prevent.

In any case, Jupiter’s Thunderstorm blasted out, bursting through Sombra’s body, tearing up ground and soil, blasting over the heads of the downed guard, the powerful gusts whipping away the mists that clung to them, and even blasting the head of the shadow-crystal construct Sombra summoned. The guard’s painful cries started easing.

The construct didn’t fall. It staggered, but the shadow aspect of it seemed to be its primary anchor, and destroying the head of the crystal structure wasn’t enough. I charged it, leaping into the air as I quickly accessed it with my magic senses. Within the dark shape I could sense the point that seemed to be the core, protected by the crystal shell of the main torso. It was clever, honestly. The shadows gave it greater power and regeneration, while the body provided a much stronger defense for the vulnerable shade. You would need something with penetrating power to get to it.

“Dominus Acer!” I yelled out the activation phrase for my third trump card and half a dozen white glowing spears, each one crackling with the lightning it was forged from, appeared in the air around me. I hurled the spell wrought javelins as I fell, aiming at the core of the shadow. “Iaculatio Fulgoris!”

The spears of lightning punched through the crystal with ease. The shade that contributed to the construct gave a shrill aborted cry before the summoned form fell the pieces around the cluster of lightning spears that ended it. I landed heavily, panting, but grinning. The glow from my Kyuu Ho Chuu Ken had expired. The guards seemed unconscious, but they looked like they were breathing. The city was still being overcome with dark crystals, but with Sombra gone, we could fix that.

“Game, set,” I grinned.

A black blur moved in the corner of my eye and a shadow lanced through my chest.

It took me a moment to comprehend the sudden pain and I looked down. It wasn’t a phantasmagoric attack, small favours, so it didn’t leave a bleeding wound, but my body was screaming as if it did. The haze and cosmetic effects of my Actus Noctis faded away, though the spirals marks of Erebea remained. I slumped to one knee, clutching weakly at my chest with one hand, the other clawing at the ground as bile burned my throat. Sombra loomed above me.

“Premature, child,” he mocked. “Did you really thing that attack would be able to kill me in my shadow form, when it so obviously failed before? Pitiful.”

“B-but…” I gasped out. Pain. I was unused to this kind of pain. The dark magic fueled rage demanded I lay into him for cause this, but I could barely keep my thoughts straight.

“I must commend you. Aside from those sisters, nopony else has ever managed to cause me as much harm as you did, even if it was all for naught,” Sombra said. “Still a fool, but a dangerous one. I would truly have loved to have taken you and seen what you would amount to under my rule and tutelage. Shame I will have to end your promise here.”

His horn glowed, and a strangled scream was forced from me as the pain renewed. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel the dark crystals of his corruption slowing forming on my chest, starting from the place his shadow stabbed me.

“Who knows, perhaps I shall keep you after you are turned to crystal. As a memento of the challenge, however fleeting, you posed.” His countenance, somehow, darkened further and he raised a hand in the air, forming the claw and crystal strike I avoided not that long before. “Or maybe I will just shatter you to a thousand pieces for hindering my plan, however briefly.”

I struggled to pull together a spell. The magic for the barrier spell was reluctant in coming. Lancing pain as my chest as it slowly turned to crystal made it hard to collect my focus, and forcing it past the hampering effects of his crystal’s corruption was proving yet another challenge.

A flash of blue white light from the castle tower saved me. It only held for a moment before it faded, but it caught the former king’s interest. Sombra paused and turned to look at it. His arm feel and the crystals disappeared. “It seems someone is after my crystal heart. I should pay them a visit.”

“Enjoy your last few, child,” Sombra said before he sank into the ground; a streak of darkness zig and zagging its way towards the castle.

“N-no…” I ground out, even as everything became a confusing blur. The progress of the crystals was making it hard to breathe, each breath ragged and wrought with pain. Twilight was there. She must have started making progress on breaking through the spell that sealed the heart away. How long had it been since I left her there? How long had I been fighting Sombra? For all the action, I didn’t think it was that long. And I failed away. He shrugged off my attacks and pretty much left me here to die.

Twilight. Spike. Al. Princess Cadence. Shining Armor. Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie. Verdant. Brass. Amethyst. I failed them all.

I… I was going to let them die.

I slammed my fist on the cold ground. The other hand joined it and I forced myself upright. “Like… hell I will!”

I didn’t care anymore. It didn’t matter that some freak from a convention somehow sent me to this place. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know where I was or how to get back. What mattered was that this bastard who called himself a king wanted to bring down a living nightmare on people. They were good people. The Princess was nice. The Prince was level headed. Twilight helped me with the magic I got gifted with. Spike was cool. Even Al, for all his perversions, was worth it.

I hadn’t wanted to do it, not without getting a better feel for my magic. But Sombra wasn’t a joke. He hadn’t even really tried and he took me down with his first serious hit. Al was right. There was no room to play it safe here. The downed guards around me were proof of that. All or nothing. Go big or get busted. Do, or die.

I staggered to my feet and ran my hand along my right arm, covering it with the blood that still seeped from the wound Sombra gave me. I stared at the blood for a moment. Something, some gut instinct, told me that doing this was more than just starting on a path or opening a door. No, I’d long since passed that point. This was barreling full speed down the path and setting off the explosive charge I left behind to collapse the bridge behind me.

A little bit of courage was the real magic.

I activated my erebea. The spiral markings flared into being once more. A painful sensation, like claws, clutched at my chest around the corrupting effect Sombra started, pushing it back as my own native corruption feed off my anger and frustration, growing all the strong because of it.

I clenched my fist, the blood splattering a little, and started chanting spell for one of the big guns. Ancient Greek words spilled from my lips, but I understood every bit of it. Magic swirled and stormed around me as I called on it, the blood dripping to the ground steaming as a complex spell circle projected outwards, the symbols altered from the ones in my memory to their local equivalents that Twilight taught me. The spell was too powerful to be stopped by Sombra’s dark crystals, not when erebea was working with it.

“Ras tel ma scir magister. Heed the contract and serve me, O King of the Skies.” For a moment as I ground out the words, I felt the attention of something focusing on me. “Come forth, blazing thunder, slayer of Titans! Hurl down lightning one hundred and even one thousand times!”

The attention peaked. Something was waiting, ready, eager, chomping at the bit to be let loose now that someone had finally called on it. I didn’t release it. Instead I extended my arm and I trapped it. “Stagnet!”

All that magic collapsed, collecting and focusing in a giant swirling mass of energy that hovered before me. It was an orb about three feet across, seething currents of wind, lightning and pure magic thrashing around it. I think a few of the guards were stirring, but I did not have the attention to spare for them. The magic was struggling to escape, to break free and cause devastation. It was madness, in a sense. I had jumped right from a high level combat spell to one of the King ranked, high ancient restricted usage destruction spell. Iovis Tempesta Fulgariens, Jupiter’s Thunderstorm, was a powerful anti-demon spell. This was Kilipl Astrape; the Thousand Thunderbolts. This leveled armies.

And to be fair; so did Sombra. I had been arrogant to think that Acutus Noctis could match him. My original plan had been to go for Agilitas Fulminis next, but that was just speed and mobility. I needed power. I needed every bit of power to stop him.

“Complexio!” I clenched my fist, crushing the mass of energy and forcing the power inside. It burned. Every fibre of my being screamed in protest as the power surged within me without rhyme or reason. Not just as raw magic flowing in a metaphysical sense, but the literal power in my physical shell. I could feel the beginnings of the frenzy bubbling up within me again.

The Evil Overlord’s List popped into my head. I shall not consume an energy field larger than the size of my head. Well, I was trying to be the hero anyway.

‘Control!’ I screamed inwardly. ‘I need to control it!’ But I wasn’t sure how. I had Negi’s body, his skills, his knowledge, but I was still working on making it mine. I didn’t have the mental training he did. I could feel the power agitating my injuries, flesh blood flowing from them.

‘CONTROL!’

Wait, no… Not control. This was Magia Erebea. Control wasn’t the truth. This was already mine. I was lying to myself otherwise. What I needed wasn’t control. It was acceptance. This power. It was mine to do with as I pleased. I could crush Sombra. I could clear the city of all of his taint. Show them that I was more than just the child they all apparently thought I was. I had the pill. I could drag it on with my adult form.

I tempered the thoughts. I accepted the negative urges, but also accepted the positive ones as well. The negative might be were much of my power was, but the positives shaped what I did with it. I could save them all.

The pained eased slightly.

Why did I want this power? Because… Because even though I had only been here for a little while, I had made a few new friends I wanted to protect, friendships I wanted to foster. Not only that, but I wanted to use them, too. Lying to myself was no good. The dark magic knew my heart, it was seated in my heard. Honest admissions where the only thing that would progress it. I wanted their favour so I could maybe secure a place for myself.

I was lost. I was terrified about it and I got into this to avoid thinking about it. I was running away from the fact that I likely wouldn’t get back home. How would I? I glimpsed the array that sent me here. It was even more massive and complicated than the one that bridged Mars and Earth. Even if I had the facilities, I had no way of knowing where to go back to. I was scared and pretended nothing was wrong, and wound up almost getting myself killed.

I was in life or death fights, and I was enjoying it just as much as I was terrified by it. I didn’t know what it said about my sanity. I didn’t know if I wanted to know. It scared me as well. I needed these new friends for an anchor before I lost myself. I thought about the Prince, our chat on the walk to the station and his expression when he spotted his sister. About the Princess, her gratitude when I helped her recover, the look on her face as she talked with Al. About Twilight. About Rainbow. Even the strange Pinkie Pie.

I smiled. The pain ceased as I accepted the power. In its place was a feeling of competency and strength. The name slipped from between my lips. “Supplementum pro Armationem. Raiten Taiso.”

I opened the eyes I never realized I closed. My body was glowing white, tiny errant currents cracking over it ever so often. The corruption of Sombra’s magic had been cleared by my Magia Erebea, consumed and turned into more power. My injuries were still there, a throbbing consistent pain. Though no expert at healing magic, I still had a few low level ones in my arsenal and I used one to patch up my cuts. As the healing spell worked, I looked at the castle’s tower for a sign. Hopefully I wasn’t too late.

~~Twilight~~

I quickly skimmed the information my artifact was projecting, my eyes flicking back and forth rapidly. I had been at it for a while, steadily compiling the information that I found relevant in efforts to find the best spell to neutralize the spatial warp Noah had identified. The robes that came with the pactio card were somewhat awkward, as unused to them as I was, and served as a minor distraction as I worked.

The fact that I didn’t fully understand how the magic book that hovered before me operated, or how the staff it provided managed to get my Element of Harmony mounted it in was a conundrum I forced myself to put aside. I had gleaned enough to operate the artifact to some extent, but it would have to do for the moment. It was like a research aid, and would call up information and passages from countless books and manuscripts depending on how I worded my requests, but Al and Spike were incessant in reminding me that time was not on our side.

“Twilight, any progress?” Spike’s strained voice came. It was punctuated by the sound of that weapon Noah lent him going off again. He had been tracking the ever advancing dark crystal outgrowths, doing his best to blast them apart before they got too close.

“I can’t find the specific spell, but I found information on spells of a similar type, and I’m about ready to try a dispelling sequence Peridot the Fair pioneered,” I replied curtly, cross-referencing the pages I had kept up as I searched. “I just need to find the full sequence, rather than referrals to and or research on it.”

“You might want to hurry up,” Al yelled. “It’s not going well for Bro!”

I ground my teeth and focused on the book, rather than on how irritating Noah’s pet was. The book’s pages started flipping again before it finally stopped. “Come on, please… YES!”

“What?” both assistants demanded as I clapped my hands together.

“I found Peridot’s spell!” I rapidly broke down the spell, focusing on the magic costs and the underlying structure. It was complex and difficult, but I had cast difficult spells. My thoughts turned to a certain Flight Spell in particular. “I should be able to cast it without much issue!”

A light weight tugged at my outfit before Al rudely perched himself on my shoulder. Spike ran over as well. “Perfect! Let’s bust this space open and get the heart!”

I restrained from responding to the ermine, instead running through the spell once more. I nodded, mostly to myself as I found the starting point. It should be easy enough. The flow structures were manageable and seemed reasonable at that, aside from the triple-flow structure. My magic had improved since the Flight Spell. “Okay… Here, I go.”

I closed my eyes and started the magic flow. I felt the magic aura engulf my horn, a reasonably complex spell interruption pattern of Peridot’s design. Once that was in place, I tied in the detection portion of the spell as a second layer, my magic reaching out find the point where the spatial warp’s fabric lay. A small patch in the air glowed in the colour of my magic. I triggered the final portion of the spell and staggered slightly from the effort it required.

“Twilight, are you-”

“I’m fine,” I said quickly as the third aura shone brightly on top of the previous two. Brilliant sparks leapt from horn and hit the glowing spot. After a few moments a hole formed in the center of the glow and expanded steadily. The other side was the same room as the one we were standing in, save for one difference.

“The Crystal Heart! Booyah!” Al rejoiced, punching the air. The Crystal Heart was precisely as it was named. A bluish crystal form, about the size of a grown pony’s head, cut in the typical shape of a heart, floating serenely in the middle of the room.

“Wow… it looks… delicious.” Spike was drooling.

“Okay, we just need to grab it and-” It seemed I was destined to be constantly interrupted. The Crystal Heart bobbed higher in the air and shone, blue white light threatening to blind us. I lost my focus on the spell and the unraveling of the warp reversed itself, cutting off the blinding glow while also undoing my progress. “Ponyfeathers!”

“Ponyfeathers?” Al echoed, confused.

“I lost my focus,” I admitted regretfully, staring at the space where, on the other side, the heart waited, as if a look along could open it up again. “The dispelling spell fell apart before it could make sustainable progress on unraveling the spatial warp. It repaired itself.”

“Twilight, can you cast the spell again?” Spike asked, shaking himself from his daze.

“Not right away.” I didn’t even have to try. I could tell from experience that I needed a bit more time before I could attempt that again. Though my shoulders slumped in dejection, I couldn’t help but marvel at the spell work. A spatial distortion that had been in place for over a thousand years was nothing to scuff at. King Sombra might have been an evil unicorn, but his magic prowess was real. If only he hadn’t turned to dark magic.

I blinked. Dark Magic. Could that be the solution? King Sombra did everything with dark magic. It was how he subjugated the entire empire and it was how he stood against the Princesses. He probably made the warp with it as well. I looked at the spot again, this time with a fearful expression. I really didn’t want to…

“Twilight?” Spike snapped his claws in front of my eyes. “What’s up?”

“I have an idea,” I admitted.

“Which is?” Al pressed.

I exhaled, and reached started channelling dark magic. My horn glowed, the raspberry aura darkening rapidly as it began bubbled with purple energy.

“Is that… dark magic?” Spike gulped.

I aimed my horn at the space and fired a beam at it; reaching for the same fabric I sensed when I used the dispelling magic. The beam hit something and I could feel the resonance between my horn and the warp. The spell faded before I could do anything with it. I waited, eyes shifting before I smiled. My smile shifted to giggles and I clapped. “Yesyesyesyesyes!”

“Are you okay?” Al asked.

“I used dark magic and nothing bad happened!” I was ecstatic. I actually used dark magic and nothing untoward happened! So far, it seemed my fears had been unjustified.

“Congratulations. So many talented spell casters in this age,” a haunting voice chuckled, under lined with hollow claps. I whirled, as did Spike. A stallion, eyes glowing green and oozing purple miasma, body formed from shadows and a curved red horn on his crown applauded.

“King Sombra,” I gasped. He was here? Did that mean that Noah couldn’t stop him? What happened to Noah?

“I see that you are making progress on retrieving my Crystal Heart,” Sombra continued, approaching them with a cold smile. “But I can’t exactly allow you to do that. It does go against my better interests, after all. So I will- GAHHH!”

Sombra bellowed as Spike shot him repeatedly with his guns. I watched with slack jaws as my little brother attacked. The smaller weapon had a much faster rate of fire, the larger one caused explosions of magic and light. Together they forced Sombra to back away as he grunted more in irritation than pain.

“Twilight! The Heart!” Spike yelled desperately. “This isn’t going to hold him!”

Al pulled a small canister and rectangular device out, his means reminding me distressingly of Pinkie Pie for some reason. He hurled it at Sombra, only for it to be struck by one of Spike’s shots, causing a burst of light and sound that had Sombra bellowing again.

I was torn, but getting the heart out would be the best way to help Spike at the moment. While Sombra was disoriented, I acted. I started casting again, this time taking a gamble. I used dark magic to cast Peridot’s Dispelling. The casting was faster this time, the dark magic itself making the spell simpler. I did not dwell on that part. Under my magic, the fabric of the warp began unraveling. The dark magic was akin to flame lighting tinder. The warp tore itself open like dry paper touched by a spark as the two spaces reacquainted themselves.

The Crystal Heart floated serenely in the room. As the warp collapsed completely, the Heart flashed, spreading its light over the room. I winced as the light burned away the lingering traces of the dark magic I had used from my horn. I smiled brightly. “We got the Crystal Heart!”

“The Crystal Heart is not the only thing you recovered.” Heavy hoofsteps sounded on the ground. Even through my coat I paled when I realized what it meant.

“Twilight,” Spike whimpered.

“We… are so screwed,” Al stated.

King Sombra was flexing his fingers, his physical fingers. His eyes still had the same appearance, but his shadowy form had become whole. Light silvery armour protected his neck, shoulders and chest, as well as silver greaves over the stark black pants he wore. A velvet cloak hung over his shoulder and down his back, a simple silver band as his crown, his red horn slipped through it, his black mane hanging loose.

Sombra laughed boisterously. “A body once again. Marvelous.”

Spike raised his gun at Sombra, his grip shaking slightly. “I w-will shot you!”

Sombra’s laugh tamed somewhat. “Children seek to defend the Empire. A Dragonkin at that. Fine. Shoot me!”

“Spike, take the Crystal Heart and run,” I interjected in a level tone.

“What?” Spike said, confused.

“Self-sacrifice? Such a quaint concept,” Sombra taunted.

“Spike, I’ll hold him off, run! Now!” I yelled. I channelled magic to my horn and fired a blast ray at Sombra. “Go! Get it to Princess Cadance!”

A red dome flared into being and blocked my attack as Spike ran, leaping to snag the Heart and breaing for the stairs. Al leapt off my shoulder and took off after him. Hopefully the ermine would give him a helping hand. I charged my horn again and prepared a more powerful blast.

Sombra savagely smiled, his horn glowing. Several crystal formations thrust out of the floor, unfolding into his equine foot soldier constructs. His shadow darkened, rippling like a tangible thing beneath him before he ordered, “go; capture the dragonkin, retrieve the Crystal Heart.”

The constructs galloped off, portions of his shadow splitting off and rushing towards the stairs with them.

“I won’t let you!” I roared. The gem in the staff glowed in tandem with my horn as I unleashed another ray at the constructs. Sombra countered it was a blast of his own. I didn’t quite know what to do, but I had to do something. I refused to let Princess Celestia down.

“Shame,” Sombra said. Tendrils snaked out from his shadow and formed a wide ring around me before I realized what was happening. His signature crystals sprouted, forming a low barrier. “I won’t let you leave that spot.”

I tightened my grip around the staff and I felt my magic flowing into it rather than my horn. It was an alien feeling, but one I recognized from when we used the Elements. I let it happen and aimed the staff at Sombra, unleashing the magic in a violet burst of energy. Sombra did nothing by smile coyly as the blast lanced out at him, only for it to dissipate shortly after it passed the barrier.

“As I said, you stay there,” Sombra said, heading towards the stairs at a sedate pace. “Will you enjoy your time, I will be going after that dragonkin friend of yours.”

“Leave Spike alone!” I snapped at him. “Or else!”

“Or else?” Sombra laughed. “In case you forgot, you can’t do anything in your position.”

“But I can,” a familiar voice commented.

Sombra turned and frowned at the interloper, and I looked in the same direction, only to smile. Sombra was less thrilled by who was there. “You’re still alive? You are hardier than I gave you credit for, child.”

Noah was perched on one of the window ledges. But he was different. His enter body had a faint glowing aura around it. His hair seemed longer and far spikier than it had been, small sparks of electricity dancing between locks and over his limbs. He hopped down and calmed walked towards Sombra, a neutral expression on his face. I was confused. Just what had he done to himself?

“So, you aren’t a shadow anymore?” Noah observed.

“And you changed some, child,” Sombra countered.

“All the better to beat you with.” Noah smiled cheerfully. In an instant his fist was lodged in Sombra’s gut and the dark king bent double over his shoulder. I gasped. I didn’t see him move. “Because now that you aren’t a shadow, my fists can reach you. So let’s break in your new duds.”

With my BBFF being in the guard, I had seen martial arts before. Rainbow Dash practised as well, and I myself had light self defense training as a personal student of the Princess. Noah was using skills I had never seen before. He unleashed a flurry of blows I could hardly follow, only able to tell from the flickers and flashes that his strikes were going. The only one thing I could confirm with certainty was that some part of Sombra was on the receiving end of each and every one.

I was equal parts repulsed and entranced by the savagery he was unleashing, Noah yelling in anger, Sombra’s grunts of pain. The confrontation ended when Noah unleashed a punch surrounded by swirling chords of light; one so powerful Sombra was hurled right out of the room with a pained cry.

Noah held his posture, breathing heavily, as if waiting for something. Whatever he was waiting for didn’t seem to come to pass because he suddenly appeared before my prison in a flicker that didn’t seem to be any form of teleportation I knew.

“Twilight! I’m sorry! I couldn’t hold him back! Are you okay? Did he do anything? Wait, where are Spike and Al? Please tell me Sombra didn’t get them!” Noah’s questions gushed out. He reached towards crystal wall and recoiled when it stung him. Frowning, he knelt before the barrier. “Some sort of seal? Maybe I can try and break it…”

“No, no, it’s okay,” I said, my own heart pumping. “He didn’t really do anything to hurt us… I sent Spike to Cadence with the Crystal Heart. Al went with him, but… King Sombra sent some of his servants after them.”

Noah’s expression hardened. “Don’t worry, I can go and deal with them.”

“No, keep after Sombra,” I instructed him. “I will deal with this and go after Spike, agreed?”

Noah hesitated, but nodded, getting back to his feet. “Okay. I’ll take care of Sombra. For sure this time.”

“Just stay safe, Noah,” I smiled reassuringly. I wasn’t quite sure if I could dispel this trap, but I could try.

“Just leave him to me Twilight,” Noah grinned as he nodded. He hopped back, hovering in the air for an instant before he vanished in another subdued flash. I blinked, but focused on my own predicament. My horn glowed as I cast the blink spell, teleporting past the ring.

“Okay, time to go after-” Sparks of black thaumatic discharge danced around me and I was dragged back into the ring in a rough teleport that left my head briefly spinning. I frowned as I rubbed it. “Okay… maybe this will be harder than I thought.”