“It’s been way too long.”

Eloquently and articulately expressing every iota of my feelings, I groaned, “Uuuuggghhhhh…”

My eyes scrunched up tightly at the discomfort of light pouring through my eyelids, sound returning to me in warbling bits. A soft warmth gently nudged my cheek, but that action alone sent unpleasant pins and needles spreading through my body, “Come on, sugar, ya’ gotta wake up…”

“Ulp… ugh… I do not want to…” I muttered, trying to crack open my eyes.

Ow. Ow? Ow. Also? Ow.

That had not worked, because my eyes had immediately scrunched back up, and the soft voice of my marefriend was like a scratching pain on the inside of my skull, “You’ve got to hun…”

“I’ve got it.”

“Twilight-”

“No, I’ve got it.” She insisted.

The sensation washed over me of being dunked in a hot bath after coming in from the cold and I let out a little relieved sigh. While the light didn’t fade, the pain it was causing through my eyelids did, “Twi…?”

“You with us Emeris?”

My face scrunched up as I forced myself more upright, eyes finally opening, “Not really…? Ugh. Anyone get the number on that train?”

“Yes, it was called the Emeris’ Stupidity Express.”

Memories started to return, of a giant ice mountain, and of my attempts to put it down, “Ugh… well… at least that train’s pretty regular?”

“Y’er not joking,” Applejack grumbled beside me.

Blinking away the spots in my eyes, I looked around.

Huh… an unfamiliar ceiling.

…

Damnit not again.

… and fuck, I do have two chicks trying to get into my metaphorical pants now. Fuck, am I approaching some sort of Shinji Ikari Singularity? Pls no universe. Pls no.

Ugh, anyways, we were in this large hall, with crystals everywhere… like… everywhere…

Finally, my brain began to catch up to the reality of the situation. I was still riding on Punic’s heavily armored back, though now we were in some massive hall… likely a greeting space for royalty. The team were all nearby, as were the girls. AJ was standing beside Punic, looking up at me, and Dash was hovering, both literally and figuratively. Twilight on the other hand was standing on the other side of Punic, her horn just now dimming as she looked me over.

Oh, and let’s not ignore the other guard-ponies scattered around. Almost a dozen of them, not to mention the royal couple themselves not far off, “Ugh…” wincing just a bit, I dragged my head up, ignoring the aches that the motion caused me, “Okay… what happened while I was out…?”

“Not much,” Twilight spoke up, “We were just now catching up, and I felt it would be good to at least get you up and running before we really got into what’s going on.”

“Right…” with some effort, and ignoring the little stabs of needle-like pain in my joints at the action, I got my hooves beneath me and tried to get off of Punic’s back.

“Woah big guy!” Dash nearly dove in, “Easy there, you really did a number on yourself.”

“Yeah, but I can’t keep riding like this, there’s better uses for Punic than a bookworm chaufer service.” I squirmed in place for a moment, “Could you help me down? I don’t want to faceplant on the floor.”

While AJ gave me a concerned look, Dash thankfully went about the efforts of getting be down, and while every touch was a bit of pain against my skin, it wasn’t too bad, “Okay, so, can we bring me up to speed?”

“Well, we’ve discussed a bit so far…”

“You can’t take over for her?”

Twilight cantered beside her brother, scarf trailing. The two of them were at the head of the group, Shiny leading the way towards the city. Her friends were following behind them, the team in a loose circle around them with the exception of Punic. The heavily armored stallion was towards the center of the group, carrying Emeris magically on his back, AJ and Dash hovering over the barely conscious unicorn.

“Only briefly,” Shiny scowled as they approached the edge of the buildings, “I can’t maintain the proper attitude for the spell. I could keep out the wolves, but the mountain has been using magics that can bypass a purely kinetic barrier. Honestly, it’s best when we’re both maintaining the shield together, right now I have my personal squad of unicorns bolstering her shield.”

“It’s–” Twilight started to say, but scowled herself. She looked at her brother closely, while he was wearing his royal purple armor and helm, she could still see some of his face… and there were bags beneath his eyes. Her lips pressed into a thin line, “It isn’t a matter of power is it? It’s a matter of sustainability.”

Applejack looked over as she cantered beside Punic, “Wait, what are you talking about Twi?”

“Cadence and Shiny can create an amazingly powerful barrier together, there’s no way anything could break through…” Twilight watched her brother’s face for confirmation as she elaborated on her current theory, “But they didn’t know about the mountain until recently, so they didn’t have a target, they just had to fortify their defenses and withstand them… but while the shield is extremely strong…”

“They can’t keep it up for days on end,” Dash finished for her, a scowl on her face as she literally hovered protectively over Emeris.

“Unfortunately,” Shiny agreed tiredly, looking back at them, “I’ve been taking over for Cadence when I can, but she’s only been getting in short naps.”

“I must ask Captain,” Punic spoke, his bass rumble projecting clearly from his helmet as they reached the edge of the buildings, “Why have you fortified such a large area? I am certain a soldier of your caliber would not spread your forces so thin without reason.”

Shiny scowled, “Because we have to protect the citizens of the Crystal Empire.”

Twilight stumbled, “Wa-What?”

“Take a look,” Shiny gestured with his horn, as they entered the city proper. Twilight hadn’t really taken the time to look at the city, built from crystal and marble, it was amazingly beautiful, but what she’d assumed at a glance to be soldiers in the city… were instead natives. Ponies that superficially resembled Earth Ponies, but up close Twilight could see the glitter in their eyes, as if those orbs had been made of a solid piece of crystal…

“They… they survived…?” Rarity asked with a slight amount of awe, staring at the glittering crystal in both pony and architecture, “But… how could they survive for so long? Wasn’t the Crystal Empire lost for over a thousand years?”

“We’re not sure,” Shiny admitted as they moved through the streets. Twilight stared at the despondent ponies as they walked by, the ‘crystal’ ponies? “It’s possible the Crystal ponies were in stasis, or pushed beyond time, or something even crazier! It… hasn’t really been a priority to find out.”

“Crystal ponies-?!” Rarity gushed, “Ahhahaha~! There are crystal ponies?!”

The group paused to look at the alabaster unicorn in various measures of confusion or embarassment. Getting a delicate cough and awkward look from Rarity, “Ah, ahem, sorry, continue.”

“So what’s the plan?” Qubanna asked.

“We’ll decide once everyone’s up to date,” Shiny said, “I need to relieve my wife anyways, so we’ll get the debriefing done in the palace–”

“Shining, I’m fine to continue–” Cadence started to interrupt, but her husband shook his head.

“No, you’re not. You’re exhausted.” He countered, and she definitely looked it with bags under her eyes and a wan complexion. The pink alicorn of love had definitely seen better days. The royal unicorn turned back to the group, “Cadence is the best pony for the job, but she’s getting overworked, as much as I love her, I can’t maintain this sort of shield for very long, she’s barely getting catnaps, she doesn’t sleep, she barely eats,” he gave a little shake of his head, blue mane bouncing about, “We can’t keep this up.”

Twilight smiled, “That’s why I’m here.”

“That’s why we’re all here,” Rarity corrected, the rest of the girls and myself nodding along. Twilight just beamed at us in return.

Shiney gave his little sister a wan smile before continuing, “Cadence has been using all of her power to protect the city, my troops doing their best to keep an eye on the movements of the shadow wolves, and I’ve had to run interference between the two of them.” His head dipped, “We haven’t been had the time to learn anything useful from the Crystal Ponies. But we have to believe that one of them knows how to defend the Empire without having to use Cadence’s magic.”

Grave Danger snorted, “Idealism, foolish, there may be no such solution.”

More than a few scowls were sent his way at that, but I was focused on something else, “Cadence, how long could you maintain the shield comfortably when fully rested?”

Something flashed across Shiney’s face as he turned to look at where I lay on the floor, “Two days.”

Cadence disagreed with a small frown on her face, “Three.”

“Workable,” I muttered, thinking for a moment before looking at my friend, “Twilight, can you maintain this sort of barrier?”

“Not really,” she said with a sad shake of her head, half turning towards me, “Cadence is an alicorn, and Shiney’s special talent is built around defensive spells. Not to mention that I don’t actually know the spell they’re using…” her eyes slowly narrowed, “But you knew that, didn’t you?”

It wasn’t a question.

A brief cringe crossed my face, “I suspected at least. The issue here is that we’re on the clock. We have enough smart ponies here to figure out how to break this, but not necessarily in the time provided… if we can get Cadence the rest she needs, that’ll extend the time we have massively.”

This was a workaround… it was sort of like thinking on how to get the enemies set up while I’d… when I’d been Gary. Sure, I didn’t have the raw power to smash the problem by myself anymore, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have an equivalent force here between my friends and the team, the concept was the same. Use everything else to set up for the knockout blow.

“And what could you manage that would compare with the grace of her highness Cadence?” Punic questioned.

“By myself?” I snorted from my place on the floor, “Jack all. I’m nowhere near powerful enough to shield a city. But I have a feeling that we have enough skills and power here as a group...” I looked over at Twilight, “Do you think we could put together a channeling enchantment-?”

She gave a little nod, already picking up on what I was going for, “That mimics the ones we put on your armor and-”

“-let a focal pony maintain the emotional context and the others provide the power. Yeah.”

“I think so…” she trailed off in thought, scowling at the floor for a moment. Unnoticed by either of us were the glances that the royal couple sent our way. Then her eyes came back up to mine, “I don’t like it. You’re the only person that can handle being the focus for any length of time, and channeling outside energies again…”

I cringed a bit, I hadn’t considered that, “You… could do it…?”

But she shook her head, “I don’t have the experience with utilizing outside energies, and even if I did think Grave Danger did,” she shot a little glare over at the pale yellow unicorn who just rolled his eyes, “He does not have the attitude for it.”

“I do have a measure of experience making use of external sources of mana, child, but no, I do not have the demeanor for utilizing Virtue magics.”

With another small cringe, “Right… we’ll make it work though, give the royal couple some time to rest.”

“While we handle that…” Twilight trailed off before looking over at our friends, “Girls, I want you to go through the city and talk to the Crystal Ponies,” Rarity let out an excited little giggle at that, “See what you can find out. The Crystal Empire had to have a way to defend itself.”

A smile appeared on Twilight’s face, “It’s almost like a research paper.”

Dash smirked beside me, “Yeah, everypony loves those.”

“They’re not that bad,” I countered with a little smile, “I just look at it like learning stuff and then writing something to teach other people what you learned.”

“Neeeerrrrrd,” the rose colored mare said with a grin.

And I grinned right back, “Why yes, I am, thank you for noticing.”

Twilight gave us an eyeroll of her own before turning to her brother, “Don’t worry Shiney, we’ve got this.”

“And what of us?” Qubanna asked, the zebra stepping up and asking Shiney.

While the unicorn captain took a half second to think, I actually had an idea, “Qubanna, do you have anything on you that could restore someone’s vitality?” The zebra turned towards me as I elaborated, “I’m talking about something like a super caffeine or even a general restorative.”

His eyes widened briefly before he scowled, taking a moment before responding, “Would it be alright if it took a night to grow?”

“Yes. Get to it. We need some for Cadence and Shiney at minimum, some for the rest of us would be ideal, do what you can.” Despite the aches it sent through my body, I turned to the rest of the team that were still mostly gathered around me, “Quiet, Rose, I want you two working on figuring out that storm. Figure out how to break that storm. Power is not an issue, we’ll figure out how to power whatever you come up with, the how is.”

They both nodded, “Sir.”

I swung my head around, “Grave Danger, we need to know more about what we’re up against. Get us all a report on what these Shadow Wolves can actually do and how to break them.”

“Tch, if the fools are truly unable to do it themselves.”

“Punic, Shadow Play, I want you two to accompany the girls-”

AJ scowled, “Do we buckin’ need babysitters now?”

Okay, that is not my intention, and the very thought made me cringe, “No. But it’d give me some ease of mind.” I looked my… my marefriend in the eye, “Please hun, this isn’t a time to be risky.”

The orange earth pony made a face like sucking on a lemon, “Ah still don’t like it.”

“I understand hun, but please, it’d make me feel better.”

AJ sighed, “Alright sugar, Ah won’t complain…” a little smile crossed her face, “Too much.”

Some of the tension in my chest eased, if she could joke we should be okay. I still hated doing this to her, it definitely felt like treating her like a kid, but she was my charge and I’d be damned if I didn’t keep them safe.

“Would it not be better if I were to assist here?”

The originator of the question slightly surprised me, and I swiveled my head around to Punic, “If you know anything about runic systems? It probably would, but unless you’re pulling that skill out of your… ah… rear,” damnit, again with the ass / donkey-racism, "I’d prefer it if you could investigate as well before getting a place for us all to set up for the night.”

There was the slightest twitch of Punics eyes beneath his helmet, but he nodded, “I shall defer to your judgement.”

“Thank you.”

When no other comments were forthcoming, Twilight nodded, “Good, let’s get to work then. We should probably put together a checklist…”

This time it was my turn to sigh, “No Twilight. No Checklists.”

“Awww…”

… also seriously, that kid thing was gonna bug me now that I’d been made aware of it.

I lay as far out of the way of Twilight’s work as I could manage, going over what I was going to be doing as well as trying to keep half an eye on the actual runic system she was making.

My head still hurt, the base of my skull burning unpleasantly once more. It was like after the Timber Wolves all over again, I’d seriously strained my magic using structures. But this time I wouldn’t have time to just recover unfortunately, I’d have to jump right back into the thick of it basically right away.

I’d be acting as the focus for the power, a conduit, same as with the leylines, same as with the Hellball, though thankfully a lot less straining. I wouldn’t have to contain the power for any length of time, just point it in a direction, more being a sprinkler at the end of the hose rather than a water balloon. And man could magical metaphors get weird sometimes…

Twilight and I both knew that this wasn’t going to be easy on me even then, but her entire argument had fallen away without a word with a single glance at Cadence.

For all of her concern over my state, I wasn’t as important as Cadence was, not even for the here and now, let alone in the grand scheme of things. I knew she didn’t like it, but I was willing to go through the pain and strain for the sake of protecting these ponies… these ponies that I’d apparently kept locked away for years longer than they should have been...

My lips pressed into a thin line as I watched Twilight sketch out the basics of the runic circles that we’d be using to channel the powers safely. I… even if I intellectually knew that I couldn’t have had any idea, that I’d made the best choice I could have at the time, I still felt horrible for doing that. It was one thing to lock an empty city away for longer, it was another thing to lock people away…

Unbidden, a little sigh escaped me and I glanced at the floor.

I felt terrible, I’d at least have to try and apologize to the Crystal Ponies, ignorance was no excuse, and even if they hadn’t known about it didn’t mean that they didn’t deserve consideration. Ugh… at the very least I’d like to apologize to Cadence and Shiney, their entire honeymoon had been ruined by my presence multiple times–

“I saw that–”

“MEEP!!!”

My limbs flailed uselessly for just an instant as I flopped onto my side, unable to just leap to my hooves in my current state and get away from the sudden voice beside me. It only took an instant for me to recognize Shiney’s voice and calm down, but it’d already been more than long enough for me to be embarrassed as all hell.

“Um…”

“Please ignore me,” I said with a sigh, just laying there limply with an unhappily deadpan look on my face, my cheeks a brilliant shade of red, “I was lost in thought and you caught me by surprise.” Making an effort to raise my head, I looked over at the good sized unicorn stallion, “Please, do continue.”

Shiney blinked a few times before tilting his head curiously, “Well… I saw that spell of yours, the one you used against Sombra.”

I blinked, pushing myself back up into a pony-loaf position, confusion apparent on my face without a doubt. I actually felt the feather and flower earrings brushing against the side of my face as my ears cocked at a funny angle. And then it clicked, “Wait, the mountain is Sombra?”

The Captain looked about, mentally confirming the positions of the other ponies in the room. There was a small squad of unicorn soldiers on guard, Cadence, Twilight, and the two of us, everyone else had headed out into the city on their assigned tasks. But as Shiney turned back to me, his deep blue eyes were hard, “It’s the best theory we’ve got. It has the right color scheme, the right magical aspects, and it definitely has access to powerful dark magics… all things that Sombra did… it’s just… well…” The unicorn shrugged, “It’s sort of like he’s possessing a Xixecal.”

That made me stop. Then blink. “Wait, what did you call that?”

“Ah, um, a Xixecal…” he rubbed one of his forehooves with the other, looking away bashfully, “It’s… well…”

“Is that a Dungeons and Dragons reference?”

Shiney gave me a little funny look, “Nnnnnooo…? It’s a reference to Ogres and Obilettes…?”

My mouth worked stupidly for a few moments as my brain caught up. That sounded familiar… “Um… wait, board game sort of thing where you have characters that get stronger as they get experience and you roll dice to determine success of actions?”

“Yeah… it’s the default RPG…?”

Okay, so Fluttershy not knowing what an RPG was was a Fluttershy thing, not an Equestria thing… “Um… ah, I’ve played something super similar back home… it’s… anyways, not important, but when you say Xixecal you mean giant ice mountain that’s pseudo divine and really hateful right?”

“Yeah… how’d you know? You just made it clear you’ve never played Ogres and Obilettes and… I thought you…” another glance around before he lowered his head to whisper, “Aren’t you something from beyond Equestria…?”

“I am, I’m just as surprised as you are actually…” I admitted in just as much of a whisper, blinking confusedly, “I… even if there’s a similar game, the fact that they share a name, especially for something so esoteric is sort of… weird.” That made me pause, “Then again, the fact that we’re using the same language at all is strange now that I think about it…”

“Huh. Yeah.” He made a face that looked as confused as I felt, “Could it be a translation thing?”

“Mmmaaaayyybe? I… honestly don’t know… it might be a holdover from the GSE or the Harmony magic…” Those were things that I still barely understood and the most likely culprits…

His head tilted to the side, ears cocking at different angles, “Gee Ess Ee?”

“Ah, um…” I paused, before shaking my head, “Sorry, shorthand for the Gary Stu Effect…”

A deadpan look came across his face, “You named an effect after yourself?”

“What-? No. No no no. That’s… ugh…” rather eloquently facehoofed for a moment, “Right, let’s start over. My name, my real name is Emeris. I didn’t want my real name to be associated with that…” I gave a little shudder, shaking my head, “That thing I’d been turned into. Gary was a pseudonym I used while I… well… was like that. I’m sorry about all of that mess by the way I just…” I gave a shrug, unable to figure out a better way to apologize, “I’m sorry, it was never my intention for that sort of stuff to happen. I know I ruined your honeymoon a number of times… I just…”

But Shiney shook his head, interrupting my fumbling attempts at an apology, “Hey, it wasn’t fun, but if you can forgive me for trying to coordinate an… ah… assault on you? I can forgive you for trying to save the day and us getting caught up in it.”

A little smile started to spread on my face as some of that terrible fear in my chest began to ease, “Don’t worry, you’re plenty forgiven for it. You don’t even have anything to be forgiven for in my opinion. You didn’t have any control over your actions.”

That didn’t seem to make him feel entirely better as his ears swept back and tail flicked behind him, but the unicorn brushed the topic off with a little shake of his head, “We’re getting off topic. That spell you cast, that was Dark Magic.”

“Yeah.”

A small frown crossed Shining Armor’s face, “Seriously Dark Magic.”

I cringed just a bit, “To be fair, Luna specifically ordered me to use whatever Dark Magic I knew, and if she hadn’t, I’m not sure I would have even thought to have done something like that…”

Okay, even if I did have a better understanding of pony expressions, I don’t have the foggiest clue what that expression’s supposed to have been. Confusion? Wariness? Thoughtfulness? Contemplation? I really had no clue. And soft, almost too soft to be heard even this close to him, he murmured, “She ordered it…?” But after a moment, Shiney gave a little shake of his head, “That’s not it. I didn’t recognize that spell. At all. And as a Captain of the Guard I’ve been given a solid overview of what to look for with dark magics. And that was at least an Eighth Circle Spell, I should have recognized it at least a bit. So what was it?”

“Um… I… sort of… made it up…?”

Blue eyes blinked once, twice, “... what.”

“I… ah… I took a basic fireball spell and supercharged it with a half dozen black magic methods…”

He gave me incredulous look, “... that’s seriously it?”

“That’s seriously it.”

The unicorn’s mouth worked silently for a few seconds before his flank slumped to the , “I just… what…?”

“I call it the Hellball?” I offered a bit sheepishly.

Shiney blinked twice more before snorting and covering his face with a hoof, a little smile on his face, “Seriously? The Hellball?”

An almost hesitant smile spread across my face, “I’m not exactly good at naming things…?”

“Could you at least have called it Tartarus Marble or something cool?” Shining Armor grumbled.

“Ooh!” I brightened in spite of myself, “That’s a much better name! Thanks!”

That thankfully got a small chuckle from the powerful unicorn, and the sound brought a bit of warmth to my chest. He hesitated for a moment before, “That magic… did you know what you were doing?”

“Barely.” I admitted quietly, looking away, my rebelious tail flicking in discomfort, “It was a desperate effort… I know how to tap into external power pretty well, but fusing that many power sources together like that isn’t something I’ve trained to do… I’ve been avoiding tapping into those dark magics.”

There was another one of those really confusing expressions on Shiney’s face that I couldn’t interpret at all before he asked, “You’re sure it didn’t bring Sombra down?”

“Not permanently, no. If it had, the blizzard would have ceased.”

Considering that for a moment, Shining Armor nodded, “Yeah… it’s sort of scary, that something that powerful couldn’t kill him.”

“It’s not that, it was like trying to kill fire with fire. It’s not something you can do…” I trailed off for a moment, thinking of fire breaks and such and how those might relate to dark magics. I shuddered, “Um… well, not in any way we’d be willing to do.”

A brief confused look crossed Shiney’s face before he half rushed to his hooves, “No joke! We’re not even- don’t even consider stuff like that!”

My mouth opened for just a moment before I closed it, “ Yeah. But, I don’t think it’s a power thing, otherwise… ah… Gary would’ve taken him down. I believe it’s more of a wrong thing to fight it with… thing…”

What I didn’t bring up was the fact that honestly, those horrifying methods needed to stay on the table in some way or another just in case. It was the same problem I’d had with Outsiders at times, raw power doesn’t work, sometimes you have to cut out the cancer or however you want to use a metaphor to justify horrifying things to stop the spread. It was a method of last resort, the final gasp of desperation, and it was something I’d do so that Twilight and the others wouldn’t… I’d already done stuff like it, and no matter how deep it cut, I could manage it again.

… though I guess… Grave Danger would be able to assist… ugh, as unpalatable as I found him, I was at very least thankful that that much was true.

The unicorn captain had slid back down into a sitting position as he contemplated what I’d said. Eventually his gaze lifted to his wife sitting on the throne, “You think we need to fight fire with water instead of more fire.”

“Basically, yeah.”

Shiney heaved a sigh, “Really wish you guys had brought the Elements of Harmony, this would’ve been a lot easier.”

“No kidding,” I couldn’t help from grumble, even as some of the tension in my chest that I hadn’t even noticed eased. Honestly, it was good to be getting away from that uncomfortable topic, “At the very least we’d know what to do.”

“Yeah, things can’t be simple can they?”

“They sometimes are,” I noted with a little smile, “But yeah, it’s pretty rare and that usually requires the ability to just overwhelm the problem.”

Shiney chuckled just a bit before looking at me, “Ga-... Emeris… thank you for keeping my sister safe, and for thinking of Cadence’s safety.”

I shifted a bit uncomfortably in place, the praise was a bit unsettling honestly, “Um… it’s nothing, really. Twilight honestly did as much if not more than I did.”

Shining Armor rolled his eyes, and for a moment there was a little smile on his face. But then his eyebrows drew down into a small scowl, “Even so, you better not try anything funny with my little sister.”

Now it was my turn to blink a few times, but then a small smile crossed my face, one of understanding, “Yeah, I get it. Don’t worry.”

That only made his scowl deepen, and he jabbed a hoof at me, “I’m serious, no funny business.”

“I know? I understand, there won’t be.” I gave a small shake of my head, before locking gazes with the unicorn. He was actually just a bit bigger than myself, just a bit more bulk to him, just a bit more intensity. But my eyes focused on his, trying to convey just how serious I was about this, “Shiney, Twilight’s my friend, and hell, it’s my job to defend her. Trust me, I’d rather die than allow any harm to come to any of them.”

“And I’d rather you didn’t get hurt at all.” Twilight interjected, making both of us jump.

… well, made Shining Armor jump. I didn’t jump, no sir.

I just squeaked again and flopped onto my side. Celestia damn useless legs!

The purple archmage in training just rolled her eyes, having come to stand near the two of us, “And Shiney, are you giving him a hard time?”

“No!” Her eyes narrowed at him and he shuffled his hooves, “Well… a little… I’m just worried about you, you know?”

Twilight’s look softened, “I do, B.B.B.F.F., trust me, I really do. But trust me, Emeris is about as threatening as your old teddy bear.”

“Ow, my fragile masculinity,” I deadpanned as I lay on my side.

That made Twilight’s smile widen as she continued to focus on her brother, “But don’t you have better things to do than bug my friend?”

“Don’t you have work to be doing?” Shiney countered.

Twilight just grinned at him, knowing she’d won that little exchange before moving on to another part of the growing design on the floor, her horn alight.

… actually, all three of the family members had their horns alight, Cadence, Shiney, and Twilight were all doing magic in some way. It made me feel just a bit irrationally inadequate for not helping.

Making a sound somewhere between a sigh and a groan, I pushed myself back up into an upright position, “Anyways.”

“Anyways.” Shiney agreed before turning back to me, “Keep them safe.”

I nodded easily, with a slightly somber smile, it was what I’d intended to do in the first place after all, “Will do.”

“And stay safe yourself.” I blinked at the unexpected order, “That aura you were carting around, that G.S.E. thing, it might have been bad, but you did good work with it and in spite of it.”

I frowned, scowling at the ground, “I pretty much just fixed the problems I caused by existing, it wasn’t that good.”

Blue eyes bore into me for just a moment before he shook his head, standing once more, “Regardless, you need to rest up, if this thing works you’re going to put yourself under some serious strain.”

That made me sigh, laying my head on my forelegs, “Yeah. Good point…”

I’d take the time to apologize to Cadence later, when at least one of us was closer to functional. With me an achy mess and her bordering on exhausted… it just didn’t feel like a good idea to bring up the topic.

“Emeris…?”

I cracked open my eye, “I am awake Twilight.”

“Could you double check this? I’m pretty sure it’ll work, but you’re our expert on runes after all.”

Okay, now that made me snort, “Oh, yeah, right, the perfectionist messed something up.” It took me a moment to push myself up onto my hooves, and what’d ya know? The ache had gotten worse. Ugh.

Cadence was still nearby, Shiney having gone off to get some work done with his men… stallions? Guardsponies? Fucking terminology was still getting me messed up. But there were two guardsponies in here as well keeping watch.

I wobbled for just an instant before walking forward and moving around the design, mentally checking it over. I was thankful that the burn in the back of my head was easing, but I was going to be horrifically stiff by the end of tonight. Fun fun. Blech.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “I am not that much of a perfectionist.”

That just had me raising an eyebrow at the unicorn, who glanced between me and Cadence before sputtering, “I’m not!”

In surprising synchronicity, Cadence and I shared a glance that, for all of my issues that I still had with Equestrian body language I understood fully. We turned back to Twilight and it was Cadence who gently pointed out, “Twilight, you kind of are.” The little smirk she had sort of hurt the effect though.

“Ugh, fine, I’m a perfectionist,” she gave me a scowl, “That doesn’t mean I know runes half as well as you do.” My mouth was barely half open in a rebuttal before she jabbed a hoof towards me, “And you’re way better at throwing together a spell on the fly than me. This isn’t about power or any more normal sorts of magic that I focus on. This stuff is almost literally your specialty, so hush. It’s okay to be good at it.”

My mouth shut with a little click, and had my legs not been aching so much, I would have shuffled my hooves. “Still feels weird to be better than you at anything,” I muttered, eyes going to the design to avoid meeting hers. My chest was a warring mess of emotions, discomfort and a hint of unfounded fear at being good at something, but also the pleasant warmth, something that I hadn’t really had a good opportunity to feel in a good while… pride.

Ugh, emotions could be such a pain at times. Wouldn’t trade them for anything mind you, but still.

Twilight just smiled, “Don’t worry, you’re still not as good at me at telekinesis, transformation, teleportation-”

I chuckled, “Okay, okay, I get it.”

The design was sort of like a triangle, it had a total of four circles, three at the points and one within. The central one was the focusing lens and the three outer ones meant to channel power inwards safely. Tons of the funny little squiggles all around it that were the cuniform and runic symbols that did most of the heavy lifting of actual runes, but the lines themselves were important too.

It took only a few moments of checking before I was as sure as I was gonna get, I looked to Twilight as I half wobbled, half walked towards the center of the design, “It looks solid. It wouldn’t hold up to long term use, too few checks or balances, requires too much skill of power balancing from those inputting power, but this will hold for the night, which should be enough.”

My friend shot a glance over at the pink alicorn, which didn’t go unnoticed. The alicorn giving her former ward a warm smile, “It’s alright Twilight. A single night’s rest will do wonders for my complexion.”

“Then there’s no time like the present.” I said, flopping down in the center of the runic design, “Let’s get up some unicorns to take up my slack while you get some rest.”

“Right!” Twilight brightened before her ears drooped slightly, “Um, I don’t… who…?”

Cadence took over, stepping off of the throne and moving towards us, turning to one of the guards, “Lieutenant, please, could you find Shining and tell him that we’ll need some assistance?”

The guard saluted, “Your highness.”

I couldn’t help the little smile that appeared on my face, “Beat me to it.”

Purple eyes flicked over to me for a moment before she smiled, “You are quite used to this aren’t you?”

I very nearly flinched at that, and even Twilight had a moment of discomfort before she started forward, “Cadence, it’s–”

But to my surprise, even the otherwise beautiful alicorn cringed, seeming to realize what she’d said, “I- no… sorry, that came out wrong…” She gave a little shake of her head without looking towards us, her mane bouncing about before she took a deep breath and looked me in the eye, “Emeris, I don’t like you.”

I flinched, even if I’d expected–

“No. Stop. Hear me out.” Cadence sighed, “I shouldn’t dislike you as much as I do. I know the truth, even if I struggled with the aura you created. But that aura… it went against everything I stand for. Even if I know you had no control over it, even if I know you hated it just as much as I do or more…” Her mouth worked silently as her wings ruffled before she shook her head, “It’s hard to look past how you, unintentionally, twisted Love into knots around you.”

My heart went out to her, because had I not just been thinking about this shit? “Hey… it’s okay. I get it. It’s fine.”

But the alicorn’s purple eyes settled on me without wavering, “No, it’s not fine. You haven’t done anything to deserve it.” She paused, eyes flicking away in thought before she admitted, “Well… more than frustrate me.”

From her tone, I knew instantly what things she was talking about and I cringed sympathetically, my ears drooping and my earrings brushing against my cheek as I pointed out, “I did try to apologize.”

Twilight’s head bounced between us even as the princess sighed, taking a seat just beyond the design, “I know, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating, especially with how hard it was to talk about anything else for the rest of the day.”

I made a little retching noise at that, “Ugh, sorry, I can imagine.”

“Okay, wait,” Twilight raised a hoof, “What are you two talking about?”

Both of us, the present alicorn and the formerly so, shared a glance. But I was the one to answer, “Um… you don’t want to know.”

“Emeris…” the unicorn said warningly.

I cringed and caved like the bitch I was, “Well… I tended to interrupt them when they were, ah, husband and wife?”

In just a few instants, a half dozen emotions went across my friend’s face before the realization fully hit her and it settled on “... oh… oh… ewww… I did not want to think of my B.B.B.F.F. or foalsitter like that!”

“I did warn you!” I pointed out.

The sun was starting to sink behind the mountaintops, barely visible above the pink and purple dome that covered the city. What was thankfully not visible was a moving mountain, at least not yet. The world outside the barrier was barely more than silhouettes of shadows against the lighter backdrop of the sky, but even that much was surprising given the intensity of the blizzard out there...

The girls were trickling back into the greeting room, as were the rest of the team, “Ugh, I’ve got nothin’ so far.” Dash grumbled as she gave a little tug on the wrap around her forehoof.

“Same here,” AJ muttered, the two mare’s leaning against my sides for the moment, each one a pleasant ball of warmth, “These crystal ponies don’t seem to remember anythin’ useful.”

Fluttershy approached us up the stairs, and both Twilight and myself looked to her– and holy shit did she just unzip her– oh… it’s Pinkie Pie…

The party pony zipped over to Twilight and whispered quickly, “It’s been a quivering forehoof and floppy ear! A quivering forehoof and a floppy ear!” –and then she was gone.

…

I blinked, trying to work my way through the weird pinkie sense codes, “... wait, is that the one with the mayonnaise or the one with the gerbil?”

“I thought it was something about trains…?” Twilight said looking at me.

For a moment there was silence at that as the rest of the girls approached, and then it cracked, “Pfft.”

“Hehehehe…”

A wave of probably inappropriate giggles swept through the group at that, and even Shadow Play and Quiet joined in a bit, though theirs was a bit more sheepish due to the lack of Pinkie Pie Exposure. Punic was stoic as ever, and Rose just looked confused, but Graves and Qubanna both rolled their eyes.

“Ahem, yes,” Rarity cleared her throat, “Anyways, I’m sorry dear, but I wasn’t able to find anything either.”

“I’m really sorry, but they didn’t tell me anything either…” Fluttershy shuffled her hooves in place.

“It’s almost like every citizen of the empire has targeted amnesia, sir,” Shadow Play said, her membranous wings shifting in place.

“Wait, the entire population?” Twilight said, more than a bit shocked, her eyes narrowing in thought, “The power involved…”

My ears swept back, because that wasn’t a joke, I don’t think there was much of Twilight’s knowledge of mental magics that had been left behid in my head, but we’d both studied it in order to separate ourselves, so I had a pretty solid idea myself of how ridiculous the power requirements for such as that would be. I turned to Grave Danger, “Is there anything you know of that would explain that?”

“Feh, you can’t figure it out you fool?” the relatively small unicorn sneered, “You practically used it yourself.”

I just sort of stared at the pale yellow unicorn for a long moment, but when no further explanation was forthcoming, I pressed, “So… are you gonna explain it…?”

Grave Danger snorted, “Only if you are such a fool that you can’t figure it out yourself.”

My teeth ground together, and I’ve gotta admit that I was super grateful to AJ for coughing delicately and pushing things forward, “The only thing they did mention ta me was somethin’ about a library.”

Sparkles began to appear in Twilight’s eyes as she inhaled, “A library…?”

“Twilight…” I drew out warningly, cutting things off before they got out of hand. We had other things to do first.

“What?!” she demanded, though her tone conveyed that she knew exactly what I was talking about.

“After we get Cadence and Shiney some rest.”

The purple unicorn heaved a sigh, her head drooping as she muttered, “Ugh, alright. Like you’re not interested too.” Now it was my turn to cough awkwardly at being caught.

With another sigh, this time more resigned than anything else, Twilight continued as I returned to my ponderings, “Alright, so is there anything else?”

‘Okay, so, I’ve already basically done it…? Recently? I’ve channeled considerable power… I’ve used a lot of dark magics… does he mean that Sombra was using dark magics? Which, I mean, duh, of course he was, but that shouldn’t…’

At the shaking of everyone’s heads, Twilight gave a little nod, “Alright. So this is how we’re going to make this work. Emeris is going to act as the focus of this spell, while Grave Danger, Quiet Mirror and myself provide the raw power.”

‘Yeah… a singular pony frame shouldn’t be able to withstand the amount of power that’d go through it in order to accomplish a spell like that… so it’s not like he just drew on that much power straight from the tap…’

“While we do that, the rest of you are going to do your best to get some rest. We’ll check out that library first thing tomorrow morning, see if we can find some sorts of leads.”

‘Summoned demons? No, that’s something that could work but it’s not something I’ve done, at very least not in a way that Grave Danger would recognize… the problem is that there’s no magics that are safe to use, at least none with sufficient power… like, I couldn’t channel enough power of hell to do a spell of that scale without either being a powerful demon or just burning my insides out…’ Dash’s wing stretched out to lay across my back like a warm, delightfully fuzzy blanket, and I leaned into her touch, ‘Hell, even as Gary, the only reason I could approach that scale of effect was because it was my ‘special talent’, I was an Alicorn of Terra, I was able to tap into the leylines directly and safely… and if Sombra is such a master of dark magic, he can’t have had the monofocused ability required to have that measure of affinity with any one type of dark magic source to channel it safely…’

“Shiney, you’ve already got forces ready?” At his nod, she continued, “Depending on how strong this shield ends up being, you might want to put more ponies on guard or let them relax. If it’s pretty strong we can relax, but if it’s not as strong as Cadence’s, we’ll want to have more ponies ready.”

‘So what power sources could it be? Tartarus is out, the dead are out, a Lich could channel that amount of power safely, but there wouldn’t be a city here anymore in that case, the fey would have cost him a whole lot more than he could provide, the leylines or elementals would have scoured a pony to ash through simple inefficiency at those power levels, no malice required; and there’s no way you can produce that much power with your own emo-... tions…’

My eyes had slowly widened.

“Grave Danger, Quiet Mirror, you two and myself are going to provide power to this array while Emeris acts as the filter and fo-cus… Emeris…?”

“Girls…” I kept staring at the floor as I tried to keep my racing thoughts contained and on focus, “Did the crystal ponies seem afraid or nervous?”

“Yeah?” Rainbow Dash’s head turned towards me, “How’d you know?”

This time, my head snapped to the necromancer, “Grave Danger, Sombra was making the ponies of the empire afraid and then channeling their fears and pain to power his spells, it was something that the empire is well suited for, wasn’t it?”

A smirk, barely visible beneath the shadow of his hood, “That is the most likely explanation, yes.”

That pushed me to provide a precisely eloquent and perfectly purple prose piece of provisional pronouncement, “Fuck.”

“Um, ya lost me there sugar… how’s that bad?”

“I…” I snorted quietly before biting my lip for a moment. Then I shook my head, “No, it’s not bad for us by itself, it’s a data point, but it’s not a fun data point. Like… ugh, it doesn’t change anything we’re doing right now. This is still our next step.”

There was a beat of silence after that as everyone stared at me in confusion, making me shift uncomfortably before Twilight broke it, “Right, are there any questions?”

“Can AJ and I stay here with Emmy?”

The question itself made my cheeks flush, my chest tightening even as warmth surged through it. But a sad look came over the purple unicorn’s face, “Sorry Dash, that inner circle is going to be pretty dangerous for anypony that doesn’t know how to channel it.”

Dash deflated just a bit, and I bumped her cheek with my own, “Hey, it’s alright. And trust me, she’s right. This circle’s gonna be like Twilight at max power, it’s not gonna be a fun ride.”

Her wing batted me in the back of hte head lightly, “That’s why I wanted to see if we could stay ya dork.”

Heat flared in my cheeks and I couldn’t help but chuckle, “And I definitely appreciate it, trust me…” I bit my lip for a fraction of an instant before I leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to her lips, savoring the warmth the action as well as her little surprised, but not unhappy squeak sent through me, “It means a lot to me. But this is something I’ve got to do myself. You get some rest.”

My marefriend’s mouth worked soundlessly before an evil grin spread across her face and I immediately started to get my ears out of the way, but instead of going for my ear she drew me into a headlock, “Gack!”

She laughed as her hoof rubbed the top of my head, “Don’t go and try and act like you’re cool!”

My lips drew down into a frown as I watched Sir Emeris play about with his herd. Even if I understood the need to be with your herd and I otherwise liked our commanding officer, this felt like a terrible time to do so. If he hadn’t already shown that despite his quirks, he was perfectly capable of buckling down and getting things done, I’d have probably said something already.

The knight continued to wrestle with the Element of Loyalty for a few moments before Qubanna stepped forward, a scowl on the zebra’s face as he started to open his mouth- only to be cut off as a flash of red around his mouth, sealing it shut with crimson light.

I was far from the only member of the protection team that looked at this in surprise, tracing the light back to Grave Danger, the Broken Horn putting a hoof to his lips.

In spite of the scowl that Qubanna shot at the necromancer, most of the rest of us, as well as the Element of Generosity shot him a confused look. There was a laugh from the little herd as the Element of Honesty was drawn into the half-hearted wrestling match.

But the necromancer provided no explanation prior to the Element of Magic delicately clearing her throat, “Alright everypony, let’s get this done. Grave Danger, Quiet Mirror?”

Quiet Mirror nodded, nearly saluted, not that I could blame him, Twilight may have had moments of awkwardness, but the unicorn had a commanding presence when she put her mind to it. It honestly reminded me of Princess Celestia at times, just… younger I guess? I didn’t truly have a good comparison though, I’d only occasionally worked with the Day Princess rather than my own.

The Broken Horn continued to be disrespectful and antagonistic though, simply stepping forward and into one of the three circles, his cloak moving easily about him.

“Sorry girls, but…”

“Yeah yeah, we got it Twilight, sheesh,” the blue pegasus rolled her eyes and squirmed out from the grasp of the knight’s forehooves.

As the unicorns took their place, the Element of Honesty also left the central circle of the design, pausing to glance back at her stallion with a brief, complicated expression… one I think I recognized actually. But before I think even the dark green unicorn could notice, she dove in and gave him a quick peck on his scarred cheek, “Be safe sugar.”

HIs face lit up like a fire hydrant, but he still managed to give her a slightly shaky grin, “I’ll make it happen AJ, don’t worry.”

The mare straightened her hat atop her head with a little smile before truly leaving the area proscribed by the design on the floor. The other Elements of Harmony all gathering about together, which I guess made sense given that their strength was in their unity…

With a quick glance to confirm that everypony was in place, the Element of Magic nodded, “Okay, push your power through the system, remember to pace yourselves for the entirety of the night-”

“If we didn’t know to do such as that, we wouldn’t have been selected for this duty child, get on with it.”

That earned the Broken Horn a number of glares, particularly from the Major Punic.

But with a sigh, Twilight Sparkle led the casting, each of the four unicorns closing their eyes in concentration.

One by one, the horns of the unicorns lit up, the Element of Magic’s a brilliant sunset purple, the Broken Horn’s a deep, bloody crimson, the Zenith Captain’s a rich, ocean blue, and the Knight’s a brilliant emerald green. The strange design beneath them starting to light up with their respective colors, pouring down through the lines towards the central circle.

The entire design pulsed once as it was filled with power, and Sir Emeris earrings began to dance about in the upcurrent of power.

Sir Emeris took a deep breath and let it out slowly, and I could have sworn I saw a glimmer of pink light from his closed eyes before woah!

My wings flared out reflexively as a wave of power washed over us, a purple wave of magical energy expanding rapidly and surging out.

Okay, againap’s might not be true magic users the way a unicorn was, but I knew what magic was and had a good appreciation of its power. But this… what kind of monsters had I been teamed up with?

Sir Emeris had blown apart a mountain, and from what I could feel, Grave Danger was of similar power. But Twilight Sparkle…

In spite of myself, I actually shivered, my membranous wings wrapping around my torso tightly. Because even with her deliberately matching the power of the other unicorns, I could tell that she was holding back… entire train indeed… and none of the Elements of Harmony even seemed surprised by the amount of power coming off of her. Her brother and her highness Cadence I could understand not being surprised by that amount of power but…

A little look crossed Quiet Mirror’s face, and I actually had to pity the Zenith Captain just a bit. He wasn’t a weak unicorn, but I felt a little inadequate in the face of this and I wasn’t even a unicorn!

“Everyone okay?”

Grave Danger just snorted in response, even as Quiet MIrror nodded, “Yes Miss Sparkle.”

She glanced at the unicorn in the center of the design, “Emeris?”

It took him a moment to respond, but when he did he gave a little nod of his head, his voice soft, “Doin’ okay… little… rough… but I’ll hold it together.”

“Okay…” the Element of Magic cracked open an eye and glanced out the doorway to the hall, and my eyes followed her to find that the sky outside had instead become a solid shade of purple rather than pink, though it was an unusual shade of such… likely due to the mixing of the colors of the four unicorns… but it was still purple rather than pink. With a nod, Twilight Sparkle closed her eyes, “Cadence, you can drop your shield, we’ll keep the Empire safe for the night, you get some rest.”

“I… thank you Twilight…” her highness sighed out with a little smile, the horns of both of the royal couple dimming as they let their shield drop.

Twilight Sparkle smiled at the sound of her highness voice, tilting her head slightly towards the Elements of Harmony without opening her eyes, “Girls, try and get some rest, we’ll get to work tomorrow.”

“Rightyo Twilight,” the Element of Honesty mock saluted, and the military mare in me ground her teeth at the improper salute. Gah, always with the civilians and that.

The ponies, exchanged a number of ‘good nights’ and such as they started to turn and–

“IT’LL BE A SLEEPOVER! WOOHOOOOOOO!!!”

I cringed just a bit as the pink party pony appeared out of nowhere, sweeping up a number of her friends in a group hug. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the Element of Laughter, Sunspot would probably love her, but I was not my herdmate. But still, the long suffering sighs and smiles the Element’s of Harmony gave as they were dragged off made a smile of my own appear.

My hooves began to move as I followed after the Elements of Harmony. Even if he hadn’t explicitly stated as such, I knew that it was still my duty to keep an eye on the Elements of Harmony even in this place of safety.

Something niggled at me though as I started to follow after the mares, while half of our group was a part of the ritual, and Qubanna was heading off to finish the creation of the super-caffeine… that still left…

I blinked, looking first at Cumulus Rose, and then at the distinct lack of Punic following alongside us. My head continued to turn to look over my shoulder to find the honestly massive Earth Pony laying down near the ritual space, not far from the Element of Magic, “Punic, sir?”

“I shall stay here to watch over them, Shadow Play” he said, already knowing the question I was about to ask, setting his helmet down beside himself, an almost demure smile on his face, “I could not find it in myself to leave Twilight Sparkle undefended, not in good conscience.”

A little frown crossed my face at that even as my eyes could pick out a little dusting of pink crossed the Element of Magic’s cheeks, it wasn’t like Shining Armor was taking all of his soldiers from the room or anything, and Sir Emeris himself was right here. And while he was quirky and strange, I had no questions about his ability to protect them. But specifically calling out Twilight Sparkle like that…

It took only a brief glance to confirm that Captain Shining Armor had also paused to give the larger pony a… pointedly neutral look. And even both Sir Emeris and Quiet Mirror had shifted about uncomfortably at the statement.

But the large stallion made no effort to move or expand on that, and it wasn’t like I had a good reason to question the decision, the ritual space was important and all…

With a small sigh, I shook my head, “Alright, we’ll keep an eye on the rest of the Elements of Harmony.”

Punic gave a little nod of acknowledgement as he lay down near the ritual space, and I did my best to ignore the slight unease I felt, nobility always did that to me. Ugh. Still, with any luck I'd be able to make time to talk with the Ele-... with Applejack...

A little sigh escaped me as I trotted after the girls, with any luck we’d have at least a decent place to sleep…

Terrible winds howled just beyond the pink barrier that cut them off from the Empire, beasts of shadows and hatred nipping at the edges of the barrier, seeking weakness but finding none.

There was a change.

Even as ice continued to build on the buried mountain of rubble, as whisps of shadows and hatred seeped out from between the cracks… the barrier’s flavor changed… and then, the pink barrier fell.

Strange… they had another that could provide such a barrier?

But then, as this was contemplated, the barrier flickered for just an instant, and the beasts that continued to probe at its edges surged forward.

Most were cut off, most were cleaved in twain by the power of virtue and passion, most were repelled.

But most was not all.

Near the edges of the Crystal Empire, as the sun fell behind the mountains, shadows began to pool.

Author's Notes:

Iä! Iä! Consequences of Darkness fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Consequences of Darkness Fimfiction wgah'nagl fhtagn!

RISE!!! RISE I SAY!!! RISE FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE BEYOND!!! RISE AND BE COUNTED!!!

-casts Void Circle Necromancy-

Aaaand done.

So I make no excuses. Life was rough. But this lives once more.

This chapter was a fair bit rushed, so it's far from my favorite. I wrote this in about a week and there's a minimal amount of backchecking and betaing and editing. I'm also not super happy with the fact that this is primarily a transition piece rather than something seriously advancing the plot in some way or another. If anything seems out of character or out of place or just reads weird, do not hesitate to point it out! It's far more likely that I messed something up in this chapter rather than it being a deliberate choice.

But it's here, and it's alive, and I'm doing what I can to keep it that way. I'm getting back into the swing of putting out horse words.

As always, I highly encourage criticism and commentary. That which I've gotten on this story has consistently been some of the best I've gotten in my time putting purdy wurds on the intertubes.

Anyways, Decepticons, Rise Up!