The gauntlets that now adorned my hands were light weight, but still felt durable. I sent out magic as if the gauntlets were a part of me, and went through some of the motions of casting magic. Until now whenever I'd attempted to cast any of the magic I had studied there had only been a wave of pain surging back at me, but now I could feel my magic properly bending and reforming. Until now I couldn't get any practical skill but I had still made an effort to study some basic skills in other fields of magic.  I gathered magic between my upper hands, and pulsed together to form a small ball of light, and then floated it to follow me.

"Thank you ancients. I will bear this responsibility as well as I can."

I descended the stairwell and smiled as I walked through to find Luna waiting for me. She looked the same as when we split up, but her tiara had been replaced with a full crown, crafted of the same white gold as her other ornaments and bearing a moonstone emblem of a full moon. She rushed and hugged me as I entered.

"Thank goodness! I was worried about how you fared through the test."

I returned the hug.

"Same vice versa for me."

I remembered what the warnings and let go of Luna.

"Luna, I think something's going on back at the empire. It could be nothing but I think we should hurry back."

She nodded and we rushed out of the cairn, confident of ourselves and hoping to arrive before anything could happen.

---

It was dark out as we both rushed back to the kingdom, my dread increasing as I saw plumes of smoking rising in the city. Luna and I charged, rushing towards the city before Luna charged magic and teleported into the throneroom. As it turned out, Luna's new crown acted both as a badge of her passing through the Cairn as well as being a spellbook full of spells and magical knowledge that she could use, one of them being a way to teleport by converting into magic and then passing through crystal. Seeing as the whole kingdom is crafted out of crystal then it was a simple matter to warp in. I looked around and saw the doors thrown open and heard shouts outside. Luna and I locked eyes for a moment and I spoke.

"I'll go help the guards outside, you get any woundeds inside and then figure out what's happening."

Luna nodded and I drew Tharn's fang in my upper right hand and Finis in my upper left. Along with that I drew both plasma cutters in my lower arms.

I rushed out and saw a group of ponies in gray unitologist robes fighting against a squadron of Night Guard, civilians being escorted past and into the buildings around the castle, a rough barricade built to keep a certain area around the castle sealed off. I rushed forward and grabbed the unitologists in all four arms, throwing them past the damaged wall. I watched the Guards light up a they saw me and then rush to patch the wall. I saw Iron Shield rush up towards me.

"Thank the sun and moon you guys are back! Things have been insane here, the unitologists struck when they knew you guys had stepped out, and ambushed us. All of them are insane, and think everyone in the kingdom that isn't one of them needs to 'be cleansed'! We managed to evacuate a great deal of the civilians into the area we secured behind the barricades, and between the Night Guard and the Crystal Guardstallions that joined up with us not to mention that dragoness and the freed gem hunters that are healed enough to fight, we've managed to put up a good defense against them. Still, there's a lot more of them than we originally thought. It's been pretty tough."

I nodded and looked over the strategical plans set up by the Guards and then started redirecting.

"Okay, strengthen the walls here, here, and here. The gem hunters are able to tear through the ground like nobody's business, so take them to some of the mine tunnels and plan to strike at the enemy form below. I know these unitologists, if they attack then they're already too far gone to take. Unless they seem to be one in a position of power then you kill them like the animals they are! I'll lead a charge here, at their central gathering point. From there we can take out their leadership and hopefully force them from the city. Razor Wing you lead the mages and aerial defense, Iron Shield you take the heavy fighters to maintain the barricades ad defend the civilians inside and Livyathan you lead the Gem Hunters and take the undergrounds to sneak out any civilians that haven't been evacuated out of there and knock out some of their numbers, and finally Luna, you head to the top spire of the castle to magically monitor the movements of the Unitologists and then warn everyone ahead of time so we can stay ahead of them. Everyone with me?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good. Let's get this done clean, fast, and without any further casualties."

---

Everyone was in place and the last thing remaining was for us to get the signal that Livy had gotten all of the captive civilians to safety. The group I was leading was in position to strike at the leaders of the attack and all of us, Luna, Shield, Razor, and I had magical gems that Luna had crafted, made so that when Livy smashed her gem to show the civilians were safe it would cause all of ours to glow. I looked down and saw the faint light emit from my pocket and I took out the gem and crushed it, making sure that the light wouldn't be noticed. I silently slid all of my sword of their sheathes. I would use the plasma cutters for the extra range, but one thing the cutters did was produce light, and that would get us noticed. I waved the three thestrals forward to follow me, and I slunk up behind the guards. The two didn't notice me, seemingly out of it all and babbling about things under their breaths. I brought my blades on them, lower arms slicing up and upper arms slicing down, effectively beheading them both before they notice. I stood on one side of the doorway with one of the guards and the other two that came with me stood on the other side.

I entered the dark doorway and slowly went along, hearing undecipherable voices ahead. I found my way by a light doorway that opened into a larger chamber. I could hear the voice speaking more plainly now and...

I knew that voice! All of my memories of playing the Dead Space games rushed back to me. That... That was the voice of Dr. Mercer! I leaned in to hear what was being said. I saw him now, a tall and thin unicorn with the striped coat of a zebra, in colors of blood red and black. His irises and pupils were a bright yellow and the whites of his eyes were a soulless black. His body was adorned with a white and gray outfitting with a similar appearance to what Mercer wore in the game, and his horn was seemingly formed of red stone, looking like that of a Marker and had a faint red glow.

"Already the Sun has fallen to us, and will take Equestria into the glory of the oncoming moons! The unbelievers and heretics will be brought forth in the death we give them, ascended as we into the divine embrace of the Markers! Soon, we will amass as one and tear down the shackles of the pit that withhold the strength of the Marker from reaching the world. We will spread the Marker's divine voice into all creatures, not simply those such as I who have been born with the touch of the Marker in out hearts! Our world and we the faithful will ascend and the vile demon that dares to imitate the power of the Marker will be cast down! Already he fights our divine quest, and still he defies us! Watch him now, alone now that we have taken the trio of heretics that followed him have been struck down, and watch as he falls!"

With this he sent a blast of red magic from his horn, and  just barely dodged to the side to avoid it. I looked and saw in the hallway behind me, the three stallions I had watching out rear were bleeding and dead on the ground, and a large number of Unitologists stood over them. i looked around, and I was surrounded on all sides.

Shit.

I morphed all four of my arms into enhanced necromorph blades.

"Well then. You fuckers want necromorph? I guess you got it..."

The next few minutes were a bloody blur of me slashing against the swarm of sword and magic wielding cultists and struggling to not be buried underneath it all. After a while it was just me and Not-Mercer standing in the chamber. I was about to lunge at him, only for a single beam of magic from him to strike me, passing through my armor and seizing me with pain. My arms reverted back into their necrohuman state and I sank to my knees, overcome with pain.

"So I finally face the heretic knight that halts our holy quest. As foreseen you cut a bloody swath through the followers of the Markers, but these are just the few that lurked behind in this kingdom, the rest have already made their way to Equestria to join the fallen Sun in liberating the Marker from its bondage and send forth the signal to bring about the birth of a new holy moon."

He looked at me as I forced myself back into standing against the pain.

"I can see how you struggle to stand against my magic. That is but one of the blessings afforded me by the Marker. It brought me forth from the weakness of my birth, a weak creature born of a Zebrican shaman and an Equestrian noble line leading straight to the ancients of Princess Platinum's age. I was born with a broken body, weak in body, unstable in magic, and uncertain of mind. But it was this that allowed me to hear the call of the Marker, and so my magic, a forced fusion of Zebrican Alchemy magic and Unicorn Aether magic, was brought into order by its teachings. One of the blessings it gave me was that which you feel now, the power to halt your mockery of its divine power. I am Tenebris Mercer, son of the Marker. I leave you now, heretic, and go forward to aid in the oncoming convergence event in Equestria."

His horn ignited with a sickly yellow glow and his body seemed to burn away in a flash of light. The pain on my body left and I immediately rushed out to find Luna. If I understood what Mercer had said, that meant that Celestia, and subsequently all of Equestria was in grave danger!

---

I told Luna, Livy, Razor, Orchid and Shield about what I had heard from Mercer, and all of us stood silently in the throneroom. Luna placed the rest of my team and Livy in charge of repairing and guarding the kingdom until we returned, as they were my closest subordinates in the guard and Livy was the de facto leader of the freed gem hunters now living in the Empire, and then the both of us went out. We gathered a battalion of Guards, made of thestrals, crystal ponies, and gem hunters and as one we went forth to find Mercer, and to save Equestria.