After getting back from saving the cursed island, Crystal discovered that Erza and Lucy were off on their own adventure, apparently recovering a dangerous flute and rendering it useless in the process. After debriefing and getting debriefed, Crystal stayed in Ponyville for a few days to recover. She took a few odd end jobs, helping out Ponyville and others in a matter of life and death situations such as managing to reform Discord, and helping Spike out with handling a few pets from Twilight and her friends. Now? Now Crystal is trying to figure out why she’s needed in the Crystal Empire.

“So, why does the Crystal Empire need to be the next city to hold these special games?” Crystal asked, placing a hand on her hip. She, Twilight, and Pinkie were in Twilight’s library. Twilight and Pinkie were sitting on a couch and Twilight had just finished talking about some kind of games that the Crystal Empire needs to host.

“To get it back on the map,” Twilight was patient enough with Crystal to at least explain it all properly. “It’s out in the middle of the snow, and it takes two full days by train to get to there from here.”

“Why can’t Spike do it?” Crystal asked curiously and even looked around for the young drake.

“Because he’s helping Rarity out with shopping for the moment. Pinkie and I are going to do some asking around and basically try to figure what to do to help out Shiney and Cadence,” Twilight answered with a smile.

“And you want me why?” Crystal asked with a raised brow.

“To keep us warm on the ride over!” Pinkie cheered. Crystal face palmed.

“You know that Twilight can perform heat spells, right?” Crystal asked through her hand.

“The more the merrier?” Pinkie guessed with an increasingly lopsided smile. It looked like her mouth was going to fall if she kept it up.

“That, I can take,” Crystal grumbled. “In that case, Gray could come along.”

“Gray?” Twilight asked confusedly, leaning forward a bit. “Why?”

Crystal smiled and laughed a tiny bit. “Because the Crystal Empire is covered in snow and an ice mage would actually be useful for a change.” She breathed slowly before feeling bile rise in the back of her throat. “Urp - where’s the bathroom?”

“Upstairs, first door on the left,” Twilight said and Crystal wasted no time in rushing up there. Twilight stood and walked over to one of the shelves, looking for a particular book. When she found it, she brought it out but before being able to walk back to Pinkie, there was a knock at the door. She called out, “who is it?”

“It’s Gray,” Gray called back. Before Twilight could take a step, Pinkie bounced off the couch and over to the door. She opened it up and grinned at the ice mage.

“Speak of the devil slayer!” Pinkie cheered and waved Gray inside. His look was one of confusion and felt a bit disturbed at Pinkie’s nickname for him.

“A devil slayer, I am not. I don’t even know what that is,” Gray replied. He stood to the side of the door, Pinkie closed it, and he leaned against the bookshelf while putting his hands in his pockets. “Anyway,” he added when Pinkie wasn’t offering an explanation. “Where’s Crystal?”

“Bathroom,” Twilight said with a wave of her hand, having resumed her position on the couch, legs tucked under her, and nose in the book she had chosen.

“Of course,” Gray pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What do you want with her?” Twilight wondered.

“Oh, Gajeel wanted to try and teach her something. I said it was impossible, but he seemed pretty insistent,” Gray answered. Twilight looked at Gray before looking at the bathroom where Crystal had run off to. They talked for a few more minutes, biding their time until Crystal came back. It was roughly half an hour before she came back downstairs. Her hair was a mess and after a sneeze that spouted a gout of flame, moaned weakly and fell onto the spare couch.

Twilight quickly got the first aid from the bathroom. When she got back to Crystal, Twilight took her temperature with a thermometer and frowned at it.

“I can’t tell what her usual temperature is,” Twilight announced, showing the others that the digital reader read well over a hundred degress celsius.

“It used to be thirty-six, but last I checked it was roughly one hundred and twenty,” Crystal replied, sitting up and holding a hand to her forehead. “Sweat? Is anyone else hot?”

“It’s a hot flash,” Pinkie giggled. “Females who are pregnant sometimes get them,” she explained at Gray’s confusion. Crystal slowly stood and grabbed Gray’s hand before placing it against her forehead. Gray looked at her and slowly blinked, unsure of what she was doing.

“Ice me. Now, Fullbuster,” Crystal answered his questioning expression.

“Yeah, no. If I do that, you’ll most definitely die,” Gray replied, taking his hand away. “Gajeel wanted to see you about something but …” he looked at Twilight as she tilted her head.

“Gajeel can come too. If it’s what I’m thinking it is, then Crystal should have no problem with what he needs to do,” Twilight told the group and promptly left them to it. They looked bewildered and stared at each other for a few seconds before quickly following her. Gray got Gajeel to join them and they were on their way to the Crystal Empire.

The train was more rickety this time around but that could just be due to there being more snow falling on the tracks than usual this time of year. Nonetheless, the train blasted its way to the Crystal Empire, slowing to a stop as usual when it reached the station. The group of Twilight, Crystal, Pinkie, Gajeel, and Gray disembarked and went their separate ways, with Twilight and Pinkie heading to the castle while Crystal, Gray, and Gajeel, headed to the snow.

Crystal kept her hands alight, keeping herself and her fellow dragon slayer warm as they trudged away from the city. However, they didn’t know that fourth person was following the group, keeping his eye on the fire dragon slayer.

“I wonder what’s going on here,” the man spoke to himself, uncaring about the weather and what it was doing to his half-naked body. He brushed his black bangs out of his face and sat in the snow when the trio stopped.

“Here’s good,” Gray announced with a devilish grin. Crystal didn’t like that look and neither did Gajeel for that matter.

“Gray, what are you planning?” Crystal poked a fiery finger at him, raising a pink brow.

“I’m going to see if you can learn a bit of Ice Make,” Gray replied, keeping that grin on his face even as he took off his shirt.

“I’m going to check on the ponies,” Gajeel grumbled and trudged back to the city.

“What!? You’re leaving me!? With this ice freak!?” Crystal shouted indignantly, tossing a fireball at Gray as she gestured wildly back at him.

“Good luck!” Gajeel laughed. Crystal growled and turned back to Gray. He had covered himself in snow at the sudden fireball and didn’t look pleased.

“That was uncalled for,” Gray was monotonous in his manner and shook himself off.

“Derrick seems to have gotten himself into some trouble,” the man chuckled, making a wide berth of Gajeel to make sure not to be seen despite his black robes making him a sore spot on the landscape. “This should be interesting.”

Sometime later after a bit of a spat, both mages had calmed down enough to where Gray explained how being an ice mage works.

“So you want me to get naked?” Crystal deadpanned.

“Wha- no!” Gray shook his head. “Just down to your underwear. It’s how I trained.”

“Yeah, no. Not happening,” Crystal shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked back at the city, then at Gray. “Why don’t we try later. After Twilight and Pinkie have figured out what they’re doing. Huh?”

“Okay, fine,” Gray sighed heavily and went back with Crystal.

Author's Notes:

This is the first part of a two part chapter. I did it like this to try and figure out where to go from here in terms of story other than a whole bunch of crossovers whittling me down.