On the surface

Chief and Miller appeared by the entrance to the cave and watched as a large piece of land collapsed in on itself, destroying the underground facility with multiple explosions following its lead. After a few moments the snow began to cover the large crater in a white blanket, making it appear to be nothing more than a sink hole to anyone that didn't know what had actually happened.

Miller sighed in relief and fell onto his rear. "Thank god that didn't reach the Crystal Empire, and that we actually got out of there alive."

"You thought we'd die?" Chief asked as she walked in front of Miller with his battle rifle in his hands.

"Nightmare Beta is one of the most powerful Nightmares out there, only exceeded by Alpha and The Nightmare King. Us beating Beta was just a fluke, we should have never been able to defeat him ourselves."

Chief raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

"I mean we're aren't even in the top ten of the strongest members of the Chaos Family."

'Chaos Family?'

"What's this family you're talking about?" Chief questioned while moving slightly to break some I've on his armour.

"The family of Displaced and void dwellers we belong to." Miller explained as he got to his feet and brushed the snow off of his coat. He looked around for a moment, trying to find where exactly they were in terms of distance from the Crystal Empire. "We should get moving before this blizzard gets any worse, we need to get into the Crystal Empire and fast before Sombra attacks, see if we can slow his advance."

"Right. Eris, mark the Empires location on my HUD." Chief instructed as he put his gun in his back and turned towards the storm.

'Alright, I think I found it, I've pinpointed Twilights magic signature behind some kind of magical barrier.'

"That should be the Empire. Come on, let's get moving."

Miller nodded and the two began to jog through the harsh snow, Chiefs heavy armour preventing him from being blown away while Miller protected himself with his tendrils.

Meanwhile

As the mane six and Shining Armour reached the castle in the centre of the Crystal Empire to find Cadence looking exhausted, a guard ran in and informed them of some strange creatures attacking the south streets of the city. With Shinings horn out of commission and Cadence focused on keeping the shield around the Empire stable, it was up to the mane six to stop the features. Twilight went to find the crystal heart with Spile while the rest of them went off to fight the creatures, save for Pinkie Pue who was tasked with keeping the civilians happy until the heart was found.

Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash rushed to the south streets to see what was going on, although Fluttershy had gone to find some kind of large animal for protection as she was defenceless on her own. Having found a yeti just on the outside if the shield she quickly tamed it and ride on its back as it ran alongside the ponies.

A few screams were heard as the ponies neared their destination.

Once there the group gasped at what they saw. Nightmare Drones were everywhere. A large group of them had some crystal ponies founded up in a small circle while others caught the ones that ran away with their claws and tendrils. One of the drones grabbed one if the trapped ponies and stabbed a tendril into its back. The mare that was in its grasp began to turn dark grey, her colour fading. Her eyes went blank before turning completely black, a glowing red dot as a pupil. He eyes then began to cry red tears as she help a dead, mindless expression, possessed by the Nightmares.

Rainbow growled and shot towards the Nightmares, kicking one of their heads off from the speed of the impact. The head and corpse of the drone vanished in a puff of purple smoke before firming an orb that fell to the ground.

The Nightmares split into two groups, one to catch and possess the crystal ponies while the other worked on eradicating the only threat nearby.

Rarity picked up a long piece of crystal in her magic. Using her talents she quickly fashioned it into a crystal rapier blade and stood ready to fight. Fluttershy hid behind the yeti that was pounding its chest, ready fir combat. Applejack bucked a Nightmare across the street and smirked while tipping her hat. Rainbow landed beside Applejack and pounded her hooves together in anticipation.

As the horde of Nightmares charged the ponies began to fight the best they could. Applejack continued to buck away the creatures while Rainbow used her speed to perform quick hit and runs. The yeti grabbed a Nightmare by the legs and used it as a club to strike the other drones with while Rarity fashioned more swords and used them to thrust at her opponents with a growl.

Eventually the drones grew tired of playing with their pray and all backed up. The ponies though they had them on the retreat until they all held up their hands and small balls of dark energy began to develop. The group braved themselves as the army of drones pointed the balls of energy at them and unleashed a wave of beams that would have surely killed them.

But, suddenly, a ring of purple fire surrounded them and shielded them from the blasts. As the group opened their eyes they saw the drones backing up as they looked up to the sky.

Looking up they saw a ball of purple fire plummeting towards the earth. They ducked out of the way as it landed in front of them with great force, causing the crystal and stone in the paths and roads to crack. As the dust settled a figure could be seen standing at the point of impact.

Symbol glared at the Nightmare horde with absolute hate for the creatures before him. His eyes met the ones of a possessed pony, causing him to growl in anger.

The Nightamares began to back away in fear, bring in the presence of their natural enemy.

"Pathetic...and here I thought you lot would be braver!" Symbol yelled as he shot forward and nailed as drone in the stomach, causing it to collide with another drone, and another, and another. The whole line behind that first Nightmare was sent flying into a large piece of black crystal.

As the drones surrounded him and shot their tendrils forward, Symbol clenched his fists causing them to become coated in purple fire. He charged up more energy before pounding both fists into the ground, causing a large wave of purple flames to spread out around him, knocking all of the surrounding Nightamres off their feet.

As he got up Symbol saw that the drones had called for backup, multiple Nightmare Brutes were joining the crowd, along with some Mimicker Nightamares, these types were far superior to their drone counterparts, as they were twice as strong, smarter and were able to copy the abilities and skill of any person that they saw.

Symbol loo,ed around before summoning more fire around his fists. "Bring it on!" He yelled in defiance of the monsters he was facing.

Author's Notes:

So, we finally get to see Symbol doing something to aid the ponies that doesn't involve cryptic messages.

If you'd actually like to see more of Symbol and learn more about him you can check out Ashes In The Wind.