Author's Notes:

This is a crossover with krahtorra’s story Shadows of Dawn, very much recommend a read.

I yawn as I get up out of my bed again. Even though I was tired, my team and I were excited for today. Not only because of the new magic I got from Lex, but because it was Winter Wrap up time. I decided to tell Twi before hand that she would be the best for organizing everything, since I really didn’t want her to get worried about not finding what she was good at. Even though I was worried about breaking the timeline a little bit, I felt that Twi didn’t need to go through all that.

“You know, you have been thinking about that a lot since the party. I wonder how much you are going to tell her.” I hear Sora state as I get ready for today. I just roll my eyes at this. She and the others have been talking and borderline teasing me and Twi about our dance since the party.

“You know that will get old really fast right?” I say to her, grabbing my sweater. I go out into the main room to find Chance reading in the living room, and Selene helping Spike with breakfast.

“Morning guys.” I say to them, getting three different greetings in response.

“Hey Spike, where is Twilight?” I ask, sitting at the kitchen table.

“Oh, she went to town hall early to talk to the mayor about how things are going to be organized. I am still surprised that none of us thought about asking Twilight organizing this.” Spike says, grabbing some pancakes for himself and I.

“I wonder how this is going to go today. I mean, ‘cleaning up winter’? That sounds ridiculous to me.” I look and see as Topaz walks out of the washroom with a towel around herself.

“Maybe for people like us Topaz, but that is how things work here in Equestria. Remember that the weather is controlled by Pegasi and that the agriculture is controlled by earth ponies.” I say to her as she puts her towel into one of the hampers. Chance looks up from his book and walks over.

“Yeah, speaking of, we still need to talk to the flower trio about growing these berries from Lex.” He says, taking a bite out of a pancake on his own plate.

“Oh yeah! Well how about when we go with Twilight to go over everything, we find them and ask if they can start growing them after the wrap up is done.” I say, taking another bite out of my syrupy goodness. All of my Pokemon nod at this idea.

After about an hour, me, Spike and Topaz grab our gear for the day and we all head out of the library to town hall to get our assignments for the day. I was really excited for this, wondering what I would be doing to help with this event. Even though we gained these new types of magic, Twi and I haven’t tried using them yet. Twilight is both excited and hesitant to use Solid Script Magic. I haven’t told her that she can use Heavenly Body magic, because it is a type of Dark Magic. Even with how much Celestia loves her like a daughter, I worry about how she would react to Twilight knowing dark magic.

I just walk alongside my friends to town hall where the town would be meeting up to get our assignments for the day. I dunno why, but I had a weird feeling something odd was going to happen, and with my track record…

After a couple minutes of silent walking, we arrive at the town hall building. Going in, we see about two thirds of the town is already here. I look around and spot the rest of the main six minus Twilight. Walking over, our group just talks to one another for another couple of minutes before Mayor Mare and Twilight walk out and onto the stage.

“Hello everypony. Thank you all for coming here so quickly. Now, I will not waste time here. Twilight has put together a schedule and had written down who gets what assignment for today, so I will pass it over to her.” She says before stepping back, allowing Twilight to step up with her clipboard.

“Alright everypony. I have organized which Pegasi will be working under Rainbow Dash today to take care of the weather for town. Applejack and Big Mac will be in charge of clearing the snow with the ponies I have written down on the sheets. Pinkie Pie will be in charge of handling cutting up the ice on the lakes and Fluttershy will be in charge of waking up the animals. Lastly, Rarity will be in charge of setting up the nests for the returning birds alongside Sparkler.”

Twilight lights up her horn and summons some sheets of paper before attaching them to the tables where each of the teams vests are located. All of the ponies begin to look at the lists, finding their names and grabbing their vests for the day. After a couple minutes I get to the tables and look around the lists, only to get confused as I don’t see my name or that of my teams anywhere on any of the lists.

“Um, Twilight?” I call to her. Twilight appears next to me in a second, but not through pony teleportation.

“Yes Nat?” I look to her with a raised brow before shaking my head.

“Hey, where is my name? I can’t seem to find it.” She looks over my shoulder before gaining a slightly mischievous smirk. She lights up her horn again and summons a purple vest.

“That is because you aren’t on any of those lists. Spike is working with the CMC today at the lake, so today, you and your team will be working as my assistants.” She says, handing me the vest and summoning three more for Topaz, Selene and Chance. I look to my vest for a second before smiling and putting it on over my jacket. Topaz puts hers on as well before helping Chance and Selene with theirs.

“Well then, let’s get to work.” I say with a smile, my teammates standing next to me with their own smiles. After that the five/six of us head out to Sweet Apple Acres first to check in with AJ and Big Mac about the snow clearing. As we are walking through the entrance I get a really bad feeling and stop. The others look to me with confusion, then worry as Sora appear next to me.

“What is it? Something wrong?” Selene asks, looking around. I go to answer, before I something hits me hard in the head.

“Nyu!” I fall face first in the snow.

“Nat!” Twilight quickly rushes over to me, checking my head. Thank Celestia and Luna Diclonius have some serious durability, cause that would be a concussion to a human or pony.

“Urg, what hit me?” I ask, lifting myself off the ground. I look to the side and see Sora looking at something on the ground before going over to pick it up. I see it is some kind of a hammer or a club? It looks pretty dangerous as well. Maybe another token?

“What the heck is this thing?” She asks before grabbing it with our Vectors and we get a headache, signifying the creed from a token.

“Thou speaketh to the lord of Dawn, lord and friend to the Olog and Uruk people! If thy wish is power, than thou hast found thy aim! If thou desire is domination of mine allies? Then may the gods have mercy on thy soul! Hold my Hammer aloft and strike it upon stone with intent twice, and thy call shalt be heard!”

“Holy crap that was one heck of a creed.” Sora says as she keeps a hold of the token. I raise a brow at it, and barely notice as some ponies are going by with some shovels for the snow. I think I saw Fluttershy as well. I take control of our Vectors and get a proper hand on the token. I think for a minute before turning to Twilight.

“Hey Twi, do you mind if I summon this guy? I think maybe we could use a hand if something happens.” I ask. Twilight looks at the object in my hand before nodding and stepping a few feet away, some of the ponies nearby stopping after hearing me.

I lift the hammer above my head and strike it against the ground twice, two loud clunks going out.

A large portal then opened up as, what looked like, a male demon walked through the portal, he looked around before nodding and whistling, a large behemoth of a creature covered in red crystal spikes and having massive horns made of the same stuff walking out shortly after. The demon smiled and was about to speak before the first pony screamed.

“What the buck is that!?!??!” The pony screamed in fear.

“Holy buck!” I scream as I jump back with my team, along with Twilight who teleported back.

The large creature, seeming to sense hostility, hunkered down around the demon protectively as it made a soft snuffling sound.

“What the bucking buck?!” Sora yells as well. I make sure to keep everypony back as I rise into the air with my new magic. Time to test this out!

“Ok maybe this was a bad idea. Looking like I will have to fix it! Go, Storm Mail!” I yell, using my new magic and wrapping myself in a barrier of powerful wind.

There was a red mist seeping out of the Creatures arms, which then solidified into the Demon. He frowned somewhat tersely. “Hey! Snuffles didn’t hurt anyone!”

I look to the new duo and have a weird feeling he was not really a threat, but I can tell the ponies don’t believe it. I keep my Storm Mail on but I hover down to the ground, a glare present on my face.

“So, you’re not here to fight?” I ask with trepidation.

The demon shook his head “Nah, I made my hammer only go to the realms of friendlies. Although I might need to fine tune its targeting more...Anyway, The names Simon, and I’m pretty much only interested in making allies at the moment, some big stuff is starting in my realm… Big baddies working some stuff behind the scenes.”

I look him in the eye, using my Vectors to keep a magic eye on the area, not finding anything wrong. I nod and go to dispel my magic before someone yells out.

“What the buck is happening here?!?” I look up to see Rainbow and her team flying by, struggling in my wind. She spots Simon and ‘Snuffles’ and immediately goes to attack.

“Rainbow wait!” I try to warn.

Simon leapt in the way to stop Rainbow, becoming a swarm of red stuff I did not recognize that literally built a wall instantly between Snuffles and Rainbow Dash before Simon materialized in front of it, arms spread wide “Go on! Attack me! Be a bully! Just cause I look different I must be bad, yeah? Real tolerant there!”

Rainbow doesn’t seem to care as she goes to hit Simon in the face, but I can’t allow that. I dispel my armor from around myself and wrap it around Rainbow, the pegasus falling to the ground as I focus the wind downwards.

“Hey! What the buck Nat?!” She yells over my wind.

“You need to stop Rainbow. Remember when I summoned Loki? He was nice and he was literally a draconequus with a pet Wendigo.” I tell her, releasing my wind, but keeping her wings pinned with my Vectors. She gets up and glares at me, then Simon and his pet.

I go to talk again before I hear what almost sounds like a snuffling laugh. Looking to the new behemoth, I go wide eyed as I see Selene jumping on his head and Fluttershy standing right in front of it, seeming completely calm.

“Fluttershy? What are you doing?”

Right as Sora said that, the creature placed a hand on the ground, making a miniature red crystal statue of itself and the ponies form, them all having fun, Snuffles then tilted its head as if asking a question.

I raise a brow and walk up to it, before getting an idea. I tap my wrist with two of my fingers, a pink aura covering it, before the aura sends out a beam and connects with the creatures own wrist. It stings for a second, the creature whining like a puppy, before it turns into a bracelet made of energy with a heart in a circle at the forefront.

I focus on the Sensory Link and feel it. This creatures playful nature, it’s desire to help, it’s protective instinct. It’s kind of like me and Sora in that last department. The creature then looked at the bracelet curiously ‘why have arm collar? Is so ponies be nice?”

I go wide eyed as I hear that. I look to Sora to see her equally shocked face before smiling back at the behemoth in front of us.

“Sort of. The bracelet let’s me feel what you do, your sensations, your emotions, and apparently your thoughts.” I explain to him. I look around and see that many of the ponies still look scared, while a few just look curious.

‘Can magic pony persons translate spell Snuffles? Want talk to ponies… only sound like name though’

I nod and turn to Twilight. “Hey Twi, can you cast a translation spell on Snuffles here?” I ask. Twilight looks to me like I grew a second head for a second before looking to my pokemon that were around him and nodding. She walks up to Snuffles and motions for the behemoth to crouch down. He does so after gently helping the pokemon playing on him off, and Twi focuses on the spell. After a couple seconds, the stream of the spell appears, connecting to the behemoth.

We wait with slightly baited breath for a couple seconds before the stream evaporates and Twilight nods with a smile.

“Done.” She says, stepping back from the big lug. I smile and nod to him to start.

Snuffles rubs his snout “Magic smell funny.” He then looks to my team “Little ones nice, though. Nicer than animals at home… not like having to fight other Graugs...but they usually mean to people, and try to nom. Not like Snuffles, snuffles nom rocks!”

“So you are like a Goron?” I ask with a raised brow before Simon steps next to me.

Simon then smiles “Big guy is basically a walking siege engine, he loves to help around Comraich, but he also gets really protective of the children, you should of seen the time a bugbear attacked, poor thing probably forgot what day it was.”

I laugh at that and remember our own fight with a bugbear all those months ago. “It seems we both have had to deal with those creatures, though my team were more strategic about how we beat it.” I say with a smirk before something comes to mind.

“Wow, I just realized we never actually introduced ourselves.” I say with a sheepish grin. My team all run up to stand beside me as Sora floats next to me in a sitting position.

“Hi Simon, my name is Natali Basatin, this is my sister Sorano, and my partners, Selene, Topaz and Chance.” I introduce us all. He smiles before looking at Sora with a raised brow.

“How are you doing that?” He asks.

“Astral form. Only one of us can be in control of our body at a time.” Sora explains.

Simon nods slowly “Okay, heads up, my body automatically consumes and assimilates any magic that touches it, so… don’t touch me, I don’t want another death on my conscience, especially someone nice like you.”

I can barely see as Sora blushes behind her hair at that comment. Not many say things like that to Sora so she can dish out the compliments, but she can’t really take them. Though, his absorption ability got my attention. I raise a brow before snapping my fingers and summoning one of my swords.

Simon sighed in an amused fashion “Let me guess, you either want a spar, or you want me to try absorbing your summoned sword? For a brawl, I recommend coming over to my towns fighting pits, enchanted to make death impossible.”

“Maybe I’ll take you up on the latter later. I just want to see if you can get Maguilty Sense.” I say, hovering the sword over to him, hilt first.

Simon shrugs “No idea what that is, but lets see.” He grabbed the sword and his hand seemed to blur as the sword started to sink into him. Eventually, the tip of the blade sunk into his palm. “Huh…. Maybe I could summon Valkyrie protocol javelins now…” He leapt up and summoned what looked like a huge flaming spear made of red crystal, which he smirked at before he dismissed it and flew back down. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” I say with a smile before summoning a sword again.

“Anyways, just so you know about the magic you just gained. Maguilty sense lets you summon weapons that actually stimulate a targets pain receptors when they strike, even if they are normally immune to physical attacks. You can also do what I did earlier and use Sensory Link to connect with someone, sharing their emotions and sensation, including pain.” I explain.

Simon smiled “Well, thanks for the gift, you and your sister seem real nice. Let me think a bit on what to do to even the score…” He looked me over for a few seconds “You are a Diclonius, so… maybe something to give your vectors some oomph?”

I raise a brow and look to him with skepticism. “If you can manage that, then by all means, I’m game.”

He nods and holds his hands together as if they were holding an orb the size of a bowling ball, the same red mist forming what looked like an arm band made from red crystal and gray metal. He looked it over and began etching runes into it without even touching it, before long there was a flash, and the armband, once looking plain and clunky, now resembled a piece of art, the red crystal and gray metal flowing together to make a beautiful flower shape. “There ya go, an armband designed by yours truly, just think of an element, fire, water, ice, etcetera, and will your vectors to take on that element, then baboosky, ya got elemental vectors.”

I go wide eyed as he hands it to me. I look it over in my hands before attaching it to my right wrist. I can just feel the magic power in it. I think about how to test it before thinking of the element of fire and summoning a Vector. Instantly the vector gets covered in flames, becoming visible and I wave it over the snow, the result being some slushy water.

I smile at this and turn to Simon. “Thank you Simon. This is great.”

He shrugs “Hey, you remind me of a friend before I became all I am now. I actually wanted to ask her out, but hey, life sucks sometimes. Besides, I’m unsure if the Chryssi back home would be stoked to share so soon.”

My eyes go wide again and I speak quietly, thankful that Twilight and the others are distracted by Snuffles. “You know Chrysalis?!”

He frowned “Back in my dimension, the morality is switched. Sombra, Discord, Tirek and Chryssi were good people forced to be prosecuted by a tyrant that banished her sister for trying to reason with her. Chrysalis back in my world is the way she was because of a godly curse made by Celestia’s father, Solaris. Sort of a beauty and the beast thing, with the addendum that she has to like herself again too.”

At this point I feel like my eyes are literally going to fall out of my sockets, so Sora takes control of our body so the others don’t get suspicious.

“Alright, but can you not bring them up while you are here. We just got finished with Hearths Warming and we are trying to keep the future as much as a secret as possible.” Sora stresses.

He thought a moment, before sighing. “Okay, but if the changelings are acting out of desperation for food in this dimension… please call me? My world has a crop that is not only a viable love substitute, but plentiful as well… I know better than most, hunger is a painful thing to suffer through. And so is losing those you love.”

Sora looks to him with a blank expression before nodding our head and letting me take over again. “We promise.”

Simon smiles “Cool, so, anyone else I should not mention? Timelines differ between dimensions.”

I think for a moment, remembering how the princesses know about Lex’s Sombra and nodding.

“At the very least, don’t talk about Sombra or Tirek. Those two I am not a hundred percent on since we met a Sombra from another dimension already. Also, no Alicorn Twilight.” I say.

He nodded, then paused as he saw how I mentioned Twilight, before smiling knowingly. “Ah, I see.”

I raise a brow at him. “See what?”

He looked to me like I was an idiot before looking at my sister, who looked the same. “Seriously?”

“What?” I ask again.

He shrugged “Oh, just contemplating if I should try hooking up this worlds Twilight with a main squeeze.”

I honestly don’t know what came over me, but the next thing I know, I have Simon completely surrounded by my Vectors, each of the twelve being a different element. “Don’t even think about it.”

He smiled knowingly. “Think about how you are feeling right now. How you are feeling at the thought of Twilight dating someone else. Now, Imagine if, say, it was you, instead.”

I look to him with a blank expression before looking at my Vectors, barely noticing the others staring at me.

“It won’t happen.” I say with mild annoyance, retracting my Vectors

He smiled even warmer “I would not say so, perks of my love life, I’ve gotten the ability to sense the flow of love. You and Twilight, well, let’s say the flow is two way.”

I look to him for a minute before sighing and looking to the ground. “That is why it won’t happen. I know Twi doesn’t swing that way. Honestly I am not sure if I do.”

He took a deep breath “Okay, I tried being subtle, now for blunt. She likes you, romantically, she is not sure of her feelings, but neither are you. And not trying will only lead to bitter regret and, potentially, dying sad and alone.”

I remain quiet, just thinking, before I do something I have never actually done before. I forced Sora in control and locked myself within my mind.

“What the?! Hey Nat! Get out here!” She yells, I don’t respond. Twilight sees Sora in control and gets worried.

“Sora? Is everything alright?” She asks, walking over. Sora looks to Twilight before sighing and shrugging.

“Maybe. Nat is just being stupid about something right now.” She says in an attempted relaxed tone. Twi raises a brow before looking to Simon.

“What happened?” She asks.

Simon sighs “Well, I may have noted that I picked up on your latent emotions for each other.”

Twilight raises a brow before remembering all the comments Rainbow and Lex were throwing out at the party and blushing.

“YOU DID WHAT?!” She yells.

He shrugged “Hey, better that she comes to terms with her sexuality than hides it, as a doctor, I’ve seen the psychological trauma that can deal firsthand.”

Twilight continues to blush before looking to Sora, trying to see me, but can’t. She sighs to herself before glaring at Simon.

“I swear if this ends up hurting her, I will make Lucy look like a pacifist in comparison.” She says, poking his chest.

Simon smirked “So, you do care, step up to plate, and tell her. I have seen just how quickly a life can go kaput, my own sister was almost killed, and the man who loved her, a man I call brother now, saved her life. He literally ripped out part of his druidic plant heart to save her. I have seen love do some crazy shit. So… do you want to deny that to both yourself and someone who cares deeply about you, deeply enough to hide like this in fear of you rejecting them, and probably deeply enough to question their entire sexuality, judging from the way she’s acting. Besides, you’d be pretty hard pushed to go past what I have seen my own people go through. ”

Twilight just looks to him with wide eyes, trying and failing to come up with a response, before groaning and looking to Sora.

“Sora, can you get her out here?” She asks, earning a shrug.

“Maybe, eventually. Natali has always had better control over her mind than I have.” She says before closing her eyes and entering our mindscape.

Sora looks around for the void where our minds resided before spotting me sitting on the ‘ground’, my imaginary headphones on and she can hear my music.

“What the hell are you doing Nat?” She asks, getting no response. “I know you can hear me sis, it is literally impossible not to when we are both in here.”

I just look down at the mental floor. Sora sighs and tires to force herself into ‘my side’ representing my mind. She immediately gets pushed back.

“Nat you can’t just keep me out. I will get through and then you and Twi are going to have a little heart to heart.” Sora says, trying to force her way in again.

“Why would she like me?” I ask quietly, Sora stopping to look at me.

“I am nobody. Just a random girl that ended up being tricked by a dimensional merchant. Why would the princesses protege, the element of magic, like me.” I couldn’t see it, but the more I talked, the darker my area became.

Sora looked at my darkening mind with fear and worry.

“NAT! Snap out of it! Something is wrong!” I can’t hear her. I hear nothing.

Sora suddenly opens our eyes with a panicked expression, one Twilight instantly gets worried about.

“Sora?”

“Something’s wrong! Something is happening to Nat! I can’t get into her mind and it is getting darker by the second!” She yells in panic.

Simon let his hands start glowing with light white-blue fire, before using the newly acquired sensory link with it to turn his body into a bridge into a link between my mind and Twilights. “Hurry please, really hurts!”

Sora nods and uses three pronged Sensory Link, connecting all of them together. All their vision goes black before they appear in Sora’s mindscape.

“W-where are we?” Twilight asks, getting to her hooves.

“We’re in my mindscape, basically the area in the mind that we can interact with. C’mon, Nat is this way!” She says before rushing into the void, Twilight and Simon directly behind her, Simon a little slower as he was slightly limping.

They run for who knows how long before they see a veritable wall of shadow. Looking into it, they can barely see me as I am in the same spot as before, darkness all around me, but I don’t really care.

“NATALI!” Sora calls out, before running into the wall of shadow. “What even is this?!”

Twilight walks up and bangs on the wall herself. “Come on, let us through!” She says, before stepping back and trying her own magic.

“Solid Script: Light!” The word appears and gives off a blinding flash...that only pushes the shadows back a couple feet.

Simon frowns “Twilight, could this be a kind of magic? Please by the gods say yes.”

Twilight looks at the shadows closely, before lighting up her horn and trying a magic scan. She flinches back and holds the area behind her horn.

“It is definitely magic in nature, but I don’t actually know what it is.” She says. Before they can respond, they hear something.

Whispers. The words telling me I am not good enough, not enough for her. I need to fight, to infect, to spread. Sora’s eyes widen as she hears the voice.

“The DNA Voice! It must have gained this new power from all the magic we gained since we arrived here in Equestria!”

Simon growled beastially “I don’t care if it’s the voice of the multiverse fucking incarnate! It’s the reason she feels so shitty, so I’m sucking that magic crap out!” He walked to the wall and slammed his palms on the barrier, grunting and growling in pain as he began absorbing the shadows little by little. “Hey! Keep on the light, and try making her feel better, do anything to oppose this DNA bitch!”

The duo nods and Sora summons a dozen Vectors making them all shine with light, the shadow pushing back as she launches them forwards.

“Sora! Make a path!” Twilight yells. Sora nods and focuses her Vectors into making a path to me as I continue to just sit there, some of the shadows climbing my arms and legs. Twilight casts another light spell, making a clear path before running in.

“Be careful Twilight!” Sora yells, Simon still absorbing and not being able to comment, his eyes and nose bleeding as he fought the urge to vomit. Twilight runs through the path, stopping right in front of me as the shadows continue to try and take me. She says nothing for a while.

“Why?” I look up to Twilight, my eyes dulled, barely seeing her. “Why do you think so little of yourself?”

I look down to the ground, my hands having turned black.

“You have so much in your future. One of the saviours of an empire. One who would defeat impossible evil after impossible evil. I can’t do anything like that.” I say mostly to myself. Twilight shakes her head and holds one of my hands.

“I know what you’re talking about.” I look to her with wide eyes, seeing her grin. “We both have a bad habit of saying our thoughts out loud.” I look down again.

“Alicorn Twilight huh? Talk about a lot.” She says, taking my hand in both of hers. “But, who is to say it will happen?” I look to her, confusion evident on my face as a shadow crawls up my back.

“But, you know. There is an old saying I heard a while back that really blows all this fear out of the water.” She looks me in the eyes and places a hand on my cheek. “The future isn’t set in stone.”

I can feel my eyes widen again as the shadows seem to try harder to cover me, somehow being pushed back by Twilight’s mere presence.

Twilight...the mare I like.

Simon roared in pain as he began to walk slowly towards us through the dark, ignoring it cutting and biting at him. “We… we gotta go! Something’s up, too much dark magic in me!

Twilight looks to Simon in worry before turning to me again, the shadow crawling up to my eye. She gained a determined expression and grabbed both my hand and threw my arms around her, making me hug her and she hugs me.

“You say that you are not good enough, that I can’t like you, but you are wrong. No matter what happened, ever since we met you have been there. You helped me get the girls back together when Discord inverted them. You helped me with my studies into Pokemon and Diclonius, you stopped me from causing problems and making me realize I was being stupid over nothing, you helped me save Rainbow after that rockslide.” She pulls back and looks me in the eyes, her own eyes full of tears.

“And it isn’t just me. You saved Derpy on Nightmare Night, you made Applejack and Rarity rethink about how they think about Blueblood, you made Sombra and Lex laugh and have fun during the party, and you gave Adam the courage to ask Penny to dance! You have helped so many people, and I say any of us would be damn lucky to have you!” She says before blushing and laying her forehead against mine.

“You helped all of us and that is why...I love you so much.” She says. I can feel the breath being caught in my throat. The darkness stops and begins to shake, seeming afraid. I reach forward and hold Twilight’s face in my hand, the darkness gone from it.

She looks to me again as tears fall from my eyes as well. “I love you too.” I say quietly, bringing her in for another hug. The darkness around seems to be in pain by this, beginning to evaporate like a Grimm or something. But I don’t care. All that matters right now, is the purple mare in my arms.

Simon grunts tersely as he struggles to his feet. “I can’t hold it... any longer…” he then releases us from the mental link.

I look around while holding my head, feeling like I just tried to solves a dozen algebra equations at once with only my mind.

“Urg, what happened?” I say, before everything came back to me. I growl as I remember what that damn voice just did to me. I can feel as Sora is tired from the mental fight against it, and can tell that it is still there, just severely weakened. I look to Simon and Twilight, the duo looking tired. I sit cross legged with a determined expression.

“Be right back.” I close my eyes and enter my mind, seeing what used to be the overpowering darkness, seeming to cower in the corner, now in the shape of something I easily recognize. The DNA voice, in the shape of a Diclonius with bandages all around it’s head. I frown and raise my hand above my head.

“Please, stop. You need me...I am your purpose.” It says weakly. I just look to it with the same glare Lucy would.

“That is where you are wrong, parasite. You are nothing, and that is where you shall return to! Maguilty Rays!” Several yellow swords appear around me before being launched at the voice, who tries to dodge, only for two of them to impale its legs. It screams in pain, but I don’t care. I look to it like it is nothing more that an insect, which it was to me.

“No...I can’t...be destroyed.” It says, trying to crawl to Sora’s side. I walk forward and stand before it. I summon a single Vector and sword, and focus on light and my feeling for Twi and the girls. My Vector shines bright before the light is seemingly absorbed by my sword. The Voice looks to me with something it never thought it could experience. Fear.

“Begone. Maguilty Shine!” I slash down at the voice, cutting it from the top of the head to the bottom of it’s waist, the slash shining bright as it screams in pain. It becomes a blinding light, but as it dies down, all that remains, is a single scrap of a bandage. I smile as it is gone, and place a hand on my heart.

“Simon, Twilight, Sora. Thank you.” With that I open my eyes and regain control of my body as I sense Sora falling asleep.

Simon grunted once before collapsing into the snow as I looked to him, his body oozing with a black liquid.

“Simon!” Twi and I rush to him, Snuffles coming over at sensing something is wrong with him.

“Jesus Christ, how much dark magic did you absorb?! And how was all that in me?!?” I shout in panic, seeing all the darkness oozing out of him.

Simon mumbled “Worth it… helped a friend…” me and Twi look to him with frowns, a couple of the ponies nearby seeing Simon’s state and going to get help.

“You are an idiot, through and through.” I say before smiling at him. “And Chrysalis is lucky to have you.” I say the last part quietly so only he could hear.

Simon chuckled weakly before trying to force himself up “Can’t go to the hospital, need… need metal… gotta heal.”

I think for a second before nodding. “Would iron work?”

He nods “Any metal, rock even if no other choice… Just need to make more SIVA.”

I nod and look to Twilight. “Solid Script him some iron.” I say and she nods. Twilight quickly casts the spell a couple times, four words made of iron appearing before landing next to him.

Simon quickly became a pure mist and began absorbing, no, eating the iron. When the iron was all gone, he reformed into his demon form, and forced the darkness into a bow shape, then bound it into that shape with the extra SIVA by making it a crystal construct. “That… that felt terrible.”

Snuffles then smacked Simon into a tree, him returning shortly after with a questioning glance to Snuffles. “No scare again! Worry about poppa!”

“Yeah you deserved that one.” Twilight comments. The three of us are silent for a bit before we all burst into laughter.

“Simon, I can’t thank you enough for helping me. I doubt I could have made out on my own. I guess I owe you one now, so…” I grab my AR from my purse and toss it to the demon, another appearing on my head. “If you ever need anything, don’t even hesitate for a second.”

He smiled “I won’t, oh, and you can write me messages with the bottom of the hammer, it acts like a pen. So feel free to message me if you want to visit Comraich, I’ll make sure to keep Grimgor outta the kitchen. Man can tinker the best magical tech anywhere, but his cooking is worse than a mouthful of sewage.”

I smile at him and nod. “Good, just to let you know, the AR also doubles as, well, its namesake. It lets you view someone’s soul so you can see if they are corrupted or are being controlled.”

He nods “Well, I had best get going, unless you think there’ll be trouble that you need a hand with?”

I look to him then to Twilight and smile. “No, I think we can handle things from here. Our business is finished.” After I say this, another portal like the one he arrived in opened up.

Simon grins as Snuffles steps through, waving goodbye as he says one last smartass comment “I better get an invite to the wedding!”

Both me and Twilight erupt into large blushes. “Shut up jackass!” We yell together. He just laughs and leaves through the portal. Twilight and I sigh and I look around, finding ourselves alone. I raise a brow and look up, seeing that the sun was actually starting to set.

“Jeez, how long were we in my head?” I question. I look to Twilight who looks just as surprised as me, before we lock eyes and everything we said in my head comes back. We both blush and stay quiet for a second.

“So...was everything you said...true?” I ask, rubbing my arm. Twilight shyly nods, walking next to me. I just look to her and begin to chuckle before laughing out loud, confusing Twilight.

“W-what’s funny?” She asks.

“I-its nothing Twi. Just, why is it that it is always a life threatening event that makes two people realize their feelings for one another? Is it some kind of cosmic necessity?!” I say before laughing harder, Twilight thinking for a second before joining in, the two of us falling down next to a tree. I takes a little while before we both calm down from our laughter, and we just sit there, watching the sun lower.

“So, what do we do now?” Twilight asks, laying next to me. I look down at her and move my hand over hers.

“I’m not sure, but I know I don’t mind trying this out now. I am all sorts of shocked and confused, but I am known for being an analyst. I look at everything from almost every angle, and now that I can think clearly without that damn voice in my head, I can see this all too clearly.” I say with a smile. She smiles back with a blush, wrapping her hand around mine.

We just look at one another, her violet eyes reflecting in my rose and move a little closer. I remember everything we have been through since I arrived here in Equestria, all the little adventures I have been on, and the friends I have made. And Twilight has been there every step of the way. We let ourselves drift closer, everything we have been through together over the months playing in our minds, and we let ourselves do what we both want.

My very first kiss, taken by a mare.