The Line Between Fire and Light

by Stolenalicorn

13 Northern Exposure

Just over a couple weeks later a snow flake invitation came to New Guardia for James and Lucca from the Princesses mailbox. James watched as it unfolded into the invitation to the crystaling for the child of Shining Armor and Cadence. James had to wonder just why he was invited to this beyond it being an event he even invited Celestia and Luna to.

With a shrug he went and got Lucca so they could prepare for the occasion. They took the Epoch to travel a week prior so they could see just what they could bring for Flurry Heart. As much as something personal would be great they figured something designed with ponies in mind would be a better fit. It took a while but eventually they found something that worked.

Lucca smiled as she held up the pony shaped rag doll they had been told was called Smarty Pants, fondly remembering when Sara and Amber were babies themselves. James laughed as he reminded her of how difficult it was to care for them especially given their unusual strength.

After they purchased their gift, they traveled to Ponyville so they could take the train with Twilight and the rest. The morning the invitation arrived they found themselves in Twilight's throne room discussing the oncoming trip with the girls as Spike came in.

“Who made that vase? It's really great work.” James asked as Spike finished explaining.

“Oh, I don't know, it was sent to us to explain the crystaling. Obviously somepony in the Crystal Empire.” Spike explained.

“…Good point.” Jim said uncomfortably.

James nodded as he examined the drawings while Starlight asked about the Crystal Heart. The conversation began to drift away from the Crystaling as they realized they knew nothing more about it and James stopped paying attention to the vase as Stralight left the room. Lucca nodded to him and gestured to the door.

James wasn't far behind Starlight as he overheard Twilight talking to Starlight about reuniting her with her first friend. He saw her expression change as she looked away from Twilight to not show her stress at the option. He calmly walked in and watched as Twilight comforted her student. After Twilight pranced off he walked up to her and nudged her.

“If there's anything you feel like you need to talk about, let me know. Okay? Doesn't matter what it is, I'll listen.” He calmly said. “I don't even care when.”

Starlight looked to him as her painted on smile wore away a bit. “Yeah.” She nervously said. Without another word she turned and left.

Starlight opened random doors as she tried to find the throne room, she would figure out this castle eventually. As she searched she found one door with a clock on it set to the wrong time. With a shrug she fixed the time and looked in the door. Beyond was a room that didn't look like it was built for this castle. Using an entirely different stone and the door on the other side of the small room didn't match any she'd seen in the castle so far. Clearly it wasn't the room she was looking for so she moved on to the next, finding Spike posing in the mirror.

The train ride went smoothly as James and Lucca watched the girls compare presents. Neither he nor his wife really going in for the competition. As they approached the train station James began to laugh as he saw Shining Armor in the distance, sleeping while standing up.

“What's so funny?” Pinkie Pie happily asked as she bounced nearly out of the train, eager to find out anything funny.

“That's the look of a new father.” James said nodding towards the sleeping stallion. “I've seen it once or twice.” He smiled as they approached.

“You've been that.” Lucca said as she matched his smile.

“It'll be a while before I'm crazy enough to consider another one.” He said as the train came to a stop.

James could barely restrain himself as he listened to Shining Armor ramble on. “Was I that out of it?” James quietly asked Lucca, unable to stop smiling.

“I don't think you were even that coherent.” Lucca answered. “Though the first few days I wasn't around to hear you.”

“He did sum it up pretty well I'd say.” James commented as he watched the scene.

As Starlight walked off with Spike, Twilight turned to find her brother once again asleep on his feet.

“Think that this might be why Lucca and I were invited? So there's a couple experienced parents to help out?” James joked as he looked to Twilight.

“If so, that might not have been a bad idea.” Twilight awkwardly said.

James nodded to Celestia and Luna as he entered the nursery. And didn't react at all when Flurry Heart got out of her bundling to show she was an alicorn.

Lucca leaned up against James, remembering how cute their own daughters were when they were infants. James watched the baby as the group discussed her wings. It wasn't until Luna spoke that James looked up.

“Unless there's records to contradict me, I believe Cadence here is also the first Alicorn to give birth. It's entirely possible that this is normal, or a one in four shot if genetics are a factor.” Jim said as he approached the foal.

Celestia looked at James as he tickled Flurry Heart's cheek and smiled. “Be that is it may, we still know nothing about what this could mean.” She said, not actually able to refute his observation.

“Wow, a pegasus and a unicorn.” Pinkie said excitedly. “So she could be a super strong flier and have crazy baby magic!”

“Well I know all about super strong flying.” Rainbow Dash said as she did a flip.

“And I can keep tabs on her magic.” Twilight confidently said.

Everyone stopped as Flurry began to sniffle. Moments later she sneezed and blasted a hole in several floors of the castle.

“And I can fix holes.” James jokingly said as he looked to the rest of them before being completely ignored. As the rest started to talk about what to do James activated his omnitool and scanned the material used to construct the building. The scan complete he began using omnigel to patch the holes, collecting any rubble he could to improve the repairs and recycle into more omnigel.

As he finished he saw Shining Armor once again asleep. With a shrug he joined the rest of the group as they waited for Shining Armor to wake up and set about the work necessary for the crystaling.

Out in the pavilion under the castle Shining Armor was still on edge about everything. “I'm sorry, Fatherhood is way more stressful than I ever imagined.” Shining Armor said as he dropped his head. “Does it ever get any easier?” He asked as he looked to James.

James smiled as he answered. “No. It doesn't.” He said to the gasps of everyone. “But you do get better at it, and that helps more than you know.”

Shining Armor smiled a bit as he looked up at Rarity who brought a box of arranged crystals. However her question sent him right back into a panic.

“I thought picking the crystal is the crystalers job.” James whispered before he lifted Shining Armor up and looked him in the eyes. “You can do this. It's insane, it's stressful, and it … is … possible. I know you can handle this.” He said firmly as he looked Shining Armor in the eyes. A pep talk Jim would have liked to have gotten when Sara was a newborn.

Shining Armor began to quake less and his breathing steadied out as he tried to focus.

Lucca had chosen to stay with Twilight and Pinkie Pie, while she didn't know how she could help with flying and magic she had been a mother long before she had ever given birth. That was something she knew she could handle.

Once Flurry Heart was low enough to the ground for Lucca to catch her she held on to her in a cradling position and kept her wings pinned to her side. Her horn glowing as she made a light show to distract Flurry Heart while Twilight and Pinkie got a quick rest.

This utility magic is quite useful. Lucca thought to herself as she made shapes that locked together into new shapes to keep Flurry entertained, eventually building a light image of a machine she had been working on.

James continued offering support as Rarity brushed Shining Armor's hair. Things were looking up as Cadence entered to see how everything was going. Lucca and Pinkie held onto Flurry Heart as she flew around in a bubble of Twilight's making.
“She's a really strong flier.” Pinkie Pie said as they approached.

“Yeah, sayian babies do not prepare you for an alicorn.” Lucca added as Cadence took Flurry from them.

James smiled at her as Twilight carefully put them both down. “Well, maybe we can be more useful to Gohan after Pan is born.”

Applejack and Rarity shrugged as they heard the exchange.

Flurry Heart whimpered for a moment before she began to cry. The dispelling effects of the power wave were quick and genuinely problematic for James who collapsed immediately. His eyes widened as he realized the extent of the damage done. Several magical implants had shattered leaving pockets of metal shrapnel near many of his joints and, more concerning, next to his lungs. He could feel the demon's blood talisman was still intact, probably because of it's nature as a piece of the Lord of Nightmares. It was plainly obvious to him that he would be out of commission until the problem was fixed, and it would be excruciatingly painful as his healing charm was among the implants shattered.

Lucca rushed to James as the others focused on the shattered Crystal Heart. “James, what's wrong?” She brought out her omnitool to begin scanning him for problems.

James groaned as he felt small metal slivers move with him when he tried to stand. “Some of my implants have shattered.”

“Then why hasn't your transponder taken you to medical?” She asked quietly as she searched his bag for something to handle the pain.

“I disabled it. In the off chance Flurry hurt me, I didn't want security thinking that the baby was a threat.” He had guessed this was a possibility, but didn't really expect it so he had opted to ignore most of his precautions.

He took a breath as he tried to cast a healing spell, but he couldn't cast one strong enough that wouldn't be undone by the stress of casting. Every move had him feeling the shards shifting with him, if they weren't sharp he could probably focus less on the pain, but even the act of standing made him visibly wince.

“You need to get to medical now!” Lucca hissed as she tried to keep James still.

“This is just shrapnel, I've dealt with worse.” He said quietly. “Get them the cloaks in capsule six, they've all got resist elements on them. Assuming those survived the shock wave. Even still they're warmer than nothing.” He said as he used his magic to give Lucca his bag.

“What about you?” Lucca hissed.

“The cold will help dull the pain so it's better if I don't use one.” He whispered while he walked to Rainbow Dash as the curtains closed around her. James focused on his magic, now that the initial pain had passed it was easier to concentrate. He mumbled a quick spell and released it as the others now began to pay attention to him.

“What was that?” Rainbow Dash asked, she didn't feel any different but recognized that a spell had been cast. Something must have happened.

James smiled, he had to keep quiet and use shallow breathes but he could still answer. “Resist elements. I'd like to cast it on Celestia and Luna too. If anyone goes outside they should have this to keep them safe in this weather.”

“Or one of these cloaks.” Lucca said, grudgingly letting James stay. This was one of his better qualities that really made her angry. His ability to devalue himself that he would often use as reason to stay and help. She gave Applejack and Pinkie Pie one each before turning to Rarity and Fluttershy.

It was obvious to see that there was something wrong with James as he slowly walked to the Princesses and cast a spell for each of them.

“James,” Rarity said as she put the cloak on. “what's the matter?”

“Nothing.” He grunted.

“We can all see that you're in pain.” Luna said. “How are you injured?”

“There are more important things to worry about right now!” He growled angrily as he felt a shard poke his lung. “Focus on the Crystal Heart. I'll tend to myself.” He walked off to an out of the way corner and carefully sat looking out to the group pretending to cast a spell on himself. The stresses of casting all those spells had drained what energy he could muster.

He could feel his magical ability was severely cut in his current condition and the stress of the amplification spell would only hurt him more than he could hope to heal from it. He was stuck like this for now, especially since he wasn't going to leave until he knew everything was going to be alright.

Lucca hurried to his side. “I'm getting you out.” She said sternly.

James fixed her with a steely glare. “Go help them. I'm in pain, I'm not dying or anything serious.” Even as he spoke he could feel a metal splinter poke at his diaphragm. “They'll need you in the library. I'm just too much of a wimp to move like this so you have to help them.”

Lucca nodded before running into the castle after Twilight and Cadence. She didn't know their organization system, but she could certainly look through titles for hints. Cadence began on the top floor while Lucca started on the bottom. She ran along the shelves as she looked, hoping to find something about magical artifacts relics or even items in general.

She really wished they had a system like the Sorcerer's Guild.

The cry of success brought Lucca running just in time to see the book destroyed by an errant blast of wild magic. She cursed under her breath as she watched them scramble around the book wondering what they could do. Lucca brought out her comm badge and made a call to the Sorcerers Guild, despite its listed hours of operation there was always one researcher there studying some obscure thing or another. She needed to find out if there was a spell they had that could restore artifacts. She knew it had been done before, she just didn't know how.

Unfortunately, there was no answer. If anyone was there they were too involved in their research to notice anything going on.

She heard Cadence's call to evacuate and she was quick to go to James. “Come on, Cadence said leave!” She insisted as James laid against the wall.

“No, we've had no influence here. Things are already going as they should. We'll be just fine.” He calmly said.

“How can you say that?” Lucca quietly growled. “This isn't our daughters show, this is happening! It's not as kid friendly and there's no guarantee things will turn out alright.”

James smiled, he'd felt this panic before in many universes. Each time he did he had to trust that not doing anything was the right choice. “Please, trust me. I know it looks bad, but everything is going to be alright.” His insides twitched as the splinter poked his diaphragm again.

James and Lucca waited, even trusting him she wasn't going to leave him alone in his current state. James shivered as the cold came in, Lucca had had enough of his insistence and draped her cloak around him too. Spread between the two of them it wasn't enough to keep them both warm, but it was enough to keep them from freezing.

As Twilight and Cadence tried and failed to repair the heart Lucca looked to James, who only smiled and whispered. “That's not what they needed.”

They watched as Sunburst helped them with the planning, and as he desperately fused the new crystal shard with the Crystal Heart. James smiled confidently as the wave of energy washed over him and Lucca, changing their appearance to something that would seem more at home in ancient Greece. Even James's clothes changed to toga-like robes.

James carefully and painfully stood up as everyone enjoyed the glow of the success, Lucca walking beside him as he approached Sunburst.

Once Celestia congratulated Sunburst, James gave him a pained smile. “Just out of curiosity. You wouldn't happen to still have the relic reconstitution spell, would you?”

“James!” Starlight said as she saw him slowly moving. “What happened?”

“Several of my magical implants have shattered. I'm actually not as well off as I may have said.” James shivered as he moved, he could feel that some of the shrapnel had already moved around his body and opened several serious injuries inside him. He would be healing himself for a while.

Celestia and Luna looked to James seriously. “If it was so urgent you should have said something.” Luna chastised as Starlight ran to get Twilight.

“It wasn't that serious until now.” James said with a smile.

Twilight and Cadence both approached James, even now they could see large purple bruises forming just beneath his skin.

“I don't know about casting this on a Pony. We don't know what could happen if the shards try to combine inside a body.” Sunburst said, worried about the strange pony before him.

“We'll burn that bridge when we get to it.” James mused. The bleeding wasn't as bad as it looked but they did have to do something soon or he would need emergency surgery. And then he would have to remake all of those implants and install them again. The latter being what he wanted to avoid more.

“Alright, everypony give us some room.” Twilight said as she began the spell. Cadence soon joined in along with Celestia and Luna. The force of the magic was punishing and James felt each piece find the fastest path to it's proper location, often through muscle sinew and even organs. James withstood the agony, biting his tongue hard enough to draw a great deal of blood.

The spell completed and the implants held together as James was lowered to the ground. His head swam as he tried to tell them that Sunburst was right. He tried to breathe, but several splinters had torn through his diaphragm and lungs as the spell had run it's course. Unable to stand anymore he fell forward and cracked several teeth as his jaw hit the ground.

Applejack looked to James, now looking worse than ever. “He's got those beans right?” Worry filled her voice with desperation. Even now she remembered her own parents as she thought about Amber and Sara. “The ones that healed Rainbow Dash up in a jiffy.”

Lucca rummaged around James's bag, for once he didn't even have an emergency one. Most likely because of how safe he felt here. “No, he didn't bring them!” She shouted, more from frustration than as an answer.

She brought out her badge again as she used her magic to activate it. “NG-Com. Emergency override Ashtear Alpha Zero Seven. Transport the contents of Storage alpha one Bin zero two zero to my location immediately!”

James's lips were turning blue as his consciousness slipped away. One of his implants wasn't activating, the only reason could be that his lungs had been perforated. A safety measure that prevented the implant from pumping air into his chest cavity. He tried to focus on the situation as his head swam. He knew, however, that even if he died his body would be repaired and he would eventually recover, but he didn't want to put his new friends through the stress it would inevitably cause. His vision faded as he heard Lucca shout her commands.

As the channel closed a large pile of Senzu materialized on the ground around her. Lucca focused her magic and quickly tossed a bean in James's mouth and waited.

“He's not chewing it!” Rainbow Dash said as she watched. She couldn't keep the panic out of her voice as she realized he wasn't breathing anymore either.

Lucca wasted no time as she bit down on the pile of beans and used her magic to flip James over. She chewed only for a moment before she kissed him, forcing the beans down his throat. Using her magic to ensure they didn't get lodged anywhere.

James didn't stir, but it was easy to see the beans working. His bruises receded and his chest began to rise and fall as his internal wounds stitched closed.

“What are these things?” Sunburst said as he inspected the pile of beans.

“They're called Senzu. And James's supposed to have at least one on him at all times! Just like he's supposed to leave his emergency transponder on in case something happens!” Lucca was more berating James than she was answering Sunburst's question.

James's eyes popped open and he looked around. “Actually I had a couple.” He coughed as he got used to breathing again. “I think they went with my implants.”

“You said you weren't that injured!” Rarity accused.

“You nearly died!” Twilight added.

“You should have trusted your friends more.” Celestia said. Her voice was cold, one could even argue that she was angry with him.

James looked around the group and he couldn't help but be apologetic as he felt quite small. “There were more urgent matters at the time. I really wasn't that bad off before, it just seems Sunburst was right about the practicality of the spell when the artifacts are located inside someone.” He offered with an awkward smile.

“Don't you ever do anything like that again!” Fluttershy scolded, as tears lined her eyes.

“He will.” Lucca said angry yet dismissive. “He just needs to make sure there's always a Senzu ready. That's all I ask.”

James smiled as he looked over to the pile of beans. “Looks like I've got plenty handy right now.”

“You can't just ignore yourself. If there's a problem just let us know.” Twilight said as she watched James collect the beans.

James wanted to ask her why, tell her that he's not that important. What he did do was silently nod.

Things calmed down quickly and returned to normal, eventually the crystal effect wore off and James accompanied the group back to the train to Ponyville, where he would go home once back in Twilight's castle.

Author's Note:

Never underestimate the power of cute things.