Updates and Sneak Peeks · 8:42pm Jan 12th, 2015
I'm getting close to done with the next chapter of Consequences of Darkness, I've still got one, maybe two more scenes to write and it's got to go through editing, but we're near the home stretch for that chapter. It's looking to be ~19k words.
But! Here's a sneak peek. Not of the next chapter, but the chapter after that. This is still subject to change in implementation mind you, but here y'all go 
:
Half remembered phrases, fuzzy recollections of incantations and only semi-coherent thoughts crystalized in my head as the mountain of ice and malevolance continued on its way toward us.
"Slow that thing down!" I shouted over the howling of the winds and wolves, "I'm going to whip out an army buster!"
"How the buck are we supposed to do that?!" snarled Grave Danger even as his horn blazed with crimson power, a pulse of flame blasting several Shadow Wolves back.
"Try orderly fire!" I snapped as I fell back into the circle the team built around me, my flanks twitching as I dodged out of the way of one wolf. A quick kick from Punic breaking its face.
"How the buck do you create orderly flames?!" Quiet Mirror shouted as he fired a bolt of energy into a shadow wolf.
"You're the flank-kickers! You figure it out!" I snarled, my horn lighting.
"Fire beyond heat," I snarled, falling into myself, tapping into that crystallization of thought. My veins felt like they were on fire, molten pain crawling up through my my hooves. I touched upon the power of Tartarus sun, the flames of hell.
"Ice beyond the coldest reach," the fire pouring upwards, lines of pain spreading through me, towards my heart as I reached for the coldest depths of Tartarus, the furthest depths of the prison from its terrible sun. The fire in my veins reached my heart and I let out a wordless sound of pain as my body acted as a conduit for terrible powers.
I grit my teeth and let my blood burn as I brought the two forces together at the end of my horn, brilliant green and blackest night coming together in a flame, "Thunder and lightning of a storm beyond," The spark of life, the rumbles of living and the souls, drawing from my own life, "Of which the souls of the damned are fond!" And so I tapped into the power of death, the antithesis to life, opening a gate to the planes of the dead and letting power pour through me, forcibly entwining it with the current of power I gained from burning my life-force.
"Gather and clash!" I shouted, the words coming unbidden from my mouth as I focused the conflicting powers at the tip of my horn, forcibly bringing them into contact. Ice that would freeze even light and fire that would burn stone, the crackling power of life and the thunderous power of the dead.
"Contained in a dream!" I snarled, touching upon the dreams, opening a conduit to the power of the astral plane, letting it pour out from my mind and through my horn, encasing the seething ball of power.
"Nightmares manifest," I locked gazes with the oncoming mountain, ignoring the shaking of the earth with each step, meeting the malevolent green and red eyes the size of houses with an equal fury in my own, "Shine and scream!" I let the full power of the astral plane flow through me, both the dreams and the nightmares, the darkest depths of consciousness. My vision shook in time with each blazing pulse of my heart, the ball of black and sickly green pressing against the shining sphere of rainbows and dark at the tip of my horn.
"Sired by my Sins!" I tapped into the darkest parts of my psyche and focused the power pouring through me through it, wrestling with the immense energy as I tapped into the dark depths of vice, "Born of my Darkness!"
"It is Wrath from Anguish!" I roared, accepting my fury at my weakness, at my inability to to save and help-! Tears of fire running down my cheeks as light of crimson, emerald, icy blue, and impossible darkness seethed around my horn.
"Hatred from Guilt!" How much pain had this thing caused already? How many had died because of it? I would allow no more! I wouldn't let this bastard do anything more!
"Suffering made manifest!" the seething pearl of anguish pulsed as it became solid, coherent, physical. A wave of pressure exploded outwards from it, making me grit my teeth as I struggled through the flame in my veins, the tension in my body, the electric pain coursing through my flesh as my vision swam.
But my gaze remained locked on the walking glacier of malevolence and dark magic, shadows and ice flowed freely at the edges of my vision, but I ignored them, trusting the others to cover me. Planting my hooves wide as I lowered my head, snarling at our foe.
"And so I unleash–!" I roared, focused on my target, "The HELLBALL!"
Blinding pain shocked through my horn as if it had been struck, my body convulsing as the screams started. A bolt of emerald lightning and shadows showed the trail the blast had taken in that briefest of instant as the ball of death expanded.
A ball of sickly green with shadows seething across its surface, images of skulls and faces flashing in and out of existence as the burning sphere grew, the screams of a thousand souls heralding the blast, a warbling wail of pain and agony as the world shook. Pressure blasting away as the sphere of destruction grew, kicking up the snow and pushing us back even as we stood over a mile away.
The glacial form that stood nearly three hundred feet high was almost entirely encompassed by the blast, a flurry of snow and gravel and black ice surging out from it in a wave that was evaporated even as it blew outwards.
My body trembled like jello, muscles quivering as the wave of frigid water and air rushed past us, soaking me to the bone. The blazing green ball lingered, burning in the air before slowly dispersing into whisps of ghosts and smoke and shadows, the wailing screams slowly fading.
The world jerked as the mass that had once been one of the mountain's arms hit the tundra and I jerked around, my ears ringing and vision swimming.
I'd blown off the lump that had been its head and a fair portion of its torso. I'd somehow missed the center of mass, one arm still dangled by the equivalent of a thread as the body slowly toppled. If it's arm had—
"Brace yourselves!" I shouted over the ringing in my ears and the hoarseness in my throat-
Then it hit, the world jerking suddenly and throwing me off my hooves despite having done what I'd shouted. I twisted quickly back up onto my hooves, struggling past the shakiness in my limbs, eyes searching frantically.
The team was still going, our two airborne members still up and about- the wolves?!
They were scattered, disorganized-
They were coming back! "Everyone up! Come on you lazy bastards! On your fucking feet!" I could see the ponies struggling up out of the scattered snow, fighting past shock-
"T-The buck was that?!"
"The army buster!" I snapped at Quiet Mirror, now wasn't the time! "Now come on!" I shouted over the returning winds, "We've still got to get back to the shield–"
I trailed off.
... returning winds...
FUCK. You've got to be shitting me!
"Fuck! We've got another problem!" in spite of my pain and aches, in spite of the trembling and spike of fire in my head, I lit my horn, "Graves! Quiet! Up and at 'em! We've got work to do!"
Thoughts? Suppositions? Guesses? Have fun! 
I think I would enjoy that fight more if I had context.
So I suppose I should hold criticisms until you release the story.
I thought he didn't remember that much of the dark magic he had learned during his time as Gary? Also, I can't really say that I'm a fan of that spell name. It just makes him sound like he's trying too hard.
If I sens Rarety foreshadow whit Cadence and Shining Armers herd as I think it is, Plus compounding with the fact that Twilight and Emeris have left over memory from each other. This is an explosive cocktail, that will leave Emeris wishing that he staid in the frozen westand alone surrounded by frostwolf's.
2718145 Fair enough! I just got excited
2718199
And it goes directly counter to what he's said about his own talents, since it's definitely evocation, a field of magic in which he's said he's extremely weak in.
And I'm still hemming and hawwing about the name to be honest. I personally like HellBall because it's indicative of Emeris' character in several ways (I don't care, I like it ; Why does it have to be fancy? ; Simple, to the point ; If I've got to say a name it better be fucking short), and I get a little giddy at the thought of the challenge of making a somewhat silly name menacing. That said, if I go with a more 'interesting' name as representative of the spell not actually being one Emeris made and the name coming part and parcel with that rather than Emeris just putting the pieces back together from fragments and his cutie mark filling in the gaps.
2718609
That depends on what you think I was foreshadowing~
And if your tinfoil hat isn't working properly and I'm reading your mind then YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT! BWUAHAHAHAHA!
2719048 okay, Emeris unintentionally dos the «Sunshine, sunshine ladybug awake», whit Cadance instead of Twilight, Shining discover that Emeris was Gary Stu, awkward silence, than he learns, of the merge and he is piste. then, somehow, he is invited inti there herd (?!)
2719180
2718609
Not sure I follow you lead here. Rarity being pulled into Cadence/Shining herd is interesting, but not sure I see it given her one set of complaints.
On Emeris being pulled in..... not so much I think. I don't know if we are doing the full two stallion thing a la Xenophilia, but either way even if the offer came up, Emeris would reject it out of hand I feel. He has his own mares (and issues), and unlike the average pony would be "monosexual" as Twilight called it. I doubt he would be comfortable or interested in being with a stallion intimately.
2719048
I like your stance on naming conventions :) screw sounding impressive, this needs to work.
If he is reassembling spells like this perhaps it needs to malfunction or backfire in some immediate manner (not fail outright) otherwise it starts looking like instant expert.
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Seems they are battling an ice golem and big one at that. Sombra definitely got an upgrade in this world. I like.
19k Words. Dude. Awesome.
Please please please don't burn yourself out. Please please please.
2719365
)
What mix-up is thinking (at least I believe so) is that Rarity was talking about how Emeris, if accidentally, was the one to ruin the honeymoon that Shining/Cadence were planning, just by being anywhere in the same postal code as Gary. That, plus Emeris (possibly) picking up bits of Twilight's reactions and emotions towards others from their merger, could lead to a very... unpleasant situation. Especially if you remember that Shining Armor tried to mount Emeris while he was Gary and had numerous incidents ("looked at like I was a slab of meat... which is rather unsettling if you're a herbivore." ring a bell at all?
And while them inviting him to the herd is basically impossible, there could be very interesting interactions here.
That's definitely Emeris' trait there. I actually like super-meaningful names such as Punic's when I can do them.
He kind of is. We're dealing intimately with his talent here in ways that aren't immediately obvious but are ever so slightly hinted at (and will be more so when the next chapter comes out). Also, the spell itself isn't complex in theory, merely excruciating in practice and dabbles in a wide number of black magics.
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Golem. Hah.
That's my best guess at the moment, it could very easily end up around 20k knowing how I write
Dude, this is me taking it easy.
I haven't had classes recently so I've had more time to write but I haven't actually taken that long to write. I just pour out words when I get going and then have to revise them about three times. I could probably match The Chase in update size/speed if I had more free time and didn't bother with as much editing as I go through.
2719407
Thanks for your take on mix-up's point, I see it now. Yeah, mix-up is on to something. But then again I was looking forward to meeting Cadence and Shining :)
2718609
Sorry I misread your point. Need more caffeine.
(I reread my original post, I sound out of it tonight. I'm gunna go..... place)
2719441 It no problem, I am rely out of practice with my riting English, It is not my fist language, and I am still working on making coherent sentences. Andoriol has explain more accurately my thought. Were Emeris is one again confronted in a delicate situation, in a strange culture that has different gender roles and that polygamist is the norm. I am no really interested in seeing Emeris joining Shining and Cadance on a fivesume, and i now he is not mental ready for it any time soon, I just like see his thought when confronted on the idea. that and seeing him in a weird social situation were there are at lest four disputes going on over his head between the mane 6, Shining And Cadance. I just thought this was a continuation of the concept of «Departure From the Norm» chapter in «Letters from a Fascinated but Frustrated Scientist» Were Emeris explain how couples work in Equestria. I just thought that seeing that there were prior mentioning of the two when the discussion with Macintosh, plus Emeris and Twilights fusion, plus the report, plus Rarety's gossip, it was leading up to this; I was probably jumping to conclusions.
2719048
Well, he has a history of kind of going into a gray area in terms of evocation use when it comes to dark magic. A lot of the things he's done up to this point with dark magic could be considered "evocation" in terms of their effects, so I'm running on the assumption that dark magic is so inherently different from normal magic in terms of how it's gathered and channeled that it bypasses his weakness in evocation.
But as you put in your response, this is definitely an actual spell, not just his talent letting him control unfocused dark magic. I mean, it's possible that this is one of the only actual spells he knows, but in that case I don't know why he would bother with it when he can do as much or more damage faster by just using his talent.