Preview of Chapter One

As I've mentioned, I'm working on a sequel to The Line between Fire and Light. I still don't have a title (I am bad at naming things), picture, or description, but I have a couple ideas I'm working on putting together. I'm planning on more slice of life stuff maybe a good arc or two if I can really think of any. (Part of why it's been taking a while for me to write it and why I've been doing the blog stories.) I am working on a couple things with it, but I'm really slow when I'm not inspired. I have gotten farther than this, I'm just putting this bit out for now.
Anyway, here's the first half of chapter one.

Twilight Sparkle sat in her office checking the most recent tests her students had turned in, her golden eyes darting over the answers, checking for mistakes. Looking up for a moment, she caught a glimpse of an older picture.

It had been taken before everything got so complicated. Just her and her friends having fun at a New Years celebration in New Guardia. She the hints of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she looked at the happy faces of her friends. That quickly ended however, once she looked into the sparkling violet eyes she once had.

She hated her seeing her eyes now. Not for the color, nor did she have any problems with her sight, but for what they reminded her of. One of her adventures to save Equestria found her friends and herself trapped in Tarterus without any magic to aid them.

Well, not completely without magic; one of her friends was from outside her world and carried magic from other worlds with him. A small jewel he had embedded in his forehead long ago was the most potent magical artifact she had ever known. He called it a Demon's Blood Talisman, and for good reason as she learned later.

But he was unconscious and couldn't use any of that magic. In her desperation, Twilight had come up with an idea. It was straight forward and simple, she would tap into the magic of the talisman to borrow enough power to free them from the prison.

It didn't go anything like she imagined.

As she concentrated on trying to take some of the magic, instead of the power flowing into her she was sucked into the artifact itself. Not literally, somehow it had been her mind taken into the talisman and much to her surprise, she found that she wasn't alone in there. She met a voice that had called herself L-Sama and listened to Twilight's plea for help. When she opened her eyes, she found herself back in Tartarus, her eyes changed to their new golden color.

Later she had learned that the entity she had talked to was known as The Lord of Nightmares, the penultimate Demon Lord of another world. The gold that had overpowered the natural violet of her eyes was in truth a fragment of the Golden Demon Lord herself.

That wasn't bad at first, it bothered her a bit, but she had learned to live with it. But this in turn had led to other problems. In an attempt to learn about what her eyes meant to the demons of L's world (known as mazoku) one such mazoku brought back an old evil specifically to put her under pressure and test the power she had received.

Because of her actions Ponyville had been destroyed in the resulting battle, and only through Discord's help had the town recovered.

But even with his help they were still feeling the repercussions of the battle, many ponies of the EUP, Crystal Guard, and even several Wonderbolts were still dealing with severe injuries. There was a waiting list to receive magical healing that would allow some of the ponies to recover from their injuries. But there were also the injuries that no magic could heal. Psychological scars left by the trauma of the battle. She'd seen the pain such trauma can cause but had no way to help them.

All of it was her fault.

And then there was the confrontation with the mazoku who had instigated the attack. Xellos, who had watched from the sidelines for the most part, came to talk to them. Something about that talk, possibly the gathering of magic connected to her eyes, had allowed The Lord of Nightmares to take over her body. After the incident the fact that it was possible for her to take over Twilight's body quickly came to Princess Celestia's attention.

Before that day Twilight had been training to take over for both Celestia and Luna, but that was only in the past now. Out of fear that Twilight would once again be possessed by The Lord of Nightmares they had suspended her ascension to the throne. That was months ago, and each day it looked more and more like it would never happen.

Even with all of that, she couldn't bring herself to actually hate L-Sama. She had helped them when they needed her, and all she wanted in return was the chance to experience friendship. Twilight sighed as she reminded herself this was her own fault, nobody had made her try to take that magic, and she had even gotten the help she asked for. The only one she could hate for this was herself.

With a shake of her head she doubled down on grading the tests in front of her.

But her efforts were short lived as there was a knock at the door. She couldn't let herself be seen like this, and put on a smile to welcome her guest in.

The door opened to show a creature that stood about two meters tall with broad shoulders and chest and walked upright on his hind legs. He bared slight similarities to other creatures, but as a whole he was unlike any creature in Equestria. But that was to be expected as he was not a creature from Equestria.

He had long blond hair which he tied loosely behind his back in a ponytail and had recently trimmed his beard back to the five o'clock shadow he favored. He wore large, wide legged pants and a shirt that was held closed by the pants with a long over-shirt. He had given her the name of each of these garments at one time, but she couldn't help but think that it was just complicating an otherwise simple description. Of occasional interest was what looked to be a light brown belt around his waist. In reality this was no belt, but his tail he kept wrapped around himself to keep it out of the way.

He had a few reasons he dressed the way he did, the first being political as these were considered formal clothes. His reason though, was that he found them more comfortable than many of his other clothes, and that was his priority.

“Hi James,” Twilight said. “Isn't it a bit early for you?”

James shook his head and gave his usual half smile. “Nope,” he easily said in his calm baritone. “You're just working too long.”

Twilight checked the clock she kept on her wall, it was already late in the evening. But that just meant the day was still young for James. “I've just been busy with the school,” she said as she looked over the still sizable stack of papers. “Mid terms and all that.” Twilight chuckled awkwardly as she looked up at her large friend.

“Rainbow Dash told me you're assigning more work than normal, and I can't help but think you're just trying to keep yourself busy after classes.” James walked over and took the seat across from the disheveled alicorn, leaning forward with his elbows on her desk, his normal half smile showing no signs of going anywhere. “When's the last time you took a break?” His voice was calm, but bared the unmistakable tones of concern.

“I'm not staying up all night working if that's what you're worried about,” she said defensively.

“I'm not talking about sleep, Twilight.” James answered, his smile fading fast from his face. “I mean a break, some time to relax and think: Process.”

“I'm okay,” she calmly said.

James let his head drop with a sigh. “Twilight, I'm married to three workaholics; “I'm okay,” is never okay.”

“Three?” Twilight asked. She knew Lucca and Tali couldn't be pried away from their individual projects once they were invested, but Tenyo couldn't be called a workaholic. She took whatever downtime she could get.

“It's telling that you forgot about Liara again. Not too surprising though, considering she lives out on her own.” James casually said with a chuckle as he lifted his head.

Twilight had long ago gotten used to his relationships with the many women in his life, and while more complicated than it seemed it wasn't what it looked like to the casual observer. He had first married Lucca centuries ago, and she was the de facto matriarch of the family.

Tenyo came second, but she was a purely political marriage, giving legitimacy to some kind of complicated deal with the planet Jurai. They were by no means in love, but they were friends. Tenyo even had another boyfriend that James had recently met.

He had married Liara and Tali at the same time, but by every account the entire event was a fiasco. It was organized as an arrangement to get Liara access to technology from Jurai while getting James and Jurai access to her not inconsiderable information network and skills. An arrangement they all casually agreed on.

Tali, however, had been a complicated situation. Complicated enough that Twilight had only gotten snippets here and there. From what she had gathered, they were friends and Tali eventually developed feelings for him. She didn't know specifics and wasn't going to pry. As for her home life, Tali spent most of her time working on projects but had also taken an interest in helping raise James' and Lucca's daughters as she could never have her own children with James.

Twilight had found most of this out through James' confusing relationship with Rainbow Dash, which started as a prank to make everyone think they were a couple. Yet nothing changed once the prank was over, and the two often appeared to be a genuine couple. She shook her head, she did not have the energy to think about the ins and outs of James' love life.

“Right,” she conceded. “But I really am okay.”

“According to Starlight: Today you've only left your office to teach your class, then right back in. Unless you've got some weird game of hide and seek going on, that's not okay.”

“You've been spying on me?” She asked, a little confused.

“Not spying,” James calmly said, looking directly into her golden eyes. “Just showing genuine concern for my friend.”

She paused as she thought about what he said, eventually deciding to leave it was as he had said it was. “Thanks.”

“Let's go get something to eat.” James said suddenly, his half smile returning.

“I really need to finish grading these tests,” she smiled, at least a little glad that someone cared about how she was feeling.

“Nope.” James said as he stood up. In one motion he bent forward, completely clearing the distance of her desk, and lifted her up in his large arms. Twilight let out a shriek with the sudden embrace and abduction.

“Put me down!” She shouted, blushing as he did anything but.