“I found Starlight!” I called out to announce our presence. Then I had to stop and blink, seeing golden spots of light in my eyes. My blinking did nothing to remove them, and I briefly considered that something had gone particularly bad out here. Then I looked again and saw that the spots of light were glowing runes connected to each other by dim lines, they formed the rough shape of a heart in the air. Flurry giggled and started to weave through them, at least she was feeling better.
“Starlight! Oh my goodness, are you alright?” Sunburst rushed to her side and took over in supporting the Unicorn. Starlight mumbled again, I couldn’t be sure, but I think Starlight said something like ‘of course not.’
“What happened to her?” Sable came over, and I saw now that it was Sable’s magic manifesting the runes in the air.
“I’ve seen her like this before.” I pulled away from Starlight and Sunburst and lowered my voice, not wanting Sunburst to draw the wrong conclusion. “Just before your accident.” Sable raised a curious eyebrow. “It's much worse than last time.”
“Hmm…” Sunburst, holding a hoof to Starlight’s head, mumbled to himself. “This is some pretty nasty magic. I’ve read about spells that could do this, a side effect of mental theft.”
“Will she be alright?” Sable’s voice wavered slightly; he must have been recalling the moment he attacked Starlight himself.
“That depends, if the spell were cast carefully I would think she would get better fairly quickly.” Last time she was back to normal within minutes, at least Sable had not wanted to harm her. “Why would someone do this to her?” Sable shifted uncomfortably.
“Look after her for me, will you, Sunburst?” The orange Unicorn nodded. Starlight looks up at me, her eyes still not focusing right. “Don’t worry Starlight. You’re in good hooves.” With that under control, or at least not getting any worse, I stepped towards the Crystal Heart, eying the glowing runes in the air. Sable followed. “Did you learn anything?”
“I think so.” He gestured to some intersecting lines in the air. “Sunburst has been explaining how the Heart functions. This is a visualization of the flow of magic within the Heart as best we understand it. As far as we can tell there is nothing wrong with Crystal Heart itself.” That was good to hear, and for the third time, I felt the anger wash off as I let out a held breath. “That said.” The runes contracted towards the Crystal Heart, and I could see a new set of symbols in the air. “Something seems to be inverting the flow of emotion into and out of the Heart.”
“Inverting?”
“See here.” He pointed to one of the outermost runes. “This is where love and hope should be flowing in, strengthening the heart.” Tiny lights raced down the lines connecting each rune, invisible from further away. “When functioning normally, this is what should be happening.” He flicked his head, and the tiny points of light on the strings between the runes glowed brightly enough to be seen from afar. “The power goes into the Heart and then radiating out, forming the barrier around the city.” Some of the points traveled down the long lines and then out into the air through some of the other runes. “Right now, however…” He flicked his head again, and some of the runes and lights began to glow red instead of gold. The red dots traveled down the lines, but instead of being absorbed into the Heart they turned away at the runes, darting out and interfering with the flow into the Heart.
“You think there’s a spell outside the Heart doing this? Do you think that is causing this fog too?” Flurry Heart chased some of the red dots through the air, thankfully staying far away from the Heart itself.
“That is what I believe, yes. Sunburst thinks there should be a magic circle somewhere nearby, and we haven’t had the chance to go looking for it yet.” I considered this new information. It was a reasonable hypothesis, whoever did this was probably the same one who attacked Starlight. Something red glinted in the snow, I initially wrote it off as one of Sable’s illusionary symbols, but it didn’t glow quite the same way.
“What is that?” I pointed at it and brushed away some of the snow. It was a red rune, very similar to the one placed around the prison containing Starlight.
“I don’t know. I hadn’t seen it.”
“Do you think it might have something to do with whatever is affecting the Heart?”
“Almost certainly.” He moved to another pile of snow and started to brush it aside. “There may be more, check under the snow.” I followed suit and began scraping the snow aside. Flurry Heart flited over, suddenly curious. As I kicked aside a snow pile Flurry dove into the cloud to play, and it warmed my heart to see the emotional manipulation seemed to have no direct effect on my niece. Perhaps the proximity of the Heart was driving the manipulation away? Or maybe it was because the infant’s emotions were too volatile to stay angry or suspicious for long.
Then Flurry sneezed, her natural Alicorn magic losing control for just a moment in the process. Wind gusted all around us, scattering snow and manes all away from the infant. The force knocked both Starlight and Sunburst over and nearly drove me into the ground. Sable was once again flung away, his glass wings shattering in the process. He ended up under a pile of snow at the far end of the courtyard. Flurry Heart giggled loudly. Sable’s illusion resembling little stars blinked out.
“Gesundhoof.” He deadpanned as he dug himself out of the snow. “That's one way to clear out the snow.” I looked around, spotting more of the glowing red runes. Lots of them, scattered nearly everywhere over the courtyard in no rhyme or reason I could see. “Well, now what?”
“We clear them out, obviously.” But the runes resisted removal. My hoof made no mark on it, and when I tried to wipe it away with a spell, it pulsed menacingly, triggering some of the others nearby to also glow. The direct approach may not have been the best. “Arg. It's not working.” These runes were significantly more carefully crafted than the trap around Starlight.
“Sunburst, do you have any thoughts?” Sable and I turned towards the other two Unicorns, picking each other off the ground. Starlight grumbled, her words slurring to incomprehensibility, and resorted to a simple scowl as she plopped herself into a sitting position. It was clear she would be unable to help until she recovered. Sunburst, on the other hand, was carefully inspecting the nearest rune.
“Perhaps. It's obvious they are all connected, each one reinforces the ones next to it. Removing them one by one will be difficult.”
“What about getting rid of them all at once?” We turned towards Sable. He shrugged. “We have three Unicorns skilled with magic and two Alicorns. Surely we can overcome this.”
“Sunburst, is he right?”
“Let me think…” The orange Unicorn looked at each of us in turn, tapping at his jaw as he thought. “Yes, that could work.” He nodded. “We can use the reflective properties of the Heart to amplify our magic and disrupt the runes.”
“What are the risks?” Sable stepped closer to Sunburst, keeping a safe distance from the Heart. “Aside from simply failing to have any effect.”
“Well, if something were to go horribly wrong I guess we could get a magical rebound. Which could easily burn us out.”
“That is not encouraging.”
“Is there any other alternative?”
“Not without more study.” Sable and Sunburst conversed for a few moments longer, while I looked back at the Heart. Then I turned my attention to Flurry, floating nearby, and recalled the expressions on Cadence and Shining Armor’s faces as they shouted at each other.
“Let’s do it.” Sable and Sunburst fell silent, turning towards me. “We can’t let this continue. There are lives on the line; especially if a pony gets really angry, they might attack somepony special to them. We have to take these out now.” Starlight stood beside me, nodding even though she still couldn’t speak. Sunburst stepped closer, looking up at Flurry as well, he adjusted his glasses and nodded.
“Well then, we should get started.” We spent a few more minutes discussing the plan in detail. Sunburst, as the weakest among us in pure strength, was to direct our efforts and watch Flurry Heart, who was too young to assist. Myself, as the strongest by a significant margin, would provide the bulk of the power behind the ritual. Starlight Glimmer and Sable were to provide support for whatever I needed. With a plan in place, we took our positions in a triangular pattern around the Crystal Heart.
“Is everypony ready?” Sunburst took hold of Furry, keeping her close.
“Ready.” Sable nodded. Starlight made a noise that sounded affirmative.
“Yeah!” I focused on the Crystal Heart, and my own emotions. I wasn’t going to let Flurry Heart down.
“Begin!” As one the three of us launched beams of magical energy at the Crystal Heart. The red runes all began to glow brightly, the lines between them shimmering with the energy moving through them. I felt the resistance, the spell of the runes pulling at me from all sides. Then my strength was bolstered, Sable and Starlight helped focus me towards the Heart. Power crackled in the air, sparking off the Heart and out of the red runes in flashes so bright I could see them through my eyelids. It was working; I felt the runes stretching to their breaking points as the Heart amplified our spell. “Twilight! Look out!”
Then I opened my eyes and spotted the dark runes on the arched crystal above us where they had not been seen, they began to shine. Burning bright threads of power emitted from the runes above and looped themselves around me. Pain shot through me where they touched, and I screamed. It was a trap, worse than the one around Starlight’s prison! Our ritual flickered, Starlight stumbled, struggling to maintain the focus needed. Sable faltered entirely, his support vanishing from our spell. More blazing threads emitted from the runes above me, searing painfully. I forced myself to remain standing, this had to work, but with all this pain I could barely tell what I was doing, I couldn’t even see.
“It’s going to rebound!” Sunburst called out. I grit my teeth, pushing through. All at once the pain dissipated, and I heard a stallion shout. My focus returned, and Starlight reinforced me again. I blinked, where did the trap go?
“Keep going!” Sable shouted, twisting in pain. “Don’t stop!” He was drawing all the trap’s threads towards himself. They wrapped around him and squeezed, smoke rose off his coat. He screamed wordlessly. It must have been agony, but it gave me the chance I needed. I pumped all my power into the Heart, the time for subtlety and caution had passed.
Light flashed, a thousand colors and more. Power reflected off the heart, not so much a physical shockwave as a flood of emotion washed over us, the runes shattering into a million glittering shards. The blistering threads around Sable flared one last time and burned themselves out. The fog across the city was wiped away, the snow clouds above burst like party balloons into a flurry of shimmering crystals, and the sun shone brightly, scattering rainbows all across the Crystal Empire.
“Yeth!” Starlight shouted, leaping in joy. I knew the feeling, the emotion amplified by the gleaming Crystal Heart. Flurry Heart laughed innocently, and Sunburst smiled broadly in the shining light.
Then I saw Sable Stardust. He stood, barely, seemingly frozen in place. His coat was a mass of seared cloth, still glowing with embers. He blinked slowly and managed to meet my eyes weakly. He smiled softly and fell over in a heap.
—————
“Goodness.”
“Did he really have to sacrifice himself like that?”
“I’m not sure. I might have been able to power through it.”
“The better choice would have been to try and remove the traps, rather than draw them all to him.”
“Probably. But it worked.”