//------------------------------// // The Crystal Empire Part 1 // Story: Technicalities // by BionicBrony //------------------------------// Two weeks had passed. Two grueling weeks. Quite possibly the worst two weeks Celestia could remember. Chrysalis was gone. How long had they known each other? Felt like several millennia at this point. Probably was. They each played their role, but also yearned for freedom. It was easy to understand one another when they were trapped in the same prison; they shared a similar problem, and a similar fate.     Many tried. Too many tried. Too many failed. The Overseer made examples of every last one. Live your life. Respect the cycles. Maintain peace. Maintain prosperity. Maintain harmony. “It is the ultimate responsibility,” he says. But can it truly be the best way? What lives actually exist in this world? She and Chrysalis plotted freedom. Freedom from the cycles. Freedom from the Overseer. They watched. Listened. Waited. The cycles functioned like clockwork. Nothing ever changed. There was never a missed beat. Worse yet, there was never a vulnerability; never a chink in the armor; never a window of opportunity.     Until now. But even then, was it really? Chrysalis was gone. Destroyed by the ones that could have granted them their freedom. But if the Overseer was right, they could mean the end of everything. Maybe he is right. She saw the damage they caused. But if they disappear, the window closes, possibly forever. Does that mean Chrysalis died for nothing? Perhaps the Overseer played them all by tearing apart potential allies before they could rally against him. Who could be sure of anything?     Celestia sighed as she skimmed paperwork from her throne, rereading the same paragraph for the umpteenth time, yet still not absorbing anything it said. The same turbulent thoughts plagued her over and over again these past two weeks. Choices to make. Sides to take. No clear answer. She wished Chrysalis was here to provide input. She was the only one Celestia felt she could actually trust.     Any moment now, a guard would come through the door and tell her the Crystal Empire has returned. She would feign a gasp, and immediately send Cadence and Shining Armor. Regardless of her thoughts, time would move forward. Equestria would move closer to the Overseer’s threatened reset. A choice would have to be made, and there would be no backing out of it.     The door to the throne room burst open, and a guard came rushing through. “News from Northern Equestria, your Highness!”     Celestia moved the paperwork aside and gave the guard her attention. Time marches ever forward.     “Are you sure you don’t want me to go as well?” asked Luna, as she and Celestia occupied their eyes by looking at the newest stained glass memorial to adorn the throne room; a depiction of Cadence and Shining Armor forming a heart with their bodies.     “Yes,” Celestia replied, infusing her voice with conviction. “Princess Cadence and Shining Armor are already there. The others will be joining them soon.”     “The Empire’s magic is powerful. It cannot fall again, my sister.”     “She will succeed at her task, and when she does, we’ll know that she is that much closer to being ready.”     As if on cue, a mare cleared her throat within the arch of the open throne room doors, and the two princesses turned to her. Twilight Sparkle stared back at them, a nervous smile on her face and saddlebags overstuffed with books, quills, and papers on her sides. Celestia smiled in turn before nudging Luna. “Trust me, little sister.” Luna returned a silent nod and began her own trek out of the throne room to allow Celestia the opportunity to talk to Twilight privately. “You wanted to see me? To give me a test?” Twilight called out as she walked up the central carpet. Midway-through, she and Luna passed, and exchanged the briefest of looks, though no more communication was held between them than that. “I brought my own quills! And plenty of paper to show my work!” Twilight levitated her saddlebags off of herself and unceremoniously onto the ground, whereupon a loose scroll popped out of her bag and began to unroll itself down the carpet upon landing. Celestia lazily followed the scroll as it rolled toward her, eventually stopping at her hooves. How do they always manage to do that…? “Sorry! Sorry!” Twilight blurted, vainly attempting to roll the scroll back up with her nose. Celestia remained silent as her horn glowed and she magicked the unfurled scroll and swiftly rolled it back up. “This is a different kind of test,” she said as she picked up the rest of Twilight’s belongings and arranged them all neatly into her bags. As she finished she declared: “The Crystal Empire has returned.” “The Crystal Empire…?” Twilight’s eyes shrunk as she magicked books back from her bags. “I’m sorry… I-I thought I studied…!” And so Celestia went on to explain that the Crystal Empire wouldn’t be in any of Twilight’s books; that a curse caused it to vanish a thousand years ago with the defeat of its slave-master king, Sombra. Using a crystal that rested atop a pedestal next to her throne, she explained to her student that the Crystal Empire held a powerful magic, one that would radiate hope and love across Equestria, but would do the same for hatred and fear should they take hold. Celestia emphasized her point with a display of dark magic, forcing black crystals from the ground around Twilight, which she dispelled after a few moments. “...Which is why I need your help finding a way to protect it,” Celestia finished. “You want me to help protect an entire empire…?” Twilight asked, breathless, her mind flooding itself with doubts of herself. “It is, as I’ve said, a different kind of test,” said Celestia as she placed her crystal back upon its pedestal, “but one I am certain you will pass.” You will pass… Casting away her doubts, Twilight looked toward Celestia with renewed conviction. “How do I begin?” Celestia allowed herself a smile. She loved seeing that look in her eye. “By joining Princess Cadence and Shining Armor in the Crystal Empire.” “My brother is there?” Twilight beamed, falling in step next to Celestia as she walked past. “He is,” Celestia answered, “And your Ponyville friends will join you there as well. You will all take a train there this afternoon and will arrive before sundown. However…” The princess paused as she came to a stop, nearly by the throne room doors. Get Twilight to bring him on their trek to the Crystal Empire. I don’t care how it’s done, so long as he is on that train. “Twilight, it would also behoove you to request Alexander’s presence as well. I believe he would be an invaluable asset on your mission to the Empire. I cannot ask him directly, as I have little influence over his decisions. You might have better luck.” “Oh!” Twilight blinked. For some reason, she hadn’t considered the possibility that Alex would just brush off Princess Celestia, but after the whole changeling incident, it definitely wasn’t impossible. “Alright, I’ll ask him.” A pang of guilt constricted Celestia’s heart. Was this really the right thing? She couldn’t simply take her words back at this point. Celestia took a moment to glance through the throne room doors. Luna should be waiting just around the corner. She would be listening, but… Celestia dropped her voice to a whisper. “I have a brief, unrelated question for you, Twilight. The changeling hive; what happened to it. Did Alexander plan to do that?” “Umm…” Twilight paused for a moment to think, but ultimately shook her head. “I don’t think so? It seemed like a spur of the moment thing when the changelings captured me, but… I don’t know, I can’t say for sure. After he saw the damage, though, he… he regretted doing it.” Celestia’s eyes widened ever slightly. “He did?” “Yeah,” Twilight confirmed. Her memories of the time flooded back. He had caused all this damage once already... Twilight’s heart flashed and she looked away. “He spent several minutes just… crying… I’d never really seen him like that before.” Despite the nature of the information, Celestia cracked a smile. Of course. In the end, he does care. The Overseer doesn’t see what lies beneath him, only what he wants to see. “That’s good to know. Now, with regard to your mission, I have one last request: I ask that you encourage Alexander to come with you armed and armored.” This request not only captured Twilight’s attention, but throttled it. “Wait, what? Why?” “The area around the Empire is a cold and wild place,” Celestia explained. “A blizzard formed around the empire since its return, and you may encounter something less than friendly before you properly arrive.” She advanced toward the throne room door anew, and Twilight followed. “Nevertheless, I have every confidence that you will succeed. And when you do, I’ll know you are ready to move on to the next level of your studies.” The two stopped by the open doors just as Celestia finished. Luna waited around the corner, and met eyes with Twilight, who shrunk under her critical gaze. She looked back up at Celestia. “But what if I fail…?” “You won’t,” Celestia smiled. “But what if—” Twilight started again, though was immediately cut off when the princess laid a hoof into her shoulder. “You won’t,” Celestia insisted for a second time, before he voice adopted a more serious inflection. “But, Twilight, in the end, it must be you and you alone who ultimately assists Princess Cadence and Shining Armor in doing what needs to be done to protect the Empire. Do you understand?” Twilight held her head high and smiled. “Mm-hmm!” “Then go,” said Celestia as she urged Twilight forward with a hoof, while Luna made her way back into the throne room. “There is no time to lose.” At those words, Celestia magicked the doors closed, ending the conversation. Twilight flinched at this, and stood for a moment in confusion before ultimately deciding that it was time to go. “Whenever you’re ready,” Rose voice spoke into Alex’s ear as he paced around the testing room, swinging his armored arms back and forth. “Yeah, just gimme a second to get my shit together…” Alex blew a breath, then stopped and placed both hands against his helmet, taking a moment for himself. Once he was done, he clapped his hands together and turned to the collection of miscellaneous items in the middle of the room. “Alright, let’s try this again.” “Excellent,” said Rose. “Recording test number thirteen of remote generation of vectored gravitons with the BioMech mounted Core Energy manipulator based on model generation zero point seven, iteration two.” Alex placed one foot before the other as his arm hummed with energy. Green light flowed through the shell of his armor, collecting itself within a circular device built into the palm. Holding that palm up, Alex focused all of his attention on a single object placed among the many on the floor: a hoofball. It was subtle, and there was no other visual indication, but moment by moment, the ball began to twitch on its own. His confidence building, Alex allowed more core energy through his cybernetic arm. Inch by inch, the ball lifted itself from the ground, suspended on invisible strings. Unbeknownst to him, Alex’s eyes grew wide as can be in his intense focus, not only on the ball, but on keeping his palm as still as possible. Okay… I got this far the last ten times, Alex reminded himself. Now I just need to… carefully… maneuver… it… Just as was attempted the last ten times, he commanded the ball to move through the air and onto a pedestal in the middle of the room. However, as the hoofball floated along, Alex instinctively angled his palm, as if to push it. In turn, this altered the ball’s vector, causing it to slide through the air faster than he intended… “Shitshitshitshitfuck!” … and collide with the far wall. The ball fell to the ground as Alex immediately cut off power to the device in his palm and promptly shoved his face in it. “Ugh…” “Test thirteen outcome unchanged from previous tests,” Rose announced. “God fucking dammit!” Alex shouted as he curled his palm into a fist and swung it out and around, spinning his whole body. Core energy pulsed through his arm as he did, and the objects on the floor slid across the room in turn with the motion of his fist. Noticing the motion through the corner of his eye, Alex turned back to examine the objects he had managed to push away from him, then briefly looked at his hand. He sighed, shook his head,  and placed both hands on his hips. “This shit is hard, man. We’ve gotta be doing something wrong. I mean, the slightest twitch throws me off — like it’s suddenly on a convex water slide. I can’t even twitch my hand without fucking everything up. Then we see unicorns walking around and levitating things like it’s a fucking breeze.” “To be fair, they have substantially more practice than you do,” Rose pointed out. “Perhaps Twilight can teach you?” “Maybe,” Alex breathed. “Not sure if that’ll even work, if you ask me. She’s able to do this naturally. Her biology enables that. This is like trying to control a fifth limb with a dozen different joints or something. It’s not something my brain can naturally process.” “That’s what the exocortex is for.” “Sure, but even that feels like it shouldn’t be there. The human brain didn’t evolve to be modular. Gah, it feels weird.” “I believe it’s worth a try nevertheless,” Rose argued. “Surveillance projections indicate she’s on her way here anyway. Now would be a perfect opportunity to ask for expert insight.” Alex rolled his eyes and stared square into a wall mounted camera. “Expert insight, huh?” He shrugged before making his way for the chamber exit. “Alright, fine, I guess you make a good point. No harm in trying.” “So let me get this straight…” Spike asked from atop Twilight’s back. “The princess wants us and our friends to go to the Crystal Empire — pretty much by royal decree — but she can’t do the same for Alex and wants us to ask him instead?” “That’s it,” Twilight answered as she walked through the streets toward the garage. The rest of her friends, who came with her to Canterlot in support of her test, had already scattered to their homes to collect whatever they needed for the trip and make last minute absence preparations. “Why?” Spike continued after several seconds of silent contemplation. “What we’re doing in the Empire is for the princess, and Alex and Princess Celestia have a… weird relationship,” Twilight replied after a moment of hesitation. “The princess might be, well, the princess, but it’s just like she told me herself: she doesn’t have much influence over Alex’s decisions. To him, a royal decree is more like a request — a request he’d probably refuse, considering how he and the royal guard acted towards each other just a couple of weeks ago.” “If you know he’s going to say no, then why are we bothering to ask him?” Twilight twisted her head and smiled at her assistant as they rounded the last corner, facing the Liandri facility. “Because we’re not coming to him as ponies with a royal decree! We’re coming to him as friends asking for help.” The Liandri facility’s front door whirred open as quick as a flash, and a domestic Liandri standing behind a counter addressed Twilight and Spike in Rose’s voice as they stepped into the cool interior. “Hello, Spike. Hello, Twilight. How was your test?” “Well, I’m… still taking the test, I guess,” said Twilight as she approached the service counter adjacent to the garage area. “Honestly, it’s a little more complicated than I thought it would be. I actually came by to talk to you guys about it.” “How fortuitous,” said Rose. “We were hoping to talk to you as well.” Twilight quirked a brow. “Really? About what?” As if on cue, the doors to the central elevator slid open. “About tests of our own,” Alex bellowed as he emerged, clad in his BioMech, helmet off, and hands behind his back as he approached. “Rose and I developed a magic manipulator small enough for use in the BioMech.” To emphasize his point, he held out his right hand, and a green light pulsed through and around a visible ring in his palm before fading away. Twilight’s eyes grew wide, and her mouth nearly fell from the rest of her head. “What?! You managed to make a magic conductor that a non-unicorn can actually use to cast magic?!” “Whoa!” Spike exclaimed as he hopped off Twilight’s back to gawk at Alex’s hand. “That’s crazy! Does it work?” “It works, but only technically so,” Rose continued. “So far, we’ve been able to achieve levitation, however the act itself is delicate.” Alex sighed as he crossed his arms. “Yeah, that’s one way of putting it. We’re using unicorn levitation as a baseline for functionality, but so far, we haven’t even achieved that. Unless the manipulator stays perfectly still, the object being levitated will change vectors along what seems like a convex field. Rose thinks this is normal and that you could teach me how to better control it, but I think we missed something. If you ask me, I think it has something to do with the fact that our manipulator is toric as opposed to conical.” “Huh…?” This last sentence caused Twilight to squint at him in confusion. “You made your magic conductor in the form of a torus as opposed to a horn…?” “Mhm,” Alex hummed with an exaggerated nod. “Theoretically, that’s the ideal model. At least, it’s the one we came up with. Still not doing me any favors, though.” “I see…” Twilight scratched her chin, some skepticism sneaking into her tone. “Well, I’d be happy to try teaching you magic, but I’ve never thought about teaching somepony who isn’t a unicorn. Would it even work the same?” Alex shrugged. “One way to find out, I guess. You have a break in your schedule right now? Maybe sometime this week?” “You could say that,” Spike answered for her. Twilight shot her assistant a quick smirk before returning her attention to Alex. “Actually, that’s kind of why I’m here. Princess Celestia is sending me and my friends to northern Equestria because the Crystal Empire has returned. We’ll be taking a train there in less than an hour.” Alex and Rose shared a brief look before he turned back to her with contorted brows. “I’m sorry, what? That’s news to me. What do you mean by ‘an empire as returned?’ Is it some foreign country trying to expand its borders, or…?” “It’s a long story,” she waved off his confusion, “but to make it short, the Crystal Empire was ruled by an evil unicorn named Sombra a thousand years ago. He was defeated, but he placed a curse on the Empire that made it disappear out of thin air, and now it’s suddenly back.” Twilight stood straight, perked herself up, and smiled. “I wanted to ask you to come with us!” After a brief pause, he clarified: “So… you’re asking me to come with you to visit a long lost empire that appeared out of thin air after a millennium-long hiatus…?” “Mhm!” Twilight nodded. He narrowed his eyes, still trying to parse the information he was hearing. “Okay… and you want me to come with you… why, exactly?” “Princess Celestia tasked me and the other elements of harmony to find a way to protect the Crystal Empire,” Twilight explained. “I think she’s afraid Sombra might try to take power again, so she wants us to be there to stop that.” She paused for half a second. “Well, I say us, but I mean,” Twilight physically chewed her words as she gathered her thoughts. “I mean she didn’t mention you specifically, but I think you could help us a lot by being there.” There was a brief silence before Rose looked over at Alex. “She mentioned you specifically.” “Huh?!” Twilight suddenly choked, her eyes going wide. “No! No she didn’t!” “Twilight, you’re a terrible liar,” Rose snipped at her, causing Alex to snicker. “It seems more likely to me that Celestia wants Alex to help you but wanted you to ask instead because we’d be more likely to refuse had anyone else done it.” “What?! No! That’s not—” The unicorn’s words were cut off by Alex’s sudden guffawing. A blush spread through Twilight’s fur as she inched herself back, her eyes darting toward potential exits while her mind raced to find a way to wiggle herself out of the uncomfortable situation she had landed herself in. That is, until Alex finally composed himself, wiping a tear from his eye. “Ha ha ha! Yeah, fuck it, I’ll come with. I needed a break from the lab anyway.” “What? Are you sure about this?” said Rose, barely disguising her disapproval in her tone. “This sounds like something non-insignificant; like something we shouldn’t get involved in.” “So?” Alex leaned an elbow on the counter as he smirked at Rose. “We got involved in something non-insignificant just a few weeks ago. That turned out alright, didn’t it?”     If Rose could have narrowed the eyes of the domestic unit, she would have. “Need I remind you that you nearly killed yourself.” “We were dealing with an army of shapeshifters,” Alex drawled. “This is different! It’s just a single unicorn with a bad attitude against half a dozen persistent ponies and a half-cybernetic with magic dampeners. I’ll go with the girls, shock the asshole, and then let them do whatever they want with him. And if he really starts crawling up my ass—” He withdrew and Enforcer from behind his back and spun it around his finger. “—Then I’ll just put a bullet in him and that’ll be the end of it.” As quickly as it came out, he holstered the weapon. “Well, I, uh… I don’t really think it’ll have to come to that,” said Twilight, rubbing her foreleg as she eyed a random spot on the ground. “But I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have a fallback plan…” “Then it’s settled!” Alex cheered with a clap. He turned and vectored himself toward the elevator. “I’ll make a quick trip to the armory and meet up with you guys…” He paused. “What was it — you said you were meeting at the train station, right?” Twilight nodded. “Right… And you don’t know exactly where this Crystal Empire is, do you?” “All I know is that it’s in northern Equestria and that there’s a blizzard going on up there.” “Crap…” Alex heaved. “If you knew where it was, I’d suggest we take a Raven there, but if you can’t point to it on a map and there’s a blizzard going on top of that…” Finally, he shrugged and entered the elevator. “Yeah, fuck it. Train it is. See you there!” The elevator closed, ending the conversation. Twilight smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, that’s done!” She turned towards AI’s current physical form. “Thanks, Rose, for—” “I don’t appreciate this, Twilight.” Rose interrupted, her tone less than amused. A knot instantly formed in Twilight’s throat as she attempted to parse the phrase, nearly cutting off her air. “I-I’m sorry?” “Alex is already enough of a loose cannon as it is,” Rose continued. “To ask him to do something like this so soon after what happened with the changelings — at a time when observation and study of his cognitive health is my highest priority — is annoying at best and irresponsible at worst.” “Hey, don’t worry about a thing, Rose!” Spike urged as he held his claws out. “We’ll make sure everypony is safe and keep Alex from doing anything dangerous. We got this!” The domestic unit instantly focused on him. “Ah, my apologies. I must have minced my words and miscommunicated my thoughts. Allow me to clarify my feelings on the subject.” She leaned in. “Alex is currently undergoing observation and an evaluation of his mental health, and this expedition of yours will severely affect my results.” She leaned out. “That said, my method of data collection requires that he remain unaware, so I trust it isn’t too much of a request that you keep this information to yourselves.” “Oh…” Twilight looked away, refusing to maintain eye contact. “I… I’m sorry, I… I didn’t realize you were…” “No, you didn’t,” Rose agreed, turning her attention fully on Twilight. “Which is why I will accept your apology — this time. Unfortunately, outside of acting as an advisor, I have little control over what Alex does or doesn’t do, which means it’s far too late to fix this state of affairs. The most I can do is attempt to keep him at his current baseline. To that end, I will be joining you on your expedition.” Twilight perked up, her eyes widening. “Wait, you want to come with us?” “Want to and will,” Rose replied with a nod. “So long as I fail to convince Alex his time is better spent here.” “Wow. I mean, uh... thanks, Rose!” cheered Spike, half uncertain if that was the correct choice of words. “That means a lot to us. We’d really appreciate your help.” “Let me make this abundantly clear, Spike,” said Rose, allowing her annoyance to seep into her voice. “I understand Celestia gave you a task out of her concern, but her problems are not my own. I will help you in the Crystal Empire where I can, but Alex is my primary responsibility until I acquire a better understanding of his anomalous behavior.” She turned back to Twilight. “If Alex is still intent on going, I shall meet you at the train station.” With those words, the domestic’s eyes changed from blue to yellow. Despite the minute change, it signaled a fundamental departure from the room. Although given the AI’s omnipresence within the facility’s walls, it felt more like she was just paying slightly less attention. Slightly. Twilight blinked, blew a breath through puckered lips, glanced at Spike, and said “Well that went well,” before turning to leave the garage. Spike waited until they were well beyond the door before speaking again. “Really? Because I feel like Rose is pretty upset with us right now.” Twilight opened her mouth, though paused to consider her next words. “That’s… true… but we have a responsibility not just to the Princess, but to Equestria. I’m sure we can make it up to her later.” “You’re just telling yourself that because you feel guilty, don’t you?” “Please don’t shatter my illusion, Spike. I really don’t want to feel worse than I do…” An equestrian train chugged northward, billowing steam beneath an airborne vehicle that placed a stark contrast on the technological developments of differing worlds. A Cicada - an amalgam of rocket science, computer science, aerodynamics, and gravity propulsion, among other STEM areas - hovered above the train, following it like a dutiful hound on the hunt. Of course, the Cicada was not actually following the train, but rather those within it: six ponies, a baby dragon, and two humanoids, all gathered around each other for a train ride that would last the rest of the day. Thorax opted to stay behind and watch the library on Twilight’s behalf. As disappointed as she was that her newest friend prefered to stay in Ponyville, she at least understood the need for there to be at least one resident librarian at any time. It was only good policy, after all. Rose, who routinely changed bodies like a human changed socks, brought her newest iteration of “off road” chassis, which was her own term for a combat chassis that was tough as nails yet light on its feet. Dark grey metal composed the outer shell, gilded with intricate golden patterns around her joints, breasts, and forelimbs. Like one of her previous models, a brilliant blue light shone from a gem-like object in the middle of her chest, matching the eyes that rested in her frozen, emotionless face. A streak of blue regularly pulsed from what would be Rose’s collarbone, around each side of her neck, and into a point at the back of her head. The chassis’ overall frame was sleeker, with virtually no exposed mechanisms, and could even be confused for being more delicate and less imposing were it not for the fact that she was seven feet tall, yet moved with an eerie silence and grace. Alex’s armor had not changed in appearance at all, save for slight physical alterations to the arms that allowed for internal magical mechanisms to radiate light, which did so several times already. For the third time, a ball sitting on the floor of the moving train shakily hovered into the air on its own before an inevitable bump in the train’s path sent it gliding forward and thumping against the door connecting the cars, eliciting a thoughtful hum from the nearby observers. None were louder in their thoughts than Twilight as she scrunched her muzzle.     “So what kind of thaumic feedback are you getting when you levitate something?” she asked after a moment’s thought.     Alex flexed the fingers in his raised arm as its glow dissipated. “I’m sorry, the what feedback?”     “Thaumic feedback,” Twilight repeated. “The magical feedback you get from casting a spell. How does it feel to you?”     “Uhhh…” Alex blinked before closing his hand and shooting a look over to Rose, who sat off to the side with her arms crossed. Both of them understood the workings of the system, which, in the case of levitation, only used magic to generate gravitons around an object. However, as a result: “It… can’t really provide feedback. The whole system’s strictly one-sided…”     “Oh dear,” Rarity blurted from one of the nearest benches, placing a hoof over her chest. “I’m not an expert in magical affairs by any means, but even I know the importance of thaumic feedback. It’s fundamental! I don’t know how I’d be able to levitate anything without it! I daresay it would be like trying to walk with legs I couldn’t feel.”     “Rarity’s right,” said Twilight, picking up the ball in her own lavender aura and returning it back to Alex’s hand. “Thaumic feedback is a crucial part of any spell. Without it, we don’t have any means of regulating the flow of our magic.” She shot him a smirk. “I think we just found your problem.”     “Christ…” Alex sighed before plunking himself down next to Rose. “I’ll be honest with you; I really hoped we had it this time. If your horn provides you some kind of feedback, that means we’ve gotta go straight back to the drawing board. And this problem just became a lot more complicated… I mean, feedback with electrical or software systems is one thing, but implementing a feedback system with energy unbound from the Higgs field sounds like a headache and a half.”     “Don’t beat yourself up, darling,” Rarity smiled. “It may not have been what you were aiming for, but you still created something quite impressive! I’m not quite sure what it could be used for, but I’m sure you’ll think of something.”     “Two readily available applications would be for elevators that forgo the use of moving parts through the application of remotely directed gravitational fields, and the generation of artificial gravity in space-faring vehicles without the application of rotary components and centripetal force.” Rose turned her head squarely on Alex, who was already eyeing her with a measure of astonishment. “Just a couple of ideas.”     “Son of a bitch, those are actually damn good ideas,” said Alex. “If we set up an array of these things then… yeah… yeah those are more than possible.”     Rarity smiled. “I have no idea what either of you two just said, but see? I told you you’d come up with something.”     “Gravity lifts and artificial gravity…” Twilight breathed. “That’s stuff straight out of science fiction.”     “I thought we already established that that’s the kind of stuff that they do?” said Dash. “You know? Doing the impossible?”     “Eh, not really,” replied Alex, interlocking his fingers. “The more you learn, research, and engineer, the more you realize that nothing’s impossible. Hell, the stuff humans did even five years ago would have been thought impossible a hundred years before that, and downright unimaginable a thousand before that.” He paused. “Actually, it probably would’ve been considered witch-craft and I’d have been burned at the stake, but that’s beside the point. The point is: the longer you work in science and technology, the more you realize that there’s a solution to literally every problem, even if it’s weird, complicated, and the technology to do so might not even exist yet. It’s kinda funny, really. Stuff only becomes impossible if you believe it is from the get-go.     “I mean, a lot of people thought a computer could never become intelligence or sapient, and yet…” he motioned toward Rose. “To be fair, though, the people who thought that probably weren’t aware of the principle of the universality of computability. I am, so I never thought it was impossible to begin with.”     Applejack’s face contorted. “The universe of what now?” she interjected.     “The universality of computability,” Twilight repeated. “It’s a principle that states that if one type of computer can solve a problem, then another type of computer can solve the same problem; like intelligence.”     Applejack only appeared more confused. “But what other computer besides Rose is intelligent? Wasn’t she the first?” Twilight and Alex smirked at each other for a brief moment before each looking at Applejack and simultaneously tapping the side of their head.     That evening, the train slowed to a crawl before stopping entirely, although no one could really tell if it was because it had reached its destination or the snow had gotten too deep for the train to safely plow through. Outside, a blizzard raged on, dramatically reducing visibility and putting the Cicada’s stabilizers to the test. If there was anything out there that wasn’t frozen wasteland, it certainly wasn’t obvious.     Twilight walked into the car with the rest of her friends, magicking closed the connecting door behind her. “The conductor says we’re at the empire. He also says he wants to get the train moving again before the snow buries the tracks. I guess this is our stop.”     “Well shit…” Alex muttered as he peered out a window. “I was hoping this storm would’ve let up by the time we got there… How’s the Cicada holding up?”     “The gyroscopes are getting a work out, but it’s fine for the time being,” Rose answered, slinging a large object over her shoulder that Twilight recognized as the deployable communication dish she originally saw on the balcony outside Alex’s room during the wedding. “Wind speeds are currently being measured at around fifty kilometers an hour with an alarming exponential increase. If the trend continues, they’ll reach fifty six kilometers per hour within twenty minutes with no guarantee of slowing down any time soon.”     “Geez, that’s insane!” Rainbow Dash blurted as she looked out of the same window as Alex. “Whoever’s in charge of the weather around here needs to be fired. This has gotten way out of hoof.”     “I’m not sure anypony is,” said Pinkie, face pressed against the glass in an attempt to see past the flurries, barely able to make out what seemed to be a passable train station.     “I’m not so sure coming here was such a good idea anymore…” Fluttershy muttered from the safety of the middle of the aisle.     “I know it’s not looking good, Fluttershy, but Twilight needs our help keeping the Empire safe,” Rarity reassured her by placing a hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “We’ll make it through this. We always do. Besides, I brought plenty of scarves for all!”     “Uh, yeah, ‘bout that…” said Applejack, drawing the fashionista’s attention. AJ had wrapped herself in scarves dyed every color of the rainbow, each one attempting to cover one or more patches of thin fur that had yet to fully regrow since her surgery two weeks ago. One navy blue scarf had even been tied as a bonnet around her hat to keep it secured to her head. “Ya got any more of those scarves?”     Rarity’s eyes grew wide, both at the sudden realization that Applejack needed those scarves more than anypony else and at how utterly hideous she currently looked. “Oh. Oh dear…”     The blizzard whipped and howled around the group, cold biting at their eyes, ears, and nostrils. Leaving the comfort of the train proved to be one of the most unpleasant experiences they had ever felt, save for the two humanoids, one of whom felt comfortable in his temperature regulated metal shell, while the other only felt annoyed at having her effective vision reduced. Above the wind, the only sounds the group could manage to hear was the humming and swishing propellers of the Cicada that floated just a few meters above them. Its searchlights made an attempt at revealing anything beyond the flurry of snow as it rocked back and forth, the result of the constant battle between the wind trying to blow it away and the aircraft’s gravity engines trying to keep it on course. “Are we even goin’ in the right direction?”  Applejack shouted over the wind. “We should be!” Twilight answered back. “For your sake, I hope you’re right,” commented Rose, who didn’t shout as much as she turned up her volume. A brief moment later, she called out again: “I see someone!” The Cicada’s lights focused forward, highlighting an approaching figure: a white unicorn wearing a black mask and scarf. “Hey!” he called out. “Over here!” “Shining Armor?” Twilight called, instantly recognizing the voice. She ran ahead to meet her brother, who magicked his mask over his horn and his scarf below his muzzle, exposing a relieved smile. “Twily!” he cheered, throwing a hoof around Twilight, though almost as quickly pulled away, his face suddenly somber. “Come on, we’ve gotta move. There’s some things out here we really don’t want to run into after dark.” “Care to elaborate on that?” asked Rose, not missing a beat. “Let’s just say the empire’s not the only thing that’s returned,” he said, flicking his head to beckon the others to follow. “And what, precisely, returned with it?” Rose pressed. “We can’t exactly say for sure,” Shining answered between gusts of wind and snow. “Something keeps trying to get in. We think it’s the old unicorn king who originally cursed the place.” “King Sombra?” Twilight blurted. “But Princess Celestia sent us to protect the Empire! If King Sombra can’t get in, then it must already be protected!” “Everyone stop,” Rose commanded, holding up her left hand. Everyone did, including the Cicada, whose searchlights flicked around in an attempt to find something beyond the blizzard. “What’s the matter?” Alex asked. Rose didn’t answer, instead her head darted to the right of the group, synchronously with an airborne searchlight. Everyone followed the motion, though saw nothing through the snow. Through his visor, Alex noticed a flicker of something, though it was impossible for him to be sure what it was; if it was anything at all. “We need to keep moving,” Shining Armor urged her. “We don’t have much further to go.” “There’s something out there,” Rose announced, though privately detailed her thoughts into Alex’s ear: “Humanoid. Large. Moving too fast to confirm.” Alex furrowed his brow. “Likelihood that it isn’t a unicorn?” “Eighty three percent.” Several of the Cicada’s searchlights suddenly swiveled to the left. “Unknown entity presence confirmed. Can’t track, but it’s stalking us.” “Look alive!” Alex declared. A light shone around his lower back, whereupon a Shock Rifle materialized from quantum storage. Above the group, a repetitive clunking could be heard as the Cicada loaded its rocket pods. “Whatever’s out there is stalking us.” Everypony stood their ground, attempting to stare through the veil of snow. If something was out there, it was impossible to tell. Then the wind changed. It was subtle, at first. Only Rose noticed it through how the bulky Cicada had to readjust its gravity engines just to keep stable. Billions of calculations flashed through Rose’s processor, and thousands of possibilities were considered, ultimately leading her to a decision to simply turn the Cicada around and have it face the rear. Soon after, Rainbow Dash noticed the change. Where the wind was initially blowing perpendicular to the group, but now it was aimed slightly forward. Out of instinct, she steered her gaze backwards, only to be met with more opaque blizzard. For just the time it took to bat an eye, the wind appeared to stop, suspending each snowflake in the air on an invisible string, before they all simultaneously rushed forward as the wind violently shifted. Rose spun on her heel to face the rear of the group. “Go! Run!” Before anypony could think, they acknowledged Rose’s command and bolted forward, following Shining Armor’s leading form as a howl that clearly wasn’t windy in origin bellowed from behind them. Alex joined Rose in facing the rear, Shock Rifle in hand and aimed into the blizzard, waiting for the opportunity to bring down whatever it was that decided it had enough balls to attack them. “Come on, come on!” As if to respond to him, the veil of snow flashed open. An amorphous black mass of liquid shadow came rushing at them at blistering speeds. A curved crimson horn formed atop a pair of neon green eyes leaking violet fumes, each of which projected rage and bloodlust onto the human. “Oh fuck!” Alex blurted as his nerve fled. His legs immediately began to backpedal as he fired off his Shock Rifle twice into towering form, each of which accomplishing nothing. As he began his full retreat, the Cicada reared its front end up as it flew backwards, allowing its underside plasma turret a full view of the attacker. In a display of awesome firepower, the Cicada unloaded its sixteen rocket pods in a rapid-fire burst, whereupon it then fired off rockets as quickly as they could be loaded. At the same time, the plasma turret unleashed a torrent of lightning fast bolts of ionized gas. Wherever a rocket would have found its mark, instead a hole opened through the “body” of the attacker, resulting in each explosive sailing cleanly through and blasting a small crater in the snow. The plasma onslaught told a different story, as the bolts landed faster than it could react against them, however, the effect appeared the same, and seemed to do little more than cause an annoyance. In no time at all, a tendril formed out of the side of the shadow monster and lanced out, piercing the underside of the Cicada and coming out the other side, only to then disappear in a puff of black smoke. The damage, however, was real, as an explosion rang out from the aircraft and it began to spiral out of control. How the fuck?! Alex watched in horror as the flaming Cicada’s momentum sent it careening towards the fleeing ponies. Without a single moment wasted, Rose sprinted into action, her legs moving her at inhuman speeds. Comms device secured to her back, it left her arms free to come up from behind and grab Rarity and Pinkie Pie from around their barrels and carry them off to the side, the latter making a high pitched “Wheeee!” as she was lifted to safety. A split second later, the Cicada crashed into the ground they would have been running on and erupted into massive fireball as the Tarydium fuel tank ruptured. That shouldn’t be possible! Alex stumbled as he changed his direction in the snow to avoid the crash, bringing him just that much further behind the others. He stopped himself in his tracks, however, as shadow replaced blizzard. A massive black tempest cut off his path like a giant snake slithering around him. Spinning around, Alex found himself trapped: stranded on a island of snow and flames in a swirling ocean of black. Neon green eyes appeared beneath a crimson horn in the shadow before moving up to tower above the human, and the two properly met face to face for the first time. Unbridled hatred flowed from the monster’s eyes as a growl echoed around Alex. “This time, you’re mine.” “Come on! Everypony in!” Shining Armor shouted as they neared the barrier that covered the Crystal Empire. He beckoned each of the girls through, requiring himself to be the last. Rose allowed herself to drop Pinkie Pie and Rarity upon reaching the barrier. When she did, she unslung the folded communications device from her shoulder and shoved it in Rarity’s direction, giving little more instruction than “Hold onto this for me.” “Hey, where’s Alex?” Shining Armor asked. “Still out there,” Rose answered as she ran back into the snow. “Come with me! Now!” The unicorn captain did not hesitate to follow. Meanwhile, Alex leapt out of the way as a tendril impaled itself on the ground he was just standing on. With as much confidence as he had in his armor’s ability to neutralize magic, the Cicada was evidence that the creature currently assaulting him played by a different set of rules. “Stand still!” the monster commanded as it made several more attempts at impalement. Shit! Fuck! Alex thought as he practically stumbled out of the way of each strike. Were it not for the BioMech reacting automatically as it was, he might not have been so lucky. Every few seconds, he found window of opportunity to fire his Shock Rifle at the head of the monster, but each shot proved just as ineffective as the last as the beams only seemed to pass straight through. The creature grew more and more furious with each failed attempt. Shadowy spear after impaling spear missed, some even inches away from their mark. When one attack only managed to graze past Alex’s arm, the creature bellowed a furious roar and swept a shadowy tendril beneath him, sending him flying onto his back. For a split moment, the wind was knocked out of Alex’s lungs, and he found himself unable to breathe. As he stared up, dozens of tendrils formed above him. “This ends now, Xan!” it bellowed. At this last word, Alex sucked in a breath. Across his brain, neural pathways suddenly exploded with activity, sending billions of signals through his armor’s exo-cortex. Processor clock cycles ramped up. Electrical impulses ebbed and flowed through neurons and transistors, obeying the commands of the connectome and algorithms; recursive, and adaptive, learning off of each other by design. Organic and artificial computers synchronized perfectly, as if a more experienced driver took the wheel. The pupil of his cybernetic eyes shrunk, and his irises blazed a brilliant emerald. In an instant, core energy flowed through Alex’s arms and into his palms. As the tendrils came down, the BioMech practically flew out from underneath them. Alex slid through the snow just enough to escape harm, whereupon he used his momentum to flip himself back onto his feet and store his Shock Rifle. The shadow roared in anger as it met eyes with Alex yet again, but beneath his helmet, the human’s face remained expressionless and focused. More tendrils were launched, but none landed. Despite its bulkiness, the BioMech moved with an impossible grace that would make even the most practiced ballerina envious. Attempts to take advantage of Alex’s momentum were thwarted by a bending of physics as the graviton emitters in his palms shifted his weight just so, preventing even the forces being applied on his body from being predictable to the shadow. At the processor speed the BioMech was running at, they might as well have been moving in slow motion. However, simply dodging would not be enough. This confrontation had to end somehow. “Can you clear a path through that thing?” Rose asked Shining Armor as they ran towards the giant ring of swirling liquid shadow. “I think so!” Shining shouted back. “Good! Do it when you hear an explosion.” A Shock Rifle materialized along Rose’s back and she immediately equipped it. After fiddling with it for a brief moment, she said, “Stay here and wait for the signal.” Shock Rifle in hand and running momentum undisturbed, Rose planted both of her feet together, bent her legs as far as they could, and launched herself skyward over the ring of shadow. Just past the peak of her jump, Rose aimed the Shock Rifle at what passed for the shadow creature’s head and fired. Instead of a bright purple streak of energy that normally appeared when firing the non-lethal weapon, a sphere of light formed as the weapon discharged all the energy in its shock-core. The bright light drew the monster’s attention upward as Rose fell. Before even hitting the ground, she ejected the weapon’s spent core from its stock and inserted a fresh one. Landing on her feet, Rose effortlessly moved into a roll, stopping with one leg extended in front of her, her other knee on the ground, and the Shock Rifle pointed skyward. In the span of a heartbeat, the creature watched as the unstable ball of energy flew closer towards its nose, and a tendril came up to swat it away. Rose waited until the ball was as close as it could possibly be, then pulled the trigger. The expected beam of light erupted from the weapon, impacting the previously fired sphere before the shadow creature could hit it, destabilizing the already unstable ball of energy. A microsingularity formed in an instant, warping the space immediately around before exploding with devastating force. The armored individuals on the ground tanked the brunt of the shock wave, but the shadow creature fared far worse, as evidenced by its agonized howl and the annihilation of its apparent head. The rest of the ring of shadow around them calmed as the creature’s focus evaporated. Shining Armor wasted no time taking advantage of the situation and magically blasted a hole through the cloud of shadow. “Let’s go!” Rose told Alex as she made for the opening. “Don’t have to tell me twice!” said Alex as he bolted after her. Rose stored her Shock Rifle and scooped up Shining Armor as she passed by, knocking his breath away. It took the unicorn a moment to orient himself from atop Rose’s shoulder, though when he did, he almost wished he hadn’t. An enraged yell sounded from the shadowy creature to their rear. His blood ran cold as he watched it give chase, giant makeshift claws tearing into the ground as it closed them gap between them. “Ahh!” Shining screamed, instinctively lighting his horn and firing bolts of magic behind them to slow it down until… it disappeared — replaced by a clear, rosy sky. Rose dropped Shining Armor on his rear, but instead of snow, he felt grass. At last, he let himself breathe. King Sombra couldn’t enter the Crystal Empire. Not yet, anyway. “There you are!” Twilight exclaimed, rushing over to hug her brother. “What happened? Are you guys alright?” “We’re fine, Twily,” Shining replied, pushing himself to his hooves. “It was a little more excitement than I was expecting, though.” “Jesus, what the fuck even was that?” Alex asked as his helmet folded open, bending himself over as he finally took in some fresh air. “That was King Sombra,” Shining Armor answered, walking closer to the human. “Sombra?” Alex blurted, giving Shining an incredulous look. “You mean the old king that was supposed to be a unicorn?” “Yeah,” Shining Armor confirmed. “He’s been giving us a lot of trouble, but I’ve never seen him this…” He paused as he attempted to find the right word “...angry before. He really seemed to have it out for you, but I can’t imagine what he—argh!” Without warning, Shining Armor yelped and his hooves shot up to his head. Everypony jumped at the outburst and stepped in his direction, though halted when the problem became apparent. Where there were none just a brief moment ago, black crystals began to grow around the upper half of Shining Armor’s horn. “Shining, your horn!” Twilight gasped, instantly moving to take a closer look at it. “What happened out there? Did he do something to you? Are you okay?” “No, he didn’t do anything to me out there…” Shining Armor grit his teeth as he attempted to push magic through his horn, though his horn’s aura failed to move up past the crystals. “...But I’m not sure I’m okay.” “It’s just a single unicorn with a bad attitude, he said,” Rose mocked as she picked up the deployable comms device. Her words were sudden and loud enough that she caught everypony’s attention, although her own was focused squarely on Alex. “I’ll just put a bullet in him and that’ll be the end of it, he said.” Alex sighed as he hung his head. “Okay, okay. So maybe I underestimated the situation.” “That is an understatement,” Rose deadpanned as she slung the device over her shoulder. “A Cicada was destroyed, we’re trapped in foreign territory surrounded by a magical monster that can bypass our shields — and clearly hates you — and we’re so far away from the facility that we may not even be able to organize and send reinforcements, nevermind whatever interference there is from the barrier they’ve erected to keep Sombra out.” She walked up to Alex and placed a hand on his shoulder, her tone becoming softer. “I know you wanted to get out of the lab, but perhaps we should have waited longer before doing something like this.” “Yeah, probably…” Alex muttered before raising his head and looking to the side. A soft smile crossed his face. “Although the vistas almost seem worth it.” Across a set of crystal arches lay a path that led across an expansive field of green. Beyond it shone a brilliant tower that sparkled in the sun’s setting beams, sending rays of dazzling light across the oddly shaped and colored buildings that rested beneath it. What impressed Alex more than the sight was the wonder of the logistics that would have been necessary to construct such a place, if its name was any indication. All this before a single question fluttered across his mind. I wonder what exactly it’s made of?