You know those moments when your plans just fail to come together?
It had looked like a good idea at the time.
My faith in you didn't waver just because of one failing.
No plan survives first contact. And it could have been worse.
Yeah, but I feel like a fool looking back…
Nonsense! I heard you were awesome.
Rainbow Dash?
*giggle* Her and Pinkie Pie, but yes. You left quite an impression on her~
“Just how are you fine in this weather?” Shining Armor grumbled as he trudged through the snow. While his natural fur coat had helped stave off some of the weather, he still had to don a thick shawl. He had a set of snow shades perched over his horn as well. I wasn’t quite sure why, since it was overcast enough that there was no clue if what time of day, or night even, it was.
“Protective barrier,” I grinned, letting the magic field around my person glow enough to be visible. While he tramped through the snow, I was riding my staff and matching his pace. “A simple and useful trick for staying comfortable in extremes. I’m not sure if your magic can manage it.”
“And we don’t have the time to test it out either,” Shining said in a tone that would be misconstrued as complaining if he were a lesser man. Stallion? Er... these terms were going to annoy me to no end until I found out what was right for them.
“There’s a bright side,” I said encouragingly. “With your fur you still manage to get by with far less than I would need without the barrier.”
“Small favours,” Shining muttered. We traveled in silence for a while more before he broke it with another question. “Don’t misunderstand this as trying to turn down your offer, but why help?”
I shrugged and rolled my eyes. Everyone always wanted to know ‘why’. I often found it more amusing to approach it from the other side. “Why not help? I already ended up in a place I know nothing about, and I’m not that proud to think I won’t need help from others. Especially considering the local weather.” Shining chuckled along with me at that. Mine died as my mind flashed back to the encounter with who I really hoped was Sombra, if only because I didn’t want to think about the possibility of two incorporeal beings lurking around. “And I’d be... I just couldn't leave without offering to help in a situation like this.”
“Huh. I suppose that does make sense,” Shining commented. And it was right back to silence.
“There’s the train station,” Shining Armor finally announced, pointing at a structure just visible through the blowing snow. By my estimation, we had covered almost two kilometers. Maybe more, maybe less, but it was a long way from the edge of the barrier.
“Finally,” I said, shading my eyes, more out habit than any actual benefit, as I observed it. “It’s a bit far out, isn’t it?”
“You have to remember,” Shining chuckled, picking up his pace. “Until a few days ago there was nothing out here but snow and ice. We’re lucky that the station was even this close. We will likely have to move it once we deal with Sombra.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, my respect for the prince rising. Not even a hint of doubt that they, well, we would solve the issue. There were a few colourful figures milling around the stations general area. Considering I hadn’t seen any ponies aside from the guards, Shining and his wife, I had thought that a white coat and blue hair was common for them. There were a few who still matched that description, but five of them really stood out.
Was that... rainbow coloured hair?
“Twily!” Shining yelled out, breaking into a full run. I slipped off my staff, slinging it to my back and jogged after him.
“Shiny!” one of the figures, a purple woman, called back, rushing out to meet him. It was like a Lifetime Movie Moment when they embraced. I kept my distance a bit, giving them a moment, curious as to what their relationship was. He was a married man, after all...
“I’m so glad you could make it, sis!” Ah! That answered my question.
“How could I not come and help out the best big brother in the world? And his wife; the best baby sitter in the world?” Twily giggled and squeezed him tightly. “Princess Celestia asked me to come and help you out as much as I could.”
“We would appreciate any help you could give,” Shining ruffled her hair before turning his attention to the others who were only just catching up, the colourfully coated mares, and one person that looked about my size but scaled, at the lead. Some sort of lizard or reptile person? There were ponies, so it wouldn’t be that far out. “Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow, Spike. I haven’t seen you all since the wedding!”
Yeah... this was sort of awkward. It was a lovely friendly reunion, with me lurking awkwardly in the background. Well; at least I wasn’t the only one. There was a group of eight more guards lingering behind the group of mares look just as uncomfortable as I felt. At least their moment didn’t last that long.
“So; who’s the kid?” the one with rainbow hair asked somewhat rudely.
“Ahhahaha…” I chuckled nervously. Yep; didn't last long at all. I gave a little bow. “Hello, I’m Noah Springfield. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m providing Shining Armor and Cadance with some assistance with the trouble in the Empire.”
“You… are helping them?” ‘Twily’ stammered slightly. She whimpered little. “But… Princess Celestia sent me to find a way to protect the empire…”
“Easy, sally, I’m sure there’s enough help for everypony to pitch in,” the orange one in denim and a hat said, putting a hand on ‘Twily’ shoulder. She gave me an easy smile. “Name’s Applejack. Nice ta meet’cha. This here is Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.”
“Hi!” the pink one said eagerly. The others made their own form of acknowledgements as they were named. They really had their share of descriptive names. And branding. They all had symbols branded on their outfits. I noticed it on Shining and Cadence, but had assumed it was from their station. Now I was reconsidering that. Cultural? The list of things I needed to ask about was getting pretty long. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your opinion, Applejack was still talking, preventing me from musing on it for too long.
“The little fellow is Spike, and those guys…” Applejack gestured to the guards and shrugged a little. “Ah never did get their names. Strong silent types an’ all.”
“Nice to meet you all,” I said, filing away the names. Being a kid was sort of annoying. Spike was the only one on my level, though I was a little taller. Even the shortest one was still almost a head taller than I was. I caught Shining’s attention with a slight sigh. “Shouldn’t we head back? I was hardly out here for half an hour last time before he showed up.”
“Right,” Shining nodded. He immediately started giving the guards orders and got our group moving. The pink one and the rainbow one focused their attention on me as the rest started moving. They were the two shortest mares in the group. I still had to look up at them. This height thing was starting to bug me for some reason.
“Hi again, Spring Field!” Pinkie said happily, grabbing my hand and giving me a wild handshake. “I’m Pinkie Pie, though Applejack already told you that. Very nice to meet you. I like your staff. It’s all… staffy!”
“Um… thank you?” I said, rescuing my hand from her grip. Man was she strong.
“You’re welcome!” Pinkie grinned. She proceeded to inspect me, lifting my arms, shifting my legs, ruffling my hair, pulling on my digits, tugging on various parts of my clothing, over all leaving me in a very flustered and confused state.
“Eeeeh? Miss Pie?” I said in a weak protest as she snatched my glasses away, gave them a quick polish, and put them back.
“Just Pinkie! Auntie Pinkie as most,” she tut-tutted, performing what looked like a surprisingly accurate palm reading, only with a magnifying glass she pulled from somewhere. Rainbow was snickering behind her.
“Oh, well; Pinkie? What are you doing?”
“Oh, nothing,” she chimed cheerfully before bending and engulfing me a tight hug. I was even more confused when she started whispering in my ear. “Remember to giggle at the ghosties when it gets dark, okay?”
“Wait, what?” I said, staggering slightly when she quickly let go.
“Do it for Auntie Pinkie, kay?” she chirped, skipping to catch up with the others. Her little distraction had caused them to get a bit ahead of us.
“I- uh… what?” I said, feeling my brain seize up a little from the encounter.
“That’s just Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow snickered. “I think she gets a kick out of confusing ponies. So kid; what’s this about helping out the prince?”
“I’m a mage,” I said, shaking my head free from the confusing cloud of Pinkie. Giggle at the ghosties? What was that supposed to mean? I found myself thinking about the philosophy of a Master Magi. “They needed help. I’m a mage, and I could, should and did offer it. They accepted.”
“A mage? And that’s supposed to be what now?” Rainbow asked sceptically.
“A magic user,” I expanded. "Like a wizard."
“Really now…” she scoffed. A few flaps of her wings got her airborne. “Magic is a unicorn thing, and I don’t see a horn on your head.”
Really? Only unicorns did magic? That was… not what I expected. True; not everyone had the real potential to be a full magic user, much less a real mage, but most people could manage at least the minor spells with a bit of practice. To say that on...ly... what did I know? Magic was fake to me a couple hours ago and now I’m having mental monologues about the nature of magic? I rolled my eyes.
I think Rainbow misunderstood my expression as being directed at her, as she narrowed her and moved in front of me with a flap of her wings. She poked me in the chest. “Okay then, wise guy. Who’s this ‘him’ you and Shining Amor were going on about.”
As if her words were a cue, a low bellow rippled through the air. Heads whirled, trying to pin point its source. Finally, one of the guards pointed to the distance, yelling out, “There!”
The black mist was back, collected into a mass, a vague shape formed atop it, the eyes glaring out at us. This time it brought friends with it; six large quadruped shapes marching along with it. They seemed to be constructed of some dark crystalline material, each roughly defined head bearing a red gem fixed in it.
“That’s him,” I said with more calm than I felt, straddling my staff in preparation to take off.
“Sweet Celestia, what is that?” the white unicorn mare, Rarity, cried. The yellow pegasus had vanished somewhere.
“There’s no time for that now! Run!” Shining ordered, quickly waving the group in motion. Rainbow and I had fallen behind. She was already in the air, and I took off and joined her, heading after the group as they started running, covering the rear.
“You can fly?” Rainbow demanded, matching my pace with ease.
“Mage! Later! Just go!” I yelled curtly at her, keeping an eye on the Shadow of Sombra (nice name, don’t you think?) and those golems as best I could. They were moving quickly, the mist mass flowing over the ground, the golem lumbering alongside it much faster than I would have liked. I somehow did an aerial skidding halt, angling my staff like a motorcycle or bike. “Shining! Think we can hold them off?”
“Guardstallions! Get my sister and her friends to the Empire!” Shining directed, leaping on my idea as if we had worked together before, skidding to a halt as well.
“Wait! Shining, what are you doing?” Twilight demanded, coming to a stop herself. “We can’t leave you out here!”
Rainbow was making her own protest. “What makes you think I’m gonna leave a kid out here with that thing!”
I was already incanting my spell. “Ras tel ma scir magister. Undetriginta spiritus lucis. Coèuntes, sagittent inimicum meum! Sagitta Magica; Series Lucis!”
Eleven glowing points of light formed in the air around, floating as I chanted and mentally picked targets, and darted forward like the guided missiles they were. Rainbow's wings missed a few beats, and I’m sure both Shining and Twilight probably had dropped jaws. Maybe all the unicorns, considering what Rainbow said about magic. Shining might have expected me to have some combat potential, but he’d never actually seen it in action.
The magical projectiles split; eight of them moving to strike the golems, the other three going for the mist. The latter three ended up missing, the Shadow of Sombra (I really did like that name) distorting itself, causing them to pass through the empty air. The other eight had mixed result. The golems seemed to have some sort of magic resistance build it' the arrows striking moderately accurately, but most of the force seeming to dissipate around them, though two lucky shots managed to damage a limb, causing the figure to trip and fall.
I had kept the count to eleven arrows as a test. I could easily tell it was still well within my limits, but my new magic know-how was also telling me that the spell took a bit more out of me than it should have for something at that level. Great… handicapped by the local environs… I really really need to find a chance to remedy that.
I whirled to catch up with the group again, only to find them pretty much where I last saw them. “What are you doing?” I demanded.
“That was…” Twilight started.
“Run now! Talk later!” They started moving again, this time with more purpose. The guards stayed between them and the encroaching danger, providing more motivation for them to keep moving. It was two kilometers to cover. They could make it, but they’d need time. I swooped down to hold a line. Shining joined me.
The mist surged forward, the upper portion leaning towards us, gaining more definition as it did. An equine head was slowly taking shape at the peak of that mass. A hint of gaping jaws seemed to lurk beneath the miasma streaming eyes, eyes that called out. I hesitated, enthralled with trying to make out the details, not fully realizing how close it was coming.
“Noah!” A half dome of pink energy formed between and the mist crashed into it. Shining’s horn was glowing as he kept the barrier up. The Shadow of Sombra bellowed again, the barrier flickering, streaks of dark swirling through it. Shining started grunting from the strain, and dark streaks started appearing in the glow over his horn.
"Wa-what?" I blinked, shaking off the trance I had somehow fallen into. Freed from it, I quickly got my head back in the game. Those streaks did not look good... Quickly; I pulled one of the simple wands out of my pouch, following a hunch and casting a barrier spell between Shining’s shield and the Shadow of Sombra. “Deflexio!”
It reeled back and Shining’s shield collapsed, the unicorn prince panting heavily, staggering slightly from the strain of the effort he had been extending. On my end, the simple wand had a few black crystals formed on it. I ignored them for now. “Shining!” Ras tel ma scir magister: cantus bellax.
My impulsively performed unincanted spell actually worked, boosting my physical power to the point that hauling Shining unto my staff was easy and I tried to put some distance between us and the Shadow. The Shadow of Sombra recovered and bellowed again. I looked back to see even dark crystal formations building around it. They shattered, countless shards rocketed towards us.
“Deflexio!” I canted again, extending the wand and using it as my focus. The large spell circle formed, providing cover for most of the attack as dozens, hundreds of small crystal shards pelted the general area around us. Even with the large spell circle providing protection, I was forced to fly lower to the ground, if only to reduce the danger faced from to magnitude of the attack and to cut down on the number of things I had to focus on and as I pour more magic into it my spell.
“Noah, ugh,” Shining groaned, coming back to full awareness. “My head… what… he was trying to corrupt and block my magic!”
I didn’t respond right away. Couldn’t. Not with my attention split between trying to keep us level and airborne while maintaining the defensive barrier. All while fighting the cloying, painful sensation creeping up my left arm, the one I was using to focus the spell. My skin was darkening, turning black. Not the normal skin colour black, but actual dark black; the swirling glowing patterns of magia erebea slowly coming into being, claws slowly starting to form on the tip of my arm, nagging emotions and feelings at the back of my head.
More of the dark crystal was forming on the wand as the shards slammed into my barrier like hailstones, and it was becoming harder and harder to maintain the spell. I didn’t want to switch to using the staff or ring. They were both more effective activating foci than the wands were. They might give the corruption an even easier route to the core of my magic.
“Shining,” I ground out, even as my head started pounding. I couldn’t let my magic go frenzy right now. That might be as bad as letting the Shadow of Sombra have his way. With an effort of will, I started pushing the corrupting effects back, focusing my magic on the light side of my affinity, hoping that would help. “Think you can distract him?”
Shining didn’t speak. He just turned, pointing his horn back at the shadow, his arm extended for addition precision. He waited a moment, watching. “His attack is going to stop in a little bit and we'll have a small window before he can recast it,” Shining reported, every bit the Captain of the Guard he claimed to be.
“Yes, and?” I could make out the glow of the Empire’s protective barrier ahead of us. I couldn’t see our group, so hopefully they had enough of a head start…
“Drop your barrier on my count….” Shining ordered, a glow building on his horn. “Three… two…. ONE!”
I dropped it. A beam of pink pure magical energy, about as big around as my thigh, lanced out at the Shadow of Sombra (maybe the name is a bit of a mouthful…)
‘If I added that power, made it my own…’ The Shadow of Sombra didn’t get hit. He did another one of his mist body deformations to avoid it. Instead, it struck one of the golems, the force of Shining's blast knocking it back; a leg shattering and falling off, its barrel fragmenting, it's head being blow right off. But the important point was that it forced the Shadow of Sombra to stop casting.
“Accelet!” I yelled, dropping my active barrier and grabbing the staff with both hands as I pushing the thought away. I poured magic into my staff and pushed our speed up; darting off towards the Empire at high speeds. Shining started yelling and held on to me as we hit the speeds I had been afraid of earlier and then some. We caught up to the group in no time, still maybe four, five hundred meters out from the safety of the Empire’s shield.
“Rapide subsistat!” Even with the command, I almost over shot them, and messed up the landing anyway; sending Shining and myself tumbling. I groaned, picking myself up. “Need to work on that…”
“Yes… you really do…” Shining’s frustrated and pained response came. Right… he didn’t have a barrier around him. He was probably half frozen from wind chill on top of it…
“Um... Oops?” I said lamely.
“That stick of yours is pretty fast,” Rainbow observed, flying over to us. “Faster than a lot of pegasi I know.”
“Shiny!” Twilight yelled. I think Fluttershy might have mumbled an apology at the same time. “And Spring Field! Are you two okay? Did you stop him?”
Another bellow blasted out. He sounded pissed. Shining and I just shook our heads. I kept my left arm under my cloak as I watched the horizon. The others were exhausted from their run of more than a kilometer, and were reduced to about a panting jogging pace.
“He can corrupt magic. Corrupt and block it. He almost got my horn but Noah interfered before he could,” Shining Armor reported to the weary group. I glanced at him when he mentioned my name. Twilight shot me a grateful look. “We need to get into the Empire now!”
“That might be a mite difficult,” Applejack reported, sounding a bit strained. “He’sa coming around again!”
The Shadow of Sombra abandoned his troops and charged at us as fast as he could manage, which, while not matching the speed of my staff, was still distressing.
“Shouldn’t we be, um, running?” Spike said nervously. His words got everyone moving again with renewed vigour.
“I’m going to try something,” I said suddenly, getting back on my staff. Time to see just how high a level I could hit without making the adjustments.
“Try what?” Shining asked as he ran.
“Ras tel ma scir magister!” Negi had been able to manage the spell I had in mind before his shonen upgrade, back when he was an average mage. Even with the handicap of the off pattern magic, it should still have an effect. The Shadow of Sombra was still a maybe two hundred feet away, his golems even further behind, but it was closing swiftly. Good. I didn’t want it to dodge this one.
“What's he doing?” Spike asked. Pinkie smiled and motioned for him to keep moving.
“Veniant Spiritus Aeriales, Fulgurientes!” Power built around me, the world bending to my will. Rainbow and the other two pegasi guard that were airborne had to work a little harder as wind gathered around me, the air patterns in the area changing. They might have yelled something, but I couldn’t hear them over the roar and crackle of the wind and lightning energy I was collecting. Magic spilled wastefully from my intensely glowing hands and my ring grew hot on my skin. I was forced to pour more and more into the spell to keep it from collapsing, compensating for the flaws the spell had, as far as the local world was concerned.
“Cum Fulguratione Flet Tempestas Austrina!” I yelled out the second verse of the incantation, my works echoing as I funneled the power and will together. I rose higher into the air, holding the spell just long enough to take aim, slowing my drift towards the barrier so the rest of the group was behind me. I didn’t want them to be caught up in the backlash of this one.
“Iovis Tempestas Fulguriens!” Wind whipped together at dizzying speeds, lighting riding it, focused by wind and will and blasting outward in a beam of brilliant destruction, roaring with the voice of a storm.
The spell almost hit him. Almost. Still, it was enough. While the concentrated beam portion of the spell was the primary source of damage, it still had an envelope of wild wind raging around it. The Shadow of Sombra evaded a direct hit, but the wind caught him up and dragged him along as it steadily tore into his incorporeal body, forcibly dispersing it bit by bit. When the attack impacted with the ground, the shockwave of displaced force, wind, lightning and magic did a lot to knock the entity senseless as it tore into the ground with the force of a small explosion.
I still had magic left in me, but I felt drained just from the effort that one spell took to cast. Sure, it was a high level spell, but if I got my estimates right, I should have been able to manage at least one Thousand Thunderbolt. This was just a Jupiter's Thunderstorm! I really needed to find time to look over the spell adjustments.
“I think he even got the golems,” I overheard one of the pegasus guards was saying, the ringing in my ears dying down. He was hovering in the air, peering into dust cloud with a small telescope.
“That was awesome!” Rainbow Dash yelled, punching the air, leaping some fifteen feet up as she did. “It was like wind and lightning and BAM!”
“And it was all bright and pretty and there was the explosion and the scary cloud when all ‘waaaaa’ and got blown away!” Pinkie continued.
“Are you okay?” Shining asked as I landed heavily.
My limbs felt a bit like someone had strapped weights to them, and I recognized the magic strain symptoms. The darkness on my left hand had faded, but I could still feel the claws on them, that change being more reluctant to break down. I stuck it in my pocket. “I’ll be in a couple minut-ahk!”
Pinkie caught me up in a hug, lifting me off the ground, pressing my face against her generous bust. She twirled around a few times as I had flashbacks to the origin of the term ‘marshmallow hell.’ “You so awesome Noah! Like a real mage!”
“How did you do that?” Twilight asked, looking at the damage my spell had done. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spell like that before. It was… somewhat like weather manipulation but the destructive power… How did a foal like you learn that?”
“It’s a combat spell, I learned it in school,” I said, a bit evasively, still in Pinkie’s grasp, though she had turned me around by that point. It might not have been in the curriculum but it was in the school’s [restricted access] library.
“What school was that?” Twilight pressed. She blinked as she realized the obvious.“You aren’t a unicorn… How are you using magic like that?”
“Sir, I think I see the Shadow creature! It looks weakened but it’s still moving!” the pegasus in the air reported.
“Okay everypony,” Shining Armor said, taking command again. “We can continue this when we aren’t in the cold and in the open! Svelte, High Rise, you two keep an eye out in case he pulls himself together, though it’s unlikely he can catch back up to us at this point. Everypony else; we stop when we pass the barrier.”
We didn’t have any more trouble. Either I knocked him loopy enough that he couldn’t get back to us in time, or he lost interest for the moment. Maybe both. There was a collective sigh of relief when we started going through the barrier.
It burned. I had expected it, and didn’t make any outward signs of it aside from my gritted teeth, but the barrier stung like sticking my left hand in boiling water. It didn’t last long, but the memory was strong. It calmed the erebea corruption though, my hand clear of it when I took a peak at it. My wand was still partially encased though.
“That could have been my horn,” Shining remarked, shaking his head at the near miss.
“Well, it’s pretty clear fighting him directly isn’t going to work,” I added, wagging the wand in the air. “If he can corrupt both our types of magic even when we are blocking him, and managed to mostly shrug off my Jupiter’s Thunderstorm…”
“We’re going to need to find another way to save the empire,” Shining completed, looking back at the barrier, as if he could see past it and at the shadow of the mad king that lurked out there. “Hopefully my sister can come up with something too.”
“Don’t worry, Shining,” Twilight said, giving him a hug from behind. “I won’t let you, Cadance, or Princess Celestia down. I promise. Even if it’s the last thing I do.”